by <unknown>
This warbeast was worthy of the title "Wolf King". Its performance had already surpassed all the newly mass-produced Mystic Wolves.
Even if the experts of the Wolves Valley personally crafted the Mystic Wolf, where they didn't use incredible treasures, the subsequent Mystic Wolf crafted would also have a similar battle force.
"The Tenth Star title is too modest!"
Even Dong Liuqi, who was a critic of Deep Sea University, cried with emotions from the bottom of his heart, 'Just in his teens yet he possesses such a strength, I'm afraid that after ten years, even if he was called "First Star", he would be worthy of it!'
When the overall battle force of 133% was made public, the huge weapon test site went into an uproar before sinking into a strange yet heavy silence.
Everyone stared at one guy.
No, it was not Jiang Shaoyang...
It was Li Yao...
And his tyrant!
Even Jiang Shaoyang didn't care about his own performance. He kept on staring at Li Yao as though his gaze would even burn through a steel plate. His teeth deeply bit into his lips, to the point that his lips were about to bleed.
Li Yao was quite familiar with the thick and dense will to fight hidden within his gaze.
Because his eyes were also radiating a blazing will to fight.
At the end of second round, both of them were tied. This last round would decide who was going to win and who was going to lose!
The fourth round of test, began!
This time, whether it was the examinees who had just completed their test a moment ago or the examinees who had yet to finish their test...
Whether it was three examiners or the staff of the weapon test site...
Everyone was watching with their eyes completely wide opened. They were deadly staring at the Tarantula among the among the group of Mystic Wolves; the Tarantula was no different than a crane standing among a flock of chickens.
"What do you think, will the Tarantula display a shocking performance and surpass the Wolf King's?"
"Hush, don't talk, it's moving!"
As the Tarantula waved its eight legs, it started to crawl in an unstoppable manner.
Under the illumination of bright sunlight, the nails mounted upon its legs gleamed like eight slender maces, making everyone drew a lump of cold air; a faint chill ran down their spine.
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"
As the streams of acids, poisonous stingers, and mystic lasers came raining down...
Where the Mystic Wolves on other test channels dodged them one after another...
The Tarantula also made some dodging maneuvers in a lazy manner; each action seemed perfunctory.
After having the outer shell of the crafting furnace installed upon it, its weight had increased by a lot. It was impossible for it to do quick maneuvers like the Mystic Wolf.
A majority of acidic attack, poisonous stingers, and mystic laser fell directly upon the Tarantula!
"Swish! Swish!"
The defensive array glyphs engraved upon the Tarantula's armor suddenly lit up and released a hard spiritual energy barrier; blocking a vast majority of the attacks.
After penetrating the spiritual energy barrier with great difficulty, the remainder of the attacks seemed like an arrow at end of its flight; the attacks were simply insufficient to penetrate the thick armor.
Apart from the acid attack which left a few ugly traces on the armor, the poisonous stingers were simply deflected by the circular armor while the mystic laser beams just transformed into rising smoke; they weren't even able to pierce an inch inside the armor.
"Its defense is so strong!?"
"But of course, that's the outer covering of the crafting furnace, it is designed to resist high temperature and pressure, but also had a very high resistance to corrosion, so of course its defense will be strong!"
"The Wolf King's ability to dodge was improved to the limit, whereas the Tarantula is just dodging lazily and took most of the attack head-on!"
"How can it be compared? How do we tell which is more powerful?"
While the hundreds of people were screaming, the Tarantula took the tempest of attacks head-on and crossed the swamps and rocky terrain swaggeringly. Its slender legs similarly displayed their powerful ability to steer which is no way inferior to the Wolf King's, and maybe one could even say, it was better.
Next was the shooting range.
Ten silver target balls were floating about a couple hundred meters away.
Just a while ago, the Wolf King complete hit right at the center of the target, god knows how the Tarantula would...
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"
As the crystal eye took aim, the turret on the back of the Tarantula rotated flexibly and the dual-mounted mini-caliber crystal railgun started firing and its corresponding sound was even louder than the triple-mounted large-caliber crystal railgun.
The ten targets far away, in the blink of an eye, were covered in smoke.
"No! Way!"
"He actually modified the crystal railguns too and also engraved offensive array glyphs to improve the firepower of the crystal railguns!"
"This is completely unreasonable! The stronger the firepower of the crystal railgun is, the greater the consumption of crystals will be. The Mystic Wolf is a lightweight warbeast, how can it carry so many crystals? Just a round of fire would consume all the crystals; it would not be possible to fight continuously!"
"Idiot, just take a look at the Tarantula, from which angle does it look like a lightweight warbeast? At the very least, it is a middleweight warbeast!"
"Its center of gravity is low, its stability is good, and its design is quite convenient for an ammo storage. Maybe the coolant part at the abdominal region has been modified as an ammo storage!"
"Wow! Its firepower is about three to five time better than an ordinary Mystic Wolf! I wonder how good its accuracy is?"
As the smoke dissipated, everyone could not wait to look towards the target.
