The Ultimate Evolution

Sheyan had to admit that if he were to encounter the combo of Stone Blader Raijo and Dark Elemental Merkel by himself, they could possibly kill him. But now….their situation could only be described as tragic.

First of all, an ‘Exile’ spell from Pokan was enough to take Raijo out of the equation.

Pokan’s ‘Exile’ was a very special spell, similar to a channeling skill. It established a connection between him and an elemental creature, allowing both sides to enter a state of nothingness where both sides were unable to move or to cast spells.

Moreover, both sides were immune to physical attacks for the duration of the spell, but they would receive 200% extra damage from magic.

That was to say, Stone Blader Raijo had no way of joining this fight before Pokan’s MP ran out.

The dark elemental, Merkel, was obviously an assassin-type creature. Despite the high amount of damage it could deal, without the protection of an MT, its HP would always be a glaring weakness. In addition, Sheyan’s ‘Verdict’ dealt holy damage, so it was super effective against Merkel. Sheyan first denounced Merkel as a heathen, then together with the effect of the holy attribute on his gun, dealt an astonishing amount of damage to Merkel, especially with the first strike. In just 30 seconds, Merkel was beaten to death by the team.

This creature came from the Harry Potter dimension by crossing the dimensional barrier. The Nightmare Realms the contestants belonged to sensed this. With their terrifying spiritual power, they wrapped their spiritual senses around Merkel and a shiny silver key instantly dropped.

When Sheyan used the key, he found that there was a Crystal of Darkness inside!

Places that were extremely rich with dark elements would first give birth to the Torrents of Darkness, which were in a liquid state. At the bottom of the lakes formed by the Torrents of Darkness, Crystals of Darkness would slowly deposit. This kind of crystal was a very rare embedding material that had dark affinity.

That was to say, it would be attracted like magnets to equipments with extremely strong dark elements. This was the function of dark affinity; it allowed the crystal to be embedded without the need for a specialised socket.

This Crystal of Darkness should increase dark-type damage by about 13%-18%, and that was just a conservative estimate. More importantly, it could be attached to any equipment with dark properties without the need for a socket. This rare versatility would boost its price by at least 150,000 utility points.

According to normal convention, physical professions were excluded from the bidding. In a mature party, even an MT could not bid for something they could not use such as magic wands, magic staffs or a magic robes, unless all mages in the party gave up. Following these conventional rules could greatly increase the sense of belonging in a party.

Although Sheyan really wanted to get this thing for Zi, he did not want to break the rules – note that he did not want to, not that he could not. Right now, the team was developing in a positive way and was just starting to show some chemistry. He had only just managed to convince these guys, especially the mysterious Paul, to follow his leadership with his patience, schemes, ruthlessness and a little bit of luck. If he caused something to go wrong now, it was definitely not worth it.

Therefore, he decided to just sit back and watch.

But before that, they had to fulfil Pokan’s wish first. Pokan’s powerful support ability and his agreeable attitude were more than enough reasons for Sheyan to do his utmost to help him.

Sheyan picked up the Crystal of Darkness and held it in his hand, blocking it from the sight of others, then said flatly, “Gentlemen, I’ll keep this safe for the time being. Don’t forget that we’re still on the battlefield. Pokan, what do you want us to do?”

“First, I’m going to disconnect the exile channel and free Raijo, then establish a symbiotic contract with it. But doing so means I’ll consume about 5,000 utility points worth of casting materials and pull a large amount of aggro onto myself. This will cause Raijo to focus its attack on me, ignoring everyone else. I need you guys to protect me during this period,” instructed Pokan with an urgent voice.

“One last thing. Try your best not to hurt it, because when the symbiotic contract comes into effect, the current state of Stone Blader Raijo will be permanently imprinted onto it, which means that if Raijo is damaged at that time, the damage will become permanent.”

“That sounds really complicated,” said Sheyan, “But it doesn’t sound too hard. I’m only worried about one thing right now.”

“What is it?” asked Pokan anxiously. He was obviously in a hurry to get this ritual completed. To him, meeting a legendary earth elemental creature like Stone Blader Raijo was no different from winning the lottery. Something like this would probably never happen to him again.

“It sounds like the symbiotic contract has a high chance of failing. I hope you have enough casting materials with you,” Sheyan said in a calm tone.

