The Ultimate Evolution

The ‘Exemption’ on the ‘Imperial Second-Class Iron Cross’ could only work on one piece of equipment. Sheyan only had one equipment at the moment which requirement he could not fulfill yet and which had no rank requirement, and that was the unique reward of the Golden Side Mission, the ‘Puppet of Photography’.

(TL: Details of the ‘Puppet of Photography’ can be found in chapter 971. )

The requirement of this equipment was all attributes must be no less than 30, but Sheyan’s Charm….well, you know.

Because this thing would provoke the enemy and pull a lot of aggro if it failed, it was rather useless for the rest of the party besides Sheyan and Reef.

But Reef had his problem too, and that was, he was someone who needed to use abilities frequently, so his MP consumption was rather high. Furthermore, he now had a powerful servant as well! When the powerful servant launched abilities, it was Reef’s MP that was consumed. Therefore, Reef’s MP had always been his weakness. He always had to carefully control his MP consumption.

The active ability of the ‘Puppet of Photography’, ‘Photograph’, consumed 50 + 15% of the user’s current MP. This kind of MP consumption which combined a fixed amount with a percentage was the most troublesome.

Reef was already short on MP to begin with, so how would he dare to equip this thing? It would only make his situation worse. On the other hand, Sheyan only needed his MP for his mixes. Most of his abilities came from his equipment, so he always had an enviable amount of MP.

Sheyan did as he planned, then went to look for his party members. At the moment, all of them were gathered in the party’s private area, discussing among themselves while waiting for Sheyan. After Sheyan entered, he first laid his eyes on Zi’s full chests, an action which might be intentional or otherwise, causing Zi to blush in anger and glare at him. He then sat down with a cough and asked, “How is it?” Have you guys come up with a plan?”

Cyborg No. 1, Old Charlie, was now wearing a tuxedo, white gloves and a Western bowler hat, looking every bit like a standard 18th century butler for a British aristocrat. He replied courteously, “I’ve already told them all the information I have on the Cyclopes, master. ”

Sheyan nodded. “Well done. Your knowledge is very important to us. I’ll apply for the non-combatant protection for you later so that you can join my adventure in the Nightmare World. With this protection in place, no accidents should happen to you under normal circumstances.”

After that, Sheyan turned to Sanzi and asked, “Well, are you confident?”

In matters related to his field of expertise, Sanzi displayed an unusual calmness. He looked at Sheyan and replied in a very serious tone, “With my current strength, it’s still quite hard to tame this seventh-tier creature.”

Sanzi’s reply did not surprise Sheyan. After thinking for a while, Sheyan asked again, “What’s your estimation of the success rate?”

“About 7%,” answered Sanzi. However, he did not seem very disappointed. There must be more to it.

“Brother, there’s actually a hidden monitoring function after you use the Ukiyo-e to record the information of this Cyclops. As long as we pay a certain amount of utility points, we can observe the creature closely.”

“Through my careful observation of the Cyclops, I found that it actually had a habit of storing food. He would tear away the best parts of his prey, dry them, then marinate them.”

Sheyan’s eyes lit up when he heard this.

“He has that kind of habit?”

Sanzi nodded. “Yeah. According to the information provided by Old Charlie, Cyclopes are lazy and clumsy creatures that will consume their prey down to the last bit, even the bone marrow. Such gluttonous appetite enabled them to survive for up to a month without any food after they have eaten enough, like pythons. None of the information shows that they have a habit of storing food. So why does this happen to the Cyclops we’re monitoring?”

“I found something interesting among the information on the Cyclopes: Cyclopes don’t produce milk, but their infants possess large appetite right from birth, so the mother would chew marinated meat into a paste form to feed the infant. A newborn Cyclops will only undergo seven days of infancy, during which time they will grow rapidly, before they enter the juvenile phase when they can already hunt alone.”

Sheyan’s eyes turned even brighter.

“You mean this Cyclops is actually a she and she’s about to go into labour? That’s why she’s storing fresh meat? But I can’t see any signs of pregnancy on her!”

