Chapter 30: Underground Passage Level 1
With a creaking sound, the Skeleton Soldier regained its ability to move and slowly approached the two.
Ice Moon Slash was still on cooldown, and Zane dared not strike easily again. If he took another Heavy Strike, he would probably be sent back to the city.
Starry’s pretty face turned cold. In that case, let’s kill you once more!
Starry quickly approached the Skeleton Soldier and raised the Qiu Yue Sword to slash downwards.
The enemy reacted very quickly, positioning its iron sword to intercept the trajectory of the Qiu Yue Sword’s attack, preparing to block!
A cunning smile appeared on Starry’s face as she traced a subtle arc with her sword, bypassing the iron sword and scraping a spark off the Skeleton Soldier’s chest.
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It turned out Starry was only feigning an attack to draw out the block before following up with a damage deal.
The Skeleton Soldier couldn’t take this humiliation, cancelling its blocking stance and raising the iron sword high, transferring its robust strength through its arm into the iron sword.
“Thousand Flash Step!”
Starry activated Thousand Flash Step without hesitation, gaining a 50% movement speed boost, moving sideways. Although Heavy Strike had immense power, it had a drawback of a full 0.5 seconds of wind-up time.
In that time, Starry had already bypassed its attack range and reached behind it.
A big miss display popped up.
At the same time, taking advantage of the Skeleton Soldier’s moment of imbalance, Starry delivered a fierce kick to its back.
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Although the damage was low, it couldn’t stabilize itself and fell directly to the ground.
“Zane!”
Got it!
Taking advantage of your weakness, I will take your life! Venomous Claw slammed onto the Skeleton Soldier’s back.
The purple armor-breaking icon appeared again.
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The struggling Skeleton Soldier was pinned back down to the ground by this strike.
Starry aimed for its skull, where a faint flickering flame could be seen.
She jabbed straight down.
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The blue weakness damage popped up, and as the skull was destroyed, the flame contained within dissipated as well.
The Skeleton Soldier was completely dead, dropping three silver coins and a white bone armor.
“This should be its real death.” Starry said, picking up the bone armor.
Bone Armor:
Rarity: Black Iron Equipment
Required Level: 14
Defense: 18
Health: 300
Stamina: 13
Strength: 10
Description: It is said that all who wear it have died without exception.
This bone armor was definitely a divine artifact in the early game, adding a full 18 points to defense and directly 300 points to health. If it were knight gear, with the knight’s double stamina growth, that would be 560 health! Unfortunately, the level requirement was 14, and Zane was only level 11, so he was still quite far from it.
After tidying up, he picked up the little lantern that had been thrown during the battle. Luckily, it hadn’t broken; this was a valuable item worth a silver coin! It could still be used after a wipe.
“The entrance is over there.” Starry suddenly pointed to the right.
Using her perspective, Zane saw a strange tomb, cleverly covered by some stones and grass piles. If Starry hadn’t noticed it, he would have likely been searching for it all day.
Clearing away the obstructive weeds, a decayed stone tablet stood among them.
The Wolf King had mentioned that it contained a strong curse magic.
Just then, a rat passed by, and Zane grabbed its tail, viciously sending the wolf head to bite it, then—tossing it onto the stone tablet.
“Sizzle—”
An ominous sound erupted. The rat became unable to move, unable to even scream, its face bearing an expression of terror, frothing at the mouth as it died.
“…” Although he didn’t know what had happened, the scene was still quite frightening.
Should we… return to the city to resupply and then come back? Zane began to feel the urge to retreat, silently stepping back a bit.
“Crack”
It seemed he had triggered some sort of switch.
Starry was about to say something when the ground suddenly appeared to lose support, splitting open a large hole centered on Zane and continually falling downwards.
In an instant, Zane had already plummeted down.
“Zane!” With no time to hesitate, Starry jumped down after him.
…
System Notification: You have entered the hidden map ‘Underground Passage Level 1’
My head feels dizzy…
The sensation of spinning—God knows what just happened; strangely, he hadn’t lost any health.
Gradually, his vision regained focus, and Starry was right beside him, currently observing something.
It seemed they had fallen into a trap leading straight down to Level 1 below.
“Shh—” Starry saw Zane regaining his senses and quickly signaled him to be quiet.
“Someone’s coming, hold your breath and don’t move!” Starry urged.
Zane quickly held his breath and pretended to be dead.
Click-clack, click-clack, click-clack.
The sounds were getting closer.
It was two Skeleton Soldiers! However, they seemed unaware and walked straight past.
Just one Skeleton Soldier was already challenging enough; to deal with two at once would essentially mean annihilation.
Unexpectedly… they had stumbled in.
“…” Starry glanced at him, “Communication methods have been sealed.”
Looking at it, Zane saw that even the online friends’ icons had turned gray. But it was already deep into the night at 4 AM, so it wasn’t too impactful.
Click-clack, click-clack.
Crap, they’re coming back!
“I’ll handle one; you distract the other, and don’t stop until I’ve dealt with it!”
Got it! Zane nodded.
Almost simultaneously, Zane activated Venomous Claw against the small enemy on the left.
-9
Sure enough, it was blocked, but that was fine; its aggro had already been drawn to Zane, who quickly activated Sprint and dashed away. If he took another Heavy Strike, he wouldn’t be able to handle it!
The Skeleton on the right also tried to chase, prompting Starry to immediately launch an attack. The Qiu Yue Sword swept across its chest!
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This wasn’t over; immediately following, the power of Frost erupted, simultaneously canceling the recoil of the normal attack.
“Ice Moon Slash!”
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Frost spread toward the Skeleton Soldier, dropping the temperature by several degrees. Under the cold aura, a block of ice sculpture was formed, applying the freeze effect!
Aiming for the flickering flame in the center of the skull, Starry had already realized that this flame was the core of the Skeleton Soldier; as long as it burned, it could resurrect infinitely.
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A brutal damage output cleared the small enemy’s final health bar, and it was even unable to release its skill before turning into experience points and rewards in defeat.
On the other side, the monster’s speed was nothing to speak of; with Zane’s Gray Wolf form speed, he easily kited it.
Waiting for Ice Moon Slash’s cooldown to refresh, Starry repeated the trick and, fortunately, triggered the freeze effect again, securing the kill!
Aside from coins scattered everywhere, nothing else was dropped.
“Let’s check over there,” Starry pointed towards a corner.
Okay, I’ll scout ahead!
There was no ambush, and Zane easily moved forward.
As he turned around the winding passage, the sight before him was surprisingly a square the size of a soccer field!
At a glance, there were at least several hundred Skeletons wandering aimlessly.
This truly… was an impressive scene! This was just Level 1; it was hard to imagine what kind of threats lay below.
However, with Starry’s explosive output, these monsters had transformed into moving treasure chests in Zane’s eyes!
“…” Starry facepalmed.
