Greed and non-greed have always been a relationship between "having" and "not having".
"The Biography of the First Lord" in "The Records of the Three Kingdoms: The Book of Shu" says, "Do not do evil for the sake of small gains, and do not refrain from doing good for the sake of small gains."
By the same logic, isn’t petty greed still greed?
Isn’t this trial testing the ability to control greedy desires?
Therefore, no matter what the result will be if he picks up a universal rough stone, Jiang Ran must not gamble.
In the worst case scenario, he might die in the trial space for picking up a universal raw stone, because in this space, "rules" are absolute power. Jiang Ran had already experienced its power last time.
Later on the way, in order to divert his attention, Jiang Ran used his skills as a Zaun person to scold the stupid loli all the way.
The intense cursing took up most of Jiang Ran's energy, which made him basically ignore the following temptations and he successfully reached the top of the stone steps.
(I see, that was the first stage of the test, so the next stage is the second, right?)
What caught Jiang Ran's eyes was a huge circular platform with an area of at least 10,000 square meters, and in the center of the platform was engraved the giant black magic circle that Jiang Ran had seen last time.
[img=650,650]https://rss.sfacg.com/web/novel/images/UploadPic/2023/02/971c9d5c-f1c5-40e7-827f-ee4b8d3f89a2.jpg[/img]
[Image source is from the Internet, please delete if infringed]
As Jiang Ran officially stepped onto the platform, the various embedded magic circles on the giant black magic circle began to rotate.
Then, the stone steps leading to the platform were all crushed into sand, blocking Jiang Ran's way down.
After a while, Jiang Ran heard a strange noise. He turned his head and looked at the ground below, and found that all the "universal raw stones" on the ground had cracked. Countless insects crawled out of the universal raw stones, filling the entire ground with black mass, making his scalp numb!
8.31 - Hidden Crisis (Part )
Looking at the countless sea of insects, Jiang Ran was glad that he had resisted the temptation just now.
Perhaps, as long as he picked up any of the "Universal Stones", the stone steps leading to the floating platform would immediately shatter, leaving him to fight against the endless sea of insects on the ground.
Just when Jiang Ran thought that the sea of insects on the ground had nothing to do with him anymore, translucent membrane wings suddenly grew on the backs of these insects.
As the first insect flapped its wings and took off, it was followed by the second, the third... In the blink of an eye, a large number of insects like black mist flew into the air, making the already gray space even more like the arrival of night.
(No way…are you serious?)
Jiang Ran drew out the Yama Knight Sword and prepared to fight, because all the bugs were flying towards the floating platform!
If it weren't for the "Fearless Heart" helping him to withstand this terrifying scene, Jiang Ran would have probably already cast a "Crimson Dragon's Breath" to clear his vision.
But what surprised Jiang Ran was that although the bugs were very close, there was no red warning in his field of vision. Could it be that these bugs were not hostile?
Just when Jiang Ran was hesitating whether to strike first, the flying insects rushed straight into the giant black magic circle. The whole process lasted for more than ten minutes before all the insects on the ground were absorbed by the magic circle.
(Is this recycling energy...?)
Jiang Ran was a little unable to keep up with the routine of this trial space. It was also an advanced trial, but he didn't expect that the trial from the second level to the third level would be so different from the previous one.
He stood there and looked quietly at the giant black magic circle. No matter what test would come next, it would definitely be related to this magic circle.
Afterwards, just as Jiang Ran had guessed, the giant black magic circle began to rotate again. This time, a white stone with a diameter of about two meters floated up from the middle of the magic circle. The stone was ellipsoidal and lay motionless on the ground.
Jiang Ran immediately used his identification ability to confirm, and the result he obtained was: "Eggs of the Insect Tribe."
(Insect people? I've never heard of this sub-human race...?)
For safety reasons, Jiang Ran did not take the initiative to attack. It would be troublesome if these large insect eggs had the effect of counter-injury.
After a few seconds, the white insect eggs moved. As the eggs shook, the shell cracked several times. Then an arm wrapped in the insect's outer shell stretched out and completely pried open the eggshell.
Jiang Ran saw that lying among the insect eggs was a humanoid creature curled up into a ball. This creature was covered with an insect-like shell, with a pair of large compound eyes and slender antennae on its head. It looked like... not very powerful.
━━━━━━━━━━
Exeter
Insectoid, male, 0 years old
Production occupation: None
Manufacturing occupation: None
Combat Class: Larva Warrior - Lv1
Skill slots: 1 / 1
Health: 20 / 20
Stamina: 30 / 30
Mana: 10 / 10
━━━━━━━━━━
After verifying the other party's information, Jiang Ran became even more confused.
This guy... is this guy here to make trouble?
This was the first time Jiang Ran encountered an enemy that was even weaker than expected. He was actually a little overwhelmed. He silently watched the insect warrior crawl out of the eggshell and then stand up unsteadily...
Then, this guy actually hooked his finger at Jiang Ran, provoking Jiang Ran to start a fight.
·
Faced with provocation, Jiang Ran remained indifferent.
What he was thinking now was that either there was something wrong with his super-dimensional divine eye, or there were some special rules in this battle.
The result was just as Jiang Ran had expected. Just after the insect warrior made a provocative gesture, the giant black magic circle emitted a bright light upwards, projecting important information using the sky as a screen.
