Chapter 2 – Unexplored Hidden Evolution Paths

“Data panel.”

Lin Ze’s eyes lit up slightly as he quickly focused his mind to examine it.

A Soul Strength of 0.8—the same result he’d gotten from the unified test organized by the school.

A Constitution of 1.0 was actually pretty decent.

For a high school student who hadn’t fully developed yet, reaching the average level of an adult male was already quite impressive.

He had his usual daily exercise routine to thank for that.

As for Level…

Under normal procedures, after contracting an initial Pet Beast, one still had to go to the Beast Tamer Association to complete an assessment and undergo a Baptism before becoming an Apprentice Beast Tamer.

Right now, Lin Ze couldn’t even be called an Apprentice Beast Tamer, so naturally, he had no Level.

“Soul Power 80… so it equals Soul Strength multiplied by 100, huh.”

Lin Ze continued reading downward.

“What are Achievement Points?”

[Achieving achievements grants Achievement Points and reward items]

[Achievement Points can be used to increase Pet Beast Growth Rate, unlock Pet Beast Skills, strengthen Beast Tamer Attributes, and more]

“That’s amazing!”

Lin Ze’s breathing grew a little rapid.

For ordinary Beast Tamers to raise their Pet Beast’s Power Level, aside from feeding them rare and precious Heavenly Treasures, they could only rely on step-by-step nurturing and training.

The former required too much financial resources—only those from wealthy, well-connected families could afford it.

The vast majority of Beast Tamers could only invest massive amounts of time and effort to gradually nurture their Pet Beasts.

If this Achievement System could rapidly boost Pet Beast strength, its value to him went without saying.

With this Cheat, becoming a powerful Beast Tamer was no longer an unreachable dream!

At that thought, Lin Ze’s emotions surged within him.

It took a while before he calmed down, then turned his gaze to Little Snowball beside him.

A new semi-transparent screen popped up.

[Name]: Little Snowball

[Level]: Tier 1 Stage 1

[Skill]: Cold Breath

[Growth Rate can be increased through battle or consuming items rich in energy]

[When Growth Rate reaches 100%, Evolution will be triggered. After Evolution, the Pet Beast’s Power Level will be greatly enhanced]

Pet Beasts were classified by strength from low to high, ranging from Tier 1 to Tier 9.

Each Tier was further divided into nine Stages.

Tier 1 Stage 1 was unquestionably the weakest Level.

“Oh?”

Just then, Lin Ze’s gaze sharpened.

At the very bottom of the panel, there were two more lines of text.

[Selectable Evolution Path]

[① Giant Path: An Evolution method that strengthens close-combat abilities, focusing on Constitution and Strength while weakening Ice Element manipulation. Next Evolution Form: [Snow Fiend]. Maximum evolution: Tier 5.]

[② Empress Path: An Evolution method that strengthens Ice Elemental Affinity talent, focusing on spellcasting ability while weakening close-combat attributes. Next Evolution Form: [Ice Crystal Soul]. Maximum evolution: King Rank.]

“This is…”

Lin Ze was taken aback.

From what he remembered, Little Snowball shouldn’t have any Evolution Forms at all.

Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been classified as an F-rank Pet Beast at the very bottom of the hierarchy.

“Could I have remembered wrong?”

Lin Ze quickly pulled out his phone and searched online.

But all the information he found indicated that Little Snowball indeed had no Evolution Form.

His memory hadn’t been wrong.

“Which means… this is an undiscovered Hidden Evolution Path!”

“And there are actually two of them!”

Lin Ze couldn’t help but take a sharp breath.

There were countless Pet Beast species in the world—too many to count.

Humanity has so far identified less than one or two tenths of all species.

The same is true for the evolution paths of pet beasts.

It took humanity hundreds of years and countless detours to painstakingly explore over a hundred thousand evolution paths.

Yet even this number pales in comparison to the undiscovered evolution paths.

