Chapter 121: Self-Destructing Jellyfish, Myriad PoisonDevourer Appears
Facing the tsunami-like green Poison mist sweeping over him, Su Chen did not retreat; instead, his eyes grew even brighter.
"This range, these special effects—if I could get my hands on this skill, my monster-grinding efficiency would multiply several times over in the future."
He stood in place, letting the thick Poison mist completely swallow him.
[Prompt: You have been infected with the [Slow] status.]
[Prompt: You have been infected with the [Poison] status.]
"-3000"
"-3000"
"..."
Dense numbers of damage bounced across the shield, and the purple light of the Abyss Dragon Language Robe flickered violently within the Poison mist, its shield value rapidly plummeting at a rate of several thousand per second.
"The damage is indeed considerable, but unfortunately, it's useless against me."
Su Chen glanced at the remaining shield value of over 50,000 and slammed the staff in his hand heavily into the mire.
Rumble——!
The ground trembled violently, and the rolling green miasma around them was forcefully torn apart by a violent force.
In the startled vertical pupils of a dozen or so Azure-Scaled Venom Pythons, over a thousand Snake Guards towering more than ten meters high rose abruptly from the ground!
The originally massive Azure-Scaled Venom Pythons instantly turned into tiny loaches in front of this group of skyscraper-like Corrosive Snake Guards.
"Hiss?!"
The pythons clearly had never seen this kind of spectacle, and their underdeveloped brains instantly crashed.
Puff! Puff! Puff!
Before the pythons could react, over a thousand Snake Guards opened fire simultaneously.
Dense venom bullets poured down like a violent storm, directly submerging those dozen or so pythons.
The Snake Guards' HP was only 20% of Su Chen's Physique.
As long as they brushed against the edge of the Poisonmist, they would instantly evaporate.
But it didn't matter.
Because there were simply too many of them.
At the same time the Snake Guards fell in patches, those hundreds of elite-tier Azure-Scaled Venom Pythons didn't even last a single second before being instantly melted by the terrifying true damage, leaving not even bone scraps behind.
[Successfully killed Azure-Scaled Venom Python (Elite Monster), EXP +3780]
[Successfully killed Azure-Scaled Venom Python (Elite Monster), EXP +3780]
[Successfully killed Azure-Scaled Venom Python (Elite Monster), EXP +3780]
Looking at the pools of bubbling green pus on the ground, Su Chen nodded with satisfaction.
"This Poison mist skill is indeed strong; one sweep kills a large area."
"I wonder what skills Poison Granny can teach me?"
He remembered what Song Xin had said: instructors at Sky Dome Academy could teach skills.
Su Chen stepped across the mire and continued to push deeper into the cave.
The environment of Myriad Poison Cave was getting harsher and harsher. After turning around a huge stalactite pillar, the terrain ahead suddenly opened up, turning into an underground forest overgrown with strange fungi.
Here, Su Chen encountered the third type of monster.
That was a group of translucent, jellyfish-like creatures floating in mid-air.
They exuded a faint blue light, dragging long tentacles as they wandered through the fungal forest.
He cast Scouting Spell over them.
[Deep Blue Venom Jellyfish (Elite Monster)]
[Level: 28]
[Strength: 10]
[Agility: 50]
[Stamina: 300]
[Spirit: 4000]
[Skills: Toxin Immunity, Self-Destructing Venom Sac]
[Self-Destructing Venom Sac: Explodes violently upon death, dealing (Spirit * 5) points of Poison-attribute magical damage to all targets within a 30-meter radius, and clearing all of the target's mana points.]
...
After reading the panel, Su Chen drew in a sharp breath.
It was his first time seeing such a strange panel.
The other stats were pitifully low, with only the Spirit stat terrifyingly high.
It was obviously meant to disgust people.
What kind of ghost mechanic is this [Self-Destructing Venom Sac]?
It self-destructs upon death, and getting hit by the blast means losing 20,000 HP.
The most disgusting part is clearing mana points. What the hell is a mage supposed to play with when out of mana!
"I'm truly opening my eyes today; the monsters in this instance are more disgusting than the last."
Su Chen rubbed his chin.
"Their self-destruction range is huge. It seems the Snake Guards' positioning can't be too concentrated."
Su Chen waved his staff again, and thousands of Corrosive Snake Guards burst out from the ground beneath the Deep Blue Venom Jellyfish.
Their positioning this time was very scattered, no longer concentrated together.
Puff! Puff!
The venom bullets hit precisely.
The Deep Blue Venom Jellyfish's pitiful 300 points of Stamina didn't even need the damage from Poison; just the direct damage from the Snake Guards instantly emptied their HP bars.
Immediately following that.
Hum——!
Their translucent bodies expanded abruptly, bursting with dazzling blue light.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The violent explosions whipped up a gale in the fungal forest, with blue venom splashing everywhere.
Countless Snake Guards instantly dissipated after being hit by the explosions.
[Successfully killed Level 28 elite monster Deep Blue Venom Jellyfish, EXP +3902 points.]
...
Kill prompts kept coming.
Every explosion could clear out a thirty-meter absolute vacuum zone.
Furthermore.
Su Chen discovered that the damage from each of their explosions was calculated independently.
In other words... if ten jellyfish exploded around you at the same time, that would be a full 200,000 damage!
Let alone Su Chen, even if Lu Qingyan came, she would be blown to death.
"Let's clear them out slowly."
Su Chen hid far away, preparing to slowly grind his way through using the Snake Guards.
After clearing this fungal forest, Su Chen continued forward, and the scenery before him changed once again.
