"if you need to form a team later, come find me anytime." After walking out of the examination room, Xu Wuhu smiled at Zhou Lu and Li Yi.
They had already received their respective scores.
Because they had performed perfectly in the first round, they earned 40 Academic Credits. Ten of those points were bonus points for perfect performance.
Of course, no one knew how much of that score was due to Liang Quan's complete lack of martial virtue.
The second and third rounds were entirely standard one-on-one fights.
Generally, they had to face a first-tier spirit pet controlled by a teacher or a fourth-year teaching assistant.
Although they were first-tier spirit pets, without teammates to coordinate with or advance intelligence, and given the gap in combat experience between both sides, the difficulty was often even higher than the first round.
They might also have the bad luck of encountering an attribute that countered their spirit pet.
Zhou Lu drew a lot from the teaching assistant, then headed to the corresponding venue.
When he opened the door, he found a small arena.
He knew this place. It was usually where the School Team trained.
However, Zhou Lu had no interest in the School Team—or, more accurately, no interest in Beast Taming competitions at all.
His most urgent task was to make Huohuo grow quickly enough to confront the enemies he would face in the future. He had no time to waste on competitions.
Zhou Lu swiped his student card on the machine by the entrance, and his candidate information immediately popped up.
"She's here, she's here!"
A familiar voice came from the backstage area opposite him.
The next moment, Wu Xiaoqing, dressed in casual clothes, appeared before Zhou Lu.
"Hey? Sister Xiaoqing?" Zhou Lu froze when he saw Wu Xiaoqing. He instinctively backed up a few steps and looked at the sign by the door.
After confirming again and again that this really was his examination venue, he helplessly walked back in. "Why are you an examiner?"
"Oh! I completely forgot you were taking the exam." Wu Xiaoqing hurriedly adjusted her obviously ill-fitting clothes. "I don't know what madness the school suddenly came down with. They said the examiners for the last two rounds of the initial combat test had to be reassigned. Since they really couldn't find enough people, they dragged me over here as cheap labor."
As she spoke, Wu Xiaoqing did not forget to complain, "Damn it! They said I couldn't wear my lab coat outside and insisted that I wear casual clothes. I searched forever before I found something that fit in my wardrobe."
"I could clearly fit into these before..." Wu Xiaoqing muttered. She glanced down at her chest again and murmured, "Have I really gotten fat?"
"How long ago is 'before,' exactly?" Zhou Lu asked speechlessly.
"When I was in middle school."
Zhou Lu's mouth twitched. So she hadn't worn anything besides a lab coat since middle school?
"Enough! I'm an examiner now!" Wu Xiaoqing quickly reined in her emotions and said to Zhou Lu, "I'm very fair! I won't go easy on you just because of our relationship!"
As she spoke, Wu Xiaoqing pulled out a Beast Taming Card.
As the card was released, a small rhinoceros appeared beside Wu Xiaoqing.
"Lixiaoxi, a first-tier Rock-element Spirit Beast. Its defense far exceeds that of spirit beasts at the same tier, while its abdomen is the weak point in its defense..."
Wu Xiaoqing began introducing her spirit pet.
But after talking for quite a while without getting any response from Zhou Lu, she asked in confusion, "What's wrong?"
After hesitating for a long time, Zhou Lu asked quietly, "Can you say that?"
"Hey? I can't say that?" Wu Xiaoqing's eyes immediately widened as she looked toward the referee beside her.
The referee's mouth twitched. "It isn't explicitly forbidden, but people generally don't explain things in such detail..."
Who started a Beast Taming Duel by revealing their own spirit pet's weakness?
It was such basic common sense that no one had even thought to write it into the rules, all right?
"Hmph! No matter what, I absolutely won't hold back!" Wu Xiaoqing waved a hand and spoke to Zhou Lu with brimming confidence.
As she spoke, Lixiaoxi kicked off the ground and charged toward Zhou Lu.
Huohuo was far too familiar with this kind of wild-bull-like charge.
It drove its vines into the dirt. Empowered by Mad Growth, the vines suddenly burst from beneath Lixiaoxi's feet and wrapped tightly around its hooves.
"It's useless! Vines of this level—"
Before Wu Xiaoqing could finish, Lixiaoxi, charging at high speed, was directly tripped by Huohuo's vines and slammed hard into the ground.
"Your grass is wrong!" Wu Xiaoqing shouted in disbelief.
Although she did not have much experience in Beast Taming Duels, she still possessed the basic knowledge.
The vines of a first-tier grass-type spirit beast generally were not very strong. How could they possibly trip Lixiaoxi during a full-speed charge? Shouldn't vines like these have snapped taut and broken during the charge?
Wu Xiaoqing's reasoning was indeed correct. Unfortunately, she was facing Huohuo.
This was Huohuo, strengthened after sacrificing more than three hundred chipmunks!
With that fall, Lixiaoxi instantly became a lamb awaiting slaughter in Huohuo's eyes. Countless vines rose in response, binding Lixiaoxi up tight and solid.
Zhou Lu had a temper of his own, too.
Since Wu Xiaoqing had revealed Lixiaoxi's weakness, then he would deliberately refuse to use that weakness to win!
Wrapped in layer after layer of vines, no matter how strong Lixiaoxi was, it simply could not break free.
After confirming that the spirit pet had lost its ability to fight, the referee declared Zhou Lu's victory.
Wu Xiaoqing was not disappointed by her defeat. Instead, she looked at Huohuo with great interest. "Your Dream Rain Flower is kind of interesting. Could you lend it to me for research sometime?"
"No." Zhou Lu refused decisively.
Thinking back to those mushrooms, Zhou Lu seriously suspected that Huohuo might undergo some kind of mutation in Wu Xiaoqing's hands.
Wu Xiaoqing had originally intended to say something more, but the next candidate had already arrived. Left with no choice, she could only end the conversation.
As Zhou Lu walked out of the examination room, he heard Wu Xiaoqing still reporting her spirit pet's information.
Was she that afraid the students would fail the exam?
Zhou Lu even suspected this was Wu Xiaoqing's scheme. As long as the school thought she had gone too far, they would never assign her similar work again.
When he left the examination room, the other candidates were also coming out one after another.
That fast?
Zhou Lu spotted Li Yi in the crowd at a glance.
"I don't know why," Li Yi said with a sigh, "but the examiners in the second round all seem to be going easy on us. This year seems especially easy to pass. Seventy Academic Credits, easy money! I can go home and get a reward from my dad."
"Oh, right." Zhou Lu suddenly remembered something and asked, "Did the samples I asked you to purchase last time arrive?"
"They did." Li Yi said, "I'll bring them over another day. But what do you need that stuff for? Are you preparing for a dorm inspection?"
"To take the Exploration Permit exam," Zhou Lu revealed simply.
Before the exam, he had already applied to the Explorer Association for the C-Class Exploration Permit examination.
Huohuo's attribute was grass, so its exam had to be arranged in a venue for fire-type spirit beasts.
Delivered along with the examination time was a Field Setting Collection as thick as a dictionary.
The collection detailed the attributes and skills of fire-type spirit beasts, as well as the precise parameters of the examination venue.
According to the guides Zhou Lu had found, this Field Setting Collection was extremely important.
Within the examination venue, there was terrain capable of restricting the opponent's spirit beast, as well as terrain beneficial to one's own spirit beast.
Beast Tamers needed to formulate suitable tactics based on the Field Setting Collection and their own spirit beast's traits, using terrain or other methods to defeat an opponent despite an attribute disadvantage.
The Exploration Permit examination tested not only a spirit beast's strength, but also the Beast Tamer's skill.
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