nycdaug Chapter 137 New Map: Sunset Heights!
Chapter 137 New Map: Sunset Heights!
A strong feeling of weightlessness washed over me.
Jiang Ming felt as if he had been stuffed into a washing machine, surrounded by distorted light and shadow.
I don't know how much time has passed.
boom!
He crashed heavily onto the hard ground.
"Cough cough..."
Jiang Ming struggled to sit up. His armor was shattered and covered in burn marks from lightning and fire.
He looked around.
This is no longer a repressive underground mine, nor is it a city filled with the smell of engine oil like Ash Fortress.
In the distance, there are rolling mountains, and the sky is a strange pale purple, with two huge red suns hanging in the west.
The air was filled with a fresh scent of grass and trees, but this scent was mixed with a faint smell of blood.
"Brother Jiang! Are you alright?"
Chen Qi and his special operations team ran over, while Marlowe and Ellie slumped to the side, clearly still reeling from the cross-dimensional teleportation.
Jiang Ming waved his hand, indicating that he wouldn't die.
He opened the panel.
You have left the Ash Fortress area.
[Current Location: Sunset Heights - Exiled Wasteland (Lv.15-Lv.25)]
[Warning: You have entered alien territory. Please conceal your identity.]
"A dungeon for levels 15-25?" Jiang Ming frowned.
He turned off the panel notification on his retina, grabbed the severely deformed metal breastplate on his chest with his other hand, and yanked it hard.
With a piercing metallic tearing sound, the Silver Knight Full Armor that had once shielded him from countless fatal attacks was completely destroyed.
Pieces of charred metal shards crashed to the ground, raising a cloud of dust.
After shedding his cumbersome junk, Jiang Ming stretched his neck, his joints cracking like popping beans.
His strength attribute of 35 points did not make his muscles bulky like those of berserkers; instead, they were extremely firm and streamlined.
The skin even faintly glowed with a metallic sheen, a physical transformation brought about by the "Iron Will".
"Brother Jiang, have we escaped?" Chen Qi asked, holding his rifle and warily scanning the surrounding wilderness.
The special operations team members immediately dispersed, forming a standard circular defensive formation.
"I guess so." Jiang Ming took out a bottle of basic healing potion from his storage card and gulped it down.
The cool liquid flowed down his throat, and the hidden injuries caused by the explosion began to heal rapidly.
Marlowe slumped to the ground, panting heavily, his once neatly combed hair now resembling a bird's nest.
"Madman...you're a complete and utter madman..." Marlowe pointed at Jiang Ming, his fingers trembling. "That's Augustus! The absolute ruler of Ash Fortress! You actually blew up the teleportation array right in front of him!"
Jiang Ming walked over and kicked the old man without any politeness: "Stop talking nonsense. Since you didn't die in there, it means my plan was perfect. Now, tell me what kind of hellish place this is."
"Sunset Heights, the desolate wasteland." Marlowe swallowed hard, looking around at the pale purple sky and barren landscape, his face even more grim than when he had faced Augustus.
"What's wrong with this place? Is the feng shui bad?" Chen Qi interjected.
"It's more than just bad feng shui! This is a paradise for alien races!" Marlowe whispered, afraid of disturbing something. "Orcs, trolls, goblin bandits, and those fallen ones banished from human city-states—they all roam this wasteland. They're extremely xenophobic, especially towards us humans. If you're discovered, your fate is worse than death!"
Ellie, the half-elf who had been silent the whole time, was now clutching the hem of her clothes tightly, her long ears twitching anxiously.
"Can you smell it?" Jiang Ming suddenly sniffed.
Chen Qi paused for a moment, then quickly sniffed the air carefully: "It seems... there's a faint fishy smell?"
"It's not that it's gone cold, it's that the wind has changed." Jiang Ming gripped the hilt of the [Hellfire and Thunder Prison] sword stuck in the ground with his other hand.
No sooner had he finished speaking than a rustling sound suddenly came from the waist-high withered grass a few hundred meters ahead.
Immediately afterwards, more than a dozen gray-brown shadows suddenly darted out and rushed toward the group at an extremely fast speed.
【Wilderness Raketooth Wolf (Lv.17)】
[Danger Level: Medium]
[Characteristics: Pack hunting, incredible bite force, bloodthirsty ferocity.]
"Enemy attack!" Chen Qi shouted, and the special operations team members instantly raised their guns and aimed.
Da da da da!
Dense tongues of fire spewed out.
The bullets struck the two front-line wolves, producing a dull thud similar to hitting leather.
The wolves were only knocked back a few steps, shook their heads, and did not slow down at all.
"These bastards are too thick-skinned! The rifle's penetration power isn't enough!" Chen Qi gritted his teeth.
"Step back, save your bullets." Jiang Ming strode forward.
Instead of drawing the conspicuous epic greatsword, he casually picked up a fragment of silver breastplate that had just been peeled off his body and weighed it in his hand.
The first Razortooth Wolf had already pounced close, its gaping maw revealing two rows of intricate, pale fangs aimed straight for Jiang Ming's throat.
Instead of retreating, Jiang Ming advanced, stomping his left leg forward so hard that it created a large crater in the ground.
He gripped the metal fragment in his right hand and, using the twisting motion of his waist, slapped it hard across the wolf's head in mid-air, like a slap across the face.
boom!
A dull thud that made your teeth ache.
35 points of power erupted without reservation.
The wolf, which was over two meters long and weighed several hundred kilograms, didn't even have time to scream before its entire head was dented by the metal fragment.
Its massive body flew out like a tattered sack, knocking over two of its companions that were following behind, rolling more than ten meters away on the ground before finally coming to a complete stop.
Marlowe's jaw nearly dropped to the ground.
Take a piece of scrap iron and slap a Lv.17 Wasteland Cracktooth Wolf to death?
Is this something a human being could do?
The remaining Cracktooth Wolves were shocked by the death of their companions, and their eyes instantly turned blood red, triggering the [Bloodlust Frenzy] trait.
They immediately dispersed, attempting to encircle Jiang Ming from all sides.
"You're asking for it." Jiang Ming sneered.
He pushed off with his feet, transforming into a blur as he charged into the wolf pack.
There were no fancy martial arts techniques whatsoever; it was pure, unadulterated brute force.
He threw a left punch, smashing the spine of a wolf.
With a sweeping right leg, he broke all the ribs of the other wolf.
In less than half a minute, more than a dozen Lv.17 Wasteland Razor Wolves were reduced to a pile of remains.
The smell of blood in the air instantly became ten times stronger.
[Defeat the Wasteland Rending Wolf (Lv.17) to gain 850 experience points.]
[Defeat the Wasteland Rending Wolf (Lv.17) to gain 850 experience points.]
……
Jiang Ming shook the blood off his hands, walked to the carcass of the largest alpha wolf, squatted down, and began to search the corpse.
[Received: 3 tattered wolf pelts]
[Obtained: 2 Hardened Leg Bones of a Razortooth Wolf]
[Received: 1 Weak Magic Crystal]
Jiang Ming looked at the pile of spoils, then at his bare upper body.
Although I have strong physical defenses, I can't always run around naked; it would be too embarrassing.
"Synthesize," Jiang Ming murmured to himself.
He threw the pile of scrapped Silver Knight full armor fragments, the hard leg bone of the Cracktooth Wolf that he had just found, and the faint magic crystal into the slot on the crafting panel.
[A synthesizable material has been detected; formula development is underway...]
[Synthesis plan established, consuming 20 points of mental energy.]
A faint white light flashed by.
The original pile of rubble disappeared, replaced by a rugged-looking half-body armor that exuded a fierce aura.
【Wolf Bone Composite Breastplate (Blue - Rare)】
[Attributes: Defense +15, Constitution +2.]
[Features: Lightweight (40% weight reduction without affecting agility).]
[Description: This is a crudely made armor pieced together from silver fragments using the bones of high-level monsters. Although it's ugly, it's very practical.]
Jiang Ming simply put the breastplate on.
The white wolf bones intertwined with the silver metal, perfectly protecting vital organs such as the heart and abdomen.
With the dark red [Hellfire Thunder Prison] in his hand, he looked exactly like a berserker who had crawled out of the abyss.
"Brother Jiang, your skills are amazing." Chen Qi swallowed hard. He had personally witnessed how a pile of junk was transformed into glowing equipment in Jiang Ming's hands.
Marlowe's eyes lit up with envy.
As the chief appraiser of the Black Gold Chamber of Commerce, he knew all too well what this ability to "turn waste into treasure" anytime, anywhere meant.
If we could tie Jiang Ming to the Chamber of Commerce's war machine...
"Don't look at me with that disgusting look," Jiang Ming warned without turning his head, then stood up and gazed at the distant horizon.
Ellie approached at some point, pointing with a trembling finger at the sand dunes beneath the two enormous red suns in the west.
"There...over there, there's some noise."
Jiang Ming looked in the direction Ellie pointed.
Amidst the swirling yellow sand, a long, dark line faintly appeared.
As the distance closed, the black line gradually became clearer.
It was a huge convoy.
"Binoculars." Jiang Ming held out his hand.
Chen Qi immediately took out a military high-powered binoculars from his tactical vest and handed it over.
Jiang Ming raised the binoculars and adjusted the focus.
The view cut through the swirling dust, and the details of the convoy came into clear view.
Leading the way were dozens of orc scouts riding long-haired war wolves, brandishing spiked maces and emitting strange howls.
In the middle of the procession were five or six heavy wooden carts pulled by enormous beasts.
【Heavy Armor Kodo Beast (Lv.20)】
Jiang Ming understood the attributes of the giant beast pulling the cart and secretly began to make plans.
These herbivorous magical beasts are incredibly strong, and their meat should be of good quality. Most importantly, they carry goods covered with coarse cloth on their backs.
A faint blue fluorescent light peeked through the gaps in the fabric.
That's high-purity magic ore.
Behind the convoy was a long line of prisoners chained together with thick iron chains.
Jiang Ming moved the binoculars, his gaze sweeping across the faces of the prisoners.
Most of them were emaciated, otherworldly natives, with a few dejected dwarves as well.
But when his gaze fell on the end of the line, he suddenly stopped moving.
But when his gaze fell on the end of the line, he suddenly stopped moving.
They were a group of people who didn't fit in with their surroundings.
There were several people wearing dirty blue and white school uniforms who looked like high school or college students; and two men wearing tattered suits whose leather shoes were almost worn down to the soles.
They supported each other, struggling to move forward under the lash of the orc's whip.
Earthlings.
Moreover, judging from the style of the school uniform, she is very likely from the same city as Jiang Ming.
"Brother Jiang, what did you see?" Chen Qi noticed the change in Jiang Ming's aura and leaned closer to ask.
"I ran into someone from my hometown." Jiang Ming put down his binoculars, his tone flat and emotionless.
Chen Qi was stunned. He quickly grabbed the binoculars and took a look, then gasped in shock: "Holy crap! There really are modern people! Those school uniforms... they look like they're from the Third Municipal Middle School! How did they get captured by orcs and enslaved?"
"This shows that the merging of the two worlds is still ongoing, and our school isn't the only unlucky one to have fallen into this hellhole." Jiang Ming stroked his chin.
"Mr. Jiang, you're not thinking of rescuing people, are you?" Marlowe leaned closer, and after recognizing the flags in the distance, he waved his hands in alarm. "That's a Bloodskull Tribe convoy! Judging by the size, the leader is at least a level 22 or higher warlord! They're one of the overlords of this wasteland; our small force wouldn't even be enough to fill a gap in their teeth!"
"Save someone?" Jiang Ming scoffed, turning to look at Marlowe. "Which eye of yours saw that I had that kind of free time?"
Marlowe was momentarily speechless: "So you mean...?"
"I've got my eye on those kodo beasts and the ore on the truck," Jiang Ming said, pulling the [Fire and Thunder Prison] from the ground. "Besides, we're new here and need a guide. That warlord leading the team seems like a good fit."
Robbed the Bloodskull Tribe's convoy?
They even want to capture a military governor to be their guide?
Marlowe felt that Jiang Ming's thought process was definitely different from that of a normal person.
This isn't just being bold; it's downright suicidal.
"Chen Qi, check the ammunition." Jiang Ming ignored the old man's breakdown and began to deploy tactics.
"There are four rifle magazines left, and two high-explosive grenades left," Chen Qi quickly reported the figures.
"That's enough." Jiang Ming glanced at the surrounding terrain.
They were now at the top of a gentle slope, and if the convoy were to continue, it would have to pass through the dry riverbed at the bottom of the slope.
Jiang Ming took out the few [Steel Leg Bones of the Rifttooth Wolf] that he had left over from looting the corpse earlier from his storage card, and also took out a [Inferior Powder Keg] that he had casually collected from the underground ruins earlier.
"synthesis."
【Steel Leg Bone of the Cracktooth Wolf】+【Inferior Powder Keg】+【Broken Iron Nail】=【Bone Fragment Landmine (Green, Excellent)】.
[Note: The explosion will produce a large number of sharp bone fragments and iron nails, causing severe tearing damage to targets within a ten-meter radius.]
Jiang Ming quickly synthesized three and handed them to Chen Qi: "Go, bury them in the narrowest part of the riverbed. Once their main force has passed, blow up the prisoner transport guards behind them."
"Understood!" Chen Qi took the landmine and, with two agile team members, crouched down and crept down.
"And what about me? What should I do?" Marlowe nervously rubbed his hands together.
"You stay here with them. If you see any escapees trying to get up here, take them out." Jiang Ming patted the old man on the shoulder, then picked up his greatsword and silently circled around to the flank of the convoy.