Chapter 8 End_1

How could this possibly be?

Witnessing the change in the pendant, Lu Ran's mind was filled with confusion at this moment.

His family heirloom? He hadn't paid attention after coming here... Was it also brought in?

However, its transformation at this moment was astonishingly incredible.

Originally, because of the emergence of superpowers and the Black Card, Lu Ran felt that this world was strange enough, and there definitely was something unknown.

Now, discovering that even his family heirloom had an extraordinary origin, Lu Ran was even more astounded.

He wore a puzzled expression.

He visually focused on the black Contract Card floating in the Sea of the Mind.

His brain was still muddled.

So, these supernatural forces aren't modern, they didn't just arise recently!

Rather, they have existed since ancient times, for who knows how many years!

His family heirloom was definitely connected to this series of supernatural forces.

"There's too much I don't understand."

"Or perhaps, one of my ancestors was selected by the Black Card and became a Beast Trainer? And this deer antler was taken from the Secret Realm by them?"

"However, if the Black Card has always existed, why hasn't any information about it been passed on..."

"If it weren't for that person who posted online, if the Black Card hadn't appeared in my hand..."

"Anyway, just how many people have been chosen by this damned place and became Beast Trainers."

"Ao, ao!" As Lu Ran sank into contemplation, Mr. Husky, who had been staring dumbfounded at the pendant, had come to his senses and started feeling the pain of his wounds again, howling incessantly.

Pain, pain, pain...

Its howling awakened the thoughtful Lu Ran, snapping him back to reality, as he said:

"I will use this to heal you." With the healing ability coming from the Divine Deer, of epic rare level, it must be stronger than the common Hemostatic Mushroom commonplace in the market, right?

The pendant was likely in a sealed state before, losing its original power, which is why it wasn't detected at the beginning.

But now, having come to this place and absorbed a certain amount of 'supernatural energy,' it has been revived; it must be the case.

"Power of Healing."

Holding a Hemostatic Mushroom, Lu Ran looked at Mr. Husky and removed the pendant.

In that instant, the familiar sensation of holding the Contract Card returned.

Lu Ran took a deep breath.

He focused his intense desire to heal Mr. Husky on the creature.

The next moment, the Divine Deer Pendant emitted a crystal-clear golden light!

Immediately after, the golden light enveloped Mr. Husky's wounds, and before Lu Ran's very eyes, an incredible scene occurred.

The torn wounds on Mr. Husky's body were now... rapidly healing.

In just a few seconds, what were once gruesome injuries had miraculously healed completely, without even leaving a scar.

Besides a few bald traces where some dog fur was missing, it was a near-perfect healing!

Even Mr. Husky felt his body was warm, as if nourished by plants.

"Owoo!" In just an instant, Mr. Husky was once again stunned, unable to understand what had just happened.

Lu Ran, too, had an expression of joy.

He quickly stroked Mr. Husky's healed area and said, "You've become bald and stronger, and your flesh has toughened up quite a lot!"

"Woof!" Mr. Husky was taken aback for a moment, looking at his body with distress, but soon turned his gaze eagerly toward the deer antler in Lu Ran's hand.

"Although I don't know what's going on, it seems like we've become invincible," Lu Ran laughed.

Anyway, regarding the matter of the family heirloom, he'll think it over more after returning.

"Woof woof!!" Mr. Husky's eyes sparkled like flashlights, nodding frantically, feeling that with this item, not to mention facing five Demon Cats, it could take on fifty!

This thing was simply too powerful; with this, unless it was an instant kill, what injury couldn't be healed?

"Don't be too outrageous," Lu Ran said. "You can't pin all your hopes on the protection of our ancestors, but such an unexpected event... The plan has to change a bit."

He clutched the pendant tightly, took a deep breath, and remembered his mother's face in his mind.

Although he didn't understand the Divine Deer Pendant, Lu Ran knew that this item was definitely their greatest reliance, and their safety in the Trial Secret Realm... the viability of their plan to level up had increased significantly once again.

...

Because he acquired an epic item, Lu Ran felt that to continue being overly cautious would be disrespecting the family heirloom left by his ancestors.

After killing two Demon Cats, Mr. Husky had gone from Level 1 to Level 2; what about from Level 2 to Level 3?

Lu Ran wanted Mr. Husky to increase its level as much as possible here, obtaining stronger combat power.

A step behind in the beginning means every step will lag behind; this principle applies everywhere. Since the conditions allow it, Lu Ran was not willing to miss any opportunity to harvest resources.

If a crisis arises in the future, if he had sufficient strength, he would be better able to protect himself and those he cherished.

Why couldn't he be the one to stand at the pinnacle of the world?

Someone has to stand at the apex of the world.

If he could become king through bug fighting, why couldn't he through Beast Training?

"If I keep getting stronger like this, even if that dream becomes reality, I should be able to stop those monsters from destroying the city beneath me," Lu Ran thought again, now even more motivated.

Four hours later.

In the depths of the dense forest.

"Idiot, didn't I tell you already? Although we have an item that can heal wounds, we should still try to avoid getting injured!"

After Lu Ran and Mr. Husky recovered, driven by greater ambition, they began to actively seek out prey.

During this time, they encountered some new Extraordinary Beings.

Most of them were Level 1~3.

The Species Level was mainly low-level extraordinary.

Like the Tooth-Eared Rabbit, a kind of rabbit with extremely aggressive behavior, courting death!

Like the Giant Rat Beast, it looked even bigger than a duck, and the little thing was quite delicate-looking.

It was a pity there were no tools, and since it was just an illusion, otherwise, with Lu Ran's nature, he would have dissected and studied these unseen creatures.

These creatures, without exception, even if they were 1 or 2 levels higher, had no chance of winning against Mr. Husky.

