Chapter 290

Chapter 290: I Am Not the Bandit Cao!

"This time, we’ve utterly enraged that fellow…"

"This spells big trouble."

Fourth Living Saint Angna watched the giant dragon thrashing and rolling wildly in the Sea of Ether, churning the etheric liquid and Primal Mud into utter chaos, and a deep sense of foreboding rose within her.

"Tsk…"

"You had to provoke him just now."

"If I hadn’t, I’d have been finished back there."

"Thanks, by the way."

Angna moved her avatar body and swam beside Albert Drake, rubbing her rough shark skin against the Cliff Lizard’s scales.

Perhaps this counted as expressing gratitude.

"But the Giant God truly plays favorites."

"Giving you such a treasure."

"What exactly is it?"

Angna pondered briefly before answering: "Something called ‘Deity-Slaying Level Single Target Magical Tool·Star Serpent Venom Pump,’ I think. Honestly, I don’t quite grasp it."

"But if it had struck that fellow’s eyes earlier, it would’ve blinded him completely. Though not permanently, he’d stay sightless for a month at least."

"Beyond that, it causes lasting effects like slowed reflexes and paralysis."

Hearing this, Albert Drake was stunned.

Meanwhile, jealousy burned hotter within her.

"Hold on! With magic like this, you could confront a true chaos deity—even one of councilor level—head-on!"

"This… reeks of favoritism!"

Albert Drake pictured Angna’s figure and appearance, wondering…

"Does the Giant God prefer voluptuous women with toned abs and dark skin?"

"That’s his taste!?"

…

Angna ignored Albert Drake’s envy.

Regret and remorse now filled her heart.

"Ugh, I lost out badly just now."

"I exhausted all my magical power and still missed. Now I’m completely drained."

"I’ve squandered the Giant God’s gift. I bear the guilt."

The great shark Albert Drake shook her head.

"No."

"It’s that we remain too weak."

"There was no way to scare this fellow off."

"We had to find a way to repel this Ether Dragon, otherwise…"

Though Sulya was the First Living Saint, overseeing all operations, controlling the Soul Network, and the only living saint capable of flight, her divine form lacked combat strength—destined to remain behind the scenes.

Her greatest feat lay in "translating" equipment bestowed by the Giant God into mortal-accessible technology.

This made her irreplaceable among the Giant God forces.

As for the Third Living Saint Loseta, her divine form was the smallest and frailest of all living saints; the Giant God’s deeper designs remained unclear.

The only capable fighters were the Second Living Saint Albert Drake and Fourth Living Saint Angna.

"We must repel it!"

"This is our duty!"

Yet at that moment…

"Roar——!"

"I’ve had enough!"

The Ether Dragon unleashed an earth-shattering bellow.

"I’ll smash this rotten tree you hide in to splinters!"

"My dragon breath will shred every last one of you and scatter your ashes!"

"Roar——!"

Infuriated, Clodius withdrew to a distance, jaws gaping once more.

Colossal energy amassed before him!

"Angna, can you strike again!?"

"That Deity-Slaying Level… serpent thing…"

Angna shook her head.

"It’s ‘Deity-Slaying Level Single-Target Magical Tool·Star Serpent Venom Pump’!"

"And as I told you…"

She wished to claim otherwise, but honesty prevailed.

"I already said each shot requires days of charging!"

"Even if ready, I couldn’t fire twice."

"The creature grew cunning."

"He deduced my magic’s maximum range from the last attack."

"Now he lurks just beyond it."

Hearing this, Albert Drake abandoned all hope in his own strength.

"Ah… he hoped this ‘Predatory Tree’ could hold up."

At that moment, the magical pressure gathering in front of the Ether Dragon’s mouth was getting stronger and stronger.

—-

"Mm-mm."

"I gave the fourth symbiotic creature a ‘Jet Venom Gland,’ and it worked out well."

Trilobite looked at the evolving "STEAM Mall" and felt happy.

The so-called "Jet Venom Gland" was something many cobras had; its structure wasn’t complex. It simply used muscle pressure to build up force and shoot venom out hard.

Such setups were quite common, and even non-cobras like the "Spitting Cobra" had similar things and could spray venom.

If cobra venom only hit the skin, it usually didn’t cause poisoning; but if it touched a wound, poisoning could happen.

If venom got on the eye’s soft parts, it might cause serious blindness.

As for why the "fourth symbiotic creature"—the "Cliff Lizard young lady"—got it,

"Cliff Lizards are close kin to snakes and poisonous lizards, all in the snake-lizard group."

"Komodo Dragons were found to have a primitive venom gland setup."

"The ancestors of Canglong, the Cliff Lizards, were likely like ‘Swamp Lizards’ or even giant lizards. Giving the venom gland to the Cliff Lizard fit just right!"

Of course, there was a bigger reason.

In the "Evolution STEAM Mall," if you forced gear onto creatures that neither they nor their close relatives ever had…

Like putting venomous fangs on a macaque…

That was an "unforeseen path" and needed a lot of Chaos Energy.

But giving a macaque wing membranes cost much less.

After all, the colugo with wing membranes was in the same big group as the macaque, so wing membranes were a "path taken by distant cousins."

Of course, for the macaque’s wing membranes to glide for real, just having them wasn’t enough; it needed weight cuts and air-shaping tweaks to its body structure.

Similarly, giving the Cliff Lizard a "cousin’s path" used a fair amount of Chaos Energy.

"Now then."

"Time to get myself some new gear."

"Ah-woof… ah-woof…"

Trilobite swallowed a big piece of shark meat, thinking about the next upgrade.

"Ah…"

"One thing I couldn’t stand anymore."

"The pixel-art world."

"I was tired of it."

"It’s time for a real-world look!"

Trilobite had already decided the next evolutionary buy was for—"vision!"

He browsed through the "Evolution STEAM Mall," searching for suitable accessories.

"Mm…"

"Adding more compound eyes wasn’t impossible, but it would increase their size."

"I certainly didn’t want to end up looking like a fly."

"But my current eyes were a bit unwieldy and hard to change."

"And the calcite eyes were really sturdy! I didn’t want to switch."

"So…"

Trilobite focused on a small evolution project.

"This one…"

"Cost 50,000 Chaos Energy!?"

"That was much cheaper than Reinvention of the entire eye, visual nerves, and image processing system!"

"Enough talking, I’ll take it!"

…

The shopping came to a temporary halt because Trilobite had almost eaten the ‘Megalodon Shark,’ even consuming the cartilage.

This was supposed to put him in a great mood.

But…

"Mm!?"

He pulled open the cave entrance and found that Mrs. Root-toothed Fish and her daughter were missing.

"They ran away!?"

Trilobite’s mood instantly plummeted.

"Did she dislike me?"

"I’m not a villain; was I really that frightening!?"

"Besides…"

Trilobite felt quite wronged.

He only wanted to borrow a place to stay for a night, to squeeze into this cave together.

He had even prepared the rent, which was a piece of meat from the Megalodon Shark; although it was second-hand meat that had been "regurgitated" from the stomach, Mrs. Root-toothed Fish seemed to have no problem finishing it earlier.

"Forget it…"

"I decided to first see where she had taken her daughter."

"In these times, it was dangerous for a single mother to be out alone with her children."

"What if she encountered bad people?"

"However…"

A wave of sleepiness washed over him.

【The evolution project you purchased involves modifications to the nervous system and requires slumber.】

"Alright."

"I would stay at Mrs. Root-toothed Fish’s place for one night."

"I would find her tomorrow."

"Besides, I could continue shopping while I slept."