Chapter 71: The Underdog's Turnaround
Water droplets fell on the leaves, slid down along them, and finally disappeared into the withered grass below.
A towering tree that had weathered a lightning strike stood tall in the rainforest. This tree had grown for at least several hundred years, with a diameter of nearly six meters. The lightning had once shattered its crown, but the tree had tenaciously survived and now bore a new canopy.
At the middle section of the giant tree, Su Xiao crawled out from a tree hollow he had temporarily dug. Resting in the rainforest required staying far from the ground; otherwise, there was no peace for sleep.
"Bubu."
Su Xiao called out to Bubu Wang inside the tree hollow. Bubu Wang appeared groggy and drowsy. Over the past several dozen hours, it had devoured the flesh and blood of sixteen types of polar creatures, leaving Su Xiao covered in wounds.
Su Xiao hadn't fought those polar creatures to the death. If he had, even if he didn't die at the hands of one, he would have succumbed to severe injuries.
From the moment they entered the rainforest until now, neither the man nor the dog had killed a single polar creature. It wasn't that they didn't want to; those polar creatures might drop treasure chests. Some could at least drop Gold-quality chests, and most had the potential to drop Legendary ones.
When first engaging with the polar creatures in the Hot Rainforest Forest, they wouldn't fight Su Xiao to the death. But when pushed into a corner, they would definitely make a last-ditch effort.
Su Xiao still needed to go deep into the rainforest to place the World Core. Until that was done, he wouldn't risk a life-or-death struggle with those polar creatures.
Although he hadn't obtained any treasure chests, by coordinating a pincer attack with Bubu Wang, the pair had secured the flesh and blood of over a dozen polar creatures. Taking only the flesh and avoiding a fight to the death was an idea Su Xiao got from the jungle cat.
As it turned out, the polar creatures that had a chunk of flesh cut off by Su Xiao were indeed furious. In normal circumstances, these injured polar creatures wouldn't let it go.
Unfortunately, Su Xiao, reeking of blood, was no easy target, and the polar creatures knew that. Compared to revenge, survival was clearly more important.
These polar creatures were somewhat cowardly. If a weak creature had hurt them, they wouldn't let it slide. But fighting Su Xiao to the death had a high chance of getting them killed, so most chose to endure for peace, at most letting out a roar before leaving, roughly meaning: "Just you wait."
Of course, among the dozen or so polar creatures, there was one that was particularly persistent: the jungle cat. This vengeful big cat had been tailing Su Xiao and Bubu Wang. Its mindset was the opposite of the other polar creatures—the more it endured, the angrier it got; the more it backed off, the more it felt it had lost.
Once, when Su Xiao was fighting a giant ape, the jungle cat appeared, intending to join forces with the ape to take him down. The giant ape, standing six meters tall on its hind legs, was furious, but when it saw the jungle cat, it instinctively thought the big cat was on Su Xiao's side.
The giant ape bolted, creating an awkward scene. After taking two more slashes from Su Xiao and a thorough beating, the jungle cat fled. By now, the grudge had escalated beyond a piece of meat and a few cuts.
As Su Xiao crawled out of the tree hollow, he spotted a giant ape drained of blood, covered in claw marks, hanging upside down from a tree branch in the distance by vines.
This giant ape was the same one Su Xiao had fought, which had escaped after losing a forelimb to his blade.
No need to guess—this was definitely the work of that big cat. It was likely nearby, watching Su Xiao and Bubu Wang.
Bubu Wang lay lazily in the tree hollow. Compared to before, it had visibly slimmed down several sizes, and the fur on its chest and abdomen had grown a bit longer. Su Xiao pinched the flesh on Bubu Wang's front leg. It used to be all soft fat, but now he could vaguely feel some muscle contours, though fat still dominated.
"Woo~"
Bubu Wang let out a low whimper, as if trying to stand, but it couldn't even open its eyes.
This was normal. After devouring the flesh and blood of over a dozen polar creatures in succession, Bubu Wang's overall attributes had greatly increased, but it also placed a heavy burden on its body. More crucially, there were several notifications from over ten hours ago.
