The King of Beast Trainers

Chapter 48 - 42: Maximizing Defense Out of Fear of Death_1

"Sword Intent..."

Lu Ran nodded.

Indeed, before the appearance of supernatural events, this state might have been a legend.

But now, it might not be beyond human reach.

Senior Brother Jiang Man recorded that Sword Intent seems to be related to the higher-level use of Energy Shaping Skills.

And it also mentioned a name Lu Ran was familiar with, Gu Qingyi.

It looked like Shaping Techniques might be the key to understanding Sword Intent!

"I understand, Master. I will certainly grasp Sword Intent."

"Good! Lu Ran, why don't you stay at the arena for a while?"

"That way, we can spar and practice swordsmanship often."

Mr. Jiang Dou Sr. urged, not wanting Lu Ran to leave just yet.

"That... sure," Lu Ran hesitated for a moment, then agreed. After all, Green Sea City was very close to Jinling City, both within the bounds of Infinite City No. 3, so there won't be much issue. He could directly enter Infinite City from this side of Jinling as well.

"He Dali!"

"I'm here, Master," Senior Brother He answered.

"Go prepare a larger room for your Junior Brother Lu Ran, he has a pet beast too."

"Alright, alright, I'm on it," Senior Brother He said.

As Senior Brother He left, Lu Ran asked Master Jiang Dou: "Speaking of which, Master, aside from Senior Brother Jiang Man, has anyone else in the arena been chosen as a Beast Trainer?"

"No more," Jiang Dou shook his head, saying, "The number of Beast Trainers has only recently begun to increase."

"Then in the future, you could accept more Beast Trainers as disciples, right? Beast Trainers fall into two schools; one focuses on nurturing pet beasts, while the other strengthens oneself. Senior Brother is the latter. In the future, there will probably be many of this kind of Beast Trainer. Then, cold weapons like swords and knives can surely rise to prominence again."

"You're right!" A light shone in Jiang Dou's eyes, feeling that with examples like Jiang Man and Lu Ran, Beast Trainers who tap into extraordinary powers have a huge advantage in practicing Sword Dao!

Their understanding of Sword Momentum could be greatly accelerated!

Perhaps, the ancient martial skills that have been lost in Xia Country could resurface again.

"But speaking of which, I wonder what it would be like to combine gunplay with the power of a pet beast. If one could imbue bullets with Attribute Power, that'd be so cool." However, with another thought, Lu Ran lapsed into contemplation again.

Jiang Dou: ???

A frown creased Jiang Dou's brow as a bad premonition hit him; damn it, this kid Lu Ran wouldn't abandon Sword Dao for gunplay in the future, would he?

A second bloom?!

...

Unaware of what Mr. Jiang Dou Sr. was thinking, Lu Ran had decided to stay at Prism Arena for a while and first wanted to check out the surroundings.

For that reason, Lu Ran, under the pretense of "walking the dog daily and finding a feng shui treasure land for Mr. Husky to defecate," took the vengeful Mr. Husky and left the arena.

"Is he a Beast Trainer?"

"So handsome!"

As Lu Ran walked out of the arena, he didn't recall Mr. Husky but kept him by his side.

Seeing the majestic Husky accompanying Lu Ran, some of the arena apprentices had their eyes widened in surprise.

The profession of Beast Trainer was now the center of attention wherever one went. Since Lu Ran had arrived at the arena, the attention was already significant, but finding out that Brother Lu Ran also had the identity of a Beast Trainer made these apprentices even more eager to know about him.

"No wonder he's so incredible..."

Some of the female apprentices recalled Lu Ran's initial display of imposing force, their hearts fluttering wildly.

"If I tell you to go hunting on your own these next few days, can you find your way back?"

Lu Ran asked the King of Sudden Death in his pocket.

He hadn't planned on staying long in Jinling, so he hadn't brought much food for the King of Sudden Death. After all, living things couldn't be stored in the Spatial Bag, and the King of Sudden Death preferred fresh food, so if it wanted to eat its fill in the upcoming days, it had to hunt for itself.

As for the extraordinary resources in Infinite City... Lu Ran thought it best not to worry about feeding two pet beasts for now, and to let the King of Sudden Death eat regular food instead.

Prism Arena was located at the foot of the mountains, close to the wilds. The insects that filled the hills should be enough for the King of Sudden Death's feast.

"Hunt on my own! How terrifying! Sudden Death!"

The King of Sudden Death rolled its eyes and fainted in the pocket.

"Sudden a hammer." Lu Ran said irritably, "You are a high-level extraordinary race, relax; those insects can't beat you now."

Meanwhile, Mr. Husky looked at the King of Sudden Death with a disdainful expression, what a coward.

"Waka..."

Soon, Lu Ran, along with Mr. Husky and the King of Sudden Death, climbed the mountain.

He took the King of Sudden Death out of the pocket, placed it on the ground, and looking at the mini True Red-Eye Black Dragon, said, "What comes next is free hunting time for you. Mr. Husky, um... keep an eye on it."

"Woof!" Mr. Husky nodded, becoming the shepherd of the lizard dog.

Lu Ran, meanwhile, took out his phone, planning to see if there were any new developments in the field of Beast Training today.

"Beast Trainer-specific transit channels trial operation exceeds three days..."

"In the past week, numerous city pet stores have experienced shortages..."

"Recently, a large number of Black Card holders have gone to the countryside to try and capture wild beasts, experts call for not blindly pursuing high-species animals..."

"Currently, Xia Country has initially established Beast Trainer Towers in 34 cities, which will become the administrative hubs for the Beast Trainer profession in various provinces..."

