I Am the Lord in the World of Mist – CH13

Chapter 13: The Enthusiastic Foolish Dog

Sure enough, the narrator appeared.

[Your companion creature has consumed an attribute core. Even though the energy within this core isn’t substantial, it will still require some time to absorb the energy.]

[You’ve discovered one of the uses of the core: it can be consumed by living beings.]

[As a reward, you’ve unlocked some information about the core.]

[Living beings can consume cores, and by consuming the core corresponding to their own attribute, they can increase their extraordinary level. The higher the extraordinary level, the higher the affinity with that attribute, making it easier to acquire the extraordinary ability of that attribute.]

[Please note: Consuming a core that does not correspond to the creature’s attribute is extremely dangerous.]

[When a creature consumes a core of a conflicting attribute, its extraordinary affinity will decrease, and it may fall into a state of confusion, causing its abilities to go out of control. Please use attribute cores with caution.]

[You’ve unlocked part of the attribute core information. Your companion creature will finish absorbing the core’s energy in ten minutes.]

“Ten minutes?”

That’s unexpectedly quick. It seems the energy in this core is far less potent than the black fruit.

As Xu Zhi continued controlling Gouzi to diligently level up in the game, she also kept an eye on Yi’s movements. The moment the ten minutes passed, it opened its eyes right on time.

However, from its appearance, there didn’t seem to be any changes. So, Xu Zhi shifted her focus to the game screen.

At that moment, the game screen kindly popped up Yi’s attribute list.

[Companion Creature: Snake Lv12
Mind: 160
Body: 640
Attribute: Blade

Traits: Toxic Lv5, Sharp Lv3, Bloodthirsty Lv4, Cunning Lv2 → Lv3
Special Ability: None]

Cunning had directly leveled up by one, but the key point was the addition of the Special Ability section, which even thoughtfully stated “None.”

Xu Zhi immediately recalled what the narrator had just said—higher affinity makes it easier to gain the abilities of that attribute.

In her view, traits could also be considered abilities, but most traits were more passive in nature. Her companion creatures, for now, still relied on physical strength and these passive traits for hunting, and they didn’t yet have any active abilities.

Perhaps the special abilities section would include active skills?
And active skills might require a certain level of affinity to be obtained.

Even the revised version of [Bloodthirsty] that she had obtained from her companion creatures was actually a passive skill.

If all creatures followed this pattern, human extraordinary beings should be the same. However, in the year since ability beings had appeared, there had been many reports of newly awakened ability-users mastering powerful active abilities.

Does this mean that human ability-users don’t follow this rule? Is it only a rule for companion creatures?

Xu Zhi kept this confusion to herself, planning to verify it when the opportunity arose.

It was worth noting that Yi’s evolution points had also increased by five hundred, now at 700/2000.

From these changes, it was clear that the level represented a creature’s affinity with their attribute. The higher the level, the more powerful the creature, and the higher the extraordinary affinity.

Perhaps after Yi leveled up a few more times, it would gain active skills.

Thinking about leveling up made Xu Zhi feel a little headache. After experiencing the joy of auto-leveling, she was already dissatisfied with the need to manually operate for the first ten levels. How could she get Gouzi to level up quickly and unlock auto-leveling?

An idea suddenly flashed in her mind as she looked at Yi, who was doing nothing.

Why not have Yi help Gouzi level up!

Gouzi was leveling up slowly on its own, but with Yi helping, it would speed up, right?

Although this would slow down Yi’s progress, her priority was to unlock auto-leveling for Gouzi.

With that thought, Xu Zhi quickly began setting up in the game. She set Yi’s auto-leveling to help Gouzi level up and controlled Gouzi to meet up with Yi. However, even though Yi was on auto-leveling, she still had to manually control Gouzi.

So, Xu Zhi began deliberately searching for stronger prey nearby. Fighting higher-level monsters granted a lot more evolution points, and she could clearly see the evolution points rising.

While leveling up Gouzi, Xu Zhi also kept an eye on her surroundings. There was something she had been paying attention to for a while.

Around here, there were only mutated animals, no exotic mutant monsters born from the fog.

Gouzi had even encountered crazy people but hadn’t come across any exotic creatures.

How could this be?

