《From Ant to Abyssal Demon》 Chapter 1 - Transmigrated into the Game! Chapter 1: Transmigrated into the Game!¡°Is this a dream¡­ or am I already dead?¡± When Su Bai woke up from his sleep, he felt a wave of panic. He found himself in a void with nothing. No sky, no earth, no flowers or trees, no sun, moon, or stars. He couldn¡¯t even feel the passage of time! The only thing he could sense was his lonely thoughts. The last moment in Su Bai¡¯s memory was staring at the ceiling from his sickbed, until his vision grew darker and darker. [You have acquired ¡®touch.¡¯] It seemed like a second had passed, or maybe a century. In a daze, Su Bai seemed to hear a voice from the void, and then he felt touch. With a slight sway, Su Bai felt his body was wrapped in something soft and comfortable, like being in a womb. ¡°Transmigration? ¡°Rebirth? ¡°Am I a baby now?¡± Su Bai speculated. [You have acquired ¡®hearing.¡¯] The voice from the void spoke again. This time, the voice didn¡¯t resonate mysteriously in his heart but sounded as if it were right by his ear. With this voice, he gained hearing. He heard the sound of fluid flowing and even his own heartbeat. A slight sway came again, and Su Bai heard a rustling sound in the distance, like leaves being blown by the wind or tiny creatures moving quickly around. Besides these, Su Bai heard several other weak heartbeats similar to his own. ¡°This is¡­¡± Hearing those numerous weak heartbeats, Su Bai had a bad premonition. Everyone knows that humans can¡¯t give birth to more than ten babies at once, and the heartbeats around him far exceeded that number! Could I¡­ have been reincarnated as some strange creature? [You have acquired ¡®pain.¡¯] [You have acquired ¡®taste.¡¯] [You have acquired ¡®sight.¡¯] [You have acquired ¡®temperature sensation.¡¯] Before Su Bai could ponder what kind of creature he had become, a series of voices from the void made him feel complete. Although he still didn¡¯t know what species he was, it seemed that once he was born, he could see this world and live a new life as a different being. Su Bai was filled with joy. This was the joy of a person who had reached the end of their life, being able to live again. But the next moment! The continuing voice from the void extinguished all his joy! S~?a??h the N?velF?re.?et website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. [Basic construction completed.] [Digitization begins¡­] [Character template construction¡­ completed. Monster template construction¡­ completed.] [World layering¡­ completed¡­] [Faction data calculation¡­ completed, faction division completed¡­] [Game rules injection begins¡­] [World digitization begins, current progress: 1%, 2%, 3%¡­ 27%¡­ 56%¡­ 98%¡­] [¡­¡­] [¡­¡­] ¡°Damn it!¡± As this series of voices echoed in his mind, Su Bai¡¯s confusion, tension, and joy vanished, leaving only shock. ¡°Did I transmigrate into a game?¡± Digitization, character templates, monster templates, faction division, and most importantly, game rules. These terms deeply pierced Su Bai¡¯s heart. He couldn¡¯t imagine any context other than a game that would link these terms together. With memories of his past life, Su Bai knew clearly that the so-called game world was essentially a string of code. Everything in a game world, whether mountains and rivers or humans and monsters, was constructed from code. Being reborn into such a world was undoubtedly the worst outcome. ¡°No, that¡¯s not right!¡± ¡°This shouldn¡¯t be just a simple game!¡± Thinking of the voices in his mind, Su Bai felt slightly reassured. He knew his current state. He had touch, hearing, and sensation, and could clearly feel everything around him. Most importantly, he had his own thoughts and memories! At least, he was definitely not a puppet-like NPC or a marionette as he had known in his previous life! ¡°A game based on the construction of a world?¡± Su Bai was startled by his own thoughts. ¡°A flower is a world, a leaf is a Bodhi. ¡°According to previous life sayings, every decision made by a person would create a parallel world. Even if this is really a game world, who knows if this world is also a real one? ¡°Maybe, for players, this is just a game, but for me, this is the world I¡¯m about to live in!¡± Calming down his thoughts, Su Bai vaguely heard a slight cracking sound, and the place where he existed began to shake slightly. He¡­ was about to be born! Chapter 2 - Dim-Level Monster, Ant! Chapter 2: Dim-Level Monster, Ant!The slight cracking sound continued. Su Bai seemed to hear the sound of the material enveloping him flowing, and the pressure around his body began to decrease. Then, the sticky substance flowed out, and Su Bai dropped from it. A breeze brought a chill. Only then did Su Bai have the mind to observe his surroundings. With the faint light emitted by unknown glowing fungi growing in the cave, he could clearly see his environment. It was a dim cave. Relative to his current size, the cave was spacious, with numerous deep tunnels connecting to other places. In this wide cave were many semi-transparent egg-shaped objects. At this moment, many similar semi-transparent creatures were struggling out of these eggs. Their bodies were segmented into three parts with six legs. The relatively large heads had two antennae waving and a pair of fierce mandibles occupying a quarter of their head¡¯s area. With just a glance, Su Bai recognized the species of these creatures. Ants. To be precise, they were larvae newly emerged from the ant eggs, with exoskeletons not yet hardened! ¡°Damn it! ¡°I accepted being reborn into a game, but if I can¡¯t be reborn as a human, at least let me be a monster or something? ¡°What the hell is being reborn as an ant?!¡± Su Bai felt like cursing loudly. Based on his knowledge of this game world, the ant he had become wasn¡¯t even considered a monster, just a living background¡­ Was he going to spend his life like this? As a larva being fed by worker ants, then becoming a laborer, working hard to strengthen the ant family, and quietly dying after a brief life? The thought of such a life sent shivers down Su Bai¡¯s spine. S~?a??h the N?v?l(F)ire.n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. ¡°Maybe¡­ ¡°Attribute panel?¡± Thinking of something, Su Bai silently recited in his mind. The next moment, a semi-transparent attribute panel appeared in his vision! ¡¾Name¡¿: Su Bai ¡¾Species¡¿: Ant ¡¾Rank¡¿: Dim-Level ¡¾Level¡¿: Dim-Level ¡¾Attributes¡¿: Strength 0.008, Agility 0.005, Constitution 0.002, Spirit 0.03 ¡¾Talents¡¿: Soul Point Allocation (Soul Talent), Devour Evolution (Unique Talent), Adaptability (Species Talent) ¡¾Skills¡¿: None [Soul Point Allocation: Unknown, unable to analyze.] [Devour Evolution: Even the weakest insect has infinite potential. With the Devour Evolution talent, you can gain experience through eating, and specific items can provide gene points and evolution points. Sufficient gene and evolution points can allow you to evolve from an insect to a higher life form.] [Adaptability: You are a remarkably gifted insect. If a hundred identical insects were to survive in harsh environments, you would be the one to survive. Strong adaptability allows you to withstand various harsh conditions, with a certain chance of gaining corresponding resistances.] ¡°Indeed!¡± After reading through his attribute panel, Su Bai felt a surge of excitement. There was always a way! Su Bai didn¡¯t know if other ants had attribute panels, but he knew that his attribute panel, especially the Devour Evolution talent, was his hope of shedding the identity of an ant and evolving from a lowly insect to a higher life form! The unique Devour Evolution talent was undeniably powerful. Given enough time and the right items to consume, he might be able to evolve from a dim-level ant into a legendary existence! Apart from Devour Evolution, Adaptability was also an extremely powerful talent. As an ant, Su Bai was currently extremely fragile. Not to mention the numerous powerful creatures that might exist in this world, a gust of wind, a rainstorm, or even a significant temperature change could be fatal. Having the Adaptability talent would undoubtedly improve his chances of survival in this world. Only by surviving could he hope to become stronger! The only mysterious talent was the Soul Point Allocation, which even the attribute panel couldn¡¯t analyze. Su Bai guessed this soul talent might have come from his human soul being reborn into an ant¡¯s body. Perhaps as he evolved, this soul talent would eventually be revealed. Su Bai had a hunch that the Soul Point Allocation talent could be as powerful as, if not more powerful than, the Devour Evolution talent! ¡­¡­ ¡°Eat¡­ ¡°Eat¡­¡± As Su Bai was satisfied after examining his attribute panel, a black ant several times larger appeared before him. The black ant used its two front legs to place a semi-solid ball larger than Su Bai¡¯s head in front of him, emitting a strange smell. Instinctively, Su Bai understood what that smell meant. Eat. This black ant was a worker ant in the nest, responsible for foraging and feeding the newly hatched larvae like Su Bai. In reality, ants mainly communicate through the release of pheromones, and in this game world, their communication was represented by various smells. Perhaps these smells were pheromones, but perceived by Su Bai as understandable scents. ¡°Eat¡­ ¡°Eat¡­¡± Seeing Su Bai not moving, the black worker ant emitted the smell again. ¡°Thank you!¡± Silently thanking the worker ant, Su Bai lowered his head, and with his newly hardened mandibles, he tore off a small piece of the semi-solid ball and quickly swallowed it. ¡°Sweet, not bad!¡± As Su Bai began eating, his attribute panel started refreshing with a lot of text. [Feeding¡­ gained 0.1 experience¡­] [Feeding¡­ gained 0.2 experience¡­] Chapter 3 - Ding! Obtained Green Worm Gene! Chapter 3: Ding! Obtained Green Worm Gene![Feeding¡­ gained 0.05 experience¡­] [Feeding¡­ gained 0.1 experience¡­] [Feeding¡­ gained 0.03 experience¡­] In the dim cave, Su Bai was still eating. His food was still the semi-solid balls brought by the worker ants, but compared to before, his eating speed had increased more than tenfold. Originally, it took him over a dozen bites to finish a semi-solid ball, but now he could eat one in a single bite. Because in just a few days, his body size had increased several times! By the standards of his previous life, the worker ants in the cave were about 0.8 centimeters long, and the newly born larvae were only 0.3 centimeters. But now, Su Bai¡¯s body was a full 1.2 centimeters long. Correspondingly, his four-dimensional attributes had also undergone significant changes. When he was first born, Su Bai¡¯s four-dimensional attributes were: Strength 0.008, Agility 0.005, Constitution 0.002, Spirit 0.03. Now, his attributes were: ¡¾Name¡¿: Su Bai ¡¾Species¡¿: Ant ¡¾Rank¡¿: Dim-Level ¡¾Level¡¿: Dim-Level ¡¾Attributes¡¿: Strength 0.05 (Ant Limit), Agility 0.05 (Ant Limit), Constitution 0.05 (Ant Limit), Spirit 0.1 ¡¾Talents¡¿: Soul Point Allocation (Soul Talent), Devour Evolution (Unique Talent), Adaptability (Species Talent) ¡¾Skills¡¿: None Compared to before, Su Bai¡¯s four-dimensional attributes had increased tenfold! Compared to humans and real monsters, his attributes were insignificant. But within the ant species, he was undoubtedly a giant! And this was just the first step in his evolution! ¡ª After days of frenzied eating, Su Bai had grown from a larva into an adult ant. His four-dimensional attributes had also reached their limits. After reaching the limit of an ant¡¯s attributes, the experience gained from eating the semi-solid balls had become negligible. To continue improving, he needed to eat different foods. [Devour Evolution: Even the weakest insect has infinite potential. With the Devour Evolution talent, you can gain experience through eating, and specific items can provide gene points and evolution points. Sufficient gene and evolution points can allow you to evolve from an insect into a higher form of life.] After glancing at the description of his Devour Evolution talent on the attribute panel, Su Bai prepared to leave the cave. Staying in this cave was certainly safe, and the simple-minded worker ants would continuously bring him food, ensuring he wouldn¡¯t starve. But this singular diet, suitable only for larvae, had its limits. Staying here would mean he would always remain an ant, eventually dying as one. ¡°It¡¯s time to leave.¡± Su Bai turned and looked around. The once bustling cave had become empty, as most of the larvae had hatched and become adult ants, joining their respective groups and starting their work. Those who hadn¡¯t hatched would never get the chance to emerge. ¡°Eat¡­ ¡°Eat¡­¡± The strange scent came again. S?a??h the N0v?lFir?.?et website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. The worker ant that had been bringing food to Su Bai appeared. Placing a semi-solid ball in front of Su Bai, the worker ant released pheromones, urging him to eat quickly. With almost no intelligence, this worker ant couldn¡¯t understand why Su Bai had grown so large in just a few days, nor did it know that Su Bai was now much stronger than it. It was a worker ant, responsible for transporting food for the larvae. As long as Su Bai stayed here, it would continue to bring food. ¡°I have to go.¡± Looking down at the much smaller worker ant, Su Bai gently touched its antennae with his own and silently said, ¡°Thank you.¡± After one last glance at the cave he was born in, Su Bai crawled along the dark tunnel towards the outside. Behind him, the worker ant picked up the food, moved its tiny antennae in confusion, and released another scent. ¡°Eat¡­ ¡°¡­Not eating?¡± ¡ª Su Bai didn¡¯t know what the world looked like to other ants. In his vision, the world was still the same. He could clearly distinguish various colors, smell different scents in the tunnel, and taste the sweetness of the larvae food. As he continued along the tunnel, Su Bai¡¯s view suddenly expanded. A tunnel about three centimeters high and nearly ten centimeters wide appeared before him. In this tunnel, hundreds of worker ants were scurrying around, almost all carrying bits of food. He even saw a group of worker ants dragging a dried-up green worm¡¯s corpse into the depths of the cave. ¡°Food!¡± Seeing all this, Su Bai was overjoyed. To him, food meant power. If the larvae food in the cave could still provide him with significant experience, he might have stayed there his whole life! Just as he was about to leave the ant nest, he was greeted with a greater variety and abundance of food. Especially that dried-up green worm¡¯s corpse ¡ª just a glance and Su Bai couldn¡¯t look away. He had a feeling that eating that green worm¡¯s corpse would bring him great benefits! Without hesitation. Su Bai rushed forward and took a bite of the green worm¡¯s corpse. [Feeding¡­ gained 2 experience¡­] [Feeding¡­ gained 3 experience¡­] [Ding! You devoured the green worm¡¯s corpse and obtained 1 Green Worm Gene.] Chapter 4 - First Skill: Enhanced Mandibles! Chapter 4: First Skill: Enhanced Mandibles![Feeding¡­ gained 2 experience¡­] [Feeding¡­ gained 5 experience¡­] [Ding! You devoured the green worm¡¯s corpse, obtained 1 Green Worm Gene.] [Feeding¡­ gained 1 experience¡­] As Su Bai continued to eat, the green worm¡¯s corpse quickly diminished, and his attribute panel refreshed with a large amount of text. At the same time, a warm sensation spread from within Su Bai¡¯s body. This was a sign of evolution! In the past few days, every time he consumed a certain amount of food, a warm current would flow through Su Bai¡¯s body. After this, his four-dimensional attributes would increase to varying degrees. Because of this, his attributes had increased tenfold in just a few days, reaching the limit of an ant. Unlike before, this time the warm current from his body was much stronger and more enduring. Perhaps after devouring this green worm¡¯s corpse, his attributes would officially surpass the limits of the ant species! The text on the attribute panel continued to refresh. Su Bai¡¯s eating speed also increased. The green worm¡¯s corpse, several times larger than him, was diminishing visibly. Finally. When Su Bai finished the last remnants of the green worm¡¯s corpse, a voice echoed in his mind again. [Acquired sufficient experience¡­] [Acquired genes from a different species¡­] [Attributes reached species limit¡­] [Species evolution conditions met.] [This evolution will last ten minutes. Ensure the surrounding environment is safe.] [Begin evolution?] As these messages echoed in his mind, the warm current inside Su Bai had grown to an unbearable level. He felt as if his black carapace was about to be melted by the heat. ¡°Turns out it¡¯s an evolution, not just growth¡­¡± With this thought in mind, Su Bai hurriedly chose to begin the evolution. Then, the warm current exploded throughout his body, and Su Bai felt a blackness overcome his vision as he lost consciousness. S?a?ch* Th? N0v?lFire(.)n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. ¡ª ¡°Move¡­ ¡°¡­Eat?¡± He didn¡¯t know how long had passed before Su Bai woke from his slumber. The first thing he saw was a small black ant, with dozens of semi-solid balls placed densely in front of it. ¡°It¡¯s you.¡± With just one glance, Su Bai recognized it. This small black ant was the worker ant that had been feeding him. Possibly because his evolution had succeeded and his body had grown again, this worker ant seemed particularly small, only half his size. Seeing Su Bai wake up, the black worker ant pushed the semi-solid balls towards him, releasing several scents. ¡°Eat¡­ ¡°Not hungry¡­ ¡°Alive¡­¡± Su Bai had returned to the cave where he was born. Looking at the little worker ant in front of him and the larvae food laid out before him, he quickly deduced what had happened after he fainted. He chose to evolve and passed out in the main tunnel of the ant nest. This worker ant found him and painstakingly dragged him back to this cave. With its simple intelligence, it probably thought he had fainted from hunger and brought a lot of larvae food to him. A wave of emotion surged in Su Bai¡¯s heart. ¡°Thank you, I¡¯m alright now.¡± Gently touching the worker ant with his antennae, Su Bai silently expressed his gratitude. ¡°Eat¡­ ¡°Eat¡­¡± The small worker ant released the scent again, pushing the larvae food towards Su Bai. After watching the small worker ant for a moment, Su Bai grabbed a ball with his mandibles: ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll eat.¡± After successfully evolving, larvae food no longer had any effect on Su Bai, providing no experience, only serving to fill his stomach. Yet, Su Bai felt this larvae food was more precious than the green worm¡¯s corpse. As he ate the larvae food, Su Bai¡¯s body, hungry from the evolution, was revitalized. Seeing Su Bai start to eat, the small worker ant wiggled its antennae and left the cave. Su Bai wasn¡¯t sure if it was an illusion, but he felt the small worker ant seemed smarter than before¡­ After finishing the larvae food, Su Bai opened his attribute panel. Only then did he have the presence of mind to check the changes after his evolution. [Ding! Your rank has increased.] [You have gained a skill selection opportunity.] The first thing that popped up was a skill selection. With the first rank increase, Su Bai gained two skill options: ¡¾Enhanced Mandibles¡¿ and ¡¾Enhanced Carapace¡¿, from which he could choose one. [Enhanced Mandibles: Passive skill. Choosing this skill will make your mandibles stronger and sharper, allowing you to easily cut through previously indestructible objects and food.] [Enhanced Carapace: Passive skill. Choosing this skill will make your carapace tougher, able to withstand more hits, increasing your survival chances against enemies.] Without much hesitation, Su Bai chose Enhanced Mandibles. With the support of the ant nest, he wouldn¡¯t encounter too powerful enemies in the short term, so his safety was relatively assured. More importantly, the Enhanced Mandibles skill perfectly complemented his Devour Evolution talent, allowing him to consume more and higher-quality food, accelerating his evolution. After choosing the skill, the results of this evolution were displayed on Su Bai¡¯s panel. A much more sophisticated attribute panel than before! Chapter 5 - Attribute Breakthrough and Second Panel! Chapter 5: Attribute Breakthrough and Second Panel!¡¾Name¡¿: Su Bai ¡¾Species¡¿: Mutant Ant ¡¾Rank¡¿: Tiny Level ¡¾Grade¡¿: Tiny Level ¡¾Attributes¡¿: Strength 0.12, Agility 0.09, Constitution 0.11, Spirit 0.5 ¡¾Talents¡¿: Soul Point (Soul Talent), Devour Evolution (Unique Talent), Adaptability (Species Talent) ¡¾Skills¡¿: Enhanced Mandibles (Passive Skill) ¡ª Compared to before, Su Bai¡¯s species changed from ant to mutant ant, and both his rank and grade changed from dim level to tiny level. His four-dimensional attributes improved several times over. Even his body size increased from the original 1.2 centimeters to 2.5 centimeters. A 2.5-centimeter body size made him a giant in this ant nest, where the average length was less than 1 centimeter. ¡°Tiny level¡­¡± Looking at his attribute panel, Su Bai pondered. This time, not only had his strength increased significantly, but he also received some information from that mysterious voice. Su Bai now had a clear understanding of his place in this world. The dim level was the lowest strength tier in this world. Ants, flies, mosquitoes, fleas, dragonflies, earthworms¡­ All these creatures with negligible combat power were classified as dim level. They existed at the bottom of the world, merely part of the living background or resources. Above the dim level was the tiny level. Frogs, large insects, small birds, small fish, and shrimp¡­ These creatures with minimal combat power were classified as tiny level. After devouring an entire green worm¡¯s corpse and experiencing his first evolution, Su Bai barely reached the lower limit of the tiny level. At this point, facing birds or fish was out of the question. Even a mantis would send him fleeing. The gap between the dim level and the tiny level was vast. S?a??h th? N???lFire.n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. Creatures at the top of the tiny level could easily destroy hundreds or thousands of dim level beings, and even capturing a tiny level being like Su Bai would be a breeze. However, both these levels were still at the bottom of the world¡¯s hierarchy, without even a formal grade. Above the tiny level was Level 1! To become a Level 1 creature, the basic requirement was to raise all four-dimensional attributes to over 1 point! For players and the world¡¯s monsters, having attributes of 1 point might be considered poor, but for dim and tiny level beings like Su Bai, it was a distant and unattainable goal. Without the Devour Evolution talent, Su Bai might never achieve this in his lifetime. ¡ª ¡°All attributes at 1 point¡­¡± Looking at his attributes, barely one-tenth of the way there, Su Bai felt complicated. Among his four-dimensional attributes, the spirit attribute might reach 1 point first. Thanks to the human soul from his previous life, as long as his body grew stronger, Su Bai¡¯s spirit attribute would automatically increase. But reaching 1 point in the other three attributes wouldn¡¯t be so easy. At the very least, hiding in the ant nest and secretly eating the food brought back by the worker ants wouldn¡¯t suffice. To reach Level 1 and become a formal monster, he needed to venture out for food and continuously battle and hunt other tiny level beings. At this moment, Su Bai noticed a flashing ¡°+¡± in the upper right corner of his attribute panel. With a thought, a new panel appeared before him. The Second Panel. ¡¾Gene Points¡¿: Green Worm Gene 3 points. ¡¾Evolution Points¡¿: 0 points. The second panel only had these two data points, but they conveyed a lot of information. Gene points were obtained by devouring other species through his Devour Evolution talent. The 3 green worm gene points on the panel were from the green worm¡¯s corpse he consumed. As for evolution points¡­ He could only obtain them by consuming valuable items or personally hunting and devouring creatures. Evolution points and gene points were the foundation of his evolution from an ant to higher life forms! ¡°It seems I still need to venture out and fight.¡± Silently closing the attribute panel, Su Bai moved his six ant legs and crawled out of the cave once more. Chapter 6 - Skill Fragments and Evolution Points! Chapter 6: Skill Fragments and Evolution Points!The sunshine was bright. A gentle breeze brought a refreshing coolness, causing the grass to sway and cast dappled shadows on the ground. On the fifth day of being reborn as an ant, Su Bai crawled out of his nest, which was his lifeline. Perhaps the ants in the game world were stronger than those in the real world. Su Bai¡¯s nest was not dug into the ground but located on a low cliff. The exit, half a meter above the ground, ensured that even in heavy rain, the nest would not be flooded. After leaving the ant nest, Su Bai didn¡¯t rush to leave but instead crawled along the route of the worker ants. He smelled two distinct odors along the way. These two smells represented ¡°summoning¡± and ¡°battle.¡± In the ant colony, the appearance of these two smells could mean either encountering enemies or the discovery of prey by the worker ants, summoning other ants to kill or drag it back to the nest. Regardless of the situation, for Su Bai, it meant his first battle in this world! Feeling slightly excited, Su Bai followed these two smells. Just a dozen meters away, he found the battlefield. On the open ground, a worm over ten centimeters long was struggling desperately, surrounded by hundreds of black ants. A single ant¡¯s damage to the worm was negligible, but with hundreds of ants together, they could wear down and eventually kill the worm, turning it into food reserves for the nest. Upon reaching the battlefield, Su Bai immediately joined the fight. If it were other insects, he might hesitate, but facing a worm, a pure meat shield type of insect, was equivalent to receiving a gift of gene points and evolution points! Compared to ants, worms had stronger strength and constitution, and accordingly, their defensive capabilities were stronger. Ordinary ants struggled to bite, and it took a long time for their tiny mandibles to open a small wound on the worm. Su Bai¡¯s four-dimensional attributes far exceeded the limits of the ant species. Coupled with his passive skill, Enhanced Mandibles, he could tear off a piece of flesh from the worm with just one bite! As the injured worm writhed violently, Su Bai saw new prompts as he had hoped. [Eating¡­ Gained 3 experience points¡­] [Eating¡­ Gained 2 experience points¡­] [Ding! You consumed the flesh and blood of the worm and gained 1 point of worm genes.] One point of worm genes wasn¡¯t much better than green worm genes, but it was a good start. Encouraged, Su Bai¡¯s sharp mandibles moved faster, tearing small pieces of flesh from the worm¡¯s body, devouring them. [Eating¡­ Gained 4 experience points¡­] s?a??h th? ???el F?re.n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. [Ding! You consumed the flesh and blood of the worm and gained 1 point of worm genes.] [Ding! You consumed the flesh and blood of the worm and obtained a skill fragment!] ¡°Skill fragment?¡± Su Bai¡¯s movement paused slightly, then he quickly opened his attribute panel. On his second attribute panel, a new line of data appeared. ¡¾Gene Points¡¿: Green Worm Gene 3 points, Worm Gene 2 points. ¡¾Evolution Points¡¿: 0 points. ¡¾Skill Fragments¡¿: Healing 1/10. When his gaze stopped at the third line, some information naturally appeared in Su Bai¡¯s mind. [Passive Skill, Healing: Minor reduction in bleeding and severe injury effects, slight increase in wound healing speed. When food is abundant, you can slowly repair your injuries by eating.] Clearly, this was an extremely powerful passive skill! As an ant, Su Bai couldn¡¯t drink healing potions, find healers, or even have healing skills. Once injured, he might be beyond saving. The appearance of the passive skill Healing undoubtedly greatly improved his survivability! The only regret was that this was just a skill fragment, not a complete skill. To master the Healing skill, he still needed to obtain nine identical skill fragments. For a moment, Su Bai looked at the worm with fervent eyes. His actions of biting and tearing at the worm¡¯s flesh quickened. ¡ª With the talent of Devour Evolution, Su Bai¡¯s appetite was terrifying. The flesh and blood he consumed were transformed into experience points, gene points, or skill fragments by the Devour Evolution talent, allowing him to easily swallow food several times his body size. Even so, it took Su Bai more than ten minutes to completely devour the worm. With the disappearance of the enemy (food), the worker ants waved their antennae in confusion, scattered, and continued to search for new food, while Su Bai joyfully opened his attribute panel. The first attribute panel remained unchanged. Devouring a worm did not raise his rank or four-dimensional attributes again. But the second attribute panel began to enrich. ¡¾Gene Points¡¿: Green Worm Gene 3 points, Worm Gene 5 points. ¡¾Evolution Points¡¿: 1 point. ¡¾Skill Fragments¡¿: Healing 3/10. A live worm provided Su Bai with 5 points of worm genes, three fragments of the Healing skill, and 1 evolution point. The Healing skill still needed seven more fragments to be complete, which meant he needed to devour at least four more worms. As for evolution points¡­ Participating in the hunting and killing of a worm provided Su Bai with 1 evolution point. With 5 evolution points, he could begin his first evolution! Chapter 7 - The first evolution begins! Chapter 7: The first evolution begins!The condition for the first evolution was to have 5 evolution points. For Su Bai, this wasn¡¯t difficult. Relying on the ant nest, he had already completed one hunting, gaining 1 evolution point. As long as he hunted and devoured four more insects, he could gather the 5 evolution points needed for his first evolution. Closing the attribute panel with some reluctance, Su Bai crawled towards the ant nest. Compared to searching for insects to hunt on his own, Su Bai preferred to rely on the ant nest, waiting for the army of worker ants to discover prey before acting. After all, although he was already strong compared to ordinary ants, he still remained at the bottom of the entire jungle. There were countless beings out there that could easily kill him. Sneaky development, no unnecessary risks. One word, persevere! ¡ª Soon, Su Bai, guarding around the nest, detected a second summoning scent. Following the scent, this time Su Bai faced an enemy, a cricket with a broken leg. Compared to worms, crickets were weaker in combat. After Su Bai appeared, he simply bit off the cricket¡¯s neck and quickly devoured it. This three-centimeter-long cricket provided Su Bai with 2 cricket genes and 1 evolution point. Then came the third, then the fourth. A whole day passed, and with the support of the ant nest and the army of worker ants, Su Bai finally hunted and devoured five insects, gathering the evolution points needed for his first evolution. At this point, the data on his second attribute panel had changed to: ¡¾Gene Points¡¿: Green Worm Gene 4 points, Worm Gene 7 points, Cricket Gene 2 points, Grasshopper Gene 3 points. ¡¾Evolution Points¡¿: 5 points. ¡¾Skill Fragments¡¿: Healing 6/10. It¡¯s worth mentioning that the fragments of the Healing skill weren¡¯t just obtained from worms. Most insects could drop them, but the chance of worms dropping Healing skill fragments was relatively high. ¡°So, the next step is the first evolution.