Chapter 72 – Glorious Summit

Marco felt as if he had been plunged into an ice cavern. It took him a long moment to snap back to reality, and he gasped sharply at the sight before him.

There was no doubt about it.

The only explanation for instantly killing both of his Pet Beasts was that they were Tier 5.

But this was the Apprentice Zone!

How could a Tier 5 Pet Beast appear here?

Marco’s head buzzed with confusion, his heart churning with shock and dread.

“W-Who exactly are you?” Marco stammered.

The young man before him suddenly seemed unfathomably deep in his eyes.

Unfortunately, the other party showed no intention of answering him at all.

As the battle concluded, the scenery before Marco’s eyes shifted, and he was instantly transported off the Arena Platform.

Back in his personal space.

Marco remained dazed for a long while before snapping out of it, hurriedly opening the Forum.

A player with a Tier 5 Pet Beast could not possibly be an unknown figure in the Apprentice Zone.

He was sure to find information about the other party on the Forum.

And indeed, that was the case.

Soon, Marco obtained the intel he wanted.

“Lin Ze… a Freshman who just got into the Beast-Taming Academy this year? Are you kidding me? A Freshman with a Tier 5 Pet Beast?”

“Holy crap! And not just one! Is that guy a monster?”

“What? Today is only his third day entering the Glory Virtual Realm? And in such a short time, he’s already broken into the top five?”

The pure white space echoed with Marco’s successive exclamations.

The more he browsed, the more intense the shock on his face became.

Every piece of information about Lin Ze left him utterly astounded.

His mind was struck with an overwhelming impact.

“Just what kind of monster have I run into?!”

[Previous battle opponent: No. 4 Marco – Victory by instant kill]

[Current battle opponent: No. 2 Xiao Xi]

The outcome of the battle surprised no one.

It was still a victory by instant kill.

Such was the power of a Tier 5 Pet Beast.

In the Apprentice Zone, no player could withstand a Tier 5 Pet Beast.

Let alone two of them.

“The next opponent is Xiao Xi.”

“After this match, Lin Ze should be facing Cui Jing’an.”

“Hard to say, Cui Jing’an might not be online.”

“No need to guess—just go check Lin Ze’s score!”

“Whoa, when did his score get so high? He’s only 6 points behind Cui Jing’an!”

“What? That means as long as he wins this match, Lin Ze takes the top spot!”

The crowd erupted in a chorus of amazement.

Even though they had long known Lin Ze would surely reach the top.

But this moment had come far too quickly.

So fast that it left them feeling caught off guard.

Then again, thinking about it, Lin Ze’s strength was simply terrifying.

Every match was an instant kill.

There was no way to be slow.

As the crowd watched with wide-eyed disbelief, the battle between Lin Ze and Xiao Xi quickly concluded.

His ranking then surpassed Cui Jing’an, officially claiming the number one spot.

In an instant.

The entire Forum erupted in uproar.

The first Apprentice Beast Tamer to reach the top rank in just three days was born today.

And he was only eighteen years old!

While the outside world was buzzing with excitement over Lin Ze’s rise to the top.

The man himself had already logged out of the Glory Virtual Realm.

The moment he opened his eyes, a familiar notification sounded in Lin Ze’s mind.

[Achievement Unlocked]

[Glorious Summit (Apprentice Zone)]: Achieve the No.1 ranking in the Glory Virtual Realm’s Apprentice Zone battles. Completing this achievement grants 500 Achievement Points and Soul Crystal X1 (Completed, reward pending collection).

“Just as I thought, there’s a new achievement!”

A flicker of delight passed through Lin Ze’s eyes.

It turned out his speculation was correct.

Whenever something involved rankings or competitions, there were usually corresponding hidden achievements.

Without hesitation, Lin Ze directly used the Soul Crystal.

After the familiar sensation of elevation, his Soul Strength had increased to 15.8.

“With this Soul Strength, I’m already crushing ninety-nine percent of Bronze Beast Tamers.”

Lin Ze nodded with satisfaction.

Even among the geniuses of Bronze Beast Tamers, very few had Soul Strength exceeding 15.

