Chapter 52: Lord of the Shadow Swamp

A white light flashed and quickly faded away.

The scenery before Zhou Huai's eyes instantly switched from the stone tablet at the dungeon entrance to a gloomy, dead, and massive cavern.

The air was filled with a rich, foul stench mixed with rotting vegetation and damp soil.

The cave ceiling was extremely high, and moss faintly emitting a pale green light cast mottled light and shadows, but it was not enough to dispel the deep darkness.

All around, there was only the lingering echo of water droplets falling from stalactites and splashing into puddles with a "drip-drop" sound, adding a bit of eeriness.

Without the slightest hesitation, Zhou Huai decisively withdrew his consciousness from Yasuo's body.

The subsequent battles could be left to the smart core ai to handle.

He only needed to act like an audience member and quietly enjoy this feast of slaughter.

Hum!

Just as Zhou Huai's consciousness returned to his main body, an incomparably swift black shadow burst out from the side shadows without any warning!

That was a forked, whip-like tongue, its tip flashing with a dark green poisonous light, thrusting straight at Yasuo's temple!

The speed was extremely fast!

If Zhou Huai had controlled it himself, he might not have had time to react.

However, Yasuo's body moved.

His body leaned backward at an unbelievable angle, narrowly dodging this fatal blow.

That long tongue brushed past the tip of his nose.

The fishy wind it whipped up blew the short hair in front of his forehead.

Immediately after, before he had fully stood firm, the [Wild Man's Longsword] in his hand had already turned into a rushing thunder, upwardly slashing against the momentum!

Swoosh!

Thunder flashed, and blood splashed!

That long tongue was cut off at the root, and black blood spurted out.

-890!

An astonishing damage number floated from the shadows.

A painful hiss sounded accordingly.

Feeling the pain, the black shadow's figure stagnated, finally exposing itself under the pale green light.

Only then did Zhou Huai see its appearance clearly.

That was a giant lizard close to three meters in size, its whole body covered in dull scales, almost merging with the surrounding rock walls.

If not for the reaction speed of the smart core ai that surpassed human limits, if he had controlled it himself, that blow just now would have resulted in severe injury if not death.

[Shadow Swamp Hunting Lizard LV18 (Elite)]

[Health Points: 4110 / 5000]

[Skills: Venom Thrust, Shadow Stealth, Scale Hardening]

[…]

The defense of just one elite monster was so high.

Yasuo's sword only dropped less than a fifth of its health.

However, the trouble had just begun.

Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!

The next second, in the darkness from all directions, dozens of pairs of crimson eyes suddenly lit up!

Immediately after, dense sounds of breaking through the air followed one after another!

Dozens of venom-quenched long tongues, from various tricky angles, wove a large net of death, completely enveloping Yasuo and Gandalf!

"Well-timed!"

Instead of retreating, Yasuo advanced, stepping forward decisively to protect Gandalf behind him.

[Thunder Armor]!

Boom!

The violent power of thunder soared into the sky, instantly condensing into a majestic purple lightning armor on his body surface!

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

Countless long tongues fiercely lashed against the Thunder Armor, producing a series of crisp sounds like gold and iron clashing.

-215!

-231!

-208!

…

A series of damage numbers floated densely from above Yasuo's head.

The light of the Thunder Armor dimmed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

But Yasuo didn't care at all.

His eyes narrowed, and the longsword in his hand waved into a residual shadow of thunder light, crazily slashing at those close-at-hand Shadow Swamp Hunting Lizards!

-977!

+297!

-1012!

+301!

The lifesteal affix attached to the [Wild Man's Longsword] played a crucial role at this moment.

Every sword slashed out, while causing huge damage, would also have a pure life energy flowing back, rapidly replenishing his lost health points.

As the situation shifted, Yasuo actually stubbornly withstood the focused fire of dozens of elite monsters!

Meanwhile, Gandalf behind him finally made a move.

He slowly raised that unpretentious wooden staff.

Ancient and obscure syllables spilled from between his lips under the hood.

In an instant, the temperature of the entire cavern began to drop sharply!

Ice crystals visible to the naked eye condensed in the air, and a layer of ghostly white frost rapidly spread on the walls and the ground!

"[Forbidden Spell: Thousand Mile Ice Seal]!"

Hum—!

A pure, extremely cold wave that seemed to freeze the Soul spread wildly in a ring centered on Gandalf!

Click! Click! Crack!

