[Pocket Monsters]

  'That name …… how did that not cause a problem with that famous company?'

  Looking at his cell phone to be sure again, Noah had no more reason to doubt; he was actually in front of the store that had been selling monsters to humans for almost a year. Since barely a year ago, a store as big as this one existed in the middle of the shopping center and he had never noticed it.

  Curious, he entered the store and as if he had entered a Fortress again, Noah felt around him the overwhelming presence of monsters. This kind of feeling he only had normally when he was in a Fortress surrounded by monsters that exuded a lot of heavy aura.

  It was very strange for him to think that a place like this existed within the city. The place that was supposed to be the safest haven for humans was actually housing so many monsters and he had no idea. And the strangest thing about all of this for Noah was that as much as the store had every reason to look macabre, in fact, when entering it, Noah felt quite comfortable. The atmosphere was very pleasant, with light colors and a pleasing palette.

  'It was probably designed so that people would not be afraid of the monsters here.'

  Looking around, Noah drew a lot of attention to himself. In part, this attention came from the other customers who were impressed by his appearance, and on the other hand, the attention came from the store attendants who were arguing among themselves about who would attend to that handsome boy.

  They each wanted to see him first because he was very charming, which definitely aroused the interest of the young female attendants, and also because of the way he was acting. The calm, the slight trace of disinterest on his face, it was as if everything that was happening was not worthy of his attention. Every little detail of this did not go unnoticed by the eyes of the attendants, and they knew very well that this type of attitude came mainly from rich people who were already used to having everything they wanted. In their minds, whoever was lucky enough to serve this young man would receive a large commission for the sale of any monsters, since if he were really wealthy, he would spend a lot of money on today's purchase.

  These monsters were mostly small monsters, sometimes harmless, sometimes slightly dangerous. But the concerns about the monsters' aggressiveness were unnecessary, since the method the researchers found to control the monsters was particularly interesting to Noah.

  Basically, what they found that could tame the monsters was, for want of a better term, a contract. The place where that contract came from was unknown, probably the contract had lost its origin after so often being transferred from one place to another, but the important thing about it all was that after the human signed the contract in blood and put it on the monster's forehead, if the monster did not have much desire to resist, the two would form a blood bond, where the two could even share thoughts if that bond became quite deep.

  According to what the researchers reported on the internet to the population, even high-ranking monsters could be tamed using this contract, but that would only depend on the monster's willpower. If it wanted to resist, no matter how much the human forced it, in the end the contract wouldn't work. The only way for the contract to properly work would be if the two forming it were both willing to accept.

  That is why only weaker, little monsters were taken to human cities, because they would be intimidated or grateful with the treatment they would receive and would lose the will to resist the contract, thus making the process of taming these monsters much easier to the point that even small children could have monsters as pets. This must have been the case for that little girl that Noah had noticed walking down the street with the bright-eyed mouse.

  Looking around, Noah noticed that almost all of the monsters in the store were monsters as small and harmless as the bright-eyed mouse.

  'These little monsters would be very useful for Maggy, especially with the skill that the contract would generate,' Noah thought with a hand on his chin as he watched the mice.

  One skill that the contract provided for humans was that since they were the dominant part of the contract, they could send the monsters to a different dimension. This was something that was written in the contract, but as the contract was translated from an ancient language, the researchers were unable to find out which dimension it was that the monsters were teleported. What they did know was that humans were able to send the monsters through the portal and bring them back whenever they wanted.

  Noah found the whole thing extremely strange, but according to the website he read, the researchers had done quite a few tests and their research proved that this contract had no harm to humans. Noah decided to believe the article and buy a monster for Maggy. With this ability to send the monster to another dimension, Maggy could have the monster even while she was in the hospital, since when she needed to send the monster away, she could just send it to that unknown dimension without any side effects.

  Something inside Noah told him that this contract contained something strange, but as much as he thought about it, he couldn't figure out what it might be. Unfortunately, the contract was not available on the internet, so Noah had to buy a monster to receive a contract so he could see what it was like. He would first study the contract and find out where it came from before getting Maggy to sign, since he did not want in any way that she might suffer something negative.

  Looking around at the monsters, Noah felt that their reaction to him was something that happened to everyone, but when he noticed that a girl approached a cage and a puppy-like monster came up to her hand, he felt strange. That was because every time Noah approached a cage, every monster that noticed him would automatically run to the other end of the cage; regardless of whether it was a stronger or weaker monster, a harmless or slightly aggressive monster, no monster dared to approach him.

  This reaction from the monsters frustrated Noah. 'Am I not handsome enough for you? Or maybe you don't like my smell?' he asked himself mentally with a slightly frustrated look.

  No matter which monster he approached, the monster would always run as far away from him as possible, even if it meant squeezing between the bars of the cage they were in.

  When Noah was about to get really angry, something different happened. He still had a strange expression on his face, but from a distance he saw a glass aquarium. He was slightly surprised by its presence here, as he didn't remember a low rank Fortress that had fish, but when he approached, he understood why there was an aquarium present.

  Instead of containing water between the glass walls of the aquarium, there was only air, a few stones, and a dry branch. In addition to the artificial vegetation, there was also a being inside the aquarium.

  Lying quietly between a rock and the thick dry branch was a black snake. It was not big. In fact, when looking better, Noah realized that the snake was very small, so much so that if she had tried to wrap herself around his arm, she would not be able to make more than two turns.

  Being no more than two fingers thick, the snake looked extremely delicate and fragile. This characteristic was further intensified because of the various injuries she had running along her small body.

  Noah was never interested in snakes, but for some reason he was mesmerized by her for a few seconds. Even the snake woke up from the sleep it was having and looked directly into Noah's eyes, as if it could see through his soul.

  'What is happening?' he thought.

  But before he could try to interact with the little creature, a jovial voice came up behind him saying energetically, "Hello sir, how can I help you?"