Fang Lan's messages

Grass (an attribute).

When he saw Fang Lan's messages, Lu Ran couldn't help tightening his grip on his phone. He immediately began worrying about her.

How had this happened? He and Fang Lan had been chosen practically back-to-back?

Little White Dragon had said Black Cards were appearing on a massive scale now, but this was far too much of a coincidence.

Had she already contracted a pet beast?

Lu Ran quickly read on. Fang Lan had left plenty of messages, and right now, he wanted to know whether she had followed the Black Card's instructions and become a Beast Tamer.

He and General Ha had enjoyed themselves in the Novice Secret Realm, even wanting to stay a few more days, but for ordinary people, that place was still extremely dangerous.

Fang Lan: [Hey, hey, hey, hey, this is actually real! Pick up your phone! Where the hell have you disappeared to now?]

Fang Lan: [Should I follow its instructions and become a Beast Tamer? It feels a little dangerous, but... it looks really interesting too. What do I do? I don't want to give up this chance.]

The next message came over ten minutes later.

Fang Lan: [Damn it, I've decided. I'm going to give it a try. I can barely resist anymore.]

Lu Ran: ???

Don't try it! Wanting to try everything will only get you hurt!

Couldn't you think it over a little longer? Who makes a decision that fast?

Fang Lan: [I'm home. I'm going to contract my precious darling. I feel like a large dog might be a better choice, but I still want to save this chance to "evolve" for my darling!]

Her precious darling...

Lu Ran remembered that it was a spider, Fang Lan's favorite spider.

Its species was the Great Xia Tarantula, which could be found in many parts of Xia Country and was quite common.

They had sturdy bodies, moved nimbly, and were ferocious hunters. In some regions, they were also called "Earth Heroes," and were important natural predators of agricultural and forestry pests such as scarab beetles and noctuid moths.

But the reason Fang Lan especially liked her Great Xia Tarantula was that this one... had an unusual coloration and was extremely rare.

Ordinary Great Xia Tarantulas were an earthy gray, while hers was blue-violet.

But was contracting a spider really going to be okay...?

Little White Dragon had said Infinite City had a consciousness of its own and would arrange a suitable trial realm based on a newcomer's chosen starting pet beast, but Lu Ran was still worried.

Why was she just as impatient as he was?

Were they truly two peas in a pod as brother and sister? But they weren't even related by blood!

He continued reading the messages.

Fang Lan: [!!!]

Fang Lan: [This is amazing (astonished face)! I finished the contract. My darling looks so cool now, and seems almost as big as your General Ha!!!]

Fang Lan: [Image]

Lu Ran stared blankly at the blue-violet Great Xia Tarantula in Fang Lan's photo, its size comparable to a medium-sized dog.

Wait, could such a tiny tarantula grow this big after awakening extraordinary powers?

Fang Lan: [So strong! The venom is much more potent, and the silk is so tough now. Even the silk can carry venom. I tested the potency, and it should be enough to instantly knock out an adult...]

Lu Ran: ???

Hold on, why did your pet beast come with a poison attribute?!

Oh, Great Xia Tarantulas were naturally venomous? Never mind, then.

Damn, didn't that mean someone who contracted an electric eel would get a lightning attribute right off the bat?

Fang Lan: [Ten minutes left. I'm about to be teleported away. I wonder if Little Blue and I can do this. We should be fine... Little Blue said I'd be well protected.]

Fang Lan: [Lu Ran!!! I didn't tell my parents about this. I only texted them that I'm staying at a friend's place tonight. Once you see this, don't go telling them anything yet. Wait until I come back. If I don't come back, please look after Mom and Dad for me.]

I...

Reading Fang Lan's messages gave Lu Ran a headache. She had been bolder than him since childhood, with an even wilder personality. She had dared to catch spiders and snakes barehanded in elementary school, so it was hardly surprising that something like this would excite her.

Lu Ran quickly called Fang Lan...

No one answered...

It seemed she was still in a secret realm or Infinite City and hadn't returned.