That was a huge underground lake. The lake water was a rich purple-black, with sickening poisonous miasma rolling across its surface.
In the center of the lake grew a small patch of faintly glowing plants.
Abyss Corrosive Heart Grass!
Su Chen's eyes lit up, and he was just about to step forward to harvest it.
Rumble——!
The entire underground karst cave shook violently, the purple-black lake water surged frantically, and a behemoth slowly rose from the bottom of the lake.
That was a giant toad the size of a small hill, its entire body covered in festering venom sacs, its two blood-red eyes staring fixedly at Su Chen.
[Myriad Poison Devourer - Gula (Silver-grade BOSS)]
[Grade: Silver-grade]
[Level: 30]
[Strength: 800]
[Agility: 300]
[Stamina: 9000]
[Spirit: 5000]
[Skills: Myriad Poison Body, Abyss Poison Mire, PoisonNova, Devour All Things]
[Myriad Poison Body: Immune to all abnormal statuses and Poison-attribute damage, and recovers 1% of maximum HP per second in a Poison mire environment.]
[Abyss Poison Mire: Passively converts the surrounding 100-meter range into a Poison mire. Enemies within the Poison mire have their movement speed reduced by 50% and take (Spirit * 3) points of true damage per second.]
[Poison Nova: Detonates the venom sacs on its body, firing venom stingers in all directions to deal massive mixed physical and Poison-attribute damage, stacking [Grievous Wounds] on those hit (healing effect reduced by 80%).]
[Devour All Things: Triggered when HP falls below 30%. Opens its giant mouth to generate powerful suction, swallowing all units within the forward cone-shaped area into its belly, dealing massive digestion damage, and restoring its own HP based on the number of units devoured.]
Chapter 122: Myriad Poison Devourer? Instant kill! myriad poison cloak!
Su Chen looked at the System panel in front of him, unable to help drawing in a cold breath.
Is this panel really meant for people below Level 30 to fight?
He stared dead at the skill called [Abyss Poison Swamp].
Passively transforming the surrounding 100-meter range into a Poison swamp, taking (Spirit * 3) points of damage per second.
Gula's Spirit value was 5000, which meant that as long as one stood within the 100-meter range around it, they would hard-eat 15,000 points of true damage per second!
And it also came with a 50% deceleration effect!
You must know that a normal Level 30 class-changer, even a shield-armor warrior who added all points to stamina, would have at most tens of thousands of HP.
As long as they stepped into this Poison swamp, they wouldn't even last three seconds before being directly melted.
Not to mention that this BOSS also came with [Body of Myriad Poisons], recovering 1% of its maximum HP per second.
If this were placed in a game, it would definitely be a shady BOSS that players hung up on the forums to curse for three consecutive months.
The mechanics were too overpowered, completely filling in values with feet.
"Not to mention soloing, even if a vanguard team of Level30 elites came, coming in would purely be sending heads."
Su Chen clicked his tongue twice, but the staff in his hand had already been raised.
"However, since we're already here, we always have to test the waters."
Mana surged.
"Corrosive Snake Guard!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Accompanied by the rolling of muddy water, over a thousand Snake Guards over ten meters tall instantly burst out of the soil in the Poison swamp around Gula.
However.
An embarrassing scene occurred.
These aggressive Snake Guards had just popped out a head when their massive bodies were like ice cubes falling into magma.
Hiss——!
[Prompt: Corrosive Snake Guard is attacked by [Abyss Poison Swamp], taking 15,000 points of true damage!]
[Prompt: Corrosive Snake Guard's HP has dropped to zero and has been destroyed.]
[Prompt: Corrosive Snake Guard is attacked by [Abyss Poison Swamp], taking 15,000 points of true damage!]
[Prompt: Corrosive Snake Guard's HP has dropped to zero and has been destroyed.]
...
Dense System prompts instantly flooded the screen.
Over a thousand Snake Guards didn't even have time to spit out a single venom bullet before collectively transforming into pools of pus under that terrifying true damage.
"Ribbit——!"
Myriad Poison Devourer·Gula let out a deafening frog croak.
In those two blood-red eyes, a trace of humanized mockery seemed to flash past.
Its massive body suddenly shook, and the Poison sacs on its body began to swell violently, obviously preparing to launch the Toxic Nova with a grievous wound effect.
"Ouch, quite a big temper."
Looking at the instantly evaporated Snake Guard army, Su Chen didn't feel surprised, just helplessly shrugged.
"Since you don't play cards according to the routine, don't blame me for cheating."
This toad's Poison obviously triggered only when touching the swamp; only a fool would stand on the ground and fight it head-on.
Su Chen's thoughts moved.
Hum——!
The abyssal dragon tongue robe circulating with dark gold light on his body instantly burst out with a low dragon roar.
Next second.
A pair of illusory dragon wings appeared behind Su Chen, soaring straight up into the sky!
In a mere second.
He had risen to mid-air more than ten meters away from the ground.
At the same time.
Gula's Poison sac, swollen to the extreme, burst fiercely!
Rumble——!
Countless spikes stained with thick venom frantically scattered in a ring around the surroundings, instantly turning the surrounding fungi and stalactites into beehives.
Su Chen's eyes shrank.
Holy crap!
The range of this skill was so large, almost indiscriminately covering the surrounding hundred meters.
Quick-eyed and quick-handed, he instantly activated the skill etherealization.
In an instant.
Countless spikes passed through his translucent body.
" - MISS "
"Missed, huh?"
Su Chen condescendingly looked down at the giant toad like a small mountain, the corners of his mouth hooking into a nuclear-friendly smile.
"Next, it's my turn."
He just waved his staff casually.
