Chapter 943: Skill 1

"Fire!!" The middle-aged woman yelled the command.

Ra-ta-ta-ta...

The smattering of gunshots was heard, and four Predators collapsed, but ten more continued to rush madly.

They were extremely fast, each of them panting in a low voice, and soon they reached the bottom of the wall, climbing up it with their hands and feet.

And the Predators that had been shot earlier also got up again somehow, they only seemed to be slightly injured, so they rushed towards the wall again, casting despair on the townspeople. There was another hail of gunshots.

This time, the Predators did not even bother collapsing, they just took it in stride and continued advancing. Be it laser pistols or bullet ones, they were pathetically ineffective.

Just then, another Big Wild Wolf rushed out of the basement behind, this was the fifth one. At the same time, East Perrin arrived with Garen's order.

"Retreat, everyone, leave them to the Big Wild Wolves!"

Although some were reluctant, and some hesitated, but seeing as the Predators had already begun to climb the wall, the six of them quickly got off. They had gotten halfway down the stairs when they heard the low roars of the Big Wild Wolves behind them, as well as the screams of the Predators.

The Big Wild Wolves were like wolves in a flock of sheep, as long as their claws or teeth touched a Predator, they would tear out a long and terrible gash.

They ran around the wall at high speeds, hunting any Predators that would dare to climb up.

One Big Wild Wolf was pouncing at a Predator that had just gotten up, but before the latter could even react, the Big Wild Wolf had already reached out its claws and yanked the Predator onto the floor with a crash. It bent its head and bit, biting off half of the Predator's head, chewing it roughly, and then swallowing.

Another Big Wild Wolf faced off against three Predators that had climbed up together, tearing off half of the two Predators' heads with one paw each. At the same time, however, the last Predator scratched its neck fiercely with a claw, leaving a long blood-red gash.

The Big Wild Wolf turned around and jumped away, and then it suddenly lashed out with its hind leg, sending that final Predator flying high and away from the wall. It crashed onto a stone in the distance, and was instantly doomed. Its back had been completely smashed.

Within thirty seconds, by the time the last Predator was torn apart by the wolves and taken away in two separate halves, everyone, including East Perrin, was feeling slightly dazed.

They had guessed that these Big Wild Wolves would be very powerful, but they never thought they would be this powerful.

The fourteen Predators were all completely wiped out by these five Big Wild Wolves, and now, even their corpses were not spared, devoured completely.

As all of this happened in front of their eyes, all they could feel was a deep sense of safety!!

"We might be able to survive!!" murmured Malone softly.

No one argued, everyone felt the same way just then.

**********************

In the basement, Garen was constantly observing the five Big Wild Wolves that he had released.

He noticed that by eating, these Big Wild Wolves seemed to have obtained a large boost to their survival times. Apparently the Distorted Seed could use food consumption to stabilize their disintegrating genetic strains, this was something he had never noticed.

Normally, even those cannon fodder units that became parasites would not survive for longer than three hours. But he noticed that, after every time they ate and completely regained their energy, they could extend this survival time. One meal could extend their survival time by five hours, the second time they ate after that, it would increase by another ten hours.

He realized that the source of this was most likely the Distorted Seed he had released.

"Looks like the Distorted Seed still has many skills that I have yet to discover..." He recalled the information and records about the Hellfrost Peacock Technique.

There was not much there about Distorted Seeds, but indeed, if the Distorted Seed's parasites could only last for a short time, then wouldn't the Hellfrost Peacock Technique have to constantly repeat the parasitism? That way, how many times would parasitism have to occur before they could reach a considerable number in order to create chaos?

Such a power was completely unrealistic.

Garen vaguely understood now, maybe creatures with the Distorted Seed embedded in them could use large amounts of food consumption to assure their own survival.

"That way, if the woman I planted one on last time was lucky, she might still be alive now..." Garen remembered that Level Five Half-Moon powerhouse woman that he had planted a parasite on in order to escape.

