33: Chapter 33 What's our old profession? Digging holes!

The space on the second floor of the Underground Cave was nearly a third smaller than the first. The rock walls had changed from gray-white to dark brown, and the musty smell in the air was mixed with a faint, fishy sweetness. The beam of the headlamp swept across the dome, revealing dense stalactites that looked like rows of inverted fangs, ready to drip corrosive saliva at any moment.

The four of them maintained the formation they had figured out on the first floor as they advanced. Lin Rui's blast shield was at the front. Su Wan's lyre music echoed in the narrow passage, the melody of [Heroism] reflecting off the rock walls, creating a strange reverberation as if countless Bards were singing at the same time. Hu Jinsi prowled on the flank with his long staff, brass knuckles locked onto his right hand, bone blades pressed against his finger gaps, ready to cut in at any moment.

The common monsters on the second floor didn't really have a qualitative improvement. Fallen, skeletons, Dark Rogues—monsters that had already been cleared once on the first floor—were like cutting grass under the tacit cooperation of the four. Liu Betti's Multishot split into two streams of light in the passage, piercing the chests of two skeletons; Lin Rui's shield smashed the skull of a Fallen; Hu Jinsi's long staff swept down a third, and Su Wan's light crossbow fired the final shot. Assembly line work, efficient and boring.

Until they stepped into the open area at the deepest part of the second floor.

Liu Betti's [Inner Sight] was habitually activated, a circle of pale red glimmer spreading out from her, illuminating the shadows high up on the rock walls. Then her gaze froze.

"Above!" she shouted, drawing her bowstring to the full.

Between the protrusions of the rock wall and the stalactites, seven or eight Dark Rogue figures were crouching. Their skin had a sickly gray-blue hue, their short bows fully drawn, the arrowheads gleaming with a cold, ghostly light. In their center, a monster significantly larger than the others was slowly standing up. It had a silhouette similar to a Dark Rogue, but draped over its back was a layer of ice-blue, feather-like cloak that seemed to be condensed from frost crystals. Its eye sockets held no eyeballs, only two swirling masses of ice mist.

[Coldcrow]

The monster made no sound, just tilted its head slightly, and the two masses of ice mist locked onto the four people below. The next second, it raised its hand, and a crystal-clear Ice Arrow condensed in its palm and shot out!

"Scatter!" Lin Rui's roar exploded in the cave.

The Ice Arrow didn't shoot at anyone, but nailed into the ground in front of the four. With a "bang," the arrow exploded, and a circle of white ice crystals spread crazily from the point of impact, instantly covering a three-meter radius of ground into a slippery ice surface. Hu Jinsi was just about to Charge forward, but his right foot stepped on the edge of the ice crystals, and his whole body uncontrollably slid outward. The bone blades on his brass knuckles scraped a string of sparks against the rock wall, barely stabilizing his figure.

"I hate monsters that change the terrain!" Hu Jinsi's face was green.

Coldcrow moved. Its speed was astonishingly fast, leaping between the rock protrusions, its ice-blue cloak dragging a lingering image in the darkness. As it moved, it continuously condensed Ice Arrows and shot them at the ground, turning the walkable area around the four into an ice rink bit by bit. And those ordinary Dark Rogues were high above, coordinating with Coldcrow's rhythm, raining down cold arrows.

"Can't stay here!" Three arrows were nailed into Lin Rui's blast shield in quick succession, and the shield surface was covered in ice crystals, its weight increasing sharply. "Staying put makes us targets! Chase!"

Hu Jinsi took a deep breath, [Parkour]! Qi energy poured into his leg muscles, and his speed instantly doubled. He stepped on the rock protrusions that hadn't yet frozen over, like a swallow flying close to the ground, rushing toward the spot where Coldcrow last appeared!

He swung his long staff, smashing it toward that ice-blue back.

Coldcrow seemed to have eyes in its back. Before the wind of the staff reached it, it kicked off the rock wall with both feet, shifting its body two meters to the side. The long staff smashed into the rock wall, gravel flying. Hu Jinsi's momentum was spent, the duration of [Parkour] ended, his speed returned to normal, and his foot slipped, almost falling flat on his face on the ice.

"It's faster than me!" Hu Jinsi stabilized his center of gravity in a sorry state, his Qi pool down by 1 point.

