Ashen God
Chapter 309 - 308: Purple Quality Pet (6000 Words)

Chapter 309: Chapter 308: Purple Quality Pet (6000 Words)

"So, I choose ’1200 Soul Points’, ’1200 Soul Points’, ’1200 Soul Points’, ’Makarov’s Regret’, ’Ant Power’", Zhang Yanhang swiftly made his choice after reviewing the five items. He felt quite disappointed that he didn’t manage to get the Crimson Iron Ant King Concentrated Hormone from the Crimson Iron Ant King’s treasure box.

"It’s the hormone produced by the Crimson Iron Ant King itself, so why can’t it be obtained from its own treasure box? Could it be because the Crimson Iron Ant King left all the hormones with the Crimson Iron Ant Queen?"

Although he didn’t get the Crimson Iron Ant King Concentrated Hormone from the Ant King’s treasure box, Zhang Yanhang still had a purple-quality drop treasure box from the lord monster, the Crimson Iron Ant Queen, which he thought might have a chance of containing the coveted hormone.

With this thought, Zhang Yanhang immediately picked up the drop treasure box from the Crimson Iron Ant Queen.

[Would you like to open ’Drop Treasure Box (Crimson Iron Ant Queen)’?]

"Yes, open it." Unlike the previous Ant King, Zhang Yanhang held great expectations for the treasure box of the Ant Queen, as a lord monster. He remembered previously obtaining multiple dark purple items from the treasure box of a lord monster, the Tracker.

Therefore, Zhang Yanhang figured that the Ant Queen’s loot might also include multiple dark purple items.

As the most powerful lord monster in the Crimson Iron Ant Nest, Zhang Yanhang hoped not only to get the Crimson Iron Ant King Concentrated Hormone from the Ant Queen’s treasure box but also the Crimson Iron Ant Queen Hormone Essence produced by the queen herself. Considering it was a lord monster, he felt that his request wasn’t too much to ask.

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

[Item One: ?]

[Item Two: ?]

[Item Three: ?]

[Item Four: ?]

[Item Five: ?]

"I hope this time there will be more options related to Soul Points, so I can gather the required fifty thousand faster to upgrade the Technique Immunity skill."

From Zhang Yanhang’s experience, the Soul Point options in a monster treasure box could yield about ten times the value of the monster itself, and lord monsters were no exception.

So, if he could get three options related to Soul Points like a normal treasure box, then after upgrading Technique Immunity, he could even save a significant amount of Soul Points for upgrading Indestructible Golden Body LV.AMX and Supreme Will LV.MAX.

[Item One]

[Option One: Crimson Iron Ant Queen Hormone Essence, Purple Quality, Artifact]

[Option Two: Crimson Iron Ant King Concentrated Hormone, Purple Quality, Artifact]

[Option Three: Crimson Iron Ant Queen Hormone Essence (Solid Compressed), Dark Purple Quality, Artifact]

"Emmm... How should I put this, although I did manage to get both ’Crimson Iron Ant King Concentrated Hormone’ and ’Crimson Iron Ant Queen Hormone Essence (Solid Compressed)’ in the treasure box of the Crimson Iron Ant Queen, the way they appeared is somewhat different from what I imagined."

Zhang Yanhang had initially hoped that ’Crimson Iron Ant King Concentrated Hormone’ and ’Crimson Iron Ant Queen Hormone Essence (Solid Compressed)’ would appear as two separate items in two rows of options.

But now these two items appeared in the same row of options, meaning Zhang Yanhang could only choose one and would have to forego the other.

As for which one Zhang Yanhang would give up, the situation was quite obvious; he would choose to give up the merely purple-quality ’Crimson Iron Ant King Concentrated Hormone’ in favor of the higher-quality ’Crimson Iron Ant Queen Hormone Essence (Solid Compressed)’.

"Speaking of which, does the Crimson Iron Ant Queen Hormone Essence just drop to purple quality because of the lack of solid compression?"

Zhang Yanhang briefly reviewed the attribute list of the Crimson Iron Ant Queen Hormone Essence and found that its effect, like the Crimson Iron Ant King Concentrated Hormone, could only increase the Charm attribute value by two points.

Moreover, the description of this item specifically noted that the Crimson Iron Ant Queen Hormone Essence is a semi-finished material specifically used to create "Crimson Iron Ant Queen Hormone Essence (Solid Compressed)."

"Alas, it’s just a pity that both the Crimson Iron Ant Queen and the Crimson Iron Ant King are now dead. Otherwise, I would really like to study carefully which part of the material from the crimson iron this hormone essence capable of increasing the Charm attribute has extracted.

