The Sword-Carrying Dog

"Ever since I was little, I dreamed of becoming a swordsman who roamed the world with a sword, righting wrongs and fighting for justice."

"But after I grew up, I realized a dream was just a dream."

Looking at General Ha with a sword in his mouth, Lu Ran grew a little wistful. He felt like an old father entrusting his dream to his child.

"Whether I can succeed or not, I'm leaving that dream to you now, General Ha!"

"You have to become a swordsman with justice in your heart in my place!"

"Human society has too many rules and restrictions, but the world of dogs is free."

"Come on! Take this sword and let all your brilliance and talent shine!"

"Woof!" It was unclear whether General Ha, who had the sword in his mouth, understood any of Lu Ran's brainwashing spiel.

Whatever Boss Lu says goes... He turned his head, swinging the wooden sword again and again. He was already very proficient.

Lu Ran watched him with satisfaction.

This pup is teachable.

Still, Lu Ran didn't actually know whether this approach to raising him would work.

After all, the image of the mythical Yazi was only something people had made up.

Lu Ran wondered: if traits could let pet beasts master incredible special abilities, was there a trait that could help General Ha wield weapons better?

That would determine whether General Ha could stick with the sword-carrying dog route all the way.

Right now, Super Beast Mimicry and meteoric iron ore made the sword-carrying dog route the most advantageous option, which was why Lu Ran had come up with this training method. As for what came next, he would have to play it by ear... But that was probably what raising pet beasts was all about: feeling your way through the dark and creating miracles.

"I remember the training manual saying Beast Taming skills aren't set in stone. Beast Tamers can use their own talents to develop them further."

"Do I have what it takes to develop Super Beast Mimicry in depth?"

Lu Ran had considered this before. Super Beast Mimicry let a Beast Tamer imitate a pet beast and gain its strength. Could it be used in reverse, letting a pet beast imitate its Beast Tamer and gain certain human traits? The talent for using tools, for instance.

The greatest distinction between humans and animals was the use and manufacture of tools. In theory, swords were still meant for people.

But if General Ha could also receive feedback from Lu Ran, perhaps he could become better at wielding a sword.

A Beast Tamer imitating a pet beast and a pet beast imitating a Beast Tamer were essentially no different.

If it worked, he could kill two birds with one stone!

"Finding a completely new path within something is undoubtedly difficult. But if I just use it backward, the way forward becomes much clearer. That's one possible direction for development." Lu Ran felt this approach to developing Super Beast Mimicry was worth a try.

Just as Fang Lan had said, Lu Ran had never been someone who liked following the crowd or taking the conventional path. More challenging pursuits actually motivated him more.

Planning to research alternative uses for Beast Taming skills while he was still a novice trainee made him a rare case indeed!

As for how to develop it, Lu Ran first needed a deeper understanding of Super Beast Mimicry. After learning the skill, its basic applications had already appeared in his mind.

It was as though the skill card had directly imparted certain knowledge to him.

"Next, follow my movements," Lu Ran said.

"Woof!"

Inside the room, General Ha followed behind Lu Ran. Whenever Lu Ran swung his sword, General Ha turned his head and swung his own, matching their movements as closely as possible.

In the living room, Lu Ran had only carried out a preliminary experiment with General Ha, spending about thirty minutes on it.

During those thirty minutes, Lu Ran unexpectedly discovered that imitating General Ha's sword practice was entirely feasible.

Even though swordsmanship was merely one of General Ha's many "talents," and not one he was particularly proficient in.

Still, after using Super Beast Mimicry to practice swordsmanship alongside General Ha, Lu Ran could indeed faintly feel a minuscule improvement in his physical fitness.

It was tiny, but he could definitely feel it! He wasn't imagining things.

Perhaps, given enough time, his strength would keep growing until he could fight lions and tigers barehanded.

"Phew..." A while later, Lu Ran lowered the Iron-Slashing Sword and exhaled a hot breath, feeling a little tired.

He glanced at General Ha, who was still full of energy, turning his head to draw and slash with his sword, and scratched his own head.

Impressive. General Ha certainly lives up to his name. So much energy.

Other Beast Tamers had to worry about their pet beasts becoming defiant because training was too tiring.

In his case, General Ha might instead complain that Lu Ran didn't have enough stamina.

"Aroo?" Sure enough, when Lu Ran stopped, General Ha gave him a puzzled look.

Why did we stop practicing?

"Because I feel like your strikes are getting weaker. Haven't you eaten? I'll get you some food," Lu Ran said.

"Woof!" Boss Lu froze, nearly forgetting that he was already hungry.

Deep in thought, Lu Ran turned to prepare food, including some for himself.

By now, he already had some ideas about using Super Beast Mimicry in reverse.

Although he didn't know whether it would work, other Beast Tamers would definitely be shocked if they found out.

After all, developing Beast Taming skills was difficult even for high-level Beast Tamers.

While preparing the food, Lu Ran kept refining his ideas. The underlying mechanism of Super Beast Mimicry was actually quite simple.

After learning Super Beast Mimicry, a unique visualization space would appear in a Beast Tamer's mind.

Super Beast Mimicry involved visualizing the behavioral characteristics of a contracted pet beast, allowing the body to imitate them naturally. As long as their actions were similar, the Beast Tamer would slowly receive feedback.

