October 29, Thursday, Four days after the Double Ninth Festival, and also Zhang Yanhang's first day in the Ashen World, 7:50 PM, the Ashen World, Crimson Iron Ore Vein, large Crimson Iron Ant Nest Talano, Central Region.

After counting the number of dropped treasure boxes, Zhang Yanhang quickly picked up a dark purple quality dropped treasure box from a Crimson Iron Flame Demon Ant, but before opening the treasure box, he remembered something important, "With as many as 1148 dropped treasure boxes, won't I end up spending an hour just opening them?"

Zhang Yanhang believed it was highly likely, but even so, he definitely had to open them, as the ultimate goal of hunting monsters was to gain profits. Although it would take a lot of time, if he didn't open the treasure boxes, wouldn't he have killed those twenty thousand large Crimson Iron Ants for nothing?

[Do you wish to open the 'Drop treasure box (Crimson Iron Flame Demon Ant)'?]

"Yes, open."

Because he not only spent an hour upgrading the All Four Elements are Void Pure World Fist but also was about to spend another hour opening treasure boxes, Zhang Yanhang felt he might no longer rely solely on his hunting efficiency to return to the Main World before the Teleportation Channel closed.

After all, there is a limit to enhancing hunting efficiency, and any further improvement at his current level would yield such low returns that it couldn't offset the time spent opening the set number of dropped treasure boxes. Therefore, he felt he might need to adopt a different strategy to resolve this.

[Please select the specific contents of the 'Drop treasure box (Crimson Iron Flame Demon Ant)']

[Item one: ?]

[Item Two: ?]

[Item Three: ?]

[Item Four: ?]

[Item Five: ?]

"Fighting monsters for fifty minutes, but opening treasure boxes takes an hour, really is..."

Although Zhang Yanhang had previously already prepared for such occurrences, he never expected it to come this rapidly. He always thought that with his current Third Tier hunting efficiency, he wouldn't encounter this issue until he reached the Fourth Tier.

However, the fact proved that his hunting efficiency, boosted by the Spiritual Qi Blessing, far exceeded his past performance and brought about this bizarre situation sooner. As for how Zhang Yanhang is feeling right now, one could describe it in just two words—painful.

"It seems, this excessively slow treasure box opening issue indeed needs to be resolved urgently, but unfortunately, at the Third Tier, I simply don't have the capability. I wonder if there's a way to improve this situation after being promoted to the Fourth Tier, otherwise no matter how fast my hunting efficiency is, it's useless if it's all dragged down by the time consumed by opening treasure boxes."

Though he had only been promoted to the Third Tier less than a day ago, Zhang Yanhang couldn't help but eagerly anticipate advancing to the Fourth Tier—the experience at the Third Tier is great, but the Fourth Tier would definitely be better. People always desire constant progression and improvement.

[Item One]

[Option One: Refined Crimson Marrow (one kilogram), Dark Purple Quality, Material]

[Option Two: 1550 Soul points]

[Option Three: 3100 Soul points]

"The first option, unsurprisingly, is about Soul Points again," said Zhang Yanhang. "However, I didn't expect Crimson Iron Flame Demon Ants to also produce Refined Crimson Marrow. I had initially thought they would drop a higher quality of Crimson Marrow, like the digestive material they use for Fiery Flames Burning Body, stored in their abdomen."

But after careful consideration, Zhang Yanhang realized that the Racial Talent of the Crimson Iron Flame Demon Ants had indeed not mentioned their capability to produce new high-quality materials. As for the substances accumulated in their abdomens, they might be merely explosive materials, which was why they were not included in the options.

"Considering that Refined Crimson Iron is ultimately food for the Crimson Iron Flame Demon Ants, it is still acceptable that such a product is obtained," he continued. "Nevertheless, being Crimson Iron Flame Demon Ants, because their strength is higher than that of the Crimson Iron Flame Ants, even the quantity of Refined Crimson Marrow that one could obtain from a treasure box has doubled."

Zhang Yanhang remembered that an option from the Crimson Iron Flame Ants would yield only five hundred grams of Refined Crimson Marrow, whereas, from the Crimson Iron Flame Demon Ants, an option was worth a kilogram, which is about two Jin of Refined Crimson Marrow.

"However, a kilogram of Refined Crimson Marrow is still not much," he added, "especially since I just consumed two hundred tons of it for upgrading the Four Great Emptiness Purifying World Fist. If approximately calculated, it is around 204,800 kilograms, needing about two hundred thousand drop treasure boxes from the Crimson Iron Flame Demon Ants and choosing this option every time to gather that amount."