If the composition of that material could be clarified, then perhaps I could craft equipment with Charm attribute bonuses on my own."

If Zhang Yanhang’s idea could be successful, then by crafting several new pieces of equipment for different slots, he should be able to quickly raise his Charm attribute to over forty points, although Zhang Yanhang is already very close to forty points now.

At this moment, Zhang Yanhang’s Charm attribute is thirty-two points, and after using "Crimson Iron Ant Queen Hormone Essence (Solid Compressed)" later, he can increase his Charm by another three points.

Then adding the one point of Charm from "Makarov’s Regret," his Charm attribute could immediately be raised to thirty-six points, only four points away from forty.

[Item Two]

[Option One: Ant Power, Quality E, Talent]

[Option Two: Crimson Iron Ant (Ant King), Quality C, Talent]

[Option Three: Crimson Iron Ant (Ant Queen), Quality C, Talent]

"It’s magical... Two consecutive options without encountering Soul points," Zhang Yanhang previously thought that the Racial Talent of the Crimson Iron Ant Queen should be a C-level Talent when he opened the Crimson Iron Ant King’s treasure box. Now it seems his prediction was indeed very precise.

Both consecutive Second Tier Four Stars Lord Monsters, Tracker and Crimson Iron Ant Queen, have C-level Talents, so Zhang Yanhang reckons that a B-level Racial Talent might only be seen on Third Tier monsters.

Although Zhang Yanhang’s attributes have not yet reached the Peak of Second Tier, he still has quite a lot of confidence in defeating Third-tier monsters, particularly since there is no reason that after his promotion to Second Tier, he would still only be able to fight Second Tier monsters.

Of course, the Third Tier monsters Zhang Yanhang refers to are only those with low star ratings, such as Third Tier One-star or Third Tier Two-star monsters.

As for the higher-level Third Tier Three Star and even Third Tier Four Star monsters, Zhang Yanhang doesn’t have much confidence because of the significant disparity in attributes. Even if he could win, the fight would probably be very difficult.

[Item Three]

[Option One: Crimson Iron Ant King, Purple Quality, Pet]

[Option Two: 12,000 Soul points]

[Option Three: 24,000 Soul points]

"I just said that it might not even be possible to get the Crimson Iron Ant King out of the Crimson Iron Ant Queen’s treasure box, and here it appears, this isn’t a slap in the face?"

Since there was no Blue quality Crimson Iron Ant in the Crimson Iron Ant Nest, he was unable to obtain any pet-related option from the previous Crimson Iron Ant King’s treasure box. Therefore, Zhang Yanhang thought that the treasure box of the Crimson Iron Ant Queen might also lose the pet-related options for this reason, but it turns out he was completely wrong.

"But although the Crimson Iron Ant King of Purple Quality did appear, compared to the fairly useless Crimson Iron Ant King, I still prefer those 24,000 Soul points."

Including the loot from the treasure box, on average, each Crimson Iron Worker Ant could bring 7.5 Soul points to Zhang Yanhang. So, if Zhang Yanhang wants to gather 24,000 Soul points, he would need to continuously defeat at least three thousand two hundred Crimson Iron Worker Ants, which is already equivalent to forty percent of their total number.

"The treasure box of the Crimson Iron Ant Queen’s any option is worth forty percent of Crimson Iron Worker Ants. If there could be another Soul points option, it would be worth eighty percent of Crimson Iron Worker Ants.

If the treasure box of the Crimson Iron Ant Queen could yield three Soul points options, then the Soul points from one Crimson Iron Ant Queen would be equivalent to the points obtainable from hunting the entire Crimson Iron Ant Nest.

So, I hope the next two items can be Soul points related options. If so, not only could I promote my Technique Immunity Skill, but I could also take the opportunity to upgrade my Death Wave Skill."

If the treasure box of the Crimson Iron Ant Queen could bring such generous Soul points, then Zhang Yanhang feels that he does not need to kill ordinary monsters anymore. In each new area, as long as he kills the Lord Monster, he can directly escape.

This way, Zhang Yanhang’s efficiency of gaining Soul points should see an epic enhancement, and the speed of his promotion to Third Tier is estimated to be unprecedented. As for the improvement in strength, however, that is not guaranteed. There is a high probability that he might experience a situation where although there is a Tier promotion, the actual increase in strength is not substantial.

But since Rank Suppression is also quite a joyful thing, if Zhang Yanhang could really raise his Rank to a relatively high level quickly, then taking that path is an option. Of course, it all depends on how many Soul points options can actually be opened from the Lord Monster’s treasure boxes.

