Beastmaster King

"What is your backup wish?"

"Lord Divine Deer, you just mentioned that Quasi-Legendary ancient creatures are starting to reawaken, correct?"

"Correct. On average, they outlevel the Overlord ancient creatures, with the majority of them in the 80s and 90s."

"Um..." Lu Ran chose his next words carefully.

"Then wouldn't that put the Beastmaster Empire in danger? The rainforest is an area extremely rich in natural resources. As the spiritual energy quality improves, the resources there are bound to be more abundant.

"Even though Six-Path Flower is Low-Legendary ranked, it alone isn't enough to defend the entire empire, especially since we have to be in Limitless City and Stellar Moon Federation frequently. The Quasi-Legendary creatures will eventually turn their attention to such an attractive tract of land. Even if there are a bunch of powerful creatures guarding it, how many can I really count on? What if something really powerful shows up? If Six-Path Flower isn't there to hold down the fort, then we'll be in serious trouble.

"Xia can't stand up to Quasi-Legendaries either. This means that the Beastmaster Empire is in dire need of powerhouses to help establish long-term peace and stability. This will also allow it to lend Xia a hand in times of need as well."

"So, in conclusion, you still want to ask me to become a guardian beast of the Beastmaster Empire. The problem is that I can't permanently stay on Blue Planet either."

"No, that's not what I'm asking! I just wanted to ask, since you plan on raising the phoenix chick, would you be willing to leave behind a legacy?"

Divine Deer: ?

Lu Ran began dumping things out of his storage.

Blood Drop Stone (allows organisms to reproduce asexually), Primordial Womb Sea Water (enhances the potential of offspring), Miracle Seed (creates plant-based organs), Mutant's Tear (allows animals to take human form and increase comprehension), Flower God's Nectar (increases a Grass-attribute creature's level to 90).

Lu Ran had a full combo planned out.

"Lord Divine Deer, can you use some power to create a baby Divine Deer? With the resources here, I think we can instantly create a level 90 Quasi-Legendary deer! It can become the guardian beast of the Beastmaster Empire for now instead of you."

Divine Deer: (╬ ಠ_ಠ)

Six-Path Flower could only admire Lu Ran's boldness. Who knew that these resources synergized so well? Would they really get a little deer person as a comrade?

***

Lu Ran slowly descended into Green Sea City with a hoof-shaped bruise over his eye. Despite his appearance, he had a big smile on his face. In the end, everyone was willing to compromise. The Divine Deer couldn't take the position of guardian beast, but leaving behind something in its place wasn't out of the question.

"Damn, what happened to you?"

Manager Ying left a clone to permanently watch over Lu Ran's house.

"Did you get kicked in the face by a donkey?"

"It was the Divine Deer."

"Pretend that I didn't say anything. Wait, how did you piss off the Divine Deer? Aren't you its favorite messenger?"

"I unloaded some of my miscellaneous resources on it, including the Mutant's Tear. Sorry to crush your dream of becoming a cat girl. If you really want to try, your only option is through evolution," Lu Ran joked.

Manager Ying: -.-

"Did you turn the Divine Deer into a human?"

"Not really. I asked it to have a baby, and then pulled out all the random resources I've been stockpiling to help it raise the baby. That's when it kicked me in the face. It looks like even the Flame of Life can't heal the wound. The Divine Deer really can't be underestimated. Well, to cut to the chase, it realized that I, a messenger of the Divine Deer, should have a deer of some sort at my side, so it agreed."

Manager Ying's jaw dropped, and its mind reeled at the information Lu Ran just disclosed.

You've really got balls. You even dared to ask the Divine Deer to give you a baby.

After a long pause, Manager Ying finally spoke again.

"It looks like the Divine Deer already updated you on the recent changes. Your Beastmaster Empire is relatively stable right now without any imminent problems."

"Yeah, I can feel it through the imperial seal. Once the Divine Deer makes a fawn, the empire will have some serious backing. Even if it is just an infant."

"There is another thing." Manager Ying seemed to have suddenly remembered something. "Do you still remember the Beastmaster University's freshman competition?"

"What happened?"

"You were supposed to fight Lin Nian's sister in the finals, but something went sideways at the last minute, and you became the champion by default."

"Yeah..." Lu Ran narrowed his eyes. "I remember that she had some strange dream where a fox claimed to be the reincarnation of some Legendary creature and asked her to provide it with Epic resources."

"Yes, and at the time, we weren't too clear on the fox's background, so the government never followed up on the issue. However, a few days ago, the fox woke up by itself because of the increased concentration of spiritual energy."

