Chapter 6: Ten Generations of Origin

Monster World, Di Zhong Mountain Range.

Ancient Battlefield.

A skeleton burning with ink-colored flames was wandering aimlessly. Nearby were piles of remains and broken weapons.

"To become a powerful hunter, first you must learn to hide yourself and look for opportunities to ambush."

"Then lock onto the target, be ready to go, be as fast as the wind, and kill with one blow... Awoo!"

Accompanied by Li Zheng's shouting in the area voice channel, the players who were pretending to be dead on the ground jumped up one after another, twisted their bodies in the air to switch to monster form, and lunged at the first-generation Origin Monster "Bone Fire."

At this time, Li Zheng and the others had all reached level 5, their body strength was more than double what it was at the beginning, and their body size had also grown significantly.

This was their third encounter with Bone Fire.

The first two contacts were defeats without suspense, which aroused the competitive spirit of Li Zheng and the others.

Most importantly, they discovered a special mechanism in the game during these two days of experience.

This special mechanism could help them kill monsters above their level.

This game actually didn't have a monster reset setting!

The so-called monster reset setting refers to a mechanism commonly found in other games where monsters automatically return to their territory and recover all health, removing all negative states applied by players when players leave a certain range during combat.

But this game didn't have such a setting.

All damage caused by players to monsters was retained.

For example, the bite marks left during their previous battles with Bone Fire didn't disappear because of their deaths. When they fought Bone Fire again, they found the bite marks were still on Bone Fire.

This gave them the possibility of defeating high-level monsters through a grinding strategy.

Even if they could only cause 1% damage each time, they could kill the monster after fighting a hundred times.

Of course, all of this assumed that the monster's self-healing ability was slow.

Encountering a monster with powerful self-healing ability made the grinding strategy meaningless, but facing Bone Fire, which had no healing ability, this tactic was completely feasible.

Compared to the first encounter, Bone Fire was now covered in various bite marks, especially the left leg, which was nearly broken.

These were all injuries caused by their grinding strategy.

In this attack, Li Zheng and the other players continued to focus their attacks on Bone Fire's left leg.

After making contact with Bone Fire, their monster bodies were ignited by ink-colored flames. Enduring the burning pain, they entangled Bone Fire and bit its left leg, which was about to fall apart.

Before long, the already cracked leg bone finally couldn't bear the load and collapsed, and the body tilted and fell to the ground.

Eat Dirt and the other players who were watching from the side decisively rushed up and joined the battle.

The entanglement and biting of the Black-Armored Snake, the frontal heavy punches of the Gargoyle form, the pecking of the Owl-Headed Demon form... Bone Fire was overwhelmed by the continuous attacks and finally couldn't hold on. The ink-colored crystal in its head shattered, and the ink-colored flames surrounding its body extinguished.

The black fog emerging from the dead Bone Fire dispersed into ten parts in the air, floating toward Li Zheng and the others.

After their bodies made contact with the black fog, the energy seeped into their bodies, and a scarlet stream of light swept across their bodies.

Surging energy surged in their bodies, causing their bodies to grow rapidly.

The ink-colored flames still burning on their bodies also dissipated.

The body reshaping brought by the level increase allowed them to return to their peak state.

At this moment, a thick smoke emerged from the dead Bone Fire, and the silhouette of a miniature Bone Fire form could be seen faintly in the surging black smoke.

The Guide water ball closest to it suddenly opened its mouth, and the Bone Fire soul was sucked in, instantly teleporting to the fourth cell of the containment wall, where it re-condensed into Bone Fire.

At this time, a pale blue energy soft tube extended from the top of the cell, connected to the head of the imprisoned Bone Fire, and began to continuously extract Sacrifice Power revenue.

At the same time, prompts rang out one after another in the minds of Li Zheng and the other players:

[Challenger Hint: Contained First-Generation Origin Monster Bone Fire, completed Origin Hunting Quest.]

Quest Reward 1: All participants receive a Sacrifice Power reward of 1000 points (reward amount is affected by the number of participants)

Quest Reward 2: All participants receive permission to open the second soul slot for free.

"Awesome, finally took it down!"

"Hahahaha, brothers, this feeling is too great. Long-lost happiness."

