"Tomorrow is the day the school distributes pet beasts. I wonder if I'll be able to tame one of those high-grade Transcendent pet beasts," Chen Wei murmured to himself.
Most middle schools in the Eastern Hua Nation would distribute pet beasts to students when they advanced from sophomore to junior year. The majority of these distributed pet beasts had racial levels of mid-grade Aberrant or higher, with a rare few reaching high-grade Transcendent level.
Of course, the pet beasts distributed by the school came with fees, and their levels would never reach Elite tier. Pet beasts of that caliber could only be purchased from pet beast shops, but the prices were staggering and they were extremely difficult to contract.
Generally, only students from wealthy families with outstanding talents would choose to purchase from pet beast shops—something Chen Wei could hardly dream of affording. Most students could only select and tame pet beasts from the Beast Hall allocated by their school.
The Beast Hall offered substantial discounts on pet beasts and allowed payment plans. Mid-grade Aberrant-level pet beasts in the Beast Hall were basically priced at seventy percent of equivalent pet beasts in regular shops. If a student was from a martyr's family, the price would only be half of what pet shops charged.
Though the prices were discounted, the pet beasts in the Beast Hall were far from weak. The pet beasts housed there were breeds that the Waterfall Mountain Pet Beast Breeding Base had discovered through cultivation and research to be particularly suitable for beginners.
Of course, those wanting other breeds of pet beasts could apply in advance to visit the pet beast breeding base in Waterfall Mountain City. The Waterfall Mountain Breeding Base had a rich variety of pet beast species, but whether they were adults or cubs, the difficulty of contracting them was far greater than those in the Beast Hall.
However, if you failed to contract a pet beast at the base that day, you could only return to the Beast Hall the following week to select one. By then, all the excellent pet beasts would likely have been contracted by others. Unless you could prepare a quality pet beast in advance, you'd only be able to choose from the leftovers.
Therefore, those who chose to apply for the Waterfall Mountain Breeding Base were either confident enough due to awakening innate talent abilities, or came from wealthy families with deep pockets. Of course, there were quite a few who wanted to try their luck, and Chen Wei happened to be the former—very confident in himself.
Chen Wei turned and got up, taking out a jade box from his belongings. He gently opened it with his right hand. Inside the jade box, on the left side was a crystal-clear red crystal, while on the right side was a pristine white magic core—the magic core of a top-tier Elite-level Ice Demon Scorpion, classified as a level 4 resource.
This high-level magic core could slightly enhance a Beast Tamer's meditation efficiency and was precious property left to him by his father.
That's right, Chen Wei was a transmigrator. However, when he was first born, he was no different from any ordinary baby. But as he grew older, with occasional feelings of familiarity in daily life, he awakened his past life memories a year ago.
When his memories awakened, Chen Wei's mind had briefly received many complex recollections—fleeting images and text that passed in an instant. The final image that remained in his mind was a brilliant round pearl radiating a red glow.
In his previous life, he loved animals and worked as a zookeeper, mainly responsible for cleaning animal enclosures and preparing sufficient feed for the animals. Unexpectedly, the zoo later faced poor management and he was forced into unemployment. After encountering an accident, he arrived at this Blue Star filled with transcendent power and mighty exotic beasts.
When Chen Wei touched that pearl with his consciousness in his mind, the pearl moved gently, transmitting information—this was his second innate talent.
Dragon Mastery: "Grants dragon affinity. Charisma increases when in contact with most pet beasts. Even fierce and brutal exotic beasts will be drawn to you and won't actively attack. You can greatly increase pet beasts' affection and trust toward you through Dragon Force or Dragon Crystals."
"Consume your own stamina to condense Dragon Force, which can be directly absorbed by transcendent creatures through physical contact. After transcendent creatures absorb Dragon Force, their strength and potential can be enhanced to a certain degree."
"Dragon Crystals are special crystals formed by combining a drop of the host's blood with Dragon Force. They can be repeatedly condensed and strengthened by consuming stamina, possessing incredible transformations. Consuming crystals allows transcendent creatures to mutate and evolve their bloodlines toward dragons, and can also serve as materials for special evolution."