"Really? Then what's the current situation? Is it friend or foe?"

"It's pretty strong. Its claim of being the reincarnation of a Legendary creature is still questionable, but based on the information revealed by the Eye of Detection, it's a level 70 Quasi-Legendary."

This was considerable news, given that Manager Ying itself was only a Superior Overlord.

"Although the fox wasn't too happy because Lin Yin didn't gather any resources for it, it didn't do anything to punish her. It turns out that her ancestors were once its worshipers. Lin Yin and Lin Nian's special abilities were supposedly granted by its blessing. The two sisters can be considered to have found their ancestral roots."

"Is that so..." Lu Ran pondered.

"Why did it choose Lin Yin instead of Lin Nian?"

"I don't know. It could be because Lin Nian was strong enough to prevent it from entering her dreams."

"So what's the current situation?"

"The fox asked Lin Nian and Lin Yin to become its messengers, or rather, maids, and it would reward them for their service. Lin Nian refused, but Lin Yin hesitated. She asked a question, and the fox gave her a satisfactory answer, so she agreed."

"Ok, this can be quite the opportunity for her. What was her question?"

"She asked the fox if she would be able to beat you after becoming its messenger. The fox answered without having any awareness. It said 'Who is Lu Ran? Is he some random bum off the street? Once you're my messenger, you will be undefeatable.'" Manager Ying said.

"..."

This fox is definitely a scam artist. I'll need to tell Lin Nian to get her sister away from that idiot.

"Does this prove that special abilities really do come from ancient Legendary creatures?" Lu Ran asked

"Yeah, that should be the case. There is another Quasi-Legendary creature that awakened in Ahsan. It's now being worshipped as a national deity. They've always had a large number of people with special abilities, and this may be the reason."

"No need to worry. Once the Divine Deer has her baby, even without Six-Path Flower, we would still be able to handle any Quasi-Legendary threats without issue."

Manager Ying rolled its eyes.

I don't know whether the Divine Deer is lucky or unlucky to have a messenger like you.

"Alright, tell me about your ascension realm."

Manager Ying eyed Lu Ran suspiciously.

"I already know you reopened the Elemental Era, won the invention contest, got accepted as an apprentice by a Legendary mechanic, and created an elemental life creation device. All of this was enough to shock the world, but I know you better than that. What else happened that everyone else doesn't know about?"

Hehe.

"You know me too well. There's nottoomuch else. I just went to the Artificial God Research Institute of the Stellar Moon Republic and conned them out of a few Legendary resources.

"The Divine Turtle said that I needed the blood of a Legendary dragon, and I just so happened to run into some blood left behind by the Chaos Dragon God that fell during its battle against the Divine Tree. I already dropped it off at the Divine Turtle's place to get it purified."

What kind of dogshit luck is this?

"I also found some Primordial Womb Sea Water and Flower God's Nectar that I will use to nurture the Divine Deer's baby. They're all Legendary grade. Oh, I almost forgot about the Flame of Life that I used myself."

Lu Ran summoned the Flame Spirit to demonstrate, and Manager Ying could only watch speechlessly while its eye twitched.

"By the way, I got some crappy Epic blood that I made into some blood tofu. I even made a video of it to show you!"

"You idiot!" Manager Ying finally couldn't stand it anymore and karate kicked him in the exact same spot where the Divine Deer left a bruise. "Why is Limitless City so nice to you?"

***

For the next day, Lu Ran kept a low profile in Green Sea City as he had a pretty full schedule. He needed to convert his stockpile of resources into real power. He started by feeding his familiars more blood tofu. Besides Spirit and Fire, he had blood of five other attributes: Wind, Rock, Grass, Water, and Metal.

The Wind blood was perfect for Captain Doofus, while the Rock blood was for Sudden Death King, the Grass blood for Six-Path Flower, the Water blood for Baby Cloud, and the Metal blood for the swordgrass.

Besides making blood tofu, he also had some forging to do. Lu Ran had two Epic materials on hand: the star iron and crocodile skin. His plan for the star iron was to use it to forge an Undead-Mechanical shield with help from #18. Thanks to the Flame of Life, his Kinship skill leveled up.

Now, besides Captain Doofus, he could contract kin through another familiar. He was planning on giving the opportunity to Sudden Death King. By strengthening Sudden Death King, it would be able to better absorb the Chaos Dragon God's blood.

As for the crocodile skin, Lu Ran bought some Poison materials in Limitless City to forge a whip for Fang Lan. He called her to let her know that he was finished with it, and she was undoubtedly excited.

