That night, Jiang Ziliu was alone in the dorm room.
The dorm rooms here generally housed four people, but the other three had been temporarily "quarantined." They could only return once the stench on their bodies had dissipated.
Camp life probably would not go so smoothly for any of them from here on out.
Jiang Ziliu could already guess as much. Today had merely been the appetizer for their training. No one could predict how Li Qingcheng would put them through the wringer in the days ahead.
But he knew that the special classes from the other secondary schools definitely had not experienced anything as terrifying as they had on their first day.
Not long after returning to the dorm room, Jiang Ziliu suddenly felt his Dark Energy recover to its normal level.
Then Jiang Ziliu summoned his Azurite Rock Man and gave it a C-grade earth-attribute essence crystal to absorb.
An hour later, the Azurite Rock Man, which had long been on the verge of a breakthrough, advanced one minor level in life tier under the effects of the earth-attribute essence crystal.
The Azurite Rock Man's life tier had risen to seven-star black iron grade!
Next came the feedback from his tamed beast's advancement.
Jiang Ziliu's Dark Energy level rose, and the first Soul Star on the second layer lit up!
The next moment, he smoothly broke through from gray rock grade to black iron grade!
After some twists and turns, he had successfully grown into a black iron grade life-form.
If no one else in class was concealing themselves in the same way, his own life tier should have been the highest in the entire class!
After breaking through, Jiang Ziliu quickly concealed his life aura, continuing to maintain it at the three-star gray rock grade level.
Now that he had reached black iron grade, he could boldly raise both his tamed beasts' grades without worrying that an accidental breakthrough would leave him unable to unlock a Hidden Soul Star.
Jiang Ziliu: Profession: One-star black iron grade beast tamer Lifespan: 16 (185) Life status: Healthy Soul strength: 101.6 Life tier: Black iron grade life-form Dark Energy level: 12.7 Personal skills: Probability Judgment (innate skill): Can judge the probability of a specified outcome occurring at any time Feedback skills: Life Aura Concealment (SSS-grade) Electromagnetic Manipulation (SSS+) Tamed beasts: Seven-star black iron grade Azurite Rock Man, five-star black iron grade Mutated Lightning Snake Tamed 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) Tamed beast grades: Azurite Rock Man: Seven-star black iron Mutated Lightning Snake: Five-star black iron Tamed beast status: Azurite Rock Man: Healthy, favorability toward beast tamer 91%. Mutated Lightning Snake: Healthy, favorability toward beast tamer 89%.
Human beast tamers experienced a substantial increase in lifespan at black iron grade. After Jiang Ziliu advanced to black iron grade, his lifespan increased by several decades, from his original 149 years to his current maximum lifespan of 185 years.
Longevity was also one of the tremendous benefits brought by the supernatural profession of beast taming.
The desire for longevity alone was enough to drive countless people to desperately press onward along the path of beast taming.
And a lifespan of 185 years was not his limit.
From here on, each minor advancement in his life tier within black iron grade would bring a certain increase in lifespan as his life tier rose.
It could be said that, generally, the higher a beast tamer's own life tier, the longer their corresponding lifespan would be.
Aside from that, this breakthrough had brought considerable increases in both his Dark Energy level and his tamed beast Azurite Rock Man's favorability toward him.
Raising a tamed beast's life tier was one way to substantially increase its favorability toward its beast tamer.
After all, every living being yearned to grow.
His current Dark Energy level had only risen to 12.7, while the quantity of Dark Energy at black iron grade generally ranged from 10 to 100.
The increase in quantity was not large, but one point of his Dark Energy most likely equaled 1.7 points of someone else's.
His Dark Energy was more powerful in terms of quality.
Once he reached nine-star black iron grade and unlocked the black iron grade Hidden Soul Star, his Dark Energy's quality would increase more than twofold.
At this point, Jiang Ziliu needed to consider matters such as raising his tamed beasts, evolving them, and developing their skills.
For the Azurite Rock Man, there was an important skill that had yet to awaken.
That was the special skill Earth Space Evasion.
Because this was a composite skill combining the earth and space attributes, once it fully awakened, the Azurite Rock Man would possess the special space attribute in addition to its earth attribute.
Awakening this skill required more than the Azurite Rock Man meeting the basic awakening conditions. He also needed to prepare the most important things for it: space-related resources and treasures.
Only when the Azurite Rock Man's body was tough enough could it meet the basic requirements for awakening the space attribute.
This step was not difficult. As long as it had high-grade earth-attribute resources to absorb, increasing its affinity for the earth attribute, the toughness of the Azurite Rock Man's body could be improved.
Once this step was complete, space-attribute resources would be needed.
But space-related resources were relatively rare. Jiang Ziliu would still need to use Probability Judgment to conduct a precise directional search by elimination before he could find them.
After fully awakening the Earth Space Evasion skill, Jiang Ziliu could begin raising the tier of the Azurite Rock Man's bloodline origin and evolving it.
He wanted to keep evolving the Azurite Rock Man's potential, giving it greater room for growth.
The Mutated Lightning Snake also needed consideration.
His nurturing of the Mutated Lightning Snake was still somewhat lacking. Previously, because of issues such as resources, he had focused his nurturing efforts on the Azurite Rock Man.
Now he needed to give importance to both tamed beasts.
That was because the Azurite Rock Man would become his main force for reconnaissance and his helper in escaping and hiding, while the Mutated Lightning Snake would become his main offensive force.
The Mutated Lightning Snake did not need to awaken any skills.
However, the SSS+ grade skill Electromagnetic Manipulation it already possessed could undergo deeper development in its applications.
After completing his advancement to black iron grade, he carefully considered his future goals, then took out a popular science book on electromagnetic research and began reading.
Humanity's main focus now was beast taming, but humans had not completely abandoned their efforts in science and technology.
This popular science work on electromagnetic force would make Jiang Ziliu more familiar with the use of electromagnetic power, allowing him to use it as a basis for developing applications of some electromagnetic branch abilities.
Both he and the Mutated Lightning Snake needed to research a broader and greater range of applications for the Electromagnetic Manipulation skill.