His parents no longer opposed his adventures in dungeon spaces, but they only agreed to let him visit the already familiar Dungeon Space No. 1.
Over the next few days, Jiang Ziliu traveled back and forth to Dungeon Space No. 1 every day.
His daily earnings ranged from 15,000 to 25,000, which was quite good. Before returning to school, he had accumulated enough funds to cover his contracted beasts' basic expenses for the next three months.
He had also set aside some beast cores suitable for his two contracted beasts as reserves.
Throughout these adventures, the Mutated Lightning Snake's main role was to protect Jiang Ziliu himself.
Ninety percent of the battles were left to the Azurite Rock Man.
Time flew by. The day before the students returned to school, the Azurite Rock Man finally developed its second new skill, an attack skill that Jiang Ziliu badly needed.
Saber Mastery (D-)!
This skill involved many branches of saber techniques and required time to accumulate proficiency, which was why it had appeared so late.
Although it was only a D- grade skill, it greatly increased the Azurite Rock Man's combat ability. The Azurite Rock Man could now fight some Black Iron Grade exotic beasts head-on.
If its elusive Rock and Earth Evasion and Rock and Earth Sneak Stab were taken into account, killing certain high-tier Black Iron Grade exotic beasts would be no problem either.
Jiang Ziliu's own strength had also changed slightly.
Profession: Nine-Star Gray Rock Rank beast tamer Lifespan: 16 (147) Life status: healthy Soul strength: 14.1 Life level: Gray Rock Grade lifeform Dark energy level: 9.9 Personal skills: Probability Judgment (innate skill): can determine the probability of a specified outcome occurring at any time Feedback skills: Life Aura Concealment (SSS grade) Electromagnetic Manipulation (SSS+) Contracted beasts: six-star Black Iron Grade Azurite Rock Man, five-star Black Iron Grade Mutated Lightning Snake Contracted beast skills: Azurite Rock Man: Life Aura Concealment (SSS grade), Rock and Earth Evasion (C+ grade), Rock and Earth Concealment (C- grade), Mutated Spirituality (D+), Rock and Earth Sneak Stab (D+), Saber Mastery (D-), Earth Space Evasion (unawakened) Mutated Lightning Snake: Electromagnetic Manipulation (SSS+ grade), Electric Current Attack (C- grade), Lightning Divine Speed (D+ grade), Mutated Spirituality (C- grade) Contracted beast levels: Azurite Rock Man: six-star Black Iron Mutated Lightning Snake: five-star Black Iron Contracted beast status: Azurite Rock Man: healthy, favorability toward beast tamer 87%. Mutated Lightning Snake: healthy, favorability toward beast tamer 83%.
The panel data showed that his contracted beasts' levels had increased slightly, and their favorability toward him had risen further.
Unfortunately, their skill grades had not increased again.
His soul strength had risen slightly. At the same time, his contracted beasts' modest growth had raised his dark energy level to 9.9.
He was only a tiny step away from advancing to Black Iron Grade.
Jiang Ziliu's contracted beasts had grown so quickly thanks to his use of Probability Judgment to prepare their food through potion-making methods.
His rate of growth was not the slowest even among the children of the upper classes.
Of course, this was partly because low-level contracted beasts generally grew quite quickly in their early stages.
Still, Jiang Ziliu wondered whether there were other, hidden Gray Rock Grade Soul Stars beyond nine stars.
After all, novels from his previous life had even spoken of three thousand levels of Qi Refinement.
His intuition told him that perhaps more than nine Soul Stars could be unlocked within the Gray Rock Grade realm.
But he could only sense nine Gray Rock Grade Soul Stars. Whether there was a more hidden path to strengthening his foundation remained unknown to him and required investigation.
However, as a Nine-Star Gray Rock Rank beast tamer, he was now very likely the strongest person in all of No. 9 Middle School in terms of his individual life level.
But he concealed this, presenting his strength as two-star Gray Rock Grade!
If he actually dared to appear as a Nine-Star Gray Rock Rank beast tamer, anyone would know he had a secret, and he would probably be in grave danger.
The struggles between human beast tamers were also extremely brutal!
If you lacked strength yet possessed something others coveted, you would disappear very quickly, and no one would do anything about it.
And so, the following day, Jiang Ziliu arrived at school while giving off the presence of a two-star Gray Rock Grade beast tamer.
Yet shortly after entering the classroom, he noticed his classmates looking at him with envy.
It turned out that the school really had organized a special class.
His talent was B- grade, just barely meeting the cutoff. He had scraped into the special class in last place, gaining access to excellent resources and all manner of privileges.
Most of them could only remain in ordinary classes. Barring exceptional circumstances, their futures were plain to see.
What they envied was Jiang Ziliu's place in the class.
Before the first lesson began, the teacher arrived and formally announced the news.
Then the selected students in the class began packing their belongings and headed together to the special class's dedicated teaching area.
The special class was not in the main teaching building, but in a newly constructed laboratory building set aside for it. Their classroom occupied the ground floor, while upstairs were dedicated facilities such as a library, an online information room, and a beast-taming resource specimen room.