Wherever it passed, all things withered!

The ferocity and brutality on the faces of those Shadow Swamp Hunting Lizards that were frantically attacking Yasuo instantly froze.

Their movements stiffened, and the surface of their bodies was quickly covered by a thick layer of solid ice.

Within a short second, the entire battlefield turned into an exhibition hall of ice sculptures.

Only then did Zhou Huai see clearly that the number of Shadow Swamp Hunting Lizards besieging them was as many as more than thirty!

If this were any other Level 15 adventurer team facing such a terrifying ambush, I'm afraid they wouldn't even last a minute before being wiped out on the spot.

-3990! (Freezing Damage)

-3905! (Freezing Damage)

…

A patch of terrifying damage numbers popped up neatly from the tops of all the ice sculptures.

Nearly half of the Shadow Swamp Hunting Lizards, whose health points were already not full, didn't even have time to hum before turning into flying light spots in the solid ice.

The remaining ones also all fell into the [Deeply Frozen] state, unable to move, becoming lambs to be slaughtered.

Yasuo did not hesitate at all, raised his sword and stepped forward, starting a crazy harvest.

Sword light flashed, and ice chips flew everywhere.

One ice sculpture after another shattered in response.

[Killed Shadow Swamp Hunting Lizard LV18, gained 560 Experience Points!]

[Killed…]

Screen-sweeping prompt sounds kept ringing.

When the last Shadow Swamp Hunting Lizard was dealt with, a golden light of leveling up also lit up from Gandalf's body.

His Rank came to LV6.

The two quickly cleaned up the battlefield, picked up all the dropped Materials, and walked towards the deeper parts of the cave.

This cavern was even larger than Zhou Huai had imagined.

The further inside they went, the broader the space became.

The glowing moss overhead also became denser, illuminating the surroundings with a sickly green.

Ahead, a huge underground swamp appeared.

The dark green mud pool bubbled with gurgling sounds, emitting a disgusting poisonous miasma.

Zhou Huai tried letting Yasuo's toes touch the edge of the swamp.

-10

A negligible damage number floated up.

Although the damage was low, once deeply trapped in it, I'm afraid actions would be greatly restricted, and at that time, they would become living targets.

Yasuo still took the lead, turned on [Thunder Armor], stepped on the solid ground at the edge of the swamp, and groped forward.

From time to time, some exotic beasts with even weirder appearances would leap out from the swamp and launch sneak attacks.

But without exception, they were all cleanly slain under Yasuo's sword.

About five minutes later, the road ahead was completely swallowed by the endless swamp.

There was already no way to go.

When other adventurer teams came here, most of them would choose to take a detour from a narrow and rugged path on the other side.

Although that road was long, it had the advantage of being safe.

But they didn't need it.

Gandalf silently walked to the front of the swamp and just quietly observed for a moment.

He raised his staff again.

"[Forbidden Spell: Thousand Mile Ice Seal]!"

The same move, but the effect was even more shocking.

The extremely cold energy, like an invisible giant hand, stroked the vast swamp in front of them.

The boiling mud pool instantly calmed down.

The poisonous gas bubbling out was frozen into sickly green ice crystals.

A frost avenue hundreds of meters long and nearly a hundred meters wide appeared out of thin air above the swamp!

Yasuo stepped on it lightly, the ice surface was as hard as iron, walking on it as if on flat ground.

The two walked one after another on the frozen swamp.

Through the crystal-clear ice layer, one could clearly see countless oddly shaped swamp exotic beasts below frozen in the mud pool, maintaining various struggling postures.

Zhou Huai's experience bar began to jump wildly again.

Just as the two walked to the middle section of the frost avenue.

The ice surface under their feet suddenly transmitted a slight vibration.

Immediately after, a dull, thunder-like roar sounded from beneath the ice layer!

Rumble—!

The entire ice surface trembled violently.

The ice layer ahead began to appear with huge cracks, spreading rapidly like a spider web!

An aura far more terrifying than all the previous exotic beasts combined was rapidly awakening!

Boom!!!

A heaven-shaking loud bang.

The ice layer a hundred meters ahead of the two suddenly exploded!

Countless ice chunks and dark green mud soared into the sky!

An incomparably massive black shadow slowly broke through the ice amidst a mist of water and mud!

[Lord of the Shadow Swamp · Kraken LV20 (Calamity-grade BOSS)]

[Health Points: 100000 / 100000]

[…]