Chapter 390: Act 146 – Rock Garuru Beast! (Second Update)
In the next moment, everyone saw Carglis being knocked to the ground.
However, the Rock Shadow Beast with its front limbs on his chest did not make any further attacks. Instead, it raised its head and looked at Brendel with its entire head made of sharp rocks. Brendel nodded, and the creature immediately took a step back.
“Approaching black iron level!” Carglis rubbed his chest and said, “Isn’t that a bit outrageous? This thing is almost on par with your onyx leopard, my lord.”
Brendel nodded. He looked at the Rock Shadow Beast with great satisfaction. Its abilities were close to the black iron level, and even more commendable was that it also possessed characteristics of a semi-ethereal creature.
Semi-ethereal creatures can reduce half of physical damage, which essentially doubles their health. Moreover, their agility is much higher than that of physical beings, meaning that while this creature’s power was at the black iron level, its combat effectiveness had far exceeded that of the onyx leopard.
Then he turned his gaze toward the black wolf. The black wolf was itself at the peak of black iron, comparable to Carglis. With the rock attribute enhancement, it should logically be even stronger. This time, Brendel chose Kuran as a test subject, and as expected, the black wolf was defeated. However, the battle revealed that the beast’s strength exceeded the lower silver level.
At the same time, this new form of black wolf also possessed extremely high defense. Kuran’s casual strike against its rocky armor could not even penetrate, suggesting that its defense was at least upper silver level.
Overall, this creature possessed combat power almost at the middle silver level.
The combat power at the middle silver level indicated an increase of nearly two tiers compared to its original strength. Considering the large population and potential for future growth, Brendel couldn’t help but squint his eyes. Once the beast population reaches an intermediate level, it can give birth to lord-level monsters—such as the wolf lord and the onyx leopard.
What kind of existence would that be?
Brendel’s mind was filled with endless possibilities. However, while being extremely satisfied with the black wolf, he realized that the creature had clearly evolved significantly from its original kind. As such, to continue calling it a black wolf was evidently inappropriate and could easily lead to confusion.
What should it be named instead?
He turned back, and Carglis, still clutching his chest, seemed to understand his thoughts and curiously asked, “My lord, is this still a black wolf?”
“No, I haven’t thought of a name for it yet,” Brendel replied honestly.
“Then let’s call it the ferocious wolf; it seems to fit better,” Carglis suggested.
“I think it looks more like a rock wolf,” Kuran obviously disagreed.
“No,” Brendel shook his head. After thinking for a while, he said, “I’ve decided to call it—Rock Garuru Beast!”
“Rock Garuru Beast?” Everyone was taken aback. What kind of creature was that?
However, Brendel was already thinking that in the future, he would create an iron attribute lair and truly transform this thing into an Iron Garuru, which would be amazing!
While he was daydreaming, he suddenly heard footsteps approaching from behind—he was startled. Was Ward here to notify him that it was time to depart? Brendel immediately woke up, remembering that he was still in the midst of the ‘wolf disaster’ storyline in this Black Forest, and it was far from a time to feel relieved.
At the very least, it wouldn’t take a day or two for the beast population to take shape. Moreover, upgrading required a lot of materials to invest; lairs in the game were like money-burning machines, and here it was no different.
The Stone Lair was only missing a Sage Stone, while the investment in the Shadow Lair had just begun.
However, with such thoughts, Brendel turned around and unexpectedly found that it was not Ward or Quinelle, the treant leader, who came over, but the somewhat gloomy face of Earl Ouding.
“Mr. Earl?” He was slightly taken aback. Since Erluin’s envoy had failed to persuade him, they had been following at a distance, not mentioning going back, nor did they engage with him, almost treating him like a free bodyguard.
But what was going on now?
“Baron,” Earl Ouding spoke, “Have you seen Miss Faina and the others?”
Faina?
Brendel was stunned for a moment before recalling that it was the name of the noble girl from Cruz. However, since the battle with the mist howl, he had completely lost track of the three young people from Cruz. To be honest, he wasn’t particularly fond of the Cruz Empire, and the only reason he hadn’t kicked those three young people out of the group was that he, himself, could not do such a thing.
He thought if it were a few of the hot-tempered members of his former group, they might have unceremoniously kicked them out. The Erluin players’ disgust towards the Cruz Empire was genuinely heartfelt.
So when Earl Ouding spoke up, Brendel was taken aback and glanced around casually, “Aren’t they here?”
“No.” Earl Ouding shook his head. “In fact, we’ve been looking for them for quite a while, but haven’t seen Miss Faina or Viscount Erluin anywhere.”
“Not here?”
Brendel found it a bit strange. Shouldn’t that ill-tempered girl be sticking with them all the time? However, facing his questioning gaze, Carglis, Meria, Antinna, Kuran, and Xi all shook their heads in turn.
No one knew?
Brendel became more confused and decided to find Repal. The lizardman leader and his subordinates had been in charge of perimeter vigilance since entering the Black Forest. If there were any disturbances outside, he would definitely know first—yet unfortunately, the answer he received from Repal was also negative.
