17: Chapter 17 Four Fists of Steel

The moment the mound cracked open, the entire basin shook.

A two-meter-wide fissure ran from the top of the mound to the bottom, with dark red light gushing out from the crack. Gravel and clods of earth tumbled continuously from the edges of the fissure, hitting the ground with dull thuds. The fissure continued to tear open on both sides; the soil layer seemed to be pried apart from the inside by two invisible hands, emitting a teeth-gritting sound of snapping.

A giant mandible emerged from the fissure. The mandible was as long as a person, covered in a dark brown carapace. The carapace was covered with irregular fissure-like patterns, and within these patterns flowed a dark red light. The giant mandible opened, revealing dense rows of hook-shaped serrations on the inside, each as thick as a finger.

Next came the head, followed by the entire body. The Fissure Burrower crawled completely out of the mound. Its body length was nearly five meters, its back carapace arched high, and six thick legs supported its heavy frame. Every unconscious swing of the enlarged bone tumor at the end of its tail could smash a shallow pit into the ground.

[ Monster: Fissure Burrower · BOSS ]

[ Level: 7 ]

[ HP: 12000 ]

[ Physical Attack: 500 ]

[ Magic Attack: 300 ]

[ Physical Defense: 450 ]

[ Magic Defense: 350 ]

[ Type: Dungeon BOSS, Skills:

1. "Tail Stone Scatter" — The Burrower slams the bone tumor structure at the end of its tail into the ground, shattering surface rocks and blasting dozens of stone fragments in all directions. Each fragment deals 100 physical damage; depending on surface conditions, up to 18 fragments can be ejected simultaneously, covering a 20-meter radius.

2. "Earth-Splitting Pierce" — Slams the ground with its giant mandible, causing a ring of rock spikes to spread outward from its feet, dealing 320 magic damage to all targets within a 15-meter radius.

3. "Carapace Hardening" — The Burrower contracts its body, closing its back carapace into a defensive stance for 15 seconds. During this time, movement speed is reduced by 50%, and physical and magic defense increase by 50%. Upon ending, a layer of hardened keratin remains on the carapace surface, increasing its own physical and magic defense by 50 points. This effect can stack up to 3 times and lasts until the end of the battle. ]

Chen Qi quickly read out the detected data, his voice low but his pace fast: "HP is around 12,000, physical attack around 500, physical defense around 400. Three skills: Tail Stone Scatter is the tail slamming the ground to spray rocks, 20-meter range; Earth-Splitting Pierce is the giant mandible slamming the ground to release rock spikes, 15-meter radius, magic damage is about 300; Carapace Hardening can stack dual defenses."

Lin Yan nodded and stepped toward the Burrower.

The Burrower's compound eyes locked onto this bipedal creature charging toward it from different angles simultaneously. It let out a low hiss, its six legs exerting force simultaneously, and charged head-on. The distance between them rapidly closed. The Burrower suddenly turned, the bone tumor at the end of its tail swinging toward Lin Yan with terrifying inertia. Lin Yan dodged sideways; the bone tumor grazed his shoulder and smashed into the ground, creating a half-meter-deep crater. Gravel pelted against his iron bone breastplate with a dense clanging sound.

The Heartsteel mark had been on the Burrower for a full three seconds, and a pale red light spot lit up at the joint of the carapace at the base of its thigh.

"Steel!"

His fist, carrying the true damage of Heartsteel and the additional physical damage of Heavy Hitter, slammed hard into that pale red light spot. The Burrower let out a deafening hiss; with 2,513 points of true damage plus over a thousand points of additional physical damage, its HP bar evaporated by a chunk with a single punch. A small crack was smashed into the carapace joint, and dark red body fluid oozed out from the crack.

---

One hundred and fifty meters away, behind a broken wall.

The lean youth's teammate's Scout Talent clearly fed back the damage numbers of this punch to him: over 3,700 total damage. All dealt to a BOSS with a physical defense as high as 450.

The teammate beside him had trembling lips: "Captain... if this punch hit us, it could kill all three of us and still have power left."

The lean youth didn't speak, but he was also shocked inside. He saw Lin Yan's positioning—on the Burrower's flank, specifically targeting the weak points at the carapace joints.

No matter what kind of ability it was, it wasn't something they could mess with.

"Let's go," the lean youth squeezed out from between his teeth.

"Not waiting?"

"Do you want to wait for him to finish and then deal with us? We aren't the oriole; we're just sparrows crouching next to a tiger." The lean youth had already turned, his long legs striding out, his speed astonishing once he started. His two teammates followed without hesitation. The three figures quickly disappeared into the depths of the ruins.

Lin Yan didn't notice them leaving. The Burrower reacted violently after feeling the pain, its giant mandible opening to its limit to clamp toward his waist. Lin Yan blocked with his left arm and smashed his right fist again toward the carapace crack; without the Heartsteel bonus, the damage was significantly reduced. The Burrower seized the opportunity to counterattack, its tail slamming into the ground—Tail Stone Scatter.

Dozens of stone fragments exploded in all directions. Lin Yan dodged the large ones directly in front, but his left shoulder and right leg were each hit by a fragment, and his HP bar dropped by nearly 200 points.

Su Wan's healing spell lit up from behind.

The 30-second cooldown finished, the Heartsteel mark was applied again, and three seconds later, the light spot appeared at the same position in the carapace crack.

"Steel!"