In comparison, the Demon Cats were even more troublesome to deal with. After all, it's called the Demon Cat Forest, so these creatures were probably just food for the Demon Cats.

This made Lu Ran feel that facing these guys was the kind of difficulty that should be expected in the Novice Secret Realm.

However, besides these, there were some tough opponents, such as the Medium extraordinary race·Level 3 Green Giant Snake that Mr. Husky had just taken care of.

Of course, Mr. Husky also sustained not insignificant injuries.

Perhaps it was the continuous healing power from the Divine Deer Pendant that had gradually given Mr. Husky a sense of security, which made its fighting style more and more violent. In its quest for victory, it had started to fight ruthlessly, trading blow for blow.

In the natural world, this was a very extreme way to fight, since most battles in nature are for survival and food, and getting injured meant drifting further away from life, but Mr. Husky didn't care about these. It quickly figured out a new way of fighting, which made Lu Ran have to admit Doggo's talent.

But this was too reckless and prone to accidents!

Like this snake, for instance, it was poisonous! Fortunately, they had picked Detoxifying Grass along the way.

"Woof." Pressing down on the giant snake, Mr. Husky made an innocent face.

At this moment, its level had risen to Level 3.

This put both Mr. Husky and Lu Ran in a highly excited state.

If they could continue leveling up at this pace, then, in just 24 hours, they should be able to maintain a high-spirited fight throughout since getting stronger was really a thrill.

However, although leveling up was thrilling, at this moment, they still paused their advance.

Lu Ran had discovered traces of human presence.

It was a ruined tent.

The recent fight with the giant snake happened because the creature had been guarding near the tent.

They approached the tent cautiously, and fortunately, nothing else happened.

Inside the tent, apart from a yellowed diary, there was nothing else.

Lu Ran picked up the diary, excitedly flipping through it. He couldn't understand the text, but perhaps because of the Data Eye, he unexpectedly managed to grasp its meaning.

[This is the first stop on my travels, the former deep and dark woods, now known as the Demon Cat Forest.

I came here full of confidence to explore the true cause of the forest's anomaly from years ago, but I realized I was wrong.

My father was right, I shouldn't have come to this place...]

The diary abrupted ended.

"That's it?" Lu Ran was taken aback.

"Riddler, get out of the Secret Realm!" Lu Ran got angry upon reading the meager information recorded in the diary.

He thought he might unlock some hidden mission, aside from the trial tasks.

Even without the diary, he was aware that "forest anomaly" was a keyword for this Secret Realm.

"Woof." Beside him, Mr. Husky urged Boss Lu to calm down.

We should just focus on leveling up.

"True, we only have one day." Lu Ran sighed. The information about the Demon Cat Forest was too scarce, and with their strength so weak, even if there were other secrets in this Secret Realm, exploring would probably be troublesome.

But after a careful analysis of the diary, it wasn't completely devoid of information...

Searching for the true cause of the anomaly... perhaps it indicated that the commonly known black rain that caused the mutations in creatures was just a surface-level reason.

The diary owner's father warning him not to come here could suggest that his father knew some inside information, which indicated that the person who left the diary came from a significant background.

Lu Ran took note of these points, and then, decided to continue leveling up first because remembering these things was momentarily useless.

Gradually, Lu Ran and Mr. Husky became engrossed in leveling up, constantly moving through the Demon Cat Forest.

During the journey, they didn't encounter any overly troublesome enemies, but the most challenging scenario they faced was fighting many Demon Cats at once.

In such a situation, injuries were inevitable. If it had been a normal Beast Trainer combination, even if they could win, the injuries would probably prevent them from continuing on.

But getting injured, in the case of Lu Ran with the Deer Horn of God, turned out to be the easiest problem to solve.

"We've reached Level 4!"

"This is way too hard."

As time slowly passed, Lu Ran, who could see the task countdown, constantly monitored the "one-day time limit."

At this point, they had already been on the move for nearly 24 hours, either in search of monsters or in battle. If not for the fruits that replenished their stamina, he and Mr. Husky would have been completely exhausted.

Even a sled dog couldn't withstand such an ordeal.

While Mr. Husky's ascent through the first 3 levels had been fairly rapid, the progression from Level 3 to 4 took them nearly a day, and they still hadn't completed it.

Since there was no progress bar for the Growth Level, Lu Ran and Mr. Husky could only fight as much as possible, as this was the only method they knew to increase their level.

Fortunately, hard work pays off. When there was only 1 minute left on the task countdown, Mr. Husky, after killing one last Demon Cat, finally raised its Growth Level to 4.

And following that, an even more refreshing event for Lu Ran occurred!

[Congratulations on completing the Beginner's Trial.]

[Rating: S class!]

[Note: Trial ratings range from SSS, SS, S, A, B, C, D, E, F—a total of 9 grades.]

[Congratulations on receiving an identity card.]

[Congratulations on receiving 10,000 crystal coins.]

[Congratulations on receiving an Advanced resource, Meteorite Mine.]

[Congratulations on receiving an Advanced resource, Attribute Awakening Fruit (Grass).]

[Congratulations on receiving a Beast Training Technique: Super Beast Mimicry.]

[Congratulations on receiving Data Eye (Beginner).]

[Please choose your return location, 1: Initial Teleportation Point, 2: Infinite City!]

[Note: Infinite City is a large safe area active with Beast Trainers who have passed the Beginner's Trial, with various special facilities serving Beast Trainers.]

"It's over..." A series of prompts appeared, and Lu Ran breathed a sigh of relief; then, he unexpectedly looked at the prompt about returning.

PS: Thanks to the Alliance Hierarch "Night's Brilliance" and "The Full Moon is Never Round" for their support. Thank you for the support.