An azure lightning bolt flew out from the top of the staff, and with a "pa" sound, smashed onto Gula's back covered in Poison sacs.
" - 7220! "
A neither high nor low damage number popped out.
With Su Chen's current Spirit value, direct damage had also become non-negligible.
He didn't wait for the Poison damage to pop out.
This toad was full of Poison, and he was still in an ethereal state; if he got poisoned, he would have to suffer double damage.
It was better to finish it quickly.
He reached out his hand and fiercely clenched towards Gula.
"Myriad Poison Explosion!"
Boom——!!!!
Time seemed to stop at this moment.
Green energy, concentrated to the extreme, exploded on Gula's body.
In just an instant, the mountain-like body of Myriad PoisonDevourer·Gula was like being fiercely squeezed and exploded by an invisible giant hand.
"Ribbit..."
It didn't even have time to let out a miserable scream before that proud Body of Myriad Poisons instantly turned into green pus all over the sky.
Not even a drop of blood was left.
[Successfully killed Myriad Poison Devourer·Gula (Silver-Level BOSS), EXP + 5,000,000!]
...
"A bit boring."
Su Chen curled his lips, canceled the robe's flight state, and fluttered back to the ground.
As the BOSS died, the disgusting Abyss Poison Swamparound quickly dissipated.
Su Chen walked quickly to the place where Gula died.
A pile of loot emitting various colors of light was quietly lying on the ground.
[Prompt: Obtained [Fierce Poison Dagger (Silver-Level)].]
[Prompt: Obtained [myriad poison cloak (Silver-Level)].]
[Prompt: Obtained Myriad Poison Venom Sac (Rare materials).]
[Prompt: Obtained Gold Coins * 22,371.]
...
Two pieces of Silver-Level equipment dropped.
A dagger for assassins.
The attack came with a poisoned state, which was still quite practical.
Su Chen casually threw it into his backpack.
His attention was mainly on the second piece.
"It's actually a cloak equipment?"
In this world, cloak equipment was extremely rare, and the drop rate was extremely low.
After clearing so many dungeons and dropping so many equipments, this was the first time Su Chen had dropped a cloak.
This myriad poison cloak was pitch black all over, with black-purple energy flowing within it, occasionally bubbling out a Poison bubble.
A bit SAN-dropping.
[myriad poison cloak (Silver-Level)]
[Level: Silver-Level]
[Usage Requirement: Level 25]
[Spirit + 50]
[Additional Affix 1: Movement Speed + 10%]
[Additional Affix 2: Body of Myriad Poisons (Active): After activation, takes 50 points of Poison attribute damage value per second, but immune to all Poison attribute damage, lasting for 2 hours.]
...
Su Chen: "!!!"
Holy crap!
Su Chen's eyes widened.
Did this drop this toad's skill?
Directly immune to all Poison attribute damage... From now on, Su Chen would no longer be afraid of others using Poison against him.
Poison Granny's tea could also be drunk casually.
Although there was a duration, it was also very practical.
However, as a price, he would suffer 50 points of damage per second.
But Su Chen had the dragon-speech robe's shield, over 80,000 shields, Poison him however you want.
He put on the cloak without hesitation.
Drop SAN if it drops, being strong is all that matters.
Following closely.
Su Chen's gaze fell deeper into the dungeon.
Just in the first half, such a bizarre method of using Poisonwas encountered.
I wonder... what will be in the back?
Chapter 123: Saprophytic Poison Locust, Infinitely Stackable Locust Venom!
Su Chen did not rush to leave, instead casting his gaze toward the faintly glowing patch of plants in the center of the lake.
He walked across the muddy shallows, carefully uprooting those purple-black-veined herbs.
"One, two, three... five."
Su Chen counted the abyss heart-rotting grass in his backpack, slightly furrowing his brows.
"Only five plants? Poison Granny asked for ten, after all."
He looked at the deep, bottomless karst cave passage ahead and sighed.
"It seems Gula is just a watchdog, and the area of the Myriad Poison Cave is even larger than I imagined."
Without hesitation, Su Chen chugged a mana potion, lifted his staff, and continued pushing deeper.
The further inward he went, the more oppressive the surrounding environment became.
The water droplets seeping from the stone walls had all turned into a viscous dark green, and the air was filled with a pungent, sour, rotten smell.
"Rustle, rustle, rustle——!"
Right at this moment, an extremely dense friction sound came from the darkness ahead.
This sound did not sound like crawling on the ground, but rather like countless tiny things bouncing in the air and colliding with the stone walls.
Relying on the faint light at the tip of his staff, Su Chenfinally saw the scene ahead clearly.
That was a swarm of insects surging over like a green thick fog.
They bounced back and forth between the ground of the passage, the stone walls, and even the hanging stalactites, moving at an extremely fast speed.
Scouting Spell activated.
[Saprophytic Poison Locust (Common Monster)]
[Level: 29]
[Strength: 40]
[Agility: 350]
[Stamina: 150]
[Spirit: 80]
[Skills: Swarm Mind, Neural Reflex, Thousand Locusts Devour Bone]
[Swarm Mind: When the number exceeds 100, jump distance is increased by 100%.]
[Neural Reflex: Possesses extremely high dynamic vision, capable of predicting the landing point of large-scale non-targeted spells and making evasive jumps in advance.]
[Thousand Locusts Devour Bone: Each attack deals a trace amount of physical damage and forcibly applies 1 layer of [Locust Poison] (each layer deals Spirit * 0.2 poison-attribute magic damage per second, lasting 2 seconds, infinitely stackable).]
...