To acquire the two hundred tons of Refined Crimson Marrow he had just used, as acquiring one drop treasure box per seven Crimson Iron Flame Demon Ants, Zhang Yanhang would need to defeat 1.4 million Crimson Iron Flame Demon Ants — a number difficult to gather even if the number of monsters increased tenfold through a Permanent Teleportation Channel.

[Item Two]

[Option One: Crimson Marrow Bloodthorn Heavy Hammer, Dark Purple Quality, Weapon]

[Option Two: 1550 Soul points]

[Option Three: 3100 Soul points]

"So, the second item also includes options concerning Soul Points, huh?" Zhang Yanhang mused. "But this Crimson Marrow Bloodthorn Heavy Hammer is a Dark Purple Quality weapon? That's the same quality as my Six Roots Pure Soul Spear."

He recently began to feel, especially after his promotion to Third Tier, that although the Six Roots Pure Soul Spear's power was adequate, or perhaps relied on the significant bonuses he possessed to greatly overflow, its quality was gradually becoming insufficient.

Dark Purple is merely a Third Tier Quality and in fact, early-stage Third Tier Quality. While it indeed could be used up to Fourth Tier, upgrading it would undoubtedly be beneficial.

"Moreover, if the Six Roots Pure Soul Spear could enhance its quality, its own potential for additional bonuses would also increase."

There were many ways for Zhang Yanhang to improve the Dark Purple quality of the Six Roots Pure Soul Spear since he had access to Alchemy. The simplest method being directly replacing some parts of the Six Roots Pure Soul Spear with Golden Quality Refined Crimson Marrow.

However, this method might upgrade it, but post-upgrade, it would almost equate to no upgrade at all, as the Attack Power and Additional Attributes might likely remain unchanged.

Fortunately, this issue wasn't urgent as presently, the damage from the Six Roots Pure Soul Spear was still vastly overflowing. It could even pierce through a 400-meter rock layer tunnel in cases where Double Strike was triggered. Under such circumstances, he could wait until reaching Fourth Tier to worry about it, as there was no necessity now.

After all, he had previously encountered, the Fourth Tier Lord Monster Molten Fire Demon, which couldn't even withstand the Six Roots Pure Soul Spear's standard damage without any active bonuses. Thus, using it to clear the Third Tier monsters he was currently encountering was naturally a breeze. Even if the Six Roots Pure Soul Spear maintained its current power until Fourth Tier, it would be more than sufficient.

[Item Three]

[Option One: 310 Soul points]

[Option Two: 1550 Soul points]

[Option Three: 3100 Soul points]

"Well, I have new equipment and Talent to unlock, but strangely enough, I started off with three consecutive Soul points." Although this situation was extremely common during the Open treasure box process, Zhang Yanhang still couldn't help but want to complain.

"Each Crimson Iron Flame Demon Ant Drop treasure box gives me the option of 3100 Soul points, and each Drop treasure box has three Soul points options. Adding them up, that totals 9300 Soul points, and to think, just randomly opening them almost allows reaching ten thousand Soul points from a single Drop treasure box."

In the past, this kind of treatment couldn't even be achieved by bosses like Maka Bagga or Wild Boar George, who are very rare in each region, but now, Zhang Yanhang has already achieved this by casually killing some minor monsters, signifying a change brought about by the promotion in Tier.

"It seems I just got 76 Drop treasure boxes of Dark Purple Quality from Crimson Iron Flame Demon Ants, so just from opening these double-digit number of Drop treasure boxes, I could easily gather about seven hundred thousand Soul points. It feels like gathering the Soul points needed for leveling up three Skills is not difficult at all."

Zhang Yanhang had anticipated this scenario before, so he wasn't too surprised.

[Item Four]

[Option One: Mystic Steed Power, C-level, Talent]

[Option Two: Large Crimson Iron Ant (Flame Demon Ant), C-level, Talent]

[Option Three: Large Crimson Iron Ant (Fire Ant), C-level, Talent]

"C-level, C-level, still C-level. Because the Crimson Iron Flame Demon Ant's Level is only Third Tier One-star, its Racial Talent truly isn't surprising in the least, identical to that of the Crimson Iron Flame Ant and the Crimson Iron Destruction Ant, all being C-Level Talent."

