The First Skill

"The sword's forged, and the food's bought. For the next half month, we'll stay put in the Exclusive Room's Training Secret Realm and work on developing General Ha's skills! Sword Aura, Sword Storm, Sword Flight Technique... we're going to study them all."

After parting ways with Pig Farmer, Lu Ran returned to the Exclusive Room in a good mood. Fang Lan, meanwhile, headed to the Arena, saying she wanted to watch for a while and learn the rules. Lu Ran didn't go with her. He wasn't interested in battles between Beast Tamers. Even when playing games, he was a dedicated PVE player.

"Fang Lan also seemed to mention having General Ha spar with that tarantula... Forget it. Better not bring that up, or she'll get discouraged." Inside the room, Lu Ran let General Ha out.

"Awooo~~~" The moment General Ha emerged, he was raring to fight with the Windfall Sword. Clearly, he hadn't had his fill back at the Forge.

"What is there to fight right now? Let's train for half a month first. Our level's still too low. We're going solo, after all. We probably couldn't even clear an easy Novice Secret Realm!"

"Whine, whine!!" General Ha grew anxious and launched into a lengthy argument.

The gist was: did the Divine Deer Pendant still have any energy? Why not find a forest secret realm and replenish it first? That would make their intensive training go better afterward. If he got injured during training and they ran out of healing power, they'd be in trouble!

Lu Ran: ?

"Holy crap." Lu Ran stared at the dog in shock, wondering if someone had possessed General Ha. Could General Ha really work through such a complicated chain of logic? How had his IQ suddenly shot up just because he wanted to fight?

"You don't need to worry about that. I think the Divine Deer Pendant still has plenty of energy," Lu Ran said. The Divine Deer Pendant was a rechargeable resource that absorbed the forest's natural power and converted it into healing power. Although it didn't seem to have charged much in the Demon Cat Forest, it still had enough to treat General Ha's everyday training injuries.

"Whine~" General Ha drooped.

"However..." Lu Ran glanced at General Ha. He hadn't told him about the Energy Surge Fruit yet. That stuff essentially amounted to a self-harm training method, and he wasn't sure whether General Ha would accept it...

If they were going to heal the recoil injuries caused by the Energy Surge Fruit, then the more healing power they had, the better. He didn't know whether what remained would be enough. After all, he couldn't really judge exactly how much energy was left inside. A trip to an easy Newbie Forest Secret Realm to replenish it was acceptable.

If they only went to replenish energy and didn't provoke those level 10 bosses, there wouldn't be much danger.

Then they could find a couple of low-level monsters along the way and let General Ha have some fun with the Windfall Sword. That would satisfy him, too.

"All right, you win. We'll find a secret realm and let you have some fun. But once we're back, you have to practice swordsmanship with me properly and put in some hard training," Lu Ran said.

"Awoo!!" General Ha was delighted. Boss Lu was the best! His tail immediately shot skyward.

"Then let me pick a secret realm." Lu Ran smiled and walked over to the Secret Realm Pillar to look for a suitable one. Since they wanted to replenish the Divine Deer Pendant's energy, they obviously needed a secret realm with a forest environment.

After looking through the options, Lu Ran's gaze finally settled on one particular secret realm.

[Name: Demon Cat Forest]

[Secret realm level: novice]

[Difficulty: easy]

[Challenge cost: 200 Crystal Coins]

Lu Ran's Newbie Trial Secret Realm had been the Demon Cat Forest, and this secret realm was also the Demon Cat Forest. However, the former had only contained a small section of the latter, with no particularly powerful creatures.

If he entered again, Lu Ran might encounter Demon Cats above level 5, or even some that had awakened attributes.

Maybe we should choose this one again, Lu Ran thought. They were already familiar with this Secret Realm's environment, and the Woodscale Fruit inside was an excellent resource for replenishing stamina. Bringing some back for their next half month of intensive training would be useful, too.

"How about the Demon Cat Forest again? Didn't you rack up quite a few grudges there?" Lu Ran asked.

"!" General Ha froze. Huh? Had he? Why couldn't he remember?

"Woof!" Whatever. He'd pretend he had. Time for revenge! General Ha was raring to go, taking things as they came!

"Then that's the one." Lu Ran shrugged.

[Spend 200 Crystal Coins to challenge the Demon Cat Forest Secret Realm?]

Yes.

Lu Ran answered inwardly.

[Teleportation countdown: 10... 9...]

Ten seconds later, Lu Ran and General Ha opened their eyes to the same familiar surroundings and familiar voice.

[Teleportation complete.]

[Current location: Demon Cat Forest (Novice Secret Realm)]

[Difficulty: easy]

[Challenge objective: kill the Demon Cat Forest Chief.]

[Secret realm introduction: ...]

[Tip ①: The maximum stay in a Novice Secret Realm is 8 hours. Challengers may choose to return at any time during their stay. Teleportation takes 10 seconds.]

[Tip ②: Blessed by the Novice Secret Realm, challengers temporarily gain the Eye of Data, allowing them to inspect information about resources and creatures within the secret realm.]

[Tip ③: ...]

Back in the Demon Cat Forest, Lu Ran noticed quite a few changes. For instance, the "Newbie Trial Secret Realm" label had become "Novice Secret Realm," and the trial objective, "survive for one day," had become the challenge objective, "kill the Demon Cat Forest Chief."

The Demon Cat Forest Chief was a level 10 Demon Cat that had awakened a Grass Attribute. With its extensive combat experience, it would be difficult to handle. Although the Demon Cat that the Black Bear on the Divine Pet Rankings had killed with one swipe had also been level 10, it probably hadn't been the secret realm's chief.

