Swamp Hydra (2-in-1)

The Undead Sinkhole is hundreds of meters deep. If you walk down the circular mountain road, you have to go around for dozens of kilometers to reach the Pale Mire at the bottom of the sinkhole.

However, Bai Xiaowen and Li Shuyi, using the Gliding skills that came with their equipment, easily circled and descended, reaching the bottom of the sinkhole in less than a minute.

During the descent, Li Shuyi mentioned Bao Yiming.

"What did that fat guy mean? I don't think he meant any harm."

"Whether he meant no harm or not, it's hard to tell right now. But he's definitely asking for a beating," Bai Xiaowen said.

"Why does he insist on joining us? He must be very strong, a level 6 Hero Class, not much weaker than Qi Ruifeng. Logically, there's no need for him to force himself to team up with us," Li Shuyi said.

As for deliberately being a third wheel and causing annoyance, Li Shuyi didn't think someone who could Class Change the Hero Class would be so superficial. Don't let Bao Yiming's looks fool you; on Earth, there are countless beautiful girls chasing after him. The Hero Class is a golden ticket, equivalent to a highly eligible bachelor in the Common Era...

Bai Xiaowen smiled and said, "I can guess some of the reasons... Just now, I used my Insight to check. Bao Yiming's profession is Street Brawler Wrestler, with high strength and expertise in grappling techniques. According to the data, the main monsters in the Undead Sinkhole at the bottom of the Undead Pale Mire — the Marsh Hydra —are all large monsters, putting Bao Yiming grappling skill detection."

"In other words, the Pale Mire is not suitable for him. If he ventures out alone, the gains he can make will be very limited, which is why he decided to team up with us," Li Shuyi quickly added.

Bai Xiaowen nodded and smiled, "That's why he said we could take less loot if we teamed up. Actually, even if we take less loot, his gains from teaming up with us would be much greater than if he went solo. However, it would take away from our profits. That's why I flatly refused..."

As they spoke, the two had already Gliding to the bottom of the sinkhole.

At the bottom of the sinkhole grow some enormous luminous plants that look like mushrooms, with long roots supporting ring-shaped caps. However, they are hundreds or thousands of times larger than ordinary mushrooms, as tall as trees.

Although the pale light emitted by these giant mushrooms was rather weak, it successfully illuminated the Underworld of the Undead Sinkhole. Besides the white Ghost Mist, these mushrooms were probably one of the reasons why the Pale Mire got its name.

"Fortunately, the ground here is more solid than I expected," Li Shuyi said with a smile as she walked, her steps uneven. "This way, the battle won't be too affected."

The two were currently traversing Pale Mire area. In some places, the mud was quite deep, but it only reached their ankles. In most other places, the mud was shallow, only covering their toes.

Bai Xiaowen shook his head and said, "No, the place we landed at is close to the mountain wall, so the terrain should be relatively high... This is the bottom of the sinkhole, the climate is humid, and the silt in some depressions should be very deep. You can guess what it is from the name of the monster that lives here— the Marsh Hydra."

Just as Bai Xiaowen had predicted, after walking a few hundred meters, the two encountered a depression, a stinking mud pit that looked much like ordinary ground, except for its slightly darker color. Fortunately, Bai Xiaowen had the ability to sense things with his Divine Might and detected the problem in advance, preventing them from falling into the mud pit.

Although both of them have superhuman physical abilities and can get out of the mud, they will still end up in a very sorry state.

If you get covered in mud and there's no way to take a bath in this sinkhole, you'll have to clean yourself automatically when you leave the Dead Spirit Lake Treasure Ground Space.

Each time an awakened being traverses space, whether entering or leaving the Spirit Realm Plane or Treasure Ground Space, Psionic Particles automatically gather to repair the injuries they have sustained, making them "completely refreshed"—the word "refreshed" is somewhat inappropriate here, but the meaning is correct.

While healing injuries, Psionic Particles also cleanse the Awakened from impurities.

Based on this mechanism, Bai Xiaowen and Li Shuyi always returned from the Spirit Realm clean and free of dust. They often took a shower as soon as they returned, mainly because they wanted to relax and rest after the life-or-death battles in the Spirit Realm.

The two walked around the mud pit and were about to continue forward when Bai Xiaowen's expression suddenly changed. He whispered, "Wait, there's movement ahead. It seems like a living being is coming."

The surface of the mud trembled slightly as a huge clump of silt pierced through the mist and moved sideways.

Upon closer inspection, Bai Xiaowen and Li Shuyi realized that what they saw was not mud at all, but a crab the size of a pot lid.

