Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Croak. One of the frogs moved its body and looked at Gao Peng.
[Monster Name]: Blue-Skinned Frog
[Monster Level]: Level 8
[Monster Grade]: Normal
[Monster Condition]: Healthy (Happy)
[Monster Hobby]: Sunbathing in peace
[Monster Weakness]: 1. Electric; 2. Hates noise.
This must be the cousin of the Green-Skinned Frog…
Whether it was their similar names or their similar appearance, Gap Peng had no doubt that these two types of monsters were related. However, these Blue-Skinned Frogs were much better than the Green-Skinned Frogs, personality wise. At least they didn’t seem to enjoy spitting at other creatures.
Pui. The Blue-Skinned Frog closest to Gao Peng spit at him.
Gao Peng quickly raised his right leg to dodge the spit. He was speechless as he stared at the Blue-Skinned Frog sitting on the moss-covered boulder.
I guess I spoke too soon…
The eyes of the Blue-Skinned Frog narrowed into two moon shape, and it croaked in excitement. The other frogs also began to croak in joy as they saw the situation.
Gao Peng was speechless.
Why had the data frame not indicated this disgusting hobby of theirs? Had the bad habit of spitting also become part of the nature of the Blue-Skinned Frogs?
He never would have thought that the Blue-Skinned Frogs in the Jiangnan area were even more mischievous than the Green-Skinned Frogs in Chang’an.
There were over a thousand Blue-Skinned Frogs along the stream, and Gao Peng was not at all interested in dealing with them.
Gao Peng went deeper into the dense forest, across the stream, and the air became even more humid.
“Let’s go a little bit further and check it out,” Gao Peng said with uncertainty. There was probably no point pillar in a humid place like this, but he wouldn’t know for certain unless he checked. And since he was already there, it didn’t make sense for him to go back the way he had come.
Suddenly, a Blue-Skinned Frog dashed out from a bush. It had dirt and mud smeared across its body, looking like some savage outcast that had been left behind by its Blue-Skinned Frog clan.
The frog sat on the ground and looked dumbly at Gao Peng with wide eyes. It was actually pretty cute.
Gao Peng frowned. There was something odd on the Blue-Skinned Frog’s back…
Vines appeared from beneath its skin. Multiple strands of blue and green roots and vines poked out of its skin before slithering beneath the skin again to hide. It looked as though snakes were moving beneath the smooth, shiny skin of the frog.
A few vines were still exposed, and they were absorbing the moisture, minerals, and nutrition from the air. Above the vines were several green leaves. They seemed to be a type of fern.
Gao Peng locked gaze with the Blue-Skinned Frog. He could not detect any emotion in its eyes. They were as empty as the eyes of a doll left in a cupboard.
Gao Peng suddenly thought about Bulbasaur from Pokémon, which also had plants growing out of its back, but it wasn’t quite the same thing.
After looking at Gao Peng for a minute, the Blue-Skinned Frog leapt away and returned to the depths of the forest.
Gao Peng frowned and said to Dumby, “Let’s follow it.”
After entering the dense forest, the scene within tightened Gao Peng’s chest.
It was a wide and empty area, and the ground was filled with a myriad of monsters. None of the monsters had high levels, the highest was only a Level 18, Normal Grade, Yellow-Spotted Black-Eared Wolf.
But there was no denying the vast number of them. There were at least 70 or 80 monsters in the empty space, both large and small. The largest was as big as a sedan, while the smallest was only as big as a watermelon.
However, these monsters had two similarities: One, all of them stood quietly in place, the only proof that they were alive being their slow breathing. Two, each and every monster had ferns growing out of its back or some other part of its body, the plant’s light-green roots puncturing into the blood vessels.
Parasites!
It was clearly a type of parasite.
Gao Peng looked around in full alert. He was initially prepared to retreat, but in the middle of the empty space stood a sandy white rock column.
There were weak and strong parasites, but the more critical factor was whether the monster they fed on was strong or not. Although there were a lot of monsters there, their quality was not very high, so Gao Peng and his familiars still had a chance.
Based on the experience of the human species fighting all kinds of monsters the past few years, when faced against parasitic monsters, the priority was to find the original body of the parasite and destroy it. That was basically enough to diminish at least half of the combat ability of the parasite. The original body of the parasite would normally have weak combat strength, as the parasite mainly relied on the combat ability of its host, which would retain its original skills and abilities, to ensure its survival.
From a certain viewpoint, they were similar to monster trainers.
The Yellow-Spotted Black-Eared Wolf slowly got up and howled. It stared at Gao Peng without any emotion. As it walked over slowly, all of the other monsters on that empty piece of land also began to move closer.
All of them stared at Gao Peng’s group without any emotion, exerting threatening sounds from their mouth.
Above the footsteps and low, hoarse growls of the surrounding monsters, Gao Peng heard a rustling of leaves within the forest, as if a gust of wind were blowing toward them.
Gao Peng thought it was funny. He was initially worried that the parasitic monster would have some backup plan, but as he saw the instinctive behavior of the hosts, Gao Peng deduced that the original body of the parasite was fairly weak. Otherwise, it would not have behaved that way.
After all, if a predator were hunting, would it voluntarily expose its existence and risk scaring away its prey?
Only if it felt threatened or was in an uncertain situation would it behave this way.
“Found it!” Gao Peng shouted, looking toward the direction of the rustling leaves. It was a dense shrub, and beside the shrub were ferns that looked like centipedes on the ground. It looked like a kidney fern, which was also sometimes called centipede grass.
[Monster Name]: Blue Iron Kidney Fern
[Monster Level]: Level 21
[Monster Grade]: Excellent
[Monster Attribute]: Parasitic
[Monster Weakness]: Fire
“Da Zi, destroy that plant!” Gao Peng told Da Zi.
Da Zi nodded vigorously and quickly rushed toward the Blue Iron Kidney Fern.
The monsters suddenly dashed towards Da Zi as if they had gone crazy.
“Dumby, block them! Help Da Zi gain some time.”
Dumby nodded. He picked up a huge boulder that was at its feet and heaved it at the charging monsters. The Yellow-Spotted Black-Eared Wolf, at the front of the pack, did not have enough time to dodge the incoming boulder and was hit directly on its head. It fell to the ground with a poof as blood exploded from its head.
Dumby roared in anger as it rushed forward. It snatched up a cobra-like monster in its left hand and a worm-like monster in its right and began to use them as nunchaku, spinning them around in a frenzy.
Boom, boom, boom!
The monsters became two whips in its hands, afterimages left behind its swings.
Monster after monster was hit, and skin and flesh split, soaking the battlefield in blood. The two monsters held in Dumby’s hands were in even worse condition. Their skulls were crushed and their bodies were close to ripping apart.
The Blue-Skinned Frog they had seen on the road earlier was hit by the “snake whip,” and its eyeballs bulged outwards as sounds of bones cracking could be heard.
