Bingtang shook her head helplessly on the road, "Clearly, they came later."
The Disaster Strategy Bureau is always a step slow. When the Disaster Beasts first appeared in Beihai City after over a decade, they only sent some officials to observe Beihai City and did not deploy any Magical Girls to settle there.
Three years ago, it was Jiang Si and Bingtang who were eliminating the Disaster Beasts here and established a dedicated organization.
It wasn't until the following year that the Disaster Strategy Bureau noticed the unusual frequency of Disaster Beast appearances and consequently dispatched Magical Girls, and finally reopened a branch of the bureau in Beihai City.
This year, they started pressuring Dong Jun, trying to recruit him.
"Ignore them."
After casually tossing out a reply, Jiang Si and Bingtang arrived at an abandoned factory.
It was not far from the school; standing on the second floor of the factory, one could even see the teaching building over at the school.
After reaching a crack on the cement ground, Jiang Si gently tapped the ground with the tip of his foot.
He took out a purple seed and placed it on the ground, intricate patterns flowed out from the seed, extending and forming a detailed magic array.
Immediately, the magic array dissipated, and a door appeared on the ground.
After opening the door and stepping inside, they followed the stairs down to the very depths of the underground, until they saw a plaque.
Illusory Moon Cave Mansion!
The rustic wooden plaque was infused with a strong mystical vibe; it had taken Jiang Si a considerable amount of effort to create such a plaque.
He was very satisfied with the current result.
The sound of a Spiritual Spring at the entrance was crisp and clear. This water circulation system, which gave the entrance a waterfall-like appearance, had cost two thousand coins to arrange.
Walking inside the cave mansion, it twisted and turned, and the walls were covered with vines—all fake ones, as real ones were too expensive and hard to maintain.
Placed nearby was a rustic Spirit Beast Stone Carving; the problem was it resembled a silly husky.
This was arranged by Bingtang.
God bless, it was only a few years ago that Jiang Si realized there were no online novels in this world, and the entire entertainment development was completely different from his original world. Songs, novels, even comics and movies were all extremely unfamiliar.
Thus, many things that were common knowledge to Jiang Si seemed like an enigma to Bingtang.
He mentioned buying a Spirit Beast Stone Carving to enhance the cave mansion's mystical vibe.
In the end, Bingtang brought back a husky stone carving, which was said to be quite expensive as it was a piece of art.
The Cyan Jade Plate made from colored stones, with two incense sticks burning on top.
It also managed to simulate the feeling of being surrounded by immortal energy.
If only there were more money, the place could have been arranged to be more authentic, but it was decent for now. At least Jiang Si was quite satisfied and not in a rush.
Aside from this, the most striking feature inside the cave mansion were the various pieces of exercise equipment.
Dumbbells, barbells, squat racks, bench press racks, punching bags, resistance bands, push-up bars...
Jiang Si tossed his bag aside and began working out.
This had been his daily routine for the past years, never slacking off, and Bingtang was already accustomed to it.
She just took Jiang Si's backpack while he exercised, "Have you finished your homework?"
"No."
"Let me do it for you."
Jiang Si remained silent, focusing solely on his exercise.
Before he became a Magical Girl, his body's strength plateaued despite how much he trained.
After obtaining the power to transform into a Magical Girl, his training started yielding results again, albeit with only small increases in strength, but he could clearly feel that every workout was making him stronger, continuously raising his limits.
However, the results of the training did not manifest externally.
"After becoming a Magical Girl, the girl's body only matures with time and does not change due to external factors, a measure to better protect Magical Girls..."
The mascot said this.
Although it spends most of its time sleeping and hardly ever shows up, it imparted the basic knowledge about Magical Girls to Jiang Si effectively.
The lack of external changes was also a good thing for Jiang Si.
After all, it was quite misleading.
As long as he could become stronger, there was no reason to give up on gaining strength.
The true protagonist of an online novel would always become a flawless, all-around formidable hexagon warrior.
The physical strength is indispensable.
"Did you find anything about the level classification of Magical Girls?"
Bingtang, who was helping Jiang Si with his homework copying, took out her phone, "Yes, there are only four specific levels from the Disaster Strategy Bureau: Budding, New Seedlings, Full Bloom, and Peak."
"Only four?"
"Yes."
Jiang Si shook his head, "That's so subpar. The official system doesn't even have a more detailed classification. These vague rankings should've been done away with long ago."
With that, he launched a fierce side kick, bursting the punching bag with a boom!
"For instance, my current bodily strength doesn't match that of a true Peak Budding Magical Girl, but an introductory Budding Magical Girl is definitely no match for me."
Jiang Si clenched his fists.
"In the official classification system, my level doesn't even have a designation; they just lump me into Budding, but in reality, I am at Half-Step Seedling Great Perfection."