Chapter 462 - 229: This Human Is Surprisingly Good
Chapter 462: Chapter 229: This Human Is Surprisingly Good
The morning sun shone down on them, making Feney’s beautiful golden hair exceptionally dazzling.
Lin Mo gently held the girl in his arms, her emotions gradually calming. There were no more tearful complaints, nor was there any fiery passion.
It was just quiet companionship—a tangible warmth that was the most reassuring of all.
Not far away, Shefilya leaned against a tree, silently watching the scene unfold.
This continued until Ali got up and stumbled out of the tent, rubbing her sleepy eyes.
The chilly morning breeze brushed against her face, making her shiver. Her tail drooped, and the cold air sobered her up considerably.
The conflicted feeling from last night immediately resurfaced.
And when she took a closer look and saw the two of them nestled together, the feeling grew even more sour...
’This is bad. I’ve really aided the enemy.’
Ali shook her head in frustration. It wasn’t that she truly felt hostile toward Feney; she just felt she had let her own friend down a little.
So she tiptoed closer. Once she confirmed that Feney seemed emotionally stable, she took a shallow breath, preparing to speak.
But just as the words were about to leave her lips, a small, delicate hand clamped over her mouth.
Shefilya stood on her tiptoes and dragged her back beside the tent.
’There was no way she was letting this fool ruin such a rare, pleasant atmosphere.’
Ali immediately began to struggle, but she couldn’t break free from Shefilya’s grasp at all, managing only a few muffled protests.
The commotion finally caught the attention of the pair in front. They turned their heads in unison, only to witness the awkward scene.
...
The minor interruption didn’t affect their plans. After breakfast, the group set out again, heading toward the second objective of their mission: Area 11.
Along the way, Lin Mo certainly hadn’t forgotten the information he’d gotten from the clerk at the carriage depot by the city gate.
The Demons in Area 10 and Area 11 had recently been fighting.
The Demons in Area 11 were their targets for this trip—Petrifying Lizards.
Lin Mo had read about them before in books like the Monster Atlas. They were a relatively rare type of Demon, not widely distributed across the Continent. An ordinary adult specimen was about three meters long, so they weren’t considered particularly large Demons.
If there was anything noteworthy about them, it was their unique racial ability: Petrification.
This was the very origin of the Petrifying Lizard’s name. These lizards could petrify part or even all of an enemy’s body, and they typically hunted by petrifying their prey to prevent its escape.
Afterward, they would often swallow the semi-petrified prey alive. Upon contact with the lizard’s special gastric fluids, the petrified parts would revert to flesh, becoming a fine meal.
But this Petrification ability was not without its limits, of course.
Many years ago, scholars from the Imperial Magic Association had conducted research on the matter.
Their conclusion was that the success rate of the Petrifying Lizard’s ability was largely dependent on the Levels of both parties. To be specific, it was like a comparison between "Energy" fields. If the Petrification Energy released by the lizard was greater than the opponent’s Magic Power or Qi and Blood Energy, the Petrification would most likely succeed.
Conversely, if the opponent’s Magic Power or Qi and Blood Energy was far greater than the lizard’s own Petrification Energy, then Petrification was nearly impossible.
If the two energies were comparable, success was a matter of probability. The specific odds and influencing factors were highly complex, related to many variables, and somewhat dependent on luck—so Lin Mo hadn’t paid close attention to that part when he read about it.
Furthermore, this Petrification was not irreversible.
The simplest method was to kill the Petrifying Lizard, extract its gastric fluid, and pour it directly onto the petrified person or body part.
However, the Petrifying Lizard’s gastric fluid was also highly corrosive, so this crude method would cause secondary damage, requiring additional Healing for the corrosion.
The other method was the Priest Profession’s Purification Technique. As long as a Priest’s Magic Power was greater than that of the specific Petrifying Lizard, they could reverse the Petrification on an affected person.
Feney, of course, knew the Purification Technique... but it likely wouldn’t be needed.
For one, when facing such a formidable enemy, Lin Mo wouldn’t let Ali take any risks, and neither he nor Shefilya needed to worry about being petrified. For another, and rather awkwardly, Feney’s Magic Power wasn’t any higher than that of a Petrifying Lizard.
In summary, this was a relatively rare Demon with unique properties, making missions involving Petrifying Lizards a poor choice for most new Adventurers.
High Level Adventurers looked down on it, and Low Level Adventurers didn’t dare take it, so the mission had been posted at the Association for quite a while.
If Lin Mo hadn’t wanted to take on a couple of simple missions as a warm-up, it likely would have remained posted indefinitely.
As for Area 11’s neighbors, the Demons in Area 10 were a much more common type.
Bloodmane Wolves. They were Demons with a strong pack mentality, and they became extremely aggressive when gathered in groups.
The recent conflict between the Demons of the two areas was most likely instigated by the Bloodmane Wolves.
An individual Demon of this type wasn’t particularly strong, but they had a decent reproductive rate and a strong collective consciousness. They were quite unified and often moved in packs, appearing in groups of a dozen, or even twenty to thirty at a time.
That’s why few Adventurers dared to take on missions involving Bloodmane Wolves. Usually, it required several Adventurer Squads to cooperate, or an entire Adventurer Group to even consider the job.