Ashen God
Chapter 280 - 279: [Crimson Iron Ant King Concentrated Hormone]

Chapter 280: Chapter 279: [Crimson Iron Ant King Concentrated Hormone]

Regarding these two different scenarios, Zhang Yanhang tackled them in distinct ways.

If there were already existing passages leading to other Crimson Iron Ant Nests within a small Crimson Iron Ant Nest, then these passages were likely located in the inner area and the core area of the nest, making them relatively easy to find. He would just need to scan around that area to locate them.

However, in the second scenario, the location of the passages to the other Crimson Iron Ant Nests might not necessarily be in the inner or core areas. It could very well be that a group of Crimson Iron Worker Ants in the outer zone just happened to dig through to another nest and reported it up to the Crimson Iron Ant Queen.

If it were the latter case, then searching for the passage to the other Crimson Iron Ant Nests would become a significant undertaking. Zhang Yanhang would need to explore every part of the entire Crimson Iron Ant Nest to find the passage hidden away in some corner.

What’s more critical is that finding the passages to other Crimson Iron Ant Nests is just the beginning. If such passages truly existed, then two more scenarios could arise.

The first scenario is that after discovering the passage to another Crimson Iron Ant Nest, the Crimson Iron Ant Queen immediately flees to the new nest seeking refuge. In that case, Zhang Yanhang would need to chase her down in the new nest to commence his hunt.

But since the ants from the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu have mingled with those in the new nest, he would be completely unable to tell which ants were from Dala Gu and which were originally from the new nest.

Therefore, if this situation were to occur, unless Zhang Yanhang could clear out all the ants from the new nest, it would be very difficult to achieve a 100% completion for the Ashen Treasure Box in the Dala Gu area.

Thus, if the first scenario unfolded, it would significantly delay Zhang Yanhang’s speed in opening the exclusive Ashen Treasure Box of the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu, but it would only be a slight delay.

As long as Zhang Yanhang was willing to spend a few extra days to completely clear out the new nest, he should be able to obtain two Ashen Treasure Boxes at the same time.

After all, it’s not likely that only Dala Gu would contain an Evaluation Settlement Treasure Box. Logically, as a new area, the inside of the new Crimson Iron Ant Nest should also possess an Evaluation Settlement Treasure Box.

Yet, this scenario was somewhat disadvantageous to Zhang Yanhang, so he actually preferred the second potential outcome.

That is, only a small number of Advanced Crimson Iron Ants went to the new nest for assistance, while most of the Ordinary Crimson Iron Ants remained near the passage leading to the new nest.

If that were the case, things would be much easier. The first step for Zhang Yanhang would be to locate the passage, and the second step would be to immediately eliminate the group of ants guarding the passage.

By that time, the completion rate for the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu should be close to one hundred percent.

And once the completion rate and evaluation level for the Evaluation Settlement Treasure Box were maxed out, Zhang Yanhang could go ahead and open the Ashen Treasure Box, using the quality items obtained to enhance his own strength and hunting efficiency against monsters.

Afterwards, having upgraded his power and hunting efficiency, he could then start the hunting plan for this new Crimson Iron Ant Nest.

If the new nest wasn’t too large, by working overtime, he might just be able to clear out this new nest as well within the three to four days before the transmission channel opened. By then, his progress towards reaching the Third Tier would definitely leap forward significantly.

Therefore, in terms of benefits, Zhang Yanhang actually preferred the last of these three possibilities over the first, where the Crimson Iron Ants might be gathered to protect the Crimson Iron Ant Queen, and the second, where they might be gathered at the C-shaped passage where the Transmission Channel was located.

Zhang Yanhang had already planned to dig a tunnel to other Crimson Iron Ant Nests, and if this third possibility could be realized, he would be able to save the time needed for this part of the tunneling.

Even, if the second scenario of the third possibility occurred, that is, if the group of Crimson Iron Ants were guarding near the channel, then Zhang Yanhang could immediately go to open the Ashen Treasure Box after clearing this group of ants, and seamlessly transition to the new Crimson Iron Ant Nest to launch another round of clearing plans after opening the Ashen Treasure Box.

