Cursed Arrow.
It didn't deal much damage, but it inflicted a powerful negative effect.
What's more, in most cases, it could pierce straight through an enemy's outer defenses.
Even a hard shell couldn't stop it. The arrow would seep into the body and inflict a curse.
It worked the same way on armor. Even through a suit of armor, it would seep inside, reach the skin, and form a curse.
And once the curse took effect...
Rumble—
A deep crash rang out. All four legs of the Hammer-tail Horned Bull buckled beneath it.
The impact pillars that had already pierced its body drove even deeper.
It had lost most of its strength.
Izpalut's assessment of Cursed Arrow was that its weakening effect was powerful enough to leave a second-tier Warrior as helpless as a baby.
Its defense-softening effect could make a second-tier defender's flesh armor as easy to pierce as a sponge.
It seemed...
Even against a third-tier Demonic Beast, it worked wonders.
The first round of attacks: the wall blocked its path, the impact pillars struck, and Cursed Arrow weakened it.
After one round of spells...
The Hammer-tail Horned Bull was already on the brink of death, reduced to kneeling on the ground and waiting to die.
The rest was easy.
Lu Cang had no taste for tormenting Demonic Beasts that hadn't wronged him, so he sent an ice shard skimming along the ground.
It circled around beneath the belly of the Hammer-tail Horned Bull, which had been propped up by the impact pillars!
Thud!
Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud—
Ice pierced its body, wreaking havoc within.
Before long, the Hammer-tail Horned Bull could no longer move.
Its life was extinguished.
After killing it,
Lu Cang studied its corpse for a while.
Hmm...
It seemed even third-tier Lord-tier Demonic Beasts weren't that strong.
With his current abilities, he really could kill them with ease.
Still, he wondered how powerful a King-tier Demonic Beast would be.
In second-tier dungeons, the strongest were Lord-tier Demonic Beasts, usually the boss guarding the final gate.
Only a rare few second-tier dungeons had two Lords.
But in third-tier dungeons, Lord-tier Demonic Beasts weren't necessarily the strongest.
There was a very small chance of encountering a King-tier Demonic Beast. He'd heard that when an adventuring party made up of Level 3 adventurers ran into a King-tier Demonic Beast of the same tier, roughly three out of ten parties were wiped out.
Of the remaining seven out of ten that weren't wiped out, it was still likely some members would die...
That didn't mean those seven parties had defeated the King-tier Demonic Beast.
It meant they'd managed to escape.
Only a very small number of Level 3 adventuring parties, too few to count in the statistics, could stand against a third-tier King-tier Demonic Beast and defeat it.
Lu Cang glanced at his palm.
Now that he'd confirmed he could defeat a third-tier Lord-tier Demonic Beast "with relative ease," it meant he could handle third-tier dungeons with reasonable confidence.
Zhou Er returned with the spoils.
15 gold.
An astonishing haul... It was hard to tell whether it was expected or unexpected.
Unexpected, because according to the books, a third-tier Lord's worth after harvesting should be around 3–4 gold.
Expected, because it was the Harvest Moon. Of course the harvest would be greater.
Still, this was an extraordinary increase...
The value of the haul was four to five times what it usually was.
Zhou Er sighed. "This year's Harvest Moon feels like it's brought in a lot more than usual."
Lu Cang asked curiously, "Has it not been like this in past years?"
Zhou Er shook her head. "At least, it hasn't been like this in Rhein Town. In past years, even when the harvest increased, we didn't often get several times the usual amount."
"Most of the time, a fifty percent increase was considered normal."
"So... this third-tier Demonic Beast should normally have yielded only about 6 gold."
6 gold.
That was a far cry from 15.
Zhou Er rubbed the back of her head. "But today..."
"Could it be because it's the beginning of the month?"
Lu Cang seemed to recall something Kumiloni and the others had said when they left.
"The start of a Moon Star's change is when its influence is strongest..."
Zhou Er said, "Right, exactly!"
"That might be the reason."
"This year's harvest has been especially abundant. I wonder if Lady Yakartikto has descended into the mortal world herself..."
Lu Cang tilted his head and asked, puzzled, "Descended herself?"
The books hadn't mentioned that.
Well, not necessarily. Maybe he just hadn't gotten to that part.
After all, this world was so different from Earth that Lu Cang couldn't read up on every bit of common knowledge in a short time.
There were bound to be things he hadn't come across yet.
There was still a lot Lu Cang didn't know about the Moon Stars...
At the time, he'd worried that asking too much would reveal how little he knew, so he hadn't pressed the matter.
Afterward, he'd made a few discreet inquiries and discovered that many people in this world... didn't truly understand it either.
Besides, the cultures of different continents varied enormously. Given that he'd come from some obscure, backwater country, there was no real need to worry about people growing suspicious of him.
Honestly... even if Lu Cang announced in front of everyone that he'd transmigrated from China on Earth,
they'd probably just assume Earth was the name of some region on some continent in their world.
Ha... He had no idea what he'd been so wary about all this time.
But for the sake of safety, Lu Cang still wasn't about to reveal where he was from.
Zhou Er looked up at the sky. The sun was slowly sinking in the west.
But today's sky looked very different from previous sunsets.
Normally, sunset was just the sun sinking.
But today, the entire sky seemed to be falling.
Following Zhou Er's gaze, Lu Cang only then noticed the whole sky beginning to stretch like a canvas. Everything in it was frozen in place, drifting westward and gradually vanishing beyond the distant mountains.
The stars and moon emerged alongside the scenery in the east. Their positions remained as still as a painting, moving only as the sky itself shifted.
It was a grand sight.
Jidi poked her head out of the carriage. "Scroll: Stars Shift Sky Moves."
"This is the unique celestial phenomenon that occurs when Yakartikto governs the Moon Star. It lasts for an entire month, and it's my favorite celestial phenomenon of the year."
A celestial phenomenon.
When the Moon Star governing the month changed, the world underwent different transformations.
When Yakartikto governed the Moon Star, the sky moved like a scroll painting, as though an endless-length painting were slowly unrolling.
Zhou Er gazed up at the heavens with awe. "I've heard that during the month belonging to a Moon Star, they might descend into the mortal world themselves to observe the many aspects of human life."
Lu Cang couldn't help asking, "Is that just a legend, or does it really happen?"
Zhou Er gave a self-deprecating smile. "Who knows?"
"I'm only twenty-eight. I've lived just twenty-eight years, and I've never seen a true god."
"But if the legend has survived this long, it probably isn't a lie."
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