CHAPTER 152: KOI

The tiny fish was voracious.

It devoured the sandwiches like it was breathing in air. It barely took a minute for it to consume everything.

After that, with a contented wiggle, it simply—plonk!—plopped onto the table.

Oliver and Root removed the VR headset and looked at it in wonder.

Only moments before, the fish had been a master of stealth, a tiny shadow trying its best to remain unseen. But the instant it realized it was caught, all pretense vanished. It simply abandoned all caution, flopping its lazy ass onto the table, already sinking into a blissful food coma.

"What should I do?" Oliver asked. His gaze landed squarely on Root.

"...Um..."

Root had no idea either. He stared blankly, mirroring Oliver’s confusion.

They’d expected some fierce resistance from the so-called mythical beast. Now, they just wondered if they’d dramatically overestimated its intelligence.

"Should I bring a fish bowl or perhaps a pot?" Oliver mused, his hand already twitching towards his inventory.

Root’s head snapped to the side. His gaze lingered on Oliver’s face for a few seconds, a slow realization dawning. Soon, he understood Oliver wasn’t joking.

He managed a wry laugh. "No."

"Now that I think about it, I’ve never eaten a mythical beast before," Oliver continued to mutter absentmindedly, his eyes occasionally drifting to the plump little body of the Koi fish.

The Koi sensed it. It raised its head to look at Oliver. Then, to Oliver’s complete surprise, its mouth curved upwards in a distinct, undeniable smile.

"What the...?" Oliver almost cursed, his jaw dropping. He’d never imagined it could make an expression like that.

"Did you see it smile?" Root asked, his voice hushed.

"Of course I did!"

"Did you accidentally tame the creature?"

"I don’t think so..."

If they’d accidentally tamed the little Koi, it would have been a great accident indeed.

"It must be some kind of ploy," Oliver speculated, shaking his head. "Acting cute might be a way for it to increase its chances of survival. Like dogs and cats, it is trying to fool us and garner our sympathy."

"Now that I think about it," Root pondered aloud, "you said it was somehow related to the temple within the Infinity Lake, right? Could it have interacted with humans before—was it a domesticated mythical beast?"

Oliver scoffed. "The chances are astronomically low. The titan was the temple guardian – a mad creature that destroyed everything. If this little twerp had left the temple when that thing was still alive, it would’ve been cooked alive." He paused, his brow furrowing. "And more importantly, we still don’t know how long ago the temple was made or who even built it. If this thing had been alive since that time, it wouldn’t be this small and weak." Oliver emphasized the crucial context. "So, no. The chances of it interacting with humans are practically zero, much less domesticated."

Considering all Oliver had said, even Root had to concede the point. The idea of this seemingly innocent Koi having a history with humans or the predecessors who built the temple was, indeed, highly improbable.

"Maybe it’s generational memory," Root blurted out, a sudden thought sparking in his eyes. "Something in their very DNA! The mother Koi might have interacted with the temple builders, leaving behind its legend. So, the memory could have transferred to it."

"Improbable." Oliver shot down Root’s reasoning without a second thought. "If it had memories like that, it wouldn’t have avoided humans for this long. More or less, it would have interacted in some way with humans. That’s assuming the people who built the temple is similar to humans."

"Hm..."

Root looked at the little Koi as he processed the information. But as time passed, his head began to fume. He was overthinking again.

"Ah!" Root groaned, grabbing at his hair in frustration. "All this speculation is making my head hurt. It’s far easier to believe it’s just stupid."

"I agree. A stupid one from the family of mythical beasts," Oliver said, his gaze fixed on the Koi sprawled lazily across the tabletop. "Let’s feed it a few more days and see what happens."

They’d decided to try taming it through kindness, which meant Oliver couldn’t do anything drastic. For now, he’d let the peculiar fish be.

Suppose the creature decided to join them, great.

If not, he wouldn’t be disappointed.

After all, he had already abandoned the idea of capturing it by force.

