"These Wrath Statues actually have a chance to drop one?" Shi Feng stared at the small stone glowing with golden light on the ground, unable to suppress a surge of excitement.
The stone before him was none other than Essence of Earth.
This was an exceedingly rare material, obtainable only by slaying earth-element elemental creatures. Even ordinary earth-element elementals wouldn't drop it—only certain special ones would. As a result, its market price had always been steep: a single piece sold for fifty silver coins.
And a hundred Essences of Earth could be refined into an Earth Essence Core.
Much like the Solar Essence Core, the Earth Essence Core served as a power source for a wide variety of mechanical devices. It could also enhance power sources, granting them elemental-attribute mana. In short, it was incredibly valuable.
He had only just killed four Wrath Statues, and one had already dropped. How could Shi Feng not feel excited?
He well knew that the entire guild had barely managed to collect a handful of Solar Essence Cores—they were simply too rare. The Earth Essence Core was every bit as scarce.
Shi Feng glanced at the Wrath Statues prowling about and suddenly realized this place was a genuine treasure trove. He immediately pulled the Book of Darkness from his inventory and summoned an eighty-five-level, Tier 3 demon along with a fire spirit to deal with the Wrath Statues.
However, he had no intention of grinding them down slowly. Instead, he had the Tier 3 demon draw the attention of the Wrath Statues and the Statue Warriors alike, clustering the creatures that roamed in groups of three to five.
The Wrath Statues were ultimately just Lord-tier monsters, not ranged attackers, and the Grand Lord-tier Statue Warriors were the same, so having the eighty-five-level Tier 3 demon herd them was relatively straightforward.
In under ten minutes, he had lured out every monster in the cavern as well as those in the tunnels—the sheer number exceeded a hundred. That many would make even expert players' scalps tingle; it was enough to annihilate an elite thousand-person squad with ease, and even an eighty-five-level Tier 3 demon wouldn't last long against them.
Just from drawing their aggro, the demon's thick health pool had already dropped by more than a quarter—and that was with a level advantage. Otherwise, those stone statues with their formidable combat proficiency would have torn it apart long ago.
"Now! Go!" Shi Feng watched the Tier 3 demon step out of the tunnel and promptly ordered the fire spirit to strike.
The eighty-level Tier 3 Primordial fire spirit commanded a vast arsenal of Tier 3 forbidden fire spells—its destructive output rivaled that of several Tier 3 Grand Mages combined.
The instant the demon emerged from the tunnel, the surroundings erupted into a sea of flames. The ground transformed entirely into molten magma, and the moment the stone monsters stepped into it, they sank as if caught in a swamp. Their movement speed plunged by ninety percent, and their health plummeted in chunks of over four hundred thousand.
Shi Feng showed no mercy either. He activated his Blaze Domain outright, sending roaring flames sweeping across the tunnel exit and engulfing every monster within. Damage numbers of over two hundred thousand popped up one after another. While not as devastating as the fire spirit's spells, the damage was still impressive.
Just as the stone monsters were about to trudge out of the magma, the fire spirit finished chanting another Tier 3 forbidden spell.
A flame storm materialized at the heart of the monster cluster, continuously yanking every creature toward its center. Damage numbers of over three hundred thousand erupted above each monster's head, and the damage kept climbing higher, preventing the stone monsters from ever leaving the magma field.
Seizing the opportunity, Shi Feng and the Tier 3 demon unleashed wave after wave of AoE magic upon the trapped horde.
The Wrath Statues' health bars melted to zero in short order, collapsing to the ground one by one and dropping item after item. Yet the experience they awarded was paltry. By the time the surviving stone monsters finally burst free of the magma field, over a hundred had been reduced to roughly twenty. Apart from the five Statue Warriors still standing, all remaining Wrath Statues had been whittled down to critical health.
Shi Feng directed the Tier 3 demon and fire spirit to finish off the five Statue Warriors while he personally mopped up the low-health Wrath Statues.
After more than ten minutes of continuous fighting, every stone monster had been eliminated. Items littered the ground.
None of the drops were weapons or armor—only various materials. Even so, Shi Feng was elated. That single wave alone had netted him sixteen Essences of Earth, along with a host of rare ores. There were even chunks of Titan Iron Ore, a material seldom found even in the outside world.
Titan Iron Ore wasn't as valuable as Titan Mithril Ore, which could be smelted directly into Titan Mithril Ingots, but it could be refined into the same product after processing—requiring ten times the quantity, naturally.
After gathering the loot, Shi Feng had the Tier 3 demon venture back into the tunnel to pull more monsters, clearing the passage while pushing deeper inside.
The cavern's terrain resembled a sprawling labyrinth, and the monsters within grew ever more numerous and formidable. This increase in strength wasn't reflected in their stats but in their combat proficiency—escalating from the early stage of the Trial Tower's fourth floor to the mid-stage of the fourth floor. The jump seemed marginal on paper, but the practical difficulty spike was significant.
Had it not been for the Tier 3 demon and fire spirit's level and stat advantages, Shi Feng would never have been able to penetrate this maze on his own.
Nevertheless, as he ventured deeper, his own combat power also climbed steadily. The Book of Darkness's cooldown allowed him to maintain up to three demons at once, and with the fire spirit added in, handling hordes of stone monsters was no insurmountable problem. The only drawback was the painfully slow pace of advance.
It took four full days before Shi Feng finally emerged from the underground labyrinth. Several times, hidden traps nearly killed him, but the fire spirit's ability to tank the damage head-on saved him each time.
These four days had been grueling, yet the rewards were immense. He had collected over thirty-two hundred Essences of Earth and more than eleven thousand chunks of Titan Iron Ore alone—selling even a fraction would bring in a fortune.
Though the stone monsters awarded very little experience individually, their staggering numbers more than compensated. Shi Feng's experience bar climbed to level 70 with forty-three percent progress. At this level, his upgrade speed was only slightly slower than that of ordinary expert players.
Having left the underground labyrinth, Shi Feng arrived at an expansive, ancient hall. Though long since fallen into ruin, a colossal magic crystal suspended at the hall's center still shone with brilliant radiance, radiating astonishing magical energy.
The moment Shi Feng stepped inside, a bone-piercing chill surged through him, forcing him to halt in his tracks.
"Is this system joking?" Shi Feng's gaze locked onto a crystal statue towering at the center of the hall. The magnificent statue emanated crimson light from both hands, drawing the hall's dense magical power into itself. The crystal was gradually dissolving, its aura growing ever more powerful—already surpassing that of an ordinary Legendary-tier monster. "Why on earth is an ancient primordial beast—the Earth Serpent—guarding this place?"
Before Shi Feng could even react, the level 80 Legendary Earth Serpent lunged into motion. It burst forward in a blur. The three Tier 3 demons and the fire spirit didn't even have time to respond before being blasted away, slamming hard into the surrounding stone pillars. Then the serpent turned and swallowed toward Shi Feng in a single massive bite.