Chapter 767: Marlin's Land of Salt
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
[Crystallized Frost Rock Dragon Scorpion] (Elite, Beast)
Level: 190
HP: 9,500,000
Defence: 12,110
Melee Attack: 86,871 – 126,871
Skills:
[Pincer]: Uses its gigantic pincers to clamp target, causing 100% Melee Attack of Physical Damage to the target.
[Tail Sting]: Uses its sharp, venomous tail to attack the target, causing 100% Melee Attack of Physical Damage to the target. The target will suffer 60,000 Nature Damage for the next 6 seconds.
Note: Crystallized Frost Rock Dragon Scorpion is the dominators of the land around here. Because their food source is extremely limited, they will usually hibernate beneath the surface of the ground and wait for the right moment to ambush their preys.
Other than that Elite Tier giant scorpion, the other smaller scorpions were just Normal Tier. However, each of those little tiny scorpions could actually deal damage, ranging from 46,523 to 66,523 damage! They were capable of penetrating Zhang Yang’s Defence with that kind of Attack power. So, Zhang Yang had no intention of letting the little ones get near him!
However, if he could take care of the entire ‘nest’ of scorpions that erupted from beneath the ground, he would be able to earn tremendous amount of Experience Points. So should he do it?
Zhang Yang commanded Phoenix pet to make their first move. The Phoenix pet began to spit flames, torching up the little scorpions and the giant scorpion in the surroundings. Damage values of approximately ‘180,000’ consecutively popped right on top of the closely packed little scorpions and the big one. After all, the little ones only had 250,000 HP on each of them. So, they were all burnt to the point that they were all screeching in misery.
Meanwhile, Felice was not standing idly by the side. She was also showing off her strength alongside the Phoenix pet as well. Upon transforming into her Dragonhawk form, she was spreading Fire Damage across the monsters in an attempt to aid the Phoenix pet. After the Phoenix pet’s attacks, the little ones were only left with 70,000 HP. Coming into contact with Felice’s explosively deadly attacks, the little ones were wiped out clean.
After the two waves of attacks that killed tens of scorpions in the surroundings, the female giant scorpion was infuriated. It reached out with its gigantic pincers and got a hold of the Phoenix pet. Then, it pulled the blazing bird down with its might strength and slammed the phoenix pet onto the ground heavily! Bam! The salt rocks were smashed into pieces. White, powdery salt pebbles were flying everything due to the incredible impact of the slam. Zhang Yang could feel that pain when the pebbles struck his face.
Zhang Yang quickly hopped off the back of Phoenix pet. Then, he whirled his scythe around and accumulated enough rage points to unleash hell on the monsters. He stomped both of his legs steadily on the ground. A visible shockwave immediately spread out from his body in all directions. All salt rocks that was within the area of 3-meter radius were reduced to dust. Meanwhile, the little scorpions that got too near to Zhang Yang were afflicted with a damage of ‘-58,841!’. Every single one of them was also afflicted by movement speed reduction effect.
The Phoenix pet spat out another stream of flame across the scorpions and caused another wave of immense damage to the little crawlers again. Zhang Yang gave no quarter to them at all. He activated his {Blast Wave} closely after the Phoenix’s attack and wiped them out.
However, there were still more than 200 little crawlers remaining. They were gushing towards Zhang Yang like a fierce tidal wave. Meanwhile, the gigantic mother scorpion was continuously spamming its {Pincer} and {Tail Sting} on Zhang Yang, Felice and Phoenix pet. However, even though the Attack power of the mother scorpion was much higher than the Attack power of each little scorpion, the number of the baby scorpions was too damn many! The threat that they posed to Zhang Yang when they came at him at the same time would be much worse than the threat that the single mother could pose to him!
{Shield Wall}!
Zhang Yang activated his life-saving Skills immediately. Well, he could actually use this Skill once every 2 and a half minutes. So, there was no reason for him to hold back on using that Skill. He hopped back onto the Phoenix pet and shared the perk of activating his {Shield Wall} with Phoenix pet. He carried forward his plan to annihilate the scorpion’s nest. He swung his scythe in the battlefield valiantly. Meanwhile, Phoenix pet and Felice were aiding him in his cause, killing the scorpions one after another, cleansing the surroundings with their insane waves of attacks.
The Phoenix’s single attack could averagely deal 180,000 damage to the little ones. It only took a brief moment for the Phoenix to empty out the HP bars of the little scorpions! Furthermore, its flaming tongue could reach out to 15 meters in range. Because of that, the Phoenix could cover quite a lot of ground with its attacks. So, that was the power of a Legendary Tier pet when it came to dealing AoE attacks!
