The Discarded Son's Skill Market
Chapter 43: Having to dress her (2)

Chapter 43: Having to dress her (2)

After he finished putting the pants on her, Zaid frowned.

’How did this thing grow so fast?’ he wondered as he tried to get the tail to sit right.

"Don’t move your tail!" Zaid growled.

"I-I-I can’t help it, m-master!" she growled back, though, unlike Zaid, who was angry, she seemed... very excited?

Zaid frowned...

In the end, he had to lend her a better pair of joggers and make a little room for her tail; they’d do for now while he had some custom-made clothes or something like that made for her.

Although that was going to be difficult... He wouldn’t want anyone to find out the secrets of his new acquisition.

He wiped the sweat from his brow after he finished dressing her. He had to admit it was stressful; was this what it felt like to dress a baby?

He shook his head and looked her in the eyes. "Now I want to know a little about you. Come sit down—we don’t have much time."

Zaid figured they had about 15 minutes before they had to leave to get ready, although if he skipped lunch, they’d have 45 minutes—enough time to listen to her talk.

She blinked a couple of times in response, once again confused. "Know about me? What do you want to know, master?"

"Let’s start there." Zaid raised his hand. "Why do you call me that?"

She wagged her tail from side to side. "Isn’t it obvious? You’re my master."

"Well... I know that. I mean, you don’t have to call me that. You used to be completely different."

"I wasn’t your property back then, master. Now it’s different," she protested.

Zaid didn’t know what to say. In a way, it made sense. ’Well... it’s been a long time since anyone called me that; I guess I’ll have to get used to it again.’

He then cleared his throat and decided to address that topic later. "Can you tell me about your abilities and where you’re from?"

"Of course, master!" She quickly sat down beside him and began to tell him.

First, where she was from.

"I belong to the Addictive Whisper Clan of Eldoria. I am the daughter of Zephyr, one of the clan’s leaders. My name is Valia, the youngest daughter of Matriarch Sylph. I have three brothers: Malakor, Nox, and Lumiel..."

"Wait, wait, wait." Zaid interrupted her immediately. "Eldoria? The Addictive Whisper Clan? What’s all this about?"

He didn’t recognize any of those names, and he didn’t think his geography classes were lacking. At school, they taught him everything about the geography of this world.

Although all his education since middle school had focused on avoiding places with dangerous portals and learning about the new geography of a world in ruins, he didn’t think it was so bad that they hadn’t taught him about clans.

Valia frowned slightly and realized. "Oh. Right. I got here through the Maelstrom..." she whispered.

"Hm? What did you say?" Zaid seemed to hear her say something.

"Oh, nothing. I was just muttering to myself, master." Valia quickly composed herself. "Everything I told you pertains to the spirit world. You’re not a natural spirit tamer, so you don’t know this, but there are three planes, worlds, or dimensions."

"The Spiritual Plane, or Astral Plane—that’s the first one. That’s where we—the Clan of the Addictive Whisper—and others are."

Zaid nodded and listened.

"The Earthly Plane... This one. Historically, the astral plane and the earthly plane have been very close, but over the last 200 years, that closeness has been weakening for no apparent reason."

’That’s why there are fewer and fewer spirit tamers...’ He frowned.

"The third plane... well, I think you already know about it. The plane of portals, dungeons... That’s all I know about it."

’Interesting.’ Zaid told her to go on her way.

"My clan belongs to the astral plane. Eldoria is an archipelago of floating islands connected by bridges of mist. Our people are wise and live long lives!" she exclaimed, proud of her heritage. "And... well, that’s about it."

"Already?" Zaid blinked. "It was just getting good..."

Zaid sighed; he knew this wasn’t the time to listen to stories about other worlds that seemed even more fantastical than this one. However, he was determined to find out more later.

"And your abilities?" He decided to move on to the next point.

"They’re in your mind, master! Just think of me and enter your Sea of the Soul. They’ll be there."

Zaid frowned. "I can’t enter the Sea of Souls yet." He shook his head. That ability became available starting at Rank D.

"Oh... that’s right, the master hasn’t gotten much stronger yet." Valia nodded and wondered if she should be the one to tell him. "I think if you don’t have access to the Sea of Souls, you won’t be able to use them, right? It’d be best if you didn’t know until then."

Zaid had already thought of that, but he still asked her to explain a few basic things.

She, then, explained the ones he had seen: Flying was possible, and it wasn’t an ability—it was simply something natural to her. But she couldn’t carry much weight.

Her claws are incredibly strong and deadly. They can be used to perform a variety of attacks.

She has a special stealth ability; technically, Zaid should be able to use it. He decided to look into it further later.

Finally, her ability to burst into flames. It’s her unique ability, and the more flames there are in her body, the stronger she becomes. That ability works by burning mana or primordial essence. The more it burns, the more powerful she becomes.

Zaid can’t use most of those abilities right now. At best, he should be able to use stealth, but he doesn’t know how. And he can only fly if she carries him.

However, she could use them. Her rank was still D, and her level is around 25.

’Knowing I have this to fall back on right before the test makes it easier.’

Although he wasn’t really worried about the test. He believed he was quite a bit stronger than most of his classmates, and if they were there, it meant the test wasn’t all that difficult.

The problem was that E- and D-rank classes were participating in the same test. To him, that was dangerous—not only because he might be discovered, but also because of Luke Shawn. If Luke Shawn participated, things would get complicated for him; that guy had chosen to attack them at the portal that time, so he would surely do it a second time.

The more tricks he had, the better.

"Is there anything else?" he asked.

She thought about it for a moment, and a light bulb went off in her head. Then she made a gesture and turned into a cat again... and then back into her human form.

"I can transform!" she said with a smile.

Zaid’s mouth dropped open in surprise...

"Don’t take your clothes off!"

He complained, but he had to dress her again... Apparently, he’d forgotten something.

She came from a civilized place; she wasn’t just any ordinary cat. Wasn’t it normal to get dressed?

However, he forgot... or he pretended not to notice.

And then he had to put up with all of Erick’s questions and teasing out there... with Valia saying things that could be misinterpreted, which only fueled Erick’s urge to spit fire.

The only good thing about all this... was that Valia was going to participate in the competition as his mascot. A beautiful black kitten—who would suspect her?