Chapter 967: Spoils and Stratagem
Translator: Sean88888 Editor: Elkassar1
Sheyan looked at Sanzi and smiled as he said, "You want to know my abilities? Sure, just fight me and force me into a corner. You'll naturally get a thorough feel of the full extent of my ability then. But let me warn you - a few mutated rats are nowhere near enough."
Sanzi had recovered from his initial awkwardness. He was timid and introverted only when dealing with unfamiliar people, but with Sheyan he was very relaxed. He's just slow to warm up to people.
The people who got off the plane each had their own unique characteristics. Zi was cold and beautiful; she carried an air of a strong independent woman amidst her elegance. Reef was steady and unshakable, while Brother Black who grew up amidst the smoke of gunpowder had a ferociousness that no bandits could match. Sanzi was, of course, slightly intimidated by their imposing manner. But when Sanzi saw them talking and laughing in a relaxed manner with his brother, and the slight hint of respect they showed him, his nervousness subsided.
"I have more than just a few mutated rats. I just can't summon more powerful creatures here," Sanzi retorted at once.
Sheyan had always known that although Sanzi's deduction skills were lacking, he was very good at executing orders. He may be at a loss in the face of a chaotic situation, but if he was pointed in the right direction and given orders that he had to carry out right away, he would always complete the order with flying colours. So Sheyan immediately laughed and said, "Fine. I'll give you the chance to have a duel with me back in the realm."
Next, Sheyan glanced at the others and casually said, "I know we've suffered some losses in the last world, but as long as our main forces are still here, we'll always have a chance to come back stronger than ever! I've also taken a huge risk in my last world. Although I worked with Aziz, the situation was so dangerous that I was only left with my head when I returned...."
The curiosity of Reef and the others were piqued as soon as they heard that. The Bloody World and the dual-attribute breakthrough were already very interesting, and add to that the cooperation with Aziz and the fact that he returned with only his head left, they were dying to hear the whole story!
So everyone patiently waited for Sheyan to start from the beginning, filling them in on all the details - of course, when he came to the part about the breakthrough trial, little Sanzi had to go to the room next door for a while.
"...and that was it." Sheyan ended his story with such a sentence.
Both Zi and Reef found his story hard to believe, but Mogensha happened to know both Shali and Stend. Mogensha could still vividly remember how the 'Air Cannon' fired by Shali from the air he swallowed had deflected all 3 of his burst shots away. It left a deep impression on him.
"A duplicate of the Cardinal was that powerful?" Zi could not help exclaiming,"You and Aziz couldn't even fight back?"
"It's true, but it's not surprising that he was so powerful since he was supposed to be there as the final boss of the Golden Side Mission," said Sheyan with a bitter smile.
"The Cardinal's strength may not be an exact copy of the original. I suspect that the duplicate was a strengthened version of the original. Otherwise, no matter how strong the power of the Seven Deadly Sins, it was impossible that you two couldn't even fight back," Zi speculated with a frown.
Sheyan took a deep breath before he said, "That's not the case. The Golden Side Mission had actually given us a chance to kill the Cardinal. When the Cardinal had just "hatched", he was actually completely suppressed by my ability."
"In retrospect, the bone words incidents throughout New York were probably a method for the Cardinal to retrieve his weapons. If we had destroyed those sites ahead of time, making it impossible for him to collect all seven sins, we absolutely had a chance to kill him. Unfortunately, our intelligence resources were severely limited and were constantly being suppressed, so we allowed him to grow into his final form. I estimate that the actual difficulty rating of the Golden Side Mission had become at least C towards the end.
Sanzi was struck with horror as he listened to the story. Although he did not see it, just listening to Sheyan trying his best to escape and finally returning to the realm with only his head was enough to cover Sanzi with cold sweat.
Right then, Sheyan coughed to grab their attention and said, "But I also got some good stuff from my last world. I've made a list of what we have left, which is as follows."
