Chapter 45: Of course we snatch!
Translated by: Chua
Edited by: TN and Elkassar
When Sheyan left, Reef still soaking in the womb opened his eyes. His eyes shone with a complicated brilliance. The wounds emitted out strands of black-reddish blood. His powerful physique was starting to recover to its optimal state. He was no longer depressed as before. The muscles spasmed and solidified intensely, forcefully patching and cooling like boiling casted metal!
“That Seaman, he really seems pretty outstanding. To be able to easily bring me into a grand arachnid base, and a sacred healing pool like this…….”
“Perhaps I’m really not suited to be a party leader, then I should just observe for now.”
“This gratitude cannot be expressed with words. This time, Seaman and Mogensha rescued me, their losses are undeniable as well. If Seaman is really a reliable talent, then following his command may not be a bad thing. If he isn’t reliable, then I’ll just leave after repaying this gratitude of grace.”
After deciding, Reef felt a void within his heart; as though a huge stone had been lifted from it. Currently, this body wounds were vividly healing and patching up, his fractured bones gradually mending together. Finally, his skin as smooth as before, the perfectly fine Reef rose from the amniotic fluid; the fluid rolling off his scarlet muscles like a waterfall.
“This rejuvenating sensation, it is indeed refreshing!”
*************
When Reef strolled out of the spawning pool of the Mother nest, Sheyan was still undergoing his detoxification treatment. Hence, Reef could only randomly stroll about. Suddenly, he saw the black man Mogensha hugging his golden AK as he walked over with all smiles. After inquiring, he realized that the drone Mogensha had brought back had a pretty outstanding efficiency rate. It could harvest 30 units of Pandora crystal and 5 units of Vespene gas every hour, its workrate was about twice of the average drone.
In theory, every drone could only work for 16 hours per day; the 480 units of Pandora crystal and 80 units of Vespene gas could be directly sold to the nightmare imprint, or gifted to the Blackthorn Mother. The selling valuation was 2500 – 3000 utility points; but exchanging for reputation points would be more worthwhile, boosting several thousands of reputation points. Everything is great except for one small defect – the extracted Pandora crystals and Vespene gas were all raw ores, if he could process and refine it; their valuation would increase.
After listening, Reef curiously asked.
“That drone you caught, it really harvests Pandora crystals and Vespene gas?”
Mogensha immediately brought Reef along to observe. When he witnessed personally the drone extracting the minerals, Reef abruptly sighed.
“If I knew I could obtain Pandora crystals like this, why did I insist on carrying out the main mission?”
At this moment, Sheyan had completely his detoxification and coincidentally arrived. Asking curiously.
“What has the main mission got to do with Pandora crystals?”
Reef shook his head.
“At the Rum outpost base, they were selling Pandora crystals and Vespene gas. Because I had learned a forging type ability, a certain longing for these minerals emerged within me. But the prices they offered was so expensive it made my hair stand. Thus, I insisted on completing the main mission to raise my reputation. Haish……. I didn’t expect there was this method!”
Sheyan muttered out.
“If you really needed those crystal and vespene ore, then there are relatively many ways in doing so. The most dependable is raising your reputation to ‘Respected’, then you can directly purchase a drone to harvest for you. However, the payment is pretty expensive. Moreover, I don’t recommend such a method because after raising your reputation to ‘Worshipped’ here in the Blackthorn, there are incredible attribute enhancements.”
After finishing, Sheyan immediately regurgitated the purchasing menu out to Reef with his memory. After Reef absorbed the facts; he was no fool, he instantly understood the hidden benefits behind those exchanges. But still, he couldn’t help asking.
“Then what is the other method?”
Sheyan laughed, putting it bluntly forward.
“Of course it’s to snatch!”
**********
5 minutes later, the rested trio once again boarded their acquired ordinary Overlord. Scouting a kilometre ahead, was that mutalisk. Although previously the Blackthorn tribe had assumed dominating aerial superiority, the Redliner tribe did not give up easily. They changed their warfare tactics, producing Scourges and multitudes of hydralisks to deal with the situation; hence, they successfully destroyed the total aerial monopoly of the Blackthorn tribe. Thus, Sheyan and the rest cautiously proceeded like a thousand year boat.
Reef was concentrating his attention onto the electronic map. On the map, Sheyan’s previous marking was still extremely vivid in his mind; as though his steady and calm voice repeatedly resounded within Reef’s ears.
