MMORPG: The Elementalist

In a terrain that was less than fifty meters in diameter, there was a plant completely inked in black. There were also a few black leaves hanging heavily from the plant. The plant was located in the left corner of the area. Although his nearby surroundings were gloomy, Qin Ruo was still able to locate the plant’s whereabouts using his Elemental Perception: Water the moment he set foot on the area.

However, what rendered someone speechless was the sight of more than ten Ironback Centipedes lying in the area surrounding a small bunch of Black Dragonfly Herb. The Herb was only going to be worth about 500 to 600 gold coins after all.

Qin Ruo stared at the scene, frowning so hard that wrinkles were visible between his eyebrows. Even if a Tier 4 player went over to pick up those Herbs under such circumstances, that player would never have been able to escape the fate of being shredded by so many giant centipedes. Any player would have sighed and given up on getting it by the end of it…

His heart knew very well though. It would be impossible for any high-grade Herb to grow in open, touristy areas. Not to mention, there would definitely also be some high-tier monsters guarding such Herbs. But taking on more than ten Tier 4 Ironback Centipedes was a little too difficult for a Tier 3 player.  Urgh!

There was no doubt that Qin Ruo would have ways to take care of the Ironback Centipedes in the cavern if he really engaged those monsters in an environment advantageous to an Aquamancer. The humid area was such a place…

Yet, the key problem was the fact that the monsters in the area were generally designed to have a fixed respawn time. It was necessary to kill all the Ironback Centipedes within a short period of time and gather the Black Dragonfly Herb afterward… It would be an extremely difficult task for him to accomplish!

Unless, Qin Ruo was willing to consume a few bottles of MP Potion (M) as though his life depended on it and activate the Twelve Frostramparts Formation to take on these Ironback Centipedes. He would then have some hope to quickly gather the Black Dragonfly Herb while the giant centipedes were trapped.

But there would not be much profit for him to earn after doing that.

In order to maintain his Twelve Frostramparts Formation and his Defense Magic while he made sure that all the Ironback Centipedes were trapped, Qin Ruo needed to waste at least five bottles of MP Potion (M)… That was basically equal to spending over hundreds of gold coins. On top of that, it was highly dangerous as well… Qin Ruo would never risk himself to do something that was likely to lose him money.

Moreover, he had no idea how soon the Bandit he left behind would catch up to him. So, he decided to walk farther into the passage. If he could discover an Earth Essence, perhaps there would be some value in taking the risk.

***

Aquamorph and Elemental Perception: Water came in handy.

Even though Qin Ruo needed to consume quite a large amount of MP, having the two buffs on him made the Ironback Centipedes along the way unresponsive towards his presence. The Level 42 “Chromatic Centipede” and Level 43 “Thousand-legged Centipede” also behaved unresponsively towards Qin Ruo’s presence. All of them just allowed him to walk smoothly through the passage or tunnel. He did not even stumble across a single obstacle.

Along the way, Qin Ruo did not come across a second bunch of Black Dragonfly Herbs, or find any signs of Earth Essence…

Qin Ruo gulped down bottle after bottle of MP Potion (M) until he got to the sixth bottle. That was when he also arrived at the deepest part of Centipede Cavern—more than ten tunnels in Centipede Cavern led to the same area in the end. It was the same area that all the players outside the cavern spoke of—the lair of the Stygianlock Centiking!

It was a giant cave that was two to three times larger than the entrance of the cavern. It was as large as the size of an ordinary stadium. More than ten tunnels winded and intersected with one another from the walls in the surrounding area.

There were not many giant centipedes in there. Only about ten of them were present in the cave’s vicinity…

The longest giant centipede was about eight meters in length. Its body was a meter thick. Its entire body appeared to be as black as steel ebony, exuding an unusually bright metallic luster. Layers of its outer shell seemed extremely tough. Its exquisite limbs were like pieces of a fine metallic instrument. The most eye-catching part of the giant centipede were the two long tentacles (antennae) located right on top of its head. There also seemed to be two black fireballs, which were blazing with swirling black flames right above the centipede. Those two black fireballs would move along with the two tentacles. The phenomenon looked very novel and bizarre.

The other giant centipedes acted like they were the giant, black centipede’s “people” as all of them were lying quietly around it. They were either lying across the 10 tunnels in the cavern or shifting around, wriggling right below the most spacious cavern. A few of the giant centipedes even gathered around and “whispered” to each other, while there were also some that just lay huddled up as they dreamed away in their slumber.

Qin Ruo got goosebumps all over his body again and again. He felt as if he had just set foot in a gigantic centipede “ecological park”. Even though the number of giant centipedes in the area was relatively low, it still felt they were densely packed together. It seemed very difficult to find standing room.

At that moment, Qin Ruo finally began to feel regret. He regretted not leaving the area once he gained some understanding of his Elemental Perception: Water and Aquamorph. Why did he not leave while he still could? After wasting over six bottles of MP Potion (M), he had actually found the Stygianlock Centiking…

Goddamn it!  It was a Tier 4 Overlord! Where would that leave Qin Ruo if his presence was ever detected by the Boss?

Qin Ruo felt extremely depressed. At the same time, he was unwilling to just give up and go back…

After setting his thoughts on the purpose that drove him there in the first place, Qin Ruo stood still at the entrance of a passage high above the area as he calmed himself down. He then cautiously scanned every single detail on every inch of the area, hoping to find the “answer” that the other Bandits he tried to follow came in to find.

Lo and behold, his expectations were not met with disappointment!

With the help of Elemental Perception: Water, Qin Ruo discovered that there was a plant that looked just like a bunch of Herbs right beneath the Stygianlock Centiking’s body. At that moment, he was willing to bet that no other player could match him in terms of eyesight. Approximately a hundred meters away from the location of the plant, he could clearly count the number of small purplish fruits hanging from the plant.

Qin Ruo was able to find a few more pieces of Earth Essence, which looked just like yellowish-orange pieces of dirt, and also a few bunches of Black Dragonfly Herbs by the walls of the four corners of the cavern.

It seemed that Qin Ruo finally had his suspicions answered. The true purpose of that Bowmaster and the few players next to him was to obtain rare, high-grade Herbs that spawned along with the Overlord.

The Herb that spawned along with the Skeleton King had probably been taken by the Bandits. Their next target was likely the plant with purplish fruits, which was located just beside the Stygianlock Centiking…

Although he had no idea what grade that Herb was in, the fact that it grew in an extremely bad environment and was being “guarded” by the Stygianlock Centiking itself was enough proof that the plant’s grade would be no worse than the Herb’s grade back in Death Valley.

Unfortunately…

It seemed that there was no way Qin Ruo could obtain those Herbs by himself. Not just because there was an Overlord down there… Even if the Stygianlock Centiking was not there, Qin Ruo would have still been unable to get himself down among the huge number of giant centipedes, which were all over the area. Making the players taunt a bunch of gigantic centipedes was a little bit too much to test their psychological endurance!

Just as Qin Ruo began to think about retreating and got ready to leave the place, there was a disturbance among the tremendous horde of giant centipedes down below. They all started to move in the same direction as dense scraping sounds echoed in the air.

Qin Ruo exclaimed gently as he kept the Return Scroll that was waiting to be used. From the corner of his eyes, he could see a party of players gushing out from the opposite passage, and this caught his attention.

“Urgh… isn’t that the party that exterminated the Skeleton King?”