Ashen God
Chapter 586 - 585: Demonized Steel Umbrella Mushroom

Chapter 586: Chapter 585: Demonized Steel Umbrella Mushroom

October 25, Sunday, Double Ninth Festival, and also the first day Zhang Yanhang repetitively leaped between the Main World and the Ashen World. At two in the morning, in Raccoon City, the sewers, an abandoned Transmission Channel.

After affixing the Blue talisman paper at the top of the earthen wall, or rather, for caution, burying it directly into the wall for ten minutes, Zhang Yanhang eventually saw a slight change. The original Blue talisman paper began showing a sliver of bright blue at the bottom—yes, just a sliver, so minute that most people would overlook it or assume it to be an illusion.

If nothing went wrong, Zhang Yanhang thought that this thing was probably a progress bar. However, considering it had barely advanced in ten minutes, it seemed that repairing the entire channel might indeed take several days.

If Zhang Yanhang were to quantify it based on the surface area of the entire talisman paper, he would have to say that the current progress was at most only 0.1%-0.2%. In other words, ten minutes had barely advanced the progress by at most one in a thousand, or at least one in five hundred.

A progress bar this slow somehow gave Zhang Yanhang a sense of déjà vu, as if he was using a hundred KB/s download speed to download tens of GBs of game mods or movie files from Baidu Cloud. But fortunately, the two situations were ultimately different.

The difference was that at least Baidu Cloud offered VIP memberships to increase speed, whereas here, there were no channels to recharge. Of course, slow speed wasn’t a problem as Zhang Yanhang wasn’t in a hurry. He didn’t feel the longing and impatience one might feel while downloading a file.

Zhang Yanhang’s requirements were low. As long as it eventually succeeded, he wouldn’t mind, just so it didn’t end up like Baidu Cloud, stalling at 99.99% only to crash and become irreparable.

In this aspect, Zhang Yanhang was rather confident, mainly trusting the group owner. After all, the group owner was a seasoned Fourth Tier Awakened and should not drop the ball in this respect.

"Since the talisman paper has successfully activated, I should proceed to clear the Demonized Swamp. After all, it’s an automatic repair. As long as there aren’t any significant problems at the start, it’s unlikely there will be issues later on."

Once Zhang Yanhang confirmed that the talisman paper was functioning correctly, he immediately teleported to the boundary between Raccoon City and the Demonized Swamp.

At the border between the two, one could clearly see where the firm concrete ground and the soft, peaty surface of the Swamp Forest, rich with humus (simply known as the humus layer), joined tightly together. Yet, they were as if separated by an invisible barrier. Though closely connected, they were clearly delineated; leaves were scattered all around in the forest but not a single one could cross the boundary line to reach the concrete ground of Raccoon City.

The same was almost true on the Raccoon City side. There was a light White plastic bag that seemed it would blow away with the slightest breeze, but it stubbornly stayed right on the edge, unable to make a single move forward.

To such a miraculous phenomenon, Zhang Yanhang was considerably accustomed, since all four directions around Raccoon City bordered new areas.

So, in a sense, these distinct border lines were also a method for Zhang Yanhang to identify new areas. Whenever he saw such a line, he knew to turn back, as it signaled the start of a new area, and he would then begin to clear the monsters along the border.

After briefly observing the boundary line between Raccoon City and the Demonized Swamp, Zhang Yanhang immediately entered the Demonized Swamp, or rather the Swamp Forest.

The moment he stepped into the Swamp Forest, Zhang Yanhang instantly felt something odd about the ground underfoot. The forest was covered with a thick layer of humus, even softer than the grassland on the Goblin Plain, making it the softest ground he had encountered among the four areas thus far.

Ground conditions like these would inevitably influence his Movement Speed in the region, for motion relies on reactive force. If the ground is too soft, it would lead to less force feedback and decrease the Movement Speed.

Moreover, the Swamp Forest differed greatly from the Goblin Plain. The terrain was not only soft but also far from open; the forest was full of trees, making movement certainly troublesome. Therefore, the soft ground combined with the complicated terrain didn’t simply amount to a -1 plus -1 = -2 situation, but more accurately equated to at least -3, if not more.

Even though he had not officially begun clearing the Swamp Forest, Zhang Yanhang surmised that his hunting speed here was unlikely to be fast. Despite his Movement Speed having increased since before, his overall hunting efficiency was probably even slower than on the Goblin Plain.

Fortunately, Zhang Yanhang had four days this time. Even if the hunting efficiency was a little slower, it wasn’t a big deal as long as there was ample time. After all, as long as he could complete the clearing in the end, there wouldn’t be a problem.

"But the problem lies in the fear of not being able to finish the clearing. Even a rough estimate puts the area of this place at a few hundred square kilometers. Even with four days, it might still be a close call.

Never mind, I’d better not think about these things for now. The actual clearing efficiency will only be known once the clearing starts. Currently, I should explore the specific situation of the Demonized Swamp and then begin formulating a related clearing plan."

Having already cleared three regions, Zhang Yanhang often devised a clearing plan before starting each region; it had become a habit.

Of course, apart from the factor of habit, the main reason was that having a plan indeed improved Zhang Yanhang’s clearing efficiency. Aim with clarity would always be more efficient than aimless wandering. It was not like any gaming world where monsters in the Ashen World were alive and would flee if they couldn’t win. Even if they didn’t flee, they would wander randomly. If he moved without a plan, it would be easy to allow some monsters to return to areas he had previously cleared, leading to inefficient clearing.

