Ashen God
Chapter 270 - 269 White Quality Pet

Chapter 270: Chapter 269 White Quality Pet

"Before entering the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalaguli, I had thought that this cleanup process might turn out to be a major project, possibly taking four or five days just to have a chance of completing it.

But now it seems that after advancing to the Second Tier, my strength has grown at an excessive rate, allowing me to thoroughly clear the entire small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalaguli in less than two days."

If I can clear the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalaguli earlier, then Zhang Yanhang can spend more time looking for other larger Crimson Iron Ant Nests.

In fact, when he finds other larger-scale Crimson Iron Ant Nests, Zhang Yanhang might even have enough time to clean them up and incidentally gather all the Ant Power needed to upgrade his Talent Quality to SS level.

Although he hasn’t yet gathered enough Ant Power to upgrade the A-level Talent Power of Bull Demon to S level, making preparations in advance has always been a good habit of Zhang Yanhang.

Speaking of the Ant Power used to upgrade the A-level Talent Power of Bull Demon, Zhang Yanhang immediately poured out a large pile of treasure boxes from his waist bag, which he needed to briefly inventory before officially starting to open them.

Since the number of treasure boxes was not too large, Zhang Yanhang quickly finished the inventory. This time, he had obtained a total of 192 treasure boxes, with the majority, 163 in total, coming from the Crimson Iron Worker Ant, followed by 28 from the Crimson Iron Flying Ant.

Lastly, the treasure boxes from the Crimson Iron Soldier Ants were because Zhang Yanhang had only killed about a dozen Crimson Iron Soldier Ants, so he had only managed to harvest one treasure box related to the Crimson Iron Soldier Ant.

Fortunately, the treasure boxes of the Crimson Iron Soldier Ant were of the same quality as those of the Crimson Iron Flying Ant, both being Green quality. He was very eager to see what new things could come out of the Crimson Iron Soldier Ant’s treasure box.

"Since the count of treasure boxes is done, it’s time to officially start the treasure box opening," eager to see what new items might appear, Zhang Yanhang immediately picked up the uniquely categorized Green Treasure Box.

[Do you want to open the ’Drop Treasure Box (Crimson Iron Soldier Ant)’?]

"Yes, open it," and with Zhang Yanhang making his choice, the familiar pause in time descended once again.

[Please select the specific contents of the ’Drop Treasure Box (Crimson Iron Soldier Ant)’]

[Item One: ?]

[Item Two: ?]

[Item Three: ?]

[Item Four: ?]

[Item Five: ?]

"Although both the Crimson Iron Soldier Ant and the Crimson Iron Flying Ant drop Green quality treasure boxes and the Soul points gained from killing either are the same, being only seven,

But since the Crimson Iron Soldier Ant is a First Tier Two-star Monster and much stronger in combat than the Crimson Iron Flying Ant, logically, the items that can be opened from the Crimson Iron Soldier Ant’s box should be somewhat better than those from the Crimson Iron Flying Ant’s, even if not by much, but definitely stronger."

If you were to ask Zhang Yanhang what he expects from the part that should be better than the Crimson Iron Flying Ant, he does indeed have some specific expectations; he hopes to unearth new Blue quality equipment from the Crimson Iron Soldier Ant’s treasure box, preferably accessories that enhance the Charm attribute.

That way, he could further enhance his Charm attribute, which at current is still too low at only twenty-three points, not even reaching the First Tier Limit.

Zhang Yanhang felt that if he could find new Blue quality equipment in the Crimson Iron Soldier Ant’s treasure box, even if it didn’t increase the attributes by much, helping to raise his Charm attribute value to Second Tier shouldn’t be a problem.

After a silent prayer, filled with anticipation, Zhang Yanhang eagerly opened the first item.

[Item One]

[Option One: Crimson Iron Residue (500 grams), White Quality, Material]

[Option Two: 35 Soul Points]

[Option Three: 70 Soul Points]

"Ah? Can I really open Crimson Iron Residue?" Zhang Yanhang was extremely surprised to find Crimson Iron Residue in the treasure box of the Crimson Iron Soldier Ant.