"My hypothesis from before is wrong as well, a unit that releases explosive power after being given a Distorted Seed parasite can theoretically continue to exist infinitely. There is no time limit," Garen muttered.

He sensed the Energy Machine Imprint Control Mod he had, there were already five simplified Big Wild Wolves, and he could control five more, that was his current limit.

Unless his Energy Machinist level could increase, and his Willpower could make a leap forward as well, otherwise the most he could control right now was ten Big Wild Wolves.

"With my computing power, if I can delay it for a little longer, I should be perfectly capable of entering the third Energy Machinist level within a short time, and the upper limit will increase then as well. When necessary, I'll just have to reduce the defense area." Garen counted inwardly, ten Big Wild Wolves were already a very considerable fighting force.

According to the previous battle, one Big Wild Wolf was equivalent to at least five Predators, then ten Big Wild Wolves would be equal in power to fifty Predators. In a head-on battle, he might not be able to beat the hundreds of thousands of Predators, but if it was just defending a small area... That should be no problem.

"But just defending like this won't work either, we need to change to a place that's easier to defend. This town is surrounded by plains, the area that we need to defend is far too large, it won't work at all." Garen started to consider moving bases.

"We'll put that aside for now, it's extremely hard to find a more suitable defense point in the plains. First, let's try to use the Resonance Skill from the Totem World, if it works, then we can pit them against each other and break the production limit, and mass-produce these Big Wild Wolves."

Garen began to use the Energy Machine Imprint's computing power to calculate the likelihood of this plan.

The Energy Machine Imprint was just like a computer processor installed into his brain, it was extremely useful and convenient. Now that the Biochemical Pool was ready as well, Garen had some foundations to carry out his research and experiments too.

He continued to raise more Big Wild Wolves, but at the same time, he began his research on how to use Resonation Skills to perform simple manipulation. Thankfully, he had ready-made information and a large amount of experimental data from the Totem World for reference. All Garen had to do was test the accuracy of the data, and then create a set of simple controllers that used Resonation at their core, to solve the whole problem.

Time flew by.

Even though he had a lot of information from the Totem World to refer to, Garen still came across a lot of trouble in his bid to recreate the Crystal Derivator.

The quantity limit was very hard to remove, he had already tried all he could to save up on the more unimportant aspects of Willpower control, but he still came to a dead-end. The most important problem was materials, what materials he had to use to reach the effect he wanted, and what transmission medium the resonation code required.

There were none of the experimental prerequisites he needed here, Garen had nothing at all on hand right now.

After laboring around for some time, Garen put down the work in his hands and asked East Perrin, who was outside, to not let anyone in. He released the sixth Big Wild Wolf that he had created, and locked the door to the basement from inside. Picking up the key, he began to enter the special ability space.

If he stayed away from it any longer, he would probably be considered as having broken the contract, he had no intention of never being able to enter the special ability space again.

***************

"Hey, Garen, you're finally here." Inside the shop, Lan's face puffed up as soon as she saw Garen. "You kept us waiting so long, and you really cut it close..."

Garen laughed rather sheepishly, after living for so long, it was his first time being told off by someone who was younger than him.

"Where's Mincar? I'll go help right now."

"How's your Energy Machine Imprint? You got accustomed to the fusion?" Lan asked, concerned.

"No problem. I tried using it a few times, it's very effective," replied Garen with a smile.

"Mincar's inside, Senior Sister has gone to join the Energy Machinist Creation Contest, so he's the only one holding up in there. I can't do anything either. Please, help out my senior brother," said Lan softly.

"Sure, I will." Garen nodded, and pulled aside the shop's hoardings to walk inside. He followed the small corridor, turning to the left, and soon enough, he arrived at the experiment lab.

"I'm here." He knocked the door.

"Come in."

It was Mincar's voice.

