A new stage of school life began, and Jiang Ziliu raised the life level he displayed outwardly from three-star gray rock grade to four-star gray rock grade.
He guessed that everyone in his class would make considerable progress during this stage.
With funding from the school and support from their families, everyone would make some progress. For the special class, advancing one minor level within gray rock grade over two months was only normal.
Even Jiang Ziliu's parents had given him nearly 100,000 yuan in financial support during this period.
His eldest brother had even sent him a B+ grade beast core, hoping he could build a solid foundation.
If even he received this much, the others in his class naturally would not fare too poorly.
Ordinary families spared no effort in supporting their children's growth, because their children were their present hope.
Moreover, many in the class had signed training agreements with organizations such as trading houses, powerful families, companies, and adventuring groups, becoming their reserves and receiving resources and financial support from them.
His analysis proved correct. When school began the following day, the lowest beast tamer rank in the class was indeed four-star gray rock grade.
And only six people were at four-star gray rock grade.
Most had already advanced to five-star gray rock rank!
The learning tasks at this stage changed somewhat again, giving the students a little more freedom.
The students in the special class now only had to attend school for the first four days of each week. During the remaining three, whether they trained at school, at the school's training camp outside the base, or somewhere they found themselves was up to each individual.
By now, most of the important fundamentals and intermediate and advanced knowledge had been taught.
Their focus was on raising their contracted beasts' levels and strength!
The students also needed this free time to make sensible arrangements and develop properly.
After all, everyone had different contracted beasts, and the growth plans they needed were entirely different.
The teachers were now mainly responsible for answering questions and providing guidance.
This also gave Jiang Ziliu an opportunity. On the fifth day after school started, he quietly left the base, but rather than going far himself, he had the Azurite Rock Man retrace their route to his safe house and bring back the two Lightning Treasure Peaches he had hidden there.
This time, Jiang Ziliu passed through the base gates without trouble.
Several days had passed, and the beast tamers who had waited bitterly there naturally understood that their chance to snatch the treasure was gone.
Although many lower-class beast tamers resented this heavy-handed inspection, they dared to be angry but not speak out.
Since those people dared to do this, they were not afraid of being held accountable by the base's higher-ups. They might even belong to the base's upper ranks themselves.
This experience made Jiang Ziliu realize just how necessary his previous caution had been.
The school's current arrangement of three free days each week made Jiang Ziliu feel very relaxed.
Without any arrangements from the school, his classmates had already begun exploring low-level Dungeon Spaces alone or in teams.
The school supported such activities, but would not organize collective adventures into Dungeon Spaces.
If something went wrong, the school would bear considerable responsibility.
Thus, the school adopted the stance that students would adventure on their own and take responsibility for themselves.
However, the school put up posters listing precautions for Dungeon Spaces in prominent places throughout the campus, so everyone could see and remember them at all times.
Exploring Dungeon Spaces had already become a regular activity during the students' days off.
Tang Yunu wanted to explore with Jiang Ziliu, but he did not agree.
He only wanted to maintain a certain degree of information exchange with Tang Yunu, and had no intention of adventuring with her.
However, Tang Yunu soon found her own adventuring partner.
Li Wanqiu!
Their experience jumping into the mud pool together had brought the two much closer, and they could now be considered good friends.
Still, all the bustling activities in class had little effect on Jiang Ziliu.
He kept watching the various medicinal ingredients appearing in the informal market, looking out for those that could help the Mutated Lightning Snake evolve.
During this period, he had already compiled formulas for its evolution and used Probability Judgment to determine the best formula and proportions. He was now preparing to gather the medicinal ingredients.
At the same time, he explored the base's other low-level Dungeon Spaces on weekends, mainly to earn money to offset his expenses.
One month into the new stage of study, their learning venue shifted once again from the special class's school building to the camp outside the base.
This time, the moment they arrived at camp, they heard strange, extremely muffled roars.
The eyes of many knowledgeable students lit up. Like Jiang Ziliu, they recognized what those roars were.
It was the language of an alien race that had invaded Earth and was extremely hostile to humanity.
Sure enough, shortly after class began, the teachers showed them the big fellow in the cage at the center of camp.
It was a humanoid alien with some wolf-like features.
The Werewolf Race!
The Werewolf Race was a branch of the Beastman Race, a major race from another planet. They had humanoid limbs and torsos, while their heads possessed both beast-like and human features.
This member of the Werewolf Race stood nearly two and a half meters tall!
Yet that height was only average among the Werewolf Race. Taller werewolves could reach three meters.
Kings among the Werewolf Race could even stand four meters tall!
The Beastman Race had many branches, and powerful races such as the Werewolf Race were among humanity's enemies.
Some weaker beastman races, however, feared the Human Race.
