Chapter 60: The Strongest and the Poorest
Base Camp · Bug Nest, bubbles condensed on the fungal carpet, slowly floating upward before bursting not far up, scattering specks of mucus onto Bubu Wang's head.
When not at war with enemies, the insect race was not very active. Most of the Demon Beasts were in a semi-dormant state to reduce bio-energy consumption.
Su Xiao sat in a wooden shed near the bug nest, reviewing the bug nest's data to integrate the insect race forces.
The number of Demon Flame Dragons had been reduced to 12, Demon Beasts to 250,000, and Leviathans to 30. With this scale of combat insect race, the bug nest was quite safe, at least in this world. The Dia Tribe and Tiger Bee Clan had been dealt with. Maintaining too many combat insect races in peacetime would soon drain the bug nest's bio-energy and collapse it.
As for hunting this world's supernatural creatures, that was like drinking poison to quench thirst. The Thorn Insect Star was the best lesson—that world's ecological system had completely collapsed. In the end, Jila wanted the combat insect race to switch to eating grass, but unfortunately, the bug nest couldn't absorb plant life force.
To stabilize the insect race, the first requirement was ensuring this world had enough species diversity. The insect race could stand at the very top of the food chain, but they couldn't prey without restraint.
Obviously, the Void Tree had also verified this point. After balance testing, it allowed the insect race to become a faction in this world, blocking outside the Death Forest. All trial participants who walked out of the Death Forest wouldn't have to face the insect race head-on, because after passing through the Death Forest, they would complete the trial with a medium evaluation and then be teleported out of this world.
The insect race's development was temporarily stable. Worlds like the Primordial Continent were rare, especially the Tiger Bee Clan. Without the Tiger Bee Clan, the insect race would need a long time to develop, and acquiring large amounts of bio-energy would be a problem.
After confirming the insect race's situation was stable enough, Su Xiao began reviewing the previous reward notifications. In the final fierce battle, the insect race had killed leader-level, even lord-level powerful enemies.
[Killed Bee Queen · Carol.]
[You gain 4.7% World Source.]
[You gain Holy Spirit Chest (42%).]
[Killed Dia Tribe · Shaman Priest · Xia Wu.]
[You gain 3.9% World Source...]
...
Total: one Bee Queen, three Shaman Priests. Gained 16.1% World Source and three Holy Spirit Chests. According to the suffix values, none of the three chests exceeded 50% quality, ranging between 37% and 43%.
Su Xiao wasn't surprised by the low World Source gain—this was due to the trial world. But killing four leader-level enemies and only dropping three Holy Spirit Chests gave him a vague sense of foreboding. He even suspected that some goddess was drawing circles to curse him.
However, compared to killing leader-level enemies, the reward for killing Saint Witch · Gu Wu was still solid.
[Killed Saint Witch · Gu Wu.]
[You gain 10.2% World Source.]
[You gain 'Covenant Glory' (100% probability of obtaining this item after killing Saint Witch · Gu Wu).]
[Tip: If you choose to use 'Covenant Glory', this item is a chest-type item. If you use White Amber on it, it will transform into a Covenant Item.]
[Covenant Item: The entire sky is burning, the giant tree representing life crashes down. That is the dying ember of life, the last treasure left by the ancient elves, the hope of breaking through limits.]
[Covenant Item Usage: Carry this item to the 'Primordial Land', offer the 'Traitor's Descendant' life fragment at the ember roots, defeat the ancient elf, and the path to breaking through limits will appear before you.]
...
Seeing [Covenant Glory] and [White Amber], Su Xiao immediately thought of one thing—why Naji Ga joined the Dia Tribe instead of choosing the Tiger Bee Clan, which was easier to gain status in.
[Covenant Glory] + [White Amber] equals the Covenant Item. As for the Covenant Item's purpose, it was somewhat like a key, or a challenge qualification.
Su Xiao had both. As for reaching the Primordial Land and offering the 'Traitor's Descendant' life fragment before the ember roots, that was easy to understand—go find the stump of the Tree of Life.
Regarding the 'Traitor's Descendant' life fragment, coincidentally, Su Xiao happened to have it. This was the reward obtained after killing members of the Rain Throat Tribe.