—

For the next few days, the fish loitered around their camp without wearing camouflage.

Oliver and Root noticed and realised the fish began to trust them.

They were one step closer to taming it.

Like that, a few more days passed by.

Oliver trained and refilled his blood sac with the blood from the fish he hunted.

Root, on the other hand, improved his fighting skills significantly in the last few days.

Due to his high intelligence, the dirty tricks Oliver employed during their training sessions simply stopped working. Now, he could dodge most of Oliver’s attacks.

At the same time, he also became a professional punching bag, durable and strong, capable of taking hundreds of punches each day.

If his improvement persisted, he could certainly become a superhuman who is the most adept at avoiding attacks.

—

Like that, A few more days passed in the blink of an eye.

It was almost time for them to leave the gate.

In a week, the Hero Academy exams were about to commence. Root had to take the written part of the entrance test and qualify for the second part.

Only by doing so could Oliver help him get into the Hero Academy.

Finally, they began to make preparations to leave.

All through this time, the little Koi was staying with them, both during the day and night.

Nowadays, it would even join them during meals, sitting at the same table and eating alongside them. The mythical beast was clearly at ease in Oliver and Root’s company.

Still, there was no conclusive way for them to say the creature was tamed.

Oliver looked at the dark streak moving across the camp and thought about catching it.

Immediately, he shook his head.

A promise was a promise. He couldn’t break Root’s trust.

If it were someone else, Oliver would have had no qualms about breaking their trust. But Root was...different.

"If we had a few more days, we could have tamed it. At least progressed to touching it."

He muttered and watched the little Koi fly nearby.

He lifted his hand to touch the little head peeking down at the table.

However, the moment it felt Oliver’s hand hovered above, it moved back and avoided it.

*Sigh*

Oliver pulled his hand back.

The little Koi was still shy.

It still wouldn’t allow him to touch it, making him almost certain it wasn’t truly tamed.

"Pipsqueak, do you want to come with me?" Oliver asked, lifting an eyebrow.

The Koi heard him and tilted its head in confusion. Then it showed the cutest smile.

"Ah..."

Oliver couldn’t even bear to be angry at that face.

The Koi was too cute.

Without saying anything else, he continued to chop the vegetables on the table.

The Koi saw this and smiled again.

From the looks of it, Oliver was the one who was being tamed.

—

The next day, Oliver woke up early to prepare breakfast.

Tomorrow, they planned to leave the gate and return to Dragon City. So, this was the last day here.

Today, he wanted to rest without thinking about anything.

But the moment he went outside the boat, he smelled blood.

Oliver was extremely sensitive to the smell of blood, so he could immediately find the direction it was coming from.

His gaze focused on his side.

Taking a deep whiff, he followed the scent.

The hilltop was practically isolated. No crabs or other animals had climbed up there before, so he didn’t know why he smelled blood.

His footsteps quickened.

Within a few seconds, he circled the boat and walked to a nearby bush.

There, he saw a couple of drops of blood.

The blood was fresh and had a fishy smell to it.

Oliver’s heart tightened.

He thought about the worst possible situation.

His mind wandered to the image of the little Koi.

The mythical beast from his memory smelled like this.

Without wasting a second, he pulled apart the bush and looked down.

Immediately, he saw the blood-covered figure lying on the ground below. The midnight black scales and white spots–it was unmistakably the little Koi.

Oliver panicked.

His arms shot forward and lifted the tiny creature.

His fingers trembled as he touched the cold body.

When he looked closely, he saw a gash on the tail end of the beast. The blood was slowly dripping out of it.

But, unmistakably, he could sense the faint heartbeat.

The little Koi was not dead.

A sense of relief washed over him.

Lifting the body of the Koi closer, he controlled the blood flowing out, wrapped it in golden mana, and sent it back.

Immediately, the Koi squirmed in his palm and opened its eyes. Once it noticed it was Oliver, its eyes slowly closed. It fainted again.