Ashen God
Chapter 589 - 588 New Talent [Prehistoric Giant Beast]

Chapter 589: Chapter 588 New Talent [Prehistoric Giant Beast]

After roughly outlining a complete five-stage cleansing plan for the entire Demonized Swamp Zone, Zhang Yanhang began estimating how long it might take him to clear the entire swamp.

Previously, it took Zhang Yanhang about four and a half minutes to clear one square kilometer in the Goblin Plain area, but due to environmental constraints in the Goblin Plain, and drawing from his hunting experience, he estimated it might take him ten minutes to clear a square kilometer in the Demonized Swamp Zone.

Moreover, he didn’t overestimate his pace this time as he did with the Goblin Plain; he felt that ten minutes to clear a square kilometer might indeed be his limit and that it was fully possible for his actual cleaning speed in practice to be slower than ten minutes per square kilometer.

When he was clearing the Goblin Plain before, although he initially estimated a clearing speed of ten minutes per square kilometer as well, he intentionally aimed high. Later, facts proved that he indeed estimated too high, as he actually only needed five minutes to clear one square kilometer.

However, the overestimation at that time, though deliberate to some extent, was primarily because he had not actually encountered such plain areas before. He did not realize that clearings on the plain could so significantly improve his hunting efficiency.

And now, having experienced the delights of plains terrains, Zhang Yanhang had become cautious in his assessment of forested regions, because plains and forests were practically opposites.

Therefore, if nothing unexpected happened, the enhancement to his hunting efficiency provided by plains would be just as substantial as the reduction by forested areas. Thus, estimating ten minutes was already aiming low, and any slight accident could mean he would need eleven or even twelve minutes to clear a square kilometer.

"The Demonized Swamp Zone covers a total area of four hundred square kilometers. If it takes me ten minutes to clear one square kilometer, then it would take me roughly four thousand minutes to clear the entire Demonized Swamp, which converts to about 67 hours.

With this calculation, it seems quite reasonable, especially since I still have about one hundred hours at my disposal.

The problem, though, is that apart from hunting, I also need to rest. With that in mind, time seems somewhat insufficient. But if I exclude the time needed to clear the Core Area, I should be able to save quite a bit of time, as there are hardly any monsters there."

Zhang Yanhang recalculated after removing the swamp area and found he only saved seven hours, still needing close to sixty hours to clear the entire Demonized Swamp.

"Although sixty hours is indeed a lot, if I grit my teeth and follow a three-to-two work-to-rest ratio, I should be able to endure it. And if it really becomes too much, I can just consume more Green Medicine Grass, which should make the time sufficient to clear the Demonized Swamp Zone."

While a work-rest ratio of three to two could be considered fairly generous, Zhang Yanhang’s need for rest was a hard constraint. Since he hadn’t experienced an improvement in Physical Recovery Speed lately, he actually needed to rest for about the same amount of hours as he worked, with a ratio of approximately one to one.

And this ratio was difficult to change, since insufficient rest would prevent full recovery of Physical Strength, subsequently affecting his endurance. Therefore, three to two was indeed challenging for Zhang Yanhang, not to mention that this ratio wasn’t quite normal in the first place.

Originally, he worked twelve hours a day and rested for twelve hours. Now, it was as if he were working for fourteen and a half hours and resting for nine and a half hours, much more extreme than the 996 work schedule. It was only because he was an Awakener that he could manage; an ordinary person would have collapsed long ago.

After all, normal people generally follow an eight-hour workday, working eight hours and resting sixteen, with a work-rest ratio of about one to two—quite relaxed.

"Sigh, the Demonized Swamp really is a bit too big, covering a whopping four hundred square kilometers, more than twice the size of Goblin Plain, the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu, and Raccoon City combined.

"If we calculate separately, one Demonized Swamp is equivalent to four Goblin Plains, ten Raccoon Cities, and ten small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagus.

Moreover, compared to Goblin Plain, Raccoon City, and small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu, the combined area of the three districts inside Qin Island City is also about two hundred square kilometers. So, if I could clear the Demonized Swamp, it would be like clearing the three districts inside the city twice over.

I can’t believe I’ve unknowingly grown to the point where I can clear a county-level unit rapidly just with normal attacks. Back in the early stages of Spiritual Qi Recovery, I could’ve been assessed as a Fourth Tier Awakener, but then again, becoming a Fourth Tier Awakener based on such an unreliable rating method is completely meaningless."

Although the area of the Demonized Swamp is indeed vast, Zhang Yanhang felt that as long as he gritted his teeth, he should still be able to persevere. It was time for the four-digit number of Green Medicine Grass stored in his waist bag to ’serve him loyally.’

If his Physical Strength consumption is indeed great halfway through, all these Green Medicine Grass stored in his waist bag might be completely used up, but fortunately, considering that he would probably not need Green Medicine Grass after his promotion to the Third Tier, overall, it shouldn’t be a big problem.

