CHAPTER 620: CHAPTER 619: DEMONIZATION (MUTANT)

"The Eastern Forest has a total area of only 130 square kilometers, and I’ve already cleared an area of 100 square kilometers, but I still haven’t encountered any other new monsters," he said. "It seems that there really aren’t any other monsters in the Eastern Forest."

Although this result was consistent with the conclusion Zhang Yanhang had reached after scanning the area earlier, he was still slightly disappointed, because, in fact, he was quite keen on encountering new monsters.

In the 70 square kilometers he had just cleared, there were less than 4,000 monsters, all of which were Demonized Maned Beasts. Even adding the more than 1,000 monsters from the previous 30 square kilometers, he had actually only killed a total of about 5,500 Demonized Maned Beasts in the Eastern Forest.

And as for the remaining 30 square kilometers of the Eastern Forest, Zhang Yanhang estimated that he would probably only be able to hunt about 1,000 more Demonized Maned Beasts.

So, by the time he had finished clearing the entire Eastern Forest, he would probably have only hunted a total of about 6,000 to 7,000 Demonized Maned Beasts, a number slightly more than the Demonized Dogtooth Giant Apes in the Southern Forest, but not by much. Perhaps it was for this reason that the monster density in the Eastern Forest was even lower than that in the Southern Forest.

After standing in place for several seconds, a green quality Drop Treasure Box spawned from the corpse of a Demonized Maned Beast, which happened to be close to him. This was also the only Drop Treasure Box spawned this time. After quickly picking it up and putting it into his Waist Bag, Zhang Yanhang began to contemplate a very important question.

And the question was whether to try to develop a new hunting method, which might possibly yield a more efficient approach.

...

October 26th, Monday, the day after the Double Ninth Festival, and also the second day Zhang Yanhang entered the Ashen World, 11:45 PM, Demonized Swamp, Eastern Forest, edge area.

After another over two hours, nearly three hours of hard hunting, Zhang Yanhang had once again cleared an area of 27 square kilometers. Together with the 100 square kilometers he had previously cleared, that made a total of 127 square kilometers, with only the last 3 square kilometers to go in order to completely clear the entire Eastern Forest.

"If converted into the terms of the Second Tier Stage clearing plan for the Demonized Swamp, my current progress has smoothly reached 97.7%, with only the last 2.3% left to complete the second stage of the clearing plan, which compared to the previous 76.9%, has once again improved by 20.8% of the clearing progress."

And compared to the progress of the second stage clearing plan, Zhang Yanhang was more concerned with the overall progress of the Demonized Swamp clearing plan. His current clearing of the Eastern Forest reached 127 kilometers, plus the 90 square kilometers cleared in the Southern Forest, which made a total of 217 kilometers.

"My previous clearing progress had just reached 47.5%. This time, I’ve reached 54.3%. In just over two hours, I’ve increased the total progress by 6.8%, but most importantly, the clearing progress has finally passed the fifty percent mark. Not only have I made up for yesterday’s deficiency, but I’ve also done a bit more of tomorrow’s work."

Zhang Yanhang felt that if things continued to develop in this manner, he might really be able to set aside some time to do something else after clearing the entire Demonized Swamp.

However, there was still a certain gap from setting aside enough time to clear Raccoon City as well as the Goblin Plain, and it might still be necessary to rely on the Spiritual Qi Blessing to improve the hunting efficiency.

By the way, though Zhang Yanhang had wanted to develop a new hunting method with higher clearing efficiency before, he later found that no matter what he did, it would definitely require the consumption of Energy Value, and a substantial amount at that.

So, Zhang Yanhang eventually gave up on developing a new hunting method, because if it required the consumption of Energy Value, then he might as well just activate Spiritual Qi Blessing instead.

Now there are only the last three square kilometers of the Eastern Forest remaining. According to Zhang Yanhang’s current clearing efficiency, it would probably take another eighteen minutes. "But the problem is that today there are only fifteen minutes left, and although it’s just the last three minutes that are missing, it seems that completing the small goal of clearing the Eastern Forest within today is no longer possible, but fortunately, the overall progress of the small goals has been very smooth."

Just as Zhang Yanhang was about to continue clearing the last three square kilometers of the Eastern Forest, he suddenly noticed that another giant crocodile seemed to have swum out of the river that served as the boundary of the Eastern Forest.

