Lu Ran now knew why killing monsters to level up was only a reward in the Beginner Trial Secret Realm. It was because if it were not restricted, he could have become a literal god just by slaughtering a ton of demon cats in the Demon Cat Forest every day.
Even if he didn't find it tedious, the consciousness governing Limitless City’s secret realms would find it tedious. After all, it would have to deal with so many beastmasters exploiting the same strategy.
Captain Doofus killed demon cats without pause while gradually becoming more efficient. It was getting close to being able to one shot, one kill. This was mainly because the demon cats that appeared were only level seven or lower.
"Take this! Storm Slash!"
During this period, Lu Ran also tried the skill of the Wind Slashing Sword, which consumed his stamina to activate the wind energy imbued in the sword.
When the wind energy cloaked the Wind Slashing Sword, the wind energy immediately became as powerful as Captain Doofus’. It cut through steel like butter. Lu Ran swept his sword, and a giant tree was easily cut down. The wind blade was extremely sharp.
However, just like when Captain Doofus activated its sword qi, Lu Ran was left a little fatigued by the after-effects of the sword. Although it was a good weapon, he was only a noob right now. Before he developed a monstrous physique, it was best not to overuse the skill.
The best course of action was to just keep using it like a normal sword and not activate the skill unless it was necessary.
Lu Ran checked the time while he picked fruits off the ground.
"Huh... I’ve been here for more than 4 hours."
In these four hours, Lu Ran and Captain Doofus killed more monsters than they did during the 24 hours of the Beginner Trial secret realm.
With access to the storage function, he was also able to collect more materials!
Twenty-one Hemostatic Mushrooms, fourteen Wood Scale Fruits, three Detoxification Grass, sixteen Demon Cat Claws, one Snake Gall, and four Rabbit Meats.
Although there were a lot of items, their total value wasn’t high. Lu Ran checked the resource shop before, and the most expensive item was the snake gall, which only cost 5 crystal coins. The total value of this pile of stuff wasn’t even close to half the entry fee.
How do those beastmasters who entered the secret realm to farm materials turn a profit? Am I doing something wrong? Maybe it’s because Demon Cat Forest just isn’t the most profitable secret realm.
The only way Lu Ran could think of to earn back the entry fee was to complete the mission and defeat the boss.
In reality, Lu Ran wasn’t particularly eager to earn the entry fee; his main goal was to charge the Divine Deer Pendant. It was just that Captain Doofus, who had been unstoppable thus far, was starting to become a bit arrogant and had accumulated a lot of hatred for the demon cat leader.
Although it had yet to meet the demon cat leader, it already hated it to the bone.
Captain Doofus looked at the demon cat claws on the ground and roared at the sky.
Demon cat leader, it's time to settle everything!
If one day, the leader met its end at Captain Doofus’ hands, it might be because its underlings were too stingy and didn’t drop any good items.
"We’re here to grind, collect resources, and recharge the pendant. We’ll save the boss for later."
Lu Ran used his sword to cut through the bushes. Clearing a path was the most action his sword had seen all day.
Although Captain Doofus became arrogant, Lu Ran didn’t dare to do the same. Based on what he knew, even if it was just an Easy-Beginner secret realm, the boss was very powerful.
To start, it was at least level ten. On top of that, it had awakened its attribute and could utilize it effectively. Bare minimum, it was proficient with at least one skill. In most cases, it was also accompanied by several dozens of followers.
This was also why it was very difficult for beastmasters to run a secret realm solo. Even if Captain Doofus had a weapon bonus, it could only use the sword qi four times before having to bash its head against the boss.
Captain Doofus sighed.
My beastmaster is too careful...
Captain Doofus’s expression suddenly changed. It instinctively condensed sword qi and shot it toward a certain direction!
When the white sword qi shot out, it startled Lu Ran, but soon, he found out what was going on. Captain Doofus had discovered another enemy. This enemy had a powerful concealment ability and could get so close to them without being detected!
If Captain Doofus hadn't been good at detecting the air flow and had a strong sense of smell, then it might not have detected the enemy's sneak attack!
That’s right—before Captain Doofus launched its attack, the enemy had already struck first.
