Chapter Eighty-Nine: Taming the Southern Giganotosaurus

[Sample Implant / Ancient Divine Artifact]

[Sample No.: 2374]

[Sample Implant upgraded: triple backpack capacity. Triple strength enhancement.]

[Cleared: Elite Broodmother Spider]

Compared with before, Qin Fei’s implant now bore an additional notice showing that he had passed the Broodmother Spider trial.

Aside from that, three new abilities had appeared on the implant.

[Tek Structure Mastery: Converts Tek energy elements stored in the backpack into various Tek structures. The size of each structure may be controlled by the user.]

By that count, Qin Fei now possessed two construction-related abilities: Stone Structure Mastery and Tek Structure Mastery.

In terms of hardness, load-bearing capacity, and resilience, Tek structures far surpassed stone ones.

But that did not mean Stone Structure Mastery had become useless.

After all, while Tek structures were sturdy and durable, crafting them required the consumption of Tek energy elements. Those could only be obtained as rewards after defeating ultimate creatures such as the Broodmother Spider.

For all practical purposes, they were a nonrenewable resource.

Stone structures, on the other hand, required nothing more than rocks gathered from the ground as raw material.

Though not as durable, stone structures had the advantage of readily available materials... and so the practical range of Stone Structure Mastery was far broader than that of Tek structures.

Besides that ability, Qin Fei had also gained two passive skills.

[Tek Helmet Crafting and Usage Mastery: Learn how to craft and use a Tek Helmet.]

[Tek Boots Crafting and Usage Mastery: Learn how to craft and use Tek Boots.]

These were knowledge-type skills, the same kind as the Advanced Engineer Mastery Qin Fei had acquired before.

Once he obtained these two abilities, a vast amount of knowledge concerning the manufacture of Tek equipment was added to his memory.

Apart from the three new skills, his spatial backpack now also contained one hundred Tek energy elements and a miniature model of the Broodmother Spider’s head.

[Energy Element: A strange, high-grade substance that radiates power throughout its body. Can be used to craft and power Tek equipment.]

[Broodmother Spider Trophy: Place it on a trophy wall mount as proof of your strength!]

After defeating the Broodmother Spider, the next ultimate creature Qin Fei and the others intended to challenge was the Gorilla King.

But now was not the time.

During the battle against the Broodmother Spider, the four of them had already used up almost all their shotgun ammunition.

As they were now, they simply did not possess enough war supplies to challenge the Gorilla King.

They needed to make more shotgun shells themselves.

In addition, before taking on the Gorilla King, they planned to craft the Tek Helmet and Tek Boots to further enhance their combat strength.

The materials required to make Tek equipment were mainly crystal, iron, obsidian, a small amount of silica pearls, and Tek energy elements.

Crystal was chiefly found in caves and on mountaintops, while obsidian came from volcanoes. Qin Fei had long since gathered a great quantity of both.

As for pearls, they were mainly produced beneath the sea and were nearly nonexistent on land.

Fortunately, during the last expedition to the undersea cave, both Qin Fei and Xie Nainai had collected a large amount, so there was no shortage at present.

Iron ore was even simpler.

Nearly every mountain in the Ark world was rich in iron.

And most of those veins lay exposed on the mountainside, so mining them required barely any effort at all.

Not only that, the quantity was absurdly abundant.

As long as one had an iron pickaxe, one could casually chip away a few stones on a mountainside, toss them into a smelting furnace, and easily refine wrought iron.

Wood burned at roughly six hundred degrees Celsius, which was still far from sufficient for iron smelting.

But the lava in the volcanic lake reached temperatures of over a thousand degrees Celsius, making it an excellent heat source.

Thus, to forge the Tek equipment, Qin Fei and the others decided to head straight to the volcano’s summit and use the intense heat of the lava lake to smelt the raw materials needed for crafting.

When they arrived at the foot of the snowy mountain, Qin Fei halted.

Lying before him was a Giganotosaurus.

Qin Fei was at a loss for words.

What a coincidence. This southern behemoth was most likely the very one that had attacked him at the summit earlier... and then, through sheer carelessness, fallen off the mountain.

It did not appear to be dead.

Its abdomen was still rising and falling in a steady rhythm, which meant it was probably still breathing.

Most likely its injuries were too severe, and it had only fallen unconscious for the time being.

There was quite a bit of blood on the ground near its right leg, but because of the bitter cold, it had long since frozen solid.

A thoughtful look entered Qin Fei’s eyes.

Judging by the injury to its leg...

If he simply left it alone, the wound might well worsen over time.

And the climate on this snowy mountain was brutally cold to begin with. If he did not help stop the bleeding soon, the creature might very well die in the snow.

Should he save it... or not?

On the Lonely Isle, nearly every kind of creature, including the Giganotosaurus, could be tamed.

If Qin Fei chose to save this one, there was a high chance he could win its recognition, forge a bond, and have it fight at his side.

But raising a Giganotosaurus also came with certain hidden dangers.

In the game Ark, once a Giganotosaurus suffered a large amount of damage in a short span of time, it would become violently frenzied.

In severe cases, it would fail to distinguish friend from foe and attack anything within sight.

In other words, once it went mad, it would even strike its own allies.

So Qin Fei was still wavering over whether he ought to save it.

Just as he was weighing the pros and cons, the Giganotosaurus on the ground awoke.

Perhaps because its leg was injured, it did not rise to its feet. Even after waking, it remained where it was, sprawled on the ground.

When it saw Qin Fei and the others nearby, it let out a series of low growls, as though warning them not to come any closer.

Qin Fei guessed that the beast had recognized him.

After all, it had pursued him on the snowy mountain before; the two of them could be considered enemies.

That was why, the moment it saw him, it growled in warning, trying to threaten him into leaving.

But the creature was badly wounded and could not even move now, so naturally Qin Fei was not about to be scared away.

Perhaps fearing that Qin Fei would seize the chance to take revenge, the Giganotosaurus actually forced itself to stand... but its injuries were too severe. It swayed where it stood for a few moments, then collapsed back into the snow.

Qin Fei remained silent.

Whether this Giganotosaurus could truly be tamed or not, he would have to try first and see.

He took out some meat from his backpack, but did not approach it.

Holding the raw meat in his hand, Qin Fei stood beyond the beast’s attack range and tossed it over from a distance.

The creatures on the Lonely Isle were not lacking in intelligence.

Because they had been enemies, the Giganotosaurus did not immediately eat the meat Qin Fei had thrown. It gave him a wary look.

At the same time, low growls once more rumbled from its throat.

Seeing that it was unwilling to eat what he had offered, Qin Fei did not give up at once. He pulled another piece of raw meat from his backpack and tossed it over.

The beast was likely truly hungry. And on top of that, with such grievous injuries, its body genuinely needed energy... so in the end, it failed to resist the temptation of food and swallowed the raw meat at its lips in a single gulp.

Good.

Qin Fei felt a quiet surge of delight.

Since the Giganotosaurus was willing to eat the food he offered, that meant there was hope yet that he could tame it.