Chapter 100
A Month Later

One month. That was how long Chu Shen and Lucas spent training and preparing. Chu Shen started cultivating and forging to earn money for Lucas to create new weapons. Lucas also became busy, hunting for materials and beast cores, inventing new weapons. It became extremely hectic.

Chu Shen advanced to become a Four Star artificer, capable of making a mid-tier Martial weapon. He also cultivated to the ninth level of the Martial Practitioner stage during this time.

Lucas, on the other hand, finally started re-equipping himself. First he equipped his body with 12 beast cores in total, all of them being class 5. 3 beast cores for each of his four limbs with another lightning beast core to power himself.

There was 2 earth cores with one in each hand. There was 6 fire cores with two in each foot and one in each hand. Then there was 2 ice cores, one in his hand and one in his foot. Finally there was 2 wind cores in the other hand and foot.

Lucas was also finally able to measure his strength. Previously he had used a Class 4 electric beast core. With it, he was barely able to match Chu Shen in strength at 60.25 tons of force. But he had upgraded to a Class 5 beast core since then!

Finally, Lucas was able to compare their strength with complete accuracy. It came out to be 90 tons, or 180,000 pounds. However Chu Shen did not slack either. Remember, each time he advanced a level, he would gain 5,000 pounds of strength! So now, Chu Shen no longer had 60.25 tons but 80.25 tons or 160,500 pounds!

Meanwhile, Lucas started advancing in other areas. The reason that the drones before were only one shot items was because they had the cheapest beast cores possible, the ones without a beast spirit. As a result, they only had one shot before the beast core ran out of energy and could not recharge.

However, he was able to buy more beast cores with beast spirits inside them. With that, Lucas was able to make four beast core drones to go with the holo drone. But what Lucas made during this time was not limited to that.

He also created explosive nanites. They were extremely small and contained a powerful explosive. The way Lucas designed them to be used, they were to be scattered through the air and breathed in by the opponent. Then the nanites would explode, leaving the opponent with severe internal injuries.

Lucas recreated four primordial pistols he had previously with various cores to be used for ammo according to the situation. He gave Chu Shen two of them so that he would have a surprise weapon.

Lucas also made a railgun, since it was so effective last time. He used a class 6 lightning beast core this time and created two of them, one for him and another for Chu Shen. Obviously the railgun’s offensive capabilities would be tremendously boosted with the increase of energy.

Finally, Lucas used class 5 beast cores for the five sniper drones he made. All of them used railguns for long range fighting. After all, Lucas may now be proficient at close-combat. But for long-range combat, he needed to rely on other things like the sniper drones

Chu Shen and Lucas had some interesting spars after that. Of course, neither of them used lethal attacks like railguns or nanites. Only Qi and beast cores was used in their fights. They fought a couple times but Lucas was finally fully equipped and Chu Shen took a break from cultivating.

It was time to settle their duel properly.

Chu Shen and Lucas faced each other a hundred meters apart with their hands at their sides. Both of them stared at the other, waiting for one of them to make the first move. Lucas held his primordial pistols in each hand while Chu Shen held his as well.

Suddenly, Lucas lifted his right hand and fired a beam of ice at Chu Shen. Chu Shen immediately activated <The Stars Dance> to dodge it. Lifting up his own pistol he fired it back at Lucas.

Unlike before, it was a narrow beam that ended quickly. As Lucas and Chu Shen became more proficient with their inscriptions, they found different ways to manipulate them. For example, the channeling inscription on the primordial pistols.

It could be adjusted to fire all of the Qi inside the beast core at once. Or it could fire small portions of it, resulting in rapid fire shots with weaker power. If you could compare it to something, it would be the difference between a machine gun and a bazooka. One was a powerful weapon with one shot. The other was weaker but made up for it with continuous shots.

Chu Shen had a lightning core and an earth core. The lightning core was a powerful attack and could stun a person. The earth core trapped and slowed the opponent down.

Chu Shen fired small blasts of lightning at Lucas, hoping to short circuit Lucas. Unfortunately, Lucas suddenly flew into the air, flames exploding out of his feet.

Chu Shen frowned. “Hey no fair! I can’t fly so neither can you!” He kept up his barrage of lightning. Lucas dodged everyone of them though, flames exploding on his feet.

Lucas grinned as he returned fire with his ice and metal pistols. “What? It’s not my fault you can’t fly. Besides, you should feel honored.” Lucas suddenly fell as part of his body became extremely from the earth Qi that became attached to him.

He hit the ground with a THUD. Chu Shen smirked at him. “Oh? And why should I be honored?” He fired earth Qi at Lucas, trapping him inside an earthen shell. But Lucas merely smiled as the earthen shell exploded. Flames poured around him as he used the fire beast core in his palm to destroy the shell of earth.

Lucas fired a beam of ice from his other palm and hit Chu Shen. But the ice seemed to evaporate as he absorbed the Qi with his body shield. “Well I did take the idea from you after all. Remember, your robot at the tournament? It used the same principle.”

Chu Shen’s eyes widened in recognition. “Oh yeah. Wait Doesn’t that make you a copy cat then!” Chu Shen closed in on Lucas, covering himself in armor similar to an ancient samurais. This was the <Cancellation Armor> left behind for the Void Sect’s inheritors.

Lucas fired rapidly at Chu Shen, the metal primordial pistol managing to pierce halfway through his <Cancellation Armor> before being absorbed. This goes to show the true penetrative power of the metal attribute.

Chu Shen stored his primordial pistol and brought out his hammer, holding it with one hand. Compared to before, his hammer was no longer a pure black but streaked with a coppery gold color. Obviously Chu Shen had integrated some more metals into his living steel hammer while he was cultivating.

Lucas backpedaled as Chu Shen closed in but he put away his pistols, knowing that they truly didn’t help against this energy parasite called Chu Shen. Instead, he thrust his hand into the ground and hauled up a large hunk of rock. He hit the rock with his palm, simultaneously causing an explosion with his fire beast core.

The rock shot towards Chu Shen, becoming a deadly hail of shrapnel. A round shield with chinese characters inscribed around it appeared in front of Chu Shen at a slanted angle. Obviously this was the Universe Shield! It successfully deflected half of the rock shards. The other half continued at Chu Shen but his armor was able to handle it, though it did dull significantly.

Chu Shen swung his hammer at Lucas while Lucas swung his fist at Chu Shen. Both of them were about to hit each other when a translucent barrier appeared around them both.

Chu Shen sighed. It had only been four months since he came to this realm. Compared to the previous time of ten months in Lucas’ realm it was truly too short. Chu Shen wondered, what was the reason the Heavenly Treasure Pavilion really existed? Why did it travel between realms? Was it really just a pastime of some great expert?

“Hey Chu Shen, you got everything we need? I mean, do you have my drones, nanites, and the fabber?” Lucas called out hurriedly. He had spent a long time creating those drones and if he lost the fabber…. Well, let’s just say that it would be a sad fate indeed.

Chu Shen nodded. “Yep, I carry everything with me now. I even bought a couple extra spatial rings to do it. Don’t worry. I also used the Chains of Transportation to make an amulet leading back to the forest here. We can always come back.”

Lucas grinned. “Great. Then, let’s go to the next realm already!” With that, they disappeared into thin air.

[End Arc 3: The Black Rose]

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