Chapter 287 - The Tree Monarch’s Legacy

“What...?”

After selecting Kinship as his fourth beastmaster skill, Lu Ran fell into deep thought.

As expected! It wasn’t as perfect as I had imagined.

He had fantasized that he would be able to assign three to five kin to each of his familiars upon learning Kinship.

However, after acquiring the skill, he went silent. The current version of Kinship allowed only one familiar to form a contract with only one kin. If he wanted to assign multiple kin to his familiars, he would have to develop the skill further or wait until his beastmaster level increased.

“Good thing I had already considered this possibility. It’s alright I guess. Actually, this effect is much more reasonable. If it worked exactly as I imagined, that would be ridiculous. No, even in its current form, it’s still insanely powerful.”

A kin could receive one of three enhancements from its main familiar—power enhancement, talent enhancement, or bloodline enhancement. Additionally, when fighting alongside its main familiar, the kin could attach themselves to the main familiar to perform a fusion skill.

It was no wonder legendary divine beasts were often said to cultivate kin. If Captain Doofus contracted the sword spirit and the swordgrass as kin, and they gained his talent enhancement, that would be very terrifying.

Captain Doofus’ talent was naturally swordsmanship mastery. The ultimate expression of that talent was the sword domain. Perhaps, by becoming kin and receiving the enhancement, the sword spirit and the swordgrass would be able to use its sword domain with ease. And that wasn’t even the best part.

When a kin fought alongside its main familiar, it could attach itself to the main familiar to strengthen its fusion skill. That meant the kin could act as a buff, enhancing the main familiar’s abilities even further.

Merging skills between different familiars was usually incredibly difficult. However, if the familiars had a kinship contract, it might become much easier. If the sword spirit and the swordgrass mastering the sword domain wasn’t already terrifying enough, then what if their sword domain could merge with Captain Doofus’ sword domain?

Lu Ran suddenly recalled Manager Ying mentioning something called a fusion domain. On the Stellar Moon Continent, some of the most powerful Legendary beastmasters had multiple familiars that possessed domains. Some could even fuse their domains together to form a fusion domain.

“Wait a minute. What if, one year from now, I manage to develop Kinship to allow each familiar to contract two kin? Then, both the sword spirit and the swordgrass can become Captain Doofus’ kin.

“If both of them had their own domains, they could fuse them with Captain Doofus’ sword domain to create a three-way fusion domain! In a 3v3 battle, wouldn’t they be completely unstoppable?” Lu Ran inhaled sharply.

Suddenly, he had a clear idea of how to maximize this Kinship skill. Captain Doofus’ strength lay in its swordsmanship talent. So, it should be paired with sword-type kin. Sudden Death King’s advantage was its dragon bloodline. So, it should be paired with dragon-type kin.

As for Dark Crow, developing Kinship further wouldn’t be easy. Instead, when it reached level 40, he would simply grant it the Legion Domination Trait. That way, he wouldn’t need to assign kin to it at all since it already had countless clones.

“This brings up another problem. Should I contract the sword spirit and the swordgrass?”

If he wanted to use Kinship to form a three-way Fusion Domain that could obliterate the ten first generations, both the sword spirit and the swordgrass would need to be under contract. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to participate in official battles.

Lu Ran didn’t mind contracting them, but the issue was the same as always. He had too few contract slots, and too many familiars waiting in line. Weather Sprite, the Longleaf Swordgrass, the sword spirit... Now, with the Lucky Clover trait, he might also need a plant familiar.

Lu Ran held his head in frustration. He felt even more envious of Stellar Moon Federation’s beastmasters. After all, they relied on their beastmaster space for contracts.

Although their contract limit was still tied to their beastmaster level, there was a highly advanced beastmaster skill called Beastmaster Space Amplification, which could directly double their contract capacity.

Having double the beastmaster space, combined with Kinship, would let him annihilate any opponent of the same level. Unfortunately, that was just wishful thinking for now.

