Chapter 40: True Dragon Armor, Preparing to Return

After Turs was reduced to ash and smoke, it left behind a field of gray light particles.

Under the pull of the Law's power, these light particles merged into Fang Shi's body.

"You have achieved victory in the Equal Duel Arena."

"You have received the reward from the Equal Duel Arena."

"Reward drawing in progress..."

"Reward drawing complete."

"You have obtained the special ability: 【True Dragon Armor II】."

"【True Dragon Armor II】: Your natural armor equals your Life Level +1."

The data stream of the Equal Duel Arena abruptly ended here.

Fang Shi's pupils dilated; he actually managed to draw this special ability.

"Turs, you are truly a good person—no, a good dragon."

"I thought you would be scattered to ash and smoke under the Law's power, making a full resurrection spell a bit of a loss later."

"I never expected you to include such a powerful special ability as a bonus."

True Dragon Armor is a unique special ability of the Dragon race.

It is also the source of the mighty dragons' formidable defense.

They do not need to wear armor like humanoid creatures; as their biological level rises, they naturally possess immense defensive power.

After reaching the Second Tier, except for armor crafted from special materials,

no armor is stronger than the innate armor of a mighty dragon.

However, Fang Shi had a slight doubt in his heart: mighty dragons possess this because of their scales.

Combined with their increasing size and thickened scales, their armor can improve infinitely.

He, a pure-blooded human with no miscellaneous bloodlines, wondered how this special ability would manifest on his own body.

But this was not the end; another string of data streams flashed across his attribute panel.

"Detected that you possess a similar special ability: 【Natural Armor I】."

"Special ability merging in progress..."

"You have obtained 【True Dragon Armor III】."

"【True Dragon Armor III】: Your natural armor equals your Life Level +2."

Immediately, an astonishing transformation began to occur.

"Ah!"

Fang Shi couldn't help but scream in agony; he hadn't intended to cry out.

But this transformation was too painful, exceeding his pain threshold.

At the microscopic level, layers of dense, hexagonal cells began to appear on the surface of Fang Shi's skin.

Like a honeycomb, they stacked into hexagonal prisms.

Gradually, the change extended to the dermis and subcutaneous tissue.

They fused with the epidermis, forming a powerful defensive layer covering the human body's surface.

This microscopic-level change was undoubtedly extremely painful.

Cells died in a short time, only to regenerate within a short time.

More itchy and painful than the Ant Torture.

But on the surface, Fang Shi merely appeared with skin red as fire and sweat pouring like rain.

Just as if he had taken a sauna.

"I..."

Before Fang Shi could curse, his mouth began to hurt as well; it wouldn't close, leaving him able only to gape silently.

The transformation of True Dragon Armor would not spare any part of the body.

For a man, the mouth was merely an appetizer; the lower body was the truly unforgettable ordeal.

Fang Shi crashed to the ground with a thud, his entire body like a corpse, paralyzed by pain.

Only occasionally, when a major transformation occurred, would his muscles twitch involuntarily in compliance, proving Fang Shi was still alive.

He simply closed his eyes and silently endured it.

He didn't know how much time passed; as the pain subsided slightly, Fang Shi finally opened his eyes.

The scene before him had long since shifted, returning to the dim underground palace.

"Crackle and pop!"

Fang Shi stood up and stretched his limbs slightly; his joints and muscles throughout his body emitted cracking sounds.

The transformation was not yet fully complete, but this level of pain allowed him to move temporarily.

Even so, Fang Shi had already sensed the potential of this body.

Because just now in the Equal Duel Arena,

under the influence of the Law, Fang Shi had briefly possessed a True Dragon body.

In that body, he had been able to use Use Second Layer without damage.

Although True Dragon Armor is not equivalent to a True Dragon body, it at least possesses part of its power.

Moreover, Fang Shi's True Dragon Armor is level 3, even more formidable than Turs's; perhaps he can now cast it without damage.

Not to mention the innate armor that True Dragon Armor itself provides.

This greatly increased Fang Shi's own defensive power.

In the apocalypse filled with dangers, this proved particularly important.

Armor is good, but it especially affects movement speed.

When movement speed drops, explosive power drops too.

But without armor, when facing monsters one can only dodge.

The margin for error is too low; if a single mistake causes injury, combat power drops sharply.

Now that Fang Shi's defense has risen, his combat power has increased accordingly.

This means he can employ more dangerous tactics, even trading injury for injury when necessary to kill the enemy.

"Good thing this metamorphosis didn't grow dragon scales or anything; the skin is still the same as before."

As long as it can boost combat power, Fang Shi doesn't mind these things.

After all, in his previous life, those humans who fought to survive had even stranger modifications; he had long since gone numb to it.

Still, maintaining a human appearance is ultimately a good thing.

Even if beneath that appearance, everything has long since become completely different.

But this is the proof left behind from when he was human.

……

"Hurry up, are you even useful? Working so slowly."

Xiao Xi's eyes brimmed with tears, looking with glistening eyes at the bald, burly man before her.

Little did she know the bald, burly man didn't fall for this at all.

He cursed directly: "Crying won't help. If today's work isn't finished, don't even think about eating."

As a gym instructor, he had no shortage of women throwing themselves at him.

With Xiao Xi's looks, plus being squeezed dry by Fang Shi with no time to dress up or wash, the bald, burly man couldn't be bothered to look at her.

