Chapter 233: Advancement to Level 40!
Yue Zhong knew that he could not fight against these beasts in terms of stamina or speed; he had to defeat them in the shortest amount of time, otherwise all that awaited him was death.
After dodging the attacks of those two Mutant Elite Water Snakes, his right hand shot out a Bone Spear towards another tree, propelling him towards one of the snakes' heads. He took out his Stinger (TN: Finally, it makes its appearance.) and immediately let loose a barrage of 6 shots.
At such a close range, the power of the Stinger was fully exhibited: the bullets pierced through the scales of the Mutant Elite Water Snake and into its brain.
The Mutant Elite Water Snake writhed in agony as it thrashed about, managing to break the bone spear that Yue Zhong had shot out with its brute strength. However, the snake itself fell down from the tree, and it landed heavily on the ground as it continued to struggle.
The other Mutant Elite Water Snake saw its companion's miserable state and it opened its huge mouth, spraying out a dense cyan poisonous mist towards Yue Zhong, ready to engulf him.
That Mutant Elite Water Snake had just opened its huge mouth when an extreme feeling of danger arose in Yue Zhong's heart. He immediately retreated hastily, not daring to go near the Mutant Elite Water Snake and jumping onto the branch of another huge tree instead.
Although Yue Zhong had retreated with all his strength, he had still unfortunately come into contact with the poison mist; other than the areas covered by the Encompassing Body Armor, long scars actually appeared on the exposed parts of his body.
Yue Zhong's face turned pale: if he had been enveloped by that mist earlier, he might already have been dissolved into nothingness. The fear towards the Mutant Elite Water Snake in his heart upped by another notch. A moment ago, if he had been closer to the beast by just a bit, he definitely would not have been able to escape the poison mist.
Yue Zhong swiftly changed the bullets for his Stinger before he fired it at the Mutant Elite Water Snake. With the aid of his Firearms Control Skill and superb aiming, the Stinger Bullets accurately hit its right eye. As the snake's right eye directly burst open, a huge amount of mucus mixed with blood flowed out from the wound.
Blinded by the bullets, the Mutant Elite Water Snake opened its bloody jaws painfully, before spraying out balls of cyan-colored poison mist one after another at Yue Zhong once again.
Yue Zhong's Danger Perception Skill kicked in effectively again: as the Mutant Elite Water Snake had just opened its mouth, Yue Zhong's figure had already shifted in advance, avoiding the snake's attack. At the same time, he took aim with his Stinger to continue his assault on the snake's other eye.
6 Stinger bullets were fired out, breaking through the snake's other eye; the Mutant Elite Water Snake immediately emitted hisses of grief, as it continued to constantly spit out small clouds of poisonous green fog.
Under the constant exposure of the poison mist, the surroundings all became a scene of deathly stillness. Grass withered, the trees started to putrefy, and two unsuspecting Mutant Rats that had just passed by immediately died, dissolving into fluids within a span of 3 seconds.
Yue Zhong hid far away, watching the Mutant Elite Water Snake spray out the poison mist.
After spitting out a few more clusters of poison mist, the snake suddenly calmed down. It stuck out its tongue, which vibrated in the air for a while, before quickly shooting out like a thunderbolt towards Yue Zhong.
After all, snakes used their tongues to perceive their surroundings and to hunt their prey; even though the Mutant Elite Water Snake had undergone evolution, it had still retained its basic snake instincts and abilities. The reason for why it had spat out the poison mist just now was because of the severe pain in its eyes, which incurred the snake's wrath and made it feel very indisposed.
At this moment, the duration for the Shadow Steps Skill had already passed the 30 seconds mark and it deactivated. Ignoring his stamina usage, Yue Zhong activated the skill once again and once again, his speed soared past 100 points in a flash.
As the Mutant Elite Water Snake opened its mouth wide and bolted towards Yue Zhong like lightning, Yue Zhong dodged the impending attack and leapt onto its head. He stabbed down at the snake's head using his Dark Magic Blade with all his strength.
Covering the scales of the Mutant Elite Water Snake, there was a layer of mucus membrane. After Yue Zhong had stabbed the snake, the greater part of the attack had been negated by the membrane; in addition, the Dark Magic Blade actually slid off the scales, with no way of penetrating them.
Yue Zhong frowned as he thought,
"Even the Dark Magic Blade is no good? What a pity, if only I had learnt the Blade Strengthening Skill!"
When it came to dealing with the higher level Mutant Beasts, the most difficult part about them was always their scales, fur or skin. It was incredibly difficult to harm them with just normal methods. Coupled with the fact that these monsters possessed huge strength and various abilities, wanting to achieve victory over these monsters was extremely difficult. Although Yue Zhong could easily dispose of an L2 or a normal Mutant Water Snake with his Dark Magic Sword, he had no way of slashing open this Mutant Elite Water Snake's scales.
