CHAPTER 40 SEARCHING FOR A PARTNER

After half an hour, Shadow recovers slightly and pats the ape's head. He knows that even if the wound seems fatal with the [steel body] and [enhanced vitality], the flaming martial ape won't die.

An hour passed before the ape woke up. It sat up and looked at Shadow. It knew that it had lost, so it must follow the winner. It is the law of the jungle.

"You are awesome; you even made me use my ultimate technique."

The ape struck out its chest, seemingly proud of its achievement.

"Since you lose, you will be my contracted beast. I shall name you Blast because of your destructive power."

The ape nodded, accepting the name.

Shadow rested for another hour to recover more, and for Blast wound to stop bleeding, Shadow bandaged its wound so that the wound healed faster.

Shadow then returned to the city, and he told Blast to go to a more secluded place so that no mercenary would hunt it anymore.

When he arrived at the city gate, it was already sunset. He was waiting there for Dorothy and Arian.

An hour passed while Shadow was waiting for a big cute bear carrying many carcasses; beside it was a wolf and two girls.

Shadow smiled for them to finish their E-Rank mission, meaning that they can now rank up their mercenary rank.

They then return to the mercenary guild for completion of their mission and to rank up to E-Rank.

Shadow then hurriedly returns to his room to check on Peach and Venom.

When he got there, he saw the two meditating; it seems their wound had healed a bit. Shadow then proceeded to ask them what happened.

Peach told Shadow everything. It seems that they were found out by other assassins of the City Lord family, so they were hunted down. It was only thanks to Venom that they got out when they were surrounded by the enemies. In the spur of the moment, Venom gained a supreme innate skill [Dark Nebula] and destroyed the place and killed their enemies.

Now that Shadow had found out why Venom was so exhausted that day, he teleported them back to town so he wouldn't endanger his subordinate's life for nothing.

Shadow also decided to go on a mission spree this following month to raise his gang's prestige and train the members of his gang.

If they can gather enough reputation, his influence will greatly increase, and the chances of causing chaos will increase dramatically.

Shadow decided to share this with Dargon and others tomorrow.

Morning came

Shadow woke up and washed up. He went directly to Dargon's apartment and knocked on his door.

After Shadow got in, he shared his plan with Dargon about improving the gang reputation. He also told him that to collect information about a town or village that has been ravaged by the City Lord family, he would be visiting some of them to persuade them to join his town.

Shadow then brought Dorothy, Arian, and Zak with him (Zak is one of the orphans he adopted). The only one of the three who still doesn't have a contracted beast is Arian.

Shadow then searched for a mission about an exotic beast suitable for Arian while he gave an E-Rank mission to Dorothy and Zak.

(Hunt a Scarlet Blood Beast) (E-Rank) (10 silver per body)

Shadow chose this mission for the two of them because he felt that this beast is troublesome and also very savage. It is perfect for the two of them.

While searching for a mission, he found a peculiar mission that concerned a beast.

(Capture the Fire Scorpion that is bothering the hunters of Log Village) (F-Rank) (30 Copper)

Shadow decided to take on this mission and capture the Terrorflame Scorpion.

Shadow and Arian arrive at Log Village. They ask the hunters for information about the Terrorflame Scorpion and its whereabouts.

They found that the Log Village has a plant called Flame Rose. This plant can enhance the strength of low-level fire-type beasts, so they cultivate it, but they never thought that a little scorpion would decide to make the garden its territory.

Shadow and Arian go to the garden, where they find a little scorpion the size of a fist guarding the Flame Rose.

Shadow nodded at Arian. She immediately dashed towards the scorpion. The scorpion tried to prick Arian with its tail but was easily evaded. Arian then grabbed the tail and brought it to Shadow.

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BEAST: Blazecrystal Scorpion (Variant) (Juvenile)

LEVEL: LEVEL 4

ATTRIBUTES: POISON/FIRE

Skills: Cannot be viewed

INNATE ABILITY: Crystal Body, Lethal Poison, Fire Element Induce Poison, Nimble, Enhance Grip Power

Monster Grade: Perfect

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Shadow eyes shone from looking at the Blazecrystal Scorpion stats. This beast has a lot of potential. Sadly, this isn't suited for Arian, but this is suited for Blaire, one of the slaves he bought. She has a great affinity for the fire element, and her talent in combat is also amazing.

"Don't worry about it." Arian seems depressed to know that the scorpion wasn't suited for her.

Before they left, the village chief gave Shadow a stalk of Flame Rose. Shadow was planning to transplant it to his garden.

Shadow and Arian search for another mission.

After an hour of searching, they found another suitable mission.

(kill the Bird Hunter Spiders that terrorise the nearby hunters) (E-Rank) (30 Silver)

Shadow then brought Arian to the lair of the Bird Hunter Spiders. They killed all the spiders they encountered. Shadow was not satisfied with them. Both of them arrived at a cave. Shadow decided to take the Den Orb from the spiders.

They killed all of the spiders in just a couple of minutes. For Shadow, the spiders are all very weak; they are all of normal level and normal grade, and only some of them were bronze level.

Shadow and Arian were returning to the city, and both of them were disappointed that they hadn't found any decent beasts.

Suddenly a flash came cutting down on Shadow, his expression changing, and then he drew Killer.

*Peng* *kreks* The sound of blades colliding was heard, and then an insect scream was heard.

Shadow was startled. He found out that the one ambushing him was an insect—a mantis, to be exact.