Magic Pet: Hidden Dragon

Blackstone Castle, courtyard.

Sunan stood before the banyan tree, staring intently at its trunk.

To the naked eye, there was nothing in front of the trunk. Even upon close inspection, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

Only Sunan could sense that something was indeed there.

"Sprint." Sunan suddenly spoke.

The instant his words fell, a sharp whistling sound tore through the air.

Though there was clearly nothing in sight, a rustling could be heard distinctly, as if some creature were crawling rapidly along the ground.

Then, a barely perceptible distortion finally appeared in the previously empty air.

"Alright," Sunan said.

The next moment, the giant lizard's figure materialized out of thin air on the ground more than ten meters ahead.

A humanlike eagerness appeared in its amber vertical pupils. It let out soft whimpers, as though seeking praise from Sunan.

Sunan chuckled and had no choice but to praise it. "Well done."

After more than half a month of experiments, with over a dozen failures along the way, he had finally succeeded in transferring the Green Chameleon's color-changing ability to the giant lizard and further enhancing its effects.

Having gained the color-changing ability, the giant lizard could now instantly alter its form to match its surroundings, achieving an effect close to invisibility.

Only when sprinting at extreme speed would a slight trace be exposed due to the lag in its transformation.

Of course, unless one was a Wizard Apprentice or a Grand Knight with exceptionally sharp eyes, ordinary people would not notice that trace at all.

However, this ability was not without its flaws.

It was fine while standing still, but once it began moving, the sound of its footsteps and the friction of its body against objects would reveal its position.

Sunan had no good solution to that problem.

After all, even a true Invisibility Spell had the same flaw.

"Flaws are flaws. The color-changing ability is only laying the foundation for transforming it into a Magic Pet anyway."

"I just hope you can awaken an even more powerful ability on top of it."

The giant lizard did not quite understand what Sunan meant and merely let out a cautious low growl.

Sunan did not mind. He used Mage Hand to scoop up the giant lizard, then walked into the laboratory.

This was a laboratory that had been cleared out temporarily.

A Contract Array composed of countless intricate patterns had long been drawn across the floor. Under the candlelight, it gleamed with a faint, shadowy black luster, carrying an indescribable sense of mystery.

After placing the giant lizard in the center of the array, Sunan cast a Sleep Spell. The somewhat uneasy giant lizard immediately fell asleep.

Sunan then cut open the pad of his thumb with a small knife and pressed it against the edge of the array.

As blood spread along the patterns, the array immediately flared with light.

Countless strands of interwoven black and red mist emerged from nowhere, drifting outward to envelop the giant lizard's massive body. The mist continuously seeped into its rough, thick skin.

Crack! Crack!

A burst of fine cracking sounds suddenly rang out. The giant lizard's bones expanded wildly, piercing through its thick hide and exposing stark white bone to the air.

Before long, the giant lizard's entire body had turned into something like a gigantic skeleton nearly ten meters long, with scraps of flesh hanging from it like tattered cloth. Curled up on the floor, it nearly filled the entire laboratory.

Sunan had no choice but to retreat to the doorway, his gaze fixed unblinkingly on the giant lizard. He held a plant Rune Gem in his hand, ready to activate it and heal the giant lizard at any moment.

The process of transforming a creature into a Magic Pet was not guaranteed to succeed.

The more powerful the creature, the lower its chance of successfully becoming a Magic Pet.

For a mutant like the giant lizard, which possessed Dragon Lizard Bloodline, the chance of failure was at least fifty percent.

Even with the aid of Rune Gems, the success rate could only be increased by ten or twenty percent at most.

The giant lizard's bones continued growing and soon exceeded fifteen meters, yet its flesh showed no sign of regenerating. It looked like nothing more than a skeletal giant lizard.

Seeing this, Sunan decisively activated the Rune Gem. A soft pale-green glow immediately enveloped the giant lizard from head to toe.

Yet the giant lizard remained motionless, with no change at all.

"Did it fail?"

Sunan frowned tightly and sighed.

But in the very next second, a sudden change occurred.

Countless black oval scales the size of an adult's palm abruptly grew from the giant lizard's tattered skin. They spread across its entire body at a visible speed, wrapping its exposed bones again in the blink of an eye.

Once the scales formed, their smooth surfaces flashed beneath the candlelight, gradually becoming exactly the same as the surrounding environment. In the end, they completely concealed the giant lizard's enormous body.

"The color-changing ability? No, that's not right. It seems a little different!"

Just as Sunan was wavering in uncertainty, the "vanished" giant lizard appeared out of thin air once more. Its appearance had undergone a complete transformation compared to before.

The giant lizard had originally been seven or eight meters long, enough to be considered a colossal beast. Yet after the transformation, its body had expanded by more than double, like a small mountain.

Though its body was enormous, it was still fairly slender relative to its length. It did not look bloated; instead, it appeared exceptionally swift and agile.

It hurried over to Sunan, curling its body softly into a circle as its huge pupils stared at him without blinking.

Although it looked ferocious, through the unseen connection between them, Sunan could feel the admiration and closeness the giant lizard was conveying.

Within a certain distance, a Magic Pet and its master could sense each other's emotions, similar to telepathy. Wizards called this Emotional Connection.

As a wizard's Spirit Power increased, abilities such as shared vision and shared spells would evolve in the future, along with even more spell-like abilities.

Furthermore, a Magic Pet's life was bound to its master's.

Once the master died, the Magic Pet's flesh and soul would both be reduced to ashes.

Thus, in a Magic Pet's understanding, its master was the being closest to it and the one it should be most loyal to in this world.

"You've worked hard."

Sunan reached out and stroked the giant lizard's head. It let out a soft whimper, carefully rubbing its huge head against his hand in a display of affection.

Paired with its enormous size, the contrast was strangely endearing.

"Go outside and test your abilities."

The man and the lizard soon moved to the courtyard.

The process of transforming the Magic Pet had taken quite some time. Night had already fallen outside.

At Sunan's command, the giant lizard sprang forward with astonishing lightness, leaping four or five meters into the air. Beneath the moonlight, its long body abruptly vanished from head to tail.

Then, with a crack, the banyan tree in the distance inexplicably snapped, and its massive branch crashed to the ground.

"Both its strength and physical toughness have improved significantly. In terms of physique alone, it's probably no weaker than a Grand Knight, though that will need further testing."

The giant lizard's physical strength and color-changing ability had both been enhanced in different ways. Yet both were powers it had already possessed, so they were clearly not its newly awakened ability.

Sunan continued watching with anticipation.

After charging some distance away, the giant lizard revealed itself again and turned back to ram the tree stump once more.

This time, however, its body suddenly turned incorporeal midway through its charge, passing straight through the stump like a phantom.

"This is the Ethereal Shift Ability!"

Delight appeared on Sunan's face.

From the giant lizard's performance just now, it seemed able to instantly turn its body incorporeal and pass through obstacles.

The transformed giant lizard already possessed formidable killing power and agile speed. With its color-changing ability and this void-crossing ability to pass through obstacles, it was practically the perfect assassin!

Its combat power had risen several levels at once!

"What a perfect combination of abilities!"

Sunan could not help but exclaim in admiration.

The Ethereal Shift Ability completely made up for the flaw of the color-changing ability, which could not conceal sound. Now, the giant lizard possessed true and perfect invisibility.

Hearing Sunan's words, the giant lizard let out an excited, proud cry.

Sunan smiled faintly. "I can't keep calling you giant lizard forever. I need to give you a new name."

After thinking for a moment, he quickly came up with an idea.

"I'll call you Hidden Dragon."