The worse you are, the stronger you become: My summoned beast is a photographer.

The course content was not just boring, it was ridiculous—the old professor was still teaching other students how to solve problems by counting on their fingers, adding one number at a time, as if he were teaching kindergarten children to count apples.

Ming Luochen idly flipped through Aura's textbook. With memory sharing, he could understand the crooked and messy words in the textbook at a glance, as if someone had automatically translated them in his mind.

He glanced at the math textbook and found that the last few pages only covered multiplication and division of three-digit numbers. He immediately lost interest and put it aside, turning to other textbooks instead.

There is a text called "Prosperity" in the Chinese language textbook:

"Woof woof, woof woof woof, howling at the moon, it's not to vent emotions, but to summon back happiness."

Ming Luochen stared at these lines of text and remained silent for a full five seconds.

He really couldn't give it a thumbs up—especially the four big characters at the top, "Appreciation of Masterpieces," which were simply unbearable to look at. This thing was comparable to the "You pee a line, I pee a hole" kind of thing he'd seen online before. No, maybe it wasn't even as good as that one, at least that one had some genuine feeling.

Then I saw the exercise in the textbook—"Please interpret the poem '旺' (wàng)"—and below it, in crooked pencil handwriting, it said: "You must have enthusiasm for life. If you encounter difficulties..."

The writing stopped abruptly, probably because something interrupted it halfway through.

"You're not allowed to look!" Aura blushed and snatched the textbook away, her movements as fast as a cat grabbing food. She could clearly feel Ming Luochen mocking her in his heart.

Compared to his world, the cultural level of her own world seemed incredibly low. She lowered her head, her ears turning bright red, wishing she could shove her textbooks into her desk drawer and never take them out again.

"Pay attention in class!" The old professor who taught math immediately shouted, his ram's horns swaying in the sunlight. His voice was stern, like he was reprimanding a new recruit. "Don't get carried away with a little progress. A true strong person always maintains the heart of a student."

"Okay." Aura lowered her head, and with a wronged expression, she reached out and pinched Ming Luochen's waist. The force was not strong, but she accurately pinched a small piece of soft flesh.

【It's all your fault, you jerk, you made me get yelled at again.】

"I was wrong, it's all my fault." Ming Luochen quickly begged for forgiveness, frowning as he rubbed his side where his wife had pinched him; the flesh was probably already red.

In one morning, Ming Luochen flipped through all of Aura's textbooks and discovered that the cultural level of this world was truly low, only at the level of third or fourth grade elementary school. The articles in the Chinese textbooks would probably be ridiculed and trend on social media if they were on Earth; the history textbooks were more like a chronicle of heroes, detailing who fought whom, who married whom, without even bothering to write the year.

The only truly impressive areas are the practical combat courses and summoner training courses, which contain in-depth analysis of magical knowledge and melee techniques, along with densely packed rune annotations and combat diagrams—it's clearly the real deal.

In particular, the Summoning Beast Training Course mentions Summoning Beast Space and Beastmaster Basic Skills—once both the Beastmaster and the Summoning Beast complete the contract, the Beastmaster can use the Summoning Beast's blood to tattoo a space mark on their body, creating a dedicated space for the Summoning Beast to rest.

Ming Luochen was very interested in this, and his eyes lit up slightly.

"Honey, how about trying out the Summoning Beast Space?"

[The summoning space requires a professional spellcaster.] Aura glanced at Ming Luochen, not treating him as her summoned beast—in her eyes, he was her man, her husband, not some pet. But seeing he wanted it, she couldn't refuse. [Let's go find a spellcaster after school this afternoon.]

【Okay.】Ming Luochen continued flipping through the textbook, becoming more and more engrossed in it.

The Summoning Beast Training Course contains a lot of interesting content, such as emergency treatment for Summoning Beasts and long-range summoning skills, which are basically accomplished by using Spell Marks—that is, tattooing Spell Marks on the body, like drawing a permanent magic circle on the body.

The remote summoning skill can summon a beast to your side from an extremely long distance, but it requires both the beast tamer and the beast to have a miniature summoning circle tattooed on them. In other words, no matter where he is, as long as Aura summons him, he can teleport to her side in an instant.

