Chapter 198 Survivors
() "What's the matter?"
"I seem to smell something else."
"Other flavor?"
Bailang said with some uncertainty: "It has a very peculiar smell. It feels like the secretion of some kind of creature, but it is also mixed with the smell of a lot of chlorophyll. It's really strange."
"Perhaps it is an intermediate creature that is half plant and half animal." Persephone said: "This type of creature is relatively common in the underground world." ..
"But it still smells like dead bodies!" Bailang said.
"The smell of dead bodies?" I asked with some confusion.
Bailang took two more steps forward, sniffed again and said, "It does smell like a dead body, and it has entered a semi-rotted state. It's a bit like the stink of the Stitch Monster, but it's not exactly the same."
"Now our goal is in this direction. No matter what it is, we can only move forward, so there seems to be no need to worry about that, right?" Kristina asked.
I heard Kristina's words and reacted and said: "Kristina is right, now our target is here, even if there is a legion waiting in front, we have to go there, so we don't want to be too Don't worry, let's go over there first. The three of us shouldn't be so easily attacked, right?"...
Persephone also nodded and said: "That's right, we still have to be a little confident in our own strength."
Now that everyone has said this, Bailang no longer worries about the smell, but starts to lead us forward. Since he had successfully identified the target's scent, Bailang's tracking speed was very fast. At first, he was still searching for the scent in a stop-and-go manner, but soon after, he turned into a full-out sprint. Kristina, Persephone, and I were following behind, but as Bailang's speed increased, we couldn't keep up. In the end, I simply summoned Night Shadow and rode up. Persephone and Kristina each had their own mounts, and their speeds were not slow.
After walking through complicated underground pipes for a while, we suddenly entered a quite huge underground cave. The structure of this cave is very strange, it looks like the inside of a honeycomb. Except there is only one entrance in the wall we entered. The remaining walls, floors, and ceiling above us that we can see are all filled with holes, large and small. It looks like enlarged spongy tissue.
"What kind of terrain is this?" Looking at this strange hole, Kristina couldn't help but ask.
I just glanced at it casually and said directly: "It should be the vaginal tube."
"Aren't all lava tubes pretty smooth? What's with this sponge-like structure?"
"Caused by sudden cooling." I casually dug out a dark green stone the size of an olive from the rocks on the ground. Half of the stone was a little transparent, and the other half was black. Handing the stone to Kristina, I explained: "There are so many malachites, so it goes without saying that this is the river of lava. However, for some reason, the lava here should have suddenly condensed and turned into what it is now." A small amount of gas will be mixed in the high-heat lava, and the rock will quickly condense when it is cold. Then those gases will expand into bubbles, and finally the gas will dissipate, leaving only cavities, and then such an environment is formed. However, such a large area was instantly cooled, so this should not be a purely natural phenomenon."
"There shouldn't be any high-level ice monsters here, right?" Kristina asked.
"Probably not." I explained: "Ice-type monsters rarely live underground, and they should find a cooler place to live. It is impossible to go to such trouble to freeze the lava and then live in such a place. "
"That's right." After Kristina sighed, she asked Bailang: "Bailang, have you confirmed the location of the target?"
"The target should be around here. I smell a very strong smell here 3, but the location of the opponent is not yet certain, so I need to search carefully."
"Then hurry up." I said and released the darts, and then said: "Check all the nearby caves to make sure there are no dangers hidden in the dark."
Dart nodded at me and disappeared in the blink of an eye. After that, we saw a flash of light from time to time at various cave entrances around us. In fact, it was a dart searching various channels, but it was just because his speed was too fast. So I could only see the white streamer flashing on one side.
Because the speed of the dart is so fast, it seems to us that the surrounding holes are glowing one after another, and then flashing all the way past. Finally, when the light flashes far away, it gradually disappears. We were gradually moving forward while the darts and white waves were searching. But before we walked fifty meters, we suddenly saw a flash of white light in front of us, and then the darts came to my shoulders and pointed at the big wave in front of me. He shouted: "There is a disgusting monster ahead!"
