Genius Chapter 22: New Summoned Beast

Chapter 22: New Summoned Beast

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

Anti-stealth, that is, making stealth abilities null.

“You mean the creation function in the astrology chart?” ScarletFruit suddenly realized, “Does this recipe rely on luck? When I was reading the strategy just now, other astrologers stumbled upon their recipes by accident… Can this thing be intentionally understood? Can we just do whatever we want?”

“Oh, not exactly,” Su Mo said. “The recipes written must align with the game’s actual mechanics, meaning material matching occurs within the existing game functionality. The anti-stealth mechanism in Celestial Horizon allows for professional balance, theoretically making it achievable.”

Currently, in Celestial Horizon, only archers possess the stealth skill, making it difficult for most professions to gain the upper hand against assassins. Typically, they end up being attacked first and then figuring out how to deal with the assassin. It’s precisely because assassins are invincible when stealthed in the wilderness that they roam freely, ambushing and escaping while hidden.

ScarletFruit waved his hand, somewhat disappointed, “Bro, don’t dwell on the unrealistic stuff. It’d be great if we could make some illumination scrolls to sell.”

The astrology chart was provided by ScarletFruit, who acquired it from some unknown source, purchasing it for 1 gold cheaper than from an NPC. He gave Su Mo 50 beginner astrology charts along with crafting materials, then hurried off to negotiate shop agreements.

Making illumination scrolls according to existing recipes wasn’t difficult; the only requirement was a high level of concentration.

Su Mo finished making the 50 scrolls in half an hour. Seeing ScarletFruit still busy, he went to the Sect to learn skills. The summoner reached level 58 and unlocked three summoning diagrams: SpectralFox, LunarFeline, and Bear. The SpectralFox and LunarFeline were mage-type summons, each with a negative status effect; the SpectralFox could single-target charm and mesmerize, while the LunarFeline caused group confusion and increased attack.

The attacks of mage-type summons were related to Su Mo’s own magical attack power. Currently, with the skill bonus from Soul Rabbit, his magical attack power was only 200. Later, he would need to calculate the returns for comprehensive allocation, boosting the attacks of both summon types.

Besides these, the Bear summon surprised him.

Typically, the attack power of summons was amplified based on the summoner’s attributes, but the Bear was a special case. Instead of a double amplification, the summoner’s bonus on the Bear’s attack power was greatly reduced. The Bear inherited only 40% of the summoner’s attack power but could benefit from a 300% increase in health and defense.

In other words, it was an exceptionally tanky summon, capable of taunting monsters/players to divert damage and having a 5-second invincibility status. With this summon, Su Mo could use it to tank in dungeons instead of Soul Rabbit, without fear of being overwhelmed, as it naturally drew aggro. Moreover, in the wilderness, it served as a lifesaver, able to taunt enemies and divert fatal damage in critical moments.

Su Mo summoned the Bear, a towering creature three times his height, standing before him like a mountain. He observed it for a while, growing more satisfied with each passing moment. It was a shame it was only a summoning skill; it would automatically disappear after a while and lacked intelligence. Otherwise, he could have ridden on the Bear’s back for a good view, given its height.

After finishing learning the skill, Su Mo released Soul Rabbit to feed it, then suddenly remembered something and took out a spirit pet egg from his backpack, placing it in front of Soul Rabbit. “Rabbit, can you hatch eggs?”

Soul Rabbit twitched its ears, seemingly understanding its master’s words.

Pets had dressing and carrying functions. The former allowed pets to wear pretty clothes or accessories, while the latter acted as a temporary warehouse with two slots. Pets accompanying their owners could help carry two items, and items placed on the pet wouldn’t be lost if the pet died in the wilderness.

[Are you sure you want Soul Rabbit to carry the [spirit pet egg]?]

Su Mo confirmed, and Soul Rabbit took the spirit pet egg from Su Mo’s hand, holding it with its small paws, its eyes carrying innocence and confusion.

“What kind of egg is this? Can pets lay eggs too?” ScarletFruit rushed over and saw the egg held by Soul Rabbit. “Wait, rabbits aren’t oviparous animals, are they?”

“Is there a difference?” Su Mo replied succinctly. “It has a lot of fur; it can keep the egg warm.”

ScarletFruit, “…Really?” Why did that sound so strange?!

