Li Pu once doubted if his grandfather was really his biological grandfather.
Because that old guy was utterly ruthless, subjecting him to intense hellish physical training since childhood.
It started with simple things like lifting weights and practicing horse stance, but soon evolved into mountain climbing with weights, long-distance swimming, and so on, getting worse by the day.
Even after he turned 12, his grandfather would often toss him into deep forests to fight various wild beasts alone.
At first, Li Pu complained a lot, but his grandfather not only wouldn't soften, he would even beat him.
So after complaining a few times, Li Pu gave up.
Not because he was afraid of being beaten, but because that old bastard had even scarier methods than that.
Which was, deducting his pocket money.
Simply heartbreaking.
In short, his grandfather told him, there was only one rule in their family: the one with the bigger fists gets to speak.
So now Li Pu was determined to get stronger.
Once he became strong, he would face his grandfather again and punch him hard in the nose.
And then add, "Grandpa, I've grown up."
Surely, his grandfather would be moved to tears.
Just imagining that scene made him feel quite amused.
But before that, he needed to develop first.
And he had to do it secretly, to not let the villain—oh no, his grandfather—find out and be on guard.
"This is the last one left."
He touched the metal box in his hand, feeling great with his new plan.
All the new students admitted to the school received a gift box from the university, containing some starter resources.
When he got it from Teacher Tu, they gave a brief introduction about the gift box.
Opening the metal box, Li Pu saw two things.
One was a transparent crystal about the size of a fist, shaped like a diamond, which was a Crystal Coin.
Lifting it up, he could check the relevant numbers through a panel.
[1000]
This meant it was a full 1000 Crystal Coins.
"Xidu University is quite generous..."
Li Pu scrutinized the crystal for a moment, then clumsily placed it into the storage space.
1000 Crystal Coins was no small sum.
He had heard that in private transactions, this was roughly equivalent to 10,000 Federation Coins.
His family's financial situation was pretty good; even in high school, his monthly allowance was just under 200 Federation Coins.
If he remembered correctly, there were about 1000 new students this year.
That meant just the gift boxes alone accounted for nearly 10,000,000 Federation Coins.
No wonder it's the academy for Summoners, truly generous.
As for the other item, it was a ball of light emitting an orange glow.
[Random Skill Light Sphere]: Contains a skill ranging from F to C grade
The Skill Light Sphere contained a skill for a summoned beast to learn.
As for what skill and level it was, no one knew.
This thing was also quite valuable.
Because although the probability was extremely low, it could yield a C-grade skill.
It's said that 99% of new students only got an F-grade skill.
Li Pu contemplated for a while and had an idea to try.
Which was, he wondered if he could use this Skill Light Sphere.
Because he had half Summoned Beast bloodline, also known as a hybrid bloodline.
It was due to this bloodline that he got into the whole matchmaking mess.
If it were just ordinary human girls, Li Pu wouldn't be so opposed.
But out of the dozens of dates arranged by his grandfather, none were pure human, some were mixed-race hybrids or completely non-human.
Non-humans were a general term for other intelligent species besides humans.
The world's mutation two hundred years ago brought non-humans to Earth as well.
Some arrived like magical beasts through space rifts, others came as summoned beasts.
But the vast majority of non-humans lived outside the Federation, having their territories.
The key difference between them and magical beasts was that non-humans could communicate amicably with humans and could also become Summoners.
If it's just about getting along, Li Pu thought he had no issues.
But when it comes to marriage, he really couldn't do it.
Stuff like beast ears and tails were okay since they had strong human bloodlines, and human-beast marriages were common.
The thing with beast ears and tails was they didn't even qualify for his grandfather's matchmaking list.
The lowest on the list was a slime girl with slime bloodline.
Ask yourself, who would want to marry a wife who could change into any shape at will?
Then there were things like androids, which completely challenged all his acquired biological knowledge from twelve years of compulsory education.
There were even hermaphroditic non-humans, who knew who would marry whom.
But all that was a little off-topic, Li Pu wanted to know with half of him being a summoned beast, could he use this Skill Light Sphere himself.
After all, having the Summoner gift [Friend of Magical Beasts], he'd never lack skills.
So it might be better to use this Skill Light Sphere to strengthen himself.
With that thought, Li Pu slightly exerted pressure on the light sphere in his hand, crushing it.
Buzz!
With a slight tremor, the light sphere turned into a large amount of powdery orange light.
The orange light circled around him in a wisp-like manner.
A slight thought, and the orange light formed various shapes in front of him.
Because he crushed it himself, Li Pu could sense that it was under his control.
"Fascinating experience."
After playing with it a bit, he found it interesting.
But eventually, the orange light, guided by his thoughts, began circling him again.
Faster and faster!
With each rotation, a little light powder dropped onto his skin.
A weak warm current started spreading from the contact points into his body.
The light powder was falling on more areas, and the warm current was gradually getting stronger.
When all the light powder had entered his body, Li Pu felt the warmth turn into heat.
"Phew..."
He let out a heavy breath, the vapor slightly visible.
He didn't feel uncomfortable; instead, there was an indescribable slight pleasure.
The hot flow continued circulating inside, and soon enough, Li Pu was drenched in sweat.
However, at some point, the hot flow inexplicably vanished completely.
"Is it over?"
Li Pu's eyes lit up, reopening the panel only he could see.
This time, his operation was much more skilled than before.
"It's a C-grade!"
With just one glance, he realized his luck was incredible.
But after checking, he fell into silence.
This...
What the heck kind of skill is this?!
...
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