Volume 4 Chapter 52: Invitation

“Ugh!” Qin Lun couldn’t help but grunt, two streams of blood trickling from his nostrils.

“Woof!” A massive two-headed giant dog let out a happy whine, trotted closer to Qin Lun, lowered its terrifying head, and licked his pant leg.

“Rip!” Qin Lun’s pants, utterly useless, met their glorious end, instantly turning into tattered strips like a beggar’s outfit.

“This is the fifth pair of pants, Cerberus!” Qin Lun looked helplessly at the mischievous Inferno Hound and shook his groggy head.

Today was the third day since Qin Lun had obtained Cerberus, and the second day the man and dog had spent at the Training Ground.

This Inferno Hound, named Cerberus, was as large as a calf. Since it was still in its infancy, it couldn’t control the immense fire elements within its body, and its charred lava-like skin often oozed dark red magma from the cracks.

Cerberus had astonishing potential. After the summoning contract was completed, it wasn’t the fourth-tier creature as originally expected, but had reached the fifth tier. Its sharp, hook-like claws unintentionally left deep marks on the Training Ground’s bluestone floor.

When the Inferno Hound occasionally opened its mouth to yawn, its blade-like fangs could even make its owner, Qin Lun, feel a chill. Its tongue was covered in barbs, its saliva had the corrosive properties of demonic creatures, and along with the magma dripping from its body, staying at the Training Ground for a while left the floor covered in patches of dark, mottled scorch marks.

The contract for the Mazer Summoning Art was only half complete. If it weren’t for the fact that the Inferno Hound was still in its infancy, simple-minded and dependent on Qin Lun’s mana supply, he wouldn’t be able to maintain the summoning contract at all.

“I need to find a way to improve the Mazer Summoning Art!” Qin Lun rubbed his temples. Since the Mazer Summoning Art was one tier lower than Cerberus, every time he summoned the Inferno Hound, his Energy Points would be drained, leaving him with a splitting headache.

Cerberus possessed the loyalty unique to hellhounds and would not betray its master. However, if it advanced one more tier, Qin Lun would likely be unable to maintain the summoning contract, severing their soul connection. Cerberus would then lose its soul due to the lack of its master’s mana supply.

The Inferno Hound combined the corrosive attributes of a hellhound with the fire attributes of a Flame Demon. However, Cerberus’s intelligence was still immature, and it couldn’t control its own abilities, only attaching these two types of damage to its claws and fangs.

What comforted Qin Lun was that the Inferno Hound was easy to care for—it could replenish its energy by eating anything. Items with fire and dark attributes, as well as biological souls, could accelerate its growth. However, Cerberus still retained the pickiness characteristic of young creatures. Besides Qin Lun’s own mana, it would only eat fresh and tasty “live prey,” and only if it was skinned.

According to Beruses, Cerberus’s current size was still “slim.” An adult Inferno Hound would stand over three meters tall, with a body length of more than five meters excluding the tail. Its two heads would be as large as millstones, almost filling an entire living room.

Of course, the drawbacks of an adult Inferno Hound were equally obvious: it lacked any long-range attack abilities. As a demonic creature, it had little resistance to holy damage, and its large size also cost it the agility of ordinary hellhounds.

Although the magma inside the Inferno Hound could repair physical injuries, recovery would be very slow if it suffered severe damage. If Shattered Crystals were used to ask the Shattered Starry Sky to speed up recovery, Cerberus’s future “large physique” suffering multiple injuries would undoubtedly bankrupt Qin Lun.

Overall, the adult Inferno Hound’s combat power would be equivalent to that of a heavy tank, making it an excellent close-combat shield.

“Master, two guests have come to visit!” After leaving the Training Ground, Qin Lun received a message from Didi.

After completing the transaction with the Demon Clan, Qin Lun had Didi pay 20,000 Shattered Crystals to the Demon Clan, with the remaining 50,000 as a debt. This meant he was now burdened with a total debt of 100,000 Shattered Crystals—a case of being so deep in debt that he no longer worried about it.

In the past ten days, although Didi hadn’t found any good items at the Auction House, it had still earned a considerable amount through buying and selling. Apart from using Qin Lun’s remaining 10,000 Shattered Crystals and 1,000 exchange vouchers, it still had several thousand Shattered Crystals left, enough for the little guy to buy a bunch of Alchemy Recipes and materials.

“It’s you two… What a surprise!” Returning to the Villa, Qin Lun raised an eyebrow slightly at the two figures sitting opposite each other on the sofa.

“Qin Lun, interested in collaborating again?” Seeing the host enter, the two guests on the sofa didn’t stand up but casually raised their glasses in greeting, acting as naturally as if they were in their own home.

The person on the left wore a pure black priest suit, sat upright, and had a warm smile on his face. His silver hair was combed into a slicked-back style, and on the back of his right hand, which held a wine glass, was a tattoo of a double-headed snake wrapped around a cross.