Besides, apart from the Green Medicine Grass, he also had a hidden reserve of energy. He had long been prepared to rely on taking medicine to use the Spiritual Qi Blessing to increase his Movement Speed.

If the situation turned dire, he could immediately consume a large amount of medicine without hesitation. After all, he would be able to obtain about a thousand bottles of Medium Magic Recovery Potions once he cleared Goblin Plain again, so it should be fine, hopefully.

"Although time is tight, there are always more solutions than difficulties. As long as nothing unexpected happens halfway through, it should be possible to clear this four hundred square kilometers. But even though the clearing of the Demonized Swamp is feasible, how much time will be left afterward is uncertain."

Zhang Yan originally thought if the clearing progress of the Demonized Swamp was ideal and there was plenty of time left, he might clear Raccoon City and Goblin Plain once more before returning to the Main World. Now, however, that seems a bit iffy.

Fortunately, he can still clear them next time he comes here, except that Zhang Yanhang would be Third Tier by then. A Third Tier Awakened hunting First Tier Monsters should expect a much higher Rank Penalty, even possibly double.

So, when that time comes, Zhang Yanhang will inevitably lose some of the Treasure Box rewards, and it may happen that although he waited several more days for more Monsters to spawn in Raccoon City and Goblin Plain, the overall gains could end up being similar to the clearings he is doing now.

Therefore, if possible, Zhang Yanhang feels it’s best if he can clear Raccoon City and Goblin Plain before leaving the Ashen World. However, this cannot be forced; it will depend on the specific situation at the time to make a real decision.

"Now that the clearing plan for the Demonized Swamp Area has been roughly planned, let’s not delay and start the execution immediately. First, go and try to take down that First Tier Three Star Demonized Hyena. So, I choose Option One, stepping out with my left foot first."

After Zhang Yanhang made his choice, the Time Pause disappeared instantly, and he immediately began to execute the content of the first option, going to take down the Demonized Hyena mentioned in the option. He had already found its location during the previous scanning process, not far from here by a small creek, seemingly drinking water.

From its appearance, the Demonized Hyena looked quite peculiar, overall resembling the African Hyena that Zhang Yanhang had seen before on Animal Planet, but its face didn’t look that similar.

The face of the Demonized Hyena was long and flat, somewhat like a combination of a donkey face and a horse face smashed flat by a punch. To put it more simply, it had a rectangular pancake face. Most of its fur was brownish, with only a few white stripes on its back.

Whereas the face of a regular African Hyena is rather round, and its mouth is sharp. Although both have brownish fur like the Demonized Hyena, there are no stripes on it. Instead, it is covered in many black spots, somewhat like a Dalmatian."

Of course, the most significant difference between the two lay in the disparity in body size. A common African hyena could at most grow to about one meter in size, and that included the length of its tail. So, in terms of body size, it was at best considered a medium-sized dog.

However, the demonized maned beast Zhang Yanhang was now observing measured three meters in length, not counting its tail, a complete father-son difference compared with an ordinary African hyena.

Moreover, an adult African lion, not counting the tail, would only have a body length of about one and a half meters. Hence, just in terms of body length, the demonized maned beast was roughly equivalent to two African lions.

In addition, beyond that, in shoulder height, the demonized maned beast stood over a meter tall. Even when resting on all fours, it was nearly as tall as an average human. One could say it was quite robustly built; set against the slim and small African hyena, it was a complete extreme.

Zhang Yanhang initially wanted to observe this demonized maned beast from the bushes on one side, but whether it was his scent or some noise he made, the beast actively pounced in his direction. Covering the distance of ten-odd meters in the blink of an eye, the demonized maned beast opened its one-meter-wide maw, aiming for Zhang Yanhang’s head.

At the start, Zhang Yanhang had the idea of grabbing the beast’s neck, but then he realized that this three-meter-long creature with a head that took up a third of its length, about one meter, seemed to have no neck. Its head was thicker than its body, as if it had diverted all its nutrition to support the head—an absurdly disproportionate size.

So, when faced with this crocodile-like head-to-body ratio and structure, Zhang Yanhang couldn’t grasp the slimmest part of its body at all. It was several times thicker than the Goblin Shaman’s totem pole; had he tried to force his grip, the only outcome would have been to crush it outright.

Yet Zhang Yanhang didn’t want to kill the demonized maned beast right away as he hadn’t managed to check its attribute list. So even though he initially stretched out his hand subconsciously and opened his mouth, in the end, he simply let the demonized maned beast bite down on his head. In that instant, Zhang Yanhang felt everything go dark.

Looking at the pitch-black mouth in front of him, and the brown-black tongue with sharp barbs, Zhang Yanhang could only say that demonized creatures were indeed different from normal creatures. After all, the tongues of ordinary mammals were generally pink, and the inside of the mouth would be relatively soft.