Without further chatter, ScarletFruit finalized the shop agreement and had Su Mo sign in the shop. In the trading platform of Celestial Horizon, there was a shop option where multiple players could be set as owners and split profits according to predetermined conditions, with the transaction fees automatically distributed to the players after deduction, ensuring transparency.

“It’s been almost two hours; it’s time we do some mainline quests and level up quickly,” ScarletFruit suggested.

Su Mo hesitated briefly at the suggestion and then decisively refused, “I’m logging off.”

ScarletFruit, “???”

“It’s time for dinner,” Su Mo packed up his belongings, “See you.”

Just before the alarm went off, Su Mo logged out of holographic Global and immediately saw Lele coming out of the kitchen with food. “Su Mo, it’s dinner time.”

Su Mo wiped the sweat from his forehead slightly. “Coming.”

During dinner, Lele brought up all the messages left on the home terminal and organized everything else in a systematic manner. When Su Mo opened the message, he was slightly stunned by one in particular, which was from Grandma Cheng.

Grandma Cheng used to be an elder in the residential area. Several years ago, her husband passed away due to illness, and she was taken away by her children to live elsewhere. Although she hadn’t returned for many years, she sent terminal messages to Su Mo every year. Su Mo had a deep impression of her. For quite a long time during his childhood, he would be taken to her house every day to eat, and he learned how to play chess from Grandma Cheng.

The message was simple: Grandma Cheng’s health had stabilized, and she planned to return to the neighborhood. Upon hearing about Su Mo’s hospitalization, she specifically invited him to come over for dinner in a few days.

Facing the invitation from an elder, Su Mo naturally wouldn’t refuse. After dinner, under Lele’s watchful eye, he finished taking his medicine, then helped his senior brother with some data. By the time he logged back in, it was already two in the afternoon.

As soon as he logged in this time, ScarletFruit invited him to a team. Upon joining, Su Mo found that aside from ScarletFruit, UnchainedWanderer was also present.

“Bro, you’re finally online; we’ve been waiting for you for ages,” ScarletFruit exclaimed.

“Waiting for me?” Su Mo asked.

“Yeah, you logged off this morning, and UnchainedWanderer joined the team right after. We planned to do some quests, but Brother said there was no rush and decided to wait for you to log in.” They waited for three hours before they finally saw Su Mo.

“You didn’t have to wait for me; my online time is unpredictable,” Su Mo was a bit surprised. UnchainedWanderer’s level was almost the same as his; he thought he was higher than ScarletFruit.

“No hurry,” Yu Zhen casually asked, “Why weren’t you online the other day?”

Su Mo replied, “Had some things to attend to. Let’s go, we’ll do some quests.”

“Hey, hold on, guys. Have you considered joining a guild?” ScarletFruit suddenly asked.

Celestial Horizon had a guild system, and joining a guild came with various benefits and more gameplay options. While joining a guild had its perks, it could also bring unnecessary trouble occasionally. Su Mo wasn’t considering it at the moment.

Su Mo replied, “It’s troublesome, I’ll pass.”

Yu Zhen nodded in agreement.

ScarletFruit seemed hesitant to continue.

Su Mo noticed and said, “Just say it.”

ScarletFruit hesitated before speaking up, “Well, here’s the thing. Guild members get bonuses for doing quests. If you guys don’t have any other guild in mind, do you want to join mine?”

Su Mo then noticed the prefix before ScarletFruit’s ID, a bright red ‘Rich’, indicating his guild emblem.

“It’s my personal small guild, just a small warehouse for me to move materials around,” ScarletFruit quickly added, “No need to do quests or attend regularly. If you join, you can enjoy some benefits and help us with quests. Of course, if you don’t want to join, it’s okay too, but it’s a bit of a waste without the experience bonus.”

Su Mo inquired, “What’s it called?”

ScarletFruit blushed a bit, “Get Rich Soon.”

Su Mo nodded, “How do we join?”

ScarletFruit replied, “I’ll invite you; I’m the administrator!” He then asked the array master, “Brother, are you coming too?”

Su Mo looked at him.

Yu Zhen hesitated for a moment, “Alright, I will.”

The two of them joined ScarletFruit’s guild, and their IDs now had a red ‘Rich’ character prefix, giving it a fiery and festive appearance with an indescribable rustic charm. Working on quests together made progress much faster. Since the wilderness was relatively dangerous, they focused on completing mainline quests together. In just five days, Su Mo’s level quickly rose to 63, narrowing the gap with the vanguard team’s level of 74 by 11 levels.