For instance, the legendary fox women of the Fox-Person Race and cat women of the Cat-Person Race were the favorite quarry of humanity's underground forces.
They were the favorite private slaves of the Human Race's powerful and privileged.
The Human Race currently forbade its own people from becoming slaves, but had no objection to enslaving aliens.
As long as it was not brought out into the open, no one bothered with it in private.
Likewise, powerful beastman races such as the Lion-Person Race and Tiger-Person Race enjoyed abducting members of the Human Race as slaves.
With both sides trading blow for blow, their relationship had deteriorated to the extreme!
Between the Human Race and the Beastman Race, whichever side was stronger plundered and suppressed the other.
However, the Human Race had many enemies, and the Beastman Race had no shortage of them either. Their respective strengths maintained a delicate balance.
Base No. 12 lay in relatively safe Human Race territory, where aliens were extremely rare.
Jiang Ziliu had never even seen a Wisdom alien, yet he had not expected the school to obtain a real werewolf this time to teach them.
This meant that they might very well come into contact with aliens in the future.
"I believe many of you have recognized it. This is a Wisdom alien, and an enemy of our Human Race—the Beastman Clan!"
Teacher Li Qingcheng explained the situation, a situation that came as a great shock.
"A new B Grade permanent wild Dungeon Space has appeared 110 kilometers southwest of Base No. 12. The Beastman Race invaded our region through it, and this werewolf was part of one of their forces."
"Several months ago, a human merchant caravan was wiped out by an elite scout of the Skunk-Person Race who emerged from the Dungeon Space."
"These skunk-person beastmen are among the aliens closest to us humans in appearance and height. So I must remind everyone not to adventure in the wilderness recently. If you do go out, it would be safer to travel with relatively powerful beast tamers!"
Hearing this news from Li Qingcheng, Jiang Ziliu shuddered.
He had always thought that the fellow who wiped out the human caravan had done so because of something like a struggle between human factions. Never had he expected that fellow to be a Beastman Race scout!
The Beastman Race was deeply hostile toward the Human Race, so it was no surprise that he had wiped out the caravan.
At the same time, Jiang Ziliu understood why that fellow had been so cautious, repeatedly checking whether anyone had witnessed his slaughter.
So he had been an elite alien scout.
Perhaps he had also been worried that humans would discover the Beastman Race's presence ahead of time, which was why he had been so cautious and acted as carefully as possible.
Jiang Ziliu also felt fortunate that he had not encountered any members of the Beastman Race during his previous adventure. His Probability Judgment had been exceptionally reliable as well.
Judging by the situation, quite a few people had already fallen victim to the beastmen.
"The base has now entered a quasi-war footing. All beast tamers may hunt members of the Beastman Race in the wilderness. Their heads will serve as proof of military merit for all beast tamers and can be exchanged for wartime military merits!"
"And wartime military merits can be exchanged for the scarce, high-grade resources you need!"
"To encourage participation and protect everyone's privacy, everyone is permitted to cover their faces and obtain a temporary military merit number at the base. You may set your own password for this number, and it will not involve your personal information."
"Of course, anyone who wishes to make a name for themselves may operate under their real name!"
"But I must tell you that the aliens have assassination measures targeting the Human Race's young geniuses and those with powerful combat strength. So, for your safety, I still recommend that you do not participate. If you insist on participating, I suggest acting anonymously and concealing your information!"
Teacher Li Qingcheng delivered a long string of information.
But this information was good news for Jiang Ziliu, because these measures would ensure he could conceal his identity.
The aliens' assassination of young members of the Human Race with great growth potential was clearly one of the main reasons these measures had been introduced.
After all, such assassinations were cutting off the Human Race's future potential!
The Human Race's higher-ups were not fools who had no way to respond.
Upon hearing their teacher's announcement, the students throughout the special class went pale and began discussing it.
The beastman in the cage alone was already utterly terrifying.
After all, beastmen were also a Wisdom race, and they had contracted beasts too!
It was just that their choice of contracted beast types was limited. The Werewolf Race could generally only contract wolf-type exotic beasts.
Other exotic beasts were very difficult for the Werewolf Race to contract.
However, the wolf-type exotic beasts the Werewolf Race could contract were usually one to two major levels above the contract limit of human beast tamers with the same level of talent.
The Human Race's advantage was that they could contract any exotic beast. Their peak combat strength was somewhat weaker, but their methods were far more varied than those of the Werewolf Race.
Jiang Ziliu noticed that the teachers were also observing the students' expressions and reactions.
He immediately understood that this was very likely another screening. Those who were extremely afraid of aliens might well receive lower-priority treatment in future training.
After all, some alien races were humanity's great enemies. The Human Race's upper ranks and institutions of higher education needed the brave among beast tamers, not cowards!