Chapter 110 — The Wilderness Survival Trial

Although Shi Jin felt he could complete them, had it been a normal examinee with an Iron-Eating Beast, they would absolutely have been left kneeling.

Unless that examinee's other beast happened to counter all three tasks.

For instance, if an Iron-Eating Beast tamer's second beast were a psychokinetic flying squirrel, then those three tasks would be handed over for free: a telekinetic wave to restrict the Gale Sparrow's flight, mental-type abilities to counter the Deceitflower's illusions, and a clone skill to gather the resource—would that not be a perfect pass?

Of course, such cases were still rare.

Most examinees, even with two transcendent-grade beasts, essentially had beasts of the same attribute.

After all, a beast tamer with a metal-element enhancement talent could hardly go contract a fire-element beast.

And so this was also why, year after year, so few people passed the Ancient Capital's professional assessment.

The conditions for passing the wilderness survival trial were: one, survive three days on the Trial Island; two, complete any two assessment tasks within those three days.

Those who did so would formally become professional beast tamers.

As for those who did not, all hope was not lost—after all, all sorts of coincidences could occur during the assessment, and not every examinee would necessarily be able to locate their hunting targets quickly.

During the wilderness survival, each transcendent-grade fierce beast an examinee hunted earned one point, regardless of species; three days later, those beast tamers who had not completed their assessment tasks would be ranked by points, and the top five percent would likewise become professional beast tamers, just like those who completed their tasks.

Every year, of the nearly ten thousand examinees in the Ancient Capital, only a few hundred became professional beast tamers.

The degree of competition was several times that of the professional assessments in other second-tier cities, such as Icefield City.

As for the final ranking battle, that was in truth merely supplementary, competition-like in nature, meant to give the examinees who passed the third stage a concrete strength ranking; there would be a great many spectators at that time.

This also allowed the various academies and enterprises to better understand the true face of this batch of professional newcomers.

"Assemble at seven tomorrow morning at the Ancient Capital Second Airport??"

After confirming tomorrow's assembly location and time, Shi Jin decided to play the same old trick again.

It was still quite a distance away, so why not just head over there and spend the night today?

Giving the examinees this one day off was not actually meant for rest, but for the examinees to quickly prepare supplies and formulate plans according to their assessment tasks. Shi Jue, however, had no preparations to make, so he seemed especially leisurely at this moment...

...

"Everyone's here."

When Shi Jin stepped out, the Seven Heroes of Archaeology were in the research institute playing with the Iron-eating Beast cubs that had been transported over from the Iron Bamboo Breeding Base.

Seeing Shi Jin come out, they immediately asked, "Have the assessment tasks been announced? What are they?"

"Gale Sparrows, Deception Flowers, small tasks," Shi Jin said casually.

The Seven Heroes of Archaeology nodded without much reaction, since they had all passed a professional assessment in some year or another.

They knew that such targeted assessment tasks could counter ordinary pets, but could not counter Shi Jin's little Iron-eating Beast, which was comparable to a cub of a monarch-tier species.

Shi Jin would inevitably pass this stage with ease; even without following the assessment-task route, with the little Iron-eating Beast's expansion ability activated, sweeping through an extraordinary-tier species would pose no difficulty at all in terms of points.

What worried the Seven Heroes of Archaeology more, however, was that when they had previously asked Shi Jin what his second pet was, Shi Jin had said it was a Greenfluff Worm.

A Greenfluff Worm that had not yet evolved!

That was quite awkward—did that not mean Shi Jin would have to fight one against many the entire time afterward? Including the ranking battles to come...

"Where are you off to?"

At this moment, seeing Shi Jin come out with a backpack, Zheng Yan asked curiously, "You're not planning to find a place to stay near the next examination site again, are you?"

"That's exactly the plan." Shi Jin chuckled.

"Goodness." The others had not expected Shi Jin to become addicted to sleeping at examination sites—truly unwilling to get up early in the slightest.

If this habit were dragged off to war, would he not end up going to sleep at the enemy camp's gate in the middle of the night?

Speaking of which, Shi Jin's daily routine was a huge problem!

It was almost noon and he had only just come out; the same had happened before—nowhere to be seen early in the morning. What was Shi Jin doing so late at night?

Staying up late to meditate?

Shi Jin could not help it; he was at the age where he was growing, so he needed more sleep...

"Want me to give you a ride?" said senior Lin Yuer, who owned a car.

Shi Jin: "No need, no need, I'll just go over myself."

Since he was not as close to the Seven Heroes of Archaeology as he was to Sister Xiong Qi, he did not want to trouble them.

Speaking of which, where had Sister Xiong Qi run off to so early in the morning?

It did not matter, though. After a few words with the Seven Heroes, Shi Jin left the research institute in style.

Meanwhile, the accessory Eleven popped out of Shi Jin's pocket, and the Greenfluff Worm pulled open the backpack zipper and poked out its head.

Next up was the wilderness survival trial examination. Shi Jin decided that from now on, he would keep them guarding him closely at all times—only then would he feel safe.

Relying on a single Phasing ability, Shi Jin felt, was not enough!

"I forgot to ask Lin Yun—how strong is a Beast Tamer's combat power when paired with an Iron-eating Beast's master-level hardening?"

As soon as Shi Jin stepped out, he sank into thought: if Eleven hardened his whole body, could he take down an ordinary extraordinary-tier fierce beast with one punch each?

Although he had been beaten miserably last time, Shi Jin still harbored a kung fu dream...

...

The Ancient Capital's Second Airport.

This place was slightly smaller than the First Airport and was hardly ever open on ordinary days; when it was open, all flights were for official business.

For example, when Ancient Capital University sent a batch of students to the capital for exchange study, or when a certain unit of the Ancient Capital Beast Tamer Corps went somewhere to carry out a mission—only at such times would the Second Airport open.

By the time Shi Jin arrived, it was just noon, and the airport was still in lockdown. He took only a casual glance before setting off to find something to eat.

Inside a private dining room of a restaurant, Shi Jin took the opportunity to contact Lin Yun.

"It's Shi Jin, is the assessment going smoothly?"

"Is the third stage of the assessment coming up next?"

Lin Yun's laughter came through from the other end.

"Smoothly. Thanks to you, the third stage will definitely be no problem either," Shi Jin said.

The hardest part of the wilderness survival trial was that pets could not replenish their stamina in time. However, the professional assessment was quite humane: it did not exclude a Beast Tamer's financial resources from their strength, and permitted Beast Tamers to bring large quantities of supplements, nutrients, medicine, and even energy crystals—the most effective means of restoring energy.

Shi Jin, being that kind of person, had naturally prepared a whole pile of them.