After awakening, the students from each school returned to their schools in batches by coach.
Sitting on the coach back to school, Jiang Ziliu opened his personal panel.
Other beast tamers had nothing like a personal panel after awakening. This was unique to Jiang Ziliu.
It was a byproduct born of Jiang Ziliu's cheat.
However, his cheat was not a system, but a very simple Probability Judgment function. It could also be seen as a success rate indicator.
Jiang Ziliu: Class: Gray Rock Grade beast tamer Lifespan: 16 (86) Life status: Healthy Soul strength: 1.8 Life level: Mortal Dark energy level: None Personal skills: Probability Judgment (innate skill): Could determine the probability of a specified outcome occurring at any time Tamed beast: None Tamed beast skills: None Tamed beast tier: None Tamed beast status: None
The currently known tiers of exotic beasts and beast tamers, from lowest to highest, were:
Gray Rock, Black Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Diamond, Supreme!
Having initially awakened his Contract Mark, he could be considered a Gray Rock Grade beast tamer.
His cheat's function appeared on the panel as an innate skill.
Probability Judgment!
Jiang Ziliu could determine the probability of something happening. It could also be called a success rate indicator.
But success rates fell within the scope of Probability Judgment.
Probability Judgment had a broader range of applications. It could determine not only the probability of success, but also the probability of failure and of events developing in other directions.
This was a skill he had possessed from the moment he was born!
However, using this skill required dark energy. Without dark energy, he had to expend soul power or vitality to use it.
Thus, over the past sixteen years, Jiang Ziliu had barely ever used this innate skill.
The price it demanded was too high. Without dark energy, even predicting some minor matter consumed considerable vitality. Doing it too often would leave his body depleted, wasting him away to skin and bones.
As a transmigrator, and because of his personality, Jiang Ziliu found it difficult to fit in with the youngsters around him.
His adult mentality made it hard for him to share a child's playfulness.
He also knew full well that, with the advantage of Probability Judgment, he was destined to have little overlap with his classmates in the future.
Therefore, he had made no friends during his school years. His relationships with his classmates were unremarkable, and he was a completely solitary figure.
Now, sitting on the coach, the other students chatted among themselves, discussing the novelty of their newly acquired Beast-Taming Spaces and the grades of their Contract Marks. Some rejoiced at their futures, while others sighed endlessly over them.
The clever ones had already begun hugging thighs among their classmates.
But none of this had anything to do with him. He watched the scenery outside the window, with no intention of talking to anyone else.
Jiang Ziliu understood that his personality resembled Old Devil Han's.
Even though his talent was above average and his grades were among the better ones, no one would think highly of his prospects.
Because in the world of beast tamers, resources were the most important factor in growth!
Whether someone had resources accounted for over eighty percent of whether they could grow!
Besides, B- talent was nothing particularly outstanding. No one would come to hug his thigh.
This gave Jiang Ziliu a very quiet personal space.
Meanwhile, the classmates around him kept glancing at a pretty, scholarly-looking girl toward the back.
Li Wanqiu!
Her family circumstances were ordinary, but hers was a distant branch of the Li Family, a major family in Chang'an Base, the main base above Base No. 12.
Originally, the branch to which Li Wanqiu's father belonged had already fallen to the status of commoners.
But during this Contract Mark awakening, Li Wanqiu had awakened an SS-grade Contract Mark!
This meant she could contract exotic beasts with bloodlines or growth potential as high as SS grade!
After contracting an exotic beast, a beast tamer received feedback in such aspects as life, strength, and skills from the beast, nourishing the tamer in return.
Higher-grade Contract Marks also returned higher-grade power.
This meant that even if Li Wanqiu contracted a B- beast, the life and strength feedback she received would be far greater than Jiang Ziliu's!
That was the benefit of SS-grade talent, and there was more besides.
In short, the higher the grade of the Contract Mark, the greater the benefits a beast tamer would receive in the future.
