Chapter 33

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

“After you take it down to critically low health, you’ll have three chances to tame it…” The old Beast Tamer sounded as if he was acting for Su Mo’s benefit, rather than trying to scam his money.

“But isn’t it easy to tame monsters that have critically low health? Could it be that these Iron Eaters have very high levels?” Su Mo really did not want to buy another two Taming Scrolls. After all, taming usually only took one try unless the target was not an ordinary monster.

“You think it’d be so easy to tame the descendants of an ancient divine beast? I’m afraid that you’ll fail. Haven’t you heard of the catchphrase for divine beasts before?” The old Beast Tamer roared.

“I haven’t!”

“We will never be slaves!”

“That resolute?”

“You think I’d trick you? Think about it, if you’re lucky enough to tame it with one Taming Scroll, you can sell the other two, right?”

“200 gold coins for one, are you going to sell?”

“What kind of place do you think this is? How can you easily deviate from the official market price?”

“Didn’t you just say 300 gold coins for one and 550 for two?”

“Did I?”

“You did!”

“Ai, I’m old and becoming useless. Two for 550, take it or leave it; piss off if you don’t want it. There’s also a special technique for taming Iron Eaters, but I don’t think I’ll tell you anymore.” The old fellow actually looked a bit pleased.

“Fine, I’ll buy, alright?” Su Mo admitted his loss after hesitating for a moment.

“550, hand over the money!”

“Wait a bit, is your mailbox operational?”

“Of course, Partridge Camp has everything.”

Su Mo could only contact I Love Luo in frustration, “Old Luo, I want to buy more gold coins!”

“Old Iron, what’s going on with you? Did you get triggered by something?” After becoming familiar with Su Mo, I Love Luo began to just call Su Mo ‘Old Iron’ as his in-game name was Iron Steed.

“I’m also wondering what’s wrong with me. Once I’ve started spending money, I don’t seem to be able to stop.”

He felt like he was about to cry!

“Ai, brother, how much do you need?” I Love Luo sighed in sympathy.

“Give me 600 gold coins, I’ll send the money to you now. One gold coin for $60 right?”

“It’s $58 now, the price is different every day.”

Su Mo sent the money over and quickly received a delivery, and he took out 600 gold coins. The reason he bought an extra 50 gold coins was because he was almost out of money in the game; just the teleportation costs were a fortune.

He wanted to use a flying mount to save money, but he also wanted to finish this up before the Monster Tower appeared in the afternoon, so he could only spend money to save time.

After paying and receiving the two Taming Scrolls, Su Mo asked, “Mister Partridge, can you tell me the special technique now?”

The old Beast Tamer counted the gold coins in glee and did not even look up as he said, “Catch a few bamboo rats, fill them up with hallucinogenic potions, and throw them near the Iron Eater. Half an hour later, go and capture the Iron Eater.”

“Don’t they eat iron?”

“If there’s meat to eat, why the hell would they be willing to eat iron?!”

“Alright, alright. Also, can you do this to any pet? Put hallucinogenic potions in their food and throw the food near them to make them lose their battle power? If this could be done to Bosses, goddamn, Alchemist would be overpowered.”

The old Beast Tamer looked up at Su Mo condescendingly and said, “You have quite the imagination. Apart from Iron Eaters, how can any monsters be so stupid? Even if you use hallucinogenic potions, they won’t weaken their battle power and will only make them resist a bit less when taming.”

If they were that stupid, would they even make good pets?

The old Beast Tamer seemed to be able to sense Su Mo’s doubts and said, “Even though pets will retain some of their innate tendencies, after being tamed, they will become more and more like their owners. As long as you’re not more stupid than it, you’ll be able to make it more intelligent.”

“Thank you for your reassurances.” 

Su Mo let out a breath and bowed in gratitude. 

“If there’s nothing else, I’ll be going.”

“Good luck.” The old Beast Tamer blew on the last gold coin and waved his hand.

Iron Eater! Su Mo felt much anticipation, and after making some preparations, he headed to the Twilight Forest. It was just that he kept feeling that he was forgetting something. However, because of how excited he was, he could not figure it out.

The Twilight Forest was the largest forest in the Eastern Continent.

There were countless monsters within it, and even the boundary region had Level 30 monsters. The deeper one went, the higher level monsters they would encounter. Ordinary professions would not dare to go too deep within.

However, Su Mo was not an ordinary person; he was a Ranger.

After entering the Level 30 monster region, he sent out Lafu to scout. Lafu looked at him with displeasure before holding a piece of meat in his mouth as he went ahead.

Wolves had powerful senses and were stealthy, and they were very suited for scouting.

Of course, wolves could not compare to Shadow Leopards, which specialized in scouting. It was a pity that those things were trash in terms of Attack and Defense, and the Su Family’s Demon King was not so wanton as to spend a pet slot and Taming Scroll just for a scout.

Relying on Lafu’s reluctant sacrifices, Su Mo finally arrived at one corner of the forest.

The Twilight Forest had massive trees that covered the sky and made the lighting quite dim. There were many snakes and bugs, and let alone players, even NPC adventurers did not come here.

However, within this kind of place was an area described by the old Beast Tamer as a hidden utopia.

That area had clear streams and bamboo forests, and it was filled with sunlight. It was like walking from hell into heaven.

Finally, Su Mo saw the supposed Iron Eater.

“P-Panda…?” There were no words that could describe his emotions. He had never thought that this game would have pandas, much less that they would be the ‘Iron Eaters’ that sounded so powerful.

Indeed, there was an ancient term for pandas, which was ‘iron eaters.’ When King Chiyou had battled against the Yellow Emperor in ancient times, his mount had indeed been this beast.

As for pandas, Su Mo remembered something that had happened when he was younger.

Back when he was in high school, a transfer student from Sichuan had been assigned to his class and became his deskmate. Seeing that she was quite pretty and cute, he took care of her, so they had a good relationship.

When it was Su Mo’s birthday, the girl had asked Su Mo what he wanted for his birthday.

Su Mo thought about it and asked for a Sichuan specialty—a panda. The girl turned her face away and ignored Su Mo from then onwards.

Su Mo felt quite annoyed, feeling that Sichuan people were quite stingy.

Only after he grew up did he find out that pandas were rare and valuable and that not all Sichuan people had pandas.

Now, there was one in front of his eyes. It looked like a mature panda and was currently lying on a rock next to a stream, holding a piece of bamboo in its paws as it continuously gnawed at it.