Ji An, who had just accepted a bounty from the Beastmaster Association and returned from the Welfare Institute, did not have the slightest intention of completing the bounty mission of clearing the gray spotted rats now.
Many of the Beastmaster Association's bounty missions had a time limit.
In other words, after accepting the mission, it must be completed within a certain time.
However, this definitely did not include the year-round bounty mission of exterminating the gray-spotted rats.
This quest was one of the few rare ones that didn't have a time limit.
In other words, after accepting the mission, he could do it at any time.
Now, he had accepted the mission but was in no hurry to leave.
He was waiting for the right opportunity.
The winter bear cub's strength may seem that it was no longer the same as before, and it may seem that it would be a piece of cake for the bear to fight the gray-spotted rats that could not even be considered Transcendent creatures, but Ji An knew very well that gray-spotted rats moved around in groups, just as Dai Na had said.
Unless it was an Extraordinary-level beastmaster, ordinary high-rank Entry-level beastmasters would usually form teams to go on this mission.
Otherwise, once one was surrounded by the rats, it would be difficult for one to escape alone.
For example, Ma Qinghe and Dai Na were members of a fixed team.
The two had formed a team to take on the mission of clearing the rats.
The two were like Ji An. They were both independent beastmasters who haven't joined any forces.
Due to their lack of background and assistance, these types of beastmasters would often form fixed teams of their own accord to help each other and complete bounty missions together.
If this mission was easy, the rat groups in Encircle Town's sewers would have long been cleared out by the beastmasters.
The reward for this mission was not low either.
It was at least higher than other D-grade missions and was comparable to some of the lower D+ grade bounties.
However, not many were willing to take on this mission.
Ultimately, the mission was quite difficult.
Ji An could be considered an exception.
Even though he intended to complete this mission, he was still a newbie who had just started his beastmaster journey, and there were no rat-hunting teams that wanted to recruit him.
He didn't want to go hunting the gray-spotted rats alone like a fool either.
He planned to find an opportunity where the gray-spotted rats had just been cleared out on a large scale and had yet to form a large group.
He heard that many powerful teams had accepted the mission to clean up the rats, so he felt that the opportunity he had been waiting for was almost here.
Ji An, who hadn't set off to begin the bounty mission, naturally didn't sit around either.
Originally, the training at the construction site was already of little help to the winter bear cub.
However, with the gravity rings, the previous training could once again have a significant auxiliary effect.
And so, Ji An brought the winter bear cub back to the construction site, where they could earn money while training.
After working for the entire morning, the proficiency of the winter bear cub's Monstrous Strength had once again increased greatly.
It increased by a total of ten mastery points, reaching a mastery value of 223.
After getting off work, Ji An was quite satisfied with the winter bear cub's improvement in its skill mastery.
In addition, he had just received today's salary.
On the spur of the moment, Ji An decided to improve the winter bear's diet.
The first batch of sweetgrass milk he bought had long been.
Ji An had bought a lot more after that and they were unfinished till now.
Although the sweetgrass milk could still supplement the nutrients needed by the winter bear cub, after the winter bear cub's evolution level increased several times, the effect of the milk's nutritional supplement was not as good as before.
This also caused the increase in the winter bear cub's energy level to slow down.
Considering that it wouldn't be long before he would have to bring the winter bear cub deep into the dangerous sewers of the city to hunt for gray-spotted rats, plus he still had a lot of savings, Ji An planned to find an opportunity to improve the strength of the winter bear cub before doing the mission.
If he wanted to improve the winter bear cub's overall strength as soon as possible, high-quality tonics were indispensable.
The blackgold pill that he had gotten from Ling Haoyang the last time was no doubt an extraordinary tonic.
However, the blackgold pill was a supplement that leaned towards the two attributes of metal and earth. Even the materials used to make the blackgold pill belonged to the metal and earth attributes.
As such, the blackgold pill would have more effects in upgrading metal and earth-type familiars.
As for the winter bear cub, it was an ice-type familiar.
