6 Exploration

Doctor Fei Hua gave Ji Liu the task to find a monster with Wind / Water dual type. Sadly, capturing it for the lab was the aim so Ji Liu can't form a contract with it. Exploring the forest outskirts of the city instead of going to the lab was what the Doctor advised him to do.

At first, Ji Liu thought that it would be an easy task since this Yun City, but it was already the 3rd day and he still hasn't caught one.

The good thing though is that Ji Liu learned a lot about fusing in these 3 days, first was that fusing different leveled monster would result in the same higher leveled monster. An example would be like fusing his Sunset Silver Duprasi with any Mortal level monster, the result would still be a Sunset Silver Duprasi no matter what. In short, no mutation occurs, but a new monster is still created, meaning that if a 1st stage monster had increased its stage to 5th stage and was fused, the resulting monster would be at the 1st stage.

Another discovery was that fusing the same monsters would result in the same monster, only weaker. He took note of this and he decided to call it 'redundant mutation' where, to put it simply, the resulting monster's DNA code which would look like 'ATG' is mutated by two fusing monster, but the resulting mutated code is still 'ATG'.

There is also the 'Unexpected Mutation' in which the resulting monster turns out different than what the system showed. The first time he experienced this was when he got a 2nd stage bronze leveled Ice Mantis when he fused his Thundara Sparrow and with a Crystal Mantis instead of the predicted 6th stage bronze leveled Rainbow Oriole.

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Ji Liu thought that he may have to wait for Saturday since the time he is able to hunt is quite late till night, but he still goes around hunting so he could fuse monsters and currently was a number of minutes away from finishing another one.

Bored, he decided to name his monsters. First was the 9th stage Bronze leveled Silver Edge Eaglesong, it was fast so he named it as 'Xiao Su'. The other one was a no-brainer since it is a 5th stage Bronze leveled Ruby-Eyed Nomad-Bee, he named it 'Beedrill'. The Sunset Silver Duprasi was next on the naming list since the other two is currently being fused and Ji Liu was reluctant to name the monster in advance since he knew it can still undergo 'Unexpected Mutation'.

He then caught a 4th stage Bronze leveled Skull Donkey and after defeating it, started forcing a contract to the monster, and as the contract slowly completes, the blood collar also forms slowly.

This so-called blood collar is what differentiates contracted monsters to non-contracted ones, is made out of the contractor's blood and is easy to detect even from far away so people know if a monster is tamed in advance.

Just as he waits for the donkey to gain consciousness, pondering what good name he'll give his Sunset Silver Duprasi and the new guy, he spotted a 5th stage Bronze leveled Cloud Mamba, a dual typed monster of wind / water near another monster's nest by the river.

It was just what he was looking for.

He commanded Xiao Su and Beedrill to secure the perimeter while his Sunset Silver Duprasi, which he decided to call 'Xiao Cike', would mount a sneak attack since its skill set is very good at executing assassinations.

Xiao Cike first executed its [Stealth] to move unnoticed, slowly closing in, it then used [Advanced Poison Attack] using its fang and claws surprising the enemy monster. Poison Attacks are wonderful for sneak attacks such as these since even just a slight contact would poison the target.

Just when the Cloud Mamba was about to retaliate from the barrage of attack, Xiao Cike waited for the enemy to turn around to face it before disengaging and then followed up by executing its [Flash] Ability.

The effect was not great since the snake uses its pit organ to detect its prey's location by the heat its body emits, but it still did the job of distracting the snake enough to buy time for Xiao Cike to use its [Advanced Illusion Attack].

Xiao Cike's illusions are made by producing a sound that messes with the target's brain. And while still under this effect, Xiao Cike used tackle and its super effective! The wild Cloud Mamba fainted.

Ji Liu then immediately took out his bag and put the snake inside since the fusion was done during the battle. He decided to let Xiao Cike rest for a bit while he checks the status of his two new monsters

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Skull Donkey

Type: Dark / Earth

Level: 4th stage Bronze

Status: Slightly weakened

Abilities: Earth Attack, Dark Trail

Evolution condition: Slay 100 (53 left) Bronze or higher level monsters, Survive for 183 (42 left) days

Special evolution: Endure 5000 (0 left) attacks, Consume 5 (5 left) Dark-type monster core

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Jet-Black jumping Spider

Type: Ice / Dark

Level: 7th stage Bronze

Status: Healthy

Abilities: Ice Trail, Advance Ice Attack, Advance Dark Attack, Dark Stealth

Evolution condition: Slay 300 (300 left) Bronze or higher level monsters, Survive for 61 (61 left) days

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While looking at the monsters wondering whom he should fuse, he detected Beedrill's need for help. Putting his bag on top of the Skull Donkey, he notified Xiao Su to rush there and help while he picked up Xiao Cike and ran toward Beedrill's direction.

Ji Liu arrived late. He spotted Beedrill heavily wounded while Xiao Su tries desperately to defend the bee.

The monster attacking was a rare one, it's one of those humanoid looking monsters with high intelligence. The patchwork armor it wears on its body is made from monsters with high defense, mainly water and earth type ones. It wields a spear made out of a monster's horn, clearly worn with the amount it was used.