The Ultimate Evolution

The group in the camp was in a miserable state. Only the cyborgs were left standing, and they could barely move. White-coloured machine oils and lubricants flowed down from the various wounds that covered the cyborgs" bodies. The cyborgs seemed like they would collapse at any moment, so one could imagine their low work efficiency right now.

Sheyan"s three cyborgs wore arrogant looks on their faces as they checked out those tattered cyborgs sinisterly, presumably already deciding the distribution of the spare parts among themselves.

Hedi Curry, Azsa, and Dardanian, the botanical expert were either lying on the ground or leaning with their back against a tree without a word between them. Their morale seemed to be at an all time low. Only when they saw the friendly allies coming to help did they get a little more spirited.

The physical damage they sustained was even more shocking than the damage to their morale.

Hedi Curry had both his eyes wrapped up, and blood could be seen seeping through the bandages. He looked like a larger version of the Demon Hunter from WoW.

Both of Azsa"s hands were torn off, but her red hair was still blowing proudly in the wind. Her wild nature was still there.

Meanwhile, Dardanian was lying on the ground. He would groan faintly and his body would twitch from time to time. He seemed to have completely lost consciousness.

All five of the newcomers were shocked to witness this sight, but the question which escaped their mouths were all different.

"Where are the rest?"

"How did this happen?"

"Where"s Aldaris?"

"What happened back there?"

"..."

Among the three survivors, Hedi Curry and Azsa were obviously in no mood to speak, while Dardanian the botanical expert could not speak. It took quite a while for the newcomers to piece together the truth.

It turned out the thunderstorm was only a small part of the reason why Sheyan was able to pa.s.s the night so peacefully. The main reason was because the mushroom rock was actually occupied by some terrifying social beasts that lived in groups.

These beasts were called One-Horned Flying Ants. They had bat-like skin, a unicorn-like horn and amazing strength. They could hunt both in the air and on the ground.
(TL: Flying ants are not termites -- .)

This part of the plain had been marked as the territory of the One-Horned Flying Ants. Any wild animals that dared to intrude would inevitably be killed without mercy.

These One-Horned Flying Ants could secrete two kinds of venom. The first type was a strong acidic venom. No matter how thick one"s armour was, they would turn as thin as paper after they had been attacked by the One-Horned Flying Ants for a period of time. With this corrosive venom, the One-Horned Flying Ants managed to make a large number of habitable caves on the mushroom rock. So, the mushroom rock may actually look huge, but its top part had in fact been hollowed out like a human building.

The second type of venom was much more vicious. It directly acted on the victim"s nerves, and would continuously damage the victim as if it had a life of its own. The victim"s flesh and sense of pain would be transformed into the venom"s energy.

That was the reason why those three had not recovered after such a long time even though they were all either Growth Hunters or Awakeners and had the aid of advanced medicine.

The most terrible thing about the One-Horned Flying Ant was that although its body was as big as a tiger, it had still inherited the most powerful natural ability of the ant family, namely their astonis.h.i.+ng strength! It could move objects tens or even hundreds of times its own weight!

When more than 10 ants worked together, they could carry objects that were 5,000 times their own weight. That would be like 10 muscular men with an average weight of 70 kilograms moving 3,500 tons of load, ie. 350 tons per person.

When the ants weighed only a few grams, this ability may not be very eye-catching, but the One-Horned Flying Ants weighed thousands of pounds! The ability instantly became really scary! Now Sheyan and the rest knew how those gigantic preys were brought to the top of the mushroom rock.

Under the lead of the two MTs, the contestants initially tried engaging the One-Horned Flying Ants in combat. At first, the Flying Ants did not come out in swarms. The contestants that could be selected for this mission were all quite strong, so they managed to kill two of the Flying Ants.

Sheyan managed to get quite a bit of benefits when he killed the c.o.c.katrices previously, so one could imagine the profit that the contestants managed to gain from these powerful creatures that were strong enough to have their own territory on planet Uplos. The temptation of interests gave rise to arrogant mentalities in these people, blinding their eyes with greed.

It was easy to imagine what happened next. When the One-Horned Flying Ants came out in droves, they immediately showed their might. Two contestants were captured and were taken to the food storage room at the top of the mushroom rock. They knew that they were destined to die a long and painful death, so they both unleashed their ultimate final power....That was the fundamental reason for the change in topography at the top of the mushroom rock.

