Exploring Technology in a Wizard World
Chapter 436 - 435: To Become Stronger, Reduce Intelligence First

the sky gradually darkened, and the whole Undead Island was shrouded in darkness.

Tethered at the makeshift harbor, a large irregular ice adhered to the bottom of the Ghost Ship, suddenly cracked, and Richard emerged.

At this moment, Richard’s body was enveloped by a thin layer of air, isolating him from the seawater, allowing him to move swiftly and emerge from the water to step onto the shore.

He scanned his surroundings and determined his direction. Richard then employed the Shadow Cloak and Concealing Breath Skill to hide himself before he began to explore the outskirts of the island.

...

Richard was quite efficient. It didn’t take long for him to figure out the general situation on the outer rim of the island, during which he made two discoveries.

First, there were a considerable number of Stitched Monsters on the island. Just from what he saw, there were dozens. If he counted them all, there would undoubtedly be more.

Second, not all Stitched Monsters were the same. Among them, there were different types, each varying in strength. The most common and weakest were the Grey-skinned Stitched Monsters. Slightly stronger were the Green-skinned Stitched Monsters—a shade of forgiving green. Even stronger were the Blue-skinned Stitched Monsters—like demonized elves. The strongest were the Purple-skinned Stitched Monsters—resembling enchantingly purple sweet potatoes.

It’s worth mentioning that the intelligence of Stitched Monsters did not correlate positively with their strength but inversely. In other words, the more powerful the Stitched Monsters, the dumber they were.

Take the Grey-skinned Stitched Monsters, for example, although they were weak—drownable by dragging into the water with one hand, their intelligence was the highest among all Stitched Monsters. Perhaps not comparable to humans or even dogs, but they still could perform many tasks. Indeed, on the fringes of the island, many Grey-skinned Stitched Monsters were working laboriously, like chopping wood, fetching water, or smashing stones.

However, the Green-skinned Stitched Monsters were much worse in this regard. They might appear busy working, yet they rarely accomplished tasks effectively. Chopping wood, they would swing the ax three times, missing twice; fetching water, they would spill half the bucket; smashing stones, they would get infuriated and would not stop until the rocks were reduced to dust.

The situation with the Blue-skinned Stitched Monsters was even more unbearable, the job sites resembling disaster areas.

Purple-skinned Stitched Monsters... Richard seriously doubted that they even had the concept of working in their brains.

At this moment, Richard saw a Purple-skinned Stitched Monster that seemed to be patrolling. He said "seemed" because he wasn’t sure what it was trying to do by aimlessly wandering through the woods.

Going for a walk?

"Bang, bang, bang..."

The Purple-skinned Stitched Monster, towering over three meters tall, trudged through the forest. Suddenly, an arborvitae, about twenty to thirty centimeters in diameter, appeared in front of it. The creature, without even looking, slammed into it heavily.

"Thud!"

With a muffled sound, the Purple-skinned Stitched Monster wobbled slightly, looking up bewildered at the arborvitae that blocked its path, as if puzzled why the tree didn’t move aside. After a moment of serious reflection, it stepped back.

One step, two steps, three steps, then stopped.

Then the Purple-skinned Stitched Monster moved forward again.

One step, two steps, three steps, and slam!

"Bang!"

The Purple-skinned Stitched Monster looked at the tree trunk again and once more stepped backward three steps.

After retreating, without any variation, it moved forward again, hitting the tree trunk for the third time.

"Bang, bang, bang!"

Richard watched as the Purple-skinned Stitched Monster repeatedly slammed into the arborvitae over forty times, eventually breaking the tree trunk with a loud "snap." The arborvitae fell to the side.

The Purple-skinned Stitched Monster stepped over the fallen trunk and continued forward, its expression calm as if it was all perfectly normal and its heart undisturbed.

Richard’s heart was fluctuating—strongly fluctuating!

Watching the lone, foolishly naive purple-skinned stitched monster, Richard’s eyes narrowed slightly, eager to capture one and study its brain structure. The next moment, he followed quietly without a sound.

...

A while later.

"Bang, bang, bang..."

The purple-skinned stitched monster walked into the second tree blocking the road, starting to head-butt it again when suddenly small snowflakes began to fall, landing one by one on its body and then sublimating away into nothingness.

The purple-skinned stitched monster paused, curiously looking up at the snowflakes.

The snowflakes became denser, falling faster and in greater numbers, almost covering the purple-skinned stitched monster.

The purple-skinned stitched monster had no reaction, or rather, couldn’t react quickly enough, letting the sudden appearance of snowflakes continuously fall down.

One second, two seconds, three seconds...

Ten seconds, half a minute, one minute...

Moments later, the purple-skinned stitched monster suddenly staggered and fell to the ground with a "bang"—it suffocated to death.

Yes, suffocated to death.

This was because the snowflakes falling from the sky, while they appeared to be just snowflakes, were in fact dry ice, also known as solid carbon dioxide.

This substance is generally used to create smoke on stage, but it can also be used for planned killings because carbon dioxide is heavier than air. When a large amount of dry ice sublimates, it causes carbon dioxide to accumulate on the ground. Under the control of a spell and with reduced air circulation, the concentration of carbon dioxide can rise very quickly to dangerous levels.

The high concentration of carbon dioxide can suppress and paralyze the respiratory centers and, with its diffusive ability being dozens of times stronger than oxygen, it can quickly spread from the alveoli into the blood, causing respiratory acidosis and then death.

Richard had previously dissected a grey-skinned stitched monster and knew that their physiology was similar to humans. Therefore, he specifically used this method of attack against the slow-reacting purple-skinned stitched monster, to avoid noise from fighting, and the result did not disappoint him.

Seeing the purple-skinned stitched monster fall, Richard, hidden in the shadows, waved his hand to timely dissipate the "snowflakes," quietly stepped out, and then held his breath as he quickly threw the stitched monster into Eden.

...

Inside Eden, Biological Function Sector, Dissection Room.

Richard appeared here, with the purple-skinned stitched monster he had just killed by suffocation with dry ice placed on the dissection table.

Skillfully picking up the dissection tools, Richard approached the dissection table, ready to dissect the purple-skinned stitched monster to see how its structure differed from that of the grey-skinned stitched monster.

But as soon as he started, Richard’s eyes narrowed.

He discovered that the stitched monster’s exterior was incredibly tough, partly due to the cryogenic freezing from the dry ice, but mostly due to the monster itself—if the grey-skinned stitched monster’s surface was indeed skin, then the purple-skinned stitched monster’s surface was more like a shell—similar to a beetle’s shell, incredibly hard, like armor, impenetrable to ordinary dissection knives.

With no other choice, Richard took out two extra Space Iron Rings and activated the "Absolute Cutting of Spatial Scissors" function, finally managing to cut it open.

At that moment, Pandora’s voice came from outside the door, still reciting the multiplication table, but now more fluently, saying: "One times seven is seven, two times seven is fourteen... five times seven is thirty-five, six times seven is forty-two..."

While listening to the recitation, Richard continued dissecting expressionlessly, unaffected, as he "clicked" and checked the structure of the purple-skinned stitched monster.

What’s the difference between reciting multiplication tables and dissecting a body? There’s no misunderstanding, it’s all pursuit of science—yes, the pursuit of science.

...