Qiu Ye danced around her room with a spear in her hand, it was incredibly comfortable in her grasp and it was almost like she was able to control it's weight and size by will. Although training in archery proved to be extremely useful, she couldn't shake off the years she trained using the spear which ultimately killed the Ancient Devil.
The spear was completely black other than the red runic engravings on the shaft. The blade was like a jagged lightning bolt. When Qiu Ye performed a basic forward thrust, the blade straightened and extended out. She felt stronger just holding the spear and all her elemental attacks turned black and was strengthened. As the shape of the blade suggested, seems like the spear was most compatible with lightning. When she threw the spear, it was even faster than her thunderstorm arrows (Winter named the skill).
The other viscount beast soul was a transformation beast soul. Transformation beast souls were not that rare, but often times they were pretty much useless because the change in the user's form made it so that they couldn't equip any other sorts of gear. This however was a humanoid transformation beast soul, more specifically a siren beast soul. A viscount level transformation beast soul was worth 10 other viscount beast souls, but Qiu Ye couldn't give up the benefits of using it. It boosted her general strength and also her control over water and sound. When submerged in water, he lower body transformed into a green scaled tail. Unlike a mermaid transformation, she was able to choose when she wanted legs and when she wanted a tail. The only down side to the transformation was that her fingers became webbed which made things slightly complicated but she could work with it.
She could wear her dire wolf armour over her siren transformation, while normally it would take a lot of energy keeping the transformation up but with Eternal Pulse Sutra as part of longevity, she basically had infinite energy. Plus the shield still fit over her arm even with the extra fins. With everything equipped, she could probably take a few hits from king class fighters and beasts. Still not enough to fight them head on though.
In comparison to the average knight rank fighter, she was relatively strong. But she more than certain there were plenty of people stronger than her in her own rank. She may be making up for her flaws with skills, gear and general luck, but talented people with powerful bloodlines will always have an upper hand in the race for power. There was no doubt that she could hold her own and wouldn't get completely beat down but in a head on fight she wouldn't be able to defeat them.
Suddenly her tablet rang, a notification came up. Bai Jun had contacted her on Battleground.
"Got a job for you, pays well. You interested?"
"I'll meet you at the gate of Iron Forest, coming right now."
"Alright, see you there."
Luckily it was hunting week, Bai Jun packed her stuff and left for the in-between. As soon as she arrived at the warp gate of Iron Forest Sanctuary, she donned her disguise as Artemis with the cloak on and walked to the gate. Bai Jun was already there, with a small team of people. When he saw Qiu Ye walk up, he smiled and waved for her to go over.
"So, what have you got for me?"
"Got intel on a wounded duke class beast, it is guarding a nest with it's eggs. You have the best long range attacks we know, since we aren't strong enough to fight it head on even if it's wounded you're our best bet."
"Alright what are your terms?"
"You get the last hit on the duke class beast and a split of the eggs, I'm willing to pay for any of the stuff you want to part ways with."
"So what are these guys for?"
Qiu Ye pointed at the men surrounding Bai Jun.
"Don't worry, they're just for protection. Once you take out the beast they'll escort us into the next. They've already been paid so the eggs will be split half and half between us, you get to keep all the beast souls from the beast while I get the body. Sound fair?"
"Hmm. Alright but are you sure we can even hurt the beast? My strongest gear is only viscount level, I'd be glad to get the chance to get a duke class beast spirit but the plan doesn't sound super solid."
"It's alright, I've done some recon of your hunting trips. With that new spear you've been playing with, we could strike from a safe distance. I have a duke class mount, if things go sideways we can get out of there quickly."
"Are you stalking me? You know what? Whatever. Sounds good, when are we heading out?"
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"Well if you have time, we can go now."
Qiu Ye nodded. Bai Jun summoned his beast mount, it looked like a large black bear with golden eyes. His guards also summoned their mounts, they all looked like large ostrich like birds. Mostly likely gotten from breaking eggs which was why they were so similar. People often hunted for eggs instead of actual beasts because they had the possibility to provide a strong beast soul without having to fight the actual beast. The meats of beasts of earl and above provided nutrients that boosted training and also provided further experience for the class of the beast. If the only way people could gain experience was from killing the beasts, no one would have made it past the first level. Seems like the gods wanted to level the playing field.
