Translator: Sean88888 Editor: Elkassar1
“That’s right, Seaman’s role in the team has always been a close-combat damage dealer + support. But now he’s the MT!!”
The two formidable Awakener MTs who were his direct competitors, Hedi Curry and Azsa, had both died.
Paul was a result-oriented person. He had a liking for transfering the utility points in other people’s pockets into his own pockets, and he did not really care much about the process.
So at that moment, he disregarded all the processes the team had gone through so far and examined only the current situation in the team.
A chill crept down his spine.
A bitter chill.
Therefore, facing Sheyan’s challenge, he chose to remain silent.
Pokan, meanwhile, looked at Sheyan with a measure of surprise, like he was re-evaluating this person in front of him.
Sheyan snorted coldly and ignored Paul. He then said to Aldaris, “Hey, asshole, what’s the situation over there?”
“What else can these foolish creatures do but tremble in my presence?” answered Aldaris nonchalantly.
Sheyan looked across at the island and calculated the velocity of the river flow. He then turned to Hadrick and asked, “How much longer will the curly paulownia seeds last?”
In order to ensure that the river was continuously polluted, Sheyan had wrapped the seeds in gauze and immersed them in the river upstream. This would greatly prolong the duration of the pollution. It had also completely depleted the sly Hadrick’s stock of curly paulownia seeds.
Hadrick checked the time and answered, “They’ll keep the water polluted for at least an hour longer.”
Sheyan nodded and said to Paul, “We’re short on time. Assemble two more assault rifles at once – if you want to get a bigger cut of the spoils, that is.”
Paul had repeatedly emphasized that he could only assemble one assault rifle at most. For Sheyan to make such a demand right now was no different from giving Paul a slap in the face.
Under Sheyan’s intimidating gaze, Paul gave in and quietly fulfilled Sheyan’s request.
The difference between one assault rifle and three assault rifles was that the killing rate was increased by 200% with three assault rifles.
The critical point Sheyan was waiting for finally arrived.
A Violent Beast hiding on the island suddenly gave a sharp scream, then turned around and fled. After falling into the water, it once again uttered a sad cry, like a human who had fallen into a pot of boiling oil. However, it persisted until it got through the hell-like swamp, then disappeared into the purple reeds.
The action of this Violent Beast meant that it had resisted the Xenomorphs’ will and had betrayed its tribe.
However, the decision made by this Violent Beast triggered an alarming domino-like chain reaction. A large number of Violent Beasts began to run away from their territory and their tribe. Ten minutes later, of the originally densely-packed red dots in Sheyan’s vision, only less than twenty were left.
“Excellent.” Sheyan stood up and turned to Pokan. “How are you recovering?”
“It’s going well. I’ve restored 60% of my MP,” answered Pokan calmly.
“Let’s get to work, then,” said Sheyan.
Pokan went upstream and started chanting. A dam slowly rose from the bottom of the river, making the river change its course. This meant that the water flowing through the swamp would no longer be replenished.
Now that all the Violent Beasts had fled, the river had become useless to the humans.
As the Xenomorphs had evolved to adapt to life in the swamp, they would certainly become stronger in water. Their battle prowess in water would certainly be at least 50% higher than on dry land. Sheyan could maintain 100% of his battle prowess in water, but the others like Aldaris would probably be weakened by more than half.
Sheyan certainly wouldn’t let that happen.
So after the river had no more use for him, he immediately made it disappear! When Sheyan’s boundless imagination was applied to the battlefield, it spewed a myriad of unpredictable tactics.
Sheyan watched as the water level slowly fell until the muddy riverbed and the aquatic plant roots were visible. He then pointed to the side and said, “Ramtas will head two hundred metres to the west, where the other exit of the Xenomorph den is. Ramtas will make that exit collapse.”
“Mr. Hadrick, there’s a very small probability of the enemies breaking out of a small island to the south, but if that happens, they must already be close to dying. I need you guys to aim there and pick them off. But don’t fight them in close combat. If you guys get close to them, it’s totally suicide.”
