Facing this situation, the clone hesitated a little, but apparently his chaotic mind had begun to wake up. Even though the power of the neuralyzer was very formidable, it had been quite a while so it was about time for its effect to come to an end.
The remnant of his combat awareness slowly emerged. He no longer instinctively and single-mindedly lock on to Sheyan as the main attacking target. He started to calculate whether attacking Sheyan was worth it. The illusion of the clone and his dark gold leech could only cause 1 damage to Sheyan due to 'Stronghold', while the clone could attack Sheyan once every 1.5 seconds to cause 20-30 damage points without weapons. The damage per second was approximately 15+1+1 = 17 points.
Sheyan's maximum HP was close to 3,500. It would only take around 220 seconds to empty his HP!
(TN note: Author can't math)
The calculation showed that attacking the non-retaliating Sheyan was more cost-effective than attacking his dark gold leech.
Therefore, the clone focused fire on Sheyan without hesitation. Using the life of his summoned creature in exchange for putting the target in a critical state – he would win in this trade no matter what!
However, the clone forgot something.
He forgot a cruel fact.
Sheyan did one thing before this, and that was to bury his wife in the ground – no, to bury four bottles of genetical-extract mixes in the ground. It's about time for harvest.
At the place where the mixes were buried, a large amount of soil suddenly rose. It was originally the size of a small mound, but it continued to rise rapidly into a 7-8 square meter grave. The gra.s.s that originally grew lush on top of the mound withered and turned into black ashes, scattering onto the soil.
The black ashes did not disappear, but slowly gathered together to form some mysterious, twisted black words. They stuck to the soil like insects. It was very mysterious, and very strange.
Then, cracks began to appear on the huge grave, and the black mysterious words flashed and floated in the air.
Next, a hand with bulging bones and green veins as thick as small snakes stretched out of the ground. There was a thick layer of snake scales on its surface. The hand pushed the ground hard and a large amount of dirt flew as a burly figure jumped out of the grave.
Based on his build, he was definitely an Uruk-hai, but his skin had a layer of thin scales that glowed with light. His mouth protruded and had a strange cleft palate, revealing a thin, split tongue red in colour. He looked a bit like a snakeman.
The creature held a snake-like magic staff in his left hand. The top of the staff was engraved with what seemed to be two gemstones, but they would blink once in a while! They seemed to be living things!
The black glowing words floating in the air flew towards the staff. This creature was a very special existence. It was grown from the extract of a kind of sea snakes that lived in the cold climate of high lat.i.tudes zones. Sheyan got a few of them from the London Zoo.
The name of the grown creature was “Snakeoid Uruk-hai (Elite)”. His attack leaned towards ice damage with an accompanying speed reduction property. He was the secret weapon carefully selected by Sheyan for this battle.
The Snakeoid Uruk-hai roared furiously towards the sky. Sheyan took one look at him and laid down his orders. The Uruk-hai lifted his staff, and the staff proceeded to glow with a black light. After about three seconds of chanting, an piece of ice that emitted white smoke shot out from the staff towards the dark gold leech summoned by the clone!
The force of this attack was quite astonis.h.i.+ng.
It should be noted that the basic blueprint of Sheyan's grown creature was an elite Uruk-hai, whose attack power and HP were quite considerable.
In terms of combat strength, an Uruk-hai could single-handedly kill at least ten half orcs, while an elite Uruk-hai could kill around 3 Uruk-hais. The elite Uruk-hai's combat strength was at least equal to a normal, fully-armed Growth Hunter. And that was not counting the special ability given to it by Sheyan's mix.
The ice hit the 0 defense dark gold leech and caused a staggering damage of 744!
That number looked abnormally high, but if you think about it, the attack was a spell that needed a three-second cast time. It carried a risk of being interrupted. Therefore, the high damage was quite reasonable.
A thin layer of frost emerged on the body surface of the dark gold leech. When the leech moved, it would make a creaking sound like a warrior wearing full body heavy armour. Its movement speed got even slower.
The addition of the Snakeoid Uruk-hai and the high frequency at which 'Saruman's Gaze' was triggered caused the DPS of Sheyan's side to rise to about 250! The time it would take to get rid of the dark gold leech had suddenly shortened!
The clone obviously felt a sense of crisis. Once his dark gold leech was killed, he would be at an absolute disadvantage in speed! He would fall into a very awkward situation! ! !
Therefore, the clone immediately changed his offensive target. He gave up on Sheyan who only had half his HP left, and started to attack the dark gold leech summoned by Sheyan instead.
The theoretical weaponless attack power of the clone was 120-150 points, but he had a 1.5-second attack interval. The attack power of his illusion was 36-45 points, and the attack power of his summoned dark gold leech was 60-75 points. Therefore, the total damage caused by the clone's side was slightly higher than Sheyan's side. However, they did not have 'Saruman's Gaze', and their attributes were reduced in the gene-curse cloud. Therefore, in actual combat, their damage output was merely equal to Sheyan's side.
However, when they started to focus fire on Sheyan's dark gold leech, Sheyan instructed the leech to employ the guerilla tactic of continuously hitting and running. He also instructed his illusion to stop attacking and to concentrate on blocking and parrying the clone's attacks. He could also act as a human s.h.i.+eld and block attacks with his body if necessary. The Snakeoid Uruk-hai would keep attacking the opponent's dark gold leech with spells.
Sheyan's side was only slowed down by 50% by the opponent's dark gold leech, while the other party were slowed down by an additional 40% in the gene-curse cloud. Add to that the slowing effect from the Snakeoid Uruk-hai's attacks, the opponents found it difficult to even move.
The clone's side also had their attacks on the dark gold leech hindered by the interference of Sheyan's illusion, while the dark gold leech kept trying to sneakily run away even with the 50% reduction in speed. This made the clone side's attacking frequency pathetically low.
After nearly two minutes, the dark gold leech summoned by the clone swelled up like a balloon. It kept getting bigger and bigger until it burst into a rain of blood. It was finally killed!
Sheyan's pupil shrank. That's because at the moment, his own dark gold leech still had more than 16,000 HP left! This situation had actually exceeded the best-case scenario he expected, mainly because he got lucky with the Snakeoid Uruk-hai. It was actually born with a special ability: 'HP to MP conversion'.
'HP to MP conversion', like its name implied, was the ability to convert HP into MP. The Uruk-hais had an incredible amount of HP to begin with; even a mage had a HP of nearly 5,000 points. Sheyan could also specify one base attribute of the Uruk-hai to gain a bonus of 50% of his own attribute! It meant that the Uruk-hai received an additional 1700 HP from Sheyan! (TN note: refer to Chapter 873 Perfect reward)
No wonder the guy kept throwing spells like it was free!
Now, Sheyan ordered the Snakeoid Uruk-hai to target the clone. In this way, even if the dark gold leech did not attack, the clone would be slowed down by both the ice spells and the gene-curse cloud. In this state, he would never catch up to the dark gold leech.
