After that, Duanmu Huai brought Bunny-Bunny back to the mansion and then untied the ropes binding her—
Alright, in Duanmu Huai's opinion, this was completely unnecessary.
However, according to the teachings in the manual, the primary purpose of the binding rope was to confirm whether the girl-type monster had truly stopped resisting the Monster Tamer.
Moreover, many girl-type monsters were capable of lying, so directly "asking" their bodies was more convenient and efficient.
Otherwise, if during the contract ceremony the monster girl still harbored resistance deep in her heart and chose that moment to betray the Monster Tamer, the Monster Tamer would be in serious danger.
Of course, this only applied to Monster Tamers who lacked combat power and were physically weak. If it were Duanmu Huai, anyone who dared to pull tricks in front of him would have their head crushed straight into the ground.
"Uuuh..."
Not long after the ropes were removed, Bunny-Bunny slowly regained consciousness. Upon seeing Duanmu Huai, she not only showed no fear, but instead leapt up with an innocent smile and threw herself into his arms.
"Wow, it's you! Hehehe..."
As she spoke, Bunny-Bunny twisted her body coquettishly and rubbed herself against him. Although the guidebook did state that Bunny-Bunny was a relatively friendly girl-type monster, wasn't this a bit too friendly?
Looking at the Bunny-Bunny girl in front of him, Duanmu Huai couldn't help but think of those foolish animals from wildlife documentaries—
How do species with zero sense of danger like this even survive to this day without going extinct?
"Ahem. Anyway, let's form the contract first."
Duanmu Huai grabbed Bunny-Bunny and stared at her as he spoke.
"Come. Look into my eyes."
"Hmm???"
Hearing Duanmu Huai's command, Bunny-Bunny tilted her head curiously and looked at him. Duanmu Huai also stared into her eyes, recalling the contents of the manual, focusing his attention slightly, and then spoke.
"Wild monster, at this moment I bestow upon thee the lock of servitude. Become my familiar and submit unto me."
After saying this, Duanmu Huai continued to stare at Bunny-Bunny. Then he saw her originally bright, azure eyes suddenly grow dim, losing all light. Bunny-Bunny then spoke again.
"I, as a familiar, submit unto you..."
Unlike her previous lively and innocent tone, Bunny-Bunny's voice at this moment was extremely solemn, as if she had switched personalities. However, the very next instant after she finished speaking, her eyes regained their original brightness. Then she grinned, reached out, and hugged Duanmu Huai's arm.
"From now on, Bunny-Bunny will work hard as Master's familiar!"
"Ah… yeah..."
Looking at Bunny-Bunny in front of him, Duanmu Huai was somewhat surprised. He then turned to look at the maid.
"That's it?"
"Yes. The contract has been successfully formed. There don't appear to be any issues."
The maid nodded, then looked at Duanmu Huai.
"Then next, please set out upon the path of trials."
"..."
Hearing the maid's words, Duanmu Huai let out a quiet sigh.
"Looks like I don't really have any other choice."
After successfully using Bunny-Bunny as an experiment, Duanmu Huai had effectively subdued his first familiar. Taking advantage of the momentum, he also signed a contract with the maid.
Incidentally, after the contracts were formed, information about the two girl-type monsters appeared in Duanmu Huai's system—
They were categorized as pets.
Yes.
Pets.
In many online games, players could obtain small pets through spending money or completing quests. These pets usually had no special function and did not help in combat. They merely followed the player around and provided minor, non-game-breaking bonuses.
Star Sea Online naturally had pets as well. However, Soul Walkers like Duanmu Huai generally never spent money on this sort of thing—their Soul Cards were far more useful.
And now…
After forming contracts with Bunny-Bunny and the maid, the system classified them under "Pets."
That was right—the kind of pets you could bring out in public areas to show off, making newbies drool with envy, but which would disappear the moment combat started and were basically useless.
Of course, if something like this existed in a game and Duanmu Huai brought it out to show off, it would probably drive players into a frenzy—
They might even hunt girl-type monsters to extinction.
This made Duanmu Huai recall a rare pet in the game called the Void Whale, which lived in a certain star system. Its body was enormous, but after being defeated and captured, it became tiny and adorable.
Because rare pets only respawned once every four or five months, whenever that time came, tens of thousands of warships would gather in that star system. The moment the Void Whale appeared, it became a bloodbath—
Hundreds or thousands of players killing each other for a single Void Whale, not to mention professional guilds specializing in capturing them for resale. The fighting was utterly chaotic.
Entire regions were shattered, star systems cracked apart, and even subspace couldn't withstand that level of firepower.
If girl-type monsters existed in the game… the scene would probably be even worse.
After subduing the two girl-type monsters, their information appeared in Duanmu Huai's pet panel. As expected, they had no attack or defense stats like Soul Cards—only special abilities.
