Golden flames spread forward from the blonde girl's sword tip, surging beneath the Cyclops's feet and turning the slow-moving red-skinned giant into a dancing giant draped in golden fire.
"Leave it to me!"
The Fire Elemental player, seeing the Mindless Ogre's health nearly depleted, immediately shamelessly rushed forward and used Flame Jet, his racial talent, to deliver the final blow to the poor giant.
Aperria sheathed her sword. Beneath her helmet, she let out a soft breath and paid no mind to the Chosen One stealing her prey.
Because she knew that only the Chosen Ones could truly kill these monsters.
Although after the Chosen Ones killed monsters, the corruption scattered across the land would soon condense into new monsters again.
Still, they were like ants gnawing on a giant. Having the Chosen Ones finish off the monsters was better than her own futile efforts.
If the corruption in Broken Sword Valley were compared to a vast inland lake with no source.
Then every monster the Chosen Ones killed would slightly dilute the surrounding corruption, like scooping a ladle of water from the lake.
The corruption in Misty Forest, however, was more like a river with a source.
When the Chosen Ones killed monsters here, the surrounding corruption would likewise decrease slightly, but before long, it would be replenished from some unknown source.
Aperria did not know the reason.
However, the knights traveling with her already had a rough guess.
Unlike Aperria, who had spent the past two days practically glued to the Creator God's side and had done almost nothing useful.
The others in the Knight Order had gathered plenty of intelligence on the Thirteen City Alliance before leaving Iron Wall City.
They knew that the evil god entrenched in Broken Sword Valley had died, and they had also learned that an Underground Auction involving the evil god's flesh and blood was about to be held on the Black Market.
Thus, the knights concluded that the source of Broken Sword Valley's corruption was that dead evil god.
If that was truly the case...
Then these Chosen Ones might be able to temporarily clear the monsters around the village.
But to completely resolve the corruption around the village, they might first need to kill the evil god sealed beneath it.
After realizing this, the Knight Order began considering how to persuade the village blacksmiths to abandon the natural Geothermal Furnace there and move with the Saintess Sisters to the safer Iron Wall City.
Unlike the troubled NPCs, most of the players lying sprawled all over the ground had already left this world.
They had spent an entire day traveling in the game, which translated to wearing their Holographic Helmets continuously for eight hours in reality. Although many wanted to keep grinding, their Yellow Bars had run dry, so the Anti-addiction System forced them offline.
Looking at these completely defenseless Chosen Ones, Aperria sighed again. For the first time, she began to doubt the Lord's words.
The Lord had said that these Chosen Ones from another world possessed remarkable talent in battle.
Yet every monster crippled by the Knight Order along the way would provoke the Chosen Ones into a mad scramble, heedless of their own safety. Several times, it had nearly caused casualties.
And because of disputes over prey, these Chosen Ones had nearly come to blows.
Worse still, several restless Chosen Ones deliberately lured powerful monsters from nests along the road, exhausting the Knight Order and slowing the entire group's advance.
These people did not resemble trained warriors. They were more like a group of unruly children who loved causing trouble and had no sense of restraint.
"Your Holiness, I've gathered enough power. Creator God above, could you help me level up?"
As Aperria rested beside the campfire, the Fire Elemental Chosen One who had just killed a monster approached her and extended his blazing palm.
Aperria tilted her head slightly and stared at the Fire Elemental's hand for several seconds before finally removing her knight's gauntlet and taking hold of the Chosen One, whose body temperature reached eight hundred degrees.
As a newly born Lv1 Fire Elemental, Three Stages of Fighting Spirit's notification panel was flooded with damage dealt to Unsealing Saintess Aperia.
At the same time, Aperria's already low favorability was plummeting.
Three Stages of Fighting Spirit did not dare waste time. He quickly spent all his stored Experience Points, rose to level 7, and released Aperria's severely burned hand.
Aperria shook her hand, enduring the pain as she put her gauntlet back on. Beneath her helmet, her pretty face was filled with exhaustion.
She had already fought at high intensity for an entire day. Not only did she have to avoid the dangerous monsters along the road and babysit these Chosen Ones, but she also had to face wave after wave of monsters while keeping watch at night.
—Just like now.
"ROAR!!!"
Making no attempt to hide its presence, another Ogre emerged from behind the bushes.
With his player interface, Three Stages of Fighting Spirit immediately scanned the monster's data. A joy that ordinary creatures could not understand appeared on his flame-made face.
This was an Elite Monster!
Glock Bloodthroat Level: 57 Rank: Silver Health: 63000/63000 Traits: Berserk, Magic Resistance, Savage Regeneration, Brute Force, Curse Resistance, Attribute Resistance, Poison Resistance (Expand+) Skills: Petrifying Ray, Blood Burst Battle Cry, Curse Spell, Brute Force Enhancement, Armor Break Strike, Bone Shatter Charge (Expand+) Kill Experience: 29550 Drops: Glock's Greatclub, Ogre Teeth, Ogre Eyeball, Barbarian Codex (Expand+)
Naturally, a level 7 character like Three Stages of Fighting Spirit could not scan that much information.
But he only needed the monster's name to search the encyclopedia in the background and instantly learn even its drops and kill experience.
It was known that Experience Points drops in the Second Playthrough were twice those of the first.
So as long as he snatched this Elite Monster, he could gain fifty-nine thousand Experience Points and soar straight to the top. Ah, soar!
But for Aperria, who was carrying the burden, there was nothing to be happy about.
A group of Chosen Ones were still lying dead asleep in the temporary camp, while the Knight Order was conserving their strength according to plan. She could not let this Ogre, whose aura was completely different from the rest, advance any farther.
Aperria charged forward in a single stride. As she closed in on Glock Bloodthroat, she nimbly shifted to the right, dodging the greatclub smashing down at her, then followed up with an upward slash.
"Pfft!"
Her blade successfully cut into the Ogre's abdomen. Aperria immediately followed with a combo, gathering all the surrounding light at her sword tip and igniting holy flames inside the Ogre's body!
"ROAR—!!!"
The heavily wounded Ogre suddenly roared. Terrifying blood-red soundwaves struck Aperria head-on, blasting her backward through the air.
Before Aperria could land, the Ogre bent its knees slightly and immediately launched Bone Shatter Charge. At the cost of shattering its own knees, it erupted with speed too fast for the naked eye to follow and caught up to Aperria while she was still airborne.
Glock Bloodthroat raised his massive club and brought down an Armor Break Strike enhanced by Brute Force Enhancement.
Having lost any point of leverage, Aperria could not dodge and could only raise her sword to block.
BOOM!!!
Aperria felt an immense force travel through her blade and into every bone in her body.
"Urgh!" She groaned in pain, nearly passing out.
The blow, carrying tremendous armor penetration, slammed her into the ground and blasted out a huge crater!
The next instant, gray light gathered within the Ogre's enormous single eye—the glow of Petrifying Ray.