Mobile Volcano!

“What are they doing...?” Luo Yu asked, ever eager to learn. “You mean the stones on their bodies, sir? Those are ‘Electric Crystals,’ an ore that can store electricity. It’s bad for Thunderbolt Shrimp to build up too much lightning inside them, and releasing it carelessly is dangerous too. These Electric Crystals draw the electricity out of their bodies nicely and promote their metabolism,” the clerk who had come to greet him explained. Is that so... But Luo Yu vaguely remembered that Electric Crystals holding a large charge, once processed, should be the raw material for the “Radiant Crystal Lamps” that lit every household nowadays. They’re using the Thunderbolt Shrimp’s ability to charge the Electric Crystals, aren’t they? He now had good reason to suspect that storing a little more lightning in a Thunderbolt Shrimp’s body did no harm at all, and that the clerk’s explanation was like “a small blood donation helps your metabolism and clears toxins from your body”—pure hogwash! This time, too, Luo Yu didn’t stay long in the Thunderbolt Pet Beast Shop before walking out. Clearly, the Thunderbolt Pet Beast Shop didn’t have the exceptional individual he was after either. “Damn. Don’t tell me I’ll search all day and not find a single one.” Holding the map, Luo Yu felt his heart drop. In the end he decided to try the pet beast breeding houses, where Lower Common Species could be adopted for free. The sensory-type pet beast “Dripping Waterfall Spider,” the combat-type pet beast “Wave Dog,” and the utility-type pet beast “Greenwater Turtle”... as long as the talent was strong enough, a Lower-tier Species wasn’t out of the question. Next, Luo Yu went from one shop to the next. The variety of talents was dazzling. Yet... after making the rounds, Luo Yu felt as though he’d eaten a few more zombie fish. He found that an advanced talent—or even two talents—seemed to be the ceiling for Common Species. These shops were hardly short of pet beast pups with advanced talents or even dual talents, but anything higher? Not a single one! He had combed through every pet beast shop and breeding house in Jingyue Town, big and small, and all he had seen was crowds of pet beasts with all sorts of talents toiling away on assembly lines... Dripping Waterfall Spiders spinning and weaving silk, Greenwater Turtles ripening crops, Wave Dogs practicing hauling cargo across the water... He was truly out of options. “Sigh...” Luo Yu let out a long sigh. Did finding a pet beast with top-tier talent really have to be this hard? Individuals with even higher talents were rarer than he had imagined... or did they simply not exist? He admitted that he had been too naive at the start. Still, with a cheat ability in hand, contracting a pet beast with only an advanced talent felt like a loss. Beast Masters could dissolve a contract and swap pet beasts, true, but the contract cooldown lasted at least a year—far too long. Besides, Luo Yu didn’t think he could bring himself to abandon a contracted pet beast he had raised for a long time. “What should I do—go catch one in the wild?” Standing in the street, Luo Yu sank into thought. If he couldn’t buy one... he would have to try his luck in the wild and see whether there were any high-quality individuals out there. The wild did hold more mutated beasts, but their average aptitude was certainly no match for pups bred in pet beast shops. Of course, with enough numbers, it wasn’t impossible to take a gamble. “That’s the only option left. Though—isn’t it getting a bit late?” Luo Yu looked at the sinking sun, and his stomach suddenly growled. It was nearly dusk; only then did he realize he was so hungry he was dizzy. And the wild at night wasn’t a place for an ordinary person like him. He’d fail to find a top-quality pet beast and end up as an extra meal for some wild mutated beast instead. “I need to go eat something...” Luo Yu muttered, “I starved for so long in the apocalypse, and after transmigrating all I’ve had is a bag of crab roe bread. I still haven’t eaten a hot meal... Beast Taming has ruined me.” After looking around, Luo Yu spotted a restaurant called “Immortal Delicacy Seafood House.” “Tsk...” But weighing his purse, he couldn’t bring himself to eat out after all. If only the place were called “Budget Seafood Stall” instead of “Immortal Delicacy Seafood House,” he might have gone in. “Better to cook for myself. Do it yourself and you’ll have food and clothing—and best of all, it saves money.” In the end, Luo Yu turned into a farmers’ market, meaning to buy some vegetables. As an apocalypse gourmet, he was highly skilled at cooking. Even things that weren’t ingredients could be made to taste decent—cumin shoe insoles and salt-and-pepper belt, for instance, were delicacies in the apocalypse... In the market, after simply picking out a few kinds of mushrooms, Luo Yu walked over to a shop with a sign reading “Lin’s Wild Game” and looked it up and down. He meant to nourish his fifteen-year-old body a little and treat himself. “What’ll it be?” The owner, cleaning up behind the cutting board, looked up and hailed him. “Just looking for now,” Luo Yu said. “Sure. Tell me when something catches your eye—my prices are honest, guaranteed.” As for whether merchants of this era had any conscience, Luo Yu remained skeptical. Still, judging by the eye, the meat hanging in this shop looked quite fresh. As Luo Yu was looking, a middle-aged man dressed like a hunter came in from the back and stood beside him. On Jingyue Island there