Chapter 36: Chapter 36: Top-notch Mechanical Puppet
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In front of Li Yao was a Fire Eagle Puppet perched on the workbench. He circled around the workbench and laughed with delight.
The entire Fire Eagle Puppet, infused with the essence of fire elements, was resplendent with the metallic physique, giving off a semi-transparent texture. It was even more fiery red as it was made from refined copper ores.
The eagle’s eyes were an inexpensive find made by Li Yao at a night market. Although acquired cheaply, cat’s eye stones were extremely precious.
When Li Yao saw the pair of cat’s eye stones being sold for a few dozen copper coins each, he immediately procured them. Carefully polished, these eagle eyes serve as excellent energy cores, particularly because of the valuable cat’s eye stones involved.
The Fire Eagle could now possess the same characteristics as dark vision and the eagle eye technique.
Two components of the Fire Eagle were particularly unique, the beak and the sharp claws. They were created by Li Yao using some of his precious stock of iron ores, fused with one-of-a-kind metals.
At a glance, they gave off a daunting dark gleam that sent chills to anyone who observed.
Li Yao took out Titan’s Heart. At his touch, a small hole appeared in the chest of the Fire Eagle Puppet.
Li Yao promptly placed Titan’s Heart into it, and with another touch, the hole was sealed, leaving no trace of any modifications.
Click, click, click…
As Titan’s Heart was inserted, the Fire Eagle Puppet seemed to acquire life as an illusory flame enveloped its body. The orange phantom flames wrapped around the Fire Eagle’s body.
It began moving afterward, the once rigid eyes now gave off an animating sparkle.
It gazed intently at Li Yao, then gave a metallic cry, circling around Li Yao a few times.
The Fire Eagle Puppet appeared awe-inspiring. In a state where it didn’t spread its wings, it reached up to Li Yao’s abdomen.
It acted like a live creature, rubbing its head gently against Li Yao, just like a pet trying to please its master.
Li Yao gently stroked its head, the Fire Eagle Puppet seemed to enjoy it.
He began checking the detailed attributes of the Fire Eagle Puppet he’d created.
Mechanical Fire Eagle Puppet
Rank: 5th level, low-grade chief
Life: 4500
Armor: 85
Fire Resistance: 45
Skill: Fire Breath, Falcon Pounces on Rabbit, Steel Ripping, Feather Fire Scattershot
Attribute: Brave, intelligent.
Status: Juvenile
Life form: Mechanical intelligence, can develop and evolve.
Li Yao blankly stared at the attributes, almost bursting into laughter.
Despite its present capabilities falling short of a true boss, both in terms of life and skills, he cannot help but feel enthusiastic – the Fire Eagle Puppet was in its juvenile phase, and it could develop and evolve.
Whether it’s the undead pets of a necromancer, the pets of a summoner, or the demon pets of a magician, the fundamental standard of judgment is whether they possess the quirks of a quasi-god pet and have evolutionary characteristics.
If they lack these features, no matter how prime they are presently, they will fail to keep up when the level elevates and will eventually be discarded.
Pets are divided into several grades: common pets, elite pets, rare pets, quasi-god level pets, god pets.
Looking at the four skills, Li Yao was satisfied.
Although the four skills only met the standard of a rare pet, Li Yao was not disappointed.
His fire resistance was practically a passive skill, posing virtually no threat from fire mages below level ten. Moreover, having both single-target and area damage among his four skills was commendable.
Perhaps sensing Li Yao’s joyous emotions, the Fire Eagle Puppet also cried out, looking visibly excited.
Mechanical puppets, magical guards, arcane guards, elemental guards, all these entities were creatures of the creator.
Once they are created, given an energy core, they can generate some degree of intelligence and will follow the commands of the person who created them.
For instance, a powerful human mage would typically create Elemental Guards and some strange magical creatures to assist in guarding their Magic Tower. Even stronger mages might summon and trap beings from different dimensions within their Magic Tower.
The famous Great Mage, Medivh, had two dragons in his Magic Tower alone. Despite one being a bone dragon and the other a void dragon, his power was undeniable.
Now that Li Yao has created the Firehawk, while the materials are average, the core is the boss-level Titan’s Heart, which imbues the Firehawk Puppet with a soul from the start.
The current Firehawk is his guard rather than his pet.
Pets benefit from his attribute boosts, they can be healed and resurrected, but guards can’t. If it’s destroyed, it’s truly over.
Thus, Li Yao’s main goal now is to level up to ten or acquire another Creator’s item. Levelling up to ten seems to be testing his patience since it requires a considerable amount of time.
But as for that thing, with careful planning, it should be possible to obtain it. Even though it’s a bit risky, everything is worth it. After all, this Firehawk is truly top-tier.