Before the fog had even fully gathered over Cloud City, mutant monsters had already appeared in various places. They were mostly mindless, twisted and terrifying in appearance, lurking in the dark and attacking humans. Each of these mutants had abilities, making them extremely difficult to deal with, and they had caused great panic among the Federation’s people.

Now, the fog had gathered in about 70% of the city, and there should be even more exotic monsters, not fewer. But in these past few days, she hadn’t seen a single one.

“Is something wrong?”

She didn’t know much about exotic monsters, only having seen them on the news. Now, everything had to be explored on her own, and she could only observe these things on her own.

While leveling up Gouzi, Xu Zhi also used the opportunity to explore the surrounding environment. In addition to the disappearance of exotic monsters, she also noticed that the mutated animals seemed to be getting stronger. At least compared to the lower-level animals that Yi had encountered before, the mutated animals now seemed to be, on average, at least two levels higher.

They, too, were growing stronger.

“And where did all these animals in the city come from?”

It was as if all the wild animals had suddenly run into the city overnight.

Is it because of the fog’s appearance and the departure of humans?

By the time nightfall came and Gouzi had reached level 10, she still hadn’t seen a single exotic monster.

“Looks like it was good that someone helped, otherwise, it would have taken at least two more days for Gouzi to level up on its own.”

And with Yi nearby, she didn’t even need to look for a safe place to level up. The time was reduced by more than half.

Xu Zhi watched happily as the gray dog’s progress bar filled up to level 10 and eagerly clicked on its attribute chart.

[Companion Creature: Dog Lv10
Mind: 98
Body: 740
Attribute: Blade
Traits: Strength Lv6, Smell Lv4, Alertness Lv2, Sharp Lv3
Special Ability: None]

[Current required evolution points: 0/1000]

Compared to Yi’s level 10 attributes, Gouzi had slightly lower mind stats but much stronger physical stats.

After confirming the attributes, the familiar narrator appeared again.

[Your companion creature has reached level 10, and its intelligence has opened up. You can now name it.]

Xu Zhi had already decided on a name and promptly typed in “Gouzi. ” (lit. “Doggy”)

Although this was the familiar auto-leveling process, the time was now nearing midnight. She couldn’t send Yi and Gouzi out to hunt anymore, so she decided to recall them to guard her for the night, after all, this was the first night in a new place.

However, Xu Zhi had thought that after Gouzi reached level 10, she would unlock a third companion creature, but the game didn’t do that. Instead, new content appeared.

[Congratulations, you’ve given two of your companion creatures the ability to manage on their own. When one of your companion creatures reaches level 20 and evolves to a higher level, you will acquire a third companion creature. The range of available companions will expand at that time.]

[You now have the ability to compete in this conflict, but you are still too weak. In front of stronger beings, you are no match. To stand firm, you need stronger power.]

[You’ve unlocked the ability: Spirit Body.]

[By using attribute cores, you will obtain a randomly generated spirit body. It will be randomly placed somewhere in the city for a limited time. Your consciousness can inhabit the spirit body and walk the world. When the time ends, your consciousness will return, and the spirit body will dissipate.]

[The more cores you invest, the stronger the attributes and abilities of the spirit body will be, and the longer it will exist. If the spirit body naturally dissipates after time ends, all items acquired while inhabiting the spirit body will be stored in the warehouse.]

[If the spirit body dies before the time limit, you cannot take any items back.]

With the appearance of the narrator, a gray pixel girl avatar icon appeared in the lower right corner of the game screen.

Curiously, Xu Zhi clicked on the icon, and a pixelated black-haired girl appeared before her.

Although this is a pixel game, the graphics were surprisingly good, even exquisite. And now, Xu Zhi was seeing something familiar on the face of this pixel girl dressed in black sportswear — three parts of it looked oddly similar to herself.

“If I have to say, it’s kind of creepy.”

The girl had a brown box next to her right hand, with the words [Drop Zone] written on it, indicating selectable items.

Xu Zhi clicked on it, and an option appeared.

[Please set the number of cores to be insert.]

[Note: The abilities randomly generated will only come from the cores of the insert attribute.]

Xu Zhi really wanted to insert a core and try it out. After all, besides her own [Moth] attribute core, she also had a [Winter] attribute core.

