A system notification echoed in his mind as Charles slowly opened his eyes. The muscles that had been strained from his all-night forging had completely healed.
Filled with excitement, Charles made his way to the cave entrance, intending to push aside the boulder that had been blocking it. With just a gentle push—
Rumble, rumble!!!
The massive boulder, which weighed several tons and had taken Charles most of the previous day to roll into place with the help of logs, now tumbled effortlessly down the mountainside, smashing through trees as it went.
“So this is the power of a Level 3 Beast Master…” Charles stared in amazement at the scene, clenching his fists slightly. The sound of crackling energy echoed from his muscles, and a thin, visible mist of elemental energy formed around his arms.
It was exactly as described in the theoretical lessons Charles had attended!
A Level 3 Beast Master possessed the ability to condense elemental energy into tangible forms. Joshua’s dark, gleaming spear, for example, was formed from concentrated poison energy. However, with Charles’s current strength, he could only generate a faint mist.
Though a Level 3 Beast Master was still considered low-tier among Beast Masters, within the context of Lsengard, there weren’t many who had reached this level by the age of 18. Charles knew that if he were given just one more year, he could surpass his peers, and perhaps even overtake the president of Lsengard’s Beast Master Guild!
“Those old-timers who’ve spent most of their lives stuck at Level 2 Beast Master—if they knew I’d advanced two tiers in just two months, their jaws would probably drop!” Charles chuckled to himself, eager to find a ferocious beast to test his newfound strength.
After calming his excitement, Charles turned his attention to Max and Mousie, who had been guarding the cave entrance during his breakthrough last night.
However, he noticed something unusual and quickly opened the [Pets] panel to check.
—— [Nine-Tailed Demon Wolf] ——
[Name]: Max
[Attributes]: Ice, Fire
[Level]: Lv19 [View Promotion Materials]
[Description]: Max waited outside the cave all night and is very happy to see that you’ve successfully broken through. Its current experience has reached the storage limit for a first-tier mystical beast and can now advance to a second-tier mystical beast.
…
—— [Shadow Flying Squirrel] ——
[Name]: Mousie
[Attributes]: Dark
[Level]: Lv19 [View Promotion Materials]
[Description]: Mousie hasn’t eaten any nuts all night and is starving. Its current experience has reached the storage limit for a first-tier mystical beast and can now advance to a second-tier mystical beast.
…
“Could it be that when I broke through, Mousie and Max leveled up too?” Charles stared at the notifications on the screen in amazement, his face lighting up with joy.
He remembered that when Max advanced to Lv10, it enabled him to become a Level 2 Beast Master. Now, it seemed that there was some kind of bond between a Beast Master and their mystical beasts—his advancement had triggered Max and Mousie’s progression as well.
After calming his excitement, Charles checked the promotion materials for both mystical beasts, and two popup windows appeared on the screen.
[Promotion Materials] (Max): Ice Attribute Beast Core [Second Tier] ×1, Fire Attribute Beast Core [Second Tier] ×1, Regenerating Potion [White Quality] ×2, Fusion Heart ×1
[Promotion Condition] (Mousie): Dark Altar
Charles quickly read through the prompts. The materials required for Max’s promotion were more or less what he had expected.
While second-tier beast cores were rare, they could be bought if you had the money. White-quality Regenerating Potions were something Charles could make himself given some time. The [Fusion Heart] seemed to be a type of mineral that might be found near an erupting volcano; he could look into it when he returned to Lsengard.
But when he saw Mousie’s [Promotion Condition], which simply said “Dark Altar,” Charles was puzzled.
There was no quantity specified, so it didn’t seem to be a material. It sounded more like a location, but there were no coordinates or details on where to find it—where was he supposed to look?
Moreover, in Genosha, dark attributes were highly taboo, with very few records available. It seemed that promoting Mousie would be an incredibly challenging task.
Charles didn’t have much time to ponder over it. With less than a day left in the two-month trial, any thoughts of promotion would have to wait until the trial was over. freewёbnoνel.com
He glanced at the countdown on his phone screen: 0 days, 17 hours, 21 minutes, and 32 seconds. Then, with a swift leap off the cliff, he landed steadily on a large tree.
It was early morning, and the nocturnal animals were heading to the pond for a drink before returning to their nests to rest. The narrow valley echoed with the roars of ferocious beasts.
“Perfect, time to test the power of my new equipment!” Charles murmured with a faint smile as he retrieved the gear he had personally forged from his storage space.
As he pulled out the [Nine Netherworld Armband], an orange glow flashed across the area.
The armband, thin as a cicada’s wing, fit snugly around Charles’s right arm. Due to the water-attribute beast core, the armband had a bluish, semi-transparent appearance, with faint golden scale patterns visible underneath. It looked almost as if Charles’s right arm had been adorned with a tattoo.
…
In the narrow valley, an adult Bloodthirsty Rhino was charging forward at full speed, its throat parched, desperate to reach the water near the pond.
