Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons novel Chapter 116

"Well..." Ren elaborated a convenient version of events. "Apparently he had heard about my... successes finding veins. He wanted to hear about my method while I guided him."

"And?" Liu leaned forward.

"And nothing. I showed him how I use the mushrooms for light. He let me take some remains from the dead hydra and gave me old parts from his beast. End of story."

His friends clearly wanted more details, but Ren moved toward his trunk, effectively changing the subject since… Carefully, he took out the hydra egg and the bug egg, placing them next to the two cores he had recovered.

Taro, who had been unusually quiet, observed the objects with familiarity. After all, he had helped Ren hide them the day he ended up in the infirmary.

"What the hell?" Min approached to examine the objects. "Where did you get those?"

"A bit deeper in the caves," Ren responded honestly. "Luckily... I found them along with the cores."

Liu studied the cores without much interest. "Why keep cores? They’re useless."

"The government buys them," Min pointed out, "though they pay a pittance. You can’t extract mana from them like a crystal, they can absorb mana but filling them is a useless waste because they have no practical use."

Taro scratched his head. "The bug egg is worth something. What? About 100,000 crystals for being rare?"

"If you find a buyer," Liu snorted. "People prefer to pay a bit more for a brown egg like the one that gave you your beetle. At least they have the possibility of getting a mole then."

Ren’s mushrooms pulsed while his friends discussed market value. If they only knew...

"But this other egg is what intrigues me..." Min pointed to the hydra egg, his eyes shining. "I’ve never seen anything like it even in the city market."

The egg glowed like a diamond, its patterns clearly different from common random eggs.

"Doesn’t look like a random egg," Liu moved closer. "What beast could it be from? How much do you think it’s worth? That glow is impressive."

"Much more than the bug one, surely," Min nodded. "Some people pay fortunes for unique eggs."

Ren let his friends speculate about prices and potential buyers. It was safer if they thought about the objects only in terms of their market value.

"Why don’t you sell them?" Liu finally asked. "You could get a really good profit, school residence hasn’t treated you as badly as we thought after all... Congratulations lucky shroom."

"I’m waiting for the right moment, don’t tell anybody yet," Ren responded vaguely.

The mushrooms in his hair pulsed softly. His friends would never suspect that one of those "useless" cores would soon become something as valuable as any rare egg in the market... soon he would have 4 eggs in his hands.

"Hypothetically, if you could choose," Ren began, "what would you prefer? A defensive creature with some attack, an elemental offensive one, or a faster one with utility?"

"Defensive," Taro responded immediately. "There’s nothing like a good shield."

"Are you crazy?" Min shook his head. "Elemental offensive, obviously. The best defense is a good offense."

"You’re both wrong," Liu intervened. "Speed and utility. What good is power if you can’t reach your target?"

Ren’s mushrooms pulsed with what seemed to be exasperation. "Thanks. You’re not helping at all."

He lay back on his bed, thoughtful. The wolverine’s ability to store things inside was fascinating, and the mantis’s mirrors had already saved his skin more than once... but the hydra also...

Suddenly he stood up, startling his friends. He began emptying his enormous backpack, which seemed to contain his size in materials.

"What are you doing?" Taro asked while Ren piled hydra plates to one side.

Without answering, Ren opened his trunk and took out the carefully stored mantis plates. With precise movements, he began building small "nests" using the mantis plates as a base for one, interweaving the wolverine’s hair and minerals for the other.

"Um..." Min observed confused. "Are you making... abstract art?"

"Maybe it’s a phase," Liu whispered. "Like when Taro tried to make ugly sculptures with earth."

"Hey! Those sculptures were art!"

"They were piles of dirt, Taro."