Testing Attributes

"What a shame. Attribute Fruits weren't so expensive before, and a fair number had accumulated over time. But recently, a huge influx of Beast Tamers into Infinite City has made Attribute Fruits extremely scarce. The major factions have monopolized them all."

"Anyway, awakening a pet beast's attribute will make it stronger, but you should wait a while. There's no hurry. Once this wave of newcomers passes, they should be back on the market. By then, you should have saved enough Crystal Coins to buy one," Little White Dragon Amid the Waves said.

"Or you could join the authorities... They generally offer a free attribute awakening as a perk."

"They give out Attribute Fruits for free?" Lu Ran had finally heard about a decent perk.

"Of course not! They use other methods."

"Which is better for the pet beast?"

"The Attribute Awakening Fruit you have to pay for, obviously." Little White Dragon's mouth twitched. Wasn't that obvious?

Getting anything for free was already good enough. What more could he expect?

"All right." Lu Ran felt helpless. Of course he would choose the awakening method that was better for his pet beast. It wasn't as if he couldn't afford an Attribute Fruit.

Everything was for the sake of giving General Ha a solid foundation!

"Well, that should be enough explanation for now. My Beast Tamer number is 7386. Add me as a friend first. If you change your mind, you can contact me." Little White Dragon Amid the Waves felt that Lu Ran had picked up the basics fairly quickly. A student was a student, all right-he was extremely quick on the uptake.

Besides, Lu Ran seemed quite wary to him and clearly hadn't believed everything he said. That was good, too. People like that tended not to die too soon in secret realms.

"Thank you," Lu Ran said.

"You're welcome. Huh." Little White Dragon glanced at the time and said in surprise, "It's getting late. Time to clock out. I might as well see this good deed through and take you to the nearest Attribute Stone. I can grab a meal along the way. Some restaurants in Infinite City serve absolutely amazing food. You should try them when you get the chance. They're just expensive!"

"Let's go, young Lu." With that, he straightened his clothes and prepared to leave.

Lu Ran hesitated briefly, then followed him.

"Compared to the sheer size of Infinite City, there still aren't many Beast Tamers here. Combat Beast Tamers rarely show themselves, either. Most are busy improving their combat strength. Almost everyone you see regularly around Infinite City is a noncombat Beast Tamer..."

"This isn't the central district, either, so there are even fewer people..."

Along the way, Little White Dragon Amid the Waves continued explaining things to Lu Ran. His delivery was practiced. After learning all this himself, he must have explained it to plenty of people.

Lu Ran listened quietly. He had just been about to ask about the difference between combat and noncombat Beast Tamers when two figures caught his attention.

At last, he had encountered a third and fourth person since arriving in Infinite City!

At the edge of the deserted street, beneath a thick ancient tree dozens of meters tall, two figures stood in front of a two-meter-high boulder.

The first was an older, mature woman, roughly twenty-seven or twenty-eight, around Little White Dragon's age, dressed in business attire. The other was a young man about Lu Ran's age.

Judging by the young man's dark, rough skin and plain clothing, however, he was probably from the countryside. Another reason Little White Dragon reached that conclusion was the pet beast beside him...

A wild boar more than half as tall as a person, with long tusks and a coat of earth-colored bristles!

There were no animals like that in the city for people to contract with!

Little White Dragon was mildly surprised. He just didn't know whether this boar had been a domestic pig that mutated and reverted to its ancestral form after being contracted, or whether it had been a wild boar to begin with.

Some domesticated animals had a high chance of reverting to their ancestral forms after being contracted, such as domestic pigs becoming wild boars, or dogs becoming wolves.

In any case, a wild boar was far stronger in combat than the cats and dogs people kept in cities. This kid had hit the jackpot right from the start!

Clearing the Newbie Trial Secret Realm should have been a breeze.

"Sister Hua, is he a newcomer?" Little White Dragon clearly knew the mature woman dressed much like himself. Seeing her with the young man, he immediately understood what was going on.

Surely, just like him and John Doe, a veteran was bringing a newcomer to test his pet's attribute.

"Oh, White." The woman in business attire and black stockings smiled at Little White Dragon and Lu Ran. "That's right. I got lucky today and met an impressive newcomer with a C rating. I brought him here to test his pet's attribute."

"A C rating?!" Little White Dragon's face twitched. What luck. Recruiting a promising newcomer like that into the organization would earn a hefty bonus. Unfortunately, when he had asked Lu Ran about his rating earlier, Lu Ran had been evasive. He guessed it couldn't have been very high.

After all, his age and demeanor spoke for themselves. He looked like a rich kid from a big city, and he was a complete mess. Lasting a day would already have been a blessing.

"You've had pretty good luck yourself, waiting long enough to find a newcomer," Sister Hua said with a smile.

"Haha, yeah." Little White Dragon introduced them. "This is Flowers Bloom Beneath the Brush, my colleague. And this is... John Doe, a newcomer."

