STRIKER: Independent Beast Tamer

Jeremy searched the entire mall and found nothing. Even the other floors of the mall were empty. He thinks that the two Black Eyed Hyenas were stranded inside for some reason.

Since so much time has passed, he wants to hunt more before the daylight disappears. Not long after exploring the area, he came across other Beast Tamers, but they ignored him.

Jeremy didn’t take it seriously. Those who joined Central University 14 are all top talent. Almost everyone can hunt Tier-2 Corrupted Beasts if they put in a little effort. But if you want to take first place, then you should do your best.

Right now, Jeremy doesn’t want to stand out that much. But he promised Instructor Jacob that the Striker Department won’t be at the bottom.

Jeremy then changed direction and started walking on a different route. Just as he entered the alley to look for Corrupted Beasts in dark corners, his nostrils were attacked by the foul smell again. The smell was so strong that he was sure something was lurking there.

It’s the foul smell coming from the corrupted beasts. Seeing that the smell was so strong, Jeremy’s eyes wandered around before his gaze fell on the sewer entrance.

”There is a drainage tunnel underground,” Jeremy thought.

He immediately made a decision. He walked up to the drainage cover and removed it. Then he looked around before going downstairs.

After touching the concrete, he looked around the surroundings. Since the city was ruined a long time ago, the drainage tunnel had dried out and become the home of the Corrupted Beasts.

He wondered whether he would find a large number of Corrupted Beasts. Now, he could start the hunt here. There was a dim light coming from the drainage cover, slightly illuminating the tunnel inside.

Jeremy began walking inside. Not long after, he heard a noise coming from the depths of the tunnels. He decided not to stray far from the tunnel cover where the light was coming in.

At least he could confront and fight against the monsters in the somewhat dim light.

Shortly afterward,

Rustle!

A Red Rat rushed out from the shadows. Jeremy’s eyes flickered. The Rat Beast was red in color, and its size was small compared to a Tier-1 Red Rat Beast.

”It’s just a Tier-1 Beast,” Jeremy’s mouth curved into an arc.

He then took out his katana to slash.

Slash!

A single cut made the Beast’s body separate from its head. Jeremy then stored the decapitated head and began to wait for other Beasts to appear.

The blood of the dead red rat beast had a strong odor. The foul smell began to attract other corrupted beasts hiding in the tunnel.

It didn’t take much time for the other beasts to come out from the shadows.

Jeremy saw another corrupted rat beast. But this time there weren’t many. He began to channel the starlight energy silently.

As the energy ran through his body, it appeared outside of his palm and slowly covered the katana blade. Jeremy noticed that the charging Rat Beasts were also Tier-1 Beasts, so he was not afraid of dealing with them alone.

Swoosh!

A Rat Beast leaped towards him. Jeremy effortlessly sliced it downwards. The tip of the blade penetrated the neck, severing the life of the beast instantly.

The next second, his katana moved in a parabolic arc. The blade sliced the neck of another beast. One by one, the Tier-1 Corrupted Beasts wanted to swarm him.

But Jeremy cut down the lives of the beasts with ease. He was fine as long as Tier-2 Beasts didn’t make an appearance. Tier-2 Corrupted Beasts have the strength to hurt him while he is in the Tier-1 stage.

So he wouldn’t underestimate them.

Time passed,

The Tier-1 Beasts remained surrounding him. He didn’t know the exact count of how many he had killed so far, yet the number of rat beasts didn’t seem to be decreasing.

Jeremy had a feeling that there was a Tier-2 Beast behind it. Otherwise, it was difficult to explain this many Tier-1 Beasts with no Tier-2 Beasts in the tunnel.

Considering that the tunnel was safe from outside attacks, rarely would these monster lairs have faced extinction threats.

About 20 minutes later,

Jeremy finally caught his breath as no more beasts came from the deep shadows. He couldn’t afford to fight a long time anymore.

Because the white mist inside the mental zone was almost depleted. He needed time to recover. Jeremy stared at the tunnel but saw no sign of another beast appearing anytime soon.

So he started decapitating the heads of the Tier-1 Beasts. As far as he knew, the Beasts had cores. They broke through when their cores evolved.

But their cores were only useful if they reached a certain tier. Especially Tier-5 and above, their cores could be used for various purposes.

That’s why the competition rule was to collect their heads only, because the cores wouldn’t have taken shape for the Tier-1 and Tier-2 Beasts.

Meanwhile,

The students were doing their best to hunt down as many beasts as possible. On the other hand, the University Patrol Teams were keeping an eye on the abandoned ruins’ border.

Since the competition had a 3-day period, some people were taking their time to hunt the beasts.

Outside,

The Department Instructors were watching the scenes. The Elements Department Beast Tamers were taking the lead, followed by the Control Department.

In both departments, the department representatives had a high kill count. Yet the beast tamers in the Control Department were lagging behind the Elemental Department.

Because Victor Scott was the only one using poison to kill a large number of beasts, while others were struggling. Because of this, the Elemental Department had taken the lead.

”What is he doing in the tunnel?” Jacob thought.

Everyone saw Jeremy go down to the underground tunnel, but nobody knew whether the Corrupted Beasts were there or not.

They didn’t have arrangements to show what was going on inside the tunnel. While other departments started increasing their kill counts, they still didn’t know about Jeremy’s count.