Chapter 28: Click Click

Two days later, the internal selection competition at Changning First Beast Master High School officially concluded.

Neither Mu Huaiyu nor Mu Yixia changed their final rankings. After losing to Mu Huaiyu, Mu Yixia managed to win her match against the eighth-ranked competitor, securing her position at seventh place.

Still holding the top spot was Lin Fei, who had advanced to a Level 3 Beast Master. During the selection competition, he participated in several battles, using his sole familiar, the colorful quiver kite. No one had seen his second familiar.

In second place was Chen Jiashu, who possessed a low-tier lord-class creature known as the Chaotic Thundercloud. Mu Huaiyu had observed his battles and found the Chaotic Thundercloud to be a rare elemental extraordinary being with an unpredictable fighting style.

Following Mu Huaiyu in fifth place, the top five participants in the selection competition, who would receive special resources from the school, were all Level 2 Beast Masters capable of contracting two familiars.

However, most competitors focused their training on their first familiar since 1v1 battles accounted for the majority of the assessments.

The top ten graduates from the selection competition would represent Changning First Beast Master High School alongside other exceptional Beast Masters from Xingzhou in the national rankings competition.

With less than a month until the rankings competition began, the school would provide training plans and facilities for the contestants, helping them maximize their strengths before the final deadline.

On the third day after the selection competition ended, Mu Huaiyu successfully broke through during meditation, advancing to a Level 3 Beast Master.

The transformation brought on by this promotion was more significant than the previous two levels. In her Beast Space, the World Tree erupted with dazzling light, its branches sprouting countless verdant new buds.

A refreshing breeze swept through the entire space, causing both Ellen and White Fang, still in the training area, to lift their heads in unison, gazing towards the World Tree.

They both sensed the loosening of some restrictions. Starting today, both familiars could freely advance to the next stage. Mu Huaiyu’s Beast Space could easily accommodate the evolving Ellen and White Fang, no longer constrained by tier limits.

Mu Huaiyu closed her eyes, her consciousness sinking into her Beast Space. Along with the increase in her Beast Master tier limit, she felt some exciting changes and could hardly wait to verify them.

Opening the panel for the World Tree, the information about her Beast Master talents immediately popped up.

[Space Level: LV.3]

[Dark Attribute Enhancement: Combat Resonance]
Description: Temporarily enhance attributes through resonance, significantly increasing the power of dark skills. Duration is related to space level.

[Dark Attribute Enhancement: Energy Boost]
Description: Strengthen dark attributes through talent enhancement, increasing their effectiveness.

Attribute Energy and Dark Attribute Skill Power: The contracted dark familiars will receive an energy boost from the space, with the degree of enhancement related to the space level.

[Spatial Transformation: Unidirectional Interaction]
Description: This skill can be learned in a stable Beast Space above Level 3. Upon using this skill, resources from the ranch and the Spiritual Spring Temple can be brought outside the Beast Space.

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…

The third talent skill was not an extension of dark attribute enhancement but rather a change originating from within the Beast Space!

Mu Huaiyu’s eyes widened in delight as her consciousness returned to reality, ready to test her new skill.

Previously, her Beast Space could only store contracted familiars and extraordinary resources containing hidden energy. She couldn’t extract items generated inside the space.

Now, using the Unidirectional Interaction skill, items like Vitality Fruits, Attribute Fruits, Crystal Seeds, Skill Books, and even the frisbees and bones that White Fang loved could manifest in the real world, just like her contracted familiars!

Taking a bite of the Vitality Fruit she brought from the Beast Space, she found that, aside from its fruity texture, it had no discernible taste.

Nevertheless, both Ellen and White Fang loved it; they usually treated it as a reward after intense training, devouring a few small pieces of this treasure.

The B-rank dark skill book, Moonlight, transformed into a thin scroll, still marked as non-teachable. She wasn’t sure if it could be used on other extraordinary beings, so she returned the skill book to the Beast Space, planning to find an opportunity to test it out.

Moreover, this skill, as its name suggested, only allowed for unidirectional interaction—bringing resources from the Beast Space to the real world, without the capability to transport non-hidden energy materials from reality into the Beast Space.

Mu Huaiyu felt a twinge of regret; if this skill could evolve into a bidirectional interaction, her expansive Beast Space would effectively become a massive personal storage area!

Still, the changes brought about by upgrading the Beast Space were enough to leave her pleasantly surprised, especially since there were still many facilities within the ranch that had yet to be unlocked, promising even more resources in the future.

The ability to extract unused materials from her familiar’s space for other purposes was an incredibly practical feature.

After trying out the new talent skill, Mu Huaiyu took the opportunity to organize the materials and current state of her Beast Space.

In terms of facilities, she currently had only the central hub of the Beast Space, which housed the World Tree that carried her Beast Master talents, and the Training Ground for daily familiar training.

World Tree Level

Her Beast Space had now been upgraded to Level 3.

The leaves on the World Tree were lush and vibrant, sprouting numerous lively new buds. Mu Huaiyu could feel the resonance between the World Tree and her Beast Space, pulsing with boundless vitality—she was no longer the kind to shed all her leaves at the slightest injury, leaving behind nothing but bare branches.

The Training Ground remained a Level 1 facility.

Despite being the only facility, it was incredibly useful. Not only did it allow her two familiars to train without any energy consumption and enhance various combat techniques, but it also provided detailed data feedback through meditation training for Mu Huaiyu.

She understood every statistic about her two familiars: their physical strength, skill potency, tendencies, and habits during battles…

Ellen and White Fang grew stronger every day through training, and the feedback from the Training Ground kept Mu Huaiyu intimately familiar with their evolving abilities.

