"Thanks for your patronage! If you like it, come back and try something else next time~"
Luo Yu walked out of Lin's Game Shop carrying the Earth Penguin egg, and the owner cheerfully saw him off.
How was that any different from picking up 50 Alliance Coins?
The owner looked at the 250 Alliance Coins on the table, delighted. City folk sure know how to eat...
Meanwhile, Luo Yu had somewhat mixed feelings.
"An Earth Penguin..."
As he had wandered around all day, he had been thinking about what kind of pet beast he should contract.
In this Age of Great Voyages, 99% of resources were in the sea. It went without saying which attribute was strongest.
Water type, a cut above the rest, the strongest in the current meta!
But now, fate had played a trick on the great glutton, making him run into a mutant beast with a top-tier earth-type talent while shopping for ingredients. He really... didn't know what to say.
An Earth Penguin was a bird, but it couldn't fly.
Before it mutated, it had been an expert swimmer, but after mutating, its ability to swim underwater had regressed, and it had gone underground instead.
It couldn't fly and wasn't good at swimming. That was undeniably a trash-tier attribute and a trash-tier species.
But Luo Yu had to admit that a top-tier talent really was top-tier.
A walking volcano!
It could resonate with the intense heat deep within the earth and command the power of magma!
Create land!!!
Luo Yu thought of an old acquaintance.
Was this making me a type-disadvantage master?
Reason told Luo Yu that an earth-type mutant beast would definitely not be popular in this Age of Great Voyages.
Another voice told Luo Yu, To hell with the Age of Great Voyages. That torrential rain really made me suffer.
I'll pick this one.
The weak adapted to their environment; the strong changed it. He would use a pet beast that could create land to bring this age of the ocean to an end!
As long as he raised the Earth Penguin to be strong enough, he wouldn't have to care where he was, because there would always be land beneath its feet.
People pursued water-type pet beasts simply because the ocean now dominated the planet.
But on closer thought, was that really the case?
The land had merely been submerged; that didn't mean it had disappeared.
Beneath the ocean, there was still land.
Even the land humans lived on and the land beneath the ocean could only be considered the earth's outermost crust.
Beneath the crust was the mantle, which accounted for most of the earth's volume and through which magma of a terrifying temperature flowed.
At the very center of the earth was the core, which generated the earth's magnetic field, was under tremendous pressure, and was hotter than the surface of the sun!
At that thought, Luo Yu hugged the egg tighter.
And he remembered something else...
Yu Wan... in the three fortunes she had told for him, hadn't the pet beasts all been black and white?
Penguins were too!
"How defying the heavens!"
Without the interference from the ocean's chaotic magnetic field... could it be... that she got it right?
Judging by the upper limit of its potential, contracting this Earth Penguin with its top-tier earth-type talent... seemed as though it might be even better than a water-type pet beast.
Luo Yu had to give it serious thought.
Come to think of it, even if he contracted a water-type mutant beast, the pet beast couldn't possibly have the strength to carry him across dangerous waters anytime soon. Across all of Mirror Moon Island, most beast tamers still had to rely on boats to travel.
Only a few powerful individuals were truly capable of crossing the sea with a single pet beast.
Besides, although the requirements were demanding, beast tamers weren't limited to contracting just one pet beast... he could always contract a water type when he had the chance later.
Of course, besides the temptation of a top-tier talent, there was another, more important reason Luo Yu made this decision.
A Beast-Taming Contract could speed up the hatching of a mutant beast's egg.
A beast tamer could contract a mutant beast's egg directly.
That way, it was as though the beast tamer had personally hatched the egg, and the mutant beast that hatched would treat the beast tamer like a biological parent and trust the beast tamer greatly.
This was a tremendous advantage that could not be obtained by directly contracting a mutant beast sold at a pet beast shop or forcibly contracting a wild mutant beast.
Though rare, even with the binding force of a contract, mutant beasts could still rebel against their beast tamers under certain circumstances.
For example, if they were abused by their beast tamers, had flawed personalities, or experienced an unexpected surge in strength...
Thus, some scholars believed that the bond between a beast tamer and a pet beast was also very important, as it could ensure that the pet beast would continue to obey the beast tamer's commands under certain special circumstances.
That was hard to put into practice, though. Ordinary people contracted pet beasts to make them fight and work for them. What worker would feel close to a boss or a slave owner?
One with a natural talent for being a masochist might, though.
Besides, pet beasts defected only in a tiny minority of cases, so generally speaking, most beast tamers valued the benefits their pet beasts could bring them more.
Whether pet beasts were "tools" or "partners" to beast tamers had also long been a subject of discussion among many human scholars.
"Rather than a tool, I need a reliable partner, a comrade in arms."
Luo Yu couldn't be bothered to think too much about it. All he knew was that he had just transmigrated and was all alone in this unfamiliar place. Right now, he only wanted a pet beast he could share mutual trust with.
Under these circumstances, a mutant beast hatched from an egg was undoubtedly the best fit.
Judging by how today's treasure hunt had gone, finding another egg with a top-tier talent probably wouldn't be easy.
So Luo Yu didn't want to miss this opportunity.
Of course, although there were great benefits to contracting a mutant beast's egg directly, ordinary beast tamers simply wouldn't dare do it.
