The Demon Cat was subdued just like that. Lu Ran looked at its bitten-through neck and found it incredible. Although everything here was called a projection, the bleeding Demon Cat looked like a real living creature...
Poor kitty, what a horrible death.
But it was either you or me.
Huh?
Before Lu Ran could dwell on it, white light suddenly enveloped the Demon Cat pinned beneath General Ha. Both its body and the blood that had spilled from it shattered completely within the light and vanished!
"Woo??"
Seeing the spoils disappear inexplicably before his eyes, General Ha looked bewildered.
Something even more bewildering followed. The Demon Cat had not vanished without a trace after all. What remained condensed into a speck of light the size of a firefly and flew into General Ha's body.
At that moment, General Ha felt as though his physique had grown a little stronger again.
"Leveling up by killing monsters?" Seeing what happened after the Demon Cat disappeared, Lu Ran immediately recalled something and looked at General Ha.
However, when he saw that General Ha's [Growth level] was still [Level 1], he felt puzzled.
"There's no mistaking what just happened... Killing that enemy made General Ha a little stronger. Not by much, but there was definitely an improvement."
"One isn't enough to level up?"
"How many will it take to reach level 2?"
"Wait! Maybe this is the whole point of the trial realm." A flurry of thoughts went through Lu Ran's mind.
His original plan had been to complete the beginner quest normally, avoid conflict, and last a day. Once he understood more about what was happening to him, he would make plans and attempt harder challenges.
But after discovering that killing monsters could grant levels, and that General Ha was far stronger in combat than he had imagined, he began to waver.
Could he perhaps raise General Ha's level a little here?
After all, the final reward seemed to depend on his performance in the trial. Surely hiding cautiously until the end and fighting his way through to the end would yield different rewards.
Perhaps the Newbie Trial Secret Realm was not as terrifying as he had imagined. Instead, it might be an excellent opportunity for beginners to train.
The person who had posted about such a miserable experience might simply have been too weak!
Of course, there might really be even stronger enemies in the realm... But at least General Ha seemed perfectly capable of handling Demon Cats like the one they had just encountered!
Lu Ran was torn. He wanted to seize every opportunity he could. He had a feeling that the mysterious black card would change the world order, but he also feared that his greed might put them in danger.
"Woof!!"
Meanwhile, General Ha kept pawing at the ground, seemingly trying to find the missing Demon Cat...
"Stop." Lu Ran looked exasperated. "That thing's completely gone. Next, we'll... stay right here. Get some rest and recover your strength."
"Woof?"
Lu Ran paid no more attention to General Ha's tilted head. He was actually rather dissatisfied with the Eye of Data.
It would have been nice if the Eye of Data could show an experience bar indicating how far General Ha was from level 2. At least give him a percentage. Unfortunately, whether he checked General Ha's stats through the Eye of Data or the Contract Card, neither told him how many Demon Cats they needed to kill to get from level 1 to level 2.
Still, Lu Ran had made an unexpected discovery: the Eye of Data seemed capable of displaying his own information too.
[Species]: Human [Beastmaster rank]: Apprentice [Beastmaster skills]: None
The information was still extremely basic. The only thing that caught Lu Ran's attention was the so-called beastmaster skills.
General Ha's stat sheet also had a skills field.
Yet both General Ha's skills field and his own showed no skills... How exactly were they supposed to acquire them?
If they gained skills, perhaps their combat strength could improve further.
"We just fought a battle here and made quite a bit of noise..."
"It might draw more enemies over. We only need to wait here for them to come to us. This spot's fairly open, so we'll have some control over the situation if an enemy shows up."
Lu Ran explained his reasoning to General Ha. Staying at this "spawn point" was better than burrowing into those tangled thickets.
That was his final decision. He would leave it to fate.
"Woo!" General Ha nodded in obedience.
As far as he was concerned, Lu Ran handled the thinking, and all he had to do was fight.
"Keep watch."
While they waited for prey to come to them, Lu Ran did not sit idle. He continued examining their surroundings with the Eye of Data.
After all, according to the instructions, the Eye of Data could show information about resources as well as living creatures.
What counted as a resource?
After some exploration, Lu Ran actually made several significant discoveries.
Ordinary weeds and trees showed nothing when viewed through the Eye of Data, but there really were some unusual plants nearby whose uses he managed to uncover.
For instance, he found a kind of red mushroom beneath a tree.
[Name]: Blood-Staunching Mushroom [Grade]: Common [Description]: A fungus that gradually heals wounds when crushed and applied. Do not ingest, or you will hallucinate tiny people dancing.
He also found several green fruits on a relatively slender tree that looked completely different from the surrounding giants.
[Name]: Woodscale Fruit [Grade]: Common [Description]: A juicy, highly filling tree fruit that restores some stamina when eaten. Fruit worms are especially fond of woodscale fruit, so eating one also offers a high chance of extra protein.
"Good thing we didn't leave right away. There were resources like these hidden nearby. But these descriptions are ridiculous..." Lu Ran felt his stomach churn. If they had fled at the start, there was no guarantee they could have found resources like these elsewhere.
Setting aside the infuriating descriptions, with these two resources alone, staying put for a day seemed entirely manageable as long as they did not encounter anything too powerful.
"We should be able to use these, right?" Since the Demon Cat had vanished earlier, Lu Ran worried that the blood-staunching mushrooms and woodscale fruit might disappear after he picked them too.
As it turned out, he had worried needlessly. He tried digging up a blood-staunching mushroom, and it did not disappear. Apparently, they simply could not take it out of the realm.
"Nice." Lu Ran's eyes lit up. With these supplies, he felt much more confident about helping General Ha level up.
Huh?
"Woo..." Just as Lu Ran was feeling pleased, he felt a rush of warm air. At some point, General Ha had come over and was panting hot breaths at the blood-staunching mushroom, drooling as though asking whether he could eat it.
"Didn't you eat right before we came here???"
"Woof!"
"There's no way one fight burned through all of that. This is medicine for external use, not food. And don't eat anything else here without my permission."
"Woof."
"No means no."
After their exchange, faced with Lu Ran's disdainful stare, General Ha finally abandoned his plan to eat the blood-staunching mushroom. In fact, Lu Ran's husky preferred vegetables, fruit, and other non-meat foods to meat, which had earned him another nickname: Veggie Dog.
Next, Lu Ran began the difficult task of picking woodscale fruit. Although both he and General Ha had eaten before coming here, that meal would only last them half a day at most. Once they became hungry again, all their capabilities were bound to decline.
That made woodscale fruit, which could restore some stamina, fill their stomachs, and quench their thirst, particularly important.
Some time later.
Lu Ran had finished gathering all the nearby woodscale fruit and blood-staunching mushrooms.
Half an hour had already passed since they entered.
What left Lu Ran speechless was that, despite staying put, they seemingly had not attracted any new enemies.
"Do we have to go on the offensive?" Lu Ran frowned, but his expression changed the very next moment.
Rustle, rustle, rustle-
General Ha, who had been lying on the ground with his eyes half closed, suddenly opened them wide and became alert.
That familiar sound had returned.
"Here comes some easy experience!"
"Woof, woof!"
But Lu Ran's excitement did not last long, because the rustling... was coming from every direction.
His heart tightened. There were many creatures approaching this time... Definitely more than one!
A moment later.
A bead of sweat slid down Lu Ran's face.
The black thicket parted once again, and five figures emerged.
General Ha: ...
Lu Ran: ...
Ha, this is an easy beginner realm? Lu Ran was dumbfounded.
He suspected the realm's creator was targeting him! It was not as though he had cheated!
Let me just say... thank you...
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