America: The Cremator

Chapter 153 Prometheus ☆☆☆☆ [24 Days of 10,000 Words Per Day, Requesting Monthly Tickets!]

After asking Suron to clean up the battlefield, Hedley turned back to the two tall, silver-armored knights, clapped her hands gracefully, and then raised her arms, saying, "Children, you can come back now."

Upon hearing the command, the two silver-armored knights simultaneously pulled their greatswords from the mud, shook off the pus, blood, and bits of flesh that clung to them, turned and walked to Hedley's side, then knelt down on one knee in unison.

The massive metal body bowed its head before Hedley, and two enormous metal hands reached out, overlapping each other, and gently placed on Hedley's hands, as if the most devout knights of the Middle Ages were swearing allegiance to their queen.

A hazy silver light suddenly erupted from the point of contact between their palms, instantly enveloping the two enormous creatures.

Amidst flashes of light, a sickening metallic creaking sound rang out as the two steel behemoths continuously compressed and shrank, eventually transforming into two palm-sized silver knight models, lying quietly in Hedley's palm.

Hedley withdrew her hand, took out a small silver spray bottle from her small suitcase, carefully sprayed the two dolls a few times, and then took out a snow-white silk handkerchief to carefully wipe them.

Surong stood to the side, watching her meticulous movements the entire time. His gaze finally settled on the pair of black velvet gloves, and he asked, "If I'm not mistaken, these gloves are your sacred objects, aren't they?"

Hedley smiled gently and nodded, replying, "You're half right, Suron. This is indeed the source of my power, but it's not a sacred object; it's a strange object."

"A strange creature? What's that?" Su Long raised an eyebrow slightly; it was the first time he had ever heard of the peculiar term "strange creature."

Hedley put the doll back into the box and patiently explained, "Most of the ones you usually come into contact with have a rich history..."

These are sacred objects that have accumulated profound emotions from countless people, thus nurturing spiritual power over the long course of time.

She pointed to the holster on Suron's waist: "Like your Sirius," and like the lantern Elena is carrying, do you know its origin?"

Su Long shook his head. He only knew that the lantern could release extremely powerful healing and dispelling light, but he had never asked about its origin.

"That was the lantern that Florence Nightingale used," Hedley said respectfully.

Upon hearing this, Su Long's pupils widened instantly. Of course, he had heard of Nightingale. She was the founder of the modern nursing system. In that war-torn era, she often carried an oil lamp to patrol the wards late at night, bringing hope to countless wounded soldiers. Therefore, she was revered by the world as the "Lady with the Lamp".

"I see." Su Long nodded in realization. He hadn't expected that Elena's lantern had such a long history. No wonder it was so powerful.

Hedley changed the subject, her gaze falling on the black velvet gloves on her hands: "As for the strange creatures, they are another, even rarer existence. They are usually the most spiritual part of the remains that exorcists kill after killing high-level strange creatures. They then tame them with powerful spiritual energy and ultimately transform them into tools to help them in battle."

Hedley held up her gloves and began to explain their origin: "These gloves of mine come from a B-grade weirdo named Mary Shaw. She is an extremely vicious and cruel weirdo whose favorite thing to do is to drain the blood from living people, fill them with preservatives, and make them into perfect dolls that she can control at will."

"After the Campbell family killed her, they used her most essential materials to recreate these gloves. It is through them that I can give inanimate objects the ability to move, just like Mary Shaw, such as those two silver-armored knights just now."

Su Long nodded in admiration. The elegant and noble A-level exorcist before him was indeed unfathomably powerful. The fact that he could make gloves from the remains of a monster of this level and wear them on his hands showed just how powerful the Campbell family was.

The conversation came to an end. Hedley put her gloves back into her inner pocket and urged, "Alright, kids, quickly clean up the scene. We need to continue."

The group sprang into action again. Several boys used broken, thick tree branches as tools to gather the scattered remains of the gruesome corpses in the mud, little by little, to the center of the open space. Hannah and Leah assisted from the side, kicking the smaller fragments of limbs around them into the pile of corpses as well.

