Chapter 33: This Place Falls Apart Without Me

"A ferocious beast is approaching. Max, prepare for battle!" Charles took out his supreme spear from the storage space, remaining vigilant.

After Charles noticed the ferocious beast approaching, it didn't take long for the surrounding forest to start trembling. Birds scattered in panic as a monstrous creature emerged, its jaws wide open!

——[Thorny Chomper]——

[Attribute]: Wood

[Level]: 13

[Quality]: Silver

[Skills]: Thorns Regrowth, Devour

[Emotion]: Hungry

[Health]: Healthy

[Weakness]: Wind Attribute / Severed Flower Stem

[Description]: This is a mutated plant that uses vibrations to sense nearby prey. Without a central nervous system, it feels no pain or satiation and will continuously feed purely on instinct.

"It's a Level 13 ferocious beast!" Seeing the system prompt about the Thorny Chomper, Charles became tense.

Max was currently stuck at Level 9 due to lacking breakthrough materials, a full tier below this ferocious beast. Clearly, Max was not its match.

However, Charles still intended to give it a try. If things got too dangerous, they could always use [Darkness Cloak] to escape.

"Max, avoid its attacks. If we can't win, we'll run. Don't get hurt!" Charles warned.

"Sigh!!!" Max's tone was defiant.

How could the master underestimate it?

Determined to prove itself, Max displayed agile movements, constantly dodging the Thorny Chomper's spreading thorns. It formed ice spikes in front of it, launching a barrage of icy spears at the Chomper like a rain of arrows!

Under this dense attack, several tentacles were severed, and the Chomper was riddled with holes.

Seeing its pitiful state, Max raised its chin proudly. But in a moment of carelessness, a thorny vine emerged from the nearby bushes, wrapping around its body!

"Max, watch out!"

Charles dashed forward, slashing the vine with his spear to free Max. He then activated [Bone-Achingly Cold], causing pale flames to ignite on the ground, burning the dense vines to ashes.

Just as Charles was about to breathe a sigh of relief, the vines regrew and began to wrap around him again.

"These wood-attribute ferocious beasts are really troublesome. With this regeneration speed, we'll be fighting until morning." Charles was frustrated. He then checked the light screen for its weakness: to defeat it, they had to destroy its core flower stalk.

Charles understood how to defeat it now, but the surrounding thorns were so numerous that they formed an impenetrable web, making it impossible to reach the core!

"Attacking the vines is useless! Aim for the flower stalk, you fool!" The little flying squirrel, perched safely on a tree branch, looked anxious.

In the forest, it had seen a three-eyed crow hunt a Thorny Chomper before. It simply dodged the vines at high speed and bit through its flower stalk, causing all the vines to wither.

Mousey spread its wing membranes and leaped lightly, flying above the Chomper's head. Its tiny body didn't attract any attention.

"Seeing you in such a miserable state, I will reluctantly lend a hand... If he dies, who will provide free roasted meat? Who will massage me?" Mousey thought to itself.

Mousey was only doing this for the free food and drinks!

And the personal massages!

Not to save him!

Already fantasizing about a future where Charles serves it, Mousey let out a "squeak" of laughter and then unleashed its ultimate move!

"Mimetic Illusion!"

With a wave of dark energy, a ferocious beast identical to the Chomper appeared out of the darkness.

The real Chomper noticed the imposter in front of it and became extremely agitated!

Vines began spreading from the ground, trying to entangle the fake Chomper.

At the same time, the mimetic illusion's Thorny Chomper also activated [Thorns Regrowth], producing vines from the ground!

The vines grew and intertwined on the ground until they eventually formed a tight knot...

"Great opportunity!"

Taking advantage of the moment when the two ferocious beasts were entangled, Charles swiftly charged forward with his spear!

"Crack!"

With a crisp sound, Charles swung his spear down, severing the Thorny Chomper's flower stalk. The round head of the Chomper, with its gaping maw, fell to the ground.

Once the flower stalk was cut, the surrounding vines began to wither rapidly, losing their life force.

[Ding! You have defeated the ferocious beast [Thorny Chomper] (Lv13·Silver Quality)!]

[Spirit Beast Max (Lv.9) Loyalty +1! Experience +300 (Stored)!]

[Spirit Beast Mousey (Lv.11) Loyalty +3! Experience +100!]

[Obtained Thorny Vine ×1!]