By that time, Zhang Yanhang’s overall gains would undoubtedly increase significantly, and moreover, if the remaining Crimson Iron Ants really did gather together, he would save a great deal of clearing time, and he might even be able to wipe out the remaining Crimson Iron Ants of the mini Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu before noon today.

Keep in mind, he had five days to stay in the Ashen World this time, and if it took less than a day to clear the whole mini Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu, that would mean he would have four full days to deal with the new Crimson Iron Ant Nest.

In this case, even if the new Crimson Iron Ant Nest was several times larger than the mini Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu, there would be no issue at all, as he could use the ample time to completely clear it.

If this operation could be achieved, Zhang Yanhang estimated that his promotion to the Second Tier wouldn’t require as long as three weeks, and it was entirely possible to complete within two weeks, as clearing two Crimson Iron Ant Nests consecutively was bound to bring him a profit that he could not have imagined before.

With that profit, he might be able to directly enhance both his Limitless Universe Skill and his Profession Level to their limits and then improve some of the First Tier Professional Skills, such as Technique Immunity and Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil.

"But this is just the most ideal situation. Although the third possibility, which is the most likely, might occur, one must not completely rule out the occurrence of the first and second situations, after all, what if the Crimson Iron Ant Queen really isn’t that clever?"

Zhang Yanhang felt that he absolutely couldn’t use the logical thinking of a normal person to speculate on the actions of an ant, even if it was most likely a Second Tier Four Stars ant, because there’s a huge difference in ideas even between person to person, let alone between humans and ants.

Moreover, this ant wasn’t even a normal biological entity, but a monster ant generated by the Ashen World filled with predefined settings, and it was likely that it differed greatly in its ideas even from normal ants, so trying to guess its thoughts with human logic was definitely not reliable.

"But triggering a Time Pause to explore the Crimson Iron Ant Nest seems a bit troublesome, since I am already in the last area of the Second Tier Stage of the clearing plan, I might as well visit the Lucky Slot Machine next, and use the options automatically triggered during the prize draw to explore the current mini Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu."

Zhang Yanhang felt that since he was already so close to the Lucky Slot Machine, it would be hard to justify not making a visit.

Since the Lucky Slot Machine in the Crimson Iron Ant Nest was right next to the tenth area that Zhang Yanhang had mapped out, he arrived near the Lucky Slot Machine very quickly.

Looking at the Lucky Slot Machine emitting a constant golden glow before him, Zhang Yanhang felt particularly nostalgic; he had last seen it during his first exploration of the Crimson Iron Ant Nest, and it had only been a brief encounter while Time Pause was activated. Now, six days later, it was finally time for their reunion.

Zhang Yanhang carefully examined the information marked on the Lucky Slot Machine before him. He found that while the slot machine here looked exactly the same as the one in Raccoon City, there was a difference in the use price.

The slot machine in Raccoon City only required one Soul point for a spin, but here it required three Soul points.

Zhang Yanhang thought that such a difference was likely because the weakest monster in Raccoon City was a Zero Stars Ordinary Monster Zombie, worth one Soul point, while the weakest monster in the mini Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu was a First Tier One-star Ordinary Monster Crimson Iron Worker Ant, worth three Soul points.

Because there was a disparity in the inherent strength of the basic creatures, the price of the slot machine also varied.

"Alas, I thought that if I could maintain the price at one soul point as before in Raccoon City, I should be able to earn an extra two hundred soul points by killing one hundred Crimson Iron Worker Ants, but now it seems that there isn’t such a good deal."

Although the price of the slot machine had risen, at least it kept pace with the value of the creatures, so Zhang Yanhang wouldn’t incur a loss by using the slot machine.

After checking the price of the slot machine, Zhang Yanhang directly pulled the metal lever on the side of the machine. As for the prize information? The slot machine only labeled the prizes with a name, which revealed nothing. He would have to wait until an option was triggered or an item was obtained to view the specific attribute list.

As Zhang Yanhang pulled the metal lever, the familiar Time Pause descended upon the Crimson Iron Ant Nest once again, and a massive array of densely packed text options numbering in the hundreds appeared before his eyes.

