However, when Fang Zhou walked out of the Goblin Cave and everyone saw the carnage on the livestream, all the observing cadets were utterly shocked.

"Damn! Why are there so many corpses out here? Fierce Rats? And Fierce Mosquitos? There must be at least a few hundred of them!"

"All hail the great Fang Zhou! No wonder he could sleep soundly until dawn; it turns out he already killed that many Demons last night."

"Indeed. Looking at these numbers, all the Night Demons near the Goblin Cave must have been wiped out by Fang Zhou! His strength is truly terrifying!"

"I just realized Fang Zhou's Hunting Points are already close to 300, more than double Meng Hongzhuang in second place. It looks like the No.1 Seed position is his for the taking!"

"How on earth did Fang Zhou fight last night? I really hope the instructors can edit the footage so we can witness it!"

In the fortress, an instructor's face filled with amazement. "Securing 260 points on the first day of solo hunting... has Fang Zhou broken the Sea City Military Academy's historical record once again?"

The female instructor, who had always been optimistic about Fang Zhou, flipped through the files in her hand and nodded with certainty. "That's right! The previous record was 170 points, set by Flame Dragon Knight Wen Jiu. That's a bit higher than our current batch's Natural Summoner, Meng Hongzhuang."

Another instructor shook his head slightly and added, "That's not a fair comparison. I remember Wen Jiu only achieved her 170 points after she was confirmed as the No.1 Seed. She received substantial resource support from the academy and broke through to Middle Rank Apprentice before entering the Cave for her first hunt. By that time, she had been Awakened for nearly four months. Right now, Fang Zhou, Meng Hongzhuang, and the others have only been Awakened for two months and haven't even received any seed training, yet they've achieved such excellent results. It just goes to show that the new generation will always surpass the old!"

An instructor chimed in, "Exactly! With a monster like Fang Zhou—cough, an exceptional student like him, perhaps our Sea City Military Academy can finally take first place in the upcoming recruit competition!"

At these words, the other instructors' eyes lit up. The military placed a high value on collective honor. As part of the military, Sea City Military Academy naturally pursued it as well. If they could cultivate this class of freshmen, including Fang Zhou and Meng Hongzhuang, to be outstanding and achieve good results in the recruit competition, they'd be able to hold their heads high when meeting their comrades. That wasn't even to mention the preferential resource allocation from the Federation that would follow.

Lu Hu coughed lightly, interrupting the instructors' excited speculation. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. I've heard that Dragon City Military Academy, Celestial City Military Academy, and Mountain City Military Academy have all produced some formidable freshmen this year. Names like Magma Monarch, Infinite Sword Saint, and Judgement Knight don't sound any less impressive than Fang Zhou's Undead Mage. Once the seed candidates are confirmed, we'll have to train this batch of freshmen hard!"

"Yes, sir!" the other instructors replied, nodding solemnly before turning their attention back to the candidates' battle livestreams.

「...」

Outside the Goblin Cave, Fang Zhou directed his Skeleton Army to clean up the spoils of war while he recorded his reflections and insights from the previous night's battle.

Aside from a more urgent need to find a method for even Apprentice-level Skeletons to form bone armor, I've also discovered one of my shortcomings. I don't have a cost-effective attack skill for dealing with small, agile Demons like the Fierce Mosquitos. Although Skeleton Arrow Rain is a useful Group Attack Skill, it's primarily designed for normal-sized Demons like Little Inferior Demons and Fierce Wolves. Using it against a swarm of Fierce Mosquitos just isn't cost-effective. If I could deduce a large area-of-effect (AoE) damage skill, something like Poisonous Fog Skill or Death Cloud Skill, dealing with small Demons like Fierce Mosquitos that rely on numbers would be much easier.

Fang Zhou jotted this thought down in his notes, then glanced at the current Hunting Points rankings. He was, of course, still in first place, and the ranks of Meng Hongzhuang, Gu Zhiqiu, and the others hadn't changed either. However, that dramatic kid, Ye Fan, had climbed another spot to 7th place.

Fang Zhou scrolled to the bottom of the list. As he expected, after the ordeal of the past day and night, 20 seed candidates had already been eliminated. He shook his head slightly. As their physical and mental energy drained, the remaining candidates' conditions would only worsen. The number of eliminations would likely continue to rise.

Fang Zhou looked up at his Skeleton Army. They had already neatly stacked the loot into a pile. He did a rough count: 150 Fierce Rat tails and 200 Fierce Mosquito proboscises. A small portion had been killed by him and his Skeleton Army, but the vast majority of the Demons had died fighting each other. Fang Zhou had really lucked out this time.

Based on the academy's buyback prices, these materials were worth at least 30 contribution points.

Fang Zhou packed the spoils into bags made of Slime skin, then tied them to one of the Skeletons. Next, he switched on the Hunting Recorder and confirmed the direction of the Thorn Jungle.

There were still two days left in the Cave Hunting, which should be enough time for him to search for the refining stone vein in the Thorn Jungle.

Thinking of those silver-gray Refining Stones fills me with motivation. He couldn't help but silently thank the Kobolds he had ground to dust.

「...」

Beneath the hills, the 'sky' was clear for miles. Fang Zhou led the Skeleton Army through mud and pools of blood, forging a path toward the Thorn Jungle.

The Thorn Jungle was quite far from the Goblin Cave, and it was unlikely they would reach it today. To save enough time for the subsequent exploration, Fang Zhou significantly increased his marching speed.

After passing through several abandoned ruins and eliminating a few Demons that served as a nice delivery of Hunting Points and Soul Power, Fang Zhou heard the yapping of Kobolds from around a corner in a patch of woods.

He peered around the corner and saw an open space in the middle of the forest. Tall trees completely concealed it from the 'sky' above. It was a medium-sized Kobold camp. Compared to the small Kobold camp he had destroyed yesterday, this one was significantly larger.

The camp's perimeter was fortified with numerous slanted wooden stakes. The corpses of several Night Demons were strewn about in disarray near the stakes. It appeared this place had also suffered an attack last night.

Over twenty Kobolds were barking wildly around several bonfires in the center of the camp, appearing quite jubilant. In the very heart of the camp stood a Kobold Warlock with bright red skin, who appeared to be the leader of them all.

Any other candidate who discovered such a large gathering of monsters would probably have retreated quietly. But for Fang Zhou, who had rested for a night and fully recovered his Spiritual Power, this was simply a rare grinding spot.

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