Ways to Increase Contract Slots

"Two of the more common ways to increase contract slots can be found among the seven great mysterious seas." Luo Yu sat at his desk flipping through a book, studying the matter as he read. "Among the seven great mysterious seas is the silver sea, the 'Contract Sea.' Enter it, bathe in its waters, and you will unconditionally awaken a new Beast Taming Space—gaining one more contract slot." "Besides that, there is the gray sea of the seven, the 'Void Sea.' Soaking in its waters lets humans and mutated beasts comprehend the power of space and grow attuned to it." "Some mutated beasts learn the rare 'space special ability' there, and beast masters with a Spirit talent have learned the superpower 'Teleportation' in those waters... And the Beast Taming Space, at its core, is itself a space ability." "So there have indeed been beast masters who successfully opened up a new Beast Taming Space there." "Still, compared with the 'Contract Sea,' where entering reliably grants you a Beast Taming Space, opening one in the 'Void Sea' tests the beast master's own comprehension far more. Poor comprehension: zero gains. Good comprehension: opening two Beast Taming Spaces in a single go isn't impossible." The seven great mysterious seas... Though the locations of those seven places were unpredictable, the records showed the odds of running into one were fairly good. Even a small island like Jingyue Island had several records of its fleets encountering the seven great mysterious seas. And the mainstream view held that if you sailed a full circuit around the globe, barring terrible luck, you would basically run into one mysterious sea. Of course, a voyage around the globe was no small undertaking. The sea now teemed with dangerous mutated corpse beasts and mutated sea beasts... On top of that, the various natural disasters at sea had grown countless times more powerful than before. Add the pirates running rampant through the Lawless Zone, and a global voyage without real strength was simply throwing your life away. "A full voyage around the globe, huh..." Honestly, Luo Yu felt a certain yearning. What man lacks an adventurous spirit? Most of all, he genuinely wanted to encounter the 'Dream Sea'—the mysterious sea famed for holding the most delicious ingredients in the world. What do people live for, if not a good meal? But it was a pity: even if he boarded the 'Jingyue Armed Fleet,' with Jingyue Island's strongest fleet escorting him, sailing a full circuit of the globe would still be a pipe dream. His strength simply wasn't up to it... Truth be told, those fleets spent most of their time drifting around inside the relatively safe Alliance Waters anyway. "Thankfully, there are safer, easier ways to gain contract slots." There were quite a few methods of increasing contract slots. Luo Yu's search turned up the fact that on the Canglan Continent, Canglan Ocean University had a top biologist studying human evolution who had distilled the bloodline factors of a certain mutated sea beast into a 'Genetic Evolution Potion.' A human who drank this potion could awaken a new Beast Taming Space. The problem was that the potion's output was insufficient, and it was never sold to the public... Instead it was awarded as a prize to outstanding students of Canglan Ocean University—one of the means by which that school, hailed as the light of humanity, recruited all kinds of talented young people. "His bargain-bin dad and mom were both Canglan Ocean University graduates, but at their level, they were still a long way from 'outstanding students.'" "If I get into Canglan Ocean University and study a research-track major, then just for discovering the Water Demon Beast's evolution method, they'd have to give me an outstanding student award at the very least, right??" "So this Genetic Evolution Potion is actually the one I'm most likely to get." Luo Yu kept searching. Beside him, the little book-attendant July quietly held up one book after another, dutiful and well-behaved. "Too stringent..." Take the guardian deity of the 'Deep Sea Kingdom'—the Mermaid Goddess, who wielded authority over space and had the power to help humans unlock their potential and awaken brand-new Beast Taming Spaces... But how was he supposed to win the mermaid clan's favor? Unless he married into the mermaid clan, joined that faction, and became one of its key cultivation prospects. Since both the mermaid and fishman clans were humans transformed through the mysterious seas, there was no reproductive barrier between them. A child of a mermaid and a human could inherit the racial talents of both. "I wonder if my Data Eye could be passed down through breeding..." Mermaids, huh... he could handle the pairing himself! ...And off Luo Yu's thoughts wandered again. There was also the Sky Tree Fruit, which could likewise help humans awaken new Beast Taming Spaces—a pity that tree was the sacred tree worshipped by 'Sky Tower,' untouchable to ordinary people. Luo Yu found that all five core human settlements seemed to possess some means of developing additional Beast Taming Spaces, but apart from the Canglan Continent's, the other four were all too far from him... "Wait, this is..." Suddenly, Luo Yu discovered that besides Canglan Ocean University's Genetic Evolution Potion, the research notes of researcher Luo Shui seemed to mention yet another method. "One Beast Taming Space contracting two pet beasts at the same time... Bloodline Vassals?" In his memory, Bloodline Vassals were supposed to be the exclusive ability of Monarch Species mutated beasts. It was also one of the reasons a Monarch Species mutated beast could crush Common Species beasts. Which brings us to the greatest difference between Common Species mutated beasts and Monarch Species mutated beasts: the 'Monarch Essence.' The Monarch Essence is a special mutated substance within the bloodline of every Monarch Species mutated beast. Its greatest function is to let the beast stamp its own 'Bloodline Brand' onto another mutated beast, forcing it into submission. From this, the title of monarch was derived. Just as beast masters can contract mutated beasts, monarch mutated beasts can in fact have their own "pet beasts." Only, in the mutated-beast ecosystem, this isn't called contracting—it's called a 'Bloodline Vassal.' Once it has gained 'Bloodline Vassals,' a monarch mutated beast, as the 'Bloodline Lord,' can to a certain extent borrow its vassals' power in battle. On the subject of the vassal system: many King-rank beast masters on the Canglan Continent who contract turtle-type mutated beasts like to have their turtle beasts contract a snake as well, forming the classic 'Black Tortoise Tactic.' In practice, though, it proved utterly useless—an imitation with the right shape but none of the Black Tortoise's divine mystery; Or else they brand mutated beasts of the same species, having the vassals carry the main beast aloft so that the Bloodline Lord gains a stronger species power. But the true nature of Bloodline Vassals was far from beautiful. Power flowed one way, from vassal to Bloodline Lord, while the vassal itself enjoyed almost no benefit. What's more, if a Monarch Species became another Monarch Species' vassal, it would lose its own ability to develop Bloodline Vassals. It could be said that in nature, under ordinary circumstances, only when seeking shelter would a mutated beast willingly become another monarch beast's vassal. "A Monarch Species can have one Bloodline Vassal, an Abyss Species two—the higher the species rank, the more Bloodline Vassals one can possess..." Luo Yu read on. Which meant: if a beast master's contracted pet beast was a Monarch Species, then so long as this Monarch Species pet beast gained a Bloodline Vassal of its own, it would hardly differ from the beast master owning two pet beasts. Because according to experiments, a vassal beast counted as part of the Bloodline Lord, and both could enter the same Beast Taming Space. A distinction of main pet and secondary pet. The reason Luo Yu hadn't paid attention to this ability at first was that it was too far beyond him. After all, the little penguin July was merely Common Species, with no ability to develop vassals. There was no way, by this method, for Luo Yu to gain a secondary pet. But now, Luo Yu had actually turned up a notebook of his father's—and in it, the claim that not only Monarch Species, but Common Species could also possess Bloodline Vassals?