Chapter 31 - Captain Doofus makes the Rankings

In Limitless City #3’s Beastmaster Square, all ten Transcendent Heavenly Familiar Rankings positions had been filled! Among them, eight familiars were described as powerful species on the rankings, and two as having amazing comprehension.

The former meant that the familiars had an absolute advantage in physique, and the latter meant that the familiars had a massive advantage in comprehension.

Captain Doofus was obviously the latter.

However, no matter how great its comprehension was, most people still failed to connect the idea of a husky and projecting sword qi together.

Isn't this too absurd? What's with this combination?

"Husky... it’s a husky. Alaskan or Samoyed?"

"Not only that, it actually has the Wind attribute."

"What's wrong with having a Wind attribute? Is it bad?" someone asked.

"It's not that it’s bad. It’s just that Huskies are wilder and more powerful in cold areas. Generally speaking, they all have the Ice attribute. Even if their first attribute isn’t ice, choosing it as their second attribute may stimulate their hidden species potential and make it stronger! Its path for advancement is clear."

People discussed with each other, and many of them looked at the ID of the husky’s owner.

Pedestrian A... What a guy... Why does the name feel like a mockery to those who failed to make the ranking?

"W-what..."

In the crowd, someone actually recognized this ID.

A woman near her thirties dressed in a professional outfit with black stockings was awestruck. She was Sister Hua, from the Newcomer Recruitment Department, who had taken Pig Farmer to do the attribute test.

At first, she looked at the constantly changing Transcendent Familiar Rankings, which were essentially the newcomer rankings, and wondered which coworker had roped in these newcomers with such incredible potential.

Then... she quickly saw a familiar name.

Pedestrian A... Isn't that the newcomer that White Dragon was leading around before!?

"Contracted with a husky that awakened the Wind-attribute... That Pedestrian A!? He’s ranked? That stupid-looking husky was that strong?"

Sister Hua couldn't believe it.

She hurriedly contacted White Dragon, who just so happened to be in Beastmaster Square at the same time. He didn’t need Sister Hua to contact him. He also saw it!

Damn, Lu Ran!

"Sister Hua, what’s going on? I already saw Pedestrian A on the ranking!

"No, he didn't join the Alliance, but he’s essentially a member. He was spotted by someone powerful in the government’s strategic team and is going to be sent to the beastmaster university to study further. After graduation, he might end up directly joining the strategy team.

"Ultimately, this guy is someone that even the higher-ups have their eyes on. Don't spread his information, lest you cause him trouble."

White Dragon spoke with Sister Hua as he felt his heart break.

Hey, I found him first... But it’s no wonder Dr. Gu snatched him up. The beastmaster genes in his blood are very strong. He is one of the only two people on the list with an Intermediate-Transcendent familiar!

On top of that, he’s on the rankings because his husky released sword qi? Are you freaking serious?

In Beastmaster Square, these two weren’t the only ones who knew Lu Ran. Pig Farmer still couldn’t peel himself away from the Heavenly Familiar Rankings. He stood looking at it for a long time. His expression went blank when Pedestrian A’s name appeared.

Huh?

***

"What? Why are there fewer and fewer people now? Are they all going to Beastmaster Square to watch the Heavenly Familiar Rankings?"

At the Limitless City Arena, Fang Lan, aka Five Poisons Saintess, originally wanted to watch some matches and get familiarized with Beastmaster battles. However, she didn't see a new match start even after waiting a long time. People were only leaving the arena, and none were coming in.

This dampened Fang Lan’s mood.

She thought,

Why don’t I watch some matches on another day and go take a look around Beastmaster Square?

Right at that moment, she overheard two passersby who were about to leave the arena.

"My friend just sent me a message saying that the tenth-rank beastmaster was selected. It’s outrageous. The reason for getting ranked is that his husky released sword qi and instantly killed a demon cat. What in the world? Who is this Pedestrian A? Do you know what's going on?"

"He should be relying on an extraordinary weapon. That is the only explanation. But wasn’t it said that external forces would be weighted less for the rankings?"

"The dog relied on a sword to release sword qi? I’m not convinced."

Fang Lan heard the discussion and suddenly stopped.

𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

"Pedestrian A? Husky?"

Lu Ran, you dog. You didn't let me challenge a secret realm but challenged one secretly instead? And you even made the Heavenly Familiar Ranking!?

***

At the same time, in the Demon Cat Forest secret realm, Lu Ran had no idea Captain Doofus made the rankings in one go. After all, in his opinion, if a familiar used a weapon to increase its combat power, it would be weighted less on the rankings. The sword qi was at least doubled by the Cascading Wind Sword.

This was the power of energy-amplifying weapons!

If Captain Doofus hadn’t used the Cascading Wind Sword, dealing with a level 8 demon cat wouldn't have been so easy.