"Ah? Monster?" I grabbed the dart and asked, "What kind of monster did you encounter? What is its specific size?"
"A very strange monster. It feels like a big pile of rotten vegetable leaves. There are many people's hands and feet on it. It smells so bad. There is also a strange light spot spinning around the monster. I just After looking at it, I ran back. That thing hasn't noticed me yet. But if we move forward, we will encounter it soon."
"How far away is that thing from us now?"
"About ten kilometers."
"Is it still that far away?" Persephone asked slightly surprised.
Kristina wanted to know more about me than Persephone, so she explained: "The president's magic pet is the Aurora Arc, which can move at the speed of light. For him, it takes more than ten kilometers in the blink of an eye. distance, so it may feel quite far to you, but it’s not very far to him.”
Persephone nodded to show that she understood, but she was still quite surprised. The shortcoming of the Olympus Protoss is that it is slow. In the past, because there were not many people who could fly, when our guild attacked the Olympus Protoss, we almost always played guerrilla warfare and defeated them one by one. In comparison, The Olympus Protoss can only passively defend and get beaten everywhere. The reason is simply that the speed is too slow to keep up with our rhythm.
After getting the information about the discovery of the dart, I sent the dart out again to let him continue to explore beyond the location of the monster, and we moved towards that side. Dart is very good at crossing the enemy's defense line. Because no one can keep up with his speed, even if the opponent finds him. There is no way to intercept it. After the dart passed through the monster's location, the monster began to move in the direction of the dart. He probably discovered the dart, but with the speed of that thing, trying to catch up with the dart was basically delusional.
"I think it's best for you to walk the next part of the road by yourself." Bailang suddenly said after searching forward for a while.
I asked him with some confusion: "Why do you say that?"
Bai Lang said helplessly: "The thing that Dart found before may be the target I smelled at the beginning. The smell of this thing is really too stinky. I feel that its smell has completely covered my sense of smell. Now I can hardly smell anything except that stink. Now we are still so far away from that thing. Once I get close to that monster, I doubt I will faint."
Kristina nodded and said: "I won't talk about you anymore, I can already smell the obvious stench now."
Persephone also followed suit: "The smell is quite strong. I've noticed it before, but now it's become more serious."
After thinking about it for a while, I agreed that Bailang would disappear for a while and let him come back after we deal with the monster. Bailang got permission and immediately got back into the training space. The air outside was simply torture for a creature with a keen sense of smell like him.
After Bailang left, we continued to move forward a short distance before we started to notice that the odor in the surrounding air was rising sharply. Now I have to put down the mask and let the armor's filtration system filter the air for me. Otherwise, this The smell will definitely kill me. Neither Persephone nor Kristina has such a thing as a visor. However, Persephone can use a kind of magic called air barrier, which can have the same effect as a gas mask. Although it has no defensive power, it is absolutely excellent at isolating odors.
After using protective measures, we continued forward for a short distance and happened to encounter a small turn. After turning this turn, we saw the monster almost immediately.
Just like what Dart described, the monster in front of him was like a pile of rotten vegetable leaves piled together to form a garbage heap. Huge gray-green leaves with a hint of yellow are stacked layer upon layer from the top of this thing, and then form a huge triangular structure on the ground. Between those huge leaves, I could see the remains of many living creatures exposed. The owners of these stumps are very disorganized. There are humanoids and non-humanoids. It feels as if all the creatures that can be found in the underground world can be seen on this thing. Of course, none of these creatures are alive.
"What kind of monster is this?" Kristina couldn't help but ask after seeing this thing. I have encountered so many monsters before. But no matter what, those monsters can always find some of their shadows in reality. Whether it is an animal or a plant, there is always some basis for form. But the thing in front of me has nothing to do with living things. At least in Kristina's attempt, there is no such creature in reality.
In fact, it's not that this thing doesn't exist in reality, it's just that Kristina doesn't know about it. At least I know that there is a sea anemone that looks somewhat similar to this thing. However, although the tentacles on that kind of sea anemone are also shaped like vegetable leaves, the leaves are pink, but this thing is really like the color of rotten vegetable leaves, green with yellow, and also... Feeling a little burnt.