Now that he had met Flowers Bloom Beneath the Brush, Lu Ran gradually became convinced that Little White Dragon really was an official employee. It seemed the authorities had sent quite a few employees here to wait for newcomers and guide them, hoping to recruit them.

"John Doe..." Sister Hua and the Wild Boar Young Man paused briefly at Little White Dragon's introduction, then nodded.

"This is Pig Farmer... Yes, he changed his ID to Pig Farmer." Sister Hua also felt that young people these days were far too strange.

Did none of them put any thought into these things?

"Well, it certainly matches his pet beast. So, is it Rock?" Little White Dragon asked, looking at the petrified layer on the Attribute Stone, then at the snorting wild boar.

"That's right. A Rock-attribute pig pet beast can be quite formidable if raised properly."

"You should give it a try, too." Little White Dragon nodded, then pointed out the enormous stone to Lu Ran. The Attribute Stone was grayish white all over. At that moment, one patch had a raised layer resembling clumps of earth-the result of petrification.

"Attribute Stones are made of a special material. As long as your pet beast attacks one, it will display different changes based on your pet's latent attribute. Then you can choose the appropriate awakening method for that attribute."

"The basic attributes include elements like Wind, Rock, Lightning, Grass, water, fire, and ice."

"Generally speaking, if the Attribute Stone petrifies after your pet attacks it, the latent energy inside your pet is Rock. If it heats up and glows red, it's fire. If it gets wet, it's water. If frost forms, it's ice... In short, different attributes produce different effects. Does that make sense?"

"Of course, besides the basic elemental attributes, there are rare ones like light and darkness. Those are something you can only find by chance."

"I see." Lu Ran nodded. It seemed pretty simple.

"Go ahead and try," Sister Hua urged from beside them.

Although they had finished testing the boar's attribute, Sister Hua and Pig Farmer hadn't left. They stayed to see how things would go for Lu Ran.

Lu Ran was also eager to learn General Ha's attribute, so he held out his hand and summoned his contract Black Card into it.

"Pet beast, summon!"

With a thought, a circular summoning formation appeared on the ground. It burst into brilliant light, and then, accompanied by a low howl, an enormous husky appeared.

"A husky?"

No one was particularly surprised to see it.

For the vast majority of chosen Beast Tamers living in cities, their starting pet beasts were pet cats or dogs.

Compared to using a wild boar or something similar, clearing the Novice Trial with a pet cat or dog was already quite difficult.

Just from the fact that his pet was a husky, Flowers Bloom Beneath the Brush and Little White Dragon Amid the Waves judged that Lu Ran's Novice Trial rating couldn't have been high.

"Ram that stone." Lu Ran wasted no time. As soon as he summoned General Ha, he gave the order.

"Awoo!!" General Ha nodded and looked at the enormous Attribute Stone. He stood still and gathered himself for a moment, then a faint white glow spread over his body. The next instant, he charged straight at the Attribute Stone.

"Not bad talent." Sister Hua and Little White Dragon nodded, looking surprised. The husky already had a rudimentary understanding of how to use the energy in his body. Apparently, this "John Doe" hadn't simply survived the Newbie Trial Secret Realm by hiding and getting lucky. He must have fought several battles.

Pig Farmer and his pig also turned slightly to watch General Ha charge at the Attribute Stone.

Bang!

White light flashed as General Ha's head made intimate contact with the Attribute Stone.

The next instant, all four people present heard an agonized scream.

"Awooo, awooo, awooo!" After slamming into the Attribute Stone, General Ha was in so much pain that he practically forgot his own name.

His head was actually quite hard, but the stone was clearly harder.

"What the hell..." Lu Ran felt a headache coming on at the sight. I didn't tell you to risk your life. Why did you hit it so hard? Do you have a grudge against it?

Enough already!

He kept his expression calm and pretended he wasn't very familiar with this husky, ignoring the astonished looks from the other three.

There was no need to guess. All three of them surely thought this husky didn't seem particularly bright.

Before long, however, everyone's attention shifted to the Attribute Stone.

Having absorbed the attribute energy, the Attribute Stone changed almost immediately.

Where General Ha had struck it, a dozen or so white scratches rapidly appeared before their eyes, as though carved by a blade!

Seeing the change, Little White Dragon said, "Scratches. Is it Wind?"

"Generally speaking, huskies are a Snowfield Dog breed, so ice is more common. Wind is quite rare, but it's clearly better."

"Wind?" Lu Ran asked. "How good is that attribute?"

Sister Hua said, "It's a good attribute. Wind is known for speed. They say some creatures that can't fly can eventually gain the ability by developing their Wind powers..."

A flying Silly Husky...

Lu Ran looked at General Ha clutching his head and shook his own with a smile. Not a useless dog, but a mad dog, huh? It wasn't all that unexpected.