SS Awakening: My Monster Merging System!

FWOOSH!

When the holy flame landed this time, the burn marks were much shallower, which made Zich’s expression improve a little.

Since Ascension Mountain was a very strange place, he had decided to check through the marketplace. By sheer luck, he had stumbled across this enchantment.

Slimey was watching very seriously from the side.

Zich looked down at it.

"You need testing too."

Slimey froze completely. The next second, it tried to bounce backward.

Zich reached out and grabbed it back.

"Don’t play dead."

Slimey hung limply from his hand, like a blue jelly that had lost all hope.

Zich applied a little heat resistant coating to its surface.

Slimey shivered.

Then he had the dummy release its weakest holy flame.

Slimey immediately spread its silk barrier.

BOOM!

The holy flame hit the barrier. Cracks quickly appeared in the shield, but it did not break immediately. Seeing that it had blocked the attack, Slimey instantly became lively again.

"Not bad," Zich said.

Slimey bounced twice at once.

"Don’t get cocky. If you really run into Lucian, this won’t block many hits."

Slimey shrank back down again.

Zich did not keep crushing its spirits.

The testing continued for nearly an hour.

He reached several conclusions.

Against Lucian, undead summons could not be allowed to take purification attacks directly. It was best to force him to waste his skills with fake targets, obstacles, poison mist, or non undead units.

Against Braka, they absolutely could not enter a pure strength clash. They had to use poison, distance, landing restrictions, or make him swing at empty air.

Against Alden, attacking the shield itself was meaningless. The key was to attack behind him, from the side, or force him to leave his protective position.

The only people he had no idea how to counter were the other races present on Layer One.

’I wonder how the Velhari would fare,’ he thought with a curious expression on his face.

He was not too concerned about the Velhari, as he had fought alongside them to a certain extent and knew their fighting patterns. The people he truly needed to keep an eye on were the other races.

After thinking that through, Zich put away the training dummies and checked the number of enchantments and coatings again.

’I need to get more of these,’ he thought as he walked back inside.

After training ended, Zich did not go to rest immediately.

He returned to the study, sat down at the desk, opened his newly purchased phone, and entered the player forum once again. Originally, he thought the forum would still be filled with discussions about the candidate list, shelter rankings, and class counters. But not long after entering, he realized the front page had been completely taken over by something else.

Betting boards.

The Chosen Tournament had not officially begun yet, but related betting pools were already everywhere. Some people were betting on the final champion, some on which shelter would rank the highest, some on whether Helen or Lucian had the stronger flames, and others were betting on whether Braka would knock his opponent out of the arena in the very first match.

Zich looked at the posts, and his gaze shifted slightly.

"These people move pretty fast."

He did not click in immediately. Instead, he first looked through several of the hottest betting boards.

[Most Anticipated Human Candidate of the Chosen Tournament]

[Win Rate Predictions for the Four Shelter Representatives]

[Is Lucian Vilhart the Natural Enemy of Necromancer Summoners?]

[Can Braka Stonhide Tear Apart a Large Summon Bare Handed?]

[Will Zich Grave Reveal a New Summon?]

The last title made Zich stop.

He clicked into it and took a look.

The discussion inside was even livelier than he had imagined.

Some people believed his reputation had only been inflated by the rumors surrounding the Golden Secret Realm and that his shortcomings would definitely be exposed during the real tournament. Others argued that someone who had returned alive from the Golden Secret Realm could not possibly have only a single slime.

Even more absurd was the fact that people had actually created several betting categories specifically related to him.

[Is Zich Grave Hiding a Second Main Summon?]

[Is Zich Grave Connected to Master Shroud?]

[Can Zich Grave Defeat a Melee Type Candidate?]

[Will Zich Grave Last Until the Top Five in the Survival Round?]

[Can Zich Grave Win a Match Without Using Undead Summons?]

As Zich looked at these categories, his expression gradually became subtle.

A normal person might get angry seeing others turn them into a betting subject.

But Zich was not a normal person.

His first reaction was not anger.

It was calculation.

