Goblin Dependency

"Boom, splash!"

The earth-yellow sharp crystal, shimmering with magic radiance, suddenly burst from the soil, piercing the liquid body formed by the amorphous water flow above.

Though immune to physical attacks, the magical glow attached to the surface of the crystal clearly possessed some form of special damage, causing substantial harm to the peculiar demon made entirely of flowing water that it penetrated.

It even found it difficult to break free from the piercing crystals, only flailing with its two appendages that had no fixed form, as if constantly constricting and stretching under some unseen restraint, struggling amidst the roaring sound of colliding water flows.

Finally, it completely lost vitality under the cross-piercing of two more crystals shooting up from the ground, transforming into a bright blue orb symbolizing life energy, suspended in mid-air.

This revealed the semi-transparent earth-yellow lizard standing behind it, covered in wounds, as if having been dunked in the ocean, with blood mixed with clear water continuously dripping from the surface of its skin, looking exceptionally battered.

The intense pain from all over its body made Dodd instinctively bare his teeth.

The lizard’s vertical pupils eyed the life energy floating in front, without hesitation, with some expectation, it stepped forward to touch and absorb it.

The bright blue glow then fused into its body.

But the imagined evolution did not occur.

"Damn it, just a little more!"

Obviously, the lizard demon that Dodd is inhabiting is capable of speech, and his tone was filled with a strong sense of complaint.

As the degree of evolution progressively increases, the life energy required to achieve a leap in the biological race grows geometrically for each level.

Even with Dodd’s ability within the Secret Realm to grasp the exact positions of other adventurers, after waking up and after so many days, he’s only barely managed to collect enough life energy to be just a bit short of the fourth evolution.

In his heart, he was somewhat dissatisfied with his level-up speed.

But considering this situation applies equally to all adventurers in the Secret Realm, he felt a bit better.

Unlike himself, who can sense others’ positions, other adventurers in the Secret Realm, even if a rare few absorb life energy from airdrops, at most match his evolution count. Even though he wasted some time due to being asleep, he undoubtedly remains at the forefront of the first tier among adventurers within the Secret Realm.

Airdrop...

Thinking of this, on Dodd’s lizard face with "Algae Scale," a sign of regret and frustration, characteristic of intelligent creatures, showed up.

He truly didn’t expect that a simple healing rest would lead to him sleeping for so many days, causing him to directly miss this precious opportunity to acquire a huge amount of life energy.

It must be explained that, as the arranger of the ritual, Dodd understood the mechanism and processes within the Secret Realm in their entirety, knowing that after an adaptation period, life energy supplies and elite demons would be parachuted down from the sky, all essentially to hasten the ritual’s progress.

He was already prepared, hoping to use this gap in information to distance himself from other adventurers by utilizing these two mechanisms.

But after all, the ritual can only be held once, with no chance for rehearsal, while the way both airdrop supplies and elite demons descend is by falling from the sky, making it hard to distinguish.

Shortly after waking up, without even having confirmed the specific time, Dodd mistakenly regarded the latter as the cost-free, large-scale acquisition of life energy from airdrop supplies.

This resulted in him being caught unprepared when facing the lv5 water element that appeared before him, making him seem rushed and woeful.

Luckily, the demon type was a completely liquid energy creature; in a land environment, especially the dry and hot desert he found himself in, its combat ability was significantly weakened. Eventually, after a hard battle, Dodd managed to take it down.

Regrettably, perhaps due to the Secret Realm’s boundary contracting inward, or maybe because he had nearly eliminated all over these days.

The bright blue orb that fell from the sky did not attract adventurers from the surrounding area; otherwise, through these participants’ life energy, he might have already completed the fourth evolution by now.

All things considered, Dodd’s feelings are quite complicated at the moment.

On one hand, he missed the airdrop supplies that should have brought him significant upgrades, but on the other hand, he successfully absorbed the elite demon’s life energy, gaining something nonetheless.

However... under normal circumstances, given the adventurers’ evolution progress in the Secret Realm, the ones who could truly defeat an elite demon head-on and gain an upgrade would be a minority.

Thinking this, Dodd subconsciously focused his mind again, sensing the adventurers on the map.

Sure enough, compared to yesterday, the number of surviving adventurers had decreased significantly, clearly due to the elite demons that fell from the sky making their impact.

Slightly regretful, the small group he had been particularly watching on the other side of the map not only didn’t lose any members, but the light spots symbolizing the adventurers even increased by one.

"Does that mean they found another ally?"

Dodd sneered inwardly.

In most situations, facing the current predicament, gathering allies, forming a faction, would not be the wrong choice.

But now, they are situated in a Ritual Secret Realm that possesses a mechanism for evolution through slaughter.

No matter how the weak band together, when he who has gone through three or even four evolutions descends upon them, all their efforts will have been in vain, merely serving as stepping stones for his advancement.

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