Chapter 208 - 135: Troublesome Eye Demon Parasitism
After the invasion ended, the world grew quiet again.
Aside from a few Lords who couldn’t hold out, most managed to deal with the Eye Demon attack with ease.
This wave of invaders consisted mostly of ordinary soldiers. The greatest danger they posed was their fearlessness in the face of death, combined with their sheer numbers.
It was somewhat reminiscent of the previous zombie tide, but they were a little smarter than the zombies, making them a slightly greater threat.
The most dangerous part was the Eye Demons hiding within the corpses of soldiers who died during the invasion. Any soldier sent to collect the bodies could easily become parasitized if they weren’t careful.
However, after Lin Yu shared his discovery with the Lords in their small group chat, everyone understood the danger. They all sprang into action, contacting their subordinates and friends to either cremate the corpses of the invaders or wait until the invasion was completely over before handling the bodies.
Overall, the Eye Demon invasion didn’t cause a major stir, but undercurrents were surging in the shadows.
The parasitized Lords, led by Mei Yuan, had secretly united using coded signals, though what they were preparing for remained unknown.
Opal Hass began buying up all the Excellent Tier Hero Summon Scrolls on the market, preparing to create more Transcendent-grade heroes for the coming invasions.
None of this, however, had much to do with Lin Yu. He methodically continued preparing his Acropolis, doing his best to make it look more like a Lord’s main city.
He also established an isolation laboratory on a patch of empty land within his territory (an area with no production or residential buildings nearby).
It was constructed using a special resin discovered within his territory. This resin was highly transparent and possessed strong impact resistance, rigidity, and toughness, making it an excellent substitute for glass (Lin Yu disliked glass due to how difficult it was to biodegrade, so most buildings in his territory currently used this transparent resin).
* * *
When the next day arrived, the Eye Demon invasion began once more.
To Lin Yu’s delight, he didn’t have to wait long this time.
Not long after the invasion started, a large horde of Fishmen appeared to the north of his territory.
This made things much easier. Although these Fishmen were amphibious, they were ultimately stronger in the water. Once on land, their combat effectiveness was naturally reduced by 30%.
Furthermore, the north was a boundless Great Prairie without so much as a small river in sight, leaving the Fishmen unable to use their full strength.
The barbarians from the first day could at least set fire to the forest, but these Fishmen could only charge head-on at Lin Yu’s defensive lines. If they tried to use fire, it was hard to say who would be the first to get burned to death.
One could imagine the Eye Demon on the other side of the Teleportation Gate was probably cursing the random system.
Unfortunately, the invading Eye Demon knew it couldn’t gain an advantage here. It organized only a single wave of attacks, which broke through one of Lin Yu’s defensive lines at the cost of about ten thousand Fishmen, and then it stopped attacking.
"Manqiluo, have all the plant people move out. Find all the surviving Eye Demons on the battlefield and take them to the isolation laboratory!"
After Lin Yu gave the order from the Lord’s Mansion via his territory’s core, Manqiluo led the plant people who had been defending the northern front and began searching through the pools of blood.
Soon, over twenty thousand Eye Demons were brought to the newly built isolation laboratory by the plant people.
Lin Kong was already waiting in the lab. Due to the unique nature of the Eye Demons, no other important members of the territory were involved, aside from the plant person, Manqiluo.
"Qi Luo, why are there so many Eye Demons? I thought only about ten thousand Fishmen attacked. Don’t tell me each of them had several Eye Demons on them?"
"No. While we were searching for them, some of the Fishman corpses were rapidly absorbed by the Eye Demons, which then spawned more of themselves."
Lin Kong recalled what he had seen the day before. It seemed a similar situation had occurred then, so he set aside his doubts.
"Come on. We still have some time before the invasion ends. Let’s test these creatures’ abilities while they aren’t attached to a host!"
The laboratory was fully equipped with all sorts of Magic Arrays, making it very convenient to run tests.
...
After a round of tests, Lin Yu obtained the general stats for the Eye Demon.
* * *
[Name]: Eye Demon
[Tier]: Transcendent (Lowest)
[Level]: 5 (Lowest)
[Attack]: 112.5
[Magic Power]: 225
[Speed]: 37.5
[Defense]: 225
[Health]: 225
[Skills]: Symbiotic Empowerment, Basic Spiritual Energy Manipulation, Rapid Absorption, Split, Others Unknown
[Talents]: Neural Invasion, Neural Manipulation, Others Unknown
[Symbiotic Empowerment]: When an Eye Demon enters another creature’s body via Neural Invasion, it can share its own stats with the host, raising the host’s stats to that of a higher tier. (The highest tier the host can be raised to is the same as the Eye Demon’s own tier.)
[Basic Spiritual Energy Manipulation]: Eye Demons are born with the ability to manipulate Spiritual Energy. They can shape it into simple weapons or shields for offense or defense.
[Rapid Absorption]: In times of crisis, an Eye Demon can absorb the flesh and blood of its host to return to an independent state, restoring its own energy and health, and increasing its level.
[Split]: An Eye Demon can split to create a new Eye Demon. Each time it splits, its level decreases by one.
[Neural Invasion]: An Eye Demon can invade the nervous system of a creature of a lower tier than itself to achieve a state of symbiosis.
[Neural Manipulation]: An Eye Demon can control the behavior of its host by manipulating its nervous system.
* * *
Eye Demons are born as Level 5, Transcendent-tier creatures. This means that a newborn Eye Demon is already far stronger than most adult creatures.