In the new era where Transcendent powers returned, in the new world where multiple dimensions had fused, mysterious treasures were being born in nature at all times.
These natural treasures that could allow a familiar's strength to advance by leaps and bounds were undoubtedly sought after fanatically by countless people.
However, other than natural treasures, there were also other types of special treasures.
The man-made treasures.
These treasures also had mysterious and unpredictable abilities. They were collectively called wondrous items.
Naturally, Ji An had heard of the famous wondrous items.
But after taking a look at the wondrous items in the box, and then at the director, Ji An couldn't quite figure out what the director wanted to do.
"You're the fifth beastmaster our Welfare Institute has produced. Pick one. These are all wondrous items that I've used in the past. I've let the previous four people choose, and after all these years, there are only three left."
Hearing this, Ji An's heart leaped with joy.
He didn't expect that he would get something so good.
He quickly looked at the three wondrous items in the box.
Although the director said there were only three, it seemed to be far more than that.
Among them, there were four pitch-black rings, a small silver bell, and a necklace made of green gemstones.
Even though Ji An had heard of wondrous items, he didn't know much about them, and it was even more difficult for him to identify their origins and effects. He could only scratch his head and say to the director, "Director, can you tell me about these wondrous items?"
The director nodded slightly and picked up a small silver bell, "This is the sleeping bell. By shaking the bell, a familiar will enter a deep sleep faster, speeding up the recovery of its physical strength. It can also speed up the recovery of a beastmaster's energy while they're asleep. It's a wondrous item with an auxiliary nature. "
Next up was the emerald necklace, "This is the wood heart pendant, a rare wood-attribute item. By consuming soul power and stamina, it can condense a verdant wood armor on the body of a beastmaster or familiar to defend against damage. Its defensive power is roughly equivalent to the elementary defensive skill Wooden Armor that is in the Proficient realm."
In the end, the director didn't pick up the seemingly heavy rings, but just pointed at them and said, "These four are gravity rings, a wondrous item set that can be used to train a familiar's strength."
"Gravity rings?" Ji An was clearly more interested in the gravity rings.
Both the sleeping bell and the wood heart pendant were of little value to Ji An.
With the winter bear cub's Hibernation skill, there was naturally no need for the sleeping bell.
The wood heart pendant was comparable to Wooden Armor in the Proficient realm, and its defensive power should be slightly stronger than the winter bear cub's Hard Ice.
However, the winter bear cub's Hard Ice was about to break through. Once it did, the wood heart pendant would be almost useless as well.
On the other hand, Ji An was more interested in the gravity rings, which the director had mentioned could be used to train one's strength.
Liming and moving materials had become ineffective to train the winter bear cub, and it was now looking for a new training method.
"The gravity ring. It can simulate gravity and train the strength of a familiar. It's especially effective for familiars that have mastered strength skills like Wrestle and Monstrous Strength," Seeing that Ji An seemed to be more interested in the gravity ring, the director explained.
"Director, I'd like to choose the gravity rings," Hearing the director's words, Ji An already had a choice in his heart.
"Very well. This is the wondrous item I used to train my monstrous strength ape. I hope it will be of help to you," The director nodded.
After Ji An thanked the director, he walked closer to the gravity rings, stretched out his hand, and pulled.
However, he found that these steel rings, which were only a dozen centimeters in diameter, were very heavy.
Each of them probably weighed at least twenty to thirty kilograms.
20 to 30 kilograms was indeed not light for him.
However, if he wanted to use it to train the winter bear cub, it was far from enough.
The winter bear cub was now strong enough to carry a cauldron and could even carry a few tons of steel bars.
"Director, how do I use the gravity rings?" Ji An asked.
"You're going to use them to train your winter bear, right?" The director did not answer but asked.
"Yes."
"Let the winter bear put the gravity rings on its limbs first."
Ji An did as he was told and attached the four gravity rings onto the bear cub's limbs.
Seeing that the winter bear cub had put on the gravity rings, the director continued, "Next, ask the winter bear cub to activate its Transcendent power and pour it into the gravity ring. It'll then be able to activate the effects of the gravity ring. "
Ji An repeated this to the winter bear cub.
The winter bear cub's four limbs slowly emitted the icy blue energy of the ice attribute, and the gravity rings were also gradually tainted by the blue light.
Pa!
Before Ji An could react, the winter bear cub was suddenly splayed on the ground on all four limbs as if it had been pressed down by a tremendous force, unable to move.
The director cleared his throat and explained, "It's normal to not be used to it at the beginning. Let your winter bear control the amount of power poured into the gravity ring. After a few more attempts, it can maintain a moderate gravity and achieve the training effect. "
Ji An hurriedly guided the winter bear cub on how to control the gravity rings.
Soon, the winter bear cub got up from the ground.
Not long after, Ji An left the director's house with the hobbling winter bear cub.
Although the winter bear cub's actions were rather comical due to the gravity rings, Ji An was ecstatic in his heart.
Training with gravity was one of the best ways to train Monstrous Strength.
Ji An didn't have the money to go to the gravity rooms, but the training effects of the gravity rings that the director had given him this time weren't much inferior to the gravity rooms.
Moreover, the rings could be used anytime and anywhere, which would also make up for the difference in the effect.
After thanking the director, Ji An didn't rush to leave the Welfare Institute.
Instead, he brought the winter bear cub and walked toward the tallest five-story building.
It was where the children of the Welfare Institute went to school every day.
"Little Devil, Yaya, Xiaoling..." Ji An muttered a few names as he led the winter bear cub in that direction.
During his two years living in the orphanage, Ji An naturally didn't spend all his time alone.
On the contrary, he was quite popular.
Of course, the so-called "popular" was not among his peers, but with the children.
Ji An's other purpose for visiting this time was to see his much younger friends whom he hadn't seen in a long time.
They were a group of children who were not even ten years old.
In reality, Ji An had only seen these little fellows a month ago.
But to Ji An, who had been reborn, he had been separated from these little guys who treated him like an older brother for many years.
The bell rang, and the children upstairs came down in groups of three to five.
Ji An quickly saw a few familiar faces.
"Brother Xiaojian!" An intelligent-looking eight or nine-year-old child with a crew cut spotted Ji An from afar and shouted.
"Little Devil," Ji An also smiled.
"Brother Xiaojian" was how the Little Devil and the others addressed him.
As for why he was called "Brother Xiaojian", the reason was simple. Back when the Little Devil and the others had just learned pinyin, they didn't learn anything else but that "Ji An" was pronounced "Jian".
This was how he got the name "Brother Xiaojian".
Following the Little Devil's shout, the people around also noticed Ji An, who was standing under the shade of a large tree.
With that, they also saw the round, white bear hiding behind Ji An, though the latter was unable to hide its figure.
"What's that?"
"A familiar!"
"What?"
"Is it a winter bear?"
A familiar that had appeared in the orphanage had undoubtedly attracted the attention of these children.
Soon, Ji An and the winter bear cub were surrounded by a group of children who had just finished school.
There were many children in the orphanage, and Ji An only had a vague impression of most of them. He didn't even know their names.
He was only here to see the Little Devil and the others.
However, when he saw the children in tattered clothes looking at the bear cub with shining eyes, Ji An couldn't bear to chase them away.
Until a tall girl in an orange dress heard the commotion downstairs. She came down and said to the children gently, "Everyone, don't crowd over there."
Only then did the children disperse unwillingly.