Time had flown by, and it was now the afternoon of the third day of the assessment.
Shangguan Mo and his group of over ten people had already been traveling for half a day, covering a considerable distance towards their mission objective.
Their homeroom teacher, Inoshita Riya, pulled a map from his pocket and called his team members to gather around him.
He scanned their dozen or so youthful faces with a heavy expression, feeling an immense pressure in his heart. What he was thinking about now was not how perfectly they could complete this mission.
He only wanted to bring these little ones, who were barely ten years old, safely back to the Village!
"Our target destination is Spring Grass City, over a hundred li away. I heard that traces of Evil God Cultists were once found there, and our mission is to track their whereabouts.
For you all, it's quite a distance, so we need to be conservative with the operational supplies allocated by the Village."
Shangguan Mo nodded in agreement and subconsciously inventoried the items they had brought for this mission.
For food, they only had some compressed biscuits. Expensive items like military rations were indeed procured in small quantities by the Village, but they wouldn't give such things to Shangguan Mo and the others, who weren't even Ninja yet.
Besides compressed biscuits, his backpack also contained two bottles of water and a roll of bandages.
In the Ninja tool pouch tied to his right leg, there was also a genuine Kunai and several Shuriken.
Touching the equipment on his body, Shangguan Mo felt a little more at ease.
But then he smiled bitterly; this was the sorrow of a small Ninja Village, the resources were truly too poor.
He hadn't expected that they couldn't even arrange a military ration pill.
Seeing everyone gathered around, their homeroom teacher, Inoshita Riya, pointed at the map and said,
"We must head northwest."
Murakami Rin asked, puzzled,
"Teacher, isn't our mission location Spring Grass City in the north? Why are we heading northwest?"
Shangguan Mo, however, frowned as he stared at the map.
"The northern area is vast and sparsely populated, so the Evil God Cultists are unlikely to stay there. On the contrary, the western part of the Land of Hot Water is full of agricultural areas, and the Evil God Cult might indeed appear there next…"
Listening to Shangguan Mo's muttering, his classmates sitting around him looked at him in surprise. They were all third-year students at the Ninja Academy, so how could Shangguan Mo think of so much?
However, they then turned their gaze to their teacher.
Inoshita Riya glanced at Shangguan Mo with some surprise and nodded slightly under the students' inquisitive gazes.
"Student Shangguan Mo is correct, that is indeed the reason. This is also the Village's arrangement. For the rest of the journey, everyone must remain vigilant at all times. We are already far from the Village, and those Evil God Cultists could appear at any moment!"
"Yes!"
…
Facing this unprecedented out-of-Village experience, most of the surrounding classmates, with the exception of their homeroom teacher and a few rational students, had excited and stimulated expressions on their faces.
They didn't know what kind of existence the Evil God Cult they might encounter next truly was!
However, a strong sense of crisis suddenly rose in Shangguan Mo's heart. The desperate cries of the Qinghe Village villagers lingered in his mind like a nightmare.
He had personally experienced the cruel methods of the Evil God Cult followers. Facing the innocent Qinghe Village villagers, those guys were also cruelly ruthless, as if their existence was solely for slaughter, to feel the despair and fear emanating from others' eyes as they died.
This lingering sense of crisis made Shangguan Mo feel incredibly suppressed. He had barely escaped the pursuit and survived, and this second life made him feel extremely precious.
So he prepared to synthesize another Summoning Beast.
He, who couldn't even use the Three Body Technique, truly didn't know how to face the inhuman existences of the Evil God Cult.
"I have an offensive Summoning Beast, and I have a supportive Summoning Beast. Facing the potential battles ahead, it's time to arrange for a defensive Summoning Beast as well."
Shangguan Mo murmured to himself.
"The most pressing matter now is self-preservation, and the Land of Hot Water is a plains region, so defense… earth, perhaps…"
He looked at Li, who had been by his side. Her frail figure also carried a somewhat faded backpack.
"Li, what animal do you think has the strongest defensive ability?"
Facing Shangguan Mo's sudden question, Li's small face clearly froze. After thinking for a while, she said with some uncertainty,
"It should be… a pangolin, right?"
Shangguan Mo nodded; he thought so too, but he wasn't sure if he could find such an animal.
"If it really doesn't work, how about trying a beetle?"
Immediately, he began to call out in his mind to the Earth Dragon Beast that had been staying in the soil beneath his feet.
"Little Dragon, go find me a pangolin."
He also touched the small iron piece in his Ninja tool pouch, having already prepared the method for this synthesis in his mind.
"Iron might have better defense, but earth might have higher compatibility with a pangolin…"
This time, Shangguan Mo planned to try iron and a pangolin first. If that didn't work, he would use earth and a beetle instead.
While his teacher and classmates were resting, Shangguan Mo quietly moved away from them.
He didn't stop until he had walked several hundred meters, completely out of sight of the others.
At this moment, Shangguan Mo felt a faint vibration coming from beneath his feet, but he paid it no mind.
Sure enough, a few seconds later, the Earth Dragon Beast emerged from the ground in front of him.
As if it saw Shangguan Mo's expectant gaze, its upright body swayed slightly, and Shangguan Mo immediately understood what the creature meant.
"Didn't find one!"
Feeling a slight regret, Shangguan Mo no longer hesitated and opened the system.
"Iron" + "Beetle" = ???
compatibility: 50%
"No, the compatibility is too low. The success rate of synthesis probably won't be high either."
Shangguan Mo frowned deeply. He had placed great hope on this synthesis and could not afford to fail.
He put the iron block he was holding in his left hand back into the Ninja tool pouch, casually scooped up a handful of dirt from the ground, and looked at the system again.
"Earth" + "Beetle" = ???
compatibility: 90%
Material: Earth, Quality (White)
Creature: Beetle, Level (E)
Synthesis Success Rate: 100%
"A 100% success rate, this is the first time I've seen that."
Shangguan Mo was speechless, but there was nothing he could do. He had no other choice now.
He directly clicked "Confirm Synthesis"!
Visibly, the dirt in his left hand gradually disappeared into thin air, while the black beetle in his right palm was slowly covered and enveloped by a brown layer, gradually forming a small cocoon emitting a yellow glow.
A few seconds later, the yellow glow on the small cocoon gradually faded, and a small brown creature emerged from within.
Summoning Beast: Earth Beetle
Level: E
Species: Coleoptera Insect
Attribute: Earth
Ability: Earth Wall (The Earth Beetle is naturally attuned to earth and possesses the ability to simply manipulate soil. It can quickly gather and solidify nearby soil to form a defensive Earth Wall.)
Invisibility (Passive): On the ground, it can hide its body to avoid being discovered by natural enemies, appearing to perfectly blend with the surrounding soil.
System Evaluation: Small but capable!