If there were only one, naturally, this path would be completely impassable, and if there were three like ordinary monsters, then Rank Suppression could actually be considered a broad and smooth road, after all, as long as one’s own Attribute values are high enough, even without any extra bonuses, suppressing lower-ranked enemies would certainly still be sufficient.

[Item Four]

[Option One: Crimson Iron Heart, Blue quality, Equipment]

[Option Two: Crimson Iron Teeth, Blue quality, Equipment]

[Option Three: Makarov’s Regret, Dark Purple Quality, Equipment]

"Sigh, the fourth item isn’t a Soul points option, it seems that the path I never imagined has ended before it even began," Zhang Yanhang silently sighed, but even without the Soul points, obtaining Dark Purple Quality Equipment probably still made him very happy.

"Before, I thought perhaps only in the Crimson Iron Ant King’s Treasure Chest could one find equipment from the Makarov series, but I didn’t expect that the Crimson Iron Ant Queen’s Treasure Chest could also drop equipment from the Makarov series. If nothing else, this ’Makarov’s Regret’ should be another earring that makes up part of the set."

Although he hadn’t had the chance to look at the thumbnail or Attribute list yet, just from the name, Zhang Yanhang felt that this piece of equipment must definitely be another earring, after all, it’s unlikely that a completely unrelated piece of equipment would suddenly appear when the naming style was so similar, right?

After briefly checking the thumbnail and confirming that it indeed was another earring, Zhang Yanhang quickly opened the Attribute list for ’Makarov’s Regret’ to start looking at its bonus effects.

[Makarov’s Regret]

[Quality: Dark Purple]

[Type: Equipment]

[Origin: Ashen World, Crimson Iron Ore Vein, Small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu, Nameless Blacksmith.]

[Durability: 70/70]

[Defensive Power: 40]

[Additional Attributes: Flame Resistance +17.5%.]

[Additional Attributes: Acid Resistance +17.5%.]

[Additional Attributes: Constitution +1, Intelligence +1, Charm +1.]

[Usage Requirements: Charm 30 points.]

[Score: 260 (Dark Purple Items are scored from 151 to 260.)]

[Set Effect One: Makarov’s Gift (unlock attribute for two-piece set)]

[Introduction: As the situation gradually fermented, not only the nearby customers but also the Lord who had once secretly sought me out for accountability over the Crimson Iron Teeth he still wore in his mouth. Faced with irrefutable evidence, I had no way to refute and resigned myself to accept the punishment.

But the fine was so hefty that even if I sold everything I had, it would not suffice. In such circumstances, I had no choice but to carry my blacksmith shop and flee the city under the cover of night.

Yet before I fled, to take revenge on the Lord, I widely proclaimed the secret of the fabricated teeth he once forged at my shop and which he still wore to this very day—not only to the tavern keeper but also to the ladies on the nearby streets, who I trust will not disappoint me.

Sigh, in the end, I became the very thing I detested the most, but the feeling of mutual destruction was surprisingly pleasant. I now understand a little of what the Alchemists used to think. The only regret is that I probably won’t be able to sell Crimson Iron Equipment through normal channels anymore.

——From a Nameless Blacksmith who chose anonymity and vanished into the mountains]

"This introduction seems to echo back and forth a bit; no wonder he’s the Nameless Blacksmith, it’s because he chose to remain anonymous after fleeing. With this, the story finally seems to reach its grand conclusion..."

Regarding the Crimson Iron series of Equipment, Zhang Yanhang felt their introductions were truly magical, linking together into a complete short story, telling of the Nameless Blacksmith’s rise to fame due to his superb skills and striking it rich, yet also due to his vice he had to disappear into the mountains under an assumed name, carrying an unexpected moral lesson.

When Zhang Yanhang previously viewed the thumbnail of ’Makarov’s Regret,’ he found that it looked exactly like another piece, ’Makarov’s Remorse,’ and perhaps because they looked the same, the bonus effects of their Attributes were also quite similar.

"Makarov’s Regret also adds 17.5% Flame Resistance and Acid Resistance, along with a bonus of three points to attribute values, though the specific attributes boosted are slightly different from those of Makarov’s Regret," he mused.

"The earlier Makarov’s Regret added one point each to Charm, Strength, and Agility. However, this Makarov’s Regret increases Charm by one as well, but the other two attribute bonuses have become one point to Constitution and one to Intelligence."

Even though Zhang Yanhang couldn’t yet view the set effect of the Makarov set, he could already enjoy the benefit of a one-point increase in all four main attributes and a bonus of two points to the sub-attribute Charm, just from the individual items. Activating the set effect would undoubtedly bestow even more attribute bonuses.

