Chapter 60: A Wave of Wealth
“It seems this isn’t a secret realm where you’re guaranteed to get materials,” Lu Ran sighed upon seeing that the de Mantis hadn’t dropped either the de of the Mantis or the Wing of the Mantis. Naturally, without these, the advanced resource known as de Grass was nowhere to be found.
True, if it were rich itself, owning de Grass, it wouldn’t need to resort to eating male mantises.
“This story teaches us to choose a partner who is both wealthy and strong,” Lu Ran lectured General Ha. Otherwise, one might not even realize when they’re beingpletely devoured.
“Whoo?” General Ha showed a puzzled look. To choose or not to choose, didn’t you just say it would affect my sword-drawing speed?
“Things should be viewed from both sides; a rich partner would only enhance your sword,” Lu Ran coughed dryly and said, “Let’s go, next we’ll look for those de Mantises that have their own territories and guard the de Grass.”
“Don’t be careless, even though it’s only level 9, this one is probably among the weakest and doesn’t even have any skills.”
“Bark!” Following this, Lu Ran put on his divine deer pendant and continued deeper into the jungle with General Ha, walking on the left while General Ha took the right. They progressed in sync.
The Mantis Jungle secret realm, being popted with creatures that are ‘solitary’, only requires engaging them one-on-one, which is in a sense simpler than dealing with group-dwelling species. However, this realm has a hidden mechanic: the strongest boss, whose movements are unpredictable and doesn’t have a fixed location, only appears after a certain number of ordinary de Mantises have been killed.
Thus, challengers still face an ordeal of attrition, being worn down by sessive battles.For beast taming teams hoping to quickly be wealthy through the materials obtained from clearing the realm, this segment is undoubtedly a troublesome challenge.
Lu Ran was indifferent; his goal was to harvest as many resources as possible. His wallet wasn’t yet at the stage where he could afford to overlook ordinary materials.
However, during this process, Lu Ran needed to find a way to keep General Ha in good condition throughout. Otherwise, when they faced the boss without enough stamina to use skills, it would be quite troublesome.
“Those foolish kids on Pluto who neverck crystal coins have it so good… I wonder if I could also convert my cash into crystal coins? Keeping so much cash seems pointless…” Lu Ran pondered about the inheritance left by his parents.
He figured that having savings of five million would allow him to live quitefortably. Anything more would just be spent on luxury goods, which he didn’t need. If he were to die in a secret realm, the banks would just profit off him. As Lu Ran was lost in thought, General Ha suddenly crinkled its nose and its eyes lit up. “Awooo!” It quickly called Lu Ran over.
There was a scent, something strange, something valuable! “Let’s go!” At Lu Ran’smand, General Ha immediately ran ahead to lead the way. Soon, they found a nt of de Grass nearby.
It was green, resembling the shape of a de.
Name: de Grass
Level: Advanced
Introduction: Immature de Grass, when consumed, enhances the cutting properties of energy. The effect doubles when mature.
Discovering the de Grass brought joy to both Lu Ran and General Ha, but things were never that simple. Soon, with a rustling sound, a de Mantis appeared from the leaves on a nearby tree.
“Shaa!!!” It looked unfriendly.
This male de Mantis was level 10, withrge, incredibly sharp scythes—bigger than those of any previous ones they had encountered. Its body bore battle scars, a testament to its extensivebat experience, making it look particrly formidable.
After its appearance, it did not immediately attack but waved its scythes, warning Lu Ran and the others to leave. It, too, wanted to wait for the de Grass to mature and did not wish for anyplications at this critical moment.
“General Ha, prepare to fight.” Naturally, Lu Ran couldn’t just walk away. Wild resources belong to the capable!
“Woof!” General Ha stepped forward, closing in on the opponent, determined to im the de Grass.
Seeing this, the de Mantis on the tree swiftly swung its scythe, sending a de of wind towards General Ha, who was approaching.
Simultaneously, General Ha, with a sword in its mouth, retaliated with a burst of sword qi. A white sword arc flew towards the white wind de, the skills disturbing the air around them, squeezing out a howling sound from the wind. In an instant.
The sword qi exploded the wind de and swept up a gust of wind that scattered the leaves all around.
Although General Ha was one level lower, its sword qi, enhanced by its weapon, easily suppressed its opponent.
