LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 29: Choice (1)
Chapter 29: Choice (1)
Hoo, hoo, hoo!!
In the forest, Yu Hong was panting heavily, staring at the two people in camouflage lying on the ground before him.
Their attire reminded him of the previous stutterer.
‘Are these people from the Allied Army?’ He couldn’t help but recall the guy named Zhao Zhenghong who had come last time.
The guy had said it was an invitation, but in reality, he had sent someone to secretly hide by the door, trying to ambush him when he went out.
Such a sly and treacherous person. After the appearance of the evil shadow, and the increased importance of the Great Luminous Stone, it made sense for him to send people to capture him again.
Crouching down, Yu Hong carefully examined the two individuals.
Soon, he found various miscellaneous items.
Two military green daggers, two bags of old-version Luminous Stones, two leather water pouches, but none of these were anything special.
One thing, however, made Yu Hong a little surprised.
It was a grayish-white silver coin found on the person who had drawn a gun.
The front of the coin depicted a tall, sharp, and beautiful tower, and the back had a special symbol commonly seen on Luminous Stones.
“Could this be the town’s regular currency?” Yu Hong wondered, holding the coin thoughtfully.
Whether it was or not, he decided to pocket it for now. After looting the two, he saw they hadn’t woken up yet and didn’t bother with them. He cleaned them out and then headed back the way he came.
As for whether the two would survive, that was up to luck. If they woke up before nightfall, they might live. If not…
Soon, Yu Hong found the things he had dropped earlier, and even collected the scattered dry wood, hugging it all and returning to the cave.
If it weren’t for the high-level physical training method, which allowed him to recover twice from the chilling effects, he probably would have been captured by now and sent off as a tool.
Click, he opened the door with the key and quickly entered, shutting it tightly behind him.
The heavy door slammed shut, locking securely, and Yu Hong felt a deep sense of safety.
He temporarily set down the items, placed them near the fireplace to prevent them from getting damp, and then sat on a stool to think about the issues he had encountered that day.
First, there were the items he had looted—two handguns, a silver coin, two daggers, two bags of old-version Luminous Stones, and other miscellaneous things.
He fiddled with the handgun, having never touched one before. After a long search and study, he finally managed to unload the magazine.
“…There’s only one bullet in this magazine…” Yu Hong was somewhat speechless.
A single bullet in each gun?
“Has the government become this poor?” he said, speechless.
He wasn’t sure how the handgun would perform after being enhanced, but for now, he needed to focus on other preparations.
The appearance of the evil shadow in the town was a serious matter, and he couldn’t rely on luck. He had to prepare ahead of time.
‘Evil shadow, Withered Maiden? Ordinary Luminous Stones are useless, and now even the Great Luminous Stones can only be used to escape…’
He looked at the Great Luminous Stones placed in his cave.
There were three of them in total, one at the entrance and two on the ground. With this density, they would probably only be useful for dealing with strange shadows.
He took out the last piece of Great Luminous Stone he had kept as a backup.
He had originally thought it would be enough, but now…
“By the way, why can Luminous Stones dispel strange shadows? According to the stutterer, even without this symbol, the Luminous Stones can still disperse the strange shadows, but the effect is weaker. So… the question is…”
He reached out and stroked the symbol on the Great Luminous Stone.
“Where did this pattern originate? The black disaster—how did it first appear?”
He had a feeling that the symbol on the Luminous Stone might be connected to the appearance of the black disaster.
‘The black seal’s enhancement fails due to incomplete functionality. It seems I might be able to use this to test whether this symbol alone can resist strange shadows.’
With this thought, Yu Hong took out a newspaper and a black charcoal pen.
The charcoal pen had been enhanced, transforming it into a size similar to an ordinary ballpoint pen, but the writing was finer and clearer than before. It seemed the material of the charcoal had also been enhanced into some unknown form of charcoal.
Yu Hong didn’t care about this. As long as it worked, he was satisfied.
He laid the newspaper flat, placed the silver coin under it, and then carefully traced the symbol pattern from the silver coin with the charcoal pen.
Soon, a black symbol appeared before him.
The background color was dark gray, and the pattern was darker, making it clearly visible.
After drawing, Yu Hong placed his hand on the symbol.
‘Enhance the dispelling of the Ghostly shadow rune, direction set, effect strengthened!’
He silently muttered in his mind.
Soon, a black line flowed out, but then quickly returned.
‘Insufficient completeness.’
It failed.
Yu Hong frowned and withdrew his hand.
From the black seal, it was clear that the symbol didn’t have the effect of dispersing strange shadows. Or rather, it didn’t have the effect on its own.
“It seems I can’t figure out the principle of this in a short time. Well then…”
He took a piece of ordinary Luminous Stone.
He had collected quite a few of these, from both the two people he had just dealt with and from the stutterer’s remains.
He had gathered enough to fill four small bags, each containing ten pieces.
‘Is it because ten pieces are needed to completely dispel the Ghostly shadows?’ Yu Hong speculated.
He placed the ordinary Luminous Stone down, then took another piece that hadn’t been etched with a symbol yet.
The tools for etching Luminous Stone symbols were also with him.
He compared the symbols drawn by the stutterer and the ones he had just captured. The colors of the symbols on the two Luminous Stones were different, indicating different inks had been used.
‘It seems the ink doesn’t affect the symbols much. Let me try it myself.’
