Chapter 12
C12 – He Succeeded
Moo Shuqin clapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes wide with astonishment as she watched the screen, “Xie is incredibly strong.”
She had always known Xie Yang was no slouch, but the current spectacle still left her reeling.
In the mere minutes it took her to clear a lower difficulty level, Xie Yang had blazed through to the final stage of the superior grade!
It was almost beyond belief!
The superior grade was notoriously daunting, with its five increasingly challenging levels.
Rumor had it that a second-rank pet would emerge at the third level!
The sheer difficulty of the final two levels was staggering.
Yet, Xie Yang had reached the last stage in under five minutes.
His pace was astonishingly quick!
“Brother…” Bai Tian was equally dumbfounded.
All through the assessment, she had fretted over whether Xie Yang had met his defeat.
But now, she was witnessing this remarkable turn of events.
Far from failing, Xie Yang was on the cusp of triumph.
“We’re at the last level!”
“He’s got to have set a new record, right? The best anyone’s ever done in the superior grade was reaching the fourth level before failing.”
“That sounds about right.”
“Record or not, it’s irrelevant now. This is the last level. If he can clear it, he’s made it!”
“But the Ferocious Claw Monster at the fourth stage was already a third-layer second-rank. The pet in the final stage has to be at least a fifth-layer second-rank!”
“You’ve got a point!”
“Look, the final stage is starting!”
All eyes were glued to the screen as the steel door opened with a resonant thud.
A formidable figure emerged.
It was muscular, covered in thick fur, with teeth as sharp as swords.
This was the Sword-toothed Lion.
The contestants inhaled sharply at the sight of the beast on the screen.
“A Sword-toothed Lion!”
“Isn’t a mature Sword-toothed Lion at the fifth layer of the second rank?”
“Exactly, it’s an incredibly formidable pet!”
“That young man has his work cut out for him.”
The lion has long been hailed as the king of beasts.
And the Sword-toothed Lion, a majestic creature, stood a notch above the common wild beasts.
In the realm of combat prowess, the Sword-toothed Lion stands as the undisputed champion among its equals.
Bai Tian’s fists tightened instinctively, her expression fraught with tension.
Moo Shuqin and Zou Xinrui couldn’t help but hold their breath in anticipation.
All eyes were glued to the screen, no one wanted to miss a single moment of the unfolding action.
The battle reignited with fervor.
The Sword-toothed Lion was the epitome of agility and ferocity. Each pounce was imbued with the savage intensity characteristic of a wild predator, enough to send shivers down one’s spine.
Thankfully, the Ice Crystal Soul, adrift in the air, was equally agile. It managed to evade at crucial moments and retaliate with its skills.
The clash was fierce, sending waves of excitement through the crowd.
While the onlookers were a mix of nerves and thrill, Xie Yang remained the picture of composure.
With the Ice Crystal Soul’s superior level and mastery of potent skills like Ice Breathing and Ice Awl, it had a clear edge over the Sword-toothed Lion.
Although it couldn’t dispatch its foe as swiftly as in previous rounds, victory was well within its grasp—it would just require a bit more effort.
Just then, a prompt echoed in Xie Yang’s mind: “You have achieved an achievement!”
Xie Yang, taken aback, quickly accessed the notification log.
To his delight, he discovered he had unwittingly completed a new achievement.
Skill – Entry Level: Your pet has accumulated the use of its skills 10 times. Achieve this and earn 100 achievement points, unlocking a new pet skill (Achieved, reward pending).
“I didn’t expect that using a pet’s skills could also earn achievements,” Xie Yang thought, a glimmer of happiness in his eyes.
“Unlocking a skill?”
He promptly brought up the Pet panel and noticed new information had appeared at the bottom.
Extreme Ice Chain: A control-type skill. Manipulate the ice element to create sturdy chains that bind the target’s movements. Unlocking this skill requires 40% Growth Point and 50 achievement points.
Ice Shield: A defensive skill. Manipulate the ice element to form an ice shield, offering protection from attacks from any direction. Unlocking this skill requires 60% Growth Point and 50 achievement points.
Frost Nova: This skill inflicts damage over an area by rapidly compressing a large amount of ice element into a single point, then releasing it in an explosive burst of icy damage. To acquire this skill, a pet’s Growth Point must hit 80%, and the owner must possess 100 achievement points.
“Is this really a new skill?”
Xie Yang was immediately thrilled.
It was common knowledge that a pet’s combat effectiveness hinged on two crucial factors: its level and its skills.
Elevating a pet’s level was, of course, a formidable challenge.
But teaching a pet a new skill was equally daunting.
Beyond their innate abilities, pets required extensive and rigorous training to learn new skills, demanding significant time and effort to have any chance of success.
Often, Beastmasters would need to invest months, if not half a year, to teach their pets a new skill.
This underscored the arduous nature of skill development for pets.
Yet, the Achievement System offered Xie Yang the ability for his pet to instantly master a skill, with the only cost being some achievement points.
An undeniably potent feature!
“Incredibly strong!”
Xie Yang silently commended as he observed the Ice Crystal Soul engaged in combat.
“And the timing of acquiring this skill couldn’t be better.”
Without a moment’s delay, Xie Yang activated the Extreme Ice Chain.
He also allocated the remaining 50 achievement points to Ice Crystal Soul’s Growth Point, boosting it to 54%.
The Ice Crystal Soul’s power surged, reaching the second rank, seventh layer.
Observers in the stone tablet room were astounded as the tide of battle took a sudden turn.
The Ice Crystal Soul, which had only a slight edge before, now unleashed a torrent of aggressive attacks, utterly dominating the Sword-toothed Lion!
“Did it just achieve a breakthrough mid-battle?”
Qin Ai and Shui Zhongzhen exchanged stunned glances.
They could clearly see the Ice Crystal Soul’s power had substantially increased.
Its level appeared to have made a breakthrough.
But the timing was almost too perfect—it had achieved this breakthrough right in the heat of battle.
Yet, something even more astonishing was unfolding.
On the screen, the Ice Crystal Soul extended its hand, pointing at the Sword-toothed Lion from a distance, and emitted a deep, resonant moan.
In a flash, the air’s temperature plummeted sharply.
Around the Sword-toothed Lion, a thick swarm of ice crystals materialized, swiftly merging into three azure rings of ice chains that intertwined to form a circle.
Before the Sword-toothed Lion could react, the circle constricted with force, and the frigid Extreme Ice Chains ensnared it tightly.
The Sword-toothed Lion struggled with all its might, the chains clanging loudly, but it remained helplessly trapped.
At that moment, the Ice Crystal Soul lifted its hand and brought it down with a fierce sweep.
A barrage of ice spikes formed and shot towards the Sword-toothed Lion in an instant.
The relentless sound of the sharp ice spikes piercing flesh filled the air.
Unable to move, the Sword-toothed Lion bore the full brunt of the devastating strike.
It was rendered into a spray of blood-red ice particles before it could even cry out.
“You have cleared the fifth level; the challenge is complete!”
“Congratulations, challenger, you have successfully conquered the superior grade Apprentice Assessment!”
Then, an icy mechanical voice echoed through the expansive chamber of stone tablets.
In that moment, all fell silent, staring at the screen in astonishment, mouths agape, words failing them for a long stretch.