James then instructed Little Fluffy to upgrade his cultivation rank to Peak Rank 4.
[Ding! Do you want to upgrade your cultivation rank to Peak Rank 4?]
"Yes." James replied.
[Ding! 500 billion coppers have been successfully deducted.]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host! You have successfully broken through to the Low Rank 4 Elite Martial Warrior.]
[Ding! 2,5 platinum points have been successfully deducted.]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host! You have successfully broken through to the Mid Rank 4 Elite Martial Warrior.]
[Ding! 6 platinum points have been successfully deducted.]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host! You have successfully broken through to the High Rank 4 Elite Martial Warrior.]
[Ding! 15 platinum points have been successfully deducted.]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host! You have successfully broken through to the Peak Rank 4 Elite Martial Warrior.]
Along with the continuous notifications ringing in his mind, James felt that his physical strength had become around three times stronger in comparison when he got the combined feedback from Little Snow and Little Lion.
Subsequently, James told Little Snow and Little Lion to prepare themselves, as he wanted to upgrade their ranks.
After a while, James ordered Little Fluffy to upgrade his contracted beast's rank this time.
[Ding! Do you want to upgrade Little Snow and Little Lion's rank to Peak-level Platinum Rank Beast?]
"Yes." James replied.
[Ding! 50 platinum points have been successfully deducted.]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host! Your pet, Little Snow has successfully broken through to the Low-level Platinum Rank Beast.]
[Ding! 50 platinum points have been successfully deducted.]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host! Your pet, Little Lion has successfully broken through to the Low-level Platinum Rank Beast.]
[Ding! 250 platinum points have been successfully deducted.]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host! Your pet, Little Snow has successfully broken through to the Mid-level Platinum Rank Beast.]
[Ding! 250 platinum points have been successfully deducted.]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host! Your pet, Little Lion has successfully broken through to the Mid-level Platinum Rank Beast.]
[Ding! 600 platinum points have been successfully deducted.]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host! Your pet, Little Snow has successfully broken through to the High-level Platinum Rank Beast.]
[Ding! 600 platinum points have been successfully deducted.]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host! Your pet, Little Lion has successfully broken through to the High-level Platinum Rank Beast.]
[Ding! 1.500 platinum points have been successfully deducted.]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host! Your pet, Little Snow has successfully broken through to the Peak-level Platinum Rank Beast.]
[Ding! 1.500 platinum points have been successfully deducted.]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host! Your pet, Little Lion has successfully broken through to the Peak-level Platinum Rank Beast.]
As the notifications flooded his mind, James felt the familiar yet unknown energy start to pour into his body.
James felt that his body was full of strength, and he couldn't help but feel excited at how quickly he could grow stronger with the system.
James then checked his personal information, as it had become a habit he'd developed whenever he became stronger.
[Personal Information]
[System points: 128 platinum, 1.699 gold, 2.446.076 silver, 26.001.750 copper.]
[Name: James Wayne]
[Age: 18]
[Race: Human]
[Attribute: Perfect Level Fire Element, Mid-Level Ice Element]
[Cultivation Rank: Peak Rank 4 Elite Martial Warrior (0%)]
[Cultivation Technique: Peak Rank 7 Fire Cultivation Technique]
[Martial Skills: Flame Splitting Slash (Peak Rank 7 Fire Sword Skill), Fiery Sword (Peak Rank 4 Fire Sword Skill)]
[Beast Master Level: Peak-level Platinum Rank Beast Master]
[Pets: Snow Wolf (Peak-level Platinum Rank Beast), Fire Lion (Peak-level Platinum Rank Beast)]
[Skills: Fire Vortex (Peak Rank 7 Fire Skill), Mid-level Ice Spike (Peak Rank 5 Ice Skill), Mid-level Fireball (Peak Rank 5 Fire Skill)]
Feeling confident in his newfound strength, James instructed the wind crane to return to the place where he had killed the hippopotamus earlier.
With his upgraded rank, his scan's range had expanded from 200 meters to 1 kilometer, giving him more confidence to explore the forest.
Now, James could detect a beast from a considerable distance and immediately retreat in case the beast was too strong.
After flying for almost two hours, the sun began to rise in the east, and James finally arrived at the place where he had killed the hippopotamus.
Scanning the area, he didn't detect any strong beasts nearby, so he decided to widen his search. starting from the lake where he had found the hippopotamus.
As he reached the shore of the lake, James heard a loud wheezing sound that he recognized to be from a hippopotamus. Yet, his scan didn't detect any beasts within a kilometer.
Even so, he didn't try to approach the voice, as the voice had become louder every time he heard it, indicating the hippo was approaching his location.
James then put the wind crane into his beast space and hid behind one of the large trees nearby.
After waiting for a minute or so, James finally heard a notification that caught his interest.
[Ding! Detected a Water Hippopotamus, Low-level Diamond Rank Beast 1 km eastern ahead]
[Race: Water Hippopotamus]
[Attribute: Water Element]
[Rank: Low-level Diamond Rank Beast]
[Qualification: Diamond]
[Skills: Water Blast, Water Armor]
Just as James had thought, the one that he killed earlier was only a cub. And here it was, before he searched for a nearby beast that met his requirements, the beast that he was looking for was coming towards him by itself.
'I don't know if I could kill it in one hit like before.' James thought, considering that his advantage with his Peak Rank 7 skill diminished as the realm increased. Moreover, he was at a disadvantage in his realm and attribute.
However, with the massive boost from his perfect fire attribute and superior fire skill, James decided to kill it.
Even if he couldn't kill the hippo, he was confident he could escape with the wind crane, which was faster and could fly while the hippopotamus couldn't.
After thinking for a bit while waiting for the hippopotamus, James released the wind crane from the beast space when he heard the hippopotamus was already 100 meters away.
When the hippopotamus arrived at the shore of the lake, James saw that it resembled the previous hippopotamus but was only slightly larger, even though its rank was a whole rank higher than before, maybe because it was a female hippopotamus.
Its head alone was about 2,6 meters, and its height was probably around 5,2 meters.
James then ordered the wind crane to attack it first and distract its attention while he would find an opportunity to attack when it let down its guard.