Chapter 28: Lord Demon King

A gloomy and dark cave, flickering with the dim light of a kerosene lamp.

The uneven stone table was covered with strange vessels, and the evil mage was whispering in a low voice.

"Five grams of calculus bovis, five grams of wind-fixing grass root, one cave spider eye, one tooth... add to a mortar and grind into powder, then transfer to a crucible and roast until purple smoke emerges."

The moment the cyan smoke turned purple, Luo Yan calmly took a bottle of pre-purified solution and skillfully poured it into the crucible.

"... Add 200 milliliters of cave spider gland extract, keep the temperature constant while heating, and stir clockwise with a stirring rod, boiling until thick."

Just as his voice fell, the liquid in the crucible had turned into a thick paste.

Extract.

Seal.

Watching Luo Yan's movements, which were completed in one go, Hearing You You asked curiously.

"What is this?"

Inserting the corked test tube into the test tube rack, Luo Yan answered concisely.

"Antidote, mainly used to restrain the paralytic toxin of cave spiders."

In fact, it wasn't just cave spider toxin; it could also restrain some snake venoms.

Hearing Hearing You You to the side, Hearing You You looked at him in confusion.

"Can't magic detoxify?"

Luo Yan said patiently.

"Magic isn't omnipotent. I've only heard of magic that poisons, never magic that detoxifies."

Of course.

Nothing is absolute.

For example, although magic can only dispel curses and not detoxify, it can neutralize the negative effects of toxins by "increasing toxin resistance," "enhancing antibody activity," or "increasing life recovery speed."

It's like, even with a lethal poison, as long as the user's HP is higher than the toxin's dosage, they can still survive.

Additionally, some infections and plagues caused by microorganisms can also be dealt with using Holy Light.

Although the followers of Shengxisi claim this is evidence of a miracle, it is actually just the Holy Light killing the microorganisms.

"But... you're already paralyzed, how do you drink the medicine?"

"Toxins don't take effect that quickly. Besides, don't I have summons?"

There were still some dregs left in the extractor on the side; these were leftovers from making the cave spider gland extract.

Luo Yan didn't waste these materials, instead transferring them into the crucible to continue heating.

Watching the movements of his hands, the inquisitive Hearing You You continued to ask.

"What about this? What about this?"

"Mother spider pheromones, can be applied to skeletons... mainly used to aggro monsters."

"No, worthy of being Lord Demon King! Truly sinister and cunning!"

In the blink of an eye, another bottle of potion was made. Luo Yan gently shook it to mix it evenly, then placed it on the side of the test tube rack.

"Don't force yourself if you can't use idioms."

As the top student in theoretical courses at the Demon King Academy, alchemy could be said to be his most proficient subject besides array formation.

After all, this subject had no threshold; as long as you memorized the formula, it was just a matter of practice making perfect.

Combining his experience from organic chemistry classes in his past life, as well as the influence and immersion of modern civilization, Luo Yan not only mastered the content in the books but also innovated the dosages of the formulas himself.

After all, what the Demon King Academy taught were potions suitable for demons to drink; to humans, they were like veterinary medicine.

Although not without therapeutic effect, they were certainly lacking in various aspects.

Repeating the previous steps more than ten times, until the test tube rack was about to be filled, Luo Yan continued to prepare the next set of potions.

Not just antidotes and biological pheromones, he also had to prepare "Break-Free Potion" to dissolve spider silk, "Vitality Potion" to lift petrification status, and so on, as well as the most critical "Red Bottle" for treating external wounds and "Blue Bottle" for replenishing mana.

Finally finishing all preparations, Luo Yan stuffed the test tubes filled with potions one by one into a specially made vest and wore it under his robe.

Although this meant his burden increased significantly, it simultaneously boosted his firepower by more than double!

Now, let alone the Silver-tier Yige, he would even dare to challenge classmate Mi Ya, who was only one step away from Gold-tier!

Standing in front of the mirror to tidy up his appearance, Luo Yan ordered Hearing You You.

"Hearing You You, help me pick five players with level Lv3 or higher and IDs that aren't too cringe, send them a main quest, and have them wait for me at the entrance of the labyrinth."

"Received! Lord Demon King!"

The white mist manifesting in front of the mirror gave a playful salute, and the corresponding quest pop-up appeared at the same time in front of the players who were grinding monsters.

On the other side, Ye Zhiqiu and Hu Wan, two "Gold-medal Skeleton Soldiers," were grinding monsters on the first floor of the labyrinth, which had a skylight, and were unexpectedly caught in a bitter battle.

"Troublesome... this guy won't chase out."