"A reward of 1000 Sacrifice Power is much faster than killing Cursed Soldiers!"

After cheering, Li Zheng turned to look at the Guide water ball floating beside him and asked curiously:

"Guide, how much Sacrifice Power does it normally cost to open the second soul slot?"

[Opening the second soul slot requires 500 Sacrifice Power.]

"Can we embed the second soul now?"

[That’s right. There is a Star Vein embedding function on the function panel. You can embed the second monster soul now and open the second monster form.]

Following the Guide's prompt, Li Zheng summoned the function panel.

There were seven options on it: Map, Space Package, Character Details, Star Vein Enhancement, Item Mall, Resource Sacrifice, System Settings.

Clicking on the Star Vein function, the internal body view scene appeared in Li Zheng's mind.

The spine was as brilliant as the Milky Way in the internal view. At the very top was his human form, and in the first slot below was the Black-Armored Snake soul.

On the right was the control panel, which had detailed Star Vein information.

[Challenger: Game Grinder]

Certified Name: Li Zheng

Star Vein Level: 2 (Next level consumption: 2000 Sacrifice Power)

Star Vein Embedding Slot: 2

Embedded Monster Soul 1: Black-Armored Snake Lv5 (Trait: Venom)

Embedded Monster Soul 2: None

On the right side of the Star Vein attribute panel, there was a "Purchase Soul" option.

After touching it with his consciousness, the screen jumped to the Monster Soul Mall.

What appeared before Li Zheng's eyes were four embeddable options.

1. Petrification (Gargoyle Form: First Generation Origin):

Monster Trait: After using the ability, the body enters a petrified state where it cannot move, significantly reducing damage from any form (specific effect is influenced by physical fitness).

Purchase Consumption: 1000 Sacrifice Power.

2. Grudge Chant (Owl-Headed Demon Form: First Generation Origin):

Monster Trait: After using the ability, it can warn of nearby dangers (killing intent, hostility, aura, fluctuations).

Purchase Consumption: 1000 Sacrifice Power

3. Venom (Black-Armored Snake Form: First Generation Origin):

Monster Trait: Any form of physical damage carries a poisoning effect, causing continuous damage to the target (poison intensity is influenced by physical fitness)

Purchase Consumption: Already owned, cannot be purchased repeatedly

4. Ink Flame (Bone Fire Form: First Generation Origin):

Monster Trait: Consumes mental energy to release death flames that can be controlled by conscious awareness. After hitting the target, it causes continuous burning and death aura penetration damage (specific damage is influenced by monster level and own mental strength).

Purchase Consumption: 1000 Sacrifice Power

"Guide, what does 'First Generation Origin' after the monster mean?" Li Zheng looked at the Guide water ball and asked curiously.

[When Di Zhao created Origin Monsters, he conducted ten mysterious experiments, each time decomposing a part of his own power. The first batch of created Origin life spheres were scattered across the Monster World, eventually evolving into First Generation Origins. The second batch refers to the second batch of created Origin life, and so on.]

[Di Zhao's self-decomposition is a process from weak to strong. The power traits of First Generation Origins are the weakest, and the power traits of Tenth Generation Origins are the strongest, so the growth potential of Tenth Generation Origin Monsters is far higher than that of First Generation Origin Monsters... But growth potential does not necessarily represent strength. Tenth Generation Origins may contain Origin Monsters with lower hunting levels, while First Generation Origins may contain Origin Monsters with extremely high hunting levels...]

"So that’s it."

After understanding what the suffix of the monster represented, Li Zheng fell into thought.

At this stage, there were three choices before him: Owl-Headed Demon, Gargoyle, and Bone Fire.

Among them, Bone Fire's elemental damage did not match the Black-Armored Snake's venom trait, so this option was excluded first.

Of the remaining two options, the Owl-Headed Demon was biased toward functional assistance and belonged to a general-purpose monster trait, while the Gargoyle was biased toward defense.

After thinking for a moment, he decided to exit the Star Vein function interface first and discuss with his brothers how to choose.

As the internal view faded, Li Zheng turned to look at his brothers, but was surprised to find that Eat Dirt had already embedded the second soul and switched to the Bone Fire form burning with ink-colored flames.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 10 =====