The Era of Gods

Chapter 322: The Incredibly Strong Slarda

On the deck, all fifty to sixty people on board had assembled, including the sailors from the hold and the engine room crew.

The old captain, brandishing a curved knife, stared intently at the three night-watch sailors, while the other crew members also watched them warily. The three sailors stood there shivering, not daring to speak.

After a moment, the old captain waved his hand, and a sailor handed him a piece of cloth smeared with slime. He threw the cloth onto the deck and said:

“Something mixed aboard just now, right in the midst of you.”

The three sailors looked terrified, and one of them immediately said:

“We’ve had someone awake the whole time. If something had snuck aboard, I wouldn’t be alive, yet here I am, still alive.”

He tore open his shirt to reveal his chest, causing everyone to instinctively step back and raise their guns at them, even the two sailors beside him took a step back without thinking.

The sailor was startled and quickly looked down to see many blue-black lumps the size of fingertips bubbling under his skin, still moving. He let out a scream of horror as the lumps on his chest stopped for a moment before rapidly merging into one big blue-black lump.

‘Bang’

A gunshot rang out as a sailor, shocked and panicked, misfired. The bullet from the steel ball musket hit the man’s chest, causing the large blue-black lump to explode, spraying thick black liquid and numerous slimy worms, as thick as fingers and snake-like, spilling onto the ground.

The worms had no eyes on their heads, but they had mouthparts, and after hitting the ground, they bounced up to a height of one or two meters, aiming for the crowd.

The sailors were startled and opened fire in return; the sound of gunfire was loud.

The old captain, with precise movements, cut down three heads, and a one-eyed man standing to the captain’s left did the same with his knife, taking out two worms.

At the same time, Lin Xiao, standing to the captain’s right, wielded his knife and took out two worms with Continuous Chop, while the rest were quickly killed by other skilled members of the crew nearby.

After killing these worms, everyone shifted their gaze toward the other two sailors. The two men, pale-faced, slowly looked down at their chests. Before they could even open their shirts, both of them shook suddenly, their bodies going rigid as they arched their heads back and opened their mouths. A worm crawled out of each of their mouths, its head swaying around to look at the crowd before crawling directly out and springing away.

However, they didn’t spring at the crowd but toward other areas of the ship.

At the same time, their chest areas beneath their sailor uniforms bulged and rapidly turned black, the fabric heaving as worm after worm slid out from beneath their clothing and trouser legs, spreading in all directions.

“Cut them off!”

The crew surged forward, frantically hunting down the worms; no one bothered with the fallen sailors’ corpses.

While they were distracted, several worms slid out from beneath the corpses’ clothing, quietly slipping toward the edge of the deck along the black water; in the darkness, nobody noticed the few worms blending in with the black water.

Before long, the other worms were killed, and the three corpses were thrown into the sea to float with the waves. The Explorer continued on its journey.

After about ten seconds, the three corpses twitched slightly. Then, their eyes opened, black liquid seeping from their pupils as their faces twisted into a sinister smile, and they silently sank to the bottom of the sea.

The rest of the journey went smoothly, with no further incidents, although several sailors consistently made mistakes in their tasks.

When a sweeping vista of lights appeared before them, everyone cheered; they had arrived at Pearl Island.

On the open sea, only islands with a Lord dared to light up on a large scale. On the ship, it was not advisable to light lamps on the deck.

The ship docked, sold its cargo, and after the crew received their pay and returned to their quarters, the old captain announced their dismissal.

The sailors would now indulge in debauchery for half a month until their money ran out before returning.

Lin Xiao first went to the docks, where he made a conspicuous mark. If any of his companions had already awakened and come to this island, they would recognize it. Then he went to the Adventurer’s Association Entrance, the inn entrance, and several other places outsiders are bound to visit, leaving a similar mark.

After that, it was time to figure out how to complete the mission.

To hunt down the Children of Nightmare that had descended, if he could ensure his own safety.

He had no idea if there were any Children of Nightmare on this island, let alone what they looked like or how to identify them. These were all issues.

Getting started was always the hardest part, and now he was in the dark about where to begin.

“First, let’s enhance my strength!”

It couldn’t be wrong to improve one’s strength when at a loss.

He checked his current savings. Fortunately, he hadn’t been too extravagant before he awoke, and he still had some money left, enough to buy some monster flesh and blood.

He hailed a carriage to the Lord’s market; there were only two places on the island where monster flesh and blood were sold—one was the commercial guild and the other the Lord’s mansion. The guild held an advantage in variety, but in terms of quality, the powerful Lord’s mansion was superior.

In theory, Lin Xiao needed variety rather than quality. With the Purification and enhancement from the Creation Rubik’s Cube, no quality could compare. He chose the Lord’s mansion mainly for its safety and reliability.

After all, merchants…

The monster flesh and blood were placed in individual special thickened glass containers, filled with ice mixed with magic potion to reduce its activity.