From Zhang Yanhang's past experience, it seems that he would only encounter B-level Racial Talent when facing Large Crimson Iron Ants of Third Tier two stars or higher. Moreover, B-level is the highest Racial Talent he has ever seen, with A-level and S-level never appearing during his Second Tier due to Tier restrictions.

"I wonder if I could see A-level or even S-level Racial Talent while clearing the Large Crimson Iron Ant Nest Talano this time."

While the chances of encountering A-level Talent on Ordinary Monsters seemed slim, Zhang Yanhang thought it quite likely to find them on the Body of a Lord Monster like the Crimson Iron Queen Ant, even possibly an S-level since after all, it's a Fourth Tier Late Stage Lord Monster.

"Although the fourth option finally isn't Soul points, it still isn't the option about new equipment that I was most looking forward to. So, the next fifth option definitely can't be anything else. It should definitely reveal new equipment." Zhang Yanhang said as he clicked on the fifth option.

[Item Five]

[Option One: Crimson Iron Arm Armor, Purple Quality, Equipment]

[Option Two: Crimson Marrow Arm Armor, Dark Purple Quality, Equipment]

[Option Three: Crimson Marrow Flame Demon Armor, Light Golden Quality, Equipment]

"Crimson Marrow Flame Demon Armor? Just from the name, it sounds like a proper piece of armor, but the names of the first two options reveal its true nature. Since the first two are Crimson Iron Arm Armor and Crimson Marrow Arm Armor, this Crimson Marrow Flame Demon Armor is likely just another piece of Arm Armor."

After opening so many Drop treasure boxes, Zhang Yanhang had accumulated a great deal of experience and was no longer confused by names.

"Even though I haven't looked at the Attribute list of this Crimson Marrow Flame Demon Armor yet, just the Light Golden Quality indicates that it can easily be upgraded to Golden Quality by just a simple Fusion.

Previously, I couldn't get Golden Quality Equipment from Lord Monsters' Drop treasure boxes, but now I can indirectly obtain them from Ordinary Monsters' Drop treasure boxes…"

Speaking of which, Zhang Yanhang even felt he might encounter a higher Quality than Dark Gold in this Crimson Iron Ant Nest Talano, although he didn't know the specific name.

He could guess the pattern of names like Dark Gold, but the next Quality would definitely not include 'Gold' and would be a completely new color. Naturally, he couldn't guess that, but anyway, it probably wouldn't directly be a colorful one. Fifth Tier Equipment likely isn't suited for that kind of Divine Artifact exclusive color scheme.

"Although I'm not sure if I can equip Arm Armor, but let's check the Attribute list first." Zhang Yanhang said as he opened the Attribute list of the Crimson Marrow Flame Demon Armor.

[Crimson Marrow Flame Demon Armor]

[Quality: Light Golden]

[Type: Equipment]

[Origin: Ashen World, Crimson Iron Ore Vein, Large Crimson Iron Ant Nest Talano, Nameless Blacksmith.]

[Durability: 61/61]

[Defensive Power: 43]

[Additional Attributes: Strength Effect +20%.]

[Usage Requirements: Strength 45 Points.]

[Score: 310 (Score for Light Golden Items ranges from 261 to 350.)]

[Summary: Seeing female Adventurers who after being brainwashed by the Witch Demon Mage to remove their memories completely clueless about what happened and suspecting their life turning with every step feeling phantom limb pain limping along, leaning on the wall to leave the maze, the Nameless Blacksmith gleefully laughed, clearly, running a maze suited him best.

Using Refine Solid Hormones and Hormone Gel, Hormone Residue that was separated but still had a slight beauty effect was offered as a prize on the Teleportation Trap, luring countless Female Adventurers daily. As the ultimate hidden boss of the instance, the Crimson Iron Queen Ant has recently started to feel slightly overwhelmed.

Because she is constantly producing hormones with more than a hundred converted Adventurers turned into Crimson Iron Prince Ants, the Crimson Iron Queen Ant recently often inadvertently cries out under the pressure, trying to use the Queen's authority to disperse the surrounding Crimson Iron Prince Ants that for some reason suddenly appeared.

However, the Adventurers completely oblivious to what the Crimson Iron Queen Ant is shouting about often only continue to serve the Crimson Iron Queen Ant with an increased intensity under the influence of the Brainwashing Spell, greatly increasing the speed at which the Nameless Blacksmith collects special hormones.]

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