The illumination scrolls also found a market. On the first day he received his share, Su Mo went to buy 10 bags of basic food for the hardworking Soul Rabbit and also bought some high-level materials. However, the requirements for the materials of the Floating Cloud Lantern were too demanding and expensive. Despite earning some money by making illumination scrolls these days, it still wasn’t enough to upgrade his weapons.

After reaching level 63, leveling up slowed down, as the available experience from quests was significantly less compared to the wilderness.

With some spare time on his hands, Su Mo decided to make the items he had previously planned. Anti-stealth was a mechanism existing in Celestial Horizon, and the closest skill to it was the Archer faction’s [Eagle Eye], which allowed archers to see all invisible units when activated. However, making an item that directly countered invisibility wasn’t allowed in the game’s rules as it conflicted with the function of [Eagle Eye]. Over the past few days, after reviewing the materials in his inventory and roughly understanding the material formulas, Su Mo had a new idea: to use the anti-stealth mechanism to create a counter-mark.

“Are we using beginner astrology charts?” ScarletFruit handed over hundreds of astrology charts to Su Mo. “The success rate is a bit higher with advanced astrology charts.”

Su Mo replied, “No, thanks.”

The advanced ones were too expensive.

Time flew by, and ScarletFruit reached level 66, while Momo and UnchainedWanderer also reached level 65.

Yu Zhen followed them on quests, during which they didn’t trigger any quests. Every day, he could hear these two discussing how to make money. He only spent half a day doing quests with them; the rest of the time, he switched to another character to do demon tasks. One morning, as soon as he logged in, he received a team invitation.

“Oh! Brother is here? We’ve been waiting for you forever.”

“Sorry to keep you waiting.” Yu Zhen arrived at the meeting point. “Do we do quests first?”

“Wait a moment,” Su Mo said again, “You handle the trade.”

Opening the trade, there was an unfamiliar item in the trade window.

“For me?” Yu Zhen asked.

“Last time, the staff you gave me was worn out in the Misty Sea Realm; it was useless after a few days. This one’s for you,” Su Mo said, “Consider it a return gift.”

Yu Zhen didn’t say anything but accepted the gift. However, when he saw the item description, a hint of surprise appeared on his face. “Astrologer’s item?”

[Counter-Mark (0/1): When activated, if an invisible unit attacks the player, the player carrying the counter-mark can immediately plant a mark on the target. The mark is not affected by invisibility and can reveal the location of invisible units. Activation lasts for 30 minutes, and within the specified time, there is no limit to the number of marks generated. The mark lasts for 3 seconds and can only be used in wilderness areas.]

During the testing of the materials, he failed several times, spending over a hundred gold in total. Su Mo finally managed to create the item, although the material formula wasn’t the problem. The main issue was his lack of understanding of Celestial Horizon’s rules, resulting in wasting several astrology charts in terms of numerical values. As a result, he had to deduct two days’ worth of Soul Rabbit’s food expenses.

“Yeah, it’s for anti-stealth in the wilderness,” Su Mo explained its function briefly. “The numerical values aren’t perfect, but it’s enough to deal with assassins.”

Seeing this, ScarletFruit commented, “Bro, why does he get it for free while I have to pay for materials?”

With the trade completed, Su Mo closed the trade interface. “I wouldn’t mind if you paid me according to market price.”

ScarletFruit replied, “I still haven’t won your heart.”

Su Mo was speechless.

Yu Zhen carefully read the description. This item was an anti-stealth tool, crucial for wilderness operations. Moreover, it wasn’t a straightforward anti-stealth item; instead, it used a counterattack to place a mark, which was essential for confirming the location. For most classes other than archers, this item could provide crucial opportunities for counterattacks.

Currently, assassins held the greatest advantage in the wilderness, but if this item became widespread, the situation might change.

ScarletFruit shrugged off his brief sadness. “Let’s go do some quests, level up quickly, and then we can talk about our money-making plans when we’re done.”

“Not doing quests,” Su Mo said again. “Quests waste time and provide little experience. The rewards from current quests are too low.”

ScarletFruit didn’t understand. “Then what do you want to do?”

“The most efficient way to gain experience at the moment should be the demon tasks. I just checked, and you can exchange experience pills with the points earned from killing demons in the wilderness shops,” Su Mo paused for a moment, then made a suggestion. “There’s a fast leveling method; how about we head to the wilderness?”