Chapter 143: Guardian of Fire
After a short rest, Nick stood up, picked up his weapon and said, "Let's go and explore if there are other exits, otherwise we can only go back and dig a hole."
"Wait a minute." Clown decided not to hide his incompetence any more. He took out two Heart-Clearing Talismans and a Golden Light Talisman respectively and said, "Everyone squeeze in, each team stand together."
"What are you doing?" Nick was a little confused, but he still cooperated and ordered: "Everyone squeeze in."
After everyone was standing in place, Clown released the Moon Spirit Shield and Golden Armor.
The silver-white and light-gold auras shone together, and Nick felt a coolness in his head, as if he had drunk a bottle of refreshing water.
He stared blankly at the faint golden halo on the surface of his skin, and cursed with a smile: "Great, you bastard actually hid such a good thing. People who understand the true meaning of the law are amazing. What are the effects of these two talismans after they are activated?"
"The true meaning of the law? What, what kind of true meaning of the law?" Jason felt his tongue was a little tied and his words were a little incoherent.
This is the true meaning of the law, which means that advancement to the third level is a sure thing and you will get a ticket to the next level.
He had heard his teacher occasionally mention that third-order transcendents were not truly above the mundane world, and that a large number of first-order transcendents could potentially surround and kill them.
But if they go one step further and break through the third level to reach a new realm, their life level can achieve true leap evolution. At that time, only creatures at the same level can harm them.
The prerequisite for all this is to understand the true meaning of the law and turn it into instinct.
"It is the true meaning of the laws of warmth and burning, and it also contains a layer of protection," Nick replied. "He didn't have this method before, but now he should have realized something deeper. Praise the God of Fire."
"Praise the God of Fire," Jason said devoutly, placing his hand on his chest.
“Wow, this is amazing.”
"Is this divine magic?"
The other members of the team exclaimed in amazement. Luo Lin touched the skin of her knuckles and found that the light golden film was always tightly attached to her skin.
'Praise the Taoist', Clown added silently in his heart, and said: "The white spiritual light can make our minds clearer and has a certain protective effect against mental attacks.
The golden aura can form a layer of armor on the surface of our body, similar to spiritual armor, which can defend against certain physical and elemental damage, and can also resist attacks from evil spirits. "
Nick deliberately let out a wail: "Only a third-level priest can add a fire spirit shield to others, and you, a warrior at the second-level extraordinary, can do it. I am so jealous."
For a moment, the spirits of the team members were high, and the panic-stricken atmosphere just now was alleviated a lot.
"Let's go," Nick saw that everyone's condition had improved a lot, picked up his weapons and round shields and stepped into the middle fork.
He activated the armor's protection and tried to cast a fire spirit shield on himself. He was pleasantly surprised to find that it could actually be superimposed on the golden film.
In this way, he had three layers of protection on his body. Although he had not verified the defensive strength of the golden film, it was at least not worse than the Fire Spirit Shield. After all, it was the manifestation of the true meaning of the law.
Crown followed closely behind, holding up an oil lamp in his left hand to light the way for the priest.
The group walked along the tunnel for more than twenty minutes and encountered several hard-haired rats on the way, which were smashed into meat paste by the priest one by one.
There was a squeaking sound coming from the front, which became louder and louder.
Finally, they came to a cave that was wider than the semicircular hall at the fork in the road, with many holes as thick as small buckets in the cave.
"Fuck," the priest at the front cursed.
Crown saw that the place was densely packed with red-eyed, hard-haired rats, numbering in the hundreds.
Some were lying down, some were standing on their legs, and some were rolled into a ball. There were a lot of hard hairs remaining in many places. Perhaps when they were extremely hungry, they could find each other as food.
He couldn't help but feel his scalp tingling, as if there were countless lice on his head.
The arrival of the crowd or the lights startled the mutated mice, and all the mice turned around and stared at the uninvited guests who broke in.
For a moment, the scene was eerily quiet, but then the rat squeaked and rushed towards everyone.
"Fight, don't retreat." A hot flame ignited on Nick's round shield. He took a step forward, swung his arm and threw the round shield out.
The shield turned into a fiery red and flew in a shining arc close to the ground. Most of the rats on the route died instantly when it was touched, and only a few stronger rats were bounced away.
The shield flew in the air and returned to the priest's hand.
The rats that were touched by the round shields started to burn with flames and began to run around frantically. The attacking rats were in some chaos, but more rats jumped over the unlucky ones and rushed towards the investigation team.
When Nick started to move, Clown took out a stack of golden talismans, activated them and threw them in front of him, and balls of golden flames burst out from the rat swarm.
These rats have obviously been corrupted by evil forces and mutated. The Yangyan technique will definitely cause more casualties.
