Chapter 283: Den of Thieves
After leaving the wooden house, they stood there staring off into space for a long time.
NalanPureSoul didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but at least they had completed the quest. Thinking back to their bitter struggle, he recalled everyone’s performance. He had originally thought that HeavenlyShakingMight was a power type players, but that evading and reaction time was even better that his sisters. Against this sort of impossible boss, they actually managed to fight for so long without losing anyone. He had to admit that everyone on their team was an expert.
SpyingBlade smiled bitterly. This is a B difficulty mission? If that fight went on, we would have wiped. Just how much more difficult did they make this game? There are even so many limitations on the players.
“Let’s go. Heal up then to the next battle.” Ye Cang took out the not yet finished stew. NalanPureSoul nodded. He looked at the stew that had now cooled down. We have to eat it again? He could feel a tingle on his scalp.
Everyone healed up, and followed the directions Verali had given them. There really was a pack of bandits camped there. That means, she really went over to ask for food before. She even said that the people there were very friendly. When she asked for food, they would give her food. Ye Cang and the others shivered, trying to erase it from their minds. Those people were probably scared to the point of peeing themselves. NalanPureSoul’s quest was at most C+ difficulty. When put up against someone who could one-shot a B difficulty boss, they were nothing. Just thinking of the consequences not giving her food made them shiver. Especially Ye Cang, who had experienced how a light pat sent him flying through a wall, nearly killing him. No one believed that she was that frail old man’s granddaughter…
Little Ye Tian continued to make her map, and confirmed the treasure chest’s location. She then calmly put it away. NalanPureSoul noticed her map. Although he was a bit far, he could still see how detailed it was, moreover, the scale was large…
Without camping, everyone continued through the night. Wang still had some lingering fear in his heart as he said, “Boss, Verali is probably this area’s last boss right?”
A terrifying female roar echoed through the mountain range, “I’m hungry! Aaaah!!”
“……” Everyone turned turned to that direction, then nodded.
On the way, Ye Cang discovered another two ghost like, glowing mushrooms. It looked beautiful during the night. After gathering them, he saw another red umbrella like mushroom. There was even a human skull pattern on it, warning people away. He reached out and gathered it too. He tried identifying it, “Red Skull Shroom. Extremely poisonous. Tastes extremely delicious.”
“Bro, that’s poisonous. We won’t really…” Zhang ZhengXiong warned.
“Don’t worry, we can fight poison with poison. It’ll be fine…” Ye Cang threw it into his bag and smiled. Everyone felt numb. You’re not using the fighting poison with poison quite right. And did you just admit the things you make are poison? You can even use the leftovers to coat your arrows.
Zhang ZhengXiong began to regret. Why… Back when I first got the cooking skillbook, I should have learned it. Why didn’t I add some points into intelligence, then bro wouldn’t have walked this destructive path…
Not even a few steps later, Ye Cang discovered another ‘vegetable’. It was light purple, and looked like fungus, but blossomed like a flower. It emitted a terrible smell, like that of rotting corpses. He plugged his nose and threw it in his bag. He saw the shocked look everyone was giving him, but he simply smiled indifferently, “You know of stinky tofu? It’s the same idea…”
Helloo, isn’t that too far-fetched? But everyone saw that Ye Cang wasn’t joking. They began to shiver even more. NalanPureSoul had felt for a long time now that this guy seemed to have some inexplicable confidence in his own cooking. The issue was the problems this confidence caused. Even if he made a such tragic, unearthly food, he would still believe himself to be a culinary expert. This was the most terrifying thing about him. He tried inquiring about it, “Brother PaleSnow, can I see your list of recipes?”
Ye Cang hesitated. “You can’t be thinking of stealing my secret recipes, could you? Humph, even if you see it, it will be useless. They’re all top secret recipes. You’ll never be able to guess the ingredients.”
Wu Na, FrozenCloud, and NalanMoon all shook their heads furiously. No way. No one in their right mind would steal your recipes. You’re overthinking it…
NalanPureSoul’s smile seemed a bit stiff. Steal!? He took a deep breath, and looked at the list. Seeing it, he gasped. The inedible ones were even clearly marked as dark cooking and they made up over 90% of the recipes! Also, the name of every recipe clearly gave away the ingredients. For example, this something something Werewolves, Fishmen, Herbs, Mushroom, Slime Stew. What was he even trying to do!? Adding together a bunch of dark cooking ingredients!? NalanPureSoul covered his forehead, trying to figure out how he had such confidence, especially since he had to eat it himself. This was the point that made NalanPureSoul the most confused.
“I know what you’re thinking, but there’s nothing I can do about it. I’m simply a genius born to walk the road of culinary arts. Although it’s important to choose good ingredients, but you can’t confine yourself to using that as an excuse. You have to dare to blaze new trails! Whatever, you won’t understand…” Ye Cang said, then hastened the journey while still collecting various ‘ingredients’.
The group of speechless people were left behind. NalanPureSoul eventually snapped out of it, “Umm, does he know his road of culinary arts is very… weird?”
Zhang ZhengXiong and the other all shook their heads. Everyone sighed and continued forwards. They watched Ye Cang happily skirt from tree to tree, gathering ingredients. Doing this didn’t delay their travel at all, in fact he was pulling them forwards. They once again sighed.
Caldo Peak, northwest side, halfway up the mountain.
Everyone was lying low and observing from high ground, but the only one who could really see anything was Ye Cang who had both night vision and Eagle Eye. He described the layout for everyone. “It’s not heavily guarded, but it will still be difficult to sneak in. Both entrances have about 5 tamed dog-like demon beasts…”
“Dog-type demon beasts, getting around them isn’t too realistic. It looks like we have no other way. We have to make sure to eliminate all the bandits before they set off the alarm. If any get away, we could fail the quest…” NalanPureSoul said, furrowing her shapely eyebrows. He thought about possible countermeasures, but at this point in the game, they were lacking in skills, especially control skills. If they called the guild and tried to fight a large-scale battle, the number of bandits could increase. Currently, there were about 30 of them, but if they brought too many people, who knows what could happen. Perhaps they might even directly fail the quest. The main purpose for forming guilds was to fight large field bosses, fight in large-scale wars, or push storyline quests. Even if they could bring more people, it wasn’t worth the risk. Moreover, there were currently only about 100 people in the Freedom Alliance that had advanced to Black Rock City. Most importantly, the reward would be much better if they could complete it with fewer people. Anyone who got involved with the quest would affect the final reward.