We stared at this monster for a long time. Except for the rotten vegetable leaves and the remains of living things exposed between the leaves, we didn't seem to notice that this thing had structures like eyes and legs at all. Although this thing has been moving since the beginning of our appearance until now, in my opinion, this thing may rely entirely on creeping to move. However, I have to say that this thing squirmed quite fast, almost as fast as a normal person trotting. Of course, considering that this thing is more than ten meters in diameter and seven or eight meters tall, this speed is actually not very fast. After all, if ordinary Warcraft grows to this size, it will definitely be much faster than this guy.
"What should we do now? Just kill that thing?" Persephone asked.
I thought for a moment and said to Kristina: "First get an elemental creature to test it out."
Kristina nodded and snapped her fingers. Then she saw the surrounding walls squirm, and then a stone man stood up from the ground. This stone man is different from the stone men summoned by most mages. In fact, the real stone man, that is, the thing summoned by ordinary mages to summon the stone man can only be said to have the general structure of a human being. You can see the limbs, torso and head. But the body proportions are a mess. And the limbs and head don't have accurate human shapes. Therefore, the stone man only has a human shape but does not have a human appearance.
However, the stone man summoned by Kristina seems to be an exception. This stone man who just stood up from the ground is more than five meters tall, and this guy is actually neatly dressed and has a full set of armor. He even has features on his face and fingers that are almost impossible to find on a normal stone man. And it can be counted as lifelike. If this stone man stands there and poses, don't move. Others will definitely think this is a human sculpture.
After the stone man stood up from the ground, he turned around and punched the wall of the cave on the side. As a result, half of his arm was driven into the wall with one punch. Then he pulled his arm back and pulled it back. A mace made of stones was pulled out from the wall. Although there is nothing special about the body of this mace, it is just a softball bat-like thing with a thick front and a thick back, but you can imagine it by looking at its size. If this thing were to be swung and hit on someone, the power would be absolutely terrifying.
In fact, when the stone man was about to get up from the ground, the monster in front had already noticed the changes on our side. The three of us are only so big, and compared to monsters, we can be said to be like ants, so it is understandable that the other party cannot find it, but the stone man in front of us is five meters tall, only a little shorter than him. Although it is not as big as it due to its body shape, it can be said anyway. At least it is of the same magnitude. Therefore. So the stone man was already discovered when he stood up.
The monster in front had completely turned around when the stone man here took out the mace, and also did a very disgusting thing. I saw that guy suddenly unfolding the "rotten leaves" on his body a little bit. Then many snake-like tentacles stretched out from it, and as these tentacles stretched out, we discovered that the animal stumps sandwiched between the leaves were not hanging on the leaves, but were held by these It was held in its mouth by snake-like tentacles.
The tips of these yellow-green tentacles all have a three-petal mouth-like organ that can be split. After this organ is opened, you can see the densely packed small spikes inside, just like teeth. Moreover, at this stage, there seem to be more than a dozen smaller tentacles in the middle of the mouth, which can stick out of the outer mouthparts like tongues. The tips of these tiny tongue-like tentacles also have mouthparts like big tentacles. It is estimated that the stumps we saw before are the process of the big tentacles biting the prey, and the small tentacles constantly biting and devouring the prey inside. The reason why you can see the prey is because it hasn't been eaten yet.
Probably because the battle requires full concentration, in order to avoid affecting the combat effectiveness, this rotten leaf monster has stretched out all its tentacles, and those tentacles have released the corpses in its mouth and opened and closed towards the stone man. At the same time, a rustling sound was also made, just like the warning and threatening sound made by animals.
"What a strange creature." Persephone sighed.
I urged Kristina: "Let your stone man go up and test the combat effectiveness of this thing. If it's not too dangerous, we can just rush over."
