Z City was a coastal city, with rain and wind year-round.
Its sewer system was exceptionally vast, with pipes wide enough for four or five people to walk abreast without feeling cramped.
Xu Feng walked along the stone steps at the side. To his right, sewage flowed sluggishly, and the stench of decay and dampness hit him in the face.
Though the pipes were spacious, the pitch-black darkness and deathly silence still felt like a classic horror movie scene, raising an inexplicable chill along his back.
He switched on his flashlight. Its beam cut through the ink-black darkness, shining straight into the depths of the waterway.
The stone steps were crisscrossed with countless slimy trails.
There was no way they had all been left by the Octopus Monster from earlier.
There were others of its kind hiding here.
Xu Feng's heart tightened. He stopped and didn't venture any farther, carefully searching and probing around the entrance instead.
Amid the soft rush of the sewage, faint, indistinct sounds could be heard.
The foul, fishy stench of the sewer also greatly interfered with his sense of smell.
Now, he could only focus completely, listening carefully and sweeping the flashlight beam across every shadow.
"It crawled up from here."
Xu Feng fixed his gaze on the area covered in trails and crouched down to examine it closely.
The slimy drag marks on the flagstones twisted and wound around one another. In an instant, he pieced together what had happened.
Several Octopus Monsters must have been gathered here earlier. One of them had caught the scent of the kitten outside the tunnel and crawled out to attack it.
"So... the others can't have gone far!"
As soon as the thought crossed his mind, the sewage that had been flowing calmly beside him suddenly churned, rushing like an arrow!
Several bucket-thick tentacles burst out of the water, carrying a foul, fishy gust as they shot straight for his face!
Xu Feng had been ready. He abruptly drove off the stone steps with both legs, retreating like an arrow loosed from its bow.
Almost the instant he dodged, the tentacles slammed into the spot where he had just been standing.
Smack! Smack! Smack—
A few loud cracks rang out!
The hard flagstones shattered, sending fragments flying. Several deep gouges had been smashed into the ground!
If he'd been even half a beat slower, his ribs would have been smashed to pieces!
"Underwater? I can't fight them here!"
Xu Feng's gaze darkened as he looked toward the murky water.
Beneath the surface, three hideous heads appeared and disappeared from view. Their tiny, bean-sized eyes fixed on him, their pupils roiling with a thick, bloodthirsty ferocity.
As Xu Feng backed away, the three Octopus Monsters surged through the surface without hesitation, bringing a foul, fishy wind and raging waves as they lunged at him with their claws and tentacles waving.
Fortunately, the rat hole wasn't far away.
Xu Feng pushed off with his feet and, after a few leaps, shot out of the narrow sewer and slipped into the woods outside.
"Gurgle, gurgle—"
An Octopus Monster's furious growl came from deep within the rat hole. Its viciousness made it clear that it wouldn't stop until one side was dead.
But Xu Feng had no intention of letting them go, either.
He crouched by the entrance. A cold glint flashed in his right hand.
It was a Phillips-head screwdriver.
A kitchen knife was at a disadvantage against these slippery monsters, and he didn't know how to use a blade anyway. He might as well try another approach.
Instead of slashing, he would stab, concentrating all his fist strength into the screwdriver's tiny tip.
Flesh and blood could never withstand the sharpness of iron.
Besides, the entrance was extremely narrow. Even if the first Octopus Monster tried its hardest to squeeze through, only one could emerge at a time.
Just then, the monster's round head struggled out of the hole, its tiny green-bean eyes meeting Xu Feng's icy gaze.
Xu Feng gave a low shout and thrust with his right hand. His muscles tensed in an instant as he gripped the screwdriver tightly and stabbed it viciously into the monster's head!
Schk—
The sound of a sharp object piercing flesh was grating. The screwdriver sank in up to the handle, driving deep into the Octopus Monster's head.
The monster thrashed wildly in pain, flailing its eight tentacles as it desperately tried to crawl out and retaliate.
Though its skin was even tougher than cowhide, it had no bones to support its body. Once pierced by a sharp object, the wound was fatal!
Xu Feng stepped forward and planted his foot firmly on its head. He furiously twisted the screwdriver inside it.
In less than three seconds, the monster went limp and fell still.
[Breakthrough Points +4]
"Only four points?" Xu Feng furrowed his brow.
They were both E-class Demonic Beasts, but this one was clearly far weaker than the previous one.
"Looks like even beasts at the same level can vary greatly in strength."
Xu Feng picked up the dead Octopus Monster and casually tossed it aside, clearing an unobstructed path for the others inside the hole.
But he was secretly alarmed. The power of magic was truly terrifying.
These Octopus Monsters weighed no more than thirty kilograms, yet a single tentacle could exert more than one hundred and fifty kilograms of force—far beyond the hundred-kilogram limit of his current one-handed strength.
"Gurgle, gurgle!"
Seeing the way ahead clear, the second Octopus Monster in the hole seemed to think that its companion at the front had already made it out and was on a killing spree. It let out an excited shriek and eagerly poked its round head out.
What greeted it was a sharp point glinting with cold light.
Schk—
Another grating sound of flesh being pierced rang out.
Xu Feng remained expressionless as he twisted his wrist several times. Only after the tentacle stopped twitching completely did he pull out the screwdriver, now slick with foul blood.
Following the same method, the last Octopus Monster met the same gruesome end.
The three monsters had contributed a total of 12 Breakthrough Points.
With the first one he'd killed earlier, Xu Feng had accumulated 17 Breakthrough Points.
He looked down at the panel in his mind. The plus sign beside Iron Wire Fist had turned a striking crimson.
He had enough Breakthrough Points and could break through to a higher level at any time!
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