“Rock-Mountain Cockle: a mutated molluscoid organism. Its special bodily fluids can dissolve minerals and affix them to its body surface as armor, forming an exoskeleton with excellent defensive properties. Its flesh is delicious and has aphrodisiac effects, making it highly favored by nobles of the Tower District. Market price: 200,000/kg (Note ①). Its bodily fluids are raw materials for various high-performance alloys and are of considerable value. Market price: 50,000/liter. Its carapace can be refined into various precious metals and high-quality stone materials. Market price: 5,000/ton. Recommended extermination configuration—six four-star high-mobility ranged mecha squads.”
“Damn! It really is a cockle!”
Feng Xue looked at the illustrated guide, not quite able to understand how a mollusk was supposed to drive a body weighing nearly two hundred tons, but he did realize one thing—
I can beat this thing!
Without another word, Demon Sword brought two fingers together like a blade and pointed from afar at the small mountain that had already walked more than seventy meters away.
Flesh Maitreya took effect instantly. The reserve energy of Suxin: Pseudo was converted into sword intent and shot straight toward the Rock-Mountain Cockle—
“Hell Sword: Energy Release: Eclipse Sword Stance!”
Along with this sudden shout, the Rock-Mountain Cockle immediately noticed Demon Sword’s presence, but it was already too late. The dense barrage of sword qi struck the heavy carapace, sending shards of stone flying.
Strictly speaking, damage of this level would not even count as a scrape against the Rock-Mountain Cockle’s carapace under normal circumstances. But in terms of judgment, that was another matter entirely.
The performance of defensive gear came down to defense and durability. The Rock-Mountain Cockle’s carapace undoubtedly belonged to the type with high durability but low defense. And under Pojun’s judgment, as long as defense could be breached, no matter how long the durability bar was, it was meaningless!
From the moment the Rock-Mountain Cockle discovered Demon Sword to the instant the chaotic sword qi sent stone chips flying, the entire process took less than a second. Yet the carapace, which had rapidly accumulated ten counters, had already begun cracking apart inch by inch.
Its soft body looked translucent in a way somewhere between a shellfish and a snail, but in terms of form, the thing resembled a plant root system that had spread countless tendrils.
By relying on the strength of hydraulic muscles one after another, it opened and closed its rather intricate carapace structure, thereby accomplishing displacement on the scale of hundreds of tons. The layered stacking of the carapace also ingeniously distributed the weight its soft body needed to bear, preventing it from being crushed by its own mass.
But all of this was built upon a complete carapace structure. As the carapace disintegrated, the mollusk could only collapse limply to the ground and wait for the planet’s gravity to take its life.
Demon Sword was quite satisfied with the effect of this move, but he did not approach immediately. He simply stared quietly at the side mission. According to the illustrated guide, the most threatening thing about this creature was that it could spray bodily fluids from every part of its body. Once contaminated, any material with resistance below a16 would melt instantly. Even if it was above a16, as long as it had not reached a24, it would still deteriorate rapidly.
A side mission was ultimately just a bonus. Demon Sword had no desire to lose this extremely expensive body because of a moment of carelessness.
Fortunately, this did not last too long. A few minutes later, the kill count on the side mission changed to 1/5.
That said, this thing really was somewhat huge. Demon Sword could not possibly move while carrying two hundred tons of materials. While grumbling that the system did not even have a storage function, he followed the illustrated guide and collected several dozen jin of the most valuable meat, then gathered three liters of bodily fluid. Only then did he look at the materials scattered across the ground and sigh.
“I used to think Monster Hunter only letting you carve three times was way too stingy. Now that I think about it, being able to take away that much material from a single quest already means the guild’s logistics are amazing, all right?”
Helplessly abandoning nearly ten million worth of materials, Demon Sword rose with a pained heart. His keen perception could already detect that something was watching him. From an ecological perspective, it was most likely something akin to hyenas or vultures. Although creatures in that ecological niche generally were not too strong, moving in packs was still a troublesome trait.
Dispelling the dangerous thought of setting up a stove right there and eating as much as he could to recoup his losses, Demon Sword set off on his journey once more.
Although he now had nearly forty kilograms of additional load, it was not a problem at all for Demon Sword, whose entire body started at four-star quality. If anything was troublesome, it was actually the volume.
However, whether the organism density in this area was simply that low, or most of them possessed extremely strong camouflage abilities, Demon Sword walked for more than an hour and still failed to encounter any conspicuous creatures.
However, he did hear the sound of water.
Demon Sword glanced at the map. Seeing that there was still no icon indicating a place to set up camp, he let out a slight sigh and decided to follow the water source to have a look. But when he arrived, what he saw was a dark-red pond. The water surface was as calm as a mirror, yet it exuded a sickeningly sweet scent. By the pond grew a kind of beautiful blue “flower bud.” They looked as transparent as crystal, without leaves or stems, simply growing out of nowhere on the bank of that dark-red pond.
“Warning: High-concentration biotoxins detected. Spore content in the air has reached dangerous levels.”
The Trauma Team environmental detection system immediately sounded an alarm, but before that, Demon Sword had already held his breath. After all, in an environment like this, even an idiot would know it was poisonous!
However, his arrival seemed to have already stimulated those flower buds. They suddenly opened their thick “petals,” and golden powder abruptly rose up, dyeing the dimly glowing riverbank beneath the night sky a brilliant gold.
Seeing the “gold dust” approach at an unreasonable speed, Demon Sword turned around without hesitation—
“Yah! Time Dilation!”
A blue-gray spherical barrier was flung behind him. The golden dust that came into contact with it immediately slowed down. But Demon Sword had no time at all to pay attention to the seemingly beautiful, slowly falling golden powder. He stretched out a hand, and an arm like the phantom of a force field suddenly extended outward, grabbing a protruding rock twenty meters away. His entire body immediately shot forward.
The golden dust behind him seemed to still be in pursuit, but for Demon Sword, who had already flown more than ten meters away, it clearly no longer had any possibility of catching up.
“That was close! This damned place—there really isn’t a single moment where I can be careless!”
Demon Sword did not care whether he had actually been affected or not. He directly circulated his source energy and refreshed his body once, ensuring that there would be no outrageous things like parasitic spores. Only then did he use the Trauma Team equipment to scan himself again. After confirming there were no issues, he finally set out once more.
Although he had already thought of the deeds of a certain Immortal Emperor before, it was only now that he truly realized the threats contained within the environment beyond the domain.
“Tch. I shouldn’t have been in such a hurry to kill that cockle earlier.”
Only at this moment did Demon Sword suddenly realize that this sort of solitary creature itself seemed to imply that they possessed sufficiently safe lairs. Only in that way could they avoid being turned into a meal by certain cunning predators while resting.
Note ①: Before questioning the price, first think about the prices at certain restaurants in Shanghai. This thing requires six mecha squads, a total of seventy-two four-star mecha, to have confidence in hunting it. Factoring in ammunition, energy, mecha wear and tear, and possible casualties, that is how the price comes about.
Although this thing weighs nearly two hundred tons, most of it is rock carapace. And hunting it inevitably causes damage. You also have to consider meat yield, habitat environment, post-hunt preservation, transportation, and so on. I actually think this price is a little low.