Chapter 62: Magical Materials

"Cool! I absolutely love you, A Mo."

Elisa, perched in the tree, was overjoyed and without hesitation swapped the bullets in her pistol magazine for high-grade armor-piercing explosive rounds in an instant.

At this moment, she even felt a twinge of regret, as if she had given up her sniper rifle too soon. But before this, she had never imagined that Li Mochen's marksmanship could be so formidable.

Anyone could make a precise shot at 150 meters, but when the target was moving at 200 kilometers per hour, it tested one's skill. Moreover, this saber-toothed tiger was extremely cunning, using the power of the wind to constantly make unpredictable, irregular lateral shifts.

Anyway, she, Elisa, didn't have that kind of ability. She could never, using only two fourth-level magic energy guns, hit three consecutive shots in such a short time, especially with freezing bullets that had a slower muzzle velocity.

This was not a Butler magic energy sniper rifle with a bullet speed of Mach 30, which could cover 1,500 meters in an instant without requiring much predictive ability.

Elisa estimated that even with her heavy pistol at Mach 8, at this distance she would at best hit one out of ten shots.

Li Mochen had stopped firing and was adjusting his position disrupted by the recoil. But at that moment, Elisa's dual pistols began to spit fire, like a duet, firing at her maximum speed with full force.

Yet even after its speed had greatly decreased, the saber-toothed tiger remained a difficult target. Elisa's accuracy was about one in five. However, her magic energy pistols were far more powerful than the alloy warhammer. The armor-piercing explosive rounds she used caused the tiger's body to shudder violently with each hit. The explosive effect of high-grade armor-piercing explosive rounds upon penetrating the body was enough to destroy light armored vehicles, and even the most resilient dark creatures found it hard to withstand such highly lethal magic energy bullets.

The blue-eyed saber-toothed tiger visibly weakened, but Elisa's face showed no relief; instead, it turned grave.

The desperate struggle of a cornered beast—this was the most important thing to guard against when hunting dark creatures. Statistics showed that at least a quarter of casualties in major hunting groups occurred during this phase. The reasons were varied: some were careless and underestimated the prey, others were unwilling to give up despite insufficient strength and took reckless risks.

Sure enough, the next moment, with a grunt from the blue-eyed saber-toothed tiger, the muscles all over its body began to swell, seemingly about to burst the ice armor encasing it.

Even more horrifying was that in an instant, a large amount of shattered ice condensed in the sky above it, swept up by a violent storm, and crashed down like a torrential rain toward a spot a hundred meters away.

Tianxin Li Mochen was prepared. He fired two shots in quick succession, stabilizing the ice armor on the saber-toothed tiger once more. All the cracks were filled and covered by newly formed ice.

Then he fought while retreating, using the ice layer silently forming behind him to glide backward at a speed no less than that of the blue-eyed saber-toothed tiger. He dodged the incoming ice blades and wind blades with all kinds of incredible maneuvers.

His gun remained terrifyingly steady. Though its power was slightly weaker, the armor-piercing explosive rounds he switched to almost never missed. Soon he replaced Elisa, drawing nearly all of the tiger's attention, driving the level 13 dark creature into a frenzy, completely losing its reason. It only knew to chase madly and release its innate spells wildly.

Until the dark creature stumbled into the second trap Elisa had set. Thirty wooden vines suddenly shot up from the ground, tightly binding the saber-toothed tiger's feet.

Although this only caused a momentary freeze, in that instant, five blossoms of blood burst out on its body simultaneously.

Li Mochen, who had been chased to within ten meters, abandoned his gun for his sword and advanced instead of retreating. Before the saber-toothed tiger could break free, a piercing white light drove straight into its forehead.

The ice layer there had already been shattered by his armor-piercing explosive rounds, which had also severely damaged the forehead. The toughness and sharpness of a fifth-level magic energy sword, combined with a speed of 450 kilometers per hour, unleashed astonishing lethality in that instant! It ruthlessly pierced through the tiger's brain, and even a tip of the blade emerged from the back of the dark creature's head!