Goldpearl of the Caribbean Sea
+7 West (IV Test Edition)
Chris Redfield's Lucky Bracelet
Valuable item: High energy crystal x1
Rotten Eyeball (Condition: Bad) x1
Soul Crystals x2
Ndipaya Evolved Leech (Special)
Aberration Horcrux (Rare)
Voldemort's Allure (Dark)
Pandora's Egg
+7 Chieftain's Hobby
Mission item: Metal Nut
Evergreen Leaf of the Sacred Oak
Genuine Leather Mask
Mwak's Eye
+7 Stark's Energy Spare Part (quality product)
Alien pulse gun component blueprint (disappear after use)
Unknown mysterious item: Rare precious metal x6 (worth 13 achievement points)
Sheyan assigned 'Mwak's Eye' (increase magic damage by 50 points) to Zi. If Franklin was here, he would have priority over it, but.... Now, it naturally belonged to Zi.
Zi did not show any hesitation in receiving an equipment from Sheyan. When an arrogant woman like her was willing to take Sheyan's equipment so easily, it could only mean that she now saw herself as a member of Ace Party. This was a good thing. It's like when you're chasing a girl, the girl would probably turn down gifts that were too expensive, but when she became your wife, she would receive any present you give her with open arms....
Next was the '+7 Stark's Energy Spare Part (quality product)' dropped by Fate. After some debate, it was also given to Zi because her magic barrier had been upgraded to lvl 5. Sanzi, being a summoner, had a huge MP expenditure. When a magic barrier was attacked, the caster's MP would be reduced, so he didn't even have a lvl 1 magic barrier.
The effect of Zi's Ndipaya set was pretty terrifying, with a surprisingly high defense. Sheyan had long passed the key to unlock the hidden world - the Journal Log of Bernard Fokke - to Zi. When she was by herself, she had entered the hidden world of Resident Evil. It was a brand new world for her.
After a lot of painstaking effort hunting masked Ndipaya barbarians in the outskirt, she finally obtained the other piece of the Ndipaya set. The final special effect of the set was "ignore the decrease in movement speed caused by the mask, and increase movement speed by 33% in a marsh environment." Don't forget, with the set now completed, Zi had the ability to temporarily transform her surroundings to the annoying Ndipaya Marshland!
Now that she also had the 'Titanium Mesh Magic Barrier' from the '+7 Stark's Energy Spare Part', her durability had soared to an astonishing height. Sheyan estimated that when the 'Titanium Mesh Magic Barrier' was activated, her defence and survivability were not inferior to Reef at all!
Sheyan then threw the blueprint of the alien pulse gun component to Brother Black. The blueprint will disappear after all the required materials were collected and placed on the blueprint. It would allow Mogensha to occasionally fire powerful shots that were similar to the shots of the MIB pulse guns. Mogensha was not shy in requesting for the A-grade crafting material 'Shadowdrill Claw', which was naturally approved.
After distributing all these, Sheyan then announced, "Sanzi's potential is obvious. As the party leader, I propose to let him join our party as an official member. If anyone has any objection, please raise it now."
The proposal was passed without any hassle. There was nothing to hesitate about. First, they do lack a summoner in the party. During critical moments when they had to storm a fortification or stop the pursuit of the enemies, summoned creatures could be sacrificed in place of party members. This alone ensured that summoners usually enjoyed a pretty high status in a party. A powerful summoner had the ability to turn a dire situation around.
This fact was evident in Zi's previous action of expending all her party's resources on Yuan Zhan when they were in a desperate situation.
Since Sanzi had joined the team, he naturally became the recipient of a few top quality summoner's equipments that they had collected but had not sold yet. The items were:
Genuine Leather Mask
Voldemort's Allure (Dark)
+7 Chieftain's Hobby
Sanzi would be reborn as a formidable summoner as soon as he equipped these three powerful equipments. Sheyan's handling of this matter showed his careful attention to detail. Sheyan no doubt had enough authority to just announce Sanzi's enrollment to the party and give him the three equipments without asking for the other members' opinions, but they might harbour some dissatisfaction in their hearts even if they might not voice them.
That's because the value of those three equipments were indeed quite high and they would all gain significant profit if they split the money. After all, even though they respected Sheyan, but it didn't mean they respected Sanzi enough to just give him the equipments they obtained with their sweat and blood.
Therefore, Sheyan first communicated with them and showed them Sanzi's strengthened personal ability, then shared the loot with everyone, and finally discussed the issue of Sanzi joining the party. This way, things would happen naturally and there wouldn't be any conflict in the party.