Garen pushed the door open, and saw that his hands were pressed against a large floating sphere, his eyes closed slightly. There seemed to be a mound of red cotton candy growing inside the sphere, but Garen did not know what kind of Energy Machine Imprint he was creating.

"What do you want me to do?" asked Garen. It was his first time, so he did not know how to step in.

"Within a week, it's enough if you can independently create a passable Level One basic Energy Machine Imprint," Mincar said calmly, opening his eyes. "You can try using a smaller Cultivation Sphere, smaller Cultivation Spheres mean that the Energy Machine Imprints it cultivates are simpler, but conversely, they are larger in size."

"Oh, okay." Garen walked up to one of the Cultivation Sphere, and he started to listen to Mincar's explanation about how to lead his Willpower into the Cultivation Sphere, how to control it finely, and how to perform the intricate etchings to form the production part of the Energy Machine Imprint.

First, he had to try to understand the thing he wanted to cultivate, what imprint it was, or what kind of creature Energy Machine Imprint it was, for example. If you wanted to study the Saber-Toothed Tiger's Energy Machine Imprint, then you would need to be absolutely familiar with the Saber-Toothed Tiger's genetic make-up, using the cooperation between your own Energy Machine Imprint and your brain to grasp it completely. That way, when creating the Energy Machine Imprint, you would know precisely well how to create and Saber-Toothed Tiger and what it required. Hence, the process would be unnaturally clear to you.

"Actually, our understanding of many creatures' genetics has been analyzed to an unbelievable degree, so we just need to recall the parts of the genetic chain that we need. At the same time, we must remember how they are combined, what sort of environment or conditions are required for successful cultivation and so on. In the production process, we should find a type of cannon fodder that's more useful, and produce that."

Mincar continued to explain, "You can't just judge based on how powerful they are, you need to look at the larger picture, For example, the Saber-Toothed Tiger originally had a genetic aura ability called King's Majesty, this is the reason certain creatures would naturally feel fear upon seeing it. But this ability is completely useless against stronger opponents, and it requires many materials to make, so we need to get rid of it."Skill 1

"Fire!!" The middle-aged woman yelled the command.

Ra-ta-ta-ta...

The smattering of gunshots was heard, and four Predators collapsed, but ten more continued to rush madly.

They were extremely fast, each of them panting in a low voice, and soon they reached the bottom of the wall, climbing up it with their hands and feet.

And the Predators that had been shot earlier also got up again somehow, they only seemed to be slightly injured, so they rushed towards the wall again, casting despair on the townspeople. There was another hail of gunshots.

This time, the Predators did not even bother collapsing, they just took it in stride and continued advancing. Be it laser pistols or bullet ones, they were pathetically ineffective.

Just then, another Big Wild Wolf rushed out of the basement behind, this was the fifth one. At the same time, East Perrin arrived with Garen's order.

"Retreat, everyone, leave them to the Big Wild Wolves!"

Although some were reluctant, and some hesitated, but seeing as the Predators had already begun to climb the wall, the six of them quickly got off. They had gotten halfway down the stairs when they heard the low roars of the Big Wild Wolves behind them, as well as the screams of the Predators.

The Big Wild Wolves were like wolves in a flock of sheep, as long as their claws or teeth touched a Predator, they would tear out a long and terrible gash.

They ran around the wall at high speeds, hunting any Predators that would dare to climb up.

One Big Wild Wolf was pouncing at a Predator that had just gotten up, but before the latter could even react, the Big Wild Wolf had already reached out its claws and yanked the Predator onto the floor with a crash. It bent its head and bit, biting off half of the Predator's head, chewing it roughly, and then swallowing.

Another Big Wild Wolf faced off against three Predators that had climbed up together, tearing off half of the two Predators' heads with one paw each. At the same time, however, the last Predator scratched its neck fiercely with a claw, leaving a long blood-red gash.

The Big Wild Wolf turned around and jumped away, and then it suddenly lashed out with its hind leg, sending that final Predator flying high and away from the wall. It crashed onto a stone in the distance, and was instantly doomed. Its back had been completely smashed.