Li Wanqiu was already a beauty. Once her life was elevated after contracting a beast, she was destined to become a fairy-like goddess.
She was bound to draw her classmates' gazes. Some even hoped to win the beauty's hand, nursing little schemes of their own.
With such excellent potential, the Li Family would certainly be willing to fund her training. After all, this was one of the foundations for strengthening a Lineage's reserves.
A Lineage's strength depended on its top beast tamers.
And Li Wanqiu was a promising prospect with the potential to become a powerful beast tamer.
Li Wanqiu's future was bright!
Her classmates were now filled with envy. She had talent and a source of resources, and they all wanted very much to hug Li Wanqiu's thigh.
Li Wanqiu herself, however, reacted with great composure. Her temperament was quite good as well.
But none of this had anything to do with Jiang Ziliu. He still preferred to remain invisible in class.
Everyone returned to school. Next came the time to tame beasts.
Generally speaking, newly minted beast tamers like them had three options for contracting exotic beasts.
Human beast taming was compatible with almost every type, but there were major restrictions on the upper quality limit of their beasts. Successfully contracting powerful exotic beasts was not easy.
New beast tamers generally chose young exotic beasts with weak minds and little will to resist for their contracts.
Beast tamers with financial means could purchase high-quality young exotic beasts themselves to contract.
Those without financial means but with connections could have their parents, or someone willing to lead them, take them into the wilderness or certain dungeon spaces to capture suitable young exotic beasts for contracts.
The final option was to choose an exotic beast egg at school. These were young exotic beasts that could be contracted directly.
However, the school only provided exotic beast eggs, not successfully hatched young beasts.
This was because caring for young exotic beasts cost more.
And the school's high-grade exotic beast eggs were only provided to those with outstanding talent!
Those with ordinary talent could only select ordinary exotic beast eggs to contract, then take responsibility for hatching them after succeeding.
Each of the three paths had advantages and disadvantages. It all depended on the specific circumstances.
The school's exotic beast eggs cost ten thousand yuan each. This counted as a low-interest loan, which students only needed to repay within ten years after graduation.
Jiang Ziliu had long since decided what sort of exotic beast he wanted to contract.
Rather than an animal-type exotic beast with powerful attacks and agile movements, he selected a special crystal-type exotic beast egg from the school's egg storage for his contract.
He had spent a little money to obtain information about it from the warehouse manager in advance.
As the light of the contract sank into the stone egg, the egg transported itself into Jiang Ziliu's Beast-Taming Space and began hatching on its own.
This exotic beast egg was very low-tier and could not resist the pull of his B- Contract Mark. The entire process went very smoothly.
This kind of exotic beast was called an Azurite Rock Man!
The Azurite Rock Man was a humanoid, non-flesh-and-blood exotic beast that could travel underground and even possessed some spatial abilities.
This kind of exotic beast possessed powerful abilities to conceal its presence, travel through the earth, and even perform a certain amount of spatial transference.
It could be said that this exotic beast was quite a good choice.
Yet very few people chose this beast, because its growth potential was very low, and its bloodline only reached C+ grade.
Most importantly, helping it grow was very difficult, and evolving it was even harder!
To an ordinary beast tamer, Jiang Ziliu choosing an Azurite Rock Man with a C+ bloodline was a losing proposition.
But this was a choice Jiang Ziliu had long considered carefully. With his innate Probability Judgment skill, some of his secrets were destined to be things he could not expose in the future.
He needed the Azurite Rock Man's special concealment skills!
Jiang Ziliu: Class: Gray Rock Grade beast tamer Lifespan: 16 (86) Life status: Healthy Soul strength: 1.8 Life level: Mortal Dark energy level: None Personal skills: Probability Judgment (innate skill): Could determine the probability of a specified outcome occurring at any time. Tamed beast: Azurite Rock Man (unhatched) Tamed beast skills: Life Aura Concealment (SSS grade), Rock and Earth Evasion (D+ grade), Rock and Earth Concealment (D- grade), Earth Space Evasion (unawakened) Tamed beast tier: Gray Rock Grade Tamed beast status: Hatching progress 2%. Resources containing dark energy could accelerate hatching and improve its quality to a certain extent.
