Chapter 108: A Great Harvest! Is the Second Layer a Bonus Stage?
Inside the Secret Realm, the battlefield was a complete mess.
Only after every Class User from the Lionheart Kingdom and the Freedom Empire had been killed did Ye Ze finally open his panel to inspect the spoils of this battle.
The first thing he checked was the Summoned Beast Space he had been looking forward to the most:
【Super Summoned Beast Space: Summoned Beasts contracted in this space gain double star growth, their revival time after death is reduced by 80%, and their attributes increase by 20%!】
【Special Effect — Summoned Beasts can be improved through equivalent exchange!】
Double star growth!
This was tremendously beneficial for raising Summoned Beasts. For example, after being granted a trait, something that originally could only increase by one star could now increase by two stars!
The effect of this Super Summoned Beast Space matched trait-based cultivation especially well.
At the same time, however, one part left him puzzled:
“Improving Summoned Beasts through equivalent exchange?”
“Could it be like the Cursed Statue, where you pay a certain price in exchange for a much stronger boost in power?”
For example, Ye Ze knew of a King-ranked powerhouse who had exchanged the price of “being unable to use skills” for extremely high attack power and speed!
But abilities like that were extraordinarily rare. In the several decades of the Transcendent Era, they had only appeared once...Yet now Ye Ze had actually encountered one himself.
“When I contract my next Summoned Beast, I can test the effect of equivalent exchange.”
After thinking that, Ye Ze closed the Summoned Beast Space panel, opened his backpack, and selected the Exclusive Equipment Chest!
For someone who only had two pieces of equipment, this chest had arrived at the perfect time!
“I wonder what a class-exclusive piece of equipment above Epic quality will be like?”
Ye Ze opened the chest, and purple light flashed...
【Congratulations. You have opened the Exclusive Equipment Chest and obtained the Epic-grade weapon: Shadow Grimoire!】
A magic book with a dark red border and pages like living shadows fell into Ye Ze’s hands.
【Shadow Grimoire (Exclusive)】
Quality: Epic☆☆☆☆
Attributes: Constitution +30, Agility +30, Spirit +60
Special Effect: When a Summoned Beast dies, it can transform into a shadow form with the same strength as its original body. Its skills are refreshed, and it continues fighting for 1 hour.
————
“When a Summoned Beast dies, it can still refresh its skills and keep fighting!?”
Ye Ze was instantly stunned.
If he had possessed this grimoire earlier, why would he have needed to use the Fox Immortal and the squirrel to control the battlefield in advance?
He could have just let Panda charge forward recklessly!
Open with a round of Primordial Phantom, and even if he got focus-fired to death... he could still turn into a shadow form and unleash another round of Primordial Phantom!
Just imagining it made Ye Ze feel despair on behalf of his enemies!
This exclusive weapon was absolutely worth it! For Ye Ze, it was more useful than many legendary weapons!
At the same time, the light of the chest lit up once more in a familiar way.
This time, golden light burst forth!
【Fortune Smiles Upon You! You have obtained a second chest reward: Legendary-grade armor: Guardian of the Stars!】
Ye Ze froze when he saw the prompt.
Then what appeared inside the chest was a blue-and-white uniform jacket adorned with purple starlight. It looked nothing like armor at all!
【Guardian of the Stars (Exclusive)】
Quality: Golden Legend☆☆☆☆
Attributes: Constitution +100, Spirit +50, Damage Received -40%
Aura Effect — Elemental resistance of nearby allies increases by 40%!
Special Effect — When receiving fatal damage, triggers Star’s Protection, nullifying that damage and granting 2.5 seconds of invincibility. Cooldown: 1 day!
————
The moment Ye Ze saw the effect, all of his complaints about the equipment’s appearance were swallowed back down.
Invincibility. This time it was real invincibility!
For a Summoner like him, it was all-around protection.
Especially the special effect. When receiving fatal damage, it nullified the hit and granted invincibility! It would be hard for him to die even if he wanted to!
Although it could only be used once per day, that was completely enough for Ye Ze’s survival needs.