Within thirty seconds, by the time the last Predator was torn apart by the wolves and taken away in two separate halves, everyone, including East Perrin, was feeling slightly dazed.

They had guessed that these Big Wild Wolves would be very powerful, but they never thought they would be this powerful.

The fourteen Predators were all completely wiped out by these five Big Wild Wolves, and now, even their corpses were not spared, devoured completely.

As all of this happened in front of their eyes, all they could feel with a deep sense of safety!!

"We might be able to survive!!" murmured Malone softly.

No one argued, everyone felt the same way just then.

**********************

In the basement, Garen was constantly observing the five Big Wild Wolves that he had released.

He noticed that by eating, these Big Wild Wolves seemed to have obtained a large boost to their survival times. Apparently the Distorted Seed could use food consumption to stabilize their disintegrating genetic strains, this was something he had never noticed.

Normally, even those cannon fodder units that became parasites would not survive for longer than three hours. But he noticed that, after every time they ate and completely regained their energy, they could extend this survival time. One meal could extend their survival time by five hours, the second time they ate after that, it would increase by another ten hours.

He realized that the source of this was most likely the Distorted Seed he had released.

"Looks like the Distorted Seed still has many skills that I have yet to discover..." He recalled the information and records about the Hellfrost Peacock Technique.

There was not much there about Distorted Seeds, but indeed, if the Distorted Seed's parasites could only last for a short time, then wouldn't the Hellfrost Peacock Technique have to constantly repeat the parasitism? That way, how many times would parasitism have to occur before they could reach a considerable number in order to create chaos?

Such a power was completely unrealistic.

Garen vaguely understood now, maybe creatures with the Distorted Seed embedded in them could use large amounts of food consumption to assure their own survival.

"That way, if the woman I planted one on last time was lucky, she might still be alive now..." Garen remembered that Level Five Half-Moon powerhouse woman that he had planted a parasite on in order to escape.

"My hypothesis from before is wrong as well, a unit that releases explosive power after being given a Distorted Seed parasite can theoretically continue to exist infinitely. There is no time limit," Garen muttered.

He sensed the Energy Machine Imprint Control Mod he had, there were already five simplified Big Wild Wolves, and he could control five more, that was his current limit.

Unless his Energy Machinist level could increase, and his Willpower could make a leap forward as well, otherwise the most he could control right now was ten Big Wild Wolves.

"With my computing power, if I can delay it for a little longer, I should be perfectly capable of entering the third Energy Machinist level within a short time, and the upper limit will increase then as well. When necessary, I'll just have to reduce the defense area." Garen counted inwardly, ten Big Wild Wolves were already a very considerable fighting force.

According to the previous battle, one Big Wild Wolf was equivalent to at least five Predators, then ten Big Wild Wolves would be equal in power to fifty Predators. In a head-on battle, he might not be able to beat the hundreds of thousands of Predators, but if it was just defending a small area... That should be no problem.

"But just defending like this won't work either, we need to change to a place that's easier to defend. This town is surrounded by plains, the area that we need to defend is far too large, it won't work at all." Garen started to consider moving bases.

"We'll put that aside for now, it's extremely hard to find a more suitable defense point in the plains. First, let's try to use the Resonance Skill from the Totem World, if it works, then we can pit them against each other and break the production limit, and mass-produce these Big Wild Wolves."

Garen began to use the Energy Machine Imprint's computing power to calculate the likelihood of this plan.

The Energy Machine Imprint was just like a computer processor installed into his brain, it was extremely useful and convenient. Now that the Biochemical Pool was ready as well, Garen had some foundations to carry out his research and experiments too.

He continued to raise more Big Wild Wolves, but at the same time, he began his research on how to use Resonation Skills to perform simple manipulation. Thankfully, he had ready-made information and a large amount of experimental data from the Totem World for reference. All Garen had to do was test the accuracy of the data, and then create a set of simple controllers that used Resonation at their core, to solve the whole problem.