Lin Rui flanked from the other side, [Charge] activated! His figure turned into a blur, his short sword stabbing straight at Coldcrow's waist. But that beast sensed the change in airflow in advance again, and half a second before the Charge arrived, it leaped backward, widening the distance. Lin Rui's sword tip grazed past its cloak, only shaving off a piece of ice crystal, which turned into white mist in the air.

"Does this thing read commands?" Lin Rui landed, his heavy armor slipping on the ice. He had to insert his blast shield into the ground as a brake, or he would have slid into the ice zone created by Coldcrow.

Liu Betti kept shooting from the rear. Multishot split into two streams of light, covering the possible landing spots of Coldcrow. But the monster's movement trajectory was irregular, like a startled bird, sometimes jumping onto stalactites, sometimes sliding along the ground. Her arrows hit the rock wall where it had just been standing, shattering a piece of limestone, but didn't even graze its edge.

"Inner Sight can't catch it, it's predicting!" Liu Betti gritted her teeth, the bowstring leaving a purple-red blood mark on her fingertips. "It's too fast!"

Su Wan wasn't idle. She put down her lyre, put her hands on her hips, and took a deep breath—

"Listen up, you trash above! You ugly freak who gave up your looks for power! If you have the guts, come down and fight me one-on-one!"

[Street Cursing]!

Invisible sound waves poured into the enemy group on the rock wall. Several ordinary Dark Rogues' movements clearly stalled, their eye sockets turning red, the bows and arrows in their hands deviating from their targets. But Coldcrow just tilted its head slightly, the rotation speed of the two ice mists increased, seemingly completely immune to this mental interference.

"It doesn't take psychic damage!" Su Wan's face went pale. She quickly picked up her lyre and added a [Faerie Fire] to illuminate Coldcrow's position, preventing it from blending into the shadows.

The chase lasted for nearly fifteen minutes. The four were led by the nose by Coldcrow in the cave, the ice surface area constantly expanding, and the dry ground available for standing becoming less and less. Hu Jinsi's Qi pool dropped to three points. He had used [Parkour] three times and [Roll] three times, all used to adjust his posture on the ice. Lin Rui's heavy armor was covered in a thin layer of ice, and every movement made a teeth-gritting friction sound, with physical exertion far exceeding expectations.

"This won't do!" Hu Jinsi leaned against a stone pillar to catch his breath, his back soaked with sweat. "It's draining us! Once we slip or run out of Qi, it will reap us!"

"Force it into a dead end!" Lin Rui's brain remained clear under intense exercise. He pointed to a depression in the depths of the cave blocked by a collapsed rock wall. "Liu Betti, Multishot to cover the left, force it to the right! Jinsi, you circle to the right and ambush in advance! Su Wan, keep cursing, curse those ordinary Dark Rogues, don't let them interfere!"

"Received!"

Tactical adjustment. Liu Betti took a deep breath and pulled two arrows from her quiver at the same time—Multishot! Two streams of light shot toward the rock wall to the left of Coldcrow in a fan shape, blasting out a piece of gravel and dust. Coldcrow indeed dodged to the right; its movement instinct was to stay away from threats, and to the right was that collapsed depression.

Hu Jinsi had already calculated the route. He activated his last [Parkour], not chasing directly, but cutting in horizontally, arriving at the end of Coldcrow's dodge path in advance. The bone blades on his right hand popped out, and his left hand switched to rixats elegy, its ghostly blue light flaring up.

"Been waiting for you!"

Just as Coldcrow landed, the pale white bone blades and the ghostly blue sword light arrived at the same time! It tried to jump again, but Lin Rui's [Charge] arrived from the front. The blast shield didn't strike, but was held by Lin Rui with both hands, like a moving wall, slamming heavily onto Coldcrow's face!

"Bang!"

Ice mist splattered. Coldcrow was knocked back two steps, just in time to retreat into the dead end of the collapsed depression!

Hu Jinsi's short sword stabbed into its chest and abdomen, [-14]. The bone blades chiseled toward its eye sockets, [-12]. The special effect of rixats elegy triggered, the ghostly blue light flared, and a large chunk of Coldcrow's current HP was shaved off! [Special Effect Triggered: -12.5%]

Liu Betti added an arrow from afar, accurately nailing into its right arm that it was trying to raise. Fire and ice crystals collided, making a sizzling cracking sound. [-13]

Coldcrow let out a sharp screech, the two ice mists spinning crazily, trying to condense the last Ice Arrow. But Su Wan's [Tashas Hideous Laughter] finally hit. The mocking melody cut into its nervous system, and the monster's mouth corners—if that mass of ice mist could be called mouth corners—twitched uncontrollably, and the half-condensed Ice Arrow shattered into dregs in its palm.

