Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Hey, Zhaoyu; so this is the studio that belongs to that Uncle Gao of yours?” one of the girls who was wearing jeans and a white t-shirt thought of something funny. “You said that Uncle Gao was around your age. Is it because he looks very old?”
Addressing a boy her age as “uncle” really made Liu Zhaoyu very uncomfortable.
Liu Zhaoyu rolled her eyes at the girl who spoke and said, “Chen Jianglan, I already said, it was my dad that made me address him that way ok?”
“Welcome to Flying Roc Studio. Can I ask if the three of you have an appointment?” At the front desk, Xun Quanquan smiled at the three of them. “If you have an appointment, I can help you to contact my boss ahead of time.”
“Huh? Your business is that booming, that we actually need an appointment?” Chen Jianglan was stunned and was in slight disbelief.
Was business that good?
Liu Zhaoyu was stunned too. She looked at the empty main hall and the workshop that was so quiet that one could hear a pin drop.
She remembered that her dad had said that this Uncle Gao’s Monster Breeding abilities were extremely impressive. Her dad had described him as though he was the number one genius in Chang’an.
The only problem was that this genius had his eccentricities. His fees were extremely high.
It was because of his fees that he lost many of his customers.
Xun Quanquan coughed, but her expression remained unchanged. “You can still consult our boss even without an appointment, but that will have to depend on his mood.”
ROAR-
A low rasping roar came from the breeding room. It was as though there was a wild beast inside trying to hold back its sounds.
Xun Quanquan cowered in fear. Today, she saw her boss bringing a huge skeleton into the breeding room.
Other kinds of monsters were still alright, but she had no love for ghoul-type monsters. The thing she feared most was ghosts.
Ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum…
The whole floor rang with this dull, muffled sound.
Suddenly, everyone on the floor felt as though they could see a heavy leather drum being hit repeatedly.
Boom, boom, boom…
The beating of the drum grew louder and louder. It felt as though each beat gripped at their hearts, tighter and tighter!
“Ugh-”
Many people clutched their chests in pain and fell to their knees. Their hearts were beating faster and faster, even disrupting the rhythm of their breathing.
It was like being dumped into water when you could not swim. The more you wanted to breathe, the more you find out that you are unable to do so.
The dull beating sound suddenly came to a stop.
The air was filled with the sound of people all taking in a deep breath of air.
Xun Quanquan almost cried from the ordeal. Was her life in danger just by going to work?
Then, they suddenly smelled the faint odor of urine in the air. Their eyes turned curiously to the girl in jeans and a tank top who was squatting on the ground. Her face was flushed and she was looking downwards, sobbing quietly.
Chen Jianglan’s face was flushed with anger. This studio of Liu Zhaoyu’s Uncle Gao was a horrible place!
Xun Quanquan saw the situation and reached below the counter to take out a set of clothes. “These are some clean clothes. If you don’t mind, you can wear them first. The restroom is over there.”
“Thank you,” said the tank top girl in a voice as quiet as a mouse. She took the clothes and hurried into the restroom.
In the breeding room earlier, Gao Peng had realized that something was wrong and immediately ordered Dumby to deactivate its ability.
What happened earlier was caused by Dumby naturally unleashing its ability after suddenly evolving.
After evolving, Dumby had grown much taller than when he was first brought back home by Gao Peng. Standing upright, its full height was close to four meters, almost reaching the ceiling. The growth in Dumby’s body size had occurred slowly, a bit at a time, at Gao Peng’s home. The color of Dumby’s bones had also turned into a deep silvery-gray. Strands of dark red blood threads were wrapped around each of its joints, like coils of steel wire.
Its originally empty skeleton now had a dull red heart.
Around the heart were the same strands of blood threads that were connected to the blood threads present all around its body.
The heart rose and fell as though it were alive. The rising and falling occurred at a very slow rate. It roughly “breathed” only once a minute.
With careful observation, one would be able to see that the “heart” was formed from densely packed blood threads.
A heart made out of threads of blood. An extremely vicious and horrifying appearance.
The evolution was finally a success, and Gao Peng could heave a sigh of relief.
[Monster Name]: Skull Ghoul Ape
[Monster Level]: 16
[Monster Grade]: Epic
[Monster Attribute]: Ghoul
[Special Characteristic]: Blood-Thread Heart (Effect 1 activated effect: Consumes a certain amount of blood-threads in order to form a blood-thread heart. While possessing a blood-thread heart, all aspects of the Skull Ghoul Ape’s body are strengthened. This effect is lost when the blood-threat heart is destroyed. Effect 2: Consciously activating the blood-thread heart will trigger heart resonance. Through this, it can control the beating of hearts.)
[Monster Weakness]: Light
[Requirements for Promotion to Legendary Grade]:…
Gao Peng took a look at the materials needed to promote to legendary grade. Just one look and he was horrified. He had never even heard of many of these materials.
Other materials, such as a Heart of the Undead and River Styx Underworld Root, sounded like rare and priceless materials.
A lot of these were things that even money could not buy, simply because no one actually knew where to find them.
Gao Peng even had his suspicions whether or not some of them even existed.
But what are special characteristics exactly? Gao Peng wondered. The water bear possessed one, and now Dumby had developed one as well.
As Gao Peng wondered, the large black words saying “Special Characteristics” flashed.
Following that, information regarding it suddenly appeared in his mind.
Special characteristics are abilities that monsters obtain after achieving enough growth in a certain area of development.
Special characteristics can be divided into two types; inborn ones and developed ones.
Inborn ones were like the water bear’s. By naturally possessing certain traits that cause the monster to excel in certain areas, something akin to a species-specific skill is developed. This is a special characteristic.
Developed special characteristics appear in monsters that reach a certain grade. When a monster reaches the epic grade for the first time, it will have the certain chance to develop a special characteristic. From the epic grade onwards, every time the monster manages to be promoted to a higher grade, there will be a chance to develop a special characteristic.
There is no difference between the two types and no distinction between which is better.
Special characteristics are not the same as a monster’s skill or move. This is not a game, so there is no such thing as a monster skill or move anyway.
If a monster can control fire, there is no such bullsh*t as being able to conjure a fireball and not being able to conjure a pillar of flame. How well flames can be controlled by a monster is determined by how developed a monster’s ability is.
A special characteristic was just like adding an additional module to a monster’s basic abilities.
In simple terms, a monster can be described as a gun. Its special characteristics can be described as a scope, bullet clip, handle, buttstock or other gun parts that can be added onto the gun.
In even simpler terms, one can view special characteristics as the awakening of a monster’s latent talents.
Gao Peng’s eyes were shining as he looked at Dumby. Right now, Dumby looked positively domineering.
Epic grade!
Its silvery grey bones gave off an ice-cold glow and the dark red strands that ran across its bones gave it a bit of grimness. In the center of its chest, its rows of ribs crossed each other like metal spikes protecting the dark red heart within it. Blue soul flames could be seen burning brightly as its head looked downwards.
They left the breeding room.
