Chapter 692: Chapter 468: The Material of the Hull
At this point, the arena no longer bore the initially very weak skull; the skulls that remained were mostly of the larger, taller variety.
Through observing the size of the skulls in the arena, Dong Tianyu astutely realized that if the skulls died from devouring each other, then the other arenas should not have any dead skulls that were consumed. Otherwise, no matter how long they waited, the arenas would always refresh with those initial frail skulls.
Although Dong Tianyu had seen through the tricks of the Mysterious Realm, it was of no use, since he was not the only person in this realm; there were ninety-nine others. Even if Dong Tianyu understood the situation and restrained his actions,
it didn’t mean that others would share the same thoughts as Dong Tianyu. Otherwise, no one would have killed that initial weak skull.
Surrounded by a sword formation, Dong Tianyu watched expressionlessly as gigantic skulls would occasionally appear suddenly on the stage. He knew very well that every appearance of a gigantic skull signified that a survivor had revealed their trump card, inching them closer to death.
After an unknown amount of time, one of the giant skulls on Dong Tianyu’s stage had devoured enough of its kin to evolve once more.
Before the skull completed its evolution, Dong Tianyu suddenly disappeared from the arena, having achieved the final victory and successfully left the Mysterious Realm.
When Dong Tianyu reappeared above the water, a blood-colored treasure chest appeared before him.
Seeing the blood-red treasure chest in front of him, Dong Tianyu inexplicably summoned the little wooden boat from his Sea of Consciousness.
As soon as the little wooden boat appeared beside Dong Tianyu, the treasure chest fell into the boat as if controlled by an invisible hand.
Standing at the bow, Dong Tianyu was about to walk over to open the chest and see what was inside,
but before he could act, the blood-colored treasure chest seemed to melt, turning into liquid and merging into the little wooden boat.
Watching the red liquid being absorbed by the little wooden boat in an instant left Dong Tianyu somewhat at a loss. He checked the boat with his Divine Sense but didn’t find any changes at that moment.
Since the boat hadn’t birthed a spirit, Dong Tianyu could only directly control it from the outside and didn’t have a detailed understanding of it.
Therefore, Dong Tianyu had to retrieve the boat back into the Sea of Consciousness to know what changes had occurred after the little wooden boat absorbed the blood-colored treasure chest.
As soon as Dong Tianyu brought the little wooden boat back into his Sea of Consciousness, he immediately understood the abilities the boat gained from absorbing the Blood-Colored Treasure Box.
It turned out that absorbing the Blood-Colored Treasure Box wouldn’t expand the boat’s energy and size as it would with a Mysterious Core.
However, while absorbing the Blood-Colored Treasure Box didn’t grant evolutionary energy, it could enhance the material of the boat’s hull.
Though the little wooden boat has become Dong Tianyu’s Companion Spiritual Treasure and has evolved once with enough energy, its material was still merely ordinary wood. No matter what form the hull evolved into, there was no change in material quality.
But when Dong Tianyu’s Blood-Colored Treasure Box was absorbed by the little wooden boat, while it could not make the boat evolve and grow, it could elevate the quality of the boat’s material.
Just like the first time absorbing a Mysterious Core, the reward Dong Tianyu received from victory in the arena of a hundred summoned him to choose from three different materials for an upgrade.
Advance the grade of the wooden material.
Replace the boat’s primary material with metal.
Or replace the main material of the wooden boat with jade.
As Dong Tianyu was torn about which option to choose, the little wooden boat in the Sea of Consciousness conveyed some information to him.
At the same material grade, the wooden boat is the lightest, thus its sailing speed is faster.
At a similar grade, although a metal hull is the heaviest and therefore its speed is the slowest, its robustness means it has powerful defenses.
Meanwhile, a jade hull is not as fast as wood but much quicker than metal. In defense, however, jade is significantly inferior to metal but slightly better than wood.
Although a jade hull is more balanced compared to the other two materials, upgrading its grade requires twice as many Blood-Colored Treasure Boxes as the others.
The high cost of a jade hull is due to its superior energy conduction compared to the other two types of hulls.
To put it in the terms of gaming professions:
A wooden hull is like a nimble Light Armor Warrior.
A metal hull is akin to a heavily armored shield fighter.
And a jade hull is like a Magic Swordsman, an outlier among warriors.
After some thought and considering his own situation, Dong Tianyu initially decided to forgo advancing the wooden boat material. After all, if he merely required speed, he could directly employ Sword Flight, which not only was quicker than any boat but also far exceeded the flexibility of any wooden vessel.
