Chapter 41

The Shovel Iron Bug swarm was incredibly fast, far outpacing what human legs could run. The black cloud-like swarm roared as it completely engulfed the spot where the young girl was standing.

Mu Huiyue sank into the dark tide, feeling countless black shadows pass through her body, her heart pounding in terror.

At the critical moment, Ellen pulled her and Baiya into the shadow space.

The towering Baiya soldier held the Beastmaster with one hand, and the swirling black mist around him covered her, concealing all of her presence.

Mu Huiyue held her breath, recalling how, when she first arrived at the Undead Castle, Ellen—still a small skeleton—had done the same, using his presence to cover hers and help her survive the crisis.

Her heartbeat gradually calmed. When the shadowy clouds dispersed, Baiya released her, and Mu Huiyue, along with Baiya, returned to the real world. The suffocating cold sensation immediately vanished, and both the girl and her pet took deep, heavy breaths.

“Woof…”

Baiya nudged Mu Huiyue’s calf with its tail. If it had run on its own, it would have been faster, but unfortunately, its current size couldn’t carry the Beastmaster along. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have lost to that swarm of bugs in terms of speed.

However, the protective action Mu Huiyue took right away made Baiya happy.

Mu Huiyue patted the little cloud dog’s head, took a deep breath, and adjusted her state.

Grabbing Baiya and turning to flee had been purely a reflex action.

After all, seeing such a massive swarm of giant insects coming toward her was visually overwhelming, causing her to instinctively want to avoid it.

This was the biggest difference between the wild secret realms and urban environments.

Wild extraordinary creatures didn’t follow the 1v1 battle order. Even extraordinary creatures of elite races could be incredibly dangerous when in large numbers.

No matter how familiar Mu Huiyue was with combat, she was still a human who grew up in the city and rarely ventured into the wild.

Even with her experience in the Undead Castle secret realm, it didn’t seem entirely applicable to the dense forest environment.

In fact, even facing a large swarm of Shovel Iron Bugs, there was no need for her to run away.

Elite species and warrior species’ contracted beasts face a significant challenge when it comes to defeating a large swarm of wild extraordinary creatures one by one, but the same is not true for monarch species.

The difference lies in the B-level skill Intimidation.

Ellen, now in its growth phase, can easily use the Intimidation skill to greatly deter lower-tier species. This technique is commonly referred to among human Beastmasters as “fish bomb,” and is one of the reasons why monarch species see their value soar and gain widespread attention.

With Intimidation, combined with the B-level fire skill Nether Fire and the B-level dark skill Moonburst, even a massive swarm of Shovel Iron Bugs is no longer a problem for her.

Having formulated a strategy in her mind, Mu Huiyue stood up and looked in the direction the Shovel Iron Bugs had fled.

…What matters is getting back up where you fell!

Her shadow rippled slightly, and Baiya, moving through the shadows, soon located the direction of the Shovel Iron Bugs. After returning to the Beastmaster’s shadow, it conveyed the information to her.

Mu Huiyue followed the direction Ellen moved in and soon discovered the Shovel Iron Bug swarm hidden in the shade of the trees.

Seeing the enemies they had lost track of earlier actively approaching, the enraged Shovel Iron Bugs quickly flew out from the shade, forming a massive black cloud in midair. The buzzing of their wings was like a sudden downpour, pounding on her eardrums.

This time, Mu Huiyue did not dodge or retreat. There was no one else around, and with no other competitors in sight, she could unleash her full power.

“Ellen, use Intimidation!”

From the shadows emerged the tall figure of Baiya, with its right eye burning with blue flames. The skeleton’s gaze swept over the bug swarm, and the swirling black mist around it suddenly expanded.

Buzz—

The silent wave of energy spread in a circular motion, sweeping through the bug swarm before exploding with a loud crash. The heavy buzzing ceased almost instantly, and nearly all the Shovel Iron Bugs froze in place before falling to the ground.

“Now, Ellen, use Nether Fire; Baiya, use Moonburst!” Mu Huiyue’s voice rang out again.

Baiya extended its long finger and snapped, igniting blue Nether Fire between its fingers. The flames surged forward, rushing toward the swarm.

The little cloud dog leapt high, gathering dense dark energy in its mouth. A highly concentrated energy ball dropped into the bug swarm, bursting with dazzling light like moonlight.

Boom—

The crystals on the Shovel Iron Bugs’ abdomens shattered in chunks, and a winged terminal flew over, showing that Mu Huiyue’s score was steadily increasing.

With such a large target, the effect of the Intimidation skill could only last a few seconds. Mu Huiyue used the skill several more times, collecting the points from the entire swarm of Shovel Iron Bugs.

In the end, she earned a total of 236 points.

Among the Shovel Iron Bugs, only two were in the growth stage worth 20 points each, while the rest were in the juvenile stage, worth only 1 point each.

It looked like a good haul, but the cost was significant as well.

Baiya had nearly exhausted its use of Moonburst and was now completely exhausted, retreating to the Beastmaster Space’s resting cabin.

Ellen, on the other hand, could still keep going, but as the primary offensive skill, Nether Fire couldn’t affect multiple targets at once like Moonburst. After the battle, he was also nearing the limit of his ability to release skills.

Beasts rely on their internal hidden energy to release skills. Once their hidden energy is depleted, they will feel fatigued. Even without external injuries, they lose some of their combat ability.