A small, green-furred demon cat perched on a tree stared intently at the duo with its yellow-green eyes. It swung its claws, sending five green-lit claw projections slashing toward them. It could also use a projection skill.
Fortunately, Captain Doofus could react in time and slashed out with its own sword qi to block the attack.
However, the collision generated an outburst of wind and almost knocked Lu Ran over.
"!@#$, why is the alpha demon cat here?"
Lu Ran was shocked once he locked onto the enemy through the smoke.
[Species Rank: Intermediate-Transcendent]
When he saw the monster’s information, Lu Ran immediately shouted without any hesitation.
“Exit the secret realm! Captain Doofus, try to hold it off for 10 seconds!"
After just one exchange between Captain Doofus and the enemy, Lu Ran knew that this opponent was out of their league right now.
For starters, the Grass-attribute demon cat leader seemed to be able to blend into nature within the forest environment. If it hadn't launched an attack and released strong energy fluctuations, Captain Doofus would’ve still been unaware of it.
Secondly, although Captain Doofus’ sword qi and the opponent's Flying Leaf Claws seemed to be evenly matched and canceled each other out, Captain Doofus only had four shots at most. This demon cat leader was already level 10, so the number of times it could use a skill could be much higher.
Just a little more...
Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh...
After the demon cat leader launched an attack, Lu Ran heard movement coming from every direction and detected that at least a dozen demon cats were approaching!
Damn, we didn't go looking for the alpha demon cat, but it came looking for us.
But that was entirely reasonable. After killing so many of its minions, Lu Ran and Captain Doofus could be considered extremely wicked invaders.
By now, Captain Doofus didn't dare to be arrogant. Its gaze became serious as it gripped the Cascading Wind Sword in its mouth and shot a ray of sword qi toward the alpha demon cat again.
The wind blade sliced through the air.
This time, the demon cat leader chose not to fight and quickly jumped to another tree to avoid the attack. The attack missed and the tree got blown to bits, but it didn’t deal any damage to the leader.
The demon cat leader did not continue to attack, possibly to conserve stamina, but Captain Doofus kept up its onslaught. Following the leader’s trajectory, it shot a third sword qi attack towards the opponent.
The Grass-attribute demon cat had a mocking expression in its eyes as it leapt again to avoid the sword qi. It was extremely agile, so the sword qi missed again. Its combat ability was on a completely different level from those low-level demon cats.
When it landed, it let out a sharp cry.
In the blink of an eye, more than a dozen demon cats appeared and surrounded Lu Ran and his familiar. This almost gave Lu Ran and Captain Doofus a heart attack.
There were more than a dozen demon cats. Although none of them awakened an attribute, they were all elite demon cats, either level 9 or 10.
Lu Ran tried to say something, but his voice cut off.
"Woo~! (I’ll be back!)"
A white light flashed. By the time ten seconds had passed, and the demon cat leader ordered its pack to attack, Lu Ran and Captain Doofus had already been teleported away.
Back in the private room, Lu Ran and Captain Doofus collapsed on the ground.
Lu Ran was frightened.
Luckily, the pack of demon cats didn’t appear simultaneously with the leader. Otherwise, they would’ve been in serious danger. But then again, only the demon cat leader had a powerful concealment ability. Captain Doofus would have discovered them in advance if they had approached together.
"What, do you still want to fight with them?" Lu Ran glanced at Captain Doofus.
"Woof!" Captain Doofus put down the sword in its mouth.
It wanted to express that it would follow Lu Ran's plan: focus on special training first and deal with everything else later. After all, it wouldn’t be too late for the husky to seek revenge, even if it took ten years[1].
"We got screwed. I only charged the pendant for a little more than four hours." Lu Ran felt aggrieved.
It was just too difficult. Even an Easy-Beginner secret realm was so difficult. No wonder White Dragon said it was difficult to run a secret realm solo.
Back there, if he hadn’t managed to escape, Lu Ran would have had no choice but to let Captain Doofus eat an Overflow Fruit and go all out with the Divine Deer Pendant.
As for wanting to play solo...
It seems that we can only wait until Captain Doofus reaches a higher level and masters energy acceleration before trying again.
