Ashen God
Chapter 590 - 589: Slaying the Demonized Maned Tooth Beast

Chapter 590: Chapter 589: Slaying the Demonized Maned Tooth Beast

"So this demonized maned beast is a demonized version of the prehistoric giant hyena, no wonder it has grown so big and looks so strange. If it’s a prehistoric creature, then everything makes sense."

However, compared to the identity of a prehistoric creature, Zhang Yanhang cared more about the talent of the demonized maned beast, the so-called [Prehistoric Giant Beast]. He was very interested in its effects, such as the eye-catching ’Movement Speed +15%’ at the very end of the list.

"Movement Speed +15%, does this mean I’m finally going to obtain a talent that enhances the Agility attribute? When you think about it, a monster that’s First Tier Three Stars right from the start is really impressive. When it’s on a monster it can already increase movement speed by 15%, it must surely be a D-grade talent."

Previously, during the scanning process, Zhang Yanhang had already sensed roughly the strength of the monsters in the demonized swamp zone. Indeed, this demonized maned beast perched on his head right now is one of the weakest among them.

And since the weakest monster in the demonized swamp zone is a First Tier Three Star, then, according to Zhang Yanhang’s previous speculation, this new talent [Prehistoric Giant Beast] is very likely to start off as a D-grade talent. As for the actual verification, he could only wait until he opened treasure boxes later on, only then could he see the exact talent level.

"However, even though this new talent seems to surely be one that enhances the Agility attribute, based on the +15% Movement Speed alone, the problem is that the ability related to body suppression mentioned before doesn’t seem to have much to do with Agility. It’s more like an ability related to Strength and Constitution attributes."

To be honest, Zhang Yanhang actually quite liked abilities related to body suppression. After all, he possessed Giant Transformation and Frenzy Skill, which could shoot his height up to ten meters after activation. At this stage, that would absolutely crush most enemies, so gaining an ability in that domain would indeed be quite useful to him.

But the problem was, the body suppression he wanted wasn’t quite the same as the one in [Prehistoric Giant Beast]; this one triggered mental oppression and demonization infection effects, which would reduce the enemy’s movement speed and defensive power, and also caused severe mutations in the enemy’s body.

Such abilities were actually of little use to Zhang Yanhang because what he wanted was the more conventional kind of body suppression, which under normal circumstances, often provided physical and other forms of overwhelming power to inflict additional damage on enemies.

And what Zhang Yanhang wanted was exactly such an ability, one that could further inflict more additional damage once he overshadowed the enemy in size.

Compared with those fancy, chance-dependent mental oppression and demonization infection, the purest but most practical damage amplification was indeed more useful for him. He preferred those simple and brutal enhancement effects.

"But considering that reducing the enemy’s defensive power also effectively increases my attack power, I guess it’s not entirely unacceptable. Nevertheless, compared to that kind of thing, damage amplification is indeed more practical for me.

Luckily, as far as I’m concerned, as long as it enhances movement speed, that’s sufficient. Other aspects are just incidental, so as long as it’s not a negative ability, I’m willing to accept it."

Zhang Yanhang was always quite lenient towards useful talents, but he had always steered clear of purely detrimental talents, like the F-grade talent [Neurasthenia] he encountered in Raccoon City, which did nothing but add weaknesses to himself and was also quite difficult to upgrade.

"But even though I can accept it, I still hope that after the upgrade, the prehistoric giant beast can boost the Agility attribute, after all, I don’t have any Agility-related Talents yet, and it’s the only main attribute I lack."

Since I already have corresponding Talents in Strength and Constitution, Zhang Yanhang felt that prioritizing filling in the shortcoming of Agility would indeed be more beneficial for him.

After all, according to the barrel effect, the water level is always determined by the shortest plank. Unless his strengths could extend infinitely to capitalize on advantages and avoid weaknesses, but clearly, Zhang Yanhang was not that type. With four main attributes defined by his Profession, it was determined that he must develop evenly.