"Ao."

The sword qi sliced through the demon cat, and Captain Doofus became very excited. It really liked this new sword qi skill.

One day, it could even bring down the roof! Actually, it could make catching birds a hobby.

But, suddenly, it felt weak and began to shake all over.

"Did you consume too much energy?” Lu Ran asked as he jumped down from the tree.

"Woof..."

"Releasing a ray of sword qi consumes about a quarter of your stamina? That means you have only, at most, four shots before completely exhausting your stamina!?"

Lu Ran sensed Captain Doofus’ condition was bad and felt a headache coming on. This was a secret that could not be easily revealed.

This was ultimately related to Captain Doofus' current level being too low. It was only level 4, after all.

The stats of a level 4 were too low, and it didn't have much physical strength either. It was normal that Captain Doofus couldn’t fire off that many powerful skills. Once it reached level 40, it would probably be able to release sword qi as boundless as the sea!

"At this point, it's too wasteful to use skills. It consumes a lot of energy, and it's easy to miss the target. After we return, let's study some other type of skills," Lu Ran commented.

It was better to save the sword qi to show off and deal with flying enemies. In actual combat, unless he encountered an idiot like a demon cat who was scared silly, it was difficult to hit something.

If Captain Doofus consumed a lot of stamina just to unleash a skill and miss, that would be tragic. In comparison, if it just infused energy into the sword and chased down the enemy while slashing at it, its energy consumption would be much smaller.

Of the four major skill categories, Acceleration probably consumed the least energy, while Formation, Projection, and Compression consumed more energy than the last.

Well, if my second familiar has some crowd-control skills, it could assist Captain Doofus in teeing up its ultimate move.

"Aooo~!"

Captain Doofus drooled, indicating that it was all right. It would just listen to Captain Lu.

Meanwhile, its eyes stared intensely at the Wood Scale Fruit Lu Ran had just picked from a tree.

***

After restoring Captain Doofus’s stamina and resting for a while, Lu Ran planned to take them deeper into the secret realm. This was mostly because all the Wood Scale Fruits here had been picked clean, and he wanted to collect some more. After all, it cost 200 crystal coins to enter the Demon Cat Forest secret realm. Even if he couldn’t wholly recoup the cost, he needed to recoup at least half of it!

When they headed out this time, Captain Doofus led the way as Lu Ran followed behind while clutching the Wind Slashing Sword tightly.

In front of them, a level 6 demon cat appeared.

"Aooo~~~!"

Captain Doofus wielded the Cascading Wind Sword, and as wind energy enveloped its body, it transformed into a stormhound that charged forward. With a flash of its sword, Captain Doofus rushed past the demon cat, and the Cascading Wind Sword was the first thing to make contact with it.

Swish!

It was cut in half with a single sword.

"Meow!!!"

The demon cat’s scream was still echoing when it was instantly killed and turned into light before disappearing.

In the following battles, Captain Doofus didn’t release sword qi because it had consumed too much stamina. It couldn’t recover by just relying on Wood Scale Fruit, either. Wood Scale Fruits didn’t restore stamina instantaneously; rather, they did so slowly over time. The total amount recovered wasn’t much, so it wasn’t suitable as a major recovery item. More importantly, Lu Ran couldn’t easily imitate the sword qi.

Bang!

While Captain Doofus was fighting, Lu Ran tried to use Super Beast Mimicry to mock its battles with imaginary opponents by synchronizing with Captain Doofus’ movements. Compared to practicing in the room earlier, practicing Super Beast Mimicry in battle was far more efficient.

Whenever Captain Doofus killed a monster, Lu Ran felt a warm current in his body, as if experience points were pouring in. It was an illusion, but Super Beast Mimicry was actually subtly improving his physique.

After defeating the demon cat this time, Lu Ran and Captain Doofus unexpectedly saw something on the ground. After the demon cat died, a ball of light from its body, and after a few seconds, the light dissipated...

"Huh? Materials dropped? The drop rate isn't high."

The item looked like a claw.

Lu Ran activated the Super Detection skill, which was actually just the Eye of Detection, to scan over it.

[Name: Demon Cat Claw]

[Grade: Common]

[Description: A material that not only looks useless but is also useless in actuality.]

What can I do with this besides just tossing it into storage?

"Ugh, garbage."

Lu Ran was speechless.

Can't I get something useful, such as... Well, it looks like there isn’t any valuable material that can be dropped from demon cats. Next time, I won’t return even if a dog chases me.

"Woof."

Captain Doofus nodded in agreement. The demon cat that it had worked so hard to defeat only dropped a stupid claw. It was useless. It would remember this grudge! However, since this demon cat had already died, it would have to settle the grudge with the leader of the Demon Cat Forest instead.