This meant that since they had stopped to rest, Erluin and the others had not left the camp. Otherwise, Repal and its subordinates, the Fireclaw Lizardmen, would certainly have noticed.
However, there was another possibility.
That was, Faina and the others had already gotten lost before that.
But that would indeed be amusing. Of course, Brendel wasn’t concerned about whether these few people would get lost. He found it utterly incredible that several living people could just lose track of the group.
He thought even if that young lady was useless, Viscount Erluin and that alchemist boy beside her did not seem to be inept.
Eventually, prompted by Antinna, Brendel called upon the most meticulous among them, Flour, to see if this elder sister of the wild elf sisters could detect any clues.
But unexpectedly, Flour brought them even more shocking news.
She had been looking for her sister too.
Diya was missing?
Brendel’s first reaction was that this was impossible. Diya was a member of the twelve Lubis mercenaries, part of his card-summoned creatures, and there was a mental connection between the two. It was impossible for a summoned creature to get lost without him noticing.
However, he immediately sensed her position, and with that, his expression changed.
Even the heart connection that couldn’t be blocked by the Black Forest had failed for the first time!
By Martha, what kind of script was this?
…
Meanwhile, while Brendel was shocked, the ill-tempered noble girl was stumbling through a thicket, along with her two companions.
Several times, she nearly tripped over the outstretched branches. Even though she was fortunate enough to maintain her appearance with that black-haired alchemist boy’s help, her beautiful dress was already torn to shreds.
She looked down at her beggar-like outfit and couldn’t help but feel furious. Naturally, she attributed the blame to Brendel—if it weren’t for that country bumpkin, how would they have been forced to come here?
Moreover, when the mist howl created the fog earlier, that guy hadn’t even noticed they got lost in it. He was so powerful, it must have been intentional!
Faina thought angrily in her heart that if Brendel were right in front of her, she would want to stab him through with her sword. Unfortunately, not only was Brendel not in front of her at this moment, but even if he were, she didn’t have that capability.
After grinding her teeth for a while, the noble girl finally couldn’t help but ask, “Viscount Erluin, how much longer? Didn’t you say we’d catch up soon?”
She asked a little weakly, having already asked this question several times.
Erluin also felt somewhat helpless. He glanced at Rono beside him, thinking this was a good opportunity to make a move, but right now, he wasn’t in the mood—he clearly remembered that Brendel’s group had initially gone in this direction, and there was no reason they could still be pursuing them after such a long time without catching up.
He was well aware that the Erluin people and their subordinates would have stopped to rest; otherwise, he wouldn’t choose to chase after them.
As for going back to find a way to meet up with Commander Veronika, he had thought about it but simply didn’t have the courage to carve a bloody path back through the wolf tide.
Therefore, this noble viscount raised his hands and could only force himself to say, “I think perhaps they intend to rest a bit farther out, after all, this place is not far from the wolf tide. It’s still too dangerous.”
Thinking of the endless wolf tide, he changed his expression slightly, having never thought that the Black Forest would be this dangerous. If he had known, he wouldn’t have agreed to undertake such a task. Originally, he thought that being with such an imperial war deity like Veronika would not result in any problems.
But it turned out that he had not considered that this young lady beside him was far too willful.
“But you’ve said that several times already.” Faina said with some dissatisfaction, “I can hardly walk anymore.”
Hearing her say this, Erluin couldn’t help but feel a bit dissatisfied as well. He took a deep breath and said, “You should ask that little girl behind. Didn’t she say she could contact that Erluin person?”
Faina was taken aback and couldn’t help but look back at Diya, who was struggling to keep up behind them—she remembered that this little girl was the companion of that detestable Erluin bumpkin—and that she had told them she had a way to contact Brendel, only unfortunately, she hadn’t succeeded even once until now.
“The communication spells in the Black Forest are affected by magical turbulence,” Rono replied, “Not succeeding is quite normal. If we didn’t have the Quartz Block, we wouldn’t be able to contact outside the Black Forest either. But Quartz Blocks are ultimately mythical objects, not something everyone can obtain.”
“In that case,” Erluin replied somewhat dissatisfied, “We should just leave her behind. Bringing a little girl is only slowing us down.”
“Viscount Erluin,” Faina frowned, “As an imperial noble, how can you say such a thing? You want to abandon a child?”
Erluin was taken aback. He looked at the noble girl and then at Rono, both of whom had somewhat displeased expressions. Erluin hesitated for a moment and then quickly changed his tone, “I apologize, I lost my composure.”
Faina was about to say something else when suddenly a voice echoed through the forest, interrupting her words—
“Hehe, a few little ones, what an interesting thing to argue about when death is upon you.”
This abrupt voice pierced through the forest, causing the surroundings to fall silent for a moment.
…
(PS: Another request for recommendation votes. The recommendations are too disheartening everyone!) (To be continued, if you want to know what happens next, please log in. There are more chapters, support the author, support legitimate reading!)