"Brother Zhao, we're lucky too, to actually find this treasure spot."

Beside the bald, burly Brother Zhao, a young man wearing glasses spoke.

"Haha, if it weren't for you being clever, Little Qian, tricking the words out of them, I wouldn't have dared to do this."

Brother Zhao grabbed the beer beside him with a gurgle and took a swig.

Though it wasn't ice-cold, in the apocalypse's fourth day, it was still a rare pleasure.

Their whole group came from the same gym—either instructors or trainees.

After the apocalypse broke out, they naturally banded together.

And because Brother Zhao's group had inherently high base stats,

from the very start of the apocalypse they thrived like fish in water, completely unlike other survivors who had to fight desperately just to take down a walking corpse.

Just like that, they cautiously lived until the fourth day.

Who could have known, starting on the fourth day, heaven and earth underwent strange changes; the danger was on an entirely different level from before.

Making their situation turn dire.

Fortunately, last night Fang Shi caused a huge commotion.

The carefully laid trap didn't lure a single Fire-Wing Bird.

Brother Zhao's group, who were no longer satisfied with hunting walking corpses, witnessed this turn of events.

Realizing something extraordinary was happening on Fang Shi's side.

In the silent, pitch-black night, bird cries and crimson light were so conspicuous.

Someone in the team guessed that the Fire-Wing Birds had all gone there, and watching the firelight in the sky, they were still streaming toward it nonstop.

There must be tremendous force over there.

With the idea of grouping up for warmth,

they began cautiously traveling through the night.

Sure enough, not a single Fire-Wing Bird.

A few walking corpses alone were no match for them.

Who could have known that just one building short of the distance, dawn arrived.

The first wave struck, and Brother Zhao's group sensed something was wrong.

They quickly ducked into the building beside them.

Otherwise, if they had only started traveling today, they might have been wiped out within a hundred meters of leaving.

But even so, to reach this building, they lost five companions.

Then they ran into Xiao Xi and Zhai Yan.

Through communication, they learned what had happened yesterday.

And understood that Fang Shi had already left.

Even though Xiao Xi and the others had been wary and didn't tell them the use of the Fire-Wing Bird corpses,

Brother Zhao's group weren't fools—seeing the Fire-Wing Bird corpses, how could they not touch them?

As a result, things turned out like this.

Xiao Xi and Zhai Yan switched bosses again and began a new day's labor: cooking.

Brother Zhao's reasoning was simple: you two don't dare go out and fight, so if you don't work, how can that be allowed?

Once the Fire-Wing Birds are done eating, won't they still have to go hunt?

That's right—Brother Zhao's group was going to hunt Fire-Wing Birds.

Because they had long since seen clearly: in this apocalypse, you can only save yourself.

At first it was walking corpses, then Fire-Wing Birds, and what enemies will come after that?

If there are no stronger enemies, then wouldn't the stat panel be meaningless?

If they don't hurry up and kill monsters to level up, sooner or later they'll die.

Of course, they won't mindlessly charge forward.

The most important thing for humans is wisdom; one must always prepare some traps before starting to hunt.

Otherwise it's just seeking death.

……

"Piercing Attack activated."

"You dealt 3 damage to the target."

"Piercing Attack activated."

"You dealt 20 damage to the target's energy core."

"The target received fatal damage."

"The target has died."

"Absorbing the target's soul energy, you gained 210 experience points and 21 survival points."

Along with this stream of data, the last earth elemental finally fell at Fang Shi's hands.

After obtaining the True Dragon Armor III, Fang Shi's combat power rose to another level.

He who could already face four earth elementals at once now found it even less of a problem.

Fang Shi had already confirmed that this body could now bear eighty percent of Double Strength without loss.

This was simply a qualitative leap in improvement.

So taking care of the remaining earth elementals was almost absurdly easy.

"Experience: 5352"

A bit of a pity—Tuersi was killed by the power of law, so the kill wasn't credited to Fang Shi.

But it didn't matter; once the Mystical Realm ended there would still be completion rewards.

And the rewards were very practical—simply giving experience.

"Exploration: 110%"

Especially since Fang Shi's exploration had already exceeded the full score.

When he had encountered the Giant Scorpion Bandits again, the exploration had already reached 100%.

It seemed that in the system's judgment, the final trial of this Mystical Realm was the battle with the bandit gang.

As for Tuersi, it belonged to a hidden map; very few could face it.

Of course, after other Blue Star survivors formed teams and entered.

The first thing they faced was the kobolds.

Although kobolds themselves were nothing much, the kobolds' traps were extremely deadly.

Inexperienced teams could easily have accidents.

In the end, more and more kobolds would gather.

If they could grope their way to the great hall where the kobolds held their ritual without triggering the kobold traps.

They would inevitably come into conflict with the bandit gang.

The exchange between the two sides would absolutely not be a situation of one-sided suppression by Fang Shi.

Therefore Fang Shi's exploration score was hard to replicate.

"Let's wait, rest a while and wait for the time to end before clearing."

Fang Shi found a place to lie down.

As for Tuersi's treasure, that kind of useless thing he couldn't be bothered to deal with.

The most precious Summoning Ring was already in hand.

The only regret was that twenty-sided die that had already disappeared.

That kind of wonder that could change heaven and earth, creating things at will, was simply a divine artifact.