Chapter 40 — Temporarily First

Behind them, the pack scattered in every direction, leaving the two apprentice beast masters and their Icefield Hound and Snow-veined Marten frozen in place.

"They ran? They're not chasing anymore?"

Then they saw Shi Yan and the little iron-eating beast dragging five long-spined boars' worth of spoils slowly toward them.

It was a spectacular sight.

"Mother of god."

The Icefield Hound's beast master gasped "Mother of god" and stared in disbelief at the spoils Shi Jin was hauling.

He had some recollection of Shi Jin — they had entered Mount Tianmang through the same entrance together, and it had only been this long. So what was the story with the pile of long-spined boars behind Shi Jin???

By now the Snow-veined Marten's beast master understood why the pack had fled — because Shi Jin and the others, hauling that pile of long-spined boars as they walked, cut an aura of overwhelming force. Never mind the boars; even he had been given a fright.

"If you want to find lone long-spined boars, go to the outer edges. Don't go deep into the forest."

As Shi Jin passed them, he tossed out this casual piece of advice and went on his way with Shi Yi, dragging the pile of boars.

"Got it. Thanks, boss."

The two hurried to express their gratitude, but after being chased by boars they had no appetite for hunting at the moment; they decided to head for the safe zone and rest up first.

After catching their breath in place, they chose to follow Shi Jin at a distance — after all, the path Shi Jin was taking was the route through the boar forest to the safe zone.

From then on, because they were dragging the spoils of five long-spined boars, the wild long-spined boars took Shi Jin and his party for apex predators. No matter how easy a target Shi Yan and Shi Yi might look, not a single boar dared approach.

Dragging along that many Long-Spined Boars, Shi Cen had no intention of going out of his way to provoke any more of them for the time being. It was nearly afternoon already, and he still hadn't found a spare moment to eat lunch. Better to head straight to the safe zone and drop the boars off.

After expending yet more time essence, Shi Jin and his companions finally arrived at a small safe zone ringed by a fence of wood and thornbush, looking for all the world like a tiny stockade.

By the time Shi Jin got there, five or six people were already present. Who knew whether they had come weaving through the Boar Forest or taken one of the safer alternate routes.

The safe zone had no spare buildings to speak of, only a monitoring room and an infirmary, so the examinees could do no more than sit and rest briefly beneath the thatched shelters outside.

At this moment, of the examinees seated outside taking their rest, half looked more or less normal, while the other half were uniformly covered in dust and grime.

Shi Yu spotted a young man whose clothes were dyed red, his arm bound up in white bandages. Had he been gored by a boar?

There was also a beast master whose face had scabbed over, the scabs looking rather like saber scars. Damn — had he been disfigured by a Blade Mantis and then healed?

Thanks to the existence of healing-type pet beasts, so long as an examinee didn't die on the spot, the odds of being saved were still fairly good... That said, after Shi Qi laid eyes on those two or three bandaged beast masters, he still swallowed hard out of pure instinct.

What a miserable sight... Don't scare him like this.

Shi Jin felt this crew of wounded was doing a fine job of dampening his enthusiasm for going off to hunt a level-ten boss.

"Well now..." As Shi Jin entered and swept his gaze over the examinees who had already reached this safe zone, the examinees were likewise sizing up the newcomer.

The moment the six of them saw Shi Yan's little Iron-Eating Beast dragging in five Long-Spined Boars, their eyes went wide, as though they had witnessed something beyond belief.

One, two, three, four, five... They hadn't miscounted, had they? Five?

Looking more carefully, they confirmed that Shi Shuo had come in alone — meaning Shi Jin had hunted five Long-Spined Boars by himself?

Where on earth had this big shot come from...!

The Long-Spined Boar might not be the most formidable savage beast on Mount Tianmang, but hunting five in a row without pause was no easy feat for just anyone. Pet beasts had limited stamina, after all, and scarcely any time essence had passed.

"So you finally made it."

At that moment, a security officer in a blue uniform stepped out of the monitoring room and said, "We've had our eye on you through the monitors for quite a while. That Iron-Eating Beast of yours is strong."

"Do you need to register your points? I can do it for you."

Shi Qi went over and nodded. "Yeah, register them for me. Oh, by the way — can I eat these boars?"

The security officer blinked. "How do you mean to eat them?"

"Roast boar?"

"I'd advise against it. Long-Spined Boar meat is tasty enough, but it takes a good many steps of preparation."

"Well..." Shi Jin was deeply disappointed. Did that mean he'd have to settle for the braised beef instant noodles in his pack?

And here he'd been planning to enjoy a proper meal and then spend the afternoon copying the Multiplication skill...

...

Mount Tianmang Training Base.

The main monitoring room.

Unlike the safe zones on Mount Tianmang, each of which needed only to watch a fixed area, this room had to keep track of conditions across the entire mountain, so its grasp of any individual examinee's situation was none too precise.

Still, with the points uploaded in real time from the safe zones, the five professional beast masters here could quickly tell which contestants were performing well.

At present, the scoreboard showed a trainee beast master named Xie Fei in first place with 1,500 points. Not long after entering Mount Tianmang, he had successfully hunted a Rock-Backed Lizard at growth level nine, and had held the top spot for quite some time.

And now, at last, the scores shifted again: the name Shi Tan leapt suddenly to first place with 1,750 points.