In any case, General Ha was only level 4, and Lu Ran was going solo. They shouldn't provoke that creature.

Even if teleporting out only took ten seconds, their opponent wouldn't be alone. Who knew how many underlings would come to harass them?

"Woof! (Sword, come!)" Inside the secret realm, General Ha looked at Lu Ran.

"Here." Lu Ran sighed and took the Windfall Sword and the Wind-Slaying Sword out of his backpack. He gave the former to General Ha to hold in his mouth and kept the latter in his own hand.

Now that he finally had a weapon, Lu Ran felt that... if he encountered Demon Cats like the ones from before, he could kill them with one slash each!

"Same as before. We'll stay here and replenish the pendant's energy for a few hours before deciding whether to go deeper to gather resources," Lu Ran said. "If any enemies come over in the meantime, you deal with them."

Lu Ran looked around and noticed that this spawn point also had some Woodscale Fruit. He planned to gather those first.

"Awoo~" General Ha was very obedient this time, mainly because he had a new toy. Once he received the Windfall Sword, he couldn't wait to start experimenting with it.

His inability to release Sword Aura still rankled.

Meanwhile, Lu Ran took the Wind-Slaying Sword to chop trees, turning into a lumberjack.

Perhaps Lu Ran and General Ha simply had terrible luck, but only a few minutes after they entered the secret realm, the bushes began rustling.

That familiar sound...

Sure enough, as Lu Ran looked over from the tree where he was picking fruit and General Ha looked over from the ground, a Demon Cat emerged from the bushes.

[Species]: Demon Cat

[Attribute]: unawakened

[Species rank]: Intermediate Extraordinary

[Growth level]: level 8

"Meoow!!!" The Demon Cat swaggered out. It was far sturdier than any Demon Cat Lu Ran and General Ha had encountered in the Newbie Trial Secret Realm. Still, although it was four levels above General Ha, neither of them felt the slightest fear.

After all, it was only a Demon Cat that hadn't awakened an attribute. Whether it was even stronger than that Northeast Golden Tiger was questionable. Even if it was, it probably wasn't much stronger.

With his upgraded equipment, General Ha should be able to defeat it easily.

"General Ha, finish it off," Lu Ran ordered, continuing to pick fruit.

Below him.

General Ha held the Windfall Sword in his mouth, his gaze sharp.

An enemy had finally arrived.

He was going to give Lu Ran a surprise.

General Ha clenched the Windfall Sword tightly in his jaws. As he channeled and strengthened the wind power, it concentrated entirely within the blade!

Boom!

General Ha swung the sword, flinging an astonishing wisp of Storm from the blade. It took the form of a wind blade-Sword Aura!

Whoosh!

The Sword Aura swept forward with the force of a gale, leaving the Demon Cat that had just emerged utterly bewildered. After all, it had never seen an attack that could fly out like that.

The gale bore down on it.

Before the Demon Cat could react, the wind blade struck its body, instantly slicing it in two and sending it bursting apart on the ground.

Even after beheading the Demon Cat, the Sword Aura kept moving, hurtling onward until it sliced a huge tree behind it in half as well. Only after the tree fell to the ground with a crash did it dissipate!

After carefully figuring it out, General Ha had finally released Sword Aura.

"Woof!" General Ha turned to look at Lu Ran in the tree. This counted as the Energy Release technique, right? It counted as Sword Aura, didn't it?! He'd done it!

"That's insane..." Up in the tree, Lu Ran stood gawking, his scalp prickling. Where on earth had this dog come from? He refused to believe a Silly Husky could be this powerful!

Even someone with the right talent would need ten days to half a month just to get started with this technique, yet General Ha had mastered it in a day or two? What kind of dog had he picked up?!

Lu Ran was astonished by his learning ability, but General Ha defeating the Demon Cat didn't surprise him. After all, Master Lin had said that with the Windfall Sword strengthening his wind power, even a level 10 creature would suffer serious injuries if struck.

At the same time.

The Contract Card belonging exclusively to General Ha.

Also underwent a slight change.

[Species]: Snowfield Dog

[Attribute]: Wind

[Species rank]: Intermediate Extraordinary

[Growth level]: level 4

[Skill]: Sword Aura (a basic skill formed by releasing wind energy strengthened through an extraordinary sword-type weapon!)

At that moment, the liveliest place was actually the Beast Taming Plaza.

In a short span of time, quite a few Beast Tamers had already made it onto the Divine Pet Rankings.

All ten positions on the Leader Rankings had been filled, and the Extraordinary Rankings already listed nine divine pets. The Lord Rankings had the fewest entries.

Many people were watching the final spot on the Extraordinary Pet Ranking.

Until...

[Regional announcement: Divine Pet Rankings, Extraordinary Species Rankings updated.]

[Newly ranked divine pet species: Snowfield Dog.]

[Attribute: Wind]

[Species rank: Intermediate Extraordinary]

[Growth level: level 4]

[Beast Tamer: John Doe]

[Reason for ranking: evolved and mutated from the Snowfield Dog species, possesses exceptional comprehension, and has awakened storm power. Released Sword Aura at range in the easy Novice Secret Realm, Demon Cat Forest, instantly killing a level 8 Demon Cat of an Intermediate Extraordinary species despite a four-level disadvantage!]

The moment the Extraordinary Rankings updated, the entire Beast Taming Plaza erupted. Countless newcomers stared in bewilderment. Sword Aura? What the hell?