Chapter 573: Bloody Dawn (1/2)
I frowned deeply. ”Didn’t you say you can cure your poisoning after I completed the Cyan Tiger quest? What do you mean ‘one more step’?”
The old man smiled. ”Patience, young man. This Cyan Tiger Tooth is but one of the necessary ingredients to make the cure. I need another essential ingredient, a herb to be exact to complete it. Without it, I won’t be able to teach you the ultimate secret art of legends to merge the Cooking skill and Alchemy skill together…”
I must say that the words ”ultimate secret art of legends” tempted me greatly. Oh well, I was born to toil to my death anyway, so more or less work doesn’t matter to me.
I nodded and said, ”What else do you need, elder? Tell me everything!”
”Good!”
The God Hunter nodded and said, ”Directly south from here around 30 minutes away, there is a place called Blood Skull Mound where a Night Creature Legion is garrisoned. These defenders number around a thousand or so, and they are elite undead warriors who have committed every crime imaginable world such as feeding on human corpses and burning down human homes. Child, I want you to head to Blood Skull Mound and kill all the Blood Skull warriors residing in that area. I also want you to kill the undead lord, Blood Skull and bring his head to me. I will use his rotten skull to make my cure…”
I frowned a little. ”Elder, this cure is a bit intense, don’t you think? Are you sure you can handle it?”
The God Hunter shook his head. ”You don’t understand. When a person gets old, their taste turns hardcore as well…”
”...”
Oh well, it’s none of my business. I quickly accepted the additional quest—
Kill Blood Skull (Current Quest Rank: SSS-)
Description: Head to Blood Skull Mound, kill all the undead defenders and the undead lord, Blood Skull. Bring his skull back to Zatch the God Hunter for a very generous reward!
……
God dammit, the saying ”the road to happiness is paved with hardships” definitely fit my situation right now. Heck, I didn’t even know what this so-called generous reward was. At any rat, I sure hoped that this was the last quest of the quest chain. This was a bounty quest, so it was a lot more difficult than grinding the Cyan Battle Tigers. However, the higher the quest rank, the better the experience reward, so it wasn’t all bad. Right now my most urgent desire was to hit Level 150 as soon as possible. Even if I couldn’t become the first mounted warrior of Heavenblessed, I wanted to be ahead of Candlelight Shadow at least.
On the way, the Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf happily ran circles around me and consumed mutated wild rabbits to fill its belly. For once, it got to satisfy its appetite to its heart’s content. Unfortunately, my little wolf’s ranking was a bit too low for my needs, and as a fifth-promotion player I had three pet slots. I supposed I could capture a Level 1 version of some high-level mob to train if it was fairly reliable, but pets had always been super rare in Heavenblessed. It had been months since I entered the game, and I had only ever encountered a handful of Level 1 pets! (Author’s Note: I swear on the ceiling above my head that it’s because Heavenblessed is stingy with pets and not because I totally forgot that pets existed…)
Zatch said that it would take half an hour to reach Blood Skull Mound, but he was basing it on the movement speed of an average warrior. My Storm Waves War Boots increased my movement speed by 80%, so it took me only 15 minutes or so to reach the edge of the map.
Looking at my minimap, the map was completely blood-red in color. Unlike Frost Mound, Blood Skull Mound was a completely open camp with no fence to protect it. In fact, the only structures I spotted were giant graves that were protected by a hundred or so undead warriors each. However, I appreciated the terrain though because it made completing the quest a lot easier for me. After all, all the mobs in this map were pretty high-level, and I was alone and without a priest. It was impossible even for me to grind them en masse.
I moved to a nearby grave and saw a high-level undead warrior clad in blood-red armor from head to toe watching his surroundings carefully. It wielded a long spear, and the pupils peeking from behind its helmet was blood-red. It was observing everything around it with overwhelming hostility. I didn’t even need to see its stats to know stats to know that it wasn’t a common mob.
I sucked in a deep breath and walked closer. I tried to check its stats, but most of them were obscured. Still, the tiny bit of info I gleaned was enough to shock me—
Blood Skull Warrior (Ancient)
Level: 164
Attack: ???
Defense: ???
HP: ???
Skills: ???
Introduction: The Blood Skull warrior is the guardian of Blood Skull Mound. These powerful undeads used to be human elites until their soul and body were snatched away from them. Their emptied bodies were transformed into the servants of the Night Creatures, and these fallen creatures know nothing besides killing all that is alive in the world.
……
God damn, this was the first time I met an ancient-rank mob. I saw a mob ranking order on the forums, and Ancient came right after Shadow. For mobs that weren’t bosses, they were categorized as Common, Enhanced, Elite, Shadow and Ancient. In other words, Ancient Rank mobs were very powerful enemies with stats that rivaled even some minibosses, so much so that I couldn’t even see their stats. It was so unfair, why was it that I could see the Star Dragon’s stats but not these mobs?
Slightly displeased, I decided to do away the skulking and just murder the hell out of them. No matter how powerful they were, they were just Level 164 mobs. Also, this was the perfect opportunity to absorb the undead soul sparks. With luck, I should be able to become an Asura King after clearing out the map!
One of my racial skills, Deterrence, helped to weaken the Blood Skull warrior’s stats to a certain degree, but I had no idea about the exact number because it involved many factors and many interactions. It was impossible to determine the exact formula.
I kicked off the battle by launching a cyan blade swirl of energy at the head of the nearest Blood Skull warrior.
Bang!
8894!
Not careless enough to underestimate the enemy, I withdrew to the back and launched another Dragon Slaying Slash at the Blood Skull warrior. After the mob started growling and chasing me, I immediately activated Thunderous Charge!
Swhoosh!
A successful stun later, I launched my usual combo, Burning Blade Slash+Universe Break right across its chest. A series of damage numbers popped above its head—