Fang Lan immediately called Xia Ri, who had previously gotten an Undead weapon from Lu Ran, too.

"Xia Ri, Xia Ri, come to the arena. Quick!"

"What's wrong?"

"I have great news! I have to show you something!"

"Huh?"

Did Limitless City introduce something new at the arena?

Chef Xia Ri was confused by the sudden call, but to put it simply, Fang Lan just wanted to show off her new weapon before she started grinding to nurture a weapon spirit.

***

"Alright, I'm almost done," Lu Ran said as he finished distributing the blood tofu. He didn't have the energy to rapidly improve all of his familiars simultaneously, but they should catch up to Dark Crow and hit level 60 soon enough.

The only thing left to do was to forge the shield, which he hadn't even started on the design for yet. Again, he wasn't in much of a rush since he still had two more months until he had to see the Divine Turtle again.

Lu Ran's phone suddenly rang with a call from Shi Zhen.

"Lu Ran, are you busy?"

"Not really, but why haven't you changed back yet, Principal Shi Zhen?"

Shi Zhen changed the subject instead of replying.

"When are we going to the Road to Kingship together? I'm pretty much ready. Once we pass, we'll be able to challenge one of the sitting Ten Kings. Who are you planning to challenge?"

Of the current Ten Kings, the old president had the highest attainments in intent formation and was a level 6 beastmaster. Lin Nian had her telekinesis ability and contracted many Spirit familiars to further buff herself, and was a level 6 as well.

Oub of the Eagle Federation was the father of the Mechanical attribute on Blue Planet and was one of the few that understood the concept of integrating attributes. He's already had his familiars fuse their attributes and become purely Mechanical attribute creatures. He was another level 6 beastmaster.

In the Snow Federation, Jekaf had the highest achievement in energy compression skills, but even without that title, his trump card was quite terrifying. He had a familiar with the three attributes, Ice, Space, and Time, which allowed it to freeze the very fabric of spacetime. His familiar had the most powerful domain of all level 6 beastmasters' familiars.

Almi was the president of the Ahsan Psychic Association and was acknowledged to have the strongest special ability. He had the ability of hypnotism and contracted an ancient Overlord that reawakened in Ahsan. Relying solely on his ability, without any beastmaster skills, he hypnotized the Overlord into becoming his familiar. Supposedly, he could even enslave creatures without a contract card, including those already contracted by other beastmasters. He was also level 6.

Harry, the Britannian Grand Knight, was the strongest Light attribute user and had the strongest energy projection skills. Around the world, he was the closest one to reaching stage three.

Viktor of Gaul was the strongest Water attribute user with the most powerful energy acceleration skills. Rumors say that he could bypass any defense and maximize the destructive capabilities of any skill. So far, no one has successfully taken a hit from him. He has an unbroken record of one-hit K.O.s.

Zhen Dai from Nippon was named the 'Strongest Companion' in honor of his bond with his familiar. They inexplicably got stronger in battle by yelling 'friendship.' No one knew the secret behind this power of friendship.

Brasilis's Kado had the familiar with the best bloodline and species talent. His ace familiar was allegedly the descendant of a Quasi-Legendary. It was innately powerful and inherited a strong species talent to boot.

Finally, Leonarde, who hailed from Germania, had the strongest beastmaster skills. No one knew what it was exactly, but it was nothing short of magical. It allows him to increase his familiar's level by ten for ten minutes without any side effects.

These ten people were the current roster for the Ten Kings.

"I can take any of them," Lu Ran replied casually. If he couldn't beat any single one of them, then he would have wasted the mountains of resources he consumed.

"Aren't we waiting for Dr. Gu? If we are, then I'll go challenge a level 5 Legendary secret realm.

"Alright, have you picked one out already?"

Shi Zhen felt bad for the secret realm boss that was about to get instakilled by Dark Crow. They were both messengers of Legendary creatures and were destined to reach the Legendary rank themselves. Only Legendary bosses stood a chance against them.

"Manager Ying recommended one to me the other day. The boss is a monkey like your familiar."

"Is it the one I'm thinking about?"

"Yes, it's the monkey that doesn't have an attribute. Based on all other indicators, it should be a Fire attribute, but for some reason, its attribute information shows as 'None', and it relies solely on physical strength. Manager Ying did some digging and gave me a quick rundown. It encountered a Legendary creature that gave it extraordinary physical strength, but as a trade-off, it could no longer have any attributes.

"Manager Ying and I are curious about what resources it will drop, so we want to give it a shot. The other level 5 Legendary secret realms don't look that interesting. We're going to take a gamble on this one."