Only the illusion of the clone could attack the dark gold leech now, but he only had 30% of the clone's attack power. To finish the dark gold leech's 16,000 HP under the interference of Sheyan's illusion was indeed a very difficult task.
It was then that the clone's most insane, most terrifying aspect showed itself.
He was a monster with over 30,000 HP!
Before this, Sheyan gave it a lot of thought, and finally decided to take off his Zergling Armour and leave it with Jinkuang. The reason was that although the armour could provide the mage-type Grown Creature with considerable MP regen, it also came with the mighty 'Zergling Rush' attack. Sheyan had to do everything possible to reduce the attack power of the clone, so naturally, he couldn't make such a mistake.
The Snakeoid Uruk-hai's HP had finally bottomed out. His MP was also completely exhausted.
Sheyan mercilessly ordered him to attack the clone physically. After he died, the other two genetical-extract mixes planted by Sheyan had also hatched.
This time, Sheyan did not intend to hatch an elite Uruk-hai. The two genetical-extract mixes contained the genes of cuttlefish. The two ordinary Uruk-hais grown from them somewhat resembled Davy Jones.
Chapter 901: Battle of the Stairway of the SunsThe hatched cuttlefish Uruk-hais were not elites, but their normal attacks were very distinctive. They turned their left arms into long tentacles to whip the enemies. The attack could reach five to six meters. The mucus and suction cups on the tentacles could slow the enemies down by 15%. They could also spray ink to damage the opponents' vision and greatly reduce their accuracy.
Moreover, the cuttlefish Uruk-hais had an advantage in terms of quant.i.ty. The clone was currently being pincered by the two of them of different sides. The cuttlefish Uruk-hais had close to 3000 HP after receiving the bonus from Sheyan's, so it was very difficult to kill them quickly.
The HP of the clone steadily declined over time. He roared and screamed as he kept trying to overcome the slowdown effect from the dark gold leech, the gene-curse cloud, and the two cuttlefish Uruk-hais to chase after Sheyan. Unfortunately, he struggled to move under those attacks.
Sheyan stood in the distance, watching the other “him” charging left and right like a fierce great shark struggling in a strong net. But ultimately, the shark could not escape the binding.
Although he was still alive and kicking, if the situation remained unchanged, this trapped beast would only meet with failure.
Seeing this, Sheyan almost felt that the dust had settled. If there was no accident, then him breaking through the dual-attribute boundary should not be a problem. However, Sheyan still stood far away because he had always been a cautious person. The difficulty of the dual-attribute boundary breakthrough was no joke. It was hard to say if there would be any more changes in the situation.
20,000….15,000….9,000….
These numbers that indicated the clone's HP were like one heavy weighing stone after another, increasing the trepidation in his heart. This ambush planned by Sheyan was like cutting meat with a blunt knife, ruthlessness shaving off the opponent's vitality and hope bit by bit.
Sheyan had actually made another preparation. His MP was reduced by 33% every time he used the 'Grow' ability, so he brought some potions and food that restored MP, which he didn't usually bring. On the other hand, he did not bring any HP-restoring items such as honorary dosages. The party skill 'Gloryheal' was also still in cooldown.
Sheyan could only recover 3,000+ HP with an honorary dosage, while the clone could recover more than 30,000 HP. For this battle with a time limit, it would be very unwise to carry HP-recovery items.
Sheyan's MP had recovered to 50% at this time. He estimated that he could still use 'Grow' at least twice more! If he had sufficient time, the clone would still be killed even if he had twice as much HP.
Finally, the HP of the clone fell below 5000 points. He could feel death approaching. He screamed defiantly; even the corners of his eyes and nostrils split open from anger.
“Why! Why! This should not happen!!”
As if he had a final epiphany before his death, he actually turned his back to Sheyan and forced himself to start mixing. Although his memory had been deleted, but after a while, he could perform a lot of instinctive actions. It was akin to how an amnesiac swimmer's mind may be blank, but if he was thrown into water he would definitely not drown!
Sheyan ignored him. It was too late to try last-minute experiments. Mixing was definitely not as easy as he imagined.
Forcing himself to start mixing the way he did not only meant that he completely gave up on defending, the failure rate was also astonis.h.i.+ngly high. Even one as skillful as Sheyan still failed once when he tried mixing while he was sliding down. He wasn't even being attacked back then.
However, there are often low probability events occuring in the world. After mixing for nearly 20 seconds, the clone actually succeeded in making a curse-mix! He immediately slammed the bottle on the ground with a loud roar!
The shockwave from the curse-mix instantly spread, and the dark gene-curse cloud also shrouded the battlefield. Not only that, the three-second stun effect also gave the clone a chance to breathe. He immediately rushed outwards.
For some reason, the clone had actually got faster. Seeing this, Sheyan's pupils shrunk. He hated sudden changes when he was about to win.
Three seconds pa.s.sed by quickly. One of the grown Uruk-hai stepped forward and lashed his tentacle towards the clone. The tentacle whistled through the air and was about to entangle the clone.
But suddenly, the clone reached out and managed to grab the tentacle. The eyes of the clone began to quickly redden. Upon closer inspection, one would find the blood vessels in his eyes bursting wildly, soaking the eyes in a b.l.o.o.d.y colour!
Tendrils visibly grew from the clone's fingertips. The tendrils were a flesh-red colour, and they looked mysterious and powerful. The tendrils were no stranger to Sheyan. These were the tendrils of the 'Stairway of the Sun'!
The grown Uruk-hai started to roar in horror. He instinctively tried to move away but he found that he could not break away from the grip, so he broke off his tentacle arm and quickly stepped back!
Although he had reacted very quickly, the five long tendrils had already rushed over. The tendrils danced in the air like snakes and shot out for five to six meters to entangle the Uruk-hai's body!
The grown Uruk-hai was petrified in place, then quickly dissolved in a strange way. He completely melted away into the ground in less than 20 seconds like wax being heated.
When Sheyan saw this scene, he knew what was going on – when the 'Stairway of the Sun' sensed that its host was about to die, it would instinctively take over the host's body in order to survive!
But this wasn't the only thing Sheyan was worried about because he suddenly thought of something:
When the realm was cloning, it discovered a special ability, the 'Beast of Corrosion', that it couldn't clone. But the realm must have used a lot of energy to try to clone the 'Poison Monarch'; it just failed to do so.
But it was like creating a divine weapon. Even if the creation of the divine weapon failed, the materials used wouldn't just disappear into thin air… That led us to the main question: After the failure of the realm to clone the 'Poison Monarch', what power had it created?
When Sheyan thought of this, he felt that he could delay no longer, or he might just fall at the last hurdle!
He silently clenched his fist.
