In the middle of the afternoon, a client walked in the door, setting off a small bell. Il Ji looked up.
"Marcus, welcome!"
The forty-year old coffee shop owner, Marcus, lived across the street. He sometimes dropped by to pick up extra isopods for his personal terrariums.
"Do you have any of the albino stub-tails in stock?" Marcus asked.
Il Ji smiled. As a slightly rarer item, the isopods meant a slightly bigger payday. Marcus had been in several times before to ask about them- Il Ji wasn't about to pass him up.
"As it just so happens, my breeding colony just recently became large enough to sell off a few. As a result, I can sell you- at most- 30 of them."
Marcus looked at him directly. "I can pay you 100 federal coins each for all of them."
"Give me a couple minutes, and I can get them from the back."
"Okay!"
Il Ji shortly returned with a small cylinder containing the insects. After another short moment, the trade was complete.
Marcus walked off with the small cylinder, and Il Ji put another 3000 federal coins into his safe. He immediately thought about using these profits to gift his sister something bearable to eat- unlike the small group of chickens he kept in the back.
They had been eating them for too long.
As he cleaned the cages and maintained the store, he wished once again for an apprentice- but maintaining cash flow with what he had on hand was difficult, and employees were expensive.
Once the clock hit 3PM, he flipped the sign on his door. His sister would be arriving home soon, and he needed to be ready for her.
Carrying the small safe upstairs, he took the federal coins and placed them in a chest for safekeeping.
While the chest was less ensured than the safe downstairs, it was also less likely to be stolen from. Formerly an antique pirate chest, it was now just another decoration in a poor man's home.
Placing the blankets back over the newly acquired federal coins, Il Ji shut the lid, immediately fainting.
The next thing he knew, he was waking up to his sister shaking his shoulders vigorously and slapping him in the face multiple times over. "ILLLLL JIIIIIIII!" She screamed, froth spilling upon his face.
Rudely awakened, he quickly grabbed her, held her in place, and began to comfort her. "Little Lai, Little Lai, I'm here. It's me, Il Ji. Brother's here. It's going to be okay."
She continued crying. "I THOUGHT YOU WERE… (sniffle sniffle) GOOOOOONNE!!!"
As Il Ji continued to comfort her, she eventually fell silent. It was only then that Il Ji began to look around him.
'I finished the daily maintenance, closed the shop, took the safe upstairs, placed the money, then…'
As Il Ji continued to work through what had just happened, he felt a wet tongue reach out and press on the back of his neck before sliding down, leaving a sloppy trail down the length of his back.
As his sister screamed bloody murder, he hurriedly pulled her into his arms and ran to the bathroom. Slamming the door shut, he dropped his sister onto the counter and looked her in the eyes.
He waited until she had grasped coherence before speaking.
"Laila, we're safe. We're in the security room upstairs that mom and dad had us build, remember?"
"When we were in the other room, I had my back turned, so… What did you see?"
"I- I- I- ...…I saw the treasure chest stick out a long pink tongue and try to eat you, brother!"
After comforting his sister, Il Ji got on his personal holophone and looked through the first Beast Encyclopedia he found online.
[Beast Type: Tool]
[Beast Species: Treasure Chest]
[Treasure Chests, once given sentience, can become beasts in the form of Beast Tools. To do so, they must first receive an excess of spirit. Then, they must gain some form of 'Treasure.' As the 'treasure' fills up, the spirit of the chest becomes empowered.]
{Eventually, and with luck, the spirit residing inside the chest will turn the chest into the [Legendary] bloodline beast tool [Mimic].However, this is extremely rare, and even with proper study, research, and replication, this alteration has a chance of happening rated at less than one in one trillion.]
[Mimics come with a pre-existing Fate Enlightenment: Money Grubber. However, their strongest, ability, is locked from the time they are born. As far as further innate bloodline abilities go, they also come with a small world that contains their treasure and teeth that can match other beasts three full ranks above them.]
[Accompanied by the charge skill, their serpentine tongue, and a bloodthirsty nature, even copper rank mimics should only be approached by tamers of [Gold] rank or above, lest the approaching tamer die a gruesome death.]
'That is strange.' Il Ji thought. 'If it is a mimic, why didn't it attack me?'
As it struck him like lightning, Il Ji visualised the spot between his eyebrows. A small figure that looked just like him immediately appeared inside a small world.
A golden star appeared above him.
"Yes! I did it! Finally!" He shouted to the empty world around him. "I'm a BEAST TAMER! YAAAAAAAAS!!"
He willed his body to the golden star above. It was orbiting two much smaller, white stars.
As he touched the first white star, he felt an influx of energy enter his mind.
[Rank C] [Tamer Talent: Sacrifice. By sacrificing his inner strength, the Tamer can transfer one of the stars in his soul space.]
Il Ji sighed. While his Tamer Talent was useful, it did not correspond well with his needs. How was he supposed to 'give' skills away if he didn't have any?
Sighing, Il Ji turned to the other white star. As far as he knew, there was only supposed to be one star. But, assuming it was his golden finger from his life on Earth, he looked at his second talent with trepidation.
[Growth] [Tamer Talent: Mimic. Allows the Tamer to copy the skills of beasts. By copying their mentalities and movements when practicing a skill, the Tamer can learn and acquire them for himself, regardless of skill requirements. The more closely the beast copied, the faster the skill is acquired. However, more complex skills require further inner strength.]
Il Ji gasped. Golden Finger for the win!