¡± Taking a deep breath, Su Bai¡¯s gaze shifted to the evolution points. A voice sounded in his mind. [Evolution points are sufficient. Would you like to begin the first evolution?] [Begin evolution!] [Please select the evolution method: Self-evolution or Mutation?] The next moment, a brand new interface occupied Su Bai¡¯s field of view. On this interface, virtual images of ants, green worms, worms, crickets, and grasshoppers, the five types of insects, appeared. The difference was that the virtual image of the ant was fully lit up, while the virtual images of the other four insects were dimmer, with varying numbers of dots distributed on them. ¡°Evolution or Mutation?¡± Counting the dots on the insects, Su Bai understood, ¡°These dots represent the insect genes I have already acquired? So Mutation means¡­¡± With a thought, Su Bai¡¯s gaze shifted to the worm with the most dots. An information prompt immediately appeared in his mind. [Worm genes insufficient, Mutation conditions not met.] His gaze shifted to the fully lit ant. [Evolution points are sufficient, evolution conditions met. You can choose to evolve directly or invest in the genetic enhancement evolution of other species.] ¡°I see.¡± Su Bai suddenly realized. Self-evolution involved enhancing his mutations within the ant species, without changing the species but enhancing attributes. And Mutation¡­ would change him from a mutant ant into another species! ¡°Just need 10 genes from other insects, and I can mutate from an ant into another insect¡­ S?a??h the N0v?lFir?.?et website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. ¡°What if I acquire enough genes from Legendary Dragons? Could I choose to mutate into a true Legendary Dragon?¡± You see, Legendary Dragons were terrifying beings standing at the top of this world! At this moment, Su Bai truly understood the power of the Devour Evolution talent! His eyes were filled with fervor. After a long time, he calmed down his excitement and silently said, ¡°Choose Self-evolution! Invest all the insect genes into this evolution, enhance Self-evolution!¡± Of the five insect species, Su Bai still preferred his current form. Moreover, under equal attributes, ants, as predators, were obviously more powerful and more suitable for future hunting and killing. [This evolution will last fifteen minutes. Please ensure the safety of the surrounding environment.] [Evolution begins¡­] With the voice echoing in his mind, Su Bai plunged into the ant nest, his vision darkened, and he lost consciousness. Chapter 8 - The Birth of the Overlord Ant! Chapter 8: The Birth of the Overlord Ant!He didn¡¯t know how long it¡¯s been, but Su Bai woke up from his slumber. The first thing he felt was the immense power surging from all parts of his body, several times stronger than before! Then, Su Bai opened his own attribute panel. ¡¾Name¡¿: Su Bai ¡¾Species¡¿: Overlord Ant ¡¾Rank¡¿: Tiny Level ¡¾Level¡¿: Tiny Level ¡¾Attributes¡¿: Strength 0.7, Agility 0.4, Constitution 0.5, Spirit 1.2 ¡¾Talents¡¿: Soul Point Allocation (Soul Talent), Devour Evolution (Unique Talent), Adaptability (Species Talent) ¡¾Skills¡¿: Enhanced Mandibles (Passive Skill) ¡¾Gene Points¡¿: 0 points ¡¾Evolution Points¡¿: 0 points (Evolution Points needed for next evolution: 10 points) ¡¾Skill Fragments¡¿: Healing 8/10 After checking his attribute panel, Su Bai felt a surge of excitement in his heart. This time, his species evolved from Mutant Ant to Overlord Ant, and his four-dimensional attributes received several times of improvement again. His spiritual attribute directly broke through the lower limit of level 1 monsters, reaching as high as 1.2! This meant that he was one step closer to becoming a level 1 monster! Moreover, thanks to the enhancement of the insect genes he invested in evolution, the number of fragments of the Healing skill increased from six to eight. With just one more worm to hunt, or a few more insects, he could gather enough fragments for this powerful passive skill. With such attributes, he was undoubtedly the overlord of the ant colony! Worthy of the title of Overlord Ant! This wasn¡¯t the end. Immediately after, the voice from the depths of Su Bai¡¯s mind sounded again. [Ding! The first evolution is successful, and you have gained an opportunity to extract a skill. You can choose one of the following skills as your own.] Then, a skill option popped up. In the first advancement, Su Bai received two skill options, and in this evolution, he received three skill options. ¡¾Reinforced Shell¡¿: Passive skill. Choosing this skill will make your shell tougher, able to withstand more hits. When facing enemies, you will have a greater chance of survival. ¡¾Scythe Feet¡¿: Passive skill. Choosing this skill will mutate your first pair of legs into scythe shapes, making them stronger. When facing enemies, you will have stronger attack power. ¡¾Charge¡¿: Active skill. Consume half of your stamina to double your forward speed for a short time. All three skills were very powerful! ¡¾Reinforced Shell¡¿ could enhance his survival ability, ¡¾Scythe Feet¡¿ could provide him with more offensive means, and the final ¡¾Charge¡¿ skill was the first appearance of an active skill, useful for both hunting and escaping. After carefully reading the descriptions of the three skills, Su Bai finally chose ¡¾Reinforced Shell¡¿. Sneaky development, no unnecessary risks. The Strengthened Mandibles passive skill was sufficient for now. Before truly becoming powerful, enhancing his own survival ability was Su Bai¡¯s first choice. Although the ¡¾Charge¡¿ skill could also enhance survival ability, the condition of consuming half of the stamina and the description of ¡°extremely short¡± made him feel that this might be a pitfall. With Su Bai¡¯s choice, a surge of heat spread throughout his body. His originally dark and shiny shell became even tougher, even acquiring a metallic sheen reminiscent of steel. After completing all of this, Su Bai let out a long breath. ¡°It seems that it won¡¯t be long before I have to move to another place¡­¡± S?a??h th? N0??F?re.n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. After this successful evolution, Su Bai¡¯s size once again increased significantly, swelling from the original 2.5 centimeters to 5 centimeters in length. For now, the main tunnel of the ant nest could still accommodate him, but it seemed narrow. Perhaps, digging a cave below the ant nest would be a good choice. With two antennae slightly swaying, Su Bai thought to himself. The Enhanced Mandibles passive skill enabled him to bite through rocks. Given some time, he could easily dig out a cave as his shelter. When he evolved again, he wouldn¡¯t be homeless. From rebirth to now, he had developed some affection for the ant nest that had always sheltered him, and besides¡­ there was that peculiar worker ant inside the nest. He wondered if that worker ant would still recognize him in his current form¡­ With a slight sigh, Su Bai crawled out of the ant nest. For now, the most important thing was to continue hunting! With four-dimensional attributes ten times the limit of ants and two powerful passive skills, Su Bai was considered top-notch even among tiny-level creatures, and hunting and predation became even simpler. Ten hunts, 10 evolution points, and he could undergo the second evolution! Su Bai had a premonition. With just one more evolution, his four-dimensional attributes would surpass 1 point, truly becoming a level 1 monster capable of living freely in this world! Chapter 9 - Hunting the Mouse by the Ant! Chapter 9: Hunting the Mouse by the Ant![Eating¡­ gained 1 point of experience¡­] [Ding! You have consumed the flesh of a worm and gained 1 point of worm genes.] [Ding! You have consumed the flesh of a worm and gained a skill fragment.] Accompanied by the prompts from within, Su Bai swallowed the last piece of worm flesh. ¡°The last skill fragment, finally obtained!¡± Slightly delighted, he opened his second panel. ¡¾Gene Points¡¿: Frog genes 7 points, Praying Mantis genes 17 points, Cricket genes 9 points, Grasshopper genes 12 points, Worm genes 10 points, Bee genes 2 points¡­ ¡¾Evolution Points¡¿: 5 points ¡¾Skill Fragments¡¿: Healing 10/10 Two days¡¯ time. Su Bai¡¯s footsteps traversed over a hundred meters centered around the ant nest, hunting down hundreds of insects and other creatures. Except for the initial praying mantis that gave him 1 evolution point, he didn¡¯t gain any evolution points from killing other insects. Even skill fragments didn¡¯t drop again. It wasn¡¯t until he encountered a half-dead frog, and after exerting all his strength to kill it, that he gained 4 evolution points. Up to now in his evolution, in the Tiny and Dim levels, Su Bai¡¯s strength had become formidable enough. Continuing to hunt weak insects brought minimal returns, even the experience gained from devouring their bodies was pitifully small. Only by hunting creatures similar to or surpassing his own strength could he continue to evolve. Realizing this, Su Bai didn¡¯t waste time hunting insects anymore, but turned his focus to worms. Once he fused the ¡¾Healing¡¿ skill, he would start hunting more powerful creatures. [Ding! You have obtained ten skill fragments, do you want to fuse them into a skill?] ¡°Fuse!¡± When the prompt sounded in his mind, Su Bai chose to fuse without hesitation. The next moment. The skill fragments disappeared, and a new skill appeared in his skill panel. [¡¾Healing¡¿: Passive skill. With this skill, the bleeding and severe injury effects you suffer are slightly reduced, and your wound healing speed is slightly increased. When food is abundant, you can slowly heal your injuries by eating.] Another powerful passive skill. Without looking at attributes, just considering talents and skills, Su Bai¡¯s attribute panel at this point was more splendid than many formal monsters¡¯, even surpassing elite monsters. ¡°Next, it¡¯s time to hunt stronger creatures.¡± After staring at the attribute panel for a while, Su Bai nodded in satisfaction and crawled towards his pre-selected hunting target. ¡ª Night fell. Silver moonlight spilled onto the earth, adding a bit of brightness to this dense jungle. Among a pile of rocks dozens of meters away from the ant nest, Su Bai lay quietly behind a rock. His pitch-black body, five centimeters long, laid motionless behind the rock, like a delicate craft, completely unlike a living creature. Beside the rock was a small hole. This hole was the battlefield Su Bai had chosen. The creature inside the hole was the prey Su Bai intended to hunt this time ¡ª a mouse that had just entered its prime! s?a??h th? ??v?lF?re.?et website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. An ant hunting a mouse sounded like a joke. But as the Overlord Ant, Su Bai¡¯s four-dimensional attributes were no less than those of a mouse now, and he possessed three major passive skills. With a bit of caution, ant hunting a mouse was entirely feasible, and the success rate wasn¡¯t low! Su Bai estimated that if he could successfully hunt this mouse, he could bring himself at least 4 evolution points, even making it possible to gather enough evolution points for his second evolution at once. So, this adventure was completely worth it! As the night grew deeper, a chill descended, and tiny dewdrops formed on Su Bai¡¯s dark shell, yet he seemed to feel nothing, still lying motionless on the ground. After a long time, faint rustling sounds came from inside the hole. Then, a sharp head poked out from the hole, its two pea-sized eyes scanning around vigilantly, ready to retreat into the burrow at any sign of danger. After observing for a few minutes until it deemed the surroundings safe, the head cautiously crawled out of the burrow. It was a mouse about a dozen centimeters long, tiny enough for a human to crush with a single step, but a true giant to an ant. Leaving the burrow, the mouse listened again for a moment, then relaxed, preparing to leave the burrow to begin its daily foraging. Just at that moment, a dark figure suddenly pounced out from behind the rock, landing on the mouse¡¯s back! After lurking outside the burrow for hours, Su Bai leaped out and pounced on the mouse¡¯s back. His mandibles, two centimeters long, fiercely pierced into the mouse¡¯s neck! With a crisp sound, the mouse¡¯s neck was torn open without any surprise, and blood gushed out. Suddenly attacked, the mouse screamed in panic, struggling desperately. Its sharp teeth bit fiercely into Su Bai¡¯s shell. A wave of pain spread, and a crack appeared in Su Bai¡¯s shell. But this was just the mouse¡¯s final struggle. After biting through the blood vessels, Su Bai¡¯s mandibles, which could crush rocks, continued to delve in, directly snapping the mouse¡¯s spine. With only the cost of his shell cracking, Su Bai killed this large mouse in just a few seconds. A complete victory! Chapter 10 - Disaster of the Slime! Chapter 10: Disaster of the Slime!A few seconds later, the mouse stopped struggling. At this point, Su Bai relaxed and his reinforced mandibles tore off a large piece of flesh from the mouse¡¯s body, slowly eating. [Eating¡­ gained 5 points of experience¡­] [Eating¡­ gained 6 points of experience¡­] [Ding! You have consumed mouse flesh, gaining 1 point of mouse genes.] [Eating¡­ gained 4 points of experience¡­] ¡ª The fat mouse, several dozen centimeters long, took Su Bai half an hour to devour, turning into nutrients for his evolution. At this point, his second panel had changed. ¡¾Gene Points¡¿: Mouse genes 10 points, Frog genes 7 points, Cricket genes 9 points¡­ ¡¾Evolution Points¡¿: 9 points ¡¾Skill Fragments¡¿: None Devouring the mouse brought him 10 points of mouse genes and 4 evolution points, bringing his evolution points to 9, just 1 point short of opening his second evolution. In addition, Su Bai¡¯s attributes had slightly increased. Strength increased from 0.7 to 0.8, agility from 0.4 to 0.6, constitution from 0.5 to 0.6, and spirit from 1.2 to 1.4. Even his size had increased from 5 centimeters to 7 centimeters. ¡°It¡¯s a pity, just a bit short,¡± after checking his own changes, Su Bai regretfully said. Devouring a complete mouse couldn¡¯t compare to the second evolution. The experience gained from devouring the mouse only slightly increased his four-dimensional attributes, but the second evolution could potentially make his four-dimensional attributes leap again, surpassing the lower limit of level 1 monsters! ¡°Fortunately, it¡¯s just a bit short.¡± With 1 evolution point, as long as Su Bai found another frog or mouse to devour, he could obtain it, which made him feel much more relaxed. With this experience, Su Bai knew that hunting frogs or mice was already a very simple matter for him. After finishing the last bit of flesh, Su Bai crawled back to the ant nest along the same path. The night was deep. Most of the creatures had already quieted down, and it wasn¡¯t a good time for hunting. He should also go back and rest. ¡ª A few minutes later, before Su Bai returned to his newly excavated nest, he saw a creature outside the ant nest. It was a creature devouring ants. Nearly twenty centimeters tall, its body was like a filthy jelly. At this moment, this jelly would occasionally jump up, letting its soft body collide with the exit of the ant nest! Every time it collided, dozens of ants would stick to the jelly, then sink into its body like a jelly, slowly dissolving them. Slime! As an existence at the Tiny level, the ants in this forest had no natural enemies. There were rarely any creatures in the forest that treated ants as food. The only exception was the slime! The slime could be said to be the natural enemy of all insects in the forest. As a creature without independent consciousness, only survival instincts, the slime had excellent physical resistance. Physical attacks that weren¡¯t strong enough would be offset by the slime¡¯s soft body, and physical attacks beyond a certain limit would cause the slime to split. The split slime wouldn¡¯t die but would become multiple slimes, continuing to propagate in the forest. For powerful creatures in the forest, slime was just food. For insects, slime was an irresistible existence and their greatest enemy in this forest! For insects at the Tiny and Dim levels, just getting close to the slime would stick them to its body with its mucus, slowly wrapping them into its jelly-like body, digesting and absorbing them, completely unable to cause any harm to the slime. Even creatures like frogs, mice, and small birds would only retreat when faced with the slime. Most importantly, the slime was already a real monster! Even if it was just the lowest level, a level 1 monster, the slime surpassed the Tiny and Dim levels and became a true monster! Su Bai didn¡¯t know where this slime came from. S?a??h th? N0v?lFire(.)n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. He only knew that if left unchecked, there would be only two outcomes. Either the slime would eat its fill and leave on its own, causing significant damage to the ant nest; or the slime would stay here and continue to produce endlessly, resisting the slime¡¯s attacks without intelligence, eventually leading to the extinction of the ants. To fight or not to fight, that was the question. Just hesitating for a moment, Su Bai was ready to join the battle. After a few days, he had developed some affection for the ant nest. Moreover, he couldn¡¯t bear to see the worker ants that had been taking care of him being eaten by the slime. If the slime continued to ravage, it would eventually be the turn of the worker ants to join the battle. Most importantly¡­ The slimy body of the slime was invincible to other insects, but its effect on Su Bai was not significant. His strength was enough to counteract the adhesive force of the soft body, and his devouring evolution talent was the nemesis of the slime! No matter how strong the slime¡¯s survival ability was, when faced with Su Bai¡¯s sharp mandibles and devouring evolution talent, it could only obediently turn into gene points and evolution points, promoting Su Bai¡¯s further growth! Su Bai had a premonition. Devouring this slime would make his second evolution even more perfect! Thinking of this, Su Bai no longer hesitated. He rushed forward and pounced on the soft body of the slime. His sharp mandibles fiercely bit down, tearing off a piece of jelly-like flesh and swallowing it. The next moment, a large number of subtitles refreshed from his attribute panel! [Eating¡­ gained 10 points of experience¡­] [Eating¡­ gained 8 points of experience¡­] [Ding! You have consumed slime flesh, gaining 1 point of slime genes.] [Ding! Your carapace has been corroded by slime mucus, decreasing in strength¡­] [¡¾Adaptability¡¿ talent activated¡­ you gained a skill fragment.] Chapter 11 - Primary Poison Resistance and Second Evolution! Chapter 11: Primary Poison Resistance and Second Evolution!The moment Su Bai took his first bite, he felt a surge of joy. As a genuine monster, the slime¡¯s flesh might not taste good, but it was extremely rich in energy. For the first time, he gained over 10 points of experience from a single bite! Moreover, after the¡¾Healing¡¿skill, he obtained his second skill fragment! Even without mentioning anything else, just getting a second skill fragment was enough to make this risk worthwhile. Furthermore, after devouring this slime, he would undoubtedly undergo his second evolution! Encouraged by these benefits, even though the slime¡¯s secreted mucus was highly corrosive, continuously eroding his carapace, Su Bai didn¡¯t stop. His large mandibles kept moving, tearing off pieces of slime flesh and swallowing them. [Eating¡­ gained 11 points of experience¡­] [Eating¡­ gained 9 points of experience¡­] [Ding! You have consumed slime flesh, gaining 1 point of slime genes.] [Ding! Your carapace has been corroded by slime mucus.¡¾Adaptability¡¿talent activated, you gained a skill fragment.] [Ding! Your carapace has been corroded by slime mucus¡­] ¡ª With the continuous stream of messages, Su Bai devoured the slime at an increasing speed. Suffering severe damage, the slime finally reacted, ceasing to devour ants and instead wriggling its body, attempting to envelop Su Bai entirely, using its acidic nature to dissolve and digest him. Fortunately, after evolution, Su Bai¡¯s strength surpassed the slime¡¯s. With just a slight struggle, he broke free from the slime¡¯s adhesion and continued devouring it. Time passed by. More and more flesh was devoured, and the slime¡¯s size kept shrinking. Finally, half an hour later, Su Bai swallowed the last piece of flesh, and the slime, a nemesis to insects, completely disappeared. At this moment, Su Bai looked extremely battered. Most of his carapace had been corroded by the slime¡¯s mucus, becoming dull and cracked in more than ten places, revealing the internal fluids and muscles beneath the carapace. However, all of this was worth it. Looking at his second panel, despite the intense pain coursing through his body, Su Bai felt immense joy. ¡¾Gene Points¡¿: Slime genes 20 points, Mouse genes 10 points, Frog genes 7 points, Cricket genes 9 points¡­ ¡¾Evolution Points¡¿: 17 points ¡¾Skill Fragments¡¿: Poison Resistance 10/10 S~?a??h the ?ov?l?ir?.n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. Devouring the slime brought Su Bai not only 20 points of slime genes and 8 evolution points, but also ten skill fragments, enough to directly synthesize a new skill! [Ding! You have obtained ten skill fragments. Do you want to fuse them into a skill?] ¡°Fuse!¡± When the voice sounded in his mind, Su Bai didn¡¯t hesitate to choose to fuse. Then, a brand-new skill appeared on his attribute panel. [¡¾Poison Resistance¡¿: Passive skill, primary level. After prolonged exposure to toxic mucus, your ¡¾Adaptability¡¿ talent has granted you resistance to toxins. This skill greatly reduces damage from primary toxins, moderately reduces damage from intermediate toxins, and slightly reduces damage from advanced toxins.] Poison Resistance! Another powerful passive skill! After reading the skill description, Su Bai felt a wave of excitement. Having played many games in his past life, he understood the importance of resistance for a character. With primary poison resistance, most toxic monsters and spells would deal significantly less damage to him. Moreover, since the¡¾Adaptability¡¿talent could grant him primary poison resistance, it might also allow him to gain resistance to fire, ice, earth, and other elements. What would he become if he could combine all resistances? A shadow assassin? Or perhaps¡­ a mage slayer? Suppressing his excitement, Su Bai turned his attention to his evolution points. Obtaining primary poison resistance was a pleasant surprise, but the second evolution was the main focus after devouring the slime. After this evolution, he would surpass the limit of the Tiny level and truly become a level 1 monster! As Su Bai acted, the voice in his mind sounded again. [Evolution points met. Begin the second evolution?] ¡°Begin evolution!¡± [Choose the evolution method: self-evolution or mutation?] With this voice, virtual images of a dozen creatures appeared before Su Bai. In addition to the various insects he had seen before, there were now virtual images of frogs, mice, and slimes. The slime¡¯s virtual image was fully illuminated! This meant that if Su Bai wanted, he could choose to mutate, abandoning the ant race to become a slime during this evolution. Su Bai fell into thought. Objectively speaking, the slime was much stronger than the ant. Reborn as an ant, he had relied on three major talents and countless efforts to evolve to a level comparable to a slime. If he had been reborn as a slime, he might have already evolved into an elite or even a lord-level monster! However, starting as an ant had the advantage of having four powerful passive skills upon becoming a level 1 monster. What should he choose? After a long time, Su Bai made a decision. ¡°Choose self-evolution! Invest all gene points into this evolution to enhance self-evolution!¡± In the end, Su Bai chose self-evolution. It wasn¡¯t that the slime wasn¡¯t strong enough, but he believed more in the voice¡¯s description of the devouring evolution talent: even the weakest insect could have unlimited potential! [Selection complete.] [This evolution will last twenty minutes. Please ensure the surrounding environment is safe.] [Evolution beginning¡­] As the voice echoed in his mind, Su Bai dove into his nest and lost consciousness. Chapter 12 - Basic Attribute Template! Chapter 12: Basic Attribute Template!Once again, Su Bai woke from his slumber. Ignoring the changes in his body, Su Bai first opened his attribute panel. As he opened it, the data on the panel fluctuated for a while before finally stabilizing. At this moment, his data had drastically changed. ¡¾Name¡¿: Su Bai ¡¾Race¡¿: Tyrant Ant ¡¾Template¡¿: Basic Attribute Template ¡¾Level¡¿: Level 1 ¡¾Status¡¿: Health 18, Mana 25 ¡¾Attributes¡¿: Strength 1.5, Agility 1.2, Constitution 1.8, Spirit 2.5 ¡¾Talents¡¿: Soul Points (Soul Talent), Devour Evolution (Unique Talent), Adaptability (Species Talent) ¡¾Skills¡¿: Enhanced Mandibles, Enhanced Carapace, Healing, Primary Poison Resistance ¡¾Gene Points¡¿: 0 points ¡¾Evolution Points¡¿: 0 points ¡¾Skill Fragments¡¿: None From top to bottom, Su Bai¡¯s eyes scanned the attribute panel, generating a lot of information in his mind. He gained a general understanding of his current state. First, the tier section had disappeared, replaced by a template. He now possessed the Basic Attribute Template. In terms of player attributes, this would be the basic tier, similar to a player below level 10 in the beginner¡¯s village. Above the Basic Attribute Template for monsters is the Advanced Attribute Template, which corresponds to the player¡¯s Apprentice tier, covering levels 10 to 20. The difference was, players advance by leveling up, reaching a certain level, and completing advancement tasks to smoothly upgrade their tier. For monsters, advancing tiers required slaughter! They must hunt players and other monsters, plundering their attribute templates! Only in this way could monsters continuously improve their levels and tiers, progressing from the Basic Attribute Template to the Advanced Attribute Template, then to the Elite Attribute Template, Warrior Attribute Template, and beyond¡­ Fortunately, player tier advancement has strict level requirements. Players must meet these requirements and complete advancement tasks to upgrade their tiers. Monsters, however, only need to keep hunting to gain higher attribute templates at lower levels. The higher the attribute template, the greater the attribute bonus it provides to both players and monsters. In simple terms, Su Bai¡¯s current attribute template was basic, and his level was 1, placing him at the bottom among monsters. But if he could upgrade his attribute template to the Lord level or even Legendary level, his level 1 attributes might crush level 30 or 40 ordinary monsters. A level 50 slime being unable to defeat a level 10 legendary dragon was an example of this principle. Attribute template suppression was essentially a suppression of the life level! Secondly, Su Bai¡¯s level had finally moved beyond the Tiny rating to become level 1. Additionally, a status bar appeared. The status bar displayed his health and mana! The appearance of the attribute template and the health and mana values were all due to the injection of game rules, officially marking him as a monster within the game world. The benefit was that as long as his health didn¡¯t drop to zero, he wouldn¡¯t die! The Basic Attribute Template didn¡¯t provide any bonuses, and health and mana are simply derived from Constitution and Spirit multiplied by 10. Even so, this greatly enhanced Su Bai¡¯s survivability. Finally, there were his four core attributes. Strength increased from 0.8 to 1.5, Agility from 0.6 to 1.2, Constitution from 0.6 to 1.8, and Spirit from 1.4 to 2.5. The improvement in these attributes had exponentially boosted Su Bai¡¯s power! In terms of attributes, Su Bai was still at the bottom of the monster hierarchy, but his power was now hundreds of times stronger than at the beginning! Now, facing another level 1 slime, Su Bai could easily kill it in one shot! ¡°Next, it¡¯s time to draw a skill¡­¡± As Su Bai pondered, the ethereal voice rang out as expected. Having evolved to a level 1 monster, Su Bai confirmed that this ethereal voice was indeed the system prompt. [Ding! Second evolution successful, you have gained a skill draw. You can choose one skill from the following options.] Then, the skill options appeared. ¡¾Scythe Legs¡¿: Passive skill. Choosing this skill will mutate your first pair of legs into scythe-like shapes, making them sturdier. When facing enemies, you will have stronger attack power. ¡¾Regeneration¡¿: Passive skill. Choosing this skill grants you powerful regenerative abilities. Your severed limbs and body parts can slowly regenerate, and you can significantly accelerate regeneration by consuming health. ¡¾Underwater Breathing¡¿: Passive skill. Choosing this skill will modify parts of your skin and limbs, granting you the ability to breathe underwater. ¡¾Acidic Mucus¡¿: Active skill. Choosing this skill will modify your mouth. When facing enemies, you can consume 5 mana points to spit mildly corrosive acidic mucus at them. Four skills, three passive and one active. Looking at the skills on the panel, Su Bai didn¡¯t rush to choose but instead fell into thought. With these two evolutions and skill draws, Su Bai had begun to speculate on the pattern of skill appearances. Perhaps the types of skills that appear are related to the genes fused into his body during evolution. In the first evolution, he only devoured insects, and the genes fused were purely insect genes. The skills that appeared after evolution were¡¾Scythe Legs,¡¾Enhanced Carapace¡¿, and¡¾Charge¡¿. These skills all had prototypes in insects. This time, the four skills that appeared after evolution were¡¾Scythe Legs¡¿and¡¾Regeneration¡¿, still corresponding to insect genes;¡¾Underwater Breathing¡¿clearly corresponded to frog genes;¡¾Acidic Mucus¡¿corresponded to slime genes. ¡°So, in theory¡­¡± Su Bai mused. If he wanted to obtain a specific skill, he only needed to target and hunt the corresponding monsters, acquire their gene points, and during evolution, he would likely draw related skills! ¡°Choose the¡¾Regeneration¡¿skill!