Nowadays, at least a thousand new evolution paths are unearthed every year.

Research into the evolution directions of pet beasts is a long and arduous process.

Lin Ze never expected that this system would also have the function of displaying pet beast evolution paths.

And from the looks of it, it could display all evolution paths of a pet beast.

“That’s incredible!”

With just a moment of thought, Lin Ze understood the power of this function.

He could completely use it to select pet beasts with enormous evolutionary potential to contract.

At the very least, he could become an outstanding Pet Beast Breeder.

“No wonder it’s called a Cheat—its functions are simply overwhelming!”

Lin Ze was overjoyed.

Little Snowball, known as an Ornamental Pet Beast, actually had two Hidden Evolution Paths.

One of them could even evolve up to King Rank!

According to the Beast Tamer Association’s classification standards, pet beasts with King-rank potential were, without exception, ranked at the highest S-tier!

From F-tier to S-tier, the gap between the two could hardly be described as anything less than worlds apart.

If this got out, who knew how many people would be so shocked their jaws would drop.

Lin Ze was thrilled and immediately tapped on the two evolution paths to examine them.

【Giant Path, next Evolution Form 【Snow Fiend】, requirements: Growth Rate 100%, Low-rank Ice Element Essence X10, Barbarian Horn Powder 100g】

【Empress Path, next Evolution Form 【Ice Crystal Soul】, requirements: Growth Rate 100%, Low-rank Ice Element Essence X20, Soul Jade X1】

Of the two evolution paths, the second one’s evolution requirements were clearly much higher than the first.

But without even needing to think, Lin Ze decisively chose the Empress Path.

After all, this was a path that could evolve up to a King-rank Pet Beast!

In all of Pinghai City, you could hardly find a handful of Beast Tamers who owned King-rank pet beasts.

“Next, I just need to find a way to make Little Snowball evolve.”

Lin Ze let out a relieved sigh of joy.

The problem that had troubled him for so long finally had a solution.

With a Cheat, getting into the Beast Tamer Academy was no longer just a pipe dream.

“The College Entrance Exam is on the 13th of next month. Before that, I must first obtain the Apprentice Beast Tamer qualification.”

The Federation had unified regulations that all students wishing to apply to the Beast Tamer Academy must first undergo an assessment at the Beast Tamer Association and obtain the Apprentice Certificate.

This was essentially a screening Gate.

It filtered out most students who didn’t meet the requirements yet harbored wishful thinking, in order to make admissions more efficient.

“Oh right, Achievement Points!”

Following the prompts, Lin Ze found the achievement list.

There were only a few achievements on it.

【First Pet Beast】: Successfully contract the first pet beast in your life. Completing this achievement grants 100 Achievement Points and Soul Crystal X1 (Completed, reward pending claim).

【Apprentice Beast Tamer】: Pass the Apprentice Beast Tamer qualification assessment and complete the first Baptism. Completing this achievement grants 200 Achievement Points and Soul Crystal X1.

[Enrollment]: Successfully obtain an admission letter from any Beast Tamer Academy. Completing this achievement grants 300 Achievement Points, Soul Crystal x1, and Body-Strengthening Crystal x1.

Lin Ze glanced at it and decisively claimed the reward for the first achievement.

[Obtained 100 Achievement Points, Soul Crystal x1]

In an instant.

A dragon-eye-sized object, silver-bright and crystalline like a gem, appeared in Lin Ze’s palm.

[Soul Crystal: A peculiar crystal imbued with soul power. Upon fusion, it enhances Soul Strength, with the degree of enhancement depending on the user’s current Soul Strength.]

Without hesitation, Lin Ze used it immediately.

In that split second, the Soul Crystal dissolved into liquid like snow under a blazing sun, seeping into his body through his pores.

Lin Ze felt a surge of mental clarity, and his entire being suddenly became refreshed and invigorated.

Checking his Personal Panel again, his Soul Strength had already risen to 1.8.