"Shocking! An eight-year-old child was selected to become a Beast Trainer, and their contracted pet beast is a dinosaur..."

"How did these weird marketing accounts even get mixed in?" Lu Ran was exasperated.

However, this was indeed the most eye-catching piece amid a pile of news...

He couldn't resist, so he clicked in. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

After reporting the marketing account, Lu Ran saw a message from Fang Lan.

But after clicking in, Lu Ran felt even more like cursing; as expected of a marketing account, it turns out the kid's father had made a Black Card himself and bought a dinosaur model for the kid, letting him cosplay as a Dragon Tamer, and then posted it online.

A wave of curses ensued...

Fang Lan: [Have you arrived in Jinling yet?]

After reporting the marketing account, Lu Ran saw a message from Fang Lan.

Lu Ran let out a sigh and replied, [I have, and I might stay here for a few days, so I'll be back a bit later.]

Fang Lan: [Whatever, I'm just letting you know that the official Beast Trainer forum suddenly uploaded a bunch of basic beast information today, it's quite comprehensive, you can check it out when you're free.]

Lu Ran: [Alright.]

The Beast Trainer forum was a network forum created after the dawn of the Beast Training Era, presumably managed by the authorities. Lu Ran had visited it a few times before, and it was almost entirely filled with irrelevant posts and questions from ordinary people, and the few strategy posts didn't help him much, so he stopped paying attention to it.

Now that Fang Lan mentioned it, he opened the forum again.

This time, he found the forum indeed had much higher nutritional value. The essence area added many new strategies, including quite a few simple difficulty strategies for the Novice Secret Realm, but more of them were strategies teaching Novice Beast Trainers how to safely level up.

For instance, some of the content from the Beast Training Manual that Lu Ran purchased could be found quickly and clearly in this forum.

"Huh?"

As Lu Ran scrolled through, he found an interesting strategy post.

"Do you know which direction your pet beast should be trained in?"

That was the title of the post.

The content was also quite meticulous.

[The poster here is a third-generation Beast Trainer, my ID is 'Seamless', from the Observer Council, and today I'm sharing with you all a little beast training tip.]

[Have you noticed that after contracting a pet beast, although it becomes stronger in every aspect, most pet beasts have one attribute, be it strength, defense, or speed, that is particularly outstanding and gets enhanced even more!]

[And this prominent attribute is not necessarily the species' advantage attribute originally.]

[I've asked many friends and found that this phenomenon exists, so I went through some strategies left by the first and second-generation experts and made this summary.]

[During the initial evolution and awakening into an extraordinary being, due to its inner desires, some attributes of a pet beast get extra strengthening.]

[Let me give an example, like a stray dog that roams the streets and frequently suffers bullying from its kind. If it deeply wishes it could run faster to avoid the bullying, and this thought is very deep-rooted, then after it becomes contracted, its speed may indeed get an extra boost and become its species' advantage that's different from other canine pet beasts!]

[Of course, this kind of imagination does not happen with every pet beast, and it's very random.]

[Without a doubt, this is an interesting subject. Because of an animal's craving for a certain attribute, after evolution, that attribute will become more prominent.]

[The purpose of posting this is to inform beginners that if you are uncertain about how to train your pet beast, you can put more effort into their advantageous attributes. Apart from their own racial advantages, there is also a second advantage brought about by their inner desires during contracting! In short, Beast Trainers can delve deeper into their pet beasts' hearts!]

[Follow me, don't get lost, a training tip every week!]

"This post... is quite something." After reading the post, Lu Ran felt like something clicked.

Because, using this method to explain the situations of Mr. Husky and the King of Sudden Death seemed quite plausible.

For instance, Mr. Husky, before coming into contact with extraordinary prowess, was always taught various peculiar skills by Lu Ran, like swordsmanship. It was quite a hardship, so its craving to have stronger learning abilities to cope with Lu Ran was completely reasonable, and hence after evolving, its learning abilities became even more outstanding.

And as for the King of Sudden Death, that fellow was timid and scared of dying, and its talent for playing dead, to put it simply, was a type of camouflage against dangerous situations... Of course, Lu Ran's own Red-eyed Eagle Lizard died far more often than other Red-eyed Eagle Lizards... perhaps individual differences.

If it was said that after becoming an extraordinary race, which attribute became most prominent, Mr. Husky would definitely have a say, defensive power!

Mr. Husky had tested it, and despite its small size, its defensive power was comparable to that of a wild boar when covered with Rock Energy.

This was quite terrifying. Keep in mind that the King of Sudden Death had yet to awaken any attributes, and its level was probably only Level 1.

Although its Species Level was higher, such defensive power was still absurd.

After reading the post, Lu Ran felt the King of Sudden Death was likely in this situation.

First of all, its own species advantage was defensive power; the Red-eyed Eagle Lizard, also known as the Armor Lizard, had scales much like armor. Although it couldn't compare to animals like turtles, its defensive power was still pretty decent among small lizards.

Even under these circumstances, the King of Sudden Death was still not satisfied with its defensive power. Because of its fear of death and a deep desire for stronger defensive power, after consuming the Awakening Leaf and evolving into an extraordinary being, it gained an inconceivable boost in defensive power.

Its body was concentrated purely with defense!

It was essentially a case of "scared of dying so all talent points went into defensive power."

Lu Ran looked at the King of Sudden Death cautiously searching for insects in the grass, scratching his head. So if he were to raise this fellow, should he train it towards defense to expand its advantage?

By then, and with Mr. Husky at its side—one with the sword and one with the shield—their output and damage absorption would both be accounted for.

However, the King of Sudden Death was already afraid of dying, and now making it a tank felt somewhat inhumane.