Three seconds later, it turned into a mass of rising light spots, exploding a rain of ice crystals in the depths of the cave.

After the battle, the four sat slumped on the wet ground, panting heavily. Hu Jinsi's Qi pool was bottomed out, his right arm muscles trembling uncontrollably, ice shards still hanging on his bone blades. Lin Rui's blast shield was covered with a thick layer of ice, needing to be scraped with a short sword to reveal the transparent shooting port. Liu Betti's bowstring was soaked with sweat, and the blood marks on her fingertips were seeping blood. Su Wan's throat was hoarse; she had shouted too much [Street Cursing], and now her voice was cracking when she spoke.

"This is why everyone hates ranged elites." Hu Jinsi looked at the gradually dissipating ice crystals on the ground. "Especially in this kind of complex terrain, the bonuses it gets are too great."

"Ranged elite with high mobility." Lin Rui leaned his shield against the rock wall, the crisp sound of ice cracking echoing in the cave. "If there were no terrain restrictions, we wouldn't be able to catch it at all."

Where the light spots dissipated, a short bow lay quietly on the ground.

[Hardwood Short Bow]

[Type: Simple Weapon / Short Bow]

[Damage: 4-10]

[Note: A bow roughly carved from frozen hardwood, the string is the tendon of some beast, and it feels astringent to pull.]

"White board." Liu Betti picked it up and tried it, pouting. "Much worse than mine."

"Just as you said." Su Wan looked at Liu Betti. "Don't have too much expectation for drops."

The four found the treasure chest Liu Betti mentioned in the depths of the depression where Coldcrow had been entrenched. The chest was iron, its surface rusty, and the lock had been corroded. Lin Rui smashed it open with a hammer, and the moment the lid popped up, a faint golden light shimmered inside.

Several red, blue, and green potions emitted a hazy halo in the darkness. There were also two pieces of equipment, a leather hat and a pair of leather boots, with only one line of text on the panel attributes: [Illumination Range +1].

"Not much use." Hu Jinsi put the leather hat on his head to try it, then took it off. "It's darker than the headlamp."

The four picked through their gear to see if there were any parts they could replace. Liu Betti took a pair of leather boots with thickened lining, which were more slip-resistant than her original boots. Su Wan took a leather bracer, better than nothing. The rest were uniformly stuffed into their backpacks to be sold for money later.

The potion distribution was simple and direct. The blue mana recovery potions were all handed to Liu Betti—she was the only one in the team currently consuming mana. The four of them took a few bottles of red health recovery potions each, packing them into their belts and the side pockets of their backpacks.

"Although this place is stuffy," Liu Betti leaned against the rock wall, the feathers on the edge of her raven-feather hood stained with ice crystals, "it's better than going out to blow cold wind. The nights in the Cold Plains have strong winds and sudden temperature drops; it's quite uncomfortable to spend the night outside."

"Then we'll camp here." Lin Rui made the decision. "The deepest part of the second floor, the entrance is narrow, easy to defend and hard to attack."

Dinner was hot pot.

This sounded absurd, eating hot pot in an Underground Cave, but Hu Jinsi's backpack really contained a portable field cooking set. He set up the folding stand, placed the iron pot on the simple stove modified from a Molotov cocktail, and threw in a few pieces of jerky and dehydrated vegetables brought from outside the dungeon, as well as his favorite instant noodles. Liu Betti contributed a bottle of spicy seasoning, saying she had gotten it from a classmate in a life profession.

The boiling soup rolled in the pot, and the smell of red oil and spices permeated the cold cave, diluting the lingering musty smell. The four sat around the iron pot, the camping light placed not far away, the firelight reflecting their faces red. Water droplets on the rock wall were steamed by the heat, dripping down along the stalactites, making a slight sizzling sound on the edge of the pot.

"You three," Liu Betti picked up a piece of boiled mushroom, blew on it, and her gaze turned around the three faces, "grew up together?"

"Neighbors." Su Wan held her bowl, the heat making her eyes slightly wet. "We were in the same class in kindergarten. Elementary school, middle school, it was all the same."