[Swamp Giant Crab (Level 5)]

[Race: Beast Species / Terrestrial Beasts]*

[Attributes: Strength 22, Agility 11, Constitution 18, Spirit 6]

[Skill 1: Mud Shell: The Swamp Giant Crab's body is covered by a thick Mud Shell. Damage taken from the same area is reduced by 90% for the first attack, 50% for the second, and 20% for the third. After the same area is attacked three times, the Mud Shell falls off, and the damage reduction effect on that area disappears. If Critical Hit occurs, the Mud Shell on that area will also fall off (no need for three attacks).]

[Skill 2: Bull Rush: The Swamp Giant Crab charges sideways, dealing moderate physical damage to the first enemy hit and inflicting a knockback effect.]

"What a huge crab!" Bai Xiaowen's mouth watered slightly. "This crab doesn't seem to have been Corrosion the yin energy Ghost Mist here, so it should be edible."

All you do is eat.

Li Shuyi drew her twin swords and charged towards the Swamp Giant Crab with small, quick steps. Before the Giant Crab Bull Rush with her, Li Shuyi deftly shifted her stance, dodging the Charge, and unleashed two slashes with her twin swords, one horizontal and one vertical.

This way of dodging skills is based on the Suppression of agility attributes and Battle Specialty. It is normal to dodge them; it would be abnormal to fail to dodge them.

With a hiss, the two swords struck the back of the Swamp Giant Crab.

One of the sword strikes dealt 7 points of damage, while the second strike dealt over 20 points of damage.

Clearly, this is the effect of the Swamp Giant Crab's [Mud Shell] skill. Otherwise, with Li Shuyi's attack power, the damage dealt to a level 5 normal monster would never be less than 50 points.

"Try to attack the same point as much as possible." Bai Xiaowen sent the detected data to Li Shuyi.

Li Shuyi nodded.

However, knowing is one thing, doing is quite another. Fortunately, Li Shuyi's Battle Specialty and Suppression allowed her to easily slide past the Swamp Giant Crab's claws and circle around to its side. Her red-glowing main-hand longsword then struck the same spot she had attacked before.

This attack dealt a whopping 41 damage. Clearly, a third attack on the same spot would only suffer a 20% damage reduction.

The third attack caused the Mud Shell on the Swamp Giant Crab's back to shatter and peel off. Li Shuyi pressed her advantage, and with a few more sword strikes, she chopped the majestic crab general upside down.

"Speaking of which, I've never even tasted a crab the size of a pot lid..."

Bai Xiaowen's foodie nature kicked in—his great physique in another timeline was all thanks to eating. He rubbed his hands together, circled the crab, but still had a bit of a headache about how to cook this big guy.

"Forget it, let's put it in the Storage Space for now, and find a professional to handle it when we get back." The professional Li Shuyi mentioned was naturally He Zhiqing, her life assistant who had studied psionic cooking.

Bai Xiaowen could only suppress his strong appetite and put away the Swamp Giant Crab's corpse.

The Swamp Giant Crab didn't drop any treasure chests; it only gave Li Shuyi a few dozen Psionic Points.

The two went around to the mud pit, where they were attacked by two Swamp Giant Crab.

Bai Xiaowen summoned two Skeleton Sword-and-Shield Soldier to meet the attack, intending to observe the activation mechanism of [Absolon's Blood Essence Stone].

Clearly, the attacks of summoned creatures will not trigger Blood Essence Stone's first skill, "Blood Thirst," nor its third skill, "Killing Thirst."

Bai Xiaowen fired the shot himself and then noticed a faint red glow emanating from one half of the Blood Essence Stone. Upon closer inspection, he could also see the number storing Life Value, currently displayed as 9/97.

"Only my own attacks will trigger the Blood Essence Stone's skill." Bai Xiaowen confirmed this mechanism with a hint of regret. If summoned creatures could also trigger the Blood Essence Stone's skill, then they would truly be invincible.

Bai Xiaowen didn't let his summoned creatures attack the two newly appeared Swamp Giant Crab. Instead, he had the Skeleton Sword-and-Shield Soldier the damage, leaving all the output to Bai Xiaowen. His main goal was to quickly fill up the Blood Essence Stone's first skill— Blood Thirst— to the maximum of 97 Life Value points.

After taking down the two Swamp Giant Crab, Bai Xiaowen's maximum Life Value stored in his Blood Essence Stone barely reached 37/97.

Rumble.

A tremor followed, and a spiderweb-like network of cracks appeared in the mud pit, then a large amount of silt gushed out. Immediately afterward, a snake's head emerged from the silt, followed by a second, and a third.

