Chapter Ninety-Eight: Growth (First Update)

As night fell, scattered stars had already spilled their faint glitter across the sky.

In the month of May, the weather was gradually warming, and in the woods, fields, and meadows, the summer insects unique to night began to sing.

Within the stream where the olm lay, an extraordinary scene was unfolding.

The water flowing down from upstream seemed calm and unhurried, yet as it neared the olm's massive body, the cool, faintly sweet mountain spring water began to whirl.

From below to above, the stream spiraled around the olm's body in a revolving current, then naturally spun downward before finally slipping away soundlessly from its form and drifting on toward the lower reaches of the creek.

Under the silvery moonlight, the entire area around the stream was washed in rippling reflections of water.

After nearly seven hours of meditation, the olm had grown at a startling rate.

Even curled up, its body now filled the narrow channel of the stream.

At roughly seven and a half meters in length, it looked much like a full-grown water serpent, yet compared to such a creature, the olm carried a more imposing and majestic air.

With only two or three minutes of game time remaining, Ji Yu ended his meditation and opened his eyes.

The moment the meditation ceased, the water spinning around the olm's body fell at once, producing a sound that was neither loud nor quiet.

Its appearance made the surrounding insect songs fall briefly silent, but only a few dozen seconds later, the chorus of early summer insects rose once again in rivalry.

Ji Yu controlled the olm and crawled out of the stream.

On the gravel bank beside it, the entire body of the olm stood stretched across the grass.

Ji Yu turned the creature's head and took in his own transformed body from top to tail.

Seven and a half meters long, its waist was no thicker than an ordinary dinner plate.

Its entire body was now covered in long, smooth silver-white scales, and the section between its four limbs arched upward in two bowed curves. Standing in such a posture, it seemed all the more an image of quiet authority.

Lifting one forepaw, Ji Yu tried a sweeping motion.

The clean cutting sound through the air was surprisingly pleasing to the ear.

"It's really starting to look more and more like a dragon."

Ji Yu was quite satisfied, but then he thought of the olm's Absolute Zero trait.

Since he had never tried it before, and he was about to log off soon, Ji Yu naturally intended to see what kind of effect and power this one-percent mastery of Absolute Zero could produce.

Then, with no special effect at all, a chill began to spread from around the olm's body under the influence of Absolute Zero.

The temperature around it began to fall.

Twenty-two degrees.

Fifteen degrees.

Five degrees.

...

Slowly, by the time Ji Yu felt the surrounding temperature dropping to about negative fifteen degrees, the change no longer continued.

With the blessing of the Absolute Zero trait, the olm's perception of temperature became extremely sensitive.

In the olm's field of view, a visual effect akin to thermal sensing even appeared, allowing it to quantify temperature.

Looking around, Ji Yu saw that the Absolute Zero under his control affected only a range of five meters in every direction around the body.

Centered on the olm, the creature itself was the coldest point, and moving outward, the radiating effect of the temperature grew increasingly faint.

Extending a claw, Ji Yu lightly touched a puddle in the grass, and the water in that small puddle instantly froze.

Seeing this, Ji Yu could not help smiling.

"Not bad. Even if the power doesn't look that impressive yet, there is still plenty of room for future growth."

Gradually, Ji Yu withdrew the power of Absolute Zero, then prepared to log off.

But before leaving, he still had one thing to do: nurture the olm's spirituality.

As he had done with the fawn before, Ji Yu transmitted fragments of basic common knowledge into the olm, while also imposing a certain degree of deterrence through images.

Why call it deterrence?

The reason was actually very simple.

Although the olm at level one had changed tremendously after a day of growth, the intelligence it possessed had not truly been born.

At present, the olm merely had more spirit than before; it had still not stepped beyond the intellect range of an ordinary animal.

So when dealing with the olm, necessary threatening images were what would keep it obediently in place rather than wandering off and causing trouble.

It was much the same as how he had treated the fawn back then.

The final image Ji Yu transmitted before leaving was of a thunderous giant hand appearing, and every time it tried to leave the stream's territory, that hand would seize it and drag it back to where it belonged.

After nearly a hundred repetitions of this image, the scene was enough to be firmly etched into the olm's memory.

Then Ji Yu controlled the olm back into the stream and concealed it within the water using the shape-shifting aquatic form ability.

——————

[Player Status]

[Good]

[Life Level: 2]

[Physique: 24.99 (cap 5)] x5

[Height: 1.82 meters (cap 2.5 meters)] x2

[Age: 26 years (cap 150 years)] x2

[Trait 1: Vigorous Vitality (Medium)]

[Trait 2: Natural Affinity (Medium)]

[Trait 3: Heightened Awareness (Low)]

[Trait 4: Life Grafting (High)]

[Trait 5: Cellular Memory (High)]

[Newly acquired trait 1: Water Mimic Form (Medium) - The body can take on the appearance of water without altering its physical form, yet it becomes as transparent and clear as water, granting excellent concealment.]

By the time Ji Yu logged out of the game, it was already one in the morning in the Ryan Federation.

Looking at the data panel before him, Ji Yu for a moment did not know what to say.

"They actually gave me the olm's Water Mimic Form?"

Ji Yu did not know whether to feel pleased or helpless.

Still, thinking about it carefully, it was actually not bad. At the very least, this time the game had not given him the olm's low-level environmental adaptation trait.

With Water Mimic Form, he could at least make use of it when going into the water in the future.

Thinking of this, Ji Yu shook his head and smiled.

Although it was already one in the morning, he did not feel sleepy at all.

For him now, sleep and food had become somewhat optional.

That was one of the benefits of Life Grafting.

If he were hungry, Ji Yu could simply find a tree anywhere in the residential district and rest a hand on it; then about 0.02 units of life essence would be enough to satisfy his body's minimum needs for an entire day.

And for mental recovery, he could also rely on life essence.

Of course, most of the time Ji Yu still would not use this ability within the city. After all, one should still eat what one ought to eat; otherwise, behavior too abnormal might draw the attention of those with ill intent.

He got up and walked to the computer desk, intending to look at recent news on the internet.

At the same time, he wanted to see whether the Ryan Federation officials were planning to gradually loosen their speech restrictions.

Entering NewBlog, the largest social news platform in the Ryan Federation, Ji Yu clicked into the trending news.

He casually scrolled through it.

As usual, most of the headlines were entertainment-related, but mixed among them was still one very different trending report.

And the content of that trending report concerned the miraculous event that had occurred half a month ago at White Oak in the Western Accord.