“Don’t worry, all three assault rifles will be aiming at that place. But I must remind you, Mr. Seaman, these monsters may be powerful, but they’re not strong enough to threaten our lives; at least, not for Burns and I.”
Sheyan could hear the pride in Hadrick’s words, so he sidestepped the topic and simply nodded back.
“Now then, let’s go! To retrieve our cyborgs, retrieve our loot, and of course, check out the collections of the Violent Beasts and the Xenomorphs. Finally, don’t forget to check for possible soul equipments!”
The person who walked beside Sheyan at the front was Pokan. There were circles of yellowish ripples under his feet. This was an aura-like magic, a reversed version of the spell which turned hard ground into mud. It cost little MP and could eliminate the moisture in the ground 20 meters around Pokan to turn the area into solid ground.
This was the formidable aspect of Pokan’s innate talent. He could control any type of earth at will and make them change their nature like they were his pets. Pokan only needed to consume a low amount of MP to do so. In addition, his equipments were carefully selected to focus on lowering MP consumption, so each spell could be maintained for a long time.
The advantages of earth element was its solidness, toughness and indestructibility, and Pokan had tried to bring his own characteristics closer to these points. Sheyan realised that Pokan’s position in his original party should be similar to the role of a second-in-command, a blue-collar type focusing on support rather than attacking.
With him in the team, there were infinite possibilities in the strategy they could use. It did not matter who the team leader was, Pokan’s position would always remain solid.
The team soon reached a cave below the island through the solidified ground. The wall of the cave was covered with a substance that looked similar to cement. The substance was made from the scales of the Violent Beasts and the bones of their prey, which they chewed and mixed with their own saliva before smearing it on the cave wall.
This substance functioned similarly to waterproof cement, and it also had a reinforcing effect. When the humans knocked their fingers on the wall, they could feel how hard it was. Because the air in the cave had newly poured in after the water receded, there was no smell of decay, only a faint odour of moisture.
Because the cave was spacious enough, the one leading the way was Paul’s Iron Golem. The bulky golem trampled the ground heavily as it walked, leaving cracks wherever it stepped. The mud that had just solidified and turned into hard ground showed signs of breaking down again under the golem’s weight. Pokan’s brows wrinkled. He increased the output of his spell, and finally managed to prevent the Iron Golem from instantly destroying the fruits of his labour.
The contestants soon found that letting the Iron Golem tank in front was a wise move, because there were constantly enemies jumping at them along the way to try to slow them down. Most of these attacks ended up falling on the Iron Golem.
All the enemies that appeared were legendary Violent Beasts without exception. Like servants kept and brainwashed by the Xenomorphs, they resolutely defended the territory from the invaders.
Legendary creatures were indeed very powerful, but unfortunately Violent Beasts were too small and too weak individually. They were all fighting by themselves without any sense of cooperation. It meant that every Violent Beast was essentially soloing the group of ferocious contestants.
Failure and death were the only fate awaiting them.
So, by the time the humans were about two hundred metres into the cave, the Iron Golem was already carrying a large sack over its shoulder.
The quality of the sack was terrible and it had extremely sloppy workmanship. It was made from materials recycled from garbages such as slippers, old tires, used condoms, etc. The weak future humans would even find their health affected if they took in the smell of the sack for too long.
These sacks were in fact normally used by the cleaning robots on Alps Base 7 to pack garbage. The only reasons the sacks were produced were that they were cheap, thick, and strong.
Blood continuously seeped out of the sack. Inside the sack were the corpses of three legendary Violent Beasts. If these three corpses were combined, the team could even consider selling them to necromancer type contestants.
After all, these were corpses of legendary creatures. They were quality research materials.
At that moment, Paul suddenly exclaimed in astonishment.
“No way! Why do I get this feeling here? We’re in the future, not in a parallel world!”
He shouted after a short pause, “T…These are the signs of a dimensional portal opening!”
Paul’s warning caused everyone to be on high alert. Sheyan was an experienced leader who did not panic in the face of sudden changes. He immediately ordered, “Pokan, lift us up to the surface at once! Aldaris, Sentry Wards! All mages put up magic barriers and take cover behind me and the Iron Golem!”
