[Thorn Round Shield (Green)]
[Quality: Fine]
[Shield Defense: 85]
[Durability: 200]
[Skill: Thorn Retaliation lv3 (When attacked, deals counterattack damage equal to 5% of the damage taken)]
As expected of a piece of green equipment. It even came with a lv3 counterattack skill. Although the effect wasn't as good as the Necrotic Dead's Thorn Thorns, it worked perfectly with a shield.
It could strengthen his counterattacks immediately after defending.
Zong Shen put the [Dented Kite Shield] into his Storage Grid. After all, it had been with him since the beginning, and he planned to take all his old gear back to his territory as a keepsake.
Next, he happily grabbed the [Thorn Round Shield]. Its thick, vine-wrapped handle gave him a great sense of security.
Zong Shen had basically finished replacing his gear from head to toe. Among the lords who had arrived at the same time, his loadout was definitely top-tier.
Exploring outside still carried risks.
Just look at the unlucky fellow who had died at the hands of the Mutated Ghoul.
Having a powerful fire mage soldier was already enough to put a lord among the upper ranks on the second day after arrival.
But because he had explored recklessly, he had died in the gloomy dungeon Prayer Room.
He had lost his chance to continue surviving and growing in this world.
Zong Shen couldn't get enough of his new shield.
Holding it in his hand, he continued searching.
He reached the room mentioned in the Strategy Guide, where scattered supplies could be found.
[Iron ×37]
[Mithril ×13]
[Copper ×11]
[Refined Alloy ×2]
[Basic Wood Rune ×2]
Another haul of resources.
Among them, [Refined Alloy], [Basic Wood Rune], and the earlier [Basic Fire Rune] were all completely new materials.
All the resources had been collected.
Fortunately, Zong Shen had plenty of Storage Grid slots.
And resources of the same type could stack up to four hundred in one slot.
That was enough to support Zong Shen on long expeditions and resource-gathering trips.
At the end of the Corridor was a wide staircase leading upward.
"Come on, let's go up."
Zong Shen said slowly.
He led the way toward the stairs.
They climbed about five stories' worth of steps.
The group emerged into a dim hall.
It looked like part of some ruins that had been sealed off.
The roof above had collapsed into a tangle of intersecting supports.
Scattered stones covered the floor.
Among them lay quite a few broken and damaged bones.
After their earlier search and rest, Favid and Tasia had recovered a good amount of Magic Value.
Zong Shen took some wood from his Storage Grid and casually tossed it onto the ground.
"Favid, come start a fire."
At his words, Favid raised his staff and began chanting.
Two seconds later, a Small Fireball formed and struck the wood, setting it alight.
The flames illuminated the entire enclosed hall of ruins.
They spotted their target at once.
In the center of the hall stood a massive rectangular stone table.
A small portion of the table had broken off.
A huge, bloated humanoid figure lay sprawled across its surface.
It looked like a fat man over two meters tall.
It had a torso, limbs, and a head, but everything about it seemed somehow wrong.
It gave off an intensely bizarre feeling.
The group moved closer.
At last, they understood what was so wrong about it.
Its body was covered in densely packed cuts and long stitches.
Its limbs and torso, in particular, had been pieced together, leaving its arms and legs mismatched from side to side.
It held a cleaver in each hand, each as large as a small door.
A hole had been cut in its chest, where its heart should have been.
A short arm had been sewn into the opening.
Torn wounds covered its waist, with pale yellow fat oozing out of them.
The monster had two heads.
And the head Zong Shen needed for his mission—
Altland Whisperwind's head—
had been sewn onto the monster's neck as its second head.
The Demon Hunter's distinctive pair of horns protruding from his forehead matched the murals exactly.
As Zong Shen and the others watched,
the monster stirred.
Its name and level began to appear above its head.
[Stitch Monster Pato lv18 (Blue)]
[Blue Captain]
[Race: Undead]
[Slashing Damage: 82–85]
[Health: 800]
[Armor: 26]
[Magic Resistance: 20]
[Skills: Rotting Poison Gas lv10 (Releases a circular poison cloud with a diameter of 10 meters. The poisonous cloud deals continuous damage and slows enemy movement by 20%, dealing 35 poison damage/s) Dismember lv10 (Pato's arm in his chest can grab enemies within two meters, restraining them and preventing them from moving for 3 seconds, before using his two blades to hack them apart) Passive Skill: Flesh Heap (Every time Pato kills an enemy, he plunders a portion of their body and converts it into attribute enhancements for himself)]
(Though classified as Undead, it was actually a war machine created through evil human experiments. Evil and powerful, it could flatten anything in its path.)
(I recommend you avoid fighting it head-on. Stay mobile.)
Powerful—far too powerful!
This was the strongest monster Zong Shen had encountered so far.
It had no obvious weaknesses.
Its offense and defense were both formidable.
It also had a control skill, [Dismember].
Once it grabbed someone, they were practically as good as dead.
With this Stitch Monster's attack power, even a Wolf Cavalryman or his Giant Wolf mount could be killed in one blow.
At that moment, the Stitch Monster was slowly coming back to life.
Zong Shen glanced back at the passage they had come through.
He thought about the terrain along the way.
Suddenly, his eyebrows lifted as he seemed to hit upon a plan.
"Get ready for a ranged attack!"
"We'll fire one volley, then retreat downstairs. We'll use the junk and loose stones in the room we passed to build a makeshift barricade, then launch another ranged attack. Finally, we'll fall back into the Prayer Room behind that Runic Gate!"
Zong Shen quickly gave his instructions.
He took out the [Hunting Crossbow], already loaded, and aimed.
Tasia and Favis began chanting spells.
Double Necrotic Arrow and Explosive Fireball shot forth!
The Wolf Cavalrymen each had seven short spears left.
They began throwing them with all their might!
By then, the Stitch Monster had only just gotten to its feet.
Its wildly mismatched limbs and bloated body did little to slow it down.
It charged toward Zong Shen and the others in long strides.
Both of its stitched-together heads had their mouths open as if roaring.
But it had barely taken two steps when it ran straight into the group's first volley of ranged attacks.
The two mages' spells were the fastest.
Two Necrotic Arrows struck the Stitch Monster, dispersing into black death energy that clung to its wounds.
[-55]
[-55]
They dealt two hits of damage at once.
Next came the Explosive Fireball!
A basin-sized fireball shot toward it like a meteor and slammed into Pato, then exploded violently, blasting its massive body back two steps.
[-52]
[-52]
[-5]
[-5]
[-5]
Before you continue