After re-reading Linus's answer, Gert confirmed the feasibility and soundness of the method. He marked the answer with a maximum score while adding a note that it exceeded the maximum score, but that he couldn't score it higher. Afterwards, he also forwarded Linus's exam results and the last question with the answer to the branch's head.

Linus on the other hand received confirmation from the virtual assistant that he had passed the exam with full marks while his bonus question had been deemed outstanding. He had successfully become an apprentice pet cultivator which made him a member of the Pet cultivator association, he could buy pet cultivation related books at half their price, and he was given a 10% discount for consulting low-rank professional pet cultivators and a 20% discount on any iron rank beast cubs provided by the association.

While Linus and the virtual assistant were concluding his registration as an apprentice, White Bone City's Pet cultivator association's branch head had received a message about a talented apprentice pet cultivator who had just finished his exam. The head was intrigued and looked at the message as if he was free at that moment. First, he looked at the score of the examinee and was slightly impressed by the full marks, but it wasn't anything that special as such people would pop up every three months to half-year inside any of the branches under Start City's jurisdiction. It had, however, been two years until someone like that had appeared inside White Bone City's branch.

The head then looked at the bonus question and its marking. After reading the question and score, he was shocked as this was the one question that had remained unsuccessfully answered for the last decade in the entire Global Federation.

He double-checked the question, answer and the marking to make sure that the exam marker hadn't made a mistake. 10 minutes after he started focusing on the question, the head lay down in his leather chair before starting to laugh full of joy and energy.

He had re-read the answer dozens of times trying to find any loopholes in the logic or discover any mistakes, but he couldn't find any aside from those that Linus had already pointed out. He was shocked by both Linus's ingenuity and daring.

Linus had analysed the important aspects of evolving pets through pet cultivation. Then he had analysed the iron rank dark rose's shortcomings and characteristics before tailoring an evolution method that would satisfy all those conditions which could result in the evolution of the dark rose. The best part was that the plan he provided was logically sound and perfectly standard according to the methods that pet cultivators used and how they were explained in the theory.

The thing that made Linus's answer stand out compared to that of other examines was that he looked further than the iron rank and disdain that the dark rose is known for. He was daring enough to be willing to spend money, time and care to evolve a pet that is known as one of the weakest in the wild and on the market, while also rationalising the money spend as not being a waste of the evolution succeeded.

The branch head saw potential and genius from Linus's answer but didn't do anything special to help the boy as only those with talent, perseverance and luck can reach the top. The only thing he did was copy the examination results and send them to a benefactor of his who might be interested.

Linus who was oblivious that his answer had shocked two professional pet cultivators, had finished registering himself as an apprentice pet cultivator with the association. Due to him having nothing new to do with the association except doing something that asked him to spend money returned to his personal space.

Inside his personal space, he seated himself at his desk before he started searching the digital world's market for iron rank beast cubs of the darkness or shadow element. Now that he had awakened his contract space and become an apprentice pet trainer and pet cultivator, the next thing he had to do was contract his first pet.

He currently had 8000 FD remaining of which he could spend all 8000 without having to worry about rent and food. As the rent is still eligible for 5 months while food is provided for free at the high school if he arrives early enough and leaves late enough.

While searching, he focused on beasts originating from White Bone City as they were cheaper due to not having to spend shipment costs. He only looked through the Pet cultivator association's marketplace due to the 20% discount they provided. There he found a total of 10 darkness or shadow element iron rank beast type cubs.

This was due to the rarity of the darkness and shadow element, other cities than White Bone city would have even less variety in stock. Among the 10 beast types, five were of the undead race due to it being White Bone City's speciality, four were of the beast race and one of the plant race.

The most expensive one was an iron rank shadow mink which could further evolve into a silver rank shadow traveller. It costs 100 000 FD to buy this beast cub. The second most expensive beast is an iron rank black skeleton which can evolve into a bronze or silver black skeleton general. It costs 95 000 FD to buy this skeleton. The other beasts were weaker but similar to the first two with them being skeletons and beasts. One other beast that held his interest was the third-cheapest which was an iron rank night cat cub with the racial skill of night camouflage making it an assassination type pet. This beast cub costs 30 000 FD and was currently only known to evolve into the bronze rank night phantom cat.