Kristina nodded and looked at the monster over there. Without seeing what she did, the stone man suddenly raised his mace and rushed towards the monster over there, waving it. Although we didn't find organs like eyes on the monster opposite, this thing should have vision, because it suddenly started to move when the stone man moved. Although its body moves very slowly, the speed of those tentacles is very fast, and the length of these tentacles is also quite amazing. The two transformations were still more than twenty meters apart, and all the tentacles had already wrapped around the stone man's body.
Under the command of Kristina, the stone man suddenly waved the mace in his hand horizontally. Several tentacles that flew over were immediately whipped away by the stick, hit the wall and then collapsed softly, but more However, his tentacles used this opportunity to climb up the body of the stone man.
Probably because I had never seen an elemental creature like a stone man before, the monster's tentacles actually wanted to bite the stone man after it came into contact with it. Of course, it had no effect at all. It's not that it can't bite, on the contrary, the bite force of those tentacles is quite good. Each bite can take a chunk of stone off the stone man. But the problem is that the mage Kristina is still standing nearby. This stone man is not a natural and wild elemental creature. He had an owner, and there were rocks everywhere, so this was his home turf. Before Kristina's magic power was exhausted, he was basically immortal. Those bite wounds began to heal as soon as they appeared, and they could return to their original state in the blink of an eye, as if they had never been bitten. And if you look carefully at the stone man's feet. You can see that the stones on the ground flow little by little from the ground into the soles of the stone man's feet like sticky syrup, and then are passed upward through the stone man's legs, and finally replenished to the missing parts of the body. .
Although the monsters over there don't seem to have very high intelligence, they still have some fighting ability. After taking a few bites, I found that there was no way to cause any damage. Instead, several of my tentacles were flattened by the opponent. The monster suddenly changed its tactics. While closing the distance, it quickly wrapped its tentacles around the stone man's body. Soon, the stone man was wrapped in bandages made of tentacles like a mummy. However, the physical strength of the stone man seems to seriously exceed the scope of ordinary creatures, so even if it is wrapped with so many tentacles, the rotten leaf monster can only limit the range and speed of the stone man's movement, and there is no way to completely make the stone man The man stopped, and it seemed that he could do nothing to the stone man.
If it is a normal creature. This rotten leaf monster can gradually shrink its tentacles to strangle the target just like the python's strangulation skill. Or rely on the powerful power of the tentacles to simply cut the opponent into several pieces, or suffocate the opponent or something. But the stone man doesn't have to breathe. The body is extremely hard, and the entanglement skill of this tentacle is too ineffective against it.
When I saw two monsters getting entangled and having a rogue fight, I turned around and asked Kristina: "How is the combat effectiveness of this thing?"
Kristina shrugged and gestured forward and said: "As you can see, it's just like this. It's just a summoning stone element, and the result is like this. If I summon two more, this monster will be destroyed." It’s definitely doomed. According to my estimation, this thing will be a 1,500-level monster if it can survive. As long as the number is small, it will not pose a threat.”
I nodded and said, "In that case, there's no need to play with it. Kill it quickly and let's continue the mission."
Kristina nodded and snapped her fingers, and then she saw a large amount of flames suddenly burst out from the entangled stone man in front of her, and at the same time, the rotten vegetable leaf monster also made a sharp hissing sound. , and the stone man suddenly tore off the burning tentacles on his body and swung the mace in his hand and slammed it on the monster's head.
Snapped. In a very real blow, a large piece of the top of the monster was knocked off, but the tentacles on its body did not flinch, and actually still tried their best to wrap themselves around the stone man and the stick in his hand. Unfortunately, now The stone man has obviously evolved into a lava monster. The lava and flames all over his body make it impossible for the monster with obvious plant characteristics to get close. Any tentacle that comes into contact with the stone man will catch fire within three seconds and then be burned. A piece of burnt black fell to the ground.
