Chapter 141 - Targeting Sudden Death King!

With the sudden influx of energy, Sudden Death King rapidly transformed into a lightning dragon. Its black wings spread out as it stretched its claws. It tilted its head back and let out a thundering roar. The red lightning that accompanied the roar pierced through the clouds.

Inside its body, Sudden Death King felt as if it was sitting in the cockpit of a giant gundam. It could see the outside world clearly, and could command the lightning dragon to move as it wished.

Sensing its newfound power, Sudden Death King’s eyes flashed.

Is this Dragon Intent?

Intent Formation gave substance to energy, and gave form to the ethereal.

It was just like how Captain Doofus didn’t have the Ice attribute, but could still use Ice-attribute attacks through Blizzard Sword Intent.

What Sudden Death King achieved was very similar. The phantom it created earlier was made entirely of energy. Even an Apprentice beastmaster could see through its true nature. However, by integrating Intent Formation, the lightning dragon appeared much more realistic.

Roar!

𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Sudden Death King involuntarily let out another roar. It touched the lightning dragon manifestation from the inside and realized something astonishing: the manifestation defense was on par with its own! This effectively doubled its defensive capabilities!

If an enemy were to attack, they must first break through the manifestation before having to deal with its scales. Only then could the enemy inflict any real damage! Its defense increased significantly.

However, Sudden Death King quickly realized that the energy consumption of manifesting the lightning dragon was extremely high. If its body hadn’t just gotten a huge influx of nutrients, it would only be able to sustain it for about ten seconds.

Sudden Death King could tell that its stamina was depleting outrageously fast.

Roar!

Sudden Death King quickly retracted its energy, and the ten-meter tall manifestation shrunk down to three. It spread its wings and shot into the air with a red flash of lightning.

Croak.

Sudden Death King looked at Lu Ran and Captain Doofus in shock. It expected them to have the same reaction, but they didn’t even seem to be paying attention.

"What the hell?” Lu Ran exclaimed.

Captain Doofus, who was still rolling around on the ground, also started to detect that something was going on. Manager Ying gave him an extra half a piece of meat, and Lu Ran didn’t just keep it to himself, giving Captain Doofus a taste as well.

He ate a piece out of curiosity, while Sudden Death King ate it to strengthen itself. Captain Doofus was third-wheeling and Lu Ran couldn’t bear to let it just watch them eating something so delectable.

Sudden Death King achieving Intent Formation was definitely an astonishing achievement, but was still within Lu Ran’s expectations. It had been trying to acquire the Dragon attribute and consistently ate dragon cooked with culinary intent. Combined with the insight into Dragon Intent gained from Reverse Super Beast Mimicry and now the Overlord-ranked Dragon King Bird’s meat, Lu Ran might’ve strangled it if it still struggled with Intent Formation.

Captain Doofus was the one to actually give Lu Ran a big surprise. Captain Doofus whimpered as sword energy formed a vortex around where it stood.

This sword vortex exuded a very unique power fluctuation that shocked Sudden Death King. In fact, it even felt a stinging sensation on its scales.

Manager Ying was even more surprised. "A new intent?"

Lu Ran immediately checked its contract card.

[Skill: Dragon-Slaying Sword Intent (Acquired by fearlessly facing a dragon and comprehending Dragon-attribute powers to a certain level. Grants additional damage against Dragon-attribute opponents.)]

"You actually became a dragon-slayer!"

To be completely honest, he thought Captain Doofus was just messing around.

"What?" Manager Ying was also confused.

Dragon slayer? Did the dog acquire a skill called ‘dragon slayer’? That sounds like a skill specifically meant to counter dragons

.

How did it become a dragon slayer after eating just a fraction of a slice of meat from a dragon subspecies?

Manager Ying couldn’t wrap its head around what was happening.

Woof!

Captain Doofus looked proud.

I have a sword that can kill dragons!

Buzz!

The violent winds that the vortex wasn’t directed at anyone, but it still made Sudden Death King take a few steps back in awe.

Roar!

Sudden Death King glared at Captain Doofus.

You’re doing this on purpose! You obviously have it out for me. I’m a dragon subspecies so it’s natural for me to comprehend Dragon Intent. You’re just a dog. Even if you have sword, how did you end up comprehending Dragon-Slaying Sword Intent!?

"Aha!" Lu Ran suddenly came to a realization. "I had problems with teaching Captain Doofus Flame Dragon Sword Intent and Dragon Intent, but after eating dragon food for so many days and with the Dragon King Bird meat as a catalyst, it all comes together.

"Back in the ascension realm, it tried to endure the dragon energy of the Overlord dragon clan. Now that it has a certain understanding of Dragon Intent, even if it couldn’t completely comprehend it, it has learned how to fight dragons instead!

"At least your efforts haven’t been wasted. I’m proud of you, Captain Doofus!"

Lu Ran was very excited. Although this sword intent was only useful against a specific attribute, Captain Doofus was now crowned as a dragon-slayer!

"Woof!"

Captain Doofus was quite proud of himself as well. It was so happy that it started to run in circles.

Sudden Death King was the only one silently crying. As long as Captain Doofus was here, even if it became a dragon, it would still only be “Sudden Death King.”

It looked like it was going to continue suffering for the Lightning God Tactics, especially after it finally gained the defense to defend against Captain Doofus’ slash.