"No wonder." Liu Betti nodded, her tone carrying a kind of sincere envy. "The trust between you... is something others don't have. Those people who team up temporarily, no matter how skilled their cooperation is, can't do what you do—entrusting their backs to each other."

Hu Jinsi was using chopsticks to fish for meat in the pot. Hearing this, his chopsticks paused, but he didn't answer. Lin Rui added a piece of dehydrated potato to the pot and said in a deep voice: "Used to it. We've been fighting since we were kids."

The topic turned to Liu Betti. What Hu Jinsi was most interested in was why she gave up the doctor profession and turned to Rogue.

"Aren't doctors good?" He asked with chopsticks in his mouth, vaguely. "Among life professions, doctors have high social status and stable income, and can advance to combat medics or plague doctors in the future. Even as a part-time job, it's better than giving it up completely, right?"

Liu Betti had obviously been asked this countless times. She put down her bowl, her mixed-race features looking particularly three-dimensional in the firelight, her eyes clear and direct: "I know I don't have the patience to be a doctor. I, Liu Betti, am a woman with ambition. If I don't become a powerful combat class, I will never have a say in this world."

She paused, her fingers unconsciously stroking the bow arm of the Soul-Sucking Short Bow: "At that time, the school got a Rogue Awakening Stone, a brand new, limited-to-female, long-range hybrid output class. I had a premonition that this class was very suitable for me. To seize this feeling, to not miss the opportunity, to not let myself regret it, I switched. Starting from scratch."

Su Wan listened with bright eyes, turned to look at Hu Jinsi, and teased with a smirk: "If you had Liu Betti's determination and switched professions early, you might have become a noble magic class by now. Why would you need to run around kicking monsters every day?"

Hu Jinsi swallowed the meat in his mouth and rolled his eyes: "This is my strategic determination. What's wrong with a Monk? Monks can heal and fight, do you understand 'jack-of-all-trades'?"

"Yes, yes, yes, noble jack-of-all-trades." Su Wan laughed and scolded.

The steam from the hotpot rose in the cave, and the shadows of the four cast against the rock walls flickered like some ancient mural. Outside was the biting wind of the Cold Plains, and inside was the piping hot soup; this contrast made the atmosphere exceptionally warm. It was the first time Liu Betti had understood the depth of the childhood bond between the three, and while moved, she also felt a faint yearning to belong.

The post-dinner tactical meeting began amidst the clutter of pots and bowls.

"There are many choices for tomorrow," Liu Betti said, using an arrowhead to sketch a simple map on the ground. "We can continue exploring the Cold Plains; the monster density is actually quite high. Or we can go to the outskirts of the Burial Grounds to farm undead—mostly skeletons, which are easy to handle, but we must avoid Blood Raven. There are two mausoleums in the Burial Grounds that can be explored, but the problem is we have to slip in quietly and not alert Blood Raven. Finally, following the gravel road, we can find the Stony Field, which also has a two-story cave."

"The Stony Field…" Lin Rui frowned. "Is that the area Teacher Fan mentioned where Rakanishu appears?"

"Yes," Liu Betti nodded.

"Have you encountered it?" Lin Rui pressed. "Any intel?"

"We haven't fought it directly, but I've seen it from afar," Liu Betti recalled, pausing the arrowhead on the ground. "Rakanishu… its appearance is very similar to a Fallen, but the color is deep blue, not blood red. Plus, there is electricity running across its body, which is especially noticeable against a pitch-black background. I estimate it has lightning-attribute damage or skills."

Hu Jinsi's face instantly fell. "I hate lightning-attribute monsters."

"Why?" Su Wan asked curiously.

"For those of us who make a living in melee combat," Hu Jinsi gestured helplessly at his fists, "especially for someone like me who attacks unarmed, when encountering lightning-attribute enemies, I don't know if it hurts them when I hit them, but I'll definitely end up with numb fists from the shock. Once my muscles go numb, my reaction and evasion drop completely, which is the same as standing there and taking a beating. It's like a hedgehog—you can't touch it, and it's frustrating to just watch it hover in front of you."

He sighed. "Although I have insulated gloves, it's impossible to cover my whole body, so the effect is limited."

The conversation shifted, and Hu Jinsi's eyes suddenly lit up. He tapped the edge of the pot with his chopsticks, making a crisp clinking sound. "Actually, we could consider our old trade. If we use our old trade, Blood Raven isn't invincible."