"But although I’ve now assembled the Makarov set, I still need to keep refreshing the slot machine’s third prize pool, as opening another Crimson Iron Ant King treasure chest might yield more Makarov series equipment. I could then enhance the Quality of the gear and their corresponding bonuses through fusion."

Since both Makarov’s Regret and Makarov’s Legacy are Dark Purple quality equipment with full scores, Zhang Yanhang suspected that a single fusion would likely evolve them into Light Golden quality items. At that point, their bonus effects should undergo a substantial leap.

"I just don’t know if the Crimson Iron Ant King’s treasure chest can only contain Makarov’s Regret, or if it might also hold the other piece of Makarov gear. If it can only give me Regret, that would be somewhat disappointing, but if both can be obtained, then I could assemble a full Light Golden set."

The highest quality equipment Zhang Yanhang had ever seen was just Light Golden quality, but now there was a chance that a mere Crimson Iron Ant Nest might let him acquire such a set. One really couldn’t judge a book by its cover—or an ant by its hill, so to speak.

"I have about four days left before leaving the Ashen World. Assuming the slot machine refreshes daily and I kill one Crimson Iron Ant King each time, I should be able to slay four more before my departure.

If I can kill four more Crimson Iron Ant Kings, I may get another Purple treasure chest, considering I previously defeated three other kings. Based on the average rate of one chest per eight or nine worker ants killed during my First Tier period, the likelihood of a chest dropping after killing seven kings seems fairly high. In that case, I might even fuse a Light Golden Makarov Earring before leaving the Ashen World.

But the slot machine is just the slot machine. If I want to acquire the Makarov set, I will have to be patient. Meanwhile, the quickest way to elevate the set to Light Golden quality would be to open new access points to other Crimson Iron Ant Nests and hunt down more Crimson Iron Ant Kings and Queens to obtain more Makarov series equipment."

Zhang Yanhang felt that the list of things he wanted to acquire in other Crimson Iron Ant Nests had expanded once again, this time only including equipment obtained by slaying Ant Kings and Queens—monsters typically encountered during the final stages of a routine cleaning mission.

[Item Five]

[Option One: Crimson Iron Teeth, Blue quality, Equipment]

[Option Two: Crimson Iron Heart, Blue quality, Equipment]

[Option Three: Divination Tarot Card - Fool[False] (Gate of Truth), Blue quality, Equipment]

"Gate of Truth? Just seeing this name gives me the feeling I’m about to be transformed into a Wise Man’s Stone..."

Although Zhang Yanhang wasn’t sure if this Gate of Truth was the same as the one mentioned in Alchemist of Steel, he believed that if he could visit the inside of the actual Gate of Truth, his Alchemy level would rise rapidly without even needing to expend any Ash Source.

Of course, with his current meager strength, if he did visit the Gate of Truth, his Alchemy level might indeed skyrocket, but his Sanity value would probably plummet just as fast, potentially reducing him to madness in short order.

"But despite its impressive sounding name, the quality... well, it’s a bit too low. It’s only Blue quality, which is somewhat underwhelming.

Also, another thing I’d like to complain about: why do the options still include Crimson Iron Teeth and Crimson Iron Heart? They’ve already appeared as the fourth item, and yet here they are again with the fifth item.

Could it be because the Nameless Blacksmith has secluded himself and never forged another blue quality Crimson Iron piece of equipment? Well, I suppose that’s a possibility."

Zhang Yanhang certainly wouldn’t choose the repeating items of Crimson Iron Teeth and Crimson Iron Heart. Even though he hadn’t seen the attribute list of ’Divination Tarot Card - Fool[False] (Gate of Truth)’ yet, he had decided to pick it no matter what. After all, novelty holds a special allure over the familiar. Compared to the pile of Crimson Iron Heart Necklaces and Crimson Iron Teeth he already had, Zhang Yanhang felt that even if the attributes of this new Blue quality piece of equipment were weak, it was still worth collecting.

He needs an excessive number of Crimson Iron Heart Necklaces to upgrade his Dark Purple quality Crimson Iron Heart+7, so he surely doesn’t lack another one of those.

As for the Crimson Iron Teeth, he needed them even less. He already possessed sixteen sets, and if he could successfully modify them later, even fusing them to +3 would raise them to Purple quality, not to mention that sixteen sets could be fused to +4. So, he wasn’t in need of teeth.

For that reason, Zhang Yanhang thought it better to simply acquire this new, Blue quality piece of equipment instead of picking something he was bound to accumulate in droves upon venturing into a new Crimson Iron Ant Nest.

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