Once that happened, Zhang Yanhang would need to redo those areas, and naturally, his clearing efficiency would decline. And for that reason, planning was indeed crucial.

Moreover, apart from devising plans, another main reason why Zhang Yanhang rarely engaged in ineffective clearings was due to the wide scan range of his Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil Skill, allowing him to remain vigilant at all times. Once he detected any abnormalities in the monsters, he would swiftly target and eliminate them to prevent any accidents.

Furthermore, to achieve a one hundred percent clear rate, one has to eliminate all the monsters in the current area, and for this alone, it’s crucial to minimize ineffective clearing.

Otherwise, it’s quite frustrating to encounter the awkward situation of being just a few monsters short of a one hundred percent completion rate, and despite desperately searching, they seem to be nowhere to be found until the entire area is turned upside down to gather these last few monsters. It’s enough to make someone with obsessive-compulsive disorder explode on the spot.

Even if it doesn’t cause those with OCD to explode, the intensity-seekers who aim for higher level treasure boxes would certainly blow their tops.

"The only hope is that the Demonized Swamp has a slightly smaller area; I really don’t want to be stuck in the Ashen World for eight days," he muttered.

Indeed, if Zhang Yanhang couldn’t clean up the whole Demonized Swamp within four days, he had another option—staying for another four days.

But frankly, his determination in this regard wasn’t that great, for staying four days or eight days in the Ashen World really represented two different concepts.

For one thing, eight days is more than a week. For someone like him who could advance in rank every half-month, it compared to the huge difference between passing an exam on the first try and only managing to pass with a retake in the following year.

"Since I have to explore the Goblin Plain, let’s activate the Time Pause first. Now, what excuse should I use to trigger the Time Pause?" After pondering briefly, Zhang Yanhang decided to stick with his previous rationale.

"Choice! What to eat for late-night snack tonight?" As soon as Zhang Yanhang asked the question, Time Pause descended abruptly over the Demonized Swamp, and familiar text options appeared before his eyes.

Although he was asking about late-night snacks, Zhang Yanhang didn’t really feel like having any since he had been fasting for quite some time now.

Speaking of the fasting ability, Zhang Yanhang suddenly remembered something else—that he was about to advance to Third Tier, which most likely meant acquiring new abilities.

However, due to his lack of attention to this aspect, he actually didn’t know what abilities would come with advancing to Third Tier. If he had thought of this in the Main World, he could easily ask others, like the Awakeners in the group chat, the group leader, or even Zhou Muxi for a precise answer.

Sadly, Zhang Yanhang was currently in the Ashen World, devoid of any means to contact other Awakeners across an entire world. Such an outrageous ability was beyond his reach as a Second Tier Awakened, and he even doubted whether Fifth Tier Awakened could achieve it because Awakeners also had their limits.

Naturally, if he happened to awaken a relevant Talent, it might be more feasible, but his Multiple Choice Talent certainly didn’t fall into that category. Thus, his hope was to gain some more useful abilities after advancing to Third Tier.

"Besides, speaking of Third Tier issues, the increase in Life Span after promotion is also a highlight. Without any accidents, it should add at least several decades to my life.

My current life span has already extended by an additional 260 years. As long as I live normally, I can live up to 300 years without an issue. But still, one can never have too much time on their hands."

Regarding life span, Zhang Yanhang believed that most people would prefer to have as much as possible, and he followed this common sentiment. After all, the longer the life span, the more joyous retirement life one could have. His current dream remained unadorned: to rapidly increase his strength and retire at light speed once his power was sufficient.

"Forget it, better not to think about such distant matters for now..." Although the thought of retirement life always filled him with happiness, Zhang Yanhang shifted his focus back to the options that had just been triggered.

[What to eat for dinner tonight?]

[Option One: Eat something simple (Given that you’re in the Demonized Swamp Zone of the Ashen World, you feel that it would be better to devote more time and energy to hunting the monsters in this area efficiently rather than wasting time agonizing over what to eat for a late-night snack. For the sake of saving time, you consider that eating uncooked edibles requiring no preparation might be preferable to cooked food, especially since your stomach’s digestive capacity should cope without issues. With this in mind, you carefully search your Waist Bag for related food materials.

After a quick inventory of the various Monster Corpses and their parts in your Waist Bag, you pull out the relatively nutritious heart of the ’Goblin Chief Shaman Maka Bagga’ and the basket from the Lord Monster ’Goblin Chief Nu Mountain.’ You whip up a sashimi platter without hesitation and begin to devour it heartily.)]

[Option Two: Demonized Swamp local delicacies (For the crucial question of what to have for a late-night snack tonight, you engage in extensive contemplation. After careful thought, you decide to make the most of the unique conditions of the Demonized Swamp by looking for local specialties unique to the area for your snack.

After a brief scan of your surroundings with the Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil Skill, you soon find something resembling a matsutake mushroom in the nearby Swamp Forest that continuously emits faint energy fluctuations—the ’Demonized Steel Umbrella Mushroom.’ Your intuition tells you that it can be used as Alchemy materials.)]

[Option Three: Rejecting late-night snacks starts with me (Having advanced to Second Tier and thus acquired the Fasting ability, you don’t feel hungry at all, so you feel that there’s no real need for a late-night snack. Rather than obtaining energy inefficiently through eating, you think it’s better to use the time to hunt monsters.

Because of this mindset, despite your stomach being empty aside from gastric juices, you set out to hunt monsters in the Demonized Swamp. Shortly after wandering out, you encounter a lone First Tier Three Star Ordinary Monster ’Demonized Maned Tooth Beast’ by a stream and successfully take it down.)]