Within the range of the golden flames, the mice didn't even have time to utter a cry. Their bones and skin seemed to be soaked in sulfuric acid, corroding rapidly and oozing pus and blood.
Although the Sunfire Technique was very effective, all the rats still rushed forward with their bloodshot eyes.
Perhaps, evil has already corroded their fear, leaving only a twisted will of brutality and bloodthirstiness.
Leah pushed her hands forward, and a wall of fire about two meters long and half a meter wide immediately appeared in front of her. The rising flames were one meter high.
After the rushing rats passed through the wall, they turned into burning flying squirrels. Occasionally some of them jumped out, but were killed by Lorraine beside her.
Only Crown and his companions were able to launch a large-scale attack. Many rats rushed into the crowd and everyone started fighting.
Some people threw their oil lamps on the ground, and the light in the cave became dim.
Most of the hard-haired mice were only as strong as half-grown dogs, but much more ferocious than dogs. Only a few of them could reach the first-order extraordinary level, and were targeted by several masters in the team.
After Clown sent out the dozen or so golden talismans in his hand, he also changed his sword to the Star Steel Sword. Holding an oil lamp in one hand and the sword in the other, he quickly and accurately harvested the lives of the hard-haired mice.
Occasionally some rats would pounce on him, but they were unable to break through the golden defense.
The battle was intense, but not long.
It was over in about twenty minutes. Dead rats were everywhere on the ground and the air was filled with a rotten smell mixed with the smell of rat urine and roasted rats, which was extremely disgusting.
"Get out first," Nick shouted, "and treat the wounded."
Everyone retreated to the passage and checked each other's injuries.
Several second-level extraordinary people were not injured, but the others had some wounds from being scratched or bitten by the hard-haired rats.
The wounds were severely swollen and black pus and blood began to flow out.
Nelson gritted his teeth in pain and shivered, leaning against the wall.
The claws of the bristly rat scratched his thigh, leaving several wounds deep enough to reveal the bone.
"Drink it." Clown handed him a bottle of holy water, then cut open the clothes on his wound and slowly poured the holy water on it.
The holy water immediately produced a lot of foam, washing away a lot of blood.
Seeing that the blood flowing out had returned to normal, Crown applied tissue-growing and hemostatic ointment to the opponent's wound, wrapped him with a bandage, and then helped him deal with other minor wounds.
"Is the Golden Armor Technique effective?" Clown looked around and asked with a frown.
"It's very effective. I've suffered many attacks. If it weren't for the Golden Armor Technique, I would have been covered in wounds," Geo replied affirmatively. "Just now, I faced the attacks of so many mutant beasts, but I only suffered minor injuries. This would have been unimaginable in the past."
"Yes, the Golden Armor Technique helped me resist most of the attacks, and I only received two scratches," Luo Lin also affirmed the effectiveness of the skill.
"There are too many monsters. I can't defend myself." Nelson said with a wry smile. "There are big rats everywhere. I have been attacked too many times. The golden armor is worn out very quickly."
Nick came over and said, "Nelson still has too little combat experience, he just needs to practice a few more times. Let's get ready to go."
. . . .
Clown cast the Golden Armor spell on everyone again, and then everyone returned the same way and walked into the rightmost fork.
After winding around for several times, the passage slowly went down in one direction almost straightly.
After walking a few hundred meters, the tunnel suddenly opened up, and it was spacious enough for a two-horse carriage to drive. The tunnel was also raised to about four meters.
Clown and Nick walked side by side at the front of the team. He whispered, "We are moving deep into the mountain and slightly north. It looks like we can only spend the night here."
The priest nodded slightly: "If the team members guarding outside do not encounter a large-scale monster attack, there is no need to worry about their safety.
According to the specifications in the combat manual, if we don't return the next morning, they will report back to the Security Bureau. If we can't find a way out here, what we need to do is save all supplies and dig the collapsed passage again. "
Suddenly, several shadows jumped out from the shadows in front. Clown narrowed his eyes slightly and found that they were several large bats.
He took two steps forward, the cold light flashed on the sword, and he cut down the bat cleanly and efficiently.
Clown picked up their bodies with his sword and observed them: "This size is similar to the bats that attacked us at night. Do you think there is a connection between them?"
"Maybe," Nick stared at the shadows in the distance and asked, "What time is it now?"
"A quarter past four."
Suddenly, Crown felt a slight vibration under his feet, and he immediately lay down with his ear close to the ground.
Jason, who was following behind, made the same move.
"Bang, bang"
The faint sound of a heavy object falling to the ground came into my ears, regular and rhythmic.
"Here comes a big one," Jason shouted.
"It should be a monster that digs holes with its claws," Leah said as she stepped forward, "It's time for a tough battle."
