Eye of Evolution - Chapter 22

Chapter 22: Elite Zombie Rat Blacktooth

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

“F*ck…”

Bai Xiaowen took a deep breath. He felt a pang of regret. He recalled a portion that he had read from Margaux’s diary.

“After some effort, Master captured the leader of the Plague Rats…”

Bai Xiaowen thought, “I knew that Falca captured the Plague Rat leader, and there was a high probability that he transformed it into a stronger Zombie Rat, but I ignored it! Greed indeed makes a smart person a fool.”

He gritted his teeth as he forced himself up. Then, he used Insight.

[Blacktooth (Elite Creature)]

[Race: Spectre/Corpse Demon]

[Attributes: Strength 4.5, Agility 10.4, Physique 5.1, Spirit 2.7]

[Skill 1: Plague Claw: Omitted]

[Skill 2: Stiffened Skin: Omitted]

[Skill 3: Infectious Bite: ???]

Bai Xiaowen felt a wave of dizziness hit him. This Elite Zombie Rat—Blacktooth—was terrifyingly strong, comparable to an Awakened!

Though its Strength and Physique were relatively low, it still exceeded the ordinary standards of Zombie Rats. It was definitely stronger than Bai Xiaowen. As for Agility, what did having an agility of 10.4 mean? It meant that Blacktooth was so powerful that even Awakened beginners were inferior to it!

Not to mention that there was also an unexplored skill called Infectious Bite!

Bai Xiaowen gritted his teeth and stood up. He gripped his rusty iron sword tightly. Just by looking at his 10 points of Agility, he knew that he could not escape. The odds were against him. If he wanted to live, he had to fight to the death.

After Blacktooth missed, it paused and arched its body to accumulate strength. Then, it pounced forward like a gust of wind!

Although Bai Xiaowen was mentally prepared, his reaction was slower than Blacktooth, and he could not keep up with its pace. Bai Xiaowen was pressed against the wall by the Elite Zombie Rat! Then, Blacktooth bit down hard on Bai Xiaowen’s neck.

Fortunately, Bai Xiaowen was not weak. He struggled and moved away a little. There was a loud cracking sound as the rat bit down on his shoulder, sending a sharp pain vibrating through his bones.

Bai Xiaowen screamed in pain. He pushed Blacktooth away and stumbled toward the secret passage. His left arm hung limply. Clearly, that rat’s bite had broken his bone!

“Is this the ‘Infectious Bite’ skill?” Bai Xiaowen’s wound was numb. It was obvious that the wound had become infected. The infection could be seen rapidly spreading from its origin, and he had a total loss of feeling on one side of his body. Meanwhile, Blacktooth was still chasing after him relentlessly. It leaped over Bai Xiaowen’s head and blocked the entrance of the tunnel!

Bai Xiaowen did not know if it was an illusion, but he could sense a hint of mockery in the Zombie Rat’s black eyes. This monster had a 2.7 Spirit, while ordinary Zombie Rats only had a 0.2 Spirit. It even had some intelligence and did not forget to play with its prey before killing it.

“F*ck you!”

Bai Xiaowen roared and gulped down a bottle of potion. This was the combat potion he had prepared—Brutal Bull’s Strength!

Bai Xiaowen felt as if his heart had been set on fire, and an astonishing amount of energy surged through his body. Bai Xiaowen’s Strength temporarily increased by close to 6 points! Instantly, his total Strength had exceeded 10 points!

Bai Xiaowen was like a mad bull as he slammed his shoulder into Blacktooth. Blacktooth was caught off guard and crashed into the narrow tunnel!

This narrow tunnel was only as tall as a person and less than a meter wide. It could only allow one person to pass through.

In other words, Blacktooth’s Agility of 10.4 points would be reduced by more than half! Bai Xiaowen’s Strength, which had been temporarily enhanced to more than 10 points, gave him an overwhelming advantage in this battle!

This was the opportunity that Bai Xiaowen had been waiting for to turn the tables on Blacktooth.

Bai Xiaowen crouched down and blocked Blacktooth with all his might. He raised his rusty iron sword and swung it wildly in every direction.

His sword sank into Blacktooth’s flesh, and black blood splattered.

After a round of vicious chopping, the Elite Zombie Rat Blacktooth had already turned into a pile of meat paste. It was almost impossible to tell that it was a rat’s corpse. Having more than 10 points of Strength, even Blacktooth’s hardened skin could not withstand this kind of kitchen knife-like chopping.

Bai Xiaowen panted heavily and put away his rusty iron sword. Fortunately, he had gotten this sword from his form teacher, Xiao Jinsheng. Otherwise, he might not have been able to kill this Elite Zombie Rat.

A notification came.

“The battle is over. Strength: 10, Precision: 2, Continuity: 4, Evaluation: Outstanding.”

“You killed Elite Zombie Rat: Blacktooth.”

“Your proficiency in basic machinery (Single-handed Sword) has increased.”

“Basic Machinery (Single-handed Sword) has been upgraded to Level 4!”

Suddenly, a faint white light shot out from the Elite Zombie Rat Blacktooth’s corpse. Then, the white light gathered and condensed into a slightly illusory small treasure chest.

“This is… a loot treasure chest?”

Bai Xiaowen was taken aback. After killing powerful monsters, spoils of war—treasure chests—would appear. Bai Xiaowen was no stranger to this. There were many Awakened who live-streamed their adventures in the Spiritual Realm, and such treasure chests had appeared before.

Bai Xiaowen did not expect that a treasure chest would drop after killing that zombie rat. However, it was not strange when he thought about how the zombie rat’s strength was comparable to a beginner Awakened.