"She should be fine."

Lu Ran had considered the possibility that, with Black Cards appearing on a massive scale, someone he knew would eventually be chosen too.

But he hadn't expected it to happen so soon.

There was one thing Fang Lan had done better than him.

Before going somewhere dangerous, she had left someone she knew a whole string of messages.

His own preparations had been lacking...

He needed to learn from this. Next time he entered Infinite City, he should leave a message beforehand, just in case something happened...

"Once school properly starts, I'll definitely have much less time to spend in Infinite City. Taking a leave of absence... would be tricky."

"I can't let school get in the way of beast taming."

"Right now, it's only extra classes during the break, so I can skip them. But once the term starts, I won't be able to take time off like this. Forget it, I'll take things as they come. Little White Dragon said I could ask him to sort out this kind of thing. I'll ask him when the time comes."

Lu Ran called Fang Lan again, but there was still no answer.

He plopped onto the couch, his headache growing worse. Still, he believed Fang Lan would be fine. Without his telepathy talent, he considered himself inferior to her when it came to interacting with animals and awareness in the wilderness. Fretting wouldn't help. All he could do was wait.

Meanwhile.

Third Infinite City.

After emerging from her private room, a tall, slender figure gazed excitedly at the mysterious starry sky.

"What was that? It really was just a Novice Trial. So easy. But we did so well-why did we only get a B rating?"

"Forget it. Let's figure out what this place is first."

Fang Lan looked around. Soon, she noticed another figure suddenly emerging from a nearby private room.

Seeing the figure, she quickly approached.

"Um... hello!"

"A newcomer?"

The figure wore a black T-shirt and brown shorts, with a white lab coat over them. A pair of long, shapely legs, every bit the equal of Fang Lan's, were clad in black stockings. Her cool demeanor immediately brought the approaching Fang Lan to an abrupt halt.

"Um..." Fang Lan looked at the woman in amazement. So beautiful... but so cold.

Hm? Fang Lan took a closer look, and her eyes suddenly widened.

"A-are you Dr. Gu?!" Fang Lan exclaimed in delighted surprise.

"You know me?" the woman in the lab coat asked, surprised.

"My name is Fang Lan. I'm an incoming freshman in veterinary medicine at Magic University. I've watched your interviews, Dr. Gu."

The woman in the lab coat was even more surprised. She hadn't expected a newcomer she encountered at random to be a junior from her own university.

Her icy expression softened, and she smiled faintly. "I see. Hello. Yes, I'm Gu Qingyi. Since we're from the same university, you can just call me Senior Gu."

"From the look of you, you must have a lot of questions right now. I happen to have some time, so I'll answer them for you."

"Okay! Thank you, Senior Gu!" Fang Lan instantly turned into a fangirl, because she knew just how accomplished this woman was academically.

So young, yet she already held doctorates in both veterinary medicine and animal science!

Had she... been chosen to become a Beast Tamer too?

Starlight Residential Community, Green Sea City.

While keeping an eye on the time and waiting for Fang Lan, Lu Ran had intended to summon General Ha and awaken his attribute. But he sensed that General Ha seemed to have fallen asleep inside the Black Card's space.

"Heh. So even you get tired, huh, dog?"

He abandoned the idea of calling General Ha out immediately to awaken his attribute. That was fair enough. He had been exhausted by the day, and General Ha had spent it fighting, making him even more tired. His injuries could heal, but his physical, mental, and emotional fatigue couldn't simply disappear.

Lu Ran had even drunk Mind-Clearing Tea, while General Ha had only eaten some fruit... He would let him sleep for a while first.

Lu Ran also planned to use this time to read the basic training manual he had bought from the cat-eared information broker. Once Fang Lan returned, he could act like an expert.

The manual hadn't cost much. She had only charged him 100 Crystal Coins, so it was probably standard fare. After all, according to Little White Dragon, basic information like this was provided free to anyone who joined the authorities or a guild.