"Good grief, 350 Agility? And it can even predict and dodge AoE?"
Su Chen looked at the densely packed swarm of insects, whose number definitely exceeded tens of thousands, and the corner of his eye twitched slightly.
The single-target stats of this monster were pathetically weak, with only 150 points of Stamina, dying at a single touch.
But their poison could be stacked infinitely.
Once surrounded by this group of poison locusts, thousands of layers of poison could be stacked within a second, which would be tens of thousands of damage per second.
Fighting a protracted war was even more impossible; even if Lu Qingyan came, she wouldn't be able to hold out for more than a few seconds.
"Truly sinister, being able to predict and dodge large AoE skills, and the poison stacks infinitely... It's hard to imagine how others can fight this."
With a thought in his mind, Su Chen activated the [myriad poison cloak] he had just equipped.
Hum——!
The black-purple energy flowing over the myriad poison cloak instantly boiled, enveloping Su Chen entirely in a layer of viscous light membrane.
[Prompt: You have activated [Body of Myriad Poisons(Active)].]
[Prompt: You are immune to all poison-attribute damage.]
...
After the cloak was activated, coupled with the environment's original 20 points of HP loss, on Su Chen's current status bar, a damage number of "-70" would pop up every second.
"Losing 70 HP per second in exchange for absolute poison immunity."
Su Chen stood in place and walked straight toward the insect swarm.
"Rustle, rustle, rustle——!"
Hundreds of saprophytic poison locusts instantly bounced up, slamming into Su Chen's shield like green raindrops, their dense mouthparts frantically chewing on the energy layer of the abyssal dragon tongue robe.
"-4"
"-2"
"-2"
"..."
These poison locusts had very low direct damage.
Even though Su Chen's Stamina value was very low, they still couldn't break his defense.
But the next second.
[Prompt: You have been infected with [Locust Poison], current layers: 345.]
[Prompt: You have been infected with [Locust Poison], current layers: 1204.]
[...]
[Prompt: Triggered [Body of Myriad Poisons], you immunized 1,725 points of poison-attribute damage.]
[Prompt: Triggered [Body of Myriad Poisons], you immunized 6,020 points of poison-attribute damage.]
[...]
The System prompt tones flooded the screen frantically.
Enduring tens of thousands of layers of poison sufficient to instantly kill a max-level tank, Su Chen leisurely put the touch of thunder back into his backpack.
And instead took out the burst staff.
"Since there are so many of you, and you're so dense..."
Su Chen glanced at the staff glowing with red light in his hand, a smile curling at the corner of his lips.
Previously in the college entrance examination playoff, he relied on the passive of the burst staff, where a single basic attack triggered chain explosions, directly clearing out groups of desert marching ants.
Now this group of poison locusts squeezed into this narrow passage was simply the perfect target for chain blasting.
"Off you go."
Su Chen casually waved the burst staff, smashing a basic attack toward the densest area of the insect swarm.
Boom——!
The fireball exploded the moment it contacted the first poison locust.
"-7920!"
That poison locust didn't even manage a scream before instantly turning into flying ash.
The next second.
A red explosion shockwave centered on that dead poison locust spread outward around it.
The smile on Su Chen's face hadn't even fully expanded before it froze.
The moment the fireball was about to hit the first poison locust, the swarm's disgusting [Neural Reflex] trait was triggered.
"Swish! Swish! Swish!"
Centered on the landing point, all saprophytic poison locusts within a two-meter radius around it went crazy jumping upward as if electrocuted!
Relying on the jump distance bonus of Swarm Mind, they instantly drew green arcs in midair.
Some jumped onto the stalactites above the passage and clung tightly, some bounced into the crevices of the high stone walls on both sides, and others directly performed a secondary jump in midair by stepping on their companions' bodies.
Rumble!
The explosion shockwave swept past.
But because all the surrounding poison locusts had jumped out of the explosion's judgment range, this chain reaction that should have triggered total destruction, after blowing up the first poison locust, just...
Broke.
Only a lonely puff of black smoke was left in the air.
And those poison locusts hanging on the cave ceiling and stone walls, after the explosion ended, rustled back and continued to chew on Su Chen's shield.
Su Chen: "..."
He looked at the burst staff still steaming in his hand, then glanced at the poison locusts scurrying around like fleas all around, remaining silent for a full three seconds.
"Damn it!"
Su Chen couldn't help but curse.
"Isn't this damn well just purely disgusting people? Predicting non-targeted skills is one thing, but they can instantly jump out of the explosion splash range too?"
Originally thinking a single basic attack would directly clear the screen and then let him walk away dashingly, that plan was now completely bankrupt.
This kind of monster jumping everywhere, completely unable to gather together, perfectly counteracted the burst staff's chain explosion mechanism.
"Fine, you guys can jump, right."
Su Chen sighed, put the burst staff back into his backpack, and took out the touch of thunder again.
"Then let's honestly fight a positional battle."
Mana surged.
"Corrosive Snake Guard."
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Hundreds of purple-black Snake Guards broke out of the ground on both sides of the passage.
Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!
Venom bombs poured down like heavy machine gun strafing.
Every venom bomb accurately hit a poison locust jumping in midair, knocking it down from the air into a puddle of green acidic water.
[Successfully killed Level 29 Saprophytic Poison Locust, EXP + 290]
[Successfully killed Level 29 Saprophytic Poison Locust, EXP + 290]
[Successfully killed Level 29 Saprophytic Poison Locust, EXP + 290]
Watching the EXP bar rise slowly and steadily, Su Chenyawned.
"Things that could have been settled in five seconds had to force me to idle for five minutes."