All those beasts were too expensive for the current Linus and even if he was interested, he couldn't afford them. This left him with only the two cheapest beasts as his option the first was an ordinary iron rank skeleton of the undead race with the racial skill of bone substitution and could further evolve into a bronze rank skeleton warrior or archer if enough money was spent. This pet costs 15 000 FD and Linus could buy it if he was willing to loan 4000 FD from the Pet cultivator association which was willing to extend a one time loan of 5000 FD to apprentice pet cultivators. This loan had to be prepared within three years or their membership would be revoked.

The other beast was an iron rank dark rose, the same beast type as he had answered on his examination and currently had no known evolution method. Contracting this beast cub as a pet would provide him without any combat ability until he became a bronze rank professional pet trainer while also requiring high-quality darkness energy to grow. The second was no problem for Linus due to his ability to make it so that he wouldn't be required to buy pet food for the dark rose unless he wanted to provide higher grade darkness energy.

The dark rose costs only 12 000 FD which he could also afford if he were to take the loan compared to the skeleton no extra money had to be provided for pet food to feed his new pet. In the future when he had earned some money, he could also try to evolve it using the method he had devised during the exam to acquire a unique pet compared to the evolved skeleton which is amongst the weakest bronze rank races while requiring an investment that costs triple the amount of a bronze rank beast cub.

After some deliberation and looking through some forums discussing the dark rose and ordinary skeletons. He concluded that while everyone deemed the dark rose useless, the skeleton wasn't much better making it so that the extra money spent on pet food would not make him a pet trainer capable of hunting and defeating iron rank beasts.

Linus thus decided to buy the dark rose beast cup and contract it as his first pet due to helplessness and fate. He first contacted the Pet cultivator association to take the 5000 FD loan which was interest-free and had to be repaid in three years. Then he placed an order for an iron rank dark rose which cost him 9600 FD leaving him with 3400 FD remaining.

After he had placed his order, he remained within the digital world where he started reading books about the dark rose, darkness element pet cultivation and the evolution of darkness plant races. This continued until 6 pm when he was notified that his ordered beast had arrived. He left the digital world and returned to reality, before heading towards the front door where a delivery person with a beast cub cage was waiting.

Linus greeted the man who asked for his credentials and order details. Upon verifying everything, the man didn't linger around and handed Linus the cage with the iron rank dark rose beast cub inside.

Linus checked the inside and found a tiny beast inside with the form of a rose flower with black petals, aside from that it had four vines which are used to move around and support itself. The dark rose was vigilant and guarded, but its power was much weaker than even the thin and weakly current Linus.

He released the dark rose from its cage and let it settle upon his bed. In the beginning, it released dark petals around itself as protection, but when it noticed that the big beast in front of it didn't do anything it started losing its vigilance before becoming curious about its surroundings.

Linus who observed all of this showed a smile at the antics of the small plant. This would be his first pet and partner for life. He didn't believe that it would remain useless and weak under his cultivation and supervision. The two of them would grow up and strive for the top of this world.

When the dark rose had calmed down, Linus started the contract ceremony. This required Linus to touch the beast and transmit his intentions together with the contract which would bind the beast to his contract space and himself if it were to accept.

When he touched the dark rose, it became surprised and anxious but that didn't last even a second as it felt something enter its mind. It was Linus's intention of contracting it as his first pet and the contract. Aside from that, it felt Linus's feelings, the frustration at his weakness, his ambition to reach the top and his belief that even a weak little plant can reach greatness under his care.

Those attracted its attention and it accepted the contract making it disappear from the bed and enter the contract space. While that happened to the dark rose, Linus felt some changes occur. The first was the establishment of a mental connection between him and the dark rose, he sensed all of its emotions which were childish and simple. He sensed its curiosity and happiness together with its growing affection towards him.

He also learned that it was a female and started referring to her as one. He immediately decided on a name for her. From now on she would be called Nyx after the Greek goddess of the night from Earth.

