Saying it was one thing, but doing it was another. Chu Tian activated his Frost Talent, and his aura surged through his right arm, turning into a hardened ice crystal.
The ice crystal shield blocked the Iron Hammer Lizard's attack. Chu Tian then used his cold energy to freeze the entire lizard, starting from its tail, and it didn't understand what happened before losing its life.
[Notification - Detected material for decomposition. Decomposing will leave one Iron Hammer Lizard skin. Would you like to decompose it?]
Chu Tian glanced around at the people who had followed him. They had scattered the moment the Iron Hammer Lizard appeared. He chose to proceed.
[Notification - Decomposition successful. Received a slight increase in strength/speed.]
[Notification - System update: Space Bag function unlocked.]
[Found one Iron Hammer Lizard skin. Would you like to store it in the space bag?]
Chu Tian was momentarily stunned. The system had updated again? And it was a significant feature!
Store!
With a thought, the Iron Hammer Lizard skin disappeared from his sight.
Chu Tian glanced at his space bag, where the lizard skin lay peacefully on the gray floor. The space bag had a gray mist everywhere except for the ground, and it seemed quite large in Chu Tian's eyes, probably around a hundred cubic meters, which he found impressive.
Chu Tian withdrew from the space bag, feeling refreshed.
Next, he needed to find more prey. Chu Tian grinned; originally, most of these test subjects might have died, but because of his presence, they might not have to.
---
A few hours later, the system's voice sounded.
[Notification - Decomposition successful. Received a small increase in strength/speed.]
[Notification - Received materials, automatically placed in the space bag.]
[Notification - Detected that the host's physical attributes have reached the advanced requirements. Advanced mission unlocked: Kill one D-rank ferocious beast. (0/1)]
[Notification - After advancing successfully, a brand new function will be unlocked. Keep up the good work.]
Advancing? Chu Tian was delighted to hear the system's prompt. In these few hours, he had hunted over a dozen ferocious beasts, which unexpectedly satisfied the advancement condition. He considered himself lucky.
However, it seemed that there were no D-rank ferocious beasts in this place, not even the E-rank ones placed here by the mercenaries. Chu Tian sighed; he probably had to wait until he officially became a mercenary and ventured into those forbidden areas to advance.
For now, he needed to obtain enough results to prove himself. With an evil grin, Chu Tian pounced on a ferocious deer that was searching for food. The moment it heard the sound, it looked up at the sky with a bewildered expression.
In the next second, it fainted, and Chu Tian stood nearby, cutting off one of the ferocious deer's ears.
While he was hunting, he encountered the first girl in a red dress who had entered the forest. When she saw him empty-handed, she kindly reminded him, "The final score depends on the number of ferocious beast ears you've collected. If you have the ability to protect yourself, try to collect as many ferocious beast ears as possible."
After receiving this tip, Chu Tian had already stored over a dozen ferocious beast ears in his space bag.
However, he was not satisfied with this harvest. The reason was that the red-dressed girl had added something as she was leaving: "You can use these ears to increase your mercenary rank. If you have more than fifty, you can directly promote to a C-rank mercenary."
C-rank mercenary! This was an achievement that ordinary mercenaries would strive for ten years to achieve! Just thinking about starting as a C-rank made Chu Tian extremely excited. Even though his body had been enhanced to the limit, his enthusiasm remained undiminished.
A day passed quickly. Chu Tian squatted in front of the iron gate, maintaining a completely still posture. He was testing his new talent – concealing his presence.
According to the system's description, this Concealing Presence was a growth-type talent that allowed others to overlook its user, whether they were human or beast.
At this moment, the girl in the red dress was the first to walk out of the iron gate. She didn't notice Chu Tian squatting nearby and even hummed a tune triumphantly.
Having confirmed that Concealing Presence was indeed effective, Chu Tian didn't hesitate. He slung the beast skin bag over his back and followed in the footsteps of the red-dressed girl as they both walked out of the iron gate.
Inside the beast skin bag was the result of his hunting over the past day and night, and he had collected so many ferocious beast ears that he had lost count.
When the red-dressed girl finished checking her own results, Chu Tian directly emptied the contents of the beast skin bag onto the examination official's table.
The examination official, who had just awoken from his astonishment at the red-dressed girl's surprising 25-ear achievement, now had his mouth wide enough to fit a goose egg.
"What... What... What's going on?!!" The examination official asked in shock, "Who the hell went in and looted the ferocious beasts we raised?"
"Hey, can't you see a big guy like me standing here?" Chu Tian dodged the official's spittle, which was flying everywhere.
"You?" The examination official asked incredulously, "Are all of these yours?"
"Of course." Chu Tian wore an expression that said it was nothing special. "I heard that the more ears you collect, the higher your final evaluation will be, so I took care of as many as I could see."
"Wow..." The examination official and the red-dressed girl gasped in disbelief. Especially the examination official, who stared at Chu Tian with a frightened expression. "Who exactly are you?!"
"Just an ordinary person with a somewhat useful talent," Chu Tian said proudly, opening his hand. A small rhombus-shaped ice crystal rotated along its central axis in his hand.
"Is this the Frost Talent?" The girl in the red dress asked in amazement. "Your level of control seems quite high."
"That's right." Chu Tian raised his head proudly. Then he turned to the examination official and said, "Hurry up and count these. I still want to go eat."
"Uh... okay." The examination official wiped away his cold sweat and then tremblingly arranged the ferocious beast ears.
"This is from the Ferocious Rabbit, this is from the Ferocious Deer... this one's from the Bear, this one's from the Tiger, this one's from the Lion... Damn, did you kill all the captive ferocious beasts?"
As he counted to the end, the examination official's trembling hands couldn't lift anymore. He spoke with tears in his eyes, "A total of 132. According to the assessment rules, you can only rise to C-rank. However, with such outstanding results in the assessment, I'm sure those major mercenary groups will be interested in you. When the time comes, just find one you like, join them, and I don't think they'll be stingy with their resources."
As he spoke, the examination official had come to terms with reality and recovered a bit, his eyes showing envy.