When the 10-second {Shield Wall} vanished, the little ones were completely wiped out. The only monster that remained was the gigantic mother scorpion. She was so infuriated that she began to charge at Zhang Yang with all her might. Her attacks were so intense that the salt rocks in the entire area were smashed into bits and the pebbles of the salt rocks were flying all over the place. The surroundings seemed to have been assaulted by a tornado thunderstorm!
Well, a general without an army would basically be useless. Under the bombardment of Zhang Yang, Felice and Phoenix pet, the gigantic scorpion had to admit defeat eventually. She collapsed onto the ground heavily and stay dead. The impact of her collapsed had swept up the dust and pebbles of the salt rocks in the surroundings.
The Elite Tier monster did not drop anything too valuable. However, she did drop a bunch of [Scorpion Tails] and [Scorpion Pincers]. These items could only be sold to the NPCs in the shops for 1 to 2 silver pieces each. So, Zhang Yang did not want to waste his time picking them up. He continued to move forward.
Zhang Yang would encounter another gigantic Crystallized Frost Rock Dragon Scorpion every time he proceeds forward for approximately 1,000 meters. However, not every Crystallized Frost Rock Dragon Scorpion had baby scorpions. Some of them were just alone waiting for Zhang Yang to slay them. There was no telling which of the Crystallized Frost Rock Dragon Scorpions was a male or a female. There was no telling if these Crystallized Frost Rock Dragon Scorpions had the ability of giving birth to new baby scorpions as well. However, Zhang Yang was really happy whenever he encounters a Crystallized Frost Rock Dragon Scorpion with many baby scorpions around. Well, it was because he could earn a tremendous amount of Experience Points by merely slaying the baby scorpions.
If this goes on without any unforeseen circumstances for another 3 days, Zhang Yang believed that he could reach Level 178 by then.
Unfortunately, dreams would always be great while reality is cruel as f*ck!
After moving on for about 20 minutes, Frost Wolves began to reveal themselves across the salt land one after another. Their bodies were totally white to the point that they looked transparent. The only visible part on their bodies were their pair of red eyes which seemed to be filled with the thirst for blood.
Zhang Yang came here for one simple reason, to earn Experience Points. So he did not go on to slaying the Frost Wolves. He turned back and headed east-west. Well, he was initially heading towards the direction of North-South. Well, he wanted to poke every single scorpion nest that he could find on the map!
Half a day had passed, Zhang Yang’s Experience Bar had increased by a few blocks. Unfortunately, there were no longer any scorpion nests for him to poke. There was no telling when the scorpion nests would respawn.
So after knowing that, he was no longer picky. He would just slay anything that came in his way. He ventured across the white and endless land without an actual aim of where he wanted to go. After he started to lose track of time, Zhang Yang found himself arriving before a derelict palace.
This wreckage of a palace seemed to be abandoned long time ago. There was no one, no humans, no Spectres in the vicinity. The palace was basically empty. Other than a few dried corpses and remaining bones, there was nothing else. Obviously, the residents of the palace had left the palace on their own will. There was no bloodshed or whatsoever in the palace at all.
Zhang Yang had not found anything shiny in the vicinity of the palace. Well, it was obvious that there were no quests to be triggered here. Upon scanning the area for a little bit, he carried on with his grinding. A few hours had passed, Zhang Yang continued on slaying monsters without any rest. However, when he looked forward, he saw a bunch of greens far before him. As he got closer to the spot, he realized that he was approaching a forest!
The scenery of spotting a forest in the middle of a salt rock land was just magnificent! The feeling was like spotting a greenland in the middle of a desert! Zhang Yang was a little excited over what he found. So, he quickly patted his pet and flew straight towards the forest. However, before he could descend down to the ground, he was greeted with a large number of arrows from the direction of the forest.
Although Zhang Yang attempted to block the arrows by raising his shield up, he was still shot by the arrows. Well, with the arrows stuck firmly on him, he looked like a hedgehog. Not only was his {Block} ineffective against the arrow attacks, he had also lost tens of thousands of his HP. Fortunately for him, Zhang Yang would never be bothered by that at all. After all, he already had over a million HP at the current stage of the game.
"Hey!" a voice was heard from the forest, "Why didn’t you signal us earlier? I could have accidentally shoot you dead!"
After a brief moment, a young man, a human, walked right out of the forest and waved at Zhang Yang. Then he said, "Alright! I’ve disabled the defence mechanism of the place! You can come in now!"