Li Mochen's figure performed a nimble somersault, landing leisurely and calmly behind the saber-toothed tiger.

At this moment, Elisa's cry of alarm just came out: "A Mo, don't—"

Her voice cut off abruptly because it was meaningless. The blue-eyed saber-toothed tiger, though still standing supported by its ice armor, had lost all vitality.

Elisa's expression was dazed until, after a moment, she regained some awareness. Then she thought, this thirty-seventy split really wasn't a loss.

...

In the evening, Elisa and Li Mochen's motorcycles, loaded with large and small bags, entered Ghost City. This time they did not seek out 'Old Joe' but went to a high-end magical materials shop called 'Targaryen' in the fortress district.

"I'm not saying this to favor my own family's business. This magical materials shop, no matter how good its business, has little to do with me, a collateral branch."

Elisa Targaryen did not hesitate to reveal her own shortcomings: "Targaryen's overall purchase price is indeed the highest in Ghost City right now. This is because several hunting groups our family previously cooperated with have encountered various problems and can't supply enough magical materials. To avoid affecting the company's supply agreements with Nason Group and Medusa Military Industries, we have to offer extremely high prices to attract independent hunters and small hunting groups. As for Old Joe, though he's fair, he only dares to do small business and doesn't handle high-level materials."

Elisa negotiated the specific material prices with the shop manager, while Li Mochen listened and browsed around the store.

Inside were displayed many high-level magical materials or plastic replicas. Surprisingly, the prices of these materials were also quoted in gold shields, which greatly surprised Li Mochen.

After all, in his world, mundane gold and silver could not buy the finest celestial treasures of the cultivation world.

Was this due to the American government? He knew that the American government had been striving to maintain the gold shield's status as the settlement currency in global transactions of magic stones, oil, and magical materials, holding monetary hegemony.

Decades ago, America even backed the gold shield's value with gold, magic stones, and magical materials from its national treasury.

So did the strong in America also recognize the gold shield as hard currency?

Ten minutes later, as the two walked out of the magical materials shop together, Elisa began to divide the earnings for Li Mochen: "This time we earned a total of 35,000 gold shields. After deducting the cost of 42 high-grade armor-piercing explosive rounds, 75 medium-grade armor-piercing rounds, 34 medium-grade freezing rounds, 17 medium-grade molten rounds, 25 anti-personnel mines, fuel, magic stones, and maintenance fees for the armor and magic energy sword, the net profit is 24,000 gold shields. According to the thirty-seventy split, this is your 16,800 gold shields. Take good care of it—"

Li Mochen took the stack of money casually, but inwardly he sighed deeply. He thought, making money was really not easy; after a whole day of risking life and limb, he had only earned 17,000 bucks.

And this money came mainly from the blue-eyed saber-toothed tiger. A pair of eyes and a pair of saber teeth alone had fetched nearly 28,000 gold shields.

Afterward, they spent four hours in the Mystic Forest and earned less than 10,000.

It seemed the saber-toothed tiger had used up their luck. After that, they neither encountered the herd of spirit-blood musk deer Elisa had mentioned nor any magic beasts above level 11.

According to Elisa, a magic energy hunter, all beings above level 11 possessed considerable perception and intelligence. And the fierce battle they had fought with the blue-eyed saber-toothed tiger had been too loud and spectacular.

A level 13 blue-eyed saber-toothed tiger was practically the overlord of this forest. With the blue-eyed king defeated and fallen, the high-level magic beasts in the Mystic Forest, unless stupid, would actively keep their distance.

"How about coming to my place for dinner before heading back?"

At this moment, Elisa, with a smile in her eyes, waved a few strings of saber-toothed tiger meat in front of Li Mochen: "You probably don't know how to cook this kind of high-level magic beast meat. Want to learn? If you do, call me 'teacher,' and I'll teach you with all my heart."