34: Hidden achievements unlocked, deterrence

Five Patrol Hounds were strutting around arrogantly.

Within this castle, though not the highest in level, they were the most numerous species.

If five of them attacked together, even an Ogre Warrior would be no match for them.

They had every right to be so arrogant.

Seeing Qin Tian suddenly walk towards them, the five Patrol Hounds were instantly enraged, their eyes turning blood-red as they rapidly charged at Qin Tian.

They intended to tear Qin Tian apart to display their guardian's might.

The Patrol Hounds ran very fast, their four legs vigorously pushing off the ground, and they quickly arrived in front of Qin Tian.

Qin Tian raised the long blade in his hand, entering combat mode.

As he was about to strike, something strange happened.

The charging Patrol Hounds, which had looked incredibly fierce, simultaneously let out low whimpers.

Then their charge halted, and they all slammed on the brakes, stopping directly.

The Patrol Hounds' bloodthirsty, crimson eyes instantly returned to normal, turning black and yellow.

Their raised tails dropped directly and tucked between their legs.

This was a sign of fear and terror.

From Qin Tian, these five Patrol Hounds sensed an extremely powerful force.

With their already extremely sensitive sense of smell and strong perception of danger, they immediately understood that Qin Tian was an unbeatable existence for them.

He was not even on the same level as them.

The Patrol Hounds directly tucked their tails and ran away, much to Qin Tian's surprise.

Qin Tian had not expected these five Patrol Hounds to be so useless.

This was his first time encountering monsters fleeing.

These were all shining golden experience points, and Qin Tian naturally wouldn't let them leave.

"Meow Le Ge Mi, go."

Meow Le Ge Mi received Qin Tian's command and immediately activated Sprint.

At this moment, Meow Le Ge Mi, due to its level increase, moved even faster than before.

With the Sprint skill's enhancement, it was like a white lightning bolt, instantly catching up to the Patrol Hounds.

Smash activated, Meow Le Ge Mi's massive paw was raised high, and it directly slapped one unconscious.

The other Patrol Hounds, seeing their companion attacked, no longer fled and all turned to engage Meow Le Ge Mi in a fight.

Qin Tian caught up. Although he hadn't put many points into Agility, his speed had directly doubled due to his tier increase and attribute doubling.

Even without acceleration skills like Sprint, he still quickly reached the Patrol Hounds, and his long blade directly fell, striking towards a Patrol Hound's head.

"-12000"

One strike to split the heavens, super doubled.

A huge yellow number floated up from the Patrol Hound's head, and the Patrol Hound's head was directly severed by Qin Tian.

One-shot kill!

After killing one Patrol Hound, Qin Tian continued to attack the other Patrol Hounds.

"-788"

"-980"

"-833"

...

Although Heaven-Splitting was not triggered, with the level increase and breakthrough to Tier 1, the damage also directly doubled. Now, even a warrior with full stat allocation might not be able to match Qin Tian's damage.

Because the damage was too high, the Patrol Hounds, which had been fighting Meow Le Ge Mi, immediately changed their attack target and charged at Qin Tian, who posed the greatest threat.

Their sharp claws lifted, then slammed down, directly hitting Qin Tian's armor.

"-66"

A yellow critical hit damage number lit up above Qin Tian's head. Because his defense had also doubled, this attack from the Patrol Hound couldn't even break through Qin Tian's defense.

Qin Tian's long health bar only dropped a tiny bit; if you didn't look with a magnifying glass, you might not even notice.

The lost health instantly refilled.

His health had already reached 7000, and at 1% recovery per second, Qin Tian could now recover 70 health per second.

With level suppression and attribute suppression, even if Qin Tian stood still, the Patrol Hounds couldn't kill him.

Additionally, Qin Tian also noticed that as the battle continued, the attack frequency and damage of these Patrol Hounds began to decrease.

Before, they could land critical hits like 66, but now they could only deal 30 to 40 damage at most, and that was still critical damage.

Moreover, while fighting, the Patrol Hounds kept whimpering and howling uncontrollably.

It was as if they were greatly frightened, completely unable to attack Qin Tian normally.

"Hidden Achievement Completed: Beast's Fear. Acquired Skill: Deterrence."

A notification similar to a quest completion suddenly sounded. Qin Tian looked at his skill bar and indeed saw a new skill.

"Deterrence: Fully release one's power and aura, causing beast-type targets to fall into a state of fear. Consumes 30 magic points. Cooldown: 30 seconds."

Qin Tian hadn't expected to scare these Patrol Hounds so badly that it even triggered a hidden achievement.

Looking at the last remaining Patrol Hound, Qin Tian directly used the Deterrence skill.

Because the skill description wasn't complete, Qin Tian wanted to see how long it would last.

As the Deterrence skill activated, Qin Tian's aura violently erupted, even affecting Meow Le Ge Mi, who couldn't help but let out a howl.

The Patrol Hound targeted by Qin Tian was even worse; it immediately began foaming at the mouth, falling to the ground and twitching uncontrollably.

Qin Tian waited for ten minutes, but this Patrol Hound still hadn't recovered.

He could only declare the experiment a failure.

Qin Tian took out the blade of slaughter and sliced the last Patrol Hound in half with one blow.

Golden light shone, and Qin Tian's level increased again.

He no longer added points to health and defense, but instead allocated attribute points to Strength and Agility.

His defense was already high enough; what needed to be improved was his attack power and monster-clearing efficiency.

"Successfully picked up Patrol Hound Pelt x10."

"Successfully picked up Patrol Hound Tusk x8."

"Successfully picked up [Patrol Hound's Bracers] x1."

...

Picking up the scattered equipment and items on the ground, Qin Tian continued forward with Meow Le Ge Mi.

※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※

One hour later.

"This is the last one now."

Qin Tian looked at the Ogre Warrior in front of him. Behind this Ogre Warrior was the very center of the castle, which was where the castle's BOSS was located.

Aside from the Ogre Warrior in front of him, all other small monsters in the castle had been eliminated by Qin Tian and Meow Le Ge Mi.

Qin Tian's level had risen to 55, and Meow Le Ge Mi had broken through the 50-level barrier.

Like Qin Tian, it not only gained levels but also acquired a tier.

Breaking through Tier 1 doubled its attributes.

Its health had already exceeded 20,000, and its defense was extremely high.

It could now tank four or five Ogre Warriors with hardly any health loss.

Not only did their levels increase rapidly, but a large number of equipment and items were also dropped.

In the beginning, Qin Tian picked up every single item, but later he stopped picking up anything that wasn't purple rarity.

Eventually, it even turned into picking up while throwing away.

Even with Qin Tian's level increase and a lot more strength added later, doubling his weight capacity, he could still only pick up a fraction of them.

There were simply too many.

After all, it was a nightmare-level dungeon; not only was the difficulty increased, but the rewards were also richer.

So Qin Tian could only pick and choose, selecting the best among the good.

Now, in Qin Tian's inventory, apart from essential recovery potions, everything else was purple rare equipment with excellent attributes.

However, it was a bit regrettable that Qin Tian still hadn't collected a complete set of the Level 35 rare purple set, [Ogre Chainmail Set].

He had already gotten four or five tops and pants, and two or three of other parts, but Qin Tian still hadn't seen the [Ogre Chainmail Gloves].

"I wonder if this regular monster can drop it."

Qin Tian looked at the Ogre Warrior standing guard at the entrance; this was his last hope.