Jason laughed and said, "I never give up when it comes to fighting a tough battle."
"Get behind me," Nick said, striking the round shield with his flail, making a banging sound.
"I will definitely become the most solid barrier. I seemed to have realized something during the battle with the evil creatures some time ago, and I will do some verification.
I’m just worried that the monsters coming here aren’t strong enough, and the impact won’t be strong enough for me to gain more insights.”
Clown joked, "Do you need to be beaten the hardest to feel what you have realized?"
Nick was stunned and said softly, "It seems to be true."
"Then you can do it yourself. I don't mind."
As they chatted and laughed, the feeling of depression they had felt after walking in the dark underground for a long time disappeared a lot.
"Bang, bang"
The vibrations beneath everyone's feet became more obvious, and a dull echo began to be heard in the tunnel.
Everyone stopped moving. Crown placed his oil lamp against the wall twenty meters in front and retreated behind everyone.
Nick took two steps forward, lowered his waist and raised the shield, holding the shield in front of his chest, staring straight ahead.
"Bang, bang, bang"
The creature in the darkness was getting closer and closer. It seemed to be attracted by the light here, and it began to run forward quickly.
It finally stopped at the edge of the light and let out a long howl, a sound similar to a mixture of a wild boar and a stag, which hurt the eardrums and caused the dirt on the top of the tunnel to fall off.
The sound kept reflecting in the tunnel, becoming even more harsh.
There is no mistake in the poem, post, content, and read the book on 6, 9, and bar!
Crown opened his mouth to reduce the air pressure difference between the inside and outside of the eardrum and alleviate the stimulation of noise on the eardrum.
This is a monster that is more than three meters tall, giving people the feeling that it can touch the top of the tunnel with just a jump.
It had a huge head like a giant bear, with tangled gray hair all over its body, and a pair of red eyes the size of a baby's fist flashing with a fierce and violent light.
Its bloody mouth was full of serrated teeth, and its bright red tongue sucked in and out as quickly as a snake.
Crown saw that the monster's tongue was densely covered with white barbs similar to those of a tiger's tongue.
The monster's upper body was more like an ape's body. It looked very strong, with sharp claws on its broad palms.
Under the light, you can see a dull cold light flashing on the claws.
The front half of its foot had three thick toes, just as Leah had judged.
"Let me gauge its strength," Nick took small steps forward and then quickly quickened his pace and rushed towards the monster.
The monster let out another shrill scream, as if mocking the tiny figure in front of it for charging without considering its own capabilities.
Then the monster swung its thick upper limbs and began to charge forward.
Seeing such a stark contrast, Luo Lin unconsciously tightened the hilt of the sword in her hand.
Clown was not worried at all. He had seen the priest facing the attack of even larger evil creatures, and he was deeply impressed by the flame protection emitted from the opponent's shield.
He secretly calculated and felt that with his current attack power, it would still take a long time to break through the light shield head-on.
After they had truly become teammates, he knew that the priest's attack power might be a little lacking, but in terms of defense, it was definitely the strongest he had ever seen.
Well, he hadn't seen many second-level priests' defenses. These were what the priest said a few days ago: "My understanding of shield defense is the strongest among exorcist priests of the same level. At least there is no second-level priest in Rhine City with a stronger defense than me."
Clown stared intently at the man and the monster that were about to collide with each other, holding the golden talisman in his hand, ready to provide the golden armor technique to his teammates at any time.
The giant monster ran like a speeding dump truck. It raised its giant fist and slammed it forward, as if it wanted to smash the enemy into a meat paste.
Nick rushed to the monster without dodging, and an arc-shaped red light wall flashed on his shield.
An extremely shocking scene appeared in everyone's field of vision. The short human did not move at all, but the much larger monster seemed to have hit a thick city wall and was blown backwards.
The priest stepped forward the moment the troll flew out, and the iron ball on the flail seemed to be burning red, and it hit the troll's falling body heavily.
The sound of bones breaking was very slight, but was still captured by Crowne.
He snapped his fingers happily. The outcome was decided! It felt good to sit back and watch his teammates perform.
The subsequent battle was exactly as he had expected. The giant monster did not put up any serious resistance and the priest smashed its head with a flail.
Looking at the battle scene, Nick's powerful and aggressive fighting style left a deep impression on everyone.
The scene of him using his shield to resist the giant monster's attack gave others a full sense of security.
Jason nodded secretly. At this moment, he fully recognized the priest's strength.
"Clean up quickly, I'll take a breath." Nick showed a bright smile on his face, "It's really exciting, I feel like I have a better understanding of the true meaning of Flame Guardian."
Clown acted as a charlatan and shouted: "Let us cheer for the team's strongest barrier and praise the God of Fire."
. . . .
This is an unknown monster and no one knows which parts of it are useful.
