Please be my partner.

Two figures, one big and one small, collided with each other, but the outcome was enough to surprise those who were not in the know.

Spike actually used his absolute strength to knock the maned lion to the ground.

The maned lion's confusion only lasted for a moment, and its excellent fighting instinct enabled it to quickly turn over and change tactics.

In the wilderness, although the maned lion is already a top predator, there are many beasts stronger than it. If it just rushed around recklessly, it would have been eaten to the bone long ago.

The huge size does not affect its flexibility at all, and it even has a unique beauty when moving around.

In comparison, although Spike is stronger and has better defense, the actual combat experience he has had is far inferior!

The dog and the lion fought for three minutes. Except for the initial attack, Spike was unable to touch the maned lion at all. Instead, the latter scratched his body with several scars.

However, these superficial injuries were not worth worrying about. Spike stared at the maned lion intently and even began to imitate the latter's every move, wanting to learn the opponent's fighting skills in battle.

As time went on, the high intensity of combat made it impossible for the maned lion to maintain its peak condition.

When its strength and speed began to wane, Spike suddenly exerted force, slapped its head with a claw, and followed up with a bite, ending the fight.

"Huh!~"

Spike exhaled a hot breath. Although it was just a warm-up, he unexpectedly learned a lot of fighting skills, which made him very happy.

It looked towards Melen, and couldn't wait to enjoy today's 'main meal'!

Mellen smiled slightly, first looked at the 0.4 energy that had been credited, and then pressed the last button.

After the rumbling sound, the horned python slowly swam out accompanied by a hissing sound.

I didn't notice it when it was coiled in the cage just now, but now I found that this horned python is actually five meters long, covered with keratin scales all over its body, and the single black horn on its head is the origin of its name.

The horned python ignored the corpses on the ground and stared at Spike. It could sense that the latter was a life on the same level as it.

Mellen, in the stands, sensed Spike's eagerness and chuckled, "Let's give it a try!"

When this thought reached Spike's mind, he immediately let go of all his concerns...

【Blood and flesh explode】!

【Bone Armor】!

【Life Force】Blessing!

【Indestructible】Activated!

In an instant, Spike's body size exploded, and he was over two meters tall. He was even bigger than the previous maned lion, and his power was much stronger!

The boiling flames distorted the air, like some strange monster crawling out of hell.

Looking at the bone-armored monster in front of it, the horned python's pupils suddenly shrank, turning into sharp vertical pupils, and the snake's body instinctively coiled up.

Spike would not wait for the other party to attack. He burst out with strength and arrived in front of the horned python almost instantly. He swung his claws, making a violent sound of breaking wind.

"Hi!~"

The horned python let out a cry of pain. Spike's claws caused huge wounds on its body. At the same time, this also aroused its ferocity. It spewed out a thick poisonous mist and then wrapped around the latter to strangle him.

The battle between the two extraordinary beings is more visually impactful.

As a [Fighting Dog] and a [Knight], Spike has double bonuses and his abilities are perfectly matched. Once he enters a full-scale outbreak state, it can be said that he is hard to beat among his peers. His only weakness is his lack of combat experience, which is gradually being made up for with continuous battles.

Although the horned python is not very strong, its abilities as a supernatural being are almost all concentrated in its tenacious vitality. Up to now, the initial injuries it suffered have stopped bleeding and are even gradually healing.

But, it’s useless!

No matter how strong the horned python's recovery ability is, it is just a meat target for Spike.

Not to mention dragging Spike into the second stage of the explosion, even the horned python couldn't hold on and was torn in half after only a small portion of its body's energy was consumed.

Because of the power of life, even in this state, the horned python did not die immediately. As its body twisted, smelly blood was spilled everywhere.

In the end, Spike's claws pierced his brain, ending his life forever.

The wolf-shaped pendant drew a large amount of spiritual energy, directly increasing it by 2.2, bringing the total to 2.7.

After a little calculation, Melen understood that if we consider the cost-effectiveness, hunting the maned lion is the most suitable.

However, the arena does not have many large beasts like the maned lion in stock, and he will not be the only one using them, so they cannot be considered a stable source of spiritual energy.

Chapter 27 Young man, let me see your limits!

A moment later, the staff of the arena came in to wash the floor.

The bodies of the rock rat, maned lion and horned python were also dragged away one by one.

What Melen gave was just the price for hunting. If you want their bodies... you have to pay more!

Spike has returned to his original size. His steps are a little unsteady due to his weakened state, but it can be seen that the dog is in a very happy mood.

Mellen took Spike inside the arena and cleaned the blood off his body.

Because this outbreak didn’t last long, the weak state won’t last too long. Maybe I can go back and have a big meal, then have a good sleep, and I’ll be able to recover the next day!

Dinner is Spike's favorite meat and bones, which are not only nutritious but also can replenish a lot of calcium he has lost.

The dog ate three large bowls of food in a row before patting his belly and looking very satisfied.

At night, in the lounge.

Mellen played with the wolf-shaped pendant. Because of the energy input, he received some information, but it was still useless for the time being.

He looked at Spike's panel. Currently, there were only two places where spiritual energy could be used.

One is to directly infuse it into Spike, so that it can grow faster in subsequent training.

Second is... [Evolutionary Direction]: →???

This '???' was there from the very beginning. Melen originally thought that when Spike evolved into a [Fighting Dog], the next level of evolution would naturally be revealed.