These skills are all high-level summoning skills, provided that both parties have completed a contract.

Ming Luochen roughly understood the summoner system of this world—basic summoning knowledge involved training summoned beasts to form contracts with their tamers, like training dogs, gradually establishing conditioned reflexes. Intermediate summoning knowledge focused on enhancing telepathy and establishing mental resonance, creating an invisible connection between the tamer and the summoned beast. Advanced summoning knowledge involved using contracts to unleash skills, expanding and extending the telepathic abilities into tangible combat power.

Ming Luochen spent the whole day at school reading, from morning till afternoon. Even his lunch was fed by Aura—he ate an apple while flipping through the book, his eyes never leaving the textbook.

Aura discovered an interesting phenomenon: she didn't enjoy reading, but after Ming Luochen finished reading a book, she could remember what he had read. Those words that were originally as hard as cast iron suddenly became soft and flowed naturally into her mind.

Now Mom won't have to worry about her studies anymore. A slight smile appeared on her lips, and she felt a surge of joy.

After school, the two went to the best tattoo shop in the main city of Herma.

The shop was located in a small alley in the eastern part of the main city. The storefront was not large, and the signboard was painted with a complex spell seal pattern. The paint was a bit mottled, and it looked quite old. Ming Luochen pushed open the wooden door, and the hinges made a soft "creak" sound, as if complaining about being woken up from his afternoon nap.

The shop was deserted, with a faint smell of herbs mixed with the fishy smell of ink.

Behind the counter, a chubby pig-beastman boss was lounging in a large wicker chair with his legs crossed, one hand supporting his chin, the other leisurely... picking his nose.

He twirled his little finger twice inside his nostril and then flicked it out skillfully, his movements fluid and effortless, clearly the work of a seasoned craftsman.

Ming Luochen's eyelids twitched.

Are these hygiene conditions reliable?

Aura, however, seemed unfazed, and walked forward with a normal expression, the horse's hooves making a "clattering" sound on the wooden floor.

Hearing the noise, the shopkeeper slowly raised his eyelids and glanced at the two of them. Seeing Aura's school uniform and aristocratic air, he lazily sat up a little straighter, but before he could wipe his nose, he casually placed his hand on the counter.

"Imprint?" His voice had the nasal tone characteristic of boar-beastmen, muffled and deep.

"Yes, the inscription of the curse marks." Aura nodded, rolling up her sleeve to reveal her empty wrist. "I want all five sets of basic curse marks."

The shopkeeper's eyes lit up for a moment, but quickly dimmed again, as if he had remembered something. He leaned back lazily in his chair and said, "You're third-year students at Pudi Yale Noble Academy, right? It's about time you came to get your seals engraved. But business is very slow right now. The freshmen have just finished being recruited, and the third-year students who were supposed to get their seals engraved have already done so. You've come late."

As he spoke, he finally picked up a rag from the counter and casually wiped his hands. The rag was dusty and grimy, and it was hard to tell how much cleaner it was than his hands.

"We're not third graders," Aura shook her head. "We're second graders, we just finished summoning."

The shopkeeper abruptly stopped wiping his hands, looked up, and his small eyes widened in surprise. He sized Aura up and down several times, opened his mouth, and after a long pause, finally managed to utter a sentence:

"Second year? Didn't you only summon your beast a few days ago? And you're already imprinting it? The contract is complete?"

"It's done," Aura said calmly.

The boss sat up straight, the rattan chair creaking under his weight. He narrowed his eyes, his gaze sweeping back and forth between the two men's wrists, as if confirming something significant.

"It's only been a few days..." he muttered to himself, his tone filled with a complex mix of emotions. "I've been in this business for twenty years, and this is the first time I've ever seen someone complete a contract right after summoning a beast. Some of those third-year kids still haven't established a stable contract with their summoned beasts, and you guys have it all done in just a few days."

He stood up, walked around from behind the counter, and quickened his pace, his round belly jiggling with each step. He walked up to Aura, examined her wrist carefully, glanced around, and frowned.

"By the way, where's your summoned beast?" The shopkeeper looked around but didn't see any animals. "The inscription requires the summoned beast to be present, so you'll need to bring it with you."

