Infinite City

"I choose Infinite City!"

Infinite City.

Sacred and majestic.

It seemed to sit between the cracks of the world, isolated from everything beyond it.

Diamond stars glittered in a sky like deep blue silk.

Starlight spilled freely across the ground.

Throughout the vast city, gray-white rooftops quietly displayed their ancient, mysterious charm beneath the scattered starlight.

At that moment, inside a room in the southern part of Infinite City, a figure slowly materialized amid a flash of white light.

It was Lu Ran, who had just completed the Novice Trial.

Lu Ran cautiously examined his surroundings. He hadn't expected to be given two options for his return.

When he saw those options, he had chosen Infinite City, where Beast Tamers gathered, without a moment's hesitation.

I should be able to clear up a lot of questions here.

For now, though, Lu Ran was still most interested in the rewards he had just received.

After all, these were the fruits of an entire day of grinding alongside General Ha.

There were nine ratings, ranging from SSS to F, and he had earned an S.

Lu Ran was fairly satisfied with that rating.

It wasn't the highest, but an S was certainly beyond what an ordinary person could achieve.

Only Lu Ran and General Ha knew just what they had done in the secret realm that day.

Calling them weasels in a henhouse wouldn't have been an exaggeration...

Most people who spent the day avoiding danger would probably only earn an E or F.

By comparison, he owed much of his success to the pendant. Without the Divine Deer Pendant, he and General Ha wouldn't have gotten very far, either.

Unfortunately, despite his powerful healing item, General Ha's species rank was still too low. Before evolving, he had been nothing more than a Silly Husky, and his combat efficiency wasn't particularly high.

If someone had contracted a tiger or a polar bear, they would probably have slaughtered monsters far more ferociously, injuries aside.

But that was fine. General Ha should still be able to keep evolving indefinitely. As long as they worked hard together, they could surely break through his species' limits. Matching or even surpassing fantasy creatures like Giant Dragons wasn't out of the question.

The wonders of the secret realm gave Lu Ran that conviction.

In short, thanks to the Divine Deer Talisman, they had started off with several excellent rewards.

Lu Ran took out his identity card, one of the rewards he had received in the secret realm. Its appearance and material were similar to the contract Black Card, except that it was white. All those resources seemed to be stored inside it.

The identity card displayed:

[Name]: Lu Ran (can be renamed)

[Beast Tamer ID]: 9528

Beneath those two basic details were four options: [Communication], [Party], [Inventory], and [Teleport].

The ten thousand crystal coins and three resources he had earned in the secret realm were all in his inventory.

Among those three resources, the beast-taming skill also came in card form. He supposed he could call it a skill card.

The crystal coins, however, had no physical form. They were simply displayed as a number, much like an online bank balance. Lu Ran figured they were Infinite City's "universal currency." Did he spend them by swiping his card?

He looked around the room. Aside from basic furniture, there were only a few things inside. One pedestal in particular caught Lu Ran's attention.

It had what looked like a place to "swipe a card."

Lu Ran walked up to it. An instant later, an optical screen appeared before him, densely packed with images and text.

"This is..."

[Name: Spider Cave]

[Secret realm level: novice]

[Difficulty: easy]

[Challenge cost: 200 crystal coins]

[Name: Wild Boar Valley]

[Secret realm level: novice]

[Difficulty: normal]

[Challenge cost: 500 crystal coins]

[Name: Behemoth Forest]

[Secret realm level: novice]

[Difficulty: hard]

[Challenge cost: 700 crystal coins]

The screen showed basic information about several secret realms, along with the Crystal Coins required to challenge them. Apparently, he had to buy a ticket to enter other secret realms.

The first page alone listed ten. Lu Ran saw that he could browse five pages, which meant there were over forty novice-level secret realms available to him!

Flipping to the later pages, Lu Ran found several particularly outrageous ones, such as the Lake of Death.

[Name: Lake of Death]

[Secret realm level: novice]

[Difficulty: abyss]

[Challenge cost: 1,000 crystal coins]

"This really is..." Lu Ran was momentarily speechless.

The secret realms here seemed to be divided into four difficulty levels: easy, normal, hard, and abyss.

The challenge costs generally ranged from one hundred to one thousand crystal coins.

His ten thousand crystal coins would pay for plenty of attempts, but after looking through the list, Lu Ran wasn't particularly interested for the time being...

Even with an epic-grade item to help them, the easy-difficulty Newbie Trial Secret Realm, Demon Cat Forest, had left them exhausted and injured multiple times.

Normal difficulty... or even hard and abyss? Until he knew what he was getting into, it was best not to court death.