The terrible joke softened the heavy atmosphere among the contestants. The following operation was actually quite difficult. Paul absorbed the metallic element in the surroundings and placed a 30-centimeter thick, tailor-made armour all over Stone Blader Raijo. Under such constraints, it was almost impossible for Raijo to move its arms freely, and since it had no legs, this meant that the creature now find it very difficult to move.

However, a special ability possessed by earth elementals allowed it to dissolve the soil beneath its body and sink itself underground. This was a very good method of running away. It also had abilities like the ‘Stone Spike’ and other spells which it could cast instantaneously and without consumption. Besides that, it also possessed other mutated earth elemental spells like ‘Boulder Bombing’ which it could perform with astonishingly short casting time.

Therefore, the only way to prevent Stone Blader Raijo from escaping without suffering any casualties was to have Sheyan physically stop it. The rest of the contestants were responsible for interrupting the spells that Raijo kept unleashing on Pokan. Fortunately, although the symbiotic contract was a kind of spell which required continuous casting, it would not be interrupted even if the spellcaster was attacked as long as the spellcaster did not lose consciousness.

***

The joke Sheyan made previously almost came true.

Legendary creatures were by no means so easy to contract.

Furthermore, it was Dumbledore’s own legendary creature. The difference between it and a normal legendary creature was like the difference between a personal kingsguard and a normal bodyguard.

So Pokan actually almost used up all the materials he had to make the symbiotic contract. In fact, after he succeeded, as he watched Raijo reluctantly move over with its arms, he could not help feeling inside the material bag and found that there was only one set of symbiotic contract materials left…. Before that, the material bag was bulging with eighty sets of such materials.

Pokan laughed hysterically. As he laughed, he crushed the last set of symbiotic contract materials and sprinkled it to the ground.

He knew that this was probably the last time he would need these materials.

Never in his wildest dreams could Pokan have imagined that his greatest wish would come true at such a bizarre time, in such a bizarre place, in such a bizarre way…. In the future world, on a planet occupied by the Predators, he had encountered elemental creatures sent from the Harry Potter world and made a contract with a legendary earth elemental creature with the help of a group of contestants who were complete strangers to him not that long ago!

They naturally resumed the exploration the Xenomorph den next. Everyone could clearly sense that Pokan had become stronger. The range of his aura-type spell alone had expanded from the previous 20 meters to the present 30 meters. Furthermore, the mud directly solidified into granite!

The two remaining Xenomorphs did not run away. They could not run away, because their offsprings were still sleeping inside the bodies of the humans. It was a tragedy for the trapped beasts.

As for carrying the human hosts away? Unfortunately, although the Xenomorphs were extremely good at fighting, they were extremely bad at protecting something. They may be able to drag away the bodies of their prey in the shortest time possible, but there was absolutely no way they could migrate without harming the targets.

Therefore, the subsequent battle was rather dull. In such a terrain, Sheyan and the Iron Golem could completely tank all the attacks in front, while the mages could stay safely at the back and fire at will.

In the end, the two Xenomorphs died in a battle to protect their offsprings, as they were wont to do.

The two native humans that were rescued were facing an imminent crisis. The Xenomorph offsprings, the Chestbursters, had obviously taken shape and had started to accumulate strength to break out of their chests. Therefore, immediate surgery was the best choice.

Unfortunately, the condition there would at most allow for a circumcision surgery, while a Chestburster removal surgery was right up there in terms of complexity with cardiac surgery. It was really no place to perform the operation.

But they had no choice! Performing the surgery may lead to death, but not performing the surgery meant certain death. Anyone would know which option to choose.

On a side note, as soon as Sheyan entered the storeroom of the Violent Beasts, he could immediately feel the liquid metal life-from on his palms starting to heat up. He instantly noticed a pile of ores in the corner. Sheyan kicked away the pile of ores and found a grey, smooth stone buried underneath.

The stone was only the size of a fingernail, but it was glowing with a magical light!

A Lacrimal Stone!!

Under the gazes of the other contestants, Sheyan had no intention of hiding his desire.

“This is a Lacrimal Stone, an item I need for a mission of mine. I’m using my privilege as an MT to purchase this stone directly.”