"Since I definitely can’t complete this small goal of clearing the Eastern Forest today, should I take this opportunity to hunt down this new monster?"

Zhang Yanhang thought it over and felt that maybe he really could try hunting it, after all, although there was only one giant crocodile, relying on the First Kill would definitely easily yield a dropped treasure box. He was very much looking forward to the equipment and artifacts that this new monster could contribute.

Although the giant crocodile’s speed in the river was very fast, it could only be considered slow compared to Zhang Yanhang. Therefore, Zhang Yanhang easily caught up with it, but the closer he got, the more he could feel the oppression from its huge size.

Compared to the Demonized Maned Tooth Beasts and Demonized Dogtooth Giant Apes he had previously killed, this fellow was a true prehistoric giant beast. Including the tail, it was over ten meters in length, though the tail took up a somewhat large proportion.

The previous Demonized Maned Tooth Beast had an overly large head in proportion, while this one had an overly large tail. While indeed over ten meters in length, the tail and the head and body were proportionally about one to one.

Zhang Yanhang roughly estimated by eye that this giant crocodile was about fourteen meters in length, with the tail taking up seven meters. The remaining head and body together were only about seven meters, so from this perspective, that segment of the tail did seem a bit superfluous.

However, from the perspective of attack ability, such a sturdy tail, if used against an enemy, should still be mighty lethal, especially since it was covered with scale armor and sharp spikes. A swing of that tail could probably turn previous creatures like the Demonized Maned Tooth Beast and Demonized Dogtooth Giant Ape into mush on the spot.

Besides, when Zhang Yanhang had previously assessed the Demonized Maned Tooth Beast, he said its head-to-body ratio was similar to that of a crocodile, with the head taking up one third of the body length. The crocodile he was now faced with also shared a similar head-to-body ratio.

With a total of seven meters of the body divided into thirds, the mouth and head took up one third, leaving two thirds for the body. Therefore, from an overall perspective, this crocodile actually resembled reptiles like lizards and geckos.

But compared to the delicate tails of lizards and geckos, the tail of this giant crocodile was much thicker and could even be described as excessively so. The thickest part near the body was almost two thirds the diameter of the body, and even the slightly thinner parts were at least half the diameter.

Only the thinnest tip of the tail reached about a third of the diameter, but it still remained thick. If the circumference were measured, it would still be in meters.

If one were to make a comparison, it would be that the thinnest part of the tail was thicker than what could be encircled by the arms of an adult. In other words, even the tip of the tail of this creature was thicker than the trunks of the big trees in the Demonized Forest. Therefore, if this tail were to strike down, creatures like the Demonized Maned Tooth Beast would inevitably turn into nothing but mush.

Taking advantage of the fact that the giant crocodile had not yet noticed him, Zhang Yanhang, who was currently flying in mid-air, began checking its attribute list.

[Demonized Emperor Crocodile (Ordinary)]

[Level: Second Tier Two Stars]

[Talent: 1. Prehistoric Giant Beast. 2. Demonized Life Form (Emperor Crocodile).]

[Prehistoric Giant Beast: Has a 20% chance to trigger ’Spiritual Suppression’ when facing enemies smaller than itself by more than 30%, reducing their movement speed and defensive power by 20%, and has a 2.5% chance to cause ’Demonization Infection’ in the enemy, resulting in malignant deformities. Movement Speed +15%.]

[Demonized Life Form (Emperor Crocodile): The Emperor Crocodile was originally a species that lived from the late Apudian Stage to the early Albian Stage of the early Cretaceous, about 120 million to 89.93 million years ago. It belonged to the family Machimosaurus of the superfamily Crocodyloidea, suborder Eusuchia. Although it resembles modern crocodiles, it is not closely related to them.

As a prehistoric giant beast, adult Emperor Crocodiles measured about fourteen meters in length and weighed around twelve tons, making them true gargantuan prehistoric beasts and also the largest individual sub-species within the Crocodyloidea, at least 1.5 to several times larger than other crocodilian species.

