Chapter 37 - Sudden Death King

Lu Ran softly looked at Sudden Death King.

Lu Ran's plans to carefully test every creature in Green Sea City were cut short by his limited supply of Awakening Leaves. The sudden appearance of the Sudden Death King reminded him that he already had another familiar besides Captain Doofus.

He previously discussed with Fang Lan whether lizards could evolve into dragons. Now, he could see if Sudden Death King was qualified to evolve into a transcendent beast. However, his expectations were low—beasts awakening transcendent powers solely through Awakening Leaves, without a beastmaster contract, were exceedingly rare, about one in a hundred.

As for this Sudden Death King, no matter how he looked at it, it didn’t have the qualifications of a powerhouse.

...And it looked like he had guessed correctly. When he tried to get Sudden Death King to eat the leaves, its eyes widened before its body slowly went limp as if it fainted.

That looks so disgusting. I want to eat insects, not grass! I’m dying!!!

What!?

Lu Ran looked at the lifeless lizard lying on the TV and took a deep breath.

"Get up, or I'll bury you."

Sudden Death King jolted up in response.

Lu Ran sighed as he looked at it. He was actually the third owner of this Sudden Death King. Originally, it had been a pet of Fang Lan’s friend. However, creatures like red-eyed crocodile skinks were very fragile and easily affected by their environment. If the habitat were slightly off or didn’t meet their needs, they would get sick or sometimes even suddenly die on the spot.

Fang Lan’s friend didn’t feed it correctly, and Sudden Death King almost died for real. Thankfully, Fang Lan came from a family of veterinarians and was well-experienced herself, so they were able to save Sudden Death King together. The friend finally realized she couldn’t properly raise Sudden Death King, so she gave it to Fang Lan.

Although Fang Lan also raised lizards, they were all low maintenance. It was her first time raising a red-eyed crocodile skink. She had her hands full with this guy who liked to die as a hobby and wasn’t sure if she could raise it correctly, either.

Lu Ran saw how stressed she was and took it over from her and treated it as a birthday gift. Despite not having any experience raising red-eyed crocodile skinks, he could communicate with it and understand its environmental requirements, ensuring its survival.

Things turned out as he had hoped. Lu Ran raised it very well, and custom-built a huge habitat for it. If it weren't for Sudden Death King’s incredible luck and constantly being adopted by more capable owners, it might not have survived for so long.

"Urk..."

Sudden Death King nervously kept playing dead because it was afraid that Lu Ran would really bury it.

"Eat it!"

Lu Ran reached out his left hand, and the lizard hesitated momentarily before climbing up.

Lu Ran held an Awakening Leaf in his other hand and stuffed it in Sudden Death King’s mouth.

Awakening leaves were great items. It was a high-quality resource, after all. Even if Sudden Death King couldn’t awaken, at the very least, its vitality would strengthen and help it adapt to environmental factors.

If that happened, Lu Ran wouldn’t have to worry about it actually dying.

"Ugh.”

Sudden Death King suppressed its displeasure and gnawed on the awakening leaf.

Lu Ran shook his head. Unlike Captain Doofus, an omnivore, this little thing was strictly carnivorous. Every time Lu Ran brought crickets, rhinoceros beetles, and other battle insects home for training, this guy would observe in secret. Once, it even tried to secretly eat one but got beat up by the rhinoceros beetle Insect King. It became more timid after that.

After a short period of time, Sudden Death King finally finished all the Awakening Leaves, but it didn’t undergo any visible change. Lu Ran held it in his hand and looked it over for several minutes but couldn’t find any differences. He looked into the red eyes of Sudden Death King and sighed.

"It looks like it’s not meant to be. Let's go; you shouldn’t be outside your habitat for too long, otherwise you will get sick."

Lu Ran put it on the ground and ordered it to crawl back on its own. He then took out his phone again and prepared to call Fang Lan to schedule dinner.

After getting set on the ground, Sudden Death King didn’t leave and instead just looked up at Lu Ran.