"Meow~."

Finally, Manager Ying couldn't hold it in anymore. Was this the legendary "martial idiot" who was so stupid to the point of ingenuity?

To be honest, it was very upset.

What if it ate the other nine pieces but didn’t get anything? Wouldn’t that mean that the dog was better than it? It could accept it if a dragon subspecies comprehended Dragon Intent and it couldn’t since the lizard had a natural-born advantage.

What it absolutely couldn’t accept was if a dog was better than itself. That was its bottom line. Even if it couldn’t gain the Dragon attribute, it had to at least comprehend Dragon-Slaying Intent.

"There’s been a bunch of crows yammering outside. Go get rid of them," Manager Ying told Lu Ran, trying its best to ignore the dog. It was aware that the crows were Lu Ran’s subordinates.

"The Dragon King Bird meat’s fragrance is too strong, and my barrier can’t stop it from spreading. It looks like a bunch of annoying guys have gathered around us. Half of the powerful creatures in Green Sea City can smell it. You should go deal with that."

"Huh?"

Lu Ran wondered if that slice of grilled meat just now met the minimum requirement for a Treasure-class dish, since even Manager Ying couldn’t contain its aroma. The aroma actually spread across half of Green Sea City.

Although it wasn’t on the level of Yan Sizhen’s Flame Dragon Soar, the aroma of which spread across the entire Stellar Moon Continent, Lu Ran was very please by the results.

Not only did Sudden Death King comprehend Dragon Intent, it even helped Captain Doofus comprehend Dragon-Slaying Sword Intent. He could even make some progress in his Flame Dragon Culinary Intent later.

"Sudden Death King, tell Dark Crows to leave."

Roar!

Sudden Death King, who was still inside the dragon manifestation, nodded and tried to fly out of the barrier.

Lu Ran took a break so he could rest before grilling the next slice for Manger Ying. As the saying went, practice makes perfect. Having done it once, Lu Ran felt that the next slice would be easier.

***

Two days later, Lu Ran boarded a plane from Green Sea City and left for the academic capital, Sky City. The preliminaries were already over and more than nine hundred freshmen made the cut.

These students, with the exception of a few seeded contestants, went through another round of qualifiers across various cities. Counting the seeded contestants, there were a total of a hundred and twenty-eight people competing in the final ranking battle at the main campus of Beastmaster University.

This final group included beastmasters from the Limitless City Transcendent Heavenly Familiar Rankings and even those that have gone beyond it.

Lu Ran and Fang Lan were named as seeded contestants, while Pig Farmer and the rest of their friends drew the short straw. Pig Farm and Lu Yi were able to win one battle each but the others all got eliminated.

Other than Lu Ran and Fang Lan who had just powered up through their ascension realm, most of the contestants were ranked in the top thousand of the most powerful fourth-generation beastmasters in the Xia Empire. Although they couldn’t be considered weak, there was still a power gap between them and the true powerhouses.

Most of those eliminated, other than those that stayed to watch the fight between Fang Lan and Lu Ran, returned to Limitless City to get back to grinding secret realms again.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have arrived at the High Heaven Airport. The temperature outside is..."

After multiple connecting flights, they finally arrived at their destination and the plane began to land. When it was time to deboard, Lu Ran took off his husky eye mask and followed the other passengers off the plane.

Upon leaving the airport, Lu Ran headed directly for the dormitory. Actually, many freshmen had already moved into the dormitories as early as half a month ago. Many of them didn’t sign up for the competition. They wanted to enjoy the university life for a bit and make some new friends.

Lu Ran was a forging major, and the facilities for his academy were actually located off-campus. In fact, the only academy located on the main campus was the combat academy which had the highest number of students.

After he arrived at the forging academy, he discovered that there were already many students walking around. Classes officially started a week after the freshman competition. Until then, students were free to explore Sky City so that they could enjoy their down time to the fullest.

"Building 3, section 1, 202..."

Looking at the information provided by the university’s app, Lu Ran finally located his dorm. Everyone got their own dorms here which included a bedroom, bathroom, and study. Food was provided in the campus cafeteria. When he arrived at his building, Lu Ran scanned his face and sighed when he finally made it to his room.

"It's so small and doesn’t look very comfortable."

After living in a mansion for so long, Lu Ran wasn’t used to such a cramped place, especially since he liked to let Sudden Death King and Captain Doofus roam about.This dorm was obviously meant to allow students to keep their familiars outside their contract cards.

Lu Ran took out his phone and made a call.

"Hello? Pedestrian A?"

"Yes. Master Lin, I arrived at the Forging academy. Let me ask you something. Are all the student dorms like this? Do you have any standalone buildings with a yard and training room?"

"Fuck off. That’s a bit unrealistic. If you think the dorms are too small, you can come live with me. The kind of place you’re thinking about is only available to professors. I only have a few classes and I spend most of my time in Limitless City, so my place just sits empty. You can stay there and it will also be convenient for me to give you private tutoring sessions when needed."

“Really? It looks like the professors have it pretty good. This is perfect. Who’s the dean? Give me their contact information. Before the competition starts I will apply to be a cooking professor."

Lu Ran originally wanted to bring it up after the competition since it would be kind of inappropriate for a professor to trash a bunch of freshmen.