Talent

“Thanks for your business! If it tastes good, come back and try something else next time~” Luo Yu carried the Ground Penguin egg out of Lin's Wild Game Shop, and the owner cheerfully saw him off. “How is this any different from just picking up fifty Alliance coins?” The owner looked at the 250 Alliance coins on the table, thoroughly pleased, thinking that city folk sure knew how to eat... Meanwhile, Luo Yu's own mood was a little more complicated. “A Ground Penguin, huh...” Truthfully, he'd spent the whole day wandering around, and the whole time he'd been turning one question over in his head: just what type of pet beast should he contract? In this Great Navigation Era, ninety-nine percent of all resources lay in the sea, so which attribute was the strongest needed no explanation. Water-system: the elite among elites, the strongest in the current age! But now fate had decided to play a prank on this greedy pig, and while he was out buying ingredients he'd run into a mutated beast carrying a top-tier Earth-system talent. He really... didn't know what to say. The Ground Penguin was a bird, but it couldn't fly. Before mutating, it had been a master swimmer; after mutating, it had actually lost its ability to swim underwater and taken to living beneath the earth. Couldn't fly, couldn't swim well—a bottom-of-the-barrel attribute and a bottom-of-the-barrel species, no question. But Luo Yu had to admit: a top-tier talent really was top-tier. A Walking Volcano! It could resonate with the searing heat deep within the earth and command the power of magma! Create Land!!! Luo Yu thought of someone he'd once known. Was this fate's way of making him a master of fighting at an attribute disadvantage? Reason told him that an Earth-system mutated beast would definitely not be popular in this Great Navigation Era. Another voice told him: to hell with the Great Navigation Era—this torrential rain had ruined him. This was the one. He'd choose this one. The weak adapt to their environment; the strong change it. He would use a pet beast that could create land to put an end to this ocean era! As long as he raised the Ground Penguin strong enough, he wouldn't need to care where he was, because wherever it stood would always be land. People chased after Water-system pet beasts for no other reason than that the ocean now dominated the planet. But think about it seriously—was that really true? The land had only been submerged; that didn't mean it had vanished. Beneath the ocean, there was still land. Even the land beneath the ocean where humans lived could only be counted as Earth's outermost crust. Below the crust lay the mantle, which made up the vast majority of Earth's volume, flowing with magma at terrifying temperatures. At Earth's very center was the core, which generated the planet's magnetic field, lay under crushing pressure, and burned hotter than the surface of the sun! At that thought, Luo Yu hugged the egg tighter. And then he remembered something else... Yuwan... the three divinations she'd done for him—hadn't the pet beasts all been black-and-white in color? A penguin was black and white too! “Could it really be?” If it weren't for the interference of the chaotic ocean magnetic field... could she have hit it exactly? Judging by upper limits of potential, contracting this Ground Penguin with its top-tier Earth-system talent... might even come out higher than a Water-system pet beast. Luo Yu couldn't help but think it over carefully. When he really thought about it, even if he contracted a Water-system mutated beast, in the short term the beast still wouldn't have the strength to carry him across dangerous seas. Looking across all of Jingyue Island, most Beast Masters still had to rely on boats to travel. Only a handful of the strong were truly capable of crossing the sea on a single pet beast. Besides, harsh as the requirements were, Beast Masters weren't limited to a single pet beast... he could contract a Water-system one later, when the chance came. Of course, the temptation of a top-tier talent wasn't the only reason Luo Yu made this decision. There was another, more important one. And that was that a “beast-taming contract” could speed up the hatching of a mutated beast's egg. A Beast Master could contract a mutated beast's egg directly. That way, the egg was essentially hatched by the Beast Master's own hand, and the mutated beast that came out would treat the Beast Master like its own parent, trusting him completely. This was a huge advantage that contracting a mutated beast sold by a pet beast shop, or forcing a contract on a wild mutated beast, could never provide. Rare as it was, even bound by a contract, a mutated beast might in some circumstances turn on its Beast Master. For example: abuse at the Beast Master's hands, a flawed personality of its own, an unexpected surge in strength... For this reason, some scholars argued that the bond between Beast Master and pet beast mattered a great deal, guaranteeing that in certain special situations the pet beast would still obey its Beast Master's commands. That was hard to put into practice, though. Ordinary people contracted pet beasts precisely so the beasts would fight and work for them. What employee felt any warmth toward their boss or slave driver? Unless they happened to have a masochistic individual talent. And pet beasts going rogue were, after all, very rare. So generally speaking, most Beast Masters still valued the value a pet beast could create for them. Whether a pet beast was a “tool” or a “partner” to its Beast Master had always been a question many human scholars debated. “More than a tool, I need a reliable partner—a comrade in arms.” Luo Yu couldn't be bothered to overthink it. He only knew that he had just crossed over, alone in this strange place, and right now all he wanted was a pet beast he could trust and that could trust him. In that case, a mutated beast hatched from an egg was undoubtedly the best fit. Judging by