Li Yao is simply a bit impatient. Having another awesome pet like this would be so cool, but the Guard status is too dangerous. It could easily be mistaken for a wild boss and be destroyed, and once it’s dead, it’s gone. More so, having a Guard assist a player in killing monsters yields absolutely no experience gain, and the drop rate also decreases. The loss outweighs the gain.
Looking at the time, it’s almost morning in the game.
Li Yao feels a wave of fatigue. Half a day and a night of intensive crafting has exhausted him to the max.
He sets an alarm and goes to sleep after logging out, leaving the Firehawk Puppet roaming in the charging room. After all, it can’t go anywhere.
As he drifts in and out of sleep, Li Yao starts to plan how to obtain that thing.
His acceptance of the bet from the Wanderer Studio was not just for money. There is a Creator’s item in the high-level monster area of the newly-opened dungeon.
However, this item doesn’t compare to the Eye of the Creator if viewed from the battle aspect.
But from the viewpoint of the Engineering profession, it is a Divine Artifact.
However, this thing was only discovered in the seventh year of the game’s operation. It wasn’t hidden, and the so-called high-level monsters were merely level ten elite monsters for Li Yao.
For players in the seventh year of the game, they were nothing more than easily slaughtered beings. The reason this item hadn’t been discovered was simple.
It was embedded in a statue and known as the Creator’s Hand, which was merged into the Sun King’s statue by ancient High Elves.
Everyone thought it was just a statue, and it remained undiscovered for many years until a player studying engineering came along with the Light Faction to raze the city.
They were ambushed here and a big battle ensued.
This Engineering player used his own cannons to blast the players of the Dark Camp, causing them to be greatly defeated.
While the player’s guild was cleaning up the battlefield, they discovered a pair of arms under the shattered statue and picked it up, ending up in the hands of this player.
To deflate the morale of the Dark Camp, the guild revealed this and even leaked the attributes of the Creator’s Hand.
The Dark Camp was so furious they could spit blood. Such a divine artifact for engineering had been in the Dark Camp for seven years, only to end up in the hands of someone from the Light Faction. Nothing could be more depressing.
Back then, Li Yao was one of them. He sighed and thought, if I could do this over again, I’d definitely get my hands on that treasure and not let the Light
Faction get away with it. They were flaunting their victory and calling the Dark Camp unintelligent.
Unexpectedly, that day seems to be coming. As long as he gets his hands on this thing, he could form a contract with the Firehawk Puppet without having to reach level ten. And these hands have a special use too. That’s why he can’t wait.
With the timing of the Dungeon Clearing Live Broadcast competition and the dispute with Wanderer Studio, if he can’t maximize his profits this time, then being reborn would have been a waste.
By the time Li Yao logged in again, it was already bright in the game world. Dumdum had sent a bunch of voice messages.
Li Yao deleted all the messages without listening and called Dumdum: “Missy, what’s so urgent that you sent dozens of messages at once?”
“Big Bro, finally, you’re online. How could I not be anxious? The live competition has already started for over an hour,” Dumdum replied, a hint of dissatisfaction in her voice.
Li Yao laughed heartily and said, “They’ve been clearing the dungeon all day yesterday. If dungeon clearing was that easy, we would have lost ages ago.
Relax, I’ve got this under control.”
“Humph, you do have a point there. Hurry and group up with me and Witch Sis. We need to hurry. I want to be the champion and win the prize money,” Dumdum replied.
Li Yao grouped up with Dumdum and the Shapeshifting Witch and said, “You don’t look like someone who’s short of money. Would you really care about that little prize money?”
Dumdum said discontentedly, “My sister-in-law is just too much. She has me on a financial leash, saying that I can spend however I want when I grow up. But I can’t wait that long. So, I have to find a way to make money myself.”
Li Yao smiled faintly. Hearing Dumdum grumbling, he could tell that she had a great relationship with her sister-in-law. Dumdum complained, but there wasn’t a trace of resentment in her voice. Being able to tame such a mischievous little girl, Li Yao couldn’t help but feel curious about this person.
The Shapeshifting Witch let them banter and only spoke after they had all gathered. “Just the three of us. Isn’t that a bit too few?”
Li Yao thought seriously and said, “The three of us should be enough. But yes, we actually need one more teammate. However, aside from you guys, I don’t really trust anyone else. It’s up to you two.”
The Shapeshifting Witch shook her head and said, “I know quite a few people, but the ones that are truly trustworthy are few and unable to come.”
At this time, Dumdum was humming a song with her arms crossed and her head tilted back. She gave off an air of ‘you guys have to beg me’….