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nShang stood on the ground in the middle of the northeastern forest, his eyes showing a look of concentration.

nSilence.

nBANG!

nShang unleashed a Fire Blast as he turned around, his sword ready.

nShang’s legs parted the grass on the ground, but they weren’t touching the earth.

nSHING!

nA black gleam created a half-moon as Shang swung his sword at seemingly an empty place.

nAn instant later, the corpse of a nearly translucent snake fell to the ground in two pieces.

n‘And that’s five,’ Shang thought with a smirk. ‘I knew that traveling along the southern part of the northeastern forest would be profitable.’

nYes, Shang was in the southern part of the northeastern forest, which was a risky zone. Beasts from the Wasteland would come here from time to time to have their young.

nFortunately, Shang knew a couple of the beasts from the Wasteland now. After all, teacher Niria had talked about General Stage beasts one could find in the northeastern forest in her last lesson. She hadn’t been able to get through all of them, but she had talked about a lot.

nBecause of that, Shang felt confident in hunting in this risky part of the forest.

nFirst of all, the beasts of the Wasteland were mostly very direct predators. There were only a few beasts that hunted via ambushes in the Wasteland.

nThe Wasteland simply didn’t have many ways to hide, which meant that there were only very few ambush predators in general there.

nOn top of that, those beasts only came here to have their young. They generally weren’t very interested in Soldier Stage beings since they gave nearly no Mana.

nSure, if they saw something like that directly in front of them, they might as well kill it, but if that thing was very good at running away, they wouldn’t bother. At most, they would release one or two casual attacks, and if the target managed to survive them and run away, they would simply stop.

nBut surviving two casual attacks from a General Stage beast was still very difficult.

nThat’s where Shang’s left arm came into play.

nBy now, Shang had become very good at using his left arm to move around.

nAnd it had already proven to be a lifesaver.

nDuring the night, Shang had seen a big pangolin walking through the forest. When Shang had seen it, he had directly known that it was a General Stage beast.

nThe pangolin had noticed Shang on one of the trees, and earthen spears appeared around its body, similar to what the Ice Spear Bear had done.

nBut there were six spears instead of one or two, and they moved with far greater speed.

nThe pangolin had shot them in a spread at Shang.

nMeanwhile, Shang had used his left arm to jump over the crowns of the trees and then used an Ice Blast to shoot into the distance.

nThe earthen spears missed after destroying a couple of trees.

nWhen the pangolin saw that its prey had fled into the distance at such speeds, it gave up.

nSure, the pangolin was very fast, and it could charge forward, destroying all the trees in the process.

nBut that was too much effort just to kill something at the Soldier Stage.

nIt wasn’t worth the hassle.

nOf course, this maneuver cost Shang a lot of Mana to regenerate his left arm, but it was worth it.

nAfter all, this ability to quickly flee was precisely how Shang was able to hunt in the southern part of the northeastern forest.

nLuckily, there weren’t that many General Stage beasts, and the pangolin had been the only General Stage beast Shang had seen during the night.

nShang pocketed the corpse of the Vanishing Snake he had just killed and ran towards the west.

nHunting in the southern part of the northeastern forest had been worth it!

nShang hadn’t seen many Swamp Millipedes, and even the Pest Cats weren’t as numerous in this place. After all, the young of the General Stage beasts walked around this place, and they were generally more powerful than Pest Cats.

nBut Vanishing Snakes thrived here.

nThe young of General Stage beasts were great nourishment for Vanishing Snakes, and they loved hunting here.

nAnd that showed once again why the Vanishing Snakes were worth so many Contribution Points. Most progenies of General Stage beasts from the Wasteland were on the blacklist. After all, the Wasteland was the biggest moneymaker for Warrior’s Paradise.

nYet, the Vanishing Snakes kept killing these young.

nOn top of that, the fact that the Vanishing Snakes could kill so many young also showed how dangerous the Empress Cobra Zone actually was, and by extension, the Swamp Millipedes.

nIf the Swamp Millipedes managed to expand the swamp towards the Wasteland, the Wasteland might actually stop existing.

nThe Empress Cobra Zone was just very dangerous in general.

nAfter about an hour of traveling, Shang exited the northeastern forest after a profitable night of hunting.

nShang looked towards the east and saw that the sky was a bit brighter than in the middle of the night, but it also wasn’t nearly time for dawn.

nHe guessed that it was probably around 4 am.

nShang ran towards the west and reached the street rather quickly. This time, he wasn’t near the Farm Line since he had been hunting in the southern part of the northeastern forest.

nOn his way, Shang saw another dog that was interested in the beast sack. He simply let the dog sniff the beast sack for a bit. The dog eventually became bored and left.

nShang reached Warrior’s Paradise shortly before sunrise. The big gates were still closed, which meant that Shang had to go through a manual inspection.

n“Good job killing all these Vanishing Snakes,” the inspecting guard said with a smile as he closed the beast sack again. “You’re protecting Warrior’s Paradise’s prosperity and the lives of many young hunters!”

nShang only smiled politely, something he hadn’t done in a long while. “Thanks,” he said.

nThe guard nodded and gestured to the smaller door behind him. “Get on it, rich boy,” he said with a smile.

nShang nodded and entered the city.

nShang reached the academy rather quickly as the first people started to wake up inside Warrior’s Paradise.

n“Teacher, I want to enter the academy,” Shang said as he saw teacher Loran sleeping near the closed gate.

nTeacher Loran lifted his head with boredom. “Just jump over the gate,” he said. “I don’t want to stand up right now.”

nShang shrugged and jumped over the gate. The gate wasn’t there to stop people from entering, which was also why it was only two meters high. It only symbolized if the academy was open or closed.

nAt the moment, the academy was basically empty. Only a couple of students that lived inside the academy were walking around the empty streets as they began training.

nShang walked towards the Exchange Hall leisurely and reached it shortly before the gates of the academy opened officially.

nWhen Shang entered, he saw an older man packing. Apparently, his shift had just ended.

nHowever, Shang was a bit surprised to notice that the old man was actually at the Commander Stage.

nThe clerks Shang had seen during the day had all been at the General Stage.

nThe older man noticed Shang and his beast sack. “Make it quick,” he grumbled.

nShang put the beast sack on the counter without saying anything.

nThe older man went through the contents at record speeds. Obviously, he was very used to doing this.

n“Emblem,” he ordered.

nShang put his emblem on the table, and he quickly got it back after a short burst of light.

nShang looked at the number on the emblem, and he smiled brightly.

n14,760.

n“Two Middle Rank Two units of Ice Affinity ore, please,” Shang said.

nThe older man sighed, quickly entered a side room, and came back with two blue pieces of ore.

nShang put the emblem on the table, and the Contribution points went down to 1,260.

nThen, the older man left with astonishing speed before Shang could say anything else. Obviously, he didn’t want to work anymore.

n“Do you need something?” a young woman asked Shang as she had just arrived in the Exchange Hall.

n“No, I’ve got everything I need,” Shang answered as he looked at the two pieces of Ice ore.

nShang grabbed the ore and left the Exchange Hall.

n‘Only Fire ore left.’

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