area51novel Chapter 50 Bouncing Bomb
Chapter 50 Bouncing Bomb
In Luo Lan's view, the skill 【Dead Remains Assembly】is indeed similar to 【Condensation-Assembly】.
Both use various things to assemble what they need, except one is a temporary puppet that continuously consumes energy, and the other is a permanent enhancement that consumes chaotic essence.
For [Dead Remains Assembly], the final result will closely resemble the blueprint in their mind.
The skill level directly determines how closely the product made from a bunch of identical materials will resemble the idea, and how complex the commands the finished product can execute.
A few rotten bones, placed in the hands of Victor, whose [Dead Bone Assembly] level is as high as lv.9, can be perfectly reassembled into a mammalian skeleton carrier that is indistinguishable from a real cat or dog, with even the curvature of the joints being just right.
However, the same "monster junk" in the hands of Luo Lan, who had just reached the basics and whose [Dead Remains Assembly] skill was only level 1, could only be used to create a mosaic-like, deformed stitched-together mess.
However, no matter what the final product is, it cannot avoid one basic requirement: energy.
The power source that constitutes the dead requires both chaos and order.
Chaotic energy is easy to deal with. In the last few thousand years since the "Age of Gods", rifts have sprung up all over the world like mushrooms after rain, and the purplish-black chaotic aura has spread everywhere. It can be found almost everywhere in the wild and is inexhaustible.
However, the Order Energy used as the adhesive can currently only be obtained from Luo Lan's own limited production of Pale Holy Light.
Because the individual created by assembling skills can only be controlled by the creator.
Although Victor's skill level is high, if you want to create a powerful fighter, you must draw Holy Light from Roland to maintain the stability of his form.
After changing hands in the middle, Luo Lan's already meager reserves of the Pale Holy Light Circuit immediately became insufficient.
In Victor's own words, this is called:
"The energy transfer efficiency of the secondary conversion is extremely low, and the utilization rate has plummeted."
It's like a high-power flagship phone versus a low-power youth phone.
Therefore, only by truly mastering this skill could Luo Lan have the confidence to venture into the Rift Ruins without sacrificing his endurance.
Having learned a new skill, Luo Lan fell into a deep sleep.
The fatigue accumulated from nearly two weeks of frantic travel urgently needs to be relieved in order to ensure that I can face the Rift Ruins in the best possible condition tomorrow.
……
……
The next day, as dawn broke, Luo Lan headed straight for the prop shop at the other end of town.
As I passed the tavern, the wooden door, which had been knocked askew by the orc warrior, was still ajar. Several drunken adventurers were slumped over the greasy table, snoring loudly.
When Luo Lan first arrived in town yesterday, she actually considered hiring a few people to go to the Rift Ruins to "run a dungeon".
However, after carefully observing the adventurers mingling in this tavern using [True Sight Lv.1], Luo Lan discovered that almost all of them were Iron-rank cannon fodder adventurers, with only a pitiful two or three Bronze-rank adventurers, and Silver-rank adventurers were completely absent.
Leading this group into the Rift Ruins during the Demon Tide period carries the risk of being recognized and having a wanted poster removed. If they encounter a life-threatening crisis, it's uncertain whether these people will be helpful or a hindrance.
[There's no other choice; relying on yourself is better than asking others. You have to solo it.]
However, Luo Lan thought about it and realized that a tree dies when moved, but a person thrives when they move.
Experienced adventurers with Silver rank or higher wouldn't stay in this godforsaken border town drinking watered-down, sour ale.
Bypassing the tavern, Luo Lan walked into the prop shop at the end of Fallen Leaf Town, where the signboard was almost falling off.
The prop shop was very compactly furnished, with shelves stacked from the ground to a height of over a person's head, and bottles and jars piled up tightly. Several low-level magic scrolls were placed in the most conspicuous spot on the shelves as treasures.
The shopkeeper was a bald, gray dwarf with a big beard. He was stunned for a moment when he saw Luo Lan enter the shop, seemingly not expecting that someone in the town would come in to shop during the Demon Tide, a time when most adventurers would be resting.
Ten minutes later, under the extremely strange gaze of the gray dwarf boss, Luo Lan slapped five shiny gold coins onto the counter.
[Thanks to the unlucky guy who was seriously injured yesterday...]
Indeed, no matter which world you're in, making money by committing robbery is always a huge gain.
