The wooden box July had fished up was quite heavy. It didn't look empty. Man and goose exchanged a glance and opened it.
There was no glow of treasure. Inside was a white conch...
"Wuji?"
July sniffed it. It was dead and couldn't be eaten.
"Is this a Communication Conch?" Luo Yu was well-informed and quickly recognized it.
Communication Conches were also mutant beasts. They could communicate with others of their species over long distances, ignoring all external factors. They could be thought of as "biological telephones." Their exact communication range depended on their own life level.
What made these mutant creatures remarkable was that they could use this special ability not only while alive. Even after death, their ability to communicate remained.
It was much like Yu Wan's Star Shell. The pearls it left behind after death still possessed certain magical powers. That was precisely why Yu Wan could still perform some simple astrology using those pearls, even after her pet beast had died.
"How did you use it again?"
A Communication Conch had ten orange markings, representing the digits 0 through 9. Apparently, users could tap different combinations, as if dialing a number, to speak with other Communication Conches.
Tap, tap, tap.
Luo Yu casually tapped out 10086, but the call didn't go through.
"Wait, aren't Communication Conches pretty expensive?!"
Luo Yu froze, suddenly realizing something important. Communication Snails were extremely difficult to breed, which made these things incredibly expensive. Although they were only an Upper-Tier Common Species, their price rivaled that of a Monarch Species cub.
The research funding Luo Yu had applied for from the island based on his breeding results, after more than a month of running around, wasn't even worth as much as this one conch.
He stared blankly at July, who was holding the fishing rod.
"Beginner's luck, I guess. Just what kind of luck is that?" Luo Yu was speechless.
This was far more valuable than fishing up some delicious big fish...
"This little lake was formed by the high tide. The wooden box must have washed up from the sea then. Maybe it was cargo from some wrecked merchant ship..."
"This item and I were destined to meet. I have no choice but to accept it. I'll dial a random number for fun every day and see when I can get through to someone. It's kind of like playing with messages in bottles."
While Luo Yu marveled at July's good luck, July had already sat back down by the lake and resumed fishing.
He didn't understand anything about treasure chests or Communication Conches. All he knew was that he still hadn't caught a big fish he could roast and eat today.
"Wuji!" July's gaze was as resolute as a Saint Seiya's.
After returning home that evening, Luo Yu cooked as usual: his own meal, July's, and Yu Wan's.
In the end, he still had to cook. Luo Yu had discovered that Yu Wan couldn't really cook at all-or rather, she could only manage to get things cooked. The taste of what she made was hard to describe, and it was a terrible waste of ingredients.
Some seafood was indeed fine simply steamed, and it wouldn't taste too bad. But this girl hadn't even drained the urine from a mutant lobster before steaming it, instantly ruining the texture.
After dinner, Luo Yu continued recording the breeding groups' progress. The groups without a Breeding Paragon would need nearly a month at minimum before they could lay eggs. As for the group with two Paragons, judging by the previous results, they should be able to lay eggs in a little over ten days.
For the current Luo Yu, ten-odd days passed very quickly.
Twelve days later, the two-Breeding-Paragon group Luo Yu had long been looking forward to finally produced offspring. His eyes lit up at the rows of octopus eggs hanging in the miniature sea cave.
Twenty eggs in all!
As expected of a union between Breeding Paragons, they had laid three times as many eggs as ordinary Ink Fish!
However, since it was inbreeding, the quality of the eggs was likely to vary considerably. The first, second, third, and fourth eggs Luo Yu examined all turned out relatively poor.
[Individual talent]: Sleeplessness (common talent, better at staying up late than ordinary individuals.) [Individual talent]: Big Eater (common talent, has a larger appetite than ordinary individuals.) [Individual talent]: Lust (common talent, has a stronger desire to mate than ordinary individuals.) [Individual talent]: Softness (common talent, has a softer body than ordinary individuals.)
Well, well, well. Since when did Lust count as a talent? If even Lust could be a talent, didn't you have any other talents?
Staying up late, overeating, lechery, and, to put it nicely, a soft body-wasn't that just a weak constitution? They had definitely given birth to a whole dorm room of college students.
Still, inbreeding either went disastrously wrong or turned out godlike, so Luo Yu had anticipated this. He could use the poor ones to raise gu and keep the good ones. The next few gradually restored his confidence.
Of the twenty eggs, only six had so-so talents. The other fourteen offspring had Senior Level talents, and they were high quality!
