Beastmaster King-Chapter 133 - Spider Queen and Medusa

Lu Ran still had an optimistic opinion of Dark Crow. Although it tended to have a big mouth, its strengths made up for its shortcomings. Lu Ran had even contemplated contracting Dark Crow since the Dark attribute was quite rare.

However, he recently discovered that there were instances of creatures being born as Champion species. In fact, the prize of the freshman competition was the egg of an innate Champion species. All of a sudden, Dark Crow wasn’t the most attractive candidate.

On the other hand, now that Lu Ran was planning to raise an army, contracting Dark Crow started to seem appealing again. It couldn’t compete with top-tier familiars with better species talents, but it was extremely intelligent and could lead an army of other crows.

Lu Ran wasn’t sure if there was a trait that had an effect related to strength in numbers, but he still wanted to give it a shot. Many creatures lived in groups, so he believed that there had to be a relevant trait out there.

The most likely scenario was that the current beastmasters just haven’t been able to come into contact with a secret realm of high enough level to drop such a trait crystal.

So far, the Secret Realm Raid Team strategy group had only been able to clear a Level 5 secret realm on Hard and was still a bit off from clearing one on Hell.

Beyond Level 5 there were still Levels 6, 7, 8, 9, and so on, which meant that there was still much to be discovered.

When the right kind of trait crystal drops, I would have a running start if I prepared an army of familiars in advance.

It was ok even if the perfect trait didn’t exist. Just by relying on the right fusion and combination skills, his beastmaster legion could become an overwhelming force. On the Stellar Moon Continent, the Empire already proved that a beastmaster legion was a feasible idea.

"Although it’s impossible for Dark Crow to fuse traits before being contracted, it can still awaken a second attribute in it. I should find a Spirit-attribute resource to help it become proficient in illusions, bewitchment, and communication. The Spirit attribute is definitely highly compatible with its species talent, making it even more suitable to lead a large army of crows."

Before the spiritual energy revival, Lu Ran was in frequent contact with Dark Crow and knew that it had its own plans like how Insect King did. Insect King wanted to start a harem and have a bunch of offspring. It valued freedom and didn’t have any greater ambitions. Conversely, Dark Crow wanted to recruit a bunch of minions and rise up in the world, which showed some grit.

I wonder how its personality turned out like that. Did I influence it somehow to be more ambitious?

When they first met, Lu Ran was still a middle schooler, and he would pretend to be a king with the crow as one of his knights.

Dark Crow was still young back then, and very impressionable. It was entirely possible that Lu Ran warped its personality.

Well, I guess I’m going to end up playing that same game with Dark Crow again. If we can make it work, not only would it make Dark Crow happy, but I would greatly benefit from it as well!

***

"Hey! Why do you need me to teleport you again?" In front of the Green Sea City Catt Maid Cafe, Manager Ying was furiously yelling at Lu Ran.

Manager Ying was sunbathing on the roof before Lu Ran arrived. It was woken up just so Lu Ran could ask it to teleport him and Fang Lan to Golden Hill.

"Public transit is so dangerous. I’m sure you heard about me being targeted by assassins," Lu Ran reasoned.

"Airplanes and high-speed trains are the perfect places for an assassination. They could easily just blow the whole thing up!"

"Targeted my ass! Shouldn’t you be more worried about The Other Shore?"

Manager Ying looked into his situation.

What the vampire told him was true. Lu Ran was on the hit list of the entire international criminal underworld. It was related to the fact that he was someone with a special ability.

The good thing was that Lu Ran wasn’t the only one on the hit list. There were nearly a hundred people with special abilities across the world, spread out amongst the various countries.

The chances of him actually getting assassinated were pretty low. So far, no one had been known to take up the contract for such targets. After all, people with special abilities were all treasured by their governments. Assassinating one was equivalent to declaring war on a major nation.

However, the person who compiled the hit list was still a mystery. Even the major players of the underworld didn’t know his true identity. How this person acquired such detailed information on talented individuals was an even bigger mystery.

Even the Xia government wasn’t aware of how many individuals with special abilities other countries had. Similarly, other countries didn’t know about the number of such individuals in Xia.

Meanwhile, this mysterious person knew the moment someone with abilities appeared, and would add them to the hit list. This made people speculate whether he had a massive intelligence network or some special ability of his own, such as divination, to gather so much intel.

Compared to infiltrating every country in the world, a special ability was the more plausible explanation.

At the same time, having a divination-like ability was also strange. If he was someone who had a special ability, then why was he hostile to others? Did he intend to wipe them out?

From what Manager Ying could gather, there was a rumor in the underworld that those with abilities weren’t human. They were actually aliens hidden amongst the populace and couldn’t be trusted.

Some believed that everything came at a price. The rise of people with special abilities would eventually lead to the destruction of the Blue Planet.

Another explanation was that the mastermind wanted to kill everyone out of jealousy because they had abilities that he didn’t.

Overall, people with special abilities were an oddity, but countries wouldn’t buy into such rumors without hard evidence. The strategic importance of their abilities was undeniable. Countries were too busy protecting and cultivating them, so how could they suppress them?

Even if some forces were fearful at first, once they saw the development of such individuals abroad, they quickly joined the bandwagon as well.

