Beastmaster King-Chapter 40 - The Fallen Genius

Sand Condor?

At first, Lu Ran was still mourning the loss of his senior brother, but when he saw the words ‘Sand Condor,’ Lu Ran couldn’t stop his eyebrows from shooting up.

Does that bird really exist?

He vaguely recalled Jiang Man raising an eagle, but it was only an ordinary golden eagle. According to rumors, Jiang Man had been a big fan of the show "The Return of the Condor Heroes" since he was a child and had always wanted to raise an eagle.

However, raising a predatory bird like an eagle wasn’t easy for the average person. Fortunately, Jiang Man wasn’t an average person. His talent for the sword was on par with Lu Ran's. He achieved glory for the entire country in international competitions.

Because of his fame, he was able to use his connections to get a raptor breeding license and raise a golden eagle.

"Sand Condor, huh? That should be what he named the golden eagle," Lu Ran assumed.

He continued to read the sloppily written diary, skimming the key points and skipping the filler.

[In the beginner trial, Sand Condor and I scored an S, which seems to be very good. My biggest gain was the beastmaster skill, Fusion.

This skill allows me and Sand Condor to fuse into one, turning me into a harpy, haha. After transforming, we become very powerful! My swordsmanship has also reached a higher level.]

...

[I was invited to join the Alliance. I got lucky and joined a team exploring a secret realm, where I looted another beastmaster skill, Trait Sharing! It allows a beastmaster to temporarily borrow the traits of their familiar.

What are traits?

It turns out that familiars can acquire a trait after reaching level ten. Trait crystals have a chance of dropping when hitting a certain score in Hell-difficulty secret realms. I will have to carefully choose Sand Condor’s first trait.]

...

[I recently got intel that a foreign beastmaster team entered the Abandoned Laboratory secret realm and got a Weapon Control trait that they’re auctioning off. The Weapon Control trait allows familiars to master any weapon. Basically, familiars could become one with weapons.

This is fantastic. If I give this trait to Sand Condor and then borrow it, my sword mastery will definitely reach a higher level! The unity of man and sword is a legendary realm.]

...

The contents of the diary shocked Lu Ran. He looked up slightly at Master Jiang Dou.

"What? Is there any valuable information?" Jiang Dou asked.

"I haven't finished reading it yet, but my path is indeed very similar to Senior Brother Jiang Man’s,” Lu Ran honestly replied.

He also considered finding a trait to increase Captain Doofus’ proficiency with weapons.

Weapon Control? There is such a trait? That's great!

He silently memorized the name of the secret realm, Abandoned Laboratory, before reading on.

[Unfortunately, the Xia Empire’s Limitless City #3 doesn’t have the Abandoned Laboratory secret realm. However, Limitless City #5 does, so I don’t need to go to the other Limitless cities.

The Abandoned Laboratory secret realm is a Beginner-ranked secret realm of the Hell difficulty. This secret realm only has one monster, the Engineered Minotaur. It’s fully equipped and wields a giant ax. Apparently, it’s a level ten Dark-attribute Intermediate-Champion beast that has the Weapon Control trait. Its strength is terrifying, and it’s impossible to pass with just the power of a single person.

Should I give up? It might be easier to awaken a second attribute for Sand Condor instead of a trait, but I want this trait so bad.]

...

[After some effort, I found a group to team up with and finally beat the Champion Minotaur. Unfortunately, we didn’t score that well, but they said they would help me grind the secret realm. Once we polish our teamwork, we should definitely be able to reach the criteria to pull the Weapon Control trait crystal.]

...

[Yes! After two months of hard work, the trait crystal finally appeared.

Sand Condor is a High-Transcendent species. That didn’t change even after using the Trait Crystal. Evidently, the trait crystal wasn’t enough to improve its species rank.

However, by clearing the secret realm, I became a top-tier beastmaster and can now learn the Trait Sharing skill.]

...

[It’s so strong. After mastering two beastmaster skills, my strength significantly increased, and my sword momentum has greatly surpassed my master’s. However, I still can't comprehend sword intent.

Does sword intent really exist?]

...

While reading, Lu Ran saw a familiar name.

[I understand now! Sword intent really exists! Today, I met an extremely powerful beastmaster; her name is Gu Qingyi. She’s so beautiful! This is the first time I have seen such a powerful female beastmaster. Her familiar's Energy Formation skills are also superb. Everyone else’s Formation skills are empty, without any intent, but her familiar’s Formation skills contain spiritual will.

***Energy Infusion notes: infuse energy into the outside of the body.

***Energy Formation notes: does it depend on Visualization? Is it a Visualization technique?

I feel that this is the key to my understanding of sword intent and evolving my sword momentum into sword intent!]

