Chapter 21: Modulating the Headmaster
Once again stepping into the hall where the Squad were resting, before Leon could speak, he was surrounded by the Squad. The Shaman, who had a good relationship with Leon, eagerly asked, "How did it go?"
Unlike his previous return, this time Leon's eyes held a hint of a smile and the joy of a gambler's win.
He grabbed the Shaman's hand and said, "What luck! The first three took away the Lucky Charms but didn't claim the real item, so all the luck accumulated. When I opened the chest, I hit the jackpot."
"A lot of equipment dropped?" The Shaman asked excitedly.
"Only half an item," Leon replied proudly.
The Squad, being veterans, quickly understood what Leon meant. "Oh, mission-guiding equipment? That's a good thing! As you level up, you can complete an upgrade quest, and the equipment level will rise with you."
"Not exactly." The Hunter, being more observant, noted, "Mission-guiding equipment requires completing relatively difficult tasks and a large number of specific items for casting. From this point of view, its value isn't as high as the Lucky Charms. If that's all you got, you wouldn't be smiling like this."
Leon nodded affirmatively and said, "It's 'Titan's Creation.'"
Hearing this, the Squad stopped asking questions and began packing up their things. All players knew what "Titan's Creation" meant.
In the game, anything associated with the words "Titan" or "Prometheus" was related to creation items.
Simply put, these things were leftovers from creating the great map, the dungeon, or the planet. They contained the remaining power of creating these great maps and dungeons. Though the power was limited, it was definitely a valuable item, something for gods, something simply described as formidable.
Of course, for players, having a "Titan's Creation" meant opening the gate to advancing to Level 4. The path before Level 4 would be smooth for players.
After envying Leon for a moment, the Squad quickly adjusted their mindset. The Druid opened the last door and protected everyone as they entered the core laboratory of the Blackhand Organization's underground research facility.
Inside, they saw three massive specimen jars, each towering thirty meters high, containing a Behemoth whose bones were already exposed, a purple zombie octopus, and a two-headed dog pieced together from countless corpses, soaked in red, blue, and yellow fluids respectively.
Below the three specimen jars was a device connected to countless wires, with a frail old man standing in front of it, no taller than 1.6 meters.
This old man wore a black robe, with a large, bald head without a single strand of hair, and his skin was as wrinkled as a walnut.
Seeing the Squad enter, the old man did not panic. Instead, in a sharp voice, he shouted, "You're too late. I've already figured out the method of soul transfer and found the most suitable body for myself. Now, become the nourishment for my new body!"
After saying this, the old man pressed several buttons on the device, and a yellow tube suddenly descended from above, sucking him in.
Leon saw the old man sucked into the specimen jar filled with yellow liquid. It wasn't clear what liquid was in the jar, but the moment the old man was absorbed, his body began to dissolve, while his head slowly moved upward, finally settling between the two heads of the two-headed dog.
When the old man's head fully merged with the two-headed dog, its four eyes simultaneously flashed yellow.
Then there were two loud barks, and the glass of the specimen jar shattered, with yellow liquid rushing toward Leon and the others like a flood.
[Modulated Headmaster Leard - Two-Headed Dog Transformation]
[Race: Modified Humanoid Creature]
[Level: Lv1 (10-star) BOSS Template]
[Attributes: Strength 9, Agility 9, Constitution 9, Spirit 7]
[Description: A two-headed dog pieced together from the meat chunks after being modulated by Leard, fully controlled by Leard's spirit, possessing strong combat and control abilities. In battle, it can devour enemies or other creatures to enhance itself.]
The first to act against the two-headed dog was not the Druid standing in the front, who had transformed into a giant bear and was locked onto the two-headed dog, waiting for the moment it landed.
The first to move was the Shaman, who placed a water totem into the ground to guide the yellow liquid away from the group and toward one side.
However, the research lab wasn't very large, and the diverted liquid quickly reached the other two specimen jars. Tiny cracks began to appear on the glass of the specimen jars.
"Only ten minutes! Hold aggro and attack with full force!" The Hunter shouted, pulling out a very long arrow.
Leon had seen the Hunter use these arrows before when dealing with a Merman BOSS. These arrows seemed to interrupt enemy skills, but Leon had also noticed their attack power seemed low. He didn't quite understand why the Hunter would use them here.
However, the two-headed dog's actions soon clarified things for Leon. As the final BOSS, the Modulated Headmaster naturally had more skills than the few smaller BOSSes, and with two heads, the skill cooldowns effectively doubled.
During battle, the chance of skill activation was noticeably higher than normal. If they couldn't interrupt the enemy's attacks and let its skills activate fully, they wouldn't survive. Thus, the Hunter had no choice but to focus his attack methods on the leopard while assuming a control role himself.
Fortunately, the leopard's combat power wasn't weak, and with the thief's cooperation, they managed to cover for the Hunter's loss, quickly wounding the two-headed dog severely.
Seeing the flesh used to piece together the two-headed dog falling off bit by bit, the old man's head in the middle of the two-headed dog suddenly screamed.
"My body! I need more strength!"
After screaming, the two-headed dog ignored the group's attacks and charged toward the specimen jar containing the Behemoth's body, crashing into it heavily.
The jar immediately fell to the ground, with the red liquid inside spilling everywhere. Without the protection of the red liquid, the Behemoth's body rapidly decayed.
However, the two-headed dog had achieved its goal. Standing atop the Behemoth's corpse, it began absorbing a red gas, and its body slowly expanded.
When the two-headed dog charged out again, the Druid, who could previously hold it back, was forced to retreat several steps.
It was evident that the red gas absorbed earlier had significantly increased the two-headed dog's strength.
Taking advantage of the Druid being pushed back, the two-headed dog lunged at the Shaman. At this moment, the thief suddenly appeared in front of the Shaman, blocking the attack.
Just then, the Hunter's arrow struck, pushing the two-headed dog back a step. The Druid quickly stepped forward again, but the thief had been knocked to the ground, clearly taken out by that strike.
The others quickly reacted. The Hunter shouted, his leopard roared wildly, and its body expanded to more than twice its original size, standing in front of the two-headed dog.
The Shaman immediately started healing the leopard, while the Druid reverted to human form, took out an oak seed, and began chanting a spell over the thief.
Under the Druid's incantation, the dead thief stood up, looking full of life as if he had just entered the battle.
After completing the revival, the Druid quickly returned to bear form and took on the two-headed dog again. However, the Hunter's leopard had already lost most of its vitality and would need at least a minute to recover before it could fight again.