After several minutes, Shang saw the Storm Eagle pass over Warrior's Paradise. From a distance, it looked even more magnificent.
As it flew over the Farm Line, the trees at the edges of the Wild Forest started to shake violently, and many of their branches broke off. A couple of trees even broke in half.
Today, Shang learned that the Storm Eagle was responsible for the divider between the northeastern and northwestern Wild Forest.
The people huddled in their houses in safety. If they were hit by that wind, they would be severely injured.
Luckily, the Farm Line was over two kilometers lower than Warrior's Paradise, making the wind much weaker. If the Farm Line were built at the same height as Warrior's Paradise, several houses would be destroyed.
Shang felt a sudden burst of wind, and he had to use nearly all of his power to not get swept up in it.
Fortunately, the wind only kept up for a couple of seconds.
The Storm Eagle quickly vanished, and silence returned to the Farm Line.
The Day of Chaos had begun.
Shang walked to his post to await his fight. He was at the very edge of the northwestern forest.
The hunters in front of him had been instructed by Vice-Dean Soran to let an Initial General Stage beast through.
Since the Day of Chaos wasn't a danger for the Farm Line, it also served as training for new hunters. It was nothing special for the experienced teams at the front to let a weaker beast through.
The most experienced and strongest hunters were at the very front. They specifically targeted the most powerful General Stage beasts.
Due to their strength, the weaker beasts generally ignored them.
Because of that, a kind of filter was created.
The most powerful beasts would be caught immediately and herded in the middle of the street. There, they would fight the most experienced hunters.
The weaker beasts would see that beings beyond their powers fought in the middle, which would make them go along the sides.
That's where the less experienced hunters were.
The Adepts were placed in the very middle, behind the strongest hunters. Only the more powerful beasts were an issue for the less experienced hunters, and the Adepts would take care of them.
Like this, a filter in the form of a spearhead was created.
The experienced hunters were the tip of the spear.
The less experienced hunters and Adepts were the bottom of the spear's head. They were essentially in a single line.
Then, a big space with nothing was behind them, representing the spear's shaft.
And the teachers at the very end symbolized the shield.
The spear pointed towards the south, and Shang was essentially at the bottom-right corner of the spear's head, just touching the northwestern forest.
And thus, Shang waited.
After a couple of seconds, Shang heard the explosion of a ballista firing in the distance.
Warrior's Paradise had already engaged the flying Commander Stage beasts.
Two minutes later, the fastest beasts showed up.
"Incoming!" the team at the very front shouted loudly.
Everyone was readying their weapons.
The fastest beasts tended to also be the strongest, and the spearhead immediately went into motion.
The most experienced teams charged toward the most powerful beasts and pushed them to the middle.
This was a difficult task, but the enemy wasn't overwhelming. The True Mages in Warrior's Paradise also dealt with most of the Peak General Stage beasts. They also killed several Late General Stage beasts.
The Mages would only truly ignore the Mid General Stage beasts and weaker.
Because of that, the initial wave didn't have many truly powerful beasts.
The hunters quickly gathered the beasts in the middle and began fighting them with practiced ease.
These teams had gone through many Days of Chaos, and they knew exactly what they had to do.
After gathering the powerful beasts, the most powerful five teams left the fighting area to observe the incoming horde.
Soon, the first Peak General Stage beasts would arrive, and it was their task to deal with them.
And sure enough, about five minutes later, the first ones arrived.
The most powerful teams took on the Peak General Stage beasts at the very center in the front.
The Late General Stage beasts fought behind them.
The Middle General Stage beasts were pushed to the side after the Late and Peak General Stage beasts had arrived.
Several teams were already in battle, but even more teams stood on standby. They took turns fishing out a beast that was to their liking.
One could imagine it like a big stone in the middle of a rapidly flowing river. On the big stone were cranes that continually picked out the biggest fish to eat, leaving only the little ones alone.
This was not a battle of survival but a hunt.
It was a harvest.
The less experienced teams jumped onto the Initial and Early General Stage beasts, letting absolutely nothing through.
Over ten minutes, no beast made it through the wall.
And then, one particular beast arrived.
The waiting teams looked at the beast with a disgusted frown.
They didn't want to deal with that one.
Why?
Two reasons.
One, it wasn't worth much. Its feathers were nice as souvenirs and accessories, but they were not useful for much else.
Its claws were not the most powerful claws. Sure, they could injure the opponent, but they were rather small and fragile, making them unfit for weapons and armor.
Its beak was the only valuable part, but it wasn't that valuable.
In total, the beast was maybe worth 350 gold.
With Initial General Stage beasts walking around that had a bounty of over 1,000 gold, 350 gold was laughable.
If they engaged this beast, they would miss out on something that had way more value.
Also, it was only at the Initial General Stage, making it even less desirable.
As the beast passed the last team of hunters, Shang's eyes lit up.
His target had arrived!
He wasn't here for the money but to gain experience.
Shang saw a grey bird running towards him.
Yes, not flying, running!
It looked a bit like a mixture between an ostrich and a crane. It had grey feathers all over its body, two powerful but thin legs, and a body that could best be described as slim-fat.
It was slim in some places, but it also looked fat in other places.
However, it also had a long beak, similar to one a crane would have.
When Shang saw the bird, the image of a fit lady with a huge ass popped into his mind.
'Great, it's a Trash Bird,' Shang thought with a bit of annoyance.
Yes, the name of the beast was literally Trash Bird.
Why did it carry that name?
Because it was a scavenger.
It was rather fast, and it very rarely hunted on its own. Rather, it would run across the Wasteland to search for any scraps of food.
It was surprisingly fast at grabbing the food. It could expand its beak to a terrifying degree. Then, it would quickly gulp up several kilograms of food, which would fall into its stomach, which was near its ass, surprisingly.
Since the Trash Bird mostly ate the unusable trash the hunters left behind after killing a beast, it got its name.
Trash Bird.
There were quite a lot of Trash Birds in the Wasteland, mainly because they weren't a danger.
They didn't like attacking hunters, and they kept the place relatively clean.
If that were all to them, they might even be on the blacklist.
However, they also sometimes wandered into the Wild Forest to get something easy to eat.
That cost them their place on the blacklist.
So, what was the second reason why nobody wanted to deal with the Trash Bird?
When the Trash Bird saw Shang's eyes, it screeched loudly and ran to the side into the Wild Forest.
It kept screeching as it loudly rampaged through the forest in a sprint, destroying one tree after the other.
The second reason?
It was fucking annoying.