¡± Having chosen his skill, Su Bai felt a surge of warmth flow through his body. Just as he was about to close the attribute panel, his actions suddenly halted. ¡°Wait! ¡°What¡¯s this¡­¡± It was only then that he noticed a new line of data at the bottom of the attribute panel. ¡¾Soul Points¡¿: 1 point. S?a??h th? N?v?lFir?(.)n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 13 - The Function of Soul Talent! Chapter 13: The Function of Soul Talent!¡¾Soul Points¡¿: Soul Talent, function unknown, unable to analyze. Su Bai¡¯s gaze shifted to the Soul Points talent, and the system¡¯s description of this talent remained largely unchanged, still unable to be analyzed. However, when his gaze returned to the sole Soul Point, behind his four-dimensional attributes and five passive skills, there was now a barely noticeable small ¡°+¡± sign. It seemed that as long as he wished, he could add this Soul Point to his attributes or skills at any time. ¡°Free attribute points, or skill points? ¡°Or a combination of both?¡± Being able to add them to attributes as well as skills, Su Bai could only think of a combination of the two. Monsters were not humans. They did not have the concept of free attribute points and skills. With each level up, a monster¡¯s four-dimensional attributes increase according to their attribute template. For example, with Su Bai¡¯s Basic Attribute Template, each level up would give him a +1 increase in his four-dimensional attributes. As for skills, they could only be upgraded when the attribute template advances. If these Soul Points were indeed a combination of free attribute points and skill points, then he had an additional powerful avenue compared to other monsters! The four-dimensional attributes could be temporarily ignored. With each level up and evolution, his four-dimensional attributes would grow. Su Bai shifted his gaze to the five passive skills he possessed. Enhanced Mandibles, Enhanced Carapace, Healing, Regeneration, Primary Poison Resistance. Except for the first one, which was an offensive passive skill, the other four were survival-oriented. After some thought, Su Bai¡¯s mind stirred slightly, and he added this Soul Point to Enhanced Mandibles. The next moment, the Soul Point disappeared, and the description of Enhanced Mandibles became blurred, replaced by a brand new passive skill in its original position. ¡¾Sharp Mandibles¡¿: Passive skill. Infused with mysterious power, your mandibles become sturdier and sharper. Steel is no longer your obstacle. Only the power of magic can stop your tearing. Seeing the description of the brand new skill, Su Bai couldn¡¯t help but feel delighted. If the original ant mandibles were a level 1 skill, and Enhanced Mandibles was a level 2 skill, then Sharp Mandibles now would be a level 3 skill! Being able to easily tear through steel, Su Bai found it hard to imagine anything in this jungle that could resist his hunting. ¡°It¡¯s a pity there¡¯s only one Soul Point¡­¡± Su Bai thought somewhat greedily. If he had enough Soul Points to enhance both attributes and skills to the extreme, even if he was an ant, he would be a giant-slaying ant! After the excitement of skill enhancement subsided, Su Bai began to ponder the origin of Soul Points. The monsters that were hunted must be formal monsters, there was no doubt about this. Before this evolution, he had hunted hundreds of insects without gaining any Soul Points, only gaining one by devouring a slime. The biggest difference between slimes and those insects was that their overall attributes exceeded 1 point, and they had integrated the game rules, becoming formal monsters! ¡°I wonder if all monsters can provide Soul Points¡­ ¡°If that¡¯s really the case¡­ then I¡¯ll be awesome!¡± After a long time, Su Bai¡¯s emotions finally stabilized. He crawled out of his nest and headed towards the ant nest. Next, he would leave the ant nest and gradually venture deeper into the forest to hunt monsters and strengthen himself. For a long time to come, he wouldn¡¯t return here. Before leaving, he wanted to see the worker ants. ¡°Just¡­ I wonder if the worker ants will still recognize me¡­¡± Looking at his enlarged body, now ten centimeters long, and his mandibles gleaming like blades, Su Bai couldn¡¯t help but smile wryly. This might be his last time entering the ant nest. S~?a??h the N?v?lFir?(.)n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. His size had reached the limit the ant nest could accommodate. With his evolution and level-ups, his size would only continue to increase. Forcing his way into the ant nest would only cause it to collapse. Fortunately, the things Su Bai worried about didn¡¯t happen. When he appeared in front of the worker ants, the worker ant simply stared at him for a while before placing a semi-solid sphere in front of him, releasing a familiar scent. ¡°Eat¡­¡± Looking at the tiny sphere, barely enough to fill the gaps between his teeth, Su Bai couldn¡¯t help but feel both amused and exasperated. He carefully picked up the sphere and put it into his mouth, lightly patting the worker ant¡¯s body with his antennae: ¡°Thank you for remembering me. I¡¯m leaving¡­ and I might not come back for a long time. ¡°If I have time¡­ I¡¯ll come back to see you¡­¡± After silently expressing his thoughts, Su Bai¡¯s antennae lightly patted the worker ant once more before crawling towards the outside. The worker ant was unharmed. As long as he cleared the slimes around the ant nest, it wouldn¡¯t encounter any danger deep inside the nest. Perhaps¡­ This was the only thing he could do for the worker ant. Only after Su Bai¡¯s figure disappeared into the tunnel did the worker ant¡¯s motionless figure move. It placed the ant larva food in front of itself, its tiny antennae trembling slightly. ¡°Come¡­ back? ¡°Eat¡­ grow¡­ find¡­¡± Chapter 14 - The Targeted Goblin! Chapter 14: The Targeted Goblin!Three days have passed, and Su Bai has already reached a place more than a kilometer away from the ant nest. During these three days, he hunted all the slimes within a radius of one kilometer from the ant nest, as well as a large number of other level one and level two monsters, successfully advancing his level from 1 to 3. A large number of level one and level two monsters not only raised Su Bai¡¯s level, with all attributes +2, but also provided him with a large number of gene points and evolution points. When a level 2 lizard was hunted and completely consumed, Su Bai also accumulated enough evolution points needed for his third evolution. 100 evolution points. For his third evolution, Su Bai still chose the self-evolution. Putting all his gene points into self-evolution, after enhancing this evolution, his attributes once again soared. Strength increased to 7 points, agility increased to 6 points, constitution increased to 9 points, and spirit increased to 10 points. As for this time¡¯s skill extraction, Su Bai chose the passive skill that appeared three times in a row,¡¾Sharp Scythes¡¿. Furthermore, Su Bai also roughly figured out the source of Soul Points. The source of Soul Points did indeed come from hunting monsters. However, not every type of monster could provide him with Soul Points. To obtain Soul Points, two conditions must be met. First, the level of the monster must not be lower than Su Bai¡¯s level. Second, the monster killed must be the first of its kind. In other words, when he hunted a slime, it provided him with 1 Soul Point, but hunting higher-level slimes in the future would not provide Soul Points. The number of monsters was practically endless, but the variety of monsters was limited. Every Soul Point was extremely precious. After clearing the forest within a radius of over a kilometer, Su Bai only obtained 9 Soul Points, so he was reluctant to use Soul Points as free attribute points to add to his four-dimensional attributes, instead choosing to enhance his skills. ¡ª In a patch of grass more than a kilometer away from the ant nest, Su Bai ¨C whose body had grown to over 20 centimeters long ¨C laid quietly there, his black eyes staring at a clearing not far away. This was a goblin camp he had discovered. There were eleven goblins in the camp, forming a simple small society. After continuing to hunt ordinary monsters and not getting the desired benefits, Su Bai set his sights on this goblin camp. S?a?ch* Th? N0??F?re.n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. Among the eleven goblins, there were six goblin woodworkers, four goblin hunters, and one goblin thrower. The goblin woodworkers were at the same level as Su Bai, level 3, wielding axes. The goblin hunters were at level 4, armed with short bows and knives. The goblin thrower was at level 5, carrying a bundle of short spears on his back. To be honest, with Su Bai¡¯s current attributes and skills, there was no problem in instantly killing the goblin woodworkers. As long as he was careful, there was also a high chance of successfully hunting the goblin hunters. The only thing to be wary of was the goblin thrower. Su Bai speculated that this goblin thrower likely had an advanced attribute template. And Su Bai¡¯s target was precisely the advanced attribute template possessed by this goblin thrower. After his third evolution, it would take a full 1000 evolution points for the fourth evolution, which was by no means something that could be accomplished in a short time. The gains from leveling up were too small, and Soul Points were too precious. The best way to improve his strength was to enhance his attribute template. After careful observation, Su Bai finally set this goblin camp as his hunting target. ¡°A goblin thrower with an advanced template likely also has corresponding skills. I can¡¯t be careless.¡± After some thought, Su Bai opened his attribute panel, looking at the hard-earned 9 Soul Points. ¡°I hope this time¡¯s harvest won¡¯t disappoint me¡­¡± Consuming 1 Soul Point, the passive skill¡¾Sharp Scythes¡¿changed to ¡¾Enhanced Sharp Scythes¡¿, then another 1 Soul Point was invested, changing¡¾Enhanced Sharp Scythes¡¿ to ¡¾Sharp Sharp Scythes¡¿. Then, Su Bai invested 1 Soul Point each in¡¾Enhanced Carapace¡¿,¡¾Quick Healing¡¿, and¡¾Fast Regeneration¡¿, upgrading them to¡¾Tough Carapace¡¿,¡¾Rapid Healing¡¿, and¡¾Rapid Regeneration¡¿ respectively. Looking at the remaining 4 Soul Points, Su Bai gritted his teeth and added one to¡¾Sharp Mandibles¡¿. Then, the descriptions of both¡¾Sharp Mandibles¡¿ and¡¾Sharp Sharp Scythes¡¿ became blurry. After a few seconds, both passive skills disappeared, replaced by a brand new skill. ¡¾Sharp Claws and Teeth¡¿: Passive skill. Infused with mysterious power, your claws and teeth become extremely sharp. You can easily tear through most items in the world, and only certain precious magical materials can stop your footsteps. ¡°Sharp Claws and Teeth?! ¡°Soul Points can be used like this?¡± Seeing the appearance of the new passive skill, Su Bai¡¯s heart was filled with excitement. The fusion of two passive skills into one new skill did not mean Su Bai¡¯s strength had weakened. On the contrary, it had greatly increased. Just looking at the skill description of¡¾Sharp Claws and Teeth¡¿, it far surpassed¡¾Sharp Mandibles¡¿ and¡¾Sharp Sharp Scythes¡¿. Moreover, with two skills fused into one, the Soul Points required for future upgrades would also be reduced by half! Unfortunately, after the fusion, the small ¡°+¡± sign behind¡¾Sharp Mandibles¡¿disappeared. ¡°Have I reached the current limit and can¡¯t continue to improve¡­ ¡°¡¾Sharp Mandibles¡¿and¡¾Sharp Sharp Scythes¡¿were able to merge, most likely because these two passive skills have a strong correlation. Then¡­¡± Discovering the new use of Soul Points, Su Bai no longer hesitated. Before, he was afraid of wasting the hard-earned Soul Points by using them recklessly, but now that he had discovered a way to greatly enhance his strength with Soul Points, he naturally wouldn¡¯t hold back anymore. Afterwards, Su Bai added one point to¡¾Rapid Healing¡¿. As expected, the descriptions of both¡¾Rapid Healing¡¿and¡¾Rapid Regeneration¡¿became blurry, and after a few seconds, they were replaced by a brand new skill. ¡¾Regrowth¡¿: Passive skill. Infused with mysterious power, you have powerful regenerative abilities. The bleeding and severe injury effects you suffer are greatly reduced. When facing enemies, your severed limbs and injuries can heal and regenerate rapidly. By consuming life force, you can greatly accelerate the healing of injuries and regeneration of limbs. Chapter 15 - Advanced Attribute Template! Chapter 15: Advanced Attribute Template!¡°Another extremely powerful passive skill!¡± After reading the description of ¡¾Regrowth¡¿, Su Bai was even more delighted. Just like ¡¾Sharp Claws and Teeth¡¿, the newly fused skill not only had a higher cost-effectiveness than the original two skills, but its practicality far exceeded them! Originally, Su Bai had some doubts about whether to attack the goblin camp. After obtaining these two powerful new skills, he had no more doubts in his mind! The two major skills made his strength increase several times over! After confirming that there were no more skills to improve except for ¡¾Basic Poison Resistance¡¿, Su Bai gave up his plan to use up the last two soul points, instead stealthily sneaking towards the goblin camp. The hunt begins! ¡ª Inside the goblin camp. The goblin thrower, the leader, lay in front of a dilapidated tent, lazily sunbathing. The four goblin hunters were scattered around the small camp, patrolling, occasionally finding a fat insect from the surrounding bushes and stuffing it into their mouths. The six goblin woodworkers at the bottom of the camp had already dispersed into the surrounding woods, starting to chop down trees. Amidst the heavy sound of chopping, a black figure slowly approached one of the goblin woodworkers. Taking advantage of the cover of the bushes, Su Bai got closer and closer to one of the goblin woodworkers. When the distance between him and the goblin woodworker was only a few tens of centimeters, Su Bai¡¯s four foot steps suddenly sprung up, and his petite figure shot towards the goblin woodworker like an arrow. Before the goblin woodworking could react, his claws, shimmering with cold light, had already swung past the goblin woodworker¡¯s neck. A large amount of green blood sprayed out. The goblin woodworker didn¡¯t even have time to scream before Su Bai chopped off his head, and he fell to the ground. ¡°Ding! You killed the goblin woodworker, gaining 20 experience points and 1 soul point.¡± Listening to the system prompt in his mind, Su Bai carefully dragged the goblin woodworker¡¯s body and hid it in the dense bushes. Devouring the body of this goblin would give him more experience, gene points, and evolution points. But now was not the time to feast. After taking a quick look at the goblin camp, Su Bai¡¯s figure once again disappeared into the bushes, heading towards the second goblin woodworker. ¡°Ding! You killed the goblin woodworker, gaining 20 experience points.¡± A few minutes later, the second goblin woodworker also fell under Su Bai¡¯s sharp claws. Then came the third, the fourth. One by one, the goblin woodworkers were quietly killed by Su Bai. Soon, the last goblin woodworker also died under his claws. In the small goblin camp, only four goblin hunters and one goblin thrower remained. The heavy sound of chopping ceased. In the center of the camp, the goblin thrower who had been sunbathing suddenly stood up and roared angrily at the four lazy goblin hunters. Then the four goblin hunters panicked and drew their bows, advancing into the forest. Goblins weren¡¯t smart, but they had simple intelligence. The sudden quietness of the surrounding forest made the goblin thrower feel uneasy. Using his simple wisdom, he sent all four goblin hunters out to patrol the forest, while he himself grabbed the bundle of javelins on his back, ready to attack at any moment. A barely perceptible sound spread through the forest. Su Bai¡¯s figure emerged from behind one of the goblin hunters, his sharp foot scythes piercing the hunter¡¯s heart like an arrow. [Ding! You killed the goblin hunter, gaining 30 experience points.] A smile appeared in his eyes as Su Bai once again hid himself, heading towards the second goblin hunter. Compared to the goblin¡¯s one-meter-high body, Su Bai, who was only twenty centimeters long and less than ten centimeters tall, was tiny. But with his strong attributes and powerful passive skills, he became a killer in the jungle. Whether it was a goblin woodworker or a goblin hunter, as long as they were within his reach, death was inevitable. The dense forest and bushes became the best cover for him to hide his figure. [Ding! You killed the goblin hunter, gaining 30 experience points.] After killing the second goblin hunter, Su Bai accelerated and headed towards the third goblin hunter. Just as Su Bai leaped up again, something unexpected happened. The goblin hunter in front of him was killed without any surprises, but the last goblin hunter happened to turn his head and saw the black figure of Su Bai leaping up. ¡°#$%^¡± ¡°Demon! Six-legged demon!¡± [Goblin language] In the panicked cry of the goblin hunter, the goblin thrower also acted. A sharp arrow shot towards Su Bai. S?a??h th? ???el F?re.n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. In the midst of the goblin hunter¡¯s cry, the goblin thrower also acted, throwing a sharp javelin towards them. ¡°Now that I¡¯m exposed¡­ let¡¯s kill them all!¡± A hint of coldness flashed in his eyes as Su Bai¡¯s speed suddenly increased, rushing towards the last goblin hunter. With each meter Su Bai closed in, the aura of the goblin thrower suddenly soared, and the javelin in his hand emitted a dark color. When the aura reached its peak, this metallic black javelin flew towards Su Bai at several times the previous speed! ¡°#%¡± ¡°Savage throw!¡± [Goblin language] ¡°Can¡¯t dodge! ¡°Danger!¡± In an instant, two thoughts flashed through Su Bai¡¯s mind. He hastily blocked the javelin with his pair of foot scythes, hoping to withstand the goblin thrower¡¯s full-force attack. The sound of metal clashing echoed far and wide. The black javelin struck the foot scythes, leaving a pale scratch on the metal that was sharp enough to cut through, and Su Bai¡¯s body was sent flying several meters away. However, that was all. After releasing this full-force attack, the goblin thrower¡¯s breath weakened. When Su Bai rushed up again, it had no resistance and was easily decapitated, dying a miserable death. [Ding! You killed the goblin thrower, gaining 100 experience points and 1 soul point.] [You killed the goblin thrower beyond your level. The goblin thrower has an advanced attribute template. You have obtained the attribute template possessed by the goblin thrower.] [Do you want to replace it?] Chapter 16 - Mission System Activated! Chapter 16: Mission System Activated!¡°Advanced Attribute Template!¡± Upon hearing the system prompt, Su Bai was overjoyed. The reason he risked coming here to hunt goblins was not just for the advanced attribute template that the goblin thrower might possess? Without caring to devour the fallen goblin thrower, Su Bai immediately opened his attribute panel. ¡¾Template¡¿: Advanced Attribute Template ¡¾Source¡¿: Goblin Thrower ¡¾Bonus¡¿: Life +100, Strength *3, Agility *0.5, Constitution 2 ¡¾Skill¡¿: Brutal Throw ¡¾Brutal Throw¡¿: Active skill. Consumes half of the stamina, throws an extraordinary blow surpassing the ordinary, dealing damage equal to twice the strength attribute to the enemy. A very powerful attribute template. The basic attribute template Su Bai currently had only increased all attributes by +1 each level, with no other bonuses. The goblin thrower¡¯s attribute template increased strength by +3, agility by +0.5, constitution by +2, and also added an additional 100 points to life with each level up. Not to mention, this attribute template also came with an active skill, ¡°Brutal Throw.¡± Looking at this attribute template, Su Bai felt somewhat conflicted. The biggest drawback of this template was its lack of bonuses to the mental attribute. Moreover, with only a +0.5 bonus to agility, Su Bai would only be able to develop towards the direction of being a tank in the future. This didn¡¯t fit his plan. Moreover¡­ in his current form as an Overlord Ant, the skill ¡°Brutal Throw¡± was also useless, completely unusable. Once the attribute template was replaced, it couldn¡¯t be changed again unless he obtained a higher-ranked attribute template. Even though Su Bai was confident in himself, he didn¡¯t think he could obtain an elite-ranked attribute template in a short time. Feeling somewhat unwilling, Su Bai¡¯s gaze turned to his second option. [You can choose to use this attribute template as experience to enhance the rank of the currently owned attribute template.] S?a??h th? N?v?lFire.n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. When he saw the description of the second option, Su Bai¡¯s eyes lit up, no longer hesitating. ¡°I¡¯ll use the Advanced Attribute Template as experience to enhance the current attribute template!¡± As Su Bai spoke, the advanced attribute template of the goblin thrower disappeared, and a progress bar appeared next to the template section on his attribute panel. Basic Attribute Template: Progress, 23%. ¡°Which means, as long as I hunt down five monsters with advanced attribute templates, I can upgrade my attribute template to an advanced one¡­¡± After a brief thought, Su Bai closed his attribute panel. Hunting down five monsters with advanced attribute templates was not easy, nor was it difficult. Goblins were communal creatures, and finding a goblin camp here meant there were plenty of other goblins in this forest. All he needed to do was obliterate five goblin camps, and his attribute template would smoothly advance. The only thing to note was to control his level. The goblin thrower¡¯s level was 5, and only by keeping his level below 5 could he obtain the advanced attribute template after killing the goblin thrower. Next¡­ It was time to reap the rewards. The bodies of the three types of goblins meant a lot of experience, gene points, and evolution points. He could easily raise his level to 4, strengthen himself again, and then go find other goblin camps. ¡ª After a full hour, Su Bai devoured all eleven goblin corpses, gaining a large amount of experience, gene points, and evolution points. His level had also smoothly increased to 4. At this point, his attributes had changed to: ¡¾Name¡¿: Su Bai ¡¾Species¡¿: Overlord Ant ¡¾Template¡¿: Basic Attribute Template (23%) ¡¾Level¡¿: Level 4 ¡¾Status¡¿: Life 100, Mana 110 ¡¾Attributes¡¿: Strength 8, Agility 7, Constitution 10, Spirit 11 ¡¾Talents¡¿: Soul Points, Devour Evolution, Adaptability ¡¾Skills¡¿: Sharp Claws and Teeth, Tough Carapace, Regrowth, Basic Poison Resistance ¡¾Gene Points¡¿: 259 points ¡¾Skill Fragments¡¿: None ¡¾Soul Points¡¿: 4 points After devouring all the goblin corpses, there were dozens of shabby pieces of equipment left behind. If it were a player who cleared out this goblin camp, these shabby pieces of equipment would be their loot. However, judging from the quality of these equipment pieces, they were probably just the lowest-level white-grade equipment. The javelin pouch left by the goblin thrower might be a magical item. Su Bai wasn¡¯t a player and didn¡¯t have the inventory skill. With a body only twenty-five centimeters long after leveling up again, he couldn¡¯t carry this huge javelin pouch forward and could only discard it. However, in the tent in the camp, Su Bai found a small treasure chest. After biting off the lock of the treasure chest, he found several items inside. First, a pile of silver coins, probably about thirty or forty. Completely useless to Su Bai. Next, was a rough map. It depicted symbols of a dozen campfires drawn in crude strokes, with a tent at the deepest point of these symbols. [Ding! You obtained the ¡®Rough Map.¡¯ You discovered the ¡®Gloomy Forest,¡¯ and gained 10 experience points.] ¡°So, this forest is called the Gloomy Forest. ¡°Then, these symbols of campfires, are they goblin camps? But I wonder what the symbol of this tent represents¡­ ¡°Too bad I¡¯m not a player, it would¡¯ve been great to have a system map right now¡­¡± Carefully memorizing the marked routes and symbols on the map, Su Bai set the map aside and picked up the last item in the treasure chest. A piece of animal skin stained with blood, covered with strange symbols. [Ding! You obtained the ¡®Blood-stained Letter.¡¯] [Ding! You activated the mission ¡®The Rise of the Goblin Kingdom,¡¯ and the mission system is activated.] Chapter 17 - The Rise of the Goblin Kingdom! Chapter 17: The Rise of the Goblin Kingdom![The Rise of the Goblin Kingdom: Even among the foolish races, wise leaders can emerge. By chance, the goblin High Chief inherited the ancestors¡¯ legacy, greatly enhancing the goblins¡¯ strength. It defeated many goblin tribes and united them, self-proclaimed as the Grand General, preparing to establish the Goblin Kingdom and unify the Gloomy Forest.] [As a member of the Gloomy Forest, you only have two choices: gain the trust of High Chief, join the Goblin Kingdom, or kill High Chief, stop the establishment of the Goblin Kingdom.] [Mission Branch One: Gain the trust of High Chief, join the Goblin Kingdom. Mission reward, unknown.] [Mission Branch Two: Kill High Chief, stop the establishment of the Goblin Kingdom. Mission reward, unknown.] [Do you accept?] ¡ª After carefully reading the system text, Su Bai sneered. If there were a newbie village outside the Gloomy Forest, when the game started and players arrived, this goblin Grand General, High Chief, would likely be the newbie village boss. Ignoring the fact that he had already wiped out a goblin camp and was hostile with the goblins. Just his own growth required him to continue hunting goblins. Goblin Grand General? As the newbie village boss, Su Bai speculated that High Chief might possess elite attribute templates or even lord attribute templates! Since he already knew this, sooner or later, Su Bai would go to hunt down High Chief to further strengthen himself! In this way, he would inherently stand against the goblins. This newly appeared mission had no time limit, and the final goal was High Chief, the goblin Grand General, whom Su Bai would definitely hunt down, almost tailor-made for him. ¡°So¡­ ¡°The tent depicted on that map should be where High Chief is, right? ¡°Then¡­ ¡°Accept the mission!