The person who gets the last hit gets both the experience and the possible beast soul. In order for people to evolve and reach the second level, they had to get at least a total of 100 experience from any class. With a cap of 250 on each class, how strong someone's mutation from levelling up to the second level depends on how much experience of each class people got. In her past life, she didn't spend much time training the higher class experiences because she desperately needed the boost from evolution to survive.
Qiu Ye jumped up onto Bai Jun's mount, even if she equipped both the knight class wings and baron class shoes she wouldn't be as fast as the duke class mount. For now she was going to have to tag along with them. Qiu Ye didn't enjoy being outclassed and outnumbered, but if she was in a pinch and had to fight all of them she would at least get out somewhat intact.
"Autumn? Do you have an idea where the beast is?"
Winter stared at the map and looked around at the direction they were heading.
"Well considering how they claimed that the beast had eggs, that rules out all mammal type beasts. Since we're heading this way, we're going to be crossing cragrock canyon which I gave about 3 stars. The beast is most likely going to be there."
Qiu Ye tapped Bai Jun on the shoulder, he turned around.
"What can you tell me about this beast."
"Well we are unsure what exactly it is, we got a tip from a reputable source claiming that their scouts were killed when sent there. One scout managed to get back with an egg but died before being able to say anything so I'm honestly not sure."
"Doesn't sound very promising."
"From what we know, it's some sort of large reptile type beast. All we've seen is it using physical attacks but judging by the dry environment we have a hunch it has an affinity for either earth of fire. Both which doesn't have that great of a long range combat ability, so you don't have to worry from where we'll be sniping."
Qiu Ye nodded, the terms weren't the best but right now she was an unknown unaffiliated mercenary, doing these jobs would raise her fame which would land her better jobs. Bai Jun was already being very generous giving her the opportunity to go for a duke class beast. He also seemed like a good employer so she wanted to form a solid relationship.
Travelling by beast mounts, the trip was only about half an hour. They stopped at one of the peaks of the mountain range surrounding the canyon. With just hawk eye activated, her vision zoomed in on a plateau on the side of the steep cliff edge on the other side of the canyon. A large black scaled salamander looking beast walked back and forth in front of a cave entrance. It was obviously wounded, a large gash split open it's had scales across it's back. It also seemed to be slightly limping.
After securing the area around the peak they were at, Qiu Ye closed her eyes and focused. From where they were, the salamander was about 8 to 10 kilometres away. Just a normal projectile would not be able to hit it and even if it did the damage would be basically null. She however had the drill arrow technique, by using the wind to propel and control the arrow, she is able to push it a further distance. Another huge advantage with being control wind was that not only would she be able to hit the beast, the arrows would actually gain speed as it crossed the distance. The only problem was how far Qiu Ye was able to control the elements for, but that wasn't an issue for her since she was able to focus her area of control from a normal radius to a long stretch.
There was no space for error, even if injured the beast is still one of duke class. She was going to be using gear of much lower rank to attack it. Unless she gave it all, she might not even be able to scratch the beast's scales. Qiu Ye already had everything important equipped. She pulled off her cloak to reveal her dire wolf armour, siren transformation, wings and boots. She summoned her bow and strapped her spear to her back. For this to work she was going to need both of them.
Bai Jun and his men stood back. Bai Jun himself was yet to be a noble but his guards were at about viscount level. While he was of a wealthy family, they weren't major noble family rich. Having viscount level guards was already great enough but the richest of the rich were able to toss around duke, arch duke or even grand duke level fighters around to guard their children. They could feel the power brewing in the knight class fighter standing in front of them. While her gear and class weren't exactly impressive, the power she exuded could not be ignored.
As soon as the salamander turned around to reveal it's injured side, Qiu Ye had a run up and leaped into the air. The cliff edge cracked as the stone broke apart and displaced under the force of her jump. She fired on all cylinders and pushed every skill she had to the maximum. Time had essentially stopped for her, she calculated the force and trajectory needed to heavily damage the beast. With a deft twist with the help of her wings and shoes, she summoned her beast soul arrow and shot it out into the air. As it spun, it shivered and split into 5 identical arrows in the air, forming a ring. On the second spin, less than a second later, Qiu Ye's body snapped like a rubber band as her right arm went from behind her to next to her left hip and the black spear shot through the air. A streak of light shot across the sky like a shooting star, followed by a loud crack of thunder and a huge gust of wind echoed through the canyon.