Time flew by.

Even though he had a lot of information from the Totem World to refer to, Garen still came across a lot of trouble in his bid to recreate the Crystal Derivator.

The quantity limit was very hard to remove, he had already tried all he could to save up on the more unimportant aspects of Willpower control, but he still came to a dead-end. The most important problem was materials, what materials he had to use to reach the effect he wanted, and what transmission medium the resonation code required.

There were none of the experimental prerequisites he needed here, Garen had nothing at all on hand right now.

After laboring around for some time, Garen put down the work in his hands and asked East Perrin, who was outside, to not let anyone in. He released the sixth Big Wild Wolf that he had created, and locked the door to the basement from inside. Picking up the key, he began to enter the special ability space.

If he stayed away from it any longer, he would probably be considered as having broken the contract, he had no intention of never being able to enter the special ability space again.

***************

"Hey, Garen, you're finally here." Inside the shop, Lan's face puffed up as soon as she saw Garen. "You kept us waiting so long, and you really cut it close..."

Garen laughed rather sheepishly, after living for so long, it was his first time being told off by someone who was younger than him.

"Where's Mincar? I'll go help right now."

"How's your Energy Machine Imprint? You got accustomed to the fusion?" Lan asked, concerned.

"No problem. I tried using it a few times, it's very effective," replied Garen with a smile.

"Mincar's inside, Senior Sister has gone to join the Energy Machinist Creation Contest, so he's the only one holding up in there. I can't do anything either. Please, help out my senior brother," said Lan softly.

"Sure, I will." Garen nodded, and pulled aside the shop's hoardings to walk inside. He followed the small corridor, turning to the left, and soon enough, he arrived at the experiment lab.

"I'm here." He knocked the door.

"Come in."

It was Mincar's voice.

Garen pushed the door open, and saw that his hands were pressed against a large floating sphere, his eyes closed slightly. There seemed to be a mound of red cotton candy growing inside the sphere, but Garen did not know what kind of Energy Machine Imprint he was creating.

"What do you want me to do?" asked Garen. It was his first time, so he did not know how to step in.

"Within a week, it's enough if you can independently create a passable Level One basic Energy Machine Imprint," Mincar said calmly, opening his eyes. "You can try using a smaller Cultivation Sphere, smaller Cultivation Spheres mean that the Energy Machine Imprints it cultivates are simpler, but conversely, they are larger in size."

"Oh, okay." Garen walked up to one of the Cultivation Sphere, and he started to listen to Mincar's explanation about how to lead his Willpower into the Cultivation Sphere, how to control it finely, and how to perform the intricate etchings to form the production part of the Energy Machine Imprint.

First, he had to try to understand the thing he wanted to cultivate, what imprint it was, or what kind of creature Energy Machine Imprint it was, for example. If you wanted to study the Saber-Toothed Tiger's Energy Machine Imprint, then you would need to be absolutely familiar with the Saber-Toothed Tiger's genetic make-up, using the cooperation between your own Energy Machine Imprint and your brain to grasp it completely. That way, when creating the Energy Machine Imprint, you would know precisely well how to create and Saber-Toothed Tiger and what it required. Hence, the process would be unnaturally clear to you.

"Actually, our understanding of many creatures' genetics has been analyzed to an unbelievable degree, so we just need to recall the parts of the genetic chain that we need. At the same time, we must remember how they are combined, what sort of environment or conditions are required for successful cultivation and so on. In the production process, we should find a type of cannon fodder that's more useful, and produce that."

Mincar continued to explain, "You can't just judge based on how powerful they are, you need to look at the larger picture, For example, the Saber-Toothed Tiger originally had a genetic aura ability called King's Majesty, this is the reason certain creatures would naturally feel fear upon seeing it. But this ability is completely useless against stronger opponents, and it requires many materials to make, so we need to get rid of it."