The Main Quest's Final Objective: Cyclops

The Main Quest's Final Objective—Cyclops

Leaving the graveyard and crossing the river, Cheng Tian and the others successfully entered a jungle region filled with towering trees.

Shielded by the dense canopy, the already pitch-black jungle seemed even darker.

Luckily, they had kept the lighter One-Ear and the others had found while crossing the river. Otherwise, the group would have had to feel their way through the jungle in the dark.

They chopped down a thick branch, tore several strips of cloth from the resentful-looking Blood Scab, then used a hastily lit fire and Cheng Tian's helmet to melt some freshly scraped resin. In the end, they assembled some remarkably durable torches.

One for each person.

As for how to find the correct path leading to the end of the stage... they had to rely entirely on the Man-eating Flowers scattered across the jungle floor along the necessary route.

Perhaps it was still Chosen Space's mercy. Since it had already ramped up the difficulty for Novice Players in terms of enemies, it had at least gone easy on them when it came to navigation.

These landmark-like Man-eating Flowers had the instinct to indiscriminately attack any living thing, and the fireballs they occasionally spat out to kill small animals were especially conspicuous in the dark jungle.

...Weren't they afraid of setting themselves on fire too?

Though he had his doubts, Cheng Tian's hands never stopped moving. As they pushed forward, he used the straight sword projectiles imbued with Holy Damage to precisely pick off the Man-eating Flowers, as well as a new batch of monsters.

They were Ghost-type monsters from the same family as Ghost Armor. They looked like miniature wizards draped in cloaks, with only their hoods visible and faint eyes gleaming from beneath the shadows.

Compared to the zombies that spawned in the graveyard, these ghostly little wizards had the advantage of flight. They were completely unaffected by terrain, and they possessed a ranged attack that hurled strange projectiles resembling scallions.

They were the kind of enemy that would become a real headache once they gathered in numbers.

But their weakness was similar to that of zombies: their health was extremely low, perhaps even lower than those zombies with blood—dried—and flesh—rotted.

Cheng Tian merely reloaded the Vampire Hunter Template and applied Vampire Killer's Holy Damage to his Whiteboard straight sword, successfully stacking his damage high enough to one-shot them.

Like the Strength Attribute, the Spirit Attribute also had an automatic mana recovery effect. With the Gentleman's Cane in his off-hand, Cheng Tian's 14 points of Spirit provided roughly 1.4 MP per minute. Meanwhile, the Knight's Throw attached to his underpants consumed 5 MP each time. In theory, Cheng Mou needed three minutes of post-nut clarity to replenish the MP spent on Knight's Throw.

But don't forget that Cheng Tian also had a Template Skill called Soul Salvation. This skill allowed him to obtain "Innocent Souls" while killing monsters.

Loading and Uninstalling the Vampire Hunter Template had not reset the souls Cheng Tian had accumulated, leaving Cheng Mou with nearly a hundred Innocent Souls in hand.

And what pleasantly surprised Cheng Tian was that the "Innocent Souls" from the Vampire Hunter Template had an extraordinarily high compatibility with the Knight's Throw from Arthur's Proof.

Just one Innocent Soul could directly offset the 5 MP cost of Knight's Throw.

Cheng Tian guessed that, due to the stacking of Templates, Arthur's throwing ability had been judged as Simon using a sub-weapon.

In Castlevania Gen 1, aside from using a whip for melee attacks, Players could also use sub-weapons for ranged kills, throwing knives, axes, crosses, and Holy Water bottles. There was even a devastating weapon with a self-explanatory name: the Time Stop Pocket Watch!

...All right, calling it "time stop" was indeed a little exaggerated. But once activated, it could temporarily halt the movements of the vast majority of non-BOSS monster units throughout the current Castlevania scene, while allowing the user to move and attack without restraint.

And these sub-weapons required Innocent Souls as Casting Material.

Sub-weapons like throwing knives and axes only consumed one soul per use. Even something as insanely overpowered as the Time Stop Pocket Watch only cost five souls.