“Alright, when I get back, I’ll contract Baby Cloud first. The three-way fusion domain is still just a theory, so I don’t know if it will even work. Weather Sprite’s blizzard weather and thunderstorm weather can definitely synchronize with Captain Doofus and Sudden Death King. That won’t go wrong.

“As for Corpse Dog and the swordgrass, I’ll leave them be for now. If the swordgrass ever awakens intelligence and masters fusion domain, I can contract it later. But even if I go with this plan, if I come across another Rare familiar, I still won’t have enough contract slots.” Lu Ran frowned.

Maybe I need to reduce the number of familiars I contract. Do I really need another plant familiar just to merge Lucky Clover? Can the swordgrass inherit Lucky Clover instead? Although Lucky Clover was primarily a support trait, can it be converted into an offensive trait?

“I recall a level 5 secret realm that had a trait called Critical Trait. The Critical Trait gave a familiar a small chance to deal multiple attacks with one skill. If it was triggered, the skill damage would skyrocket. While it relied on probability, the sheer number of attack attempts could compensate for the low odds, making it viable.

“Many secret realm raid teams used Critical Trait to raid secret realms, hoping for lucky drops. This trait was decent for PVE, but in PVP, it was too inconsistent. But what if I combined Critical Trait with Lucky Clover and assigned it to a familiar?” Lu Ran stroked his chin, imagining the swordgrass landing a critical hit with every single strike.

Furthermore, Lucky Clover could grant luck to allies. A Fusion Domain was an incredibly complex technique.

But what if Lucky Clover could accelerate its formation?

“This might work. That way, I wouldn’t need to find another plant familiar just for Lucky Clover. That saves one contract slot! Or, I could also feed Dark Crow a Miracle Seed to give it a plant-based organ. That way, it would count as half a plant familiar, and maybe it could also inherit Lucky Clover. A curse-type familiar with luck enhancement. I wonder what kind of synergy that would create.

“This could save me another contract slot. Plus, if Dark Crow gained a plant organ, it might improve its research capabilities, helping it learn new curses faster. Though, this method had its risks. Dark Crow wasn’t naturally suited for Grass attributes. So, while it could work as a temporary solution, it might hinder its long-term evolution.”

For now, Lu Ran decided to focus on studying Kinship first.

***

The next day, City Lord Ye had already departed for the distant grasslands. Lu Ran had spent an entire day researching Kinship and discovered something interesting. It was actually possible to bind Sudden Death King to Captain Doofus. That meant Sudden Death King could become Captain Doofus’ kin.

If that happened, Captain Doofus would be running around wielding Sudden Death King like a sword, cutting down everything in sight in the Limitless sword domain. However, the image was simply too bizarre. With no promising future in such an absurd scenario, Lu Ran immediately dismissed this cursed idea.

For now, with Lu Ran’s master gone, and the City Lord’s Token in hand, he was practically the undisputed boss of Tree World City. It wasn’t quite the same as when he was the Holy Son of the Undead Cult, but the level of influence wasn’t too far off.

After spending a full day analyzing the changes brought by his breakthrough, Lu Ran once again ventured into Death Forest. This time, it was to find a suitable vicious plant for Fang Lan.

Since his last two visits had been rushed, he hadn’t had the chance to search properly. This time, he was determined to find a few viable options and bring them back so she could choose. In fact, the ones Shi Ze had initially mentioned were already quite impressive.

Each one was a King vicious plant, whether it was Dripping Guanyin or Dragonblood Willow, both were extremely powerful. However, if possible, Lu Ran wanted to take things a step further and find Fang Lan a vicious plant that could potentially reach Overlord upon awakening. That way, he wouldn’t have to worry about her future at all.

“There are plenty of King plants here, but none seem capable of evolving into Overlord. Looks like even for Legendary plantmasters, obtaining an innate Overlord vicious plant isn’t easy.” As Lu Ran roamed through Death Forest, he muttered to himself.

“You really do seem interested in plant life.”

“Who’s there?” Lu Ran immediately turned to the source of the voice and was taken aback.