It turned out that he was overthinking it.

The new direction of evolution required him to invest spiritual energy in order to explore it within Spike's bloodline.

The exact amount of investment required is still unknown.

After his gaze lingered on the direction of evolution for a moment, he forcibly retracted it.

Speaking of which, Melen has a bit of obsessive-compulsive disorder. In his previous life, when he was playing mobile games, if a 'red dot' or 'question mark' appeared, he would click it off immediately.

But, reality is not a game!

Although he really wanted to point out the '???' behind the evolutionary direction, he couldn't do so now.

The reason is simple, he now has too little spiritual energy!

According to the information obtained from the wolf-shaped pendant, the search for higher-level bloodlines is a process that continuously consumes spiritual energy. Once the spiritual energy is exhausted and still not found, all previous investments will be wasted, and the next time will have to start from the beginning.

Moreover, when Spike evolved into a [Fighting Dog] before, it took nearly 4 points of energy. I think if you want it to evolve to a higher level, it must take more than this!

Therefore, if Melen spent his only spiritual energy on exploring his bloodline, even if he was lucky enough to succeed, it was foreseeable that it would not bring him any benefits in the short term.

Correspondingly, if he infuses spiritual energy directly into Spike, it will not only accelerate the improvement of the dog's strength, but also reduce the requirements for future evolution to a certain extent.

There is absolutely no need to gamble when there are better options.

Thinking of this, Mellen has made up his mind, but the matter of infusing energy will have to wait until tomorrow.

After all, Spike is still in a weak state, so it would be a bit of a waste to do this now.

Early the next morning.

After confirming that Spike had recovered, Mellen infused 1 point of spiritual energy into him.

Spike suddenly felt a warm energy filling his body. This energy was extremely gentle and could be easily absorbed by him.

Under the flow of this power, Spike discovered that even if he did nothing, he was rapidly becoming stronger in all aspects!

This made the dog feel a little complicated.

Before meeting the young man, it suffered so much hardship and endured so much suffering before it awakened and became an extraordinary life.

After meeting the boy, in order to protect him, it was determined to improve itself, and would not hesitate or retreat even in the face of life-threatening danger.

And now, with energy infusion, it seems that without doing anything, it can quickly become stronger.

This made the dog feel a little awkward, as if all its efforts and contributions were not worth mentioning.

Melen asked expectantly, "How is it? What's the effect?"

This certainly wasn't the first time he'd infused Spike with spiritual energy; he'd done so after the first attack.

But most of the spiritual energy at that time was used to pull Spike back from the near-death state, and most of the remaining energy was also used for subsequent recovery. In fact, very little of it played a real strengthening role.

Now, the effect can be verified intuitively.

Spike hesitated for a moment, but still told Mellen the truth about his changes.

Mellen thought for a moment and said, "Let's go to the training ground."

After energy infusion, the training effect will be greatly improved. Now he needs to verify some more specific data.

There were no open classes he wanted to attend today, so Mellen opened a training room and trained with Spike for the entire day.

During this period, he also used the methods recorded in the training manual given to him by the hunter mentor to conduct extreme training.

This is indeed more efficient and reasonable than Spike's previous training method.

At night, Spike told Mellen about the results of a whole day's training.

When infused with spiritual energy, one day of exercise can improve your performance by almost as much as one month of exercise under normal conditions.

Of course, the consumption is also not small.

Melen could intuitively feel that the spiritual energy in Spike's body had decreased by nearly a quarter.

In other words, hunting down a supernatural being like a horned python would only be enough to sustain Spike's training for about ten days?!

Converted into gold coins, it would be 750 gold coins per month and 9000 gold coins per year!

However, extraordinary life actually has a considerable premium. If the purpose is just to collect spiritual energy, a ferocious beast like the maned lion is the most suitable.

One is enough to last a day, which is about 3650 gold coins a year.

Moreover, in reality, it is impossible for Spike to perform extreme training every day, so the time will be extended and the cost will be reduced.

But you have to know that this is just a normal expense, just like the mobile phone bill in your previous life, which must be paid every month.

Apart from that, if you want to play a game or something, that's another '648'!

Of course, behind such huge expenditure, the strength improvement that can be gained is also extremely terrifying, one year is equivalent to thirty years for others!

After reaching this conclusion, Spike was shocked!

What's awkward?! What's tsundere?!

It had thrown everything out of its mind. Now all it wanted to say was...

Young man, charge up! Let me see your limits!

From that day on, Mellen became a slave to the house and car of his previous life. Every time he opened his eyes, he would be burdened with a debt of 0.2 spiritual energy.

He spent several days buying up all the maned lion-level beasts in the arena and hunting them.

Then, he discovered two things that made him quite helpless.

First, it would take more than ten days to half a month to replenish the stock of ferocious beasts of the maned lion's level.

Second, Spike's consumption of spiritual energy is not constant. As its strength increases, the rate of consumption tends to accelerate.

This means that the expenses calculated previously must be added with an upward curve.

And, that's just Spike!

With a magical item like the wolf-shaped pendant, Mellen will definitely not keep only one dog in the future.

This means that for every additional dog, the expenses will double!

Faintly, Mellen seemed to see the overwhelming bills coming towards him, and even with his wealthy family background, he could hardly bear it.

Shaking his head, he knew that he couldn't go on like this. He needed to find more channels to obtain spiritual energy!

Chapter 28 I have a friend

Total spiritual energy gain: 7.1