Once the severed limbs had reassembled into a mountain of flesh, Su Long casually waved his hand, and golden flames instantly fell into the mountain of flesh, burning it to ashes in the blink of an eye.

A light blue system notification popped up on Su Long's retina.

[Burning 5 C-Rank Upper-Level Mysterious Corpse (Mutilated) grants 67 experience points!]

When Su Long saw that he had only received 67 experience points, he couldn't help but sigh. These five sad corpses should have provided 150 experience points, but now it was reduced by half and even less.

Although there were two reasons—the corpse was mutilated and incomplete, and I didn't kill it myself—it was still 67 experience points for free, which is quite a considerable gain.

After the flames were completely extinguished, Hannah carefully searched through the area for a while, then picked out a large handful of blue medical bracelets. She presented them to Hedley and asked, "Mrs. Hedley, there are 25 bracelets here. What should we do with them?"

After all, Hedley dealt with these five Sorrowful Corpses entirely on her own. Although they did inflict damage, they did not fundamentally harm the Sorrowful Corpses.

Hedley looked at the plastic bracelet in Hannah's hand, smiled gently, and waved her hand in refusal, saying, "In the battle just now, you have already proven your abilities. Facing the strange siege of five C-rank high-level creatures, you were able to stabilize your position in the first place and even launch an effective counterattack. That is already outstanding."

"Even if I hadn't made a move just now, and given enough time, you would have been able to take down these guys eventually. After all, I can sense that many of you haven't even unleashed your true strength yet, have you?"

Upon hearing this, Isaac silently looked away, Evan lowered his head and fiddled with the longbow in his hand, while Suron stood in place with an unchanging expression.

Seeing this, Hedley's smile deepened: "Since you all played a role in this battle, you can divide these bracelets equally among yourselves."

Upon hearing this, Hannah immediately turned around, divided the 25 bracelets into five equal parts, five for each person, and distributed them to everyone.

Taking advantage of the moment when Hannah was breaking up with her, Su Long had a sudden thought and brought up the system panel to check his current total experience points.

From the start of the exam, his experience points were steadily accumulating. Upon entering the forest, he killed five ghouls, gaining 5 points. He then burned 17 ghouls, earning another 18 points. Next, he encountered his first Ghast, which he killed and burned, earning him 30 points.

The points, plus the 67 points provided by the five broken and miserable corpses I just picked up for free.

A full 120 experience points!

Looking at the number, Su Long felt a surge of satisfaction. He had never been so wealthy since unlocking the cremation system; this was the most he had ever accumulated.

He then looked at another important resource next to the experience points.

[Soul Crystals: 1]

With 120 experience points and 1 Soul Crystal, he was now fully capable of upgrading a three-star affix to four stars. Su Long immediately opened the affix list, and pale gold upgrade symbols had appeared next to the five three-star affixes, namely:

[Prometheus☆☆☆], [Rebuilt Flesh and Blood☆☆☆], [Lucas's Contract☆☆☆], [Peak of Boxing☆☆☆], [American Dream☆☆☆

Su Long quickly glanced at the five entries. Without a doubt, the one most worth upgrading was still [Prometheus]. After fighting all this way, he had clearly felt that the power of the three-star primordial fire was starting to become insufficient.

When facing C-rank high-level enemies, simple fire burning is unlikely to break through their tough flesh and skin defenses in a short time. It is necessary to combine "Lucas" with armor-piercing effect or "Sirius" with a last-ditch effort to cause effective damage. When fighting B-rank enemies, it is not even possible to break through their defenses.

Moreover, as the first unlocked attribute, Primal Flame is the core power source of his entire combat system. Whether it's fireballs or special attacks combined with firearms, they all highly rely on the quality of the flame. Upgrading it now is clearly the most cost-effective option.

It is also the option that can most directly improve current combat power.

Without further hesitation, Su Long issued the upgrade command in his mind.

The 50 experience points and the soul crystal were instantly consumed, turning into specks of light that wrapped around [Prometheus☆☆☆].

The next instant, the pale blue system panel refreshed on his retina, and brand new entries appeared before Su Long's eyes.