After paying attention to the most important new Talent, "Prehistoric Giant Beast," Zhang Yanhang quickly turned to other parts of the Demonized Maned Beast’s attribute list.

"Speaking of which, this Demonized Maned Beast really has nothing to do with African hyenas. After all, whether it’s body characteristics or habits, all are completely different. Perhaps the only similarity is the shape of the teeth and the brown fur."

In Zhang Yanhang’s impression, African hyenas usually hunt in packs, forming a large group, with at least a dozen hyenas gathering together to survive normally.

In contrast, prehistoric giant hyenas tend to form groups only when rearing offspring due to their strong individual capabilities that allow them to easily capture prey, but at most, there would only be three to five in a group.

From this aspect, Zhang Yanhang thought that the fertility of the prehistoric giant hyena might not be great, but that was normal. Creatures like pigs that are very fertile are actually the anomaly. But as the saying goes, "survival of the fittest," and being able to reproduce is why they are still around today.

The giant hyena might have been phased out of history due to incomplete evolution, but average fertility could be a secondary contributing factor.

Of course, this is also a common point among carnivores. Most carnivores cannot reproduce in large litters like herbivores due to the limited amount of food available. If they really had that many offspring, they would likely starve to death due to lack of food, and naturally, they would be even less likely to survive to the present.

So, after looking at the Demonized Maned Beast’s Talents, Zhang Yanhang felt that its role was very similar to a tiger’s, except because of its shape and teeth, it was more like the Canidae family.

And as everyone knows, the performance of the Canidae family afterward was quite poor. In that era of constant evolution of species, they were quickly squeezed out of their living space by other carnivorous Felidae and thus met extinction.

In the end, most subspecies could only become domestic dogs and, due to the rapid increase in human numbers, swiftly took the dominant position in the Canidae with the strength of humans behind them, or else the Canidae would not be named "Canidae," but rather "Wolf Family" or "Fox Family." But in the end, they all became subspecies under Canidae, such as the Wolf (Canine) and Fox subfamilies.

Just as Zhang Yanhang had finished looking at the Demonized Maned Beast’s Talents and wanted to take a closer look at its Skill list, he suddenly felt the Demonized Maned Beast hanging on his head seemed to be gnawing at an increased speed, as if it had activated a Skill. Moreover, its brown-black tongue was incessantly licking his face, which was somewhat annoying.

"Forget it, just go die."

Zhang Yanhang flicked the meter-long head of the demonized maned beast with a knock, a gesture that, during his First Tier Period, with a slight imbuing of spiritual energy, could easily kill a First Tier Two Star Licker. Now, even without the need to infuse spiritual energy, his mere physical strength had reached fifteen and a half tons.

With his current strength, a knock on the head was indeed a literal ’brain burst.’ A strange ’wave’ that would be completely unseen on a normal biological body suddenly rippled across the massive head of the demonized maned beast, which had already swallowed not just Zhang Yanhang’s head but also part of his upper body.

Underneath this superficial layer were the layers of muscle tissues of the demonized maned beast that had shattered and its skull, which couldn’t withstand such tremendous impact force and fractured on the spot.

Next came the brain, that seemed huge but wasn’t actually that clever, enveloped within the skull. Compared to the tenacious muscle tissues and hard skull, the defenseless brain almost instantly showed ripples more pronounced than those on the surface.

The fragile brain, which should have been tightly secured within the skull, now looked more like a worthless clump of yellowish tofu dregs. But soon, the external muscle tissues, along with the impact force, mixed with the brain of the maned beast, dyeing it a bright red.

The muscle tissues from the outside of the skull, after melding with the bone fragments, charged into the brain with unstoppable force and then took the brain tissues with it towards the other side of the skull.

Bang!

Accompanied by a strange sound, half of the maned beast’s head spewed a triangular-shaped biological contamination or, rather, a demonization-infected area onto the forest floor and the trunks of trees – after all, the blood and flesh of the maned beast contained dark power, and it was clear that this force was not something normal plants could withstand.

