Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons

Chapter 854 - Taming the Fifth Year - Hidden Depths

Whatever the messages reported required Selphiraʼs immediate attention, interrupting plans to observe the final battle between Ren and Luna that promised to be equal or more spectacular than what theyʼd just witnessed.

Terrible timing robbing anticipated pleasure sheʼd been waiting for. The finals were supposed to be her reward for investing so much into both Ren and Liora. And now duty was stealing that reward.

She sighed deeply, exhalation releasing strain while accepting the inevitability of responsibilities that couldnʼt be postponed regardless of personal preferences.

”At least I got to see how far my granddaughter goes,” she said with a tone softening in genuine recognition of pride. ”Iʼm proud of her.”

And then she added with a small smile suggesting approval going beyond simple battle achievement: ”And in the end my granddaughterʼs tastes arenʼt bad, so I can be proud of both in the end if she manages to catch him...”

Her eyes glinted with amusement. Matchmaking instincts alive despite the new crisis.

If her granddaughter managed to unite with Ren Patinder eventually, it would be a different but more valuable victory than any combat arena triumph. She and Zhao withdrew without additional elaboration, moving with urgency making clear that whatever they needed to attend didnʼt permit prolonged delay.

Several spectators watched them leave with curiosity, but most were too absorbed in celebrating the epic battle theyʼd just witnessed to worry about the departure.

Important people leaving meant important business elsewhere. That was normal. The exam would continue.

♢♢♢♢

Zhao was in the World Rift now, that massive chasm separating Yano and Yino territories and serving as the natural border between the two cities.

The depth here was considerable, gold rank deep at this location. Maybe 900 to 1000 meters deep. Hard to judge when you couldnʼt see the top or bottom.

And throughout, monsters nested in the darkness.

The air was different here, hotter, damper... Carrying that smell of deep earth and old stone that made humans instinctively uncomfortable. This was not a place for surface dwellers.

And there, emerging from the lateral tunnel connecting to deeper sections, came a flying blind beast from the depths.

It was one of the Shadow Stalker line evolution variants plaguing the Riftʼs lower levels, a Gold 1 rank creature that had evolved to live without needing light in an environment where darkness was absolute constantly.

Maybe 15 meters wingspan. Body covered in black transparent fur, thermal sensing instead of visual. Eyes vestigial, sealed over with skin and scar tissue from disuse.

Its membranous wings beat the air with sound that made more vibration than audible noise, echolocation allowing it to navigate three-dimensional space with precision eyes would never achieve in these conditions.

And it had detected Zhaoʼs presence as an invader in a territory it considered its own.

The screech it released was subsonic, felt in the chest rather than heard with human ears. Most humans would have panicked. Most tamers would have struggled.

But Zhao, being a double fuser with his second beast already superior to the first, no longer struggled with creatures of this caliber.

What would have been a dangerous battle for comparable-rank tamer converted into an efficient extermination executed with minimum wasted effort.

His now white and black feathers manifested and destroyed the beast in an exchange lasting less than 5 seconds, surgical precision of shots not permitting unnecessary delay.

Five projectiles… Five critical strikes that severed connections to the wings, punctured the brain and destroyed the rib cage with the creatureʼs ability to echolocate.

The Beast fell without even understanding what had killed it.

Zhao didnʼt watch it fall. Didnʼt need to verify. When youʼd killed as many creatures as him, you knew when death was certain.

He went a bit lower and then entered through a tunnel that had been created by high level earth tamers, a passage in Gold-rank depth but on Yinoʼs side instead of Yanoʼs side where more explored territories normally extended.

There he encountered the Qilin, that majestic beast belonging to Julius.

The creature waited at tunnel intersection, presence communicating it had been monitoring Zhaoʼs approach and verifying his identity before permitting additional access.

The Qilin was impressive even in the darkness. Scales that seemed to absorb and reflect light simultaneously, creating subtle glow even in near-total darkness.

Its eyes were intelligent… Too intelligent. Looking at Zhao with an assessment that went beyond animal instinct.

Zhao thought to himself that heʼd known theyʼd find the entrance in an outer zone of Goldcrest territory. Looking at the location, he considered it slightly more distant than expected but within his projections.

Maybe 150 kilometers from the last known rebel position, maybe 200... Far enough to have avoided casual discovery but close enough to be strategically relevant.

He nodded toward the Qilin in acknowledgment, a gesture the beast returned with head movement indicating he should follow.

Julius had clearly sent his beast to guide Zhao toward the specific location instead of risking confusion in a tunnel network extending in multiple directions like a yellow and purple labyrinth.

The tunnels down here were half colored by the crystallized corruption. Purple veins were still dominating. The deeper you went, the more purple dominated until yellow disappeared entirely.

But apparently theyʼd discovered the location of what theyʼd been searching for in Yinoʼs depths, something significant Julius and Arturo had been seeking for considerable time but hadnʼt been able to find because purple crystallized corruption roots tended to obstruct many routes under Yino.

The corruption wasnʼt just aesthetic. It was a structural barrier, growing through rock like cancer through tissue. Some passages were completely sealed, requiring weeks of careful excavation to go around.

But theyʼd found it.

And what theyʼd found was important enough to interrupt final exams and require Zhao personally support Julius in investigating.

The implications settled heavy in Zhaoʼs mind. If something was important enough to pull both him and Selphira away from overseeing the academyʼs most prestigious event, important enough to risk leaving students with only secondary supervision...

This wasnʼt routine exploration. This was crisis-level discovery.

And if Victor had encountered problems, Julius couldnʼt remain alone with the exploration team.

A double fuser was powerful. A double fuser with backup was unstoppable. A double fuser alone and ambushed like Victor was now potentially vulnerable.

Whatever had gotten Victor… Zhao still struggled to imagine what could have gotten him, but it might get Julius too if he operated without support.