The cloned screamed wildly. The the blood vessels on the surface of his body, his neck, and his forehead swelled to the limit like they had undergone strenuous exercise. They looked like they were going to burst if a tiny bit more pressure was added.
Some things were visibly creeping in his blood vessels. They should be the tendrils of the 'Stairway of the Sun'. It seemed like the 'Stairway of the Sun' intended to completely take over the body so that it could battle with the most suitable body for itself!
Sheyan had charged to the front of the clone with his body bent down. He launched a punch to the clone's chest. The clone immediately responded strongly by raising his palm to hold the punch!
Sheyan was undoubtedly inferior in terms of base attributes, so he was at a disadvantage. He groaned and tried to retreat. The clone smiled sinisterly. The five red tendrils extended from his fingers that were grabbing Sheyan and penetrated into Sheyan's body.
However, Sheyan also had a 'Stairway of the Sun' in his body!
Furthermore, his 'Stairway of the Sun' was a unique existence that even the realm couldn't clone!
When it sensed that its territory was invaded, it squirmed and immediately extended its own tendrils to entangle with the flesh-red tendrils that penetrated into Sheyan.
Although Sheyan's base attributes were far inferior to the clone, but in terms of the strength of the 'Stairway of the Sun's in their respective bodies, Sheyan's was more dominant!
The tendrils of the two 'Stairway of the Sun's intertwined together and immediately launched an intense battle. The battle obviously affected the bodies as well! Sheyan couldn't help but scream in pain. The clone also trembled like he was being shocked by electric.
Sheyan suddenly took a deep breath. An abnormal trace of red pa.s.sed through his face and his black eyebrows intertwined together. His other arm that was free clenched tightly, swelled up, turned a strange dark-green colour, and became as hard as iron. The swollen blood vessels ferociously consumed blood and nutrients. The energy of Sheyan's entire body was gathered in one place!
The strong energy made Sheyan's 'Stairway of the Sun' tremble. A main tendril grew wildly and split itself at an incredible speed. It instantly hovered over the nerves in Sheyan's left hand and took over control of the arm.
Chapter 902: Breakthrough! Breakthrough! Breakthrough!!!Driven by the 'Stairway of the Sun', Sheyan broke out with great power. His left hand struck the clone's chest at a fierce speed.
The chest was also the place where the 'Stairway of the Sun' resided!
In an instant which might have lasted for a second or for a year, the blackish-green colour on the surface of Sheyan's left arm changed rapidly. It grouped together as if it was alive, turning into a ferocious beast. The beast released a hoa.r.s.e roar and pounced into the clone's chest.
At the same time, the 'Stairway of the Sun' in Sheyan's body flipped and slithered like snakes as if it was injected with a stimulant. It forcefully severed the tendrils from the other 'Stairway of the Sun'!! Sheyan could even hear a sharp scream from the inside the body of the clone. The enlarged blood vessels on the clone's forehead and arms ruptured. The blood-red tendrils of the 'Stairway of the Sun' spasmed and straightened, tremoring desperately towards the sky!
'Beast of Corrosion'!!!
Sheyan's most powerful attack finally showed itself in this desperate moment!
The 'Beast of Corrosion' had two parts to its attack. The first part had a fixed attack power of 300, but the attack power of the second part was 10% of the target maximum HP!! The HP of the clone was as high as 30,000+, so the total attack power of this 'Beast of Corrosion' was at least 3,500!
The clone had only mutated when he had about 5,000 HP left. In addition, when he was mixing, he was in a state of no defense, and took a lot of damage. The 'Beast of Corrosion' was like the straw that broke the camel's back, giving him a tragic ending!
After the hit connected, Sheyan hastily retreated to avoid being hit by the counterattack before the enemy's death.
The clone released a miserable cry. His flesh and blood quickly dried up, turning him into a dry, shrivelled corpse. From the corpse, the completely out-of-control 'Stairway of the Sun' broke out and grew to about four meters in height, flinging bones and bodily fluids everywhere!
Sheyan couldn't help but grieve at the death of the clone. Even the 'Stairway of the Sun' in him was restless.
The body of the clone was soon completely absorbed. The out-of-control 'Stairway of the Sun', being a parasite, naturally could not survive without its host. Its seven or so tendril-like branches pointed straight at the sky, convulsing painfully. Then, it fell to the ground weakly, occasionally twitching.
The 'Stairway of the Sun' in Sheyan's body suddenly stirred excitedly. Sheyan felt the blood vessel on his wrist slightly tighten, and the two main tendrils of the 'Stairway of the Sun' reached out. It flew straight towards its dying counterpart and grabbed it tightly. From the tendrils grew numerous suction cups with sharp teeth that would go on to violently devour the dying 'Stairway of the Sun'.
This was the cruel nature of the 'Stairway of the Sun'. As the saying goes, two tigers could not coexist on the same mountain. This concept was perfectly demonstrated by them. Not only did they kill among their own kind, even siblings had to start devouring each other the moment they were born. The most shocking thing was that, unless there was a suitable environment, the mother would also swallow the children!
Driven by such instinct, the cannibalistic action of the 'Stairway of the Sun' right now was understandable. More importantly, if it wasn't for this breakthrough challenge, it would be hard pressed to find another of its kind already residing in a contestant's body. This was a major reward outside the expectation of Sheyan and the realm.
After the 'Stairway of the Sun' finished its meal, Sheyan stood quietly on the spot. It did not take long for the nightmare imprint on his chest to start heating up. It formed into an image of a s.h.i.+eld. On the s.h.i.+eld was a strong-looking, tightly-clenched fist!
Sheyan took a deep breath. Obviously, the s.h.i.+eld symbolized his Physique specialty, while the fist symbolized his Strength specialty. Next came the notifications:
[Contestant No. 1018, congratulations on pa.s.sing the dual-attribute boundary breakthrough trial.]
Sheyan could feel a huge burden being lifted off his shoulders upon reading this sentence. He felt like he was dreaming. He couldn't believe that the problem was resolved!
Honestly, Sheyan didn't believe Reef was any weaker than himself, and yet he was stuck at this stage for a really long time. It even cost him the lives of his entire party. It was therefore understandable for Sheyan to feel this way.
[You obtain the general Growth-Hunter reward: 'Foundation'.]
[You have skillfully applied your talent and wisdom to successfully challenge yourself. Only now do you possess the rough outline of a good warrior. You have also determined the direction of your growth. Therefore, you shall receive a generous reward that will make you an even better warrior.]
[Reward!!!! All your pure attributes (without equipments) x2 !]
With the triggering of this reward, a heat spread through Sheyan's body. He felt as if every tendon in his body was growing, every muscle fiber was splitting, every bone was burning. He could feel it with every strand of his nerve.
“AAAAARRRGGHHH!” Sheyan couldn't help but scream. The feeling was really hard to describe. Pain, fatigue, comfort, and other sensations all blended into one. It felt good but it also felt bad at the same time. He fell down on his knees, while his sweat gathered into a pool on the ground.