The vast majority of Bronze Beast Tamers only had Soul Strength between 8 and 10.

In terms of Soul Strength alone, Lin Ze completely outclassed almost all Bronze Beast Tamers.

And this was still without him having undergone the Bronze Baptism.

It was foreseeable that once he passed the Bronze Assessment and completed the Baptism, his Soul Strength would likely rival even that of Silver Beast Tamers.

Snapping back from his pleasant surprise, Lin Ze summoned Rock Ghost’s Pet Beast panel.

He remembered that Rock Ghost still had one Skill that hadn’t been unlocked, and he happened to have enough Achievement Points right now.

[Rock Guardian]: Defense-type Skill. Summons Earth Element stones to circle around the user for protection, blocking attacks from any direction. Requires 70% Growth Rate and 300 Achievement Points to unlock.

After spending 300 Achievement Points to unlock it, Rock Ghost finally gained its fourth Skill.

And it was a Defense-type Skill at that.

With this, Rock Ghost, whose defense was already extremely formidable, was now going even further down the path of being an unbreakable tank.

“Just missing [Boulder Impact], but unfortunately it requires 80% Growth Rate to unlock.”

Lin Ze felt a slight sense of regret.

Currently, Xiao Xue’s Growth Rate had already reached 100%, and once all the materials were gathered, she could break through and evolve again.

As for Rock Ghost, it was still far behind, with a Growth Rate of only 70%.

But that was fine.

As long as he took Rock Ghost out hunting, it would reach full Growth Rate within a week.

“Xiao Xue and Rock Ghost’s evolution materials will cost around 10 million Credit Points in total. I only have 8 million on hand right now, so I’m still quite short.”

“But I can buy Xiao Xue’s evolution materials first and let her evolve first.”

Thinking it, doing it, Lin Ze immediately left the academy and headed to the large Pet Beast Shop ‘Starry Sky’ nearby.

The purchase of the superior Ice Element Essence went very smoothly.

However, to his astonishment, the other main material needed for Xiao Xue’s evolution, ‘Ice Blue Tear’, was out of stock.

“You’re a large chain store, yet you actually have items out of stock?”

“I’m sorry, sir.”

The sales clerk explained with a wry smile.

“Ice Blue Tear is already a very niche Pet Beast Material. Usually, not even one sells in a month, so we keep very little stock in the store. The few remaining ones were just bought by someone last week.”

“…Then when will you have more in stock?”

“I’m not sure about that, but the earliest would be half a month.”

Lin Ze was somewhat helpless.

With no other choice, he had to go to other Pet Beast Shops.

However, to his disappointment, after visiting several shops, he still couldn’t find Ice Blue Tear.

“Poor planning on my part. I didn’t expect this thing to be so rare.”

Lin Ze sighed.

The supply of Spirit-Bearing Stones, the evolutionary primary material for Rock Ghost, was more than sufficient in stock.

Left with no choice, he had to purchase all the other materials first.

Just as he walked out of the shop, a sudden flash of inspiration struck Lin Ze.

“Come to think of it, the academy also sells pet beast materials. I wonder if they have it there.”

Tapping his forehead, Lin Ze decisively headed back to the academy.

To his pleasant surprise, Ice Blue Tear was indeed listed on the exchange list at the academy’s logistics department.

However, a problem soon followed.

The academy only accepted Resource Points for material exchanges, not Credit Points.

And the exchange price for Ice Blue Tear was as high as 28,800 Resource Points.

Unfortunately, Lin Ze currently had only a little over 4,000 Resource Points on hand, far from enough to make the exchange.

“Class welfare and ranking rewards won’t be distributed until the beginning of next month.”

Lin Ze’s teeth began to ache at the thought.

There were still over twenty days until the start of the month, and he didn’t want to wait that long.

“It looks like I’ll need to find a way to earn some Resource Points.”

There were quite a few ways to obtain Resource Points within Ningjiang Academy.

But without a doubt, the fastest was Secret Realm exploration.

With a bit of luck, a single Secret Realm exploration could yield over ten thousand Resource Points.

After pondering for a moment, Lin Ze quickly came to a decision.

“Let’s do it!”