¡± Choosing to accept the mission, Su Bai tossed aside the useless blood-stained animal skin and slowly disappeared within the abandoned goblin camp. S~?a??h the ?ov?l?ir?.n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. ¡ª Three days later. [Ding! You killed a goblin thrower and gained 100 experience points.] [You killed a goblin thrower beyond your level. The goblin thrower possesses an advanced attribute template, and you gained the attribute template owned by the goblin thrower.] Slowly withdrawing his foot sickle from the goblin thrower¡¯s head, Su Bai, as before, used the advanced attribute template as experience to enhance his own attribute template. In three days, he cleared out four goblin camps, obtained four advanced attribute templates, and pushed his template experience to 93%. As long as he hunted down one more advanced goblin, his attribute template would be able to advance smoothly, and his strength would increase again. It took three days to clear out four goblin camps for one reason alone. The Gloomy Forest was too large. Even with part of the map drawn by goblins, he still needed a lot of time to travel from one camp to another. Most of the time was wasted on the road. Fortunately, it was all worth it. As long as he hunted down one more advanced goblin, his attribute template would advance smoothly, and his strength would increase again. Glancing regretfully at the ground littered with goblin corpses, Su Bai silently slid his foot and headed towards the next goblin camp. To suppress his level, for these three days, he left all the goblins he killed in place, without devouring a single corpse. Only then could he barely keep his level below Level 5. If he had let himself devour freely, his level would probably have reached Level 5 or even 6 by now. After half a day, Su Bai arrived at the next goblin camp. As usual, after arriving at the goblin camp, instead of immediately launching an attack, he hid in the bushes next to the camp and carefully observed the entire camp. No one could say what they would encounter in the next moment. Only by being cautious could he better survive. And only by surviving could he have the capital to become stronger. A few minutes later, Su Bai figured out the distribution of goblins in this camp. Eight of the lowest-level goblin woodworkers, two goblin hunters, three goblin swordsmen wielding rusty blades and tattered wooden shields, and one small goblin completely different from the goblin thrower, not carrying a javelin but instead wielding a small red wooden stick. Most importantly, this small goblin¡¯s level was 6! ¡°A Level 6 small goblin? ¡°And wielding a small red wooden stick¡­ Could it be a spellcaster?¡± Looking at the small goblin, Su Bai hesitated slightly. He had known for a long time that this was a world with magic. In such a world, with similar levels and attributes, Su Bai was confident he could kill any monster, the only thing to watch out for was spellcasters who had mastered magic. So far, he had not encountered any true spellcasters. ¡°Let¡¯s try it! ¡°With my speed, even if I can¡¯t kill this spellcaster, I can escape calmly. If I can kill this goblin spellcaster, maybe there will be unexpected gains.¡± After thinking for a moment, Su Bai concealed his figure and lurked towards the goblin woodcutters scattered in the forest, chopping wood. [Ding! You killed a goblin woodcutter and gained 10 experience points.] [Ding! You killed a goblin hunter and gained 15 experience points.] [Ding! You killed¡­] Soon, all the goblin woodworkers and goblin hunters scattered outside the camp were killed by Su Bai, leaving only three goblin swordsmen in the camp, along with the goblin spellcaster they were guarding. No hesitation. After lurking to the nearest position, he directly rushed out from the bushes and charged towards the goblin spellcaster. At this moment, the small goblin noticed Su Bai rushing out. ¡°£¤%#@¡± ¡°Enemy!¡± [Goblin language] With a roar from the small goblin, all three goblin swordsmen tensed up, holding their swords and shields in front of the small goblin. The small goblin raised the wooden stick in its hand. ¡°%£¤#*¡± ¡°Minor Fireball Spell!¡± [Goblin language] At the next moment, a fist-sized red fireball erupted from the wooden stick and shot towards Su Bai! Chapter 18 - Intermediate Fire Resistance! Chapter 18: Intermediate Fire Resistance!¡°It really is a spellcaster!¡± Just as this thought flashed through his mind, the red fireball struck Su Bai. A large explosion of flames enveloped him. S?a??h the Nov?lF?re .??t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. Engulfed in the red flames, Su Bai felt as if he had fallen into a furnace. Intense pain surged from all over his body, and even his carapace seemed about to melt. Through the pain, he quickly checked his attribute panel. ¡¾Status¡¿: Health 89, Mana 110 The red fireball¡¯s blast took away 10 points of his health and continued to burn his health at a rate of 1 point per second. ¡°Something¡¯s not right¡­ ¡°If this is all the power it has, why is this goblin spellcaster¡¯s level higher than the goblin thrower?¡± Even now, Su Bai would be seriously injured if hit by the goblin thrower¡¯s¡¾Savage Throw¡¿. In his experience, the goblin spellcaster should be far more dangerous than the goblin thrower. ¡°Maybe it¡¯s because of the¡¾Tough Carapace¡¿passive skill?¡± Su Bai pondered and felt relieved. Since the goblin spellcaster could only deal this much damage to him, there was no reason to be tense. Even if he had to endure a few more fireballs, he could definitely get close to the goblin spellcaster and kill it. ¡°Wait!¡± Su Bai¡¯s eyes caught a system notification. [Ding! Your carapace has been scorched by flames. The¡¾Adaptability¡¿talent has been activated, and you have gained a skill fragment.] On his second panel, a new skill fragment had appeared! ¡¾Skill Fragment¡¿: Fire Resistance 1/10 ¡°An unexpected surprise!¡± Seeing his health drop to 85 points, Su Bai did not continue to charge at the goblin spellcaster. Instead, he turned around and rushed into the forest. He wasn¡¯t afraid of the goblin spellcaster. He had a new plan. He not only wanted the goblin spellcaster¡¯s attribute template but also this newly emerged passive skill, Fire Resistance! Resistance-type skills were rare. With the¡¾Fire Resistance¡¿passive skill, he would significantly reduce damage from fire-based spellcasters in the future. In terms of value, the¡¾Fire Resistance¡¿passive skill was far more precious than the goblin spellcaster¡¯s attribute template. Once in the forest, the burning effect lasted another five seconds. When his health dropped to 80 points, it stopped. At this point, his carapace showed large charred areas, with many places cracked open. However, Su Bai was not worried. He approached a goblin hunter¡¯s corpse, and with swift bites, devoured chunks of goblin flesh. The system¡¯s clear notifications indicated that the flesh was absorbed by the¡¾Limb Regeneration¡¿skill, rapidly healing his injuries. In just a few minutes, Su Bai¡¯s injuries were fully healed, and his health was back to full. Then, Su Bai charged out again. [Ding! Your carapace has been scorched by flames. The¡¾Adaptability¡¿talent has been activated, and you have gained a skill fragment.] With the second skill fragment in hand, Su Bai returned to the forest to devour goblin corpses and heal his injuries. Once fully healed, he charged out a third time. [Ding! Your carapace has been scorched by flames. The¡¾Adaptability¡¿talent has been activated, and you have gained a skill fragment.] ¡ª In the previous goblin camps, Su Bai had ended the battles within minutes. But in this camp with only four goblins left, the fight dragged on for several hours. The reason being, the goblin spellcaster¡¯s mana was limited. After casting¡¾Minor Fireball¡¿seven times in a row, the goblin spellcaster¡¯s mana was exhausted. Su Bai had to patiently wait for it to recover its mana. Finally, after several hours, the last skill fragment was obtained. [Ding! You have acquired ten skill fragments. Do you wish to fuse them into a skill?] ¡°Fuse!¡± With the clear system notification, a new skill appeared on Su Bai¡¯s attribute panel. ¡¾Fire Resistance¡¿: Passive skill, basic. Through prolonged exposure to flames, your¡¾Adaptability¡¿talent has granted you resistance to fire. With this skill, you can significantly reduce damage from basic fire skills, moderately reduce damage from intermediate fire skills, and slightly reduce damage from advanced fire skills. When the skill was generated, Su Bai unhesitatingly added one point to¡¾Fire Resistance¡¿, upgrading it to intermediate fire resistance. ¡¾Fire Resistance¡¿: Passive skill, intermediate. The infusion of mysterious power has greatly enhanced your resistance to fire damage. With this skill, you can completely negate damage from basic fire skills, significantly reduce damage from intermediate fire skills, slightly reduce damage from advanced fire skills, and minimally reduce damage from top-tier fire skills. ¡°Haha, it worked!¡± Just by looking at the description of¡¾Intermediate Fire Resistance¡¿, Su Bai knew how powerful this skill was. Unfortunately,¡¾Intermediate Fire Resistance¡¿was the current limit. Otherwise, he would have upgraded it to the top level in one go. Su Bai then upgraded¡¾Basic Poison Resistance¡¿to¡¾Intermediate Poison Resistance¡¿, significantly reducing the damage from poison spells. After completing this, Su Bai emerged from the forest once again. In the camp, the small goblin spellcaster was in despair. After several hours and countless attacks, releasing over a dozen¡¾Minor Fireball¡¿spells had drained not only its mana but also its spirit. It couldn¡¯t even flee, forced to accumulate mana repeatedly, only to cast another futile¡¾Minor Fireball¡¿. When Su Bai¡¯s figure appeared in the camp again, the goblin spellcaster roared in fury. ¡°£¤%#@#£¤%£¤#!¡± ¡°Die, demon! ¡¾Minor Fireball¡¿!¡± [Goblin language] Ignoring the red fireball striking him, Su Bai only felt a warmth wash over him as he appeared unscathed in front of the small goblin. In the next moment, his sharp sickle pierced through the goblin spellcaster¡¯s head. Chapter 19 - Exclusive Advanced Attribute Template! Chapter 19: Exclusive Advanced Attribute Template![Ding! You killed the Flame Goblin, gaining 150 experience points.] [You killed the Flame Goblin beyond your level. The Flame Goblin has an advanced attribute template. You have gained the attribute template of the Flame Goblin.] With the crisp system notification, the last advanced attribute template was obtained. When Su Bai integrated this attribute template into his own, his attribute template finally reached 100%. [Ding! Your attribute template has reached the current level limit. Do you wish to advance?] ¡°Advance!¡± Suppressing his excitement, Su Bai chose to advance. [Attribute template fusion in progress¡­] [Extracting combat methods¡­ Generating skills¡­] [Advancement begins¡­] [Ding! Attribute template advancement completed.] When the attribute template advancement was completed, Su Bai immediately checked his advanced template attributes. S~?a??h the N0v?lFir?.?et website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. ¡¾Template¡¿: Advanced Attribute Template ¡¾Source¡¿: Basic Attribute Template Advancement ¡¾Bonus¡¿: Health +200, Strength *3, Agility *3, Constitution *3, Spirit *2 ¡¾Skill¡¿: Shadow Stealth ¡¾Shadow Stealth¡¿: Passive skill. When in a concealed state, this skill greatly enhances your stealth effects, significantly reducing the chance of being detected by enemies. When you actively exit stealth, you gain an agility *2 speed boost for 2 seconds.¡± ¡°Excellent, very powerful!¡± After reading his advanced attribute template data, Su Bai was overjoyed. This was the attribute template he desired! Compared to the Goblin Thrower¡¯s template, his advanced template was several times stronger! Health increased by 200 points, with each level up granting Strength +3, Agility +3, Constitution +3, and Spirit +2, with almost no weaknesses. Even the template skill was tailor-made for him. With this attribute template, Su Bai¡¯s power surged again! ¡°Next, I need to level up. ¡°When my strength increases further, I can try visiting the Goblin¡¯s main camp.¡± Su Bai then gathered the Goblin corpses in the camp and began devouring them. Each Goblin corpse represented a large amount of experience, gene points, and evolution points. Before advancing, he had to suppress his level and couldn¡¯t freely devour. Now, there were no such concerns. A dozen Goblin corpses were enough to raise his level from 4 to 5. ¡ª Half an hour later¡­ After devouring all the Goblin corpses, Su Bai gained enough experience to advance from level 4 to level 5. He then picked up the red wooden stick left by the Flame Goblin. Undoubtedly, it was a staff, a valuable magic item. Just holding it, he felt the intense heat it emitted. But he wasn¡¯t a player and couldn¡¯t use equipment. Even if he wanted to keep the staff, he couldn¡¯t take it away or use it like the Flame Goblin to cast powerful¡¾Minor Fireball¡¿spells. After thinking for a moment, Su Bai put one end of the staff in his mouth. With a crisp sound, the staff, as hard as steel, broke. The subsequent system notifications made Su Bai¡¯s eyes light up! [Consuming¡­ You ate rare magical material, gaining 20 evolution points.] [Consuming¡­ You ate rare magical material, gaining 30 evolution points.] ¡°¡­¡­¡± ¡°So magical equipment has this function too.¡± Su Bai¡¯s eyes brightened more and more. One staff increased his evolution points by 150! At this point, Su Bai¡¯s attributes had undergone significant changes. ¡¾Name¡¿: Su Bai ¡¾Race¡¿: Overlord Ant ¡¾Template¡¿: Advanced Attribute Template ¡¾Level¡¿: 5 ¡¾Status¡¿: Health 330, Mana 130 ¡¾Attributes¡¿: Strength 11, Agility 10, Constitution 13, Spirit 13 ¡¾Talents¡¿: Soul Point, Devour Evolution, Adaptability ¡¾Skills¡¿: Sharp Claws and Teeth, Tough Carapace, Regrowth, Intermediate Poison Resistance, Intermediate Fire Resistance, Shadow Stealth ¡¾Gene Points¡¿: Goblin Gene 548 points, Fire Lizard Gene 23 points, Rabbit Gene 11 points¡­ ¡¾Evolution Points¡¿: 673 points ¡¾Skill Fragments¡¿: None ¡¾Soul Points¡¿: 4 points A stunning attribute panel! If not for his low level and attributes, Su Bai¡¯s attribute panel could be mistaken for an elite or even a lord-level monster! Even lord-level monsters might not have as many talents and skills as he did! ¡°I originally planned to level up before exploring the Goblin¡¯s main camp. Now it seems I need to wait a bit¡­¡± Looking at his attribute panel, Su Bai muttered to himself. His fourth evolution required 1000 evolution points. He had thought it would take a long time to gather such a large amount. Now, it seemed unnecessary. Just clearing a few more Goblin camps and consuming some magical equipment would be enough to gather the points needed for his fourth evolution. Perhaps¡­ It wouldn¡¯t be long before he could charge into the Goblin¡¯s main camp alone, rather than cautiously probing! Goblin Grand General? Novice Village Boss? Maybe it wouldn¡¯t be long before this Novice Village Boss would need to be replaced! Chapter 20 - Fourth Evolution Begins! Chapter 20: Fourth Evolution Begins!Deep in the dark forest. In a camp just a few kilometers from the Goblin¡¯s main base. [Ding! Your carapace is frozen by frost,¡¾Adaptability¡¿talent activated, you gained a skill fragment.] The long-awaited system notification came, and Su Bai calmly killed the small Frost Goblin in front of him and opened his attribute panel. S?a??h the N0v?lFire(.)n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. In five days, Su Bai cleared seven Goblin camps, successfully advancing his level from 5 to 7, with his four main attributes improved once again. Additionally, during his hunts, he encountered the second type of Goblin spellcaster ¡ª the Frost Goblin. The Frost Goblin, capable of casting¡¾Lesser Frostbolt¡¿, successfully gave Su Bai his third resistance,¡¾Lesser Frost Resistance¡¿. Once he fused ten skill fragments into a skill, he upgraded¡¾Lesser Frost Resistance¡¿to¡¾Intermediate Frost Resistance¡¿, significantly reducing frost spell damage. He then looked at his second panel. ¡¾Gene Points¡¿: Goblin Gene 1971, Fire Lizard Gene 54, Rabbit Gene 11¡­ ¡¾Evolution Points¡¿: 1338 ¡¾Skill Fragments¡¿: None The conditions for the fourth evolution were perfectly met. Nearly two thousand Goblin Gene points were exceptionally dazzling. If he chose to mutate into a Goblin, he might immediately gain potential comparable to Goblin Grand General. After several evolutions, Su Bai had summarized some rules about mutation and self-evolution. Mutation meant transforming from an ant species to another species. For example, for this fourth evolution, he only needed to invest 100 Goblin Gene points to perfectly transform from an Overlord Ant to a Goblin. The excess Goblin Gene points would become his potential. With nearly two thousand Goblin Gene points, if Su Bai chose to mutate, he might gain potential surpassing Goblin Grand General. In the future, as his strength increased, becoming the Goblin King and establishing a small Goblin kingdom wouldn¡¯t be impossible. Self-evolution meant continuing to enhance his original species. Investing all gene points into Self-evolution would absorb the advantages of those genes, making his primary evolution stronger. The downside of gene point-enhanced evolution was that each evolution would change his body shape. With more evolutions, his appearance would become increasingly different from an ant. ¡°Unfortunately, it¡¯s just Goblins¡­¡± Looking at his second panel, Su Bai sighed slightly. Mutating into a Goblin, even if he grew into the Goblin King, would still just be a mid-level boss in the game world. When the game started and players arrived, he would inevitably be hunted, becoming experience for many players. If this mutation turned him into a dragon, a Winter Night Wolf, or a Beholder Tyrant, he might be tempted. ¡°Choose self-evolution. ¡°Invest all gene points into this evolution to enhance primary evolution!¡± In the end, Su Bai continued to choose primary evolution. [Selection complete.] [This evolution will take sixty minutes. Please ensure the surrounding environment is safe.] [Evolution begins¡­] With the crisp system notification, Su Bai plunged into a prepared cave and lost consciousness. ¡ª After a long time, Su Bai woke up from his slumber. With the fourth evolution, his body size reached 50 centimeters in length and 20 centimeters in height. His entire carapace gleamed with a jet-black sheen, like armor forged from steel. The originally soft antennae on his head had hardened, gleaming with sharp light pointing forward. His two pairs of legs were further enhanced and more flexible. The biggest change was in his scythes. After gaining the¡¾Scythe¡¿passive skill, Su Bai¡¯s first pair of limbs mutated into scythe shapes, becoming his main hunting tool. This evolution, perhaps due to the nearly two thousand Goblin Gene points, transformed these limbs from scythes into cat-like claws! The five sharp claws, with their front four and rear one configuration, gleamed with a bright cold light, like five sharp daggers, sharper and more lethal than the previous scythes! ¡°Looking less and less like an ant¡­ ¡°I wonder what I¡¯ll look like after a few more evolutions¡­¡± Flexing his new claws, Su Bai smiled wryly and opened his attribute panel. ¡¾Name¡¿: Su Bai ¡¾Race¡¿: Overlord Ant ¡¾Template¡¿: Advanced Attribute Template ¡¾Level¡¿: 7 ¡¾Status¡¿: Health 500, Mana 250 ¡¾Attributes¡¿: Strength 32, Agility 25, Constitution 30, Spirit 25 ¡¾Talents¡¿: Soul Point, Devour Evolution, Adaptability ¡¾Skills¡¿: Sharp Claws and Teeth, Tough Carapace, Regrowth, Intermediate Poison Resistance, Intermediate Fire Resistance, Intermediate Frost Resistance, Shadow Stealth ¡¾Gene Points¡¿: 0 ¡¾Evolution Points¡¿: 338 ¡¾Skill Fragments¡¿: None ¡¾Soul Points¡¿: 6 This evolution increased his Strength by 15 points, Agility by 9 points, Constitution by 11 points, and Spirit by 6 points. His current attributes far exceeded those of other monsters at the same level. Su Bai believed that his current strength was not much less than Goblin Grand General. Next was the skill extraction after the fourth successful evolution. Chapter 21 - Goblin City! Chapter 21: Goblin City!Due to the Goblin genes invested in this evolution, all four newly appeared skills are related to Goblins. ¡¾Heavy Strike¡¿: Active skill. Consumes half of your stamina, dealing physical damage equal to twice your strength attribute, with a slight chance of inflicting a severe injury on the enemy. ¡¾Savage Throw¡¿: Active skill. Consumes half of your stamina, throwing a strike that surpasses ordinary power, dealing physical damage equal to twice your strength attribute. ¡¾Lesser Fireball¡¿: Active skill. Consumes 20 mana points, releasing a lesser fireball that deals fire damage equal to twice your spirit attribute, and inflicts a burning effect on the enemy. ¡¾Lesser Ice Arrow¡¿: Active skill. Consumes 20 mana points, releasing a lesser ice arrow that deals frost damage equal to twice your spirit attribute, and inflicts a slowing effect on the enemy. ¡¾Heavy Strike¡¿ comes from Goblin Warriors, ¡¾Savage Throw¡¿ from Goblin Throwers, ¡¾Lesser Fireball¡¿ and ¡¾Lesser Ice Arrow¡¿ from Flame Goblins and Frost Goblins respectively. After a brief consideration, Su Bai chose the ¡¾Heavy Strike¡¿ skill. The reason was that all his passive skills were related to physical damage. Though the damage from the two spell skills was high, for him, choosing a physical damage skill yielded greater benefits! As for the consumption of the ¡¾Heavy Strike¡¿ skill¡­ Su Bai silently added a point to the ¡¾Heavy Strike¡¿ skill. Level 2 Heavy Strike. The stamina consumption changed from half to a quarter, and the damage increased from twice to 2.5 times the strength attribute. Keep adding! Level 3 Heavy Strike. Keep going! When the third soul point was added to the already level 3 ¡¾Heavy Strike¡¿, both ¡¾Heavy Strike¡¿ and ¡¾Shadow Stealth¡¿ skills blurred. Then, both skills disappeared, replaced by a new skill. ¡¾Shadow Assault¡¿: Passive skill. When in shadows or behind cover, your stealth effect is greatly enhanced. Upon exiting stealth, you gain an agility boost equal to twice your agility attribute for 2 seconds. Attacking from stealth deals physical damage equal to five times your strength attribute, with a high chance of inflicting severe injury on the enemy. S?a??h th? N0v?lFir?.?et website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. A very powerful skill! The new skill, combining ¡¾Heavy Strike¡¿ and ¡¾Shadow Stealth¡¿, could definitely serve as Su Bai¡¯s trump card! Physical damage five times the strength attribute ¨C probably no one but a boss could withstand his sudden attack. Seeing he only had 3 soul points left, Su Bai added another point to ¡¾Tough Carapace¡¿, upgrading it to ¡¾Heavy Armor Carapace¡¿, further enhancing his defense. Only when he had no skills left to improve did he close his attribute panel. The fifth evolution required 10,000 evolution points, and upgrading his attribute template from advanced to elite required hunting elite monsters, which he couldn¡¯t complete in a short time. So¡­ His next target was to infiltrate the Goblin main camp, kill Goblin Grand General, and complete the system-given task! ¡°Hope the general won¡¯t disappoint me¡­¡± With a soft murmur, Su Bai¡¯s figure quickly disappeared into the forest. ¡ª Deep in the dark forest, countless shabby tents spread densely throughout the woods. Thousands of Goblins lived in these hundreds of tents. In the center of these tents was a cleared area of several hundred square meters. A particularly large tent, made of branches and mud, stood in the middle of this clearing. This large tent was Goblin General Gorg¡¯s ¡°palace.¡± Compared to ordinary Goblins, Gorg was two meters tall and incredibly robust, looking more like a northern green-skinned orc than a Goblin. Not only was Gorg exceptionally strong, but he also possessed intelligence that ordinary Goblins lacked. After obtaining his ancestors¡¯ inheritance, Gorg had once left the dark forest, ventured into the human world, and even experienced being captured by a human slave-hunting team and given to a human noble as a slave. This experience showed Gorg the power of humans. After escaping from the humans, Gorg decided to unify the Goblins and establish a Goblin kingdom in the dark forest. With his formidable strength, Gorg successfully conquered and unified the Goblin tribes in the dark forest. Just as he was preparing to expand the Goblins¡¯ strength and create a Goblin kingdom, bad news kept coming. In less than ten days, contact was lost with a dozen Goblin camps, and hundreds of Goblins vanished without a trace. For the Goblins, whose total number was only a few thousand, the disappearance of these hundreds accounted for a tenth of their population! When the news reached Gorg, he was furious, sending out numerous Goblin scouts and guards to patrol the forest, hoping to catch the enemy hunting the Goblins. But most of these scouts and guards also went missing after leaving ¡°Goblin City.¡± No signs of life, no bodies found. It was as if an invisible demon hidden in the darkness was devouring the Goblin race! This repeated. After losing a large number of scouts and guards, Gorg had to gather most Goblins in Goblin City to minimize their losses. Angry and fearful, Gorg had no idea that the demon devouring Goblins had quietly arrived at Goblin City! Chapter 22 - Goblin General! Chapter 22: Goblin General!Outside the Goblin ¡°palace.¡± In a dense thicket, Su Bai lay quietly in ambush. The stealth effect brought by the ¡¾Shadow Assault¡¿ skill allowed him to safely reach the center of Goblin City without being detected by a single Goblin. At this moment, he was quietly observing the Goblins outside the ¡°palace.¡± Standing before the large tent was a huge Goblin, two meters tall, wearing black, imposing armor, and wielding a long-handled broadsword ¡ª this was undoubtedly his target. The level 15 Goblin Conqueror, the novice village BOSS with a lord template, Goblin General Gorg. Beside Gorg stood a short spellcaster in a white robe, the level 14 Goblin Priest with a warrior template. Surrounding them were four Goblin Centurions in full heavy armor, each wielding a two-handed greatsword. These Goblin Centurions were all level 12, standing 1.7 meters tall, and possessing elite attribute templates. Finally, there were over twenty level 10 Goblin Guards. Compared to the Goblin Centurions, the Goblin Guards were only about 1.5 meters tall, wearing somewhat tattered leather armor, and their weapons varied from long swords to broadswords to spears. However, each Goblin Guard was stronger than the advanced Goblins Su Bai had previously faced. Nearly thirty Goblins. Su Bai silently calculated in his mind. If he could wipe out these Goblins, the rewards would be substantial. Not to mention the system¡¯s possible rewards for completing the task, the attribute templates these Goblins possessed alone would be a huge fortune. A lord attribute template, a warrior attribute template, and four elite attribute templates¡­ Integrating these into his own attribute template could elevate Su Bai¡¯s attribute template to the elite level, possibly even to the warrior level! Moreover, the large amount of experience, evolution points, and soul points from hunting these Goblins would be invaluable. If he could wipe them out, Su Bai would be greatly enriched. However, he wasn¡¯t a match for this many Goblins in a direct confrontation. To defeat them, he needed a strategy¡­ After a brief contemplation, Su Bai¡¯s figure slowly disappeared. ¡ª A few minutes later, a patrol of Goblin Hunters found over a dozen dead Goblins at the edge of Goblin City. One Goblin Hunter hurried to report to Gorg, while the others carefully searched the area. Before the reporting Goblin Hunter could reach the ¡°palace,¡± another patrol of Goblin Hunters also found several dead Goblins. When the news reached Gorg, the Goblin General flew into a rage and immediately ordered a Goblin Centurion to take five Goblin Guards to investigate and find the enemy. By this time, Su Bai had moved to another location, continuing his slaughter of Goblins. Time passed slowly. The Goblin Centurion found no trace of the enemy, but more Goblin corpses were discovered, spread across the various areas of Goblin City. Gorg, enraged, sent two more Goblin Centurions, each with five Goblin Guards, to search for the enemy. He himself joined the search with the Goblin Priest and the last Goblin Centurion. ¡°Too bad I can¡¯t completely separate Gorg from the other Goblins¡­ ¡°Never mind, I¡¯ll just clip your wings bit by bit.¡± Hiding in the shadows, Su Bai saw that even Gorg had joined the search. He stopped his massacre of ordinary Goblins and quietly stalked a Goblin Centurion who had strayed from the group. ¡°&%#@!¡± ¡°Stay alert and search carefully!¡± [Goblin language] Clad in heavy armor and wielding a two-handed greatsword, the Goblin Centurion exuded a commanding presence. Leading five Goblin Guards, he began searching around a tent where Goblin corpses had been found. As he passed by a thicket, preparing to check for hidden enemies, a shadow suddenly emerged! Hidden in the thicket. When the Centurion was just two meters away, Su Bai moved. ¡¾Shadow Assault¡¿! With 25 agility points and the speed boost from ¡¾Shadow Assault¡¿, Su Bai shot towards the Goblin Centurion like an arrow. Before the Centurion could react, Su Bai was upon him! S~?a??h the N?v?lFir?(.)n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. A flash of cold light. Enhanced by the ¡¾Shadow Assault¡¿ attack boost, Su Bai¡¯s mandibles, capable of tearing steel, effortlessly bit through the Goblin Centurion¡¯s neck. The large head rolled off, and the Goblin Centurion, whose heavy armor was useless, collapsed to the ground. [Ding! You killed a Goblin Centurion, gaining 1000 experience points and 1 soul point.] [You overleveled and killed a Goblin Centurion with an elite attribute template. You have acquired the Goblin Centurion¡¯s attribute template.] The system notification sounded as expected. At this moment, the five Goblin Guards following the Centurion saw Su Bai and screamed in terror. ¡°**%£¤#@£¤#£¡¡± ¡°Black Demon! Black Demon killed the Centurion!