Aura paused for a moment, then pointed to Ming Luochen beside her: "That's him."

The boss's gaze followed her finger and landed on Ming Luochen.

The air was silent for three seconds.

The boss's eyes widened slowly, his mouth opened slowly, and the expression on his round face changed from confusion to bewilderment, from bewilderment to shock, finally settling on a distorted look that seemed to say, "Are you kidding me?"

"...Is he your summoned beast?" The boss's voice rose eight octaves, as if someone had stepped on his tail.

"Yes." Aura nodded.

The boss circled around Ming Luochen, looking him up and down several times. His gaze went from his chubby face to his round belly, then to his short, thick legs, and finally back to his innocent face.

"Humanoid?" The boss gasped, his voice trembling. "You mean—a humanoid summon?"

As if remembering something, he suddenly slapped his thigh: "Wait, I heard a few days ago that a freshman summoned a humanoid summoned beast, was it you guys? Was it... him?"

The boss's finger trembled slightly as he pointed at Ming Luochen, his pupils filled with disbelief. He had been in this business for twenty years and had seen at least eight or ten thousand summoned beasts—cats, dogs, birds, snakes, insects, and even plants—but not a single humanoid one.

This is the first of its kind in history.

"You...you really are a summoned beast?" The boss leaned closer, almost touching Ming Luochen's face as he examined him, his breath warm against Ming Luochen's face.

Ming Luochen leaned back slightly, overwhelmed by the smell of herbs and ink, and nodded.

The boss straightened up, let out a long breath, as if digesting some incredible information. He scratched his head, then his stomach, and finally shook his head, exclaiming in a tone of "I've never seen anything like this before":

"Good heavens... I've seen all sorts of strange and wonderful summoned beasts in my life, but I've never seen one in human form before. You guys have really opened my eyes."

He turned and walked into the inner room, lifted a curtain, and called back, "Come in, I'll draw up some diagrams for you and help you choose locations. Humanoid summoned beasts... the imprints are different from ordinary summoned beasts; they have to be drawn according to the human body structure."

The inner room was much brighter than the outer room. The walls were covered with samples of various spell patterns, large and small, densely packed, like abstract paintings. In the middle were two narrow beds covered with white sheets, which looked fairly clean.

Ming Luochen breathed a sigh of relief—at least he wasn't being treated like that rag he'd been treated before.

The boss took out several fine brushes and a box of black ink from a wooden box, spread a piece of parchment on the table, and while drawing, he would occasionally look up at Ming Luochen, as if he were looking at some rare animal.

"Five basic incantations—teleportation, spatial manipulation, life-saving, energy transfer, and shared amplification. Have you decided where to get them tattooed?" the boss asked as he drew.

Aura thought for a moment, then pointed to her spine and left wrist: "The shared amplification seal is tattooed on my left wrist, and the others are tattooed on my back, vertically distributed—teleportation at the top, space in the middle, and life-saving and energy transmission side by side at the bottom."

The boss nodded, sketching rapidly with his pen while muttering, "Vertical distribution on the back... teleportation, spatial manipulation, life-saving, and energy transmission side by side... Okay, got it. This distribution is reasonable, and the energy flow is smooth."

After he finished drawing Aura's part, he looked up and then looked at Ming Luochen, his eyes filled with an undisguised curiosity and excitement.

"And you? A humanoid summon beast... this is my first time. Where did you get it tattooed?"

Ming Luochen looked down at his chubby arms, then at the spot on Aura's left wrist where the tattoo was about to be done. After hesitating for a moment, he pointed to his right wrist: "Let's get the tattoo on the right wrist, it'll be symmetrical to hers."

"Just one?" The shopkeeper raised an eyebrow. "You beast tamers get five tattoos, and you only get one?"

"He's a summoned beast. He shares teleportation and spatial abilities, but I'm the one who activates the other skills," Aura explained, her tone tinged with certainty. "Besides, one tattoo is enough for him; more would only hinder energy flow. The body structure of humanoid summoned beasts is different from ours, and too many seals can easily interfere with each other."

