King of Beasts

Chapter 43: Three Squirrels

“Hey, Sudden Death King.”

“Do you ever wish you had a body covered in tough, armored scales?”

At this moment, the Sudden Death King was engaged in a battle of wits with wild grasshoppers.

It was surprised because, just as Lu Ran had said, hunting grasshoppers had indeed become much easier.

Their speed seemed incredibly slow through its eyes.

Their resistance felt insignificant against its body.

Its strength could instantly overpower them, crushing them flat.

In just a few minutes, the Sudden Death King had already eaten three grasshoppers, and the intense fight was nearly putting General Ha to sleep nearby.

“Wow ka?”

It pondered the meaning of Lu Ran’s words, then let out another “Wow ka.”

Hard scales, no pain. Soft scales, sudden death!

“Uh…” Lu Ran rubbed his head, continuing to ask:

“Why just seek stronger defenses? If you had absolute power, causing threats to suddenly die, wouldn’t that work too?”

Pain, pain leads to sudden death.

Lu Ran: “…”

Forget it, no use talking to a little dimwit.

He roughly understood what Sudden Death King was getting at.

Gaining great power, even if it could make the opponent suddenly die, still left oneself vulnerable to injury and pain.

But with the strongest defense, even if it couldn’t defeat the opponent, the opponent couldn’t harm it either. Ideally, the enemy’s attacks wouldn’t even cause pain. As long as there was no pain, it was quite comfortable.

Lu Ran didn’t quite understand this line of thinking, but considering that the other was just a lizard with the intelligence of a toddler and its species-specific preferences, he didn’t expect too much.

Compared to that, General Ha next to them was somewhat the opposite.

Even risking its own body covered in wounds, it aimed to make the enemy suddenly die, with maximum aggression.

You two are quite a match!

Both not normal.

Can’t you develop a balanced approach?

But then again, having maxed-out defense was indeed quite comfortable…

If he could use super beast mimicry to transform into a giant dragon with maxed-out defense, wouldn’t he also become very tough… to the point where enemies couldn’t break his defense?

Then, combining the aggressive and speedy traits learned from other pet beasts, the strongest shield could indeed become the strongest spear. Was he also heading towards adopting this second school of beast taming?

“You all continue,” said Lu Ran, having nothing better to do, he continued to browse the forum.

He strolled and scrolled.

According to Lu Ran’s estimation, since the sudden death king was now a supernatural being, it would need to consume a lot of ordinary insects to feel full.

Shrink.

Lu Ran suddenly started searching using keywords.

He had just noticed that the forum had recently added a search keyword feature.

“Ah?” When the search results refreshed, Lu Ran was indeed surprised.

Help! Why does everyone else’s pet beast grow larger after making a contract, while my contracted hedgehog shrank?

Zhasini: Online and urgent! There’s only one hour left before I enter the novice trial secret realm. Although the secret realm chosen will match the pet beast, isn’t this too small? Will it work?

[Image]

“Indeed, just like with the sudden death king, let’s see if there is an expert who knows what’s going on,” Lu Ran muttered to himself as he quickly read through the comments.

This post had many replies, and the most liked featured comment was pinned at the top.

Hunterman: Fun.

I have good news and bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?

Let’s start with the good news. Your hedgehog pet beast has good potential. Happy to hear that?

But you celebrated too soon.

Because the bad news is, your potential is pretty weak.

When a beastmaster makes a contract with a pet beast, both the pet beast and the beastmaster become stronger.

However, this enhancement of strength for both parties doesn’t come out of nowhere.

Part of it comes from the contract card, and the other part is provided by the pet beast to the beastmaster and by the beastmaster to the pet beast.

The power shared between them, combined with the power of the contract card, creates a miraculous reaction, enhancing both parties to an epic level. But this is conditional on both being able to provide high-quality power.

For instance, if a beastmaster contracts with a dying rat, the feedback they receive immediately after the contract isn’t much.

For example, a level 5 beastmaster who contracts with an ordinary animal will be able to enhance the animal’s abilities to a greater extent than an apprentice beastmaster could.

In other words, because you cannot provide a significant amount of high-quality power, your pet beast could not absorb enough nutrients during its awakening. How could it possibly increase in size?

