Chapter 266 - Preparation Complete

Lu Ran was quite satisfied with the class so he decided to leave as soon as the bell rang.

"Not bad," a woman commented as Lu Ran rounded the corner.

"Were you also listening in, Dr. Gu?” Lu Ran was surprised to see her leaning against the wall.

"Also?"

"Well, there were actually a couple of people listening." Lu Ran shrugged. "For example, Shi Zhen and Manager Ying are both here. They were a bit more obvious about it than you were.”

"It's your first class so they probably just wanted to check on you to make sure everything was going well. You have some sharp senses." Gu Qingyi smiled.

"That's right," Lu Ran boasted.

To be fair, it was really Dark Crow with the sharp senses. Its eyes were truly beyond extraordinary. As an Undead-attribute Overlord, its soul perception was leagues ahead of others.

Even if powerhouses wanted to hide their auras, their understanding of the soul was limited, so it was child’s play to detect their soul fluctuations.

Lu Ran learned about perceiving soul fluctuations by allowing Undead Crow to possess him and playing hide and seek.

"By the way, Dr. Gu, how far is your Azure Sea Dragon from level 60?" Lu Ran asked.

"It’s at level 58 right now, and these last two levels are pretty hard to get. I don't know how long it’s going to take," Gu Qingyi replied helplessly.

"Wasn’t it already at level 58 when the freshman competition started? Is it really that hard to level up your familiars once you get to a high level?"

"Another part of it is that high-level Dragon resources are too scarce," Gu Qingyi complained.

"In that case, I will wait for Captain Doofus to complete its evolution. I’m not planning on challenging the ascension realm any time soon so I will help you cultivate your familiar’s dragon soul. Hopefully, it will undergo a qualitative change.

"I’ll also prepare some more Dragon-attribute dishes as well,” Lu Ran told Dr. Gu.

"I did come here to ask you to use Dragon and Soul Culinary Intent to help me cultivate my Azure Sea Dragon, but don't worry, I’m not trying to make the deadline for the first stage 2 evolution realm.

"Besides, only the top familiar can get the blessing in a stage 2 evolution realm, so I’ll let the old president and others compete for it this time. I’m sitting this one out.

"We can talk about you helping me once you ascend to level 3,” Dr. Gu suggested. "When the time comes, I'll need to hire you as my personal chef!"

"No problem. But you’re telling me that only one familiar can receive the blessing in stage 2 evolution realms? How stingy." Lu Ran complained.

This was in comparison to the 10 slots in stage 1 evolution realms.

One really had to be the best of the best to obtain the perfect evolution.

"Maybe Limitless City wants to screen out the riff-raff to concentrate its resources so it can raise a Legendary creature?" Gu Qingyi pondered.

"Legendary rank..." Lu Ran shook. "It’s really hard to tell what Limitless City is planning. The training process is so intense that I think it wants to build an army to mount some sort of invasion.

"It’s going a little overboard if it simply wants to keep the beastmaster system alive."

"Yeah, let’s not overthink it. The current beastmaster population is about to reach 9 million, and 10 million is just around the corner.

"Let’s see if the next update gives us any clues," Dr. Gu mused. "However, the international alliance has temporarily shifted its focus away from Limitless City. It’s just too mysterious and difficult to study.

Ancient creatures, on the other hand, are the more present threat."

"Did more ancient creatures awaken?" Lu Ran inquired.

"Yeah, and many changes are constantly happening around the globe. A few days ago, powerful shock waves radiated out from deep within the Amazon rainforest. We suspect that there was a battle between two Overlord creatures. They’re both probably over level 60 too.

"Near the International Beastmaster Alliance’s headquarters in Antarctica, there have also been readings of a powerful aura, but because it seems to be frozen in deep ice, it’s been hard to find out more about it.

"Additionally, an expedition team of 4 level 5 beastmasters went missing in the Sahara Desert. With their strength, they should be able to at least flee even if they encounter a level 60 Overlord. This means they most likely encountered something even more dangerous.

"There’s also the deep sea. The situation with the Merfolk Kingdom doesn’t seem to be going well. They proactively gave conditions for creating an alliance with humans. There is a reason why they haven’t invaded.

“With how deep and mysterious the ocean is, the situation could only be worse than the situation on land. How could the Merfolk Kingdom possibly control everything down there? They’re probably not in the best situation. Maybe some deep-sea creature awakened and is putting immense pressure on them

"Humans have a three-year head start since the ancient creatures only started awakening after the spiritual energy revival. We also have a healthy stockpile of weapons. Those creatures can’t do anything in the short term.