After learning the ins and outs of the matter, Sheyan was relieved to know that Aldaris was alright. Aldaris was a cunning man; as long as he did not encounter an unavoidable confrontation or anything related to "Zi", he would definitely try to take as much advantage as he could and run away if he could not. He also had that "Blood-Elude" ability of his, so it would have been strange if something had happened to him.

After learning the ins and outs of the matter, Sheyan was relieved to know that Aldaris was alright. Aldaris was a cunning man; as long as he did not encounter an unavoidable confrontation or anything related to "Zi", he would definitely try to take as much advantage as he could and run away if he could not. He also had that "Blood-Elude" ability of his, so it would have been strange if something had happened to him.

A tricky problem they currently faced was that the bodies of all three badly-injured contestants had been invaded by the One-Horned Flying Ant"s corrosive venom. The venom was like a living creature; it would stay inside their body forever if it was not expelled. However, none of the people present had any experience in performing venom-extraction surgeries.

After a round of discussion, the job fell on Sheyan. He was a pharmacist specialising in mixing potions and providing support, so at least his field of expertise was a tiny bit related to the medical field.

Not only was Sheyan not afraid of the stage, he also stepped up like it was the most natural thing in the world. He didn"t care; the patients were not his people and they all had very strong bodies, so even if they lost an artery here or an organ there, they would not die. It was fortunate that none of the three patients could read minds, or they would probably choose to operate on themselves instead.

The sky gradually darkened. Pokan, Paul and Va.s.sily hastily arranged some security measures for the camp, while Sheyan eagerly sharpened his blade to perform experiments on his three tragic test subjects.

The first person Sheyan chose to operate on to gain experience was Dardanian. Although there were many wounds on his body, they had all avoided the fatal parts, so his injuries were actually not too severe. After the incision, Sheyan found that the venom was truly extremely vicious. It was dark green in colour and had a mercury-like texture, and it was corroding Dardanian"s flesh non-stop like an earthworm boring holes in the ground.

Sheyan saw that the venom had burrowed a tunnel that was more than two centimeters deep under Dardanian"s skin. Fortunately, the venom was just corroding the flesh in random directions. If it had gone straight for Dardanian"s internal organs, it would have been great trouble even for an Awakener!

After performing all the operations and collecting all the venom, Sheyan carefully poured it into the fire to let it burn. He then saw that Aldaris had already arrived at the camp. Aldaris was casually resting with his back against a tree. His three cyborgs had nearly been worked to death and were currently lying down next to him. They were carrying a lot of luggage. Aldaris must have had a great harvest.

As soon as Aldaris saw Sheyan looking at him, he immediately bounced up and flashed Sheyan a toothy grin.

"Mixes, mixes! Gimme ten bottles for starters. I heard you just performed surgeries on them? I got hit on my back too. Those freaking ants were a real headache."

"Mixes, mixes! Gimme ten bottles for starters. I heard you just performed surgeries on them? I got hit on my back too. Those freaking ants were a real headache."

Sheyan kicked him as he retorted, "Ten bottles!? Do you think they"re c.o.ke? d.a.m.n, look at all this baggage. You must be loaded now."

Aldaris immediately shared half his loot with Sheyan without any fuss.

It turned out that the most valuable thing on the One-Horned Flying Ant was its gland. The secret behind its ability to carry objects tens or even hundreds of times its own weight lay in its gland that could secrete a type of miraculous hormone! It was the source of power for the Flying Ants. Humans could also extract a tiny amount of hormone from the gland.

However, 99.99% of the people who had the ability to kill the One-Horned Flying Ants were from the military, so very rarely did this kind of hormone appear in the public.

Then, on a certain day, a product suddenly appeared on the Galaxy E-Bay. The product claimed to be hundreds of times more effective than v.i.a.g.r.a, and its selling price was shockingly high. In the end, the public found out that the main ingredient of this product was the Flying Ant hormone.... As we all know, as long as something was linked to the improvement of s.e.xual performances, its value would rise faster than the land of the central business district in a major city.

If this thing truly worked, the profit was unimaginable.

Nowadays, one could not see any fresh One-Horned Flying Ant glands for sale on the Galaxy E-Bay anymore, because there were simply too many rich people that would sweep them from the market the moment they appeared....

It must be known that Aldaris was not just being generous without reason. Although the glands of the One-Horned Flying Ants were valuable, they took up a large amount of s.p.a.ce. All of Aldaris" storage s.p.a.ce had been filled up. He had to clear some s.p.a.ce for his battle supply and living necessities, and he also could not keep overloading his cyborgs like this. After all, there was still the main mission to be accomplished. So, why not give some of the spoils to Sheyan to gain favour with him?