With everything in hand, the rest was simple—go challenge the ancient elf, defeat it, and gain the hope of breaking through limits.
What the hope of breaking through limits represented, Su Xiao didn't know. Whether the ancient elf was strong or not didn't need consideration—first awaken the ancient elf from the tree stump, then have the Demon Beasts swarm it.
In truth, Su Xiao hadn't explored this world much. He just beat down several factions, and secrets appeared before him. This exploration method, though simple and crude, was very effective.
For now, setting aside the use of the Covenant Item, Su Xiao planned to awaken the ancient elf only after the Holy Spirit Set · Night Walker Set was deployed. Only benefits obtained were truly his own.
He had already obtained yesterday's and today's supply crates, including one purple supply crate, four white supply crates, and three green supply crates.
Su Xiao first opened the white supply crates. Although the eighth-rank items obtained couldn't be taken out of this world, they were still good things that might be useful later.
Opening supply crates didn't involve luck. Su Xiao opened all four white supply crates and obtained the following items:
[Weakness Blessing: Eighth-rank item. After use, applies extreme weakness state to a designated target. This is a reverse buff effect. True Strength, Agility, and Stamina -10 points. Effect lasts 5 hours (a certain Holy Light Paradise · Healing System genius's developed item).]
This thing was very interesting. Using it on an enemy wasn't an attack judgment but a buff judgment, yet the actual effect was a debuff, and it was eighth-rank judgment. The person who developed this was absolutely naturally malicious. The 5-hour duration was extremely harsh.
[Fortune Stripping: Eighth-rank item. Can be used on a single enemy. After use, the enemy's Luck Attribute decreases by 35 points. Effect lasts 20 minutes.]
[Extreme Ice Ray: Eighth-rank item. Releases 6 Extreme Ice Rays that track 1-6 enemy units. Upon hitting an enemy, the first Extreme Ice Ray deals 7800 points of ice damage and causes long-term slowdown. Subsequent Extreme Ice Rays hitting the enemy deal 6240, 3900, 2730, 1170, and 780 points of ice damage respectively. Slowdown effect and duration greatly increased (damage is reduced or increased based on enemy's physical defense, Stamina Attribute, cold resistance, etc.).]
[Water Spread: Eighth-rank item. Summons a Spreading Spirit that deals continuous damage to enemies (Spreading Spirit's strength depends on the user's Intelligence Attribute).]
...
Four types of eighth-rank items that couldn't be taken out of this world, each extremely troublesome. Especially [Fortune Stripping]—it seemed to deal no damage to the enemy, but it was actually the harshest.
Counting [Liquid Jet · Heaven's Gate], Su Xiao had obtained 5 eighth-rank items. After putting these away, he opened the three green supply crates. These were good things that could yield resources.
[You gain Crystal Skull (Bloodline-type item). After absorbing this item, you become 'Undead Commander (Initial Seventh-Rank Comprehensive Combat Power)'.]
Seeing this notification, Su Xiao was somewhat surprised. He had just felt his recent luck was poor, and now he obtained an Undead System bloodline-type item.
This thing had a characteristic: very expensive and hard to sell. Its price was even higher than a mage lord's 'Enlightenment Awakening' scroll, but the resources needed for growth could easily bankrupt a large adventure group, making it very difficult to offload.
The reason it was so extreme was that Undead Summoning System powerhouses were very strong in the late stages. One person was an undead legion. With a wave of the Death Scepter, countless undead summons would surge toward the enemy. Both combat power and style were impressive.
But behind the glamour was bitterness unknown to outsiders. How many dreamy youths chose the Undead System, only to end up poor in mid-high ranks—truly poor. Opening their Scarlet Cards was like a joke because there wouldn't be any graded items in their storage space; everything was sold off to develop their abilities.
Either die poor or soar to the sky—that was the Undead System. Su Xiao knew one such person, a Dark Creature Summoner who also followed a partial mage lord route, making him doubly poor. That person was called Solomon. Among the same rank, Solomon could quickly become the strongest tier, and also the poorest tier.
[You gain 450 Soul Coins.]
[You gain Dark Star Assassin (Holy Spirit · Rune Giant Crossbow).]
...
The returns from the last two green supply crates were decent. Su Xiao's gaze fell on the final purple supply crate—this was the main event.