Ashen God
Chapter 664 - 663: Demon Pig Bracelet (Happy New Year! 6000 words)

Chapter 664: Chapter 663: Demon Pig Bracelet (Happy New Year! 6000 words)

[Item Three]

[Option One: 120 Soul points]

[Option Two: Demonized Eurasian Wild Boar, Blue quality, Pet]

[Option Three: 1200 Soul points]

"So three consecutive options are related to Soul points. It looks like the choices for new equipment will have to wait until the fourth or maybe the fifth option. As for new equipment, I can only hope that it provides bonuses to Attack Speed and Physical Recovery Speed.

Of course, other bonuses are fine too, as long as they’re not useless ones, like the increased breeding capabilities I ran into at the Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalaguli previously. That kind of bonus really isn’t useful to me."

Fortunately, while wild boars reproduce more quickly than humans, giving birth to two litters a year with several piglets in each, they are still outpaced by other species that are truly prolific breeders, such as rabbits, mice, various insects, and fish. So, I don’t think I will encounter those frustrating Attribute bonuses related to increased fertility.

After all, although humans often use the term ’sow’ to refer to prolific breeding, compared to insects and fish that can lay tens of thousands of eggs at once, it’s still significantly fewer.

"This time, the Demonized Eurasian Wild Boar is finally a Blue quality pet. Unfortunately, a Blue quality pet isn’t much different from the Green quality pets before, in terms of being useful to me.

Sigh, I remember when I wanted to find a monster pet in the Demonized Swamp and even sought advice from group leaders for this purpose. But unexpectedly, now I’ve completely cleared the whole Demonized Swamp and still haven’t found a pet.

While part of the reason is that I don’t have the right Artifacts to catch a pet, the bigger issue is that the demonized creatures in the swamp are just too weak."

The Lord Monster Demonized Four-eyed Wild Boar Queen Pei Qi is indeed strong enough, but only comparatively stronger. She couldn’t even withstand a single punch from Second Tier Zhang Yanhang, so naturally, she’s even less of a match for his Third Tier self.

Zhang Yanhang guessed that once he ascended to Third Tier, the Demonized Four-Eyed Wild Boar Queen Pei Qi would not only fail to withstand his All Four Elements are Void, but she probably wouldn’t be able to withstand a Normal attack either.

After all, with the thirty-six Free Attribute points he’s saved up, he should easily be able to replicate his situation from Second Tier, which is to reach a state near the Peak Third Tier immediately after promotion. In that case, the Demonized Four-eyed Wild Boar Queen Pei Qi really isn’t much to look at.

Beyond that, capturing such Lord Monsters requires special Artifacts, so in this sense, whether the Demonized Four-eyed Wild Boar Queen Pei Qi is strong or weak, she’s never really been within Zhang Yanhang’s range of capture from the start. Even if he truly wanted to capture her, he couldn’t.

"Still, this Demonized Eurasian Wild Boar is quite interesting."

When it comes to Eurasian wild boars, Zhang Yanhang’s most vivid memory is the North American subspecies of Eurasian wild boars. As for why North America has ’Eurasian’ wild boars, that’s naturally because they were introduced as game animals.

After being introduced there, the Eurasian wild boar, which originally weighed a maximum of 200 kilograms, mated with local domestic pigs and acquired the genes that were selectively bred for putting on weight regardless of diet, causing their weight to skyrocket.

The largest North American subspecies of Eurasian wild boar can even weigh over a thousand kilograms. That’s more than double the original maximum, which shows that the genes of domestic pigs, especially those bred for meat, greatly enhance the wild boar population.

This North American subspecies of Eurasian wild boar, because it can reproduce 4-12 piglets per litter and does so twice a year, cannot be exterminated no matter how much they are culled.

Moreover, this subspecies, being massive like a small truck and carrying viruses and toxins in the pork that render it inedible, has been termed ’super pig’ and is considered completely useless and a scourge, or rather, purely as an ecological destructor.

[Item Four]

[Option One: Prehistoric Giant Beast, D-Level Quality, Talent]

"""Option Two: Demonized Life Form (Mammoth), D-Level Quality, Talent"""

"""Option Three: Demonized Life Form (Four-eyed Wild Boar), C-level, Talent"""

"The fourth option still wasn’t related to new equipment, it seems like this time the equipment-related option is being saved for last."

