The girl quickly suppressed her frustration, bowed her head politely to the referee, and walked away without even retrieving her contestant number card.
She headed alone down the right-side contestant tunnel, leaving Pyrogecko dragging its tail and slowly following her from behind.
Ash glanced at the injured Pyrogecko, hesitating for a long moment.
In the end, she chose not to intervene.
The girl was clearly upset with Pyrogecko for losing to Larvanine.
If she saw Ash trying to help her Spirit Beast, her anger would only deepen, and her resentment toward Pyrogecko might grow even more.
Although Ash found the girl's attitude toward her Spirit Beast distasteful, she understood that if she truly cared about Pyrogecko, it was best not to interfere in the relationship between the girl and her Spirit Beast.
It would be better to let the girl cool down on her own.
"Let's go, Sunny. It's time to head back," Ash said, shaking her head as she pulled her gaze away from Pyrogecko.
She then led her equally exhausted Larvanine toward the other contestant tunnel.
At six o'clock in the evening, after four days of intense competition, the practical exam for the Beast Master Department finally came to an end.
Although there were still three days left in the overall examination schedule, the admission list for the Beast Master Department had already been finalized.
This time, out of 1.01 million participants from the Verdantia region, only 297,680 candidates earned admission into the Beast Master Department.
Among them, those with 16 or more wins were eligible to compete in the upcoming three-day ranking tournament for the Verdantia region.
When Ash received the notice, she was in her exam dormitory with Larvanine, practicing slingshot training.
At first, when a staff member handed her a new contestant number card, Ash didn't fully register its significance.
It wasn't until after the staff member left and Larvanine crawled up to her that realization dawned on her.
She froze for a moment before gasping in disbelief.
"Sunny…" Ash swallowed hard, her throat dry as she looked at Larvanine perched on her bed.
With trembling hands, she held up the new card, which had the number 798 printed on it.
"I think we achieved something amazing…"
"Larvanine~!"
Larvanine nodded its head in agreement, its eyes reflecting the same astonishment as Ash's.
To place within the top 1,000 out of a million competitors—what kind of achievement was that?
For those from privileged families, it might seem like an inevitable outcome.
But for Ash and her Larvanine, it was like an underperforming student suddenly ranking in the top 1,000 across multiple states.
The shock was immeasurable.
After all, their initial expectations had been modest—they had hoped to make it into the top 10,000 at best.
But the top 1,000?
That had been an impossible dream, something they had never dared to imagine.
And now, not only had they made it into the top 1,000, but they had even secured 798th place!
What an exhilarating and unbelievable accomplishment!
"This means we can finally get into a good university, Sunny!" Ash said, her excitement bubbling over as she looked at her partner.
If achieving a win rate in the top 30% was the baseline for admission into the Beast Master Department, then making it into the top 1,000 meant being qualified for admission into the prestigious schools in Montis.
Although the ultimate decision rested with the schools, securing a place in the top 1,000 at least gave Ash and Larvanine a significant advantage, opening the door to better resources.
Larvanine was just as excited as Ash.
For the first time, it had proven itself, demonstrating that even a Larvanine could outperform many Spirit Beasts.
"Tomorrow… we'll be going up against the top 1,000 Beast Master in the Verdantia region," Ash said, sitting back next to Sunny and stroking its head. "Are you scared?"
"Larvanine~"
Larvanine shook its head firmly, then clenched its front limbs tightly against its chest.
"Larvanine~! Larvanine~!"
No matter how powerful the opponent, I was determined to defeat them and secure the victory for you!
"Haha! Then let's work hard together!" Ash laughed.
After carefully placing her number card aside, she resumed practicing techniques with her Larvanine, focusing on skills it hadn't yet fully mastered.
The next day.
When Ash and Larvanine arrived at Zone A as instructed in the previous day's notice, they were surprised to find that the previously empty stands were now occupied by dozens of people.
These people were dressed in the uniforms of various universities or appeared to be teachers.
Although Ash had known that school representatives would attend today's matches to scout candidates, she was still startled by the number of spectators.
"You're Ash, right?"
From the other side of the arena, a boy who looked about the same age as Ash approached her with a friendly smile.
"Hello, I'm Nakul Dev Mahajan, your opponent for this match."
"Hello." Ash nodded politely and shook his hand.
"Haha, don't be nervous; I mean no harm," Nakul said, noticing Ash's slight stiffness. He quickly explained himself, "I was just curious, that's all. When I saw your name on the public leaderboard a few days ago, I was completely shocked! I couldn't believe someone managed to win 20 matches in a row with just a Larvanine. That's amazing!"
As he spoke, Nakul's gaze shifted to Larvanine, who was perched on Ash's shoulder.
When he looked at Larvanine, he noticed that Ash's Larvanine was much larger than ordinary Larvanine.
So he asked curiously, "How do you usually train your Larvanine? Do you feed it pure crystal cores or a mix of specialized Spirit Beast food? It looks so much bigger than ordinary Larvanine!"
Ash was momentarily at a loss for words, unsure how to respond to Nakul.
When she heard the words "pure crystal cores," her eye twitched slightly.
Just listen to that—who even says such things?
Feeding her Spirit Beast with crystal core?