¡± With a cold smile, Su Bai accelerated, appearing among the Goblin Guards, and his gleaming claws swung out! [Ding! You killed a Goblin Guard, gaining 300 experience points.] One Goblin Guard¡¯s head was smashed, another¡¯s heart was pierced. Before Gorg and the other Goblin Centurions could reach the scene, Su Bai killed the remaining three Goblin Guards, then vanished into the bushes. [Ding! You killed a Goblin Guard, gaining 300 experience points.] Chapter 23 - Shadow Assault... Splatter! Chapter 23: Shadow Assault¡­ Splatter! ¡°Shadow Assault¡­ Splatter!¡± ¡°£¤%@#!¡± ¡°Find it! Kill it!¡± [Goblin language] When the news of the Goblin Centurion and five Goblin Guards being killed by the Black Demon reached Gorg¡¯s ears, the Goblin General was beyond furious. Ordinary Goblins were timid, foolish, and cowardly. As long as it didn¡¯t affect the race¡¯s reproduction and survival, he didn¡¯t care how many of them died. The Goblin Centurions and Goblin Guards, however, were painstakingly nurtured by him, the foundation of his rule and the creation of his Goblin kingdom. The loss of each Goblin Centurion and Goblin Guard was a huge blow to him. Enraged, Gorg wanted to find Su Bai immediately and tear him to pieces. At this moment, Su Bai had already stealthily approached the second Goblin Centurion. ¡°Shadow Assault!¡± A black figure shot out like an arrow from the bow. Before the Goblin Centurion could react, Su Bai had already pounced on its back. ¡°Demon!¡± ¡°Black Demon!¡± In the Goblin Guards¡¯ terrified cries, the Goblin Centurion hastily turned around, but it was too late. The corner of its eye only caught a glimpse of five sharp claws, and its unprotected neck was almost entirely shredded. Green blood gushed out, and the Goblin Centurion¡¯s massive body collapsed, slowly losing consciousness. [Ding! You killed a Goblin Centurion, gaining 1000 experience points.] [You killed a Goblin Centurion above your level with an elite attribute template. You have acquired the Goblin Centurion¡¯s attribute template.] The system¡¯s notification sounded as expected. Glancing at Gorg, who was running towards him in a rage, Su Bai swung his claws, killing the five Goblin Guards who were just about to retaliate, then dived into the bushes. Thanks to the powerful stealth effect of the ¡¾Shadow Assault¡¿ skill, as long as he entered shadows or behind cover, he could quickly hide his figure. Unless he was directly exposed in front of the Goblins, these foolish creatures couldn¡¯t find him. ¡°Damn it! ¡°Come out! ¡°I¡¯ll kill you!¡± Rushing to the side of the dead Goblin Centurion, Gorg roared in anger, swinging his long-handled broadsword and cutting down all the surrounding vegetation within several meters. Having lost two Goblin Centurions and ten Goblin Guards in quick succession, Gorg¡¯s rage was almost overwhelming his rationality. But he was not like the low-level Goblins. He knew what needed to be done. He issued a command, and the distant Centurion quickly led five Goblin Guards to join Gorg. Gorg was confident the Black Demon was not his match. Once the Goblin Centurions and Goblin Guards regrouped around him, the Black Demon wouldn¡¯t dare appear. Then, by using ordinary Goblins as bait to lure out and kill the Black Demon, the crisis in Goblin City would be resolved. This was Gorg¡¯s strategy. Unfortunately, Gorg overestimated his own intelligence and underestimated Su Bai¡¯s speed. By the time Gorg¡¯s order was given and the Goblin Centurion and Goblin Guards were heading towards him, Su Bai was already waiting on their route. When the Goblin Centurion was only a few dozen meters from Gorg, the demon reappeared! It was the familiar black figure. The same five razor-sharp claws. ¡°No!¡± Under Gorg¡¯s incredulous gaze and furious roar, the third Goblin Centurion fell. [Ding! You killed a Goblin Centurion, gaining 1000 experience points and 1 soul point.] [You killed a Goblin Centurion above your level with an elite attribute template. You have acquired the Goblin Centurion¡¯s attribute template.] Su Bai did not continue attacking the Goblin Guards. With a slight smile, his black body swiftly darted into the forest, disappearing from Gorg¡¯s sight in a few leaps. ¡°Coward, come out! ¡°I, the General, will kill you myself!! ¡°Tear you to pieces!!!¡± The furious roar echoed far and wide as Gorg slashed his long-handled broadsword into the ground, creating a deep gash where Su Bai had vanished. But no matter how angry he was, he still couldn¡¯t find Su Bai. After a long time, Gorg calmed down. He ordered the Goblin City¡¯s Hunters, Swordsmen, and Warriors to continuously search the forest for Su Bai¡¯s figure, while he himself, along with the Goblin Priest and the last Goblin Centurion, returned to the central clearing. The Black Demon excelled at stealth, and in the forest, it had a significant advantage in both ambushing and escaping. s?a??h th? N???lFire.n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. The best tactic was to choose an open area without cover. The clearing outside the ¡°palace,¡± a training ground modeled after human lords¡¯ arenas, became the best choice. But¡­ Just as Gorg brought the Goblin Priest, the Goblin Centurion, and the remaining ten Goblin Guards back to the clearing, a sudden change occurred¡ª ¡°Shadow Assault!¡± Su Bai¡¯s figure suddenly burst out from a tent, crossing several meters in an instant, appearing right in front of the Goblin Priest. In the next moment, five sharp claws directly pierced the Goblin Priest¡¯s skull! [Ding! You killed a Goblin Priest, gaining 1500 experience points and 1 soul point.] [You killed a Goblin Priest above your level with a warrior attribute template. You have acquired the Goblin Priest¡¯s attribute template.] Chapter 24 Chapter 24: Confronting the Goblin General!A level 14 Goblin Priest with a warrior-grade attribute template. Su Bai speculated that this Goblin Priest¡¯s health points likely exceeded five hundred, possibly even reaching a thousand. Even though spellcasters typically had weaker constitutions, the Goblin Priest had a warrior-grade attribute template. This template alone would boost its health points to be on par with a Goblin Centurion. In a typical game, even using Shadow Assault, Su Bai wouldn¡¯t be able to one-shot the Goblin Priest or even the previous Goblin Centurions. But this wasn¡¯t a typical game. A world based on a game meant extraordinary freedom. Critical hits, instant kills, these were all real possibilities. With claws sharp enough to tear steel, the attack bonus from Shadow Assault, and Su Bai¡¯s precision in targeting the enemy¡¯s heart, neck, and head ¡ª vulnerable spots ¡ª these factors combined to allow Su Bai to one-shot both the Goblin Centurions and the Goblin Priest. Gaining a warrior-grade attribute template delighted Su Bai, but enraged Gorg. ¡°£¤#@!¡± ¡°Earth Splitting Slash!¡± With a furious roar, Gorg raised his long-handled broadsword high and slashed down. A wide arc of blade light erupted from the broadsword, enveloping several meters around Su Bai. Having just killed the Goblin Priest and still mid-air, Su Bai couldn¡¯t dodge and was struck. The immense force sent him flying like he was hit by a train. He tumbled over ten meters before crashing to the ground. ¡¾Status¡¿: Health 389, Mana 250 Taking Gorg¡¯s full-force strike head-on, Su Bai lost 111 health points. This was even with his passive skill ¡¾Tough Carapace¡¿, which reduced a significant amount of damage. Despite this, the shell on his back where he was struck cracked. Without ¡¾Tough Carapace¡¿, that single blow might have cost him most of his health, leaving him seriously injured. But now¡­ Trading a bit over a hundred health points for a warrior-grade attribute template and eliminating an enemy healer was totally worth it! Su Bai had the passive skill ¡¾Regrowth¡¿! Losing some health was nothing ¡ª he could recover from even limb loss through ample feeding. Having tested Gorg¡¯s power by taking his full-force strike, Su Bai remained calm. He knew he had this in the bag! He had a large supply of Goblins as food to continuously heal his injuries. Gorg, on the other hand, could only endure Su Bai¡¯s repeated ambushes, eventually losing all his subordinates and dying himself. With a sneer, Su Bai sped up, quickly darting out of the clearing and vanishing into the forest. ¡°Chief, the Black Demon fled!¡± ¡°The Black Demon was injured, the Chief drove it away!¡± ¡°Now it won¡¯t dare come back, right?¡± After Su Bai disappeared, the last Goblin Centurion and ten Goblin Guards gathered excitedly. ¡°Black Demon? Hmph! Just a coward!¡± ¡°If it dares appear again, I¡¯ll tear it to pieces!¡± Having finally wounded Su Bai, Gorg was elated and agreed with his subordinates. Previously, whenever they encountered strong monsters, once defeated, those monsters never returned to Goblin City. Even if they reappeared, they only dared to snatch a few ordinary Goblins from afar, never stepping foot into Goblin City again. Gorg didn¡¯t care about losing a few ordinary Goblins. Unfortunately¡­ Just a few minutes later, Su Bai had completely healed. He stealthily approached the clearing again, and when the last Goblin Centurion was only a few meters away, he struck again! ¡°Shadow Assault!¡± Unsurprisingly, the last Goblin Centurion became Su Bai¡¯s experience points. ¡°Bastard! ¡°How dare you show up again?!¡± Just as Gorg relaxed and planned to train more Goblin Centurions and Guards, Su Bai bit off his last subordinate¡¯s head, killing him instantly. ¡°Savage Charge!¡± Gorg¡¯s massive body became a blur, instantly appearing before Su Bai and sending him flying. Then, raising his long-handled broadsword high, he slashed down again! ¡°Earth Splitting Slash!¡± A wide arc of blade light blasted Su Bai away. However, this time, upon landing, Su Bai didn¡¯t immediately flee. Instead, he charged into the Goblin Guards, slashing his claws and harvesting their lives. [Ding! You killed a Goblin Guard, gaining 300 experience points.] [Ding! You killed a Goblin Guard, gaining 300 experience points.] In an instant, half of the ten Goblin Guards fell under Su Bai¡¯s attacks. After the remaining Goblin Guards fled, Su Bai changed direction, charging at Gorg. In terms of strength and constitution, Su Bai was inferior to Gorg. With the lord-grade attribute template, Gorg¡¯s health was surely far higher than Su Bai¡¯s. But Su Bai¡¯s agility was superior to Gorg¡¯s. As long as he wasn¡¯t airborne or locked by the Savage Charge skill, and without other Goblins hindering him, Su Bai could dodge most of Gorg¡¯s attacks. With various powerful passive skills, Su Bai could trade blows and wear Gorg down! Engaging head-on! Stealth, heal, continue fighting! When the first Goblin Centurion was killed, Gorg¡¯s fate was sealed. The novice village¡¯s big boss was destined to fall to Su Bai¡¯s claws! S?a?ch* Th? n0v?l(?)ire.?et website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 25 Chapter 25: Lord-Level Attribute Template!¡°Lord-Level Attribute Template! ¡°Shadow Assault!¡± With a soft shout, Su Bai¡¯s figure leaped from the shadows, crossing over ten meters in an instant, appearing beside Gorg. His sharp pincers clamped down on one of Gorg¡¯s arms like a pair of scissors. A crisp sound echoed. One of Gorg¡¯s arms was severed. ¡°Damn coward, fight me head-on if you have the guts! ¡°What¡¯s the point of sneak attacks!¡± Waving his long-handled broadsword with his remaining arm, Gorg roared angrily and desperately. For a whole hour, Su Bai repeatedly charged forward and fought Gorg head-on. Whenever his health dropped below 100, he would retreat temporarily, devouring Goblin corpses to heal, and then continue the fight. Over the hour, Su Bai used Shadow Assault at least ten times, and engaged in countless head-on battles. He was knocked back numerous times, losing over 5000 health points in total. Even the heavy armor shell on his body shattered, repaired, shattered, and repaired again during these battles, becoming more resilient and thicker each time. The results of these numerous battles were evident. With the passive skill ¡¾Regrowth¡¿, Su Bai¡¯s health remained at full, and his injuries were fully healed. His combat ability also improved thanks to Gorg serving as a live target. Although his attributes and skills hadn¡¯t increased, his combat style matured and his control over his body strengthened. In contrast, Gorg was in a miserable state. All the Goblin Guards were killed, and the ordinary Goblins were so terrified that they hid far away, not daring to join the fight. After countless attacks, Gorg¡¯s eye was burst, an arm was bitten off, and his body was covered in wounds. S~?a??h the N?v?l(F)ire.n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. Even his imposing black armor was now dirty and blood-stained, looking shabby. Su Bai still had full combat strength, but Goblin General Gorg had reached his limit. No more sneak attacks were needed. Gorg couldn¡¯t withstand Su Bai¡¯s next assault. ¡°You are strong, worthy of being the big boss of the novice village. ¡°In a head-on fight, I¡¯m no match for you, but¡­ sorry! I need your experience, your evolution points, and your attribute template! ¡°So then¡­ ¡°Goodbye!¡± Muttering to himself, Su Bai crouched slightly, his powerful four legs springing up like a coil, launching his figure like a black streak towards Gorg! The exhausted Gorg barely blocked Su Bai¡¯s first attack with his broadsword, but failed to block the second. Su Bai¡¯s figure landed behind Gorg, who then froze. A fist-sized hole appeared in the chest of Gorg¡¯s black armor, directly piercing his heart. ¡°Despicable¡­ ¡°My¡­ kingdom¡­¡± Struggling to utter a few broken words, Gorg¡¯s massive body fell with a crash. Dust flew everywhere. [Ding! You killed Goblin General Gorg, gaining 5000 experience points and 5 soul points.] [You killed Goblin General Gorg above your level. Goblin General Gorg had a lord attribute template, you have obtained his attribute template.] [Do you want to replace it?] ¡ª ¡°Finally got it¡­¡± As the system prompt sounded, Su Bai let out a long breath. A lord-tier attribute template! Ignoring the constant prompts in his mind, Su Bai opened his attribute panel to check the data of Gorg¡¯s attribute template. ¡¾Template¡¿: Lord Attribute Template ¡¾Source¡¿: Goblin General Gorg ¡¾Bonus¡¿: Health +8000, Strength *25, Agility *1, Constitution *20, Spirit *1 ¡¾Skills¡¿: Savage Charge, Earth Splitting Slash, Bloodthirsty Rage ¡¾Savage Charge¡¿: Active skill. Consumes half of stamina, locks onto an enemy within 20 meters, and launches an unavoidable charge. The hit enemy will be airborne and take physical damage equal to strength attribute 1. ¡¾Earth Splitting Slash¡¿: Active skill. Consumes half of stamina, unleashes a large amount of blade light, dealing physical damage equal to strength attribute 2 to enemies in a 33 area in front. ¡¾Bloodthirsty Rage¡¿: Status skill. Consumes one-third of health to increase physical damage by 25% for a short period. Duration: 10 seconds. An extremely powerful attribute template! With an 8000-point health bonus and a total attribute bonus of 47 points per level, this lord attribute template was formidable. Combined with the three powerful skills, Gorg was a perfect blend of warrior and tank. Without his various powerful passive skills and agility advantage, Su Bai might not have been able to defeat Gorg. Such an attribute template justified Gorg¡¯s title as the novice village big boss! As for whether to replace it¡­ After a brief consideration, Su Bai decided against it. He saw the potential of enhancing his own attribute template. If he could advance his template to the lord tier, it would be even stronger than Gorg¡¯s! Moreover, a self-developed attribute template suited him best. Su Bai had no interest in becoming a bulky shield warrior! Next, he assessed his gains from this battle. Aside from the numerous Goblin corpses and the experience, evolution points, and gene points they represented, he acquired six attribute templates. Four elite attribute templates from four Goblin Centurions. One warrior attribute template from the Goblin Priest. One lord attribute template from Goblin General Gorg. ¡°Let¡¯s see how far these attribute templates can upgrade my own¡­¡± After a moment of thought, Su Bai made a mental command. ¡°Merge all attribute templates into my current attribute template as experience!¡± Chapter 26 Chapter 26: Elite Attribute Template Born!With Su Bai¡¯s words, all six of his attribute templates disappeared. On his attribute panel, the progress behind his attribute template was rapidly increasing! 5%¡­ 10%¡­ 50%¡­ 100%! [Ding! Your attribute template has reached the limit of its current level. Do you want to advance?] ¡°Advance!¡± The next moment, the advanced attribute template turned into an elite attribute template. The progress of the elite attribute template continued to increase. 1%¡­ 7%¡­ 23%¡­ When Gorg¡¯s lord template was also converted into experience, the progress of the elite template accelerated again. 37%¡­ 56%¡­ 89%¡­ 100%! [Ding! Your attribute template has reached the limit of its current level. Do you want to advance?] ¡°Advance!¡± After the second advancement, the experience from the lord template was finally exhausted, and Su Bai¡¯s new attribute template began to form. [Attribute template fusion in progress¡­] [Extracting combat style¡­ Skill generation in progress¡­] [Advancement starting¡­] [Ding! Your attribute template advancement is complete.] After a few minutes of waiting, Su Bai¡¯s attribute template was finally upgraded. He immediately opened his attribute panel to check the attributes of the upgraded template. ¡¾Template¡¿: Warrior Attribute Template ¡¾Source¡¿: Elite Attribute Template Advancement ¡¾Bonus¡¿: Health +3000, Mana +500, Strength *15, Agility *10, Constitution *10, Spirit 5 ¡¾Skills¡¿: Physical Resistance, Bloodthirst Spell ¡¾Physical Resistance¡¿: Passive skill, beginner. After enduring high-intensity physical attacks for a long time, with your ¡¾Adaptability¡¿ talent, you gain resistance to physical attacks. With this skill, you can slightly reduce physical attack damage and slightly nullify damage from states like piercing, bleeding, and serious injuries. ¡¾Bloodthirst Spell¡¿: Status skill. Consumes one-third of health, temporarily increases 10% physical attack and 5% attack speed. Skill duration: 10 seconds. When Su Bai saw his new attribute template, he was inexplicably excited. Even with just the warrior-level attribute template, his template was comparable to Gorg¡¯s lord-level template. Although the health bonus was slightly lower, it was balanced, with no weaknesses. Combined with Su Bai¡¯s talent for devouring evolution and soul points, this was not mediocre but rather a versatile development without weaknesses! He believed that when his attribute template advanced to the lord level, it would be even stronger than Gorg¡¯s lord template! Looking at the soul points he currently had, Su Bai prepared to upgrade his skills. After several days of hunting, he had gained 4 soul points. Adding the 5 soul points from Goblin General Gorg, Su Bai now had a total of 11 soul points! First, he upgraded ¡¾Bloodthirst Spell¡¿. This skill, similar to Gorg¡¯s ¡¾Bloodthirsty Frenzy¡¿, could play a huge role at critical moments. Adding one soul point, the consumption of Bloodthirst Spell became one-fourth, the duration became 20 seconds, increasing physical attack by 15% and attack speed by 10%. Continuing to add points. The consumption became one-fifth, the duration extended to 30 seconds, and the attack and speed increase were raised to 20% and 15% respectively. The third and fourth points. When Su Bai invested 4 soul points into ¡¾Bloodthirst Spell¡¿, the skill blurred and transformed into a new skill. ¡¾Bloodthirsty Berserk¡¿: Status skill. Consumes one-tenth of health, temporarily increases 50% physical attack and 45% attack speed. Duration: 120 seconds. With a two-minute duration, 50% physical attack, and 45% attack speed, this skill became another of Su Bai¡¯s trump cards. Next was ¡¾Physical Resistance¡¿. After investing 1 soul point, Physical Resistance upgraded from beginner to intermediate. After the upgrade, Physical Resistance, unlike other resistances, continued to have its small ¡°+¡± lit. Without hesitation, he invested another soul point. The intermediate Physical Resistance quietly disappeared, and the ¡¾Tough Carapace¡¿ skill transformed into a new skill. S?a??h the N?velF?re.?et website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. ¡¾Resistance Shell¡¿: Passive skill. A sturdy yet flexible shell provides you with strong defense, allowing you to moderately reduce physical attack damage and greatly nullify damage from states like piercing, bleeding, and serious injuries. Looking at his now transformed skill description, Su Bai pondered. ¡°Tough Carapace and intermediate physical resistance have similar effects, so they merged together. What about attribute resistance? If I could gather all attribute resistances or elevate them to higher levels, will attribute resistance also merge with the shell?¡± Seeing the three resistance skills that still had no light, Su Bai silently stopped investing soul points and opened the mission panel. Before this, he had received a quest. [The Rise of the Goblin Kingdom: Even the most foolish races can give birth to sages. By chance, Goblin General Gorg gained ancestral heritage, greatly increasing his strength. He defeated many Goblin tribes, uniting them, declaring himself General, and preparing to establish the Goblin Kingdom to unify the Gloomy Forest.] [As a member of the Gloomy Forest, you have two choices: gain Gorg¡¯s trust, join the Goblin Kingdom, or kill Gorg to prevent the establishment of the Goblin Kingdom.] Join the Goblin Kingdom or kill Gorg to stop the Goblin Kingdom¡¯s establishment. Now that Gorg and his elites were turned into Su Bai¡¯s evolution experience, this quest was undoubtedly completed. When Su Bai opened the quest panel, a crisp system prompt sounded in his mind. [Ding! You killed Goblin General Gorg, completing the quest ¡®The Rise of the Goblin Kingdom¡¯.] [You can choose two rewards from the following options.] [1. You killed Goblin General Gorg, dismantling the soon-to-be-established Goblin Kingdom. You can choose to replace Gorg¡¯s position in the Gloomy Forest, becoming the new ruler of the Gloomy Forest. As the ruler of the Gloomy Forest, you can freely choose your followers and kin.] [2. You single-handedly dismantled the soon-to-be-established Goblin Kingdom, showing incredible courage and wisdom. You can designate one skill to immediately upgrade, and this skill can exceed the highest limit your body currently can withstand.] [3. With your devouring evolution talent, you are destined for greatness, but even the strongest potential needs time to grow. You can undergo mimetic evolution during your next evolution, greatly enhancing the intensity of your next evolution.] [4. You can gain 30 free attribute points.] [5. You can randomly draw one piece of equipment with a quality not lower than golden tier, which can be equipped and used by you.] Chapter 27 Chapter 27: I am the Boss of the Novice Village!Five rewards, choose two. After carefully considering the five options listed by the system, Su Bai couldn¡¯t help but marvel at the richness of the mission rewards. For Su Bai, the least valuable of the five options was the fourth, 30 free attribute points. Even so, this reward could significantly enhance one of his attributes, making it stronger or compensating for a shortcoming. The remaining four options were all highly valuable. The first option, replacing Gorg as the ruler of the Gloomy Forest, clearly indicated one thing. The ruler of the Gloomy Forest, the Boss of the Novice Village, Gorg, is dead. If you wish, you can replace Gorg at any time and become the next Boss of the Novice Village! Moreover, becoming the ruler of the Gloomy Forest would allow him to freely choose his subordinates and kin! Subordinates were equivalent to the Goblin Priests and Goblin Centurions under Gorg. Kin referred to the Goblin race from which Gorg originated! The second option allows Su Bai to gain a powerful skill in advance. If he used this option on ¡¾Sharp Claws and Teeth¡¿, his attack power would greatly increase. If used on ¡¾Resistance Shell¡¿, his defense would significantly improve. Either choice would immediately enhance Su Bai¡¯s strength. The third option enhanced the next evolution. Although the effect of mimetic evolution was unknown for now, this reward will undoubtedly significantly strengthen his future power. As for the last option¡­ Equipment! And it¡¯s equipment that he could use, not lower than gold tier! This was a game world, where leveling up and getting equipment was mainstream. But Su Bai was a monster, one that couldn¡¯t use equipment at all! s?a??h th? N0v?lFire(.)n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. During previous hunts, Su Bai obtained many magical items. But these items could only be used as food, becoming evolution points on his attribute panel, not usable by him. Choosing this option would immediately remedy his regret. Moreover, gold-tier equipment could probably elevate his strength to another level immediately! How to choose? Su Bai fell into deep thought. After a long time, he let out a long breath. ¡°Equipment is ultimately external. Even if it temporarily enhances my strength, as I grow, the role of gold equipment will diminish.¡± Silently marking an ¡°¡Á¡± on the fifth option, Su Bai looked at the remaining three options. Mimetic evolution was a definite choice. No one disliked having high potential, and this reward, which could significantly enhance the evolution effect, might never be available again if missed. So, it came down to becoming the ruler of the Gloomy Forest or gaining a powerful skill in advance. ¡°Goblins are no longer a threat, and players won¡¯t appear for now. Becoming the ruler of the Gloomy Forest¡­ means that within the Gloomy Forest, there is nothing that can threaten me. ¡°Since my current strength is sufficient, then¡­¡± Having made his decision, Su Bai silently said, ¡°I choose the first and third options as the rewards for completing the mission!¡± [Ding! You have become the ruler of the Gloomy Forest, automatically gaining Lord¡¯s Might. You can freely choose your subordinates and kin. If you abandon the identity of the Gloomy Forest ruler, Lord¡¯s Might, subordinates, and kin will disappear automatically. When your template is elevated to the lord level, Lord¡¯s Might, subordinates, and kin will become permanent.] [Ding! You can use mimetic evolution during your next evolution, greatly enhancing the strength of the next evolution.] Accompanied by the crisp system prompt, an invisible might emanated from Su Bai. This might was Lord¡¯s Might. Any creature in the Gloomy Forest would be affected by Lord¡¯s Might. Even if in an adversarial relationship, under the suppression of Lord¡¯s Might, the enemy will find it hard to exert their full strength. Unless the enemy¡¯s template reached the lord level. On Su Bai¡¯s attribute panel, the topmost line quietly changed from the original¡¾Name¡¿to¡¾Identity¡¿. ¡¾Identity¡¿: Ruler of the Gloomy Forest ¨C Su Bai. ¡°Identity, huh¡­¡± Gazing at his attribute panel for a while, Su Bai felt complicated, ¡°From now on, I am the Boss of the Novice Village!