━━━━━━━━━━
Current Challenge Level: 1
Reward Level: 0
Time remaining: 999 seconds
━━━━━━━━━━
As soon as this information was displayed, the remaining time began to decrease second by second. Jiang Ran immediately activated the skill "Computing Power Boost·Overclocking" to slow down the flow of time, and then quickly understood the meaning of this information.
(Meaning, the higher the challenge level you complete within the remaining time, the higher the reward?)
Jiang Ran looked at the insect warrior. Apart from provoking him, this guy showed no signs of actively attacking, which was consistent with the meaning implied by the information in the sky.
(It seems I should hurry up.)
Jiang Ran immediately took action, but being always cautious, he still did not take direct action. Instead, he used the skill "Shadow Behind" a bit wastefully, summoned a shadow clone, and then easily killed the insect man with the dagger Jiang Ran threw to him.
After the insect man died, he neither exploded nor exerted any negative impact on the shadow clone or Jiang Ran. He simply turned into a wisp of black smoke and returned to the giant black magic circle.
Jiang Ran looked up at the information in the air. The challenge level and reward level had both increased by "1", and the countdown for the remaining time was considerately paused.
Then, the giant black magic circle rotated again, and this time the insect eggs that emerged were even larger than the previous one.
(So that's how it is. This time it's a mode similar to continuous level-breaking...?)
Since the countdown for the remaining time has been paused, Jiang Ran can calmly wait for the creature in the egg to hatch, and can even prepare for a fatal blow in advance.
After the eggshell cracked, the creature that came out this time was a little stronger, and had a pair of long, thin membrane wings on its back.
[img=540,717]https://rss.sfacg.com/web/novel/images/UploadPic/2023/02/d2b45f01-d78c-4697-ae1d-aca1e8dc1f4c.jpg[/img]
[Image source from the Internet, please delete if infringed]
━━━━━━━━━━
Exeter
Insectoid, male, 0 years old
Combat Class: Adult Warrior - Lv21
Skill slots: 2 / 2
Health: 360 / 360
Stamina: 420 / 420
Mana: 140 / 140
━━━━━━━━━━
(Hmm? Cosette? Same name?)
Although he was a little concerned about the name, Jiang Ran didn't waste any more time this time.
The moment the insect warrior made a provocative gesture and the countdown for the remaining time began to tick, he rushed forward and slashed with his sword, cleanly and neatly cutting the guy in half diagonally.
This time, Jiang Ran only took one second, plus the seven seconds wasted in the first round, a total of eight seconds, leaving 991 seconds (about 16 minutes) to use.
At this point in the battle, Jiang Ran felt that he had understood the rules of the second stage test. The only thing left was to see what level he could reach.
But he didn't realize that the truly terrifying part of this second stage had just begun.
As the corpse of the "Adult Insect Warrior Cosette" once again turned into black smoke and returned to the magic circle, the next round of insect eggs emerged.
This time, the diameter of the insect eggs has reached more than two meters.
There was a series of "crackling" sounds, and the life nurtured in the eggshell no longer crawled out of the eggshell in a weak posture. Instead, it smashed the eggshell directly and violently, then stood up aggressively, and immediately showed its fangs and claws to Jiang Ran.
(Okay, Xant.)
(You really look a little anxious this time.)
·
[img=675,1200]https://rss.sfacg.com/web/novel/images/UploadPic/2023/02/c7e59bee-e6af-4805-a960-b39c16e10ede.jpg[/img]
8.32 - The Real Test (Part )
━━━━━━━━━━
Current Challenge Level: 3
Reward Level: 2
Time remaining: 990 seconds
━━━━━━━━━━
The text message in the sky continued the countdown once again as the new form of Cosette appeared.
Jiang Ran looked at the third-stage enemy in front of him and finally felt a little bit of a battle feeling.
The insect man Ksette, who has reached the third level of combat profession, looks more like an upright insect than a human. Moreover, he is a giant insect, with an estimated height of more than two and a half meters.
Judging from the appearance, Cosette should have evolved into a rhinoceros beetle. The big black horns on his head are very imposing, and his shiny black outer shell is shining with a faint metallic luster.
In addition to the two "main arms" on his torso, he also has two pairs of secondary arms on both sides of his chest. Combined with a tail that seems to contain insect eggs and two pairs of membrane-like insect wings, his overall appearance is more like an insect-type monster than a subhuman insect-man.
[img=591,572]https://rss.sfacg.com/web/novel/images/UploadPic/2023/02/99345566-b34d-4f3b-b7ca-0c128735e206.jpg[/img]
[Image source is from the Internet, please delete if infringed]
·
"Exeter, can we talk?"
Jiang Ran did not rush to attack, but first tried to communicate in the common language of the human race, and then switched to the demon language. Unfortunately, there was no reaction from Ksette either on the surface or in his heart.
Logically speaking, since they are a sub-human race, they should be intelligent. Even if they don't have language skills, they should at least have some mental activities.
But to Jiang Ran, Cosette gave him the impression of being a guy with an empty heart, just like a robot.
(Could it be... it's just a shell?)
Compared with the last trial, Jiang Ran could feel a clear difference.
If "Scarlet Flame Flying Dragon, Young Dragon Fei'er" is a monster summoned by a huge black magic circle, then "Cosette" is more like a puppet "created" by the magic circle.
That's why Jiang Ran couldn't feel any soul from Cosette.
This is undoubtedly bad news for Jiang Ran, who likes to obtain information and is good at using mind reading to fight his opponents.
(Well, since fighting is the only option, let’s fight.)
·
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