However, they didn't see anything.
The ten target balls had been completely blown away by the fearsome firepower of Tarantula.
All that left was some silver bits and pieces fluttering around like the petals scattered by a goddess from high heavens which soon were scattered away by the wind.
"..."
A pin-drop silence enveloped the entire weapon test site.
Everyone was rendered speechless. They didn't know how to describe their complex feelings.
Just a while ago, the Wolf King had taken 1.2 seconds to finish the battle; it was absolutely an instant kill.
How long would the Tarantula take?
The Tarantula once again lowered its center of gravity to the point that its abdomen was almost sticking to the ground, it gave the impression of an assassin moving stealthily in the darkness.
When it stealthily arrived about three meters away from its prey, it suddenly jumped into the air. Whereupon, all the blades at the end of its slender legs popped out and deeply pierced the target!
Suddenly, eight holes had been thrust out in the gel.
Whereas the nails mounted on the legs respectively caught a large part of gel, and when the legs were forcefully pulled out, they ruthlessly ripped a large part of the flesh, leaving behind eight horrifying wounds.
Such swift and fierce action had made many people's eyes twitch.
The next scene that transpired was absolutely shocking.
Unlike the Mystic Wolf, the Tarantula didn't follow up with a most orthodox line of attack and directly bit upon the throat, killing the prey in one attack...
Instead, it adopted an "execution" like mode of attack. First, it tore away the flesh before cutting off the prey's limbs, opened its belly and smashed its spine, afterward it tore the corpse into pieces using its eight legs!
It was an incomparably brutal mode of attack, which made everyone's scalp tingle. Everyone almost felt an intensely bloody stench assaulting their nose.
When they looked at Li Yao, they had a strange look in their eyes.
Even Jiang Shaoyang had a very strange look in his eyes when he glanced at Li Yao. He could not help but ask, "Was it necessary?"
"The life force of a demon beast is rather powerful. Many demon beasts will continue to bite even when their heads have been cut off."
Li Yao lightly fiddled with his disheveled hair and explained, "I have carried out multitudes of modifications on the Mystic Wolf; its mode of attack is quite different from the past. Therefore, its attack mode needed to be reprogrammed.
"However, as the time was short, I didn't have the time to use the telepathic thoughts to programme all the modes of attack; I could only programme a 'complete destruction' mode.
"The so-called 'complete destruction' activates all the array glyphs to the limit, and once it encounters an enemy, it will attack with full force regardless of its consumption of crystals. The enemy would be reduced to nothing!"
Jiang Shaoyang was rendered speechless.
His Wolf King also had the "complete destruction" mode.
However, having looked at Li Yao's "complete destruction", he realized that his "complete destruction" was a f*cking "merciful" mode!
After fifteen seconds...
All that was left of the target were a few fist-sized pieces, and the skeleton forged from complex steel which had been completely twisted; it no longer resembled its previous appearance.
Finally, the Tarantula stopped attacking and let out a hissing sound as steam emerged from its body before it lay down and rested in satisfaction.
Looking at the messy test site, everyone was rendered speechless; meanwhile, their backs were completely drenched in sweat.
Many people glanced at each other as a question emerged from the bottom of their hearts at the same time, "Wolf King and Tarantula, both have completed different combat style yet they are equally powerful. Which one is weaker and which one is stronger, how will they compare?"
Chapter 218: The Tarantula vs the Wolf King |
The test crystal processor operated at lightning fast speed before transmitting a series of performance parameters.
The values in the list for the Tarantula were unlike those of the Wolf King, for which all the values in the list were exceedingly high; the values were like a chain of mountains, sometimes high and sometimes low.
Several of the values were as high as a lofty peak that was towering into the clouds, while some of the values fell to the bottom; they were even worse than the average Mystic Wolves.
"Speed limit, reduced to 84%!"
"Balance, improved to 192%!"
"High-speed shooting accuracy, improved to 167%!"
"Stealth, reduced to 67%!"
"Defense, improved to 235%!"
"..."
"Overall battle force, unable to determine!"
After the test crystal processor emitted an ear-piercing noise, it stopped operating. A series of red characters popped out on the holographic screen, underneath which was another line of small text, "The difference between the test subject and the Mystic Wolf is too large, the system is unable to determine the overall battle force using the Mystic Wolf battle force evaluation programme."
The three examiners slightly frowned. They had never expected Li Yao to actually modify the Mystic Wolf to such an extent that even the crystal processor was unable to evaluate it.
After giving it a bit of thought, they realized it was right and proper. After adding multitudes of components from the crafting furnace, the Tarantula had already transformed from lightweight warbeast to middleweight warbeast. Whether it was the firepower or the modes of fighting, everything had been completely turned upside down. Ergo, it was indeed inappropriate to use the Mystic Wolf evaluation programme.
Now the question was, had the battle force of Tarantula reached the 90% of an ordinary Mystic Wolf?
"I think, the Mystic Wolf repaired by Student Li Yao is a failure."
