Chapter 30 - The First Skill

"I got the sword forged and purchased enough food. For the next half a month, I must commit to developing Captain Doofus’s skills in the Training secret realm from my private room. Sword qi, blade storm, sword control... we will need to study them all."

After saying goodbye to Pig Farmer, Lu Ran returned to his private room in a good mood. Fang Lan ran to the arena, saying she wanted to observe to understand the rules for a while. Lu Ran didn’t go with her. He wasn’t interested in battles between beastmasters and playing games. He was strictly a PVE player.

"I think Fang Lan said Captain Doofus should have a sparring match with her wolf spider. Forget it; let's avoid bringing that up so I can avoid crushing her dreams."

Lu Ran released Captain Doofus.

"Awoo~~~!"

As soon as it came out, Captain Doofus was eager to test out the Cascading Wind Sword. It clearly didn't have enough fun in the blacksmith shop.

"What can we even fight right now? Let's start by training for half a month. Our level is still too low. Since we’re going solo, I’m guessing that we can't even pass the Easy-Beginner secret realm!"

"Awoo, awoo!!!"

Captain Doofus angrily argued back.

To summarize, Captain Doofus said: Does the Divine Deer Pendant still have power? Why not find a forest secret realm to replenish its energy first so that we can train more efficiently later? It will be troublesome if we get injured during training and have no healing power!

Lu Ran: ?

"What the heck?"

Lu Ran stared at the dog in shock and wondered what possessed Captain Doofus. Was Captain Doofus capable of such a train of thought? How could its intelligence suddenly improve so much just for fighting?

"Don't worry about that. The energy inside the Divine Deer Pendant should be sufficient," Lu Ran said.

The Divine Deer Pendant was a rechargeable item. It absorbed the natural power from forests to convert into healing power. Although it didn’t charge much in the Demon Cat Forest, it was still enough to treat Captain Doofus’ daily training injuries.

"Woo..."

Captain Doofus became depressed.

"But..." Lu Ran glanced at Captain Doofus.

He still hadn't told Captain Doofus about the Overflow Fruit. That thing was a self-harming training tool.

I don't know if Captain Doofus can endure it...

The pendant had to be fully charged to heal the backlash from the Overflowing Fruit. Lu Ran wasn’t sure if its current level was enough. After all, it was hard for him to gauge how much energy was left in it. It was worth visiting the Beginner Forest secret realm on easy difficulty to charge up.

If he just went to replenish energy and didn’t provoke any of those level 10 boss monsters. He could also find a few low-level monsters along the way and let Captain Doofus go wild with its Cascading Wind Sword to satisfy its urge.

"Okay, I'll let you have your way and find a secret realm for you to let loose, but when we come back, you have to practice swordsmanship with me and endure the hardships of special training," Lu Ran lectured.

"Aooo!!"

Captain Doofus was surprised.

Captain Lu is so nice!

Its tail immediately perked up.

"I'll pick a secret realm then."

Lu Ran smiled, walked up to the secret realm system, and chose a suitable secret realm. Since he wanted to replenish the energy of the Divine Deer Pendant, he had to pick a secret realm with a forest environment. After scrolling for a while, one finally caught his eye.

[Name: Demon Cat Forest]

[Secret Realm Level: Beginner]

[Difficulty: Easy]

[Entry Fee: 200 coins]

Lu Ran’s Beginner Trial secret realm was in the Demon Cat Forest. This secret realm was also in the Demon Cat Forest. Still, the trial only captured a small part of the forest and had no powerful creatures.

If Lu Ran entered it again, he might encounter demon cats above level 5 or even some that awakened their elements.

Why not? I’ll choose it again

.

This was mainly because they were already familiar with the environment there. Additionally, the Wood Scale Fruit was a good resource for replenishing stamina. It was a good location for special training for the next half a month.

"What do you think of going back to the Demon Cat Forest? Don’t you have a lot of grudges there to settle?" Lu Ran asked.

Did I!? Why don’t I remember!?

Captain Doofus was surprised.

"Woof!"

Whatever, let’s just say it’s true and go get revenge.

Captain Doofus was eager to go and casually be the main character.

"Then I guess this is it," Lu Ran shrugged.

[Do you want to spend 200 crystal coins to challenge the Demon Cat Forest secret realm?]

Yes.

[Teleportation countdown: 10... 9...]

***

Ten seconds later, Lu Ran and Captain Doofus opened their eyes and took in the familiar surroundings and sounds.

[Teleportation completed.]

[Current location: Demon Cat Forest (Beginner-level secret realm)]

[Difficulty: Easy]

[Mission: Kill the leader of the Demonic Cat Forest.]

[Introduction: ...]

[Tip 1: The time limit of this Beginner-level secret realm is 8 hours. At any time, beastmasters can choose to leave in advance. It takes 10 seconds to teleport.]

[Tip 2: After receiving the blessing of this Beginner-level secret realm, beastmasters will temporarily obtain the Eye of Detection, which can reveal information about resources and creatures in the secret realm. ]

[Tips 3: ...]

Now that he was in the Demon Cat Forest again, Lu Ran found many differences. For example, the “Beginner Trial secret realm” intro had become "Beginner-level Secret Realm," and the mission had changed from "survive for one day" to "kill the leader of the Demonic Cat Forest."