The head of the Emperor Crocodile constituted a third of its body length, and the mouth took up 75% of the head length, equaling the height of an average adult at about 1.8 meters, filled with sharp teeth. There were 70 teeth in the upper jaw and 62 in the lower jaw; these teeth were thick, conical, and capable of easily piercing the hide and flesh of prey.

The 132 conical sharp teeth in the Emperor Crocodile’s mouth were its most powerful and effective weapons, giving it a significant advantage during hunting. Besides its most important feature, the mouth, the thick scale armor provided strong defensive power, allowing it to ignore the enemy’s counterattack and death throes after clamping down on the enemy’s body.

Moreover, the thick and scale-spiked tail of the Emperor Crocodile also played a role in hunting to a certain extent, complementing its immense size. In prehistoric times, the Emperor Crocodile was an undisputed top predator, maintaining a powerful oppression capability in aquatic and coastal environments.

Due to its large size, the Emperor Crocodile needed to feed extensively every day to maintain its normal activities and growth, meaning they only stayed with their parents during juvenile years. They began hunting and growing on their own during adolescence, which lasted for decades until they reached adulthood at about sixty years old and became keen on breeding.

It is precisely because of the slow growth rate and preference for solitary life that the breeding efficiency of Emperor Crocodiles was quite low. Although they could lay a double-digit number of eggs in each clutch, they gradually fell into extinction due to the rise of smaller, short-lived creatures with strong reproductive capacities and lower food requirements.]

[Life Value: 700/700]

[Energy Value: 300/300]

[Strength: 35]

[Agility: 25]

[Constitution: 35]

[Intelligence: 20]

[Charm: 10]

[Skill: 1. Death Roll. 2. Giant Crocodile Whip. 3. Demonization (Mutant). 4. Dark Shock Wave.]

[Death Roll: The Demonized Emperor Crocodile opens its mouth to bite into the enemy’s body and starts a violent rolling motion to tear at the enemy, causing 200% of physical damage upon hit and has a 30% chance of inflicting adverse statuses such as ’Bleeding’, ’Limb Cutting’, and ’Tear’. Roll duration can last up to 5 seconds based on certain determinations, cooldown two minutes, consuming a large amount of physical strength.

When the enemy is under the ’Spiritual Suppression’ and ’Demonization Infection’ status, physical damage is increased by an additional 35% (+12.5%), and the probability of triggering adverse statuses is increased by 10%, which is cumulative.]

[Giant Crocodile Tail Swinging: The Demonized Emperor Crocodile swings its tail to launch a ’Giant Crocodile Tail Swinging’ at the enemy, causing 180% of physical damage upon hit and weakening the enemy’s physical defense by 30%, cooldown one minute, consuming a medium amount of physical strength.

When the enemy is under ’Spiritual Suppression’ and ’Demonization Infection’ status, physical damage is increased by an additional 30% (+12.5%), and an additional 5% physical defense is weakened, cumulative.]

[Demonization (Mutant): Although the Demonized Emperor Crocodile usually maintains the standard form of a prehistoric giant beast, it activates the hidden dark power within itself to enter the ’Demonized’ state when encountering strong enemies. Strength +5, Agility +5, Constitution +5, Intelligence -7, Charm -7, duration 9 minutes (+5 minutes), cooldown 45 minutes (-15 minutes), consuming a large amount of physical strength.

While in this state, ’Spiritual Suppression’ effect has a +35% (+12.5%) chance of triggering, and the ’Demonization Infection’ effect has a +5.5% (+2.5%) chance of getting activated upon attacking the enemy.]

[Dark Shock Wave: After entering the Demonized state, the Demonized Emperor Crocodile can spew a dark shock wave from its mouth.

Upon hitting the enemy, it causes 180% (+30%) of dark damage, with a 35% (+12.5%) probability of forcefully triggering ’Spiritual Suppression’ regardless of size, and a 5.5% (+2.5%) chance of forcing ’Demonization Infection’. Cooldown two minutes, consuming 120 (+60) Energy points.]

"Wow, it’s so massive, yet it’s only a Second Tier Two Star Monster? And it’s just an ordinary monster, not even an elite."

Zhang Yanhang had initially thought, based solely on the size and heft of the Demonized Emperor Crocodile, that it would at least be of Second Tier Three Stars strength. Unfortunately, it seemed he might have overestimated the Demonized Emperor Crocodile.