Aside from the mental connection, he also felt that she was providing him with some feedback that was strengthening both his body and contract space, but as she was too weak he didn't feel anything except refreshment. A pet trainer would receive 5% percent of a pet's physical and soul strength. This would improve his contract space, body and intelligence. It was said that mythical pet trainers had strength equal to legendary beasts and calculation abilities greater than most computers.

Nyx who was inside the contract space was also adapting to all the changes happening to her. The first was the mental connection with her trainer, the second was the abundance of dark shadow energies which she immediately started absorbing in abundance. Those energies were the greatest delicacies she had ever consumed increasing her affection for Linus to an even higher level while sending him a stream of happy thoughts.

There was, however, another thing happening to her without her noticing. Her shadow was absorbing the dark shadow energies too until it became viscous and double its original size when suddenly half split itself from her and started forming an identical avatar of her only instead of the dark green stem, thorns and black petals it was completely black like a shadow.

When this happened Linus became aware that something was happening to his contract space, Nyx and his ability to shadow kingdom. When the shadow avatar was completed, big changes started happening inside the contract space. The empty contract space started becoming enveloped by endless darkness while this darkness started forming a massive field around the shadow avatar while another shadow in a humanoid form similar to Linus appeared with a crown on its head.

After everything happened, the changes stopped and a lot of information was transmitted to Linus from the humanoid shadow avatar. Nyx on the other hand was spooked by everything but also intrigued by the two shadow avatars and started moving towards them.

She eventually reached the shadow similar to Linus which remained indifferent to her probing. She then approached her shadow avatar, but when she entered its field, it started attacking her with dark petals. She was shocked and defended herself with her dark petals, but they were like paper compared to the shadow's dark petals and she was immediately defeated and knocked unconscious by her shadow avatar.

Then the humanoid shadow avatar reacted and moved Nyx into a pool filled with dark shadow energies which her body started swiftly absorbing. It was then that Linus awakened from the data transmission and he immediately understood what had happened but he wasn't worried as he knew that everything was fine and this would even benefit Nyx in the future.

He also knew what his shadow kingdom ability could do and it was extremely useful to both him, Nyx and his future pets. His shadow kingdom ability worked as it was described, the king ruled over all and darkness reigned within the kingdom.

The king referred to the humanoid avatar which looked like Linus but was wearing a crown. This was the shadow king and it controlled and ruled over all the shadow avatars or otherwise known as shadow beasts by it. The darkness on the other hand referred to both the dark shadow energies in the entire contract space as the emotions of the shadow king and beasts.

Shadow beasts only knew the principle of strength and the law of the jungle where the strong preyed on the weak. Inside the contract space, pets could fight against their own or other pets' shadow avatars and train their combat ability. If they lose, they will be rescued by the shadow king and transferred to the darkness pool where they will absorb the abundant dark shadow energies to swiftly recover their wounds.

Death is impossible in the shadow kingdom for his pets so they can train without hesitance while quick enough absorption from the outside world into the contract space can also enhance the healing of the pet while limiting the effects of the wounds.

The shadow beasts possess the same skills as the pet, but they instinctively know how to use them to their best capabilities and will grow in strength together with the pets. This means that his ability is one of the best training facilities for his pets to train while it also provides a perfect environment for growth and absorption of pets of the darkness and shadow elements. The shadow king doesn't only control the shadow beasts and rescue the pets who lose, but it grows in strength together with the shadow beasts and due to its connection with the contract space it will also strengthen. This effectively doubles the feedback of a pet to the contract space through their shadow avatar.

There is, however, a cost to all these benefits as those dark shadow energies do not originate from anywhere. They are created from Linus's physical strength and soul strength. This means that Linus will exhaust his physical strength and soul strength if his pets were to recover and absorb more dark shadow energies than his physical and soul recovery can naturally provide.

Linus however doesn't care about this 'drawback' as it indirectly trains his body and soul, while it also means that the energy will increase in quantity and quality as his body and soul become stronger. Now that he knows what his ability does and he has contracted his first pet, he knows how to further his career as a pet trainer. Before starting his journey, however, he has to find a supply of nutritious food and supplements which recover physical and soul strength.