The leader of the Demon Cat Forest was a level 10 demon cat that had awakened the Grass attribute. It had extensive combat experience and was challenging to deal with. Although the black bear on the Divine Familiar Ranking killed one with a single slap, the one it killed wasn’t an alpha.

Captain Doofus was only level 4 right now, and Lu Ran was still a solo player. It wasn’t wise to go mess with that guy. It only took 10 seconds to teleport out, but he wouldn’t be fighting one-on-one. Who knew how many enemies would be hounding him?

"Woof! (Summon Sword!)"

Captain Doofus stared at Lu Ran.

"Here you go."

Lu Ran gave up and took out the Cascading Wind Sword and the Wind Slashing Sword from his storage. He handed the first weapon to Captain Doofus as he gripped onto his own.

Now that he finally had a weapon, Lu Ran felt that if he reencountered a demon cat, he could one shot, one kill!

"Just like before, let's stay here and charge the pendant for a few hours before thinking about going deeper to collect resources," Lu Ran instructed. "You will deal with any enemies that appear while we’re here."

Lu Ran looked around and saw that Wood Scale Fruits were near the spawn point this time, so he planned to collect them first.

"Aooo~."

Captain Doofus was very obedient this time, primarily because it now had a new toy. After getting the Cascading Wind Sword, Captain Doofus couldn't wait to personally test it out.

I’m so upset that I haven't been able to unleash my sword qi yet.

On the other hand, Lu Ran transformed into a lumberjack and took out the Wind Slashing Sword to cut down a tree.

Lu Ran and Captain Doofus were either very lucky or unlucky, but just a few minutes later, the bushes began to rustle.

This familiar sound...

Sure enough, a demon cat appeared as Lu Ran was picking fruits from the tree.

[Species: Demon Cat]

[Attribute: Not awakened]

[Species Rank: Intermediate-Transcendent]

[Level: 8]

"Meow!!!"

A demon cat swaggered out. This demon cat was much stronger than any that they encountered in the beginner trial. However, they weren't worried even though it was 4 levels higher than Captain Doofus. After all, the demon cat had not awakened its elements.

Whether its combat power was on par with that northeastern feline was a different issue. But even if it was, it probably wouldn’t be significantly stronger. Captain Doofus just updated its equipment, so defeating it should be easy.

"Captain Doofus, finish him," Lu Ran ordered and returned to picking fruits.

Below, Captain Doofus held the Cascading Wind Sword in its mouth, and its gaze sharped. Finally, an enemy came, so it wanted to surprise Lu Ran.

Captain Doofus bit into the Cascading Wind Sword tightly, and the power of wind was transmitted, intensely concentrated on the sword, and amplified!

Boom!

Captain Doofus swung the sword, and an astonishing storm shot out from the sword as if it was transformed into a wind blade. It was sword qi!

Whoosh!

The sword qi swept out along with the turbulent winds, and the demon cat on the receiving end of it was horrified. This was the first time it had seen an attack that could fly out.

The turbulent winds descended.

Before the demon cat could react, the wind blade struck it and instantly split it into two before exploding along with the surrounding ground.

After beheading the demon cat, the sword qi blasted forward until it split a giant tree in half. It finally struck the ground with a deafening boom before dissipating!

After thinking it through, Captain Doofus finally dissipated the sword's energy.

"Woof!"

Captain Doofus turned around to look up at Lu Ran.

This counts as an energy projection technique and is sword qi, right!? I did it!

"Unbelievable..."

Lu Ran was shaken up and felt his scalp go numb.

Where did this dog come from?

He didn't believe that a husky could be so strong!

Even if someone had the corresponding talent, it would take two or three weeks to master a skill. Captain Doofus could master such a skill in just a day or two? What kind of dog did he pick up!?

Lu Ran was surprised by its comprehension. It didn't matter that Captain Doofus could defeat the demon cat. After all, Master Lin said that with the Cascading Wind Sword amplifying the wind energy, even a level 10 creature would be seriously injured if it struck.

Simultaneously, a change occurred on Captain Doofus’ contract card.

[Race: Husky]

[Attribute: Wind]

[Species Rank]: Intermediate-Transcendent

[Level: 4]

[Skills: Sword Qi (a basic skill formed by wind energy being amplified and released from a mighty sword.

***

Those in the Beastmaster Square were also quite excited at the moment.

In a short period, many beastmasters had been added to the Heavenly Familiar Rankings.

Of the four different rankings, the Champion Rankings were already full. Meanwhile, there were already nine Heavenly Familiars on the Transcendent Rankings, and the King Rankings had the least number of familiars ranked.

Many people were waiting to see the last spot get filled on the Transcendent Rankings when...

[Regional Announcement: Heavenly Familiar Rankings, Transcendent Rankings updated.]

[Heavenly Familiar added.]

[Species: Husky]

[Attribute: Wind]

[Species Rank: Intermediate-Transcendent]

[Level: 4]

[Beastmaster: Pedestrian A]

[Reason for inclusion: Evolved and mutated from a husky with extremely strong comprehension and also awakened the power of wind. Released sword qi in the Easy-Beginner secret realm, Demon Cat Forest, and overcame a four-level gap to kill an Intermediate-Transcendent level 8 Demon Cat!]

Once the Transcendent Rankings were updated, the entire Beastmaster Square was shaken, and countless newcomers looked confused.

Sword qi? What on earth?