Chapter 5: Encountering the Illume-union again
Translated by: Chua
Edited by: TN and Elkassar
After puffing, he gently breathed out the fumes before turning to gaze at Sheyan. Without placing back his oxygen mask, he stood up and walked over.
Previously when he took down his mask, Sheyan had already noticed he was a fierce looking baldy. A deep red scar ran from his left forehead vertically downwards to the left of his lip. Though the scar was patched, it carried the cruel uneven mending of flesh; indicating the ruthless nature of the cut behind it.
Naturally, suffering such a ruthless chop, his left eye wasn’t spared. A chunk of plasma hung within his eyes, as black, white and red flowed out. However, his left eye was still dazzling like a gem. Naturally, it had been repaired by the realm. The scarred baldy stared at Sheyan and examined him. Instead when he spoke, his tone was kind and cut straight to the point.
“Hey, brother. What do you need? This northern exit belongs to our Illume-union now.”
“Illume-union……!!!” The words jolted Sheyan’s mind like a lightning bolt; he instantly recalled the report Reef had told him before.
“…….This is my second encounter with the Illume-union!!”
“Dammit, that means the Bowen that I killed back in the Pirates of the Caribbean world, is one of them.”
“One of their member announced he wanted to use my skull as a souvenir.”
“One of the core of this party, is a woman named Zi! An expert in the force of the Star Wars universe!”
(TN: The chinese character Zi 姿, means beauty. )
“This party is definitely like the Banks Syndicate I tangled with previously, they are a considerably unified organization. The party’s scale means that it definitely has a certain hierarchical structure within the party……..”
These list of thoughts flashed through Sheyan’s mind swiftly. One must understand, this world setting was a free world, though killing will invoke slayer value, it will similarly produce good benefits. If this group of people saw through his identity as contestant no.1018, they would surge with joy and vanquish him to eternal death.
To the present Sheyan, he was terribly far from the stage of battling one against ten. Hence, it was best he quickly evaded them. Sheyan’s current perceptive sense was as high as 28 points, trying to pressure him with perceptive sense would be a difficult matter.
Moreover, his helmet possessed a ‘Pulse interference’ ability to guard against other’s probing, and moreover, it had precedence! Therefore unless he encountered a reserve-duty limit-venator, the chances of him being exposed as contestant no.1018 was slim. Even if he did encounter one; considering this world had just begun, there shouldn’t be a lunatic who would show their cards so quickly. One must understand, one could only go into boundary state for only 4 times before invoking the boundary test.
Though many thoughts ran through his mind; to others, this only seemed like a blank, normal reaction of a random stranger. Neither servile nor overbearing, Sheyan faced the scarred baldy and smiled.
“Hello, I am Seaman. I’m guessing, your party needs an additional support, for example one that would freely provide an incredible individual buff?”
The scarred blady instantly broke out into laughter, turning around to glance at a rather pale looking, scrawny male; wearing a black wizard robe and a staff.
“Ah ha, lovely Morda, and cute little Fría; someone is here to snatch your business.”
As a complete and formidable party, the Illume-union would definitely have nurtured their own supporters. Dead soul user, Morda, was one of them. Beneath the robe, his right hand had an eternally decaying wound, the ability he learned was called ‘Putrefy curse’. When casted against enemies, it would lower all defences by 10% while issuing a piercing agony.
However, whenever he casted the curse on himself, his mental powers would flare up; absorbing the dead souls from underground to disperse to his surroundings. His allies would then receive a darkness strength additional damage of 6 – 10% during their next attack. Because darkness is an elemental damage, only certain variables can resist the darkness element. Therefore, the actual resultant damage it would deal in the end was more or less 12 – 13%.
As for Fría, he was a sniper, he had a wonderful ability similar to Sheyan, actually they were like different melodies playing to the same tune. Strictly speaking, Fría was very much inferior to the dead Qiaoer, but he had managed to encounter a good fortune. Thus, he was able to obtain a Rank 4 skill tree ability, and had raised it to the third tier already.
The skill tree ability was called ‘Precision’. In combat state, whenever he targeted the same target, with every increased duration of 2 seconds; accuracy +3%, explosive strike rate +2%. Stacking of explosive strike rate would not exceed 20%.
