Chapter 112: Re-entering the Underworld
Chapter 112: Chapter 112: Re-entering the Underworld
"But first, I need to improve Iron Bull’s strength. Should we go outside to scavenge Warship fragments or rob those Mutant Tribes?" Yang Bo muttered, looking at Iron Bull again. Iron Bull’s strength was decent at the B-level now, but it was nothing in the grand scheme of the Underworld, especially since the Mutants had the advantage of numbers.
Take the guy who countered Iron Bull today, for example. His Mecha didn’t contain any Metal at all, rendering Iron Bull’s Metal Passivation Ability practically useless.
"The surface is also very dangerous. Right now, the Alliance Warplanes up there seem to be primarily focused on rescuing people, not wiping out Mutants. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have turned a blind eye to the swarm of Mutant Warplanes over here." Yang Bo realized that there were no longer any so-called safe zones on the surface. It was unknown whether the Alliance outposts had been evacuated or destroyed, and the facilities in space had been damaged, unlikely to be repaired anytime soon.
"Let’s go, Iron Bull. Shall we go down and check out the Mutant Tribe first?" Yang Bo prepared to head to the Underworld to train his abilities.
Iron Bull looked at Yang Bo suspiciously. Yang Bo waved at it, but the creature remained confused, seemingly unable to understand.
"How frustrating!" Yang Bo felt a headache coming on as he watched Iron Bull. An animal was still just an animal; it couldn’t understand his intentions at all.
Yang Bo simply decided to leave Iron Bull here. He used Invisibility to exit the cave, discovering that an unmanned Warplane was still hovering outside.
What Yang Bo didn’t know was that the female commanding officer had sent the Warplane to investigate after spotting a Mecha in the area. Unfortunately, by the time it arrived, Yang Bo had already piloted the Mecha into hiding inside the cave. Later, when Yang Bo slipped out using Invisibility, he went completely undetected. The Alliance forces assumed the Mecha had been chased into the Underworld by the Mutants.
The first level of the Underworld was teeming with small animals. With a snap of his fingers, Yang Bo could detect their exact locations. In the distance, a half-meter-long lizard was hiding in a crevice between the rocks.
Yang Bo snapped his fingers again. The lizard suddenly felt a sharp pain in its brain and leaped out instantly.
Feeling a bit embarrassed by his initial failure, Yang Bo snapped his fingers once more. This time, the lizard fell stiffly to the ground.
"Destroying the central nervous system is much faster than destroying the brain," Yang Bo concluded. His first snap had targeted the lizard’s brain but surprisingly failed to kill it instantly. The second snap had precisely destroyed its central nervous system.
Soon, Yang Bo locked onto a second lizard. With another snap of his fingers, the lizard’s eyeballs popped right out.
"I used too much Energy," Yang Bo muttered, feeling awkward once again.
Disguise +1!
"These lizards still yield Disguise? My Disguise is already at the Grandmaster level. What comes next?" Yang Bo shook his head, deciding not to dwell on the prompt. Perhaps it was just useless information.
He moved on to the third lizard, then the fourth. The distance increased from fifty meters to a hundred meters, and then to a hundred and fifty meters.
He started his training with lizards that were fully exposed. Then, he moved on to those hiding inside rock crevices, and finally, those completely concealed behind boulders.
The rhythmic snapping of fingers echoing through the cave created an eerie atmosphere. Accompanied by each snap was the death of another lizard. In this Underworld, lizards were the most abundant creatures besides rats. Lizards ate rats, and naturally, rats ate lizards too.
Soon, Yang Bo discovered a unique lizard. It emitted faint Energy Fluctuations, leading him to suspect it might be a Mutated Beast. Intrigued, he reached out and snapped his fingers.
This snap utilized ten times the Energy of his previous attempts.
The lizard was nearly two meters long, looking almost like a crocodile. As Yang Bo snapped his fingers, the eyes on its head exploded instantly.
Disguise +2!
"An E-level Mutated Beast? Is it really this weak?" Yang Bo walked up to the lizard and inspected its miserable state.
"Simply training Sound Waves isn’t enough. Should I practice Electric Energy Control?" Yang Bo felt he had sufficiently honed his Sound Wave Attack for now, but he had barely practiced Electric Energy Control.
With a thought, a white bolt of lightning appeared in his hand. It danced across his palm, rapidly growing larger and darker in color.
Aiming at a boulder a hundred meters away, Yang Bo waved his hand and hurled the lightning bolt.
The lightning flashed and struck the rock.
BOOM!
With a loud crash, a large crack blasted open across the boulder’s surface.
Yang Bo’s mouth fell open. He hadn’t expected his Electric Energy Control to pack such a powerful punch.
In the next second, he opened his hand again, summoning another bolt of lightning. This one was much smaller. He threw it out, but this time, he mentally willed the lightning to turn, turn, turn. To his surprise, the lightning actually curved in the exact direction he envisioned and struck a nearby rock.
The sound was much quieter this time, merely chipping a piece off the rock.
"It’s just that charging it up is a bit troublesome." After his preliminary tests, Yang Bo had gained a general understanding of the ability.
Next, Yang Bo opened his hand and used his mind to control the lightning in his palm. Under his mental guidance, the lightning gradually began to change shape. However, he found it incredibly difficult to dictate its form. He had originally intended to shape it into a Sword or something similar.
After struggling for a good while, the lightning remained stubbornly unruly. Finally, he gave up and tossed the bolt away.
Yang Bo discovered that his mind could control the lightning up to a distance of about a thousand meters. However, the further away it was, the harder it became to manipulate. At a thousand meters, the mental effort required was roughly twenty times that of a hundred meters.
Furthermore, the slow charging speed of Electric Energy Control was a noticeable weakness. It seemed he still needed to train hard to achieve rapid energy accumulation.
Additionally, lightning attacks were flashy and easily detected by others, making them far less covert than Sound Wave Attacks.
The further the range of a Sound Wave Attack, the greater the Energy Consumption. Attacking the same level of lizard at a distance of a thousand meters consumed about twenty times the Energy compared to a hundred meters.
After training for an entire day, Yang Bo felt a bit exhausted. He returned to Iron Bull’s cave and found the creature licking a rock embedded with sparkling crystals.
Seeing Yang Bo arrive, Iron Bull shook its head as a form of greeting. Yang Bo looked closely at what Iron Bull was licking. Was that an Energy Stone?
He slowly approached. Noticing Yang Bo’s interest in the rock, Iron Bull stared at him with its small eyes and nudged the rock forward with its head.
The rock rolled over to Yang Bo, allowing him to inspect it closely. Sure enough, it was studded with Energy Stones of varying sizes, embedded within the black ore.
Yang Bo touched it and confirmed they were indeed Energy Stones. He returned the rock to Iron Bull, his mind already spinning with new ideas.