James felt happy whenever he saw his personal information change as he grew stronger.
After some thought, he decided to focus on upgrading his ranks since he didn't need to worry about the cost of upgrading his own and his contracted beasts's ranks at the moment. Because his small goal was to reach the peak of rank 6 before the secret realm opened, as he wanted to join in the fun and have the experience of exploring the secret realm.
James then instructed Little Lion to compress his body size to become smaller around before James upgraded his rank so that the two siblings wouldn't notice it.
Afterward, James left the inn and summoned the wind crane, instructing it to fly outside the city and circle the perimeter of the main street, similar to what they had done earlier when hunting beasts.
After flying for a while, James scanned a few beasts at rank 4, but their ranks were only low or mid rank 4, which didn't interest him since his target this time was at least high rank 4, as it was worth the time to kill it.
However, after flying around for half an hour, James still couldn't find any high rank 4 beasts. So, he decided to go further from the main street and deeper into the forest.
After a few more minutes of flying, he finally heard a notification that caught his interest, and he immediately ordered the wind crane to head towards the beast that James had just detected.
[Ding! Detected a Dark Hyena, Peak-level Gold Rank Beast 200 meters Northwest ahead]
As they approached, James spotted the hyena prowling, seemingly in search of prey. He then instructed the wind crane to drop him off nearby.
The hyena's appearance was similar to that of a typical hyena, except that its fur was pitch black and its height was around 2 meters. Compared to other beasts of the same rank, this hyena should be smaller than most of them.
After observing the hyena for a while, James decided not to waste any time and immediately used a small amount of mana to cast his skill (Ice Spike), aiming to taunt the hyena into a confrontation.
As James cast his skill (Ice Spike), five magic circles emerged above his head.
James immediately made an attacking gesture as he slapped his palm downward.
Five small ice spikes flew towards the hyena, and the hyena quickly reacted by jumping to the side to dodge them.
The hyena immediately looked at James for a sec before charging at him with a swift movement and speed that surpassed other beasts of the same rank.
As the hyena closed the distance between them, James had already prepared to use his fire skill [Fire Vortex], and he immediately cast the skill as soon as the hyena was close enough.
A two-meter-wide magic circle appeared above his head, and a big fire pillar, about two-thirds the size of the magic circle, quickly formed in front of it and shot out toward the hyena.
With the hyena already 40 meters away, it couldn't dodge the fire pillar and was engulfed by the flames as almost all of its body had turned into ash.
James immediately stopped the fire vortex when he heard the system notifications.
[Ding! You have killed the Peak-level Gold Rank Beast]
[Ding! The experience at peak rank 1 has increased to 55%]
Seeing his progress, James knew he only needed to kill a low rank 5 beast and he would be able to upgrade his rank to peak rank 4 and his contracted beasts to peak rank 5.
The reason he was specifically searching for at least a high rank 4 beast was because if he killed one, his progress would reach 50%, and he just needed to kill a low rank 5 beast to reach 100%.
That's why he had no interest in beasts below high rank 4, as he would need to kill more than one to reach 50% before hunting a low rank 5 beast.
After storing the hyena's corpse in his inventory, James called the wind crane and continued searching for a suitable beast to hunt.
This time, James instructed the wind crane to fly more slowly than before, as he felt that he needed to be more cautious as he went deeper into the forest.
Because if he had entered into a really strong beast territory, he could have detected it in advance and retreated quickly.
After flying for about an hour, James finally heard a notification that piqued his interest.
However, when he checked the information, his expression became serious, and he immediately made a plan.
[Ding! Detected a Hippopotamus, Low-level Platinum Rank Beast 200 meters Northeast ahead]
[Race: Hippopotamus]
[Attribute: Water Element]
[Rank: Low-level Platinum Rank Beast]
[Qualification: Diamond]
[Skills: Water Blast, Water Stomp]
The reason James became serious was because its qualification had reached Diamond while still being a Low-level Platinum Rank Beast.
This likely meant its parents had Diamond qualifications and might be at the Diamond rank themselves.
After some thought, James had a plan in his mind and instructed the wind crane to approach it slowly.
When they were about 150 meters away, James saw a massive lake that he couldn't even see the other side of the lake.
James could only see the lake because the wind crane was flying just above the top of the trees.
James then ordered the wind crane to circle around the surroundings to scan for any stronger beasts, like the hippopotamus's parent, or any other beasts that might be drawn by the commotion when he attacked it.
After scanning the surroundings within 5 kilometers and finding no stronger beast, he decided to execute his plan.
James had the wind crane land, then walked slowly towards the shore of the lake after putting the wind crane in the beast space.
When he reached the shore, James saw the hippopotamus swimming about 50 meters ahead, hunting some rank 1 and rank 2 fish.
From this distance, James couldn't describe how big this hippopotamus was, as he also could only see its head while it was swimming at a fast speed.
He could only say that its head was bigger than himself, probably about 2,3 meters, and the thought of himself being swallowed in one gulp made him shudder.
James then unsheathed his sword and cast his peak rank 7 Sword Fire Skill [Flame Splitting Slash], aiming at the hippopotamus.
Swoosh!
A crescent moon-shaped sword qi, engulfed in flames, flew out of the blade, heading towards the hippopotamus.
The hippopotamus sensed the incoming attack, stopped swimming, and tilted its head towards James's skill. It reacted by opening its mouth wide and unleashing its skill (Water Blast).
A big water pillar, around 1,2 meters in diameter, quickly shot out of its mouth and collided with James's skill, piercing through it and continuing towards him.
Boom!
A loud explosion erupted from the place where their skills collided, creating a lot of steam.
James immediately ran away from the lake at full speed the moment he heard the explosion.
The hippopotamus, who was irritated by the interruption, swam towards the shore as it intended to chase after James.
James, who had already run several kilometers, immediately stopped to hide behind a large tree when he heard the notification that the hippopotamus was not only 200 meters away.
James then prepared his peak rank 7 fire skill [Fire Vortex] and waited for the hippopotamus to get close enough that it couldn't dodge his attack.
When the 4,4 meter-tall hippopotamus was only 60 meters away, James immediately cast his skill.
A two-meters wide magic circle appeared above his head, and a big fire pillar quickly formed in front of it and instantly shot out toward the hyena.
The hippopotamus was startled and immediately reacted by using the Water Blast again.
However, as the Fire Vortex was bigger and much more powerful, the fire pillar devoured the water pillar, tearing a massive hole through the hippopotamus's head and upper body.
The fire pillar continued to burn everything in its path until James stopped the skill upon hearing the notifications.
[Ding! You have killed the Low-level Platinum rank beast.]
[Ding! The experience at peak rank 3 has increased to 100%.]
As soon as he heard the notifications, James quickly stored the corpse in his inventory and summoned the wind crane, ordering it to fly back towards their previous path at full speed.
After flying for around 50 km, James instructed the wind crane to slow down so that he could relax a little while upgrading his rank.