The above was Jiang Ziliu's current information. However, because the Azurite Rock Man had not hatched and was not truly alive, he had not yet received feedback, so his state remained mortal.
This kind of Azurite Rock Man's Life Aura Concealment skill reached SSS grade!
That was the real reason Jiang Ziliu valued it and had chosen the Azurite Rock Man as his target for his first beast long before awakening!
During contract feedback, his B- contracting talent allowed him to select forty percent of his beast's skills for feedback.
The Azurite Rock Man had four skills, and he could select one.
Jiang Ziliu's target was precisely this SSS-grade Life Aura Concealment skill!
When this skill was fed back to him, it could allow him to hide his own life level, and even conceal the presence and life levels of his other beasts.
An ordinary B-grade beast bloodline, once concealed by this SSS-grade Life Aura Concealment skill, could be lowered to any level, such as B-, C+, C, C-, D+, D, or D-.
Moreover, this concealment effect could be maintained constantly.
Without an SSS+-grade detection skill, seeing through Jiang Ziliu's concealment would be utterly impossible.
Once Jiang Ziliu possessed this skill as a beast tamer, he could apply it not only to himself, but also to his other beasts.
Being able to hide his own tier and his beasts' true information was the real reason Jiang Ziliu valued this skill and had chosen the Azurite Rock Man, an exotic beast that was not particularly popular.
Although this skill of the Azurite Rock Beast was powerful, its other skills were merely at the lowest D grade. Its growth ceiling was also too low, and it would take up a beast slot.
Beast tamers could only have a limited number of beasts, and every beast slot was extremely precious.
Otherwise, it would not have ended up gathering dust in the school warehouse, with no one choosing it all this time.
After all, it was a beast with a C+ bloodline. Those beast tamers who took an interest in it lacked the talent to contract it.
Beast tamers whose talent reached C+ grade placed greater value on exotic beasts with powerful combat abilities or ones suited to improving their lives. Naturally, they would not choose an Azurite Rock Man.
Thus, this Azurite Rock Man was a chicken rib of middling value!
But it was the beast Jiang Ziliu valued most, and the first beast he had chosen!
As for its low tier and weak growth potential, those problems could also be solved.
Every beast tamer was also an apothecary of greater or lesser ability.
After being contracted, low-tier exotic beasts could consume specific resources to improve their bloodlines, skills, or growth potential.
In other words, their beasts could evolve!
It was simply rather difficult. Every beast had its own characteristics. Even within the same species, enormous differences existed between individuals.
This made evolving a beast a relatively high-risk undertaking.
If it failed, the beast might regress or even suffer severe injuries and fall into slumber, becoming completely unable to fulfill its role.
A small portion of a beast's severe injuries would be fed back to its tamer.
The feedback from a beast's death was the fiercest and most terrifying. It could even shatter the Contract Mark!
Therefore, very few ordinary beast tamers dared to evolve their beasts. The risks involved were too great, while the benefits might be nonexistent or very small. Taking a loss was more likely.
But when it came to evolving beasts, Jiang Ziliu was very confident!
He had Probability Judgment. He could determine the probability of his beast successfully evolving under particular circumstances and select the best method!
Thus, Jiang Ziliu did not care about his beast's tier. He cared more about whether its skills were what he needed.
After completing the contract with his first beast, Jiang Ziliu signed the school's loan agreement.
The Azurite Rock Man's egg was still somewhat valuable, so he now carried nearly forty thousand yuan in low-interest loans and had become a debtor.
After leaving school, Jiang Ziliu did not go home. He planned to visit the nearby beast-taming open market and buy some resources useful to the Azurite Rock Man, so he could hatch it as soon as possible.