Cheng Tian had a maximum mana pool of 140, more than ninety Innocent Souls saved up, a chance of obtaining more souls while killing monsters, and damage stacked high enough to one-shot minor enemies.

As a result, an absurd situation arose as he fought: his meter was running backward. By alternating between mana and souls, he barely consumed any mana at all, while the occasional drop of a large Innocent Soul actually caused his overall reserves to keep increasing.

Ghost Cicada was utterly bewildered by this.

There was certainly no shortage of capable Trainers in the world of Pokemon, and Trainers who knew martial arts or psychic powers were everywhere. But a Trainer like Cheng Tian, who refused to send Ghost Cicada out in order to save his mana and instead spent the entire journey chasing enemies himself, could only be described as rare.

One-Ear and Blood Scab, meanwhile, once again strengthened their resolve to cling to his thigh.

From the river island where they had dealt with Ghost Armor to the main gate of Demon King's Castle, where the stage's BOSS waited, the straight-line distance was only around five kilometers. But the jungle path was not a straight line. Even with trails trampled out by the bodies of the Kingdom Knights who had already died, the road was still extremely rough overall.

Not only was the path rugged, but a darkness that seemed to possess an evil will constantly hung over everyone's heads. Along with the harassment from the Man-eating Flowers and miniature ghosts, only Cheng Tian and Ghost Cicada had any Combat Power. Between replacing spent torches and stopping to boil water, that five-kilometer straight-line distance took them nearly two hours to traverse.

But it was not as though they had gained nothing else.

Cheng Tian's main-hand and off-hand Equipment Slots held a straight sword and cane, while two slots in his inventory contained the "Demon King's Castle Map (Limited)" and "Red Devil's Wings (Material)."

Cheng Tian had temporarily abandoned the War Hammer and Hand Axe, distributing them to One-Ear and Blood Scab instead. Considering Cyclops's size and strength, trying to face him head-on would be a one-way ticket to the afterlife. Strength-based weapons were therefore useless; movement speed and firing speed were what mattered.

The third and fourth slots held two stacked Money Bags and three stacked King Statues, respectively.

[Money Bag: Valuables. Universal currency of the Demon World Village setting. Contains 50 Kingdom silver coins and can be directly exchanged for 50 Chosen Coins in Chosen Space.]

[King Statue: Valuables. A King Statue made of special materials. Somewhat valuable; can be exchanged for 40 Chosen Coins.]

[Additional Note: In the settings of other blueprints, Valuables may yield greater returns than direct exchange, but they may also be completely worthless.]

Unlike treasure chests, which directly deposited their contents into the wealth tab, these Valuables required an additional step to be converted into cash, meaning they would likely take up inventory space.

Furthermore, the Valuables from Demon World Village could potentially be used in other instances.

Thankfully, Valuables could be stacked. Amid all this bullshit, that was at least a mildly comforting rule.

Just in case, Cheng Tian had also left one slot empty. The fifth slot contained a Miyachi Windmill that he had previously not dared to touch casually.

Of course, this was not the one with negative effects. It was the second Easter egg triggered on the second river island before the end of the stage. This Miyachi Windmill was a Valuable that could be directly exchanged for 500 Chosen Coins—one-third of the reward for killing the Red Devil, and ten times that of a Money Bag.

As for Cheng Tian taking all the Valuables, at least on the surface, the other two had no objections. And Cheng Mou, who had fought the entire way, had absolutely no intention of being modest about it.

This is what I deserve! It's my money!

One-Ear and Blood Scab both swallowed unconsciously, because the colossal creature blocking their path out of Demon World Village had already entered their sight.

Even while sitting cross-legged on the ground and dozing, its buttocks and hunched upper body nearly exceeded the height of a two-story house. Its arms and thigh muscles were as thick as massive boulders, and it wore a sleeveless metal cuirass covered in spikes.

The towering horn directly above its head, along with the huge upper and lower eyelids shut in sleep on its ugly face, had already proven its identity.

It was one of the six Demon Generals guarding the first gate into Demon King's Castle—Cyclops!

Thanks to "I Have No Emperor" for the tip!