Due to time constraints, Crown only cut off the giant's claws as a trophy. The giant's skin was also very tough, but it had to be discarded.
The benefit that Clown gained was that his proficiency in the Mage Scholar increased by four points, which was better than nothing.
The priest rested for a while, and after adjusting his condition, everyone set out again.
The rest of the journey was relatively smooth. We occasionally encountered a few large bats, but were not attacked in any other way.
Crown felt the light from the oil lamp suddenly spread out. He took a few steps forward and saw that they had now arrived in a huge cave.
There are colorful stalactites in the cave, which look like shining gems when illuminated by light.
The black root-like tentacles are spread over every inch of the space here. They are hidden in the criss-crossing cracks and entangled on the strangely shaped rocks, giving people a bizarre and eerie feeling, as if they have entered the body of an unknown giant monster.
Water drops are falling, making a soft dripping sound, which can be heard far away in the silent environment.
Crown noticed a drop of something green falling before his eyes, and he was sure it wasn't water.
He raised the oil lamp and looked up at the top of the cave, and found that there were a few teardrop-shaped blue-gray sacs hanging sparsely on the tentacles of the black tree roots above.
The sac was covered with wrinkles and was the size of a pottery jar half a person's height.
His action attracted the attention of others, and Nick also looked up: "What the hell is this?"
“I don’t know.”
Jason walked over and said, “After the gray fog descended, the creatures in the wild have undergone a great degree of mutation, resulting in the formation of many new species. Now even the most knowledgeable monsterologists cannot recognize many kinds of monsters.
Now this kind of mutation happens very quickly. It is said that it takes four to five years at the shortest and more than ten years at the longest for the form of the organism to stabilize. Our knowledge system faces reconstruction, and the success rate of pharmacists in making medicines has been greatly reduced, because the medicinal properties of plants have also undergone obvious changes, with stronger efficacy and the production of mysterious and unknown ingredients. "
Nelson asked curiously, "What kind of medicine are we distributing now?"
"Most of them are from previous reserves. This mutation began to break out on a large scale three months after the gray fog descended."
Leah came over and asked, "What should we do now? There seems to be no point in continuing to explore. This should just be a nest of mutant creatures."
Nick asked uncertainly, "Will this kind of cave have a way to the ground?"
"Maybe, maybe not."
At this moment, the sac above the cave burst and a large amount of green mucus fell out.
Everyone looked up and saw a monster the size of a football crawling out of the sac.
It has gray wings like a bat, but the body of a human baby. It is purple-black in color, has no hair, and has a pointed head.
There are sharp and curved nails on the five fingers, and the open mouth is full of triangular sharp teeth, with two fangs as long as finger joints on each of the upper and lower gums.
"Huh"
The monster seemed to be afraid of light and covered its head with its small claws and wing membranes.
"Let me shoot it down and see," Crown untied the longbow and shot an ordinary arrow.
The monster was shot without any resistance and fell straight down. The arrow penetrated through the wing membrane, passed through its lower jaw, and exited from the top of its forehead.
This thing has a strong vitality. After falling to the ground, its body is still twitching violently, like an epileptic patient having a seizure.
After two full minutes, the little monster gradually stopped moving.
Crown handed the oil lamp to the priest, took out a scalpel made of Valyrian steel, and began to dissect it on the spot.
This knife was given to him by the priest as a reward for making armor. The sharp scalpel was very easy to use and he was very satisfied with it.
He was very efficient and the little monsters were soon reduced to piles of scraps.
A complete skeleton appeared in front of everyone. If you ignore the wing bones behind it, this is the corpse of a baby.
Seeing that the mage scholar's proficiency increased by three points again, Clown smiled silently. No matter how small a mosquito leg is, it is still meat.
Leah looked at the pile of blood and flesh on the ground without interest and asked, "Captain Nick, make a decision, should we turn back or continue exploring?"
Unconsciously, she had put herself in the position of a subordinate, and the scene where Nick charged head-on at the giant monster shocked her greatly.
Nick stroked his chin and thought for a while before saying, "Let's continue searching for half an hour to see if there are any changes in the terrain here. It will take too long for us to go back and dig a passage back to the ground."
Everyone rested for a while, ate some dry food, and continued on their journey.
Not long after they walked, they heard screams coming from the front. The voices sounded very much like human beings.
"Be alert," Nick ordered everyone to walk lightly and move forward.
A faint light was seen ahead, and the screams gradually faded from their high pitch.
They turned off the oil lamps and tiptoed to the edge of a very flat cave. They saw that the top of the cave was densely covered with blue-grey teardrop-shaped sacs. Dozens of small monsters with long wing membranes were flying in the air to fight for food. It was a bloody humanoid corpse.
(End of this chapter)