[Successfully assassinated a First Tier Three Star Monster ’Demonized Maned Beast (Ordinary)’ ×1, Soul points +9.]

Following the death of the demonized maned beast, the assassination notification sound quickly rang in Zhang Yanhang’s ears. However, somewhat puzzling to him was the soul point value of the demonized maned beast, which was mysteriously a bit low.

"I originally thought that a First Tier Three Star monster should be worth at least ten soul points, after all, whether it be the Beta-type Hunters and Gamma Type Hunters in Raccoon City, the Crimson Iron Breeding Ants in the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu, or the Goblin Spear Throwers and Goblin Wolf Cavalry in the Goblin Plains, none of them are worth less than ten soul points.

But now the demonized maned beast has broken this pattern, though fortunately it is only one soul point less, which is not unacceptable."

Had the demonized maned beast awarded only seven or eight soul points, Zhang Yanhang would have surely cursed, but if it was nine points, he could just about forgive it.

Because creatures like the Demonized Maned Beast were supposedly an exception, after all, the Demonized Maned Beast was the weakest monster in the Demonized Swamp, Zhang Yanhang felt that other monsters should perform considerably better in this regard; at least he doubted there would be anything like nine points again.

"Nine points, although only one less than ten points, represents the base yield of soul points. If the base yield is one point less, that means the total soul yield is ten percent less compared to a regular First Tier Three Star Monster. I hope the treasure box of the Demonized Maned Beast can be powerful enough to compensate for this loss."

Zhang Yanhang was naturally very expectant of the Demonized Maned Beast’s treasure box, especially since it contained a new Talent he highly valued, "Prehistoric Giant Beast."

After successfully killing the Demonized Maned Beast, Zhang Yanhang stood still and quietly waited for a few seconds. Thanks to the First Kill, a Green quality Drop treasure box indeed materialized out of thin air from the remains of the Demonized Maned Beast in front of him.

"Since it’s a Green quality Drop treasure box, it should at least yield an item of Blue quality. I hope the Demonized Maned Beast does not disappoint my expectations. However, there’s no rush to open this treasure box right now."

Zhang Yanhang planned to open the Demonized Maned Beast’s Drop treasure box after collecting a few more boxes. After all, if he couldn’t upgrade a Talent immediately upon obtaining it, he would certainly feel quite frustrated.

Therefore, he figured it would be better to collect at least three more Drop treasure boxes, enough to upgrade the Talent Quality before opening them. This way, he could inspect the abilities and effects of the new Talent after the upgrade.

After all, based on Zhang Yanhang’s prior experience, the Talents obtained from monsters often varied significantly in ability when they were on the monsters compared to when they were on him.

This made him feel as if he were opening a blind box every time he acquired a new Talent. Fortunately, unlike blind boxes where there’s a 90% chance of simply giving money to the seller with no return, the Talents he obtained were definitely useful.

However, how useful they were could vary considerably. They might increase his hunting efficiency dramatically, or they might only offer a slight increase in efficiency.

After picking up the Green quality Drop treasure box that floated up from the corpse of the Demonized Maned Beast and putting it into his Waist Bag, Zhang Yanhang also casually stuffed the corpse of the beast into the bag.

He was quite interested in the dark energy contained within the flesh and blood of the Demonized Maned Beast. He thought he might study it if he ever found himself with nothing else to do.

However, he likely wouldn’t have any idle time over the next four days, as he had a vast 400 square kilometers to cleanse. Currently, the completion of this cleansing mission was still at 0%.

Or to put it another way, it hadn’t even started, because the Demonized Maned Beast that Zhang Yanhang had just killed was simply a test. The true beginning of the execution of the Demonized Swamp cleansing mission was yet to come.

Having already collected the Demonized Maned Beast’s corpse into his Waist Bag without any sentimentality, Zhang Yanhang left the area and immediately began to move quickly toward the location of another Demonized Maned Beast that he had just scanned using the Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil Skill.

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