Lu Heng packed the crystals in his space and returned to the RV to rest. He had been busy harvesting zombies these past few days and planned to have a good night's sleep before heading out to find mutated animals the next morning.
After all, the animals in the wildlife park were too scattered, making them time-consuming and energy-draining to find.
The next day, as the sun just rose above the horizon.
An RV was already driving on the roads of the wildlife park. To allow tourists to get closer to the animals, the roads within the entire park were built very wide, wide enough for two medium-sized buses to drive side-by-side.
Lu Heng drove the RV at a leisurely pace. To attract nearby animals, he had installed a Bluetooth-controlled speaker on the roof of the RV.
At that moment, the speaker was playing lively music, while Lu Heng paid attention to his surroundings.
The golden eagle was also circling above the RV, able to inform Lu Heng of the activities of nearby animals in a timely manner, allowing him to adjust his route.
It was already June. Although the vegetation in the wildlife park was not maintained by humans, due to normal rainfall, the growth of plants was not affected at all. Instead, without human pruning, they had grown even more luxuriantly.
Lu Heng could only see the areas around the RV that were not obscured by plants. For those areas enclosed by vegetation, he had to rely on the golden eagle's aerial observation.
Soon, the golden eagle reported useful information: it had discovered a gathering of many animals, and quite a variety of them, near an artificial lake.
It was estimated that without dedicated feeding by humans, the animals had automatically chosen to live near the water source.
Adjusting his direction, Lu Heng turned off the speaker on the roof. After driving for half the day, apart from attracting some zombie animals, all other animals had kept their distance upon hearing the music.
Therefore, his plan to attract mutated animals with the speaker had been a complete mistake. He had forgotten that normal animals would instinctively avoid noise.
As the RV gradually approached the artificial lake, Lu Heng retracted it into his space.
Indeed, many animals were gathered near the artificial lake. It seemed there were no zombie animals within, otherwise, the animals would not be resting so quietly.
Finding a bush, he hid behind it and took out his binoculars to observe the group of animals.
He noticed several mutated animals within. Judging by the faintness of the crystal colors in their minds, they seemed to be of a considerable level, likely Tier 2 mutated animals.
These animals were mingling with their respective ordinary animal groups, likely having become leaders among the common animals.
Lu Heng identified a few mutated animals he fancied. However, these animals were not confined to cages. If he approached, they would likely flee.
Fortunately, he had found the administrative office area of the wildlife park earlier and discovered a few tranquilizer guns inside.
He instructed the golden eagle to attract the attention of the animals below while he could hide and take a shot from a distance.
Lu Heng's first target was a lightning-element leopard. The leopard was dozing alone on a tall tree, and it was relatively far from other gregarious animals.
Finding a concealed spot, Lu Heng loaded a tranquilizer dart, aimed at the leopard, and raised his gun.
He pulled the trigger, and the dart flew rapidly towards the leopard. Lu Heng had added a bit of wind-elemental ability to the tranquilizer dart during the shot, so it hit the leopard without any suspense.
When attacked, the leopard's entire body reflexively flashed with a purple electric light. Then, it jumped off the tree and ran towards an empty clearing devoid of other animals.
It must have sensed danger and knew it was injured. However, the shot leopard didn't run far before it collapsed on the ground. After a few struggles, its limbs gradually stiffened.
Seeing this, Lu Heng quickly rushed towards where the leopard had fallen. He knew that mutated animals had a higher resistance to tranquilizers, and these darts could only control the prey for a short period. He had to quickly form contracts with these animals.
Upon reaching the leopard, Lu Heng did not hesitate. He cut his finger, and a drop of blood fell into the leopard's mouth.
A few seconds later, the leopard disappeared from Lu Heng's sight. He once again felt a faint purple glow flash within the crystal in his mind.
The contract was successful again!
As expected, the number of contracted animals was linked to his own level.
Calming his excited emotions, Lu Heng tightly gripped the hunting rifle in his hand. He wanted to see how many animals he could contract with the two levels he had gained.
He had kept the crystals collected in the previous few days in his space without absorbing them. Firstly, his current ability level was already quite high. As long as he wasn't facing an encirclement of thousands of zombies, he could easily defeat them.
Moreover, he had always wanted to know how many mutated animals he could contract with each level increase.
He issued instructions to the golden eagle circling in the sky, and the eagle precisely flew towards the target Lu Heng had indicated.
Soon, with the cooperation of the golden eagle, Lu Heng contracted an ice-elemental tiger, a wood-elemental antelope, and a speed-type black panther.
Actually, there was also a strength-type black bear. Lu Heng had intended to contract it as well. However, although the bear was tranquilized and he dripped blood into its mouth, the bear did not form a contract with Lu Heng.
Lu Heng estimated that he could only contract two mutated animals per level increase, so he was unable to contract this bear at the moment.
But looking at the black bear lying on the ground and about to wake up, he felt extremely reluctant.
Gritting his teeth, Lu Heng rummaged through his spatial hospital for a pile of tranquilizers. Having finally captured this bear, if it woke up soon, it would be much more troublesome to capture it again later.
It would be better to increase its tranquilizer dosage and then use the time difference between his space and the real world to quickly level up within his space.
Relying on his years of medical study experience, Lu Heng estimated the dosage of the tranquilizer and injected it into the bear's hindquarters.
Watching the black bear close its eyes again, Lu Heng instructed the golden eagle to guard outside in case other animals came to kill the bear. He himself instantly flashed back into his space to level up.
......
In the plaza of his space.
Lu Heng was unsure how long it would take him to level up, so he found a comfortable sofa and placed it near the crystal storage area.
He opened a box containing ordinary Tier 2 crystals. With a thought, the crystals in the box came into his hand. Lu Heng raised his hand and put them into his mouth, then began to absorb the energy from the crystals.
After absorbing another fifteen hundred crystals, Lu Heng felt a throbbing pain in his head again. Then, after about ten seconds, the pain disappeared.
Immediately after, he felt the eight colors of crystals in his mind burst forth with bright light in sequence. Then, the lights disappeared again, and he had leveled up to Tier 5. He was now an ability user with eight attributes.
In his previous life, this would likely not have happened even in the end. It was considered heaven-defying for someone to awaken two or three abilities. By the time he died, he had never heard of an ability user with more than five attributes.
However, based on his current contracting conditions, as long as he increased his level again, contracting all attributes would not be a problem.