Start With Contracting Sprites

The moment he exited, he noticed Liu Ren and a few other classmates discussing something excitedly.

“What’s your soul power? Mine’s 1.22, hehe!”

Liu Ren had a silly grin on his face. The corners of his mouth, which were spread wide, made his originally round and fat face look even more like a large pancake.

Su Hao felt that this soul power value suited Dummy Liu¹ very well.

Upon thinking about it, Liu Ren seemed even more anxious than him.

“Hey, hey, it can’t be that yours didn’t reach 1.0, right? Cough, don’t give up, bro. Even if you can’t be a Sprite Trainer, enrolling in a prestigious university isn’t too bad either.”

“And look for a job on the 996 system¹ after that?”

“Cough.” His response made Liu Ren choke a little. He examined Su Hao’s expression. “You don’t look like your soul power didn’t hit 1.0? You’ll be able to contract a sprite as long as it can reach 1.0. It doesn’t matter even if it’s a little low. Don’t worry. When I become a Sprite Master in the future, I’ll take you under my wing.”

Black lines covered Su Hao’s forehead. He didn’t bother hiding it anymore.

“My soul sturdiness level isn’t very high. It’s just 1.38.”

“Oh, 1.08… Pfft, wait, one point what eight? 1.38?!”

Big Face Liu’s expression turned from a stunned one to a dubious one, then to astonishment before finally letting out a sharp howl.

“You’re my, Liu Ren’s, closhest bwother in the future!”

“No, get lost~”

Apart from Liu Ren, the other three were also his classmates from Class 8. Including himself, they were the only five people in the class who intended to apply for the Sprite stream and resolved to become Sprite Trainers.

The big, tall, and muscular one was Chen Qi.

The one whose handsomeness was second only to Su Hao himself was Zhou Yuze.

And the one and only female classmate, a girl who wore glasses, was Ma Something-mei? What was it again?

Su Hao couldn’t recall her name for a moment there.

There were no hiccups with all of their soul sturdiness levels. Even the lowest among them managed to hit 1.06.

Thus, all of them were able to contract sprites. The key here was—which species of starter sprite were they going to choose?

“If we’re purchasing sprites, it’s best to go to the Sprite Free-Ranging Center in the neighboring Yunhua City. The scale of the Sprite Care House in our city is too small. They don’t have many sprites for sale, and it’s said that a lot of them are even leftovers.”

The unreliable Liu Ren had actually done his research a long time ago.

Su Hao mused over it. The soul power of most 16 to 17-year-old teenagers met the requirements. There was only one thing that restricted them from stepping onto the path of becoming a Sprite Trainer—money!

Just a regular infant sprite alone needed more than 10,000 yuan. The resources needed to nurture it after contracting it was another sizable sum too.

While it was true that the Sprite Trainer was an occupation with great career prospects and was one that was even filled with a mysterious and exciting air around it, this would only be true if they passed the assessment.

Not every family had the financial means and boldness of spirit to let their children opt for the Sprite stream. Should they spend a huge sum of money and end up being denied entry through the doors to becoming a Sprite Trainer, everything would be for naught.

Su Hao felt very fortunate. Although he didn’t come from a wealthy family, they were still able to afford the money to nurture a sprite. His parents were also open-minded enough to allow him to apply for the Sprite stream.

It was said that some years ago, during the era before the Union’s sprite-breeding technology had their breakthrough, just a regular sprite alone had cost tens of thousands of yuan. Su Hao counted himself lucky that he was born a few years later.

“The sprites at the Sprite Free-Ranging Center are probably more expensive, right?” asked Su Hao.

Liu Ren replied, “Yes, they are slightly more expensive, but spending a few thousand yuan more to choose a sprite suitable for yourself is in no way a loss.”

Su Hao nodded. His trip here today was worth it. If he hadn’t known of the Yunhua City Free-Ranging Center, he would definitely have bought his sprite from the Sprite Care House in An City.

Chen Qi also nodded and said, “For regular families like ours, Wood-Element, Earth-Element and Water-Element Sprites are definitely the top choices. Oh, wait, Liu Ren, your family’s pretty rich, right?”

“Just upper-middle class.” As though he was troubled, Liu Ren said, “Rare sprites, like the Fire-Element and Thunder-Element ones, are impressive and powerful for sure, but there are definitely only going to be very few in the Sprite Free-Ranging Center in Yunhua City. They may not be suitable for me.”

“Then why don’t you go to the capital or to Magic City?”

“Yeah right, do you really think my family prints money bills? How would my father be willing to spend millions just to buy a super-rare sprite? Besides, the rarity of a sprite has no direct influence on their growth potential. Even the sprites in the main forces of many Heavenly King-level Sprite Trainers are sprites that are commonly found.”

