Chapter 99

Kalanfur outskirts, wilderness.

"Hoo... hoo..."

Sparse weeds mixed with fine gravel retreated rapidly on both sides of the road.

Xia Nan panted heavily, his arms swinging back and forth.

The light plate armor rubbed against the chain mail worn beneath it, emitting a crisp sound of metal colliding; the backpack on his back rose and fell violently with his high-speed movement, and one could faintly hear the messy sound of scattered items clashing inside.

He had no extra thoughts.

The strange mushrooms of the same style as those in the Goblin Lair, Fugang's suddenly changed attitude, the fleeting, massive aura, and the inexplicable act of walking into the town...

Made Xia Nan, who already had guesses about the target the Barbarian was tracking along the way, run without the slightest hesitation the moment he heard the other party tell him to run in the opposite direction.

He took to his heels and sprinted.

In all likelihood, that mysterious enemy who had made the powerful Barbarian of Transcendence rank cross half a continent, chasing all the way from the distant North to River Valley Town.

Was currently hiding in Kalanfur, where he had already been once.

"Who is it!?"

Sweat slid down his cheeks, splashing tiny, crystalline water droplets on the ground.

"The priest dressed as a judge in the Sun God Church, or that gravedigger living alone in the outskirts?"

Or perhaps some stranger in the town he had never seen before?

Chaotic thoughts, following the suddenly changed situation, tangled and intertwined in his mind like a ball of yarn.

Yet the cadence of his footsteps could not help but become faster and faster.

With his current strength, getting involved in a battle of this level meant death.

Fugang had given him twenty minutes.

So he only hoped to use this short time to run as far away as possible.

Do not let the aftermath of the battle...

"Boom!!!"

Blinding white light suddenly erupted from behind him.

The outskirts, which had originally been completely shrouded in night, were instantly illuminated as bright as day.

Xia Nan could even see a field mouse in the grass not far ahead, also fleeing in panic.

Subconsciously, he turned his head to glance behind him.

"Holy crap!"

On the distant and blurry horizon, reflecting the faint outlines of the buildings in Kalanfur town.

It was shockingly a massive ball of light, brilliant and scorching like a miniature sun!

The brilliant golden light, radiating a violent aura amidst its order, almost illuminated more than half of the night sky.

Even the incredibly conspicuous stars above the firmament were reduced to mere scattered specks of light.

And beneath the ball of light, the buildings that had originally been orderly and densely packed were also gradually disappearing and melting under the illumination of the holy radiance.

"No way, how did they even manage to pull off a mushroom cloud!?"

Xia Nan was shocked, burying his head, his feet moving a few notches faster.

And it was only then that the hot air wave, carrying the fire wind and the deep wolf howl, arrived late, impacting his back.

"Whoosh!"

His stray hair swayed violently, and a faint burning sensation came from the skin on the back of his neck.

The originally fresh air suddenly became murky.

A dark purple mist filled with the scent of decay permeated every corner of his vision.

Those were the fungal spores blown from afar.

Xia Nan instinctively wanted to hold his breath, not letting these tiny particles, which clearly weren't anything good, surge into his abdominal cavity with his breath.

But currently in the midst of intense exercise, how could he possibly maintain the state of holding his breath for long?

He only persisted for two seconds before he couldn't help but open his mouth to pant heavily.

At this point, he couldn't care about so much anymore.

He could only try to run as far away as possible first.

Rather than worrying about future matters, surviving the aftermath of the battle was the most important thing.

Fortunately, perhaps the overly long distance had weakened the erosion ability of the spores to a great extent.

With Xia Nan's current physical fitness, even if he inhaled quite a bit, he would at most sneeze for two days before recovering.

"Pat!"

A pebble rolling onto the ground was suddenly stepped into the mud by a thick leather boot falling from above.

Xia Nan used all his strength, moving his legs.

The gradually dimming radiance behind him, the increasingly high-pitched and fierce wolf howls, and the increasingly thick purple mist in the air were like some kind of death warrant, driving his survival instinct.

And facing the dangerous energy fluctuations coming from Kalanfur town, those animals and beasts that usually hid under the cover of night also revealed their traces while fleeing for their lives.

Cottontail rabbits, guinea pigs, coyotes...

Seeming to briefly forget the relationship between prey and predator, they screamed and swept across the mud and grass.

Overhead, accompanied by painful howls, came the sound of weak wing-flapping.

Just like a glider making an emergency landing.

The blurry figure shrouded in the night was unstable, swaying and falling to a spot more than ten meters in front of Xia Nan in an awkward arc.

"Bang!"

Dust filled the air.

The shrill, high-frequency wail made his eardrums ache, and a pungent sulfur stench suddenly filled the air.

It was a hideous monster with wings on its back.

On its narrow, long face, which resembled a goat's skull, was a pair of violent vertical pupils emitting a scarlet blood light in the night; it roared, and its mouthparts, filled with jagged sharp teeth, spewed brownish-green sulfur smoke.

About four feet tall, its hunched and lean body was protected by a pair of huge wings with thick, tough membranes;

Sharp bone spurs with barbs grew from the back of its head all the way to the tip of its long tail, and at this moment, they were trembling violently due to the intense emotions of the body's owner, as if they would detach from the body and fly out in the next second.

Spined Devil,

A low-level monster from Hell, one of the most common types of Devil in the eyes of the world.

It did not have the IQ far exceeding ordinary intelligent creatures like those "Dukes" or "Archdukes" among the Nine Hells lords;

Its strength was also far inferior to high-level Devils like "Lesser Devils" or "Pit Fiends."

Its combat power level was only one rank higher than the Lemures at the very bottom of the Hell food chain.

Therefore, in that massive and highly dangerous Infernal Legion, it usually appeared in the capacity of a "messenger" or "scout."

But if one were to underestimate it because of this, the dozen or so sharp bone spurs on its back, capable of piercing through steel, would leave one with a painful lesson.

Both being "low-level" monsters, the danger levels of a Spined Devil and a Goblin were almost worlds apart.

After all, the environment in which the former survived was the legendary "Nine Hells," where it seemed as if even the air was filled with evil.

In the vast majority of places there, ordinary people wouldn't even survive for two minutes before dying due to the extremely harsh environment and the various monsters filling the wasteland.

That a "Spined Devil" could breed and become one of the most numerous types of monsters in Hell in such a bad land was enough to show its strength.

Looking solely at the "Challenge Rating" that could reflect the average danger level of a race:

The Challenge Rating of an ordinary Goblin is 0.25 (1/4).

Its subspecies, the "Hobgoblin," which has not yet gained a professional level and has not learned special techniques like combat skills, is 0.5 (1/2).

Among the Goblin race, the Bugbear, which is the most powerful and has torn apart countless low-level adventurers, is exactly "1."

And the Challenge Rating of a Spined Devil is—

2.

(End of chapter)