The answer came from three Wolf Cavalrymen swiftly closing in and hacking their sabers into its body.
The three Wolf Cavalrymen used their combat skill at the same time: Saber Slash!
Three silvery arcs of blade light appeared, striking the Mutated Ghoul directly in the back.
Three slashing damage numbers, each amplified by 1.5 times, instantly appeared above its head.
[-85] [-85] [-85]
They dealt a whopping 255 damage in total. That was even with the Mutated Ghoul's 10 points of armor.
Otherwise, those three slashes would have been enough to kill the Mutated Ghoul outright.
Now, the Mutated Ghoul was clinging to its last sliver of health.
"Let me finish it!"
Zong Shen shouted, stopping Tie Zhu, who was about to launch an attack from the shadows.
He had to. If he finished it off himself, he would get half the experience, while the soldiers who had participated in the fight would share the other half.
He hurried forward and swung his sword at it!
[-36]
The Mutated Ghoul's health was instantly depleted.
Several balls of light appeared where it had fallen.
One of them was blue.
Besides those, there was also a man wrapped in mucus from head to toe, barely clinging to life.
This fellow had probably been swallowed whole by the Mutated Ghoul just moments ago.
That was why the Mutated Ghoul's belly had been so distended.
Now that Zong Shen had killed it, the lucky man had been saved as well.
[Defeated lv16 Mutated Ghoul] [Obtained 880 experience] [Obtained Mutated Ghoul's Fang ×10] [Obtained Complete Green Soul ×1] [Obtained Ring of the Ghoul (Blue) ×1] [Obtained Cellar Construction Blueprint ×1] [Key to the Runic Iron Door ×1]
Five beams of white light flashed at once.
Tie Zhu, Zong Shen, the three Wolf Cavalrymen, and the Giant Wolves beneath them all leveled up.
The Wolf Cavalrymen reached lv11, Tie Zhu reached lv5, and Zong Shen himself reached lv6, just over halfway to lv7.
Zong Shen took a quick look. Tie Zhu had put all his attribute points into agility, while the Wolf Cavalrymen had all put theirs into strength.
Their abilities had improved slightly.
With enough time spent fighting, soldiers could also keep getting stronger by leveling up and changing their equipment.
Then Zong Shen turned his attention to the equipment.
There was even a piece of blue equipment.
This was the first time he had gotten one as a drop.
The other items could wait. He needed to check the equipment first.
[Ring of the Ghoul (Blue)] [Quality: Excellent] [Effect: Strength +3, Agility +3, Health +50] [Skill: Summon Ghoul lv10 (Summons 2 ordinary lv10 Ghouls to fight for you. Duration: 10m. Cooldown: 8h)] (Congratulations! Blue quality, Excellent Grade. You deserve it.)
Zong Shen put the ring on immediately.
After putting it on,
his strength rose to 21 points.
His agility rose to 11 points.
His health also surged to 253 points.
His attributes had improved considerably.
No wonder it was blue-quality equipment.
It seemed a whole tier better than green-quality gear, but not as precious as purple-quality equipment.
So far, Zong Shen had discovered six grades:
Damaged (Gray), Common (White), Fine (Green), Excellent (Blue), Rare (Purple), and Legendary (Orange).
There was already a basic quality hierarchy.
As for whether there were grades higher than Legendary, Zong Shen would have to keep exploring to find out.
As usual, Zong Shen put away the other rewards first.
Then he looked at the man wrapped in the mass of mucus.
He wore a mage's robe embroidered with fire runes, and held a short staff topped with a fiery red gemstone. It looked quite valuable.
Zong Shen wondered if he should strip the fellow of his equipment first.
[Near-Death Fire Mage: Favis] [Potential: Excellent] [Level: lv10] [Attributes: (Click to expand)] [Hunger: 80] [Loyalty: 0 (Original master dead; currently unclaimed)] [Uses 2 Command Value] [(Click to rescue and recruit)]
It seemed this fellow had been a soldier belonging to the unlucky lord from before.
He was a fire mage.
Unfortunately, the Mutated Ghoul had swallowed him.
Without his powerful soldier, that unlucky lord naturally hadn't stood a chance against the Mutated Ghoul. The Ghoul had killed him soon afterward.
Most lords couldn't reach the same level of personal strength as Zong Shen.
Right now, Zong Shen's combat strength was almost on par with a Wolf Cavalryman without a mount.
That had a lot to do with his decision to focus on strength at the start.
So he could recruit this near-death mage.
Zong Shen considered it briefly, then opened the man's attributes.
[Fire Mage: Favis] [Strength: 13] [Agility: 12] [Intelligence: 30] [Charisma: 9] [Health: 13/285] [Magic Value: 27/385] [Magic Damage: 46–49] [Blunt Damage: 18–21] [Head Armor: 0] [Upper Body Armor: 19] [Lower Body Armor: 9] [Magic Resistance: 9] [Skills: Fire Rain (Casting time: 10s. Summons 10 waves of fire to strike a designated area. Each wave deals a fixed 80 Magic Damage and 8 burning damage. Costs 100 Magic Value. Cooldown: 30m), Magic Effect Amplification (Increases Magic Value recovery speed by 20%), Small Fireball (Casting time: 2s. Costs 20 Magic Value. Fires a small fireball that deals 1.2 times Magic Damage and burning damage equal to 0.1 times Magic Damage per second for 3 seconds), Explosive Fireball (Casting time: 5s. Costs 50 Magic Value. Fires an explosive fireball that deals 1.5 times Magic Damage and 1.5 times explosion damage, as well as burning damage for 3 seconds)]
He was strong. His damage output was outrageous.
Especially with Explosive Fireball.
Magic Damage, explosion damage, and burning damage.
In terms of skill damage, this fellow was even a little stronger than Tasia.
That was one of the defining features of fire mages.
Fire magic had exceptionally high destructive power.
Among all mages, they ranked in the top three.
What a lucky find.
Faced with such a powerful fire mage, Zong Shen had no reason to turn him down.
He promptly chose to rescue and recruit him.
[First restore Favid's health to above 50]
"Men, pick him up."
Zong Shen called out.
The next moment, several burly men gathered around him...
Then Zong Shen took out a Wooden Bucket containing about 80 ml of Moon Spring Water.
This was the Moon Spring Water he'd taken out to trade that morning. There had been 80 ml left, so he had brought it along as a spare.
Zong Shen had Colby pry open the fire mage's mouth, then poured in half of the Moon Spring Water.
"Cough, cough..."
After a faint choking cough,
Favid slowly came to.
His expression was still somewhat dazed.
"Did you save me?"
"Where is my lord?"
Zong Shen leaned in close.
He hadn't expected him to be a handsome blond-haired, blue-eyed man.
But the smell coming off him was truly unbearable.
The mucus reeked of rot and sourness.
Zong Shen looked at him with a slight smile.
"Brave mage, I was the one who saved you..."
Before you continue