Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons novel Chapter 478

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Chapter 478: Chapter 478 - Taming the Platinum Ring - 2

For the Flying Cats, Zhao would simply be another threat to eliminate.

"I need to find a gap in their coverage," he murmured, studying the patrol patterns.

But the more he observed, the more he realized there were no gaps. The cats had established a surveillance network that covered every cubic meter of airspace. It was a system refined by centuries of war against invading moths.

Each cat maintained perfect spacing from its neighbors, their patrol routes overlapping in ways that ensured no intruder could slip through undetected.

Zhao tried flying lower, but the Platinum Sprouts’ tentacles rose immediately, sensitive to any movement in their aerial domain. He tried flying higher than the ’canopy’, but the air became so thin due to the insane altitude of the gigantic ’trees’ that he could barely stay airborne.

And all the time, mana accumulated in his system.

His medicine worked, but it wasn’t perfect. Each breath brought more energy than he could process, and his internal filters were beginning to saturate. He could feel the growing pressure, the sensation of being filled with liquid mana.

The buildup was subtle, like slowly drowning in power. Hours later his vision began to take on a crystalline quality at the edges, and his movements became sluggish as his nervous system struggled to process the energy overload.

He could drink more, but then it wouldn’t be enough for the full trip.

"This isn’t going to work," he finally admitted, feeling how his vision was beginning to glow at the edges.

The retreat was humiliating but necessary.

Zhao turned around, flying back toward the golden ring while fighting against depression. Each meter he retreated felt like a betrayal of his mission, but the alternative was dying from wandering in circles... in that place he couldn’t stay too long or he’d die from mana saturation before even reaching the second platinum ring.

"And there are three rings of this," he murmured, processing the information he had gathered during his failed exploration.

The second platinum ring, visible in the distance behind the fence, showed an even greater fusion between the trees and sprouts.

Now massive vines covered the trees, transforming them into gigantic structures that moved with an impetus now more animal than plant, creating mobile giants that hid the cats within their living architecture.

What had been separate organisms in the golden rings had become components of larger beings, each tree now a living fortress that could relocate itself as needed.

And beyond, he knew from Victor’s information that the third platinum ring appeared to be a relatively normal forest until you realized that each enormous "trunk" was actually a hardened Platinum Sprout, and what appeared to be multiple trees in a huge forest was actually a single massive organism.

"A vegetation dragon," he had murmured, finally understanding the scale of what he was facing.

The Dragon Tree dominated the entire third ring, having defeated all other competing "trees" during decades of territorial war. It was the guardian of the crystalline mountain, destined to protect it for a hundred years before evolving and ascending to the diamond ring.

Leaving the mountain for a new Dragon to "keep".

"And our king is there," Zhao told himself, flying back toward the more breathable air of golden territory. "Fighting that thing."

♢♢♢♢

When he finally landed in the Gold Ring 3 clearing, the claw tree was still there, guarding its secrets.

Zhao allowed himself a moment of despair.

"If you’re in places with too much mana," the boy had said with that seriousness that looked comical in someone of his age, "incorrect cultivation will ruin your beast’s future. But if it levels up, the incorrect base resets to 0/1000... in theory you should rise to Bronze before spending more than 100 days in the Platinum ring or you won’t be able to cultivate in time... if the mana doesn’t kill you of course, let’s hope you don’t need to live there soon... But why did you need to ask that weirdly specific question?"