In contrast, the mouth part of the demonized maned beast seemed quite hard, somewhat similar to a turtle. It would undoubtedly crunch bones without any worries about sharp bone fragments scratching the mouth.

But after a brief inspection of the demonized maned beast’s mouth interior, Zhang Yanhang didn’t forget his original purpose. He immediately started to check its attribute list while it was gnawing on his head.

[Demonized Maned Beast (Normal)]

[Level: First Tier 3 Star]

[Talent: 1. Prehistoric Giant Beast. 2. Demonized Life Form (Maned Beast).]

[Prehistoric Giant Beast: When facing an enemy that is more than 30% smaller in size, there is a 20% chance of triggering the ’Spiritual Suppression’ effect, reducing the enemy’s movement speed and defensive power by 20% and a 2.5% chance of causing ’Demonization Infection’ effect, resulting in malignant deformities in the enemy’s body. Movement Speed +15%.]

[Demonized Life Form (Maned Beast): Originating from the Early Tertiary, Late Eocene, and Middle Miocene around 41 to 20 million years ago, the giant hyena was a large member of the Hyaenodontidae, a carnivorous creature not related by blood to the order Carnivora’s hyenas, named maned beast merely because its teeth resembled those of a hyena.

As a highly specialized prehistoric predator, the adult giant hyena measured about 3 meters in length and weighed approximately 500 kilograms, an unequivocal large prehistoric life form.]

The Giant Maned Tooth Beast’s teeth and jaw structure resemble that of large scissors, possessing immense killing power. Its four exposed canine teeth and astonishing bite force of over 160 kilograms per square inch could pose an even greater threat to its prey, which is why it garnered the nickname "Hell’s Teeth."

The Giant Maned Tooth Beast was a highly successful prehistoric predator among ancient carnivorous animals. Its massive skull gave it a very keen sense of smell that could track prey over long distances. Because its powerful sense of smell largely substituted for its sight, the Giant Maned Tooth Beast often preferred to strike at night.

At nighttime, the Giant Maned Tooth Beast would intensely track its prey and upon catching up, it would use its powerful jaws to directly crush the bones of its prey. Perhaps because even solitary hunting could lead to survival, the Giant Maned Tooth Beast did not have the habit of living in groups and, at most, would socialize in small family units of three to five.

By holding the initiative, the Giant Maned Tooth Beast became an extremely active hunter. Its strong sense of smell, along with good endurance and significant burst power, meant that it performed well in both close-range ambushes and medium to long-distance pursuits.

Thus, the prehistoric Giant Maned Tooth Beast was a top-tier killer, successfully integrating and maximizing key parameters such as size, speed, and teeth that relate to a carnivore’s competitive edge, boasting a high success rate in daily hunts.]

[Life Value: 210/210]

[Energy Value: 110/110]

[Strength: 16]

[Agility: 17]

[Constitution: 14]

[Intelligence: 11]

[Charm: 8]

[Skills: 1. Wild Charge. 2. Wild Bite. 3. Half-Demonized. 4. Dark Shock Wave.]

[Wild Charge: The Demonized Maned Beast launches a "Wild Charge" at the enemy. During "Wild Charge," Movement Speed increases by 15% for 5 seconds, with a cooldown time of two minutes, consuming a moderate amount of Physical Strength. Movement Speed increases by an additional 15% when the enemy is in a "Spiritual Suppression" or "Demonization Infection" status, which can stack.]

[Wild Bite: The Demonized Maned Beast executes a "Wild Bite" at the enemy in front, causing 140% Physical damage upon hitting, with a cooldown time of two minutes, consuming moderate Physical Strength. Physical damage increases by an additional 20% when the enemy is in a "Spiritual Suppression" or "Demonization Infection" status, which can stack.]

[Half-Demonized: Although the Demonized Maned Beast generally maintains a normal prehistoric giant beast form, when it encounters a strong foe, it activates the hidden Dark Power within its body to enter a "Half-Demonized" state, gaining +3 Strength, +3 Agility, +3 Constitution, -5 Intelligence, -5 Charm for 3 minutes, with a cooldown time of 60 minutes, consuming a large amount of Physical Strength. In this state, the chance of triggering "Spiritual Suppression" effect increases by 20%, and "Demonization Infection" effect by 2.5%.]

[Dark Shock Wave: After entering the Half-Demonized state, the Demonized Maned Beast can spit out a "Dark Shock Wave" from its mouth. Upon hitting, it causes 150% Dark Damage to the enemy and has a 20% chance of ignoring size to force the "Spiritual Suppression" effect and a 2.5% chance to force the "Demonization Infection" effect. Cooldown time is two minutes, consuming 50 points of Energy Value.]