Monster Paradise - Chapter 36

Chapter 36: On the peak of a snowy mountain

*Skree!*

The sparrow’s piercing chirp resounded in the snowy region, causing the snowy layer to tremble slightly. The geese fled even faster in response to the chirp.

This sparrow was nearly invincible with its Three-Star BlackIron strength. At least within this One Star Hinterlands, he was the top predator.

It withdrew its head slightly before lunging forward once more, attempting to peck at the exposed worm known as Lin Huang. Lin Huang immediately withdrew from the cave entrance and loaded up his armor piercing bullets.

He aimed at the entrance but did not fire.

The cave shook as the peck impacted the mountain face. Stones rained past the cave entrance as the sparrow’s attack took a large chunk out of the wall. The cave entrance had expanded significantly.

Despite the tremors, he calmly maintained his firing posture.

​

“Shirou, when he approaches the cave once more, bind his head and drag his eye to the cave entrance.” Lin Huang had already formulated a plan.

This feathered monster’s biggest weakness was its eyes. With its enormous size, its eyes were an even bigger target.

However, hitting its eyes once was easy, hitting it multiple times wasn’t. It would definitely dodge the second bullet, and given the armor piercing bullets’ firepower it was unlikely that the sparrow would be dead after one shot. Lin Huang had planned on getting at least 4 shots in, this way the chances of critically wounding the sparrow was high.

​

Noticing the damage done from impact of its peck, the sparrow realized the cave entrance was surprisingly brittle and continued pecking.

With each peck, the cave opening grew bigger and deeper forcing Shirou and Lin Huang to retreat further into the cave. Soon, the sparrow was able to directly see the pair from the outside.

This spurred its pecking as the anticipation of catching its prey fueled its ferocity.

Suddenly, a pair of blood ropes shot out of the cave and wrapped around its neck, forcefully pulling its head towards the cave opening till it finally collided with the mountain wall.

Sensing danger, it immediately struggled to break free of the bindings. However, it was at this moment that Lin Huang finally took action. He stepped up and before the sparrow could break free, aimed the gun at its eyes and fired off 4 shots.

*Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!*

Four thunderous gunshots echoed noisily in the cave as the bullets careened towards the giant eye of the sparrow.

​

Its left eye exploded in a rain of blood and gore. The struggling sparrow fell still as it breathed its last breathe and tumbled down the mountain as Shirou withdrew his blood ropes.

​

*ding* Kuro’s familiar system message appeared before Lin Huang’s eyes once again.

[Congratulations Master, You have attained ----- Monster Card Black Precipice Sparrow fragment x1]

[Master has killed a monster above his rank. Reward : 100% Bonus Reward Card x1!]

“The reward is not an advancement card?” Lin Huang recalled that his previous kills gave him advancement cards.

[The rewards are randomly chosen. The fact that you attained two advancement cards is merely a coincidence.]

“If only it would give me more Advancement Cards. I would advance both Tyrant and Shirou up to the Legendary rank. Ice King only mutated twice and he became that strong, if Shirou and Tyrant mutated four times, they would be invincible!”

[Summon Cards are limited by Master’s combat strength. If Master’s combat strength doesn’t improve, improving a familiar’s rarity is pointless.]

What Kuro really meant by this roundabout reply was : The reason why your familiars suck, is ultimately because you are still a scrub!.

​

Translated and Edited by Catato Patch

Lin Huang ignored Kuro and inspected his new card.

The card front was simply decorated with two separate piles of gold coins.

Lin Huang raised his eyebrows at this but flipped to the back nonetheless.

[100% Bonus Reward Card : After using this card, for the next 1 hour, rewards gained from killing are doubled.]

“It’s a pretty lackluster card. Maybe I’ll use it when I find a nice spot to farm monster card fragments.” Lin Huang mumbled to himself.

As he emptied the Gray Eagle’s magazine, the empty magazine fell to the ground with a thunk. He sighed at this sight, “I didn’t buy enough armor piercing bullets.”

He reloaded the eagle with normal bullets once more and stored it back in his Personal Storage Space.

Seeing as it was already dark outside, he had Shirou dug further in and made camp.

However given the small size of the cave, he couldn’t summon his favorite guard ogre so guard duty naturally fell on Shirou.

The night passed peacefully as Lin Huang slept soundly till 7 am in the morning.

His encounter with the geese had wasted his entire afternoon and he was determined to make up for that loss today.

After he finished his Fatty brand jerky and water, Lin Huang set off once more with Shirou in the lead.

He made good progress this time around, climbing 800 meters in 5 hours. After resting for a bit, he began climbing once more. Six hours later, he climbed a total 900 meters, reaching an altitude of 7,200 meters. He had 1,000 more to go before he reached the peak.

After resting for the night, he started on the last leg of his climb the next day.

“AHHH!! I’ve finally reached the peak!!!!” Lin Huang shouted into the distance as he stood atop the peak. In 8 hours, he had covered the last 1,000 meters.

This marked the end of his multi day climb up the Goddess Ridge. This also meant that the exam was as good as finished for him.

However, his happiness was short lived as a voice rang out from behind him, causing him to jump in surprise, “It’s just climbing a mountain, do you have to react so strongly?”

Lin Huang turned around and saw a short haired teenager dressed in a red trench coat. He seems to be the same age as Lin Huang but was slightly taller.

“Who are you?” Lin Huang asked in a surprised tone, “ The Hunter Association’s staff?”

“I’m like you, a candidate.” The teenager simply replied. “Was it you who fired those shots two days ago?”

“That’s right. That was me.” Lin Huang confessed. “ How did you beat me here? How did you get here?”

“I was here since the first day. It only took me two hours, riding my sparrow.” He replied as his eyes narrowed, “ If I’m not mistaken, my sparrow was killed by you?”

“You are a Beastmaster too? Why did you attack me?!” Alarm bells rang in his head as he heard that question.

“The reason is simple, I do not want anyone other than me to pass this exam so I camped at this spot since the first day and let my sparrow ambush anyone who tried to climb the mountain, forcing them to give up. But since you’ve made it here, there’s no point in me staying here.”

As he said this, he turned towards a tent in the distance and walked away, his voice trailed behind him as he continued, “I’ll get my revenge on you for killing my sparrow, but it won’t be now. Your vampire is pretty good but its master is too weak. Attacking you is beneath my dignity.”

He kept his tent and with a wave of his hand, a blood red bird soared into the air. It was a Blood Eagle. A mutated BlueCopper monster.

Lin Huang watch in envy as the teenager hopped onto the eagle and flew off into the abyss...