Soon, within just a few seconds, Zhang Yanhang arrived in front of a swarm of Crimson Iron Ants he had not seen before.
The Crimson Iron Ants reacted quickly. As soon as they spotted Zhang Yanhang, they stopped moving and stood in place, starting to spit fireballs at him.
One by one, fist-sized crimson fireballs continuously struck Zhang Yanhang’s face and torso, but he stood there without reaction, not immediately attacking the Crimson Iron Ants. Chapters first released on novel•fire.net
Why? That was because Zhang Yanhang was at that moment checking the attribute list of these Crimson Iron Ants; if he started fighting and killed them upon first sight, he wouldn’t have been able to view their attributes.
[Crimson Iron Soldier Ant (Ordinary)]
[Level: First Tier 2 Star]
[Talent: 1. Ant Power. 2. Crimson Iron Ant (Soldier Ant).]
[Ant Power: There’s a 0.1% chance to trigger an extra attack effect when launching an attack. Power effect +10%.]
[Crimson Iron Ant (Flying Ant): Born from the mating of the Lord Monster Crimson Iron Ant Queen and the Crimson Iron Ant King, these are undeveloped female Crimson Iron Ants without reproductive abilities.
Compared to the underdeveloped Crimson Iron Worker Ants and Crimson Iron Flying Ants, the Crimson Iron Soldier Ants not only lack developed exoskeletal wings, but their feeding organs are also significantly degenerated, relying on Crimson Iron Worker Ants to assist in food intake; however, Crimson Iron Soldier Ants are larger in size, with more developed mouthparts.
Crimson Iron Soldier Ants, unlike the lower-level Crimson Iron Worker Ants and Crimson Iron Flying Ants, have developed large and hard mandibles due to their more complete mouthpart development. These large mandibles can be used to quickly crush hard food in everyday circumstances and act as advantageous offensive weapons against enemies, possessing decent attack power.
Like the Crimson Iron Worker Ants responsible for nest construction and food gathering while also serving as the first line of defense of the nest, and the Crimson Iron Flying Ants as the second line of defense, the Crimson Iron Soldier Ants are also tasked with guarding the Ant Nest. As the nest’s most potent third line of defense, they will stop at nothing to prevent any enemies that have already breached inside from proceeding deeper.
Due to their more complete development, the ant acid of the Crimson Iron Soldier Ants is far stronger than that of the Crimson Iron Worker Ants and Crimson Iron Flying Ants, allowing them to extract more nutrients from the crimson iron ore to build their exoskeletons, making them exceedingly hard, especially the exoskeleton around their mouthparts.
Furthermore, because the ant acid of the Crimson Iron Soldier Ants has a digestive ability far surpassing that of the Crimson Iron Worker Ants and Crimson Iron Flying Ants, they can not only digest the hard impurities from the crimson iron ore but also extract the true power of the ore, enabling them to breathe flames.
Due to consuming a large amount of crimson iron ore, the Crimson Iron Soldier Ants have completely lost the ability to adapt to other foods and emanate a crimson glow.
Even for the Crimson Iron Soldier Ants with greatly increased digestive ability, there are still some impurities in the crimson iron ore they cannot digest; however, since the power of the ore itself has been largely extracted, this special excretory product is generally referred to as Crimson Iron Residue in the outside world.]
[Life Value: 210/210]
[Energy Value: 80/80]
Skill: 1, Bite. 2, Acid Spray. 3, Crimson Flame Fireball.
"I thought so, the Crimson Iron series of equipment couldn’t possibly increase fire resistance for no reason. It turns out that the more fully developed Crimson Iron Ants actually have magic capabilities, able to spew Crimson Flame Fireballs."
Zhang Yanhang noticed that the Intelligence Attribute of the Crimson Iron Soldier Ants was as high as eight points and they also had an Energy bar. The previously encountered Crimson Iron Worker Ants and Crimson Iron Flying Ants, even though they also possessed Intelligence Attributes, did not have any energy reaction within their bodies.
After reviewing the Attribute list, Zhang Yanhang theorized that the Crimson Iron Soldier Ant likely drew on some sort of special energy related to the Fire Element from Crimson iron ore thanks to their potent digestive abilities brought on by Ant Acid. This led them to develop the capacity to store Energy Value and also to instinctively learn how to spew Crimson Flame Fireballs.
"I don’t know why, but I always feel that Crimson Iron Ants are a bit too unfriendly towards newbie Awakeners. Not only do they have high Strength and Constitution Attributes, they also possess magic attack capabilities. If it were any other newbie Awakener, they would probably be tortured to death. But, luckily, the person who encountered these Crimson Iron Ants is me."
Even though for the most part Zhang Yanhang considered himself an ordinary Awakener with a solitary personality, he believed that he was somewhat formidable when it came to hunting monsters. Logically, he should be a little bit stronger than the majority of ordinary Awakeners, yes, just a little bit.
"By the way, no wonder I didn’t find the excrement of higher-level Crimson Iron Ants in that cave filled with Crimson Iron. So the excrement of higher-level Crimson Iron Ants is actually completely useless waste, huh?"
Zhang Yanhang had naively believed that the Crimson Iron excreted by higher-level Crimson Iron Ants would also be of higher Quality, which is why he did not find it mixed with the excrement of the Crimson Iron Worker Ant and Crimson Iron Flying Ant.
Furthermore, Zhang Yanhang had a rather bold idea back then, which was to find other high-level Crimson Iron Ants’ places for storing their excrement, and then to improve the Quality of the Four Great Emptiness Purifying World Fist by fusing with the higher-Quality Crimson Iron found there.
But now it seemed like a wild fantasy, as from the start there was no higher Quality Crimson Iron. Blue quality Refined Crimson Iron was already the peak Quality that could be extracted from Crimson iron ore.
"Since even First Tier 2 Star strength Crimson Iron Soldier Ants can absorb the special energy from Crimson iron ore, I guess that First Tier Three Stars Crimson Iron Ants and Second Tier Crimson Iron Ants would be even more thorough in their absorption. Maybe not even a trace of Crimson Iron Residue would remain.
"Alas, it seems there really isn’t such a good thing as being able to upgrade the Four Great Emptiness Purifying World Fist to Golden by relying on a single Crimson Iron Ant Nest. Although the Crimson Iron Ant Nest could be considered a quality sheep to sheer, there’s only so much fleece to be had before reaching the limit."
The Refined Crimson Iron produced in the Crimson Iron Ant Nest had helped Zhang Yanhang upgrade his Four Great Emptiness Purifying World Fist to Dark Purple, and it would continue to assist him in reaching Light gold. But after that, Zhang Yanhang would need to find other high-Quality materials or high-Quality Weapons to properly upgrade the Four Great Emptiness Purifying World Fist.