In the following days, Li Ang mainly busied himself with a few matters.
The first matter was using the remaining Mirage Dragon Red Mane, along with bulletproof nylon, aramid fiber, and other materials, to weave a full set of close-fitting woolen protective gear. After all these years, his craftsmanship had hardly declined. The woolen garments he made were still quite handsome, warm, and sturdy, not easily falling apart. Moreover, these manes were extremely smooth, so wearing them was not as prickly as one might imagine.
The entire set of Mirage Dragon Red Mane needed to be worn close to the body. On the outside, one could wear a layer of regular bulletproof vest, and on the very outside, a Dusk Cloak could be draped as the first layer of defense, as well as to conceal the mane garments. After all, the Killing Field Game System did not have a setting of "only one piece of gear of the same attribute can be worn at a time." In fact, as long as they could fit into them, players with the means could even wear seven or eight suits of plate armor at once, slip rings onto every single one of their fingers and toes, and hang seventeen or eighteen necklaces around their neck, becoming a walking equipment display that all players envied and despised.
The second matter was exploring the Divine Spark of Roanoke. This item came from the Abnormal Embryo beneath the Williams Mansion, a part of the indigenous deity of Roanoke Island—the Reindeer God. What was preparing to resurrect in the mansion at that time was not the original Reindeer God, but a magician from the nineteenth century, Williams. Just an Abnormal Embryo that hadn't yet fully completed the Ritual track of resurrection, and that wasn't even directly controlled by the deity, had caused significant trouble for Li Ang and the others, nearly leading to their annihilation—giving a glimpse into the mighty power the Abnormal Embryo possessed. Furthermore, considering the message from Williams that "the Reindeer God once sank into the swamp and used the last of its power to prevent the island's destruction due to an earthquake," it was truly difficult to gauge how powerful a complete form of the Reindeer God would be.
Based solely on the experiments of these past few days, the Divine Spark had provided Li Ang with an entirely new attribute.
[Swamp God Power: 500/1000]
This attribute, like Spirit Energy Value and Sanity Value, was considered a hidden attribute, not directly displayed on the player's panel. It would only show up when the player actively checked for it.
In addition to the Swamp God Power attribute, the Divine Spark also provided Li Ang with a variety of Divine Arts of varying strength and effect.
Plant Communication: By touching a plant full of vitality, learn everything the plant has seen and heard over a past period. The plant's own strength determines the clarity of the memory.
Promote Plant Birth: Transfer one's own life energy into a plant to accelerate its growth rate.
Animate Soil: Cause soil to soften, harden, and undergo other transformations.
Purification: Render an originally muddy and unclear water source clear and turn poisonous and dead water into drinkable pure water.
Trigger Plague: Through contact, pollute the soil, plants, and animals within an area, or attach the plague curse onto weapons.
Cure Disease: Guide plant vines to penetrate into an organism's body and, in some way, cure certain diseases of the organism. Side effects may occur during the healing process, such as the plant vines taking root and sprouting inside the organism's body... It's not very practical, to say the least.
Evolve Life: By touching a plant full of life, guide its growth and evolve a series of life structures nonexistent in nature, such as pears tasting like apples, or Tree Men with legs. One could also use vines to invade living bodies, transforming the living being into a hybrid monster, part animal and part plant.
The above were all the Divine Arts Li Ang had discovered. Each Divine Art would consume Swamp God Power as well as a certain amount of Spirit Energy Value and Sanity Value. The greater the intensity released, the longer the duration, the larger the consumption, which was basically on par with some lower-level skills.
Among these Divine Arts, the most critical was naturally the last one, "Evolve Life." After testing, Li Ang found that he could create rabbit-sized living beings covered in vines and moss, and to some extent, control the movements of such sized creatures, even perceiving everything that the animate beings saw and heard. This Divine Art seemed to be custom-fit for transforming the Bug Clan using the Origin of Life. Combined, they could create biological weapons that obeyed Li Ang's commands.
Li Ang immediately tested several creatures in the Automated Pet Box. The Nemertean Worms and earthworms, after being parasitized by the vine moss, sprouted numerous plant vines as fine as hair on their surface, their insides filled with twisted greenery. This didn't kill the Nemertean Worms or earthworms but instead enhanced their physiological functions—these worms could now burrow underground, absorbing nutrients from the soil through the vine roots on their bodies, growing like plants. With their vitality enhanced, the worms' resistance to transformation by the Origin of Life also greatly increased. Li Ang could extensively alter them without the worms dying easily.
This was incredibly good news. Li Ang immediately chopped the transformed Nemertean Worms and earthworms into pieces and planted them in the soil, growing them like chives and watching these half-plant, half-animal life forms grow at a visibly rapid pace, like bamboo shoots after rain.
"This is even more convenient than harvesting chives!" Li Ang exclaimed.
The increased vitality of the Nemertean Worms and earthworms directly multiplied the efficiency of transformation by the Origin of Life. There was no longer a need to slowly wait for the worms, cut in two, to heal and grow. The enhanced resilience of the samples to transformation, along with the increase in their numbers, meant an increase in the number of feasible projects. Li Ang came up with all sorts of wild biological transformation proposals, and within a few days, he created a myriad of strange transformed lives with the chive-like swamp worms.
For example, a Burner Worm model, two meters long and so fat it could barely move—this creature had a grotesquely large sac within its body lined with isolating material. This sac was filled with a highly flammable liquid mixed with reactive alkaline metals. At the head of this model worm, there was a narrow and muscular throat tube, and in its mouth, there was a vine-controlled arc lighter.
These Burner Worms, as their name implied, were essentially biological weapons designed to shoot columns of flammable liquid. Li Ang could use the vines inside a worm to render it inactive and then stow it in his backpack slot. When necessary, he could take it out and revive it using the Necromancy Technique. Then, using the control ability granted by his Divine Arts, the Burner Worm would raise its head and contract its body. Utilizing its strong muscles, it would then shoot solidified gasoline bombs into the distance.
This model of worm was essentially a single-use weapon. However, its power was quite formidable, comparable to some flamethrowers, and it was very useful against large targets with poor mobility.