We're here...
West of Rhein Town lay a plain dotted with caves leading down to underground mines, along with a wide-open lake.
The monster was already in sight.
It was an Ironback Giant Lizard, its back covered in countless sharp scales.
The plain offered an incredibly clear view.
You could spot things from very far away.
"Get ready to fight."
Lu Cang called out to the others. The other three were inside the Dragon Rhino's carriage.
Lu Cang himself was riding on the Dragon Rhino's back.
The Dragon Rhino really was a powerful creature. An ordinary mount would have gone weak in the knees and refused to move after sensing the aura of a Tier 2 Lord monster.
But the Dragon Rhino wasn't afraid at all.
Kumiloni had told him that its hide was tough enough to withstand attacks from Tier 4 monsters.
If necessary, the Dragon Rhino could also fight alongside them.
It was also their means of escape.
But there was no need for that now.
The Dragon Rhino charged toward the Ironback Giant Lizard.
The Adventurer's Guild's requests included not only their requirements and rewards, but also detailed information about the traits of monsters targeted for extermination in the wild...
So even though this was Lu Cang's first time seeing this lizard, he already had a decent understanding of how it fought.
His attacks had a longer range than its own.
Lu Cang's maximum casting range was now 500 meters in a straight line. Wind Blast and Illumination could reach farther, but neither spell could deal damage.
The instant the monster entered his attack range,
Lu Cang raised his hand!
Boom!
Spikes burst from the ground, piercing straight through the giant lizard's belly!
Its back was covered in hard iron plates. A blade striking them might even bounce right off.
But the Ironback Giant Lizard's belly was extremely soft.
Since it usually crawled close to the ground, it was hard to attack its belly directly.
So... attacks that rose from the ground, like Earth Spike, were the most effective.
The next best option was to somehow flip it over.
"Pillar Charge" had proven remarkably effective.
Three pillars pierced straight into its body.
One even stabbed in beneath its chin and pierced through its skull.
There was no drawn-out, flashy struggle.
They saw the Pillar Charge split the earth, and a giant pillar erupt from the ground!
It took only one spell to kill the monster on the spot.
The three on guard inside the carriage couldn't help swallowing at the sight.
So strong...
The giant lizard in the distance stopped moving after taking the spell, but cautious as ever, Lu Cang hit it with three more Pillar Charges.
Once he was certain it was dead beyond any doubt,
he sent Zhou Er to collect the body.
"If you hit its weak point, is one spell enough?"
Lu Cang muttered under his breath.
Even now, Lu Cang didn't have much practical experience fighting monsters.
Most of what he had came from fighting Izpalut, who was absurdly powerful.
And because he was always up against Izpalut, Lu Cang's confidence—when it should have been growing—kept taking hit after hit.
He hadn't given much thought to a battle plan for the Guishe Forest, since he didn't know what kind of boss he might encounter there.
But with this Ironback Giant Lizard, he had too much information in advance and too much time to prepare.
He had even come up with two battle plans, along with responses to any unexpected situations.
And an escape route.
This was what Lu Cang had in mind:
First, I'll strike its weak point with "Pillar Charge."
If it charges at me, I'll block its path with Heavy Wall, slow and trap it with Shadow Mire, and bind it with Poison Vines...
If it attacks from a distance, my barrier will protect me from the front right away. Heavy Wall will block its ranged iron scales, and then I'll use Curse Arrows, Ice Shards...
If it mutates or something strange happens, I'll turn and run straight for the forest...
But who could have guessed... one "Pillar Charge" to the belly would kill it?
Wasn't that a little too fragile?
There was another advantage to sending the gatherer to collect the body: Lu Cang didn't have to touch the corpse himself.
If the monster was only playing dead, Zhou Er would be the first one in danger.
That might sound a little unkind, but the point of hiring them was to guard against accidents.
Besides, Lu Cang had hit it again to make sure it was dead.
If it still wasn't dead after that, then it had to be incredibly good at enduring pain...
In this world, corpses had to be collected as spoils, so Lu Cang couldn't keep beating every monster until nothing but ash remained.
Otherwise, he wouldn't make a profit.
And there was no record of this common monster being able to fake its death. If he really was unlucky enough to get caught out by that, he'd have been in trouble no matter what...
It was the month of Fortune and Harvest. Surely he couldn't be that unlucky?
These were all thoughts Lu Cang kept to himself.
If the three people with him knew what he was thinking... they'd probably think he was crazy.
Wasn't he being a little too cautious?
He even had to consider the possibility of monsters playing dead?
And seriously, did he have no idea how powerful his Transcendent Magic was, with its nearly level-200 triple casting?
If three "Pillar Charges (LV: 177)" couldn't kill a boss, what chance did another mage's "Earth Spike (LV: 2)" have?
Collecting the spoils didn't take long.
The gatherer-exclusive [Rapid Dismemberment] skill let Zhou Er quickly extract the useful spoils.
The monster had dropped an extra Earth Crystal from inside its body, and its back had produced an Earthgold Scale, a fine material for crafting shields.
This Ironback Giant Lizard yielded 2 gold and 32 silver. Of the 75 silver request reward, nearly 37 silver would go to them.
Even so, they still made a net profit of 2 gold and 70 silver.
It seemed the influence of Harvest Moon wasn't limited to dungeons.
It affected the drops from monsters in the wild, too.
Harvest Moon... what a great month. Compared to complicated dungeons, hunting Lords in the wild seemed like an even better option.
Lu Cang did the math.
A trip into a dungeon brought in about as much as killing two Lords. Hunting Lords really was more profitable. There was less risk of getting caught by traps, and it was easy to run away.
The Dragon Rhino usually couldn't be brought into a dungeon.
But out in the wild, there was no such concern.
He could even cast spells while riding the Dragon Rhino, making it easy to kite his enemies.
"Let's go. On to the next one."
After collecting the spoils, Lu Cang had no intention of lingering. He set off at once to find their next target.
Besides Lord monsters, the plain was home to plenty of Tier 1 monsters.
Slimes, green caterpillars, flower-tailed butterflies, and the like...
Killing them brought little reward, but leaving them alone posed little threat.
Lu Cang casually tossed out a few spells to practice his Transcendent Magic on them, earning a little extra experience.
In fact, he'd been casting spells here and there throughout the journey.
For example, Ice Shards had been spinning round and round on top of the Dragon Rhino's carriage the whole time.
It wasn't as if he could run out of mana anyway.
After about ten minutes, they spotted another monster. Its front half looked like a scorpion, while its rear resembled a peacock's tail feathers.
[Plume-tailed Scorpion]
"Get an antidote ready for me."
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