Still, Little Ling had repeatedly assured him that their basic information included little facts and tricks no one else had recorded, and that he wouldn't regret buying it.

Lu Ran materialized the booklet he had bought and opened it to the first page.

The first page contained a brief introduction to Beast Tamers.

[Beast Tamer: a profession that involves contracting, training, and commanding pet beasts!]

[A combat-oriented Beast Tamer's strength generally consists of two components.]

[The first is the combat strength of their pet beasts. The second is their own beast-taming skills!]

[A pet beast's basic combat strength is determined jointly by its growth level and species rank...]

Lu Ran carefully searched for important information.

"A pet beast's level is the numerical level shown by the Eye of Data. Level 1 is the lowest, while the highest level is currently unknown? But every ten levels, a pet beast reaches a bottleneck and can no longer level up. Just like Mr. Little White Dragon said."

"The same goes for Beast Tamers. They're divided into apprentice, level 1, level 2... corresponding to pet beasts at levels 1-10, 11-20, 21-30, and so on. To raise their own level, Beast Tamers have to help their pet beasts break through their bottlenecks. The way to do that is to clear a Breakthrough Secret Realm of the corresponding level."

"Clearing a Breakthrough Secret Realm of the corresponding level just once benefits all of your pet beasts..."

"Looks like Breakthrough Secret Realms are unavoidable hurdles..." Lu Ran mused.

He continued picking out the key information.

"A Beast Tamer without beast-taming skills cannot be considered a qualified Beast Tamer."

"There are many kinds of beast-taming skills. Broadly speaking, they're divided into skills that consume the Beast Tamer's power to strengthen their pet beasts, and skills that draw on their pet beasts' power to strengthen the Beast Tamer. As a result, Beast Tamers have developed two distinct paths..."

"Beast-taming skills come from secret realm rewards. Each secret realm has different drops. In certain special secret realms, an S rating grants a 1% chance of receiving a beast-taming skill card... which makes obtaining one extremely difficult."

Holy crap. Lu Ran was shocked when he read this, and couldn't help feeling fortunate. Although he had only earned an S rating in the Novice Secret Realm, his luck had clearly been off the charts, since a beast-taming skill card had actually dropped.

After all, skill cards had only a 1% drop rate in ordinary secret realms.

Of course, it might also have had something to do with the Novice Secret Realm's reward multiplier mechanism. According to Little White Dragon, its rewards were far more generous than those of ordinary secret realms at the same level. This was a perk for newcomers, and the experience gained from killing monsters was part of it too.

Super Beast Mimicry... This skill should belong to the latter path, right? Drawing on a pet beast's power to strengthen the Beast Tamer!

"A Beast Tamer can only learn one beast-taming skill at each level stage, so when there's a choice, it's best to select skills that work well together."

"So that means... I'll have to become a level 1 Beast Tamer before I can learn the next one."

Lu Ran continued reading.

"In theory, beast-taming skills have no rarity ranks. Their effectiveness depends entirely on how the Beast Tamer develops them. There are no useless beast-taming skills, only useless Beast Tamers... That line sounds awfully familiar."

The manual had specifically highlighted this point in bold, and Lu Ran took careful note of it. Beast-taming skills were not limited to their apparent effects... Beast Tamers could develop them further on their own!

Lu Ran's interest stirred. This was much as he had anticipated. Not long after obtaining Super Beast Mimicry, he had already begun thinking about improving it... He continued scanning for important information.

For instance, pet beast species ranks were divided into extraordinary species, leader species, monarch species... with each further divided into low, middle, and high grades...

There were also basic effects of different attributes and the relationships between their strengths and weaknesses.

Of course, these were all relatively simple. What Lu Ran valued most was the theory of training directions, which had an entire page to itself in the training manual!

This was also the most important page in the manual!

[Pet beasts must develop their own skills under the guidance of their Beast Tamers. Depending on the training methods used, every pet beast can be unique.]

[However, because pet beasts have limited energy and learning ability, the directions of pet beast skill development can broadly be divided into four major categories!]