“My Lord, this is newly crafted crocodile boa leather armor.” That night, Cang Xu paid a formal visit to Zhen Jin and brought an entire set of leather armor.
The leather armor was made from a crocodile head hammer tail boa, and although its workmanship was crude, because it was made from silver level materials, its defensive power far exceeded Zhen Jin’s ordinary leather armor.
It was so strong that even thin iron armor and chainmail were inferior to it.
Zhen Jin was greatly interested, saying as he tried it on: “Tell me, what have you gained from dissecting the crocodile head hammer tail boa? What are its weaknesses and strengths? There are still three silver level magic beasts near camp, how should we handle them?”
Cang Xu reported: “When it comes to weaknesses, its biggest failure is its inferior hearing.”
“Most snake species lack outer and middle ears; they only have inner ears. They do not have eardrums, tympanic cavities, or ear pharynxes, only ear bones. As a result, when a sound travels through the air, snakes cannot hear it. However because the ear bone is connected to the inner ear oval window, external bones, and square bones, snake bones are very sensitive to vibrations. This is the reason why ordinary snakes are frightened when we beat the ground and underbrush ahead of us with wooden sticks.”
“The hearing of snakes is inferior by itself, and this crocodile head hammer tail boa’s hearing is even worse. Because what I found during the dissection, is that its hearing structure is more in line with a crocodile’s.”
“Crocodiles don’t have ears, instead they use a small bone in their tongue to sense vibrations.
“Anyways, the crocodile head hammer tail boa has a crocodile head, as a result, its sight is stronger than a snake’s, and is especially good at prying into things above water as it lays below the water’s surface. Its eyes have nictitating membranes, a natural diving lens no terrestrial snake has. Its throat also has a biological valve in it that can block its respiratory tract. Thus, the crocodile head hammer tail boa can open its large mouth underwater without worrying about water pouring into its throat.”
“From this I can also infer the fighting strength of this silver level crocodile head hammer tail boa underwater is no small matter.”
“Besides the crocodile mouth’s terrifying biting strength, the crocodile head hammer tail boa’s strongest weapon is its twisting snake body. Your Lordship probably saw Zong Ge’s steel armor and all the deformations on it the crocodile head hammer tail boa created.”
“Its third weapon is the crocodile head hammer tail boa’s hammer tail. Its tail bone is extremely dense and when it is swung, it can easily smash wood.”
“Snake scales do not cover the crocodile head hammer tail boa’s body, rather it is covered with sturdier crocodile skin. This can blow almost any crossbow arrow, only an iron arrow shot by a waist crossbow can truly harm it.”
When Zhen Jin heard this, he could not help but ask: “Then how does it compare to a spear scorpion leader?”
Cang Xu thought for a moment, then immediately answered: “The scorpion carapace is tougher than crocodile skin, even if the arrow was shot by a waist crossbow, I fear it could not pierce a silver level scorpion carapace.”
Zhen Jin nodded. Presently, he had already put on the set of crocodile leather armor and was not putting on the leather helmet.
He first felt heavy.
The second thing he felt was that his actions were restricted, it was very inconvenient.
After all the man who made the leather armor was not a specialized smith or tailor.
However compared to the previous leather armor, wearing it would upgrade defense beyond a level.
To an ordinary person, this leather armor had more advantages than detriments to them. But to Zhen Jin, the crocodile leather armor was instead a burden.
Currently, it was an inconvenient time to say this, thus he could only falsely praise: “It's a good set of leather armor.”
Cang Xu replied: “I will not hesitate to remind your Lordship that the defensive power of this armor will constantly drop as time passes. We processed it too crudely.
Of course, the crocodile head hammer tail boa’s skin was a magic material.
But this place prohibited low level magic and battle qi, as a result, the leather armor on Zhen Jin was simply cut up and sewn together, it only utilized the lifeform’s properties and hadn’t truly been deeply processed.
In time, this leather armor would end up like Zhen Jin’s spider blade.
Seeing Zhen Jin’s slight nod, Cang Xu also said: “There is one more thing I want to remind your Lordship of——be careful of Zong Ge.”
“Killing this crocodile head hammer tail boa with his own strength is sufficient proof of Zong Ge’s formidableness.
“Your Lordship’s equipment is still inferior to Zong Ge’s. Zong Ge’s steel armor surpasses your Lordship’s, his bone hammer is also very threatening, even a monkey tail brown bear cannot withstand it. Furthermore, he has never used those short spears, however one can see they are extraordinary weapons.”
“Based on my years of experience, I know Zong Ge is not an accepting person. Even though today he agreed to the exchange system, it does not signify he is giving in.”
“My Lord, please be careful of this person. If he challenges your Lordship publicly, it would be very inconvenient. His beastman bloodline gives him a unique advantage on this island.”
“Many thanks for warning me, I understand.” Zhen Jin had Cang Xu retire.
Resting was difficult while wearing crocodile boa leather armor, so despite it being annoying to remove, Zhen Jin still took it off.
He rested on the best for a few hours until it was late into the night, then he put on the crocodile boa leather armor without trouble.
After arranging all of his equipment, he left camp again.
The guards were already familiar with Zhen Jin’s nighttime patrols.
After arriving at an uninhabited nook in the dark forest, Zhen Jin took off all of his equipment and transformed into an iron level bat monkey.