Bai Xiaowen placed his hand on the treasure chest and mentally ordered it to open.

A notification came.

“Elite Zombie Rat: Blacktooth’s treasure chest is about to open. Calculating rewards…”

“The strength ratio of the enemy and you is 2.378:1.”

“Battle score: A (Outstanding). You have three chances to draw spoils of war cards, and you won’t draw blank cards.”

The treasure chest disappeared, and six silver “trophy cards” appeared in front of Bai Xiaowen.

“I’ve actually gotten an A-rank battle score!” Bai Xiaowen was elated.

Battle scores were used to measure the overall score of an Awakened battle. It was usually determined by the ratio of strength between the person and his opponent. The higher the score, the more opportunities he had to draw spoils.

For example, the six spoils of war cards in front of him represented all the six possible items that the Elite Zombie Rat Blacktooth could drop.

Bai Xiaowen, who had an A-rank score, could draw three times. If it was a B-rank, he could only draw twice. He could only draw once for C-rank and below.

If it was an S-rank (Perfect) score, it would be terrifying. He could draw five times! He could see all the triumph cards that Blacktooth had hidden in its underpants if it wore underpants.

However, S-rank scores were just a legend. In fact, it was very difficult to score in A-rank battles as that meant that the difference in strength between both parties was huge!

For example, this Elite Zombie Rat was comparable to a Primary Awakened in all aspects and was more than twice as strong as Bai Xiaowen. If Bai Xiaowen had not knocked it into the narrow tunnel, he would definitely have died.

The back of the six spoils of war cards flashed with silver light. Every card was very tempting.

Bai Xiaowen did not think too much about it. He could not use logic to judge such draws which were usually left up to luck. He reached out and tapped on the three cards in the middle.

The three cards that Bai Xiaowen had not chosen turned into spiritual particles and dissipated. The remaining three cards were flipped over.

The first card had a drawing of a dagger, the second card had a drawing of a cape, and the third card had a drawing of a small test tube containing a black liquid.

Bai Xiaowen was overjoyed when he saw the blue text below the dagger. A blue weapon meant that it was an Elite Grade weapon! Just this Elite Grade weapon alone ensured that he would profit greatly from this drawing of cards.

Spiritual equipment could be roughly divided into four levels according to its quality. It could be easily distinguished by the color of the equipment name. These four levels were: Normal (White), Elite (Blue), Hero (Gold), and Lord (Dark Gold).

As for the Crude (Gray) inferior equipment, no Awakened would take a fancy to it at all. It was trash that only ordinary people would consider as treasure.

There was even rarer and higher-quality equipment above dark gold equipment, but that was beyond Bai Xiaowen’s understanding.

Bai Xiaowen retracted his thoughts and checked the notification.

“You have obtained a weapon: Fang Dagger.”

“You have obtained equipment: Dirty Cloak.”

“You have obtained an item: Rotten Blood.”

The attributes of the Fang Dagger were as follows:

[Fang Dagger (Bind on Pickup)]

[Quality: Elite (Blue)]

[Equipment Spot: One-handed]

[Equipment Requirement: Agility 4 points]

[Attributes: Attack Power 3-8; Agility +1]

[Durability: 31/35]

[Description: This is a small and powerful bloodletting tool.]

The last piece of equipment was of White Quality.

[Dirty Cloak (Bind on Pickup)]

[Quality: Normal (White)]

[Equipment Spot: Back]

[Equipment Requirement: None]

[Attributes: Armor +2; Evasion Rate increased by 3% (Common attributes of all Cloak Equipment)]

[Durability: 18/20]

[Description: When you wear it, it’s best not to think about the fact that it was stripped from a rat.]

“As expected of an Elite-grade dagger! It’s much stronger than Mr. Xiao’s iron sword! The additional attack power has increased by three times, and the speed of the dagger is much faster than a single-handed sword! Not to mention the precious attribute of +1 Agility,” Bai Xiaowen thought.

The other cloak was not bad. It did not have any additional attributes, but it could increase the wearer’s resistance to attacks by 2 points of defense and 3% of dodging. One could not expect too much from it as it was only white-quality equipment, after all.

Unfortunately, these two pieces of equipment were “bound on pickup” and could not be traded with others. Of course, based on Bai Xiaowen’s understanding, most pieces of equipment had this kind of “bind on pickup” characteristic.

If he could obtain equipment with good attributes that could be “bind on equipped”, he would be able to make a small fortune. There were countless quasi-Awakened who would not hesitate to sell everything they owned to buy equipment that would allow them to easily pass the Spiritual Realm test.

The most amazing equipment was those types of equipment that had no binding restrictions. Those equipments could be treated as family heirlooms and passed down from generation to generation.

Bai Xiaowen looked at the item on the third card. This bottle of Rotten Blood was a bottle of black blood that was in a semi-congealed state. Its potion grade was Grade 1 Level 3. When applied to a weapon, the user’s attack would carry a corrosive toxin that reduced the enemy’s combat ability.

Bai Xiaowen wore Dirty Cloak. However, when he equipped Fang Dagger, he received a notification that the +1 agility bonus was not effective. The reason was that Bai Xiaowen was not an Awakened yet.

Despite that, Bai Xiaowen did not feel too dejected. Even if the attribute bonus did not take effect, the Fang Dagger’s attack speed and attack power were still very powerful.

Bai Xiaowen put the Rotten Blood into his tactical backpack and was about to leave when he suddenly saw a dim light under Blacktooth’s corpse. It disappeared in a flash.

Bai Xiaowen’s eyes widened in shock. He crouched down and pulled out a translucent gray bead that was emitting a dim glow.