were quite a few mountain hunters... most of them Beast Masters the ocean had left behind. Beast Masters with real ambition all headed for the sea; the ocean’s resources were far richer than the land’s, after all. This hunter seemed to be here to sell something. “Old Lin, I picked up a bird egg today. Buying?” He held up a burlap sack and showed the white bird egg inside, patterned in black... “A Ground Penguin egg?” The butcher was startled. “You picked it up?” The hunter looked smug. “That’s right.” “I’m puzzled too. Don’t Ground Penguins nest and lay their eggs underground? How did this one end up above ground?” “Anyway, you set the price. These things aren’t easy to come by, and I hear they taste pretty good? You can sell it to the townsfolk at a high price and make a killing...” “Hm?” Luo Yu’s gaze fell on the black-and-white egg as well, and he wondered whether his ears had misheard. What the hell. What’s going on—a penguin egg? Did they not wake up, or did I not wake up? In this blazing heat, penguins on this island? They had to be kidding him. Tropical penguins existed, sure, but you’re trading the egg of such a rare species as food?! Luo Yu recalled that before the apocalypse, there really had been thousands of penguins on this land, scattered through aquariums and polar parks. By now those penguins had evolved into roughly four species. The vast majority had evolved into Water Penguins wielding water-system power, outstanding swimmers more agile underwater than some High-tier Species sea beasts. Some had atavistically become Windfeather Penguins wielding wind-system power, returning to the skies; they could fly, and their swimming ability hadn’t degraded much either. There were also those that had mutated into Icewing Penguins wielding frost power, their wings of frost able to slice through rock with ease. All three were positive mutations... and all ranked as Mid-tier Common Species. One single group, however, had mutated disastrously. They had awakened earth-system power, their ability was Burrowing, and they had settled underground... surviving on small insects in the soil... as a Lower Common Species. In the old era, penguins had been extremely rare, protected animals. But after the apocalypse, humans themselves were nearly an endangered species, and no one had the time to protect other creatures. The only value of a mutated beast was its sweat—raising human civilization up again, its special abilities used to grow humanity’s new tree of technology. That was what Luo Yu had seen today... Even when a mutated beast was being sold as merchandise, it couldn’t be idle. It had to keep creating value, helping human capital expand. Species potential had become the sole standard by which humans judged a mutated beast. Rare and cute—was that going to fill your belly? It seemed it really could only serve as “food.” Water Penguins, Windfeather Penguins, and Icewing Penguins were all right. Each had its own skills and could claim some presence in this Great Navigation Era. But the Ground Penguin—a “landlubber” that couldn’t swim well and couldn’t fly—was thoroughly a lowly species. It had long since lost its old halo, and its reputation was worse than a roadside wild duck’s. After all, no sane person would bring along a flightless bird that could only dig holes when setting sail... they’d be too busy being put off by it. Having sorted through all this, Luo Yu understood why a penguin egg had turned up here. What a luckless creature. But the next moment, the penguin egg he was staring at began to display information too, which made Luo Yu start. “This is...” Before long, the butcher and the hunter finished their deal. The penguin egg was bought for 200 Alliance coins. After the hunter left, Luo Yu suddenly spoke. “Boss...” “This Ground Penguin egg—250. Will you sell it?” The butcher looked at Luo Yu, puzzled. “Sure... if you want it, take it.” “Never tried one. Thought I’d give it a taste,” Luo Yu said with a chuckle. He produced 250 Alliance coins and gathered the egg into his arms. It wasn’t that he really wanted to eat a penguin egg. It was because... Damn it, he’d finally hit gold! Not among the carefully bred pups in those pet beast shops... But in a vegetable market! The possessor of a top-tier talent was a bird egg being traded as food! So he could see the information of mutated beast eggs as well! He didn’t have to wait for them to hatch! Top-tier talent—the life inside this egg had a top-tier talent! And not just a top-tier talent, but dual talents! Luo Yu’s heart churned. As he gazed at the egg, the talent column of the data panel shimmered like rippling water. He could even faintly hear heartbeats, like the pulse of the earth itself! “I finally found you. But...?” [Species]: Ground Penguin (Egg Form) [Attribute]: Earth [Species Rank]: Lower Common Species [Life Level]: Level 0 [Species Ability]: Burrowing [Individual Talents]: 1. Cleverness (ordinary talent; smarter and wiser than an average individual.) 2. Walking Volcano (top-tier talent; influenced by earth veins, it is born with a profound resonance with the earth and can use its body as a medium to convert earth-vein energy into astonishing heat; when that energy is condensed to its limit, everything around it turns into churning lava, and the cooled lava becomes new earth.) The talent certainly looked top-notch, but... why the hell was it a top-tier Earth-system talent?! What was this about? This was the Great Navigation Era—was he supposed to go reclaim land from the sea...?