79: Chapter 75 Odell Reef 79: Chapter 75 Odell Reef From the beginning, Ian didn’t care whether he was reincarnated or had traveled to another dimension, and he harbored no aversion to the Otherworld as a fantastical place imbued with Spirit Energy.

As an engineer and a staunch materialist, he didn’t think, “This isn’t scientific!” upon seeing Spirit Energy and magic, but rather, “What kind of new system is needed to explain Spirit Energy?”

So, when he saw that the humans on the Terra Continent had natural protective bone plates, witnessed dozens of meters long gargantuan sea snakes in the sea, knew of giant wild boars as tall as a person, giant bears two stories high, and the giant Swamp Crocodile Dragon he had just seen, roughly twenty meters long and about six or seven stories tall.

Ian didn’t find anything particularly surprising.

——This is an Otherworld, isn’t it common to have behemoths?

Existence is rational; he held this firm belief, even if he encountered Godzilla nesting and laying eggs at the bottom of the sea, he wouldn’t be fazed.

However, all his peace and rationality snapped when he saw the suit of “fully equipped combat powered armor” that Viscount Grant was wearing.

“What the hell, they even have the technology to make powered armor, how is it possible that their productivity is so low!”

Although he began by scoffing at it, and despite the fact that the Terra Continent’s productivity wasn’t low, Ian quickly thought of no less than seven or eight possibilities—such as the idea that this thing was essentially a high-end handcrafted armor exclusive to nobles, with no large-scale industrial system; or perhaps it only appeared to be powered armor on the surface but was actually a kind of magic Spirit Energy equipment; or maybe it was a legacy from a previous era civilization, and modern Terrans only knew how to use and repair, but couldn’t actually produce it…

“Right, Inscriptions?”

At a great distance, and with the curtain of water, even though Ian’s vision was much sharper than normal people due to Spirit Energy, he couldn’t see the details of the distant battle and could only hear the roars of the behemoths and the booming sounds like surging sea tides.

He had an epiphany: “This world also has a technological system of Inscriptions and Alchemy…

Powering armor through Inscriptions that transcend eras makes sense.”

But now was not the time to puzzle over whether a battle between powered armor and behemoths was strange or not.

Outside the window, the battle between Viscount Grant and the Great Shaman had intensified.

The attacks from both sides could easily dismantle streets and destroy houses; in just a few seconds, they had turned the town center’s square into ruins, a feat befitting someone two major ranks above him, who had just begun to cultivate two months ago, a Sublimator beginning to nurture his soul.

Ian could see that the huge Crocodragon had no blind spots, its three pairs of eyes could sweep everything around its body under the control of the Great Shaman; even Viscount Grant, who had greatly enhanced mobility thanks to his powered armor, found it difficult to defeat the opponent with high-speed maneuvers.

Of course, the Viscount had already noticed the Great Shaman encircled by the Crocodragon’s spiny protection overhead, but setting aside that the humanoid form of the Great Shaman may have been of no use, his consciousness had long since merged with the Crocodragon’s brain.

Even if that spot was indeed a vulnerability, it would be very difficult for him to hit it accurately.

“You actually managed to rush back here so quickly.

Unexpectedly, you were so irrational as to abandon the complete annihilation of my main force and instead come to the aid of your city, already half destroyed.”

The decrepit humanoid form cackled, satirically praising his enemy’s ‘decisiveness’: “Where’s your army?

The soldiers you left behind may be currently surrounded and crying as they are being wiped out by the warriors of my tribe.”

“Forgot about Bishop Huai Guang, did you?”

The Viscount could naturally hear the mockery of his enemy, knowing that the other side wanted to disrupt his actions with words to find an opportunity.

But instead, he sneered in response, “Did you know that he’s too soft-hearted to harm ordinary people, and tied up in other colonies by disturbances created by your spies, so you dared to attack the city so boldly?”

“But you seem to forget that I’m merely a viscount of The Empire, not a supreme commander like you, right?

Half a month ago, I requested assistance from the Capital Region.