Therefore, when and how often to use skills is something every Beastmaster must carefully consider.

With the same number of points as the baseline, it would still be more worthwhile to target higher-tier extraordinary creatures or battle against higher-ranked participants.

Of course, this is based on having enough strength to handle it.

Mu Huiyue gave Ellen some energy cubes to help replenish his hidden energy. The two of them continued exploring the secret realm together.

With Ellen in the shadows, Mu Huiyue could still retreat into the Shadow Space in emergencies, maximizing her safety.

The subsequent exploration went smoothly. Mu Huiyue encountered some elite and warlord-tier extraordinary creatures in their growth stage. After defeating them, her score increased to 331.

Along the way, she also encountered a battle between participants.

It was the first day of the preliminary round, and Mu Huiyue initially planned to focus on gathering intelligence. However, the opponent immediately issued a challenge, and Mu Huiyue defeated them, much to their disbelief.

This participant was from another high school in Lizhou, ranked “52,” and brought an elite-tier, juvenile Wood-type pet, [Scented Herb]. Under the suppression of the Moon Explosion skill, the battle and victory were over in just one round.

Thanks to this participant, Mu Huiyue now had a better understanding of her own rank and tier.

By the time night fell, Mu Huiyue’s score had reached 385.

After all the battles today, she had a fairly good grasp of the strength of both White Fang and Ellen, and what they could achieve in this transitional secret realm.

At the end of each day, the “V-type Video System” sub-terminal would broadcast the participants’ scores and rankings.

According to Mu Huiyue’s calculations, her results today should be around her current rank.

Once night had fully descended, Mu Huiyue found a relatively safe area and set up her camping gear.

For most Beastmasters and their pets, the night was more dangerous than the day, but Beastmasters with dark-type affinities and dark attribute pets were exceptions.

When darkness and shadows completely enveloped the island of the secret realm, both Ellen and White Fang became more energized.

After the recovery in the [Rest Hut], White Fang had returned to its best condition. It circled around the Beastmaster, who had been pondering for a while, trying to figure out how to set up a wilderness tent.

As night fell, Mu Huiyue sent Ellen out.

In the thick shadows of the night, Ellen could move quickly through the shadow space. Combined with the secrecy of [Shadow Stealth], he was ideal for gathering intelligence and familiarizing himself with the terrain.

Building on the foundation from the daytime, Ellen could move even faster. As for when to return, Mu Huiyue left that decision to him.

She trusted that with Ellen’s combat awareness and wisdom, he could move freely and adapt to the secret realm environment.

This was also a good opportunity for Mu Huiyue to observe the connection between the Beastmaster space and the pets, and how far it could cover.

Typically, a level 3 Beastmaster’s Beastmaster space would grow to the size of a soccer field, providing space and energy for two pets, up to their tenth stage of growth.

But Mu Huiyue’s Beastmaster space was far more expansive than that. Just the size of the [Training Grounds] was already comparable to an ordinary level 3 Beastmaster space.

Feeling Ellen’s presence quickly moving toward the distance, Mu Huiyue took a deep breath and opened the food supplies in her backpack. She prepared energy blocks and the usual food for White Fang, specifically for small cloud dogs.

There wouldn’t be any feedback from Ellen for a while, so in the meantime, she needed to carefully sort through today’s gains.

…

At the end of the first day of the wilderness survival competition, President Kang Yao of the Capital Beastmaster Association also received the summary video sent by the “Video System V-Type.”

The preliminary rounds of the ranking competition would last for five days, and no proctor could stay awake for five days straight to monitor the live broadcasts. The main supervisory work was still handled by the “Video System V-Type.”

At the end of the day, this artificial pet beast, which possessed self-awareness and intelligence, would filter out key segments from the subsystem and send them back to the proctor office.

“The battle was quite intense on the first day…” a master-level Beastmaster remarked.

“Who’s currently in first place?” A-level investigator Guan Yuru asked with interest.

“It’s Lu Ai from Lishang High School. Not only that, but all four of Lishang High School’s participants are in the top twenty.” Another proctor Beastmaster responded.

The video displayed the current status of Lishang High School. On the first day of entering the secret realm, they successfully regrouped and found a C-level wood-type resource.

All four of them had contracted the Guava Flower. By using the Guava Flower’s characteristic [Sweet Fruit] and the wood-type resource [Same Root Tree], they completed the assimilation of the surrounding environment.

Centered around the [Same Root Tree], within a radius of about 500 meters, the trees would bear Guava Flower’s fruit, continuously emitting a sweet fragrance to attract wild extraordinary creatures to feed.

Once the Guava fruit is consumed, the creature will fall into an illusion brought on by the sweet fragrance, becoming a puppet controlled by the Guava Flower.

This is also the reason why the Guava Flower becomes so much more powerful in the wild. On the first day of the preliminary round, Lishang High School’s Guava Flower strategy attracted over 500 extraordinary creatures of various ranks.

After being controlled by the Guava Flower, even if their vital points are shattered and the score crystals are broken, the creatures remain in a puppet state, becoming part of Lishang High School’s combat strength.

By evening, the area controlled by the Guava puppets had grown considerably, capturing a few participants who accidentally wandered into this area.

Lu Ai used high-level Guava Puppets to continuously engage in battles and win, becoming the points leader on the first day of the preliminary round.