Seeing that the Red-tailed Fox trapped in Huohuo's vines had finally stopped struggling, Zhou Lu let out a slight sigh of relief.
Huohuo looked delighted.
It thought the red fox was beautiful and happily rubbed it.
The defeated Red-tailed Fox glared hatefully at Huohuo, continuously making rumbling sounds in an attempt to intimidate it.
Little Grass remained unmoved and continued rubbing the fox to its heart's content.
Seeing its master approach, Huohuo happily waved its vines, showing off to Zhou Lu.
I caught a fox!
Huohuo wriggled up in front of Zhou Lu and proudly raised its leaves.
"Huohuo, you're amazing!" Zhou Lu praised it, rubbing the fresh sprout Huohuo had extended to ask for a reward.
Though he had only given it a rub, Huohuo was extraordinarily happy, its leaves even swaying to a rhythm.
Seemingly thinking of something, it rolled the Red-tailed Fox over to Zhou Lu.
A warm bed for Master!
Huohuo's thoughts were that simple.
"Uh... there's really no need..."
Huohuo seemed even happier:
(〃'▽'〃)
Then I'll warm Master's bed!
"..."
As the simulated secret realm shattered, Zhou Lu and Huohuo returned to reality.
The Red-tailed Fox's owner had already been waiting there. Seeing his own fox in such a sorry state, he wore a pained expression.
"Sorry..." Zhou Lu said somewhat awkwardly. After all, he really had fought without any martial virtue.
The man held his fox, stroking its fur to comfort it as he said, "In battle, these things are unavoidable."
When Zhou Lu left the examination room and returned to the hall, he found that there were not many people left.
"Huh? Where did everyone go?" he asked, puzzled.
"They all went to buy fire extinguishers," the receptionist said irritably.
"..." Zhou Lu fell silent for a moment. "My results aren't going to get canceled, are they?"
The receptionist shook her head. Beside her, the equipment producing Exploration Permits was buzzing away. "No. You didn't break any rules. At most, fire extinguishers will be banned from grass-type exams afterward."
As she spoke, she handed the completed Exploration Permit to Zhou Lu. "This is your C-Class Exploration Permit."
"Thank you," Zhou Lu said gratefully.
Holding the Exploration Permit, Zhou Lu carried Huohuo out of the Explorer Association.
However, he did not return to the dormitory directly. Instead, he changed direction and headed toward the laboratory building.
The Growth Projection equipment was there.
Before entering the secret realm next time, he planned to check Huohuo's current numbers.
There was no way to directly see a level on a Beast Taming Card, which was indeed terribly inconvenient.
But just as time and measurements were defined by humans, levels were also a human definition. What truly existed was only the five-tier transcendent system.
Levels were something that had only emerged in recent years, as Beast Taming Technology gradually improved with the support of big-data technology. They were used to help Beast Tamers better judge the growth of their spirit pets.
It was not as though spirit pets could only evolve to the second tier upon reaching Level 19. It was simply that the probability of evolving at Level 19 was the highest.
If you thought your luck was good enough, you could spend materials at Level 16 or 17 to attempt to make your spirit pet advance.
"Your spirit pet is a Dream Rain Flower?" After seeing Zhou Lu's application, the technician at the projection center could not help glancing at Huohuo in his arms.
"Yes."
"There is no level evaluation data for Dream Rain Flowers in the database," the technician said awkwardly. "We can only use Plant-type Spirit Beasts from the same family as Dream Rain Flowers to perform a Growth Projection for it. Can you accept that?"
Zhou Lu was not surprised by this.
After all, even Xiao Xi did not know Huohuo's exact evolution path.
"That's fine. I only need to know its approximate level." Zhou Lu nodded firmly.
"Alright." The technician stood up and led Zhou Lu toward the Growth Projection machine.
The Growth Projection instrument perfectly matched Zhou Lu's image of high technology.
It was a white machine, wrapped in white sheet metal with a touch of minimalist beauty.
The turntable used to place spirit pets rotated slowly.
"Put your spirit pet on it."
The technician took Zhou Lu's Beast Taming Card, then said to him.
