Translator: AtlasStudios Editor: AtlasStudios
Splat!
Dark green blood spattered, falling on the ground as white smoke bursted up.
“Clean it up and get going.”
Rhode put away his sword and calmly ordered. He completely ignored the mercenaries who looked at him. The mercenaries were stunned for a moment, then began to clean up the corpse in panic.
Originally they thought that they would only meet a group of goblins in these ruins. But when they entered, they found out that they were facing monsters they had never seen before. There were no goblins, no huge underground spiders, but rather creatures they had never seen before. They looked like a lizard, but the difference was that they were human-like, bipedal and could even use some basic weapons.
If it was just that, then they wouldn’t be too surprised since there were so many strange creatures underground here. This kind of lizard perhaps was also one of them. However, the precious stones on their forehead clearly showed that they were not a natural-born existence.
When the mercenaries first encountered them, they received a little damage because they were unprepared. These lizards were more than two meters tall, with a strong and powerful body. Even though they were not wearing armor, their smooth scales were enough to block the mercenaries’ swords. That was why these mercenaries weren’t able to react until Rhode quickly issued an order to change the way they fought. Their group became a lot more balanced.
Even so, the thing that surprised them the most was Rhode. Facing a monster that was more than two meters tall, Rhode was flying in the middle of them like a shadow. Many mercenaries felt their visions turn blurry. After a while, those lizard fell to the ground just like that. Strangely, when they checked the corpses, they couldn’t find any injuries on them. They didn’t understand just how did Rhode killed those monsters.
“Kavos?”
“Ah, yes, Sir!”
Hearing Rhode call his name, Kavos finally stopped dazing off and quickly reacted. Soon, those mercenaries took out their knives and daggers and walked towards those huge corpses. Rhode asked them to take out the gems on those lizard’s foreheads. Although they looked crappy, the gems on their foreheads seemed to cost a lot of money.
Rhode stopped looking at his subordinates and began to examine the ruin.
Unlike the Black Pine Ruins, the Unicorn Peak looked old and shabby. Besides some stone stairs, no artificial remains could be seen. Even the frescoes and sculptures looked extremely dusty. This made Rhode feel a little bit worried. If it was really as he had guessed, then wouldn’t it take quite a long time to reach his goal?
If that was the case, then the loss really outweighed the gain.
But to his surprise, according to Gillian’s report, the Ophenians weren’t recording the ruins after they entered. Although they still did occasionally, according to Gillian, the Ophenians seemed to be looking for something.
This news made Rhode feel quite surprised. Did he guess wrongly? That the information regarding the Composition Adornment wasn’t hidden in these frescoes, but in some kind of treasure chest? But this was too illogical. Rhode had gone to the sealed underground ruins on Unicorn Peak eighty to a hundred times. He was well aware of the loots here. If there really was a Composition Adornment design there, he wouldn’t have needed to kill everyone in Ophenia back then.
But these Ophenians definitely wouldn’t come to this ghostly place if there was really nothing.
However, there was still another possibility that the design of the Composition Adornment was never meant for players. According to game time, this time period should have been during the beta test. The majority of the players weren’t yet familiar with the Dragon Soul Continent. There was no way for them to come to these ruins, located in the depths of the forest. At that time, the Dragon Soul Continent was the only online game that was based on “real-time”, meaning the NPCs in the game lived just like ordinary people. They would go to work, live, and adventure when no one noticed. Of course, most of the NPC would be resurrected even if they died as consideration for the players.
It was possible that an NPC had come here for adventure and brought back the Composition Adornment design while players were still busy familiarizing themselves with this continent. It wasn’t impossible since there were many NPCs that gave props and quests.
But if it were like that, Rhode had to change his plan. Originally, he was still worried about the Ophenians and didn’t walk too far from the team behind them. But now, if they were actually “searching” for something, then he didn’t have to wait for them and clean up all the monsters here. Afterwards, there should be no more problem.
In addition, Gillian also reported another thing to him. She said that Lapis was getting even stranger than before. When she entered the ruins, she seemed to have lost her consciousness and walked around like a controlled puppet. If not for Gillian taking care of her, she might have already wandered off somewhere.