¡± In the entire game world, the Boss of the Novice Village was just the most basic boss, but it was a perfect start. In just a few dozen days, he evolved from a low-level ant to the Boss of the Novice Village. In the future, he might grow to surpass all beings, becoming an invincible demon god! After glancing at his attribute panel once more, Su Bai closed it and started handling the remaining gains. A lord-level corpse, a warrior-level corpse, four elite-level corpses, and numerous advanced and ordinary goblin corpses represent a large amount of experience points and evolution points, as well as gene points. As for the other goblins¡­ When Su Bai killed Gorg, those cowardly and foolish goblins scattered and fled. After spending an hour devouring the corpses of many goblins, Su Bai¡¯s level rose to 10, and he gained a large number of evolution points and gene points. After crushing and devouring the last two-handed sword, Su Bai stored Gorg¡¯s long-handled broadsword and black armor in the storage space, ready to leave. Yes, storage space. Upon choosing to become the ruler of the Gloomy Forest, Su Bai gained a 555 storage space. Since he became the Boss, there must be dropped equipment. From now on, anything stored in Su Bai¡¯s storage space could potentially become his drop items. As for why he didn¡¯t devour the two items dropped by Gorg¡­ Su Bai suspected they were probably gold tier, and his current mandible sharpness couldn¡¯t crush such high-tier equipment yet. Next¡­ It¡¯s time to find subordinates and develop his kin! Only when his subordinates and kin thrive could Su Bai, the ruler of the Gloomy Forest, truly be the undisputed Boss of the Novice Village! Chapter 28 Chapter 28: Subordinates and Kin!Subordinates and kin were what every boss possessed. Just like the Goblin Priests, Goblin Centurions, and the Goblin race under Goblin General Gorg. The strength of subordinates and kin also somewhat determines a boss¡¯s status in the game world. Of course, every boss can freely decide whether to develop subordinates and kin. If it were in another world, Su Bai would definitely abandon subordinates and kin. Wouldn¡¯t it be better to eat, kill, and continuously evolve alone, enhancing his strength? Why bother to develop subordinates and kin? But this was a game world! What was the scariest thing in the game world? Players! When the game starts and tens of thousands of players arrive, it would be the end of many bosses in this world. Not to mention Su Bai, the newly appointed Boss of the Novice Village; even higher-level bosses couldn¡¯t withstand the overwhelming attacks from players. Su Bai didn¡¯t expect these subordinates and kin to withstand player attacks, but at least¡­ when players appear, he would have cannon fodder to use, helping him buy more time. Besides¡­ If he could truly develop subordinates and kin, he might not be able to counterattack the players, but at least he would have a foothold in this world. Therefore, developing subordinates and kin was very necessary. As for the choice of subordinates and kin¡­ Su Bai already had a decision in mind. ¡ª Two days later, Su Bai returned from the depths of the Gloomy Forest to its edge. The place where his ant nest was located. After several evolutions and level-ups, Su Bai¡¯s size had grown to over a meter in length and more than thirty centimeters in height. With such a size, it was naturally impossible to enter the ant nest. Appearing under the low cliff, Su Bai reached out with one claw, easily destroying the rock and expanding the ant nest entrance several times. Countless ants swarmed out of the nest. Under the influence of Su Bai¡¯s Lord¡¯s Might, these almost mindless creatures immediately lost control of their bodies, obediently lying on the ground, watching Su Bai repeatedly destroy their home. Half an hour later, the huge ant nest was nearly completely excavated by Su Bai. In the deepest part of the nest, a plump white queen ant, five centimeters long, lay in the middle of the cave. Sensing the faint fear emanating from the queen ant, Su Bai expressionlessly picked her up and placed her among the ants on the ground. Then¡­ Following the unclear memory in his mind, Su Bai continued to dig. This time, his movements were much gentler. As if afraid of hurting something. Bit by bit, another half hour passed. A cave that appeared extremely small relative to Su Bai appeared before his eyes. In this cave, a pitch-black worker ant, three centimeters long, was dazedly eating ¡ª constantly stuffing round larvae food into its mouth. The worker ant that had been responsible for caring for the larvae back then. Su Bai didn¡¯t know why such a big change had occurred in just a dozen days. But by following his intuition, he knew this was the only worker ant he cared about! When Su Bai saw the worker ant, it also stopped eating. It raised its head and stared blankly at Su Bai for a while. Then it crawled to Su Bai¡¯s front, placing a small round ball in front of him, its black antennae twitching slightly, releasing several different scents. ¡°Eat¡­ ¡°¡­I also¡­eat¡­ ¡°¡­Grow bigger¡­¡± When he discerned the meaning of the scents emitted by the worker ant, Su Bai suddenly felt on the verge of tears. It was like a wanderer finally returning home. Since being reborn into this world, Su Bai had always been in a state of fear. Even though he possessed three extremely powerful innate skills, even though he had crossed chasms in a dozen days that most monsters couldn¡¯t cross in a lifetime, this feeling hadn¡¯t diminished. No one could communicate with him. He didn¡¯t know when players would arrive, turning him into experience and levels, just as he had done before. In this despairing world, only the worker ant made him feel warmth. Especially when he returned victorious, having killed Gorg and become the ruler of the Gloomy Forest, he found the worker ant also working hard. It was eating, trying to grow bigger. It was following in his footsteps. Even though the worker ant¡¯s progress was pitifully small compared to Su Bai, it was still trying. Su Bai could clearly feel that the worker ant had evolved from the dim level to the tiny level. In the entire nest, besides the already tiny-level queen ant, the worker ant was the only one that evolved. Moreover, while evolving, the worker ant hadn¡¯t forgotten Su Bai. When he appeared, it recognized him immediately, placing the larvae food before him just like before. Even though this small amount of food was now barely enough to fill a gap in his teeth. A wave of warmth filled his heart. Two gentle light orbs appeared between Su Bai¡¯s claws. With a slight movement, these light orbs flew towards the worker ant and the queen ant. The next moment. S?a?ch* Th? N?v?lFir?.n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. Crisp system prompt sounds rang out one after another. [Ding! You have chosen the ant race as your kin, do you confirm?] [Ding! You have chosen the queen ant as your subordinate, do you confirm?] [Ding! You have chosen the worker ant as your subordinate, do you confirm?] That¡¯s right! The worker ant and the queen ant were the subordinates Su Bai chose for himself, and the ant race he was born into was his chosen kin! Chapter 29 Chapter 29: The Terrifying Potential of the Zerg!Choosing the worker ant and the queen ant as his subordinates and the ant species as his kin, Su Bai made this decision after careful consideration. At present, the ant species seems incredibly weak. Apart from Su Bai, only the worker ant and the queen ant have reached the tiny level. It could be said that the combined strength of the entire species might not even match a level 1 monster, let alone compare with a species like goblins. However, the ant species had potential that was hard for most to see. Among Su Bai¡¯s three major talents, the ¡¾Adaptability¡¿ talent came from the ant species. This meant that every ant in the species had the potential to awaken the ¡¾Adaptability¡¿ talent. Even though this chance was extremely small, it truly existed. One ant might not awaken the ¡¾Adaptability¡¿ talent, but what about a hundred? S?a?ch* Th? ??v?l_Fir?.?et website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. If not a hundred, then a thousand. If not a thousand, then ten thousand or a hundred thousand! As long as there was enough food, a queen ant could develop the colony into tens of thousands in a short time. Under Su Bai¡¯s control, reaching hundreds of thousands was not impossible. Su Bai remembered the system¡¯s description that even insects had infinite potential! Moreover, he had some suspicions. Choosing a tiny-level species as his kin would likely prompt the system to offer compensation for balance, enhancing the ant species. After all, no one else would choose a tiny-level creature that isn¡¯t even a formal monster as their kin. Indeed, when Su Bai confirmed the ant species as his kin, the system prompt sounded. [Ding! You have chosen ants as your kin. You can select two of the following options as species talents for the ant species.] [1. Adaptability. The adaptability talent of the ant species is enhanced, giving each newly born ant a 0.1% chance to awaken the adaptability talent.] [2. Rapid Digestion. Ants selected as kin gain rapid digestion, allowing them to grow faster.] [3. Reinforced Carapace. Ants selected as kin have tougher carapaces, enabling them to withstand more damage than other insects.] [4. Subtle Camouflage. As a species that evolved from the tiny level, ants selected as kin can blend into their surroundings more easily, significantly reducing hostility from other creatures.] Four options, four talents. Without hesitation, Su Bai chose the ¡¾Adaptability¡¿ talent and the ¡¾Rapid Digestion¡¿ talent. With these two species talents, the potential of the ants was no less than that of goblins. In fact, given enough food and time to grow, this ant species could become a miracle in the game world! Having settled his kin, Su Bai then focused on his subordinates. Becoming the ruler of the Gloomy Forest, Su Bai¡¯s number of subordinates was not fixed. He could have two subordinates with warrior templates or split the warrior template subordinates into four elite template subordinates, or further split the elite template subordinates into ten advanced template subordinates. Clearly, Gorg had chosen to split. Thus, he had one warrior-level Goblin Priest and four elite-level Goblin Centurions under his command. Su Bai¡¯s strategy for his kin was group combat, overwhelming enemies with a sea of insects, so he wouldn¡¯t randomly split his subordinates¡¯ slots. He directly assigned the two warrior-level attribute templates to the worker ant and the queen ant. Similar to the kin. Since the worker ant and the queen ant were also tiny-level creatures, not even reaching the formal monster level, when Su Bai chose them as his subordinates, the system offered several options for their talents as well. ¡¾Identity¡¿: Queen Ant ¡¾Species¡¿: Ant ¡¾Level¡¿: Tiny Level ¡¾Template¡¿: Warrior Attribute Template (HP +2000, Strength *5, Agility *1, Constitution *25, Spirit *3) ¡¾Attributes¡¿: Strength 0.11, Agility 0.02, Constitution 0.5, Spirit 0.08 ¡¾Talents¡¿: Mutated Eggs (unique talent), Adaptability (species talent), Rapid Digestion (species talent) ¡¾Skills¡¿: Mental Network (passive skill, allows the queen ant to sense and remotely control the ant colony¡¯s movements), Rapid Reproduction (passive skill, doubles food consumption, and doubles egg-laying speed and quantity) ¡¾Mutated Eggs¡¿: As the first queen ant to obtain the warrior template, this talent allows the queen ant to gain gene points while eating. When the gene points of a particular type reach a certain amount, there is a chance to lay eggs that inherit the characteristics of that creature. Currently, the queen ant¡¯s attribute panel is simple. But the appearance of the ¡¾Mutated Eggs¡¿ talent made the queen ant one of the best subordinates! As long as it consumed enough of a creature¡¯s flesh, there was a chance to lay eggs inheriting that creature¡¯s traits. Combined with the ¡¾Adaptability¡¿ and ¡¾Rapid Digestion¡¿ species talents, this almost multiplies the chances of elite ants emerging! When these elite ants grow and their numbers accumulate, not only goblins but even hundreds or thousands of players would be overwhelmed by the insect swarm! With the two species talents and the queen ant¡¯s ¡¾Mutated Eggs¡¿ talent and ¡¾Rapid Reproduction¡¿ passive skill, the war potential of the ant species is already taking shape! Lastly, the worker ant. ¡¾Identity¡¿: Worker Ant ¡¾Species¡¿: Ant ¡¾Level¡¿: Tiny Level ¡¾Template¡¿: Warrior Attribute Template (HP +2500, Strength *10, Agility *7, Constitution *10, Spirit 8) ¡¾Attributes¡¿: Strength 0.1, Agility 0.08, Constitution 0.05, Spirit 0.21 ¡¾Talents¡¿: Metal Eater, Adaptability (species talent), Rapid Digestion (species talent) ¡¾Skills¡¿: Rapid Healing, Malice Detection ¡¾Metal Eater¡¿: By devouring metal, the worker ant can gain a large amount of experience and has a certain chance to obtain both strength and defense enhancements from the metal. ¡¾Malice Detection¡¿: Passive skill. With naturally strong mental power, you can keenly sense the emotions of other creatures and clearly feel any malice directed towards you. Chapter 30 Chapter 30: Rapid Expansion! Rapid Expansion! Rapid Expansion!Metal Eater was a very powerful talent, which Su Bai specifically chose for the worker ant. Once it passed the initial growth phase, this talent could significantly strengthen the worker ant in a short time, making it top-tier among all talents, second only to Su Bai¡¯s devouring evolution. As for the initial growth phase¡­ Feeling a bit relieved, Su Bai opened his storage space. A heart the size of a bowl and two green arms over a meter long fell out from the storage space, landing on the ground. This was the heart and arms of Goblin General Gorg. When devouring corpses in Goblin City, Su Bai intentionally saved Gorg¡¯s heart and arms to see if consuming them could help the worker ant evolve. To Su Bai, Gorg¡¯s heart and arms were just a source of experience and evolution points. But for the tiny-level worker ant and queen ant, the heart and arms of a lord-level monster were akin to rare treasures, enough to help them get through the initial growth phase. After becoming Su Bai¡¯s subordinates, the worker ant and queen ant couldn¡¯t communicate fluently yet but could understand his intentions. As the heart and arms landed, the two ants simultaneously crawled toward the bowl-sized heart. Without needing Su Bai¡¯s prompting, they instinctively knew how much essence was contained in this heart. Compared to the worker ant and queen ant, Gorg¡¯s heart was like a small mountain. s?a??h th? ?0velF?re.n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. With each bite of flesh, they gained significant experience. In Su Bai¡¯s perception, within just a few minutes, the aura of both the worker ant and queen ant had grown noticeably stronger. Their bodies even started to slowly grow. As for the other ants¡­ When Su Bai chose the ant species as his kin and made the queen ant one of his subordinates, the other ants were destined to be abandoned. Mature ants had little chance of evolving, and Su Bai considered only the new eggs laid by the queen ant after she grew as his kin! Time passed bit by bit. After a full hour, Gorg¡¯s heart was completely devoured, and both the worker ant and queen ant broke through the tiny-level limit, officially advancing to monsters with levels! Then, under Su Bai¡¯s instruction, the worker ant and queen ant each took one of the arms and continued eating. After a few more hours, when the two arms were reduced to bare bones, the growth of the worker ant and queen ant finally ended. By this time, their levels had reached three. Thanks to their warrior templates, even at level three, the worker ant and queen ant had attributes comparable to advanced goblins, with much higher health points. At this point, even if Su Bai left them alone, the worker ant and queen ant had the strength to survive in the Gloomy Forest. As long as they didn¡¯t encounter lord-level or elite-level monsters, the ant species would soon take root, grow, and eventually replace the goblins as the rulers of the Gloomy Forest. However¡­ An ant species merely comparable to goblins was far from satisfying Su Bai. He invested so much effort, naturally hoping for the ant species to become as powerful as possible, to the point of being invincible! Following Su Bai¡¯s command, the queen ant returned to the depths of the already dug ant nest to start laying eggs. Supported by the large amount of food Su Bai provided, egg after egg, each the size of a pigeon egg, were produced, densely occupying the nest¡¯s depths. After just one day, hundreds of young ants hatched from the eggs. Each young ant was about three centimeters long, emitting an aura that reached the tiny level ¡ª the same level once reached only by the queen ant and worker ant! Subsequently, under Su Bai¡¯s orders, the hundreds of newly mobile young ants swarmed out, sweeping all creatures within a 500-meter radius of the nest. Spiders, grasshoppers, crickets, frogs, toads, mice ¡ª no creature was spared unless it was a formal monster. Within half a day, hundreds of various creatures were hunted by the ant swarm, brought back as food to the nest, with over a third of the young ants lost in the process. Meanwhile, after consuming a large amount of food, the queen ant laid a second batch of eggs. When this second batch of young ants grew and joined the hunt, the ant swarm¡¯s range expanded from 500 meters to 1,000 meters. Then came the third batch, and the fourth batch. Finally. On the fifth day, after consuming a vast amount of food, the queen ant broke through to level four. Her attributes grew again, enhancing her egg-laying ability further. Within the ant swarm, the first ant to break through its limit and become a level-one monster appeared! Where there was a first, there would be a second. After seven days, the number of ants breaking through their limits to become level-one monsters reached four. After nine days, it reached seven. On the twelfth day, the number of level-one monster ants increased from seven to ten! Then, level-one and level-two monsters in the Gloomy Forest also became targets for the ant swarm¡¯s hunts. By this time, all the first batch of ants had died. Even among the second and third batches, very few survived the twelve days of hunting. But every surviving ant either broke through its limits or successfully awakened a racial talent, becoming the elite among the ants. During these twelve days of hunting, thousands of ants died. Yet the ant swarm¡¯s total number did not decrease but instead increased. The countless corpses of various creatures brought back by the ants became food for the worker ant and queen ant, keeping them in a constant state of upgrading and gradually strengthening the ant swarm. With the ¡¾Mutated Eggs¡¿ talent, each time the queen ant consumed a creature¡¯s corpse, she made a slight adjustment to her eggs, making the hatched ants a bit stronger. Though a single adjustment was negligible, over time, the cumulative effect made the newly hatched ants stronger and stronger, enhancing the overall strength of the ant swarm. Unnoticed by anyone, Su Bai began a frenzied expansion on the edge of the Gloomy Forest. This frantic expansion brought with it the crazy evolution of the ant species! Chapter 31 Chapter 31: Ant Colony Evolution, Devouring Ants! S?a??h th? N???lFire.n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality.Another half month passed. The worker ant¡¯s level increased to level 5, while the queen ant¡¯s level rose to level 6. The strength of the ant colony multiplied many times over. In half a month, the ant colony accumulated over one hundred level 1 ants, reaching the peak of the tiny level, with hundreds more ants just one step away from breaking through. However, this was the limit of the ant colony¡¯s development. It¡¯s not that the ant colony¡¯s potential ended here, but on the edge of the Gloomy Forest, there weren¡¯t enough resources for the colony to continue expanding and evolving. During this period, all creatures within a ten-kilometer radius were swept clean by the ant colony, becoming food for the entire group¡¯s evolution. To continue developing, they had to relocate. The Gloomy Forest was vast. At Su Bai¡¯s current speed, it would take two days to reach the center from the forest¡¯s edge. Such a large forest had plenty of space for the ant species, whose numbers were still under ten thousand. Su Bai needed to decide on a location where the ant species could survive and maximize their advantages, resuming their near-unlimited expansion and evolution. ¡°If it were in Goblin City¡­¡± After some thought, Su Bai chose Goblin City. As the former royal city of the goblins, Goblin City was located in the center of the Gloomy Forest. After Su Bai killed Gorg, the goblins gathered in Goblin City fled, dispersing throughout the central area of the Gloomy Forest. The monsters active in that area were generally between levels 7 and 10. With the current strength of the ant species, it would be difficult to establish themselves in this area. But with Su Bai, it would be different. Under Su Bai¡¯s protection, the ant species could easily pass through the initial stages. When a new round of expansion began and more powerful ants appeared, they could firmly establish themselves in the center of the Gloomy Forest. Just like at the beginning, the arrival of the ant species in the center would come with significant losses. However, after passing the initial stage, the benefits would be equally substantial. More and higher-level monsters would not only provide richer food and experience for the ant species but also, by devouring these monster corpses and adjusting the ant eggs again, result in stronger newly born ants! Once they established themselves in the center of the Gloomy Forest, the ant species would have the capital to overpower the goblins! ¡°However¡­ migrating so many ants is a big project¡­¡± Glancing at the seemingly endless ant colony, Su Bai prepared to abandon part of the ants. The level 1 ants and those that had awakened racial talents would definitely be taken along. As for the rest¡­ As before, Su Bai abandoned them. In Su Bai¡¯s kin, the queen ant was the absolute center. As long as the queen ant survived, she could lay eggs and create a new ant army in just a few days, even if the entire colony was wiped out. If breaking through racial limits and awakening talents were not so difficult, Su Bai would have considered taking only the worker ant and the queen ant. As for the abandoned ants¡­ Without the queen ant, they would continue hunting and living as before. Once this batch of ants died in battle or of old age, the remaining ant colony would be extinct. Survival was not easy. Living in a game world where the strong prey on the weak was even harder. If the pace of evolution couldn¡¯t keep up with the group¡¯s overall improvement, they would ultimately be abandoned or become experience and food for stronger beings. Not just for the ant colony but for Su Bai as well. ¡ª After more than ten days, Su Bai finally arrived at Goblin City with the worker ant, queen ant, and several hundred ants. He did not enter the ruined city. Su Bai chose a small mountain near Goblin City as the new ant nest, starting a new round of expansion and evolution. On the first day, the queen ant laid over a thousand eggs, while the several hundred ants began tentative hunting. Dozens of ants were lost, bringing back a few goblin and other monster corpses. On the second day, over a thousand eggs hatched, and the new ants immediately joined the hunt. More ants died in hunting, resulting in a severalfold increase in monster corpses. From the third day, the ant colony entered a virtuous cycle of development. Every day, hundreds of ants died in hunting, and every day, new ants broke through racial limits or awakened talents. As the number of level 1 ants increased, hunting became easier. Five days later, the number of level 1 ants exceeded one hundred and fifty. Ten days later, the number of level 1 ants exceeded two hundred. Half a month later, after devouring countless monster corpses and undergoing countless adjustments, the eggs laid by the queen ant hatched at the peak of the tiny level. Subsequently, the number of level 1 ants experienced explosive growth! Twenty-five days: three hundred ants! One month: five hundred ants! Thirty-five days: eight hundred ants! With the emergence of more and more level 1 and higher-level ants, the strength of the ant colony grew. The scattered monsters in the Gloomy Forest¡¯s center were no match for the ant army. Centered around the ant nest, more and more monsters were cleared out, turning into food and experience for the ant colony, making them stronger. A new round of expansion began! Until¡­ Two months later. [Ding! Your kin, the queen ant, has reached level 10.] [The ant species under the queen ant has more than 50% of its members breaking through to level 1, qualifying the species to evolve from the tiny level to a formal monster species. You can choose to rename the species or keep the original name.] Ant colony evolution! As if expecting this result, Su Bai smiled slightly when the system prompt sounded and silently said, ¡°Rename the ant colony.¡± ¡°The new name of the ant colony will be¡­ Devouring Ants!¡± Chapter 32 Chapter 32: A New Monster Species!¡¾Species Name¡¿: Devouring Ants ¡¾Levels¡¿: Level 1 ¡ª Level 10 ¡¾Species Talents¡¿: Adaptability, Rapid Digestion It¡¯s a very simple attribute panel. This was the attribute panel possessed by the ant colony, now renamed Devouring Ants, after the entire population evolved. Looking at this attribute panel, Su Bai¡¯s heart was anything but calm. His current mood could only be compared to when he killed Gorg, advancing his template from Advanced Level to Warrior Level. After officially ascending to a monster species, the strength of the Devouring Ants was no longer something the Goblin species could match. Su Bai speculated that the Goblin species ranged from Level 3 to Level 8. In other words, once a Goblin reached adulthood, it became a Level 3 monster, and with enough experience, it could eventually grow into an Level 8 monster. To break through this level cap, it must obtain advanced, elite, or higher-level attribute templates. However, the Devouring Ant species ranges from Level 1 to Level 10! From this moment on, newly born ants would become full-fledged monsters once they reach adulthood, possessing their own attribute templates. And the highest level they could reach was Level 10, which was two levels higher than Goblins! Keep in mind, ants were creatures that fight in groups. When they mobilize, they number in the hundreds or thousands, far beyond the ability of a Goblin camp with just a dozen or so. Coupled with the large numbers and the continuous hunting that brings about advanced and elite ant species due to their large base, the Devouring Ants completely outclass Goblins! If it weren¡¯t for the low level of the Queen Ant and her limited daily egg-laying capacity, the potential for growth and the speed of their militarization of the Devouring Ants alone would probably be enough to effortlessly destroy a small kingdom! With such a tribe, Devouring Ants were already capable of occupying a place among the monster species in the game world! Thus, Su Bai finally concluded his cultivation of the tribe. From the tiny-level evolution to the current monster species, the Devouring Ants had reached their current limit. To evolve again as a whole, there must be a colossal opportunity, which could not be achieved in a short time. Next, what the Devouring Ants need to do was continue their militarization and continue their hunting. Based on increasing the number of the ant colony, continuously hunt high-level monsters, and plunder their experience and attribute templates. When enough advanced and elite ant species appear in the Devouring Ants, it would be the moment when this new monster species shocks the entire game world! ¡ª The Devouring Ants matured. Next, they need to continue accumulating strength for the colony, and Su Bai can¡¯t do anything more. His next focus was to continue enhancing his own strength. After becoming the master of the Gloomy Forest, Su Bai¡¯s strength has greatly increased, far surpassing what it was before. His current attributes are: ¡¾Identity¡¿: Master of the Gloomy Forest ¨C Su Bai ¡¾Race¡¿: Overlord Ant ¡¾Template¡¿: Warrior Attribute Template ¡¾Level¡¿: Level 12 ¡¾Status¡¿: Life 3800, Magic 1000 ¡¾Attributes¡¿: Strength 107, Agility 75, Constitution 80, Spirit 50 ¡¾Talents¡¿: Soul Points Allocation, Devour Evolution, Adaptability ¡¾Skills¡¿: Sharp Claws and Teeth, Resistance Shell, Regrowth, Intermediate Poison Resistance, Intermediate Fire Resistance, Intermediate Ice Resistance, Shadow Assault, Bloodthirsty Berserk ¡¾Gene Points¡¿: Goblin Gene 5528 points, Frost Wolf Gene 331 points, Slime Gene 179 points, Fire Rabbit Gene 84 points¡­ ¡¾Evolution Points¡¿: 8927 points ¡¾Skill Fragments¡¿: None ¡¾Soul Points¡¿: 5 points Over nearly three months, most of his energy has been focused on the development of the tribe, and Su Bai¡¯s level has only increased by 2 levels, with limited increases in his four-dimensional attributes. Fortunately, during these months, he obtained a large number of gene points and evolution points. With another round of hunting, he would be able to gather enough evolution points needed for his fifth evolution. Don¡¯t forget, when he became the Master of the Gloomy Forest, he received a reward for mimetic evolution, which could greatly enhance the strength of his next evolution. The fifth evolution was bound to greatly enhance his strength! After arranging for the ants to continue their militarization and hunting, to enhance the foundation of the colony, Su Bai left the ant nest with the Worker Ants and began to hunt powerful monsters in the Gloomy Forest to prepare for his fifth evolution. With the Queen Ant¡¯s level raised to 10 and the Worker Ant¡¯s level to 9, thanks to initially having a Warrior-level template, the Worker Ant¡¯s four-dimensional attributes were no less than Su Bai¡¯s at this moment. Perhaps it was still not a match for General Gorg, but in a one-on-one situation, the current Worker Ant can completely defeat the elite-level Goblin Centurion. With such strength, it was no longer a burden to Su Bai. Starting from the center of the Gloomy Forest, they head towards its deeper regions. Numerous advanced and elite-level monsters were hunted by Su Bai and the Worker Ants, becoming their nourishment for evolution. The number of evolution points on Su Bai¡¯s attribute panel was rapidly approaching 10,000. One day. Two days. Three days. s?a??h th? N?v?lF?re.?et website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. Five days. Finally, when Su Bai and the Worker Ants reached the edge of the Gloomy Forest on the other side, the Worker Ant¡¯s level successfully rose to 10, and Su Bai finally gathered enough evolution points needed for his fifth evolution. At the edge of the Gloomy Forest, Su Bai found a mountainside and carved out a deep cave as a temporary base for him and the Worker Ants. Afterwards, Su Bai took out some basic magical equipment and several Frost Wolf carcasses from his storage space and placed them in the cave, gently patting the Worker Ant. ¡°I¡¯m going to rest for a while. ¡°During the time I¡¯m resting, use these Frost Wolf carcasses as food. If possible, try to devour this equipment to enhance your strength. ¡°I¡¯ll wake up soon. During the time I¡¯m resting, don¡¯t leave the cave.