[Obtained Chomper Fang ×30!]

[Obtained Beast Core [Tier 1 · Wood Attribute] ×1!]

[...]

A series of system prompts echoed in Charles's mind.

"A Tier 1 Beast Core? I didn't expect to be this lucky!" Charles smiled, ignoring the wounds from the thorns.

A week ago, Charles struggled to face a Level 7 Resurrecting Serpent alone. Now he could defeat a Level 13 ferocious beast. Despite the difficulties, this progress made Charles very happy.

If he could defeat this Level 13 ferocious beast, he felt confident he could face Felix too!

"See that? This is the power of Mousey!"

Next to Charles, a brownish-yellow little flying squirrel spread its wing membranes and circled around him, squeaking continuously.

"That huge monster just now, seeing you both in danger! At the critical moment, it was me who stepped in!"

"One move, Mimetic Illusion!"

"In an instant, the sky darkened, a fierce wind rose, dust swirled, lightning flashed and thunder roared... Under my attack, the enemy was easily defeated..."

Watching the little flying squirrel vividly recounting the recent battle, Max's eyes narrowed with amusement, and it covered its mouth with a paw, chuckling softly.

"This place would have fallen apart long ago without Mousey!... So, where are the tasty cookies and nuts?" The little flying squirrel widened its round eyes, staring at Charles and wiping a bit of drool from the corner of its mouth.

Seeing Mousey like this, Charles felt his heart melting.

Mousey's loyalty wasn't very high, and it had a chance to avoid fights. In the recent crisis, Mousey didn't choose to hide in a safe place but tried to save him. Charles noticed it all.

"You're really silly and adorable..."

Charles murmured softly, then took out a bag of nuts from his storage space and tossed it into the air. In an instant, a yellow blur shot out like a cannonball!

"The ferocious beasts around here are getting stronger. I need to help Max break through quickly. Otherwise, the experience we're gaining will just be stored, and our strength won't improve..." Recalling the intense moment of the recent battle, Charles looked worried.

But where could he find the [Polar Cold Spring], the key to Max's breakthrough?

"I'd better ask the teachers at school. They're knowledgeable and might know." With this thought, Charles took out his phone.

There was no signal in the ancient tomb near the bloody pool, and he hadn't contacted the outside world for a long time. As soon as he clicked into the "Trial Team Group Chat," he saw that there were tens of thousands of unread messages accumulated over a week, impossible to go through all of them.

"I seem to have fallen behind. I've searched the whole forest and haven't seen a single classmate. What should I do?"

"I heard another team went missing. I'm so scared. Could they all be dead?"

"Don't scare me! What's the plan for this route? There were never so many accidents in previous years' trials!"

"After entering the middle layers of the ferocious beast mountain range, I can't beat those ferocious beasts at all. Does anyone else feel the same way?"

"It's not just ferocious beasts! Mosquitoes, rats, poisonous snakes... I'm going crazy. I want to leave this horrible place!"

"The problem is, even if we want to go back now, it would take over a week to get out of the mountains. I've lost contact with the main group. I won't survive one night alone."

"Whimper... I don't want to be a Beast Master anymore. I don't want to die... Whimper..."

"..."

The chat messages were full of despair. It seemed that while he was in the tomb for a week, many accidents had happened outside.

It wasn't really the Beast Master Guild's fault for not planning the route properly. Something seemed to have happened in the ferocious beast mountain range, causing some powerful ferocious beasts that were supposed to be deep inside to appear in the outer layers.

Charles had already seen several waves of frightened beast migrations.

After reading the group chat messages, Charles opened his private messages. Among the dozen or so messages from female classmates, one message from Fletcher caught his attention.

"Charles, we reached the designated location and waited for half a day. We didn't see you, and you didn't reply to our messages. Have you really given up? We're heading south toward the bloody pool now. We've left some food at the camp. If you see this message, you can go and get it."

Seeing the words 'bloody pool' in the message, Charles immediately felt worried.

"Felix and his band of outlaws are near the bloody pool. Going there now is suicide!"

Putting away his phone, Charles was about to head toward the bloody pool. The surrounding area was misty, with the sound of flowing water and a cold chill in the air. Despite it being summer, Charles couldn't help but shiver.

Max seemed very excited, suddenly breaking free from Charles's embrace and rushing toward the water.

Charles was amazed. "Is this... the polar cold spring?"