"Old trade?" Lin Rui asked, puzzled. "What is our old trade?"

"Digging pits!" Hu Jinsi looked at him with an expression of disappointment at his lack of progress. "Lin Rui, it's only been a week since you last dug a pit, and you've already forgotten your roots? You've betrayed the revolution! As long as we dig enough pits near Blood Raven and force it from a chase into a melee, our win rate will multiply several times over!"

Lin Rui and Su Wan exchanged a look, both mentally running through this tactic. Pits to impede movement, turning a high-speed ranged monster into a stationary target—this was the rhythm they were most familiar with.

Liu Betti hadn't experienced the pig-tripping tactics of Goldshire, so she was a bit hesitant. "Are you sure? Although I really want to fight Blood Raven, there's no need to risk being teleported out so early. I'm still a while away from level 11, so there's no rush."

"Whether we can actually fight it depends on what we see at the Burial Grounds," Hu Jinsi said in a low voice. "First, we determine the strength of the undead, then we test Blood Raven's attack power. As long as Blood Raven can't critically injure us in one hit, this battle is winnable. If the damage is only at the level of those dozen or so points from the Cold Crow, then it's a guaranteed win. Even if it's under thirty points, we still have an eighty percent chance of victory."

"So confident?" Liu Betti raised an eyebrow.

"You talked with Lin Rui at noon; he has two displacement skills, and I have one displacement acceleration," Hu Jinsi said, counting on his fingers. "As long as the two of us go all out to chase Blood Raven, do you think it will stand its ground and fight, or will it run and shoot like today's Cold Crow?"

"It should be the latter," Liu Betti confirmed.

"Then that's settled!" Hu Jinsi slapped his thigh. "As long as Lin Rui and I apply enough melee pressure to keep it running, the chance of it falling into a pit will increase over time. Your task: clean up the undead skeletons around Blood Raven in the early stages. Once that's done, use your bow and arrows to force Blood Raven toward the pits. Su Wan, save your Thunderwave; if Blood Raven summons a large area of undead or dives into a crowd of monsters, use it to clear the field."

Liu Betti pondered for a moment. This was the most reliable Blood Raven tactic she had heard so far—not rushing in head-on, but turning the dungeon mechanics into an advantage for their side. She raised her head, her eyes firm. "Okay. Let's find the Burial Grounds tomorrow and give it a try."

"To success!" Lin Rui raised his water cup.

"To success!" The four cups clinked together, the sound of water crisp and clear.

The watch order was quickly decided. Lin Rui for the first half of the night, Hu Jinsi for the middle, and Liu Betti and Su Wan would take turns for the second half. The four of them wrapped themselves in thick coats and lay down in a hollow on the second level of the cave. They dimmed their headlamps, leaving only one emergency light glowing faintly in a crevice of the rock wall.

The next morning, there was still little light inside the cave.

The four packed up their gear, cleaned up the traces of their campsite, returned to the first level along the slope they came from, and took their bicycles out of their backpacks. The Cold Plains in the morning were colder than yesterday; the white breath they exhaled condensed into frost in the air, adhering to their scarves and eyebrows like a layer of fine, crushed salt.

They hadn't cleared out the monsters on their way here yesterday, and now they were paying the price.

They had barely ridden two hundred meters when the chattering of Fallen came from behind. Three Fallen poked their heads out from behind a frozen slope, the small knives in their hands glinting with rust in the sunlight. They chased after the bicycles with their short legs; although they were slow, their cries attracted companions from further away.

"Speed up and lose them?" Su Wan pedaled, glancing back.

"Let's try!" Hu Jinsi shifted his gears to the maximum.

But the frozen soil of the Cold Plains was much harder to traverse than the forest paths of Goldshire. The wheels rolled over ice crusts and gravel, bumping them half a foot off their seats, and they couldn't pick up speed at all. Worse, two Dark Rogue suddenly stood up in the low bushes on the flank, their short bows fully drawn.

"Swish! Swish!"

Two arrows cut through the air. One nailed into the frozen soil beside Hu Jinsi, the fletching vibrating with a hum; the other grazed Liu Betti's crow-feather hood, slicing off a feather.

"We can't shake them! Get off and fight!" Lin Rui squeezed the brakes, unslung his riot shield, and held it horizontally in front of him.

