Volume 5: Protracted War Chapter 158: Trends (2)
It was rare for the other party to come to me on his own initiative. After weighing the pros and cons, it was worth taking a little risk. Such a capable subordinate should not be missed, but one must be on guard. In order to further increase the success rate of the "Soul Contract", I still had to follow the old rules and beat Khufu half to death, leaving him in a dying state, before approaching him to perform the "Soul Contract". Khufu agreed to my conditions very happily, but at the same time, in front of me, he also mobilized the power of his soul to launch the "Mummy's Life Curse" and made a vow - if I broke the contract, even if he had become my subordinate, he could still use the power of the oath to disobey orders and forcibly "explode" and choose to die with me. It seems that he had suffered a loss once and learned a lesson. He was afraid that I would burn the bridge after crossing the river, so he also had a sense of caution against me.
With Khufu's strength, if it had not surrendered willingly and sincerely, even with my current seventh-level magician and the basic mental power after the "blood change" ability increased by 12%, I could not expect to sign a successful "soul contract". I estimated that I would have to at least be promoted to the eighth-level profession or get a few pieces of equipment that increase the success rate of the "soul contract". Khufu's situation looks quite similar to Guben's surrender, but in fact, the difficulty of conquering him is even lower. After all, Guben saw that the momentum was not right at that time. In order to avoid the end of destruction and take the initiative, he wisely chose to surrender. It was a speculative behavior. He did not have such a thorough understanding and decision . It was not as pious as it is today. It can be said that it met the most ideal signing conditions for the "soul contract". After I instructed Taotao to beat Khufu to death, and urged the "touch of death" to keep his mental power as low as possible, and try to weaken the spontaneous resistance consciousness of the spirit, I just performed "blood change" and went forward to sign a "soul contract" with it. Even so, it took more than fifty minutes. Just when I was becoming more and more worried about failure, I finally succeeded in signing the contract and took the Great Mummy Khufu, who ranked third in the soaking qualifications, as my disciple.
According to my preliminary estimation, Khufu's current strength is probably not weaker than Shaman. According to its own argument, if it can successfully evolve into a Pharaoh, it should have at least the strength of an upper-level eighth-level or even close to a ninth-level monster. If it can defeat its enemies and advance to a great Pharaoh, it will be able to defeat the powerful Hell Dragon with the help of the pyramid. Mummies below the Pharaoh level do not have any special skills. Their advantages are their strong bodies and attacks with curse damage. Unless their equipment has the attribute of negative state immunity, once they are hurt, they will basically be cursed, and their attack, defense and agility will be reduced. I am afraid that they will need a light priest or water magician to clear the abnormal state.
As for the little mummy, of course I also subdued it as a tool to challenge the top eight in the immersion qualification. However, at Khufu's strong request, I temporarily gave up the plan to challenge Hades for the immersion qualification immediately, so as to avoid expanding my power too quickly and arousing its hostility, which would bring danger to Khufu's upcoming evolution.
As an intelligent undead creature that has lived in the "Hell Volcano" for a thousand years, and has been qualified for immersion for five hundred years, he is naturally more knowledgeable than the rising stars such as Hader and Guben who have gradually emerged in the past one or two hundred years. He knows about the other seven volcanic undead who have obtained the qualification for immersion. The strength of the first four is almost the same, and they may have reached the conditions for evolution. The reason why Khufu is so anxious to join me is probably because he is afraid that the others have the same idea as him and will be preempted.
The first one is a fire-bone giant lizard named Silando. Although it is large, about five or six meters long and nearly two meters high, it is not clumsy in action. It is quite flexible, good at jumping, and very aggressive. It is likely to evolve into a Hades dragon, but its personality is too stubborn and not very obedient. It seems that Hades does not like it. It is often punished for violating the rules, which delays its entry into the "Hell Magma Pool" for soaking. Therefore, it has not started to evolve to this day. The second one is a two-headed skeleton fire ghost king named Dizang, with two heads and four arms, holding two swords and two shields. The fourth one is a fire skeleton general, but it is not a mutated giant like Ludi. It looks similar to an ordinary skeleton general. It is about five meters tall and holds a bone long-handled machete. Its name is Gonzalez.
The fifth one is a centaur archer named Sampdori, who seems to be similar to the "law enforcer" Santos who was killed by me. He has a human upper body and a horse body below the waist, but the javelin in his hand is replaced by a bow and arrow. Although he has the physique of a mummy, he is quite agile. The sixth one is a terrifying fire elephant knight named Vincent, who has outstanding collision ability. The seventh one is a fire wizard named Gargamel, who is good at fire magic despite being an undead, and can be regarded as an outlier among corpse wizards. The eighth one is a fire corpse demon with arms, named Tudu, who is also a mutant race. His arms can stretch several meters, and can grab and entangle, with corpse poison damage effect.
Of course, the qualification ranking does not represent the real strength. The latter may be stronger. Overall, the strength of the top four is obviously better. Even the four in the middle, who have generally been immersed for two or three hundred years, are much stronger than Hades. Even if Taotao and the little mummy fight one, they may be injured if they are not careful. However, now that Khufu, who ranks third, has joined, as long as he is helped to successfully complete the evolution and become a pharaoh, there should be no problem in defeating the other seven undead. However, I do not have enough basic mental power to subdue them, and I can't predict how Hades, the king of the underworld, will set obstacles for me. Everything must be done carefully and not too anxious.
Early March is the soaking period for Khufu. It doesn't move very fast, so it's inconvenient for it to leave the "Hell Volcano" with us. Fortunately, with its strength, as long as it is careful and doesn't get caught in the "lava storm" of the "violent period", Hades can't deal with it directly, so it shouldn't be in much danger. When Khufu soaks in the "Hell Lava Pool", it's the time to start evolving. While absorbing the energy of the magma, it also absorbs my mental power. This two-pronged approach shortens the evolution time limit, which can not only achieve better evolution results, but also minimize the chances of Hades messing around and destroying the evolution.
