The wheel slowed down and eventually stopped on Shang's next opponent.
It was a Pest Cat, but it had several things that didn't fit the image of a normal Pest Cat.
First of all, it had long eyelashes, which showed that it was very feminine.
It also had a big belly, which reminded Shang of a pregnant woman.
Lastly, it wore a dainty crown.
Shang quickly realized what beast this picture symbolized.
He hadn't seen one yet, but these beasts were worth a ton of money.
It was Pest Queen.
Pest Queens were the main source of the Pest Cat problem.
When a Pest Cat reached the General Stage, it had a chance of evolving into a Pest Queen.
A Pest Queen would abandon its agility in exchange for ranged abilities and vastly increased fertility.
Pest Cats only had six children per pregnancy in general.
Pest Queens, on the other hand, could store sperm from male Pest Cats like ant queens, and they could endlessly birth Pest Cats as long as they had enough food.
Its children would catch all the food for it while having children of their own from time to time.
One Pest Queen could produce as many children as 30 Pest Cats!
'Luckily, they are not great in direct combat. Their danger comes from their fertility and their army of Pest Cats,' Shang thought.
'But that was to be expected. After all, I am supposed to fight a weak Early General Stage beast.'
After a short moment, the Pest Queen appeared in the distance.
It looked similar to a Pest Cat, but it had a gigantic belly, and dark shadows swirled around its body.
The jester lifted its hammer again and struck the bell.
The Pest Queen noticed Shang and screeched a warning while slowly walking backward.
Shang readied his sword and exploded forward.
When Shang was only 50 meters away, the shadows around the Pest Queen's body began to shoot at Shang like living missiles.
'Each shadow is filled with Darkness Mana, and when hit by it, the target will lose a lot of life energy.'
The shadows were quite fast, but they weren't as fast as the Spells all the Adepts had unleashed on Shang.
Over the last month, Shang had focused his entire training on being able to evade devastating attacks, and he had become very good at it.
Shang swayed to the side, barely evading the shadow.
Then, the second shadow appeared, and Shang evaded it too.
In comparison to Mages, the Pest Queen couldn't unleash all its shadows in rapid succession. It could either release several at once or one every half a second.
Half-a-second was a short time for a normal human, but it wasn't as short for a General Stage warrior.
Shang evaded several shadows and came closer to the Pest Queen.
'Without the procedure, my body wouldn't be fast enough to evade its attacks that easily. I would need to fight from a safe distance and exhaust the Pest Queen of Mana.'
'It would be about as hard as fighting the Trash Bird back then. I would probably be able to win, but the fight would still be quite close.'
As Shang evaluated his newfound power, he basically danced through the shadows the Pest Queen shot at him.
In comparison to evading all the Adepts' spells, evading the Pest Queen's ability was easy.
When Shang was only ten meters away from the Pest Queen, it suddenly turned black and seemingly melted into the ground.
'There it is. That's its Shadow Escape, the very reason why Pest Queens are so hard to find.'
No more shadows shot at Shang, and the Pest Queen fully vanished.
It was like it had never been there.
Shang closed his eyes and concentrated on the Darkness Mana in the air.
Shang's world was bright, and there wasn't much Darkness Mana inside it. If Shang had still been at the Soldier Stage, he wouldn't have been able to see his surroundings with Darkness Vision.
But now, as a General Stage warrior, Shang could somewhat perceive his surroundings, even during the day.
Shang could feel the general direction of the Pest Queen.
The Pest Queen was obviously a beast with a Darkness Affinity, and Shang could feel it.
Right now, it was rapidly fleeing into the distance.
Shang followed the Pest Queen but kept around thirty meters between them.
After some seconds, the Pest Queen changed its direction, but Shang kept following it.
Five seconds later, it changed directions again.
Shang kept following it.
Splash!
Suddenly, like it was emerging from a pool, the Pest Queen reappeared, and it screeched at Shang.
Shadow Escape used up a boatload of Mana, and over half its shadows had disappeared.
Then, ten shadows shot at Shang at once.
It was like the Pest Queen had shot at Shang with a shotgun.
This was exactly why Shang had kept some distance between him and the Pest Queen.
Shang quickly jumped away and barely evaded the shadows.
'Without the procedure, I would have been hit by at least one.'
Shang charged forward again, and the Pest Cat unleashed more shadows.
This time, there were 20.
Shang managed to avoid them again.
'I would have been hit again. With that hit, I would have probably used up nearly all my Mana.'
The Pest Queen screeched loudly again, and it unleashed all its remaining Shadows, which were 30.
Shang barely avoided this barrage.
'I think this attack would have heavily injured me.'
Shang looked at the Pest Queen.
There were no more shadows swirling around it.
'But I think I would have won.'
Shang ran at the Pest Queen, and it only continued screaming at him.
When Shang reached it, it quickly attacked Shang with its claws.
However, in comparison to normal Pest Cats, the Pest Queen's attacks were slow.
Shang easily jumped over the claw and flipped over the Pest Queen, severing its head during the flip.
Shang landed, and behind him, the corpse of the Pest Queen collapsed.
'This would have been quite an intense and dangerous fight for my past self,' Shang thought.
Shang turned around and glanced at the corpse while the imaginary crowd cheered for Shang again.
'But the procedure has changed everything.'
'A fight that would have threatened my life in the past now only counts as a warm-up.'
'With this round won, I have matched teacher's score in the beast category. He never attempted the fifth level since he was afraid that he would die.'
'I mean, I understand him. I'm pretty sure I also wouldn't have tried the fifth level without the procedure or knowing that I couldn't die in the trial.'
'The last fight would have nearly killed me, and challenging the fifth level would have been stupid and suicidal.'
Shang sighed.
'However, in comparison to teacher, I have the advantage of having asked the right question and the procedure.'
'The Mages are only so powerful because they have thousands of years of progress. One outstanding Mage after the other solidified and strengthened the path of Magic.'
'Generations upon generations of geniuses have pushed the path of Magic to the absolute peak.'
'And now, thanks to the Dean, I get to feel a small part of this accumulated power.'
The wheel returned and began to spin.
Shang looked at the wheel.
'The fifth level also isn't my limit. Without the procedure, the fifth level would be nearly impossible.'
The wheel slowed down.
'This will be a fight that would have killed my past self.'
