Chapter 290: Act 57 – The King of the Underground (8) (Second Update)
In fact, there was almost no loot from the previous battle, and the experience gained was just a bit of leadership. Brendel now found that killing these black iron level monsters—specifically, those below level fifteen—had little benefit.
This was exactly the same as his experience in the game.
However, he found a ring among the remains, an ogre ring. In the Amber Sword, equipment prefixed with ogre can enhance the strength of the wearer. In fact, this was part of a series of gear widely distributed from the minimum level twenty to the maximum level seventy—those below were named “ghouls,” while the higher ones mostly used “dragon” as a prefix.
This ogre ring was the lowest level in that series, level twenty, but it was far beyond Brendel’s expectations. In the game, monsters at level fifteen had less than a one in a thousand chance of dropping a level twenty magical item.
Of course, the highest level on their drop list was level twenty-five armor, with an almost non-existent chance, or as players would say, equivalent to none.
But given Brendel’s usual luck, he couldn’t help but glance at Xi again when he received the ring, wondering if this one was also a legendary bearer of the red hand aura?
Brendel inspected the attributes of the ring: it increased the wearer’s output strength by 5%. Brendel’s strength was at 73.4 energy levels, and due to the embedded ghost knight crystal and strength burst, his output strength was nearly close to one hundred. This ring could enhance his output strength by about five energy levels, which was better than nothing.
However, he already had rings for Queen Wind, Flame Ring, Lesser Serpent Ring, and Warrior Ring, occupying all four ring slots. After some thought, Brendel decided not to swap it out and simply tossed the ring to the red-haired girl behind him.
Xi received the ring, slightly stunned: “…I… I don’t have any strength left.” She murmured in confusion.
“That’s just temporary,” Brendel replied. “It won’t be long before you recover.”
“Really?” Her amber eyes brightened up instantly.
Brendel turned back to look at the girl, fell into a brief silence, but ultimately nodded. “When have I ever lied to anyone? Of course it’s true.”
A joyful expression appeared on Xi’s face.
However, the red-haired girl sensed a hint of hesitation from Brendel, unique to women’s intuition. She thought for a moment, blinked, and said, “Is it related to the Blood of the Gods, my lord?”
Brendel nodded.
“Actually, it’s nothing to worry about,” Xi replied, smiling lightly. “Compared to turning into a monster, I’m more worried about losing my strength, because at least that way, I can still fight for my lord.”
“Shh—” Brendel raised a finger to his lips, gesturing towards the back.
The miner was still far behind them, of course, he hadn’t heard their conversation.
Xi nodded and carefully slid the ring onto her index finger, treating it delicately as if it were a treasured gem.
“You really don’t need to be that careful; this thing isn’t worth much—just a minor magical item,” Brendel couldn’t help but remind her.
But Xi smiled and replied, “That’s true, but as a gift, it takes on a whole new significance.”
Brendel was taken aback.
The girl shifted the topic. She looked around the rocky walls and asked in a low voice, “My lord, do you think the earthquakes have anything to do with these monsters?”
Brendel nodded.
“Did the earthquakes make these monsters appear from underground?” Xi asked again.
“I’m afraid it’s just the opposite.”
“The opposite?” The mercenary girl was slightly taken aback. “How can such weak monsters cause an earthquake?”
“Weak?” Brendel shook his head; that was merely temporary. If this task truly involved a silver heritage, then what they would encounter afterward was still uncertain.
With this thought in mind, they gradually delved into the fourth level of the mine.
Soon, Brendel found Mahan’s corpse at a corner. Not far from the foreman’s left hand lay two half-destroyed rock leopards, their clearly visible sword wounds indicated that Mahan had fought these beasts in his lifetime, but ultimately, he couldn’t escape death.
Brendel inspected the opponent’s wounds; the fatal wound was on the neck—based on his judgment, Mahan should have been at least black iron level, but the wounds left by the attacker were very clean, clearly a single strike fatality.
This indicated that the attacker’s strength had to exceed that of the victim by a wide margin.
This meant there were stronger monsters present.
Not only Brendel noticed this, but Xi also realized it. She fell silent, and her expression became serious.
The miner, upon seeing the foreman’s corpse, collapsed to the ground like a sack of flour; he was terrified. In his mind, foremen were high and mighty figures, yet now turned into cold corpses, he suddenly felt that he could die at any moment.
He almost instantly lost control of his emotions, unable to refrain from shouting, prompting Brendel to use the Lesser Serpent Ring on him to paralyze the guy, preventing him from attracting more monsters.
