Elite Mages' Academy

One hundred low-grade energy stones and thirty mid-grade energy stones as a reward!

Xiao Lin raised his eyebrow. That woman was very smart; when she saw that he was not going to help, she stopped wasting her time pleading, and instead did not hesitate to offer a reward.

However, Xiao Lin merely hesitated for a moment before he said in Normese, “If you die, wouldn’t those things still be mine.”

That was true; the rewards were not enough to make Xiao Lin move. That Arachne seemed to be much better than the beasts he had met before both in terms of strength and agility. It was more or less at the level of the Fire-eater, and was not something he could easily handle.

“There’s also information! Information on the beast tide; it’s something I obtained through special channels! If I die, you might not be able to leave without that information!” The woman put even more on the table in her panic.

She was a smart and decisive woman. Xiao Lin did not know what a beast tide was, but he somewhat realized that it could be the most difficult part of this examination, and was probably why the academy had deliberately hidden any information from them. Obtaining that information for himself was probably a focal point of their examination.

Xiao Lin did not waste time on any nonsense. Even though it had not been that long since the Fire-eater, and his strength had yet to fully recover, compared to the information and rewards he could obtain, he felt like the risk was worth it.

Xiao Lin made his move; because he did not have much strength left, he did not plan on stalling for time. Regardless of whether or not he was saving her, he had to finish his foe in one strike!

The woman had lost hope when she saw how hesitant Xiao Lin was, and she had started to struggle to stand up. However, the Arachne had already started its second attack, and with its body shape, the woman could not avoid it at all. She even showed a look of hopelessness, but she suddenly heard the Arachne let out a sharp and strange cry before it charged forward, moving past her.

Its target was not herself?

The woman turned around in shock and saw Xiao Lin bitterly smiling.

The Arachne was a little smarter than Xiao Lin had anticipated. When he activated his Ruin state, the beast felt threatened by him and immediately shifted targets.

However, it was already too late; in order to defeat it as soon as possible, Xiao Lin had used his dragon’s breath sword aura the moment he activated Ruin. Before, he had not used it because he did not have a weapon. Even though it was possible to use it with his bare hands, the power would greatly decrease. On the way here, those corpses on the floor had solved his problem of lacking a weapon.

The white-colored dragon’s breath started to seep out of his body, shooting up in the air as the leaves over his head were covered by the dragon’s breath before turning into powder. Originally, Xiao Lin had planned on using that woman to buy himself some time because his dragon’s breath needed time to gather, but he no longer had that luxury, and Xiao Lin could feel the white sword in his hand starting to tremble. That meant the sword was not that great in quality, and could not withstand the force of the dragon’s breath.

Boom!

As Xiao Lin swung down with that sword covered in dragon’s breath sword aura, a thunderous explosion could be heard around half the forest. The Arachne might have sensed the danger beforehand, but it could not avoid it at all since it was too close. In a flash, the white light turned the Arachne into a pile of meat.

The dragon’s breath continued to shoot out for a dozen seconds before slowly dissipating, and the exhausted Xiao Lin had been forced to undo his Ruin state the moment he unleashed his dragon’s breath, and the sword in his hand had shattered from the backlash.

Dragon’s breath did use a lot of his physical strength, and Xiao Lin was already beginning to feel dizzy. However, he bit his lips as he leaned against a tree, preventing himself from collapsing immediately as he calmly looked at the woman next to him.

He could not afford to show any weakness in front of that Normese woman who suddenly appeared.

Thankfully, the woman immediately showed signs of friendliness as she put her bow away and stopped herself over ten meters away. She politely and respectfully thanked Xiao Lin. However, on top of her friendliness, she had actually been shocked by the power Xiao Lin had shown earlier. In truth, the other reason Xiao Lin had used his dragon breath was to warn the woman against turning her back on their deal.

“This is the reward.” The woman quickly took out the stones and placed them on the floor for Xiao Lin to look at before wrapping them back up.

“Who are you?” After making sure the woman had no other intentions, Xiao Lin finally started with his questions.

The woman’s face showed some sadness. “We are adventurers, we were planning on doing some hunting before the beast tide, but we never expected the beast tide to happen earlier this time. The beasts that came out earlier separated me from my party, and a few of my companions encountered an ambush. I’m the only one left.

“What is a beast tide?”

The woman found Xiao Lin’s question weird, but she honestly answered, “The beasts in the Forest of Death fight each other after a period of time. They kill each other in search of a new ruler of the forest. It’s called a beast tide, and during the beast tide, all the beasts will come out.”

Xiao Lin said in understanding, “So you wanted to take advantage of the situation, using the time the beasts are gathered together to increase your hunting efficiency. Were all these energy crystals your loot?”

“Yes; the rewards you can get during a beast tide is at least ten times more than usual. Anyone would be tempted. Aren’t you the same?” the woman asked.

The woman probably thought that Xiao Lin was here to hunt as well. After all, those energy stones were all valuable objects. Xiao Lin did not bother to explain as he said, “You really aren’t afraid of dying. Since you know there are more beasts around, you still dared to enter.”

“That’s not it. If it’s just before the beast tide, the beasts that would appear are all low-ranked, so we could still hunt them. If the real beast tide started, those beasts that have been dormant or hibernating for decades or even up to a hundred years would appear. However, no one would be dumb enough to stay here after the beast tide starts. The hunting is only during the period before it.” Pausing, the woman bitterly sighed. “There are always rules that the beast tide follows. We did a lot of research before, but we never expected the beast tide to be moved forward this time.”

“Has the beast tide started?”

“It hasn’t yet, but since a beast like the one you just killed has appeared, there won’t be much time left. If we don’t leave during this period of time, we’ll all die here!”