[Please select the specific content of this Lucky Slot Machine drawing]

[Option One: 777 (First Prize, ’Crimson Iron Ant Queen Hormone Essence (Solid Compressed),’ Dark Purple Quality, Artifact.)]

[Option Two: ✬✬✬ (Second Prize, ’Crimson Iron Ant King Concentrated Hormone,’ Purple Quality, Artifact.)]

[Option Three: ✬✬✬ (Second Prize, ’Crimson Iron Ant King Concentrated Hormone,’ Purple Quality, Artifact.)]

...

[Option Forty-eight: ☠☠☠ (Third Prize, Crimson Iron Worker Ant, First Tier One Star, Ordinary Monster.)]

...

[Option Ninety-seven: ☠☠☠ (Third Prize, Crimson Iron Flying Ant, First Tier One Star, Elite Monster.)]

...

[Option One Hundred Thirty-eight: ✭✮✭ (Fourth Prize, Thank you for your patronage, no physical prize.)]

...

Since he had faced this option panel countless times by now, Zhang Yanhang began skillfully tallying the number of creatures within the options.

The prize pool this time still only consisted of one hundred creatures, with First Tier One Star Ordinary Monster Crimson Iron Worker Ants making up the majority at eighty, and the remaining twenty creatures were all First Tier One Star Elite Monster Crimson Iron Flying Ants.

Zhang Yanhang felt that the Lucky Slot Machine in this Crimson Iron Ant Nest probably maintained a Third Prize pool in an initial state without having gone through a refresh, which is why it only contained Crimson Iron Worker Ants and Crimson Iron Flying Ants.

From his previous experience in Raccoon City, by tomorrow, when the slot machine’s Third Prize pool receives a refresh, it should update with the corresponding Crimson Iron Soldier Ants and other more advanced Crimson Iron Ants based on his progress in clearing the Nest.

At that time, the slot machine in this Crimson Iron Ant Nest would likely become an important fixed refresh point for Zhang Yanhang, just like the one in Raccoon City, where he could come to kill one hundred Crimson Iron Ants every day.

After tallying the numbers of Crimson Iron Worker Ants and Crimson Iron Flying Ants, Zhang Yanhang began to officially check what uses the First Prize and Second Prizes he could win actually had.

Previously, when Zhang Yanhang played the slot machine in Raccoon City, he was quite excited since at that time he hadn’t even seen a Dark Purple Quality item, let alone a Purple Quality item, so the T-Virus Serum and T-Virus Medicine felt very valuable to him.

But this time it was different. Zhang Yanhang’s perspective had risen, items of Purple Quality and Dark Purple Quality had become relatively common for him, and the highest Quality of items he had seen had also moved up a notch, becoming Light Gold Quality items.

Therefore, although Zhang Yanhang still desired the First and Second Prizes from the slot machine, his urgency and eagerness were not as great as they were during the First Tier Period.

Despite this, Zhang Yanhang immediately began to check the attribute list for the Second Prize ’Crimson Iron Ant King Concentrated Hormone’ after tallying the number of creatures.

[Crimson Iron Ant King Concentrated Hormone]

[Quality: Purple]

[Type: Artifact]

[Origin: Ashen World, Crimson Iron Ore Vein, Small-Scale Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu, Outer Zone, Lucky Slot Machine.]

[Usage Effect: Charm +2.]

[Usage Requirements: Charm below 25 points.]

[Score: 125 (Purple Items score from 71 to 150.)]

[Introduction: A Nameless Blacksmith, who spent years among the Crimson Iron Ore Veins, discovered that the Crimson Iron Ant King would secrete a special hormone during mating with the Crimson Iron Ant Queen, which seemed to have certain benefits for the human body.

In order to cooperate in developing this miraculous hormone, the Nameless Blacksmith shared this information with an Alchemist who was also a part-time Druid. After obtaining the Crimson Iron Ant King’s hormone through special means, the Alchemist processed it into the Crimson Iron Ant King Concentrated Hormone.]