Chapter 174: Fourth Assessment

When Lin Huang returned from the third assessment after resting for two days, his combat level had already upgraded to silver-level rank-3.

In those two days, he brought Tyrant along to kill silver-level monsters. His Life Power constantly increased, having nine of Life Power columns in all four duplicate Life Wheels overflow. However, he had only accumulated 200 columns in the ninth column of his actual Life Wheel. Lin Huang intentionally left it at this amount of Life Power, so that he would not accidentally get a Life Light Baptism from killing gold-level monsters.

The upgrade in Lin Huang's combat level resulted in the ability to summon four monsters. The Epic level cards - Bai, Tyrant, Charcoal and the clown had been automatically upgraded to gold-level rank-3 as well.

Although the Demonic Dandelion Vine was an Epic level card, its combat level still remained at silver-level rank-3. The reason why it was not upgraded was probably because it had undergone mutation in a different way in the past. Lin Huang would attempt to train the Demonic Dandelion Vine after he had completed the assessment. Parasites that had gone through two mutations were rare and useful.

For the One-Eyed Swordfiend, Lin Huang did not upgrade him after he was attacked by Xia Yu. Lin Huang was focused on killing monsters to increase the Life Power in his body and had completely forgotten about it.

Lin Huang saw hundreds of colorful tents as soon as he returned to the third assessment location. The tents were probably set up by the candidates.

A few of the staff were startled when they saw Lin Huang. Since they were also Silver Hunters, they could sense that Lin Huang had upgraded to silver-level.

"You've leveled up?" A man wearing a uniform asked. He was the staff that explained the details to Lin Huang two days ago.

Lin Huang smiled and nodded his head, "The Life Seed that I'm looking for is at the Little Devil Island. That's why I asked you about it that day."

"Congratulations! At silver-level, it's quite easy to pass the assessment." The man in uniform congratulated him.

"Thank you." Lin Huang smiled. He then asked, "The third assessment had not ended yet?"

"There are still few of them in the monster cages. I guess that the result will be released after half an hour."

"How many of them had passed the third assessment?" Lin Huang asked again.

"There are currently 481 of them." The staff told him as it was not a secret.

"There are more than 5000 candidates who joined the third assessment. Only about 480 of them passed. The passing rate is low as there were less than one-tenth of them that passed the assessment." Lin Huang sighed, shaking his head.

However, the third assessment was indeed tougher. The first two rounds did not actually evaluate the candidate's' abilities. In the third assessment, candidates had to possess actual abilities in order to pass the assessment. Although it was not a must, it would still be difficult for the bronze-level hunters to pass the assessment as the monsters in the monster cage were all silver-level rank-3.

Soon after Lin Huang had returned, people began coming out from the monster cage. Half an hour passed and eight participants came out from the corridors.

One of the staffs immediately received instruction and announced the results of the assessment.

"5541 candidates participated in the third assessment and 489 of them passed. I'll now announce the official end of the third assessment!"

"The head examiner of the fourth assessment is on her way, you can keep your tents first. Please clean up the rubbish so it won't cause pollution..."

After listening to the reminder from the staff, they immediately kept their tent and cleaned the rubbish on the floor.

Lin Huang was surprised to see that the people in this world had environmental awareness?!

At about nine o'clock in the morning, the head examiner finally arrived at the examination site, riding on a Four-Winged Dragon Condor.

Looking at the unusually good-looking Four-Winged Dragon Condor, many of the candidates were envious of him.

The Four-Winged Dragon Condor was not considered to be a sky dragon. It was only considered to be a gold-level mutated monster with a low density of dragonkin blood. If the monster was upgraded to transcendent and went through two rounds of mutation, it was possible that it could evolve and become a sky dragon. However, to many of the participants that were not even an Imperial Censor, they felt envious of the head examiner that had this monster to ride on.

Lin Huang smiled. If his Alexandrian Eagle was upgraded to gold-level, it would be as good-looking as the Four-Winged Dragon Condor.

As soon as the Four-Winged Dragon Condor landed safely on the ground, the head examiner then got off the dragon condor and quickly recalled it. She did not use a monster taming token. Obviously, she was also an Imperial Censor.

The head examiner was a woman who looked tough and was dressed in a blue suit. Her hair was cut just below ear level. Although she tried her best to look mature, one could still see that she was only 20 or even less. However, she was tall and clocked in at a height of about 1.8 meters when she was on her heels.

"My name is Mu Lan. I am the head examiner of the fourth assessment..."

Everyone was shocked when they heard her name.

"Is she the girl who ranked fourth on the Gold Hunter Leaderboard?!"

"I think it's her. I heard that Mu Lan has short hair and likes to dress in a simple uniform. She doesn't like to wear dresses."

"Aside from majoring in the sword, I've also heard that Mu Lan is an Imperial Censor."

...

When she heard everyone talking about her, Mu Lan maintained a neutral facial expression and said, "I know that many of you might have heard of my name. However, the assessment is about to start. Please don't waste your time on this. I'm the head examiner of this examination site. If anyone of you interrupts me, you'll be disqualified."

As soon as she finished her sentence, everyone became silent.

"I'll now talk about the rules for the next round of the assessment. We are now on Little Devil Island. There are demonic, undead and spiritual monsters around the level-4 wild zone. There are many gold-level monsters at the center of the island. Please try to avoid them."

"The rules are simple. You're given 15 days to kill five different silver-level monsters and bring their carcasses back. If you do that, you would have passed the assessment."

Many of them were stunned as they listened to the rules of the assessment. It was difficult enough when they had to pass the monster cage during the previous assessment. They had to hunt down the monsters in this round?!

"Hunting down monsters was possible as long as one was at silver-level rank-1 to silver-level rank-3. There's no restriction on how you kill the monsters. You can use whatever you have in your storage space. You can even buy whatever you need from our staff. However, we don't provide powerful weapons..."

At that moment, one of the candidates raised his hand.

Mu Lan then looked at him, nodding her head, "Please say."

"What's the price?" The candidate asked.

"It's the same as the market price. We don't earn extra credit points." Mu Lan explained.

After answering his question, another candidate raised his hand.

"Can we form a team to kill the monsters?"

"Yes, you can." Mu Lan nodded her head.

Lin Huang then raised his hand too.

Similarly, Mu Lan looked at him and nodded her head, "Please ask."

"Can we steal the carcasses from the others?" Lin Huang asked with a smile. Many of the candidates shifted their gazes towards him as he asked.

By asking this question, Lin Huang's intention was not to snatch their carcasses away but to sell them at a higher price.

"Yes, you can. However, you're not allowed to kill people. A murderer will be blacklisted forever." Mu Lan frowned and answered.

After answering these few questions, they did not ask any other question. Mu Lan then said, "This assessment allows you to kill monsters based on your own creativity. I gave all of you 15 days to complete this assessment by hunting down five different monsters. That being said, you'll have three days prepare yourselves before killing each of the required monsters. It can actually be killed instantly. However, you'll be given three days to collect more information about the monster like its living habits and weaknesses before you decide on a strategy to kill it. Please don't waste your time on nonsense and plan your strategy properly. It's not difficult to pass the assessment."

When she uttered that last sentence, she glanced at Lin Huang.

After explaining the rules of the assessment, Mu Lan lowered her head and looked at the time, "It is now 9.40 a.m. 15 days later, candidates that come back to me with the carcass of five different silver-level monsters before 10 a.m. will pass the assessment. Also, the carcasses have to be monsters on Little Devil Island. Using other monsters to meet the monster count will cause you to fail the assessment."

She gazed upon the crowd and since nobody raised any more questions, Mu Lan announced, "The fourth assessment starts now!"