Chapter 38 — Entering Tianmang Mountain

"I want this Amplification!"

Slimes are mud-like creatures that can grow larger or smaller, which is why the Amplification skill is commonly seen only among the slime species.

Among other extraordinary creatures, those that master the Amplification skill are exceedingly rare, and encountering one is extremely difficult.

So when he unexpectedly came across a slime here in the country, Shi Jin had no intention whatsoever of letting it slip by.

Even a monkey can learn the Law of Heaven and Earth's Manifestation — so a gluttonous iron beast learning Amplification is pretty scientific, isn't it!

In short, this is a universal skill, suitable for all pet beasts to learn; adding it to the collection is no loss.

"Now listen up, everyone!"

After flipping through for a long while, among the innate skills of a whole pile of creatures, Shi Jin ultimately felt that Amplification was the one not to be missed. Just then, Zhou Wanshan, the professional beast master in charge of the training, suddenly shouted.

"The training officially begins in half an hour. During this half hour, you may still go to the shops beside the training base to stock up on food and medicine."

"But once you enter Tianmang Mountain, barring special circumstances, you will not be able to come out again for three days."

In any case, each person gets only one backpack; how much they can pack depends on the examinee's own arrangements.

The basic items Shi Jin had naturally prepared, but they probably wouldn't last three days; the rest of the food and such he would have to find himself after entering Tianmang Mountain. He had also prepared a sleeping bag and a tool worm.

At that moment, Shi Jin felt somewhat helpless inside — if only the beast space could also store other things... having no spatial equipment is such a hassle.

Speaking of which, does this world have spatial equipment?

This is a question worth pondering... if there is, then in the future he must get one.

What we boys want, we must get our hands on.jpg.

Right — that secret realm relic in Pingcheng, doesn't it look like a very large piece of spatial equipment? It could even hold living things.

Shi Jin sank into deep thought...

"Shi Jin."

Just as Shi Jin was daydreaming about whether that secret realm relic could also become personal property, Chen Kai suddenly came over again.

"Want to team up, want to team up?" Chen Kai asked twice in a row.

"Our class is planning to form a group to hunt the giant python."

"My ice-armored beast can do crowd control; someone in the class has a lightning-type pet beast that can blast fish straight out of the lake..."

Shi Tang: "We can team up this time too? Then how do we split the spoils?"

Chen Kai said: "The examiners didn't say anything against it, so it should be allowed. Besides, aren't there rare resources around the lake where the giant python lives? There should be enough to go around."

Shi Jin shook his head and said: "No thanks, you all go ahead. I've got other targets."

He felt that following this bunch of rookies might not even be as efficient as going alone, and it would also be inconvenient.

"Ah, well, all right then."

Although Chen Kai would have preferred to team up with Shi Jin, he couldn't resist the fact that he'd already agreed with his classmates to move together, and he couldn't help feeling a pang of regret.

As for whether teaming up among examinees was permitted, the training base indeed had no explicit regulations. The one thing everyone had in common, however, was that whether lone wolves or small teams, they were all now eyeing those few rare little bosses with growth levels above nine.

Take down even one of them, and one's place in the top twenty was probably secure.

Next, Shi Jin went to the shop and bought an insulated rubber glove, which didn't cost much time-essence, and then he returned here.

It was still early before departure, so Shi Jin simply continued flipping through the illustrated catalog on the spot.

He had only looked through the fierce beast section just now and hadn't yet read the resources section. Collecting resources also counted toward points; overall, it was similar to the training assessments of previous years.

Mm... besides the fierce beasts and resources sections, there were also two final pages: "One Wilderness Survival Tip a Day — Have You Learned It Yet?"

Time-essence passed quickly; in the blink of an eye, half an hour had gone by, and the person in charge of the training once again gathered everyone together.

"The current time-essence is exactly ten in the morning. Everyone set off immediately; you may freely climb the mountain from any of the four entrances."

There was a blockade line around Tianmang Mountain; in this regard there were only four entry points, and the environments one would pass through differed depending on the entrance.

The beast masters present had all carefully studied the maps and already had their hunting targets in mind, so they had a rough idea of which way they should go.

Thus, the moment Zhou Wanshan finished speaking, the hundred trainee beast masters immediately scattered in all directions.

At the same time, a number of sparrow-sized mechanical birds began to take flight from the training base and the safe zones within the mountain, and started circling above Tianmang Mountain.

[Name]: Mechanical Bird

[Attribute]: Mechanical

[Species Rank]: Low-tier Extraordinary

[Species Skills]: Image Storage, Acceleration

[Description]: An artificial mechanical lifeform, used for tracking, investigation, and surveillance.

Once the mechanical bird took flight, images of every corner of Mount Tianmang began appearing clearly on the great screens of the training base's monitoring room and the security zone's various control rooms.

The higher-growth-tier dire beasts in particular were all priority surveillance targets.

This was done not only to guarantee the trainees' safety, but also to observe their performance more directly. Watching the proceedings was one of the few pleasures these examiners had — waiting idly for the assessment results would have been far too dull.

At the foot of Mount Tianmang, at a waypoint partway up that served as the entrance to the Magnetic Mountain region, some twenty trainee beast masters, Shi Yan among them, chose to enter from this side.

Chen Kai and the others, by contrast, entered from another direction, preparing to team up and hunt the frenzied python.

"Eleven, come out."

The outermost reaches of Mount Tianmang had certainly been cleared; almost no dire beasts roamed there. That was why the overwhelming majority of beast masters chose to summon their pets here and have them stay close for protection.

Shi Cen did the same. He had already scouted ahead: there were no shortage of rare spirit plants on this mountain, so there was no need to worry about Eleven burning through its stamina. He could let Eleven eat as it walked; that ought to be enough to maintain its basic energy needs.

"Ying?"

At that moment, having emerged from the beast master space, Eleven looked around blankly. So this was the place?

Where were the opponents? The opponents? The opponents?

"I'll take you to find them." Shi Jue was quite confident in his little iron-eating beast's strength.

The dire beasts here were, one could say, all untrained wild creatures; most of them probably fell somewhat short in combat power compared with the pets beast masters had carefully cultivated.

His little iron-eating beast was only Tier Six, but with proficiency-level Super Vision, high-speed regeneration, and mastery-level Hardening, its combat power ought to place it at the top of the food chain without any problem...

As long as they didn't run into a whole pack of dire beasts, they were invincible.

"Awoooo~~"

Eleven raised a paw and trotted along beside Shi Jin.

Shi Jin added, "Right, keep an eye on your surroundings."