Chapter 59: Chapter 57: Hidden Boss, Transcender!_1

Translator: 549690339

“23 minutes and 19 seconds, cleared the ordinary difficulty level of Star of Mutation.”

“If it weren’t for the boss’s strong recovery ability and the core constantly shifting position within its body, making it harder to destroy…”

“The kill time could be further reduced.”

Jiang Chen was very satisfied.

Clearing the ordinary difficulty level of Age-Old Shadow wasn’t much of an accomplishment.

Any mecha pilot with a certain level of combat experience and a mecha enhanced to the limit could defeat an ordinary boss.

But keep in mind that Zero is far from reaching its limit—

The quality of modules a mecha is loaded with can only be one level higher than the mecha’s own quality.

An ordinary quality mecha can at most utilize the effect of excellent quality modules.

A superior quality mecha can unleash the effect of Flawless Modules!

The difference in attributes between the two types of modules is enormous.

The same goes for enhancement materials.

The superior modules currently loaded on Zero are far from reaching the mecha’s upper limit, and no enhancements have been made yet.

Being able to achieve the current battle record has already proven its excellence.

Now, it is truly a prime piece of mecha!

“If there were more Supercharge Modules, keep the snowball rolling.”

“Maybe one day, by the power of Zero alone, it could clear the Abyss difficulty level…”

Jiang Chen looked forward to this as he quickly browsed through the settlement loot.

The drop rate on ordinary difficulty is low; even with a solo SSS-class rating, nothing much of value dropped.

Among them, [Turtle Carapace Arm Shield] as an ordinary quality external armor, only had one hundred fifty points of defense.

It wasn’t even higher than the primeval mecha’s own defense.

He tossed it straight into storage to use as practice material for repair and enhancement.

After browsing,

Jiang Chen chose not to exit the abyss.

Instead, he floated up and flew into the sky.

Reaching a higher position, he scanned the area and quickly spotted the root vines squeezing out of the planet’s “wounds.”

They rose high and stretched on endlessly, almost like a green mountain range.

“The true root vine main body…”

After entering Age-Old Shadow, all that was needed was to kill the “boss” to be considered as completing the mission, and rewards could be settled and one could exit at any time.

The process seemed very simple, the area not large—merely the size of a city at most…

But the reality was not so.

The abyss constructed out of Age-Old Shadow was much more than a city.

It was a world with no boundaries, almost like reality!

According to discussions by mecha pilots on forums, many high-rank mecha pilots abandoned their missions, steering their spatial mechas away from danger, flying towards the depths of the starry sky.

Even until time ran out, they didn’t reach the end.

Therefore, mecha pilots believed that the Age-Old Shadow would either continue constructing relevant scenes based on the entrants’ location,

Or it’s simply an entirely independent world.

In this situation, Although the mission only required mecha pilots to kill the abyss leader,

That abyss leader might not be the strongest monster in Age-Old Shadow, nor necessarily the most profitable choice.

For instance, during the rank-up trial, the Archaic God that slumbered in the depths of the sea abyss.

It belonged to the “hidden boss” of Steam World.

However, exploration time in the abyss was limited.

When Jiang Chen was at 0th Rank, he couldn’t even fully explore a city, let alone the vast planet.

Now, with the flight capability provided by the [Bio-organic Force Field] of the primeval mecha,

Combined with agility surpassing a hundred, the straight-line flight speed had already exceeded Mach One.

This was the initial capability required to explore the planet.

At this moment, he set his target, flew at full speed towards the Roots mountain range.

“Whether Newborners or Evolvers, they are just branches of the root vines that erode the planet.”

“After destroying the core, only the individual withers, but the root vines covering the city didn’t get destroyed alongside.”

“This indicates that they are not so important to the root vine.”

Jiang Chen recalled the description of Star of Mutation.

[The root vines continue to grow, drawing the power of the planet… gestating Him.]

This “Him” in the information clearly wasn’t referring to Evolvers.

But it represented an existence that was even more crucial, more significant.

It was the true core of the roots system’s main body.

Even the roots that spread across the entire planet existed solely to provide nourishment for It, to enable Its birth and growth.

“A monster born from the planet’s power…”

“The burst rate must be very high, right?”

Jiang Chen was somewhat excited.

Unlike the Steam World.

The “It” mentioned in the background description was in the process of being nurtured and born.

As a “fetus,” Its strength certainly couldn’t match that of an Archaic God.

There might be a possibility of overcoming It!

And even if It really was overwhelmingly powerful and unbeatable, it wouldn’t matter.

Jiang Chen had already completed the exploration mission and could leave the abyss to return to the real world at any moment, without needing a minute to prepare.

In the midst of battle, this was akin to having a lifesaving talisman, allowing him to act even more boldly.

Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.

The Roots mountain range, splitting the earth and towering into the clouds, seemed close at a glance.

Even with a flying speed exceeding Mach one, Jiang Chen still took nearly ten minutes to arrive at his destination.

There were only about fifty minutes left for him to stay.

Without any hesitation, he burst through the thick outer layer and burrowed into the mountainous roots.

Inside such a massive root was a light purple liquid that seemed to be brimming to the point of overflowing.

Because the liquid itself emitted light and was fairly clear,

Jiang Chen felt as if he were at the bottom of an endless river, able to see the huge black spheres flowing along with the liquid, drifting in a particular direction.

At the same time, countless fine purple fibers swarmed up like little snakes from within the liquid, attempting to penetrate the mecha.

Unfortunately for them, the primeval mecha had no gaps at all, and its defense of 220 was enough to withstand the erosion of these fibers.

Jiang Chen ignored these tiny fibers and used his scanning device to see through the liquid and lock onto the black spheres.

A line of information appeared.

[Newborn Entity (Unborn)]

The countless black spheres turned out to be the strongest enemies from the basic trials: Newborners?

After his surprise, Jiang Chen decisively piloted his mecha, following the flow direction of the black spheres to swiftly descend.

By following these black spheres, he might just be able to enter the core area of the roots!

One minute…

Ten minutes…

Thirty minutes…

Jiang Chen continued to delve deeper along the purple river, seemingly never able to see the end.

Until the thirty-ninth minute, when the surrounding large black spheres suddenly began to melt rapidly, shrinking into denser small spheres that continued to glide forward.

Signs of slight melting also appeared on the primeval mecha, and the armor value began to decrease slowly.

It was as if he were inside the stomach of a giant, being gradually digested.

After noticing this, Jiang Chen chose to change direction and headed to the edge of the river. He then sliced open one side of the plant tissue wall, drilling his way out.

Accompanied by the splashing liquid, the scene before him suddenly brightened.

He saw that the vast cavern was almost entirely covered by light purple plants.

They emitted a faint purple glow, forming countless long vines that connected to a gigantic cocoon-like structure at the center of the cavern.

The river of roots from which Jiang Chen had escaped was just one of these numerous vines.

He had found it!

Upon seeing this, Jiang Chen immediately activated the external scanning device.

A segment of information appeared before his eyes.

[Transcender (Gestating)]

[Rank: 1]

[Attributes: Strength 477, Agility 477, Defense 477, Enigmatism 0.]

[Traits: A monster that draws power from the planet; as long as it is exposed to star radiance, it can keep healing and growing, possessing the potential to surpass all.]

[Weakness: Core, Magic.]

[Evaluation: The final boss of both ordinary and Abyss difficulty levels. Even if encountered at the ordinary difficulty level, It still possesses considerable power.

Low reward, high risk, unable to affect final rewards, not recommended to challenge.]