'Just as I thought,' Sheyan gasped and muttered to himself when the strange feeling in his body subsided:
'Those guys kept emphasizing on the importance of foundations! When I fought against some Growth-Hunters, I felt like their HP was higher than expected. It seems that their fundamentals were quite solid, so they got pretty generous rewards.'
The nightmare imprint probably knew that he would be lost in his own excitement after receiving the Foundation reward, so it only continued after a while:
[In view of the huge difference in power between Rank I contestants who were new to the realm and the Growth-Hunters, when Growth-Hunters or higher cla.s.s warriors attack Rank I contestants, the attack will be weakened to a certain degree. The extent of the weakening will be decided by military rank, personal strength (pure attributes), the number worlds experienced, and various other factors.]
Sheyan recalled that when he was attacked as a Rank I contestant, the enemy's attacks did undergo some surprising weakening. It should be related to this rule.
[Next is the special reward. You have pa.s.sed the dual-attribute boundary breakthrough trial. You obtain an additional 15 free attribute points. Please invest them in your base attributes within 10 seconds. The free attribute points will disappear after 10 seconds.]
The first thing that came to Sheyan's mind after getting 15 free attribute points was the d.a.m.n basketball teen, Hakeem. His current Perceptive Sense had reached an astonis.h.i.+ng 46 points, so Sheyan invested 5 points to make it reach 51! It also broke through the boundary of 50 points in pure attribute, but Sheyan's ident.i.ty at the moment was a reserve-duty Growth-Hunter, so there was no amazing reward for 50-point boundary breakthrough like when he was a Rank I contestant.
Three choices appeared in the reward section of the 50-point pure attribute breakthrough.
[A. You can sense the emotions and moods of living creatures, thus further understanding their thoughts.]
[B. You can perceive the enemy's weakness, thus greatly increasing your explosive hit rate.]
[C. Your willpower becomes stronger and more tenacious. You will not be easily confused by illusions. You will also easily find the flaws in your enemy's attacks, thus achieving a successful dodge.]
Among the three options, A was obviously for summoners and B was for snipers to help them go for sure kills. Only C was suitable for MTs. Sheyan's team had already begun to take shape and had pa.s.sed the point where he had to do everything on his own, so he chose C. For future endeavors, and also for dealing with the potential ambush of Hakeem who may still be waiting.
As for the remaining 10 points, Sheyan added them all to Agility after giving it some thought. Sheyan's pure Agility was 17 points, but it reached 34 points after being doubled. Taking into account the 10 free attribute points and the buff from the gene-mix, he could easily reach above 50 points. Although he couldn't get the 50-point pure attribute reward this way, it should be difficult for Sheyan to encounter cases where he couldn't even fight back in terms of speed now.
Reaching 20 points of Agility should also come with a reward. However, Sheyan had reached that before and lowered the attribute again, but the reward had remained. So this time, when his Agility reached 20 points again, he did not get a reward.
Next, the nightmare imprint announced that Sheyan had successfully pa.s.sed the dual-attribute boundary breakthrough trial. His designated main attributes were Physique and Strength. Sheyan's breakthrough reward had already been issued together with his 50-point pure Physique reward, so this time only a series of rewards for breaking through the Strength boundary was announced.
First was the reward for reaching 50 points of Strength. Most contestants would have obtained this reward when they became reserve-duty Growth Hunters, but Sheyan broke through Physique back then, so it was delayed.
Chapter 903: An Explosion of Attributes[Your rewards for breaking through the 50-point Strength boundary are as follows. Please choose two of the following three options as your reward.]
Following the words of the nightmare imprint, a series of choices instantly appeared in front of Sheyan.
[A. Strength of Protection: Reduce the enemy's explosive hit rate by 30% (this property has precedence), and reduce explosive hit damage sustained by 30% (this property has domain precedence).]
(Note: Ability precedences: No precedence < normal="" precedence="">< authoritative="" (crus.h.i.+ng="" damages="" belong="" here)="">< domain="" precedence="">< domain="">
[B. Strength of Truth: Increase Strength by 15 points.]
[C. Strength of Barbarism: When a crus.h.i.+ng damage check is performed on your attack, there will be an additional +25 correction value (that is, if Sheyan attacks with 50 points of Strength, the check to determine whether it would be a crus.h.i.+ng damage would be calculated according to 75 points of Strength). In addition, the explosive hit rate of crus.h.i.+ng damages increases by 33%.]
Sheyan gave careful thought to these three options. Obviously, if the choice became too hard, one could never go wrong with option B. 15 points of Strength were a lot. Meanwhile, option A focused on defense, and option C focused on offense.
Sheyan took into account that his own team was now beginning to take shape. The MT, Reef, was here to stay. Someone with a s.h.i.+eld like him was suited to deal with Boss-level creatures with high single-attack damages. His performance so far had been impeccable.
Sheyan's position on the team was someone who was more suited to deal with a large swarm of enemies, the kind that dealt lower damage but had a high attacking frequency such as a beast wave. It was already difficult for these ordinary creatures to deal explosive hits to him, so choosing option A would be a waste.
More importantly, Sheyan had once seen a Damage Reflection Scroll in the nightmare realm…. Unfortunately, the seller was only putting it on display to show off. The price he set showed that he had no intention of selling it at all.
Although Sheyan did not get his hands on the scroll, it gave him a rough goal for evolution. With damage reflection, the harder the enemy hit, the more they will hurt themselves. Sheyan may sometimes even wish for the enemy to deal explosive hits.
Therefore, after some careful consideration, Sheyan chose Options B and C. By this time, the damage of '+7 West' had gradually fallen behind. After Sheyan return to the realm, he would make finding a weapon his top priority.
His current Strength was 72. After selecting options B and C, he would have 112 points of Strength in crus.h.i.+ng damage checks! Even Growth Hunters would suffer crus.h.i.+ng damages from his attacks if they had less than 55 points of Strength!
Although all Growth Hunters had received the reward of pure attributes x2, there shouldn't be many outside the Strength-types and some Agility-types who could reach 27 points of Strength when they broke through the boundary. Not to mention that Sheyan also had curse-mixes to reduce their attributes!
After selecting the reward for breaking through the 50-point Strength boundary, Sheyan's pure Strength without equipment reached 67 points. So, he had one more reward – the reward for breaking through the 50-point pure Strength boundary. The options were as follows.
[A: Base attribute ability reward II – Strength of Thorns: Your attack will get an additional damage of 1/3 of the total damage done to you by the target in the last 5 seconds. 'The Power of Thorns' has a cooldown of 5 seconds, and the amount of additional damage will not exceed 600/1200 points (corresponding to contestants/storyline characters respectively)]
[B. Base attribute ability reward III – Strength of the Fanatic: Whenever your HP drops by 10%, your attack power will increase by 3% and your attack speed will increase by 5%. Even when you are not injured, you will have a bonus of 5% attack power and 10% attack speed.]