But she glanced at the time. Midnight was approaching. If she insert the core and the spirit body was generated immediately with no way to cancel it, she wasn’t sure if her spirit body would be able to move in the midnight time frame. It was better not to waste it for now.

“Let’s just sleep for tonight.”

Just in time, Yi and Gouzi were almost back, and she was a little curious to see what Gouzi would be like in real life and its personality.

“Hope it’s not too clingy.”

One Yi was already enough!

Soon, the two familiars returned to the doorstep in the game. Xu Zhi put the game console into her pocket and walked toward the door.

To be honest, she had already mentally prepared herself, but she still didn’t expect what would happen after she spoke—

The moment the door opened, a large gray dog greeted her with an overly enthusiastic leap, and before she could scold it, Gouzi had already wagged its tail furiously and licked her face with its tongue.

Xu Zhi clenched her fist. The “heavy burden” on her and the wet feeling on her face made her patience, which had been okay up until now, run out. She immediately pushed Gouzi away with all her strength, but it didn’t budge.

What a silly big dog!

Perhaps sensing her displeasure, the large gray dog stepped back, giving Xu Zhi a chance to break free from the furry embrace. But wait, no—

Xu Zhi noticed it wasn’t Gouzi stepping back voluntarily. It was being pulled back by a black snake tail wrapped around its waist.

Even after being pulled back, Gouzi was still not discouraged, trying to leap toward her again.

“Heh.” Xu Zhi let out a cold laugh, watching the silly dog look at her with its enthusiastic gaze. The air was filled with a special sense of closeness that Gouziseemed to send her, mixed with a hint of disdain from the black snake.

She walked into the room and said to Yi, “Drag it inside and shut the door.”

After both were inside, Xu Zhi tentatively commanded Gouzi, “Sit down, and don’t move without my command!”

Hearing the order, Gouzi obediently sat down on the ground, while Yi let go of its snake tail. Even so, the silly dog’s tail kept wagging like a propeller, its eyes fixed on Xu Zhi, and it emitted eager sounds, as if it didn’t notice her current mood at all.

“Doesn’t even know how to read the room?”

Xu Zhi sighed helplessly. She looked at Yi, “Watch it, don’t let it move around.”

Then she hurried to wash her face, still annoyed in her mind about how both familiars were so enthusiastic. Yi at least knew to restrain itself a little, but this silly dog didn’t know what self-control was!

“Could this be a common trait of familiars?”

Though it’s nice for familiars to be affectionate, too much enthusiasm could be a bit of a nuisance!

After washing her face, Xu Zhi looked at the two in the room. After a brief silence, she sternly warned, “Stay by my bed tonight, don’t wander off, and don’t disturb my sleep!”

Yi, quite human-like, nodded, but Gouzi… just looked at her with an innocent face, wagging its tail and even itching to rub its paws on the ground.

“Forget it.”

Xu Zhi felt inexplicably tired, and as long as Yi kept an eye on Gouzi, she couldn’t be bothered to say more. She promptly got into bed.

The next day at 5 AM, the alarm went off as usual, and Xu Zhi, as usual, struggled in bed for a bit before groggily getting up to grab the game console. Despite the apocalypse, she still had to get up at 5 AM every day!

“You two, go do what you need to do.”

Seeing that she had already arranged for the two familiars to go out and look for black fruit, they still slowly walked outside, with Yi dragging the reluctant dog behind it by its tail. Xu Zhi had a headache.

Thankfully, her words still worked. Once she disappeared from Gouzi’s sight, it seemed like it became a different dog, quickly running out of the house to complete the task she had assigned.

Meanwhile, Xu Zhi didn’t plan on resting. She reopened the spirit body interface, clicked on the drop zone, selected to invest a [Winter] attribute core, and confirmed.

[The number of cores invest: 1]

[The spirit body can exist for: 5 minutes]

“One core only lasts five minutes?”

Her entire savings could only support the spirit body’s actions for ten minutes. How pitiful.

What could she do in five minutes?

Xu Zhi was a bit confused, but as she had suspected, once a core was insert, it couldn’t be canceled. The next second, the words [Randomly generating attribute] appeared next to the girl on the interface.

“Well, it’s done. Since it’s my first time playing this, please give me a better random attribute!”

Xu Zhi clasped her hands together and began her useless prayer.