Zhou Lu placed Huohuo onto the turntable.
Huohuo was still somewhat frightened by this unfamiliar place. Its vines wrapped around Zhou Lu's arm and refused to let go, exactly like a child about to get an injection in the butt.
After much coaxing and persuasion, Huohuo finally calmed down.
The Growth Projection was extremely fast—so fast that Zhou Lu did not think it was worth 10 Academic Credits at all.
The technician walked over, holding the Beast Taming Card with its newly recorded level and Huohuo's attribute chart.
Name: Dream Rain Flower Attribute: Grass Level: Level 12 Rank: First Tier (Metamorphosis Stage) Skills: Absorb, Transport, Vine Step, Mad Growth, Entangling Vines, Earth Escape
Level 12...
It seemed the Low-level Growth Potion really did work.
Zhou Lu gave Huohuo a bottle of Low-level Growth Potion every day, and he had actually raised Huohuo all the way to Level 12.
All he could say was that Plant Spirit Beasts were easy to raise. The same number of Growth Potions might not even make much of a splash on animal spirit beasts.
Praise Xiao Xi!
Zhou Lu could not help praising Xiao Xi in his heart.
If not for her, Zhou Lu would not have had so many Low-level Growth Potions.
"This is the attribute chart." The staff member handed the chart in his hand to Zhou Lu.
Even among spirit beasts of the same species, there were differences between individuals. Such differences were often reflected in their attributes.
In this world, every spirit beast had different attributes. However, spirit beasts of the same species still had an average value for reference.
Because there was no data for Dream Rain Flowers, the average line on the chart belonged to Guda Grass, a Plant-type Spirit Beast from the same family as the Dream Rain Flower.
Looking at Huohuo's attribute chart, Zhou Lu vividly understood what it meant to be far ahead of the pack.
Thanks to the attributes provided by the little rats, Huohuo was far above the average line in every attribute.
However, as a Plant Spirit Beast, Huohuo's attributes were still inferior to those of ordinary animal spirit beasts.
Well, it still had to keep working hard!
Zhou Lu was not discouraged.
With Absorb, Huohuo possessed limitless potential for growth!
Thinking of that made Zhou Lu even more eager to enter the secret realm.
Seeing the attribute chart, the curve rising above the average gave Zhou Lu a very clear picture of the gains from Absorb.
Huohuo sensed its master's emotions and proudly raised its leaves as well.
"Let's go back and prepare." Zhou Lu held Huohuo. "Tomorrow, we'll find you a suitable shell."
By the time Zhou Lu left the laboratory building, the academy forum had already exploded.
Thanks to the posts made by those present, news that Zhou Lu had taken the Exploration Permit exam today had spread across the entire school.
Under the post mocking Zhou Lu for using fire to burn the Red-tailed Fox, countless anonymous accounts were sneering and jeering.
Those who were slightly more neutral also felt that Zhou Lu had been too hasty.
The Explorer Association would still be there. Why rush for this moment? Preparing for another week would have been enough.
But very soon, news that Zhou Lu had passed the exam spread out.
Having just taken out his phone, Zhou Lu curiously clicked into the post titled, "The heavens are falling! Someone tried to burn a fire-type spirit beast to death with fire during the Exploration Permit exam!"
From his current perspective, the mocking comments at the top were truly clownish.
But what caught his attention even more were the replies beneath every mocking comment.
[Hahaha! He passed, though! Haters, say something!]
[Clowns are clowns! Trash is trash!]
[What, not convinced? Then don't hide behind anonymity if you've got the guts! Small fry!]
[Ho ho ho ho, say something? Why aren't you talking now? Don't tell me your mom died?]
[I'm going to stuff your mom's * full of mushrooms, then ****!!!]
All of those insults came from the same account.
When he clicked into it, the account had already been muted by an administrator.
Account name: Little Girl Who Grows Mushrooms.
There were only a little over three hundred replies in this post, yet you alone had posted more than two hundred insults...
Sister Xiaoqing... are you really that free?
Third update... Three updates, please keep reading! I'm begging you today!! OTZ
Before you continue