Only Wisdom Awakened - Chapter 290

Chapter 290: Special Care
The woman paused for a second before replying:

“Y-yes! Of course, I can take care of your pet, it doesn’t matter what kind of creature it is, I’m guessing you’ve come here because you have a supernatural creature you want me to take care of right?”

Hans simply nodded, and this caused the girl’s eyes to shine bright with expectation as if she looked forward to starting her work.

“Follow me, I’ll show you, it’s definitely better than just empty words”

The woman got up from her seat and circled around the counter before heading towards the corridor on the left of the shop, only taking a glance behind her back to see that the man was indeed following her.

Hans remained silent as he stepped forward, following the woman’s lead.

The corridor continued for almost ten meters, and Hans finally managed to observe with great detail the machines and vivariums he could previously only catch a glimpse of.

The first thing that caught his eye was the incredibly decorated and huge vivarium in the middle of the room, it spanned at least a hundred cubic meters and measured about seven meters in length.

Inside it were carefully placed many reproductions of trees, vines, and other plants, and the muddy terrain seemed to perfectly align with what one would expect to find in a jungle.

This made it the perfect place for Ember or other animals to stay as if it was the real wilderness.

Hans could only see as far as a couple of meters inside the vivarium, because the “trees”, the vines, and the leaves, blocked his line of sight, fortunately, many monitors all around the great vivarium allowed him to take a look at how it was on the inside.

After carefully analyzing the place, Hans was already half-convinced to leave her here, of course, only if the woman could satisfy another one of his requests.

But before he could even ask, she immediately led him to another place.

This was the central control panel he had seen from afar, it displayed various statistics on the climate inside the vivariums and also the recommended levels for various kinds of animals.

The more Hans was shown around, the more he was impressed by the incredible equipment in such a place.

‘It’s truly breath-taking… if I had never become a combat awakened and I had a choice, then I would definitely like to work somewhere like this.

But.. To build such a place in the middle of London… how many millions did they invest? Poor owner, to think they lost so much money…’

Hans wasn’t belittling the place, but it obviously came to his attention that there weren’t any animals or clients in the entire center…

He was shown around every single room before he finally stopped the woman as he said:

“I can clearly see the level of this place, it centrally feels like I could entrust you with my companion”

The woman, who had been giving Hans her back for the whole tour, finally turned around.

She smiled as she replied:

“Of course, we’re the best of the best”

Hans smiled back as he said:

“My name is Hans, I have a kind of special request…

Ember, come out don’t be shy.”

As he said that, the woman was left baffled for a moment, she almost took him for a mentally ill patient until she saw his shirt move as a little white fellow slithered out of it climbing onto Hans’s shoulder.

The woman backed away instinctively as her gaze was fixed on the snake.

“She is Ember, the companion I would like you to take care of…”

“Ember…”

She whispered.

Her gaze was lost in the beautiful eyes and scales of the animal in front of her face…

At that moment, she recognized the person standing in front of him… one of the most powerful Americans awakened, most likely the strongest mage in the world excluding European ones…

Hans Richter.

She was so focused on showing the client the place, that she didn’t even glance at the boy’s face.

Almost trembling, she raised her hand slightly as she greeted the young man, reaching out for a handshake.

“I-I am Abby.

It’s a pleasure to meet you”

“Abby?”

Hans asked in surprise.

“Is this place?…”

After a second of hesitation, the girl got a grip on herself and replied:

“Yes, this is my shop, I am the owner”

Hans couldn’t help but reply:

“Well, that’ll certainly make things easier”

“Mh?”

Abby inquired as she tilted her head.

“I need you to let her hunt”

The woman’s face didn’t change, she only said:

“Of course, that’s what we do!

We leave prey inside the vivarium to help them familiarize themselves with hunting, sometimes we put low-rank monsters to provide them with high-quality nutrients, but the more we provide, the more the care will cost, after all, catching monsters alive in the gates is pretty rough work, and even if the demand is low, a single one can even go for tens of thousands.”

‘We is she speaking as if she wasn’t the only one in this place?’

Hans kept that thought to himself and instead reassured her.

“Money is most certainly not the problem…

What matters the most is another thing… I want you to take her to hunt inside various gates”

This time, the woman showed a clear sign of shock…

‘Inside gates? If I do that I won’t be able to guarantee the safety of this little fellow… I don’t know, how should I handle the rest of the animals if I were to only follow her?’

“I don’t know if I can do that for you… that would require a lot of time and I don’t know if I would be able to follow any other possible clients if I were to focus solely on Ember.

Hans thought he didn’t even have to remind her but…

“What other clients?”

The place was empty…

Even if his words were quite cruel, as Abby’s eyes observed everything surrounding her, she was reminded that it was the truth…

That place was falling apart, she had invested almost twenty million because she couldn’t find a place to rent and instead decided to buy the place, she thought it would be an incredible success, but she had yet to receive any clients even though it had almost been a month from the day she had opened the center…

“How much is the usual caretaking fee?”

Hans asked.

“Mh… the normal fee for awakened or mutated animals or monsters is ten thousand a month, but the best option is thirty thousand a month plus the cost of extra feeding products, for example, it could cost about forty thousand if you wanted to occasionally feed her or let her hunt awakened beasts, but if you want that to be the usual, then it would take about a hundred thousand every month.”

Hans thought for a bit…

Even though the prices seemed exaggerated, considering everything he had seen, it was most certainly needed to repay the woman’s initial investment, and the targetted clients belonged to the top of the awakened, so it was normal for it not to be cheap, it just had to be functional.

‘Money isn’t really a problem, what I want is for Ember to grow as strong as possible before my fight with the abyssal snake… I don’t know if she will be able to provide any assistance in time, but even if she can’t, maybe she will be able to unlock a skill that can give me a certain advantage…

I need all the help I can get, and if I could increase my chance of winning even by only one percent, then I wouldn’t mind spending a few millions on it…

After careful consideration, Hans made an offer Abby could not refuse.

“Shut this place down until I come back, focus solely on Ember, feed her the highest quality nutrients you can find every day, and take her inside as many gates as she wants, I believe with your qualifications as a B-rank hunter you should be able to join at least a B-rank gate, even if the others take you for a suicidal maniac, you will just have to let Ember do everything.

I will pay you one million dollars… no, pounds and I will allow you to reimburse all the meat, don’t worry about the expenses, my finances can handle it, other than that, you can sell everything that’s left of the monsters inside the gate only if Ember shows no interest in eating them, otherwise, store them for her to eat the following days, after all, eating a prey must be more satisfying than eating a piece of meat.

Understood?”

The woman’s mind was filled with lots of chaotic thoughts, everything the man in front of her said felt like nothing but a dream, and as soon as she finally finished analyzing the pros and cons, it didn’t take long for her to make a decision.

Her lips curved upward as her face showed a sign of relief, she once again raised her arms to search for a handshake as she said:

“You can count on me to take care of Ember”