As for his allies, every time Fría scored at hit onto the enemy, it would issue an area of effect ripple. Allies within that ripple will have their accuracy +1%, explosive strike rate +1%. At its current level, that effect couldn’t be stacked.
These two contestants were considered a class of combat supporters. When they matured, they would be a force to be reckoned with. Right now, the Illume-union was still rather pleased with them.
Yet why did the scarred baldy suddenly talked about business snatching? That was because of the realm’s regulations. Sheyan wasn’t their party member. If the Illume-union accepted his supporting effects, then the realm would automatically award contribution points to him during the battle. As for Morda and Fría, they would naturally not receive any.
Bluntly speaking; though beneficial buffs could coexist, the rewards would only be allocated to one person.
This was a protection scheme installed by the realm. To a solo contestant, a party would inevitably be stronger. Therefore, the goal here was to protect the weaker party’s interest, and also encourage parties to proactively attract supporting talents.
Morda and Fria were both individuals who thought highly of themselves. Upon hearing the scarred baldy’s words, one completely ignored him, not even offering a glance; It was as though Sheyan was completely non-existent. Another issued a sunken expression as he scrutinized his staff, as though the staff was a naked beauty. Their disdain for Sheyan were vividly portrayed.
Instead, a burly chap with a messy hair and long oddly arms snorted, and waved his hands.
“Archeaphill, you’re really long-winded. Just hurry up and get him to scram. In my previous world, I met a moron who blew his own trumpet, painting a deluge of heavenly flowers for his own supporting ability. In the end, he actually threw away his own face with that HP regeneration +3% broken toy! Our party is already cultivating several powerful main support members, there isn’t a place for you.”
Sheyan’s eyelids twitched, his heart was stirred; that was because this guy’s tone sounded rather familiar. It sounded as though it was the individual who had sworn to take his skull as souvenir. The burly chap was leisurely sitting on the grass, and beside him was a giant blade fused with lingering blackness. Its surface was dull but it appeared like it was boiling, as it occasionally emitted waves of black aura.
“Sable, I should have just let them viperwolves tear your damned mouth apart just now!” The scarred baldy, Archeaphill mocked. He then casted his gaze toward Sheyan and shrugged his shoulders.
“My apologies buddy, looks like you have to find another place to work.”
Sheyan could tell this Archeaphill should be the MT of the illume-union. From the start till now, he had been smoking without wearing his oxygen mask, it had already been a full 2 minutes. Yet he was still glowing with health and vigor, moreover the people around him weren’t even startled.
This undoubtedly meant that this guy had a strong resistance towards abnormal effects, and in fact was at a relatively terrifying level. If not the case, then he probably had an excellent equipment like his own ‘Monstrous Fighting Spirit’. Either that, or he possessed an immensely powerful innate ability! If an expert magician based combatant assaulted him, that constant would definitely be in for a massive headache!
Hearing the friendly notice to leave by Archeaphill, Sheyan had been dying to hear those words for far too long. Being one who harbored ulterior motives, he instantly turned to leave. But at this instance, his pupils shrank. A wave of domineering threat suddenly pressed down from the skies. His perceptive sense that vastly exceeded most people, had already forewarned him prematurely by milliseconds!
Sheyan raised his head; he could see that amidst the funnel like white clouds, 7-8 ruptures in the sky had been speedily broken through. The sudden outburst scattered the clouds like cotton wadding away. Not even 5-6 seconds later, winged creatures sped through for the ground; carrying the billowing winds as they emitted indescribable mournful screeches.
These uninvited guests had the appearance of pterosaurs of the ancient earth, yet it boasted of a decorative lizard like epidermis skin. Its broad flat wings had a divided translucent webbing, which covered its bones as it glided easily. It seemed like a stout and strong bat, yet exuberated the carefree nature of a wandering stingray. The most attractive spot was their mouth; drilling outwards for at least 7-8 cm, their lower jaws were filled with incisive pointed teeth.
These flying creatures displayed large as well as small versions. At present, while they approached in, one could observe their matured wingspan stretching as long as 12 metres! Even the smallest version of the creature had a wingspan that reaches 7-8 metres. They were called mountain banshees oin this planet Pandora, where its name originated from its own screech. Resembling that of a banshee; also known as a dead female in Irish mythology, with her crying and miserable plaintive wails.