The two continued along a road paved with broken slabs. Strange marks began appearing on the ruined houses on either side-deep furrows that looked as though some enormous creature had clawed them, starkly visible in the dim light of the Magic Crystals.
"Looks like there's a big one around here."
Greg silently raised his guard.
After rounding a corner, the two came upon a fairly spacious clearing.
A relatively intact building stood in its center.
It looked like a small sacrificial temple. Most of its roof had collapsed, but its walls still stood firm. A huge hourglass was carved into the doorframe, with vine-like patterns winding around both ends.
Greg was about to approach the sacrificial temple when a faint tremor suddenly ran through the ground beneath his feet.
He stopped immediately and raised a hand to signal Ellie to halt.
They scanned the surrounding shadows.
The tremors grew increasingly pronounced.
Then two dark red lights appeared within the temple's doorway-they were eyes.
An enormous creature slowly emerged from the shadows inside the sacrificial temple.
Nearly three meters tall, it resembled a cross between a giant pangolin and some kind of armored insect. A thick shell of dark purple crystals covered its body, gleaming coldly in the dim light and looking incredibly hard.
Its head resembled a skull encased in crystals. Two dark red flames burned in its eye sockets as it stared fixedly at the two intruders in its territory.
A system notification appeared in Greg's mind:
[Crystal-Spined Beast, Level 55, Elite]
"An elite monster, just as I thought."
Greg had encountered this kind of monster in the Surface World before. It possessed extremely high physical defense and could also reflect a certain amount of damage.
For Victoria, who possessed the [Demon-Breaking Edge] blessing, this monster would