Failing to aggro the monster for the Nth time, Hu Wan, holding a short sword, stared intently at the large spider not far away, a hint of solemnity in his eyes.

Ye Zhiqiu, who was ambushing behind a stone pillar with a spear in hand, was the same, rubbing his chin with his index finger and falling into thought.

Previously, when cave spiders discovered intruders stepping into their webs, they would immediately enter a state of alert, then launch an attack within three seconds, and would chase them out of the "territory" covered by the webs!

However, now, one by one, they seemed to be on strike, not even bothering to look at the skeleton soldiers invading their territory; even if they caused major destruction on the webs, they acted as if they didn't see it.

Only when they ventured close to within twenty steps would these cave spiders alertly retract their eight legs.

Yet even so, they wouldn't attack rashly unless they continued to approach to within fifteen or even ten steps, or got close to the spider eggs and hatchlings.

Could it be that the official secretly changed the aggro mechanism because they leveled up too fast?

No—

Ye Zhiqiu carefully observed the cave spider nest in front of him and finally discovered a clue.

"So that's it..."

"What's wrong?" Hu Wan quickly cast an inquiring look at him.

"Look at those spider webs," Ye Zhiqiu pointed forward with the spear in his hand, "didn't you notice something extra?"

"Something extra? You mean... those 'cocoons'?"

Hu Wan also noticed it at this time; where the spider webs were dense, some grayish-white cocoon shells were hanging.

Unlike the basketball-sized spider eggs, these cocoon shells were a full half-person tall.

Because their shape was really similar to spider eggs, it was easy to overlook them if you didn't observe carefully.

"If I'm not mistaken, those should be yesterday's ratmen."

Hu Wan looked at him in astonishment.

"You mean, these cave spiders aren't just full, but also lost the desire to hunt because they've hoarded a large amount of food?"

Is such a thing possible?

As a professional player, he was actually more inclined to interpret it as the backend staff seeing them level up too fast and thus increasing the difficulty, while lowering the leveling difficulty for other players.

After all, because the movement of the cave spiders had become sluggish, the benefits of the conventional frontal fighting style of four-person or even five-person groups would become relatively higher.

From the perspective of biological theory, this was the first time he had heard of it in a game.

"That is exactly what I mean."

Gazing at that lazy spider and those white, plump fruits, a glimmer of excitement rose within Ye Zhiqiu's solemn eyes.

"This game... is even more realistic than I imagined."

Not just the relationship between predator and prey, the game's developers had also set up hunting habits and living patterns for different creatures based on this!

This made him feel an unprecedented excitement.

He didn't just see the meticulous settings, he also saw the developer's full sincerity!

Interesting.

Simply too interesting!

He couldn't help but start looking forward to what the other monsters in the labyrinth would be like, and whether they were the same as these "beginner monsters" hiding at the entrance of the novice village.

Just at this moment, a line of pop-ups appeared in front of him.

【Quest: Lord Demon King's Summons!】

【Description: Lord Demon King intends to enter the labyrinth to hunt, now recruiting 5 LV3 followers, do you accept the invitation?】

【Reward: Depends on participation in the group battle.】

【Note: During the quest, death penalty is waived.】

"I received a summons quest here, what about you?" Hu Wan looked up at Ye Zhiqiu.

"I received it here too." Ye Zhiqiu nodded and clicked the accept button, "Accept it, it's not a loss anyway."

The quest requirement was LV3 or higher, and the number of players who had reached this level across the entire server could probably be counted on one hand.

It was obvious that this quest was issued for them.

"I thought so too, in this closed beta, actively cooperating with the developers' work is never a bad thing... let's wait for them for a while."

The gathering point for the quest was at the entrance of the first floor near them, and there were still more than ten minutes before the quest started.

Hu Wan also clicked the accept button and hung his short sword in the leather holster at his waist.

Just then, he suddenly remembered something and turned his gaze to Ye Zhiqiu to continue asking.

"By the way, speaking of which, how much longer until you reach LV4? I remember you were only a little bit off, right?"

Ye Zhiqiu nodded.

"Still need three thousand-plus experience."

"Why still 3000-plus?" Hu Wan looked at him unexpectedly, puzzled, "I remember you were almost leveling up last night, weren't you?"

Because Ye Zhiqiu was the one responsible for delivering the final blow to the monsters, the experience points he gained were slightly more.

Hu Wan reached LV3 this morning.

He originally thought that after grinding monsters all morning, even if the progress was slow, this guy should have reached LV4, but he didn't expect him to still be hovering at LV3 just like himself.

"Still 5000 off last night... The experience points I get from killing one cave spider now are only a little more than half of what I got at LV1."

