Elemental Bottle

This fatty has incredible perception.

Beneath the stone wall, Roger patted the dirt from his hands and let out a slight breath of relief.

That obese zombie was probably the "Red Tide Corpse Queen."

Fortunately, he had detected something amiss beforehand with the Qi Divination Technique, then relied on his lightning-fast reflexes to leap straight off the cliff.

Otherwise, there was a good chance that monster would have spotted him! Luckily, the Hidden Hero class came with the "Light as a Swallow" feat.

If anyone else had fallen from a cliff over ten meters high, they would have ended up with more than just dirt on their hands.

"Light as a Swallow (1st Ring Feat): Your jumping and leaping abilities are exceptionally strong. When falling from a height, you gain the effects of 'Glide' and 'Slow Fall.'"

Besides its extraordinary perception, what concerned Roger more was the tent the Red Tide Corpse Queen had entered and exited.

"Three possibilities."

"First, there are people in the valley, and this group of Red Tide Zombies was artificially created."

"That possibility isn't low. Mystra's cultists are everywhere."

"Second, the Red Tide Corpse Queen evolved high intelligence, developed a sense of shame and privacy, and thus only she was qualified to live in a tent, while the other Red Tide Zombies still wandered around mindlessly."

"The third possibility is rather cruel. The Red Tide Corpse Queen may have been transformed from a living person and retained her memories from before death!"

No matter which possibility was true, it invisibly raised the difficulty of the mission.

According to the Lord's Manor's intelligence, Red Tide Zombies generally ranged from LV3 to LV5.

The Red Tide Corpse Queen, meanwhile, was an elite LV5 monster.

Eliminating this group of monsters alone would clearly be difficult.

However, Roger had no intention of backing down.

He paused where he was to reorganize his supplies and sank into thought.

From his earlier observations, Roger had gathered the following information: this canyon had only one exit, wide enough for roughly five or six people to pass side by side.

There were around thirty Red Tide Zombies in the canyon.

The area near that tent was likely where the Corpse Queen had stayed for the longest, and the tent itself might also be important.

"Looks like I'll have to spend some capital."

After a brief moment of thought, Roger opened his backpack.

Inside Negri, packed full of Soft Sand Grass, were over a dozen glass bottles as long as his index finger.

The bottles contained viscous liquids in various colors, gleaming beautifully beneath the sunlight.

He took out a bright yellow one and carefully inspected it in his palm.

"Elemental Bottle (Lightning): High-concentration Lightning Element polymer."

"Magic Abundance: 9."

"Throw/Detonate: Within the effective blast radius, lightning damage 80*4; damage decreases progressively outside the radius."

"Maker: Roger."

Roger gently stroked the shell of the Elemental Bottle, somewhat reluctant to part with it.

After all, one tiny glass bottle like this was equivalent to around eight thousand Magic Explosion Frogs!

That was right. The high-concentration Lightning Element in the Elemental Bottle had been extracted from the cheek glands of Lightning Attribute Magic Explosion Frogs.

However, an individual Magic Explosion Frog stored very limited Lightning Element in its cheek glands, and its Magic Abundance was also very low.

To obtain an Elemental Bottle with such powerful force required years upon years of accumulation and concentration.

Neither the time nor the effort involved was something an ordinary person could bear.

Even the alchemist who had taught Roger to make Elemental Bottles had only made a little over a dozen in his entire life.

According to the alchemist himself, while Elemental Bottles were quite powerful, catching the enormous number of Magic Explosion Frogs needed made them far too cost-inefficient to produce.

Only a professional frog hunter like Roger could casually make so many bottles and jars.

Past noon.

After confirming that the Elemental Bottle could be used normally,

Roger deftly set the Elemental Bottle onto a rock at the canyon entrance.

Next came the time to gather the monsters.

Using a rope, he nimbly climbed the eastern cliff again.

This time, he did not see the Red Tide Corpse Queen. She was most likely inside the tent.

He tied himself to the rock face, then freed his hands to grasp the bow and arrows he carried with him.

Another characteristic of the Hidden Hero was its many specialized weapons, and bows were among them.

Roger awkwardly used flint to light several arrowheads.

He took a deep breath.

Drew his bow and loosed an arrow.

The motion flowed in one go! Unfortunately, perhaps because of the wind, or perhaps because it had been so long since he had used a bow, the arrow flew wildly off course. The Red Tide Zombies did not notice anything unusual at all.

Roger was not embarrassed. He merely lowered his head and adjusted the bowstring.

He had never been an expert, much less a professional archer. At such a distance, missing was perfectly normal.