The four jumped off their bikes and formed a defensive circle, back-to-back. The three Fallen behind had already closed to within ten meters, chattering and rushing up with knives raised. The Dark Rogue on the flank moved behind the bushes, trying to find a shooting angle.

"Kill the ranged ones first!" Hu Jinsi roared, activating [Parkour]!

His figure turned into a blur, not charging at the Fallen in front, but cutting horizontally into the flanking bushes. The two Dark Rogue had just nocked their second arrows when the knuckle-bone blades already gouged into one's temple, [-15]. The other tried to retreat, but Hu Jinsi swept her ankles with his long staff, [-10], tripping her onto the frozen soil and finishing her off with a stomp to the throat.

Behind, the three Fallen had already lunged in front of Lin Rui's shield. Lin Rui did not Charge, but lowered his center of gravity, meeting the first one with his riot shield and knocking it staggering backward. Liu Betti, two steps behind the shield, drew her Soul-Sucking Short Bow fully, and a regular arrow pierced through the second Fallen's chest, [-14], as light spots rose. The third was nailed in the eye socket by Su Wan's light crossbow, [-7], and fell to the ground with a scream.

But this was just the beginning.

After finishing this wave, just as the four were about to get on their bikes, heavy footsteps came from behind a distant frozen slope. A Giant Beast appeared at the top of the slope, nearly two meters high at the shoulder, its brown-black long fur coated with ice shards, fangs protruding, hind hooves pawing the ground, and it charged with its head lowered!

"Giant Beast!" Liu Betti exclaimed, her bowstring instantly drawn to the max, [Fire Arrow]!

The arrow, trailing a tail of flame, hit the Giant Beast's shoulder blade, and the fire exploded on its fur, [-12]. But the beast merely shook its head, its charging momentum undiminished, rumbling over like a brown tank.

Lin Rui raised his shield to take the impact head-on!

"Bang!"

The dull thud of the shield colliding with the beast's head exploded across the wasteland. Lin Rui was pushed back three steps, leaving three deep claw marks on the riot shield; his arms went numb, and the web of his thumbs split, oozing blood. [-8], the damage was reduced layer by layer by the shield and bulletproof vest, but the impact still made his chest feel stifled.

"Heroism!" Su Wan's lyre music exploded, the buff enveloping Lin Rui and Liu Betti.

Hu Jinsi cut in from the side, his long staff sweeping toward the Giant Beast's front leg joint, [-9]. Liu Betti's second fire arrow nailed into the beast's eye socket, [-15], the flames blinding one of its eyes. The beast, in pain, veered off its charging path and crashed headlong into a dead tree nearby; the trunk snapped, and ice shards flew everywhere.

Lin Rui seized the opportunity to activate [Charge], thrusting his short sword from under the edge of the shield and stabbing into the beast's exposed throat, [-16]. Hu Jinsi followed up with [Flurry of Blows], his punches and kicks falling like raindrops on the beast's ribs, [-8] [-9]. Su Wan's light crossbow fired in rapid succession, the bolts pinning into the beast's hind legs, restricting its movement.

The Giant Beast let out a wail, its massive body crashing to the ground and dissipating into light spots.

After the battle, the four slumped beside their bicycles, panting heavily. Lin Rui's riot shield had new damage, with cracks covering the area around the transparent firing port on the shield face. Hu Jinsi's long staff was stained with the grease and blood of the Giant Beast, making the frozen soil slippery.

"We can't stop," Liu Betti said, checking her quiver. "More monsters will be attracted by the smell of blood."

She was right. The four had just pedaled onto their bikes when two Fallen Shaman popped up in front, the crystals on their staves beginning to condense fireballs. Behind them, five skeletons crawled out of the frozen soil, their eye sockets burning with ghostly blue soul fire, holding rusted swords and blades.

"Get off! Fight!" Lin Rui roared.

This skirmish was even more chaotic than the last. The Fallen Shaman were casting fireballs from a distance; Liu Betti prioritized sniping them, but the skeletons had already surrounded them. Lin Rui blocked the skeletons' blades with his shield, thrusting his one-handed hammer from under the shield to smash the neck bone of a skeleton. Hu Jinsi activated [Spinning Crane Kick] amidst the skeleton horde, the rotation rising suddenly, his leg shadows forming an arc that swept three skeletons in at once; bone blades and staff wind shredded their frames, [-10] [-9] [-11]. Su Wan's [Thunderwave] finally came in handy; the powerful sound exploded, shattering the remaining two skeletons and extinguishing their soul fire.

