Lin Shen slumped into the chair, his hands still trembling uncontrollably with pain. He tried to pick up the water glass on the desk to take a sip and calm his nerves, but his hands couldn't grasp the glass, and just touching it made him wince and cry out in pain.
In contrast, once the monster calmed down after Lin Shen had stopped hitting its pressure points, it quickly regained its mobility.
The swollen front end slowly returned to its original state, resembling a dark red snake-skin rope, and it made its way over to Lin Shen. It gradually raised its head and opened its mouthpiece.
This time, the mouthpiece did not enlarge, but it opened slightly, revealing what looked like countless blood crystal gears spinning inside. Then it lowered its head and spat out a small key that resembled a ruby.
Ignoring the pain, Lin Shen reached out with fingers coated in blood, trembling as if he had Parkinson's, and picked up the ruby key.
Now that he had the key, Lin Shen finally let go of his worries. With this key, the strange Base Variant Creature could no longer pose any threat to him.
Looking at the key, and then at its mouthpiece, Lin Shen was wondering where exactly the keyhole might be, contemplating whether he would need to reach his arm inside to find it, when the Base Variant Creature's body began rapidly transforming. Its several-meter-long body soon shrank into a dark red pet capsule the size of a peanut.
"The intelligence of this thing is much higher than that of a typical Base Variant Creature, huh? It can actually enter a pet capsule stance on its own. I wonder if it can transform back into a creature without the need for a key?" Lin Shen muttered to himself, somewhat doubtful whether the Pet Key still had absolute control over it.
Mutant Death Shredder: Alloy Variant Creature (Evolvable).
Strength: 21.
Speed: 21.
Hardness: 21.
Toughness: 21.
Base Mutation Talents: Mutant Devouring, Mutant Evolution, Strengthened Armor-Piercing Spikes, Strengthened Instant Speed, Strengthened Hundred Refinements.
After looking at its information, Lin Shen was completely dumbfounded, and shock could no longer capture the feelings he had at the moment.
Lin Shen had only heard of the term "Alloy Variant Creature." Although there were rumors that someone had obtained one, he had never seen one, nor were there any confirmed reports about who had a mutant pet.
Moreover, this thing was still an Alloy Creature, so why did it have 21 points in its attributes? The attribute limit for Alloy Creatures should be 20. Even if it was a mutant, he had never heard of any attributes exceeding 20.
What made Lin Shen feel even more extraordinary was that this guy had five Base Mutation Talents, and some of them seemed familiar.
At that moment, Lin Shen didn't have the luxury of thinking too deeply. He went to the cabinet, took out several vials of medicine, and poured them into a basin.
The purple-red liquid filled half the basin, and Lin Shen submerged his hands in it, immediately feeling an excruciating pain emanating from his hands, a sensation that wasn't much different from deep-frying them in a pot of oil.
He endured the pain without pulling his hands out of the liquid. This medicine was something his elder sister had spent a great deal of money on to buy for him—it was truly meant to save his life.
It was said to be made from the Base Mutation Fluid of several special Base Variant Creatures. The manufacturing process and formula were top secrets of the Sea Corn Base. No one but Sea Corn Base could produce such a medicine, and it was priced in the five-figure range.
Lin Shen poured five bottles, which meant tens of thousands were gone.
However, the steep price indeed had its reasons; after the initial agony, Lin Shen felt the wound on his hand healing at an astonishing rate—the bleeding had already stopped.
Continuing this treatment, he estimated that it would only take a few days for his fractured bones to heal completely.
"Not right!" Lin Shen suddenly thought of something, went to check, and indeed, the Mutant Steel Tail Scorpion's Pet Capsule, as well as the Dark Iron Swallow and Hundred-Refined Steel Beast's Base Mutation Eggs, had all disappeared.
After carefully reviewing the Death Shredder's information, Lin Shen roughly guessed that those items had probably been devoured by it.
"Death Powder's mutative devouring and evolutionary theft abilities should possess the capability to plunder other creatures' Base Change Talents; those three other enhanced skills must have been stolen by it," Lin Shen quickly pieced together the causes and consequences.
Because the name of the mutated Death Shredder was too long, Lin Shen simply abbreviated it, referring to it as Death Powder.
What Lin Shen couldn't understand was why, when the Supersonic Gunman's capsule and the Mutant Steel Tail Scorpion's capsule were together, Death Powder hadn't devoured the Supersonic Gunman's capsule as well?
"Is it because the Supersonic Gunman is of a higher level, and its devouring ability isn't so easily applied to it, or does it only target creatures that have been imbued with the Fire Seed?" For the time being, Lin Shen couldn't quite grasp which reason it was.
"Losing three exceptional pets with potential for evolution is somewhat of a loss; however, having it directly transformed into Death Powder's combat strength, considering my current predicament, is actually more useful," Lin Shen thought as he restored Death Powder to its creature form and carefully studied its various abilities.
The enhanced Armor-Piercing Sting bestowed its tail, similar to a spike, with formidable penetrative and armor-piercing capabilities; coupled with its abnormal Attribute, it posed a threat even to Crystal-based Creatures. As for Alloy Creatures, it could strike them down with precision.
Enhanced Instant Speed was an ability to briefly boost speed, also an extremely practical Talent ability.
Lin Shen still hadn't figured out what the Enhanced Hundred Refinements skill was; it seemed to be a passive ability, and Death Powder was unable to demonstrate it.
The Mutative Devouring and Evolutionary Theft also couldn't be demonstrated—knowing only that they were devouring and evolutionary abilities, Lin Shen could only roughly guess they were key in pillaging Base Change Talents; as for any other effects, they would be discovered in future combat.
Even without these three Talent abilities, relying solely on the enhanced Armor-Piercing Sting and Enhanced Instant Speed, combined with Death Powder's freakish Attribute, was enough to place it at the apex of Alloy Creatures' combat strength.
Only with Death Powder's new power did Lin Shen feel that his forthcoming journey to Gourd Mountain might still hold a sliver of a chance for a turnaround.
The reason he believed in this slim possibility was because both the Qi and Wang families had Crystal Base Level combat capabilities, and Death Powder was only a pseudo-Crystal Base creature. When facing real Crystal Base Creatures, it might not have the advantage.
A sliver of possibility was still a possibility, which was better than none at all. Trapped in a desperate situation, Lin Shen was quite optimistic.
He continued to soak his hands in the medicinal solution, aware that time was not on his side. If his hands didn't recover before heading to Gourd Mountain, it would be a great inconvenience.
Only now did Lin Shen have the time to pay attention to the Fire Seed information that had appeared in his mind.
Lin Shen was also very curious about what kind of Fire Seed Death Powder might carry.
[Imperfect Super-Base Evolutionary Seed—Sacrifice to Heaven: Teammates sacrifice to Heaven, mana boundless, the more who die, the firmer the battle power, amidst a Sea of Blood, spinning deities head over heels.]
For a moment, Lin Shen's mouth hung open, unable to react.