Breaking records by obtaining such a powerful second special talent, Dragon Mastery, filled Chen Wei with extraordinary desire for transcendent power. He didn't want to remain an obscure member of the lower class in his second life. He wanted to become a brilliant star that illuminated the world.
Collecting his thoughts, Chen Wei took the Ice Demon Scorpion's magic core from the jade box and placed it beside him, beginning his daily Source Force absorption and Source Star strengthening cultivation.
Most cultivators would place magic cores beside them, utilizing the cores' characteristic of automatically gathering surrounding Source Force for cultivation.
Magic cores couldn't be used directly for cultivation. Directly absorbing the Source Force within magic cores would make the Source Star unstable or even cause it to collapse.
Chen Wei sat cross-legged on his bed in meditation, absorbing the Source Force scattered between heaven and earth, slowly solidifying and strengthening the Source Star in his mind. His pentagonal Source Star flickered with blue light at its tips—the mark of a completed first-tier Source Star.
Successfully transforming the Source Star in one's mind from illusory to solid meant achieving a first-tier Source Star. Only by cultivating to the first tier could one contract pet beasts, and basically all students in the Beast Taming class had cultivated to this level.
To break through from first-tier to second-tier Source Star, one needed to strengthen the first-tier Source Star to be more solid, changing the overflowing blue light at the star's tips to green light, while also doubling the pentagonal star's volume.
Therefore, second-tier Source Star possessors were basically impossible to find among high school seniors.
The occasional second-tier Source Star possessor who did appear was usually the top scorer in Waterfall Mountain City's college entrance exam.
Perhaps due to transmigrating, Chen Wei's cultivation efficiency had not only nearly doubled compared to before, but his Source Star's volume had also grown by nearly double.
The original owner already had quite decent cultivation talent, and now it could be said to be one in ten thousand.
After two hours of meditation cultivation, Chen Wei's Source Star edges occasionally flickered with traces of weak green light. This green light meant that before long, his Source Star would break through to the second tier, and his innate talent would be strengthened accordingly.
Chen Wei, having completed his cultivation cycle, stopped his Source Star meditation, placed the magic core back in the jade box, and then took out a crystal-clear Dragon Crystal from the box.
Basic Dragon Crystal: "Possesses incredible transformations. Can cause slight evolution in transcendent creatures' bloodlines, with an extremely small chance of awakening random dragon-type skills."
Gripping the red crystal, Chen Wei began his nightly strengthening routine before sleep. With a thought, he felt his stamina gradually being absorbed by the crystal in his hand. Waves of fatigue transmitted from his mind, while simultaneously the Dragon Crystal began flickering with red light.
"Boom!" Just as Chen Wei's stamina was nearly exhausted, what felt like a tremor echoed through his mind, and the Dragon Crystal in his hand began rapidly growing in size at a visible rate.
The excited Chen Wei forced himself to gather his spirits and cast Appraisal on the Dragon Crystal.
Intermediate Dragon Crystal: "Possesses incredible transformations. Can cause minor evolution in transcendent creatures' bloodlines, with a small chance of awakening random dragon-type skills."
Chen Wei couldn't help but clench his fist in delight, unconsciously letting out a "Yeah!"
Indeed, by continuously using his talent to condense and strengthen, the Dragon Crystal could undergo sublimation. His efforts hadn't been in vain—after expending energy over the course of a year, he had successfully upgraded the Dragon Crystal!
"Bang bang bang." A series of chaotic sounds came through. Chen Wei frowned and turned to look.
In the fish tank at the edge of his room's cabinet, a Red-tailed Goldfish with scales radiating golden luster kept ramming against the tank. Its originally adorable eyes now clearly showed overwhelming desire.
Placing the Dragon Crystal back in the jade box to isolate its aura, Chen Wei suppressed his joy and fatigue as he got up and walked to the fish tank. He touched Little Gold with his hand and used the last of his stamina to employ "Dragon Force."
It felt so comfortable that the scales on its body shimmered like golden silk. It affectionately nuzzled Chen Wei's palm, swished its tail, and contentedly blew bubbles.
"Little guy, don't even think about it. If all goes well tomorrow, this Dragon Crystal will have an owner!" Chen Wei said with longing anticipation in his voice.