Besides Sheyan"s personal storage, he also had a huge party storage, so he had more than enough s.p.a.ce even with a Wasp s.p.a.cecraft tucked away. He naturally accepted the gift with a smile.The simple and crude temporary camp was built in a forest. The fact that they insisted on building the camp in the forest even after experiencing the thunderstorm yesterday showed that they must be guarding against threats from the air. The group in the camp was in a miserable state. Only the cyborgs were left standing, and they could barely move. White-coloured machine oils and lubricants flowed down from the various wounds that covered the cyborgs bodies. The cyborgs seemed like they would collapse at any moment, so one could imagine their low work efficiency right now. Sheyans three cyborgs wore arrogant looks on their faces as they checked out those tattered cyborgs sinisterly, presumably already deciding the distribution of the spare parts among themselves. Hedi Curry, Azsa, and Dardanian, the botanical expert were either lying on the ground or leaning with their back against a tree without a word between them. Their morale seemed to be at an all time low. Only when they saw the friendly allies coming to help did they get a little more spirited. The physical damage they sustained was even more shocking than the damage to their morale. Hedi Curry had both his eyes wrapped up, and blood could be seen seeping through the bandages. He looked like a larger version of the Demon Hunter from WoW. Both of Azsas hands were torn off, but her red hair was still blowing proudly in the wind. Her wild nature was still there. Meanwhile, Dardanian was lying on the ground. He would groan faintly and his body would twitch from time to time. He seemed to have completely lost consciousness. All five of the newcomers were shocked to witness this sight, but the question which escaped their mouths were all different. Where are the rest? How did this happen? Wheres Aldaris? What happened back there? ... Among the three survivors, Hedi Curry and Azsa were obviously in no mood to speak, while Dardanian the botanical expert could not speak. It took quite a while for the newcomers to piece together the truth. It turned out the thunderstorm was only a small part of the reason why Sheyan was able to pa.s.s the night so peacefully. The main reason was because the mushroom rock was actually occupied by some terrifying social beasts that lived in groups. These beasts were called One-Horned Flying Ants. They had bat-like skin, a unicorn-like horn and amazing strength. They could hunt both in the air and on the ground.. (TL: Flying ants are not termites -- .) This part of the plain had been marked as the territory of the One-Horned Flying Ants. Any wild animals that dared to intrude would inevitably be killed without mercy. These One-Horned Flying Ants could secrete two kinds of venom. The first type was a strong acidic venom. No matter how thick ones armour was, they would turn as thin as paper after they had been attacked by the One-Horned Flying Ants for a period of time. With this corrosive venom, the One-Horned Flying Ants managed to make a large number of habitable caves on the mushroom rock. So, the mushroom rock may actually look huge, but its top part had in fact been hollowed out like a human building. The second type of venom was much more vicious. It directly acted on the victims nerves, and would continuously damage the victim as if it had a life of its own. The victims flesh and sense of pain would be transformed into the venoms energy. That was the reason why those three had not recovered after such a long time even though they were all either Growth Hunters or Awakeners and had the aid of advanced medicine. The most terrible thing about the One-Horned Flying Ant was that although its body was as big as a tiger, it had still inherited the most powerful natural ability of the ant family, namely their astonis.h.i.+ng strength! It could move objects tens or even hundreds of times its own weight! When more than 10 ants worked together, they could carry objects that were 5,000 times their own weight. That would be like 10 muscular men with an average weight of 70 kilograms moving 3,500 tons of load, ie. 350 tons per person. When the ants weighed only a few grams, this ability may not be very eye-catching, but the One-Horned Flying Ants weighed thousands of pounds! The ability instantly became really scary! Now Sheyan and the rest knew how those gigantic preys were brought to the top of the mushroom rock. Under the lead of the two MTs, the contestants initially tried engaging the One-Horned Flying Ants in combat. At first, the Flying Ants did not come out in swarms. The contestants that could be selected for this mission were all quite strong, so they managed to kill two of the Flying Ants. Sheyan managed to get quite a bit of benefits when he killed the c.o.c.katrices previously, so one could imagine the profit that the contestants managed to gain from these powerful creatures that were strong enough to have their own territory on planet Uplos. The temptation of interests gave rise to arrogant mentalities in these people, blinding their eyes with greed. It was easy to imagine what happened next. When the One-Horned Flying Ants came out in droves, they immediately showed their might. Two contestants were captured and were taken to the food storage room at the top