The second punch. The Burrower's body sank sharply, and the carapace crack extended further. Its hiss became sharp and short; it was no longer intimidation, but pain.

The Burrower began to retreat, and at the same time, its carapace tightened suddenly—Carapace Hardening. The dark red light in the back patterns suddenly brightened, and its dual defenses increased by 50%. Lin Yan chased after it and landed a punch, but the damage was clearly reduced. He simply gave up on outputting damage during the hardening period, using these 15 seconds to create distance and adjust his breathing.

The hardening ended, and a layer of new hardened keratin remained on the Burrower's carapace surface, permanently increasing its dual defenses by 50 points.

The Heartsteel cooldown was full again; the third punch.

"Steel!"

The carapace crack had expanded to the size of a fist, and dark red body fluid flowed down its leg onto the ground. Its left front leg began to tremble, and its movement speed was noticeably slower. Tail Stone Scatter was triggered again; this time, Lin Yan didn't retreat and tanked two stone fragments.

The Heartsteel cooldown was full for the fourth time, and the fourth light spot lit up at the deepest part of the carapace crack.

"Steel!"

The fourth punch smashed into the deepest part of the carapace crack; the Burrower's hiss stopped abruptly, its six legs straightened simultaneously, and then it slowly collapsed. Its massive body slammed into the ground, causing the ground to shake violently. The bone tumor at the end of its tail twitched unconsciously one last time, then became completely still.

[ Ding! Successfully killed Level 7 BOSS Fissure Burrower, obtained EXP: 700! ]

[ Current EXP: 750 / 1000 ]

[ Dungeon System Notification: Killed Dungeon BOSS, obtained extra reward — Free Attribute Points +3. ]

[ Current Free Attribute Points: 42 ]

Lin Yan stood beside the Burrower's corpse; the fourth punch triggered Heartsteel, stacking another chunk of HP. Heartsteel's size bonus had long reached the 30% cap and wouldn't grow any taller, but his HP continued to stack. He saved the 3 free attribute points awarded by the Dungeon System directly, just like the previously accumulated 39 points, not adding them for now. His current stats were already enough to crush things in a one-star Dungeon, so there was no need to rush to allocate them. After exiting the Dungeon, he would decide the allocation direction based on the Hextech situation of the next Dungeon and actual crises.

Just then, the cold notification sound of the hextech system rang in his mind.

[ hextech system detected host killed Dungeon BOSS, obtained extra hextech reward. ]

[ Reward content: Permanently increased Prism-tier hextech refresh probability +0.5% ]

[ Current Prism-tier hextech refresh probability: 1% → 1.5% ]

Lin Yan's lips curved slightly; the hextech system provided a probability increase. The refresh probability for Prism-tier hextech increased from 1% to 1.5%. This was a permanent increase and more valuable than any temporary reward.

The Burrower's corpse was slowly decomposing, and dark red light drifted out from the gaps in its carapace. Lin Yan squatted down to check the loot.

300 low-rank dimensional crystals. Then came the weapon: a pair of dark brown gauntlets, their surfaces covered in fine, scale-like metal plates, with thickened knuckle areas and a circle of pale gold rune patterns on the wrists.

[ Obtained Equipment: burrowers grasp · Level 5 ]

[ Quality: Green Excellent ]

[ Effects: Physical Attack +90, Attack Speed +20% ]

[ Wear Requirements: Level ≥ 5, Strength ≥ 8 ]

A green weapon. He had obtained the ant bone bracers and iron scale legguards in the Ant Queen's lair; adding this burrowers grasp, he now had three pieces of green equipment. The gauntlets added attack power and attack speed, just enough to compensate for his issue of having limited damage output methods. The only problem was the wear requirement — Strength ≥ 8. His strength was currently only 1 point, but he didn't rush to add it. He put the gauntlets into his backpack first, waiting until he was out of the Dungeon to decide whether to allocate attribute points to wear them based on the situation in the next Dungeon.

Then came the materials: Fissure Burrower carapace fragments ×5, Fissure Burrower giant mandible ×1, BOSS-tier material Fissure Core Fragment ×1. Finally, there was a pale gold rune stone embedded in the deepest part of the fissure where the Burrower had crawled out — a BOSS-tier Resource Point.

[ Discovered Resource Point: Burrower Lair ]

[ Tier: BOSS-tier ]

A metal chest rose from beside the rune stone. Lin Yan opened the lid, and inside were neatly arranged equipment and materials. Green-quality bone tumor breastplate and carapace belt — the breastplate added HP and defense, and the belt added storage space. 200 low-rank dimensional crystals, Fissure Burrower bone tumor fragments ×5. Lin Yan distributed these 200 crystals to everyone.

[ Obtained Equipment: bone tumor breastplate · Level 5 ]

[ Quality: Green Excellent ]

[ Effects: Max HP +900, Physical Defense +40, Magic Defense +40 ]

[ Wear Requirements: Level ≥ 5 ]

[ Obtained Equipment: carapace belt · Level 5 ]

[ Quality: Green Excellent ]

[ Effects: Has 9 cubic meters of storage space ]

[ Wear Requirements: Level ≥ 5 ]

Lin Yan closed the interface and looked up at the sky. Three golden pillars of light still stood silently in the sky, their light a bit brighter than in the early morning, and the Evacuation Point countdown was still ticking.

"Let's go." Lin Yan changed into the breastplate, equipped the belt, and put everything else into his storage space. "There's less than 10 hours left until the Evacuation Point; that's enough for us to open a few more resource points."