Ye Ze immediately equipped both of his new items.
His sense of security instantly soared.
At the same time, the number of Lotus Petals in his backpack had increased by another 475.
Ever since entering the Secret Realm, Ye Ze had been busy fighting, while the Class Users from those two nations had spent more time farming monsters, so they had accumulated far more Lotus Petals.
Of course, all of that now belonged to Ye Ze as well!
At present, the total number of Lotus Petals had reached 608.
Once he entered the second and third layers of the Secret Realm, he would be much more lavish when the time came to exchange for items.
“I didn’t expect that by the time we entered the second layer of the Secret Realm, only the four of us would be left.”
As the four from China regrouped from the scattered battlefield, Liu Anran spoke first.
“Do we have any way to communicate?”
“That way, if we get separated again after arriving on the second layer, we can regroup immediately.”
Zhou Qi, the Clearmind Miracle Healer, shook her head. “Phones are completely useless in this Secret Realm.”
“And imprint-type marking methods do not work either...”
“Oh.” Ye Ze suddenly had an idea. “How about each of you carries one squirrel Shadow Clone?”
“With one of these clones, I can send messages through them at any time and also find your locations!”
He took out three squirrel Shadow Clones and handed one each to Liu Anran, Yi Xing, and Zhou Qi.
“You can do that too?”
Yi Xing held one squirrel Shadow Clone in his hands and stared at it in disbelief.
The two girls, Liu Anran and Zhou Qi, also each held a squirrel, making them look like they were carrying mascot creatures of the Secret Realm.
【Teleportation to the second-layer trial location begins!】
As the five-minute delay finally ended, the Secret Realm issued another prompt.
The four figures vanished, along with the squirrel Shadow Clones.
A flash of white light passed.
What came into view was a spacious courtyard, with bluestone paving the ground, all kinds of stone statues lining both sides, and ancient pines and verdant bamboo in the distance giving off a faint fragrance.
Sure enough, everyone had been separated once again.
“This place looks a bit like a Daoist temple!”
Ye Ze could not help saying that when he saw the scene, and the Fox Immortal at his side also sighed in admiration, “Master, the Spiritual Energy here is so dense!”
“Dense Spiritual Energy?”
That made Ye Ze curious as well, but he still could not make sense of it.
At that moment, a voice rang out from within the Secret Realm:
【The second-layer trial stage is now open — ‘Puppet Killing Array - Fire’!】
【You will remain in a fire-element interference environment while facing the endless assault of puppet statues. Endure for 30 minutes!】
【You may directly withdraw from the trial stage and claim a consolation prize.】
The moment the prompt ended, the scene before Ye Ze changed once again. A sea of fire spread all around his feet, and a scorching wave of heat struck him at once!
Countless puppet statues appeared before him, all Epic-grade and ranging from level 50 to level 60.
From time to time, clusters of fire-element energy also appeared around him. As long as he stayed near them, he would suffer violent flame burns!
In other words, he had to evade the explosive assaults of the fire elements while also resisting the endless waves of stone-statue enemies!
The key point was that the space was very small, less than a hundred meters across. He had to endure for thirty minutes in this cramped area.
That made it even harder!
“No wonder the second-layer trial can actually be exited.”
“For ordinary Class Users, leaving aside whether they could hold out at all, just fighting continuously for thirty minutes would probably exhaust them to death...”
But Ye Ze was not worried in the slightest. He directly summoned Panda!
Fire-element explosion damage? Was that not basically a bath for Panda?
After devouring several pieces of fire-attributed equipment, his 150% Fire Element Mastery was no joke!
It was practically the same as recovering health while fighting.
And on top of that, he still had the Fox Immortal. With Borrowing the Laws of Heaven and Earth, she could freely manipulate the natural elements of heaven and earth.
Which meant she could freely use the fire elements within the trial itself to deal with the trial’s own enemies.
He was effectively turning the trial’s own power back against it.
This trial, which would be unbearably difficult for everyone else...
was practically a bonus stage for Ye Ze!