[Joseph] (Normal, Humanoid)
Level: 185
HP: 237,730
Zhang Yang attempted to land again, As expected! This time, he was able to land without being greeted with a large number of arrows. He hopped off the back of phoenix pet and said, "So, you don’t like guests, I assume?"
"We don’t like those uninvited guests!" Joseph smiled. Then, he continued to speak, "For instance, did you see the Frost Wolves, Salt Tigers and the Curly Monsters while you were on your way here? Those beasts would have destroyed our home if we ever let them in! So, we decided to set up a defensive mechanism by the outskirts of the region. Well, to stop them from invading our home of course!"
Joseph looked at the Phoenix pet. He was mesmerized by the appearance of the phoenix. Then he said, "Outsider, is this mount for sale? I can give you … two bottles of water!"
Two bottles of water to buy a Legendary pet? Zhang Yang felt the need to beat some senses into this idiot! However, seeing how the entire was covered with salt rocks without any sign of river or water, maybe a drop of water would even be much more valuable than a ton of diamonds!
"Of course not! It’s not up for sale!" Zhang Yang shook his head and kept Phoenix pet back in his inventory. The forest was quite thick, actually. It would not be appropriate for the big blazing bird to glide into the forest. Meanwhile, it would also be unwise to fly across the sky. Zhang Yang would never know what hit him if there were more traps or defensive mechanisms around the forest.
Joseph was very disappointed. The disappointment was written all over his face. However, he was quite an optimistic person. He became cheerful again after a brief moment. Then he said, "Outsider, what’s your name? Where do you hail from?"
"Zhan Yu, from White Jade Castle!"
"White Jade what? Castle?" Joseph began muttering to himself. He was confused to hear what Zhang Yang just told him. Obviously, he had not heard of the place before. He scratched his head and said, "The Chief is out of the village, trying to understand the situation outside. He would be very pleased to see you! Zhan Yu, please follow me!"
‘Ding! Joseph has given you a quest: Referral! Will you accept?’
Zhang Yang accepted the quest and followed Joseph into the forest. Meanwhile, the young man noticed the existence of Felice. He was mesmerized by the appearance of Felice as well. He expressed that he was willing to give 10 bottles of water as a gift of proposing to Felice. By the end of it, Zhang Yang gave him a solid slap on his face and he fell facedown.
The village that Joseph came from was not far. Well, the forest was not really huge, to begin with. Joseph, Zhang Yang, and Felice had arrived at a small village after a brief while of walking. The village was filled with women and children. There was no sign of any men in the village. According to Joseph, the men had gone out to hunt. Meanwhile, he was still one month away from becoming a real man. So he was only posted to guard the outpost by the outskirts of the forest.
The buildings and facilities in the village were built with woods and sticks. It almost felt like the place was a primitive tribe’s village. Well, if it wasn’t because of the outside world being in total chaos, this place would be a very good place for a vacation.
The three of them arrived before a small wooden cottage. After Joseph knocked the door a few times over, he opened the door and invited Zhang Yang to enter as well.
There was an old man inside the cottage. The old man was carrying the name ‘Chief Hushma’. He was holding a walking stick. He appeared to be very old and clumsy.
After Joseph had introduced Zhang Yang to the Chief, Hushma began to speak, "Outsider, how did you manage to come in here? According to my knowledge, the beasts out there are ferocious!"
"My respected Chief, he has a big bird! A very very very big big bird!" Joseph immediately spoke in excitement, trying to explain to the Chief.
"Huh?" Hushma widened his eyes and said, "So outsider, does that mean you can fly in the sky?"
"Yes, I can!" Zhang Yang nodded.
"That’s great!" Hushma knocked his walking stick against the ground as he spoke in excitement. Then he said, "Outsider, we are in dire need of water. Water is the one thing that we need the most now! However, our water supplies are extremely limited! Well, there isn’t much rain here. Furthermore, the nearby lakes have been turned into salt! So, we can’t use the water anymore. We can only rely on morning dew to preserve our lives here. Although we know that there is a lake that has not been contaminated located by the west side of our village, there are countless deadly monsters roaming in between our village and the lake. So all we can do is to stare at the lake from afar!"
He looked at Zhang Yang with his eyes filled of hope, "Please bring us some clean water! We shall pay you a handsome reward… erm… erk ---" After seeing how the village was doing, Zhang Yang could deduce that clean water was the most valuable thing they could offer. There was simply nothing of the same value that could replace the clean water. So, the Chief immediately started faltering.
The Chief gave it some thought and said, "I can give you the one sword that has been passed down for generations, the ‘Kingcross’s Sword,’ as the reward!"