Zhang Yanhang was indeed particularly looking forward to new equipment, but if possible, he hoped that the new equipment wouldn’t conflict with the other equipment he was already wearing, otherwise that might be a bit troublesome.

But there were actually quite a few open slots on him now, so in theory, he didn’t really need to worry about this issue. After all, he might not have had many equipable spots originally, but once he’d completely phased out the Green Ten-piece Set and the White Ten-piece Set, those equipment spots would certainly be plentiful.

Although the Green Ten-piece Set had all been integrated into his waistband, the White Ten-piece Set honestly occupied ten equipment spots, including important ones like the helmet, clothing, pants, shoes...

So, as long as the new equipment wasn’t too outrageous, it probably wouldn’t result in any duplicate positions, and there would be plenty of white equipment that would need replacing by the new gear.

Of course, since there was only one piece of new equipment, it definitely couldn’t replace the many pieces of white equipment in those spots. Thus, Zhang Yanhang planned to wait until he was promoted to the Third Tier before he began to slowly fill those vacancies.

Even though the vacancies were substantial, Zhang Yanhang was confident in his multiple choice options. He figured that at most, after clearing one or two areas, he should be able to gather enough new equipment to fill the gaps.

Moreover, if he was lucky and encountered new set equipment or something, Zhang Yanhang might just need to clear one area to gather enough equipment.

According to the law of conservation of luck, since he hadn’t obtained any set equipment for a long time, he felt that after his promotion, he should definitely be able to get new set equipment again, although the law of conservation of luck might not be accurate or even completely made up by him.

After all, if there really was such a law of conservation of luck, after experiencing such a long streak of good luck, Zhang Yanhang feared he might have to endure an unknown length of bad luck afterwards, but that was definitely impossible.

So, he thought that as Heavenly Destiny Master, his luck would at least remain at an extremely high level, though not completely constant, occasionally fluctuating a bit, but not downwards – instead, the fluctuations would make good luck go from extremely high to even higher.

Compared to any law of conservation of luck, this theory of luck fluctuation fit Zhang Yanhang’s actual situation much better. After all, since he had awakened the multiple choice innate, he really hadn’t encountered any misfortune.

"The Demonized Four-eyed Wild Boar should be considered worthy of a value of one hundred and twenty soul points, a Second Tier Three Stars monster, easily achieving the same C-level Racial Talent as Goblin Chief Shaman Maka Baga from the Goblin Plains.

But unfortunately, it’s only a C-level Racial Talent. Who knows when I’ll encounter an area with starting C-level Talents. Although I feel like it shouldn’t be too difficult with my strength increasing, it’s still uncertain whether I’ll encounter it in the early or late Third Tier stage."

Although Zhang Yanhang was indeed confident about encountering starting C-level Talents in the Third Tier, the exact timing was beyond his control.

"""Item Five"""

"""Option One: Wild Boar Skin Set, Blue quality, Equipment"""

"""Option Two: Wild Boar Bracelet, Purple Quality, Equipment"""

"""Option Three: Demon Pig Arm Bracelet, Dark Purple Quality, Equipment"""

"Demon Pig Arm Bracelet? For some reason, when I see this name, I always end up associating ’coin’ with just reading those two characters. Oh no, I might be developing a bit of a ’coin PTSD.’"

Although Zhang Yanhang was often busy, he would occasionally surf the web, striving not to be an Awakener stuck behind the times with ossified thinking. So, due to watching a lot of V-Circle recently, he really could end up with this kind of ’coin PTSD.’

"Speaking of which, what is up with this Wild Boar Skin Set? Could wearing it turn you into a ’skin suit person’ infiltrating the V-Circle? I really haven’t seen much of this Wild Boar Skin Set before, at most only something like a sow skin set or a mealworm skin set."

Zhang Yanhang, driven by curiosity, checked the wild boar skin’s attribute list and found that it wasn’t what he expected at all. It was just a simple skin, or rather, it was more like a bodysuit. Wearing it, one could cosplay as a wild boar, and beyond that, it didn’t serve any other purpose. It truly was a piece of trash.

But considering it was an artifact of blue quality, one couldn’t be too demanding. The blue-quality braggarts were plentiful, like the highly practical blue-quality waist bag. Zhang Yanhang even wondered if there weren’t any rank restrictions, he might just use it all the way to the fourth tier.

