Chapter 38: Chapter 37: Sunlight Thorn
Secret Realms are fragments left behind after the world’s collapse. Besides the different environments and Demons within them, the Secret Realms themselves are also divided into many types.
The first type is an open-world Secret Realm, like the Horned Demon Secret Realm, where everyone explores together in a single realm.
In such Secret Realms, the more people who fight together, the stronger the boss creatures they encounter.
This was precisely why Zhong Yi formed a team with only Zhong Ling, instead of inviting other Guardian Beast Masters to fight alongside them.
The second type is a squad-based exploration Secret Realm. These Secret Realms can only accommodate a maximum of six people at a time.
Only when someone dies within the Secret Realm can another person enter to take their place.
The strength of the boss creatures in this type of Secret Realm is fixed and doesn’t change based on the number of explorers.
Because of the existence of squad-based exploration Secret Realms, Guardian Beast Masters often form fixed six-person squads.
The team size requirement for many large-scale, officially-held tournaments was also set at six people because of these squad-based Secret Realms.
The third type is the Slaughter Secret Realm, which only exists among Secret Realms of the Third Level and above.
Back when Zhong Yi was designing his game, his setting for the Slaughter Secret Realm involved one hundred players entering.
Each of these players had to fight alone, and only the last ten survivors could leave the Secret Realm.
Zhong Yi used his Six-Fold Communication Device to look up information and confirmed that Slaughter Secret Realms also exist in this world.
However, this world doesn’t have so-called "players," so the rules of the Slaughter Secret Realm would surely be different.
Regardless of the type, obtaining Divine Origin Value from any of these three kinds of Secret Realms was an extremely difficult task.
However, it was precisely this difficulty that made Zhong Yi all the more excited about the items in the Divine Origin Store.
Collecting his thoughts, Zhong Yi examined the three items that had appeared on the altar.
These three items corresponded to the rewards for 90%, 95%, and 100% Secret Realm Exploration Level, respectively.
The Shelter looked like a stone platform with a newly laid foundation. It held a very gentle Spatial Energy within.
Without a mental imprint placed upon it, the Shelter looked quite ordinary.
But once the Shelter merged with a designated environment, the appearance of that environment would materialize on the stone platform.
One Shelter could enclose an area of 500 square meters, which was just enough to accommodate Zhong Yi’s Evolution Shop.
After the Shelter and the Evolution Shop were merged, the shop would become like a pocket dimension for Zhong Yi.
He could use the Shelter to directly pack up the entire Evolution Shop and take it with him.
When a Shelter merges with an environment, it can provide the Creatures within that environment with exceptionally good living conditions.
It allows the Creatures within its range to grow in the healthiest possible way.
Reaching a 90% Secret Realm Exploration Level was required to obtain a single Shelter, which meant that even major factions could not make widespread use of them.
Only a few immensely powerful major factions were qualified to use Shelters, and they often chose to merge them with their ancestral homes.
Although a single Shelter could only enclose an area of 500 square meters, if one could obtain multiple Shelters, they could also be merged together.
Whenever a Shelter appeared at a high-end auction, it would immediately be fought over by various factions.
But more than creating a portable palace or providing optimal living conditions for creatures, the Shelter’s true purpose was to withstand extreme environments.
It ensured that everything within the Shelter would remain unaffected by such conditions.
Many treacherous areas had extremely harsh environments where even a Peak Fantasy Level expert would find it difficult to set foot without a Shelter’s protection.
Since Shelters were produced in Secret Realms, they could also be used within them, making them an essential item for exploring High Level Secret Realms.
The higher the level of the Secret Realm, the more likely it was to have extremely harsh environments that were completely unsuitable for Guardian Beast Masters to engage in prolonged combat.
And yet, when exploring High Level Secret Realms, Guardian Beast Masters were required to spend extremely long periods of time inside.
The existence of a Shelter could provide these exploring Guardian Beast Masters with a safe and secure place to rest.
Zhong Yi couldn’t guarantee that he would reach 100% exploration level in every future Secret Realm, but reaching 90% wouldn’t be difficult at all.
Zhong Yi felt he could never have too many Shelters. With the Flowing Soul Soil secreted by the Soul-Controlling Flower, he planned to nurture many high-quality, Production-type Guardian Beasts that could yield rare resources.
Only by placing these Production-type Guardian Beasts, which could bring him immense wealth, inside a Shelter could Zhong Yi be completely at ease.
By continuously merging Shelters, Zhong Yi could create a paradise completely under his control.
After putting the Shelter away, Zhong Yi reached out and touched the second orb of light on the stone altar.
Inside the orb was a light green thorn sapling covered in orange patterns. As its vines extended, these orange patterns would flow like waves of light.
Zhong Yi immediately used All Things Exploration to examine the thorn sapling.
[Guardian Beast Name]: Sunlight Thorn
[Guardian Beast Species]: Rosaceae/Rosa Genus
[Guardian Beast Level]: Mortal Beast Level (1/10)
[Guardian Beast Type]: Light Element/Fire Element
[Guardian Beast Quality]: Unranked
Skills:
[Drawn by Light]: Absorbs sunlight to grow and increase its strength at an extremely rapid speed. The energy from sunlight helps it improve its Quality while also allowing it to advance Tiers without hindrance.
To his surprise, the Sunlight Thorn was a Creature that could rapidly increase its strength just by absorbing sunlight!
As long as there was sunlight, the Sunlight Thorn could absorb solar energy to limitlessly increase its strength. It could even break through and improve its own Quality by absorbing sunlight.
A plant like this was incredibly easy to raise!
After forming a Contract, the Sunlight Thorn would be perfect for planting in a corner of the Evolution Shop.
He could let it grow freely in the sunlight, serving as the Evolution Shop’s outermost line of defense.
All Things Exploration could not only reveal surface-level information like Skills, but it could also detect the Sunlight Thorn’s natural behaviors.
Though it fed on sunlight and appeared docile, the Sunlight Thorn was actually extremely territorial.
Once it recognized an area as its territory, it would launch a merciless assault on any intruders. The ferocity of its attacks was on par with that of Demons from the Horned Demon Secret Realm, like the Horned Demon, the Giant Horror Demon, and the Wing Melting Demon.
After forming a Contract with the Sunlight Thorn, Zhong Yi would be able to suppress its natural behaviors.
This would ensure that no matter how strong its territorial instincts were, it wouldn’t accidentally harm customers coming to the shop to buy Guardian Beasts and materials.
A Creature like the Sunlight Thorn, which could only be obtained by reaching a 95% Secret Realm Exploration Level, was considered to be second only to an Order Beast.
Like Order Beasts, the Bloodlines of these Creatures obtained as exploration rewards were extremely difficult to enhance.
However, they differed from Order Beasts. Due to possessing a special Power of Rules, Order Beasts were unsuitable for induced evolution via a Soul Taming Seed.
These contractible Secret Realm Creatures, on the other hand, could use a Soul Taming Seed to cause their Bloodline to undergo a major leap.