Su Chen leaned against the stone wall, watching the Snake Guards one by one pinpoint and clear out those bouncing bugs.
"Truly dry and tedious, but stacking layers is still quite satisfying. This dungeon can be visited often in the future."
Chapter 124: An Unreasonable BOSS? Sorry, I'm Even More Unreasonable!
Five minutes later.
The last saprophytic poisonous locust hanging on the stalactite was hit by a venom dart and fell to the ground.
Su Chen picked up the dropped gold coins, stepped over the slime-covered ground, and continued forward.
The passage gradually widened, and huge vines emitting an eerie purple light began to appear on the stone walls.
Among these vines, a swarm of extremely beautiful creatures fluttered about.
Their wings resembled purple glazed glass, casting specks of fluorescence in the darkness.
[Phantom Poison Moth (Elite Monster)]
[Level: 30]
[Strength: 20]
[Agility: 300]
[Stamina: 800]
[Mental Strength: 1500]
[Skills: Ethereal Creature, Psychedelic Pollen, Mana Feedback]
[Ethereal Creature: Physical dodge rate increased by 80%.]
[Psychedelic Pollen: Passively disperses pollen. Inhaling targets will not suffer direct damage, but will experience strong hallucinations, causing attack and skill release directions to be randomly offset, and hit rate reduced by 50%.]
[Mana Feedback: When a target that has inhaled pollen consumes Mana, hidden neurotoxins will be triggered. The more Mana consumed, the higher the magic damage received (ratio of 1:10).]
...
"Yo, psychic-type toxins plus mana feedback?"
Su Chen looked at the panel in front of him and raised an eyebrow.
After being disgusted by that group of fleas just now, he didn't expect that there would be something even more disgusting ahead.
"Why are all the monsters in this dungeon so weird? Their stats aren't high, but each one is more disgusting than the last."
"Earlier we had one that self-destructs upon death, and now we get a neuro-Poison moth that drains health when mana is spent."
"..."
The Phantom Poison Moth also seemed to have low stats, but if one accidentally inhaled this pollen and cast a skill costing 1,000 mana points, they would instantly take 10,000 points of magic damage.
Coupled with the skill direction offset and hit rate reduction debuff, it was simply a graveyard for magic-class professions.
Furthermore.
The coverage area of this pollen was extremely large; kiting was simply impossible, and battles had to be fought within the pollen.
The only relatively safe method was to cast not a single skill and just auto-attack all the way through.
"The mechanics are indeed disgusting."
Su Chen glanced at the still-glowing [Body of Myriad Poisons] icon on his status bar.
"Pity, as long as it has the word 'Poison' in it, it has to behave in front of me."
He ignored the psychedelic pollen floating in the air and walked straight into the territory of the Phantom PoisonMoths.
The pollen landed on his shield without even triggering a System prompt, and was directly devoured by the energy of the myriad poison cloak.
The flight speed of this type of monster was not like the neural-reflexive instantaneous burst jumps of the poisonous locusts; they preferred to use terrain and illusions to evade attacks.
"Corrosive Snake Guard."
Su Chen directly summoned a large area of Snake Guards.
System prompts immediately popped up.
[Prompt: You consumed 40,000 Mana points, triggering Mana feedback, and will receive 400,000 Poison-attribute magic damage!]
[Prompt: You triggered Body of Myriad Poisons and immunized against this damage.]
Mana feedback?
Non-existent.
Swish, swish, swish—!
The Snake Guards immediately began indiscriminate attacks.
The battle process was without any suspense. After the mana feedback was immunized, the Phantom PoisonMoths posed no threat to Su Chen.
[Successfully killed Level 30 Elite Monster Phantom Poison Moth, EXP + 6000]
[Successfully killed Level 30 Elite Monster Phantom Poison Moth, EXP + 6000]
[Prompt: Obtained Phantom Poison Skin * 5]
In just a few minutes, the Snake Guards cleared out the Phantom Poison Moths in this area completely.
Su Chen looked with satisfaction at his EXP bar, which had risen by another notch, crossed the vine area, and came before a huge bronze door.
Intricate snake-like totems were carved on the bronze door, and thick blackish-purple mist was seeping out from the gaps.
Obviously, behind the door was the final area of this dungeon.
Su Chen pushed open the bronze door.
An aura of extreme antiquity and decay hit him in the face.
Behind the door was an underground altar several times larger than the previous lake.
In the center of the altar stood a broken snake-like statue.
And in the shadow of the statue lurked an extremely massive and bizarre plant.
It had no leaves, and all its branches were pieced together from pale bones.
Thick roots plunged deep into the stone slabs of the altar, and at the end of every branch hung purple sac-like objects pulsing like hearts.
Su Chen tossed an Scouting Spell skill over.
[Thousand-Calamity Dry-Bone Mother Tree (Gold-Grade BOSS)]
[Grade: Gold-Grade]
[Level: 35]
[Strength: 1200]
[Agility: 100]
[Stamina: 25000]
[Mental Strength: 8500]
[Skills: Dry-Bone Armor, Calamity Roots, Bloodthirsty Poison Vines, Bone Tree Blossoms, Myriad-Bone Cage]
[Dry-Bone Armor: All physical damage received is forcibly reduced by 80%, the maximum damage received each time is capped at 30% of maximum HP, and it is immune to knockback and knock-up effects.]
[Calamity Roots: Roots cover the entire altar map. Hostile targets within the altar range have their movement speed reduced by 30%.]
[Bloodthirsty Poison Vines: Pierces out from underground to impale targets, dealing (Strength * 2) points of physical damage, and inflicting [Bloodthirsty Poison] (losing 500 HP and 500 Mana per second for 10 seconds, this effect can stack, and the lost HP will 100% feed back to the Mother Tree).]