"Exactly. I need to stay hidden from The Other Shore. Can you please give me a ride?" Lu Ran begged.

Manager Ying was there to hold down the fort in Green Sea City, so he would feel anxious when he traveled without Manager Ying! Both his parents were high-level executives of The Other Shore. Although they already died, if any of the other high-level executives discovered that Dr. Lu had a son with special abilities then they would very likely try to recruit him.

"Okay, fine." Manager Ying acquiesced.

This chapter is updat𝓮d by freēnovelkiss.com.

If Lu Ran went to Golden Hill, then it would have to tag along, but it wouldn’t normally use teleportation. It knew that Lu Ran just wanted to use it to cut down some travel time.

Originally, Manager Ying was adamantly against it, but it had its own plan.

"I’ll do it just this one time, but you’ll have to do me a favor as well.

"You have to cook for me whenever you’re in Green Sea City. I’ll provide the ingredients, okay? You also have to use the Dragon Culinary Intent!"

Lu Ran didn't expect that Manager Ying would be such a glutton. If Manager Ying knew what Lu Ran was thinking, then it would mock him for looking down on it. Although it loved to eat, it wasn’t solely motivated by food.

The real reason behind its request was the rarity of Flame Dragon Culinary Intent. Manager Ying wanted to study it up close to try and glean some information on the Dragon attribute. Maybe it could evolve into Totoro.

***

"This is Manager Ying, the owner of Cat Maid Cafe that I told you about. It just opened a branch in Green Sea City." Lu Ran introduced Fang Lan to Manager Ying when she finally arrived.

"Hi, Manager Ying!" Fang Lan's eyes lit up.

What a cute kitty!

She was into poisonous critters rather than being a cat or dog person, but Manager Ying wasn’t just an average cat.

“Mmh." Manager Ying grunted in response. "If y’all are ready, then let's go."

In the next instant, the world spun, and they were on their way to Golden Hill. As they were teleporting, Lu Ran found out what Fang Lan had been working on. It turned out that she was raising her second familiar.

After ascending, she contracted a purple poisonous snake which also awakened the Poison attribute. The snake had mutated during the spiritual energy revival and was a Superior-Transcendent species with a great talent. Fang Lan named it Little Purple.

For the past two days, she has been increasing Little Purple’s toxicity. She acquired a lot of resources from the ascension realm, and she used the money from selling the stuff she didn’t need to buy a Poison Healing trait crystal.

Although fusing the same trait for both her familiars didn’t give her any diversity, Poison Healing was highly beneficial to Poison-attribute familiars. It was considered a basic trait. Fang Lan didn’t overreach and decided to start by laying a firm foundation. This would allow the toxicity of her familiars to steadily increase over time.

As for the second trait, Fang Lan wasn’t in a hurry to choose since neither of her familiars had reached level 20.

"By the way, did you pick up a second beastmaster skill?" Lu Ran asked.

"Not yet."

"I got the Fusion skill but can’t use it right now. What do you think? I originally planned to use it when I became a Level 1 beastmaster, but I came across some other options. It's just sitting there collecting dust so why don't you take it? Maybe it’ll help you rank higher in the competition."

"Fusion? That’s perfect!"

Fang Lan was very surprised.

"I can become the Spider Queen or Medusa. It’s actually a good match for me. If I get a good reward from the competition, then I will pay you back with it. That way we can call it even."

"Don’t be a stranger."

Lu Ran actually didn't mind. He wasn’t lying when he said that he couldn’t use the Fusion skill. Lu Ran was planning to choose Undead Resurrection for his third beastmaster skill.

By the time he could learn the Fusion skill, he would be able to get the skill by himself. The Fusion skill book dropped from a Level 3 secret realm when cleared on the Hell difficulty.

This meant that the copy he had right now was essentially a spare so he could just give it to Fang Lan.

"Are the two of you done chit-chatting?" Manager Ying asked, looking displeased.

It exhausted itself teleporting them to a different city and the two of them chatted the whole way.

"Ah! Thank you for your hard work, Manager Ying!"

Lu Ran realized that he accidentally ignored Manager Ying.

"Are y’all ok with staying here?” Manager Ying snorted as it pointed to a building in front of them.

Lu Ran looked up, only to find out that Manager Ying dropped them off in front of Rainbow Dojo. He hadn’t visited his master since the spiritual energy revival.

He originally wanted to come to exchange pointers with his master, but Doofus already mastered sword intent. Exchanging pointers suddenly became kind of pointless.

"Yeah." Lu Ran nodded. Staying at the dojo would let them save a pretty penny on lodging.

This was the perfect opportunity to let Captain Doofus demonstrate its Blizzard Sword Intent and Sword Control technique to his master. It was too bad that Captain Doofus didn’t have the right attribute to learn the Flame Dragon Sword Intent or else they could really shock Master Jiang.

"Where are we?"

This was Fang Lan’s first time at Rainbow Dojo.

Right at that moment, the doors opened, and Fang Lan saw a boy in an apprentice outfit walk out with a street cat beside him. The most outrageous thing was that the cat was holding a small wooden sword in its mouth.

Lu Ran, Fang Lan, and Manager Ying were all taken aback.