The de Mantis on the tree staggered.
It intended to fly higher, readjust its stance, andunch a counterattack.
But at that moment, General Ha unleashed the sword momentum of a fierce beast, a powerful presence that intimidated and halted the de Mantis in its tracks, its eyes filled with shock. By the time it reacted, another wave of sword qi flew towards it, and even with its utmost reaction, it still had an arm severed by the sword qi, causing green blood to stter!
“Sha!” It showed an expression of pain.
“Good thing I have sword momentum as a control skill, otherwise soloing would be much more difficult,” Lu Ran muttered to himself, seeing this. By now, the de Mantis was severely injured, and the bnce of victory naturally tippedpletely in their favor.
“Awoo~~~” With a gleam in its eyes, General Ha took advantage of the opponent’s painful cries, leaping up with the enhancement of gale, its figure shing past like a phantom, cutting the opponent in two. As the body of the de Mantis fell, Lu Ran and his team had thoroughly dealt with this foe.
“Well done,” Lu Ran praised General Ha for its fluid and efficient dispatch of the enemy.
“Woof~” General Ha showed a calm expression, but its eyes kept ncing at the fallen de Mantis.
The next moment, with a sh of white light, the de Mantis transformed into a de. General Ha chuckled naively.
“Bark!” A loot drop atst! This time, the de Mantis finally dropped materials, a de of the Mantis, which could be used as a material for forging wind-type weapons. General Ha was satisfied.
“Nice!” Lu Ran’s eyes also brightened, what a profit!
“I’ll go pick up the materials; you go eat that,” Lu Ran pointed towards the de Grass.
“Too bad it’s immature, but even if it were mature, we wouldn’t be able to get it.”
In fact, Lu Ran now had two options: one was to harvest the immature de Grass and, once outside, find a specialty nt store that could ripen these immature resources.
Typically, this is a secondary upation for beastmasters who have cultivated grass-type pet beasts.
However, Lu Ran still decided to let General Ha try eating a de Grass first. He wanted to observe the effects of the de Grass, as it would undoubtedly be needed in the future, and trying one wouldn’t hurt. Of course, the main reason was that Lu Ran saw General Ha’s eager look and couldn’t bear to make it wait too long.
“Woof!” Upon hearing this, General Ha, drooling, rushed to eat the de Grass. Then, it shook its head and wagged its tail. Other than enjoying the taste, it didn’t feel much of a change…
If there had to be ament, it would be that the grass was incredibly sharp… It felt like it had cut the inside of its mouth. General Ha grimaced in pain.
“This shows that one de Grass is too few, simr to the Seed of Cold Wind,” said Lu Ran as he used a pendant to heal General Ha’s wound. “A quantitative change leads to a qualitative change. We need to gather more. Right now, your sword qi can’t even smoothly cut through a stone; the cutting quality is not perfect, and there’s significant room for improvement.”
General Ha’s sword qi was actually quite powerful, but in terms of details, it indeed needed refinement. For example, when attacking a stone, although the stone would split in two, both surfaces would have many cracks, and the cut surfaces would not be particrly smooth, being uneven.
This was a manifestation of unstable energy and energy leaking.
If General Ha could manage to cut through stone and steel smoothly, without any unevenness or cracks, making them as reflective as a mirror, that would indicate that its mastery over sword qi had reached perfection.
In essence, enhancing the cutting power would naturally enhance the attack power of the sword qi. Then, not only could it perfectly cut through tangible materials like stone and steel, but it could also perfectly slice through an opponent’s energy attacks.
Like the recent sh between General Ha and the de Mantis, where General Ha’s sword qi was indeed more powerful and overwhelmed the opponent, the result of the sh was the opponent’s wind de being dispersed and General Ha’s sword qi also deforming, turning into a violent gust.
If General Ha’s wind-type energy had stronger cutting properties, the oue would have been different. The sword qi would have instantly split the wind de in two, continuing onwards to split the enemy in half as well.
“Woof!” General Ha nodded, its eyes gleaming with wisdom, indicating that it understood everything!
“Hopefully…” Lu Ran muttered. Then, Lu Ran and General Ha continued their fervent monster hunting. They battled several de Mantises guarding the de Grass, each one proving to be a tough opponent with unique skills.