But just as it reached the mouth of the canyon, about to exit the valley, a human boy blocked its path.
The sudden appearance of an obstacle didn’t cause the slightest panic in the Bloodthirsty Rhino. Its massive size gave it all the confidence it needed.
The rhino activated its skill [Rhino Horn Rips], extending its horn to a length of two meters. It raised its hooves and began to accelerate, ready to smash the obstructing human into pieces.
However, the boy facing its charge showed no fear. Instead, he stood calmly in place, which the Bloodthirsty Rhino perceived as nothing short of a challenge! As it charged at full speed, the ground beneath it trembled.
“Let’s see just how powerful this orange-grade equipment really is!” Charles muttered with a cold smile, standing firm at the mouth of the valley. He clenched his fist as he watched the charging rhino approach.
The golden tattoo gradually began to solidify, enveloping Charles’s entire right arm and eventually forming into a protective armband. With a sharp breath, Charles planted his foot firmly on the ground and charged directly at the Bloodthirsty Rhino.
Crack!
With a crisp sound, Charles’s right arm collided with the rhino’s razor-sharp horn, which was as thick as a man’s thigh. The horn snapped clean off at the base.
In the Bloodthirsty Rhino’s horrified gaze, Charles’s fist came crashing down on its head, creating a large, gaping hole from which blood and brain matter spewed out. The once formidable Bloodthirsty Rhino fell dead with just a single punch from Charles!
[Ding! You have defeated ferocious beast [Bloodthirsty Rhino] (Lv19, Silver Quality)!]
[Mystical Beast Max (Lv.19) Loyalty +0! Experience +200 (Stored)!]
[Mystical Beast Mousie (Lv.19) Loyalty +0! Experience +200 (Stored)!]
It only took one punch to take down a Level 19 ferocious beast—this orange-quality equipment was indeed incredibly powerful!
Impressed by the armband’s strength, Charles didn’t linger. He quickly summoned Max and Mousie, and together they continued their fierce battle against the wave of beasts heading to the oasis to drink.
[Ding! You have defeated ferocious beast [Swamp Frog] (Lv18, Silver Quality)!]
[Ding! You have defeated ferocious beast [Shadow Wolf] (Lv20, Bronze Division Quality)!]
[Ding! You have defeated ferocious beast [Steel-Spiked Hedgehog] (Lv17, Bronze Division Quality)!]
…
System notifications flashed continuously before his eyes as Charles fought from dawn until noon, from the blazing heat of midday until the evening. Just as the sun was beginning to set, Charles’s phone buzzed with a vibration.
[Ferocious Beast Mountain Trial Countdown: 0 days 0 hours 0 minutes 0 seconds]
[Trial Complete!]
“It’s over?!”
After a full day of intense battle, Charles was battered and bruised all over. Even as a Level 3 Beast Master, this level of combat had pushed him to his limits.
The tension that had kept him going finally released, and Charles felt an overwhelming urge to relax. He stripped off his blood-soaked clothes, took a deep breath, and dove into the pond, swimming all the way to the center before surfacing, gasping for air.
“Ahh—”
“Ahh—”
Lying back on a moss-covered rock, Charles felt a wave of contentment wash over him. The past two months of trials flashed through his mind like a movie reel.
There were several moments when he had come dangerously close to losing his life, but it was precisely these perilous situations that had fueled his rapid progress. Feeling a surge of excitement, he picked up his phone and opened the points leaderboard.
—
[Ferocious Beast Mountain Trial Points Leaderboard]
1st Place: Grace [26,752 points]
1st Place: Charles [26,752 points]
3rd Place: Thomas [19,655 points]
…
—
“So close, just one more ferocious beast and I would’ve surpassed her,” Charles sighed, feeling a twinge of regret as he looked at the leaderboard.
He had been pushing himself to catch up over the past few days, but the gap between him and Grace had been significant. The fact that he had managed to tie the score was already a considerable achievement.
With this ranking, he had secured his ticket to the entrance exams for the three major academies in the imperial capital.
However, this didn’t guarantee admission. At the awards ceremony and recruitment event in two weeks, the top 20 students would have the chance to challenge each other, akin to a live interview in front of the recruitment officers. Winning these challenges could earn additional points, and Charles knew that many would be eager to take him on.
Especially Grace—she was probably fuming when she saw that he had caught up to her in points. She might not get any sleep tonight.
His phone buzzed continuously as dozens of people, who had never contacted him before, suddenly started sending him messages after the leaderboard was published. But Charles ignored them.
After drying off and putting on fresh clothes, he leaped effortlessly to the pond’s edge, several meters away.
Two weeks until the recruitment event…
“Heh, I bet plenty of people suspect that I, like Robert, racked up points by killing others. They’re all waiting to see me fail, aren’t they?” Charles chuckled coldly, glancing at the flurry of messages in the group chat, then turned and made his way to a small cabin at the foot of the mountain.