[Bone Tree Blossoms: Detonates the sac-like objects on the branches, spewing out [Thousand-Calamity PoisonPowder] covering the entire map. Targets within the Poison powder range have all healing and shield recovery effects reduced by 100%, and take 1,000 Poison-attribute damage per second.]
[Myriad-Bone Cage (Red-Blood Berserk Skill): Triggered when HP falls below 30%. Extracts the skeletal remains of the dead from beneath the altar to form an unbreakable cage trapping the target. A one-hit-kill judgment will be conducted inside the cage, and the target must pass a check of (Mental Strength > 10000), otherwise taking damage equal to Mental Strength * 10.]
...
Su Chen looked at the long string of panel information fed back by the Scouting Spell skill and couldn't help pinching the bridge of his nose.
So many skills, all flashy and complicated.
"80% physical damage reduction, staged health locks, map-wide speed reduction, HP and mana draining with health regeneration, plus 100% healing and shield prohibition, and finally an unreasonable mental one-hit-kill judgment."
He briefly sorted it out.
This panel simply existed to disgust people.
If a physical melee class came in, facing 80% damage reduction and map-wide speed reduction, they would be a pure sandbag.
If a magic ranged class came in, [Bloodthirsty Poison] drained mana, and [Thousand-Calamity Poison Powder] prohibited healing and shields.
Even if you brought ten top-tier priests, you couldn't add a single drop of blood back and could only watch helplessly as you were worn to death.
Put in a game, this would definitely get cursed onto the trending searches by the raid teams of major guilds, squarely the numerical values filled in by a shady designer using their feet.
As for that red-blood berserk skill, it required Mental Strength greater than 10,000 points to negate the damage.
For a normal Level 30 mage, even equipping whole-body dark gold-tier equipment, having Mental Strength break 5,000 would already be very impressive.
Ten thousand points?
Wasn't that a joke!
Even Su Chen, who had swallowed so many abyss crystals, wasn't enough.
"No wonder Assassin Academy put up a sign outside. Who can beat this?"
Su Chen complained while taking two steps forward, completely stepping into the altar's range.
Rumble—!
The previously quiet underground altar instantly shook.
[Prompt: You have entered the territory of the Thousand-Calamity Dry-Bone Mother Tree!]
[Prompt: Affected by [Calamity Roots], your movement speed is reduced by 30%.]
The Thousand-Calamity Dry-Bone Mother Tree seemed to wake from its slumber.
Dense ghostly-green runes lit up on its pale trunk, and the purple sac-like objects hanging on the branches pulsed more and more violently.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Over a dozen large holes instantly burst open on the ground, and thick pale vines like venomous snakes emerging from their cave pierced fiercely toward Su Chenfrom all directions with a sharp piercing sound!
The speed was extremely fast, and the angles were extremely tricky.
Su Chen was too lazy to even dodge, just standing right there in place.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The vines whipped fiercely against the shield of the abyssal dragon tongue robe.
"-1298!"
"-1246!"
"..."
The shield value dropped slightly by a fraction, but for a cap of over 80,000, this bit of damage was completely trivial.
[Prompt: You have been infected with [Bloodthirsty Poison] (12 stacks)!]
[Prompt: You lose 6,000 HP and 6,000 Mana per second!]
However.
The next second.
The myriad poison cloak on Su Chen, which had been flowing with blackish-purple light, suddenly erupted with dazzling radiance.
[Prompt: Triggered Body of Myriad Poisons!]
[Prompt: You are immune to the HP loss effect of [Bloodthirsty Poison]!]
"Sorry, your Poison has no effect on me."
Su Chen grinned as he looked at the vines still frantically whipping his shield.
Body of Myriad Poisons immunized all Poison-attribute damage, including negative status effects with the word "Poison".
"Rustle, rustle, rustle..."
The Thousand-Calamity Dry-Bone Mother Tree seemed to notice the anomaly of this intruder.
Its proud life-stealing ability didn't work at all on this tiny human.
Crack—!
The purple sac-like objects on the branches ruptured simultaneously.
A thick blackish-purple dust, almost impossible to melt away, swept across the entire altar like a sandstorm.
[Prompt: The Thousand-Calamity Dry-Bone Mother Tree released Bone Tree Blossoms!]
[Prompt: You are within the range of Thousand-Calamity Poison Powder; healing and shield recovery effects are reduced by 100%!]
[Prompt: You take 1,000 Poison-attribute damage per second!]
[Prompt: Triggered Body of Myriad Poisons, you are immune to this damage!]
Su Chen stood in the blackish-purple Poison powder storm, not only suffering zero damage, but not even losing a single point of shield value from the Poison powder.
Apart from his movement speed being reduced by 30%, he could now be said to be completely unscathed.
"Are you done casting your skills?"
Su Chen raised the burst staff, his eyes turning bored.
"Then it's my turn."
He was too lazy to even use a skill, just casually waving his staff, and a bolt of lightning struck out instantly.
Bang.
The lightning struck the pale trunk of the Thousand-Calamity Dry-Bone Mother Tree.
"-7001."
A four-digit damage number popped up.
But the instant this number popped out, the massive body of the Thousand-Calamity Dry-Bone Mother Tree suddenly stiffened.
A layer of extremely dense dark-green patterns instantly crawled across the surface of the pale bones!
[Prompt: Triggered career trait Decay of All Things, has forcibly applied Poison status to the target!]
[Prompt: Triggered career trait God of Poison, the Poisonstacks on the target have been directly maxed out!]