[C. Base attribute ability reward III – Strength of the Sky: Perform a Strength check for every successful hit on the enemy. If you pa.s.s the Strength check, there is a 25% chance to interrupt a random beneficial effect on the target (including, but not limited to, attribute buffs, protective layers, and aura effects). Lasts for 30 seconds. This ability can be repeatedly triggered, but there will only be one interrupted effect (unable to stack). This ability has domain precedence.]
[D. Base attribute ability reward III – Strength of the Earth: Whenever a Strength check is performed (including, but not limited to, attribute checks, equipment requirement checks, and skill checks), the Strength requirement is reduced by 25%. This effect has domain precedence.]
For these four choices, Sheyan still considered the problem from the perspective of the team. With the new addition of Zi and the successful promotion of Brother Black to Growth Hunter, the team's damage output, which used to be their weakness, had received a significant boost.
Furthermore, Party Ace would have no problem recruiting strong damage dealers if they wanted to. Maybe they couldn't attract natural monsters like Aziz, but those a tier below would line up for the opportunity to join them.
Therefore, Sheyan chose the unpopular ability, 'Strength of the Sky'. This was a very malicious ability that could null the opponent's buff. Imagine if Skull's metal armour enhancement on his subordinates suddenly disappeared after receiving Sheyan's attack, or if the Glory Party suddenly lost Zeus' gravitational field, or if the magic s.h.i.+eld on mage contestants were suddenly gone. The effect even lasts for 30 seconds. Such a despicable ability!
For his secondary attribute (tertiary really), Sheyan unhesitatingly chose Perceptive Sense, and very simply chose the option to increase his Perceptive Sense by 15 points.
Sheyan realised that his Charm, Intelligence, and Spirit attributes had all reached 20 points, but there was no prompt to draw a reward. After an enquiry, he found out that the 20-point pure attribute reward was limited to normal contestants and reserve-duty Growth Hunters.
Once he became a Growth Hunter, the setting would become obsolete. This was akin to how an elementary student who could solve college problems was a genius, a child prodigy; but a college student who could solve college problems was something to be expected.
Sheyan felt that the explanation was quite reasonable. He thought back to his previous experience and couldn't help but lament, 'If only I knew….sigh.'
Sheyan's reaction implied that he did have a bit of regret. Although he had guessed this, and had recognised the importance of laying down a good foundation, but, after all, speculation was speculation. Before he saw it with his own eyes, he couldn't be totally sure of his guesses.
If Sheyan could confirm beforehand the fact that all his base attributes would double, he estimated that he could hang on for at least three more worlds. By doing so, he should be able to reach the pure 50-point boundary in 2 attributes as a normal contestant.
Alas, the world had no cure for regret.
It also explained why Reef was so strong after his breakthrough, after staying for a long time as a reserve-duty Growth Hunter.
Sheyan stayed rooted to the spot. His past experienced slowly flowed through his mind like a river. After a long time, he sighed deeply.
Suddenly, Sheyan felt a quake under his feet. He looked towards the distance and saw that the barrier at the edge of the area had disappeared. A powerful force hid behind the dark, turbulent clouds. A large amount of blood-red lightning struck down to erode the edge of the s.p.a.ce. A blood-red lightning flashed, illuminating the darkness in a corner!
In the bright light, Sheyan saw numerous pipelines in the void that intertwined with each other like human blood vessels. The pipeline looked metallic, but they also had the flexibility of soft tissues. Sheyan could feel a large amount of electric current surging in them.
The life of this trial ground….was coming to an end.
Sheyan instantly put forth the request to leave the trial ground, but his request was not immediately implemented. Instead, he received a notification:
[Reserve-duty Growth Hunter No. 1018, due to your military rank, you received a reminder: you still have three unallocated free attribute points. If there are no special circ.u.mstances, you are advised to allocate them before leaving the trial ground.]
Sheyan stared blankly at the notification. The first thing he noticed was that the realm still addressed him as a reserve-duty Growth Hunter. Secondly, he realised that this was information that required a certain military rank to receive, so he immediately a.s.signed the three free attribute points to his Physique.
The collapse of the trial ground was in full force by now. The blood-red lightnings and black clouds greedily teared at the unresisting land. Sheyan once again issued a request for return. He disappeared instantly, to return back to the abandoned alien base below the Statue of Liberty.
After his return, Sheyan immediately realised the nightmare imprint on his chest was glowing brightly. It was also stinging hot. Notifications from the nightmare imprint appeared again:
[Contestant No. 1018, congratulations on officially pa.s.sing the boundary breakthrough trial to become a powerful Growth Hunter. Next, you have to further refine your path for growth! The t.i.tle of Growth Hunter only shows that you have successfully changed from a civilian to a beginner warrior!]
[Hint: From the moment you became a Growth Hunter, your main attributes are Strength and Physique. You need to spend 3 free attribute points to increase these attributes by 1.]
[Hint: From the moment you became a Growth Hunter, your secondary attribute is Perceptive Sense. You need to spend 5 free attribute points to increase this attribute by 1.]
[Hint: From the moment you became a Growth Hunter, you need to spend 7 free attribute points to increase all other base attributes by 1.]
(Author's note: At the beginning of the previous LOTR arc, a lot of people questioned how the mage contestant, Yerna, could stay alive despite being ganged up on like that. Well, now you know.)
Chapter 904: p.i.s.s on your face!“So there are these kind of limitations!” Sheyan sucked in a cold breath! His mind spun fast, and found a lot of deeper meaning behind them.
From what he could see, the way the nightmare realm shaped a person was a thorough and complete process, similar to the process of painting a masterpiece.
The contestants who were new to the realm were like worthless tree barks and bamboos. The realm did not impose any roles on them. Instead, the realm let them fight in various worlds while setting up some rules that were beneficial to them. Its growth. Of course, if they were eliminated in this process, then they were indeed worthless.
This period was akin to the process of pulping, modulation, and processing in papermaking.
The greatest change to a contestant came when they awakened into a Growth Hunter. The contrast before and after they awakened was huge. If they were tree barks and bamboos before, they were now smooth and fragrant high-quality paper. They had turned from worthless materials into famous products.
The Awakener trial, etc. which came afterwards would be akin to additional processes on the papers to make them for suitable for various applications. For example, Xuan papers which were suitable for traditional Chinese painting, canvas for oil painting, or sketching papers for pencil drawing.
The various experiences and tests were akin to brushes that paint on the papers.
In the end, the contestants honed by the realm would be like famous paintings of different styles! They would be like masterpieces that were only made possible after undergoing various processes!
Of course, the amount of people eliminated in the process were definitely no fewer than the amount of paper wasted in the painting of a masterpiece!