But the explosion of the fireballs attracted even more enemies from further away.

The four had to get back on their bikes again, but after pedaling less than three hundred meters, they were forced to stop again. This time it was a mixed formation of Dark Rogue and Fallen, flanking them from both sides. Liu Betti's Multishot split into two streaks of light, covering the left; Lin Rui blocked the arrows on the right with his shield, his rifle thrust out from the firing port to snipe the approaching Fallen; Hu Jinsi and Su Wan cleaned up the stragglers in the rear.

The battle was intermittent, stop-and-go. Every stop meant new monsters were attracted, and every time they got on the bikes, they were accompanied by cold arrows shot from behind. The four's stamina was rapidly depleted during the repeated sprints and battles; Hu Jinsi's Qi pool hit bottom, recovered, and hit bottom again. Lin Rui's riot shield was already stuck full of arrows and bone fragments, like a hedgehog. Liu Betti's bowstring was soaked with sweat and blood, making a harsh, grating sound when drawn.

It was in the midst of this desperate fighting that loot quietly appeared.

When the Giant Beast dissipated into light spots, it left behind a Hard Leather Armor. The dark brown leather was thick and rough, the lining thickened with the fur of some beast, and the seams were haphazardly stitched with coarse thread, emitting a faint, gamey stench.

[Hard Leather Armor] [Type: Medium Armor / Torso] [Defense: +5] [Effect: Max HP +20] [Item Description: A piece of armor roughly cut from the thick hide of a Giant Beast, with the original owner's hair follicles and scars still remaining on the leather. Wearing it, you will smell a lingering beastly odor.]

The other item was a short blade dropped from an exceptionally plump Fallen. The edge was serrated, and dark red rust covered the blade, but the panel indicated that these were not rust, but dried bloodstains.

[Fallen's Bloodthirsty Knife] [Type: Simple Weapon / Dagger] [Damage: 3-8] [Effect: When you kill an enemy with this weapon, recover 1-4 HP.] [Item Description: A short blade soaked in blood sacrifice by a Fallen Shaman, with dark red cloth wrapped around the hilt. The blade craves fresh life, and it quivers slightly with every kill.]

"+20 HP…" Lin Rui picked up the Hard Leather Armor and weighed it. "It's quite suitable for Liu Betti and Su Wan."

"It's just a bit smelly," Hu Jinsi commented objectively. "5 points of defense and a boost to max HP. Actually, it's suitable for all classes."

"The Bloodthirsty Knife is practical, though," Su Wan picked up the dagger and twirled it on her fingertips. "Kill to recover HP. Although it doesn't recover much, it adds up."

"We'll divide it tonight," Lin Rui stuffed the two pieces of equipment into his backpack. "Let's get moving. If we keep fighting like this, we won't reach the Burial Grounds by noon."

The four gritted their teeth and pedaled, no longer entangling with small groups of monsters; Liu Betti would quickly snipe them with ranged means, and the rest would pass at full speed. Even so, the arrows shot from behind still forced them to stop and fight multiple times.

Near noon, the sun was filtered into a pale white disc by the haze, hanging in the lead-gray sky. The four's bicycles finally rolled over the last stretch of frosted wasteland, and the terrain ahead suddenly dipped, revealing a depression shrouded in gray mist.

On the edge of the depression stood several crooked stone monuments, their surfaces carved with runes eroded by weathering. Further in, one could see a dead forest, the branches twisted like claws pointing at the sky. And in the center of the forest, there was the vague outline of a towering building constructed of black stone—it was the spire of a mausoleum.

Liu Betti squeezed the brakes to stop, pointing with her arrowhead to the front, her voice filled with suppressed excitement: "The Burial Grounds."

Hu Jinsi jumped off his bike, shouldered his long staff, and looked at the depression shrouded in gray mist, exhaling a puff of white breath. Riding a bicycle in such cold weather really wasn't a pleasant experience.

"We're here," he said in a low voice. "First, we'll farm skeletons on the outskirts to test their strength. Then…"

He paused, his gaze falling deep into the dead forest in the center of the depression, where something seemed to be moving in the mist, carrying an icy blue outline that seemed to be formed of frost crystals.

"Then, we'll see exactly what Blood Raven is made of."