In desperation, Su Li opened his mouth again.
"Fus—!!!" A Dragon Shout blasted out like a cannonball, striking the Big Finger Bug in midair.
However, reality was cruel.
Without absorbing a dragon soul to strengthen it, and with only the incomplete first stage of the Dragon Shout, its effectiveness was greatly reduced against a monster this large.
The Big Finger Bug's massive body shifted only a few centimeters off course. It wasn't blown away.
"As expected, skills you haven't paid for are about as effective as a tickle."
But when experts fought, even a moment's hesitation could decide life or death. That gave Su Li time to react.
He lunged sharply to the right, then followed with a textbook invincible roll.
"Boom!" The pink binding spell grazed his ribs and flew past. Right after it, the Big Finger Bug's dozen or so fingers slammed down hard where he had been standing, sending dirt flying.
But it had missed!
"Pipi Axe! Use Whirlwind Slash!"
"Roar!!!"
The flames around Pipi Axe's neck, which had been ready to strike, blazed fiercely. He spun into the fight like a top, his Double-Edged Battle Axe carving a series of marks across the Fingercreeper's gray-white hide.
"Clang, clang, clang!"
Though he couldn't fully pierce the Big Finger Bug's thick hide, the tremendous impact made its whole body tremble and noticeably slowed its movements.
Pipi Finger also pounced on it with extraordinary courage. Though they were worlds apart in size, he clung tightly to one of the Big Finger Bug's pinkies and strained to bend it outward.
Like that, a man and a finger held the colossal monster in a desperate struggle.
Su Li climbed to his feet and looked at the stalemate with a troubled expression.
"Too bad I don't have any decent fire magic. Fingercreepers may have thick hides, but they're extremely weak to fire. If I had a Fireball Technique, this thing would've turned into roasted pig's trotter already."
"To deal with it, I need fire. To deal with the Flame Dragon Lizard, I have to take care of it first. Isn't this damn thing just a vicious cycle?"
Though the situation was frustrating, this Big Finger Bug was only an Elite Monster. It wasn't strong enough to be invincible.
Su Li took a deep breath. The moment the Big Finger Bug focused its aggro on Pipi Axe, he raised one foot high...
"Take another one of my kicks! War Stomp!!"
"Rumble!" Dozens of sharp Bone Spikes burst out of the ground beneath the Big Finger Bug, stabbing it until it looked like a pincushion.
[Rot Value full! Crimson Corruption triggered!]
Dark red effects surged into the air. The Big Finger Bug let out a heartrending shriek, and its movements instantly weakened.
"It got hit with Crimson Corruption? Great, that makes things easy!" Su Li breathed a sigh of relief and charged forward with his Corrupted Iron Sword in hand.
"Strike while you're down and finish you off!"
The fight that followed turned into a one-sided beatdown. Under attack from all three sides, the once-arrogant Big Finger Bug finally used up the last of its health bar and fell to the ground in defeat.
[Successfully killed a Large Fingercreeper, gained Experience +120, Spirit +1, Strength +1]
"Phew..." Su Li wiped away sweat that wasn't there.
The next step was the most important. He walked over to the battlefield and gave each Fingercreeper corpse lying across the ground a finishing stab.
"Rise, my warriors!"
A few minutes later, a grating scraping sound rang out.
Six Medium Finger Bugs staggered to their feet, followed by four Small Finger Bugs.
Their gray-white skin had turned dark red, clearly transformed into corrupted creatures.
But the largest Fingercreeper alone lay motionless.
"Tsk, what a shame. The enslavement chance for an Elite Monster like this is still too low." Su Li shook his head in disappointment.
He looked at the purple ring on the Big Finger Bug's middle finger and had a sudden idea. "Pipi Finger, go take that ring off and try wearing it!"
Pipi Finger struggled to put the ring on his own hand. He waved it around and even spun in a circle, but apart from looking a little better, it had no effect at all.
"Looks like I can't use it for now." Su Li sighed and gave up.
The ten new minions had joined him just then, and he gave them an order.
"Alright, you ten, go wait in the Corrupted Cave! Don't embarrass yourselves here."
Watching the ten newly recruited underlings crawl away in a grand procession, Su Li felt a little like a Legion Commander.
"Now for the main event. Pipi Finger, Pipi Axe, let's go! We're heading to the slimes' territory to stock up!"
The place was still as peaceful as ever: a glowing blue Mushroom Jungle, clear lake water, and groups of blue jellies bouncing around by the shore.
"Heh, who'd have thought there'd be a place this sunny in the gloomy Undead Mountain Range?" Su Li chuckled.
"But the more normal a place looks, the more sinister it really is." Su Li focused his gaze.
If you ignored the half of each slime's body made up of frantically writhing flesh tentacles, along with the dozens of blood-red eyeballs staring at you, then they were pretty cute.
"These things are practically born to be Suicide Trucks."
The strategy was simple. Pipi Axe would tank and gather the monsters, Pipi Finger would harass them, and Su Li would use [War Stomp] and his Corrupted Iron Sword to finish them off.
"Let the farming begin!"
[Defeated Abyssal Corroding Slime (Small), Experience +100] [Defeated Abyssal Corroding Slime (Medium), Experience +150, Spirit +1]
The kill notifications rang out one after another in Su Li's ears, more beautiful than the sweetest music in the world.
For nearly half a day, Su Li slaughtered almost every slime in the area.
[Total Experience gained: 5000 points, Strength +10, Spirit +6] [Basic Swordsmanship proficiency +200 (Lv3), Swordsman (Lv1) Class Proficiency +20]
Golden pillars of light flashed in succession!
[Level: Lv6 → Lv8, Current Experience: 860/6400] [Strength: 36 → 46, Spirit: 26 → 32] [Free Attribute Points gained +6]
Su Li waved his bony hand and distributed the points.
[Constitution: 27 → 30, Agility: 15 → 18]
"Awesome!!" Su Li looked at his soaring stats and felt like he could punch a cow to death.
"I'm almost level 10! Then I'll be able to evolve again!"
"And these Abyssal monsters give so much experience. I almost want to level up to 100 here before heading back out."
Unfortunately, his dreams were grand, but reality was harsh.
As his level rose, Su Li found that the experience he gained from killing low-level slimes began to drop sharply.
And the most frustrating part was that the [World Module] had no effect on these Abyssal Corroding creatures, so he couldn't spawn any new ones.
"Fair enough. If you could endlessly farm high-experience monsters like these, the game would've been hit by inflation ages ago." Su Li reluctantly accepted the limitation.
By then, the battlefield was a complete mess.
And in the middle of that mess, a true "SAN-Dropping Legion" had risen.
A full twenty-five Abyssal Corroding Slimes! They wobbled into formation in front of Su Li.
The left half of each body was a writhing mass of flesh tentacles and rolling eyeballs; the right half was dark red corrupted jelly, still dripping viscous venom.
Each one made a strange "squelch, squelch" noise.
Even Su Li felt a little nauseated just looking at them.
"If these things charge into a crowd and blow up... Tsk, that'd be quite a sight."
"Heh heh, Flame Dragon Lizard! My army is at your gates. Are you going to surrender and disarm?"
Meanwhile, the Flame Dragon Lizard, which was devouring a Wild Boar, suddenly sneezed.
It stared at the meat it had singed black and fell into deep thought.
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