Take the Tarot Card Set, for example. Although it was blue quality, the power of the cards arguably surpassed its rank. So, although Zhang Yanhang really shouldn’t expect too much from blue-quality equipment, he still hoped to get his hands on stronger gear.

After examining the attribute list of the wild boar skin, Zhang Yanhang immediately looked over the wild boar bracelet’s list. It was, well, pretty standard.

It wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t anything special, and the equipment slot overlapped with the Demon Pig Bracelet, so after quickly glancing over the attribute list, Zhang Yanhang ignored it.

"This time the Demon Pig Bracelet turned out exactly as I expected, a piece of dark purple quality equipment. It’s a bit odd to have a bracelet, but at least, even though it’s odd, it shouldn’t affect my ability to wear my normal gear."

Zhang Yanhang usually associated bracelets with muscular men, oh wait, he was one too, no problem then, that wasn’t odd. He always had a double standard when it came to himself.

"Never mind, let’s not dwell on these things and just check the attribute list of this Demon Pig Bracelet," said Zhang Yanhang as he opened up the list for the dark purple quality equipment and began scrutinizing it closely.

[Demon Pig Bracelet]

[Quality: Dark Purple]

[Type: Equipment]

[Origin: Ashen World, High Elf Empire, Supreme Forest, Elf Royal Court Avando]

[Durability: 60/60]

[Defensive Power: 42]

[Additional Attributes: Attack Speed +19%.]

[Usage Requirements: 40 Agility points.]

[Score: 260 (Dark purple items score from 151 to 260.)]

[Introduction: My name is Azikasa Baofeng Saint Silvado, a war hero and empire savior who seems ordinary at first glance, but upon closer inspection, isn’t quite that ordinary. It’s just me, who’s in no way plain, presently drawing my military pension with no psychological burden and leading a dull retirement life.

Ever since I was released from prison, my already monotonous retirement became even more so, due to my inability to forge items. Although I would not defy the Queen’s command, I still struggled with how to alleviate my current plight and make retirement less boring.

Although it’s only ten years, and I’ve already endured the toughest early stages, I cannot bear the remaining few years. I started to consider how to spend my time in a way that would be more interesting, and while I was racking my brains, I noticed a strange figure at my door.

After capturing them, I realized that it was one of my former forging apprentices. Although she initially blushed and played mute, which puzzled me, as soon as I shared my woes with her to see if I could derive any inspiration, she suddenly opened up and shared her wealth of ideas.

I was surprised by the sudden change in my apprentice’s behavior, but after listening carefully to her suggestions, I recognized that this kid might actually be a ’genius.’ She even suggested I take her on again as an apprentice and pass the time by teaching her forging, which wouldn’t go against the Queen’s orders.

After all, the Queen had only banned me from forging for ten years; she hadn’t forbidden teaching an apprentice. However, every time I think about this apprentice’s past performances, my blood pressure rises. I’m really hesitant to take her back, considering that her talent in forging isn’t entirely absent but certainly doesn’t concern me in the slightest.]

Moreover, her fluent speech just now made me suspect how long this person had been spying on me, whether she already knew my troubles and had thought them through in advance to be able to perform as she did. This made me once again start to doubt whether she was planning another "Immortal Jump" to swindle me villainously.

But considering that I am, after all, a War Hero and Saver of the High Elf Empire who saved the Empire from the brink of disaster, I believe that if someone really wanted to pull an Immortal Jump, I must have some defensive capability against it. Although I might not be able to declare "Who dares accuse me in this hall?" like some of my colleagues, it should still not be too difficult to win the case.

Therefore, facing the Forging Apprentice’s dangerous behavior that resembled the second stage of an Immortal Jump, I decided to accept this "sugar-coated shell." However, after eating the coating, the shell would definitely be sent right back. After careful consideration, I decided to take her on as my apprentice again. For some reason, she seemed especially happy. Could it be because she felt her scheming was about to succeed?

Hmph! I, Azikasa Baofeng Saint Silvado, will absolutely shatter her deceitful conspiracies, just like I had bravely denounced and exposed the tailor’s plot to manipulate the government in the great hall. With the intelligence and wisdom accumulated throughout my thousands of years of life, how dare this immature girl think of deceiving me, truly overestimating herself.

As expected, shortly after I invited her into the forge, she revealed her true colors and pleaded with the excuse that no matter how she forged, she could only produce homogenized products in large quantities and asked for my close guidance. I hesitated for a moment before gladly agreeing. This time, I was determined to unveil the true nature of her Immortal Jump.