"Urk..."

As Sudden Death King cried out, a brown light suddenly flashed from its body.

"Huh?"

This change immediately caught Lu Ran's attention. He was stunned as he watched.

Can it really evolve? It’s a one percent probability, and I really encountered it?

"Okay!"

Lu Ran put his phone down again. He was elated.

Practicing with Pig Farmer for so long wasn’t wasted after all!

The brown light engulfed Sudden Death King’s body. Within the light, its body... didn’t get bigger?

When animals evolved, although not necessarily guaranteed, they would become bigger. The light continued to glow, but the lizard inside didn’t appear to expand. Seeing this, Lu Ran began to ponder.

Is it because its aptitude isn’t high enough? No, that isn’t it...

Lu Ran felt something was off.

A moment later, Lu Ran's eyes widened in shock. Sudden Death Kings was actually smaller than before.

"!@#$, it's fine if it doesn't grow any bigger or more powerful, but why did it shrink?"

"What's going on?"

However, even though Sudden Death King shrunk, Lu Ran's expression quickly became serious again. He could smell the scent of a ferocious beast from within the light. Because of Super Beast Mimicry, Lu Ran gained certain animal characteristics and could smell danger from creatures nearby.

There is more to the mini Sudden Death King than meets the eye!

"Captain Doofus, come out and take a look."

Lu Ran stepped back and summoned Captain Doofus with a wave of his hand. Captain Doofus was both surprised and confused.

What is this?

As the light faded, it revealed a finger-length red-eyed crocodile skink.

Why does this fella look so familiar?

Captain Doofus wondered.

Could this be that Sudden Death King that would die if an enemy so much as looked at it too hard? Why did it become smaller!?

Wow!!!

Sudden Death King moved around a bit and stared back at them with its red eyes. This reaction made Captain Doofus frown.

"Grrr..."

It seemed to have detected that the threat coming from Sudden Death King was comparable to that evolved northeastern tiger it had encountered a few days ago. Captain Doofus stared at it as it moved to protect Lu Ran, wondering what was going on.

What no one expected was that when Captain Doofus “grinned” at it, Sudden Death King would immediately keel over and pass away peacefully.

Captain Doofus: ?_?

Lu Ran facepalmed.

"Damn it, why hasn't its personality changed even after evolving into a transcendent beast?

"Captain Doofus, can you feel it?"

"Woof!

"

Captain Doofus nodded. It took a few steps forward and poked the “dead” Red-eyes B. Chick [1]" with its paw.

What a strong body!

Captain Doofus could feel that the armor on Sudden Death King was as hard as that wild boar's rock body and gave off a faint tingling sensation upon contact.

"As expected. No wonder I felt a powerful aura."

Lu Ran could see that he seemed to have gotten another top-quality familiar.

I don't know if it’s because I’m lucky or if it’s because Fang Lan's lucky.

If Lu Ran had guessed correctly, Sudden Death King’s species rank after its first evolution should’ve been Superior-Transcendent. But now, even without the support of a contract card, it had already become a Superior-Transcendent beast on its own! Its potential was probably higher than the tiger and black bear on the Heavenly Familiar Ranking, both described as "tyrannical species."

Before evolving, it was just a palm-sized lizard. Considering this, from a certain perspective, this Sudden Death King and Fang Lan's wolf spider were even more terrifying than those so-called tyrannical species. Fang Lan’s pets must have all been Superior-Transcendent beasts.

Lu Ran stood there and silently watched Sudden Death King expertly pretend to be dead.

This is just its character. Its species rank is spectacular, but it won’t be easy to train.

When you feel anxious, can’t you kill those who trigger that anxiety instead of playing dead?

And why is your head so small? You don’t fit your persona of a domineering dragon at all. Although your species rank is high, what can a lizard smaller than a palm do?

1. In Yu-Gi-Oh, Red-eyes B. Chick is depicted as a hatching Red-eyes Black Dragon ☜