"I see... I thought the experience gain dropped because I didn't play much of a role today, I didn't expect yours to drop too." Hu Wan grinned and said with a smile, "It seems that if you want to become stronger, you really have to challenge higher-level monsters."

Ye Zhiqiu touched his nose bridge and cast his gaze toward the spider webs on the side.

"Act according to one's ability... With our current strength, cave spiders are already the most efficient choice."

"Disaster OL" had only been open for one day and two nights in the true sense, and most players had just reached LV1, and some Buddhist players were even still stuck at LV0.

In comparison, their speed was already very fast.

It looked like they were climbing very slowly, purely because this game was too grindy.

Just as the two were chatting, the other three high-level players who received the quest also arrived at the scene one after another.

It was almost impossible to level up this fast by soloing in this game, so it was no surprise that these three were also team players.

Judging from their equipment, their classes were archer, sword-and-shield warrior, and two-handed axe warrior respectively... the division of labor was quite clear.

Although it was somewhat difficult for a skeleton soldier's strength to wield a two-handed axe, that guy should have equipped this weapon after reaching LV3.

Not only that, he should be like him, with all skill points from leveling automatically allocated to strength.

Staring at the two-handed axe warrior walking from afar, Hu Wan said with slight surprise.

"I didn't expect that two-handed axe to be picked up by him."

Ye Zhiqiu looked at him and asked.

"You know him?"

Hu Wan shook his head.

"Don't know him... but I recognize that axe; it seemed to have fallen next to the prison at the time, placed together with the greatsword in the NPC's hand. Someone tried to pick it up but didn't succeed, and I didn't see it again after that."

When the game first opened, equipment belonged to whoever picked it up.

As for now, that brother should have already registered the ownership of this "initial god-tier equipment."

Being able to grab the lead and add strength to 5 before others, in a sense, this guy could be considered a talent.

Seeing that the two in front had already arrived first, the two-handed axe warrior walking in front greeted them with a smile.

"This must be Ye Zhiqiu, right? Long admired!"

At the same time as he spoke, a line of IDs appeared above his head—

【Long Xing Wan Li】

What an imposing name!

But I haven't seen it on the forum...

Or is it that the big shots all like to make a fortune in silence?

Ye Zhiqiu then looked at the two behind him, also of the same series.

Sword-and-shield warrior 【Long Xing Qian Li】, archer 【Long Xingbai Li】.

Hu Wan couldn't help but complain in a low voice.

"Why is it getting shorter and shorter..."

Ye Zhiqiu glanced at him, hinting him not to look for trouble, and walked up to shake hands with that Wan Li brother.

"Nice to meet you!"

"Haha! You're too polite! It's my pleasure!" Long Xing Wan Li laughed heartily and said carelessly, "If it weren't for your guide, I wouldn't have gotten this axe so quickly!"

Speaking of this, this hearty skeleton soldier changed the subject and skillfully threw out an olive branch.

"To tell you the truth, the three of us are actually from the same guild, and we only recently prepared to transfer here, and we were also very lucky to get the closed beta qualification. Brother, you must be a like-minded person, I wonder if you are interested in pioneering together?"

Ye Zhiqiu smiled and said calmly.

"Teaming up is welcome, making friends is welcome! But if it's joining an organization, please forgive me for declining. I'm used to being free and loose, and I've joined some guilds before, but eventually found that soloing is more suitable for me."

Although rejected, Long Xing Wan Li wasn't too disappointed, just laughed heartily and said.

"Is that so? Hahaha, that's a pity! With your talent, the monthly salary here could be at least 5 figures, and if this game supports live streaming in the future, 6 figures wouldn't be a dream."

Ye Zhiqiu shook his head.

"It's not a question of money."

"I understand what you mean," Brother Wan Li, who let go of his hand, patted his arm and said with a smile, "If you change your mind, brother, please be sure to consider our Long Xing Tian Xia!"

Ye Zhiqiu cupped his hands and said politely with a smile.

"Definitely!"

Long Xing Wan Li nodded and looked at Hu Wan standing next to him. The latter didn't wait for him to speak and raised his hand.

"I don't need to."

Long Xing Wan Li grinned.

"I know you don't need to, Hu Wan, right? This ID is familiar, I know you."

Hu Wan: "......?"

Which game?

Long Xing Wan Li didn't explain, just looked at the two behind him and introduced Brother Qian Li and Brother Bai Li.

To be precise, it was Sister Qian Li.

That sword-and-shield warrior was actually a female player, and it looked like she had already reached LV3, which was also beyond Ye Zhiqiu's expectations.

This game was different from "Honor of Kings."

Because most of the monsters were ugly to the depths of their souls, being a tank still required a certain level of psychological quality.