¡± Su Bai was the master of the Gloomy Forest, and his natural aura exuded the dominance of a master. This was also the intersection of the Gloomy Forest and another area, where powerful monsters were unlikely to appear. As long as the Worker Ant stayed in this cave, there would be no danger. After arranging everything, Su Bai then opened his second attribute panel. [Ding! Evolution points are sufficient. Do you wish to start the fifth evolution?] Accompanied by a crisp system prompt, Su Bai¡¯s fifth evolution¡­ finally begins! Chapter 33 Chapter 33: Evolution Begins!Without hesitation. When the system prompt sounded, Su Bai chose to begin the evolution. [Ding! This time you can choose Mimetic Evolution, or you can choose to abandon Mimetic Evolution and continue with the original evolution method.] ¡°I choose Mimetic Evolution!¡± There was no doubt about it. Following the original method to enhance his evolution with genetic points certainly could increase Su Bai¡¯s strength. But he believed that Mimetic Evolution would bring about far greater strength gains. With Su Bai¡¯s choice, all the genetic points and evolution points on his second panel were depleted. However, this time, he didn¡¯t see the virtual images that appeared during previous evolutions. Instead, everything went black in front of his eyes, and he lost consciousness. Mimetic Evolution, a newly emerged evolution method. Without corresponding information, Su Bai found it difficult to speculate on the form of this evolution. The only thing he knew was that after this evolution, his strength would be further enhanced! Inside the cave. Looking at Su Bai lying quietly at the bottom of the cave, motionless, the small worker ant swayed its feelers dumbly. A very faint mental wave emanated from its body. ¡°Rest¡­ rest? ¡°Not afraid¡­ ¡°I¡­ protect¡­¡± The feelers swayed again, and the small worker ant stared blankly at Su Bai for a while. It had grown to over half a meter in length, but compared to Su Bai, its body was still petite and exquisite as it slowly crawled to Su Bai¡¯s side and lay down. A few minutes later, the small worker ant lifted its head and moved slightly towards Su Bai. After a few more minutes, the small worker ant¡¯s body moved again. So it went on, until the bodies of the two ants, one large and one small, were close together, and the small worker ant finally settled down contentedly. Quietly lying next to Su Bai, its jet-black eyes stared tightly at the deep entrance of the cave, as if guarding against something. After a long time, the faint mental wave emanated from the small worker ant¡¯s body once again. ¡°Eat¡­ ¡°Will¡­ grow bigger¡­ ¡°Can¡­ protect¡­ you¡­¡± Dragging over a piece of magical equipment, the small worker ant glanced at Su Bai, then at the entrance of the cave. Its already sharp mandibles gently bit into the magical equipment. ¡ª After who knew how long, Su Bai¡¯s consciousness finally recovered. Bit by bit, light appeared before his eyes, and he could finally see the environment around him. Still deep inside that cave. Of the four Frost Wolf corpses he had left behind, only two remained, and of the three magical items, only a large two-handed sword was left, with a dozen small bite marks clearly visible on its blade. In front of him were laid out a dozen or so fresh corpses. There were Frost Wolves, Fire Rabbits, Lizards, and even a humanoid creature with sky-blue skin covered in rough fish scales. The only thing missing was the small worker ant! Panic gripped Su Bai¡¯s heart. Just as he was about to rush out of the cave to search for the small worker ant, a small figure slowly crawled in from outside the cave. It was the small worker ant. S?a??h the N?v?lFir?(.)n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. Seeing Su Bai wake up, the small worker ant was extremely excited. It rushed to Su Bai¡¯s side in a flash, put down the monster corpse it was holding in its mouth, and a mental wave emanated from the small worker ant¡¯s body. ¡°Hunting¡­ ¡°Give you¡­ to eat¡­ not hungry¡­¡± Through the bond between them as master and servant, Su Bai quickly understood what the small worker ant was trying to convey. This time, during Mimetic Evolution, he had slept for two full days. At first, the small worker ant had stayed quietly in the cave as Su Bai instructed. But after a day passed, the small worker ant couldn¡¯t stay still anymore. It had already eaten half of the four Frost Wolf corpses, and only the two-handed sword remained out of the three magical items. If it continued to eat, there would be no more food in the cave. Perhaps due to habits from their time in the ant nest, the small worker ant was afraid that there would be no food for Su Bai after he woke up, so it hurriedly rushed out of the cave to hunt. That¡¯s why, when Su Bai woke up, there were a dozen fresh corpses laid out in front of him. These were all hunted down by the small worker ant after a day of hard work. Gradually feeling warmth in his heart, Su Bai gently patted the small worker ant, comforted it for a few moments, and then checked the gains from his evolution this time. Firstly, his physique. After this evolution, Su Bai¡¯s physique had grown to a massive two meters, almost reaching one meter in height even when lying prone on the ground, showing the initial form of a colossal creature. Secondly, there was the increase in attributes. ¡¾Identity¡¿: Lord of the Gloomy Forest ¨C Su Bai ¡¾Race¡¿: Overlord Ant ¡¾Template¡¿: Warrior Attribute Template ¡¾Level¡¿: Level 12 ¡¾Status¡¿: Life 4500, Mana 1500 ¡¾Attributes¡¿: Strength 180, Agility 130, Constitution 150, Spirit 100 ¡¾Talents¡¿: Soul Point Allocation, Devour Evolution, Adaptability ¡¾Skills¡¿: Sharp Claws and Teeth, Resistance Shell, Regrowth, Intermediate Poison Resistance, Intermediate Fire Resistance, Intermediate Ice Resistance, Shadow Assault, Bloodthirsty Berserk ¡¾Genetic Points¡¿: 0 points ¡¾Evolution Points¡¿: 0 points ¡¾Skill Fragments¡¿: None ¡¾Soul Points¡¿: 9 points Strength had increased from 107 to 180, agility from 75 to 130, constitution from 80 to 150, and spirit from 50 to 100. This evolution had brought Su Bai a whopping 248 points in attribute gains! According to his current attribute template, it would take five levels of advancement to achieve such a huge gain in attributes! One evolution had directly doubled his strength! Moreover, after evolving again, all three of his resistance skills could be upgraded once more. Spending 3 soul points, Su Bai immediately raised the levels of these three resistance skills from intermediate to advanced, further enhancing his ability to resist spells of these three attributes. ¡°It truly deserves to be Mimetic Evolution; the strength gained from one evolution is equivalent to the effort I put in over one or two months!¡± Slightly excited in his heart, Su Bai couldn¡¯t help but murmur. Suddenly, his movements halted. ¡°Mimetic, Mimetic¡­ ¡°The increase in the four attributes is just the result of evolution. Then, what about Mimetic¡­¡± Countless pieces of information appeared in his mind, and Su Bai finally understood. ¡°So, this is Mimetic Evolution! ¡°Then¡­ ¡°Come out, Second Form!¡± Chapter 34 Chapter 34: Heavy Armored Knight Form!With Su Bai¡¯s shout, excruciating pain that seemed to tear his soul apart surged through him, and his body began to undergo intense changes. Maintaining his ant form, his body started to melt and collapse inward. His height rapidly increased. In just a few breaths, his form transformed from a large ant into a humanoid shape. Then, the melting carapace began to solidify, forming a new layer of armor on his body. In a few seconds, the transformation ended, and Su Bai finally understood the meaning of ¡°mimetic¡± in ¡°Mimetic Evolution.¡± Mimetic meant that he could gain a second form! After this fusion, he could switch between his ant body, which was his first form, and his humanoid body, which was his second form, at any time. However, there was a ten-day cooldown period for each switch. Once the cooldown ended, he could switch from one form to the other. Looking at his appearance, Su Bai now looked no different from a human. At 1.8 meters tall, he wore a full-cover black heavy armor helmet that only revealed his eyes. His torso, arms, and legs were also clad in the same pitch-black heavy armor, with his hands and feet encased in gauntlets and greaves with a metallic sheen. At this moment, he resembled a human elite heavy armor warrior! The difference was that the heavy armor worn by human warriors was equipment, while the pitch-black heavy armor covering Su Bai¡¯s body was his carapace! This full-body armor was Su Bai¡¯s skin. It couldn¡¯t be removed, just like the resistant carapace in his first form, and it had extremely strong defensive capabilities. S?a?ch* Th? ??v?lF?re.?et website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. ¡°It seems I still long for the human world¡­¡± A deep voice came from beneath the helmet, and Su Bai sighed. The faceplate, part of his carapace-formed heavy armor, was the only movable part. With this faceplate, Su Bai could eat freely and also regained the ability to speak. Perhaps because this heavy armor was formed from his carapace, Su Bai didn¡¯t feel heavy or cumbersome. He could still fully utilize his agility attribute. ¡°Unfortunately, I still can¡¯t wear equipment.¡± Feeling the powerful defensive capabilities of the heavy armor, Su Bai smiled slightly. ¡°But¡­ Demon Insect Lance!¡± With a low shout, a dark light shot out from his body, instantly forming a two-meter-long pitch-black lance in his hand! This was an oddly shaped lance. With a 1.5-meter shaft, the remaining part wasn¡¯t the conical tip of a regular knight¡¯s lance or the diamond-shaped head of a spear, but a double-edged blade like that of a greatsword. Just by looking at the shape, one could tell the immense power of this lance. The Demon Insect Lance, that was the name of this lance. And the origin of this lance was Su Bai¡¯s bones and a pair of legs. Just like the resistant carapace turned into his heavy armor, this lance was also a transformation of a part of Su Bai¡¯s body. Holding the Demon Insect Lance, Su Bai felt a connection as if it was part of his bloodline. He casually slashed, and the blade of the lance pierced into the hard rock wall without any resistance, as if it was piercing through air instead of rock. After testing the sharpness of the Demon Insect Lance, Su Bai casually threw it towards the cave entrance, and the pitch-black lance embedded itself into the rock. With a thought, the lance, which was several meters away, automatically returned to Su Bai¡¯s hand! It wasn¡¯t equipment, but better than equipment! That was Su Bai¡¯s feeling after obtaining the Demon Insect Lance! Not only was it incredibly sharp, but since it was a part of his body, Su Bai could always merge it back into his body. Even if the lance wasn¡¯t by his side, he could summon it back with a single thought! Moreover, since it was part of Su Bai¡¯s body, as his strength increased, the power of the Demon Insect Lance would also increase! In gaming terms, the Demon Insect Lance was a growth weapon exclusively for Su Bai. If Su Bai¡¯s strength could reach the level of a demon god, the Demon Insect Lance would also rise accordingly, potentially becoming a divine weapon! ¡°Heavy Armor, Demon Insect Lance! ¡°This new form will be called the Heavy Armored Knight Form.¡± Familiarizing himself with his new form, Su Bai then opened his attribute panel. Compared to his first form, most of his data remained unchanged. The only difference was a new skill added to his skill panel, the Touch of the Demon Insect. ¡¾Touch of the Demon Insect¡¿: Passive Skill. In your Heavy Armored Knight form, you retain the Devour Evolution talent. You can use the Demon Insect Lance as a medium to devour the corpses of enemies you kill, but at a cost of 90% consumption. Glancing at the skill description of ¡¾Touch of the Demon Insect¡¿, Su Bai frowned slightly and summoned the Demon Insect Lance. With a soft sound, the Demon Insect Lance pierced into the corpse of a Frost Wolf. The next moment, a crisp system prompt sounded. [You have devoured the flesh of a Frost Wolf, gaining 50 experience points, and 10 Frost Wolf genes.] At the same time, the Frost Wolf¡¯s corpse slowly shriveled up, as if its essence had been drained. In the Heavy Armored Knight form, Su Bai clearly couldn¡¯t devour corpses as quickly as he could in his ant form. The newly acquired Touch of the Demon Insect was the best replacement ability. However, Su Bai wasn¡¯t very satisfied with the devouring speed of the Demon Insect Lance. Moreover, there was a high 90% consumption rate for devouring with the Demon Insect Lance. ¡°Invest 1 soul point into the Touch of the Demon Insect.¡± With Su Bai¡¯s words, one soul point was consumed, reducing the consumption of Touch of the Demon Insect from 90% to 80%. ¡°Continue!¡± Investing two more soul points, the consumption of Touch of the Demon Insect dropped from 80% to 70%. Keep going! After investing five soul points in total, Touch of the Demon Insect disappeared, replaced by a new skill. ¡¾Devourer of Demon Insects¡¿: Passive Skill. The infusion of mysterious power greatly enhances the devouring ability of your Demon Insect Lance. You can quickly devour the corpses of enemies using the Demon Insect Lance as a medium. As a cost, there will be a 5% consumption rate. Chapter 35 Chapter 35: First Player Skill!Investing 5 soul points resulted in the passive skill ¡¾Devourer of Demon Insects¡¿. After checking the new skill description, Su Bai summoned the Demon Insect Lance again and pierced it into the Frost Wolf¡¯s corpse. In the next moment! The Frost Wolf¡¯s corpse shriveled and blackened at an extremely fast speed, as if it had been thrown into a pool of acid, eventually leaving only a pile of gray powder on the ground. After several upgrades, apart from a negligible loss, the devouring ability of the Demon Insect Lance far surpassed what he had in his first form! Finally, it was time for skill extraction after this evolution. Unlike before, this time the system offered two choices for skill extraction. He could choose to extract skills in ant form to further enhance his combat power in that form, or he could extract skills in Heavy Armored Knight form to enhance his combat power in that form. With the emergence of the second form, Su Bai would have to invest more effort in skill selection in the future. Currently, the skills he had were usable in both forms, but as his strength increased, there would be powerful skills usable only in a specific form. For this skill extraction, Su Bai chose a skill for the Heavy Armored Knight form. ¡¾Armor Piercing¡¿: Passive skill. Your attacks have a certain chance to penetrate the enemy¡¯s defenses, dealing armor-piercing damage that ignores their defenses. ¡¾Charge¡¿: Active skill. Consumes half of your stamina to cross a distance at twice your agility attribute speed, quickly appearing in front of the enemy. The current maximum charge distance is 20 meters. ¡¾Thrust¡¿: Active skill. Consumes half of your stamina to release a sharp spear light, causing physical damage equal to twice your strength attribute to enemies in front. ¡¾Inspection¡¿: Active skill. Consumes 50 mana points to release a light that can identify the enemy¡¯s identity, level, and health points. One passive skill and three active skills. Whether it was ¡¾Armor Piercing¡¿, ¡¾Charge¡¿, or ¡¾Thrust¡¿, all could further enhance Su Bai¡¯s strength. However, after reviewing all four skills, Su Bai chose the fourth skill, Inspection, without hesitation! For players in the game, Inspection was a passive skill they had from the beginning. The identities, levels, and health points of monsters were just basic information for them. Any player facing these four skills probably wouldn¡¯t choose Inspection. But Su Bai was different. Growing from a fledgling ant to now, he had almost groped his way forward blindly. Unable to check the identity, level, and health of enemies, he had to rely on sensing the aura between monsters and making guesses. Unable to check equipment information, he had to roughly distinguish based on the energy fluctuations from the equipment. One could say. An Inspection skill turned Su Bai from a blind man in the game to a normal person! It allowed him to have a player¡¯s advantage when facing monsters! He could slowly acquire skills that enhanced his strength later. But this kind of auxiliary skill unique to players might only appear once! If he missed this chance, Su Bai wouldn¡¯t know if he would get another chance to obtain a similar skill. With Su Bai¡¯s choice, the options disappeared, and his skill bar successfully gained a new auxiliary active skill. Glancing at his secondary panel, he immediately added his last soul point to Inspection. With the addition of 1 soul point, Inspection evolved into a new skill, Scouting! ¡¾Scouting¡¿: Active skill. Consumes 100 mana points to release a light that can identify the enemy¡¯s identity, level, health points, and mana points. There is a certain chance to discern the enemy¡¯s attributes and a slight chance to discern the enemy¡¯s skills. The upgraded Scouting was much more powerful than Inspection. Not only could it identify the enemy¡¯s identity, level, health, and mana points, but it also had a chance to reveal the enemy¡¯s attributes and skills. Thus, when facing unfamiliar monsters, Su Bai could also gain the upper hand. Closing the attribute panel, he looked at the little worker ant staring blankly up at him and tentatively used Scouting. Immediately, he saw the little worker ant¡¯s data. ¡¾Identity¡¿: Worker Ant ¡¾Race¡¿: Ant ¡¾Level¡¿: Level 10 ¡¾Attributes¡¿: Strength 100, Agility 70, Constitution 100, Spirit 80 S?a?ch* Th? N???lFire.n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. ¡¾Skills¡¿: Rapid Healing, Malice Sense Perhaps because the power gap between the little worker ant and himself was too large, or maybe he was just lucky, Su Bai saw a lot of information with just one use of Scouting. At the same time, a clear health bar appeared above the little worker ant¡¯s head, representing its health points. Honestly, through his attribute panel, Su Bai could see more detailed and accurate information, but that was because the little worker ant was his minion. The information in front of him was identified through Scouting. The significance of the two was entirely different. ¡°As expected of the first god-level skill for players. It feels great to have information in advance.¡± Unconsciously, Su Bai sighed in admiration and then focused on the corpses dragged back by the little worker ants in the cave. They were already at the edge of the Gloomy Forest, and moving forward would take them to a new region. In game terms, it was a higher-level map. ¡°Swamp or lake?¡± looking at the blue-skinned, fish-scaled humanoid monster in the cave, Su Bai murmured. Chapter 36 Chapter 36: Player Arrival Countdown!Hiss¡ª The sound was like a sharp paper cutter slicing through paper. The sharp blade of the Demon Insect Lance swept across, and one by one, large heads flew off, landing far away in the swamp. In an instant, over a dozen level 15 swamp fishmen turned into corpses scattered on the ground. Without waiting for Su Bai¡¯s command, the little worker ants, already waiting by the side, rushed forward, dragging the headless blue-scaled corpses together into a pile. Then, the Demon Insect Lance pierced through. The dozen corpses simultaneously shriveled and blackened, devoured by the Demon Insect Lance, transforming into Su Bai¡¯s experience and evolution points. This was the Poison Gas Swamp, an area adjacent to the Gloomy Forest. Over five days, Su Bai and the worker ants had gathered nearly all the information about the Poison Gas Swamp. In terms of size, the Poison Gas Swamp was much smaller than the Gloomy Forest. However, the number of monsters in this swamp was no less. The two most noteworthy monsters were the swamp fishmen and the venomous wyverns. The average level of the swamp fishmen was around level 15, and they had simple social structures like goblins, distributed throughout most of the swamp. The venomous wyverns lived in the northern part of the swamp, occupying nearly a quarter of the swamp¡¯s area. The reason was simple. Among the swamp fishmen, there was only one lord-level boss, while the venomous wyverns had a lord-level boss pair, a male and a female. So, even though there were thousands of swamp fishmen and only a dozen venomous wyverns, the wyverns firmly occupied the northern region of the swamp. Three lord-level bosses, thousands of monsters with an average level of around 15 ¡ª that was the strength of the Poison Gas Swamp. It was several times stronger than the former Gloomy Forest! One purpose of Su Bai and the worker ants entering the swamp was to collect information about the Poison Gas Swamp in preparation for the expansion of the Devouring Ants. As the name suggests, the entire swamp was filled with poisonous gas. For most creatures entering this area, the greatest enemy was not the swamp fishmen or the venomous wyverns but the ever-present poisonous gas released by the swamp. To other creatures, the poison-filled swamp was nearly a death trap, but to the Devouring Ants, it was the perfect training ground. Don¡¯t forget, the Devouring Ants had the ¡¾Adaptability¡¿ talent. For the Devouring Ants, the non-lethal poison gas that slowly reduced health was like a catalyst. Any Devouring Ant with the ¡¾Adaptability¡¿ talent could continually train in the swamp, eventually activating the passive skill ¡¾Basic Poison Resistance¡¿. The little worker ant was the best example. In just five days, it had activated ¡¾Basic Poison Resistance¡¿, becoming completely immune to the swamp¡¯s poisonous gas. Moreover, the poison damage attached to the swamp fishmen¡¯s attacks was greatly reduced. As for Su Bai himself¡­with the three passive skills ¡¾Resistant Shell¡¿, ¡¾Advanced Fire Resistance¡¿, and ¡¾Advanced Ice Resistance¡¿, he was nearly immune to all the swamp fishmen¡¯s attacks. The pitiful attacks of the level 15 swamp fishmen couldn¡¯t even leave a mark on Su Bai. Their second and most important purpose in entering the Poison Gas Swamp was to hunt the swamp fishmen lord and the venomous wyverns to obtain the lord templates from these three bosses! When Su Bai killed Gorg, his attribute panel had advanced twice, becoming a warrior-level attribute template with over a quarter of the progress bar filled. He estimated that hunting these three bosses and obtaining their lord templates would advance his attribute template to the lord level. Originally, slowly conquering such a vast area would be the best strategy, but Su Bai couldn¡¯t wait! If there were monsters above the lord level or even an epic-level boss in the Gloomy Forest and Poison Gas Swamp, Su Bai would have tried to hunt them! He aimed to quickly enhance his own strength! S?a?ch* Th? N?velF?re.?et website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. Quickly enhance the strength of the worker ants and the ant queen, boosting the entire Devouring Ant colony¡¯s power! This was the only thing Su Bai wanted to do now. The reason¡­ It was simple! Two days ago, a series of numbers appeared on his attribute panel. 719:59:59 Now, the series of numbers had changed to 662:39:42! Considering the two and a half days Su Bai had passed, it was easy to deduce what the constantly decreasing numbers were. It was a countdown! 662:39:42 equaled 662 hours, 39 minutes, and 42 seconds! Which was twenty-seven and a half days! In a game world, seeing such a countdown on his attribute panel ¡ª what could it mean? The end of the world? An abyss invasion? The arrival of gods? Or perhaps some major event? Su Bai considered many possibilities, countless scenarios flashing through his mind. Ultimately, he thought of one most likely possibility. That was¡ª This countdown was the countdown to the arrival of players!!! Chapter 37 Chapter 37: Hunting, King of the Fishmen!In a game world, players were destined to arrive eventually. Otherwise, it wouldn¡¯t be called a game world. Su Bai had always understood that the world he lived in was a game world. He also knew that players would appear in this world sooner or later. They would start as the weakest level 1 entities and grow at an unimaginable speed, plundering all available resources and slaying all monsters they encountered to forge their own strength! Simply running away wouldn¡¯t work. Players¡¯ greatest advantage was that they were players. For Su Bai, this was a real world, but for the players, it was just a game. Even if characters died in the game, they could resurrect. Or they could reappear in the world with a new character (a newly created account). Given enough time, they would explore every corner of this world and discover every monster. Given enough time, they would grow almost without limits. When thousands of top-tier players emerged, Su Bai, as a mere village boss at level 12 with a warrior template, would stand no chance. If the game allowed, even the abyssal demons and gods of the celestial temples would fall to the players! The only solution was to quickly enhance his own power. He had to grow stronger at a pace faster than the players! Before the players could grow, he needed to become someone they could only look up to. Before the players could grow, he needed to become one of the peak existences in this world. Perhaps this was the only way he could escape the fate of a monster. S~?a??h the ?ov?l?ir?.n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. In other words, if he could become a great demon of the endless abyss before the players grew, even if he couldn¡¯t escape being hunted by players eventually, he would be the longest-living monster. Grow and become stronger. Grow and become stronger as fast as possible! This was Su Bai¡¯s only way out! ¡ª The essence from the dozen fishmen corpses had been completely absorbed by the Demon Insect Lance, leaving only a pile of gray powder. Putting away the Demon Insect Lance, Su Bai led the worker ants in the direction the fishmen had come from. In five days, Su Bai had collected most of the information about the Poison Gas Swamp but hadn¡¯t found the specific location of the fishman lord. His strategy was simple: kill! Kill every swamp fishman that appeared in his path! With their simple social structure, the fishman lord wouldn¡¯t allow Su Bai to slaughter its kin without reacting. The more he killed, the higher the chance a stronger fishman would come for revenge. By killing his way through, he would eventually encounter the king of the swamp fishmen, the fishman lord. As for whether his level 12 warrior template could match the fishman lord¡­ Ridiculous! Having undergone five evolutions and possessing four resistance skills, if he couldn¡¯t defeat a fishman lord, he might as well stay in the Gloomy Forest as a local tyrant and wait to die when the players arrived. Soon, Su Bai and the worker ants encountered a second group of swamp fishmen. Unlike the first group, this one had noticeably higher quality. At a glance, he saw two advanced fishmen ¡ª the agile advanced class among swamp fishmen, the fishman rovers. These level 18 fishman rovers had high agility and considerable strength, making them stronger than goblin centurions. Only warrior-level goblins could match them. But to Su Bai, fishman rovers were still minor foes, mere cannon fodder. As soon as this group of swamp fishmen appeared, Su Bai activated his maximum speed, charging into their midst before they could react. The Demon Insect Lance then slashed a dark streak through the air. An entire group of over a dozen fishmen had their heads severed, their blue-scaled bodies collapsing. Stacking the fishmen corpses, Su Bai let the Demon Insect Lance devour them, then continued with the worker ants in the direction the fishmen had come from. An hour later, Su Bai and the worker ants encountered a third group of swamp fishmen, this time with more advanced fishmen. Two hours later, they encountered a fourth group of swamp fishmen, which included an elite monster, a level 20 fishman spellcaster. However, the poison and ice spells of the fishman spellcaster were completely ineffective against Su Bai. With one strike, the spellcaster¡¯s head was severed, adding to Su Bai¡¯s experience and evolution points. Three hours¡­ Four hours¡­ After half a day, following the direction from which the groups of swamp fishmen had appeared, Su Bai finally found his target. A sparse forest had grown within the swamp. In the middle of these woods were hundreds of crude wooden huts. Each hut was built around a tree. Though rudimentary, they resembled human dwellings compared to the goblin race¡¯s shabby tents. Hundreds of wooden huts housed thousands of swamp fishmen. And in the center of these huts resided the fishman lord, the king of the swamp fishmen! ¡°A level 25 boss fishman lord, three level 22 warrior-class fishman rovers, over thirty level 20 elite fishmen, and hundreds of advanced fishmen¡­ ¡°The swamp fishmen are quite strong, but their war potential is still less than that of the Devouring Ants.