Ren traced the final runes on Zhao’s camouflage raptor core while his other projects rested in different stages of development.
Lin’s panther lizard glowed with a reddish tone, Liu’s banshee hyena emitted green pulses, and Min’s invisible amphibian… well, it was already starting to occasionally disappear.
Only one complete egg remained unclaimed.
“Come on,” Ren looked at Taro, who was observing the egg of what would be a bronze rank Deep Assassin as if it might bite him. “It’s not as bad as you think.”
“Not bad?” Min laughed. “Wait until his mouth elongates like a giant straw.”
“Assassins are known for their proboscises,” Liu added with a mischievous smile. “Imagine drinking tea like that.”
Liu made an exaggerated gesture, pretending to sip with an imaginarily long mouth, causing Min to burst into laughter.
“Don’t listen to them,” Ren sighed. “The bug’s qualities don’t manifest that way at first. You won’t even have the absorption ability yet, it’s just iron rank and not a complete Deep Assassin.”
Taro kept looking at the egg with distrust. “Are you sure?”
“Completely,” Ren nodded. “For now you’ll only have the claws and carapace. When you develop vitality absorption, you’ll channel it through them. Your mouth won’t turn into a proboscis unless you move to Yino.”
“See?” Min smiled. “You just have to avoid moving to Yino and keep your beautiful smile.”
“But seriously,” Ren continued, ignoring the jokes. “Think about the advantages. You’ll be able to summon your living tunnel fully and still have a carapace.”
“But won’t it be weaker?” Taro asked.
“A bit less resistant,” Ren admitted, “but the long claws ability and the new carapace directly benefit from living mineral. The bug line has a natural disposition for acquiring trophies, like some other insects. It can easily adhere materials to its carapace.”
Ren’s mushrooms pulsed while he entered explanation mode.
“Besides,” he continued, “your tunnel’s 60% defense will affect the bug’s 30% defense. That gives you a total 90% defense over the 2 defensive layers.”
Taro began showing interest. “And I’ll just be a defender like always?”
“The bug’s attack is 40%,” Ren smiled. “Combined with the little your tunnel gives you, you’ll finally have 60% instead of just 20%. You’ll be a real threat when attacking.”
“A threat with a straw,” Liu murmured, earning an elbow from Min.
“So I won’t have to absorb with my mouth?” Taro asked one last time.
“Not while you’re in Yano,” Ren assured. “The claws will be your main absorption method. The proboscis is a specific adaptation that involves more than just a long mouth…”
Taro looked at the egg for a long moment, clearly weighing the advantages against his aesthetic concern.
“Ninety percent defense,” he murmured.
“And sixty percent attack,” Ren added.
“And zero percent proboscis,” Min laughed.
“For now,” Liu added with a malicious smile.
Taro finally extended his hand toward the egg trying to ignore Liu. “Alright. But if I start developing any kind of strange appendage…”
“We’ll help you find very large hats to cover it,” Min solemnly promised.
“Or decorative face masks,” Liu suggested.
“Guys,” Ren looked at them reproachfully, though his mushrooms pulsed with amusement.
“It’s okay,” Taro smiled while taking the egg. “I guess the synergy plus ninety percent defense is worth the risk.”
The ritual began making Taro and his egg glow while they connected.
“That’s the spirit,” Ren nodded. “Besides, think how useful it’ll be if you ever need to drink something from the bottom of a very tall glass.”
“Ren!” Taro protested while the others burst into laughter.
Ren’s mushrooms pulsed cheerfully while he returned to his work. Four eggs, five new beasts, five new paths to explore.
And only one potential straw problem in the future.
♢♢♢♢
Ren had taught everyone how to cultivate.
Liu’s crystals had to be processed in complete darkness.
“Darker!” Liu complained while trying to process his crystals. “You say it has to be total darkness but… Your mushrooms keep glowing.”
Ren concentrated, trying to extinguish the soft pulse of light his mushrooms emitted, but every time he thought he’d succeeded, they would glow faintly again.
“Sorry,” Ren apologized. “I can’t turn them off completely.”
After several failed attempts, Ren had to admit defeat. “I think you’ll have to do it yourself.”
He explained the process in detail: the crystals needed to bathe in shadow beast blood for at least an hour in complete darkness, then be sealed with pure crystals maintaining the same condition.
Fortunately, Ren had blood and crystals from the shadow stalkers from the cave, a rare resource and more expensive at school where most crystals were earth-based due to underground mining.
Liu’s sonar proved perfect for the work. He could navigate in total darkness without problems, completing the process with a precision that Ren couldn’t have achieved with his treacherously luminous mushrooms.
Meanwhile, Taro had already begun absorbing his crystals to jump directly to bronze 2.
For Ren the investment was considerable, but thanks to Zhao and Lin having bought all the materials he needed, the complete 450 thousand crystals, he could concentrate on his progression without financial worries.
The magnate’s fortune was safe for now.
But Ren was only cultivating his mushroom for now, leaving his hydra on hold since he needed specific conditions to process the crystals.
Min advanced steadily with his snake, and Lin had adopted the thousand-day method that Ren had taught her.
“The thousand-day method is… expensive,” Zhao had commented when Ren explained it to him.
And he was right. Because unlike Lin, his beast was silver 3.
The necessary silver 3 size crystals cost 300 points each, totaling 300,000. Materials of the same grade added another 300,000 per unit, and that unit only served to process 100 crystals. Sealing each batch of 100 required another 100,000 points.
“So,” Zhao had calculated, “I would need 3.3 million just for the base materials, plus 1 million for sealing the complete process…”
“Four million three hundred thousand total,” Ren confirmed.
Zhao had decided to wait and save more before embarking on such an expensive and prolonged method. For now, like Lin, Min, Liu, and Taro, he patiently awaited his egg’s hatching.
“How much longer?” Min asked while observing his amphibian egg, which occasionally became transparent.
“Each has its time,” Ren responded while tracing runes on the hyena egg. “Yours will be the first ready, then Zhao’s raptor.”
“And mine?” Liu asked.
“The hyena needs more time,” Ren explained. “Master Lin will be third.”
While his friends discussed, Ren continued working on the eggs, his mushrooms pulsing softly. The process was delicate, requiring precision and patience, but seeing his friends anxiously awaiting their new beasts made all the effort worthwhile.