“Excuse me, Aria, are you a member of Group 1? Could you tell me what happened last night?” Charles asked tentatively in a soft voice.
“Strange, I don’t know you, nor do I know anything about this ‘Group 1’ you’re talking about.” The girl named Aria didn’t give Charles another glance before gently closing the door.
Realizing she was not the person he was looking for, Charles felt a wave of disappointment. He was about to get up to leave when the man who had guided him earlier took off a string of pigeons from his neck:
“Brother, meeting you is fate. It’s late and I wouldn’t be at ease letting you head into the mountains now. Why not stay here for the night and set off tomorrow?”
The man gave a simple smile, then led Charles to the center of the village, where a bonfire was blazing. A group of people were roasting pigeons, and the man handed a cooked one to Charles: “I’m Uldir. If you don’t mind, let’s be friends! We don’t have much, but there’s plenty of pigeon to go around! Ha ha!”
Charles thought for a moment. Fletcher would likely take a longer route with the students tomorrow for safety, which meant circumventing this gorge and losing at least a week, increasing the gap with the first group.
Charles looked at Uldir to check his personal information.
[Name]: Uldir
[Age]: 36
[Height]: 182 cm
[Beast Master Level]: Level 1
His name was indeed true, and the surrounding hunters were all level 1 Beast Masters. If anything was amiss, he couldn’t overpower so many, but escaping was certainly possible.
“My name is Charlie; thank you for your hospitality, Uldir!” Charles gave a false name and pretended to eat the pigeon meat, secretly spitting it into his system [storage space].
With the wisdom of two lifetimes and the vivid memory of betrayal by a brother in his past life, Charles was extra cautious, especially in the ruthless Beast Mastery World.
After a simple dinner, Charles went to the room where he would rest, leaned against the door, and sighed deeply.
What Charles had thought would be a routine expedition had turned into a series of unexpected events, with the entire first group going missing, and now, inexplicably, he had stumbled upon a team of ferocious beast hunters.
His phone vibrated with a new message from Fletcher:
“Charles, are you really heading back to York? Be careful on your way. Tomorrow, we’re planning to bypass the canyon and head deep into the Ferocious Beast Mountains for training. But Charles, with your talent, I truly hope you reconsider abandoning this. If you decide to return to the Ferocious Beast Mountains, we can meet at Remarkable Rock Summit. We expect to reach there in seven days.”
After putting away his phone, Charles was touched by the vice president’s stern appearance, who actually cared deeply for his students.
Leaving for a week might be a good thing. The path chosen by Fletcher had already been ‘swept’ by over a dozen teams, not only delaying their progress but also slowing their score accumulation.
He glanced at the leaderboard again.
————————————
[Ferocious Beast Mountains Training Scoreboard]
1st Place: Grace [41 points]
2nd Place: Robert [28 points]
3rd Place: Steve [25 points]
…
62nd Place: Charles [13 points]
————————————
In just half a day, Grace and Robert had pulled far ahead, likely replacing the original first group as the new vanguard.
Charles looked at the supreme spear in his hand. One end of the spear was embedded with an ice attribute beast core, emitting a faint blue glow, while the other end was dull.
“I still need a fire attribute first-level beast core to turn this spear into a true Ice and Fire Supreme Spear. And Max is close to breaking through to Level 7; the materials needed for that breakthrough will certainly include a couple of first-level beast cores. The ingredients for making regenerating potions are almost used up too…” Just thinking about it all gave Charles a headache.
With his mind feeling like mush, Charles decided to stop thinking.
He asked Max to keep watch at the door, lay back on his bed, and soon drifted off to sleep…
The next morning, as dawn broke, Charles heard a knock at the door.
“Charlie, today our hunters’ squad is setting off for Remarkable Rock Summit, where there’s plenty of game. I left some bread by the campfire for you; have your breakfast and then head down the mountain on your own. I won’t see you off.” The voice outside belonged to Uldir, the middle-aged man from last night who had been hunting pigeons.