【Prometheus☆☆☆☆】

Type: Blessing Description: The flames cover the entire body; the flames extend to 3 meters; the flames inflict an adhesive effect on monsters, making them impossible to extinguish; when attacking monsters with flames, a reliably explosive effect is triggered; monsters destroyed by flames cannot regenerate; obtaining the Flame Crown allows the creation of a Flame Domain.

Verdict: The spark of creation is in your hands!

As Su Long looked at the new entry description, his heart raced, and he was immediately filled with excitement.

He had anticipated that this upgrade, which consumed Soul Crystals, would be a significant improvement, but he did not expect such a qualitative leap. It was an almost unbelievable, all-around improvement, with each new attribute perfectly filling his current shortcomings.

The flames expanded to cover his entire body, greatly enhancing his melee defense. When necessary, he could transform into "Fire Man" and burn all the strange creatures that tried to approach and bite him to ashes.

The range of the flames has been increased to 3 meters, which not only gives him a wider attack range in battle, but also makes burning more convenient. In the future, when faced with piles of corpses, he will not even need to walk close. He can simply wave his hand to set all targets within three meters on fire, greatly increasing efficiency.

The sticky effect is a truly divine skill; the inextinguishable flames are like a bone-deep wound. As long as a little bit gets on it, it will continue to burn the strange body until it is completely burned to ashes. This greatly enhances the sustained killing power of the flames, so you no longer have to worry about monsters using their super regenerative abilities to withstand the damage.

The stable triggering of the burst damage maximizes his explosive power. Previously, he needed to combine it with the armor penetration of the brass knuckles to deal high damage, but now every attack comes with a berserk fire burst effect, making every punch feel real and every move deadly.

What excited him the most was the last item, the Crown of Flames; he finally possessed a domain of his own!

In this bizarre world, high-level monsters often possess bizarre domains that can alter their surroundings and suppress enemies. Previously, when facing such domains, he could only rely on brute force to break through or passively endure attacks. Now, he only needs to unleash his fire domain to utter those arrogant monsters the extremely boastful words in his own territory: "My domain is above yours!"

After closing the entry panel, Su Long glanced at the balance in the upper right corner. He still had 70 experience points left, which was still a huge resource.

Next, let's check out the new entries we got from burning the corpse.

【A Thrilling Heart☆】

Category: Blessing.

Description: The host's heart strength and pumping ability are greatly enhanced. If the heart is not damaged, the other injured parts can slowly heal themselves.

Evaluation: Knock knock! Knock knock! Knock knock!

Su Long nodded. This new entry is good. It seems to have replicated the characteristic of the Corpse that "it will continuously heal itself if its heart is not destroyed." Although it is a weakened version, it has a high growth potential!

He glanced at the other entries and noticed a faint glow between the entries for "Flesh and Blood Reconstruction" and "Surging Heart".

As expected, the [Surging Heart] attribute, being a physical enhancement attribute, could indeed be fused with the [Flesh and Blood Reconstruction] attribute!

A surge of joy rose in Su Long's heart, and he issued the fusion command without hesitation.

On the panel, the two entries instantly merged together, then transformed into a brand new entry, which appeared on Su Long's retina.

【Flesh and Blood Dominator☆☆☆】

Type: Blessing Description: The host can simultaneously control 70% of the total muscles and blood, manipulating blood flow, doubling muscle strength or hardening muscles; and can actively accelerate or slow down the body's metabolic rate and injury recovery speed, with a significant increase in injury recovery speed;

The heart becomes the host's only fatal weakness; if the heart is not damaged, the rest of the body can heal itself quickly.

Comment: You should have aimed for the heart!

After reading the introduction of the new entry, Su Long couldn't help but smile wildly, and his heart also beat faster as appropriate.

This is a qualitative leap!

The heart becomes the only fatal weakness; as long as the heart is not damaged, the rest of the body can heal quickly even if it is cut or torn.

This is a perfect transplant of the despair-inducing survival ability of the Corpse into himself!

With the added benefit of the "American Dream" near-death resurrection mechanism, his survivability is now at its maximum.

