Chapter 808 - 803: Empress Transformation
After two days of sailing, the turtle ship reached the water chamber of the southern Shadow Island Chain.
In the mid-level cabin, Bai Pu, Salacia, the three members of the Furnace Squad, and the seven members of the Heig Team, a total of 12 awakened team members, sat around together.
Among them, the three core members, Bai Pu, Salacia, and Rein, sat in the innermost circle.
The trio surrounded a giant dark gold cocoon.
The cocoon seemed alive, vibrating rhythmically, like the subtle rise and fall of breath visible beneath a blanket.
Suddenly, the cocoon split open slightly.
In the glow of dark gold, the solid figure of the Demon Spider Lady emerged.
At this moment, the Demon Spider Lady no longer bore the monstrous half-human, half-spider form; she appeared more human-like, with long, slender white legs and a graceful, attractive body.
Only two features distinguished her from a normal human beauty: four sharp spider legs extended from her back, and her relatively sharp canine teeth.
"Oh my."
Salacia covered her face and hurriedly handed over a piece of burlap—at this time, the Demon Spider Lady was in her most primal, natural form, completely exposed, with snow-white skin visible, causing the male awakened team members present to stiffen slightly.
Yet as the burlap touched the Demon Spider Lady’s figure, it fell through as if passing through air, finally landing on the ground.
"This is consciousness... an artifact spirit?"
Salacia was stunned, "Is there such a solid artifact spirit?"
Bai Pu coughed and commanded the Demon Spider Lady artifact spirit to return to her main body.
In the glow of dark gold, the Demon Spider Lady vanished, transforming back into a relief sculpture engraved on the shield face of the dark gold tower shield.
The shield-face sculpture of the Demon Spider Lady retained her wild, unabashed form. If Bai Pu’s opponent were a lecherous old man, perhaps this relief could stun the opponent for a few seconds.
Of course, the male awakened present were no rookies; many had been through numerous battles. Rather than being entranced by the seductive allure of the Demon Spider Lady, they were more concerned about the changes to the dark gold tower shield.
However, Bai Pu wasn’t about to openly display anything.
In Bai Pu’s eyes, the attributes of the dark gold tower shield became visible.
[The Demon Spider Empress’s Warning (Unsealed) +7]
[Equipment Quality: Lord Level (Dark Gold) / Demon Ghost Equipment]
[Equipment Position: One Hand/Two Hands]
[Equipment Requirement: Basic All Attributes 80] (With artifact spirit approval, the requirement can be halved)
[Attributes: Armor +120; All Attributes +10; Demon Power Value 2000/2000]
[Additional Skill 1: Empress Transformation: This equipment can transform into the physical form of the Demon Spider Empress to fight for you. The Demon Spider Empress possesses skills such as Summoning Spider Ghosts, Summoning Swamp Demon Spiders, Summoning Spider Demon Warriors. Damage sustained will reduce the shield’s durability.]
[Additional Skill 2: Devouring Enhancement: Devour the corpse of a strong figure, recovering a certain amount of durability and gaining temporary enhancement effects (based on the devoured target).]
[Additional Skill 3: Demon Power Release: Insert the shield into the ground, generating a large area of web phantom, capturing all enemies within the web’s scope, continuously draining their life value. In the Demon Power Release state, demon power value will be continuously consumed. Whether you hold this equipment or not, it is considered as being equipped by you.]
[Durability: 240/240]
[Explanation: The strong demon nature of this Demon Ghost Equipment has been sealed by demon power, always ready to unleash upon enemies.]
"As expected, the equipment requirements have doubled, but the armor value, additional attributes, and durability have also doubled," Bai Pu said to Rein.
The biggest change is [Empress Transformation], meaning the Demon Spider Empress can transform from the shield to a physical entity. Bai Pu did not mention this.
The strength of the Demon Spider Empress’s physical form needs to be tested.
"It’s as we guessed, the equipment ’base material’ has ascended. This dark gold should come from a mid-level Spirit Realm, originally estimated as mid-level base material, now upgraded to advanced base material," Rein said.
"On our planet, awakened beings classify base materials differently, as ordinary, rare, and top grade... unlike the Silver Heart Great World, which uses the simpler classification of low-level, mid-level, and advanced." Rein said, nodding.
Bai Pu caressed the tower shield that had been upgraded to advanced dark gold equipment.
He knew equipment base material upgrades generally happen through treasures like the Radiant Dragon Stone, but the Demon Ghost Equipment took a different path, upgrading by devouring the corpse of a Lord Level demon of the same kind. It seems this is the specialty of Demon Ghost Equipment.
Rein also gazed at the dark gold tower shield, somewhat enviously saying, "Demon Ghost Equipment, artifact spirit recognition... this shield can possibly be upgraded to evolver equipment. Even when you become an evolver, it will not be obsolete."
"After becoming an evolver, do awakened equipment all need to be discarded?" Bai Pu was always interested in the evolver’s world.
"They generally need to be discarded, even dark gold equipment,"
Rein said, "Tier Two evolver equipment, even blue armor, carries more additional attributes than Tier One awakened dark gold equipment. You might argue that dark gold equipment has many skills, but the additional skills of Tier One dark gold equipment are ineffective for evolvers, which speaks to the difference in levels. It’s like advanced technology weapons can’t threaten awakened beings." Rein stated.
Bai Pu nodded slightly. He understood that awakened beings have a "Spiritual Energy Field" that immunizes against technological weapon attacks; similarly, evolvers probably have a higher-tier force field that immunizes against the additional skills of Tier One equipment.
Bai Pu reflected, "So all the effort we put into collecting and enhancing equipment during the awakened phase becomes useless after ascending to the Ascension Plane, like the notes after a college entrance exam is over."
"College entrance exam? You mean the ’Silver Heart Joint Examination’... "
Rein chuckled and shook his head, "Actually, there is a difference, when you upgrade to evolver, there will be an opportunity to exchange Tier One equipment for Spirit Crystals, limited to equipped items. The better the equipment, the more Spirit Crystals exchanged, providing startup funds for new evolvers."
"It reminds me of students selling textbooks after exams..."
Bai Pu joked.
Next to him, Leia laughed, "The mainstream of Silver Heart Great World is evolvers... during the awakened phase, our main focus is upgrading, cultivating Mystical Arts, and grasping the prototype of True Intent. We indeed don’t spend too much effort on rare equipment collection or delving into Spirit Realm secrets."
"Since equipment gets replaced anyway, it’s just a matter of exchanging more Spirit Crystals or fewer Spirit Crystals," Rein nodded in agreement, "Our approach has always been: refine Mystical Arts, ascend early."
Bai Pu said thoughtfully, "But the Ascension Plane is said to be very challenging. If combat power isn’t honed to its utmost, the profession template obtained in the Ascension Plane might not be satisfactory."
"The starting template for evolvers is indeed very important, after all, a fast start leads to repeated gains. However, the starting template doesn’t decide everything; subsequent opportunities in ’Main World’ for evolvers, the ’Black Land’ of Silver Heart Continent, all allow for template upgrades, and even True Intent Level enhancement. Choices vary for each."
Rein replied, "Many awakened carefully hone their strength, and sometimes luck fails in the Ascension Plane resulting in a poor profession template; wasting precious growth time. Also, there indeed exist super talents, not only with professional templates, equipment levels like yours, but even stronger True Intent Prototypes than mine... although they are generally nurtured as extraordinary seeds by the Divine Camp, can’t compare."