Of the fourteen eggs with Senior Level talents, six were Breeding Paragons, causing the number of Breeding Paragons in the institute to soar all at once.
The other eight Senior Level talents were like the Eight Immortals crossing the sea, each displaying their own divine powers.
There were two with Fire Element Affinity. A water-type mutant beast had actually bred individuals with fire-type talents. It sure knew how to breed. Was it because all that dry tinder and raging fire had no outlet?
There was Grass Element Affinity, another opposing attribute.
Two with Lightning Element Affinity... still an opposing attribute.
Aside from the four elemental talents, there was also Coordination Master, which gave an individual exceptional talent for controlling energy.
Then there was Innate Divine Strength. Although Luo Yu didn't know just how divine an Ink Fish's strength could be, if individuals with the divine strength talent all combined and evolved into a Water Devil Beast, it would probably be quite violent when it came to binding and restraining things.
And then... there was the one that surprised Luo Yu most and was also his greatest gain. Even if this had been the only one produced this time, it would have been worth it.
"Infant Care Expert."
[Individual talent]: Infant Care Expert (Senior Level talent, its ink can accelerate the hatching of young of the same species.)
Luo Yu's brain tingled with pleasure. With this talent, breeding Ink Fish would require much less waiting in the future. When it came to breeding a species, its value was second only to that of a Breeding Paragon!
He was one step closer to DIYing his ideal Water Devil Beast...
"I'll give you two an extra meal..." Luo Yu looked at the two contributors. The Luo Yu Research Institute would remember their contributions well!
"Teacher Luo Yu seems very happy today..."
In the institute's backyard, the three students steadily received nine stings every day, three each in the morning, at noon, and in the evening. After today's stings, they chatted and realized that Luo Yu had been smiling all day, as if he had just been blessed with a son.
"Teacher Luo Yu..."
Mi Xiaoyu walked up to Luo Yu.
"Teacher Wang would like to thank you by treating you to a meal at the Moon-Facing Pavilion..."
The Moon-Facing Pavilion was the best restaurant on Mirror Moon Island. Its ingredients were mostly meat from Senior Level mutant beasts hunted at sea by the various fleets.
"Sure, but this meal's on me." Luo Yu was in a good mood today and didn't mind the cost of a meal. He would treat it as a celebration.
Meanwhile, Wang Ze was genuinely grateful to Luo Yu. Seeing the three students' tremendous progress, he finally felt that he didn't understand Beast Taming at all. Fortunately, he had made Luo Yu's acquaintance. Otherwise, he would have completely held the three students back.
Now even he wanted to become Luo Yu's disciple and properly learn how to raise pet beasts from him.
However, Luo Yu had paid Teacher Wang no attention all this time, not because the money wasn't enough, but because his pet beast's talent was Cleanliness Obsession, a common talent that made an individual cleaner than usual...
Give up on treatment. What use was that?
He could indeed help people find their pet beasts' hidden talents and keep them from taking detours, but the talent had to be useful in the first place... Perhaps this pet beast could be sent to fight on a filthy, chaotic battlefield, and that might bring out some potential, but its prospects still didn't look promising.
The only fair suggestion might be to recommend that Wang Ze become a cleaner. His positive review rate would surely be high, and every cleaning detail would be taken care of. But who would give up being a teacher to become a cleaner...?
"Actually, the school has a monthly exam for new students the day after tomorrow. The director will also come to watch in person, and the results will be used as one of the factors in selecting 'outstanding representative students.' All three of them will take part. I wonder if Scholar Luo Yu would be interested in coming to watch."
Inside the Moon-Facing Pavilion, Luo Yu put down the crab claw in his hand. "The school's holding an exam? Good. It'll be a chance for them to test the results of their special training over this period."
"Let's just end the course today, then. You can have a good rest tomorrow and prepare for the exam... I've already taught you everything I can."
Over the past ten-odd days, they had gradually become immune to the effects of the Honey Water Bee's stings, so there wasn't much point in continuing to go to him for more.
"The course is over?!" The three students' expressions showed reluctance mixed with relief. They finally wouldn't have to endure the stings anymore...
"Let's make this meal our end-of-course banquet, then." Luo Yu smiled slightly. "I'll come watch your exam tomorrow. Do your best, and don't make me lose face."
Especially since... the director would be there too!
Your performance will determine how much research funding I can apply for again! Besides, once I've made a name for myself, I can even open a little bee extracurricular training center!