SS Awakening: My Monster Merging System!

Zich sat in the mansion’s study, the light from his phone screen reflecting on his face.

The full registration list for the Chosen Ones Tournament had already been made public on the forum. The names of all candidates from the four human shelters on the First Layer were posted there, and the discussion threads were exploding in number within a very short time.

Zich had no interest in the excited shouting.

Who was the handsomest, who was the strongest, who was most suitable to represent humanity—none of that had much value to him. He only cared about one thing.

Useful information.

He opened several of the highest traffic analysis threads and quickly scanned through them. Most of the posts were nonsense, but every now and then, he could still find a bit of real intelligence.

Very quickly, he marked down three names separately.

Alden Klaus.

Braka Stonhide.

Lucian Vilhart.

Alden from the Second Shelter was a Guardian Knight, nicknamed Iron Wall. A lot of people on the forum said he could hold a corridor alone and stop a wave of monsters from advancing even half a step.

An enemy like that was not hard to understand.

Yes, they were hard to beat but not overly complicated.

Zich did not like fighting people like that head on. The stupidest way to deal with a shield was to actually attack the shield.

Braka from the Third Shelter was the complete opposite.

A Warrior, a brute of pure strength, the type who loved close quarters combat. Some people said he had once flipped over a heavily armored giant beast with his bare hands, and others said he had never lost in a collision of raw power.

Zich looked for a while, his expression calm.

People like Braka usually did not have many tricks. But once he got close, the problem became very direct.

Either get knocked away, or get broken.

Last was Lucian from the Fourth Shelter.

A Sun Sorcerer.

Holy flames, purification, wide area burning, high control.

Zich stared at this name for a longer time.

Because this one was clearly the most troublesome.

Not because he was necessarily the strongest, but because his attributes were too well suited to Zich’s weaknesses. Undead summons, shadow based movement, poison control—all of them would be more vulnerable in front of purification based and holy flame based abilities.

On the forum, people had already started comparing Lucian and Zich.

[Is Lucian Zich’s natural enemy?]

[A summoner running into a Sun Sorcerer is basically doomed, right?]

[If Zich really has something to do with the Dark Veil Master, Lucian is going to make him miserable.]

[Don’t forget Zich still has that slime.]

[Slimes are afraid of high heat too, aren’t they?]

There were insults, praise, speculation—all of it was ignored. What really had value were class traits, combat habits, known skill tendencies, and possible counter directions.

After finishing, Zich closed the forum.

He stood up and headed to the courtyard.

Night had already fallen deep. The mansion’s courtyard was quiet.

After the last infiltration incident, Zich had adjusted the lighting and barrier settings in the yard. Now the shadows in every corner were shorter than before.

He did not want shadow based classes entering his territory so easily again.

"Come out."

A faint glow flashed.

Slimy appeared first, landing on the ground and immediately bouncing twice, looking very energetic.

Then came Leech. It emerged from the edge of the shadows, standing at the side of the courtyard with its body arched slightly, its needle like mouthparts twitching. It still looked deeply unpleasant.

Iron appeared last. The towering elite undead knight stood behind Zich, a black greatsword hanging at his side, crimson light leaking from the seams of his helmet.

Zich did not summon Tiamant.

That thing was not for training.

At least not for ordinary courtyard training like this.

He looked at the summons in front of him and began reorganizing them in his hands.

Slimy handled poison, silk barriers, field interference, and temporary defense. Its offensive power was not the strongest, but it was cheap, flexible, and fast to react.

Leech was suited for ambushes, pursuit, harassing the back line, or killing key targets in the middle of chaos. The problem was that it was too visually distinctive. If it appeared too often, it would be easy for people to remember.

Iron was the front line unit. It could tank, it could fight, it generated commander level pressure, and it was easier to explain as a normal undead summon than Leech was.

As for the silverback ape soldier, he was still leaving too many traces in outside rentals and mission records. Zich had no intention of using it casually in public.

"With Lucian, undead will be at a disadvantage."

Zich looked at Iron.

"So you can’t just tank his holy flames directly."

Iron said nothing, only lowered his head slightly to Zich’s dismay who expected it to at last say a word.

Zich took several training dummies. He had just bought them from the market. Each one had a simple light element rune attached. The effect was not strong, but it was enough for basic testing.

They were not cheap either.

"If these things are useless, I’ll leave a bad review," Zich said as he activated the first dummy.

The surface of the dummy lit up with a pale golden glow, then released a small burst of scorching holy flame.

Zich had Iron raise his sword to block.

FWOOSH!

The holy flame landed on the black greatsword with a sharp sizzling sound. Iron’s movements did not falter, but a faint scorch mark quickly appeared on the blade’s surface.

Zich frowned when he saw the results. He then had Leech move toward another dummy.

This time, the instant the holy flame touched Leech’s outer shell, Leech instinctively took a step back. It was not fear—just that this energy really did make it uncomfortable.

Zich noted the result. After that, he took out several anti light coatings and three small purification resistance charms he had just bought.

These were items he had searched a long time for on the market.

The prices were neck cutting, but compared to having his summons burned to a crisp in public during the tournament, the money was still acceptable.

He coated Iron’s left arm armor with anti light treatment, then activated the dummy again.