Of all the processes, Sheyan believed that the greatest change should be when a contestant turned into a Growth Hunter. The tests afterwards may be harder than the Growth Hunter test, but contestants should no longer be forced into situations so tight that they couldn't even breathe. Growth Hunters had become useful materials so the subsequent processes should be to shape them. They would no longer be dealt with so roughly.
Sheyan might appear full of confidence in the whole process of breaking through the boundary limit, but one need only look at Reef and the way he was forced into a corner before he met Sheyan to know how much pressure there was in this test.
Sheyan checked his current attributes carefully and quickly came to a conclusion:
'It seemed that it is absolutely impossible to quickly increase base attributes after becoming a Growth Hunter. More importantly, because of the restrictions in allocating free attribute points, Growth Hunters will definitely invest most of their free attribute points in their main attribute. All Growth Hunters will evolve towards a more specialised direction. This is an irreversible trend.'
'But what about the attributes they are weak in? For example, if I have 21 free attribute points, I can improve Strength or Physique by 7 points. But if I invest in Charm, I only get 3 points; only idiots would do that. So what do I do if I suddenly find myself in need of Charm?'
'Equipments!! The only way is to make up for this shortcoming through equipments! The attributes added by equipments are fixed. It's foreseeable that one's dependence on equipments will increase after becoming a Growth Hunter. Ah, as a team leader, I will have to pay more attention to this aspect.'
Suddenly, Sheyan felt a rustling on the top of his head. Some sand fell down off the smooth steel wall. The nightmare imprint transmitted some notifications:
[Growth Hunter No. 1018, your trial has been completed. Due to your military rank privilege, you can use the beginner auction system – that is normally only available to Awakeners – in advance. This function will be activated after you return to the nightmare realm.]
[Growth Hunter No. 1018, your trial has been completed. This trial site will be abandoned. The energy restriction will be withdrawn after ten minutes. Anyone can enter this place afterwards.]
“Then I really have to hurry up.” Sheyan loosened his neck and heard his joints cracked. He had not returned to his optimum state after coming out from the trial ground. So, the first thing he did was naturally to take various kinds of recovery food from Jinkuang and gorged on them. After all, the basketball teenager Hakeem was likely waiting for him outside. The information that Hakeem's military rank could acquire, Sheyan could acquire too, and for free at that!
Fortunately for Sheyan, the food that Zi prepared for him was top grade. Sheyan also had an unused honorary dosage. 10 minutes of recovery time in a non-combat state was more than enough.
Sheyan stood up and re-entered the elevator five minutes later. Sheyan's aura appeared more hidden and he did not look like he had made a big leap in strength at all. On the contrary, he looked weak and dispirited.
Sheyan stepped out of the elevator the moment it stopped rising. He instantly had a feeling of thorns on his back. He kept quiet and deliberately acted like he was sneaking out of the place. He only turned his head back after a few steps and immediately saw Hakeem sitting on the torch of the Statue of Liberty. His basketball had disappeared.
The moon in the sky was very round, but it had a demonic-red colour, as if it had been soaked in blood. On the sky behind Hakeem hovered several strange creatures. Upon closer scrutiny, Sheyan found them to be half-rotten vultures. Their eye sockets were hollow with faint ghostly fires inside. On their heads was a large blood-red lump of flesh. Their beaks looked very sharp – they seemed to have no problem ripping through tough armours to drag out the internal organs inside.
“Not running away any more?” sneered Hakeem. The voice that reached Sheyan's ears was quite strange, as if there were microphones all around him.
Following Hakeem's words, a half-rotten vulture swooped down on Sheyan. The feeling it gave Sheyan when it spread its wings and dived down was that of an all-encompa.s.sing gale.
What was even more bizarre was the sharp tip of a dagger that suddenly appeared from the void thirty centimeters behind Sheyan!
The tip of the dagger glowed with a mysterious blue light, mixed with a bit of dark golden hue!
If Sheyan retreated to avoids the vultures, he would undoubtedly hit the tip of the dagger. Hakeem intended to toy with Sheyan in the illusion until Sheyan fell dead! He wanted every move that Sheyan made to be filled with fear. He wanted Sheyan to not even know how he should react!
However, Sheyan reacted to the dive of the giant vulture in an unexpected way – he pounced towards the giant vulture as if he was launching a suicidal attack. This vulture was actually just an illusion created by Hakeem, so of course it didn't dare to engage Sheyan. It could only pretend to fly away in panic.
Sheyan missed his target and fell down to the ground in a pathetic way. He only climbed back up after a while, all the while cursing furiously. He turned around and saw that dagger tip had disappeared. Sheyan coughed and spat some thick phlegm on a stone next to him.
Hakeem could feel the blood in his body rush to his head in fury! That's because the stone that Sheyan spat on was Hakeem's disguised face! He was so angry that he was ready to brandish his dagger and cut Sheyan into pieces, but at that moment, Sheyan appeared to lose control. He pointed at the Hakeem on the Statue of Liberty, and shouted angrily:
“Hey r.e.t.a.r.d! Is hiding the only thing you know? If you're a man, come down and fight with me!”
When Hakeem heard this, he suppressed his anger. However, in order to avoid giving himself away, he couldn't wipe off the thick spit on his face…. Seeing Sheyan run towards the stairs below the Statue of Liberty while roaring furiously, Hakeem could only quietly follow. This time, Hakeem directly followed in stealth.
However, right after Sheyan walked up the stairs to the first floor, he suddenly stopped to prepare something with his back to Hakeem. Hakeem's was already lacking in patience, so he intended to go up and give Sheyan a throat slit for starters. He didn't expect that after climbing three steps of stairs, Sheyan would suddenly turn around.
Hakeem, who up to the moment still thought that his stealth was flawless with the help from his illusion, immediately stopped. He still didn't think that Sheyan was powerful enough to see through his illusion. However, what happened next made Hakeem's mind go blank.
The buckle of Sheyan's belt was undone. He had a sly smirk on his face. The tool on Sheyan's crotch saw the light, aimed straight at Hakeem, and shot him right on the face!
If the previous spitting incident was accidental, being peed on definitely wasn't. Hakeem was quite strong, so of course he had a lot of pride. It was already a major humiliation when his face was spat on but he couldn't wipe it away, and now he was peed on?! It's a lifelong shame! A debt that could only be paid by blood!
By now, of course Hakeem had realised that his illusionary environment had been thoroughly seen through by Sheyan. He screamed at Sheyan and charged! His dark gold dagger flashed with a sharp glint of light.
The dagger was thin, sharp, narrow, and slightly curved. If one were to carefully look at it under the light, there may even be some visual dislocations. This showed that the dagger was vibrating at high speed in the air. When it came into contact with the enemy's body, it would not just cut, but also saw. Even steel couldn't withstand this kind of attack, let alone humans!
