Chapter 24: C-Rank Summoner

After a while, Lin Fang and Zhi Yan pulled up to the gates of the Hunter Association, Huaxi City Branch.

Originally, they were supposed to return home, but with Lin Fang having the Amulet of Velmura, he didn’t feel the need to put away his plans. He can go ahead and register for the exam.

Inside, the lobby was modern and minimal, with marble floors, wide digital notice boards, and a reception counter manned by a young staff member engrossed in reading something on a sleek tablet.

He didn’t even look up when Lin Fang and Zhi Yan approached.

Without breaking eye contact with his screen, he pushed a holographic form forward. “Name, email, phone number, address, and citizenship number,” he droned. “Scan the QR code on the back of the sheet, upload any valid national ID, and bind your phone number with an OTP. Then pay a 300-credit fee online. After that, you’ll get a confirmation email. Your examination pass will arrive within 24 to 48 hours with the date and venue.”

“That’s it?” Lin Fang asked.

“Yep,” the man muttered.

Lin Fang turned to Zhi Yan. “I didn’t expect it to be this… smooth. I thought we would have to wait in lines, like you told me.”

Zhi Yan averted her gaze. “I guess today is a lucky day.”

Lin Fang didn’t say anything to that and simply nodded, taking the application sheet. Stepping aside with Zhi Yan, he quickly filled in the details and paid the fee through his bank app. In less than five minutes, a soft ding signaled the confirmation email.

“Well,” he said, glancing at the screen, “it’s done.”

Handing over the application form to the receptionist, he turned around and walked away.

Behind them, the front desk attendant looked up briefly from his tablet, eyes trailing the plain-dressed young man and the beautiful woman beside him.

He sighed, shaking his head away. “A plainfolk wants to become a hunter? Was he living under a rock, or was he just plain stupid? Anyway, not my problem.” He shrugged, getting back to his work.

After they left the association building, Zhi Yan and Lin Fang visited various pet stores, basically the ones that sell food to avian-type creatures. Zhi Yan thought Lin Fang was looking to sell them on NovaMart to get more exposure and increase sales numbers, while the latter just wanted to find some high-quality food for Tempest, who was currently resting in his pet inventory.

An hour later, they returned home.

Zhi Yan tapped her card. The door slid open with a mechanical click.

The moment they stepped into the apartment, they were greeted by the sight of Li Liu sprawled across the living room sofa, a half-eaten bag of chips in one hand and the TV remote in the other.

Her vest clung to her shoulder like it barely wanted to stay on, and her shorts rode high enough that Lin Fang instantly averted his gaze from her thighs.

Li Liu blinked in surprise when she saw them, “Oh… uh… you’re back already?”

Her cheeks tinged red as she scrambled to sit upright, clearly flustered. And before either of them could respond, she stood up in a hurry, adjusting her shorts. “I didn’t think you two would return this early from your date…”

Zhi Yan’s brows furrowed as a blush crept up her neck. “We weren’t on a date. We just went to the Association, that’s all.”

“Umm… Yeah, that’s right…” Lin Fang hurriedly added, intending to clarify so that she wouldn’t misunderstand.

But Li Liu was already halfway into her room, waving without looking back. “Yup, got it. Sorry. Excuse me…”

The door clicked shut behind her.

Lin Fang stood there for a moment in silence. Zhi Yan let out a helpless smile, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. “Just give her a bit of time. Li Liu… she takes a while to open up.”

Lin Fang gave a nod, knowing that already. “Not a problem.”

With that, he returned to his room.

Locking the door behind him, he finally let out a slow breath and leaned against it for a moment. “Dammit. Does Li Liu think that there’s something going on between me and Zhi Yan or something?” He hurriedly shook his head, throwing away unnecessary thoughts. “Let’s think about Li Liu later on. First, getting the third monster is more important.”

Lin Fang walked over to his bed and sat down cross-legged.

His fingers trembled slightly from anticipation as he opened his inventory and scrolled down to the gleaming token.

He selected the summoning token of Smilodon. The moment he tapped “Hatch”, the egg token trembled, and a soft crack echoed through the room.

With a flash of white light, just like with Black and Tempest, a fuzzy white furred kitten appeared with large canine teeth protruding down to its chin.

It opened its eyes and gave a surprisingly noble little roar as if it wanted to say, The King is here, but it just sounded like a cute meow.

[Please name your new companion.]

Lin Fang smiled. “Let’s go with… Cloud.”

*Ding!

[Name registered: Cloud]

[Cloud has been soul-bound.]

A faint surge of energy entered him, warm and serene just as similar to Pterosaur and the direwolf.

What followed is a series of notification chimes filling his head

*Ding!

[Atleast 3 monster companions are detected. Calculating the combat power]

[Combat Power threshold exceeded. Initiating summoner rank advancement]

Ding! Congratulations! You are now a Rank-D Summoner.

[The Main Quest has been completed. Training Ground Unlock]

[New Maint Quest unlocked — Become a Rank C Summoner]

[Combat Power has exceeded the threshold again. Initiating further advancement…]

Ding!

[Congratulations! You are now a Rank-C Summoner.]

[The Main Quest has been completed. Nursing Pens have been unlocked.]

“Wait, what?” Lin Fang froze in shock. His jaw literally dropped for a moment, looking at the notifications.

And more notifications followed.

*Ding!

[New Skills Unlocked]

Combat Merge: The host can temporarily put one of the soul-bound monsters into a hibernation state and gain their stats for a temporary period, without any side effects afterward. Duration: 3 minutes. Cooldown: 6 hours. Limitation: The Host can only use a sound-bound monster’s skill if he possesses mana. Without mana, the host can only gain raw physical strength.

Soul Fusion: Any two soul-bound monsters can temporarily fuse into a new, combined entity with enhanced abilities, traits, and appearance. The fused monster inherits both of their elements and skills. Note: It also inherits both of their weaknesses. Duration: 5 minutes. Cooldown: 12 hours. Limitation: The monsters cannot have a level gap of more than 10.

Echo of the Soul (Passive): Whenever a soul-bound monster reaches its maximum level, the host will receive one of its skills to use as his own.

*Ding!

[New Maint Quest unlocked — Become a Rank B Summoner]

*

Lin Fang sat there, stunned. “Just like that?” he muttered. “From E to C…?”

“I see…” Lin Fang blinked in realization. “This evaluation started because of three monster companions. And I bet Black contributed the most of these three. The Epic grade and a legendary grade are different, after all.”

Cloud tilted his head and let out a low, questioning whimper in response to his mumble.

“No, no. I don’t mean it literally,” Lin Fang quickly reassured, petting the smilodon cub’s head upon hearing that whimper of complaint. “You’re still awesome.” As Cloud sat down and yawned, satisfied by his assurance, Black also snuggled up to him and shut its eyes.

Meanwhile, Lin Fang wasn’t done yet. He continued to explore the new functions. He wasn’t interested in going out to the wilderness and fighting yet.

So, he didn’t pay much attention to the new skills, apart from reading them once and closing them.

What he became interested in were the new functions that were added to the system.

Lin Fang went back to the character interface and scrolled down below Lottery Wheel and clicked on Training Ground.

[Would you like to enter Training Ground?]

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep