Shura’s Wrath - Chapter 148

   Forest of Bones (2)    

Translator/Editor: Mr Voltaire

Ling Chen opened the map of the Forgotten Continent. At the location of the Forest of Bones was a big white patch that was fairly large. Even if he directly ran to the heart of the forest without stopping, it would take him at least two hours. However, this Quest had a time limit of three hours. The Forest of Bones was also filled with danger, and the multitudes of bones had a disorientating effect that made it easy to get lost. Just walking to the heart of the forest was a massive challenge, let alone facing any monsters or traps.

Regarding the Forest of Bones, there was a short description:

[Forest of Bones]: Ten thousand years ago, the catastrophe “Shura’s Devastation” plunged the Forgotten Continent into chaos. The creatures in the Forgotten Continent were massacred such that only 10% survived. Blood and bones covered the ground, a truly horrible sight to behold. After the Shura was vanquished, in order to clean up the Forgotten Continent, the bones of all the creatures that had died were transported by the Moon God Clan into one place- which became the “Forest of Bones’. There are countless bones in the Forest, which release a deathly miasma, causing vegetation to be unable to grow in the area. All creatures that enter this Forest of Bones have perished, becoming part of the Forest.

Shura’s Devastation… it was once again the Shura’s Devastation. Ling Chen closed the map and looked forwards. The name “Shura” had long since been forgotten by mankind. After all, ten thousand years had passed. However, the effects he left on the Forgotten Continent were still present to this date.

Being surrounded by white bones, it was difficult to navigate around without becoming lost. Ling Chen thought for a while, then said, “Xiao Hui, lead the way… directly towards the heart of this forest.”

If it was navigation skills, there was no one superior to Xiao Hui.

Without any complaint, Xiao Hui ran in front of Ling Chen and led him and Xi Ling forwards. There were no paths in the Forest of Bones; every step was taken upon countless bones. Walking on these bones was not comfortable at all. Due to Xiao Hui’s light and nimble body, he was able to move with ease, but the same could not be said for Ling Chen, who was much larger. It would be even harder for Ling Chen to move around if he was using the Cloud Stepping Mare, so he decided to go by foot. The unsteady footing from the bones caused Ling Chen to advance much slower than he normally would, and he began to worry whether he would be able to reach his destination in three hours.

After walking for about 100 metres, Xiao Hui suddenly stopped walking and gave a low bark. Ling Chen stopped as well, and looked around his surroundings, readying his weapons.

A gust of dark and evil wind blew past, accompanied by creaking and clacking sounds. At this moment, the skulls around Ling Chen began to emit an eerie green glow from their eye sockets. Subsequently, the skulls began to float upwards, followed by various other types of bones. They began to combine together to create a complete skeleton.

Ling Chen: “!!!!”

[Skeleton Soldier]: Type: Undead, Level: 20, HP: 800. A type of skeleton that is controlled by a mysterious power. It does not have any consciousness of sentience, and will unceasingly attack living beings nearby. Its body is very durable and hard to damage.

Abilities: Very high Defence, negates 40% of Darkness Damage.

Attack Skills: [Claw]: Uses its claws to attack a single target. The attack speed is very slow, but the damage is very high.

All of a sudden, thirty or so skeletons appeared around Ling Chen, all making creaking and clacking sounds as they rushed towards him. Being suddenly surrounded by many higher-levelled skeletons, it would be difficult for a normal twelve-man team to even run. However, these skeletons were nothing to Ling Chen. He looked at the Skeleton Soldiers, then sent two “Ling Tian Bursts” towards the nearest three Skeleton Soldiers.

Bambambam!!

-829, -818, -830.

The sound of the first Ling Tian Burst hitting the skeletons sounded like it had hit solid rocks. After being hit by the first Ling Tian Burst, the three Skeleton Soldiers were instantly killed. However, the damage numbers that floated above their heads caused Ling Chen to be extremely shocked. With his current attack power, only hitting around 800 damage meant that these Skeleton Soldiers had incredibly high defence! For players still around LV10 with their significantly worse equipment, they would not be able to deal any damage to these skeletons at all!

That was Ling Chen’s only opportunity to personally attack. Afterwards, fire began to rain down on the Skeleton Soldiers, creating a small sea of fire. Within the fire, terrifying damage numbers rose above the skeletons.

-31878，-31878，-31878，-31878，-31878……

The skeletons had extremely sturdy bodies, and had huge physical defence. However, apart from Darkness, they had no resistance against any magical attack, especially fire. This was because all undead creatures were incredibly weak towards fire. As such, Xi Ling’s flames caused double damage to the skeletons. Ling Chen looked at the damage numbers in the 30,000s in admiration and envy. A LV13 attack pet that could deal tens of thousands of damage… this was a bit too big of a bug.

With this pet present, he as the owner would not have any problems in this Quest.

After a wave of Wild Flames, the Skeleton Soldiers had all been wiped out, and became scattered bones on the ground again. Apart from the bones, there was nothing else left, not even a single coin. As such, there were no ‘corpses’ for Xiao Hui to swallow and refine.

As the Quest had a time limit of three hours, Ling Chen did not stop and continued to walk behind Xiao Hui. On the way, many groups of Skeleton Soldiers appeared, but before they had time to even fully form, they were always destroyed by Xi Ling. These Skeleton Soldiers were designed to slow down the progress of normal players. Even if it was Ling Chen, it would cost him a lot of time to kill every wave of skeletons. However, with Xi Ling, he did not even pay attention to these skeletons.

After half an hour, a system announcement sounded in Ling Chen’s ear.

“Ding… you have entered the second district. Please proceed with care.”

There were even more bones here and the miasma was even worse. Ling Chen stopped for a moment, looked at his surroundings then began to walk forwards quickly. However, after talking a few steps, a sense of foreboding hit him, and he instinctively jumped to the side.

Slash!!

The bones underneath his feet split apart as a metre-long bone spike erupted out of the ground.

“Chatterchatterchatter…”

Ghostly laughter sounded in Ling Chen’s ear. He looked up, and saw many floating shadows dressed in white cloaks. Their white skulls were exposed and were holding black sickles.

[Ghost Skeleton]: Type: Undead, Level: 20, HP: 700. A type of undead created from the evil air mixing with the skeleton body. It has the horrifying ability to take away a life in a split second.

Abilities: Negates 40% of Darkness Damage, attacks have a 1% chance to instantly kill the target with normal attacks.

Attack skill: [Deathly Bone Spike]: Summon bone spikes to attack the target from any direction, dealing magic damage. Being hit by the bone spike has a 2% chance of instant death.

The skeletons in the second district were also LV20 monsters, but were evidently much more terrifying and powerful than those in the first district. No matter if it was the instant death passive skill, or their floating ability, they were much harder to deal with than the Skeleton Soldiers.

“Chatter chatter chatter… heheheh….”

The Ghostly Skeletons let out their creepy laughs again, and swung their scythes towards him. In just a moment, there were more than ten scythes swinging towards him from all directions. Ling Chen jumped and somersaulted in various directions, dodging the scythes. He called out in a low voice, “Xi Ling.”

Hearing his call, Xi Ling unleased a wave of Wild Flames. Not only could the Wild Flames burn on the ground, but they could also be controlled to stay in the air. Being covered in the Wild Flames, the Ghost Skeletons in the air were all incinerated. The ten or so Ghost Skeletons dropped down from the air and became a pile of bones. Their black sickles also disappeared.

Ling Chen let out a breath of relief. Suddenly, the ghostly laughter came ringing again. Ling Chen abruptly looked up. In the air, there were another twenty or so shadows hovering in the air. The place where they had appeared was right where Xi Ling was.

Although Xi Ling had extraordinary attack power, her Defence and HP were both extremely low. If she was attacked by a large mob of monsters, she would be in grave danger. Normally, when she was destroying monsters on the ground, Ling Chen was not concerned at all. However, these Ghost Skeletons were able to fly, and had long ranged attacks…

“Xi Ling, get out of there immediately!”

By the time Ling Chen had called out towards Xi Ling, many black sickles were already raised, slicing towards Xi Ling’s body. Xi Ling turned, giving a loud cry, and unleashed a large fireball towards the Ghost Skeletons. Wild Flames had a five second cooldown, so she had used one of her basic attacks. However, despite the fact that it was a basic attack, it still had a 5 metres AOE.

-15180，-15180，-15180。

The three Ghost Skeletons closest to Xi Ling were instantly incinerated. The remaining Ghost Skeletons seemed to fully realise just how powerful Xi Ling was, and decided to shoot bone spikes at her. Xi Ling spread her wings, then agilely dodged every bone spike. As soon as the five second cooldown for Wild Flames had passed, another wave of Wild Flames burst forth, wiping out the remaining Ghost Skeletons.