Sanzi chuckled and explained, “Although Cyclopes are humanoid creatures, they’re very different from humans and have a different way of giving birth.”

Sheyan beamed with joy. “How much confidence do you have in taming an infant Cyclops?”

“At least seventy to eighty percent,” remarked Sanzi cautiously.

Sheyan nodded. “Then there are two problems we have to face. First, we only have five hours left before we have to travel into a new world. We might not be able to wait for the Cyclops to finish giving birth. Second, we have to think of how to deal with a powerful 7th-tier legendary creature. You should know that the rocks she throws are no joke. If they so much as touch Mogensha or Zi, the two of them will probably be sent into a state of near death.”

Mogensha laughed. “I don’t think the first problem is a problem at all. Before you arrived, the Cyclops started performing some strange actions; she seems to have already started the process of giving birth. As for the second problem, the Cyclops won’t throw rocks as long as the enemy manages to get close to her, because the rocks are formed from her biological power. If the enemy manages to attack the Cyclops close-up in a short amount of time, not only will the Cyclops suffer additional damage, the forming of the rocks will also fail.”

Zi told Sheyan, “The Cyclops will be weakened right after giving birth. If you can infect the Cyclops with a disease, her strength will further decline. After that, if you two MTs and the dark gold leech stall it together while Mogensha and I focus our firepower on her from the distance, we should stand a chance.”

Sheyan was actually still a little hesitant, mainly because the Cyclops’ three continuous throws that he witnessed before was simply too strong. Even someone as powerful as the Arbitrator was killed by the rocks.

But after making some calculations, he estimated that using the dark gold leech and the summoned creatures as sacrifice, and with his upgraded innate ability, even if they lost, they should still be able to run away. He finally agreed to the battle plan.

Old Charlie, who had been standing silently at the side, suddenly remarked, “The Cyclops is in delivery.”

The whole party immediately gathered around the Ukiyo-e to watch the holographic image projected above the painting. It showed the Cyclops suddenly lying down on his back on the ground, looking in pain. Then, her whole body started shaking violently. The veins on her body swelled on the surface of her skin like tiny blue snakes, congregating towards the belly.

A bulge slowly rose on the stomach of the Cyclops until it was about the size of a basketball. A bulge of this size was nothing compared to the overall monstrosity that was the Cyclops, but the blood vessels all over the body of the Cyclops were congregating on this bulge, as if they were pouring the nutrient and life essence from the entire body into the bulge.

After a while, the basketball-sized bulge started to gradually shift upwards. It moved slowly but resolutely.

When it reached the throat of the Cyclops, the pain experienced by the Cyclops reached its peak. She wished to poke a finger into her throat, but she forced herself to dig her fingers deep into the soil instead with sheer willpower. She tried hard to vomit the bulge out through the peristalsis of the muscles.

Old Charlie gave everyone an explanation.

“This is the most dangerous moment in the process of giving birth for a Cyclops. If the baby’s too big, it can easily block the larynx and result in asphyxiation, but if the baby’s too small, though the mother will not be in danger, the baby can easily die because it had not developed well, somewhat like a premature birth in humans.”

“However, more than 80% of Cyclops mothers would choose to let the baby grow up more despite the higher risk of asphyxiation. Therefore, the chance of a complication occurring during delivery is higher than 30%, and the risk of both mother and baby dying is also no less than 20%.”

The whole party watched intently as the mother Cyclops gave birth. Although a human baby came out from the lower body while a Cyclops baby came out from the throat, the danger was not much different.

Minutes trickled by. The Cyclops constantly stomped both her feet in a frenzy, forming a pit on the ground. The soil that was dug up was as tall as a small hill. Not only had her condition not improved, it had actually gotten worse. Her eye turned bloodshot and her mouth omitted a large amount of brown liquid. A terrible noise came out from her throat, but the bulge stuck in her throat did not move any further forward!

“Something’s not right!” exclaimed Zi with a frown on her face. “She’s probably having a complication!”

“It seems so, ma’am,” answered Old Charlie respectfully.

Zi immediately said, “She needs help! We have to summon her right away!”