novelraw Chapter 212: Turns Out, I’m the Whale!
Chapter 212: Turns Out, I’m the Whale!
Pandora planted her foot on Wilbur’s corpse and yanked the hilt with both hands.
Squelch.
The scarlet greatsword ripped out of the body, slick with black residue.
Without hesitating, she raised the blade. It fell.
The head, already lifeless with a gaping hole in it, rolled away.
At the same time, a prompt rang out in her mind.
As the sound faded, Wilbur’s headless corpse was shrouded in a hazy white light.
Flesh, clothing, and residue rapidly dissolved, vanishing into the glow.
Nothing remained but dust on the ground and the faint scent of blood.
A translucent screen floated in the air before her.
【Obtained from Extraction:】
【Flesh: 60 Units】
【Flora: 6 Units】
【Salt-Gold: 14 Units】
【Ether: 32 Units】
【Soul: 31 Units】
Pandora scanned the numbers.
It was the most she had ever obtained from a single target.
And it wasn’t a skewed result, either. Sometimes the resources were all concentrated in one category, leaving the others empty.
This time, whether it was “Flesh,” “Ether,” or “Soul,” the values were solid.
Especially considering Elsa had already drained most of the blood and the head had been chopped off.
If Wilbur had been a fresh, undamaged Third-Rank corpse, those two values might have been another 20% to 30% higher.
“However, if we’re talking about overall significance...”
Pandora looked away, feeling the Amber Mixture working. The warmth was returning, but she remained unfazed.
Compared to the deep, bottomless ocean of Alchemical Resources she had already accumulated, these new numbers didn’t make much of a splash.
She couldn’t even use them. Not really. Aside from crafting a few Perfect-Grade potions that required massive material expenditure, she lacked the means to utilize such vast reserves.
The 【Myriad Alchemy】 ability sounded omnipotent, but it had rules.
Every product required a corresponding 【Price】.
And she couldn’t craft anything above her own Rank.
Unless she found a special situation, she wouldn’t waste her hard-earned resources.
To her, the massive pool of points was just a “reserve.”
A safety net.
Even if it seemed unusable right now, or even overflowing...
What if she needed it one day?
In her view, “overflowing” was infinitely better than “not enough.”
“Besides...”
Pandora leaned against the wall, stepping over the gray ash as she walked forward. A naive thought crossed her mind.
“With so many resource points, maybe if I get lucky, I’ll stimulate the System to unlock a new feature?”
Her pale lips, drained of blood, curled into a faint smile.
Of course, she knew it was a fantasy. Wishful thinking.
The cold, mechanical System had never hinted at a third function beyond 【Myriad Alchemy】 and 【Assisted Alchemy】.
And if there was one, the System wouldn’t tell her until the moment it triggered.
Pandora checked the courtyard one last time.
Her gaze landed on the blur of flesh that used to be Wilbur’s Palmfiend.
She made a refining gesture.
The harvest was minuscule. Negligible, really. But every little bit counts.
Done, she looked through the shattered doors.
The real “jackpot” was out there.
Two corpses.
The “fat zombie shell” the parasite had abandoned, stuck to the floor downstairs.
And the parasite itself.
A bona fide Third-Rank mutated zombie. With that bulk, refining it would yield substantial resources.
Pandora stood there. She hesitated for two seconds.
Then, she shook her head. She withdrew her gaze.
The reason was simple. Very realistic.
Later, she had to debrief with Nicole.
Explaining the missing human corpse was easy. She could say it was smashed to bits, dissolved by a potion, or dragged off by wild dogs. Nicole wouldn’t dig too deep.
Transcendent battles were messy. Accidents happened.
But...
The two zombie corpses were too big.
Making nearly a ton of rotting flesh vanish into thin air? That was hard to explain.
To avoid unnecessary trouble, and to keep Nicole—whose perception was too sharp for her own good—from noticing details she shouldn't...
Pandora dropped the idea.
Besides, she had plenty of points. Missing a few hundred wouldn’t hurt her.
Rather than weaving a clumsy lie for the sake of some resources, it was better to just walk away.
She was a “Whale” now. She didn’t need to be stingy.
Leaving the courtyard, Pandora dragged her weak body through the silent corridor, up the stairs, and to the top floor of the mall.
A rusted iron door led to an open-air platform.
Next to it was a small equipment room.
As Pandora passed, she glanced inside.
To her surprise, a zombie was hiding in there.
It wore blue overalls stained with oil and clutched a rusty wrench, mechanically banging against a long-dead equipment box.
Probably trapped back when the Cataclysm first erupted. The lock broke, and it had been there ever since.
Zombies trapped in one place weren’t uncommon in the ruins of the Dead City.
The unlucky zombie she had found earlier to disguise herself—the one she left behind to confuse Wilbur—was in a similar spot. Trapped in a toilet stall, door jammed.
Otherwise, with their wandering nature and lack of intelligence, they would have been driven off by Nicole’s sister, who could control zombies.
Or maybe the girl’s power just couldn’t reach the blind spots...