This wasn't a mutation.
It was an incomplete evolution.
Instead of degenerating, it had evolved incorrectly due to missing lunar energy.
It needs Moon Essence to complete its bloodline…
Once balanced—
It would become a Rank 10 potential beast.
An extremely powerful one.
Jaden smiled slightly.
"I would like to take this one," he said calmly.
The old man looked surprised.
"Although it was once a Rank 8 potential beast, but its nothing more than a Rank 2 potential beast due to its bad mutation. I suggest you choose some one else, after all with your 500,000 gold coins funds, you can buy a Rank 4 potential beast easily." he advised.
"Its okay, I like this one. Besides, all the other beasts here have Rank 3 potential anyway," Jaden said calmly.
The old man nodded.
"...As you wish Sir, " Old man clearly want to advice against it but thinking he might not have enough money he just obeyed.
"Is there anything else you will need?" He asked instead.
"Yes. I'll need its feed. Also, do you have Lunar Essence? My mom's beast need it," Jaden asked.
The old man nodded again.
"I do. It costs 10,000 gold coins per 1 ml."
Jaden recalled the evolution requirements quickly.
"I'll take 7 ml."
"Very well."
The old man carefully picked up the small lizard and gently handed it to Jaden.
"Here. You may tame it now. Naming your beast after forming the contract will increase intimacy," he explained.
Jaden nodded and picked the small beast. The little beast looked startled as he found himself in Jaden's Palm as he tried to move away.
"Your name will be… Rykan," But Jaden said holding it.
The little lizard struggled not understanding any word of Jaden.
"You will need to form a connection first to talk to him" Old man told him as Jaden nodded.
Jaden activated Taming.
A faint magic circle formed beneath his feet. Soft blue light wrapped around him and the lizard.
Since it was only a newborn and already weakened from its unstable evolution, it did not resist much.
Within seconds—
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ Contract Successful ]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
You have formed a contract with: Mutated Sun Lizard.
Intimacy: 90%
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Jaden felt the connection form between them.
A thin thread of spiritual energy linked his heart to the small creature.
At that exact moment—
Rykan's status appeared before his eyes.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Name: Not decided
Species: Incomplete Sun-Moon Lizard
Rank: 0
Level: 1
HP: 150
MP: 90
Potential: Rank 10 (Sealed)
Bloodline Stability: 42%
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"I successfully tamed him," Jaden said.
The old man nodded, then left. After a moment, he returned holding a bag.
"I've packed everything you need. It contains enough feed for three months. That should be enough for this little one until he grows strong enough to hunt on his own."
Jaden nodded.
He took the bag and gently placed Rykan into his Contract Space. The small lizard vanished in a flash of light, arriving inside the space.
At first, Rykan looked surprised by the blank white scenery. But soon, the Contract Space changed according to his preference — transforming into a garden divided into two halves: one bathed in sunlight and the other covered under a soft moonlit glow.
Rykan looked pleased as he moved forward and sat directly at the border between the two areas.
Jaden nodded seeing this and then asked the old man for bill, which was 300,000 gold coins. After paying the bill he left the shop, returning home.
By the time he reached home, his younger siblings were back from school too.
As soon as they saw him, they ran to him with bright smiles, full of excitement.
"Brother! What cool class did you awaken?" both asked holding his hand with bright eyes.
Jaden stroked the head of his little siblings as he said.
"I awakened as a Beast Tamer."
Their eyes widened.
"Really? That sounds cool! Can we see your beast?" they asked eagerly.
Jaden chuckled.
"Alright."
He summoned Rykan.
He opened his palm, and Rykan appeared just above his hand.
Rykan's eyes snapped open as he sensed that the comfortable environment around him had suddenly changed. He looked around in surprise, clinging tightly to Jaden's fingers.
"Whoa…"
"He looks scary…" his little sister said, taking a step back, while his little brother tried to reach out and touch Rykan.
Jaden smiled.
"He's not scary."
He gently stroked Rykan's small head. The little lizard smiled closed eyes as he felt comfortable.
The twins looked at the now cute acting lizard their fear melting away by his cute appearance now.
"He's cute…"
"He looks funny, let me rub him too"
His brother lightly scratched his head too.
"You can play with him when he wakes up. For now, I'm going to my room to check something," Jaden said.
He gently placed Rykan back into the Contract Space. The twins pouted slightly but nodded in agreement.
Their mother and father both worked at a tailoring shop. Their awakened class was Tailor after all, and they would usually returns at night.
Jaden went to his room and closed the door quietly.
He summoned Rykan again and carefully placed him on the table.
Taking out the vial of Lunar Essence, he whispered,
"Time to complete you."
He gently shook Rykan awake. The small lizard blinked sleepily.
Jaden uncorked the vial and carefully let a few drops fall into Rykan's mouth.
Rykan looked surprised from the unexpected food as he blinked looking at Jaden and then swallowed it.
Jaden continued feeding him the remaining vials.
As the last drop was consumed—
A silver light burst from Rykan's body.
His small body trembled.
Cracks began forming along his old scales.
Then—
They started shedding.
The blackish scales begun to fall as new, darker scales grew underneath, now lined with faint silver and golden patterns resembling crescent moons and round sun.
Rykan's incomplete evolution was finally being completed.
The silver light intensified, filling the entire room.
Jaden instinctively stepped back but kept his eyes locked on Rykan.
The small lizard's body began to grow.
From palm-sized—
To the length of his forearm.