The person on the right was a burly man wearing only a white tank top, camouflage military pants, and high-top military boots. He lazily spread his arms and leaned back against the sofa.

“Collaboration? What kind of collaboration?” Qin Lun’s mind raced, but his face remained expressionless as he sat on another sofa opposite the two, forming an inverted triangle with them.

Even in his own home, Qin Lun didn’t dare turn his back on these two. They were Serial Killers on the same level as him: Shepherd Hill and Disciple Hansen.

“You only have a few days left before your fourth Otherworld Mission, right?” Hill and Hansen exchanged a glance, and Hill was the first to speak. “Would you be interested in forming a team with us and entering the Quest World together?”

“Team up with you?” A vague idea flashed through Qin Lun’s mind, but he needed a moment to sort it out. He deliberately stretched out his words and asked slowly, “Do you have a temporary Team Emblem?”

“No, I obtained a formal Team Emblem. Submitting it to the Shattered Starry Sky will allow us to form a small team of up to five people!” Hansen raised his hand and flicked a small iron piece toward Qin Lun.

The iron piece felt cold to the touch. It was a small emblem less than two inches in diameter. Qin Lun focused his consciousness into the Death Notice to check the Team Emblem’s information.

Low-Level Team Emblem: (Black Iron Grade). After submitting this emblem to the Shattered Starry Sky, one Formal Apostle can become the Leader of a Black Iron Team. A Black Iron Team can recruit up to five Formal Apostles and possesses a shared Team Warehouse. Team members can communicate freely via the Team Channel within one mile. Communication beyond two miles requires payment, and beyond five miles, communication is impossible.

Hint 1: A Black Iron Team must have at least three members. If the number falls below three, the team will automatically disband. The Leader has management rights over the Team Warehouse and members but can relinquish these rights. Decisions regarding the Team Warehouse and members are made by a majority vote of the team.

Hint 2: A Black Iron Team possesses a single team skill—Sincerity Aura. Within 100 meters of the Leader, team members receive a 10% boost to Health Points and Mana Value. The team can be upgraded to a Bronze Team using a higher-level Team Emblem, which requires consuming members’ Contribution Points. A Bronze Team must have more than half of its members as Professional Apostles, and the Leader must be at the second tier, third level or above.

After returning from the last Quest World, Qin Lun had firmly decided to join a team. During this break, he had repeatedly looked up the requirements and information for forming a team, with Team Emblems, team skills, and management rights being the key points of his research.

Black Iron Teams were the lowest-level Formal Apostle teams, and any Formal Apostle could establish one using a Black Iron Emblem. The market value of a Black Iron Team Emblem ranged from 10,000 to 15,000 Shattered Crystals, and the consumption rate was high.

Black Iron Team Emblems typically circulated among Junior Apostles at the first tier and the first two levels of the second tier. They served two main purposes. The first was to allow weaker Junior Apostles to unite and reduce risks in Quest Worlds.

The second purpose was more interesting: it was used to adjust mission intervals. Different Apostles had different mission intervals in the Shattered Starry Sky. If the interval was too long, it would wear down their fighting spirit and slow their progress. If it was too short, even Serial Killers like Qin Lun would find it hard to endure, let alone ordinary Apostles.

Thus, many Junior Apostles were willing to spend two to three thousand Shattered Crystals to buy a temporary spot in a small team, just to adjust their mission intervals. However, Junior Apostles in Black Iron Teams were generally weak. If one or two members died in a Quest World, the team would disband—this was the main reason for the high consumption rate of Black Iron Emblems.

Besides forming Black Iron Teams, Black Iron Emblems were also synthesis materials for Bronze Emblems. Bronze Teams could have up to ten members, with most members being Professional Apostles, making them the most basic fixed teams. Large teams like “Lost,” with hundreds of members, were also composed of several Bronze or Silver sub-teams.

Once an Apostle team became a Silver Team, it could be bestowed with a team title and possess a decent team aura skill, which was highly significant for team members. For example, if a Silver Team obtained the “Fortress” title, it would have a defensive aura. There were also titles like “Blaze” with fire attribute auras, and so on.

However, above the Bronze Team level, it became very difficult to increase the number of team members. According to Qin Lun’s unverified information, it seemed that once the total number of team members exceeded ten, the resources required to add each new member were astronomical, and extremely rare and precious treasures were also needed.

This was easy to understand—every high-level Apostle possessed formidable abilities. If a large team gathered hundreds of High-Rank Apostles to enter a Quest World, destroying a country would be no difficult task, and it could even lead to the apocalypse.

Although the Shattered Starry Sky survived by plundering the World Origin of other dimensions, it still had to adhere to the Space-Time Law. Sending too many High-Rank Apostles into a Quest World at once would inevitably provoke backlash from the laws, resulting in a net loss.

As Qin Lun sorted through the information in his mind, he finally grasped the tail of that earlier idea. He lowered his head, supporting his forehead with his hand to hide his expression. He had figured out the real reason why Hill and Hansen had come to him.