If it weren't for the fact that Luo Lan had saved the life of the severely injured cat-man with the help of holy light in the tavern and received an unexpected windfall, she really wouldn't be able to shop to her heart's content now.
I bought 8 gold coins yesterday, and I've already spent most of them today.
Two gold coins bought you: an empty shell of a portable magic lamp that can amplify light intensity, twenty bottles of overpriced high-efficiency energy potions, and ten bottles of slow-acting standard life potions.
With the remaining three gold coins, he bought a large pile of exploding magic crystals in coarse cloth bags.
"Boss, do you still have any magic crystals?"
Luo Lan gazed at the orange crystals covered with fine cracks on their outer surface. Despite their high price, he still felt they weren't enough. Through his observation with [True Sight lv.1], he had conceived of the possibility of combining a bursting magic crystal with [Dead Remains Assembly], and he was just waiting to verify it in actual combat.
While the dwarf boss frantically packed the magic crystals into layers using oil-soaked cloths that protected them from magic, he stared at Luo Lan up and down like a madman.
"More? You bought out both boxes of stock. The next shipment won't arrive until the Demon Tide lockdown ends..."
While the power of the Exploding Magic Crystal is considerable, it is extremely unstable. If used in actual combat, it is too easy to accidentally injure one's own people.
Its main purpose is for dwarven miners to mine, and even when used for mining, there are always unlucky people who get accidentally blown up every year.
Therefore, among some groups of dwarf girls who like explosives, the exploding magic crystal has another name: "bouncing bomb"—a bomb that can scare nearby people into running away in a panic every time it is thrown.
As a magical item, the Exploding Magic Crystal is by no means cheap, and usually only a few are sold in a whole year, so small shops naturally don't stock up on too many.
"Okay, let's pack these first."
If the stock hadn't already been sold out, Luo Lan would have loved to fill the storage space of the Magic Cross pendant to the brim.
With everything ready, and taking advantage of the early hour, Luo Lan traveled swiftly and soon left the town's boundaries, embarking on the desolate path leading to the Rift Ruins.
……
The closer you get to the Ruins, the more eerie the surrounding environment becomes.
A warm breeze, carrying a mixture of sweet musk and the scent of decaying earth, blew in, leaving my face feeling sticky.
Several vultures, their fleshy growths caused by the chaotic aura of the Demon Tide, circled in the purple-tinged sky.
Even the plants exhibited a morbid distortion, with the color of the leaves gradually changing from withered yellow to a sinister purple, and fine barbs growing on the leaf edges.
At the foot of the continuous border mountains of the Holy Kingdom, a huge chasm radiating intense purple light runs across the earth, with the rolled-out rock layers resembling a scarred opening in the earth.
The opening is irregular, wider at the top and narrower at the bottom. At its widest point, it can accommodate dozens of adults side by side, while at its narrowest point, it can only accommodate two or three people walking together.
There are many types of [Rift Ruins]. These include, but are not limited to: Nest type, Dungeon type, Illusion type, Ghostly Realm type, Otherworld type...
The underground palace rift where Luo Lan was previously located was a [nest-type rift] - most of them were occupied and transformed into "nests" for their own needs by demon lords or high-level superhumans.
The large hole in front of Luo Lan, spewing purple light and chaotic energy, is the most common entrance to the [Dungeon-type Rift].
As the name suggests, most of the [Dungeon-type Ruins] have a complex internal structure, resembling an inverted underground city, with one layer after another, each layer being different, extending downwards.
It may be filled with monsters corrupted by chaos, or be riddled with dangerous traps and mechanisms, but it may also contain ancient treasures.
Because of the high-risk, high-reward speculative nature of the Rift Ruins, many adventurers flock to it, even willing to pay the price with their lives.
"Cat, go inside and check. If there's danger, abandon this body and find another one. If there's no danger, I'll follow you."
Luo Lan stood in front of the purple light curtain at the entrance of the Rift Ruins and whispered to the ragdoll cat on her shoulder.
"Understood. A reasonable action plan."
The ragdoll cat leaped lightly off Luo Lan's shoulder without hesitation, and plunged headfirst into the distorted purple light curtain as soon as it finished speaking.
About five minutes later, Victor's slightly distorted voice echoed in Luo Lan's mind:
"Observation: Presence of a low-level, berserk monster; Chaotic aura concentration: Medium; Overall danger assessment: Low... Conclusion: Entry permitted."
Having obtained the intelligence, Luo Lan no longer hesitated and stepped into the rift with his hand on the hilt of his sword.