Chapter 284
Black Hole in the Depths of the Swamp
Normally, killing monsters shouldn’t yield experience points.
It’s the same as killing small animals.
Although monsters possess power comparable to extraordinary individuals, they don’t actually have a clear extraordinary tier. Their in-game levels merely indicate “the extent of their power is equivalent to that of which extraordinary individual.”
While Eivass didn’t recall the specifics of the “experience” system very clearly, he generally understood that “free experience” was actually related to the Path Power naturally dispersed when killing or expelling opponents in intense battles. This is because Path Power naturally flows from higher to lower sources, and the system merely acts as a conduit for reception.
However, generally, only by killing extraordinary individuals stronger than oneself, or at least of equal caliber, could experience be gained.
Therefore, this was essentially a “transcendence” ritual.
This was a perfect fit for the player “Son of Father Snake’s” setting—gaining power through transcendence.
Consequently, the experience gained from killing extraordinary individuals was usually less than that from expelling Phantom Demons of the same tier. Once a Phantom Demon is expelled, its power dissipates; however, an extraordinary individual, upon death, might be resurrected as an Und, and the Path Power gained from expelling Und was typically even less.
These monsters, however, were special creatures without consciousness or sentience. They yielded no experience.
They were similar to a type of Phantom Demon, but instead of being born in the Dream Realm, they were native creatures of the Material Realm.
Just as an extraordinary individual of the First Tier might not be able to defeat a wild wolf, or an extraordinary individual of the Second Tier might not be able to defeat fierce beasts like lions and bears; even an extraordinary individual of the Third Tier would find it very dangerous to confront an adult mammoth bare-handed.
It wasn’t until the Fourth Tier that extraordinary individuals began to possess a sufficiently significant individual advantage.
Monsters, on the other hand, were somewhat more peculiar—they inherently possessed Path Power, but due to their lack of sufficient intelligence, they could only rely on instinct to utilize it.
Because of this, they could not enhance their own power through means like Entering the Dream or Mystical Art. Essentially, they remained beasts.
Except, on top of dimensions like “teeth,” “muscle,” and “weight,” they additionally acquired the power of “Path Power.”
In this World, whether or not one could Dream directly determined the Possibility of becoming stronger—all creatures that could not Dream meant they could not connect to the Dream Realm, and thus could not obtain stronger Path Power.
If the Beast Lord were still around, the situation would be different. But with the Beast Lord now gone, and the ruler of the Path of Love being the moon god Hengwo, these beasts lost the Possibility of further advancement.
Therefore, even if they were one tier higher, monsters could still be safely hunted.
Extraordinary individuals, and extraordinary creatures like Gryphons and Demons, would consciously compensate for their weaknesses. But monsters were different.
Monsters, while incredibly strong in one aspect, would also be weak in others.
The charge of a Mud Skeleton Turtle was equivalent to a lead-core villa charging at approximately 120 mph; or a 400-ton mud truck charging.
This could undoubtedly kill anyone except Haina in one hit.
This was undoubtedly the kind of power an extraordinary individual of the Fourth Tier could unleash.
But if one could directly injure its internal core—pierce the rocky shell on its back, or set traps on the ground to attack it from below through its relatively fragile abdomen, or shoot into the “flesh” part like Sherlock did—it could be easily killed.
The hunters from Black Hawk made a living this way. A well-trained and well-equipped hunter could even kill monsters two or even three tiers above them. The materials from monsters sold for a considerable amount of money—biological materials naturally possessing Path Traits were useful for both Alchemy and Rituals.
Bullying these beasts undoubtedly did not count as an act of transcendence. Thus, even challenging them across tiers would not yield any experience—it would, however, improve a hunter’s Mystical Art level.
Eivass wasn’t sure if he gained experience from monsters because these monsters were somehow special, or because the era had changed and he could indeed gain experience from monsters.
To test his thoughts, Eivass had already begun hunting—
Hunting monsters was a simple matter, as long as one had sufficient Information. The food of Mud Skeleton Turtles consisted of animals with bones, Und, and silt. They would typically disguise themselves as the swamp, half-sleeping with their mouths open, motionless, waiting for the unconscious Und or animals to wander over themselves and fall in.
Path Power of Earth Elements condensed into a vortex would make the surrounding swamp incredibly viscous, making it difficult to escape once one fell in.
—From this perspective, Sherlock disturbing a Mud Skeleton Turtle was because his spell was akin to pulling out its tongue.
A nest of Mud Skeleton Turtles usually comprised about four or five individuals. They lived in groups because they needed each other’s Power to form a sufficiently large swamp area.
In this semi-conscious state, they would not attack proactively. This allowed Eivass to set up complex curse rituals on their faces, killing them in their sleep with curses without disturbing them.