...

[Oops... I made a mistake giving that trait to Sand Condor. The latest government research results came out, saying that traits need to be chosen carefully to be the most suitable for familiars.

Only by constantly gathering complementary traits and awakening suitable attributes can familiars hope to evolve. If a familiar's traits and attributes are poorly matched, its evolution will fail! The success rate of evolution isn’t 100%!

As an eagle, Sand Condor isn’t suitable for weapons. After all, it is impossible to teach it swordsmanship. I’ve always used Sand Condor as support to make myself stronger, and neglected its cultivation.

Between the familiar and myself, I prefer to be the stronger one, but if my familiar isn’t strong enough, it affects us during fusion. There has to be a way to fix this.]

...

[Level one, Hell-difficulty secret realm, Orc Village! This secret realm could actually drop the Human Transformation trait!

Once a familiar acquires Human Transformation, it can take human form! If Sand Condor can take human form, it would definitely be more suitable for Weapon Control and also improve our fusion rate!

I heard some foreigner successfully evolved his familiar into a werewolf. Unfortunately, I wasn’t as lucky—none of the seven Limitless Cities in the Xia Empire have the Orc Village, and the teleportation arrays to other countries aren’t open yet. If I want to enter Orc Village, I will have to physically leave the country.

I am going to travel west in two days for Sand Condor’s future!]

The diary ended there.

"Did my senior brother die in a secret realm abroad?" Lu Ran asked as he looked back up at Master Jing Dou.

Having read this, he felt even more sorry for his senior brother. Although he had taken the wrong path, as long as he obtained the Human Transformation crystal and helped Sand Condor take human form, he would have still been able to right the ship.

"Your senior brother went with two of his friends. Ultimately, they all died in the Orc Village..."

Old man Jiang Dou couldn't hold back his tears anymore.

"The Alliance told me that their ID cards have been deleted. This is a sign that they died."

"Master..."

Lu Ran could only watch as he didn't know how to comfort him.

"Hey, Master..."

Brother He had been silently waiting off to the side, but seeing the old cry, his eyes reddened as well.

Lu Ran wasn’t very close to Senior Brother Jiang Man since the senior brother rarely attended the dojo. Master Jiang Dou and Senior Brother He, however, shared a deep bond with him. Based on how the diary was written, Jiang Man was also a humorous and unique swordmaster.

He was definitely also a genius. He actually scored an S in his beginner trial and pursued the sword intent stage beyond sword momentum. It was a pity that such a genius fell to a level 1 secret realm.

"Lu Ran, just take this diary." Jiang Dou sighed.

"I know your personality. I won’t be able to persuade you, but remember, don’t act without certainty like that senior brother Jiang Man of yours. It’s now the Beastmaster Era.

“I am very happy to see you pick up the sword again. Perhaps this is also an opportunity for swordsmanship to go into resurgence. Promise me that I won’t come to find out that you met with an accident like Jiang Man."

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"Don't worry, master," Lu Ran comforted.

"You just said that your path is indeed very similar to Jiang Man's. Could it be that you also obtained the fusion beastmaster skill and comprehended sword momentum through it? No, his sword momentum was different from yours," the old man pondered.

"No. I have another beastmaster skill, which imitates the sword momentum mastered by beasts. I said we are similar because I also had the idea of ​​finding the Weapon Control trait for my familiar."

The old man glared at him.

Isn’t that going down a road of no return!?

"Then you should give up now. His diary clearly states that most familiars aren’t suitable for this trait."

"That's not the case," Lu Ran said seriously.

"Eagles are indeed not suitable for learning swordsmanship. Senior Brother Jiang never thought about this in the beginning. Before and even after acquiring the trait, the eagle had no experience with a sword. It’s normal that it wasn’t compatible with the trait.

"I am different. I started teaching my familiar swordsmanship before it even evolved. By now, it’s comprehended the basics of sword momentum. It will be more qualified than some humans when it truly comprehends it. That’s why I feel that we are different. My familiar should be able to fully utilize the Weapon Control trait. I have never neglected its cultivation."

Grandpa Jiang Dou and Senior Brother He were shocked.

"Did you contract a monkey?" Jiang Dou asked. ”In wuxia TV shows, there are indeed scenarios where mountain apes become proficient in weapon arts. After all, they are primates and the most similar to humans."

Why does everyone assume it’s a monkey? Lu Ran muttered silently.

“No, it's a husky."

Jiang Dou: Σ(゜д゜)

Asshat disciple! Rock for brains! This brat still pisses me off so much!