Although these are merely flesh and blood, it does not mean there is no danger; some powerful monsters could lead to death with just one glance, let alone touch their flesh and blood.

Each glass container was arrayed on metal counters, with a tag detailing information about the monsters, such as size, strength, origin, abilities, etc., even the type of magic potion needed for absorption and the method of absorption were clearly written.

Given the danger level of this world, humans needed more powerhouses to fend off dangers, and in this regard, even the trade associations would not resort to deception.

With so many choices, Lin Xiao was in no hurry and began examining the boxes one by one.

The more he looked, the more his eyes were opened. These bizarre creatures had never been encountered in the Human Main World before. To mention nothing else, the vast variety of strange creatures, Other Races, and so on was quite valuable, especially important to the will of Gaia.

If humans plundered resources, the gods plundered Divine Power and rules, and great beings with Powerful Divine Power plundered the essence, then the will of Gaia coveted the civilizations and histories of different Crystal Wall Universes.

This unknown Crystal Wall Universe was intriguing on its own, and now coupled with the power of the Nightmare World, a magical world was born. For Gaia’s Will, it contained the civilization and history of its rival, the Nightmare World. If it could devour and absorb that, it would be like absorbing part of the rival’s rules.

Once it absorbed and decoded these rules, Gaia’s Will would gain a profound understanding of the Nightmare’s Will. If the two mighty wills were to clash again, Gaia’s Will, knowing a part of the Nightmare World’s rules, would have a significant advantage.

Correspondingly, if the Nightmare monarch had captured the three participants from the Celestial Talent List and sacrificed them to the Nightmare’s Will, the latter would have gained some understanding of the world of Gaia.

After browsing several containers, Lin Xiao eventually stopped for a long time in front of the sixth one.

This was a species from an underwater Other Race, made up of countless sub-bodies with only one main body, akin to a hive creature. It resembled a slug-like soft-bodied creature, tender yet tough to cut with a blade, but highly susceptible to energy damage like fire and strong acid.

Of course, if a weapon was imbued with energy damage, it could hurt it.

The most valuable aspect of this creature was its super strong restorative ability. By acquiring several Advanced Magic Medicines and merging with the blood flesh of this Other Race, one could potentially gain one of its two most valuable traits, which are Body Metamorphosis and Regeneration Limb.

Regeneration Limb needs no explanation; it embodies super strong recovery, allowing any part of the body that’s been severed to grow back, identical to the original.

Body Metamorphosis means that the body can become like that of a soft-bodied creature, with all organs able to metamorphose into flesh and freely move around, eliminating all weaknesses. Even if the heart or brain were blown to pieces, one wouldn’t die instantly.

This type of metamorphosis, combined with strong recovery, can unleash its maximum potential. If metamorphosis occurs alone, even if critical areas are undamaged at once, the metamorphosis will eventually end.

Even if the critical areas can be shifted, sometimes extensive damage spread throughout the body can still cause death.

If there’s a strong recovery ability, no matter how severe the injury, as long as the critical parts are temporarily metamorphosed to cling to life, and then the body is allowed to heal before restoring the critical parts, it can return to normal.

Lin Xiao bought two portions of this monster’s flesh and blood in one go, spending all the money he had planned for two portions of monster flesh and blood, and then he returned to his residence with his purchase.

In this world, nothing is more important than the ability to stay alive.

Back at his residence, Lin Xiao threw both portions of monster flesh and blood into the Magic Cube Space for Purification, and then expended eight units of Creation Energy to enhance it, extracting its two strongest features and strengthening them separately, and then absorbed them into his mouth like clear jelly.

As the jelly entered him, Lin Xiao’s body uncontrollably inflated into a small Giant, and then his robust body began to soften, with firm muscles quickly turning into flabby fat, and soon he collapsed into a three to four-meter mass of flesh on the floor, though his will was still clear.

“Well, have I become a monster now?” he pondered.

With a thought, the bones and organs inside his body softened, and he turned into a lump of soft mud, crawling with his limbs, though not swiftly.

“Next time, I need to merge with a creature that has a different body structure.”

This state had survival ability but no combat capacity.

About fifteen minutes later, the flesh worm returned to human form, and Lin Xiao carefully felt the two traits he had merged, nodding with satisfaction.

A week later, Lin Xiao suddenly received a message to assemble from his father, and when he returned to the compound at 254 Second Street, he found that half of the crew were already there.

His father didn’t wait for everyone and soon said,

“No need to wait, the rest won’t be able to return.”

Lin Xiao was quite surprised, and the old captain continued,

“Just received a message from the Lord’s mansion. An unknown Other Race got onto the island through our crew members. By the time it was discovered, hundreds of islanders were already dead. Because our actions led to such a heavy loss, the Lord’s mansion has fined us two million Sol and ordered us to leave Pearl Island within three days and not to return for five years.”

This news was disastrous, but what followed was even worse: with the expulsion, half of the remaining crew decided to leave The Explorer.

According to the rules, expulsion

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