He picked up the enhanced charcoal pen and began carefully drawing on the surface of a raw Luminous Stone.
He drew the original symbol, not the enhanced one.
The original symbol was simple—just a circle, four strange letters inside it, a small circle in the center, and a flame-like symbol.
After practicing a few times, Yu Hong soon drew five pieces of Luminous Stone.
He placed them on the ground, from left to right, in order.
The order wasn’t random, but based on the neatness of the symbols.
From left to right, the symbols gradually became more precise, with the lines becoming more rounded and clearer.
After finishing this, Yu Hong exhaled and reached out again, pressing his hand on the first piece on the left.
‘Enhance into Great Luminous Stone, direction: strengthen effect.’
He thought to himself.
Soon, a black line shot out, and a response sounded.
‘Would you like to enhance it into a Great Luminous Stone?’
Yu Hong didn’t respond, but instead let go of his hand, his gaze fixed on the symbol-covered Luminous Stone.
The countdown had already appeared on it.
“3 days, 2 hours, 18 minutes.”
He withdrew his hand and quickly wrote down the time in his notebook.
Then, he extended his hand again, pressing it on the second Great Luminous Stone, repeating the same operation.
Instantly, the second Great Luminous Stone also displayed a number.
“3 days, 1 hour, 2 minutes.”
Next, the third one.
“3 days, 51 minutes.”
The fourth one.
“3 days, 42 minutes.”
The fifth one.
“3 days, 21 minutes.”
Withdrawing his hand, Yu Hong looked at the row of numbers he had recorded, and a look of realization finally appeared on his face.
“Sure enough. The length of the enhancement time is influenced by the perfection of the item being enhanced. The smaller the difference between the item before and after enhancement, the shorter the required countdown time.”
“That being the case, if I had used an already enhanced Great Luminous Stone symbol from the start, the enhancement time would surely have been significantly shortened!”
Yu Hong speculated.
“Because I saved time on enhancing the symbol!”
“Let’s try it!”
Immediately, he picked up a raw Great Luminous Stone and began to mimic the complex symbols on the enhanced Great Luminous Stone.
These intricate patterns were far more difficult than the regular Great Luminous Stones.
If the symbols on regular Luminous Stones had a complexity of 1, then the advanced symbols on Great Luminous Stones had a difficulty of 4.
Not to mention the strange symbols that needed to be written for the advanced symbols—there were at least ten of them.
Looking at them, they almost resembled some game arrays Yu Hong had seen in his memory.
As time passed, he immersed himself in drawing the advanced symbols, completely forgetting about the time.
Unknowingly, the sky outside began to darken.
Yu Hong lit the fireplace and continued to draw.
The firewood he had collected was enough to last the night, and from the information he had gathered, the threat of the evil shadow might indeed affect this place.
If he didn’t encounter it, it would be fine, but if he did, the small amount of Great Luminous Stones would definitely not be enough to block it!
So he needed to think of a strategy.
Finding a way to counter the evil shadow was naturally the most important.
But now, since that solution wasn’t available, shortening the enhancement time of the Great Luminous Stones was more crucial.
After all, even if he didn’t use them, he could exchange them for goods with others, and they were truly hard currency.
Time passed quickly while Yu Hong was engrossed in his work.
Luckily, there were no blood waves or beetles to disturb him that night. Yu Hong drew deep into the night, and when he felt tired, he enhanced some dried meat. It took about three hours to enhance one piece. Once he confirmed the countdown time, he went to sleep.
He slept until morning.
In the morning, after eating and taking care of personal needs, he began practicing the advanced physical training method.
At noon, he went out to gather firewood, pick wild vegetables, and refill his water supply.
In the afternoon, he returned to continue practicing drawing advanced symbols, and during breaks, he enhanced more dried meat, making sure not to waste the black seal time.
This routine repeated every day.
Finally, by the afternoon of the fifth day, the drawing of the advanced symbols was finally successful!
In the cave, Yu Hong let out a deep breath, his face relaxed, smiling as he held up a Great Luminous Stone with the advanced symbol he had just drawn.
“Not bad. Not worse than what the stutterer drew!”
He eagerly placed it down and pressed his hand on it.
“Enhance into a Great Luminous Stone, direction: effect enhancement.”
He thought to himself.
Immediately, there was feedback from the black seal.
A black line shot from his hand and instantly entered the Great Luminous Stone.
Then, a mechanical voice echoed in his ear.
“Would you like to enhance it into a Great Luminous Stone?”
Yu Hong didn’t respond but instead released his hand, his gaze fixed on the Great Luminous Stone with the advanced symbol.
The countdown had already appeared.
“2 days, 19 minutes.”
Bang!
Yu Hong slapped the ground hard.
“It worked!!”
He couldn’t help but laugh with joy.
“Sure enough, my guess was correct! Shortening the difference between the item before and after enhancement can shorten the enhancement time!”
Two days for a Great Luminous Stone—this was a third shorter than the previous three days!
This meant he could enhance more Great Luminous Stones more quickly, ensuring his safety! He could also exchange them for more supplies!
After the excitement, Yu Hong quickly had a new thought.
“The enhancement time for the Great Luminous Stone has shortened, but I have no idea how powerful the evil shadow really is. What if the danger of the evil shadow is greater than I imagined?”
(End of chapter)
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TL Note :- Tl Note :- Again Happy new year to y’all, love y’all Mwwwaaaaa