“There are two arachnid tribes within a thousand kilometre vicinity from here. One tribe is our ally, and the other our enemy. Therefore naturally, our heist target would be the Redliner tribe….. Demu (Mogensha), cast away your damned astonished expression and carefully listen to me. Am I an idiot that will directly assault the enemy’s Mother nest? The Redliner tribe has eradicated several other arachnid tribes, to be able to reach their current scope of development. Those expired arachnid tribes probably hadn’t harvested fully their pandora crystals, except the contents wouldn’t be as abundant. Obviously, their previous Mother nest should have already been colonized by the Redliner tribe.”
“But note, the relations between the Redliner tribe and its subsidiary bases aren’t considered inseparably close. Even the nearest base is at least 50 kilometres away. For the Redliner tribe, after losing their aerial fleet, they would at least require half an hour to send reinforcements to the subsidiary base.”
“First, we will commence a one-off surprise raid on every subsidiary base, as a harassment method. Every surprise raid will last only several minutes. Most importantly, our goal is to investigate which subsidiary base holds more Pandora crystals. After the Redliner tribe has been taken for a round trip and has no clue where our primary target is, we will once again raid that certain base. Naturally, we can plunder them forcefully.”
Looking at the map ahead, Reef earnestly tried to analyze. Ultimately, he looked at Sheyan, desiring to speak but preventing himself. Sheyan laughed.
“My methods are not free from careless oversights. If there’s a problem, just say it. It beats going into the battle with a misunderstanding or fear.”
Reef earnestly started.
“The Redliner tribe has since lost its aerial dominance, thus their forces should be primarily concentrated around its main base; there’s no doubt the subsidiary bases are defencely hollow. But never forget, the arachnid base still contains a powerful defence mechanism – Sunken Colonies. That thing is extremely destructive, its offense is deadly and its range vast. If there are more than 3 of those, in addition to the bits of arachnids; there is no chance for victory.”
Sheyan shook his head, confidently replying like he had planned it all out.
“That’s not correct. Take a look at the terrain nearby. The Redliner tribe’s main base coincidentally is situated in front of the subsidiary bases. For the Blackthorn tribe to engage in assaults, it is impossible to bypass the Redliner tribe’s main base without being discovered. Furthermore, even though the Blackthorn tribe has occupied aerial dominance, the Redliner tribe’s tactic of hydralisk + Scourges allows them aerial authority of their controlled region. This eliminates the possibility of going airborne by using a grand scale of transporting Overlords .”
“From the Redliner tribe perspective, their greatest wariness is a sneak attack from the highly mobile mutalisks! Therefore, I dare to say that within their subsidiary bases, it is a combination of Spore colonies and groups of zerglings. In this manner, their strength to deal with aerial attacks or direct frontal assaults is segregated. This way, they can deal with the majority of scenarios.”
“Lastly but most importantly, from an economic perspective; the current Redliner tribe should be relatively lacking in vespene gas. The combination of Spore colonies and zerglings, completely does not require expending Vespene gas – This is also the primary reason and method in dealing against both aerial of direct frontal assault.”
Reef pondered for a brief moment.
“You are right, but the sheer quantity of zerglings is another headache.”
Sheyan laughed.
“Don’t worry, just leave that problem to me.”
“Right.” Mogensha suddenly interrupted. “Why haven’t I seen a single flaming beetle ever since we started battling for so long? Is there a chance of encountering that?”
Sheyan very confidently replied.
“I’ve already enquired about that with Overmind Mozi. After they obtained ‘Scorching Mouth’’s nucleus, they’ve already completely uncovered the base genes of that arachnid creature; possessing the ability to spawn out flaming beetles. Furthermore, following the flaming beetle’s genetic code direction of research, the Blackthorn tribe managed to create a new strand of hormone within the hydralisk’s acidic jet. That hormone is able to unleash fatal damages when interacting with a flaming beetle. The costs of spawning a flaming beetle is ridiculously high, similar to producing 20 hydralisks with the same amount of Pandora crystals. Hence, the Redliner tribe will definitely not spawn out flaming beetles anymore. Of course, the Blackthorn tribe’s flaming beetle similarly suffers from this.”
Mogensha was stunned.
“So that was the case. Then the flaming beetle is only useful against arachnid tribes that hadn’t analyzed its genetic code.”
Sheyan nodded his head.
“That is the rough idea.”