The heavy dark clouds completely obscured the moon and starry sky.
In the uninhabited lakeside marsh, it was pitch black, visibility at zero.
In the center of a foul-smelling mud pit stood a semicircular reef, over five meters tall and covered in slime. Numerous holes of various sizes dotted the reef, resembling the nest of some creature.
Dozens of blurry shadows flitted rapidly around the reef. Their bodies seemed to be wrapped in a large mass of slime, the combination of slime and shadow appearing utterly bizarre.
This nest had only been present for a few days, but no living creature remained nearby. All sufficiently large organisms had become sustenance for the growth of these shadows.
Yet, at this moment, these denizens of the foul mud pit acted as if facing a formidable enemy.
A red gleam appeared on the horizon, a scorching killing intent locking onto the nest behind them.
As the red gleam approached, the surroundings were finally illuminated, a bird's cry echoing through the area. The shadows finally discerned the nature of the red gleam.
It was a fiery bird, with a wingspan approaching ten meters and a long trail of flaming tail feathers!
The fiery bird emanated astonishing heat, causing the surrounding air to warp.
The black shadows lined up, using their bodies to shield the nest, spitting slime at the fiery bird.
This slime was highly toxic and extremely difficult to remove once it adhered to something, being several times more repulsive than flypaper.
However, the fiery bird neither dodged nor retreated. All the slime was vaporized by the intense heat before it could even touch the bird, turning into acrid smoke.
The fiery bird then ignored the shadows, which were on high alert, and swiftly flew past them. The shadows grazed by the fiery bird ignited in flames, turning to ash amidst their wails. Su Dan Novel Network.
The fiery bird directly slammed into the reef nest. Instantly, the slime on the reef combusted like gasoline.
Amidst the raging inferno, the fiery bird ascended, circling the reef a few times, occasionally fanning its wings to intensify the flames. The tremendous heat quickly dried out the foul mud pit.
After only a dozen seconds, a terrifying monster, wreathed in flames, burst from the reef nest, carrying a wisp of fire as it lunged towards the fiery bird.
This was its desperate struggle, but it was of no consequence to the fiery bird.
The fiery bird extended a claw, seizing the monster and pinning it to the ground. Its claw possessed heat comparable to a branding iron, and before long, the monster was left on the verge of death.
A moment later, the fiery bird's body dissipated into the air, replaced by a somewhat disheveled middle-aged man.
This man was Gong Bao Ding.
He was the leader of a hunter squad from a nearby city, and this marsh was within his jurisdiction.
Gong Bao Ding sighed, "When I heard about the emergence of a mother slime shadow monster with disaster-level strength, I held a sliver of hope, but… you are simply too weak."
The slime shadow monster glared resentfully at Gong Bao Ding. It had merely been hiding here to reproduce.
This individual had attacked and annihilated it without so much as a greeting, and now he was complaining about its weakness?
However, the slime shadow monster had no opportunity to retort. A black chain, like a living entity, emerged from Gong Bao Ding's hand, binding the mother slime shadow monster. Subsequently, the slime shadow monster vanished along with the chain, having been confined within the containment facility.
The chain then encircled Gong Bao Ding himself, and he too entered the containment facility, arriving in the disaster zone.
Normally, when he passed through here, the incorrigible monsters would constantly yell at him or utter obscenities.
But today, these monsters were unusually quiet, all staring at a mirror as if anticipating something.
With the monsters' harassment absent, Gong Bao Ding enjoyed the tranquility. He quickly proceeded to the slime shadow monster's cell and began recording the monster's information on the information card at the cell's entrance.
Listing the monster's basic information at the entrance was not a mandatory requirement of the containment facility, but most containment officers, with the exception of Wen Wen Yi, adhered to this practice.
Name: Mother Slime Shadow Monster
Rank: Lower Disaster
Abilities: Reproduces juvenile slime shadow monsters, projects slime, shadow stealth…
Remarks: Juvenile slime shadow monsters born from this monster possess strength equivalent to half a domestic goose, but they can parasitize humans and other sufficiently large creatures' shadows through their slime, drawing nutrients from the host via the shadow. After draining the host, the juvenile slime shadow monster transforms into an adult slime shadow monster, possessing the strength of a weak disaster-level threat. However, adult slime shadow monsters do not act independently, only guarding their mother.
Many monsters or contained objects have derivatives, whose strength is sometimes less than that of ordinary humans. Therefore, the containment facility also has a system for classifying the strength of such monsters.
The combat power of one human is equivalent to two dogs, and the combat power of one dog is equivalent to two geese. Although not entirely precise, it offers a certain degree of reference, albeit appearing somewhat peculiar.
After inputting all the information, Gong Bao Ding felt a surge of power enter his body, a feedback from the containment facility for his monster-capturing actions.
Alas, this level of feedback was no longer useful to him.
The feedback from capturing monsters only allowed Gong Bao Ding to approach his bottleneck faster, saving some accumulation time, but it could not elevate him to a higher tier.
As the first containment officer to join the facility, Gong Bao Ding had long ago become a mid-tier superhuman and had already touched the bottleneck of the upper tier.
But to achieve further progress, the meager improvements gained from capturing monsters were entirely insufficient.
He needed a catalyst to break through his bottleneck, a catalyst that might be a special encounter or a formidable opponent, but such a catalyst was not easily found.
As the head of a city, Gong Bao Ding's current strength was enough to crush the minor and major monsters that typically appeared. His jurisdiction rarely presented monsters that he found challenging.
Furthermore, he had a duty to fulfill as captain and could not simply leave to seek out and battle other powerful monsters.
For this reason, he had applied for the Wandering Hunter assessment, aiming to become a Wandering Hunter.
However, the assessment for Wandering Hunters had fixed timings, and finding the next junior captain would also take time.
This meant that Gong Bao Ding would have to remain in his current position for at least several more months.
Nonetheless, before becoming a containment officer, Gong Bao Ding had been stuck at a certain realm for many years, so he could wait for a few months.
"You sloppy guy, you just caught a monster too? What a coincidence."
"Ew… this monster is so ugly."
A petite figure clad in a black robe stood beside Gong Bao Ding, looking at the mother slime shadow monster with disdain.
Holding a large bucket of popcorn provided by the containment facility, she shoveled it into her mouth while nudging Gong Bao Ding with her elbow, shoving a packet of preserved radish into his hand.
The slime shadow monster covered its face, wishing it could find a crevice to burrow into.
It had merely been at home raising its young, and now it had been captured and brought here, only to be called ugly…