He had always thought that if the treasure box of the Crimson Iron Soldier Ant were to contain materials of the Crimson Iron series, it should at least be Refined Crimson Iron, if not that then Ordinary Crimson Iron, or at the very least, Crimson Iron Ore, but he hadn’t expected it to turn out to be the excrement of the Crimson Iron Soldier Ant.

As for this entirely valueless excrement, Zhang Yanhang had no interest in selecting it, as it was utterly useless to him.

Moreover, in addition to being surprised that the Crimson Iron Soldier Ant’s treasure box could contain Crimson Iron Residue, what surprised Zhang Yanhang even more was that this Crimson Iron Residue was of a higher quality than he had anticipated.

He had always thought that this useless Crimson Iron Residue, produced by the Crimson Iron Soldier Ant absorbing the special energy from the Crimson Iron Ore, would at most be a Grey Quality miscellaneous item.

However, unexpectedly, whether it was because of the superior quality of the Crimson Iron Ore itself, even the digested remnants could have White quality, becoming a White Quality material.

On this, Zhang Yanhang only wanted to say that the Crimson Iron Ore truly was a miraculous mineral that, after simple refinement (digested by Ant Acid), could reach Blue quality, proving to be quite remarkable.

[Item Two]

[Option One: 7 Soul Points]

[Option Two: Crimson Iron Worker Ant, White Quality, Pet]

[Option Three: 70 Soul Points]

"The second option again features the familiar Soul Points, but this time I finally encountered a Monster I’ve seen before.

I remember previously, from a Crimson Iron Worker Ant’s Treasure Box, a First Tier Zero Star Crimson Iron Ant was opened, and similarly, from a Crimson Iron Flying Ant’s Treasure Box, a Crimson Iron Ruo Ant, also a First Tier Zero Star, was opened—both being young-stage Crimson Iron Ants that never actually exist in the Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalaguli.

This time, in the Crimson Iron Soldier Ant’s Treasure Box, I finally encountered a normal Crimson Iron Ant, though a First Tier One Star Crimson Iron Worker Ant is still useless to me, it implies that I may be able to open more advanced Crimson Iron Ant Pets from other Crimson Iron Ant’s Treasure Boxes in the future."

Following this logic, Zhang Yanhang even suspected he could end up opening a Crimson Iron Ant Queen from the Ant Queen’s treasure box, but because Zhang Yanhang doesn’t really like insects, even if he could indeed open the Ant Queen, he wouldn’t choose such a thing as his pet.

Unless the Crimson Iron Ants bred by the Ant Queen were out of his control and turned into wild monsters.

If that were the case, then Zhang Yanhang might embrace the idea of opening one Ant Queen as his pet to spawn more Crimson Iron Ants for the corresponding Soul Points and drop Treasure Boxes.

Because if such a thing were indeed possible, Zhang Yanhang would effectively acquire an additional monster spawn point; although the refresh rate of the monsters at this spawn point might be slow due to breeding speed limitations, at least he’d find something to do in the Main World.

However, regrettably, Zhang Yanhang’s method of cultivating his own monster spawn point had virtually no chance of realization, since pets and wild monsters are definitely two different things; even if the Ant Queen could rapidly breed other Crimson Iron Ants, it’s unlikely that killing them would yield any Soul Points or drop Treasure Boxes.

"And moreover, according to the current pattern, it’s not certain that the Ant Queen’s Treasure Box would indeed open to reveal herself; it’s entirely possible that it might reveal a lower level Ant King instead."

Although the name Ant King sounds impressive, Zhang Yanhang knew that the Ant King must be significantly weaker compared to the Ant Queen.

After all, it’s widely known that an ant nest, like a bee hive, operates as a matriarchal society; the status of the Ant Queen is supreme, whereas the Ant King is merely an oversized common soldier.

Generally speaking, during the same period, an ant nest would have several Ant Kings and Queens for mating because having just a single Ant King results in too low efficacy in mating; only by engaging in a rotation battle with the Ant Queen can one fully make use of the Ant Queen’s reproductive capability.

Putting it more simply, it’s the Queen and her harem of male consorts, any male ant that has mated with the Queen can be called an Ant King.

After reviewing the second item in the Crimson Iron Soldier Ant’s Treasure Box, Zhang Yanhang silently clicked on the third item.