of the mushroom rock. They knew that they were destined to die a long and painful death, so they both unleashed their ultimate final power....That was the fundamental reason for the change in topography at the top of the mushroom rock. After learning the ins and outs of the matter, Sheyan was relieved to know that Aldaris was alright. Aldaris was a cunning man; as long as he did not encounter an unavoidable confrontation or anything related to Zi, he would definitely try to take as much advantage as he could and run away if he could not. He also had that Blood-Elude ability of his, so it would have been strange if something had happened to him. A tricky problem they currently faced was that the bodies of all three badly-injured contestants had been invaded by the One-Horned Flying Ants corrosive venom. The venom was like a living creature; it would stay inside their body forever if it was not expelled. However, none of the people present had any experience in performing venom-extraction surgeries. After a round of discussion, the job fell on Sheyan. He was a pharmacist specialising in mixing potions and providing support, so at least his field of expertise was a tiny bit related to the medical field. Not only was Sheyan not afraid of the stage, he also stepped up like it was the most natural thing in the world. He didnt care; the patients were not his people and they all had very strong bodies, so even if they lost an artery here or an organ there, they would not die. It was fortunate that none of the three patients could read minds, or they would probably choose to operate on themselves instead. The sky gradually darkened. Pokan, Paul and Va.s.sily hastily arranged some security measures for the camp, while Sheyan eagerly sharpened his blade to perform experiments on his three tragic test subjects. The first person Sheyan chose to operate on to gain experience was Dardanian. Although there were many wounds on his body, they had all avoided the fatal parts, so his injuries were actually not too severe. After the incision, Sheyan found that the venom was truly extremely vicious. It was dark green in colour and had a mercury-like texture, and it was corroding Dardanians flesh non-stop like an earthworm boring holes in the ground. Sheyan saw that the venom had burrowed a tunnel that was more than two centimeters deep under Dardanians skin. Fortunately, the venom was just corroding the flesh in random directions. If it had gone straight for Dardanians internal organs, it would have been great trouble even for an Awakener! After performing all the operations and collecting all the venom, Sheyan carefully poured it into the fire to let it burn. He then saw that Aldaris had already arrived at the camp. Aldaris was casually resting with his back against a tree. His three cyborgs had nearly been worked to death and were currently lying down next to him. They were carrying a lot of luggage. Aldaris must have had a great harvest. As soon as Aldaris saw Sheyan looking at him, he immediately bounced up and flashed Sheyan a toothy grin. Mixes, mixes! Gimme ten bottles for starters. I heard you just performed surgeries on them? I got hit on my back too. Those freaking ants were a real headache. Sheyan kicked him as he retorted, Ten bottles!? Do you think theyre c.o.ke? d.a.m.n, look at all this baggage. You must be loaded now. Aldaris immediately shared half his loot with Sheyan without any fuss. It turned out that the most valuable thing on the One-Horned Flying Ant was its gland. The secret behind its ability to carry objects tens or even hundreds of times its own weight lay in its gland that could secrete a type of miraculous hormone! It was the source of power for the Flying Ants. Humans could also extract a tiny amount of hormone from the gland. However, 99.99% of the people who had the ability to kill the One-Horned Flying Ants were from the military, so very rarely did this kind of hormone appear in the public. Then, on a certain day, a product suddenly appeared on the Galaxy E-Bay. The product claimed to be hundreds of times more effective than v.i.a.g.r.a, and its selling price was shockingly high. In the end, the public found out that the main ingredient of this product was the Flying Ant hormone.... As we all know, as long as something was linked to the improvement of s.e.xual performances, its value would rise faster than the land of the central business district in a major city. If this thing truly worked, the profit was unimaginable. Nowadays, one could not see any fresh One-Horned Flying Ant glands for sale on the Galaxy E-Bay anymore, because there were simply too many rich people that would sweep them from the market the moment they appeared.... It must be known that Aldaris was not just being generous without reason. Although the glands of the One-Horned Flying Ants were valuable, they took up a large amount of s.p.a.ce. All of Aldaris storage s.p.a.ce had been filled up. He had to clear some s.p.a.ce for his battle supply and living necessities, and he also could not keep overloading his cyborgs like this. After all, there was still the main mission to be accomplished. So, why not give some of the spoils to Sheyan to gain favour with him? Besides Sheyans personal storage, he also had a huge party storage, so he had more than enough s.p.a.ce even with a Wasp s.p.a.cecraft tucked away. He naturally accepted the gift with a smile.