The boss said "Oh," nodded thoughtfully, and couldn't help but glance at Ming Luochen again: "You've met a sensible beast tamer."

Ming Luochen twitched the corner of his mouth, thinking to himself, "Of course."

The boss lowered his head and continued drawing on the parchment. Although his fingers were short and stubby, he was exceptionally skillful when drawing incantations, his lines were smooth and precise, each stroke revealing twenty years of experience.

After finishing the drawing, the boss looked up and couldn't help but glance at Ming Luochen again.

"Humanoid summon..." He shook his head, a smile spreading across his face. "Alright, I'll take this job. Lie down, I'll get yours tattooed first."

He pointed at Aura: "Five sets of curse seals, it'll take about four hours. The four on your back, plus one on your wrist, are a bit scattered, so it might take a little longer. Can you handle it?"

"No problem." Aura lay down on the narrow bed, brushing her long hair to one side to reveal her fair nape and shoulder blades. The boss picked up the needle, his expression suddenly becoming focused, as if he had become a different person, the lazy look of picking his nose just now completely gone.

The needle pierced her skin, and Aura bit her lip, remaining silent.

Ming Luochen stood to the side, looking at her slightly furrowed brows, and suddenly felt a pang of heartache.

Does it hurt?

"Not bad." Aura's inner voice came through, tinged with a hint of bravado. "Much lighter than when my father used to beat me when I was a kid practicing swordsmanship."

Ming Luochen's lips twitched—how could these be the same?

Two hours later, the sky gradually darkened.

As Ming Luochen stepped out of the tattoo shop, starlight dappled the treetops. He looked down at the tattoo on his right wrist—a pale purple design the size of a coin, its lines simple yet exquisite, like a half-open flower. It was exactly the same as the tattoo on Aura's left wrist, down to the angle of the lines.

This can be considered our matching couple tattoos. One on the left hand, one on the right, perfectly symmetrical.

Aura rolled his eyes and lightly stomped his four hooves on the ground. He only had one tattoo, while he himself had five.

The boss saw them to the door, leaned against the doorframe, and resumed his lazy demeanor. Watching their retreating figures, he suddenly called out, "Hey, you little fatty—treat your Beastmaster well. She treats you like a human being; that's your good fortune… I've been doing this for twenty years, and this is the first time I've seen anything like it. Don't embarrass us summoned beasts."

Ming Luochen turned around and glanced at the boss.

The shop owner had already turned around and gone back into the store, the wooden door creaking shut behind him.

Ming Luochen happily strolled through the market hand in hand with Aura, their steps light as if they were walking on cotton. He was particularly pleased with the summoned beast space—the space tattoo was on Aura's back, allowing him to enter the space within the tattoo to rest at any time. From now on, if he wanted to sleep in, he could simply enter the summoned beast space to catch up on sleep, and he would never have to be woken up by the morning bell again.

The summoned beast space is quite nice, over 300 square meters, spacious enough to be a small warehouse. It would be perfect if a bed could fit in there—perhaps it could be remodeled, with a small plot of land for vegetables, and a grape trellis for shade in the summer…

"Ouch, ouch, ouch—"

Aura gripped Ming Luochen's waist, her fingers precisely pinching the spot she had pinched yesterday, with significantly more force than in the morning.

"No." Her voice wasn't loud, but her tone was as firm as if she were reading the law.

Is he trying to live like a snail, building a house and farming in the summoned beast space? Watering it with manure? Aura felt disgusted just thinking about it—a house with a garden living on her back? That image was too bizarre.

"Okay, you decide." Ming Luochen quickly backed down, dodging Aura's attacks while laughing as she did so. Why is she getting fiercer and fiercer, pinching herself all the time—just wait till tonight, I'll teach her a lesson.

Aura chuckled dismissively, glancing down at him as if he were a cat with its fur standing on end.

It's still uncertain who will take care of whom.

"Tch." Ming Luochen pouted in annoyance, his lips pouting so much they could hang an oil bottle. He glanced at his centaur wife; her long limbs, sturdy body, and height that was a head taller than his own... there were some things he simply couldn't compare to. His arrogant attitude instantly vanished, and he became docile.