The maid's special ability was [Household Mastery], while Bunny-Bunny's special ability was [Luck Bestowal].
[Household Mastery] needed no explanation—she could handle all household chores.
[Luck Bestowal] was far more confusing. Its description simply said: "A rabbit that can bring luck to people."
Whether it could increase the chance of pulling gold in a ten-pull… was anyone's guess.
In short, now that he had mastered the method of capturing familiars, all that remained was to capture a few more, lift the seals, and everything would be settled.
According to the maid, because Duanmu Huai had already formed a contract with Bunny-Bunny, the forest seal had been lifted. Three seals remained—located in the snowy mountains, underground, and the plains.
Thus, Duanmu Huai decided to go to the—
Snowy mountains.
"Uuuh… it's so cold!"
Walking through the snowy mountains, Bunny-Bunny followed closely behind Duanmu Huai, complaining from time to time.
Which was understandable. Regardless of how different girl-type monsters were from humans, from appearances alone, a girl wearing nothing but a transparent gauze-like nightgown walking through a snowy mountain not feeling cold would be strange.
"That's why I told you to stay below, didn't I?"
Duanmu Huai looked at Bunny-Bunny helplessly.
Originally, he planned to climb the mountain alone, just like before, to find the pocket spirits—
No, girl-type monsters.
But Bunny-Bunny insisted on coming along, and Olgis also didn't like being left behind. So Duanmu Huai brought the three of them together, passed through the forest, and began the arduous climb.
For Duanmu Huai, climbing a mountain was no trouble at all. But this mountain was extremely tall—comparable to the Himalayas. Even Duanmu Huai couldn't reach the summit in one go.
In fact, they had advanced less than one-tenth of the way when Bunny-Bunny started complaining about the cold.
"Huh? But Bunny-Bunny wants to be with Master! Bunny-Bunny isn't afraid of the cold!"
As she spoke, Bunny-Bunny slipped into Duanmu Huai's cloak, reached around from behind, hugged him, and kept rubbing against him.
Whether she did this intentionally or not was unclear, but Duanmu Huai wasn't wearing power armor right now, so he could clearly feel Bunny-Bunny's warmth on his back.
Warm.
Soft.
Very comfortable.
"..."
Seeing Bunny-Bunny's actions, Olgis's gaze grew slightly cold. She then reached out as well, hugging Duanmu Huai and imitating Bunny-Bunny's movements.
"..."
There was some warmth, yes.
But it felt more like a washboard scrubbing his back.
"There's a cave over there. Let's rest there for a bit."
The maid pointed toward a cave in the distance. Duanmu Huai nodded. The group then entered the nearby cave to shelter from the sudden blizzard.
"GRAAAH!!!"
However, what Duanmu Huai didn't expect was that just as he was about to step into the cave, a shrill, animal-like scream came from the shadows inside.
Immediately afterward, an orange-colored object suddenly lunged out at him.
Duanmu Huai didn't indulge it in the slightest. He roared, reached out, grabbed it midair, and slammed it straight into the ground.
"Let me take a look… what the hell is this thing???"
After pinning it down, Duanmu Huai finally looked at what he was holding. Upon seeing it clearly, even he couldn't help but freeze.
No wonder he froze.
Because what he was holding wasn't an animal at all.
It wasn't even a living creature.
What Duanmu Huai held was an entirely orange, oval-shaped object. Its head had a crudely drawn mouth, and its limbs were thin lines—
Yes. It looked exactly like a kindergarten child's scribble of something resembling a dog or cat!
What the hell is this thing?
Looking at the struggling doodle-creature in his hand, Duanmu Huai fell into thought. The maid looked at the doodle monster and spoke.
"Ah, that's a Doodle Monster… which means Sketchy should be nearby."
"Sketchy?"
"Yes. She's a girl-type monster who loves drawing and possesses the ability to turn the monsters she draws into physical entities."
"So this thing is something she drew?"
Hearing the explanation, Duanmu Huai finally understood. He clenched his right hand, and the struggling doodle monster instantly shattered and vanished.
"Yes, Master. Do you intend to capture her?"
"Uuuh…"
Hearing the maid's question, Duanmu Huai thought for a moment, then shook his head.
"Forget it. Let's choose another one."
Although there was a girl-type monster nearby, Duanmu Huai really didn't want her.
Sure, the ability to bring drawings into reality sounded powerful, but—
Your drawing skills are this bad. How good could the result possibly be?
Duanmu Huai could already imagine it. Even if he asked her to draw a beauty, Sketchy would probably produce a lump of postmodern abstract art.
That kind of thing was already torturous enough in an art gallery. If it appeared in reality, that would be disastrous.
Besides, this was only the foot of the snowy mountain. According to player experience, the higher you went, the higher the chance of rare encounters.
If he was going to capture something anyway—
Why not capture the best?
(End of Chapter)