The Encounter with the Shataki

Caleb Li froze on the spot, looking at the rows of notifications floating right before his face.

He had yet to recover from the shock of his rapid breakthrough, but now both his lifespan and Spiritual Root had increased.

High Grade-9 Spirit Root and 5 years lifespan.

Who would have expected this?

Slowly, a deep grin plastered on his face, reaching his ear before he burst into hysterical laughter.

"I'm now a Rank-9 Mortal Warrior! Damn!" He shouted, his voice echoing through the still quiet forest.

"Who dares call me trash? With the improvement in my spirit root, my cultivation speed will also increase," he grinned foolishly alone in the forest.

After getting excited for a couple of minutes, he managed to control his emotions and fixed his gaze on his lifespan.

"I should increase my sword skill to the Greater Success stage..." He mused and curled up his lips in a smile.

[Ding!]

[Do you want to use 60 days of your lifespan to comprehend the Common-Grade Wind and Fire Sword Strike?]

'Yes,' he responded decisively.

Now that he had enough lifespan, it would be unwise of him if he didn't make use of it.

[60 days have been deducted from your lifespan.]

[Remaining Lifespan: 5 years, 110 days]

After the notification, a stream of knowledge flowed to him. It was like he was in a trance and all the difficult parts of the sword technique were broken down into pieces.

Slowly, he opened his eyes and a deep sharpness flashed through his pupils.

While Caleb Li was getting stronger, the other students were not so lucky when they all encountered a Rank-2 Beast.

The number of student deaths had increased by a large margin.

In the military zone, warning sounds were blaring and the soldiers took their positions with solemn expressions.

Inside the teacher's tent, an old man with sparse hair on his head shouted in fury.

"How the hell did we miss so many Rank-2 beasts?"

He was the vice director from the Ministry of Education. He thought this would be a peaceful exercise, but now he realized how wrong he was.

If the number of deaths surpassed a certain threshold, he would be held accountable for it.

Therefore, his fury was understandable.

Looking at the boiling vice director, all the teachers from each school looked at each other in confusion.

Each of them had sent a representative to clear the 5 km radius of the Desolate Land from all Rank-2 beasts, but now, more than ten Rank-2 beasts had been detected by the monitoring computer.

"Are you not going to speak?" The vice director demanded in a loud voice.

"Sir, I think that should not be our top priority right now. Our main priority should be the safety of the students," Miss Freya said.

Instantly, all the teachers nodded, supporting her advice. On seeing this, the vice director took a deep breath and commanded.

"The Life Experience Exercise is over. Release the emergency broadcast and call the students back."

"Also, each of you should get to work and bring back your students. You all have three hours before the military takes action."

With that, he left the teachers' tent and went in the military direction to discuss the next course of action.

Unknown to all of this, Caleb Li looked at the furious Poisoncloud Spider in the distance and grinned.

"Let's see how strong I've become."

With that thought, he rushed toward the Poisoncloud Spider with a face full of confidence.

The Poisoncloud Spider was still destroying the forest when it detected a human presence rushing toward its direction.

It turned its big blue and black eyes to the direction and saw its previous prey.

A loud guttural sound came from its mouth and without delay, it pounced toward him in fury.

As a Rank-2 beast, it had its pride, but when an ordinary puny human escaped from its clutch, that irked it to no end.

But now, this was the moment to take back its pride.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

In a fit of fury, it released rows of poison web bullets in quick succession as it planned not to give the human any chance to escape.

Caleb Li, on the other hand, didn't have any change in expression when he saw the incoming poisonous web bullet.

If the poisonous web bullet was fast, he was faster. Using the Shadow Steps movement skill, he danced back and forth between each of the poison webs like a gentle wind.

With ease, he avoided all the attacks, and when he was a couple of feet from the Poisoncloud Spider, he brandished his two swords and struck.

The Poisoncloud Spider only raised two of its front legs to strike Caleb Li when a powerful whistling sound went past its legs.

Bang!

All its front legs were sliced into two by Caleb Li's first word, while his second cut the spider's main body into two.

Passing beneath the spider during the attack, he looked at the now fallen spider without any expression on his face.

He thought the Poisoncloud Spider would pose a threat to his life, being a Rank-2 beast, but he underestimated how strong he had become.

With three of his skills at the Greater Success mastery stage and his cultivation at Rank-9, how could a weak Rank-2 Poisoncloud Spider be a threat to him?

He took his communication bracelet and scanned the beast before heading deeper into the forest.

With his newfound power, he was not scared of the forest like before. And besides, he wanted to test his limits.

Sheathing his sword, he took his bow and nocked it with an arrow, switching his battling style.

Climbing a tree, he saw a black panther in the distance and released the arrow.

Whoosh!

Bang!

The arrow hit the panther's forehead and destroyed its brain, killing it instantly.

Using such tactics, he hunted more than ten Rank-2 beasts with his arrow.

He had even lost count of the number of Rank-1 beasts he killed with his sword.

Just as he was preparing to look for another beast to kill, he came into an opening with smoke coming from the center.

Standing at the edge of the opened field, he nocked his bow and pulled the bowstring to the limit.

Whatever made such huge smoke wouldn't be a weak beast. Slowly, he approached the center of the opening where the smoke came.

And behold, he saw a spaceship crashed to the ground. This was no ordinary spaceship; it was the spaceship that belonged to the alien known as the Shataki.