Each skill’s optimal timing and potential effects were as clear as a meticulously crafted data model in her mind.

The high level of synergy between Mu Huaiyu and her familiars was not only due to their emotional closeness but also built on a foundation of extensive simulated training and meditative feedback.

This allowed Mu Huaiyu to command her familiars in actual battles as if they were all operating from the same perspective, seamlessly coordinating their efforts.

Beyond these two key facilities, the remaining resources were all obtained through card draws.

The Spiritual Spring Temple, where she could consume drops of spiritual spring water to perform card draws, existed only as a separate interface in the game system panel and had no physical presence in the Beast Space.

Above the temple, seven drops of spiritual spring water were displayed, and she was just a bit short of being able to initiate another round of ten consecutive draws.

The resources gained from card draws had already been used shortly after obtaining them, with most of what she had accumulated being of limited utility at this stage.

The rarest quality items were the SR-tier Crystal Seeds.

Besides the initial Dark Crystal Grass, Mu Huaiyu later drew seeds for Ice Crystal Grass and Fire Crystal Grass, both marked as “not plantable.”

Without the Farmland facility unlocked, these crystal seeds were essentially useless, leaving Mu Huaiyu a bit frustrated.

Next came the R-tier items.

Most of the time, R-tier yields were experience fruits, which Mu Huaiyu typically allowed her two familiars to absorb immediately upon drawing.

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Then there were the C-tier skill books.

In addition to the “Ice Fang” used by White Fang, there were two more stored in the Beast Space.

[C-tier Skill Book: Earthquake Wave]
[Attribute: Earth]
Description: An attack skill of the Earth attribute that triggers upon striking the ground…

C-tier Skill Book: Earthquake Wave
Description: An attack skill that generates shockwaves upon impact, unable to target airborne enemies.
Status: Not teachable.

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C-tier Skill Book: Flame Tail
Attribute: Fire
Description: A fire attribute attack skill that strikes with flames burning from the tail, having a chance to inflict burn damage upon hitting.
Status: Not teachable.

Mu Huaiyu had encountered both skills in battle. One was from Ayue, a student from the Changning Dojo, who had contracted an Earth-type Little Cloud Dog that used the Earthquake Wave in its first duel against Ellen. The other was from a classmate at Changning No. 1 High School, who had a Flame Tail Meow that unleashed the Flame Tail during a match.

Unfortunately, both skill books were not teachable. Given that her two familiars were only adaptable to the common Dark attribute, alongside Undead and Ice types, they couldn’t learn these skills.

This was one of the downsides of card draws: while it felt exhilarating to pull new items, if they couldn’t be utilized, it resulted in waste.

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N-tier items mostly consisted of various fruits.

The odds of drawing attribute fruits and physical fruits were roughly equal, with their enhancement effects being minimal for the familiars. Instead, they were preferred for their flavors. Ellen and White Fang liked their own attribute fruits over physical fruits and other attribute fruits.

According to their descriptions, Dark attribute fruits had a compelling allure, akin to a famished person encountering a feast of hot pot and barbecue.

The Dark and physical attribute fruits drawn from the card pool had already been consumed, leaving a few Light, Fire, and Mental attribute fruits behind. However, due to their elemental mismatch, Ellen and White Fang showed little interest in them.

Mu Huaiyu speculated that these fruits might be appealing to wild extraordinary creatures, so she decided to save the flavors her familiars disliked for future use.

Next came the N-tier selection of ordinary small items.

Apart from the Damaged Frisbee and Whole Bone that White Fang loved, Mu Huaiyu drew other bizarre items like a Non-Spinning Top, Dried Straw, and a Fluffy Pillow—all seemingly pointless.

Interestingly, the item descriptions indicated that using these objects could increase intimacy with her familiars.

Previously, under Mu Huaiyu’s eager gaze, Ellen begrudgingly accepted the Fluffy Pillow, while the rest of the items now belonged to her white-furred pup.

With the newly acquired One-Way Interaction skill, Mu Huaiyu could also take these odds and ends outside, adding more potential uses.

It seemed like she just caught Ellen hiding the Fluffy Pillow in the shadows…

Could it be that the little skeleton pretends to dislike it but actually loves it?

Mu Huaiyu chuckled softly, deciding not to confront Ellen about this little secret.

After tidying up her beast space, her two familiars finished their training for the day and returned to the beast master’s dormitory.

For dinner, they enjoyed a simple cream stew, perfect for using up the fridge’s inventory.

White Fang was treated to a carefully crafted special food plate, featuring over ten different flavors made from raw ingredients sent from the Little Cloud Dog breeding base. Enhanced with various Dark attribute resources, it was the perfect meal for White Fang’s growth at this stage.

After dinner, Ellen helped clear the table as usual before heading back to the Training Ground with White Fang.

In the evenings, it was the time for the two familiars to spar and hone their skills, while Mu Huaiyu focused on her reading—sometimes schoolwork, other times browsing the bureau’s forums and reports on mystery investigations.

Later in the night, after a day filled with studying and training, the beast master and her familiars would go to bed at the same time.

White Fang curled up early by Mu Huaiyu’s pillow, waiting for her to change into her pajamas. Before getting into bed, she would reach over to scratch his ears.

As expected, Ellen had indeed brought the Fluffy Pillow into the shadows. Now, wrapped in black mist, the pillow let out a gentle clicking sound toward the beast master.

“Click, click. (Goodnight, Huaiyu.)”

Mu Huaiyu lay back down with a smile, reaching out to pat the white fluffball beside her before glancing at the shadow by the bed.

“Goodnight, Ellen, White Fang.”