“Master Tian?”

The figure emerging from the depths of the forest was none other than City Lord Ye’s senior.

“I heard from your master that you come from Beastmaster Lodge and that you’re researching the integration of beast familiars and plant familiars?”

Lu Ran nodded. “Yes, Master Tian. I have a dream—”

“Alright, I don’t want to hear about your dream.” Master Tian waved her hand dismissively. “My junior has never taken in a disciple before. You’re her first. Unfortunately, since you come from Beastmaster Lodge, it’s impossible for you to switch to plantmastery and inherit her legacy. I have a request. I wonder if you’d be willing to accept it.”

“Please, go ahead, Master Tian.”

“You should already know that your master was born into a beastmaster family. She transitioned from beastmastery to plantmastery later on. Her family has passed down a unique beastmaster skill, and she has always been somewhat regretful about abandoning that legacy.

“If possible, I’d like you to inherit her family’s secret technique. It’s a beastmaster skill, so it wouldn’t interfere with your current path. However, Beastmaster Lodge should have plenty of advanced beastmaster skills already. If it doesn’t suit you or would be a waste of your time, you don’t need to feel obligated,” Master Tian said.

“I actually have no idea about any secret beastmaster skill from my master’s family... I’ll ask my master about it later,” Lu Ran replied.

In truth, Master Tian’s suggestion made sense. For traditional beastmasters who could cultivate their own beastmaster space, there was no limit to how many beastmaster skills they could learn, provided they had the talent and stamina for it.

Unfortunately, Lu Ran wasn’t a traditional beastmaster. His ability to learn beastmaster skills was restricted. Right now, it was impossible for him to pick up a beastmaster skill that wasn’t issued by Limitless City.

“Oh, right. Master Tian, there’s something I wanted to ask you. I forgot to ask my master earlier.”

“Oh? Go ahead.” Master Tian looked at Lu Ran.

“Just like you said, I’m a beastmaster. I have a beastmaster space, not a plantmaster space, so I can’t contract plant familiars or become a plantmaster unless I abandon my beastmaster space and switch professions. But moving forward, I still want to cultivate plant familiars. The issue is, carrying them around might be a problem.

“I heard that some level 8 beastmasters and plantmasters would transform their beastmaster spaces into spatial artifacts before their deaths. These spatial artifacts can even store living beings, and their growth enhancement effects are said to be comparable to a low-level beastmaster’s space. I wanted to know whether there are any places where I could obtain such a spatial artifact?”

Master Tian was flabbergasted. “Ah...”

Seeing her stunned expression, Lu Ran let out an awkward laugh. “I was just asking on a whim,

haha.

You can just ignore it...”

It seemed that even to an ordinary Legendary plantmaster, such an Epic spatial artifact was an incredibly rare treasure.

“No, I’m just amazed at how bold you are. You actually have the audacity to covet something like that.

Hehe.

” She let out a dry chuckle as if baffled by his sheer nerve. “You probably haven’t asked your own people about this, have you?”

“No, I only just thought of it recently.”

“If you had asked the Legends in Beastmaster Lodge, you wouldn’t need to ask me. There actually is a place where you can obtain something like that.”

What?

Lu Ran was shocked beyond words.

“However, don’t get your hopes up. Many people know about this place, but no one has ever managed to take the artifact. Have you ever heard of Tree Monarch? She was an Epic Legend who perished long ago. Before her death, she transformed her plantmaster space into a legacy ruin, open for anyone who wanted to challenge it. Its location is at the heart of the Divine Tree Continent.

“Anyone who passes her challenge not only inherits her legacy but also gains ownership of that legacy ruin, which is the spatial artifact you’re looking for. This legacy ruin isn’t a secret. Many Legendary individuals know about it. But despite countless attempts, no one has ever passed the challenge no matter how talented they were.

“The challengers include prodigies who have contracted Superior-Overlord familiars, individuals with even more prestigious backgrounds than you, but they’ve all failed...”