Remarkable Rock Summit?
Wasn’t that the place where Fletcher had agreed to meet him in a week?
Hearing this name, Charles quickly got up from bed and opened the door: “Uldir, I need to go to Remarkable Rock Summit too. Can I come with you?”
“Take you along? With your abilities, you’d probably just be a burden to us.” The speaker wasn’t Uldir but a burly young man standing behind him.
Charles looked over.
[Name]: Felix
[Age]: 24
[Height]: 175 cm
[Beast Master Level]: Level 2
After reading the young man’s panel information, Charles felt a wave of astonishment. He never expected that there would be a Level 2 Beast Master in this hunting team.
A Level 2 Beast Master, who could simultaneously control two pets, significantly boosted combat power compared to a Level 1 Beast Master! Among the entire training team in Lsengard, only one leading teacher had reached this level.
Uldir, showing great respect towards the young man, glanced at Charles and pleaded, “Second Boss, he’s also a Beast Master, and letting him cross the gorge alone would be akin to sending him to his death. After all, one more person is just one more set of utensils…”
After hearing Uldir’s plea, Felix sized Charles up and warned, “Kid, for Uldir’s sake, I’ll let you come with us through the gorge. But let me be clear: if you give me any trouble, you’re out!”
Then Felix ordered everyone in the village, “Everyone, pack up, we leave immediately!”
As for Felix’s disdain, Charles was indifferent; he didn’t plan to stay long with this band of hunters. Once they crossed the valley and went their separate ways, they might never see each other again in this lifetime.
The gorge was already close to the middle of the Ferocious Beast Mountains, a place where first-level ferocious beasts were known to roam. Given his current strength, encountering one was indeed risky. Being with a group of hunters, especially with a Level 2 Beast Master like Felix, provided an additional layer of safety.
Dressed in his [Divine Scale Armor], Charles quietly followed behind the group. With Felix’s approval, the others began to see him as one of their own. They became more relaxed, even starting to crack jokes.
Every now and then, some would sneak glances at the purple silhouette walking not far from Felix.
“That woman we saved yesterday, let me tell you, that waist of hers…!”
“And it’s not just the waist! I’ve been with many women, but a gem like that could make you feel numb all over in bed!”
“I heard she’s only 17, at the prime of her youth… If I could spend just one night with her, I’d die happy!”
“Keep it down! Haven’t you noticed the Second Boss has taken a liking to her? If he hears you talking like this, he might just kill you and feed you to his tiger!”
The hunters spoke without restraint, but Charles had no interest in joining their crude conversation.
However, from the hunters’ chatter, Charles learned that this girl named Aria seemed to have gotten separated from her family in the Ferocious Beast Mountains and was now trying to cross the mountains to reach the Atacama Desert.
“So she’s not from Genosha, no wonder she carries an exotic aura,” Charles chuckled softly.
Yet, he suddenly began to worry about the young girl’s safety.
The Ferocious Beast Mountains stretched thousands of kilometers, rumored to harbor creatures as dangerous as sixth-level ferocious beasts; moreover, the area was lawless and rife with bandits.
A 17-year-old girl, lost from her family and without any Beast Mastery skills, could only seek help from a group of strange hunters—just thinking about it made Charles anxious.
And the men’s vulgar talk and titles like “Big Boss,” “Second Boss,” and “Third Boss” did not seem to promise anything good.
“Why bother so much? There are plenty of unfortunate souls in the world, I can’t help them all just because she’s pretty, can I? Besides, I have my own troubles to worry about,” Charles sighed softly, pulling his thoughts back.
Rumbling—
The ground seemed to tremble slightly, distant branches shook, startling birds into the sky.
A hunter at the front of the group suddenly turned around and roared:
“Beast tide!”
“It’s a beast tide attack!”
“Everyone, be careful!”