Chapter 201: Buying Pets and Taking Stock
The guinea pigs ran around the cardboard boxes he’d bought them in like beings possessed. Suddenly being snatched from one’s home and stuffed in such a container to be taken to a new, entirely unfamiliar home had to be terrifying. Isaac felt bad for the pair. At least it wouldn’t be much longer.
In the middle of his apartment sat a regular old wire cage, filled with the normal wood shavings, kitted out with two small wooden houses, a grass half-tube that could be both used for cover and eaten.
A water bottle was already filled and attached to the bars, the hay trough was full and a washed cucumber lay on a plate to be tossed in the moment the guinea pigs were inside.
The first of the two furry potatoes was a beautiful smooth-haired juvenile small enough to fit in the palm of his hand, her coat a shimmering bluish grey. The second he’d put it in the cage, it had shot off like a bottle rocket, taking cover in one of the houses.
The second was just as young and small, but its blond hair was so frizzy Isaac had been tempted to ask if it had been chewing on an electric cable when he’d bought it. And it likewise took cover the second it could.
The pair would acclimate in time, but for now, it was best to leave them alone for a bit so they could calm down ... except he couldn’t quite do that just yet.
Whichever person or, well, deity was responsible for designing the ritual he was about to use was a bit of an idiot. Ensuring that pets lived as long as their owners, ensuring that no one ever would have to feel the heartbreak of having a beloved animal companion die before you was a good cause.
But couldn’t a literal god have designed a method that didn’t scare the shit out of anything the process was used on?
Isaac picked up the cage and moved it over to the magic circle, adding the final thing needed.
The other objects present were a few children’s drawings of various pets, courtesy of his sisters, a homemade dog collar, several pieces of guinea pig-suitable animal feed, and two pieces of clear quartz.
“Sorry about this you two.” Isaac apologized as he fed mana into the circles and lights began to rise into the world.
Of course, this startled the guinea pigs, and they ran around like a pair of startled rabbits, only calming down when the sparkles had touched them and all of the spooky lights had vanished.
And that was that.
Nothing visible happened, they just looked like regular old guinea pigs.
Still, now that the process was done, his sisters’ future Spirit Pets were now functionally immortal. Right now, they were bound to him, but he’d held that bond at a basic level so he could later pass the bonds over to his sisters.
They’d stay alive for them for as long as the twins lived, even through accidents and all the various other things that could cost you a pet, including diseases.The initial posting of this chapter occurred via Ñøv€l-B!n.
There were only three things that could cost you a Spirit Pet.
The first was deliberate cruelty. They weren’t punching bags, so if you used them for that, they’d run away, severing any bonds and finding someone in need of a little love.
Speaking of Isaac, he’d been very busy, getting himself an alibi by speaking at a conference in Berlin. There were plenty of body-double [Skills], but nothing with the kind of range pulling of simultaneously being in Berlin and London would have required.
End result, a bunch of very reasonably seeming yet very wrong assumptions. Patrick had once told the team a Mark Twain quote that seemed to fit the situation rather nicely:
“What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.”
There was a loud rattling sound from behind him as the guinea pigs chased each other around the cage. Isaac sighed. He’d give them to his sisters in a week, on Christmas, but until then, he’d have the pleasure of their company.
Right now, he still had to work, though. People really fucking sucked, sometimes.
Rich people were seeing that people were amassing direct, personal power and how that was becoming a form of pollical influence in and of itself.
Politicians were trying to preserve their own power by attempting to shut down people’s attempts to grow in power.
Rich people were trying to power-level themselves and push back against politicians attempting to suppress leveling.
Individuals trying to tell both the upper class and political leadership to buzz off so they could personally grow in power and shoot through the Levels.
Personal power, the superpower that was being rich and political power. Three different kinds of power, each valid in its own way, each vying for control.
In the end, at the higher ends of the Level-based power scale, personal power would come out on top, no amount of power or influence could stop a man who could tear you apart with a casual flick of his finger.
But right now, power was still spread somewhat evenly between those three factions and shit was hitting the fan, hard.
Not to mention how the industry was fluctuating between stifling, utterly ludicrous levels of oversight and basically being the Wild West.
That, at least, could be fixed. In exchange for a small stipend paid by the state and local summoning companies, high Level, combat-capable people would make themselves available to clean up messes.
There were also laws being added to the books that would make it so some very painful fines would be levied at any company that needed the help.
On the political side of things, he was working on people who were reasonable, well, for politicians at least, trying to show that outright stopping people from leveling would blow up in everyone’s faces.
And as far as the industry went, all he could really do was show how well things worked with his own company.
Isaac slumped onto his desk with a deep sigh. He hated dealing with social issues, give him a problem he could punch any day of the week.