They can’t reach Harrison Port, but to suppress the colonies in the mountains is a piece of cake for them.”

“The Bishop who got away just happened to arrive.

He knows about the massacre you incited against the civilians, and, in a rare move, he plans to intervene personally, commanding the troops at Amor Town in my stead.”

Viscount Grant gleefully said, “The seven Shamans and the most powerful Chieftain are all there, while those following you are all newcomers…

Those old things might fare well against others, but against His Excellency the Bishop, they stand no chance of victory!”

Seeing the Crocodragon hesitate for a moment, sensing its faltering, the viscount immediately controlled his Armored Clothing to spurt mist to an appropriate position and swung his sword, slashing a water blade toward the Crocodragon’s flank — the high-heat steam expanded explosively, like a bomb propelling him from behind, the sharp liquid blade could easily sever a metal column more than a dozen centimeters thick under such force.

But the Great Shaman, regaining composure, managed to control the Crocodragon to turn its head and meet the water blade with its most robust spined crest, instantly dispersing it.

“Damn it.”

Seeing this, the viscount couldn’t help frowning.

In those days, the Redwood Natives had four great Totem Spirits, named Mountain Tide, Drum Wave, Rising Tide, Forest Sea, and Mist Nest…

Among them, the Spirit of the Mountain Tide was the very Swamp Crocodile Dragon before him, Drum Wave and Rising Tide were two Gargantuan Eels in the depths of Odell Reef, considered as one, and the Forest Ocean Spirit was the Great Redwood Forest itself.

As for the fifth among the four great Totem Spirits, the Spirit of the Fog Nest was a massive Decay Shadow Spider in the deep miasma zone of the Great Redwood Forest — the only one killed by his father, the Old Grant Viscount, during the Empire’s pioneering group’s establishment of towns.

But due to fighting multiple Totem Spirits at once, Old Grant Viscount sustained severe injuries, his Armored Clothing badly damaged, and his accompanying Sublimation Weapon ‘Crystalline Sword’ was corroded and broken by the poison gas of the Mist Nest Spirit.

As a result, the current viscount lacked a weapon, unable to solidify his water blade into Spirit Substance ice, turning it into a tangible ice blade, drastically reducing its lethality.

Not to mention, his combat skills indeed did not match those of his father, who fought his way out from the bloody seas of Mist Port.

However, even so, Viscount Grant still had confidence in the outcome of this battle.

The Ether Armament ‘Zhenglan’ he was wearing had multiple functions and weaponry, among which was an accelerator that enhanced his lethality — as the viscount introduced Origin Quality to speed up the Aether Furnace Core.

The mist surrounding him was absorbed by the armor, then ejected with great force from the palm’s central nozzle.

Boom boom boom!

The high-speed water cannons, unaffected by the high heat due to Origin Quality, hammered solidly against the Crocodragon and the streets, blowing away all mud and rocks within a seven to eight-meter diameter, and the immense impact even caused the Crocodragon pain.

Despite the Great Shaman’s attempts to forcefully suppress it, the beast instinctively let out a pained howl.

Yet, mere water cannons could not inflict fatal damage to the Crocodragon — and the acceleration mode was a drain on Ether Armament.

The battle had become a contest of whether the Crocodragon’s stamina or the armor and Viscount Grant’s energy would deplete first.

The storm continued raging, the pale blue Ether Armament locked in combat with the behemoth, with only Sublimators able to join the fight amidst such severe interference.

“The master is not here.

He’s probably occupied with more pressing matters,” Ian remarked, frowning as he turned his head toward the roiling sea offshore.

The massive cloud pillar was already moving toward the southwest, but it would take a long while for the storm to abate.

Even though he held an ax in his hand, which could easily decapitate common Natives, he felt quite useless at the moment, “Killing a few Natives is one thing, but how on earth do you deal with such a huge monster?”

At that very moment.

Far to the south of Harrison Port, around Odell Reef.

Hiliard stood on the mirrorlike surface of the water, enshrouded in a faint golden Origin Quality glow, his body covered in a layer of semi-transparent crystal, invincible to any assault.