He had prepared ten arrows. As long as one of them caught the monsters' attention, that would be enough.

A moment later, he held his breath, drew the bow, and fired again!

This time, the burning arrowhead traced a beautiful arc above the canyon before plunging straight into the tent where the Red Tide Corpse Queen was!

A rapid, horrifying shriek rang out.

Roger hesitated no longer, firing flaming arrows one after another.

Before long, thick black smoke rose from the canyon.

The Red Tide Zombies finally noticed Roger.

Amid short, repeated cries, they shuffled slowly toward the canyon exit.

Roger activated the Qi Divination Technique and immediately locked onto the Red Tide Corpse Queen's location.

Unexpectedly, the Corpse Queen seemed to have been enraged as well. Together with the other zombies, she staggered toward the exit.

He watched a while longer before leaping down from the cliff and swiftly climbing a large tree less than thirty meters from the canyon entrance.

Behind that tree was a narrow, winding trail.

If anything went wrong, Roger would escape through this path.

The path led to the cave network at the foot of Cloud Terrace Mountain, the place Roger knew best.

As someone with the "Steady" feat, leaving himself a way out was the most basic practice.

Though "Steady," as a feat, actually referred to something else.

"Steady (1st Ring Feat): Your hands are exceptionally steady. You will almost never make mistakes while performing life skills; in combat, your weapon accuracy adjustment value is +3."

At the canyon entrance, black smoke billowed.

"They're here."

Roger reminded himself inwardly.

The Qi Divination Technique displayed its value to the fullest at this moment.

Though the black smoke obstructed his vision, the blood-colored columns of qi, each varying in thickness, allowed him to distinguish the monsters' approximate positions.

The Red Tide Corpse Queen's column was the thickest.

Roger watched her with complete focus.

Almost there.

He quietly pulled a slingshot from his chest.

Among all the thrown weapons mastered by the Hidden Hero, the slingshot was what Roger handled best.

Within a hundred meters, he never missed. It was far more accurate than a bow.

"Just a little farther."

By now, the main group of Red Tide Zombies had already approached the Elemental Bottle's location.

Roger hoped to wait for the perfect opportunity, preferably killing the Red Tide Corpse Queen in one blow. The other Red Tide Zombies did not matter as much.

Yet at that moment,

that dense blood-colored qi column stopped advancing.

Not only that, she even took a step back.

But immediately afterward, she stepped forward again.

Outside the Elemental Bottle's blast radius, the Red Tide Corpse Queen actually began hesitating!

Roger wavered for a moment.

If he delayed any longer, the main group of Red Tide Zombies would pass the Elemental Bottle's location!

"What a cunning monster."

"What freakish perception."

Roger suddenly understood.

This was the Red Tide Corpse Queen's method of misleading him! She had surely detected the Elemental Bottle's threat and sensed Roger's location as well!

With that realization, Roger no longer hesitated and pulled back the slingshot in his hand.

Pfft!

The tiny pebble shattered the Elemental Bottle amid the zombie horde, producing a crisp sound.

Bright yellow liquid surged outward. As the coagulant evaporated, the high-concentration Lightning Element began drawing in nearby magic power, repeatedly undergoing polymerization reactions!

Rumble! Thunder erupted from the ground.

Lightning slithered like serpents.

For an instant, brilliant light filled the canyon entrance, only to dim again, replaced by lightning serpents darting wildly about.

Even Roger, up in the tree, felt slightly numb—he could resist the Elemental Bottle's damage, but he still felt the paralysis caused by lightning. However, it only preserved the bare minimum sensation and caused him no trouble whatsoever.

The Red Tide Zombies caught within the explosion's range were not so fortunate.

Most of the zombies died on the spot beneath the rampage of the violent Lightning Element.

A very small number of Red Tide Zombies struggled briefly before joining their companions in The Yellow Springs.

Lines of kill notifications flooded Roger's panel.

"Twenty-eight in one go. Not bad."

He jumped down from the tree.

Ignoring the remaining ordinary monsters, Roger headed straight toward the direction of the densest qi column.

Suddenly, he stopped.

A massive, bloated monster charged out of the smoke and dust.

Scarlet pus streamed all over her body. Her facial features had long become indistinct, though her skull remained plainly visible.

She moved with astonishing speed, a stark contrast to the clumsiness she had shown before.

In almost the blink of an eye, she rushed before Roger.

At that moment,

her Bone Claw, covered with only scraps of flesh, ripped through the air with a shrill, piercing howl and struck straight at Roger's face!