The bat monkey Zhen Jin traveled through the forest with unconstrained nimbleness. Sometimes he would jump between branches, sometimes he would glide with his wings, and sometimes he would stop on a treetop to smell the light night wind.
His nose had already been transformed into a blue dog fox wolf nose.
In previous training nights, he discovered a clever use for the wolf nose.
It could find surrounding beast groups by means of scent.
This is also why blue dog fox wolves could lead magic beast corps, they could accurately sense the position of beast groups in the boundless ocean of trees, and thus be able to travel to them to subdue them.
But this time, Zhen Jin was not looking for beast groups, instead he was pursuing that silver level bat monkey leader.
During the day, Zhen Jin relied on everyone to defeat the entire bat monkey group, now most of the bat monkeys became their food reserves.
The silver level bat monkey was wounded and fled from its difficult situation.
When Zhen Jin was cleaning the battlefield, he intentionally picked up the arrow stained with the silver level bat monkey’s blood and firmly remembered its scent.
The remaining scent left a distinct trail for Zhen Jin’s wolf dog nose.
The silver level bat monkey leader’s current position was beyond the ultrasound’s investigative range.
“The ultrasound probing range is very wide and is very accurate, however, to pursue the trail, I still need to use scent.” Zhen Jin summed up as he practiced.
“Found it!” Not long after, Zhen Jin found his target in the ultrasound canvas.
It was the wounded silver level bat monkey leader, although it fled, it did not flee far and was still nearby.
It converged with some iron and bronze level bat monkeys, along with many more ordinary bat monkeys.
The silver level had the power to rally supporters and to stand out from the masses. It was like when people curried favor and attached themselves to Zhen Jin’s and Zong Ge’s strength, it was in the habit of bat monkeys to act this way.
Without hesitation, Zhen Jin charged at the silver level bat monkey.
At this moment, he had canceled the wolf nose transformation, allowing him to appear as an iron level bat monkey.
This resulted in Zhen Jin being able to fly into the silver level bat monkey’s perimeter while the other party remained still.
When Zhen Jin was about three hundred meters away from it, the silver level bat monkey screeched, unfolded its wings, and straightened its body to make itself more imposing.
Zhen Jin lowered his head and showed a servile appearance.
The bat monkey was greatly satisfied, it had already discovered Zhen Jin at an earlier time, that is why it stopped here in order to subdue Zhen Jin.
The bat monkey Zhen Jin put away his wings to look subdued, thus he jumped to get closer to the silver level bat monkey.
The silver level was not vigilant, it had already gathered bat monkeys like this many times in the past ten hours. Otherwise, where did the bat monkeys at its side come from?
Only when Zhen Jin climbed onto the branch the silver level bat monkey was standing on did the magic beast have some suspicions——this new little brother seemed enthusiastic about it.
However at that exact moment, a red light emerged and transformed Zhen Jin’s head into a crocodile head.
Zhen Jin opened his large mouth and suddenly bit down on the silver level bat monkey’s head!
As the silver level bat monkey leader sustained the attack, it immediately scratched at Zhen Jin subconsciously.
An iron level bat monkey’s body could not resist a silver level bat monkey’s claws, however Zhen Jin had foreseen that and transformed his chest into a scorpion carapace.
The bat monkey leader’s claws nearly broke when it scratched the scorpion carapace.
The instant the silver level bat monkey realized Zhen Jin’s strength, it fiercely flapped its bat wings while simultaneously breathing fiercely, it wanted to produce a soundwave.
Under the stimulation of death, the bat monkey leader erupted with an unprecedented soundwave.
But Zhen Jin’s senses were on better terms than when he was in human form!
The hearing of the crocodile head hammer tail boa was quite lacking.
After this Zhen Jin also transformed his arms into thick bear arms. The bear arms’ two four fingered orangutan hands grabbed the base of the bat monkey’s wings.
After a moment, the bear arms pulled.
Whoosh, the silver level bat monkey’s wings were forcibly torn apart by Zhen Jin!
For a moment, blood squirted out as the silver level bat monkey mournfully screamed; its sound wave attack came to a spontaneous end.
Without the soundwave’s interference, Zhen Jin bit it again. The crocodile head exploded with a terrifying bite power, and with a bang, the bat monkey leader’s head was crushed into pieces.
The silver level bat monkey died tragically on the spot.
The surrounding bat monkeys shrieked and started to flee in fright.
Everything happened too quickly.
Just as the silver level bat monkey realized something was out of place, Zhen Jin repeatedly transformed and firmly secured victory.
The bat monkey leader only struggled and resisted for a few breaths; Zhen Jin had been plotting to kill it for a long time.
The other bat monkeys seemed to see something similar to them suddenly transform into a monster with a crocodile head, a pair of bear arms, and a scorpion carapace chest!
Not only was the terrifying monster savage, the bat monkey leader’s sound wave only dealt negligible damage to it. The strong leader crazily struggled but could not escape death.
Notes
When I first read the title, I thought this chapter would explore what sly beast was assaulting the beach camp and killing people every night. Said beast caused both the sailors and Zong Ge’s mercenary boy band to end up with Zhen Jin and Co.. Instead of that, we got a transforming monster that can wear the face of any beast in order to hunt its prey. At this point, the MC is just a more tame version of the thing that can’t yet mimic the exact specifications of his appearance. He is locked into a male gender and can’t go full character creator on himself (yet).