Chapter 440:Beast.

Chapter 440: 440:Beast.

The Beginner and Intermediate selections had been useful, but most items were either survival tools, consumables, skill fragments, medicines or resources appropriate to Silver’s earlier development. Advanced Shop Access contained things that made him understand why the system had suddenly dumped thousands of AP into his account.

The prices had increased accordingly.

He filtered for beast cores. He went through the strength section looking for one compatible with humanoid Contractors and has no conflicting elemental characteristic.

Also a Tier Four.

Ravenna saw absolutely none of what he was seeing. She only saw Silver sitting beside her, staring into empty space.

She quuetly waited, then waited longer until she started to become impatient.

"Silver."

"Found something."

"How expensive?"

He didn’t answer and acted as though he hadn’t heard her. She immediately became suspicious since he rarely ignored her.

"How expensive?"

"Four thousand eight hundred," he whispered.

Her eyes widened.

"No."

Silver looked at her.

"No?"

"Absolutely not."

"It’s Tier Four," he tried convincing her.

"I heard the price," Ravenna replied firmly.

"Listen to the rest."

"No."

Silver smiled. "You haven’t even heard what beast it is."

"I don’t care if it’s the strongest Tier Four beast ever discovered. You’re not spending almost five thousand Affection Points on a core for me when you just got access to an entirely new shop and don’t even know what you’ll need for yourself."

Silver paused; that was actually sensible.

Ravenna continued before he could respond.

"You have spatial abilities that nearly killed you because of how much energy they consume. You lost your sword. You still haven’t used that Void Tempering Fruit because the best time hasn’t come which means we’re in a limbo. You’re still Rank Two. You don’t know what the system upgrade might require later, and you have an entire academy giving you new training problems every day. Keep your points."

He stared at her completely speechless.

She crossed her arms.

"Don’t look at me like that."

"You’re very responsible when it’s my money."

"Affection Points."

"My emotional money," he countered.

Ravenna’s mouth twitched. Silver turned back toward the shop.

She immediately caught his wrist.

"Silver."

"I haven’t bought it."

"Good."

"I’m inspecting it."

"Fine."

Silver selected the core description.

[Advanced Shop Item]

[Titan-Horn Mountain Bison Core]

Tier: 4

Classification: Pure Physical / Strength-Type

Primary Characteristic: Titan Muscle Fibers

Secondary Characteristic: Skeletal Reinforcement

Potential Integration Trait: Mountain Titan Physique

Potential Secondary Trait: Immovable Foundation

Elemental Conflict: None

Core Condition: Fresh

System Preservation: Perfect

Price: 4,800 AP

Silver stopped smiling as he looked at the price. That was considerably better than he’d expected.

Ravenna noticed his change.

"What?"

"This is almost exactly what you asked for."

Her grip loosened slightly.

Silver read the description aloud. By the time he finished, Ravenna had stopped objecting quite as strongly, not entirely thought but it enough to slightly convince her.

"Tier Four is too high."

"For an ordinary new Contractor?"

"Yes."

"You have Soul Capacity nineteen, I don’t think you’re ordinary in the slightest."

"That doesn’t mean I should be stupid."

Silver nodded.

That was another reason he liked her. She didn’t hear Tier Four and immediately decide bigger was automatically better.

He opened the compatibility information.

[Target Synchronization Detected.]

[Primary Target: Ravenna Arkland.]

Ravenna saw his eyes move.

"What does it say?"

"Wait."

Another prompt appeared.

[Analyzing Target Compatibility...]

[Target Soul Capacity: 19.]

[Target Existing Beast Integration Stability: Excellent.]

[Target Physical Foundation: Suitable.]

[Target Elemental Profile: Fire.]

[Titan-Horn Mountain Bison possesses no conflicting elemental characteristic.]

[Estimated Integration Compatibility: High.]

[Warning: Tier disparity will increase integration strain.]

[Shared Beast Absorption Lv1 may reduce integration instability.]

Silver’s expression changed at that.

Ravenna immediately noticed.

"There’s a warning."

"Tier disparity."

"I knew it."

"But compatibility is high."

"Silver."

"And Shared Beast Absorption can reduce instability during your absorption."

Ravenna became quiet; that changed a lot of things.

Silver turned toward her.

"We don’t have to do it now."

Ravenna looked at the Tier Two core still resting in his hand, then at Silver.

"What happens to this one?" She asked.

"I keep it," he nonchalantly replied.

"For yourself?"

"Maybe. Or we sell it, trade it, use it later, whatever makes sense."

She remained quiet for several seconds.

He closed the shop window.

"I’m not going to force you."

"I know."

"If you want the Tier Two, use the Tier Two."

Ravenna looked toward him, clearly, she had had that thought.

"If you want to wait, we wait," he finished.

She studied him for a while then spoke.

"Open the Tier Four description again."

Silver smiled.

Ravenna pointed at him.

"Don’t smile."

"I’m not."

"You are."

He reopened it and explained everything again, this time more carefully.

She asked about the physical traits and the integration strain.

Whether the beast possessed an ability that might interfere with her fire. Whether Shared Beast Absorption would split anything between them.

Whether buying a preserved core from the system meant it retained the same characteristics as something freshly killed.

Silver answered what he could, and when he didn’t know, he said so.

Eventually Ravenna leaned back.

"Four thousand eight hundred."

"Yes."

"That’s a ridiculous amount."

"You gave me more than twelve thousand just by loving me."

Her entire face changed.

He realized what he’d said seconds later. They both stared at each other, speechless, until her cheeks slowly reddened.

"Don’t say it like that," she bashful said.

"That’s literally where the points came from."

"I know where they came from, you don’t have to say it out loud."

He chuckled, then smirked at her.

"Then technically you’re buying it."

"Silver."

He laughed outloud this time.

Ravenna shoved his shoulder.

"Fine."

He looked at her.

"Fine?"

"We buy it."

"We?"

"If you’re spending points that came from my affection, I’m claiming partial ownership of the decision," she hurriedly spoke as she tried to sound firmer.

Silver nodded solemnly. "Reasonable."

"But we’re not integrating it tonight."

"Agreed."

"We research Tier Four integrations first."

"Agreed."

"We make sure Shared Beast Absorption can actually reduce the strain."

"Agreed."

"And if there’s anything suspicious, I use the Tier Two instead."