My tamed beasts can't be demons.

Chapter 76 The Effect of Fooling

Zhou Lu quickly identified the target of his test of "fooling".

The most widely distributed and numerous spirit beast in the Snowy Realm is the "Snowball".

This is a spherical spirit beast similar to Sticky Baby, and it is a close relative of Sticky Baby, but it is ice-type.

With the help of fireworks, Zhou Lu easily climbed out of the cave.

Of course, before leaving, he also knocked a few dream-revealing stones out of the cave.

The system quest mentioned that he would later encounter the Nightmare of Death and make a deal with it using the Dream Stone deposit.

Since a transaction is to be made, there must be a token of trust.

Moreover, Zhou Lu also suspected that this Dream Stone was related to the secrets of the Extreme Ice Land, and might really have the effect of enhancing evolution.

But we'll have to ask Xiaoxi for that.

Hanabi was very happy with her new body and ran quickly across the snow.

The wriggling roots left unidentifiable walking marks on the snow, resembling the tracks of mollusks crawling on a beach.

Those who didn't know better might think an octopus had grown out of the snow.

Zhou Lu was initially worried that the roots of the firework would be damaged by the ice and snow, but when he saw the sap on the surface of the roots, his concerns were immediately dispelled.

The sticky fluid from the sticky baby is truly the foundation of modern animal control industry.

Such a skill, when placed on any spirit beast, would become a tremendous weapon.

Unfortunately, it didn't show much harm to sticky babies.

Well, you can't say that.

The racial skills of spirit beasts are essentially evolved to enable them to compete for survival in the natural environment.

Given the current scale of clingy baby breeding, it's hard to say that this evolution is a mistake.

Just then, the warning from the fireworks interrupted Zhou Lu's thoughts.

It seemed to sense something.

Through the information transmitted by the fireworks, Zhou Lu also learned that a spirit beast nearby had activated its skill.

②The timing for choosing the effect flashed by, and the next second Zhou Lu saw several snowballs flying towards him.

The erected vine shield easily blocked the snowballs.

Snowball, the spirit beast.

Zhou Lu looked at the white sphere that was faintly visible in the snow and immediately knew that he had found his target.

At the same time, he also confirmed one thing:

Hanabi, who possesses the [Fooling] skill, is aware of skill releases within her attack range.

Furthermore, judging from the fleeting selection screen, if the skills are released within a similar timeframe, Hanabi can cancel one racial skill to achieve the effect of modifying the target simultaneously.

Zhou Lu found the ability to sense the release of this skill very useful.

This means that as long as you have Fireworks with you while active in the secret realm, you no longer need to worry about being ambushed by Old Silver Coin using skills.

Your safety while moving around in the secret realm is greatly increased.

Zhou Lu did not hesitate for long and quickly issued the next instruction to Hua Huo to test the so-called attack range.

He was curious about how this so-called attack range was defined.

The answer quickly became clear.

As the branches spread outwards, while disturbing the spirit beasts in the snow, the range of Hanabi's [Fooling] perception also expanded.

Unfortunately, although the number of branches of Hanabi has increased compared to the first stage, it is still limited, which prevents Hanabi's attack range from being extended indefinitely.

Incidentally, the essence of this extended attack range is actually the splicing of the attack ranges of countless individual branches.

If Hanabi only distributes one branch beyond the attack range of its main body, Hanabi can only perceive skills within the attack range of its main body and that branch.

In that case, I wonder if [Parasitic Plant Division] can be used in conjunction with [Fooling].

Well, racial skills are a very important resource, and should only be used at the most critical moments.

Over the next few days, Zhou Lu continued to test the various characteristics of [Fooling] while having Fireworks catch snowballs.

As the most crucial racial skill for Fireworks, Zhou Lu must know all the possibilities in which it can be applied.

First of all, the selection time for the 【Fooling】② effect is very short. It's okay for skills with slow projectiles, but if you encounter a skill that activates instantly, the time left for Hanabi to change the target is truly fleeting.

If you want it to work at a critical moment, you must train the spark to have enough responsiveness.

Yes, you can use skills to enhance your abilities when necessary.

Besides requiring extremely high reaction speed to fireworks, Zhou Lu was very surprised by the characteristics exhibited by [Fooling].

It not only allows single-target skills launched by enemies to attack the enemy themselves, but also allows area-of-effect (AOE) skills to only affect the target it is targeting.

To give an example, if tsunami were a skill, fireworks would allow the tsunami to affect only one person, while others would not be affected at all.

Incidentally, if a teammate's skill has a negative effect on themselves, Hanabi can use [Fooling] to make it affect the enemy instead.

For example, if a skill grants you a 1000% attribute boost upon activation, but the cost is death upon the end of the boost, then when you activate this skill, Hanabi uses [Fooling] to transfer the boost to the enemy. The enemy receives the boost, but also suffers the skill's negative effects, dying upon the end of the boost.

For skills with a two-stage effect, Hanabi can choose to change the skill target during one stage.

Hanabi could learn some skills with delayed negative effects, allowing her to benefit from the positive effects of the skills while making the enemy suffer the negative effects.

Unfortunately, such effects are ultimately rare. The negative characteristics of most skills are not effects, but costs, which are consequences.

The cost cannot be redefined by being fooled.

Just like how Fireworks can't use the racial skill that needs to be canceled to activate [Fooling] to make other spirit beasts bear the burden through [Fooling].

Without a doubt, [Absorb] + [Fool] will become the core skill chain for Fireworks.

However, "fooling" is more of a safety net, while "absorbing" is the real core.

The acquisition of racial skills was even more mysterious than Zhou Lu had imagined.

Even with a large enough number of Snowball spirit beasts in the Frozen Lands, and the added benefit of [Body Feeding], it still took Hanabi a full five days to absorb the Snowball's racial skills.

[Snow Concealment]: A racial skill of the Snowball race, allowing you to perfectly hide your figure in the snow.

Well, in Zhou Lu's eyes, this is a racial skill that can be abolished when necessary.

Snowballs have no value other than being pets, so Zhou Lu did not collect them for merchants to purchase, but instead had Hua Huo release them on the spot.

In any case, the requirement for [Absorb] is to defeat, not kill.

Doing this could even allow fireworks to be sustainably exploited.

Of course, the price to pay for doing this is...

Looking at the fireworks in the distance, surrounded by countless snowballs, Zhou Lu shook his head helplessly.

In the eyes of these snowballs, fireworks have become a god-like existence.

"Hanabi, come back, we should go." Zhou Lu stood near the teleportation node, looking at the restored signal on his phone, and called out to Hanabi in the distance.

Jiang Shuqi sent him a text message, formally inviting him to become a part-time temporary worker in the nursing team.

It also provided the location for the first job: the electric mouse breeding center.

When Hanabi heard her owner calling, she ran over happily. Because she ran so fast, she shook off the snowballs that were lying on her.

(End of this chapter)