Absolute Death Game

If it had been him from before, adventuring in such a place would still pose some dangers, but now it had become quite easy for him. He hadn't encountered any particularly formidable beasts along the way, mostly deer and wild boars.

There was another rustling sound ahead, but Xiao Buli wasn't too nervous, guessing that it was probably a wild boar or something. However, out from the bushes leaped a small creature resembling a tiger but not quite one, a bit larger than a puppy but smaller than an adult leopard, its grey, nondescript fur making it easy to overlook.

What is this thing? Xiao Buli hadn't had the chance to get a clear look when the creature had already darted away, leaving only a vague impression of a grey-named beast.

He didn't pay much attention to it, reasoning that a grey-named beast definitely wouldn't be much of a threat. He had encountered them a few times before—either a wolf with a limp or an old leopard—all of them defective in some way.

Continuing up the mountain path, a large rock face finally came into view.

He could faintly make out a cave in the rock face, which was sleek and at least seven or eight meters tall, making it practically impossible to climb. No wonder the quest item was necessary.

As he thought about it, he opened his bag to check inside where he found five pieces of 'Fresh Wild Boar Meat', all bought from the auction house for the quest.

He placed the horn on his skill bar and blew it, but instead of a musical sound, a roar blasted out. In no time, a black and white striped White Tiger appeared on the edge of the rocks, looking majestic and imposing, far more beautiful than the tiger he had met in the Misty Forest last time. Now it looked down upon Xiao Buli like a king, its name—White Tiger (Mutated Beast).

Nice design! Xiao Buli thought, as he instinctively donned the Ethereal Armor. Accompanied by a tiger's roar, the White Tiger suddenly pounced down.

With a thud, the White Tiger slammed into Xiao Buli's Protective Shield, seeming stunned by the impact, and staggered back several steps.

Xiao Buli seized this moment to throw a piece of wild boar meat at it, while quickly ducking behind the Talisman Soldier, entering a passive state that wouldn't fight back as instructed by the strategy guide, which stated not to attack the tiger, or the quest would fail.

The White Tiger shook its head, sniffed the wild boar meat, but didn't eat it. Instead, it let out a loud roar and pounced once again.

Xiao Buli was startled—something was wrong. The strategy guide clearly said it would turn into a brown-red named beast after eating the boar meat. What was happening?

The Talisman Soldier was small and clearly couldn't block the White Tiger's attack. The tiger swiftly bypassed its interception and lunged towards Xiao Buli—leaping through the air.

With another thud, the pounce again struck solidly, and a swirling icon of dizziness appeared once more over the White Tiger's head.

In haste, Xiao Buli threw another piece of wild boar meat, but the tiger wouldn't even glance at it. As soon as it recovered, it charged again. This time, Xiao Buli's Ethereal Armor had just expired, and in one Claw Strike, the White Tiger slashed away more than 30 health points.

"Dammit, can this be right?" he hurriedly healed himself, dodging the next two Secondary Claw Strikes with an emergency evade. But the White Tiger kept on him relentlessly, taking advantage of its higher speed to Persistent Assault him. Its attack power was quite considerable, and Xiao Buli's Ethereal Armor simply couldn't last long with its cooldown time, leading to several close calls.

Watching his health points drop by nearly half, Xiao Buli decided he couldn't take it anymore. Whether he caught the pet or not didn't matter, he just couldn't let the White Tiger bite him to death.

He quickly ordered the Talisman Soldier to attack while activating Gale Sword Skills, Ethereal Armor, and Fire Blade Skills, healing himself and attacking the White Tiger with the Talisman Soldier in a flurry, finally managing to slay the creature after a fierce battle.

Looking at the corpse of the White Tiger on the ground, Xiao Buli was speechless (Why all this trouble when you could have simply been my pet?).

He frowned and said to Zhang Yaoyang, "Team leader, the strategy guide you gave is wrong. Why did this White Tiger keep biting me?"

Zhang Yaoyang said, "That's impossible. Are you sure you didn't attack it, or that your Summoned Creature didn't attack it?"

Xiao Buli replied, "How could I make such a basic mistake? Right from the start, I set the Talisman Soldier not to attack, and I put on the Ethereal Armor..." As he spoke, he suddenly remembered something. When the tiger had hit him, there had been a dizzy effect above its head. Could this be considered an attack? Stay connected via empire

Upon mentioning this, Zhang Yaoyang slapped his thigh, "That's probably the reason, then. If it doesn't work out, just wait until next week."

Xiao Buli thought about his misfortune and was about to leave when he reconsidered that the White Tiger's corpse shouldn't go to waste. The Master Leatherworker had given him a task, and even if he couldn't capture a pet this time, completing that task meant the trip wasn't entirely in vain.

While contemplating this, he approached the White Tiger and used his Dissection skill to carve up the body.

This Dissection skill was a Professional Skill he had learned to increase his Attribute Points, having only started practicing it yesterday and reaching level six so far. After the dissection, he obtained Damaged White Tiger Skin ×1, Tiger Meat ×3, Tiger Bones ×3, Tiger's Whip ×1, Tiger Tail ×1, quite a fruitful loot indeed.

These materials could be sold for some silver coins, making the trip not a total waste.