This time, Ji An planned to find the perfect tonic and get some ice-attribute tonics for the winter bear cub to nourish itself.
Now, the winter bear cub's Hibernation skill had reached the Proficient realm. In its sleeping state, its ability to digest and absorb supplements was extremely strong.
To exaggerate a little, Ji An could even hear the sound of every cell in the bear's body absorbing energy when it was asleep.
Naturally, there wouldn't be a situation where the bear was too weak to take the tonic, or the medicinal effects of the tonic were wasted.
No matter how strong the effects of the supplement were, if the bear cub had a good sleep with Hibernation, it would be able to completely digest it.
"Ping An, I'll give you some strong medicine this time. Digest it well and try to improve your evolution level before you go to the underground tunnel to clean up the gray-spotted rats," Ji An said to the winter bear cub, who was slowly walking behind him.
"Roar!" The winter bear cub Ping An had a confident look on its face, indicating that it could take any strong medicine. When the time came, it could kill a mere gray-spotted rat with a slap.
After many attempts, the movement speed of the winter bear cub with four gravity rings on it had improved. It was at least much faster than yesterday.
After a while, the Beastmaster Association was already in sight.
Ji An never went to the pharmacies to buy tonics.
In any case, he was only nurturing one familiar right now.
As such, the limit on the number of times he could buy tonics from the Association was endless. It was only a given that he would choose to buy from the Beastmaster Association which provided cheap and good-quality tonics.
After finding Lin Xue, who was on duty, Ji An first handed over the application and proof that the old principal had stamped on him yesterday.
"Sister Lin, I want to buy some supplements for Ping An," He said frankly.
Lin Xue revealed a conflicted expression, "Huh? Ji An, you know the rules. The Association's tonics are only for the use of beastmasters and familiars."
Ji An hurriedly explained, "Sister Lin, you're mistaken. Ping An is my winter bear. I just named it yesterday."
"So that's how it is. I can't believe you came up with the name Ping An. If you want any tonics, you can just pick from here," Lin Xue smiled and handed Ji An a list.
The list was filled with all the tonics and resources that beastmasters could purchase from the Beastmaster Association internally.
Supplements with attributes were usually more expensive.
Ji An quickly locked onto a few ice attribute tonics that he could afford.
"Ice spirit cream, white frost Ganoderma, ice shark fin. Sister Lin, of these three tonics, which one do you recommend?" Ji An asked, a little uncertain.
Even though Lin Xue wasn't a beastmaster, having worked in the Beastmaster Association for three to four years, she knew more about beastmaster-related knowledge than Ji An.
In addition, Lin Xue was also eager to give Ji An some reasonable suggestions.
As such, Ji An respected her opinion.
Lin Xue helplessly spread her hands and said, "I'm sorry, Ji An. You can't buy any of these three. You've already bought 100 liters of sweetgrass milk this month. You've used up your internal purchase quota. If you insist, you might have to buy at the market price."
"Huh?" Ji An was caught off guard. If he bought the tonics at the market price, wouldn't he be making a huge loss?
This was absolutely unacceptable to Ji An, who was thinking about his financial problems every day.
At the beginning of the month, he had indeed bought 100 liters of sweetgrass milk before he ran out of it.
He didn't expect the quota to be used up so quickly.
"Sister Lin, how can I increase the quota?" Ji An asked.
"There are two ways. The first is to increase your strength. You're a rank three beastmaster now, so that's all you can get. The second way is to earn association contribution points by completing missions."
Hearing this, Ji An felt a little helpless. After going through so much, the root was still bounty missions.
He had originally wanted to increase the strength of the winter bear cub this time in preparation for the completion of the bounty mission, but now, he was stuck.
Perhaps sensing Ji An's helplessness, Lin Xue said, "Ji An, if you really want to buy an ice-attribute tonic to help your winter bears improve, I have a suggestion."
"Sister Lin, please tell me."
"Here, this is the tonic," Lin Xue pointed at the corner of the list with her pale finger.
What was written in the corner of the list was a tonic that Ji An had never heard of before.
Ice demon blood.