HBWnovel Chapter 34: New Map! The Underground Sewer and Slime!
Chapter 34: New Map! The Underground Sewer and Slime!
‘Accelerate.’
‘Climb up the walls.’
Araklulu nimbly leaped across the obstacles in its way like a hunter in the shadows. Its eyes remained firmly locked on its targets while scurrying across the wall.
‘Fire... Attack!’
Araklulu’s sure-kill hunting skills were on point today, as always!
Its agile front legs were about to knock the fragrant skeletons down to the ground, but the feedback against its leg was exceptionally hard, different from what it had expected.
One of the skeletons had turned around and raised its shield to block its attack.
Duang!
Araklulu was taken aback. It tried to use the force to leap backward, but it was already too late. The skeletons made cackling noises as if shouting...
“I caught it!” Twilight shouted.
He had long noticed the spider lurking behind them.
Right after he said those words, Autumnleaf, who had been charging all this while, brought his sword down on the monster in front of him.
“Execute!”
His sword qi sliced through the crypt spider’s skull, spraying red and yellow fluids all over the ground.
The lethal attack instantly zeroed the crypt spider’s HP. Its legs curled up, and it collapsed to the ground.
Just like that, Araklulu’s past valiant feats became fodder for an unknown skeleton’s legend.
Everything had happened so abruptly that the other hunters of the Weaving Shadow Nest froze on the spot. Arakdor was so startled that he nearly fell from the labyrinth’s walls.
‘Is that... the adventurers’ skills?!’
He had encountered it once back when the previous demon king was still alive, and he had nearly died to that skill then.
“Damn it—Araklulu!”
“Boss! I’ll avenge Araklulu!”
“Hold it!” Arakdor raised his leg to stop his agitated subordinates. He looked into their grieving eyes and growled, “Something... is amiss with those skeletons. They are using the adventurer skills.”
A crypt spider whose overgrown fur was nearly covering its eyes replied in agitation, “Isn’t that even more reason to kill them before it’s too late?!”
“You fool! Those are skeleton soldiers, a necromancer’s servants! As long as the necromancer wills it, he can summon as many of them as he wants. There is no lack of bones in the human world! Even pig bones cow bones goat bones dog bones can summon them! Are you telling me to trade your lives for a bunch of rotting bones?!”
It was even possible to conjure bones out of nothing, just that skeleton soldiers summoned in such a manner needed a constant influx of mana to maintain.
The hunters fell silent after hearing Arakdor’s words.
Indeed, there was no point in killing a couple of summons. The anger must have gotten to their heads. They were the sentient monsters nurtured by the Weaving Shadow Nest!
The enemy would die laughing if they learned that his lowly summons had taken down the pillars of the great Weaving Shadow Nest!
“But... are we to let this go?” the crypt spider with overgrown fur growled indignantly.
“Let this go? Of course not!” Arakdor watched as the two skeletons disappeared at the bend in the path with narrowed scarlet eyes. “I’ll make them and the necromancer behind them pay the price for this... but not now. Come with me. We need to investigate our destroyed sentry post. Don’t forget the mission Lord Alakinse entrusted to us.”
...
On the other hand, Autumnleaf and Twilight advanced deeper into the labyrinth in search of a better farming spot.
This game had no minimap, so they could only leave markings along the way and go offline every now in a while to jot down the pathways on paper.
Fortunately, the labyrinth was easier to navigate than the mining shaft; most paths were straight, and the bends were at right angles. Only a few smaller paths were a little twisted.
If they were previously in a spiders’ lair, they were now in a human city’s underground sewer. The walls were affixed with rusted pipes, and rotten wooden crates and everyday trash were casually scattered around.
It was a good thing skeletons had no noses, or else they would have smelled an ungodly stench.
“I was right,” Autumnleaf murmured as he assessed the surroundings. “We should be out of the crypt spiders’ territory now.”
Spiders should be fond of damp places, yet the crypt spiders rather scurry into the mining shafts than occupy this place. It made him wonder which monster had taken this territory.
‘Is it snakes? Lizards? Centipedes? Or a fantasy creature—’
It didn’t take long before Autumnleaf discovered something else. In the room at the far end, he spotted a green, slimy bundle crawling across the ground.
“That is...”
“A slime?!”
The two skeletons’ soulfires flickered in shock.
At the same time, the green, slimy entity also noticed them. Unlike the crypt spiders, the slimes displayed immense interest in the skeletons and started squirming toward them.
“Looks like we stumbled upon the slimes’ territory.” Twilight fearfully took a step back.
Rather than rats and spiders, he felt much more biologically averse to these booger-like entities.
Autumnleaf, on the other hand, stood his ground and studied the pasty monsters in fascination.
“Interesting... It has a slow movement speed. We don’t know how it attacks yet, but it is intriguing why the crypt spiders fear them.”
As he spoke, he drew his blade and started charging his ki. When the slime came within attacking range, he slashed his blade with lightning speed.
“Execution!”
The sword ki sliced through the slime, and the latter exploded into goo like a popped balloon.
“The experience is a third of the crypt spiders. It’s only slightly higher than the ratmen.”
Something of this level shouldn’t spur the crypt spiders’ fear. It baffled him why the crypt spiders hadn’t chosen to occupy this area.
‘Is it because slimes are not in their diet? Or... is this place occupied by more than just slimes? Are there more dangerous beings dwelling here who are either symbiotic to or are the masters of the slimes?’
Twilight was baffled too.
“These mobs seem much weaker than the crypt spiders... This should have been the beginners’ farming spot, right?”
Even lifestyle players should face no difficulty defeating these monsters.
Autumnleaf nodded. “Perhaps... Let’s jot this place down first.”
‘Let’s call this place Underground Sewer. Monsters: Slime. Recommended levels: LV0~5.’
Since the developers didn’t bother naming locations, he could only do it on their behalf.
Autumnleaf was planning to leave before the slimes surrounded them when Twilight suddenly noticed an anomaly with the slime’s carcass.
“What’s that?”
Twilight suppressed his aversion and plunged his hand into the green goo puddle. From there, he picked up a rice-sized crystal.
“Let me see...” Autumnleaf took the crystal and observed it.
He was initially confused too when he suddenly recalled seeing a certain forum post from a netizen whose username had a dampening effect on his appetite. That person should still be muted at the moment.
“I see... This is a magic crystal?”
Twilight was surprised to hear that. “Magic crystal? What’s it for?”
“I don’t know either, but I have a bad feeling about it.” Autumnleaf frowned. “We might have missed a lot of things while farming...”