Chapter 109: Werewolf?

Half an hour later, the Iron Feather Eagle descended from the sky, its massive wings beating powerfully, stirring up vast clouds of dust from the ground.

“Hmm, this should be it—the No. 9 Experimental Zone,” Charles said as he landed and summoned Firefly and Moonchild, narrowing his eyes to survey the surroundings.

As far as the eye could see stretched an endless desert, scattered with jagged rocks and only sparse patches of greenery. Thorn-covered plants stood tall amidst the vast wasteland.

This area was a desert biome specially created by the Academy for biological experiments. On this island alone, dozens of similar environments occupied nearly one-third of its total area.

Morent Academy had transplanted the living habitats of various creatures onto this island to study them, aiming to cultivate and modify species to suit their needs.

Forests, swamps, deserts, grasslands—numerous geographical environments could be found here. For those environments that were difficult to replicate, the many city-states of Atlant in the south had designated special zones for them.

In essence, the entire Atlant region existed to support the Academy, providing all necessary conditions.

Meanwhile, many of the Academy’s inventions gave back to Atlant, helping it become the most prosperous nation in the world and a bastion of capitalism, where monopolistic conglomerates thrived.

Charles now stood in one of the experimental zones—a vast desert spanning hundreds of square kilometers.

The swirling yellow sands filled the air with dust, but thankfully, his protective spirit light shielded him, allowing him to move through the haze with ease.

“Based on prior intelligence, that experimental creature broke free from its prison and fled here, slaughtering dozens of ordinary people along the way, causing severe consequences,” Charles said, gazing into the desert that stretched to the horizon, unsure how to track the mutated insect.

Its incredible speed, powerful attacks, and abnormal regenerative abilities made it a perfect specimen, instantly captivating him.

The only drawback was its inability to reproduce. That could be solved easily by hybridizing it with other highly fertile insects, granting it formidable reproductive power and enabling the formation of terrifying swarms.

The damage from the poison-stinger bee swarms was too low—only a common secondary-level evolutionary totem at best. When facing totems with strong defenses, they were easily wiped out in groups by attacks like vibration slaps.

Moreover, their evolutionary prospects were limited. Ultimate evolution was merely a fanciful dream.

Therefore, he had to find a superior template.

Two hours later, Moonchild, who had been walking steadily, suddenly stopped, his gaze fixed on a pile of rubble.

The area was utterly barren—no debris, not even the prickly plants common to the desert—completely dead ground.

Charles’s eyes lit up. Through their soul link, he commanded Firefly and Moonchild. The two totems immediately pounced.

Suddenly, a “stone” sprang to life, darting away at incredible speed.

However, Firefly was twice as fast, swiftly lunging and slashing with razor-sharp claws that scored deep wounds on the creature’s yellow-brown exoskeleton, from which thick streams of blood flowed. Then, Firefly unleashed a mental charm, leaving it dazed and frozen in place.

A mere ordinary creature beneath the threshold, even mutated to this extent, could not resist Firefly’s assault.

Moonchild soon arrived, his massive claws grasping the creature and carrying it toward Charles.

At that moment, a nearby rock beneath Charles’s feet shifted, revealing a claw resembling a mantis’s foreleg, which ferociously struck toward his head.

Yet upon contact, it was flung backward at a speed far greater than its initial attack, crashing violently against a huge boulder and falling unconscious.

“Overestimating yourself,” Charles murmured. He had already detected the creature but had no interest in engaging further.

With the defensive enhancements from his many evolved-level totems, his protective spirit light was so formidable that even he didn’t know its limit.

Not to mention ordinary creatures—whether the future so-called King of Strength, the Roddy Prime Totem, could break through was still uncertain.

His powerful defenses rendered his protective spirit light an impenetrable fortress. Attacks against it were like eggs striking stone, incapable of causing any damage.

Why did others with protective spirit light sometimes get knocked away? For example, you might kick a small turtle away, but can you kick a dragon?

Charles bent down, pinching the creature. To his surprise, the portion he held rapidly changed color, soon matching the shade of his own skin.

“Didn’t expect such a strong color-changing camouflage!” His eyes gleamed with excitement.

Judging from its prior attack, this creature was less than a meter long but possessed attack power comparable to a peak-level academy warrior, moving twice as fast and utterly overwhelming its opponents.

Combined with its terrifying camouflage, it could easily hide in a corner and deliver a fatal strike.

This creature exceeded his expectations and was the perfect experimental subject to propel his plans forward.

When fully exposed, the creature revealed a thick shell on its back.

However, its shell was not a slow, cumbersome turtle-like carapace but more like an insect exoskeleton. Its overall shape resembled a shortened mantis, with six legs and two sharp, blade-like forelegs. Its irregularly shaped back looked like an ordinary rock, making it virtually indistinguishable once camouflaged.

Now he understood why these creatures escaped capture, even eluding the most skilled life mages.

“Hit them a few more times,” Charles ordered.

Moonchild immediately slammed the two mutated insects into each other, inflicting heavy damage. The severe injuries would likely keep them subdued for several hours, enough time for transport.

As for why he didn’t immediately semi-totemize them, it was because these creatures were too rare. He intended to study them thoroughly before making one his semi-totem.

Charles took an opaque bag from his backpack, placed the two insects inside, and had Moonchild carry them. He planned to continue searching for more specimens.

Unfortunately, after scouring the entire desert, he found no third specimen and reluctantly gave up.

Rustle!

At that moment, a sound of something moving in the bushes at the edge caught his attention. Under his command, Moonchild pounced swiftly.

Squeak!

A nearly one-meter-long giant gray rat darted out but was caught by Moonchild’s claw. Despite its struggles, it was shoved into his mouth and crushed alive.

Then, Moonchild bent down and pulled a strange humanoid corpse from the bushes. Charles frowned deeply.

The corpse had limbs indistinguishable from a human’s, but its head was that of a gray wolf!

A werewolf?