As for Lapis’s condition, Rhode couldn’t really do anything about it. Since he wasn’t a robot, he didn’t understand the three laws of robotics. Since Lapis was an alchemist race, he wasn’t too clear on what was happening to her. There was no other way besides asking Gillian to pay attention to her since he still had a lot of things to do.
“Keep going.”
As Rhode was recalling his thoughts, the mercenaries finished taking all the gems from the lizards’ foreheads. Rhode took a deep breath and issued another order. He pulled out his sword and continued to move forward.
Besides the torches hanging on the mercenaries’ waists, the glowing plants that grew along the passage also emitted an icy light. Of course, Rhode did not forget to remind his subordinates to stay away from these glowing plants. According to the common sense of people on Earth, something that could shine without electricity was definitely not a good thing…
Save for the sound of the mercenaries’ footsteps, everything was quiet.
But Rhode didn’t miss the hissing sound hiding in the darkness.
“Kavos, get ready! To the left!”
Following Rhode’s instruction, Kavos waved his hand. The mercenaries threw out several torches and retreated. With the help of the firelight, they could see the shadows of huge lizard men that had been hiding previously.
“Attack!”
The sudden light surprised the lizard men. They didn’t expect that they would be found out by the enemy in this kind of situation. As a creature that had been living in the darkness, they, of course, couldn’t stand such a strong light. They stretched out their hands to cover their eyes while hissing. Kavos took this opportunity to bring his men forward. In the beginning, Kavos used crossbows to entertain these monsters, but after receiving Rhode’s instructions, he quickly realized that crossbows couldn’t damage lizard scales. It was better for them to attack their weakness—their lower abdomen—at close range. After the lizards were plunged into turmoil, Kavos immediately took out a pair of knives and gave a signal to his men. Then, they rushed over towards the group of lizard lightning speed.
But Rhode was faster than them.
Kavos only felt a shadow flash from the corner of his eye. In the next moment, Rhode had already appeared at the lizards’ feet. He raised his sword and thrust forward. The lizard failed to attack with its wooden stick and lost its life. Its body heavily fell to the ground.
This could be regarded as a very impressive scene for Kavos. Rhode’s speed was so fast that even Kavos, who was a professional thief, was speechless. There was no way for him to keep up with Rhode’s actions. He couldn’t even accurately judge Rhode’s position at that time. Whenever Kavos saw Rhodes, all he could find was the afterimage, not where Rhode was.
There were about thirty lizardmen lurking in the corner, waiting to ambush. However, in just an instant, Rhode had managed to exterminate the ten of them. The rest of the lizard men were still waving their wooden sticks to fight with the mercenaries. Their monstrous strength and slender tails were very dangerous weapons. Moreover, these cold-blooded reptiles were much smarter than the mercenaries had originally thought. They actually even know the basics of defense and offense, which made it hard for the mercenaries to easily succeed.
“Ha!!”
A mercenary shouted and swung his two-handed sword forward, but before it could pierce through a lizardman’s lower abdomen, he was blocked by a wooden stick. His body shook as the strong impact of a sword made him unable to react. Suddenly, the sound of the wind passed through his ears. In the next moment, the lizard tail heavily hit him and sent him flying.
“Woah!!”
The defenseless mercenary heavily crushed the wall. The excruciating pain made him almost spurt out blood. As he forced himself to get up, the lizardman arrived before him, lifting the wooden stick in its hand.
Is this the end?
As he looked at the lizardman, his heart felt cold.
A shadow flashed.
Rhode leaped towards the lizardman’s shoulder like a bird while waving the Crimson Tears sword in his hand. The translucent sword instantly cut through the lizardman’s neck. The whole process did not even take two seconds, and Rhode had already turned around and assembled with the group.
The lizardman who had just been attacked threw his wooden stick towards the mercenary just before it fell to the ground. The wooden stick heavily hit the side of the mercenary and pulled him back to reality. Soon, after realizing what had happened, he immediately jumped up and rushed toward the lizardman that had attacked his comrades.
The battle was still far from over.
