Chapter Sixty-Four: Racing with Divine Melodies in the Heart of the Mine
Boom!
Without time to think, he fired a shell directly at Stammering Liu.
Stammering Liu howled in pain, and Huang Yunshuo was in no better shape, losing blood and immediately slowed. Before the sluggishness had even faded, Stammering Liu rushed forward and hacked at his shoulder with a knife!
-93!
Ah, the pain!
Huang Yunshuo’s health bar was now less than half full.
Seeing Stammering Liu raise his hand to deliver another blow, Huang Yunshuo was terrified.
He couldn’t worry about anything else.
Dragon’s Leap!
He sprang backward three meters, then lunged forward, dodging Stammering Liu’s swing. At the same time, he pressed the rocket launcher’s muzzle against Liu’s chest and fired.
Boom!
Stammering Liu staggered back from the blast, while Huang Yunshuo was scorched black, his health dropping by seventy points, and he fell into a stunned state.
“Damn it, I took my own shell at full power and got stunned?”
Seeing the bleeding damage float up as well, Huang Yunshuo panicked.
He now had only twenty-two health points left. If the bleeding drained him, wouldn't he just explode right here?
As soon as the stun wore off, Stammering Liu, still reeling from the explosion, rushed at him.
Huang Yunshuo spun around as fast as he could.
“Charged Assault!”
His speed doubled, and Huang Yunshuo, firing the last three shells from his rocket launcher almost unconsciously, sprinted ahead, instantly widening the gap between himself and Stammering Liu to ten meters.
He quickly stowed the rocket launcher in his backpack, pulled out a healing spray, and frantically sprayed himself while fleeing with all his might.
Behind him, Stammering Liu chased relentlessly, his speed nearly matching Huang Yunshuo’s.
“Knockback is off cooldown!”
After running for a while, Huang Yunshuo finished the healing spray, bringing his health back to over forty points. He abruptly re-equipped the rocket launcher.
While running, he turned and aimed at the ground between himself and Stammering Liu, pulling the trigger.
Bang.
The knockback shell went off, propelling Huang Yunshuo forward with such force that he almost face-planted.
Stammering Liu was briefly blasted back, then immediately used Assault and Leap, but Huang Yunshuo kept using knockback, increasing the distance between them until Stammering Liu, frustrated, finally gave up pursuit and walked away.
“Damn it, is this really the strength of a level ten monster?”
Huang Yunshuo, still shaken, gazed toward Stammering Liu's direction in silence.
“Did those foolish players before me never encounter Stammering Liu?”
He wondered, otherwise, they’d have surely raised a fuss.
But nearly being taken out by Stammering Liu only fueled his competitive spirit.
Today’s mining quest required him to dig up three grade-nine iron ores for Old Song, with a reward of three hundred copper coins. He had to complete the mining quest—and he also wanted to see if there was a chance to defeat Stammering Liu!
He’d landed three direct hits already, and though he hadn’t paid attention to Stammering Liu’s health bar in the chaos, surely Liu was worse for wear.
He couldn’t believe it: even if the guy was a humanoid monster, he was five levels lower—could he really turn the tables?
Carefully probing ahead, feeling unsafe, Huang Yunshuo sprayed another healing agent, and his health began to slowly recover from one hundred points.
Tracking Stammering Liu’s path, Huang Yunshuo quietly followed.
The terrain was complicated; after some time, he lost sight of Liu and could only regretfully let him go for now.
“This must be the mine. The entrance is huge, shaped like an elephant.”
The Elephant Mine was surrounded by dense, tall, tangled grass that felt particularly unpleasant when brushed against.
Outside the mine stood a group of monsters: ten level-ten Little Roosters, one of which was larger, called the Aggressive Little Rooster. Despite not being huge, each one looked proud and combative—none appeared easy to deal with.
“More level-ten monsters?”
Huang Yunshuo wiped cold sweat from his brow.
Truth be told, Stammering Liu had left him with psychological trauma.
“I wonder if humanoid monsters and cute creatures are equally dangerous?”
He thought as he looked around, struggling to climb onto a steep, awkward stone pile.
Boom.
A shell exploded among the roosters, and all ten jumped up, clucking and lunging at Huang Yunshuo.
“Twenty defense, three hundred health, high agility.”
He judged the situation, ready to flee—these monsters weren’t worth fighting. Better to get his deposit back.
The excited Little Roosters darted left and right, but the stone pile’s slope was more than sixty degrees, and some areas even reached eighty, making it impossible for them to climb up. They clucked anxiously, eyes reddening as they stared at Huang Yunshuo.
Finally, led by the Aggressive Little Rooster, the ten roosters circled around and ran to the left side of the stone pile.
“Damn, looks like I really have to run.”
Huang Yunshuo rubbed his aching forehead and turned to leave.
“Hm, a cliff?”
Suddenly, a thought struck him—the direction the ten roosters circled toward had a cliff at the edge. He didn’t know how deep it was, but the roosters certainly couldn’t fly back up if they fell.
“Haha, heaven helps me!”
Huang Yunshuo was so delighted he almost cried. Truly, there’s always a way!
He aimed the rocket launcher between the stone pile and the roosters and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
Ten roosters clucked in alarm, all blasted away.
“Hopefully they don’t have Stammering Liu’s resistance to knockback!”
He prayed silently, watching the roosters fly far, one after another tumbling down the cliff. Only then did he let out a huge sigh of relief.
“Done!”
No kill notification appeared, so the cliff wasn’t that high; the roosters were just trapped below, but Huang Yunshuo was satisfied.
He leisurely descended from the stone pile and plunged into the mine.
The mine was vast and eerily quiet, winding in all directions.
Glowing plants and stones dotted the walls, illuminating the mine—not bright as day, but sufficiently lit.
Wandering through the mine, Huang Yunshuo nearly got lost; it was so large, with countless twisting branches.
“Forget it, better not wander aimlessly.”
He randomly chose the brightest spot, pulled out his pickaxe.
“Sister sits at the bow, brother walks on the shore, love swinging on the rope!”
Huang Yunshuo sang heartily, mining in rhythm.
With his one hundred and seven strength, the pickaxe drove deep into the stone wall, making his arm ache, but he worried more that this crudely made, unreliable pickaxe would break.
“Heh.”
With a gentle twist, a stone clattered to the ground.
Huang Yunshuo quickly picked it up—useless ore!
Yet the twenty-durability pickaxe was already down to nineteen!
“Damn, is it really this stingy?”
This shabby novice pickaxe, no matter how poorly made, shouldn’t break after only twenty uses. Losing one durability per strike reminded him of that sticky net attacked by a sloth with nuts.
Luckily, he’d bought ten spare pickaxes, enough for two hundred uses—he’d finish the quest, maybe even make a profit. Time to get to work.