The demon cat was agile and difficult to hit by shooting off sword qi. If they mastered energy acceleration, Captain Doofus could fire sword qi continuously to catch the opponent off guard.
They could learn Gale Wings and obtain air supremacy. Both options could lead to victory. It was too bad that Captain Doofus didn’t learn that particular skill yet.
Lu Ran took out two Wood Scale Fruits. He bit into one and tossed the other one to Captain Doofus. Lu Ran suddenly saw that he seemed to have a lot of missed calls.
Who’s blowing up my phone?
Lu Ran opened the communication function of his ID.
[Pig Farmer: You— You're already on the rankings...? How did you do it? ]
[White Dragon: You’re so awesome! Congratulations!]
[Five Poisons Saintess: ?]
[Five Poisons Saintess: Where are you? Are you still in the secret realm?]
The communication function could be accessed in a secret realm, but it was limited to beastmasters on the same team within the secret realm. Since Lu Ran was in a secret realm and the others were outside, they couldn’t contact each other.
Similarly, when Lu Ran was in Limitless City, and the others were on the Blue Planet, they couldn't contact each other either.
Looking at the horde of messages, Lu Ran was a little confused.
Captain Doofus also had a puzzled look.
"We performed so badly and also used weapons, but we still made the Heavenly Familiar Rankings? What a joke. How bad are the others?"
Captain Doofus immediately perked up, and the depression from being teased by the demon cat dissipated.
What? I made the rankings? What number?
"They didn't say, I'll ask."
Lu Ran replied to Fang Lan.
[I'm in my private room and just out of the secret realm. Um, did Captain Doofus make the rankings? Why are so many people messaging me? That doesn’t sound right. We were miserable in there and almost died.]
Fang Lan replied immediately.
[I’m going to beat you up! Don’t you dare to humble brag in front of me! It did make the rankings and is currently in tenth place. Among the ten ranked familiars, only two, including Captain Doofus, are Intermediate-Transcendent species. What the hell is sword qi? Because of you, the other people who ranked by surviving a single attack from a boss in a Hard-difficulty secret realm, pinned down a boss for ten seconds, and other various reasons have lost their glamor.]
[Lu Ran: Only tenth...]
Originally, Lu Ran thought that Captain Doofus couldn’t get ranked right now, but now that he was, he didn’t want to be in last place.
Someone already ran a Hard-difficulty secret realm? That person was probably with a team and was a newcomer from a month ago. Otherwise, they couldn’t have progressed so quickly.
[Fang Lan: You think it’s too low!? Your level is lower than anyone else’s.]
[Really? If I think it through, I couldn’t have ranked any higher. We fought with weapons, which is counted as relying on external factors. It should’ve been weighed a lot less. I remember that the Heavenly Familiar Rankings judges the familiar’s potential based on battle highlights, right? The reason why Captain Doofus was able to rank is probably because it mastered energy projection in just two days. This is the key factor.]
[Fang Lan: So you really used a sword? That’s what the people in Beastmaster Square said. Pfft! They all say you are eccentric and showboating.]
[Lu Ran: Don't worry. Did you forget about the beastmaster skill, Super Beast Mimicry, I told you about? I can’t imitate a husky, so I can only have Captain Doofus imitate me. Do you remember that when I learned swordsmanship at the dojo, my master called me a super genius? Unfortunately, I later became interested in shooting, so I stopped learning swordsmanship after two and a half years.]
[Fang Lan: You don’t want to imitate Captain Doofus...? Why do I feel like that you’re just like it? What kind of an idiot teaches a dog swordsmanship?]
He decided to ignore Fang Lan. Actually, where was Captain Doofus? Lu Ran hadn’t heard from it in a while.
He turned around to see Captain Doofus slumped in the corner, dejectedly drawing circles with its claws. It was muttering something about being only tenth at the bottom of the Heavenly Familiar Rankings and vowing to remember this grudge...
Lu Ran started sweating.
Do you want to tear down the Heavenly Familiar Ranking one day?
1. This is in reference to a Chinese proverb “君子报仇，十年不晚“ meaning “to a general, it’s not too late to take revenge ten years later” ☜