Chapter 122 - 118: Pet

Chapter 122: Chapter 118: Pet

A campfire, but no people...

They have absolutely no sense of fire safety!

Don’t they know you’re supposed to put out the fire before you leave?!

"So uncivilized."

Lu Wei quickly lowered the binoculars and muttered under his breath as Mirana looked on in confusion:

"That’s just asking for a forest fire."

"Uh, I don’t think that’s the main point."

Mirana looked bewildered. "Shouldn’t the main point be why there are people here in the first place?"

"What’s so strange about that? We’re here too, aren’t we?"

Lu Wei nonchalantly handed the binoculars back to her. "Probably just a squad on a quest. They must have some decent Power to dare and venture this deep."

"Oh. Should we go check it out later? It’s on our way."

"We’ll see. For now, you just focus on drawing the map."

Shaking his head, Lu Wei showed little interest in the matter.

He still didn’t want to have too much contact with other Adventurers.

Unless they were bandits weaker than them, like that time three days ago.

’Sigh, our luck has been terrible these past few days. Besides that one Mage Badge, we’ve found almost nothing.’

Sighing to himself, Lu Wei left Mirana to draw the map by the cliff’s edge and returned to the camp, planning to pack up his bag and other things ahead of time.

But when he got back, he found Bai Ya and Furen huddled around the stew pot, craning their necks to peer inside.

Every so often, they would let out exclamations like, "So clean!" or "How amazing!"

?

’What are they doing?’

’Is washing a pot really that exciting?’

Lu Wei ambled over and took a look—

Well, I’ll be. The Fur Ball was in the pot.

The Fur Ball was lying contentedly at the bottom of the pot, letting out a constant "PURRRRR" sound, its eyes blissfully shut.

It panicked for a moment upon seeing him, its body twitching slightly as if debating whether to flee.

But after a moment, it lay back down, giving off a relaxed "do whatever you want" kind of vibe.

"It ate all the leftover soup."

Beside them, Bai Ya excitedly explained, "And the scraps in our bowls, too! It licked them all clean. We don’t even have to wash the dishes now!"

"What?"

Lu Wei’s eyes widened instantly. "You let it eat out of my bowl??"

"Oh, no, it’s not like that. It’s..."

At a loss for words, Bai Ya simply ran to get a small piece of bread and placed it on the Fur Ball, as if feeding a pet.

"Fur Ball, eat the bread~"

"Purrr~"

The Fur Ball, which had almost merged with the pot, grunted cooperatively. The piece of bread was immediately enveloped in its fluff, and then, it began to shrink at a visible rate.

It wasn’t shrinking bit by bit, as if being eaten, but rather disappearing from the edges, as if being erased by a rubber eraser.

"See! That’s how it eats!"

Bai Ya wore a proud expression. "Isn’t it amazing!"

’It is pretty amazing, but what are you so proud of?’

Lu Wei thought for a moment. "So its fluff must be something like mycelium, able to absorb food directly."

"Mhm, probably."

Bai Ya nodded. "Anyway, from now on we won’t have to wash our bowls or the pot. We can just let it do it."

"True... no, wait a minute!"

Lu Wei suddenly realized something. "From the sound of it, you’re planning on bringing it with us??"

"Mm, is that not okay?"

Bai Ya blinked. "Furen and I both think we should bring it along. It’s not scared of us anymore."

"..."

’So we’re getting a pet now???’

Lu Wei looked at Furen, completely baffled. The latter just scratched his head, looking a little embarrassed.

"Ahem, I don’t see the harm. After all, a lot of protagonists in novels have pets."

"Dogs, wolves, little birds, that sort of thing."

"And if you count mounts, there are even more..."

???

’Are you playing Pokémon or something???’

’Besides, if you were raising a dog or a wolf, I could understand. At least they’d have some fighting ability.’

’But what’s the point of raising a ball??’

’What can it do besides be a dishcloth and a pillow?’

After a moment, Lu Wei looked at Furen and Bai Ya in disbelief. "Are you sure you want to bring it along?"

"Well..."

Sensing his reluctance, Furen and Bai Ya exchanged a glance, their expressions turning a little downcast.

"If you’re against it, then never mind. You’re the captain, after all. We’ll listen to you."

"It’s not that I’m against it, it’s just... this thing is pretty useless, isn’t it?"

"True... no, wait!"

Furen suddenly had an idea. "It can change color!"

"And what use is that..."

"It is useful! If we train it, maybe it can help us with Reconnaissance and keeping watch!"

’Reconnaissance and keeping watch?’

Stunned for a moment, Lu Wei glanced at the "black ball" in the pot. He really didn’t think it was capable of that.

However, what Furen said did remind him of something.

Last night, he hadn’t sensed the Fur Ball’s approach at all.

Normally, if a goblin or a Kobold appeared within a dozen or so meters, he would be able to sense it.

At night, that range was even greater.

But last night, he hadn’t noticed this Fur Ball until it was about to jump into the pot.

So maybe it really did have some kind of Talent for Stealth.

Thinking of this, Lu Wei finally nodded hesitantly.

"Alright, since you both feel so strongly about it, let’s bring it along."

"Yay!"

Bai Ya cheered and immediately scooped the Fur Ball out of the pot. As it stared back blankly, she announced excitedly, "Did you hear that? From now on, you’re the Mushroom Squad’s pet!"

"Oh, right! Let’s give it a name!"

"Since it’s a Fur Ball, how about we call it Muffin?"

In this world, the words for "Fur Ball" and "Muffin" sound very similar.

It was an Otherworld pun.

But Furen thought the name wasn’t impressive enough.

"I think it should have more meaning, like Sly or Esmeralda."

Sly means "shadow."

And Esmeralda means "hope."

They had meaning, sure, but Bai Ya didn’t think they were cute enough.

In the end, the two of them looked to Lu Wei.

"Captain, what do you think?"

’I think Bruce is a good name.’

’Everyone knows Bruce is man’s best friend.’

’Too bad the name Bruce is only for dogs.’

"I don’t care."

Lu Wei pursed his lips. "It eats so much, ’Glutton’ would actually be a pretty good name."

"No way."

Clearly, such an awful name was not acceptable to Bai Ya.

However, it did give her an idea.

"Mmm, it does eat a lot. We should name it based on that trait."

"The God of Cuisine is Hestia, but using a Divine Spirit’s full name is disrespectful..."

Cradling the Fur Ball, Bai Ya fell into thought, muttering to herself.

Lu Wei, meanwhile, was surprised that a "God of Cuisine" even existed in this world.

’Man, they’re really splitting hairs with these divine domains.’

’Don’t tell me there’s a "God of Fur Balls" or a "God of Gwent Cards" too.’

’If there is, Mirana would definitely be a strong contender to be the latter’s Divine Apostle.’

Huh?

’Wait a second.’

’So, as a Crafty Merchant, which Divine Spirit should I worship?’

’Commerce? Luck? Lies? Greed?’

His brow furrowed slightly as a question suddenly occurred to Lu Wei.

Meanwhile, after some discussion, Bai Ya and Furen had already decided on the Fur Ball’s name.

It was actually half of the name of Hestia, the God of Cuisine—

Hess.

"Captain, is this name okay?"

Bai Ya held the Fur Ball up in front of Lu Wei, asking for his opinion.

The scene of big eyes staring at small eyes played out once again. After a moment, Lu Wei nodded in resignation.

"Fine, fine, whatever."

"Okay!"

Bai Ya happily turned the Fur Ball back around, looked it in the eyes, and announced loudly:

"From now on, your name is Hess!"