"Have you been grinding monsters here?" Qian Li looked around and asked Ye Zhiqiu.

Ye Zhiqiu nodded and said with a smile.

"That's right, until last night, the monster grinding efficiency here was relatively high."

Qian Li immediately asked.

"Is it different today?"

"Yes," Ye Zhiqiu didn't hide it either, looked at the spider webs around, and stated his discovery, "After yesterday's monster siege, the spiders here have hoarded a large amount of dry food, the pursuit range has shrunk a lot, and the difficulty of kiting has increased a lot... Of course, for you, this might actually be an opportunity."

"These cave spiders not only have their aggressiveness weakened, but their mobility has also been greatly reduced. As long as you, the main tank, can parry two attacks, the main DPS teammate can successfully take its flank. I should have mentioned in the guide post that its weakness is in the abdomen... so your captain had better consider changing the two-handed axe to a spear or a one-handed sword."

"Understood! But why two attacks?" Although she knew it wasn't good to probe like this, Qian Li still asked urgently.

Ye Zhiqiu wasn't as sensitive as her and said with a smile.

"Because these spiders are used to using their forelimbs to probe the prey first, and then use their mouthparts to bite. I suspect this might be because their faces are relatively large, their long-distance vision is strong, but their close-range vision is poor, so they need to use their forelimbs to determine the specific method of the prey... You can imagine the feeling of looking at your own nose tip; it has more eyes than you, so it should be blinder than you."

"So that's it... So its attack method is a double-hit, right? I've remembered it!"

Qian Li seriously remembered every word he said, and her focused listening look was just like being in class.

Is this what a paid player is like?

Ye Zhiqiu couldn't help but sigh in his heart, fortunately, he no longer had to be troubled by life and could focus on enjoying the game itself.

However, seeing him teaching everything he knew, Brother Hu Wan on the side was like a vinegar jar that had been overturned.

"Hey, is there anyone who probes for information like you?"

"Hahahaha, sorry," Long Xing Wan Li laughed heartily and pulled Qian Li to the side, "It was indeed our guild brother who was presumptuous, I apologize to you for her! Or I'll pay you money, underworld coins aren't very convenient, how about RMB? Give me a phone number—"

"Don't be like this, this isn't some earth-shattering secret, and I'll write it on the forum later anyway."

Ye Zhiqiu waved his hand, unable to laugh or cry, declined his kindness, and then looked at Hu Wan helplessly.

"Brother, let's not look for trouble, okay?"

Hu Wan subtly shifted his gaze.

"I was just afraid you'd suffer a loss... Forget it, it was your discovery anyway, if you don't care, then you don't care."

He said this purely out of professional habit.

After all, in his worldview, this kind of high-value information, especially information during the pioneering period, had to be exchanged for money.

With the commercial prospects of "Disaster OL," selling it for 100,000 wouldn't be too much.

"Fine! If you don't want money, then I'll take it as a favor, I've noted this favor! If there's anything you need help with in the future, just let me know."

Long Xing Wan Li said with a smile.

Having owed a favor for no reason, Qian Li, standing beside him, felt a bit uneasy and wanted to say something, but was stopped by the skeleton archer on the side with a look.

Although he didn't say a word from beginning to end, Bai Li, as the guild leader's number one follower, saw it very clearly; this was nothing more than the guild leader advancing by retreating.

If you want to quickly shorten the distance with someone, compared to selling them a favor, it's far better to owe them a favor.

It could be seen that the boss really appreciated this guy.

Of course.

This person did indeed have some real skills.

Just as everyone was joking around, the BOSS of the necropolis finally graced the scene.

He was wearing a simple robe and holding a short magic wand that looked like a willow branch.

Although there were no gorgeous clothes and expensive jewelry as embellishments, no one could ignore his existence.

Evil.

Elegant.

On that face full of evil spirit, handsomeness seemed to be the least worth mentioning advantage.

Ye Zhiqiu had to sigh that the NPC was indeed designed with a real BOSS feel.

No need for lengthy foreshadowing.

As soon as he opened his mouth, it was a cutscene CG animation.

"Very good, you are all here."

Luo Yan looked at the players with a full sense of style.

It wasn't that he liked to show off, but he knew these players liked this kind of thing.

He only needed to play the role of a ruthless and concise Demon King well and maintain the aura a Demon King should have.

As for the plot and whatnot.

They would think about it themselves.

Crossing his gaze over the five skeleton soldiers, he cast his eyes toward those cave spiders that had occupied the nest, and gently waved the magic wand in his hand.

"It is time for these traitors to pay the price for their shortsightedness and stupidity." ===== CHAPTER 29 =====