"Let's go, didn't you want to buy spices?" Aura smiled, took his hand, and the four hooves trod lightly on the stone road, heading towards the market.

Herma, the main city, is the largest city on the southwestern border. Although it is not as developed as the capital or the central and coastal cities, it is located at a border transportation hub and is rich in mountain delicacies and resources, with a constant flow of caravans.

The main city market wasn't bustling in the afternoon—either the adventurers had already packed up and left, or they hadn't returned yet. More often, professional vendors set up shops and stalls there, waiting for the adventurers to gradually return after six o'clock in the evening. That's when it would be packed with people; the market, spanning tens of thousands of square meters, would be so crowded that there wouldn't be a single gap, and you'd have to squeeze sideways to take a single step.

The market was located almost on the outskirts of the main city, resembling a large, interconnected market, with stalls and sheds side by side. The signs displayed a dazzling array of information: spices, vegetables, fruits, wild game meat, livestock, sweets, cooked food, young animals, and slaves.

The market was already bustling with activity. Ming Luochen led Aura by the hand as they walked among the stalls, their eyes scanning the various spices and ingredients. Although he had Aura's memories, seeing it in person was a completely different experience—those memories were like looking through glass, while now he could reach out and touch it.

His method for identifying spices is very simple: just smell it, lick it, and taste it. Walking up to a spice stall, he picked up a small black granule, smelled it, and then licked it with the tip of his tongue, frowning slightly—it was a little numbing, like Sichuan peppercorns but not Sichuan peppercorns.

The spices from the two worlds are quite different. But having worked as a photographer for online influencers' live streams, he was familiar with some things—cooking only requires grasping three points: first, saltiness; second, removing fishy smells; and third, enhancing freshness and flavor.

As long as you grasp these three principles of cooking and seasoning, you can create all sorts of strange and unusual dishes, and the taste will be surprisingly good. He had seen those online celebrities before who dared to put any kind of seasoning into the pot, and the things they made in the end were actually quite delicious.

"Honey, look at this, we have chickpeas!" Ming Luochen's eyes lit up as she pointed to the beans at a small stall.

The beans were pale yellow, plump, and uniform in size, piled in the burlap sack like handfuls of tiny gold nuggets. He recognized them at a glance—chickpeas. He had seen them on Earth and even watched an online celebrity make jelly with them on a live stream.

Aura, who never cooks, had no idea what chickpeas were; all she knew about them on her journey was vegetables and fruits. But sensing Ming Luochen's thoughts—that these beans could be stewed with meat, resulting in a melt-in-your-mouth texture and delicious taste, and that he had previously edited a video of an internet celebrity making jelly with these beans, which was also incredibly tasty—she couldn't help but feel a little excited and subconsciously swallowed.

"Good eye, sir! This is our new thick mousse, it tastes great. Just add salt and stir-fry it, and it's a good dry food, or even a good one for your servants. Want some?" A shifty-eyed shopkeeper, seeing the well-dressed centaur girl and the cute-looking fat man, immediately fawned over them, rubbing his hands together and smiling until his eyes narrowed into slits.

For the servants?

Ming Luochen raised an eyebrow slightly, silently calculating in his mind. Is this thing very cheap? Or is the production volume very large?

He showed no emotion on his face, speaking as casually as if asking about the weather: "How many of these beans do you have?"

The shopkeeper's eyes lit up, like lanterns suddenly lit in the darkness. He took a step forward, his voice rising several decibels: "How much do you need, I have! I just bought a lot this year. If it's not enough, I'll get you more—Old Wang from the next street also gets his goods from me!"

This is a big client. The boss was already mentally calculating everything.

Ming Luochen didn't rush to speak. Instead, he bent down, grabbed a handful of chickpeas, weighed them in his palm, and then smelled them. The beans were dry, without any musty smell, and of good quality.

He looked up and glanced at Aura.

Aura was looking down at him, a hint of confusion mixed with curiosity in her eyes. She didn't know what he was up to, but she trusted him.

Ming Luochen's lips curled up slightly.

Honey, I'll cook you something delicious tonight.

【...Are you sure this isn't a culinary disaster?】

Trust me.