Chapter 4 - Great Enhancement

The students who were forced out of the spectating mode were shocked to have witnessed this battle. Han Wu had not only been able to fend off the dwarves with his locusts, but he had also destroyed Zhang Bin’s Core!

The truth was right before their eyes. Zhang Bin’s face went pale as he slumped to the ground, his divine realm shattered.

Without his divine realm, he would no longer be able to ascend to become a Demigod and would forever be stuck as a bottom feeder, a mere Divine Being.

The door to the classroom burst open while the other students remained stupefied at the events that had just transpired in front of them.

Liu Letian stomped into the classroom angrily and roared, “Han Wu, come out!”

But he couldn’t find Han Wu anywhere, no matter how many times he searched the classroom.

He grumbled, frustrated that he could not find Han Wu. "If I get my hands on him... I'll see to it that he gets the punishment he deserves!" Turning to one of the students, Liu Letian quickly questioned him, "Where is he?"

The student stammered with fear, “He... He went home!”

Han Wu had already decided to skip class and had quickly teleported home to relax for the rest of the day after having won his battle. He decided to enter his landing pod in order to inspect his spoils.

He was victorious in this war but he still suffered losses. He checked his core race to find that he was left with only 20,000 Bomber Locusts and 40 million Common locusts. Still, he now had a better understanding of how strong the Bomber Locusts were than he had before the war.

It seems that I have to nurture more locusts for next time.

He then inspected his spoils of war. First, there were the pieces of Zhang Bin’s divine realm. Zhang Bin’s family was so rich that they had poured in a lot of resources into his divine realm to help solidify his base.

Even though Han Wu couldn’t use the resources directly, he could still salvage the remaining pieces of the divine realm for his own use. After merging them with his own divine realm and successfully expanding the total land size of his divine realm to 260 sq km, creating 100 sq km of fertile land, 20 sq km of ore mines, 40 sq km of forest, 60 sq km of desert, and 40 km² of mountains in the process.

The second-tier of valuable items consisted of pieces of Zhang Bin’s Core and his Rank 1 Sacred Object: Dwarven Hammer. Han Wu had already merged the pieces of Zhang Bin’s Core with his own Core, and was able to successfully raise its level by one.

He could now choose to equip an additional Rank 1 Sacred Object or unequip his current Rank 1 Sacred Object: Explosive Heart to equip a single Rank 2 Sacred Object. Unfortunately, Rank 2 Sacred Objects were ten times more expensive than regular Rank 1 Sacred Objects. Han Wu couldn’t afford it.

Additionally, Han Wu noticed that there were still 800 dwarves and some steel equipment within some of the pieces of Zhang Bin’s divine realm.

This was a fruitful reward for Han Wu. If he could maintain this pace, he would definitely be able to graduate and enroll in college.

But Han Wu was certain that he was still in danger. It was impossible for Zhang Bin’s parents to stay silent after knowing that their son’s Core was shattered.

There was even a chance that the school would surrender Han Wu to Zhang Bin’s parents so that they could punish him as they saw fit. The pressure that would come from a family of two Demigods was impossible to ignore.

Han Wu was certain that he would be helpless against Demigods at his stage because he was too weak.

He had to exchange everything he didn’t need for now to raise the strength of his core race before Zhang Bin’s father found him. He had to raise his strength at all costs.

After sorting out his spoils, he quickly logged into the Divine Market to sell off everything he didn’t need, including 60 sq km of desert, 40 sq km of mountains, and the Rank 1 Sacred Object: Dwarven Hammer.

Han Wu placed a special restriction and note on the Dwarven Hammer, “Not for sale. Looking to exchange for a Sacred Object related to explosions.”

Han Wu delegated the remaining 800 dwarves to excavate the ore mine. He planned on using them as sacrifices next time.

Han Wu had just registered his items for sale when numerous system messages flooded in.

[Sold off desert! 1 Divine Point per square kilometer. Total: 60 Divine Points]

[Sold off mountains! 1.5 Divine Point per square kilometer. Total: 60 Divine Points]

[Sold off steel equipment! 4 Divine Points]

As it turned out, victory in territorial wars could yield massive profits!

But the Rank 1 Sacred Object: Dwarven Hammer still remained.

A lot of people messaged him to complain about the effects of the Dwarven Hammer, such as it could only be used by those with dwarves as their core race, and the only effect it could even provide to those who could fulfill such a condition was only to increase the chances of producing equipment. It didn’t have any combat value. They tried to bargain and haggle for the Dwarven Hammer, while some even offered useless Sacred Objects to trade with.

But Han Wu wasn’t foolish enough to fall for such blatant scammers. He kept a clear mind and didn’t fall for any of their tricks.

While he was waiting for an offer, he decided to spend his time using his Divine Powers to stimulate the reproduction of his locusts. He had to increase their numbers once more in order to weather the oncoming storm. Even after selling off a large portion of land, Han Wu now had more resources to use in raising even more locusts without needing to permanently destroy part of his divine realm.

Ten hours passed in real life before Han Wu finally received the first earnest customer who truly wished to exchange Sacred Objects with him.

The person had a Rank 1 Sacred Object: Molten Crystal that could increase a core race’s resistance to fire and also increase the strength of their explosions. This was exactly what Han Wu needed.

Unfortunately, the value of the Molten Crystal was a bit higher when compared to the Dwarven Hammer.

The person offered to exchange it as long as Han Wu paid an additional one hundred Divine Points, but after some negotiation, they settled on only exchanging an extra 80 Divine Points to cover the cost difference. Once the trade was done, the Molten Crystal immediately appeared in Han Wu’s hands. It was warm to the touch and completely transparent. Surprisingly, its core was that of molten lava, and it threatened to burst out at any time. Han Wu swiftly attached it to his Core and a wave of fire energy spread through his locusts.

A thousandth of his locusts mutated thanks to the influence of the Molten Crystal. After mutating, the Common locusts could now tolerate higher temperatures, and as a pleasant surprise, also doubled the amount of Faith Points they generated per day. Their lifespan was also increased to 150 realm-days.

More importantly, the Bomber Locusts that were affected by the Molten Crystal mutated into a different life form and doubled in size, reaching 20 centimeters in length.

[Core Race: Magma Locust]

[Rank: Elite]

[Talent: Magma Bomb]

[Faith Level: Zealots]

[Faith Points: 1/5 Faith Points per realm-day]

[Reproduction: 20 eggs per (>ᴗ<)]

[Lifespan: 250 realm-days]

Even though the Magma Locust was still just an Elite life form, their destructive power was leagues above the Bomber Locusts.

After some testing, he determined that each Magma Locust exploded with the force of a hand grenade. Additionally, the magma contained within the locust would form a large denial zone[1] and inflict area-of-effect damage.

Han Wu decided to immediately prioritize increasing their numbers!

He was certain that no one would be able to bully him at school ever again if he had 10 million Magma Locusts within his divine realm.

1. In gaming, Denial Zone is a strategy used to control space, restrict an opponent's movements, or both. ☜