Level Limits

The red-feathered leader would carry these words back to its tribe intact, and the Danghu would direct all their hostility toward the Paoxiao. They would never suspect Fatty, who was supposedly "dead."

Tu Ran jumped down from the tree.

The moment she landed, the shimmering mushroom shriveled rapidly into a black lump.

She took the blood-stained dagger and the inner core from Fatty's wing, wiped them clean, returned the dagger to its sheath, and fed the core into her mouth.

A surge of energy coursed through her, invigorating her entire body.

In her mind, a panel appeared.

It clearly listed the abilities she now possessed.

"Primary Ability: [Instant Teleportation] [Phantom Realm]"

"Intermediate Ability: [Future Prediction] [Memory Reading] [Poison Immunity]"

"Advanced Ability: [Ability Identification] [Language Talent]"

Below that were a few lines of fine print, explaining the classification of primary, intermediate, and advanced ability levels.

"By accumulating enough primary abilities, you may select one primary ability to promote to intermediate. By accumulating enough intermediate abilities, you may select one intermediate ability to promote to advanced."

In other words, the levels of primary, intermediate, and advanced abilities were not fixed—they could be raised tier by tier, and a promoted ability was far more powerful than before.

After reading that section, she continued downward and spotted an asterisk.

A sentence followed the asterisk: "Additional restrictions for support-type abilities:"

"A support-type ability at each level can only take effect on combat-type abilities of the same level or lower. For example, a primary support-type ability works only on aberrant creatures possessing primary combat abilities and those without any abilities. It is ineffective against those with intermediate or advanced combat abilities, but effective against those with intermediate or advanced support abilities."

Tu Ran processed this.

In other words, whether a support-type ability worked depended on whether your opponent had a combat-type ability of a higher level than yours.

If they did, the support-type ability was useless.

To her dismay, Tu Ran realized that of all the abilities she currently possessed, aside from [Instant Teleportation], every single one was support-type.

[Future Prediction] and [Memory Reading] were both support-type abilities obtained from the hooked snake. Just as their names suggested, one predicted the future and the other saw the past.

[Memory Reading] worked reliably, but [Future Prediction] was pure luck.

It seemed to trigger only in emergencies.

[Phantom Realm] was dug up from the roots of the bloodthirsty vine.

Tu Ran had always valued it highly, especially after using it to effortlessly defeat the pheasant leader. She had come to view it as her ace in the hole.

She never expected it to have a level cap.

And right now, it was still only primary.

Her heart ached.

She continued tallying.

[Language Talent] had been snatched from the Henggong fish, allowing her to understand the language of all living creatures.

As an advanced ability, it worked reliably, so she didn't worry about not understanding what aberrants said.

[Ability Identification] and [Instant Teleportation] were both just acquired from the red-feathered leader. [Ability Identification] was already proving useful, and as an advanced ability, it let her see whether any aberrant possessed abilities—a great help to her.

[Instant Teleportation] was a combat-type ability, and she could test it out later.

What piqued Tu Ran's curiosity was [Poison Immunity].

That inner core she had scavenged after blowing up the Gui Diao—did it do more than just make everything taste delicious?

She tried tapping on the [Poison Immunity] tag in her mind.

An explanation of the ability appeared.

[Poison Immunity]: Intermediate ability. When consuming any food, the body retains only the nutritious parts. Harmful parts are automatically expelled without any damage, and the taste of the food is adjusted to the user's preference as much as possible.

Tu Ran: Doesn't this mean I can eat anything in the Threshold?

With this ability, couldn't she stay in the Threshold as long as she wanted? No need to worry about food at all.

That was a pleasant surprise.

Fatty, unaware, had no idea what she was smiling about.

It just felt that her prolonged smile was a bit unnerving.

"Two-legs, let's hurry. The Danghu that went out to look for you will be back soon."

Tu Ran wiped the smile off her face and grabbed it by the scruff of its neck.

Before Fatty could figure out what she was doing, a gust of wind blasted its feathers backward, and its eyes squeezed shut, unable to open.

The next second, the wind stopped, and its feet hit solid ground.

Opening its eyes, Fatty was terrified by the scene before it.

It was the familiar cave.

The same cave they had left that morning.

In just an instant, they were back?!

Fatty couldn't believe it.

Tu Ran had just tested [Instant Teleportation], and it felt great.

Now, when facing enemies stronger than her, she could simply flee—no fear of being unable to escape.

Of course, unless the enemy had a support-type ability that could suppress her teleportation.

But she had an advanced ability: Ability Identification.

If she saw that an opponent could suppress her teleportation, she would avoid contact altogether.

Either way, she came out on top.

Tu Ran was in a good mood, so her tone softened. "Hungry? I'll pick you some red-skinned melons."

Fatty was a little unused to the sudden concern.

But the mention of red-skinned melons instantly captured its full attention. "Red-skinned melons, red-skinned melons! You said if Fatty succeeded, you'd pick ten red-skinned melons for Fatty!"

"Alright, I'll pick them for you now. I'll make sure you're stuffed. Follow me and catch them down below," Tu Ran said.

"Yay, yay!" Fatty flapped its wings happily, tail sticking straight up.

It followed Tu Ran into the red-skinned melon grove.

The melons hung more than twenty meters in the air, and Fatty couldn't even fly two meters, so it rarely got to eat them.

It only got to pick some good ones to satisfy its cravings when large aberrant creatures fought and snapped trees in half, scattering melons everywhere.

Now it could eat as many as it wanted, even get stuffed—how wonderful! It was going to stick with the two-legs for food.

Tu Ran activated [Instant Teleportation] and zipped up the twenty-meter tree in two bounds.

She picked the remaining seven melons from that tree, then moved to another and picked seven more.

A full ground of red-skinned melons made Fatty's drool flow shamelessly.

"Don't rush. Roll them all back into the cave to eat," Tu Ran said.

"Okay, okay!" Fatty obediently rolled two melons at a time back into the cave with its feet.