It was only after calming this miner down that they could continue forward. Brendel observed their surroundings and decisively chose the northern tunnel; if he remembered correctly, that should be the place where he parted ways with Kewen and others earlier.
However, just a short distance in, they were surrounded by two packs of rock leopards from all sides. These rocky beasts approached silently from the shadows, seeming to multiply. Brendel broke two swords in rapid succession but began to realize—these rock leopards seemed endless here.
At the same moment, Xi also sensed this and quietly reminded, “We need to break through a path, my lord. We need to find a way out of here.”
Brendel nodded, though his plan differed slightly from that of the mercenary girl. He knew that if an ordinary person were here, they could only wait to die, and a somewhat capable mercenary might make similar choices to Xi.
But he was different; he was a player.
An endless stream of ‘monster spawning’ was an exceedingly abnormal phenomenon in the game. He immediately quieted down to look for the leaders hidden among the lower-level monsters based on his experience.
Sure enough, he soon caught a glimpse of a sleek, black-jade-like feline flashing through the darkness. Although it was just a fleeting glance, Brendel had already identified the creature as at least mid-tier black iron level.
That was not black jade, but obsidian—
This was the beast he was looking for. The young man immediately slashed through the small minions blocking the way and quickly chased after it.
But to Brendel’s shock, the moment he exhibited hostility—the beast’s reaction was astonishingly swift; his sword hadn’t even had the chance to swing, yet the black leopard had already vanished into the darkness with a turn.
The obsidian rock leopard was incredibly fast, even exceeding its expected level of speed. Brendel’s charge skill hadn’t even started to brew, but it had already disappeared from view after rounding a corner.
Not only that, but Brendel immediately noticed that the surrounding low-level rock leopards seemed to retreat like the tide. He had just stopped in amazement, but the surrounding monsters disappeared completely.
What was going on?
Brendel wouldn’t assume it was his intimidating presence that scared these monsters away. Elemental creatures had no emotions; they only possessed basic logical judgment.
The mine tunnel became empty—
“What was that?” Both Xi and the miner saw the fleeting creature, and as soon as Brendel stopped, they immediately rushed over to ask.
“The leader beast,” Brendel replied. “A leader beast refers to the leader within a pack, but here it is indeed the eye of the summoner. Whether it’s the beastmaster, the summoner, or the necromancer, no powerful caster can control an entire army alone; they need lower-level eyes to oversee those summoned creatures with only the most basic intellect—”
“For example, lesser necromancers and skeletons.”
“It’s the same here,” he pointed deeper into the mine. “Just don’t know how extensive this summoning network is. If that black-jade-like leopard is the uppermost level of the network, then it’s manageable.”
“And if it’s not?”
“Then it’s troublesome.”
Brendel spoke while moving inward.
However, Xi seemed to grow worried; she felt that everything underground was strange. Though it seemed this lord knew what was going on, she didn’t like the feeling of being shrouded in the unknown.
She thought for a moment and couldn’t help but say, “My lord, let’s go back to the third level first. Aren’t we supposed to find that chief of security and take control of the silver mine? Why bother fighting these monsters here?”
Brendel shook his head. “At first, it was that way, but Xi, now it’s different.”
“Different?” Xi was taken aback.
Brendel nodded; a silver heritage was worth much more than the entire silver mine. It was like trying to swap a gold mine for the golden apple in Brendel’s hand; he definitely wouldn’t do something that foolish.
But he didn’t elaborate further and continued walking inward. However, after taking just a few steps, he let out a soft “hmm.”
“What’s wrong?” Xi asked from behind.
“Come look at this,” Brendel replied as he stood at the corner.
The red-haired girl limped over with the Thunder Lance, but as soon as she turned the corner, she froze. Beyond the corner was a rather vast space, but it seemed as if it had undergone a terrible storm.
Specifically, under the dim glow of the illuminating crystal, the pit was filled with chunks of the previous rock leopards, and scattered among the gray rocks were some black, jade-like fragments shimmering with light.
Needless to say, these were the remnants of another type of monster.
Brendel looked up toward the depths of the cave and said, “It seems someone got here before us.”
“Quite a formidable fellow,” he remarked.
……
(PS. Apologies and comfort requested, the ambition of four updates was shattered. Up to now, only two updates have been completed.) (To be continued, to know what will happen next, please log in; more chapters await, support the author and support legitimate reading!)