[Killed Fourth Tier Monster, gained Free Experience 26]
[Killed Fourth Tier Monster, gained Free Experience 26]
[Killed Fourth Tier Monster, gained Free Experience 26]
…
There really was experience?
Eivass raised an eyebrow.
Could monsters killed without entering combat also provide experience?
Generally, if an extraordinary individual was killed without engaging in combat, they would not provide Eivass with any experience. For example, Lawyer York, or President Tommy, whom Eivass had assassinated.
But these monsters not only provided experience, but the experience they provided was entirely consistent. This was quite unusual… Even extraordinary individuals of the same tier, or even the same level, would have their experience randomized within a certain range.
—Only summoned creatures provided a fixed amount of experience.
This was rather interesting.
Eivass tentatively used Purifying Fire to dispel a few passing Headless Skeletons. The result was that he gained no experience.
As they remained in the swamp, the surrounding Fog began to thicken. It was unclear how much time had passed, but the white Fog had completely obscured the surrounding environment, and Und that only appeared at night had begun to emerge in the swamp.
For instance, Night Walker Knights.
After cautiously confirming the absence of other knights, Eivass silently summoned the Flame Butterfly and easily dispelled a lone Night Walker Knight with Purifying Fire.
[Expelled Night Walker Knight, gained Free Experience 64]
This experience was normal. It shouldn’t be a problem with this location.
It wasn’t until Eivass killed a Third Tier “Swamp Ghoul” that he finally discovered the anomaly—
[Expelled Swamp Ghoul, gained Free Experience 84]
Swamp Ghouls were Und formed from people who had died in the swamp. Their bloated bodies were filled with poisonous silt, and they could spew out disgusting, foul-smelling mud as if vomiting.
This was a very common type of Und, not possessing much combat power. Yet, it yielded more experience than a Night Walker Knight of the same tier, who was a Warrior…
“You’re saying the swamp has a problem?”
Sherlock Frowned deeply. “Isn’t it because of that… Mud Skeleton Turtle? You’ve already cleared them out, haven’t you?”
After seeing Eivass kill all the Mud Skeleton Turtles, Sherlock had wanted to leave. Moving in the swamp was simply unpleasant, not to mention the surrounding white mist made it impossible to see, inducing nausea.
But Eivass still pulled him along, making him accompany him for three more rounds of clearing. They killed every visible Und several times over.
Upon hearing Eivass’s words now, Sherlock found it preposterous. “Do you still want to chase into the swamp and keep killing? Have you gone mad with killing?”
“This is called BUG replication.”
Eivass stated righteously, “The fact that we can replicate it means we’ve pinpointed the problem. Try summoning an elemental creature from the swamp again? If we’ve killed all the Mud Skeleton Turtles, you shouldn’t feel any resistance, right?”
“Alright, alright…”
Sherlock couldn’t refuse Eivass and reluctantly agreed, “Let’s finish up quickly and leave. I already feel like something’s smeared on my face…”
He reached out again, opening his five fingers towards the largest area of the swamp, and closed his eyes, preparing to summon a Mud Eagle once more.
But Sherlock’s expression quickly changed. His hand recoiled as if electrocuted, and a yellowish-brown lightning crackled on Sherlock’s right arm, causing him to tremble violently.
—Casting failed.
But in an instant, the surrounding Fog dissipated.
The swamp suddenly began to move—like a flushing toilet, it rapidly flowed towards the central depression. Even the white mist around them was sucked in.
At that moment, the air became fresh, and their vision seemed to brighten suddenly. Sherlock took deep breaths of fresh air, even feeling a sense of emotion.
Soon, the swamp had completely “receded.”
All that remained in the center was a giant, circular black hole.
The hole was about ten meters in diameter, with very smooth edges. The intersection between the ground and the hole was even a sharp right angle.
The hole was lower than the terrain Eivass and the others were on, surrounded by a funnel-like sloping smooth plane.
Lily sought Eivass’s opinion, “Shall I go take a look?”
She had “Lies” which could stretch her body, so she wasn’t afraid of accidentally falling in.
“No, we’re leaving.”
Eivass cautiously refused Lily’s suggestion. “This is not a place we should be right now.”
Because he had already recognized what it was…
Their initial guess was that Eagle Cape Village was the Fairy Forest, which was why it couldn’t be seen from the outside; later, they realized it was a special twilight Power forming a Miasma, distorting the temporal sequence of Eagle Cape Village.
—But now, the possibility of the first guess had returned.
Because this funnel-shaped black hole, suddenly appearing in the depths of swamps, lakebeds, and snowfields, was called a Fairy Hole—it was a portal to the Fairy Kingdom!