The Mutant Elite Water Snake felt Yue Zhong lying on its head, and as it shook its head around, the snake immediately rushed over to knock its head against a large tree.
Yue Zhong did not dare to stay on the snake's head for any longer. He let go and rolled towards the side.
Meanwhile, the Mutant Elite Water Snake had rammed viciously against the large tree that was 30 cm in diameter; that tree was hit squarely in the middle with great force, causing it to snap into two like a twig. From this, it could be seen how incomparably ferocious the attack was.
The moment Yue Zhong landed, he quickly escaped to the side.
Once again, the Mutant Elite Water Snake used its tongue to sense its surroundings, before charging frenzily towards Yue Zhong once again.
Yue Zhong shot out a Bone Spear and propelled himself up into the air, before landing on the head of the beast once again. He hugged onto its head and pressed the Stinger against the snake's skull, firing off 6 shots.
The 6 Stinger bullets managed to tear through the incomparably hard scales of the Mutant Elite Water Snake, penetrating through its head and piercing its brain.
After firing those 6 shots, Yue Zhong quickly leapt off of the snake's head.
Upon receiving the 6 shots, the Mutant Elite Water Snake immediately began to writhe about in excruciating pain, its huge body constantly striking against the surrounding trees as it struggled.
[Congratulations on reaching Level 39, you have gained 2 Enhancement Points!]
[Congratulations on reaching Level 40, you have gained 2 Enhancement Points!]
[Congratulations on reaching Level 40, you have gained 1 Skill Strengthening Point!]
Once those 2 Mutant Elite Water Snakes had fallen, 2 huge orbs of experience entered Yue Zhong's body; adding onto those 10 normal Mutant Water Snakes that he had killed before, the total amount of experience he had gained pushed him up to Level 40.
Yue Zhong quickly chose to enhance his Agility by 4 points. As he examined the skills he currently possessed, he sighed and chose to spend his Skill Strengthening Point on the Devil Flame Skill.
[Level 3 Skill: Devil Flame: (Enhanced +1).
Consumes 5 Stamina Points and 5 Spirit Points to activate; upon activation, it will consume 1 Stamina Point and 1 Spirit Point every 10 seconds. Its power is dependant on your Spirit, Stamina, Endurance and Vitality.
Under the circumstances where the amounts of Spirit and Stamina being channelled out are the same, the Devil Flame's output will be twice its original power. You can now also use the flame to form other shapes.]
With just a thought, Yue Zhong activated his upgraded Devil Flame Skill. He felt that it was now a lot easier to conjure up the flames, and with another thought, the Devil Flame immediately left his hand and was suspended in mid-air.
"So this really was the case!!"
Yue Zhong had seen Enhancers like Flame King Gu Zhixing and Ice King Zhang Yun controlling their respective skills without any restrictions, manipulating the elemental forces to conjure up different forms, such as fireballs or ice cones.
Yue Zhong thought of the action in his heart and the suspended fireball flew out, bombarding a huge tree and causing a fist-sized scorch mark to appear on it.
He looked at the scorch mark and quietly assessed the damage potential of his Devil Flame Skill: "Compared to the Fireball Skill, it's just slightly weaker! If I continue to increase my Spirit and Stamina, then I should be able to cause the same amount of damage as the Fireball Skill can."
After finishing up, Yue Zhong walked up to the corpse of one of the Mutant Elite Water Snakes. He used his Dark Magic Blade to pierce through a small hole in its head that had been created by the Stinger, before using all his strength to saw through and prise open the scales nearby.
He reached inside the head and forcibly dug out a red nucleus the size of a finger, as well as a small bead of blood essence.
Yue Zhong did the same for the other Mutant Elite Snake, eventually digging out the same things.
[Level 4 Skill: True Seeing Eye!
This is an active skill, and with its usage, one can see through most illusions. Also allows user to see through the level of an Enhancer at a lower level, as well as anyone not more than 5 levels above user. Skill requires one to possess 100 points of Spirit, not including enhancements from equipment.]
Out of the 2 Skill Books that dropped, one was the Level 4 True Seeing Eye Skill, whilst the other was a Level 2 Firearms Control Skill.
After storing those 2 Skill Books into his storage ring, Yue Zhong started to eat a precious Apple of Vitality. The Apple of Vitality was also a 'God and Devil System' item with a very low drop rate. Previously, when he had defended against the herd of Mutant Pigs, there were only 5 that dropped out of the thousands of Pigs.
After resting for 25 minutes and consuming all 5 Apples of Vitality, Yue Zhong activated his Encompassing Body Armor once again, before proceeding carefully towards the direction of the Type 2 Mutant Water Snake in the depths of the forest.
Having reached Level 40 and enhanced his Devil Flame Skill, only now did Yue Zhong possess a thread of confidence in confronting the Type 2 Mutant Water Snake. He wanted to see if there was any opportunity for him to defeat it.