how today's bargain hunting had gone, finding another top-tier talent in egg form probably wouldn't be easy. So Luo Yu didn't want to let this chance slip by. Of course, contracting a mutated beast's egg directly had great advantages, but ordinary Beast Masters didn't dare do it at all. An unhatched egg held far too much uncertainty. No one knew whether it might hatch into a sick or disabled pet beast—nowhere near as safe as directly contracting a fine individual already hatched, appraised, and screened by a breeder. For Luo Yu, naturally, there was no need for such worries. This Ground Penguin had a top-tier talent. Even if it had a small problem somewhere else, that wasn't unacceptable. Besides, the odds of anything going wrong were slim—it had another talent after all: Cleverness! Only an ordinary talent, but how much trouble could a high-intelligence pet beast really be... “That settles it. Today's mission... successfully accomplished.” Luo Yu carried the egg to the parking lot of the farmers' market, looked at the egg, then at the basket of his bike. After that, for the egg's safety, he didn't even ride the bike anymore. He left it right where it was, terrified of putting the egg in the basket and cracking it... his home wasn't far anyway. All the way back, Luo Yu walked and thought about how he was going to raise this little penguin... “Luo Yu?” “What are you doing out 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 about fifteen or sixteen too, with spiky hair and skin roughened a little by the sea wind. He saw Luo Yu walking along the roadside late at night, smiling, holding an egg, and felt puzzled. “Chen Bo?” Luo Yu stared at him, and a name surfaced in his mind. The boy's father, Chen Zhuo, was also a mutated organism researcher on Jingyue Island. Being in the same line of work, the two families occasionally interacted. But although the children were close in age, Luo Yu and Chen Bo hadn't had much to do with each other. Luo Yu's father had given him an elite education and rarely allowed him any time of his own for fun—he'd had no friends his own age at all. Chen Bo's situation was probably much the same. The two researcher households were both caught up in a frantic rat race. “Nothing. Heading home,” Luo Yu answered briefly, since they weren't close. “Is that so... I heard your aunt and uncle went to ‘Canglan Island’ to buy you a pet beast?” Chen Bo stepped closer. “Is that really necessary? You look down on Jingyue Island's pet beasts that much?” “My dad says, ‘there are no useless pet beasts, only useless Beast Masters.’ If the person is strong enough, even a Lower-tier Species can be raised into a divine beast.” Luo Yu gave him the look one might give an idiot... So that was it. The boy was jealous that he could contract a pet beast from Canglan Island. “Speaking of which, are your aunt and uncle back? What kind of pet beast did they bring you?” “How about a little spar with me, let me see what's so great about a pet beast from the big city.” Chen Bo pressed on, and began to show 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 a biologist could ask for...” “Hold on.” Luo Yu cut him off. “You haven't heard? Your dad didn't tell you?” “Tell me what? My dad went off to some closed-door research. I haven't seen him in half a month.” Chen Bo looked baffled. So that was it... Luo Yu couldn't be bothered with him. He tossed out, “My parents died in a shipwreck on the way to Canglan Island,” and left with the penguin egg. Watching Luo Yu's receding back, Chen Bo stood frozen in place, trying to digest what he'd just heard. Dead? Th-they were dead? He had to be joking... But who would joke about their own parents' lives? So it was true? A moment later... Smack! Chen Bo slapped himself hard across the face. “I really am a piece of shit.” He nearly dropped to his knees in Luo Yu's direction. If he'd known Luo Yu's parents had met with an accident, he would never have run his mouth like that. Now his heart held nothing but self-reproach and guilt. As for one kid's jealous rivalry, Luo Yu didn't take it to heart. But one thing Chen Bo said did stick with him a little. Innate talent... In fact, Beast Masters weren't summoners who relied on their pet beasts alone; they were warriors with power of their own. Of course, no matter how a human trained, the growth of their physical body was limited. But everyone, at the moment they contracted a pet beast and became a Beast Master, awakened an innate talent! “Life,” “Strength,” “Defense,” “Speed,” “Spirit,” “Soul”—everyone could awaken one of these talents. And every time a contracted pet beast's life level rose by one, the corresponding body attribute of the awakened talent would be slightly strengthened, boosting the Beast Master's own fighting strength. Every ten levels a pet beast gained would greatly strengthen the corresponding attribute, along with slightly strengthening the rest of the body. It was said that the kind of innate talent a person awakened was related to their personality. Some Beast Masters worshiped brute force, so they would most likely awaken a “Strength talent,” and as their pet beast's level climbed, their physical strength would grow greater and greater. Some Beast Masters were rather afraid of pain, so they might awaken a “Defense talent,” and end up with a body that could withstand a mutated beast's attacks head-on. Some scholars also said the kind of innate talent might be related to the type of species the pet beast belonged to. Contract a mutated beast known for its vitality, like a starfish, and there was a high chance the Beast Master would awaken a “Life talent,” gaining decent vitality of their own and extremely fast recovery from injuries. So after contracting the Ground Penguin, he too would awaken an innate talent... Still, when it came to contracting a bird that had betrayed both sky and sea, one wielding top-tier Earth-system talent, what attribute of talent he would awaken—even Luo Yu couldn't guess.