[Notification: Your follower, Space-Rending Evil Dog Bubuteni, has reached the critical point of 80 Charm Attribute points. Convert to True Attribute? Yes/No.]
[Verifying...]
[Hunter's Strength, Agility, Stamina, and Intelligence attributes are all True Attributes. Number of True Attributes: Four.]
[Space-Rending Evil Dog Bubuteni is the Hunter's follower. Two attributes may be converted to True Attributes.]
...
Bubu Wang was different from Amu. Although Amu's Strength and Stamina attributes had both reached 80, he hadn't triggered the prerequisite conditions for conversion to True Attributes.
In other words, Amu was a summon, while Bubu Wang was a follower. [Follower] was the highest rank among servant-type beings, while summons were the third rank.
Most followers started with very weak attributes, but they had growth potential; otherwise, they couldn't become followers.
As the saying goes, riding on coattails to success—that was exactly Bubu Wang's situation. Su Xiao had four True Attributes, allowing Bubu to gain two True Attributes without undergoing a trial.
Or rather, Bubu Wang had actually experienced a trial. When Su Xiao entered the Demon Castle, Bubu Wang assisted throughout.
The conversion of the Charm attribute was a default choice, as it was Bubu Wang's main attribute. As for the second True Attribute, Bubu Wang chose Agility. If it wasn't fast enough, how could it go wild? That was very Bubu.
Bubu Wang's current drowsy state was due to the ongoing conversion of True Attributes. After devouring the flesh and blood of over a dozen high-level creatures, Bubu Wang's attributes were no longer weak. It wasn't that it couldn't get stronger; it had just lacked the opportunity. The Hot Rainforest Forest was indeed its place for an underdog's turnaround.
Bubu Wang's current attributes were as follows:
Bubuteni
Rank: Follower · Space-Rending Evil Dog
Health: 100%
Mana: 400
Strength: 69
Agility: 82 (True Attribute)
Stamina: 72
Intelligence: 40
Charm: 86 (True Attribute)
Skill 1, Gift of the Snow Goddess (Aura Lv.5): Generates a Snow Goddess Aura, restoring 3 Health per second to allied units and 5 Mana per minute. This skill has no cost. Recovery effect scales with Intelligence/Charm attributes (highest attribute prioritized; currently boosted by True Charm attribute, granting additional Mana recovery effect).
Skill 2, Life Force (Active): Remotely restores 50 + Charm attribute × 4 Health to a designated target.
Note: This skill consumes 40 Mana.
Note: This skill has a cooldown of 5 minutes.
Note: This skill evolved from the 'Loyal Protection' ability.
Skill 3, Advanced Being (Active): Bubuteni can evolve by devouring the flesh and blood of high-level beings.
Skill 4, Utterly Loyal (Passive): Bubuteni's loyalty is locked at maximum. No possibility of betrayal under any circumstances.
Skill 5, You Can't See Me (Passive, Self-Learned Skill): Bubuteni can hide based on any terrain. Current hiding methods: 928 (increased by 67).
Skill 6, Canine's Secret Peek (Passive, Self-Learned Skill): When visually targeting an enemy from over 40 meters away, reduces the chance of being sensed by 80%. If the enemy senses Bubuteni's gaze, Bubuteni will quickly enter the 'You Can't See Me (Passive)' state.
Skill 7, Scent Tracking (Passive): Can lock onto a known aura/scent/trail for tracking. Tracking range limit: 6 kilometers. If the enemy's trail is not found within 3 hours of locking the scent, or if the distance to the enemy exceeds 6 kilometers, the trail is lost.
Skill 8, Howl (Passive, Self-Learned Skill): Bubuteni actively exits the 'You Can't See Me' state and lets out a long howl to try to disrupt the enemy's mind, with a chance to attract a large amount of enemy aggro.
Note: Bubuteni's abilities have reached 8, the maximum limit. No new abilities can be added. Existing abilities can be evolved, replaced, or upgraded.