Chapter 243: Chapter 243. Job Levels of the Specialists

Amon went to the Silk Street District. He came to a large building with the entrance guarded by two tough-looking guards. These two tough-looking guards opened the door for him to enter.

The thugs opened the door because he wore a tight full-body black suit and a demon mask. His demon mask was different from the ones worn by the other members of the Demon Gang. His mask had golden lines forming a demon face. Those who saw his mask knew he was the leader of the Demon Gang.

Amon walked through the building without needing to be told the direction. This was because it was not his first time inside this place. He passed through several storage rooms that housed dead spirit beasts. Staff were moving some of these corpses to another room, where they were processed using various equipment.

This place was the spirit beast processing factory that Dao Se targeted. The two thugs guarding the entrance were members of the Sewer Snakes. Dao Se had struck a deal with the person in charge of this facility. They shared the profits from selling the illegally harvested spirit beast parts. The facility had its own security personnel. Dao Se added his men with the excuse of providing additional security, but the real reason was to keep an eye on the place.

Amon wasn’t given a share of the profits, but he was one of the regular clients. Amon took the spirit beast parts and used them to make various potions and weapons via the secret workshops operated by Ah Bin and the others.

Aside from selling their works to get aer stones to finance their operations, the workshops also provided many cultivation potions for members of the Vicious faction. These cultivation potions allowed the cultivation of the Vicious members to improve faster than the general freshman students. This, in turn, made many other students see the benefit of being a member of the faction and drew many more to join. By the end of these freshman years, the Vicious faction accounted for almost forty percent of the freshman students.

After walking through various rooms, Amon arrived before a guarded door. The cultivators who guarded this door were not members of the Sewer Snakes. Hence, they didn’t just let Amon pass. However, they knew Amon, or rather, his disguise. They asked him to wait while one of them informed the person behind the door about his visit.

Not long after, they gestured for Amon to enter. Behind the door was a large room that reminded Amon of a morgue. Corpses of spirit beasts were on different tables. Their harvested parts were stuffed inside several boxes beside the tables.

On one of these tables, a person was cutting up a spirit beast’s corpse. He stopped his work when Amon entered.

“Hey! What did I say about not wearing your mask when you are here?” The person called. This person was Mu Sou, the specialist in charge of this facility.

Amon took off his mask. Like Dao Se, Mu Sou demanded he know Amon’s identity before he was willing to work with Amon.

After seeing Amon’s face, Mu Sou asked, “What do you want? It’s not yet the time we sell the parts.”

“I’m here for another transaction,” Amon answered. “A personal one. We can leave the Sewer Snakes out of this.”

“Oh? Are you not afraid Dao Se might be unhappy about this?”

“I don’t care what he feels. This has nothing to do with him.” Amon took out the corpse of the Jue Ogre and placed it on one of the empty tables. He originally planned to use this corpse as proof that the Jue Ogre existed. But since there was more than one Jue Ogre and the others had seen the beasts, he no longer needed to hand this corpse to the academy.

“A Jue Ogre…?” Mu Sou came and studied the corpse. “What a specimen! A higher superior beast is nothing rare, but a Jue Ogre is. Where did you get this?”

“Does it matter?” Amon replied.

“No, it does not. Hm… I assume you want its parts?” Mu Sou asked.

“If I cut this up myself, I will waste a large portion of valuable parts,” Amon said.

“That’s true. It will be such a waste, considering how rare this beast is. I can help you cut it up, but what do I get from this?”

“I can pay you,” Amon answered.

“Normally, that is an acceptable term. But considering this specimen is such a rare one, I would like to make a counteroffer.”

“I’m listening,” Amon said.

“The internal organs of the Jue Ogre can indeed be used for many applications, but its most important value is the chance to study a spirit beast’s evolution,” Mu Sou said. “As you are surely aware, some spirit beasts can evolve into different beasts to increase their grades. Those who can evolve more than once are rare. Moreover, Jue Ogre’s evolution is said to be influenced by external factors. I have already dissected enough Jue Monkeys and Jue Apes to know their evolutionary method. If I can study these Jue Ogre, I might learn what makes them evolve. This is precious knowledge.”

Amon could show him the Primordial Blue Lotus and save him the trouble, but Amon didn’t do that, of course.

“The advancement of spirit beast study isn’t my concern,” Amon stated.

Mu Sou chuckled. “I don’t find that strange. As I have said, what’s important for my study is the internal organs. I believe for you, cultivators, its hide is most valuable. Since you have this corpse, I assume you have seen it in action? It has an extremely resilient constitution. Even high-tier engraved weapons have trouble piercing its skin unless supported by powerful arts. If you can make armor from its hide, it will serve as excellent protective equipment. Now, looking at this specimen, its hide is mostly intact…”

Mu Sou turned the corpse around, inspecting its condition. “So perfect… I cannot see any wound except for its eyes. Did you kill it only by hitting it in the eyes or… Oh! I see it now…”

Mu Sou saw the Jue Ogre’s half-penis. He gave Amon an impressed look. He then resumed, “With such a perfect hide, I can harvest enough hide to turn it into a half-body armor for two people or a full-body armor for one.”

When Mu Sou saw Amon ponder his offer without saying anything, he added, “To process this level of a hide, you will need an expert-level smith. I don’t believe you know any smith with that expertise?”

“Expert-level? I thought to process the materials from superior-grade beasts, one only needs to be at the skilled level?” Amon asked in return.

Like art mastery, a specialist job like pill master, talisman master, smith, and others had five classifications: beginner, skilled, expert, master, and grandmaster. A Beginner specialist could mostly process materials that came from inferior beasts. Skilled specialists processed superior beasts’ materials. Expert specialists were for mythical beasts. Master for primordial beasts. As for the materials from deity beasts, only a grandmaster-level specialist knew how to process them.

Amon learned about this from the theory classes. He once asked the teacher who was giving the lecture whether anyone had ever gained the materials from a deity beast for the grandmaster specialists to process. The teacher answered that there were none. Nobody had ever encountered a deity beast in the recorded history of Aetheria. Primordial beasts were also never accounted for. Only mythical-level beasts were known to exist in Aetheria. Even they were extremely rare and mostly lived in places far away from human settlements.

Hearing that, Amon asked how one knew a grandmaster specialist could process the materials from a deity beast, considering no one ever gained such materials in known history. The teacher explained this classification came from the writings of past epochs, where most recorded history had been lost.

In the same case, the teacher explained there had never been a specialist who had been classified as a master-level specialist. No one ever got materials from a primordial beast, so there was no means to prove that they had achieved the master level.

“A skilled-level smith can indeed process most materials from superior beasts,” Mu Sou said. “However, this Jue Ogre is very rare. I dare say that in our history, those who got their hands on such a specimen can be counted on one hand. From the records I have read about these few smiths, I suggest you look for an expert-level smith. Skilled-level smiths would only make a mess of this precious material.”

“I don’t know a smith of that level,” Amon said. The specialists from his faction were all beginner levels. He did hire a few skilled-level specialists to help Ah Bin and the others in his secret workshops. As for Expert-level specialists, they mostly worked for the kingdom.

“In that case, you should take my offer,” Mu Sou said while grinning. “I know an expert-level smith. I can ask him to work on this Jue Ogre’s hide. I will cover the expense. In exchange, you give me all the rest of this Jue Ogre.”

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