¡± After comparing the war potential of the swamp fishmen and the Devouring Ants, Su Bai instructed the worker ants to wait in a hidden spot nearby. Using the dappled shadows cast by the trees, he stealthily approached the fishman lord. Chapter 38 Chapter 38: One-Shot Kill, Another One-Shot Kill!At the center of the swamp fishmen¡¯s territory, in front of the largest wooden hut, the fishman lord was throwing a tantrum. A series of incomprehensible sounds came from the fishman lord¡¯s toothy mouth, directed at its elite and advanced fishmen. Soon, two terrified elite fishmen and over twenty advanced fishmen quickly readied their weapons and headed in the direction from which Su Bai and the worker ants were approaching. It was clear. Su Bai¡¯s massacre had caused many swamp fishmen to disappear, inciting the fishman lord¡¯s rage. After the two elite fishmen and over twenty advanced fishmen left, the defensive force around the fishman lord weakened slightly. However, relative to the overall strength of the swamp fishmen, those who left were insignificant. But Su Bai didn¡¯t care at all. He used to be very weak, and when facing Gorg and his guards, he had to resort to luring them away and defeating them one by one. Now, Su Bai didn¡¯t need that. Having undergone five evolutions and several attribute template advancements, he had the strength to confront and kill the level 25 fishman lord head-on! Utilizing the shadows cast by trees and wooden huts, and the abandoned debris left by the fishmen, Su Bai concealed himself and swiftly approached the fishman lord. The passive effect of Shadow Assault was still in play, and Su Bai managed to reach the largest hut from the edge of the fishmen¡¯s territory without being noticed by a single fishman. Until he was just over ten meters away from the fishman lord. ¡°Shadow Assault!¡± Su Bai actively canceled the stealth effect of Shadow Assault. At this moment, his speed doubled! His tall figure, holding the Demon Insect Lance, sprang out from behind the hut and charged toward the fishman lord at lightning speed! ¡°£¤@%!¡± ¡°Enemy attack!¡± ¡°Protect the king!¡± Perhaps by chance, or perhaps because the swamp fishmen were more vigilant than goblins. As Su Bai leaped from the shadows towards the fishman lord, a warrior-class fishman rover happened to see him and blocked his path. The nearly three-meter-tall fishman rover was even more robust than Gorg. Wearing a crude armor made of colorful coral and wielding a massive rusty anchor, the fishman rover¡¯s huge frame made Su Bai¡¯s seem insignificant. It seemed¡­ with the fishman rover¡¯s appearance, Su Bai¡¯s ambush had failed. However, instead of panic, Su Bai¡¯s eyes revealed a mocking smile. His speed increased instead of decreased, and he swung the Demon Insect Lance like a giant hammer towards the fishman rover! ¡°Bloodthirsty Berserk!¡± With the double agility boost from Shadow Assault, the fivefold strength damage boost, and the 50% physical damage boost and 45 attack speed boost from Bloodthirsty Berserk, Su Bai¡¯s attack reached an extreme level of power! A muffled explosion sounded, and blood and flesh flew everywhere! [Ding! You killed a fishman rover, gaining 3500 experience points.] With just one strike, Su Bai not only killed the fishman rover, but its massive body and heavy coral armor also exploded into countless pieces! At this moment, Su Bai was already standing in front of the fishman lord. The level 22 warrior-class fishman rover hadn¡¯t even been able to delay Su Bai for a second! ¡°Ice Shield!¡± ¡°Ice Arrow!¡± ¡°Frost Nova!¡± ¡°Venom Spell!¡± ¡°Corrosion Spell!¡± With the brief delay provided by the fishman rover, the fishman lord and the remaining swamp fishmen finally reacted. The other two fishman rovers quickly rushed towards Su Bai, while the elite fishman spellcasters cast spells targeting Su Bai. The fishman lord, Su Bai¡¯s main target, also cast an Ice Shield on itself. But¡­ it was too late! Ignoring the barrage of spells hitting him, Su Bai leaped forward, appearing in front of the fishman lord. Before the fishman lord could cast its second spell, the raised Demon Insect Lance descended like a divine thunderbolt! S?a??h the ??v?l_Fir?.?et website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. The sharp blade of the Demon Insect Lance pierced the ice-blue shield. A crisp shattering sound rang out. The dual-purpose defensive and slowing Ice Shield shattered. In the fishman lord¡¯s terrified gaze, Su Bai swung the Demon Insect Lance again. A fierce black streak flashed, and a huge head flew through the air, landing dozens of meters away. [Ding! You killed a fishman lord, gaining 15000 experience points and 5 soul points.] [You have killed a fishman lord of a higher level, possessing a lord attribute template. You have gained the attribute template of the fishman lord.] As the system notification sounded, Su Bai dodged the attacks of the two fishman rovers, collected the fishman lord¡¯s corpse and its dropped equipment into his storage space, and then leaped out of the encirclement of swamp fishmen, quickly disappearing into the sparse woods. With the lord template and the fishman lord¡¯s corpse and equipment in hand, there was no need to waste any more time here. The remaining two fishman rovers and numerous elite and advanced fishmen could serve as stepping stones for the Devouring Ants. The next target was the Venom Wyvern! Chapter 39 Chapter 39: Venom Wyvern¡¯s Lair!¡¾Template¡¿: Lord Attribute Template ¡¾Source¡¿: King of the Swamp Fishmen ¡¾Bonus¡¿: Health +10000, Strength *10, Agility *10, Constitution *15, Spirit *20 ¡¾Skills¡¿: Ice Shield, Ice Burst, Swamp Devour On the way to the Venom Wyvern territory, Su Bai briefly glanced at the attribute template dropped by the fishman lord. Judging by the bonuses and skills, the fishman lord was clearly a spellcaster, and its attribute template was even stronger than that of Goblin General Gorg! As a spellcaster with three fishman rovers as tank-type minions, given a bit of time and distance, the fishman lord could unleash combat power beyond anyone¡¯s imagination. Unfortunately for it, it encountered Su Bai. The presence of three resistance skills allowed Su Bai to significantly resist frost and poison spells, and his comprehensive attribute development gave him immense burst power. Together, these factors meant the fishman lord didn¡¯t even have time to react before Su Bai killed it in one strike. After obtaining the fishman lord¡¯s template, Su Bai immediately integrated it into his own attribute template. This increased the progression of his attribute template to 58%. He had guessed correctly. With two more lord templates, his attribute template would likely advance again, from a warrior-level template to a true lord-level template! At that point, Su Bai¡¯s minions and followers would be truly bound to him, rather than to his title as the Lord of the Gloomy Forest. Running at full speed. S?a?ch* Th? N?v?lFir?.n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. In a day and a half, Su Bai and the worker ants reached the northern part of the Poisonous Gas Swamp, the territory of the Venom Wyvern. Compared to the swamp fishmen¡¯s territory, the Venom Wyvern¡¯s territory was even more desolate. Aside from the rotten swamp and a few dead trees, the entire territory was devoid of strong monsters ¡ª all the monsters that entered this territory were captured and eaten by the Venom Wyverns. Starting at level 15 and averaging over level 20, the Venom Wyverns were the undisputed rulers of this territory. Upon entering the Venom Wyvern¡¯s territory, Su Bai immediately knew where to find them ¡ª the closer to the wyverns¡¯ location, the fewer monsters there were. Perhaps the Venom Wyverns disdain low-level monsters as food, but the aura from the two lord-level Venom Wyverns was enough to keep most monsters away. Within hours, Su Bai located the Venom Wyvern¡¯s lair. This was already at the edge of the Poisonous Swamp. Near the swamp¡¯s edge stood a large, steep cliff. The Venom Wyvern¡¯s lair was a series of caves connected to the swamp on this cliff. At this moment, six Venom Wyverns of varying sizes were playing on the cliff. Two of them, clearly young wyverns, were flying in the air, chasing each other. ¡¾Race¡¿: Venom Wyvern ¡¾Level¡¿: 22 ¡¾Attributes¡¿: Strength 130, Agility 80, Constitution 120, Spirit 70 ¡¾Skills¡¿: Venom Breath, Hardened Scales Having the worker ants hide, Su Bai approached the Venom Wyvern¡¯s lair and cast ¡¾Inspection¡¿. Looking at the wyvern¡¯s attributes, Su Bai couldn¡¯t help but marvel at the race¡¯s strength. Even a regular Venom Wyvern had attributes comparable to the worker ants. How formidable would an elite Venom Wyvern be? And the two lord-level Venom Wyverns? Su Bai hesitated for a moment. Soon, he steadied himself and decided to continue hunting the Venom Wyverns. The reason was simple. These two Venom Wyvern lord templates were the easiest for Su Bai to obtain. Missing these, he didn¡¯t know when he might encounter two more lord-level monsters to upgrade his attribute template to the lord level. Moreover, with his resistance shell and three resistance skills, the Venom Wyvern¡¯s attacks would be greatly mitigated. Su Bai might just have the strength for this fight! If things went wrong¡­ He could abandon the hunt and flee. But doing so would force him to give up the painstakingly nurtured Devouring Ants when the players arrived. Perhaps due to the Inspection skill, the two Venom Wyverns playing in the sky noticed Su Bai in the swamp. In surprise, the two wyverns dived towards Su Bai, seeing him as a meal delivered to their door. Gah! Gah! With harsh screeches, the two Venom Wyverns dove, their sharp claws aimed at Su Bai on the ground. ¡°Heh!¡± A cold smile emerged from Su Bai¡¯s mouth. Watching the two diving Venom Wyverns, he neither dodged nor retreated. Only when the leading wyvern¡¯s sharp claws were about to reach him did Su Bai step back half a step. Then, a dark light burst forth! The Demon Insect Lance slashed through the air, its sharp blade slicing the first wyvern¡¯s vulnerable neck. Without delay, the gleaming blade cut through! A large head fell to the ground, and the wyvern¡¯s massive body crashed into the swamp like a fallen jet, leaving deep marks on the ground. With one strike, this formidable Venom Wyvern was decapitated! Seeing the fate of the first wyvern, the second wyvern was terrified. It desperately flapped its wings, halting its dive and rising into the air, trying to escape back to its lair. But it was too late! Ignoring the dead wyvern, Su Bai focused on the second wyvern¡¯s head, raised his Demon Insect Lance, and hurled it! Barely ten meters into the air, the second wyvern was pierced through the head by the Demon Insect Lance and crashed down! Only then did Su Bai retrieve the Demon Insect Lance, stabbing it into the first wyvern¡¯s corpse. [Ding! You have devoured the blood and flesh of a Venom Wyvern, gaining 2500 experience points, 100 evolution points, 300 Venom Wyvern genes, and 1 dragon gene.] Chapter 40 Chapter 40: A Pleasant Surprise, Dragon Gene!¡°Dragon gene!¡± Su Bai wasn¡¯t surprised by the results of the Demon Insect Lance. Whether it was experience, evolution points, or gene points, the Venom Wyvern slightly exceeded the Swamp Fishman. But when he heard a certain term in the system prompt, even Su Bai couldn¡¯t help but be shocked. Dragon gene! He eagerly opened his secondary panel, and a gene he had never obtained before appeared prominently at the top of all his gene points! [Dragon Gene]: 1 point. ¡°So, the Venom Wyvern really does have dragon blood¡­ ¡°But this dragon blood is way too thin. Out of three hundred Venom Wyvern gene points, there¡¯s only one point of dragon gene¡­¡± Seeing the dragon gene on his secondary panel, Su Bai was both pleasantly surprised and somewhat amused. The appearance of a dragon gene was a huge surprise, but having only one point made it practically useless ¡ª tasteless to consume, but a pity to discard. Dragons were a legendary race, inherently at the pinnacle of the game world. It could be said that every adult dragon had the strength comparable to a legendary BOSS. If he could gather enough dragon genes to mutate into a dragon race in his next evolution, Su Bai would choose to mutate without hesitation! But such good fortune could only be a fantasy. It was clear that to mutate into the dragon race, thousands of dragon gene points would likely be required. Such a large number of dragon genes would probably require hunting several adult dragons. But by the time he had the strength to hunt dragons, what would be the point of mutating into a species he could already hunt? Even if that species was legendary! However, this didn¡¯t mean that the dragon gene was useless to Su Bai. On the contrary, the dragon gene remained an extremely valuable reserve resource for him. It¡¯s important to know that each of his evolutions requires a large number of gene points to enhance his body. If he could accumulate enough dragon genes, even if he couldn¡¯t mutate into a dragon, he will still gain some dragon traits, greatly enhancing his strength! The power of the dragon gene was evident from the Venom Wyvern. A blood concentration of just one three-hundredth allowed the Venom Wyvern to dominate over the Swamp Fishman, with just over ten of them occupying a quarter of the Poisonous Gas Swamp without any natural enemies. If Su Bai could gather a certain amount of dragon genes for his next evolution, his strength would significantly increase! ¡°It looks like I have one more reason to hunt Venom Wyverns.¡± muttering to himself, Su Bai devoured the other Venom Wyvern¡¯s corpse, then summoned the Demon Insect Lance and rushed towards the Venom Wyvern¡¯s lair at full speed! Having decided to take action, he no longer hesitated! Facing the Venom Wyverns, especially the BOSS-level Venom Wyverns with lord templates, the best strategy was to trap them in their lair! S?a??h the N?velF?re.?et website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. Without the ability to fly, the Venom Wyverns posed much less of a threat to Su Bai. Moreover¡­ Knowing that the Venom Wyverns could provide dragon genes, he was even more afraid of the Venom Wyvern BOSS escaping! A regular Venom Wyvern could provide one dragon gene. An elite Venom Wyvern might provide two. So, the two BOSS-level Venom Wyverns could at least give Su Bai ten dragon genes! Su Bai moved like lightning. Fully unleashing his speed, Su Bai crossed a hundred meters in an instant and appeared at the entrance of the wyvern¡¯s lair. Ignoring the dozen or so enraged and airborne wyverns, Su Bai charged straight into the lair! He knew the BOSS-level Venom Wyvern was inside. Just standing at the entrance, he could feel a faint pressure emanating from within. Perhaps hearing the wyvern¡¯s screech, a massive head emerged from the lair as Su Bai rushed in. The deep green eyes flashed with anger upon seeing him, and the wide, toothy maw lunged at him. BOSS-level Venom Wyvern! Seeing the huge head, at least a meter wide, Su Bai knew this was one of his targets. ¡°Bloodthirsty Berserk!¡± Without hesitation, the moment he entered the lair, he activated his skill. The pitch-black Demon Insect Lance transformed into a dark light, piercing one of the wyvern¡¯s eyes at lightning speed. Greenish fluid splattered as Su Bai¡¯s strike exploded one of the Venom Wyvern¡¯s eyes! A thunderous scream echoed. In pain, the Venom Wyvern swiped at Su Bai, sending him flying. It felt like being hit by a locomotive. Su Bai¡¯s body embedded into the cave wall, causing rubble to scatter. Casually stepping down from the wall, Su Bai glanced at the three new scratches on his body and chuckled lightly, ¡°Get angry! As long as you don¡¯t leave this cave, I¡¯ll fight you to the end!¡± The wyvern¡¯s response was a mouthful of venomous breath. Even regular wyverns have venom breath, but as a lord-level BOSS, this wyvern¡¯s breath had upgraded to deadly poison breath. If it were any other monster, this breath alone could take most of their life. But for Su Bai, with his advanced poison resistance, the poison breath did less damage than the previous claw attack! The green venom dripped onto the ground, corroding the rock and creating small pits. Su Bai¡¯s figure transformed into a dark streak, appearing above the Venom Wyvern. Raising the Demon Insect Lance high, he thrust it down fiercely! This time, his target was the wyvern¡¯s other eye! Chapter 41 Chapter 41: Soaring Strike on the Venom Dragon! Having suffered once, the Venom Dragon boss no longer underestimates Su Bai. This tiny creature before it clearly possessed the strength to threaten its existence. Seeing the Demon Insect Lance once again thrusting towards it, the Venom Dragon boss let out a terrified roar and hastily dodged to the side. Yet its speed was slightly slower. Avoiding the fate of another exploding eye, the Demon Insect Lance deeply pierced into its vulnerable nostril. Intense pain spread, and the Venom Dragon boss frantically rushed out of the nest. Possessing considerable intelligence, this Venom Dragon boss knew its weaknesses. Continuing to struggle within the nest would only lead to its inevitable death! Only by leaving the nest and utilizing its advantage as a dragon could it possibly turn the tide, defeating this despicable intruder. ¡°Wishing to flee?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not that simple!¡± As the Venom Dragon boss charged out of the nest, Su Bai swiftly dodged its charge and leapt onto its back. The sharp blade of the Demon Insect Lance pierced into the Venom Dragon boss¡¯s back, creating a deep wound. With one hand, Su Bai pierced through this wound, grabbing onto a bone of the Venom Dragon boss, firmly securing himself on its back! A scream of agony echoed throughout the swamp. Around the Dragon¡¯s Nest, the surviving ordinary Venom Dragons were also terrified and flew far away. Seeing this scene, Su Bai felt somewhat dissatisfied. He wanted the Venom Dragon boss, and he didn¡¯t want to let go of these ordinary Venom Dragons either. Each ordinary Venom Dragon represented a point of Dragon Gene. Collecting these Dragon Genes would also be a significant wealth. The Demon Insect Lance struck again, shattering the Venom Dragon boss¡¯s other eye. Su Bai opened a new wound on the Venom Dragon boss¡¯s neck, his left hand covered by the gauntlet, piercing through, grabbing onto another bone! ¡°Turn for me! ¡°Chase down those fleeing Venom Dragons!¡± Su Bai shouted sternly, the Demon Insect Lance in his right hand, and the Venom Dragon boss¡¯s bone in his left. He swiftly changed the direction of the Venom Dragon boss¡¯s flight, pursuing one of the escaping Venom Dragons. S?a?ch* Th? ???el F?re.n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. The Venom Dragon boss doesn¡¯t understand Su Bai¡¯s words? No problem, the sharp blade repeatedly piercing into its body would make the Venom Dragon boss understand what submission meant! The blinded Venom Dragon boss couldn¡¯t tell the direction? No problem, he could completely control its flight direction through the bone on the Venom Dragon boss¡¯s neck. Under the stimulus of death, the flight speed of the Venom Dragon boss increased rather than decreased, fully satisfying Su Bai¡¯s needs. A light sound. As the Venom Dragon boss streaked across the sky, the Demon Insect Lance turned into a dark light, directly severing the head of a Venom Dragon that had just escaped, which fell down with a thud. ¡°Turn around, continue!¡± Accompanied by this crisp sound, the second Venom Dragon fell. Similarly, the Venom Dragon under Su Bai¡¯s body flew much faster than those ordinary Venom Dragons. Having controlled the Venom Dragon boss with his life, at this moment, Su Bai seemed to have turned into a Dragon Knight. Even elite-level Venom Dragons couldn¡¯t resist his several attacks. Once, twice, thrice! Soaring freely in the sky, each of Su Bai¡¯s and the Venom Dragon boss¡¯s turns represented the downfall of a Venom Dragon. After several rounds, more than ten Venom Dragons were left with only two or three still alive¡­ The remaining two or three Venom Dragons dared not escape anymore. The faster they fled, the easier it was for Su Bai to target them, and the quicker their deaths. In the end, the remaining two or three Venom Dragons did not escape their fate of death, each pierced through the head by Su Bai and fell to the ground. Three elite-level Venom Dragons and twelve ordinary Venom Dragons. This was not only a huge amount of experience, evolution points, and gene points, but also nearly twenty points of Dragon Gene. After killing the last Venom Dragon, Su Bai did not rush to kill the Venom Dragon boss under him. Instead, he still controlled it to soar in the sky. There were two Lord-level bosses in the Venom Dragon¡¯s nest, which Su Bai had known about long ago. The Venom Dragon boss he controlled had reached level 30, with four-dimensional attributes stronger than Su Bai¡¯s, but it was the smaller of the two Lord-level bosses. This was a female Venom Dragon. The other, more powerful male Venom Dragon boss was not in the nest. He was waiting for the other Venom Dragon boss! Su Bai¡¯s wait was not long. Soon, a black spot appeared in the distance. Perhaps hearing the pitiful roar of the female Venom Dragon boss under him, the black spot approached at an extremely fast speed, quickly appearing in the sky near the Dragon¡¯s Nest. This was a much larger Venom Dragon. The female Venom Dragon boss Su Bai controlled already had a huge body size. It was over ten meters long and stood six to seven meters tall on the ground. The newly appeared Venom Dragon was even larger, with a massive size exceeding fifteen meters! This was a true behemoth, the real ruler of the Dragon¡¯s Nest! In an instant, the male Venom Dragon boss rushed to the vicinity. Seeing the Venom Dragon corpses falling to the ground and the heavily injured female Venom Dragon, the male Venom Dragon boss roared furiously, spraying a mouthful of dark green poisonous breath towards them! ¡°Turn around! ¡°Climb!¡± Ignoring the minimal damage of the poisonous breath, Su Bai grabbed the bone of the female Venom Dragon boss with his left hand and exerted force. Under the intense pain, the female Venom Dragon boss began to climb rapidly. Only after crossing several hundred meters past the male Venom Dragon boss did Su Bai control the female Venom Dragon boss to turn around and dive towards the male Venom Dragon boss! Three hundred meters! Two hundred meters! One hundred meters! When he was only fifty meters away from the male Venom Dragon boss, this much larger Venom Dragon boss also caught up. Su Bai smiled coldly! The Demon Insect Lance in his hand heavily pierced the male Venom Dragon boss¡¯s head, directly ending its life! [Ding! You have killed the Venom Dragon Lord, gaining 20,000 experience points and 5 soul points.] [You have the higher-leveled Venom Dragon Lord. The Venom Dragon Lord possesses the Lord Attribute Template, and you have gained the attribute panel possessed by the Venom Dragon Lord.] The clear system prompt sounded. The next moment. Su Bai leaped from the falling body of the female Venom Dragon boss and pounced towards the male Venom Dragon boss, which was already close at hand! Chapter 42 Chapter 42: Venom Dragon Lord¡¯s Death!¡¾Identity¡¿: Venom Dragon Lord ¡¾Race¡¿: Lesser Dragon ¡¾Level¡¿: Level 35 ¡¾Attributes¡¿: Strength 370, Agility 170, Constitution 250, Spirit 80 ¡¾Skills¡¿: Venomous Breath, Hardened Exterior, Bite As Su Bai passed by the male Venom Dragon, he cast a reconnaissance spell and obtained partial information about the boss. With a level as high as 35 and all four attributes surpassing his own, along with its long red health bar, every detail indicated the terror of this male Venom Dragon Lord. As for its skills¡­ Su Bai didn¡¯t believe that a Venom Dragon Lord only possessed the three skills he saw. More likely, the difference in strength between them was too great for the reconnaissance spell to accurately identify all of its attributes. Against such a Flying Dragon Lord, even confronting it directly on the ground, Su Bai might not be its match. Moreover, the enemy was a flying dragon, possessing the huge advantage of free flight. Under normal circumstances, he was definitely not this Venom Dragon Lord¡¯s opponent! Therefore, taking risks, Su Bai thought of a plan that carried great danger but had a high probability of killing the Venom Dragon Lord in one blow! ¡ª The insect demon spear, half a meter long, directly pierced through the mother Venom Dragon boss¡¯s head, killing this lord-level boss. Feeling the gradually dissipating life force of the mother Venom Dragon boss, the male Venom Dragon boss went berserk! Three consecutive toxic breaths spewed from the blood-stained mouth full of fangs, and the speed of the male Venom Dragon Lord increased as it charged toward Su Bai who was leaping high. A foul odor emanated from its mouth. The sharp teeth gleamed with terrifying cold light, but even several consecutive toxic breaths couldn¡¯t harm Su Bai. The male Venom Dragon boss chose to engage in close combat! Its fangs and its claws were its best weapons! With its offspring extinct and its mate dead, the only way to alleviate the male Venom Dragon boss¡¯s anger and hatred was to catch Su Bai, tear him apart bit by bit, and swallow him down. Su Bai was waiting for this moment! s?a??h th? N???lFire.n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. When the blood-stained mouth of the male Venom Dragon boss opened wide to bite him, Su Bai put away the Demon Insect Lance. At this moment, his stretched body suddenly contracted, and with his agile speed, he avoided the countless sharp fangs and rushed straight into the mouth of the male Venom Dragon boss! The male Venom Dragon boss was stunned, but Su Bai laughed. If he hadn¡¯t timed his leap properly and changed his body shape in time to avoid the male Venom Dragon boss¡¯s biting fangs, he might have been bitten by now. As a lord-level boss at level 35, and still possessing the bloodline of a dragon, Su Bai had no doubt about the power of the male Venom Dragon¡¯s teeth. If he had been bitten, even with the full-body armor derived from resistance shell transformation, he probably would have been bitten in two and died. But now, he had won! Summoning the Demon Insect Lance again, without Su Bai needing to do anything, the two-meter-long spear blade stuck in the mouth of the male Venom Dragon boss. The blade end with a sharp point deeply pierced the upper jaw of the Venom Dragon boss. Gripping the Demon Insect Lance tightly, Su Bai exerted a little force, and the sharp blade slashed open large chunks of flesh, and green blood flowed like a waterfall. The male Venom Dragon boss was powerful. Its dark green scales were also highly defensive, and even with the sharpness of the Demon Insect Lance, it was not easy to pierce them. However, like most creatures, the inside of the Venom Dragon boss¡¯s mouth was soft, and Su Bai easily slashed large chunks of flesh into a mess. Su Bai laughed, but the male Venom Dragon was in a panic. Its huge head shook wildly, and toxic breaths sprayed out as if they cost nothing. The male Venom Dragon boss wanted to force Su Bai out of its mouth. Having finally entered, how could Su Bai leave so easily? Allowing the toxic breath that could corrode even rocks to spray on him, Su Bai gripped the Demon Insect Lance tightly and stabbed it towards the upper part of the male Venom Dragon boss¡¯s mouth! No matter how powerful a creature was, as long as it relied on its body to survive, the brain was its greatest weakness! One stab. The sharp blade of the insect demon spear directly pierced the fragile cartilage in the upper jaw of the mouth and stabbed into the brain. The next moment. The huge body of the male Venom Dragon boss fell heavily, raising a large amount of mud and water waves on the swamp. Then, the male Venom Dragon boss lay motionless. Even hiding inside the mouth of the male Venom Dragon boss, Su Bai was thrown around. By this time, Su Bai seemed to should have come out. But he just chuckled coldly, unmoved. ¡°Stab to death? ¡°You do have considerable intelligence. But¡­ this is a game world!¡± Mumbling a few words, Su Bai not only did not crawl out of this mouth that emitted a constantly unpleasant smell and was filled with corrosive venom, but instead tightened his grip on the Demon Insect Lance again and stabbed into the brain of the Venom Dragon boss. Once, twice, three times! Until the brain of the Venom Dragon boss became almost like paste, the familiar system prompt sounded. [Ding! You have killed the Venom Dragon Lord, gaining 50,000 experience points and 5 soul points.] [You have the Venom Dragon Lord above your level. The Venom Dragon Lord possesses the Lord-level attribute template. You have obtained the attribute panel possessed by the Venom Dragon Lord.] Only then did Su Bai confirm that the Venom Dragon boss was dead. Struggling to pry open the teeth of the Venom Dragon boss, crawling out of its mouth, Su Bai couldn¡¯t help but take a deep breath. The air in the Poisonous Gas Swamp was not fresh. Constantly enveloped in toxic gas, the air in the entire poisonous swamp smelled faintly of decay. But even this kind of air was much more pleasant than the air inside the mouth of the male Venom Dragon boss. Exhaling a long breath, Su Bai looked excitedly at the corpse of the Venom Dragon lord, which was like a small mountain beside him. For several consecutive days, he hadn¡¯t rested for a minute. Traveling all over the Poisonous Gas Swamp, he killed all three lord-level bosses in this area. Especially when hunting the male Venom Dragon lord, if there had been any mishap, he would have had no place to bury his body. Having taken such great risks, it was now time to reap the rewards! Three lord-level attribute templates, the corpses of two boss-level Venom Dragons, the corpses of three elite Venom Dragons, and more than a dozen ordinary Venom Dragons. Such a huge amount of resources were enough to elevate his strength to the next level! Leaping up, appearing on the corpse of the male Venom Dragon boss, Su Bai summoned the Demon Insect Lance and began to devour the corpse of this Venom Dragon lord.