Although the rotten leaf monster resisted desperately, it had no choice but to meet its nemesis, and was knocked into a pile of real rotten leaves by the lava monster in a few strokes. After complete death, a large amount of emerald green liquid flowed out of the monster's body, and this liquid actually glowed. I planned to open the mask to see what the liquid was, but I forgot the smell of the liquid and almost lost my breath as soon as I opened the mask. The smell around me is really horrible. Not only is it smelly, it also has a sour taste. If you smell this smell once, you won't have to eat for three days. It's definitely good news for people who want to lose weight. Of course, it is not clear whether it will cause anorexia due to too strong effects.
"Holy shit, this thing is simply a biological nemesis. The smell... is comparable to a biological weapon!" I said after putting down the mask again while trying to hold back the feeling of vomiting.
Kristina and Persephone both laughed at my joke. Kristina also said: "You know how smelly this thing is but you still dare to open the mask. Isn't this looking for death? Speaking of which, although this monster is not mine, It’s a stone-man opponent, but I think this thing is actually quite powerful if it encounters ordinary monsters.”
I nodded and said: "As the saying goes, one thing will bring down another. The smell of this thing alone can make most creatures move around it. But it will be tragic when it comes to creatures like elemental creatures that have no sense of smell and are not afraid of physical damage. As I was talking, I suddenly noticed that Persephone actually walked over to the corpse of the rotten leaf monster over there and was playing with the corpse of that guy with a stalagmite that grew out of the ground. So I asked her in surprise: "Persephone, what are you doing?"
"I just thought I saw something moving down there."
"Is there something moving?" I snapped my fingers, and Brigitte and Everett appeared beside me. Then I pointed to that side and said to them: "Do me a favor and lift that piece."
Brigitte and Everett are both constructs and have no sense of smell, so they don't have to worry about each other's biochemical weapon-level odor. After receiving the order, he flew over and grabbed the rotten leaves of the monster and lifted them up. Sure enough, we saw a pair of feet wearing metal armor moving below.
"It's actually alive." I didn't need to say it this time. Everett and Brigitte worked together to grab the feet and pull out the creature underneath.
After pulling the creature out, we discovered that the creature was actually an elf, and a black elf. Looking at the equipment on his body, this black elf is no ordinary soldier, because the armor on his body looks very high-end. Moreover, this guy has not died yet, which may have something to do with this beautiful armor. Although this set of full-coverage armor had been pressed against the body by the monster for so long, there was not even a trace of mucus on its surface. This is not a special ability that ordinary equipment should have. This ability to emerge from the mud without being stained usually only appears on Holy Spirit-level or artifact-level equipment. Of course, low-level equipment is not absolutely absent, but it is just very rare. This is just like no one would put hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of Persian carpets on an economy car worth tens of thousands of dollars, and there would be no craftsmen who could install self-cleaning arrays on low-level armors.
Although we pulled him out, this guy kept twisting slightly on the ground and seemed to have not fully returned to normal. I thought about it and asked Everett and Brigitte to help carry this guy and leave the area where the monster was with us. After I got a little further away and felt that it was almost done, I opened the mask and tried it to make sure that the smell was within the tolerable range, and then I asked Everett and Brigitte to put the guy down.
I reached out and grabbed the visor of his helmet, and tried to push it up, but there was no reaction at all. This design is indeed a characteristic that can only be found in holy spirit or artifact-level equipment. Unable to open the visor, I tried tugging on the helmet again. The result remains. Every part of the armor was blocked. The root cannot be twisted off. I had no choice but to turn eternity into a ball and hit the opponent's helmet lightly like an egg. Then he grabbed the opponent's helmet and pulled it upward. This time there was no problem and it was pulled off easily. It's just...as soon as I took off the helmet, my vision was immediately covered by a shining silver light.
"female?"
Although you can't tell your gender when wearing armor, because the high-level armors in the game are all gender-specific, it's hard for low-level warriors to tell. You can tell at a glance whether the person passing on the high-level equipment is a man or a woman, regardless of whether the opponent is covering it or not. The heads are all the same. However, the armor on the person in front of me was obviously a male armor, but after taking off the helmet, I found that the other person was a woman, which was quite strange.
