Chapter 7 : Chapter 7
Chapter 7: A Second Summoned Beast! Go Find the City Lord?
【You Are What You Eat! — Consumed ‘Lightning Strike.’ Gained: Agility +3, Lightning Element Control +6%!】
“As expected! The higher the quality of what he eats, the more attributes he gains!”
At this rate, Panda’s attributes would far outstrip the rest!
As an Epic-quality summoned beast, his stats might even surpass those of a Legendary-quality one!
Of course, Ye Ze was destined never to find a suitable comparison.
Because in the past several decades, not a single Summoner had possessed a Legendary-quality summoned beast below Level 10!
Even Epic-grade ones were exceedingly rare.
Contracting summoned beasts of those two qualities placed absurdly harsh demands on the Summoner.
It also required one’s family to possess top-tier wealth or power.
Unless, like Ye Ze, one could advance a summoned beast’s rank. But as mentioned before, raising a summoned beast was harder than hard!
Ye Ze opened Panda’s status panel and took a look.
【Kung Fu Panda】
【Quality: Epic ☆☆】
【Level: 2】
【Attributes: Strength 41, Constitution 35, Agility 41, Spirit 34!】
【Innate Skills...】
When the Summoner leveled up, the summoned beast leveled up as well.
An Epic-quality summoned beast gained ten points in all four basic attributes from a single level-up!
As for the rest, those were all bonuses gained through You Are What You Eat!
By now, Panda already had roughly triple the attributes of a Warrior of the same level!
Truly terrifying!
“The higher a summoned beast’s quality, the more explosive its growth in strength!”
“No wonder so many consortiums and guilds spare no expense to get high-quality summoned beasts for their younger generation.”
Ye Ze could not help but let his thoughts wander.
“If I could summon one or two Legendary summoned beasts during the college entrance exam...”
The college entrance exam took place ten days after class awakening. Most candidates were still below Level 10 at that point, while only a handful of geniuses reached Level 10 and completed their first advancement.
“Then the expressions on the other candidates’ faces should be priceless!”
The Class User college entrance exam.
It determined whether one could enter a higher academy in the future, and whether one could receive state subsidies.
If one ranked in the top fifty nationwide, prestigious universities would even be willing to cover most of a Class User’s expenses!
As for those ranked even higher, the benefits were classified.
That was why Ye Ze attached so much importance to the college entrance exam...
It could save him money!
Of course, the premise was still that he had to level up quickly.
Ten days was neither too much nor too little.
At the moment, going from Level 2 to Level 3 required three hundred experience points. With the Hell-difficulty experience bonus, that goal was probably not far off!
Ye Ze pulled himself back to the present and prepared to move on.
However, before he had taken more than a few steps, six or seven dark shapes were already staring at him menacingly from ahead.
High-level magical beasts were different from low-level ones. They had extremely strong territorial instincts and battle lust!
They did not allow any creature to set foot in their territory.
Of course, it might also be because Panda had not beaten them into submission yet.
【Duskback Wolf (lv.5)】
Type: Elite-grade magical beast
Skills: Bloodthirsty Bite, Wolf Howl, Tough Hide.
————
A wolf pack.
Six or seven massive black wolves, their eyes glowing green, stared fixedly at Panda and Ye Ze.
Every single one of them was comparable to a Level 5 Warrior.
Even more dangerous was the fact that wolves excelled at attacking in packs!
“Awooo—”
The wolves’ howls echoed against the rocky walls of the mountain valley.
If there were more Duskback Wolves on the mountainside, they would soon come rushing over to surround them!
“Finish them quickly! Do not wait for the rest of the wolves to gather!”
After all, Ye Ze only had one summoned beast.
If the pack grew too large and their charge became too fierce, he himself would be in grave danger.
Once Panda received the order, he decisively struck first!
【Taiji - Cloud Hands】
With a single dash, he used the flowing force of Cloud Hands to envelop the entire pack, greatly reducing their speed.
Immediately after that came the only area-of-effect attack in the Taiji set!
【Twenty-Four Forms of Taiji — Twin Peaks Pierce the Ears】
【Uses Taiji Inner Force with both hands at the same time, dealing damage across a wide area in front and briefly stunning the targets.】
Taiji was truly an exceptionally well-rounded martial art.
It integrated offense and defense, combined inner and outer techniques, and even lacked no wide-area attacks.
Of course, this was a fully mastered Legendary-quality skill, so such an effect was hardly surprising!
High-quality skills, like high-quality summoned beasts, were both rare and immensely powerful.
It was said that the City Lord of Linyuan City, where Ye Ze lived, had originally been a Hunter class with relatively weak combat ability.
But by sheer luck, he had obtained a Legendary-quality skill in the “Abyss.”
He later became one of China’s ten strongest sixth-rank Class Users.
He was known as the Hunter King.
From that alone, it was clear that Panda, equipped with a full set of Legendary skills, had combat power far beyond mere Epic grade!