[Current target Poison stacks: 20218 stacks!]
Hum—!
This was true damage based on Su Chen's high Mental Strength of 8066 points, multiplied by over 20,000 stacks!
"-195694065!"
Above the head of the Thousand-Calamity Dry-Bone Mother Tree, a huge red number abruptly popped up.
The terrifying Poison damage that was originally enough to cause nearly 200 million was forcibly suppressed by an invisible rule force the moment it contacted the Mother Tree.
[Prompt: Target triggered Dry-Bone Armor, maximum damage received each time is capped at 30% of maximum HP!]
The full health bar didn't completely disappear, it just dropped by a large chunk.
Following that.
The second second.
"-195694065!"
The health bar evaporated another 30%!
"Hiss..."
The Mother Tree let out an extremely shrill scream.
Its massive body twisted wildly under the erosion of the Poison, and the surrounding vines whipped about out of control, smashing the altar's stone slabs to pieces.
"Health lock mechanic, huh?"
Su Chen looked at the rapidly dropping health bar and sneered.
"Pity, Poison is continuous damage. Can you lock it for a lifetime?"
The third second.
"-195694065!"
[Prompt: Thousand-Calamity Dry-Bone Mother Tree HP fell below 30%, triggered red-blood berserk skill Myriad-Bone Cage!]
Click, click, click—!
The ground beneath the altar rolled violently.
Countless pale bone claws burst out of the ground, rapidly intertwining around Su Chen to form a huge cage.
This was the final struggle of this Gold-Grade BOSS, and also its most unreasonable skill.
Su Chen looked at the bone claws about to close in, and didn't even bother to interrupt the BOSS's spellcasting.
He just stood quietly in place, letting those bone claws completely envelop him.
Hum—!
An invisible Mental Strength ripple swept across Su Chen's body from the Myriad-Bone Cage.
[Prompt: Affected by Myriad-Bone Cage one-hit-kill judgment!]
[Judging...]
[Target current Mental Strength: 8066.]
[Checking...]
[Your Mental Strength is insufficient; you will receive 85,000 points of magic damage!]
That rampaging magical energy instantly gathered inside the cage, turning into a dazzling pale-white beam of light that smashed fiercely down toward the top of Su Chen's head.
This damage, even with Su Chen's shield from the abyssal dragon tongue robe, would instantly empty his health bar.
However.
Just the moment that beam of light was about to touch Su Chen's scalp.
Su Chen unhurriedly raised his right hand and activated the Holy Protection ring on his finger.
"Clang—!"
A crisp bell chime resounded within the altar.
A layer of pure golden light instantly emerged on the surface of Su Chen's body.
This golden light contained no impurities, solidifying his entire person along with the staff in his hand into a golden statue.
[Prompt: You have activated Time Stasis!]
[Prompt: You have frozen your own spacetime for 3 seconds. During this period, you cannot move, attack, or cast spells, while being immune to all damage.]
Boom—!!!
The pale-white beam of light smashed fiercely against the golden statue.
The rampaging magical energy washed over Su Chen's body like a tsunami.
But that thin layer of golden light remained as motionless as a Sea God's reef.
"Didn't expect that, did you? Big Daddy has an invincibility body!"
Although Su Chen couldn't move, he was frantically complaining internally.
"This kind of unreasonable disgusting mechanic has to be dealt with using unreasonable invincible skills."
Two seconds of time flashed by in an instant.
The fourth second's Poison damage arrived right on schedule.
"-195694065!"
Accompanied by an extremely unwilling shrill scream, the massive body of the Thousand-Calamity Dry-Bone Mother Tree completely stiffened.
Afterwards.
That trunk pieced together from countless bones collapsed with a crash, turning into sky-full bone powder and purple speckles of light.
[Successfully killed Thousand-Calamity Dry-Bone Mother Tree (Gold-Grade BOSS), EXP + 12000000!]
The golden light dispersed, and Su Chen regained his ability to move.
"Yo, did it drop loot?"
Su Chen's eyes lit up, and looking at that heart-palpitating radiance amidst the spoils all over the ground, he immediately walked forward briskly.
Chapter 125: Thousand Calamity Bone Heart Necklace, Never Afraid of Being One-Shot Again!
The golden light dissipated, and the ground was littered with loot glowing in various colors.
Among them, the most eye-catching were a greatsword emitting a golden glow and a heavy chestpiece that was also of gold grade.
Su Chen walked over briskly and picked up these two pieces of equipment.
[Berserk Bone Blade (Gold Grade)]
[Heavy Bone Armor (Gold Grade)]
"Tch."
After checking the panels of these two pieces of equipment, Su Chen clicked his tongue.
Both pieces of gold-grade equipment had pretty decent stats.
But he couldn't use either of them.
"Why does it always drop equipment for other classes for me?"
Su Chen speechlessly tossed the two dark gold equipment pieces into his backpack, planning to throw them into agent auction house later in exchange for credits.
He continued to rummage through the pile of loot.
Aside from some Advanced materials, his gaze landed on a necklace in the corner emitting a gold-grade glow.
This necklace was strung together from tiny white bones, with a pendant shaped like a miniature purple heart.
[Thousand Calamity Bone Heart Necklace (Gold Grade)]
[Grade: Gold Grade]
[Wearing Requirement: None]
[Spirit +300]
[Affix: Skill Name: Whenever the wearer takes a single instance of damage, a maximum of 30% of their maximum Health value will be deducted. (This effect is ineffective against true damage, and when effective against continuous DOT damage, it calculates 30% of the maximum limit per second).]
"Holy shit!"
