Chapter 100 - Lu Ran Team’s Full Power (Part 1)

While Sudden Death King was "fighting" with the other heroes, no one noticed the two people watching the battle from the top of the stadium.

"Aren't you going to the training camp? I heard that the chairman brought a lot of resources from Golden Hill."

Lu Ran sat on the vantage point while resting his chin on his hand. He was getting drowsy from watching Sudden Death King fight. Fang Lan, who was standing behind him, shook her head.

"I don’t think that this kind of training is effective. Instead of group training, I prefer to self-study or get one-on-one training from an expert."

"Same." Lu Ran smiled.

"I’ve thought about it. I will go clear the ascension realm too and aim for first place in the freshman competition," Fang Lan commented.

In national competitions like the freshman competition, those that ranked in the top thousand were the cream of the crop. Any beastmasters below level 1 were out of consideration.

Fang Lan ultimately decided to strive for a high ranking, hopefully the top 100 or maybe even the top 50. The gap between Apprentice and level 1 beastmaster was about to be revealed.

"I don't know if we will end up in the same realm," Lu Ran said.

He wasn’t worried about Fang Lan's safety. The danger in ascension realms was only high for higher level beastmasters. According to records, the Apprentice ascension realms probably weren’t soul-crushingly difficult.

"I hope we don’t!" Fang Lan exclaimed. "I don't want to be in the same ascension realm as you. I will wait for you to go in first before I do."

Ascension realms randomly matched groups of beastmasters to enter together and complete a mission. Although the group was going in together, they weren’t a team. Rather, they were competing against each other!

If ten Apprentice beastmasters went in together, the number of people who could be promoted was limited. It could be as low as one to three. They would get promoted based on their performance during the mission.

𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Generally speaking, the missions were mostly related to defeating enemies, but it wasn’t limited to clearing mobs. It could even involve PVP.

This was why Fang Lan said that she didn't want to go into the same ascension realm as Lu Ran. It would suck to compete against Lu Ran for a limited number of spots to ascend. She had cleared many secret realms with Lu Ran, and had a clear understanding of Captain Doofus’ strength. She definitely didn’t want to face them.

"Haha, I'm looking forward to it even more. Too bad there are too many beastmasters in Xia now. I heard from older beastmasters that when there were fewer beastmasters around, they got grouped with foreign beastmasters. How exciting would that be!" Lu Ran wondered and lazily stretched his waist.

"You’re not worried because you’re strong. Don’t trip up because you were careless." Fang Lan shook her head.

"Alright, let's go to my house. I have been preparing for the Misty Marsh secret realm. I’ll go over the strategy with you. Can we challenge it tomorrow?"

Lu Ran looked at Fang Lan.

"Sure, nothing bad is going to happen to us, right? Captain Doofus and I don't want to get poisoned by accident."

"Hehe, with me here, you couldn’t get poisoned even if you wanted to." Fang Lan had been looking forward to getting the Poison Amplifying skill and Poison Healing trait for a long time.

With those two abilities, she wouldn’t have to worry about failing to clear the ascension realm.

***

As Sudden Death King was about to start its forty-day training regiment of getting beat up, Lu Ran and others entered a secret realm again. This time, Lu Ran's team was fully prepared to challenge the Misty Marsh secret realm.

Their goal was the Poison Healing trait crystal and Poison Amplifying skill. The team consisted of Pedestrian A, Five Poisons Saintess, Pig Farmer, and Icy Roads Ahead.

Because the wetland environment was more humid, Lu Bing, who contracted an Ice-type wolfhound, was obviously a better fit. Lu Yi, on the other hand, with his Lightning-type mastiff, was more likely to end up as a saboteur.

Lu Ran had to kick him off the team to avoid making the realm harder, and it definitely wasn’t because he was born unlucky.

With Fang Lan's preparation, this run of Misty Marsh didn’t hit that many snags, so they scored an SS on the first try. Maybe because they hadn’t gotten any trait crystals from Lava Lake after so many tries, they pulled the Poison Amplifying skill and Poison Healing crystal after only three runs.

"Thanks, everyone! Dinner’s on me."

Fang Lan was very excited to finally get the skill and trait.

"Congratulations!"

Lu Bing congratulated her with an envious look. She felt that Lu Ran treated Fang Lan really well. They ran Misty Marsh three times in one day.

What is their relationship?

Lu Bing and Pig Farmer still hadn’t found out that Fang Lan's parents were Lu Ran's adoptive parents.

"She is invincible now!"

Pig Farmer realized that Fang Lan was about to become even more terrifying. The poison of the Great Xia wolf spider was already dreadful. Combined with the Poison Amplifying, it was deadlier than before.

The Poison Healing trait was actually even better.

According to Fang Lan the trait would give her spider healing abilities and help in learning Compression skills. And it wasn’t just any Compression skill, it was poison compression!

Once compressed, the toxicity of its attacks would become more terrifying. Combined with the Poison Healing trait, it could also self-heal after getting injured, making it nearly unstoppable.

However, Lu Bing and Pig Farmer thought that Fang Lan was terrifying on her own, and not because of the Great Xia wolf spider.

Fang Lan had a crossbow that could be coated with various poisons. She repeatedly demonstrated her prowess in secret realms and was capable of poisoning prey in a targeted manner.

This was the inspiration behind Lu Ran using a crossbow to hunt the Minotaur boss. Using the Poison Healing trait, Fang Lan could study different toxins in greater depth.

"Thank you for your hard work today."

Lu Ran was in a good mood and thanked everyone for helping Fang Lan to gather what she needed.

"Everyone go back and rest up. Fang Lan, you go to fuse the trait. I'll go to the square to buy some resources, and we'll meet again in the evening."

"Okay!" Fang Lan nodded.

"Alright, then I’ll see y’all in the evening." Lu Bing and Pig Farmer also replied.

The four-person team disbursed now that they completed the day’s task. Fang Lan left to fuse the trait, and Lu Ran planned to go look for Dragon-attribute resources for Sudden Death King.

It was a pity that it couldn’t fuse the Red Lightning trait before getting contracted. According to Dr. Gu, Sudden Death King should be mainly fed Dragon-attribute-related resources. Lu Ran didn’t dare to look into it before due to a lack of money and because Dragon-attribute resources were notoriously expensive.

Now that he was about to come into a lot more crystal coins within the next ten days, it was time to take a look. Sudden Death King stepping up to protect him made Lu Ran willing to invest more resources in it.

Upon arriving in Beastmaster Square, Lu Ran went to the shop where he bought dog food. Walking to the self-service counter, Lu Ran stopped to ponder a moment.

Dragon-attribute resources weren’t Common grade resources. Even the lowest quality ones were Advance. As Lu Ran browsed the shop’s Advanced resources, the corners of his mouth began to twitch.

[Name: Dragonfish Meat]

[Grade: Advanced]

[Description: The meat of a dragonfish that would have evolved into a dragon. Taking it can increase life force.]

[Price: 1000 crystal coins]

"Damn it, why don't you just rob me!?" Lu Ran cursed and understood Pig Farmer’s pain.

Captain Doofus’ Rare dog food consisted of wild game, poultry, vegetables and fruits, but it only added up to a little more than 2000 crystal coins. This fish meat, on the other hand, cost 1000 crystal coins on its own. He was right to not take a look back then.