Tremendous Power

Cynthia wasn't feeling too good.

Her mind was preoccupied with thoughts of Zara.

She wanted to ask Bruce about it, but she didn't know how to bring it up.

All she could do was hold onto Bruce tighter than usual, as if afraid someone else would snatch him away.

But Bruce didn't seem to mind!

After one round, he entered sage mode.

He held Cynthia's soft, jade-like body close and glanced out the window.

The nights of the apocalypse were devoid of lights, which made them extremely terrifying.

Poor visibility meant greater danger.

Forget ordinary Awakened, even Bruce himself wouldn't dare venture out at night.

So Jesse definitely wouldn't dare to escape at night.

But she couldn't give him any chance to turn the tables, so she needed to stick to the plan and play it safe.

The next morning!

The path Bruce had cleared earlier was now crowded with monsters attracted by the scent of blood.

After feasting on their own kind, they began to roam around.

Among these monsters were not only the previously encountered lizardmen and sickle mantises but also a poison-burst zombie, two giant-strength zombies, and an Earth Dragon resting in the distance.

The giant-strength zombie possessed immense power.

If an ordinary human had around 50 points of strength at the bronze initial stage, then this zombie's strength attribute would be at least 100 points.

Bruce had witnessed scenes where this thing could crush a car with just one punch.

Its power was simply outrageous!

Of course, such extreme strength came with exceptionally slow movement speed.

This type of zombie probably had an agility score of only 7 or 8 because it couldn't even outrun an ordinary person.

So as long as one had a powerful weapon, dealing with it was still relatively easy for an Awakened.

"But isn't this giant-strength zombie unsuitable for contracting??" Bruce furrowed his brow upon waking up in the morning and seeing the giant-strength zombie downstairs.

Whether it was to deal with Jesse or to clear out the monsters,They both needed to maximize efficiency and safety factors.

Bruce could sign up two monsters as battle pets.

Since Adam died yesterday, they hadn't found a suitable replacement.

But now... it seemed there wasn't one available?

Ben was the Monkey King in the secret realm, with quite comprehensive abilities.

Strength, speed, explosiveness, and resilience to hits were all quite good!

And after so many days, Ben was on the verge of advancing to the bronze intermediate stage.

The next battle pet had to be at least bronze level!

But currently, there were only two types of bronze-level monsters.

The giant-strength zombie and the Earth Dragon!

If the giant-strength zombie was out of the question, then the Earth Dragon... killing monsters would consume stamina.

Especially without powerful weapons, stamina consumption would be even more severe.

However, there was a certain chance of obtaining crystal nuclei after killing monsters.

So theoretically, as long as you had the ability to kill monsters, you had the chance to improve yourself with crystal nuclei.

With the enhancement from crystal nuclei, you could replenish stamina to continue killing monsters.

In this cycle, you would become stronger and stronger.

That's why there was the notion of seizing opportunities in the apocalypse.

Although Bruce was very strong now, he was still very cautious when clearing monsters.

Even with Ben clearing the way ahead, he still moved forward slowly.

When encountering uncertain factors, he would even use his sensing jade pendant.

When faced with multiple monsters, he would throw a couple of wind blades first, knocking some monsters away before dealing with them one by one.

Giant-strength zombies, like ordinary zombies, had no sense of pain, making it not very easy to bring them to near-death status.

And with their slow movement speed, they would definitely lag behind when charging forward with him.

In reality, it's not like a game where if a battle pet falls behind, you can summon it back to your side?

So Bruce didn't think it was very suitable to capture a giant-strength zombie!

As for the Earth Dragon??

These creatures were huge!

The one Bruce saw was even larger than a typical SUV.

But this thing only looked impressive, in reality, it didn't have much combat power.It was essentially a road tank.

Its movement speed was slightly better than the giant-strength zombie, but it lacked significant attacking power!

It couldn't use its teeth, nor could it use its claws; it would only occasionally use its head to ram.

Most importantly, the sound it made when running was too loud.

It easily attracted the attention of other monsters.

Once targeted by a group of monsters, the Earth Dragon was easily overwhelmed and killed.

[Name: Earth Dragon.]

[Level: Bronze High Tier.]

[Description: A powerful low-tier dragon-like creature with high body defense, but due to its massive size, it appears very clumsy. If you have agile skills and a powerful weapon, you can try to fight it one-on-one! Remember, it's one-on-one!!]

[Note: Earth Dragons are not as heavily affected by Abyssal forces, making them relatively easy to tame. If there is a beast tamer in the team, they can try to capture one to use as a mount!]

This was the information Bruce's antagonist eye had gathered.

It was quite clear.

Earth Dragons could be tamed by humans and even used as mounts?

Since they could be tamed conventionally as mounts, why waste a slot on a dark contract?

What Bruce needed wasn't a mount but a battle pet!

So Earth Dragons were also ruled out!

But now the problem arose: if not contracting these two creatures, were there any other bronze-level monsters that could serve as minions for him?

Bruce furrowed his brow and quickly began searching.

As Bruce ruled out each monster downstairs one by one,

He soon found a different creature in a corner.

About a dozen meters to the right of the dormitory building, there was a mutated giant camphor tree!

And under this mutated camphor tree, a huge wolf-dog was lying there eating the entrails of a lizardman?

[Name: Mutant Wolf-Dog.]

[Level: Bronze Initial Tier.]

"Hey, it's you!"

Bruce grinned and quickly set to work.

He first took Cynthia to the adjacent dormitory.

He gave Amanda and the other two girls some food and water.

"You three wait here. I'll take Zara downstairs first, and we'll talk about the rest later.""Ah? Young Master Bruce, you're not going to leave us behind, are you?"

"Yeah, Young Master Bruce, don't leave us!"

"Young Master Bruce, I can also keep your bed warm! If you don't fancy me, let me serve as a maid, I can serve tea and water for you all!!"

The three women were using all their efforts to plead for their lives.

Bruce seemed accustomed to this feeling, showing no expression.

"Don't worry, there will be opportunities in the future."

With that, Bruce no longer paid attention to them and directly took Cynthia and Zara downstairs.

Amanda and the others dared not say more.

They could only obediently stay in the dormitory, waiting for Bruce's return.

Wolf-dog, just a large dog.

This type of dog was larger than ordinary dogs and resembled wolves in appearance.

So they were commonly referred to as wolf-dogs by people.

Before the apocalypse, these dogs were already fierce creatures.

After the apocalypse, they became even fiercer.

Not only did their body length, height, and weight double compared to before,

But they also became extremely bloodthirsty and aggressive.

In fact, most carnivorous animals on Earth, after the apocalypse, had combat abilities no less than monsters from other dimensions.

Take this wolf-dog for example.

It completed its mutation in just one day, directly reaching Black Iron High Rank.

It lost its sanity, bit its owner to death, and then escaped through the window.

Wandering aimlessly, eating when hungry.

Then it ran with a group of monsters and ended up here.

It's worth mentioning that the way this wolf-dog feeds is different from other monsters.

It directly attacks zombies or lizardmen to feed.

You might wonder why other monsters don't attack each other when they're alive?

There's actually no particular reason.

It's just that they sense each other's aura and retain a sense of strength and weakness among their kind.

In situations where their strengths are similar, attacking each other would be futile.

Unless they're extremely hungry.

This feeling is similar to that between humans of similar stature.