After reading this affix, Su Chen's eyes suddenly widened.
"Isn't this fucking the disgusting skill of that BOSS from just now? It can actually drop?!"
A single instance of damage cannot exceed a maximum of 30% of the maximum Health value!
What did this mean?
This meant that as long as Su Chen wore this necklace, no one or any monster in this world could one-shot him with a single burst skill!
Even those forbidden spells that casually dealt millions or tens of millions of damage, if smashed onto him, would at most deduct 30% of his health bar!
"This is simply the ultimate Divine Artifact for defending against assassins and preventing sudden death!"
Su Chen couldn't help but gasp a breath of cold air.
He suddenly thought of Rift Demon Shadow.
That bastard had taken the full ten seconds of his Poisonback then, and by all rights should have melted into water long ago, but he managed to endure it stubbornly, which Su Chen had found strange at the time.
"So there are such unreasonable skills and equipment in this world."
"No wonder that bastard wasn't poisoned to death by me."
Su Chen???
As expected, the world is full of wonders, and all sorts of perverted mechanisms emerge endlessly.
However.
Su Chen looked at the necklace in his current equipment slot and fell into hesitation.
What he was currently wearing was the [resilient gargoyle necklace].
Although this gadget was only silver grade, its attached skill allowed him to petrify himself for 15 seconds, during which he was almost immune to all damage. It was considered an extremely useful little invincibility skill.
Several times before, he had relied on this petrification effect to stubbornly drag out and kill his enemies, completing a counter-kill.
"There's only one necklace slot, should I choose the 15-second little invincibility skill, or the permanent anti-one-shot health-locking?"
Su Chen touched his chin, weighing the pros and cons.
Although petrification was invincible, he couldn't move or cast skills, purely taking passive beatings to buy time.
Moreover, the cooldown time was long.
And this Thousand Calamity Bone Heart Necklace was passively effective, requiring no active release, with an extremely high fault-tolerant rate.
Most crucially, Su Chen already had the massive shield from the [abyssal dragon tongue robe], plus the three-second golden body provided by the Divine Protection Ring.
His self-preservation means were already very numerous.
"I don't care about this one petrification anymore, switch!"
Su Chen decisively took off the gargoyle necklace and put on the Thousand Calamity Bone Heart Necklace.
[Notice: You have equipped the Thousand Calamity Bone Heart Necklace (Gold Grade).]
Looking at the pitch-black necklace around his neck, Su Chen patted his chest in satisfaction.
Now, even if he encountered a legendary assassin a hundred levels higher than him coming to assassinate him, he would have absolute confidence to react and then counter-attach tens of thousands of layers of Poison to send the other party away.
After clearing up the loot, Su Chen walked to the edge of the altar.
Growing there were a few small grasses emitting a dim green glow, which were precisely the materials required by Poison Granny's quest, the Abyss Heart-Rot Grass.
He carefully harvested all of them, five stalks in total, and put them into a specially-made preservation box.
"Done, wrap up."
Su Chen stretched and walked toward the portal.
...
Meanwhile.
Outside the entrance of the Myriad Poison Cave dungeon.
A team of students wearing Assassin Academy uniforms was hurrying over.
Leading them was a boy with dyed yellow hair, with a student union badge pinned to his chest.
"Hurry up, hurry up! The instruments show abnormal energy fluctuations, someone entered the Myriad Poison Cave!"
The yellow-haired boy shouted loudly while running.
The several students following behind wore faces full of shock.
"Who is so suicidal? Wasn't this dungeon listed as a restricted area by our academy long ago?"
"Exactly! It's full of monsters that use Poison, slowing, mana draining, healing prohibition, disgusting to death. Last year, that Level 30 senior from our academy went in and died inside in less than ten minutes."
"Could it be some blind freshman who accidentally wandered in?"
"Definitely! Probably by now he has already died inside and been gnawed down to bones by those poisonous bugs."
"..."
Several student union members whispered among themselves, their tones filled with schadenfreude and contempt.
A netherworld dungeon like the Myriad Poison Cave was purely disgusting.
It was simply not something a normal person could clear.
Just as they had rushed to the dungeon entrance and were preparing to put up the cordon.
The teleportation array at the dungeon entrance suddenly lit up with a white light.
Hum——
Space distorted slightly.
Su Chen's figure walked out from the teleportation array.
He patted the non-existent dust on his body and took a deep breath of the fresh air outside.
"The air outside is still the best. The smell of rotting bones inside was just too foul."
The yellow-haired boy and his group were stunned.
Looking at the unscathed Su Chen, their jaws almost dropped to the ground.
"You... you actually came out alive?"
The yellow-haired boy pointed at Su Chen, looking at him as if he were a monster.
Su Chen glanced at him, looked at the Assassin Academybadges on their chests, and raised an eyebrow.
"Seniors, something the matter?"
"How dare you enter this place!"
A girl beside her couldn't help angrily rebuking, "Don't you know what kind of monsters are inside? All kinds of Poison-type monsters, disgusting to death! Do you have a death wish?!"
In their view, Su Chen's behavior was simply irresponsible to life and even a provocation against the prohibition of their Assassin Academy.
Su Chen found it amusing seeing them looking so flustered and exasperated.
With his hands in his pockets, his tone was very casual:
"It is indeed quite disgusting, those poisonous moths even drain mana."
He paused, and added with the most sincere tone:
"However, I've already cleared it."
As soon as these words were spoken,
the dungeon entrance instantly fell into a dead silence.
"You... what did you say?"
The yellow-haired boy swallowed a mouthful of saliva, his voice trembling slightly.
"Cleared it?"