A heavy thud echoed as a three-headed Marsh Hydra emerged from the mud and strode towards Bai Xiaowen and his companion.

This Many-Headed Snake monster has large webbed feet. Its seemingly clumsy body sinks only slightly into the mud. Each of its three heads has a long, slender neck that sways from side to side.

Bai Xiaowen quickly used Insight.

[Swamp Hydra (Elite Tier Level 6)]

[Race: Beast Species / Terrestrial Beasts]

[Attributes: Strength 31, Agility 23, Constitution 29, Spirit 14]

[Skill 1: Mud Shell: Omitted.]

[Skill 2: Toughness: Passive, the Swamp Hydra will not trigger an instant-kill effect when subjected to Vital Strike.]

[Skill 3: Multi-Headed Regeneration: Racial Passive. The Swamp Hydra possesses multiple heads, each with independent Life Value. When a head's Life Value reaches zero, it will rapidly Regeneration if other heads remain. Due to the presence of multiple heads, the Swamp Hydra's maximum attack speed is increased, but it is susceptible to additional Disruption effects.]

After the third skill, "Multi-Headed Regeneration," Bai Xiaowen also detected the specific description of the "Disruption" effect.

[Disruption: The multiple heads of the Swamp Hydra possess independent consciousness and vie for control, causing them to Disruption each other, thus reducing hit rate and evasion rate.]

"This Disruption effect... well, another monster with three passive abilities..."

Bai Xiaowen thought of the Voodoo Colossus he had encountered at Yinwind Ridge, which was nothing short of a brain-dead monster.

Now it seems the Swamp Hydra might also belong to the category of brain-dead monsters...

As usual Skeleton Sword-and-Shield Soldier took over. After two enhancements Skeleton Sword-and-Shield Soldier's overall attributes are now no worse than those of a level 5 normal monster, with a strength value reaching as high as 19 points. They can withstand the attack of a single head of the Swamp Hydra without any problem.

Only three of the six Skeleton Sword-and-Shield Soldier were summoned, as a sign of respect for the three heads of the Swamp Hydra.

Bai Xiaowen fired his gun, also in order to maximize the maximum Life Value of the Blood Essence Stone. He deliberately chose to attack one head, ignoring the remaining two.

The Swamp Hydra's head had only about 90 Life Value points and was quickly destroyed. Then, unsurprisingly, the broken, bleeding head rapidly swelled up, forming a lump of flesh.

About ten seconds later, another ferocious snake head emerged from the tumor. However, compared to the other snake heads, its color was lighter and more pink, and it was not protected by the Mud Shell skill.

Bai Xiaowen observed the Transformation in the Life Value of the Swamp Hydra and found that the newly appeared snake head had 74 Life Value, which was a decrease of more than ten points compared to before.

"The head Regeneration takes 10 seconds, and the maximum Life Value of the Regeneration head is reduced." Bai Xiaowen noted down these two pieces of information, then fired again, smashing the newly formed snake head.

The shattered snake head shrank back into a fleshy growth, and ten seconds later, a new snake head appeared. This time, only 55 points of maximum Life Value remained.

Bai Xiaowen tried more than ten times, focusing all his attacks on a single snake head. Each time, the snake head would Regeneration, but its maximum Life Value would decrease. In the end, the newly formed snake head only had 1 point of maximum Life Value left. If it was destroyed again, it would still regenerate, but its maximum Life Value would be fixed at 1 point and would not decrease any further.

"An Elite Tier Many-Headed Snake, after a maximum of five Regeneration per head, will only have 1 point of Life Value left," Bai Xiaowen told Li Shuyi. "Of course, the combat pressure isn't high right now; I'm just conducting an experiment. In a real battle, you need to simultaneously reduce the health of all the heads to near zero, and then destroy them all within ten seconds. That's the correct way to fight the Swamp Hydra."

Bai Xiaowen turned his attack on the other snake heads, but the Swamp Hydra actually turned its rear end around and chose to run away without any backbone.

666.

Bai Xiaowen hadn't expected it to escape; it seemed to be a bit more intelligent than the Voodoo Colossus. However, Bai Xiaowen wasn't going to let it get away. With a wave of his hand, a tall skeleton wielding a two-handed greatsword appeared, slashing down and blocking the Many-Headed Snake's path.

This is the new Elite Tier summoned creature, the Skeleton Champion, created by Bai Xiaowen. Its strength is no less than that of the Many-Headed Snake, and it blocked the attack without hesitation.