Zhou Yuze followed up. “That’s right. Heavenly King Jiang’s starter sprite is precisely a normal Long-Armed Gibbon. This species used to just be an expert at transporting bricks, but not only did Heavenly King Jiang’s Long-Armed Gibbon evolve into a Superpower Gibbon, it even broke through its limits and evolved into the very first Mountain-Moving Gibbon in history… Which, in turn, led to the prices of infant Long-Armed Gibbons inflating significantly now.”

Other than Liu Ren, Chen Qi and the others set their budget for their starter sprites at 15,000 to 50,000 yuan.

Whether or not a sprite was expensive didn’t equate to whether it was strong or weak. It was just that if one’s pockets were deep, they would naturally have a wider variety of choices and be able to contract a sprite that they liked more.

“The Earth-Element Little Stone Elephant is pretty good. The combat abilities of its basic form aren’t weak. There is also a lot of potential in its final evolution, the Elephant General.”

“I’d like a Long-Armed Gibbon though, just that I found out after some research that it costs more than 50,000 yuan. And they may not even have stock in Yunhua City…”

“Wood-Element Sprites are pretty good. They are easy to nurture. Don’t forget that we can’t even be considered Sprite Trainer Interns right now. Even if we’re given a sprite with infinite potential, we may screw it up.”

“The Silk-Cotton Owl, Leaf Blade Lizard, Green Bamboo Leaf, and so on are pretty good sprites too. The key factor here is that their prices are more reasonable.”

…

After bidding goodbye to Liu Ren and the other classmates, Su Hao went home and immediately switched on the computer to look up information about the Sprite Free-Ranging Center in Yunhua City.

Like the Sprite Care House, the Free-Ranging Center was also one of the few organizations authorized by the Union of Sprite Trainers to sell infant sprites.

There might still be more channels of purchasing sprites, but Su Hao’s level of understanding about the world of sprites was still at a stage where he only had a superficial level of knowledge about them.

What he was looking up right now were mainly the prices, appearance, evolution forms, and growth potential, etc. of starter sprites. He was going to contract a starter sprite very soon. Surely, he couldn’t remain totally uninformed even at the Sprite Free-Ranging Center, right?

He looked through information about the Little Stone Elephant, one of the sprites listed as a potential candidate by his classmates. It looked just like a stone sculpture. It was a lot smaller in size, its height reaching approximately to his thigh, and looked charmingly naive.

Its first evolution, the Armored Elephant, was as tall as two meters. Stone battle armor was draped over its body, and it had a pair of tusks that pointed upwards in front. There was exceptional visual impact even with just a mere glance.

As for its second evolution, the Elephant General, there was a relatively larger change in appearance. Instead of its original four-legged form, it took on a humanoid form where it stood on two legs. It was said that it was precisely because of its humanoid form that the Elephant General possessed a rather high amount of versatility, and was able to learn several moves of other elements.

However, Su Hao couldn’t find any scientifically proven evidence on this on the Internet.

“Nevermind, no matter how exceptional the Little Stone Elephant is, I can’t afford it anyway. Let’s look at something more practical.”

Su Hao wasn’t sleepy at all, even after a night of research. During this time, he also had a short discussion with his parents, and set his budget for his starter sprite at 15,000 to 25,000 yuan.

It couldn’t match up with Chen Qi and the other classmates from regular families, but there was nothing much about this that Su Hao could complain about. Compared to the classmates who also liked sprites, yet had to give up on the career path of a Sprite Trainer due to various reasons, he was already considered very fortunate.

No matter what, he couldn’t let his parents down. He would set a small goal first, enroll in a Sprite University, and become an official Sprite Trainer.

The next day, Su Hao made a trip to the school again and got a certification slip for the soul power evaluation test. There were even stamps on it to prove that he had passed the checks by relevant organizations, such as an identity check, a criminal record check, and so on. Not just anyone was allowed to purchase sprites from the Sprite Free-Ranging Center and Sprite Care House.

After thanking the teacher, he verified once more that he had indeed opted for the Sprite stream. When the first term of his third year in school began, he would have to report to a new class, learn how to nurture sprites, and work hard to enroll in a Sprite University.

During the next three days, Su Hao cooped himself up at home. If he wasn’t looking up information on the web, then he would be flipping through sprite-related textbooks to study.

Once in a while, he would also study and examine the game interface that he could visualize in his eyes. The function of the Intelligence Points was still a mystery. However, they had already increased from 3 to 25 points.

Apart from reading sprite-related textbooks, looking up information on the web for some time could also earn him Intelligence Points, just that the efficiency was lower than reading books.

As expected, books were what made people happy, after all.