Some could unleash wind des, others could summon gales… and some even mastered energy shaping, transforming their scythe-like arms intorge swords, increasing their attack range.
This spectacle left General Ha stunned, feeling that it too could reshape its Wind Meteor Sword into a giant sword, or even a massive de measuring 50 meters.
However shy their moves were, they were undoubtedly defeated by General Ha, and with each victory, General Ha gained at least one immature de Grass.
The materials dropped by the mantises were naturally collected by Lu Ran, useful ones were kept for General Ha, and others were sold for recovery funds.
Throughout this process, Lu Ran didn’t forget to keep feeding General Ha to maintain its stamina. As for injuries? The mantises hadn’t managed to hurt General Ha significantly. It was the de Grass that kept wounding it, which might be considered a disgrace for the de Mantises.
After defeating about ten de Mantises, Lu Ran and General Ha sensed a different aura approaching them.
Seeing this, a slight smile crossed Lu Ran’s lips, and General Ha’s gaze grew sharp. The boss had finally arrived!
“General Ha, prepare to power up. We won’t be testing this leader slowly; let’s give it our all right from the start. It’s best if we win, but if we can’t, we’ll retreat and start again,” Lu Ran said, opting for a direct confrontation rather than a prolonged battle, which could hurt General Ha and affect their score. “Roar!”
As the formidable presence approached, the air around them began to churn violently. General Ha, with its sword in mouth, started to power up, with nearly all its energy flowing into the Wind Meteor Sword,pressing intensely.
Finally, a figure utterly different from the previous de Mantises appeared. It was covered in golden-green and emitted a sharper aura, with surrounding winds that seemed capable of slicing through steel.
Name: de Mantis
Attributes: Wind-type, Metal
Species Level: Upper Supernatural
Level: 10
Clearly, this was a formidable wild creature that had awakened a secondary attribute. Lu Ran knew without thinking that under normal circumstances, General Ha would not fare well in battle against it.
Currently, the only hope for General Ha to defeat the opponent rested on weapon enhancement and a reckless fighting style that could disregard self-harm.
Energy Compression!
Thus, the moment the de Mantis leader appeared, General Ha unleashed a massive burst of energy,pressing it into a “Storm sh,” andbined with its sword momentum, swung towards the de Mantis leader!
In that instant, General Ha’s eyes were bloodshot, and the sword it held in its mouth shattered its teethpletely. If it were any other pet beast, the treatment costs would be astronomical. If General Ha were wild, it would be even worse, making eating difficult.
But General Ha was not afraid! Boss Lu was its strong support! Storm sh!
“Shah!” The de Mantis leader was also stunned at this moment, sensing a powerful creature invading its backyard. It rushed over immediately to check, but did not expect the invader to be so fierce, attacking without any warning.
Feeling the powerful force of the Storm sh, its expression changed, wanting to fly away to dodge, but the chaotic air currents around and the intimidation from the enemy made it hard to control its body. It could only widen its eyes, its body’s energy surging wildly, extending its scythe to strike at the Storm sh.
The next moment, gold and blue lights intertwined, flickering.
Boom.
Smoke rose. Congrattions onpleting the secret realm challenge. Rating: SS-level! Congrattions on winning 630 crystal coins. Congrattions on obtaining advanced resources, Heart of the Bug (Metal, Wind-type). Congrattions on obtaining advanced resources, de of the Mantis (Metal, Wind-type).
Congrattions on obtaining advanced resources, Wing of the Mantis (Metal, Wind-type)…
“Wow, that feels great.” At this moment, the system prompt sounded. Although Lu Ran saw General Ha with blood all over its mouth, which looked quite dreadful, this battle was a huge win. They had gained a heap of advanced resources for just a 700 crystal coin entry fee. These advanced resources were enough to elevate General Ha’s strength to a new level.
It seems that the Storm sh was indeed powerful. Despite the de Mantis leader having dual attributes, it was helpless against the attack.
“Once we get back, you’re getting an extra meal!” Lu Ran said.
“Woof!” Despite the pain, General Ha already had images of soy-braised Heart of the Bug, chili stir-fried Heart of the Bug, and explosively roasted Heart of the Bug floating in its mind, making the Sudden Death King enviously drool.
Sudden Death King: I’m going to die of jealousy!!!