Chapter 905: Escaping while laying down trapsIf Hakeem actually gave more thoughts to Sheyan's actions, he would have realised that the meaning contained therein was enough to make him shudder.
Sheyan originally couldn't see through Hakeem's illusion, but this time, when he reappeared, Hakeem's illusion could no longer confuse him. However, Sheyan chose to play the fool instead of taking the opportunity to escape or to make an unexpected attack. And what did he go through painstaking effort to do?
First he spat on Hakeem's face, then he p.i.s.sed on Hakeem's head!
Sheyan had taken a lot of risk to do these two things. At least when he was urinating, he had to be careful of Hakeem cutting off his package with the dagger! But, he had achieved his purpose. By now, Hakeem was furious, and his brain was filled only with thoughts of humiliation and revenge. At least, before he suffered a major setback, he wouldn't spare a thought for other things.
Although Hakeem's Agility was still far above Sheyan's, it was no longer an absolute suppression, at least not like it was before. Before this, once Sheyan was within Hakeem's attack range, Hakeem could do anything he wanted to Sheyan, be it cutting his throat, stabbing him or kicking his groin. Sheyan couldn't even parry his attacks, let alone dodge them.
At this moment, Hakeem's dagger slashed horizontally. His black cloak fluttered in the air, revealing a set of silver-coloured tight-fitting leather armour. One could immediately tell that the armour set was definitely not a common product. Most of his dagger was hidden in his sleeve, only showing a little dark gold tip.
One would even feel like Hakeem's blood vessels had grown into this dark gold dagger, making the dagger a part of his body. If an ordinary person looked at it for a long time and traced the pattern on the blade upwards, they would feel a pain tearing their eyes, and the helpless feeling of having their throat slit!
Although Hakeem was striking upwards from the lower end of the stairs, his movements were still amazingly fast. Sheyan barely managed to block the front of his throat with '+7 West', but Hakeem's dagger suddenly changed direction midway to cut open a smooth wound on the right side of Sheyan's chest.
Sheyan's defence had improved, but he had also lost the protection afforded by the realm towards normal contestants and reserve duty Growth Hunters! Therefore, this injury actually caused considerable damage to Sheyan.
Sheyan's reaction to this made Hakeem so angry he almost grounded his teeth into pieces – Sheyan knit his brows and looked condescendingly at Hakeem. Not only did Sheyan not counterattack, he even pinched his nose, turned, and ran, as if Hakeem stank so much that Sheyan didn't feel like playing with him!
Hakeem continued to rush forward like a mad cow, the dark gold dagger produced one ray after another as it waved in the air. Even the steel railings beside them were cut through by the dagger. It truly was an unstoppable force.
Suddenly, Sheyan stopped running away, pulled out 'Ambition', aimed down towards Hakeem and pulled the trigger. Hakeem completely ignored the lead bullet flying towards him. He continued striding forward, but there was a trace of delay between his steps. It was like the pause in between songs in a continuous playlist. If one didn't pay careful attention, one would not notice it.
It was due to this slight hesitation that the sure-fire lead bullet swept over Hakeem's nose and missed its mark. Meanwhile, Hakeem's speed of advancement was not affected at all. He continued to charge towards Sheyan with a cold expression. His black cloak fluttered behind his back amidst the sea breeze. Together with his dark, deep eyes, the feeling the teenager gave off was terrible indeed.
Sheyan continued to escape up the stairs while Hakeem steadily push forward. Hakeem was angry, but he was also enjoying this kind of cat and mouse hunt. Sheyan suddenly stopped after turning a corner, then raised his long blade with a scream and slashed down quickly. The blade sped towards Hakeem's head.
But Hakeem's hesitation footwork made its appearance once again. He nonchalantly parried the blade away to the side. The blade smashed into a wall, leaving a deep crack in the wall and causing debris to fly.
Sheyan retrieved the blade and smashed down again. Hakeem turned around and hid his whole body in the black cloak. Sheyan's blade landed squarely on the cloak this time, but it collided with a huge impact and was blown away! Sheyan felt as if he chopped down on something hard. Meanwhile, Hakeem's dagger slithered into Sheyan's abdomen like a venomous snake!
Sheyan groaned painfully. Then, he immediately turned and ran. This was what Hakeem hated the most about Sheyan. This b.a.s.t.a.r.d had surprisingly high HP, immunity to poison, decent speed, and decent Perceptive Sense. If he focused on defending and running away, he would become really troublesome to deal with.
While Sheyan was running, he removed the handrail next to him by force and threw it down. The sound was so loud that he sounded like he was dismantling a house.
The smell of the pee on Hakeem's face, who was chasing a few steps below Sheyan on the stairs, made him feel angry and humiliated, but he had to stop to block Sheyan's shameless attacks. It was in this way that Sheyan resisted Hakeem's pursuit until he finally reached the top of the Statue of Liberty.
Sheyan looked around in panic and stepped backwards until his waist hit the railing, but Hakeem's sinister face had already appeared at the entrance. He approached step by step, and said while gnas.h.i.+ng his teeth:
“Go on, keep running. Why did you stop?”
Sheyan didn't reply. His eyes were fl.u.s.tered as he clenched his blade tight. Hakeem's body suddenly sparkled with a layer of clear water. This was his explosive ability that could increase his Agility by 20% for ten seconds! Hakeem obviously had Agility as his primary attribute and Perceptive Sense as his secondary attribute. With the 20% increase, there was no doubt that his Agility would reach a terrifying level.
The next second, Hakeem swept his dagger across his own chest, letting his blood soak the edge of the dagger. Then, he charged towards Sheyan, leaving a long trail of afterimages behind him!
If the Growth Hunter stage was mainly a stage for collecting equipment suitable for oneself and to lay down a more solid foundation, then the Awakener stage indicated that the contestant's unique combat instinct and combat habits have begun to awaken. Using painting to describe it, an Awakener was like a piece of paper that already had the first stroke painted on it. It was already determined whether the paper would become a traditional Chinese painting, an oil painting, or a watercolor painting. From the moment a contestant became an Awakener, the direction of evolution would be engraved in the depths of their soul. It could no longer be changed.
When Hakeem pounced on him, Sheyan felt like he was being locked-on. He felt as if he would not escape from the strike no matter how he dodged or ran away; as if it was fate!
As soon as Hakeem got close to Sheyan, his dark gold dagger drew countless blinding golden lines in the air. Some of the lines were straight and some were curved. The next instant, blood splashed from Sheyan's body. Sheyan was completely unable to resist the attacks and took seven or eight hits. After that, Hakeem slammed his knee into Sheyan and knocked him about four meters high, then threw the golden dagger upwards. The dagger pierced into Sheyan. Hakeem then devoutly clasped his hands together and mumbled to himself!