Among these betting pools, there were things he could actually control.

For example, winning a match without using undead summons.

Or winning with only a single summon.

Or dragging a fight out long enough in a specific environment.

This was not simply gambling. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

This was an information market that could be exploited.

Zich leaned back in his chair and lightly tapped the table with his fingers.

"Interesting."

He never considered directly betting on himself to win the entire tournament.

That would be too obvious and too likely to attract suspicion.

But the smaller categories were different.

If the bets were spread out enough, if the accounts were handled cleanly enough, and if he could control certain aspects of his performance, then this tournament could become an extra source of income in addition to its rewards.

At that thought, Zich’s mood improved considerably.

He continued scrolling downward.

Soon, the odds for several of the major popular candidates appeared before him.

Helen Magnus was called the most stable candidate.

Lucian Vilhart was considered by many to be the most dangerous person for undead and summoners.

Alden Klaus was evaluated as the strongest defensive wall.

Braka Stonhide was the monster with the highest odds in direct strength contests.

Mira Veil had suddenly become famous because of her control abilities, and now many people were betting that she would perform exceptionally well in team battles.

As for Zich...

His odds were the most chaotic.

In some categories, his odds were absurdly low because many people believed he was definitely still hiding something.

In other categories, his odds were ridiculously high because quite a few people also thought he had only gotten this far through luck and rumors.

This instability pleased Zich.

Instability meant information disparity.

Information disparity meant profit.

He did not place any bets immediately. Instead, he bookmarked several betting boards first. This was not the best time yet. Once the actual tournament schedule was released, the odds would change again. That would be the more suitable time to make a move.

Afterward, he switched to his Master Shroud account.

The messages on this account were even more outrageous than those on his personal forum account.

[Can you rent out anti mage summons?]

[Do you have temporary monsters suitable for training against summoners?]

[Can undead summons withstand a Sun Warlock’s purification flames?]

[I want to purchase advice on dealing with Beastblood Warriors. Price negotiable.]

[May I ask if Master Shroud provides pre tournament tactical consultations?]

Zich looked at these messages and fell into brief contemplation.

The tournament had not even officially started, yet market demand had already delivered itself to his doorstep.

This was good, but it was bad as well.

If Master Shroud became too active at this point in time, it would be easy for people to connect the identity to him. After all, he also happened to be a summoner, also happened to be preparing for the tournament, and also happened to be suspected of possessing undead summons.

When too many coincidences piled together, they were no longer coincidences.

But completely giving up on making money would also be stupid.

Zich thought for a while and finally opened an anonymous service with very strict limitations.

[Limited Tactical Consultation]

[Content: Summon Matchup and Class Analysis]

[Price: Five Soul Stones per Question]

[Victory Not Guaranteed]

[No Refunds]

[Stupid Questions Cost Extra]

After writing it, he confirmed the listing.

In less than a minute, the market comment section exploded.

"Master shady is robbing people again!"

"Five Soul Stones for one question? Why don’t you just rob people?"

"He’s always been robbing people. He just changed the wording."

"Who would buy something like this?"

"I bought it. Stop complaining. His answers are actually pretty accurate."

"You really bought it?"

"No shit. The tournament is about to start. Five Soul Stones for one useful suggestion isn’t a loss."

Zich looked at the comments without much change in expression.

He had just prepared to close the interface when his phone suddenly vibrated.

It was a message from Helen. After the preliminaries had ended, she had forced him to give her his contact information, and he had no choice but to comply.

[Did you see the betting boards on the forum?]

Zich glanced at it and casually replied.

[Yeah, it seems they really love me.]

Helen replied almost immediately.

[When you’re saying that right now, have you already started preparing to bet on yourself?]

Zich did not respond. A few seconds later, another message popped up.

[I knew it.]

Zich looked at the sentence and fell silent for a moment.

Sometimes this woman was far too perceptive.

He directly closed the chat window.

However, the excitement on the forum had not ended yet.

At that moment, a new betting update was suddenly pinned to the top.

[Large Anonymous Bet Appears]