Advancing to Three Stars (continued)
At Shen Xing's command, ten green-skinned orcs came trotting over with stone axes in hand.
"Split into two groups of five. Five orcs will stay and guard the camp. Hellscream, take the other four and come with me."
He quickly gave the orders. The orcs took a few seconds to process them with their less-than-brilliant brains, then split into two groups.
The four orcs chosen to follow him were visibly more excited than those staying behind, already itching to get going!
At the village entrance, Hellscream and three other orcs stood at the front.
As for why there were only four, Shen Xing had called the other one over specifically to push his wheelchair.
The trip would take nearly an hour and a half. If he pushed himself the whole way, he would rub the skin off his hands and slow the group down.
"Whoosh..."
The lantern was lit, and its orange-red glow spread out, instantly illuminating the area within ten meters.
The gray fog touched by the light recoiled like hairs being singed, forming a wall of mist around the edge of the light.
Looking at the roiling fog ahead felt like being deep underwater, stifling and suffocating.
He waved his hand, and the party slowly entered the fog.
[You have left your territory. Please keep track of the lantern's remaining burn time...]
The thick fog was instantly dispersed by the lantern's light, revealing the surrounding terrain.
Just like in the village, the ground outside was pitch-black, as though it had been burned through by a spreading wildfire.
As they advanced, they occasionally spotted a few scattered dead trees and some strangely shaped, jagged rocks at the edge of their vision.
Ruin stretched as far as the eye could see.
"This world really is desolate."
Shen Xing sighed and continued forward with the lantern.
The four green-skinned orcs walked at the edge of the light, advancing at a slow, steady pace.
"Rustle... rustle..."
A faint scraping came from the fog, accompanied by that familiar, chilling aura.
In the firelight, slender figures, black from head to toe, closed in from every direction.
There were sixteen Lost Ones in all, even more than in the first wave that had attacked the village.
This time, he had only five orc infantrymen, leaving him outnumbered.
But compared to the first battle, the orc infantrymen had grown much stronger.
"Hah..."
A Lost One lunged out of the thick fog, its charred claws reaching out to drag an orc infantryman into the mist.
But what met it was Hellscream's iron axe.
"Pfft!"
The iron axe slammed into its charred body, leaving a bloody gash deep enough to expose bone.
Hellscream wasn't finished. He reached out with a hand as broad as a palm-leaf fan and seized its head, his five fingers squeezing until it warped and deformed!
"Crack-crunch-"
A series of scalp-numbing sounds rang out as he crushed its head outright!
Immediately afterward, he pushed off with both legs and lunged at a second Lost One.
"Whoosh..."
A stream of cyan air swirled around his legs, and his speed surged again.
-Wind Walk!
Empowered by the skill, he closed in on his target at a terrifying speed of nearly fifty meters per second!
Cyan air swirled around the axe blade as it sliced diagonally down from the Lost One's shoulder, cleaving through its entire chest and cutting it in two.
Critical hit!
Shen Xing watched the battle from his wheelchair, secretly astonished.
Having reached three stars, Hellscream was beginning to show an orc's savagery.
"You get in there too."
At Shen Xing's command, the other four level-two orc infantrymen immediately raised their stone axes and hacked wildly at the nearby Lost Ones.
Although they were outnumbered, with a killing machine like Hellscream on their side, there was hardly any doubt about the outcome.
After a few exchanges, the sixteen Lost Ones had been hacked to pieces, while the orc infantrymen had suffered only minor injuries.
Just as Hellscream was about to kill the last monster, the fog behind them suddenly churned.
"Whoosh..."
A larger dark shape burst from the thick fog at a speed far greater than an ordinary Lost One's!
The monster was nearly two meters tall and had an imposing presence. It looked exactly like the Lost One they had encountered at the Sichuan Fragrance Pavilion.
Its target was clear: it lunged straight at Shen Xing, who held the [lantern] at the center of the group.
With their forces scattered, even Hellscream, the fastest of them, couldn't get back in time to defend him.
[Lost One] [Level: 3] [Potential: Common ★★★] [Attributes: Strength 15, Spirit 16, Agility 14, Constitution 14] [Skill: Gray Fog Pounce (Bursts out of the fog, increasing its movement speed by 50%. Its next attack inflicts a "tear" effect on the enemy.)] [Talent: None] [Bond: Lost One (activated)]
"A level-three, three-star Lost One. So this was how Lu Xiang got ambushed and killed?"
Shen Xing thought the monsters in this world were truly devious. They all liked to use tricks and launch sneak attacks.
As the enemy closed in, he raised his right hand and curled his fingers around empty air.
A huge, invisible hand of mental energy materialized out of nowhere and slammed forward.
"Bang!"
The dark shape seemed to have run headfirst into a transparent wall. The [Hand of the Void] brought it to a halt and sent it staggering back several steps.
"Hack it down."
As soon as Shen Xing spoke, Hellscream was the first to charge over, angrily chopping the Lost One hard across the back.
The other orcs swarmed forward, their stone axes falling like rain.
Before long, they had hacked the Lost One into mincemeat.
"Clean up the battlefield."
At Shen Xing's command, the orcs scattered and began searching the Lost Ones' corpses.
He looked down at the lantern.
A fifth of the dark red lamp oil inside had already burned away, leaving roughly an hour of exploration time.
Two minutes later, Hellscream returned with the orcs who had finished searching the bodies, holding a pile of glittering objects in both hands.
[Obtained: Soul Stone ×8] [Obtained: Vinar Silver Coin ×18] [Obtained: Shattered Soul ×12] [Obtained: Complete Dim Soul ×1]
The three-star Lost One had dropped a complete soul, a rather good haul.
With that, another orc infantryman would have a good chance of advancing to two stars.
"Keep moving."
Under his direction, Hellscream led the way, with three orcs standing guard around them.
The other orc clumsily pushed the wheelchair, following behind Shen Xing.
Their little exploration party moved slowly through the fog, like a submarine in the deep sea.
As they went, Shen Xing observed the surrounding terrain.
This seemed to be a wasteland. Besides the black earth and scattered plants, they occasionally saw the remains of buildings.
They looked like camps and small settlements.
There were no roads anywhere in the wasteland, only potholes, gullies, and loose stones. The wheelchair bounced up and down as it rolled over them.
Shen Xing was nearly jolted out several times, and his backside felt as though it was about to fall apart.
He finally had an orc lift him onto his shoulder and hold both sides of the wheelchair.
Shen Xing wasn't heavy anyway; he and the wheelchair together probably weighed only around seventy-five kilograms.
With the physical strength of these level-two orcs, carrying him for a while wouldn't be a problem.
His vantage point rose by nearly two meters at once, and his view immediately opened up.
He had to admit, although being carried by an orc looked a little ridiculous, it was quite comfortable, and he no longer bounced around as they traveled.
Shen Xing reclined happily in his wheelchair, directing the party from above.
The minimap in the upper left corner was shrouded in fog, with a crooked line through the middle marking the route they had taken.
Besides that, there was a cluster of yellow light at the center of the map, marking the camp's location.
"Boss... found... something."
Hellscream, at the very front, suddenly stopped and pointed his iron axe ahead.
Shen Xing looked where he was pointing.
Through the roiling fog, he could just make out a stone structure.
It was a diamond-shaped spire about three meters tall, seemingly made entirely of black crystal, with rings of archaic patterns across its surface.
[Black Crystal Tower (extinguished)] [Effect: Touch it with a lantern to relight it. It will periodically produce Black Crystal for the territory.] [Efficiency: 1 unit of Black Crystal per 5 hours]