The Discarded Son's Skill Market
Chapter 32: S-Rank!

Chapter 32: S-Rank!

"Ugh..." He almost threw up because of the awful taste, but he held it in. He closed his eyes tightly and kept chewing.

Even though this living being, in its cat-like form, was ethereal, it had blood!

And it tasted awful!

He couldn’t understand how something could taste so bad. However, he began to feel a strange connection forming within his spirit.

The cat’s ethereal and horrific blood mingled with his spirit, not with his blood. Through that connection, a contract was forged within him, compelling him to find his counterpart.

Zaid was immediately overjoyed, and after swallowing the entire tail, he cut his arm and sprayed blood into the mouth of the beautiful female cat, who was still crying.

Then, they felt the connection form.

He felt a powerful energy mingling with his spirit. It was hot as fire, yet deadly and sharp like the claws that had nearly killed him a couple of times. His instincts, senses, vision, and hearing were also drastically heightened.

It wasn’t just his Keen Senses; he now seemed to have the cat’s senses.

And it felt strangely amazing!

It was many times more powerful than his Keen Senses!

He thought that, perhaps, he would no longer need his Keen Senses, but...

[Congratulations on obtaining a Spirit Beast!]

[Keen Senses has been upgraded.]

[Rank F Keen Senses > Rank S Divine Cat Senses]

[This skill has been enhanced by the boost from your new acquisition’s "Cat Senses."]

[The combined effect has reached its maximum.]

’R-R-R-Rank S?’ Zaid trembled.

Now he understood... those senses so keen and precise that they allowed him to hear even the footsteps of an ant or the faint murmurs of Scarlett, who enjoyed searching for the remains of the creatures the cat had eaten...

He could hear the sound of a single leaf falling from its tree; the sound of the wind.

However, despite being S-Rank, there was one limitation: his own strength.

He could tell right away because his senses told him so. His range wasn’t very high due to his strength.

However, being able to have a field around him where he could practically hear an animal’s breath clearly was an incredible advantage.

’I might last longer in a battle against Mr. Frank if I fought now,’

He swallowed hard...

He had to hide this very well. Because it was deadly. If the Zacharys found out, he would surely be dead.

He looked at the weeping cat, but she wouldn’t let him speak to her. She glared at him fiercely and disappeared.

Zaid felt her enter his being. She was inside him, but completely ignoring his words.

So he gave up and looked at Scarlett.

"Did you get anything?"

"A few claws. I already have everything I needed," she replied enthusiastically. "So, how does it feel?"

Zaid didn’t know how to respond. He felt indebted to her at that moment.

Her boldness and goodwill had helped him obtain an S-Rank Talent.

S-Rank!

That’s priceless on the market.

And also a cat whose usefulness will surely be immense.

"Hm... that went well." Zaid smiled, not knowing how to respond. "Thank you very much."

Scarlett shook her head. "From now on, you’ll have to give me free rides—soon you’ll see what kind of treasure is that cat!" she exclaimed.

Zaid looked at her and laughed. If she only knew what a treasure she was... he wondered if she’d change her mind.

"All right. I’ll do it for free whenever you want. But you’ll have to go through the guild, because I need to move up in rank."

"Okay!" She was more than excited...

’Hehe, I got an endless supply of beasts and materials just by throwing away a few vials... I’m a genius!’ she exclaimed to herself.

She thought she was the winner of this exchange.

The two continued for the rest of the day, just as Zaid had requested before they went in. They obtained a wider variety of materials, but the best part was leveling up.

Zaid leveled up again!

He was getting closer and closer to reaching the limit of Rank F—the glorious Level 10... though he still had 6 levels to go.

They returned to the city, and after turning in their mission at the guild, they went their separate ways.

Zaid went back to the academy. He had wanted to get in touch with that cat, but she was either really asleep or ignoring him. So there was nothing he could do.

He had martial arts training classes that day, and he arrived late.

"Where were you? The teacher was furious that you were late," Alice whispered as soon as she saw him at the training field.

"I was running some errands in town," Zaid whispered back. "Where is he?" He looked around but didn’t see Robinson.

"He left and said he’d take points off your score if you didn’t finish that by the end of the day." Alice pointed to the whiteboard hanging on the back wall of the training field.

-100 laps around the training field.

-2 hours of hitting the punching bags.

-Clean up the training field when you’re done!

"Are you going to be okay?" she asked gently.

Zaid shook his head. "I don’t think so." Nevertheless, he started running.

While all his teammates—except John, who hadn’t been discharged yet—were practicing their martial arts, he ran around the training field.

Each lap was one kilometer, and he had to complete 100 laps in total.

All his teammates couldn’t help but tease him. He had only been an hour late, but now he had to do something that would take all day.

As the minutes and hours passed, the students left. Only a few remained—the most disciplined ones.

They trained hard because they knew they were at the bottom of the rankings. They spoke little and trained a lot. They laughed little and sparred a lot.

Among them was Alice. She had attracted a lot of attention during the practical classes because she was very good in several areas.

She knew martial arts like boxing and mixed martial arts. Maybe not that well, but she knew the basics, and that was enough to amaze the students in Class F.

She was practicing something new today—soft martial arts that improved flexibility and agility.

Although, in reality, she had deliberately chosen to stay until the very end. Most of her attention was focused on that person who was still running around the field.

Sweat dripped from his forehead. His clothes were soaked. Although he was able to control his breathing very well, which allowed him to keep going.

"Lap 100..." Zaid took a deep breath and finally stopped.

The beads of sweat falling from his face soaked the ground.