No. 9 Middle School had established its special class relatively late, only starting this year.
This was because the educational support resources from above had only arrived this year, finally providing the means to establish it.
The name "special class" might sound simple, but establishing one required a substantial allocation of resources. The infrastructure alone had demanding requirements; it was not something you could create on a whim.
It could only be built with resource support from the base's upper leadership.
No. 9 Middle School's principal had pleaded for several years and only secured the resources this year, establishing the school's special class.
And No. 9 Middle School was the last middle school in the entire base to establish a special class!
In other words, theirs was the middle school that received the least attention. After all, ninety percent of its students came from commoner families.
Upon entering the classroom, Jiang Ziliu saw many familiar faces whose names he did not know.
They attended the same school, after all, so they inevitably crossed paths.
Jiang Ziliu chose an inconspicuous seat at the very back, while the other students competed for seats toward the front.
After all, students in the front rows could always attract the teachers' attention.
In this special class, the teachers could decide who received more resources.
The resources the school had fought so hard to obtain were destined to nurture more outstanding students, not to be distributed equally.
The special class had forty students in total.
When Jiang Ziliu arrived that morning, he had heard that several children from the upper classes had come to No. 9 Middle School and joined the special class.
These students came from wealthy, privileged families. Their families had provided resources early on for them to awaken ahead of time, yet they had only awakened talents below B grade. High investment, low returns-they had hit the bad-luck jackpot.
Their talents might be C or D grade, leaving them stranded between the upper and lower ends at the elite middle schools, unable to stay.
But they had money. They seemed to have donated large sums to the school, successfully gaining entry to No. 9 Middle School's special class to seek opportunities.
In reality, however, they had come to snatch some special opportunities.
These people had little hope of rising again, though.
Not long after Jiang Ziliu sat down, a short girl who looked very shy walked in with her head lowered.
By the time she arrived, the classroom had no seats left.
There was only one empty desk beside the aisle in the last row.
So she walked over with her head lowered again and sat beside Jiang Ziliu, becoming his deskmate.
One glance at the young girl's exquisite clothes, understated yet luxurious, told Jiang Ziliu that she came from either wealth or status.
But her manner was remarkably similar to Hinata from a story in his previous life. Had this not been a beast-taming world, and had she possessed the Byakugan, Jiang Ziliu would almost have thought he was sharing a desk with Hinata.
After sitting down, she quickly glanced at Jiang Ziliu, then surveyed the classroom before swiftly taking out her beast-taming textbook and fixing her gaze on it with great concentration.
Her expression and reactions were filled with a desire to work hard and strive.
Neither spoke, but they were already deskmates, and there would be no shortage of interactions in the days ahead.
Jiang Ziliu did not want a deskmate like this either. He had no desire to accidentally become embroiled in the internal struggles of a powerful family.
Rather than spending his effort sympathizing with others, he would be better off devoting it to treating his parents with care.
But now that she was already his deskmate, he could hardly drive her away. That would offend her even more and cause greater trouble. He would just have to take things one step at a time.
This girl came from wealth or status and was very diligent, yet the fact that she had entered alone like this indicated that her family did not place much importance on her.
Which child of the base's powerful families did not have a circle of bodyguards and nannies around them?
After all, this was a supernatural world, where fatal accidents caused by competition could happen at any time. Wealthy families took their children's safety very seriously.
The other children from wealthy families in the class had all been personally escorted to the classroom door by bodyguards, who only left afterward.
His deskmate, however, had received no such treatment.
Next came the teachers. Their homeroom teacher and the teachers for each course took the stage in turn to introduce themselves.
Their homeroom teacher's surname was Zhang, and he was a high-tier Bronze Rank beast tamer.
Such strength placed him among the middle-to-upper ranks of the entire base.
Most of the other teachers were mid-tier or low-tier Bronze Rank beast tamers.
Their practical combat teacher was also a beautiful woman with a mature, commanding air, dressed in a tasteful, light outfit, with curly red hair and fair skin.
Her name was Li Qingcheng!
When the students saw Teacher Li, some even howled like wolves.
But the teacher paid it no mind. Instead, she focused her gaze on those students, revealing a strange trace of a smile.
The instant Jiang Ziliu saw that smile, a chill ran through his whole body.
His intuition told him that this teacher was dangerous and powerful, and that she seemed to be suppressing a layer of terrifying killing aura tempered through endless slaughter!
Perhaps this teacher was even stronger than his high-tier Bronze Rank homeroom teacher, Teacher Zhang. She might even be a Silver Rank powerhouse.
Ever since his soul had strengthened and he had used the Soul-Cleansing Mushroom, Jiang Ziliu's intuition had become much sharper.
Li Qingcheng's gaze lingered on those students for a short while before settling on Li Wanqiu, a trace of tenderness and pity flashing through her eyes.
But that expression vanished so quickly that Jiang Ziliu thought his eyes had deceived him.
They both have the surname Li. Could there be some connection between her and Li Wanqiu?
He could not help having that thought.
If that were true, perhaps the days ahead in this special class would not be so peaceful!