There were too many unknowns with an unhatched egg. No one knew whether a sick or disabled pet beast would hatch from it, so it was far safer to contract a high-quality individual that had been hatched, assessed, and selected by a breeder.
For Luo Yu, however, there was naturally no need to worry about that.
This Earth Penguin had a top-tier talent, so even if it had a few minor problems in other respects, they wouldn't be impossible to accept. Besides, the chance of anything being wrong was small, since it had another talent: Intelligence!
Although it was only an ordinary talent, how many problems could a highly intelligent pet beast have...?
"That settles it. Today's mission... accomplished." Holding the egg, Luo Yu arrived at the farmers' market parking lot. He looked at the egg, then at his bicycle basket.
Then, for the egg's safety, he left his bicycle where it was rather than ride it, afraid that the egg might fall and break if he put it in the basket... Besides, he wasn't far from home.
As Luo Yu walked, he thought about how to raise this little penguin...
"Luo Yu?"
"What are you doing here? It's so late..."
As he walked, a boy who seemed to be an acquaintance of "Luo Yu" suddenly called out to him.
Luo Yu paused and looked over. The other boy was also fifteen or sixteen, with spiky hair and skin somewhat roughened by the sea breeze.
Seeing Luo Yu walking along the roadside late at night, carrying an egg and smiling, he was puzzled.
"Chen Bo?"
Luo Yu looked at him, and a name surfaced in his mind.
The boy's father, Chen Zhuo, was also a mutant organism researcher on Mirror Moon Island.
Because they worked in the same field, the two families occasionally interacted.
However, although their children were about the same age, Luo Yu and Chen Bo hadn't spent much time together. After all, Luo Yu's father had given him an elite education and rarely allowed him time for recreation, so he had no friends his own age at all.
Chen Bo's situation was probably much the same. Both researcher families were caught up in fierce competition.
"Nothing, just heading home," Luo Yu answered briefly, since they weren't particularly close.
"Really... I heard Uncle and Auntie went to Azure Waves Island to buy you a pet beast?" Chen Bo came over and said, "Was that really necessary? Are Mirror Moon Island's pet beasts not good enough for you?"
"My dad said, 'There are no useless pet beasts, only useless beast tamers.' As long as the person is capable, even a lower species can be raised into a divine beast."
Luo Yu looked at him as though he were an idiot... Apparently, he was jealous that Luo Yu could contract a pet beast from Azure Waves Island.
"By the way, have Uncle and Auntie come back? What pet beast did they bring you?"
"How about a little match? Let me see what's so great about a pet beast from a big place." Chen Bo pressed on, then began showing off.
"Oh, right, let me tell you, after I contracted my pet beast, I awakened the 'Spirit' Talent. You could say it's the best talent for a biologist..."
"Hold on." Luo Yu interrupted him.
"Don't you know yet? Your dad didn't tell you?"
"Know what? My dad went off to take part in some closed-door research. I haven't seen him in half a month," Chen Bo said, puzzled.
So that's it... Luo Yu couldn't be bothered with him. After tossing out, "My parents died in a shipwreck on their way to Azure Waves Island," he walked away with the penguin egg.
Watching Luo Yu walk away, Chen Bo stood rooted to the spot, digesting what Luo Yu had just said.
D-dead?
He must be joking...
But who would joke about their parents' lives?
So it's true?
A moment later...
Smack!
Chen Bo slapped himself hard across the face.
"I really deserve to die."
He nearly dropped to his knees in Luo Yu's direction.
If he had known Luo Yu's parents had met with an accident, he never would have run his mouth like that.
Now, his heart was filled with nothing but self-reproach and guilt.
Luo Yu paid no mind to a child's jealousy and competitiveness, but one thing Chen Bo had said did catch his attention.
Innate Talents...
In fact,
beast tamers were not merely summoners who relied on their pet beasts; they were also warriors with a measure of strength of their own.
Of course, no matter how much humans trained, the growth of their physical strength was limited.
But everyone who contracted a pet beast and became a beast tamer would awaken an Innate Talent!
"Life," "Strength," "Defense," "Speed," "Spirit," and "Soul": everyone could awaken one of these talents. Each time a contracted pet beast's life level rose by one, the beast tamer's physical attribute corresponding to the awakened talent would be strengthened slightly, increasing the beast tamer's own combat power.
Every ten levels the pet beast gained would greatly strengthen the corresponding attribute and slightly strengthen the beast tamer's other physical attributes.
It was said that the type of Innate Talent was related to the beast tamer's personality.
Some beast tamers favored violence, so they were highly likely to awaken the Strength Talent. As their pet beasts' levels rose, their own physical strength would grow as well.
Some beast tamers were more afraid of pain, so they might awaken the Defense Talent and eventually gain a body capable of withstanding mutant beast attacks head-on.
Some scholars also said that the type of Innate Talent might be related to the pet beast's species.
For example, if a beast tamer contracted a starfish, a mutant beast known for its vitality, the beast tamer would have a high chance of awakening the Life Talent and would also possess considerable vitality and recover from injuries extremely quickly.
So, after contracting the Earth Penguin, he would awaken an Innate Talent too...