I hugged her tightly from behind and firmly covered her hands with my palms, then manipulated her hands to lift the hammer and continuously strike the material. Hmph, I really don’t know what she was thinking, coming up with such a strange teaching method. In my thousand years of forging and taking on apprentices, none has ever requested "hand-in-hand" instruction.

But I have no idea what was wrong with her. As soon as I hugged her, she started stuttering, and her face turned red. The surface of her body, which should remain cool despite the heat of the forge due to magical protection, now felt as if her magic defense had suddenly failed and was gradually heating up to a scorching temperature.

Moreover, she kept saying strange things, claiming that hand-in-hand teaching isn’t done like this. What a joke. Does she think the title of "Wisdom Star" (every time I cast Meteor Magic, I get to cast several more meteors due to my Intelligence bonus) that I, Azikasa Baofeng Saint Silvado, hold is in vain? Although I’ve never heard the term hand-in-hand before, my understanding of its literal meaning is absolutely correct.

So, I ignored her words and started earnestly holding her palm to focus on the forging. However, what annoyed me was that my arm kept brushing against her chest which was shaking due to her body movements. As the progress of forging reached the final stage, her chest shook even more violently like a rabbit gone wild.

I started to think about putting her on a diet. I can understand a young High Elf having some baby fat, but she is way too overweight, isn’t she? It’s severely impacting the forging results. Even with me teaching hand-in-hand, we were still influenced by this issue, and it’s just unbearable.

But for some reason, after successfully guiding the Forging Apprentice to complete this forging session hand-in-hand, I intended to ask her whether she had any insights about this forging. But as soon as I let go, she inexplicably collapsed onto the ground with a very strange expression.

Although I don’t know exactly what happened, facing the Forging Apprentice’s behavior, I habitually raised my head proudly and happily accepted it. After all, I am the illustrious War Hero and Saver of the Empire, Azikasa Baofeng Saint Silvado, huh? Nobody in the entire Elf Clan knows better than me how to accept others’ admiration, hahaha!

"Well, how should I put it, this plot somehow feels a bit off, though I can’t quite put my finger on what exactly is wrong. Speaking of which, doesn’t personally guiding others in forging violate the Queen’s edict?

But when you think about it, the edict seems to just prohibit Azikasa Baofeng Saint Silvado from forging items himself, it doesn’t say he can’t assist others with forging. Oh, you’re playing fast and loose with bugs now, huh?

And the nickname ’Wisdom Star’ is truly outrageous. Even more outrageous is the literal interpretation of ’hands-on.’"

After reading through the description of the Demon Pig Bracelet this time, Zhang Yanhang’s only thought was that it indeed seemed quite ridiculous. Of course, if he had to choose the most ridiculous plot, he would still think the Elf Queen’s part was the absolute peak.

Of course, it may also be because the Elf Queen dominated that segment, not Azikasa Baofeng Saint Silvado, so it felt different to the senses and thus seemed more ridiculous.

"However, compared to the plot developments described in the introduction, the Additional Attributes of the Demon Pig Bracelet are even more important. A Dark Purple Quality Demon Pig Bracelet can provide a whopping 19% Attack Speed Bonus; truly fitting for a Dark Purple Quality full-score equipment, awesomely powerful.

The Ivory Pendant that came from the Demonized Mammoth added Attack Speed too, but it only gave a 10% bonus at its initial Purple Quality.

Even after upgrading through fusion to a high-score Dark Purple Quality Ivory Pendant+4, it just offers an 18% attack speed boost, still 1% less than the initial state of the Demon Pig Bracelet. Dark Purple Quality full-score equipment is indeed strong."

Moreover, the usage requirements for the Demon Pig Bracelet are merely forty points in Agility. If nothing unexpected happens, or let’s say if this Demon Pig Bracelet is also a work of that High Elf Apprentice Blacksmith,

then he thinks that after upgrading it to Light Golden Quality, it would probably only add an extra 10 points to the Agility attribute requirements, from the original 40 points to 50 points, still making it usable within the Second Tier.

Though it’s pretty much meaningless for him now, considering he has already cleared out the entire Demonized Swamp; missing out on this Enhancement won’t make much of a difference.

Anyway, there’s not much else he needs to do next; he just has to do a simple sweep of the newly respawned monsters in Raccoon City and the Goblin Plain before he can wait for his Promotion.