Elite Giant Scorpion Appears, Delivering a Specialization!

Gan Ming headed back the way he had come.

As he walked, he did the math.

At noon, he had sold a ringful of materials on the third floor of the association for only 40 Contribution Points.

Those items had been cheap because the Woodland was an artificially cultivated, low-risk leveling ground.

The monster materials there were the lowest grade, with buyback prices at the bottom of the price list.

But the Ruins Zone was different.

This was an open purification area.

The authorities encouraged Awakened to push back the invasion progress, with no limit on how many monsters they could kill.

The more freely they let you hunt somewhere, the higher the material buyback prices.

Rustclaw Hound fur and claws, Rust-armored Scorpion shells and venom glands, Grayrock Giant Lizard scales and bones...

The material grades of these things were at least one or two tiers higher than that batch from the Woodland.

Conservatively speaking,

a ringful of Ruins Zone materials would be worth at least 80 to 100 Contribution Points.

If he was more optimistic, 120 was not impossible.

At today's exchange rate, one Contribution Point equaled 135 in cash.

One hundred Contribution Points

meant 13,500.

Gan Ming's steps halted at that thought.

Thirteen thousand!

He used to haul goods in the Lower District.

On good days, his daily pay was thirty. On bad days, twenty.

He often went hungry, doing the dirtiest, most exhausting jobs nobody else wanted to touch.

On his hardest day, he had helped unload construction materials for a full twelve hours. His palms had blistered in four places before he earned fifty.

Two and a half years.

After food and drink, after what had been stolen or taken from him, he had not even made twenty thousand in total.

Twenty thousand yuan, for two and a half years of his life!

Today,

from entering the Woodland in the morning until now, just over six hours.

Nineteen thousand...

Gan Ming stood on the gravel road, lowering his head to look at his hands.

His palms were covered in calluses.

There were two old scars across his knuckles, left by the iron rod wielded by a warehouse supervisor.

These hands could earn thirty yuan from hauling goods all day.

These hands could earn thirteen thousand from holding a sword all day.

The same hands.

The same person.

The only difference was that he had moved from the Lower District to the Fallen Zone.

"Trees die when transplanted. People thrive when they move," Gan Ming muttered to himself.

If poor people wanted to turn their lives around, working themselves to death would never be enough. They could only gamble with their lives.

He withdrew his gaze and quickened his pace.

But just then.

Rumble!

The ground beneath Gan Ming shook.

His first thought was an earthquake.

Life in the Lower District had given him a habit:

whenever the ground beneath a bridge trembled, run for open space first. Never hesitate.

Gan Ming sprinted toward the nearest open area free of building wreckage.

But after only two steps, he stopped again.

Something was wrong.

The broken walls around him had not shaken.

Nor had any rubble slid from the piles.

The usual smell of rust and dust in the air had not changed at all.

Yet the vibration beneath his feet was intensifying.

It was not an earthquake!

Something was moving underground!

Gan Ming turned toward the gravel road behind and to his right.

The pebbles were bouncing slightly.

Then...

Bang!

The ground exploded.

Gravel, clods of dirt, and broken rebar flew in every direction.

A Giant Scorpion burst from beneath the earth.

Before it had even found its footing, its tail struck first.

Whoosh!

The scorpion tail arched high, its venomous stinger shooting straight for Gan Ming's chest.

Gan Ming had already killed dozens of monsters that day.

His body's response to attacks had long become muscle memory.

He had no time to think. His body instinctively twisted aside.

Whoosh!

The stinger grazed past his right ribs.

Riiip!

The right side of his leather armor was sliced open from waist to ribs, leaving a gash over twenty centimeters long.

A notification popped up on the panel.

[Crude Leather Armor severely damaged. Defense -5.]

Gan Ming had no time to mourn his equipment. He immediately raised his left hand.

Rotten Root Entanglement!

Crack!

The gravel road split apart, and roots burst from the ground to coil around the Giant Scorpion's six legs.

Roar!

The Giant Scorpion let out a shriek, metal grinding harshly from the joints of its shell.

The roots creaked under the strain, but it could not break free for three and a half seconds.

Gan Ming used those three and a half seconds to open a distance of ten meters.

Only after backing against a section of broken wall did he see the monster's full form clearly.

Its body was four meters long, its shell a deep jujube red.

The joints on its six legs were covered by even thicker layers of keratin.

When its two pincers spread open, they could clamp an adult sideways between them.

The most terrifying part was its tail.

It was more than a full size thicker than a Rust-armored Scorpion's,

and dark red fluid seeped from the gaps between each segment.

The venomous stinger at the end was as long as a forearm, its point gleaming with a cold, sinister light beneath the sun.

The Soul-Stealing Panel popped up.

[Soul Snatch Target: Monster (Elite)]

[Species: Red-armored Elite Giant Scorpion]

[Level: 15]

[Specialization Skill (1): Armor-Shattering Pincer Strike]

[Skills (5): Venomous Tail Sting, Hard Shell (Passive), Earth Vein Perception (Passive), Carapace Regeneration, Scorpion Tail Barrage]

Gan Ming stared at the word "Elite" on the panel, his eyelids twitching wildly.

The security personnel's words rang in his ears:

"Elite Monsters aren't on the same level as ordinary monsters. They have more health, higher attack, and more skills."

Well, damn!

This thing had six skills, one of them even a specialization.

A scorpion had a specialization skill.

Gan Ming himself had zero specializations.

In terms of skill loadout, he was tied with a bug.

But...

Gan Ming's gaze swiftly swept over the skill list.

Venomous Tail Sting and Hard Shell were the same as those of ordinary Rust-armored Scorpions.

If he took them, they would directly convert into talent experience.

The remaining four were new.

Earth Vein Perception, a passive skill that sensed vibrations in the ground to determine an enemy's position and direction of attack.

No wonder this thing had been able to burrow out directly beneath his feet with such precision.

He had thought he walked lightly enough.

But no matter how faint the vibration, it could not fool this passive skill.

Carapace Regeneration slowly restored the integrity of its shell after it was injured.

Another recovery skill.

Scorpion Tail Barrage unleashed three rapid tail strikes in succession, each dealing 90% physical attack damage.

Three consecutive strikes.

If he got hit, he would have to take three needles.

Armor-Shattering Pincer Strike, a specialization skill. Its twin pincers dealt 180% physical attack damage and reduced the target's defense by 25% for eight seconds.

Gan Ming swallowed.

Armor-Shattering Pincer Strike. A specialization skill.

If he could Soul Snatch it...

Stop!

First, he needed to consider a more practical question.

Could he beat it?

The three and a half seconds of entanglement were ticking away.

Gan Ming quickly reviewed the skills he had at hand.

A level 13 facing a level 15 elite.

There was only a two-level gap, but an elite monster had several times the health of an ordinary monster, along with higher damage.

And far more skills.

Facing it head-on, his odds of winning were not high.

What if he did not face it head-on?

Just as he was thinking.

Crack!

The roots snapped.

The Red-armored Elite Giant Scorpion broke free of its restraints,

its six legs carving deep grooves into the gravel as it charged at Gan Ming.