Sheyan had just climbed back up in pain when he felt a violent shock from the dark gold dagger on his chest. He looked up and saw the bright afternoon sun dazzling his vision. But upon closer inspection, he realised that the sun was actually Hakeem's basketball that came flying like a comet with a high-speed rotation, while carrying a blazing flame. The dark gold dagger jammed in his chest was apparently guiding the flaming basketball towards him.
It was too late to dodge. All Sheyan could do was to protect his head….
From the distance, it looked as a fierce explosion occurred on top of the Statue of Liberty. The flames rushed high into the sky. Even the torch of the Statue of Liberty was blown in half and fell helplessly into the sea. The ripples that it stirred up reached a height of eight meters!
“Let's see if you can survive that,” Hakeem said while he fiercely gasped for breath. His eyes showed the joy of one getting his revenge. He reached out towards the air, and his dark gold dagger slithered out of the void like a snake to return to his hand.
His pupils shrank all of a sudden. He immediately ran to the side of the Statue of Liberty, and saw a hateful figure in between the waves, tenaciously and desperately swimming. The figure climbed onto a motorboat and started the engine.
Right then, the d.a.m.n figure turned around and smugly waved at him.
Sheyan even gave Hakeem a few shrugs from on top the motorboat. Hakeem's face turned expressionless. Only those familiar with him would know that this was a sign of his anger reaching its limit!
“I will kill you. You will never escape from me!” Hakeem forced out each word from between his gnashed teeth.
He took out another item. The item looked like a tangled string of ropes with a weird soft glow. Hakeem tied it to the Statue of Liberty, then strode to the side of the railing and threw it hard towards Sheyan. The thin rope shot out like an arrow and stuck itself to Sheyan's body!
Chapter 906: Have a Taste of Your Own MedicineThis rope provided a gliding path between Sheyan and the Statue of Liberty. Even if the motorboat was driving away fast, the rope that s.h.i.+ned with a silver glow was also extending rapidly with no signs of breaking.
Hakeem's mouth curled into a sneer. He grabbed the rope with one hand and glided towards Sheyan at a high-speed!
This was Hakeem's must-have tool for killing and plundering – the 'Magical High-Speed La.s.so'! If this object was used well, becoming Tarzan or Spiderman under certain circ.u.mstances would no longer be a dream.
“You d.a.m.n lowly ant! You think that you can escape from me just because you got a bit stronger? Well you thought wrong! No matter how powerful you get, ants are still ants, you will never escape the fate of the weak!”
Sheyan appeared to be struggling in panic. He kept trying to cut off the rope with his weapon. However, even though the weapon could easily cut through the rope, the rope would s.h.i.+ne with a dazzling light and would show no sign of being cut as if it existed in another dimension.
Hakeem charged down with the force of a storm along the rope like a powerful knight in the Middle Ages charging to his highest speed with a long spear. Both his momentum and force had acc.u.mulated to a terrifying degree. His target may be shattered into pieces when he hit.
Meanwhile, Sheyan was limited to a small s.p.a.ce on the motorboat, so getting hit was inevitable unless he jumped into the sea. It looked like the only choice he had was to take the hit.
But at that moment, Sheyan pulled out 'Ambition' once again and launched the 'Rum and Songs'!
Logically speaking, the hit rate of an ability like 'Rum and Songs', which came with a sure-hit feature, should be quite reliable, but apparently Hakeem's dodge had a higher precedence than the 'Rum and Songs'. This time, Hakeem was in the air with nowhere to dodge, but a very strange translucent illusionary image appeared from the surface of his body. The lead bullet safely pa.s.sed through his body. He once again dodged the bullet.
Sheyan would not give up! Since he was promoted to a Growth Hunter, his base attributes had soared. There was no way Hakeem could maintain the terrifying dodge rate as before! He crushed a bottle of curse-mix in his hand. Green mist rose from the gap in his fingers and spread instantly in all directions. So did the shockwave formed from the crus.h.i.+ng of the bottle, causing huge ripples in the water around him. Don't forget, the damage and stunning effect of the shockwave also had precedence!
This time, Hakeem's absolute dodge ability did not work!
After Sheyan had officially become a Growth Hunter, he had completely narrowed the gap between them all-around, which had also made Hakeem's dodge rate drop rapidly.
This stunning effect was quite unfavorable for Hakeem. His airborne momentum was extremely powerful, and coupled with his high Agility, he was a combination of might, flexibility and dexterity.
But once he was stunned, he was like a Swan Lake ballet dancer who fell rigidly to the ground after being hit by a stroke midway through the most difficult routine. The essence and the soul of this move were completely lost.
The dive inevitably resulted in a sad ending. Hakeem fell straight down deep into the ocean, forming a large group of white bubbles, while Sheyan literally laughed out loud. He was bursting with mockery like a minion who got away with an evil scheme. He drove the motorboat and gleefully sped away.
But the three-second stun duration after Hakeem fell into the water soon pa.s.sed. During this time, the motorboat had only driven less than ten meters away. As soon as Hakeem regained control, a ring on his finger shone with a glare of light. His whole body was launched up in an instant, tracing a parabolic path to fall towards the motorboat Sheyan was on!
Sheyan had an impression of this ring; he remembered seeing it in the auction house. It was a dark gold ring called the 'Entanglement of Victory'. Its main property was all attributes +4, and it had a very practical ability called 'Mind Transmission' which was able to instantaneously transport the owner's body to a specified destination.
The dark gold ring originated from the world of Harry Potter.
Each member of the team who won the Hogwarts Quidditch Cup will receive honour and also this prize. They were personally crafted by Dumbledore.
This was the most easily-accessible dark gold ring, and also the most widely-known.
This ring also had a nickname called the Cursed Ring of Death.
Because the Hogwarts Quidditch Cup was held every year, there were many storyline characters who held this ring. Unfortunately, they all regarded the ring as a priceless treasure. That was to say, whoever wanted the ring would have to kill them.
99% of contestants did not care about their lives, but all contestants were very concerned about a dark gold ring – even one as strong as Sheyan who had the aura of a protagonist was not qualified to own a dark gold ring. It could be inferred from this how rare these things were, so it was no wonder that the contestants got greedy.
Of course Sheyan had also toyed with the idea of getting such an easily-accessible dark gold ring for himself, but after careful considerations, he ended up giving up on the thought.
The ring was personally crafted by Dumbledore so it contained a mysterious sensing ability. Once it sensed that the original owner did not voluntarily give up on the ring, a revenge plan would be activated and Dumbledore would be notified. He would dispatch 5 groups of magical servants over three days to take the ring back.
If you could withstand those 5 waves of attacks, then great, the ring is yours. If you couldn't, you pay with your life.
In addition, you would be transferred to an alternate dimension for every wave of attack. You would not be able to receive any outside help (This aspect was a little similar to the boundary breakthrough trial).
After a batch of magic servants was defeated, the next batch of magic servants would be generated based on your weaknesses, so it was difficult to overcome the challenge of these five