The reason for the shrinkage is a self-protection mechanism in the pet beast, enabling it to fully enhance itself with the limited power available. Generally, maintaining the original size would likely result in incomplete evolution, leading to defects.

Poster, don’t mind my bluntness, but is there something wrong with your health? It might be a good idea to visit a hospital.

Moreover, do not worry about your pet beast; it has great potential. Not every creature can shrink to achieve perfect enhancement, which requires certain talents.

Beastmasters used to popularly utilize a resource known as awakening leaf to screen the qualifications of pet beasts. Supernatural beings awakened by an awakening leaf, without the feedback from a contract card or a beastmaster, generally do not receive much initial enhancement.

Most do not grow in size but remain the same or shrink to achieve a more complete supernatural enhancement. This is quite common and can also be used to assess the quality of a pet beast.

Once you provide it with enough nutrients for growth, and its growth level increases, its size will gradually return to normal. Do you understand? Instead of worrying about your pet beast, you should be more concerned about your own health, especially at such a young age. Surely it’s not due to overexertion, right?

This person really knows how to provoke.

“Damn!” Lu Ran realized what was happening when he read this.

It turned out that the awakening leaf provided too little supernatural power, forcing sudden death king to shrink in order to evolve fully.

With already limited supernatural power, if it tried to increase in size, it might end up with missing limbs due to inadequate enhancement.

So, the current mini sudden death king is not exactly the essence of concentration…

But rather… in a state of malnutrition?!

Could the reason be that superficial? Lu Ran was silent.

“I really need to improve my knowledge of beast taming.”

Lu Ran first took a moment of silence for the beastmaster named Zhasini, then looked at sudden death king, who was munching on grasshoppers with relish, feeling a bit guilty.

“Sudden death king, please bear with it for a while, make do with what you have. Once General Ha and I earn some money, I’ll make sure you get enough nutrients…”

Bigger and tougher, better suited as a shield!

Lu Ran continued browsing the forum.

He hadn’t realized before, but there was a lot of nutritious information on this forum.

It seemed that in the future, he could allocate some of his training time to browsing posts to broaden his knowledge…

As Lu Ran scrolled, half an hour passed, and sudden death king seemed to be really famished, having consumed food several times its own size…

But its size didn’t seem to have changed much.

Right, its body is so tough, to grow seamlessly and enlarge completely, it would definitely need a massive amount of nutrients. Relying on ordinary grasshoppers for that was difficult…

Again, there were people approaching.

Humans can be so terrifying.

Hmm, they even engage in infighting.

And they command terrifying creatures.

Hmm?

At this moment, Lu Ran was still walking General Ha and sudden death king.

However, as they walked, Lu Ran began to pick up on some inner voices.

This was common, as Lu Ran often heard the inner voices of wild animals after activating telepathy.

But such clear communication was rare, indicating that the communicating creature had a high intelligence.

Lu Ran looked around and soon spotted three squirrels on a tree, staring in his direction and holding fruits.

Three squirrels!

Although the average intelligence of squirrels wasn’t particularly high, it wasn’t low either. Judging by the level of their communication, these three were quite exceptional, their intelligence nearing that of the crow in Green Sea City.

Usually, Lu Ran heard animal inner voices and seldom responded.

But this time, he couldn’t help but stop in his tracks, simply because the topic of the squirrels’ conversation was too absurd.

Humans? Engaging in infighting? Commanding terrifying creatures?

“What’s going on?” Lu Ran stared intently at the squirrels, and when the three squirrels noticed that Lu Ran had stopped and was staring hard at them, they all shivered, dropped the fruits they were holding, and seemed ready to pretend nothing had happened and walk away hand in hand…

“Sudden death king, here’s a test for you—catch those three squirrels!”

“Wow ka?” Sudden death king looked at the squirrels, which were even larger than itself, and fell into thought. However, remembering its recent bravery and its absolute defensive capabilities… it gritted its teeth and charged forward! Catching squirrels wouldn’t cause sudden death, but defying Lu Ran certainly would!

The three squirrels ran even faster, their expressions filled with terror. Humans are so frightening!

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