A sharp tearing wind suddenly rang out.
As 【Twin Peaks Pierce the Ears】 erupted with two blasts of Taiji Inner Force, it struck the wolves in front of him across the board.
Half of them, standing in the center of the skill’s range, were killed instantly.
The other half were caught by the stun effect.
Panda then rushed forward at once, and with his overwhelming attack power, he felled them one palm strike at a time!
【Killed Duskback Wolf. EXP +15!】
【...】
One wave of wolves caused the experience bar to surge upward by a full third!
“At this rate, I can reach Level 3 before entering the boss area!”
Ye Ze silently made his estimate, then turned to look at the wolves’ spoils.
The harvest was fairly good: five Crystal Stones, two pieces of equipment, and one skill book!
One of them was 【Duskwolf Leather Boots】, which added 3 points of Agility. Ye Ze immediately put them on.
As for the other item, a Fine-grade Archer weapon...
he fed it to Panda.
【You Are What You Eat! — Consumed ‘Wolf-Tendon Bow.’ Gained: Agility +1, Strength +1, Critical Hit Rate +3%!】
Panda: ლ(´ڡ`ლ)
As for that skill book, it gave Ye Ze quite a pleasant surprise.
A Fine-grade Summoner skill!
Skill book drops were completely random, so getting a usable one for himself as the third skill book was fairly lucky!
【Summon Dusktail Squirrel (Fine): Agility-type contract beast. Summoner class can learn this.】
“An Agility-type squirrel.”
As for its quality, Ye Ze did not care much.
Even a low-quality summoned beast could still become stronger after receiving Traits, and could even feed back quite a few attributes in return.
The important point was that it was Agility-type. In the future, it could fill an assassin-like role.
Together with Panda’s Warrior-type role, it would make Ye Ze’s summoned beast lineup far more balanced.
“You are the one!”
By now, Ye Ze already had 30 points in Spirit, enough to contract a second summoned beast.
【Ding! You have learned the skill: Summon Dusktail Squirrel!】
【You have obtained a brand-new summoned beast: Dusktail Squirrel (Fine)!】
A new figure appeared within the summoned beast space.
It was a small, nimble little squirrel, with sharp and dexterous claws, and an unusual dusky-black tail standing upright behind it.
“Come out.”
A flash of light appeared, and the squirrel landed on Ye Ze’s shoulder.
The two stared at each other.
【Dusktail Squirrel】
Quality: Green Fine
Level: 2
Attributes: Strength 9, Constitution 8, Agility 11, Spirit 7
Innate Talents: Stored Energy (Fine), Keen Perception (Fine)
Skill: Camouflage lv.1 (Fine)
————
Originally, Ye Ze had not expected much from a Fine-grade skill.
Unexpectedly, he discovered one with enormous practical value:
【Keen Perception: Can detect distant and hidden enemies and traps, improving scouting ability.】
That would greatly increase the speed at which they found monsters.
And now they no longer had to fear being ambushed!
Satisfied, Ye Ze set out again with Panda and the squirrel.
“Keep farming monsters. We will try to level up within an hour!”
...
Meanwhile, outside the dungeon entrance.
The academy students watching from outside were already starting to feel alarmed!
“It has already been an hour. Why has Ye Ze still not come out?!”
“You can hide for this long in a Hell-grade dungeon?”
“No way. The monsters in Hell-grade dungeons actively search for Class Users. Was Zhao Xuan not proof enough...?”
The speaker gradually lowered his voice, his eyes flicking toward Zhao Xuan.
Zhao Xuan’s face looked gloomy, but also puzzled.
Because he knew from experience.
Even if someone hid, the magical beasts would actively search for them. There was no way anyone could survive this long!
He had at least had an Outstanding-grade summoned beast to cover for him, but what did Ye Ze have?
At that moment, someone boldly voiced a guess.
“Do you think... maybe the dungeon malfunctioned? Maybe the person inside cannot get out?”
“How is that possible? The dungeon was jointly built by top Class Users like the City Lord. How could it malfunction?”
“No one has challenged Hell difficulty in a very long time. A malfunction would not be impossible!”
“If it is man-made, then a malfunction is always possible, right...?”
The moment he heard that, Zhao Xuan’s eyes lit up.
“That is right! The dungeon must have malfunctioned!”
“Otherwise, with Ye Ze’s strength, how could he possibly survive this long in Hell difficulty without dying?”
“I have not lost yet!”
When the female secretary at his side saw his expression finally brighten, she immediately let out a sigh of relief and hurried to echo him.
The surrounding crowd could not determine the situation. Some believed that Ye Ze was truly still holding on...
Until another hour passed.
And Ye Ze still had not come out!
At that point, everyone finally felt that the situation had become rather troublesome.
“The dungeon has definitely malfunctioned!”
“Then what do we do now?”
“Find a way to get the City Lord or the dean here...”