19: The Hunt Begins in Chapter 19

Qin Ce stepped into the training area.

The air was filled with the dryness, dust, and a faint, musky scent peculiar to the wilderness. Beneath his feet lay cracked, hard soil and sparse, withered grass, while in the distance, there were scattered bushes and weathered rocks.

He remained vigilant, extending his mental power to perceive the movements around him.

Qingluan perched on his shoulder, its sharp gaze scanning the surroundings.

Having walked less than a kilometer, a rustling sound came from behind a bush ahead.

Qin Ce signaled Qingluan to stay alert, and he quietly approached.

He saw a grayish-brown rabbit, about the size of a small lamb with exceptionally thick and well-developed hind legs, gnawing on the root of a withered plant.

Its ears stood up alertly, and its red eyes darted around warily.

He signaled Qingluan to prepare for battle while he activated the system's appraisal.

[Fierce Beast]: Giant-Legged Rabbit

[Level]: Black Iron Low-Grade

[Potential]: Black Iron Mid-grade

[Attribute]: Wood

[Talent]: Jump, Hearing

[Skill]: Rabbit Kick, Jumping Collision, Gnaw.

[Status]: Hungry, Alert

[Weakness]: Weak eyesight, insufficient aptitude.

[Evolutionary Opportunity]: None.

...

Qin Ce made a quick assessment.

The Giant-Legged Rabbit's paper stats were even stronger than a newly contracted beast pet, especially that "Rabbit Kick" move, which had impressive power.

For most freshmen experiencing real combat for the first time, this was indeed a tricky opponent; no wonder Instructor Lei said one might go hungry if alone.

A gust of wind blew, brushing leaves against Qin Ce's clothes.

Even such a tiny sound.

Allowed the Giant-Legged Rabbit to discover Qin Ce instantly.

It kicked off with its hind legs, turning into a gray blur that charged straight at Qin Ce's face!

The speed was extremely fast!

Qin Ce felt a chill in his heart—this speed was even faster than the Hawk-form Flying Eagle!

And the momentum of the collision; if it landed, he would surely break a few ribs.

"Qingluan!"

"Chirp!"

"Wind Blade, triangle formation!"

Qingluan flapped its wings and took flight, simultaneously waving its wings as three cyan Wind Blades whistled out.

After a month of training, Qingluan's control over the Wind Blade was quite precise. The three Wind Blades formed a triangle, sealing off the Giant-Legged Rabbit's escape route.

The moment the Giant-Legged Rabbit heard Qingluan's cry, it instinctively tried to dodge, but the Wind Blades were too fast—

"Puff! Puff! Puff!"

With three soft sounds, three sprays of blood erupted from the Giant-Legged Rabbit's body. It let out a mournful cry, crashed heavily onto the ground, twitched a few times, and then went still.

[Killed Black Iron Low-Grade Giant-Legged Rabbit, gained experience points: 5]

The system prompt sounded.

Qin Ce walked forward to examine the corpse. The Wind Blades had sliced through the Giant-Legged Rabbit's neck and chest, killing it in one strike.

This was the power under the augmentation of the "Breath Condensation" talent!

A Wind Blade from an ordinary Black Iron Low-Grade beast pet might only leave a gash on the Giant-Legged Rabbit, or even be weakened by its thick skin and muscles.

But Qingluan's Wind Blade, after being condensed tenfold by the god-level talent, reached an exaggerated level of piercing and cutting power. When dealing with enemies of the same rank or even slightly higher, as long as it hit a vital spot, it was often an instant kill.

However, seeing this experience, Qin Ce couldn't help but frown.

As far as he knew, an ordinary Beast Tamer needed 100 experience points to upgrade a young beast to Black Iron Low-Grade.

If one followed the experience given by the Giant-Legged Rabbit, one would need to hunt 20 of them to reach Black Iron Low-Grade.

If one added the time to complete it in a team, an ordinary Beast Tamer would need at least one to three months.

And from Black Iron Low-Grade to Black Iron Mid-grade, it required 1500 experience points.

In that case, an ordinary person would need at least a year.

By this calculation, from Mid-grade to High-grade, and High-grade to Perfection.

If it takes one year per rank, breaking through to Bronze Rank to meet the graduation standard would take about four years.

So, is this why the Battle Academy generally sets its term to four years?

Qin Ce suddenly realized.

After all, others didn't have such a detailed appraisal panel as Qin Ce; everything was designed based on experience.

Then, could he speed up this process and graduate early?

But to speed up this process, this experience was too little.

How much experience did other fierce beasts give?

Were there any with a high cost-performance ratio?

After all, Qin Ce's current strength in this area could be said to be invincible!

Qin Ce took out the crystal core of the Giant-Legged Rabbit; Qingluan didn't have much interest in the Wood-type crystal core, so Qin Ce put it away casually.

Afterward, Qin Ce used local shrub branches as material to simply weave a sled—this was a simple transport tool he made himself, referencing the sleds and sledges from his previous life.

One had to know that every single corpse could be exchanged for money.

"Continue. Today's goal is to hunt as many fierce beasts as possible, compare the experience they give, and make a plan for faster upgrades in the future."

He took Qingluan and began to advance deeper into the wilderness.

Relying on the system's appraisal function, he could discover and evaluate most beasts in advance and choose the most suitable targets.

A Blood Wolf (Black Iron Mid-grade), lurking behind a rock, was pierced through the eye socket by a condensed Wind Blade from Qingluan at an ultra-long distance.

Experience: 7 points.

Bone-eating Rats (Black Iron Low-Grade, living in groups but individually weak), three rushed out together and were precisely sniped one by one by three consecutive Wind Blades from Qingluan.

Experience: 3 points.

A Shadow Bat (Black Iron Mid-grade, skilled in sonic attacks and flight), ambushing in the dim bushes, was suppressed by Qingluan's faster speed and stronger aerial maneuverability, and was finally shot down by a Wind Blade that pierced through its sound waves.

Experience: 10 points.

Almost all the fierce beasts Qin Ce encountered were easily steamrolled!

But gradually, he also discovered that, just as the textbooks and Teacher Sun said, these beasts left around the training base were all "sparring breeds" screened by the military and the academy.

They generally had strong reproductive capabilities, and their individual combat power was not outstanding among the same rank (except for the slightly stronger Blood Wolf).

But they each had their characteristics: the Giant-Legged Rabbit had high agility and strong explosive power; the Bone-eating Rats were numerous and stealthy; the Shadow Bat could fly and had sonic interference.

For freshmen lacking actual combat experience, they were indeed excellent whetstones.

However, relatively speaking, the experience given by each type of fierce beast was pitifully small.

The most, the Shadow Bat, was only 10 points.

More importantly, fierce beasts with high experience were usually few in number; sometimes they were not as rewarding as gregarious fierce beasts like the Bone-eating Rats or Giant-Legged Rabbit.

In this light, there was no need to focus on the type of fierce beast, but rather more on the efficiency of hunting them.

The setting sun began to slant westward, dyeing the wilderness into a golden red.

Qin Ce looked at the sky, then at the thirty-something beast corpses piled up in the sled behind him (he only took the crystal cores from the low-value Bone-eating Rat corpses and didn't keep the bodies), as well as the thirty-plus crystal cores of varying sizes stored in a leather pouch in his arms, and decided to return.

Qingluan's experience points had risen to [383 / 1500] (the system had also rewarded an extra 200 experience points when killing the Flying Eagle earlier), and tomorrow, he could strive for Black Iron Mid-grade.