And the bridge connecting Beast Tamer and pet beast was precisely the mental power that established their contract.

"The mental bridge lets me receive feedback from General Ha. If I want to give him feedback too, I'll need to find another bridge. Using the same mental connection would cause a blockage. That's why Super Beast Mimicry normally can't operate in both directions at once."

"Compared to other novice Beast Tamers, I have one huge advantage: I've trained my Telepathy for two years!"

"When General Ha goes berserk, I can use Telepathy to wake him from his confusion. That means our hearts can also serve as a bridge connecting us."

"Perhaps I can use that heart-to-heart connection to build a bridge modeled on Super Beast Mimicry, passing my gains and insights to General Ha simultaneously. That way, he'll gain twice as much from sword practice!"

The heart-to-heart bridge and the mental bridge, operating simultaneously!

Lu Ran thought it was worth trying.

As he pondered, he soon finished preparing the food.

But when Lu Ran returned to the living room carrying the dog food, his expression quickly went blank.

"Holy crap." In the living room, he suddenly saw the sword in General Ha's mouth shining with a dazzling white light.

General Ha seemed to have wrapped non-elemental energy around the wooden sword.

It made the wooden sword look just like a divine blade.

"How did you do that?!" At the sight, Lu Ran's mouth fell slightly open.

According to the training manual, a pet beast at a low level was already doing very well if it could cover its body in energy.

Using the body as a conduit to wrap energy around an external object touching it was an advanced application of "energy coating."

It was only possible after an extremely long period of training.

"Woof!!" General Ha looked at Lu Ran in confusion. He... wanted to release sword energy.

Why won't it come out?

"Damn it, don't mess around! We're still at home!"

"If you actually release it, will I even have a home left?!" Lu Ran hurriedly called a halt.

Although the odds of a level-four husky mastering advanced energy techniques such as "external energy wrapping" and "energy projection" after half an hour of practice were vanishingly small, Lu Ran didn't dare gamble after seeing General Ha had already mastered one of them.

In short, Lu Ran was completely dumbfounded.

Suddenly, something occurred to him, and he quickly took out the training manual.

He flipped to the section introducing [Species Rank].

[A pet beast's species rank determines important physical qualities such as vitality, energy reserves, and physical strength. The higher its species rank, the stronger its base attributes, allowing it to easily defeat higher-level pet beasts of lower species ranks!]

[However, one attribute is not included in species rank: 'learning ability.' A pet beast's 'aptitude' cannot be directly observed. Beast Tamers must discover it for themselves while teaching their pet beasts.]

[The higher a pet beast's species rank, the stronger its base attributes-an innate advantage. The greater its learning ability, the faster it learns various skills-an acquired advantage.]

[Therefore, species rank does not determine everything. Beast Tamers must be adept at discovering their pet beasts' talents.]

Lu Ran put down the manual and stared at General Ha, utterly speechless.

So General Ha, who didn't look particularly bright but was formidable in battle, didn't have much of an advantage in species rank. Instead, he had an exceptionally high talent for learning?

That's just bizarre.

"Woof!" Under Lu Ran's skeptical gaze, General Ha had no idea what he was thinking, but somehow felt that Lu Ran was looking down on him. He added this grudge to his list again!

"Thinking about it carefully, when I taught General Ha all those skills before, he really did learn very quickly. Back then, I instinctively credited Telepathy, assuming he understood faster because of it. Now it seems he has very good learning ability himself..."

Whatever the case, the stronger General Ha was, the better.

He'd known General Ha was no ordinary dog!

"Eat up. Once you're done, we're going out." In a good mood, Lu Ran set down the dog food. Next, he wanted to awaken General Ha's Wind attribute.

But awakening his Wind attribute couldn't happen at home. If something went wrong, wouldn't General Ha tear the ceiling off once his Wind powers awakened?

So Lu Ran decided to take General Ha to his secret base to awaken his attribute.

It was on the mountain behind Red Leaf Park. Barely anyone went there all year round, so it was very quiet. He could train General Ha there while waiting for Fang Lan.

Green Sea City.

The wildlife park.

A young man in tactical gear, accompanied by a huge Rottweiler, passed through multiple cordons and arrived at a certain area.

Along the way, the police officers sealing off the area all looked astonished at the absurdly large police dog beside him.

"Captain Luo, you're here." Inside the cordoned-off area, in the wildlife park's predator section, a woman dressed in black had taken charge of the scene.

"Liu, describe the situation again."

The man addressed as Captain Luo felt his heart sink at the bloody traces of feeding on the ground. The police dog beside him also bared his teeth, his gaze fierce, but grew somewhat timid upon catching certain scents.

"This wasn't simply a wild animal attack. A keeper received a Black Card and thought he could contract a dangerous animal, but it backfired. He's already dead, but the animal completed its initial mutation and evolution, escaped from the zoo, and its whereabouts are now unknown."

"It was a Siberian tiger. Its most likely escape route is the mountain behind Red Leaf Park. Although there aren't many people there, it connects to both Red Leaf Park and the Starlight Villa District. We have to deal with this as soon as possible, or any passerby who encounters it will be in mortal danger," the woman in black said gravely.