Although the armor is divided into men and women, this can be modified, and changing the equipment gender is not as troublesome as adding attributes. There is no problem of failure, and it only costs a little money. Therefore, generally speaking, there is no situation where someone wears armor of the wrong sex. Even if you find high-end equipment and want to wear it yourself, you can find a blacksmith to help modify the sex. There is no need to wear armor of the wrong sex. You must know that according to the system settings, if the nature of the wearer and the original armor are not matched, the attributes of the armor cannot be fully utilized, and a large part of the attributes will not be realized. Therefore, there is no situation of saving money and deliberately not changing the character.
Although it's strange why this female black elf is wearing a set of men's armor, now is not the time to think about this. After opening the helmet, I used eternity to knock on the other armor partitions on the opponent's body in sequence. Then with the assistance of Everett and Brigitte, we quickly removed all the armor on her body.
After dismantling all the armor, we finally understood why the other party was not wearing the correct type of armor. The person inside was obviously not a warrior.
The height of this female elf is about 1.75 meters, which is not very tall among elves, but is already quite tall for humans. The slender figure is completely in line with the characteristics of elves, but some female characteristics are obviously beyond the average of elves. You must know that more than half of elven women have airport breasts. But the one in front of me is even more exaggerated than other women of the orc race. This figure...if it weren't for being thin. Almost catching up with the succubus.
In addition to this perfect figure, this person's skin is a typical black jingle. The dark brown skin looks quite healthy. Although Asians are not very fond of this kind of skin in terms of aesthetics, but Because this person’s skin is very smooth, it’s not ugly. and. Because her face is so delicate, and with her long silver hair, she is simply a work of art.
Although we have removed this armor, she is still covered up tightly because she is still wearing a robe. I didn't know how she managed to get into the armor wearing something like this before.
This robe is very cumbersome and obviously does not belong to combat clothing. This is why we finally understand why she wears men's armor. Looking at this robe, this person should obviously be a servant of the gods, that is, a sacrifice or something. Anyway, he is a clergyman who serves the gods. Although clergy also have armored knights, this one's robe clearly belongs to that of a priest, who should be of the legal system, or simply a pure servant of God who does not participate in combat. This armor definitely didn't belong to her. Someone should have stuffed her in it after realizing the danger. It's even certain that she didn't put it on herself. Because of what she was wearing, she would never be able to put on the armor just now without help.
"Persephone. Help find out what's wrong with her?"
Persephone squatted down and put her palm on her forehead as she was told, then closed her eyes and sensed it. After a few seconds, she said, "I was just overly frightened. It shouldn't be a big problem."
"Excessively frightened?"
"It looks like she may not be a combatant." After Persephone said that, she shed a green light spot and fell on the opponent's body, and the female black elf's twisting body immediately fell silent. After coming down, even the frown that had been tightly frowning relaxed a lot.
"Are you asleep now?" I asked.
Persephone nodded and said: "The best way to cure an overly frightened person is to sleep quietly. You will be fine after just a little sleep."
"But we need to know what happened to her!" Kristina asked.
Persephone was awakened like this before she remembered that she had forgotten this, and apologized quickly: "Ah, I forgot this. Otherwise, how about we wake her up again?"
"Forget it." I stopped Persephone, then took back Everett and Brigitte and summoned Ling. "Ling, help check her memory."
As soon as Ling appeared, he directly pressed his palm on the black elf's forehead, and then asked me: "Which paragraph do you want to see? Or are you looking for any specific information?"
"It should be a recent memory, and the content is about the process of her being attacked and caught."
"Okay, in this case it shouldn't be difficult to find." Ling began to search the memory of this black elf with his eyes closed.
After a few seconds, Ling opened her eyes and said, "I have seen her memory. She was attacked by a large strange creature before, and then her guards stuffed her into a She wore a precious-looking armor to protect her. But she seemed not good at escaping, and was caught by the monster. However, it seemed that the armor was of a high level, so the monster couldn't bite her after it caught her. Then I was rescued by you."
"It's exactly what we guessed." Kristina asked, "So what is her identity? Have you seen it?" (To be continued.)