Most attacks that don't aim for the heart will lose their threat; even being cut in half at the waist, having his head smashed, or being cleaved vertically will not kill him completely!

Even if he were to suffer a blow that could instantly destroy his heart, he could rely on the "American Dream" to revive on the spot with full health and catch his opponent off guard.

Then, Su Shi turned his attention to the remaining experience points.

The merging of the previous entries did not consume experience points, and I now have 70 experience points remaining.

He knew very well that for a long time to come, he would most likely not be able to obtain any more Soul Crystals and Mithril Coins. The acquisition of such high-level materials was extremely difficult and could only be obtained by chance.

After all, experience points can't generate more experience points, so instead of letting them rot on the panel, it's better to convert them into real combat power.

He immediately brought up his basic attribute panel.

[Constitution: 40 (Powerful physique!)]

Agility: 40 (Instantaneous Reaction!)

[Spiritual Vision: 40 (The Eye of Death!)]

[Charm: 30 (Handsome!)]

[Mental State: 40 (Calm and composed under pressure!)]

Looking at this data, Su Shi quickly made a decision.

To raise all attributes to 50 points, it requires exactly 60 experience points.

"System, add points."

As he silently recited the command, 60 experience points were instantly generated, and the numbers on the panel began to jump wildly before finally settling steadily at a neat and orderly value.

[Constitution: 50 (Perfect Physique!)]

Agility: 50 (Lightning-fast reaction!)

[Insight: 50 (Eye of Insight!)]

Charm: 50 (Everyone loves her!)

[Spirit: 50 (Immovable as a mountain!)]

The moment the data froze, a series of dense system notification boxes popped up frantically in front of his eyes, almost completely obscuring his vision.

[Physical development enters a new stage! Height has slightly increased to 183cm, physical fitness has greatly improved, muscle endurance and bone strength have significantly increased, short-duration explosive lifting is possible, and physical fitness, muscle strength and bone strength have been greatly enhanced.]

[Agility enters a new stage! Overall reaction speed increased to 80 millibble, with significant increases in both thinking and learning speeds. Immersion mode is now available, allowing for a several-fold increase in thinking speed within an instant!]

[Spiritual Vision has entered a new stage! The merged skill "Eye of Insight" has been acquired, allowing for simultaneous slow-motion, scanning, and detection of weaknesses, as well as the ability to see through the flow of strange energy.]

[The spirit has entered a new stage! The strength and duration of the mental barrier have been further enhanced! The recovery speed of mental stability has been increased!]

[Charm enters a new stage! Strangers and acquaintances alike show increased favorability towards the host, and the host's appearance, temperament, and affability have significantly improved. When the host actively expresses goodwill and sincerity, strangers' hostility and wariness decrease dramatically.]

Accompanied by a barrage of notification sounds, an unprecedented surge of intense heat erupted from his heart, instantly engulfing his entire body.

Su Shineng could clearly hear muffled sounds coming from his body. His bones were growing and reshaping, making a grinding sound that made his teeth ache. His muscle fibers were tearing and then rapidly reorganizing, becoming denser and tougher.

The trench coat, which had originally fit well, now seemed a bit tight. The fabric at the shoulders and chest was stretched bulging by the newly formed muscles, exuding an explosive sense of power.

Moreover, the worldly creatures around him became completely different in his eyes.

The trails of falling leaves in the distance seemed to slow down in his eyes, and he could even see the muddy patterns on the veins of the leaves.

The grayish-white fog floating in the air was no longer a mere obstruction; he could clearly see the faint energy flow paths mixed within it.

Thinking became clearer than ever before, and the brain became a top-of-the-line computer that had been overclocked, capable of processing massive amounts of information in an instant, with a reaction speed that reached inhuman levels.

He clenched his fists, feeling the terrifying power emanating from his fingertips. Even without using the Primordial Flame, he could now hold his own against the previous tragic corpse with just this beautiful body!

Just as Su Shi was silently adapting to the changes in his body, a soft footstep came from the side.

[PS: The reader group is at the end, feel free to join! (These few words don't count towards the paid word count! Sorry!)]

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