After having paused for a while, Zhu Yueqin spoke first, "As a lightweight warbeast, its main objective is to perform reconnaissance missions, for which the speed and stealth are necessities. Not to mention, Student Li Yao disassembled the crafting furnace and used its component. Regardless of whether this conduct is in line with the norms of the exam or not, at the very least, doing this, Student Li Yao had removed the biggest advantage of the Mystic Wolf.
"It is true that the outer covering of the crafting furnace is strong enough to withstand high temperature and pressure, has a high resistance to corrosion, and is a very good armor material.
"However, why is such a good armor isn't applied to warbeasts and combat suits?
"Because it has a very serious flaw, it is too thick, too heavy, and too inept!
"Using this kind of material as armor would indeed improve the defense, but at the same time, it would increase the weight significantly. The armor would be like a turtle shell forged from iron and steel.
"Even worse is that the Magic Wolf originally was a lightweight warbeast. Its propulsion array glyphs are designed completely in light with the standard requirements of a lightweight warbeast. Even if Student Li Yao fortified the array glyphs, he didn't change the foundation; it is impossible to boost the propulsion force by a large degree.
"Using the propulsion array glyphs of a lightweight warbeast to move a turtle shell is tantamount to move a heavy cart with a pony.
"The end result is as you can see, it was very loud, slow, and although the eight-legged design guarantees stability, its steering isn't flexible at all.
"Such a warbeast is obviously unsuitable for reconnaissance missions. I am also very suspicious of its continuous combat ability.
"To sum it up, my conclusion is that Student Li Yao had failed in proper maintenance and should be judged unqualified.
"What do you both think?"
Zhu Yueqin looked at the two examiners with a calm look on her face.
After all, she was a master refiner with rich experience, a professor-level figure who quickly regained her calmness after having been stunned for a moment. She wasn't confused by the Tarantula's horrifying performance; she could see through the weak points of the Tarantula at first glance.
Her views were well-founded and convincing. If she wanted to make things difficult for Li Yao, at best, she could add some harsh adjectives regarding Li Yao, nothing more.
Li Yao was after all not some great Golden Immortal, it was impossible for him to modify a completely damaged Mystic Wolf into a perfect warbeast using most common materials, and that too within a span of ten hours.
If it was strengthened in some departments, it would obviously be weakened in other departments too. You can't have the cake and eat it too.
The moment he decided to use the components of crafting furnace to fortify the warbeast, Li Yao gave up on speed and stealth. He chose firepower and defense.
In addition, he was pressed for time. There was the issue of incompatibility between two different kinds of components. Under the disguise of the aggressive appearance of the Tarantula, many flaws had been concealed.
Originally, if Li Yao could use the ancient technique of forging, and further process the material, the parameters of Tarantula would be greatly improved too.
However, on one hand, there wasn't an anvil in the repair workshop for him to use the ancient techniques of forging, and he also didn't bring the Dark Star Rock.
On the hand, he wasn't willing to fully expose his own secrets under the public eye.
Therefore, he could not use the ancient techniques of forging and only used the most common forging techniques.
The Tarantula presented in front of everyone was just an incomplete product. It was just a lame giant, so obviously, there were some advantages and disadvantages.
"Professor Zhu, I disagree with your views," Yan Tianhe said.
"In the exam, the examinees were just asked to recover the warbeast, they weren't required to ensure that the warbeast should be a lightweight
warbeast after the maintenance, and it should be able to carry out reconnaissance missions.
"The battle force is a comprehensive concept. You cannot look at just one or two parameters.
"After Student Li Yao completed the maintenance, the warbeast had already been modified to middleweight warbeast, it's very normal for it to have its speed and stealth worse than the lightweight warbeast!
"However, look at its attack and defense, especially after being implemented the turret design, the high-speed shooting accuracy, all of these values have substantially improved. They had surpassed the limit of a Mystic Wolf.
"And such good balance means that this warbeast could carry more offensive magical equipment.
"I think the crystal railgun can be changed into two three-mount turrets, one above and one below. And also, four mini-flying sword launchers can be installed, which would significantly improve its firepower. Allowing it to perform attacking missions rather than just reconnaissance missions.
"In my opinion, Student Li Yao made do with whatever was available. He made full use of available resources and successfully completed the maintenance operations. He should be judged qualified!"
Zhu Yueqin and Yan Tianhe, the two veteran refiners' gazes clashed in the air and seemed to be producing invisible sparks.
In the last few decades of Refiners' Registration Examination, disagreement between the examiners and clash of opinions had rarely been seen.
In this kind of situation, the opinion of the third examiner became, even more, important.
Dong Liuqi was rather at a loss.
He had been an examiner for almost a decade and never encountered such a scene.
Zhu Yueqin and Yan Tianhe's conclusions were well-founded.
From head to tail, the Tarantula was a complete freak. Whereas the "battle force" was more of a generalized concept. Except for comparison between the same type of warbeasts, it was difficult to say which was strong and which was weak when it was a comparison between different models, different weight class, and different combat purposes. Even more so, when judging to an accuracy of 90%, it was simply impossible.
