Chapter 11. The Cave of Treasures

 The guards at the rescue Station were all Beastmasters.

 The beast crystals of their familiars were emitting a weak light in the eyes of analysis.

 With these lights, Charles quickly figured out the guards' positions and easily avoided the layers of guards. He set out alone towards the demon beast forest.

 The moon hung high in the sky. The forest at night was not very quiet. Occasionally, there was the chirping of birds or the roars of strange beasts, but they were all vague and unclear.

 Some demonic beasts only appeared at night. At night, their firefly-like eyes would often float around.

 Charles also encountered a few demon beasts along the way, but their levels were not high, and they were dealt with by the frost Dragon Whelp in one move.

 Recalling the battle with the snow wolves, Charles realized that Beastmasters had to increase their strength. Otherwise, Beastmasters would become their most significant weakness in a battle between subdued beasts.

 The frost Dragon Whelp was now a rank-five lineage. It could kill an inconsequential five-star person in seconds when ranked four lineages.

 What about Charles himself? He had already been strengthened by the system four times, but he could only barely defeat a 2-star Grassman.

 The difference in strength was too significant!

 As a result, Charles couldn't participate in the battle of the frost Dragon Whelp at all. He couldn't even protect himself.

 Beastmasters and subdued beasts were a cooperative Combat Team. Charles definitely wouldn't allow himself to be the only weak point in this team.

 As such, in the evening, he chatted with some of the Beastmasters on guard, asking about Beastmasters' body tempering' and if there were any other ways to increase a Beastmaster's strength.

 "Body refinement has a total of 18 levels."

 Charles walked towards the middle of the monster forest while recalling his conversation during the day.

 "If I want to withstand the bloodline explosion of the frost Dragon Whelp, I'll need to be at least at the second layer of body refining tier."

 If an ordinary person wanted to reach the first layer of body refining tier, they would need to absorb ten drops of demonic beast blood essence.

 However, the power in the blood essence of demonic beasts was too strong, especially the blood essence of two-bloodline demonic beasts collected by Charles, which was purer. Although the effect of body refining was better, ordinary people couldn't bear it.

 The demonic beast's blood essence was a yang-type item. It required a Yin-type precious medicine to be harmonized, allowing it to release energy within the human body slowly. This way, it could be absorbed.

 There were no fixed requirements for medicinal herbs. It was good as long as they had a Yin nature. Of course, the higher the quality of the medicinal herbs, the better.

 Other than body tempering, there was another way to increase a Beastmaster's strength.

 That was to wear a spirit weapon.

 Spirit weapons all contained powerful energy. The blade of a high-rank spirit sword was not inferior to the claws of a powerful spirit beast.

 However, it was not easy to make a spiritual weapon, and the price was naturally high. At least, not many people in a school in a small village like Grinwood could afford to wear it.

 Usually, only the Beastmasters of the influential clans in the city would possess powerful spiritual weapons. Some large clans even had ancient divine weapons as family heirlooms.

 This was also the reason why Charles wanted to go to the place where the treasures were gathered.

 Charles was sure that many of the lights were from medicinal herbs, and even very precious elixirs were among them.

 And perhaps, there were even spiritual weapons there!

 He had to get his hands on such a treasure.

 "Today is Tuesday, and the Academy's training has to end before Sunday."

 Charles thought to himself.

 He heard from the Academy's old students that the demonic beast forest would become extremely dangerous for a while after Sunday.

 At that time, the entire forest would be covered in poisonous miasma. The haze would appear out of thin air and cover the sky. Then, it would suddenly disappear at a particular time without a trace. Therefore, many people guessed that the haze came from another world.

 In the haze, where one could not see their fingers, many powerful demonic beasts would appear and harvest the weak lives.

 Even the original strange beasts in the demonic beast forest would find a cave to hide in when the haze appeared to avoid being killed by the demonic beasts.

 Therefore, Charles had to finish his training before Sunday, or he would be in danger.

 Time was of the essence, and he couldn't help but speed up.

 The most important thing right now was quickly collecting all the treasures in the demonic beast forest!

 He wanted at least to reach the second layer of the body refining tier!

 While thinking, Charles had already arrived at where the treasure was.

 Two large rocks covered an extremely narrow cave in front of him.

 Once they crawled in and suffered any attacks, it would be difficult even to turn around and deal with them, let alone escape quickly.

 The stone was covered in moss and had not been moved for a long time.

 "Who would place so many treasures in the wilderness?"

 Charles was a little confused.

 But it was inevitable that Charles wouldn't quickly obtain these treasures.

 After all, if it were so easy to get the treasure, the snow Wolf King would have already gotten it, and Charles would not have anything to do with it.

 Charles estimated that the treasure was about 50 meters away from the entrance.

 He didn't go through the hole but slowly moved to the top of the treasure.

 "Frost Dragon Whelp, let's dig down from here. I don't care about that hole. Just dig straight to the treasure."

 Charles said in a deep voice.

 "Gugu!"

 The frost Dragon Whelp had just leveled up and was eager to try it. Upon hearing Charles's words, it ground its dragon claws twice and began to dig a hole in the ground.

 After a short while, a two-meter pit was dug out.

 Charles looked at the frost Dragon Whelp, who was increasingly skilled at digging holes and couldn't help but laugh. This fellow had the talent to be a gopher.

 After the layer of soil was dug out, the Dragon's claws stabbed into the thick rock. Although the rock was hard, under the hardness of the Dragon's claws, it was like paper and immediately disintegrated.

 Charles could feel that after digging through this layer of rock, they would be able to reach a cave below, where the treasure was!

 "Boom!"

 Just as the man and Dragon dug down, a muffled sound suddenly came from the cave below!

 "There's something!"

 Charles immediately reacted and was about to leave.

 However, it was too late. The rock under Charles and the frost Dragon Whelp's feet exploded, revealing the dark cave below. They couldn't escape in time and fell straight down onto a platform. Fortunately, the upper wall of the cave wasn't too high, so Charles only got a little scratch and didn't suffer any severe injuries.

 What followed was a waterfall of rocks and sand. Charles quickly got up to avoid the sharp rocks while the frost Dragon remained motionless. The rocks hitting its body were like tickles.

 Charles hurriedly peeked over and saw a huge figure covered in white hair. The sneak attack had succeeded at this time, and it was running away without fighting.