[Item Three]

[Option One: Crimson Iron Flying Knife, White Quality, Weapon]

[Option Two: Crimson Iron Dagger, White Quality, Weapon]

[Option Three: Crimson Iron Heart, Blue Quality, Equipment]

"Is it really a Crimson Iron Heart again? This is a bit painful, I haven’t drunk the radiation water produced in Japan, and I can’t grow a second head, so naturally, I can’t wear a second necklace..."

If possible, Zhang Yanhang would really like to have a few additional heads mutate out so he could wear more necklaces; however, sadly, he completely lacked the ability to do so. Moreover, merely relying on mutations to produce other heads would somewhat affect urban aesthetics.

Therefore, since relying on growing several more heads—a wicked method to wear more necklaces—wasn’t feasible, the Crimson Iron Heart Necklace was of not much use to him at this point.

As the Crimson Iron Heart Necklace he currently wore around his neck had been upgraded to Purple Quality through fusion, trying to elevate it further through fusion to Dark Purple Quality would be extremely difficult. It was conservatively estimated to be as difficult as refining Dark Purple Quality Refined Crimson Iron +7.

From Zhang Yanhang’s current experience, if he didn’t promote the quality of the Crimson Iron Heart but solely aimed to increase its score within the Purple Quality, it was unlikely to add any extra Charm attribute bonuses.

At most, he could rely on fusion to continue improving his bonuses on Flame Resistance and Acid Resistance, but his current bonuses in terms of Flame Resistance and Acid Resistance were already over fifty percent—a not insignificant base.

So, attempting to significantly increase these bonuses of Flame Resistance and Acid Resistance by merely boosting the score of the Crimson Iron Heart Necklace was clearly impossible.

After all, Zhang Yanhang’s main source of bonuses for Flame Resistance and Acid Resistance came from the Blue Quality Crimson Iron Rings. Although the Crimson Iron Heart was a Purple Quality Equipment, which was one quality higher than the Crimson Iron Rings, merely being one quality higher and expecting it to match the power of ten Crimson Iron Rings was very unrealistic.

Therefore, relying solely on further fusing the Crimson Iron Heart Necklace to the limit of Purple Quality to gain profits in terms of Flame Resistance and Acid Resistance was actually of little use for Zhang Yanhang.

Zhang Yanhang believed what he needed to do next was to forcibly promote the Crimson Iron Heart Necklace to Dark Purple Quality through fusion. Only by doing so could he receive a considerable benefit.

Currently, apart from the Crimson Iron Heart +4 hanging around his neck, he had no spare Crimson Iron Heart Necklaces. According to his prior estimation, the fusion limit of this particular Crimson Iron Heart +4 was probably around +6. Then, at that point, the Crimson Iron Heart Necklace would become a full-score Purple necklace.

Based on previous experiences in refining Refined Crimson Iron +7, Zhang Yanhang would probably need to gather eight full-score Purple Quality Crimson Iron Heart +6 to have a high probability of fusing a Dark Purple Quality Crimson Iron Heart +7.

"Just one Crimson Iron Heart +6 requires sixty-four Crimson Iron Heart Necklaces to fuse, and eight Crimson Iron Heart +6 would then require five hundred twelve Crimson Iron Heart Necklaces..."

Zhang Yanhang went silent after calculating this number, as gathering such a large quantity of Crimson Iron Heart Necklaces was simply impossible. After all, only one Crimson Iron Heart Necklace can be obtained per treasure box, and collecting five hundred twelve would necessitate five hundred twelve Green Treasure Boxes.

However, the small-sized Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu had only roughly ten thousand Crimson Iron Ants in total, and the vast majority were the most common Crimson Iron Worker Ants which dropped White Treasure Boxes—White Treasure Boxes that could only produce Crimson Iron Rings.

"Given this situation then, it looks like achieving a Crimson Iron Heart +7 soon is unlikely, unless I find other, larger Crimson Iron Ant Nests. Perhaps then it might be possible.

But if relying solely on the small-sized Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu, a Crimson Iron Heart +6 would already be the limit I can reach now."

Zhang Yanhang could only say that his idea was indeed very appealing, but unfortunately, reality did not support it, as although alchemy was indeed powerful, it couldn’t conjure equipment quality out of thin air, it’s just as they say: the shoemaker’s wife goes barefoot.