"But now that they are becoming more active, the problem is getting serious, so the International Beastmaster Alliance has a huge headache over the situation. This can be considered a real catastrophe for all of mankind,” Dr. Gu lamented. "You mentioned that you had nightmares about an ancient creature invading cities right?" she asked Lu Ran.

"Um... If that nightmare comes through then it would be really bad,” Lu Ran muttered.

That nightmare was the reason why Lu Ran didn’t just train two or three familiars like everyone else.

There were too many hidden dangers in the future.

To properly prepare, Lu Ran could only push his strength to the limits. He needed both quality and quantity.

Now that Dr. Gu told him how bad recent events had gotten, Lu Ran felt stressed over how slow he was progressing.

The biggest problem was that Lu Ran would be in serious danger if a war broke out between ancient creatures and humans for control of the planet.

He was the strongest fourth generation, the usher of the Age of Overlords, and the father of necromancy, so if an army of transcendent creatures attacked, he would be a primary target.

"No more chatting, I need to take Captain Doofus and get back to training!" Lu Ran grimaced.

Gu Qingyi smiled slightly, understanding Lu Ran's dilemma. Back in her day, geniuses only had to worry about human enemies. Nowadays, conditions were generally better, but there were a lot more risks. Besides their fellow beastmasters, they also had to worry about ancient creatures.

***

The day prior, Lu Ran had obtained a pile of Ice-attribute creature corpses through the university. They were all over level 20, with some even above level 30. Lu Ran pulled out their souls and stored them in the Soul-Restraining Bottle.

With the preparations complete, Lu Ran ran back to the training realm to train all four of his familiars. This training session was focused on domains.

Although Captain Doofus could easily open a domain when possessed by Corpse Dog, it still struggled to do so relying on its own strength.

Its training objective was to open a domain using only its own power.

To help it along, Lu Ran used the second amplification card to enhance another Soul-Cleansing Fruit.

On top of that, Lu Ran prepared another item after remembering that Space resources could aid in the comprehension of domains.

He took out the Ethereal Flower that was capable of helping a familiar awaken the Space attribute. Instead of giving it to Captain Doofus, he gave it to the sword spirit.

[Species: Winter Sword Spirit]

[Attributes: Undead, Ice, Space]

[Species Rank: Intermediate King]

[Level: 17]

There was a simple reason behind why the flower went to the sword spirit. It all came back to laying a firm foundation for Captain Doofus to better comprehend domains.

Although this meant that he no longer had an awakening resource prepared for when Captain Doofus reached level 40, that was okay as Captain Doofus still had some time before that. There was plenty of time to find another Ethereal Flower.

Lu Ran already put in an order with Manager Ying since it still owed him the price difference on the ant egg. The Ethereal Flower would actually put Lu Ran in debt but it wasn’t anything he couldn’t take care of.

Captain Doofus’ would definitely soar after evolving.

With four days left before the evolution realm opened up, Lu Ran went all out. Since Captain Doofus was Lu Ran’s first familiar, it held a special place in his heart.

Captain Doofus could be a pain in the butt, but Lu Ran still valued it as a valued partner.

In the last four days, with the assistance of the sword spirit and enhanced Soul-Cleansing Fruit, Captain Doofus could easily unleash a domain on its own.

T minus three days, the effect of the Soul-Cleansing Fruit ended, but Captain Doofus could proficiently use a domain while possessed by the sword spirit.

T minus two days, even without the help of the sword spirit, Captain Doofus could unleash a domain using a normal sword. Although the power was slightly weaker, it could be considered to have mastered domains.

T minus one day, the Winter Sword Spirit reached level 20.

Lu Ran finally believed that they were ready.

He led his team out of the training realm and contacted his group of bodyguards to tell them that he was heading into the next evolution realm.

"How do you think it will turn out this time?”

Everyone was quite curious.

Shi Zhen wanted to be mentally prepared so that he wouldn’t have a heart attack like when Dark Crow evolved.

"I don't know either." Lu Ran shrugged.

Although Sudden Death King and Dark Crow set a precedent, Captain Doofus’ evolution was unlike any other. Given Captain Doofus’ species talent, he really didn’t know how things would turn out. He would be happy as long as it became an Intermediate Overlord!