Lu Ran had noticed communication and party options on his identity card earlier. Presumably, those high-difficulty secret realms were meant for teams of Beast Tamers to challenge together?

Aside from these dungeon-like secret realms, however, Lu Ran also found one that was completely safe, listed on a separate page...

[Name: Training Secret Realm]

[Secret realm level: novice]

[Activation cost: 1 crystal coin/hour]

The price was extremely affordable. It was probably just a training ground.

"I should take a closer look at the materials I received first. They should help strengthen both General Ha and me."

Lu Ran stepped away from the pedestal and found that the optical screen disappeared automatically. Then he turned his attention to the resource rewards in his inventory.

Inside the secret realm, he had gained temporary access to the Eye of Data.

Now that he had cleared the Secret Realm, it seemed he could use the Eye of Data permanently, even outside.

However, this was only the basic version, not the complete one he had used in the secret realm.

The version inside the Secret Realm could also display information about other creatures. This basic Eye of Data could only show information about himself, his own pet beast, and low-rarity resources and items, greatly reducing its strategic value.

[Name]: meteoric iron ore

[Grade]: advanced

[Description]: iron ore formed under the influence of power from an extraterrestrial meteor. It possesses excellent energy conduction and amplification properties and can be used to craft weapons and equipment.

[Name]: Grass Attribute Awakening Fruit

[Grade]: advanced

[Description]: can help pet beasts with Grass Attribute aptitude awaken their own grass powers.

Meteoric iron ore and a grass-attribute fruit!

The meteoric iron ore spoke for itself. Lu Ran had deeply regretted being unable to bring a weapon in this time. He suspected that ordinary weapons from the outside world, including firearms, couldn't be brought in.

Only items with supernatural powers, like the Divine Deer Pendant, could be brought along.

Since this meteoric iron ore was also a special resource, surely he could carry a weapon made from it into a secret realm?

Lu Ran was very satisfied with this reward. He just didn't yet know what to make from it-or where to have it made.

The grass-attribute fruit also thrilled Lu Ran.

Nearly all the supernatural creatures he had encountered so far had been in an unawakened state with no attribute, which was undeniably strange.

As he understood it, attributes like wind, lightning, water, and fire should exist too.

Why hadn't any of those creatures possessed one?

From the looks of it, awakening an attribute wasn't easy for supernatural creatures. It was probably extremely difficult and required some external catalyst.

Attribute awakening fruits were clearly one such catalyst.

The only question now was whether General Ha had Grass Attribute aptitude.

Lu Ran thought General Ha probably didn't. Though he liked eating vegetables, it was hard to imagine a Silly Husky having any affinity with the grass attribute.

But that wasn't a major problem. Now that he had an attribute fruit, if he couldn't use it, he could simply sell it or trade it with someone else for the attribute he needed.

First, though, he had to find out what attribute General Ha had.

How to identify a pet beast's attribute was another thing Lu Ran needed to figure out on this visit.

Of course, those two rewards weren't what delighted Lu Ran most. What delighted him most was that he had actually received a beast-taming skill.

In Lu Ran's view, a Beast Tamer's value to their pet beast probably lay in these beast-taming skills.

Lu Ran felt that a Beast Tamer's strength most likely depended on their beast-taming skills.

This thing could very well enhance a pet beast's combat power-or the Beast Tamer's own!

Hmm...

[Name]: Super Beast Mimicry

[Description]: a beast-taming skill. By imitating and learning the behavioral traits of their own contracted pet beasts, Beast Tamers can acquire the strength and skills of fierce beasts...

Huh?

Lu Ran: huh???

"Oh, screw you!" Lu Ran, whose delight had barely lasted a moment, immediately started cursing in the room.

What the hell was this?

How could it be like this?

He didn't know what other beast-taming skills were like, and this one did happen to solve the problem of his own weak combat power.

But learning the behavioral traits of my own contracted pet beast?

Are you serious?

Lu Ran's face cycled through shades of green and purple.

There had long been the Twelve Animal Forms, practical fighting techniques developed by ancient people imitating the movements of twelve animals. So this beast-taming skill did seem reasonably plausible.

If Lu Ran had contracted a dragon, a tiger, or a bear, he would have learned it without hesitation to acquire a bear's strength, an eagle's eyesight, a leopard's speed...

The problem was... he had contracted a Silly Husky.

Lu Ran imagined himself learning and imitating his own Silly Husky's behavioral traits...

"This skill is ridiculous. Who came up with it?"

Lu Ran clenched his fists.

"Even if I, Lu Ran, get beaten to death in a secret realm—even if I never become a powerful Beast Tamer in my entire life—I will never play the role of Silly Husky... P-probably? No, I have to think of something."