42 Millipede, Slain
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"It's acidic breath attack just finished! Move according to the plan!" Sieg shouted. His companions gritted their teeth and jumped out with him.
They were all charging towards the Millipede with overwhelming desire to battle. The Millipede was shocked and panicked, it never realized that some people were still actually hiding and just waiting for a counterattack. This is a tragic scene for the Millipede, the last attack it did was on a large scale and everytime the Millipede executed this move, it needed a brief period of rest, this means that the large scale acidic breath it did earlier could only be used as a last resort or a trump card. The Millipede could now sense a grave danger coming for it's life.
Sieg and the rest drew their weapons out, the went all out onto executing their techniques as soon as possible.
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"This Millipede is on it's last legs as well, I could guess that it would perform an all out attack to these five people, if this attack didn't kill those five people it would seriously injure them, I could also tell that the Millipede needs to rest after that attack and would be extremely weakened, that is the time where we enter, understood?" Sieg explained his plan to his companions, the three people were astonished by this and a light of hope ignited in their hearts.
"What if it's weakened after that attack?" The chubby guy can't help but ask, this is of course very natural since they're are basically betting with their lives here. In battle anything is possible.
"Then we still go, we will use the element of surprise, if we took initiative and control of the fight then we're advantageous. If it really is impossible to defeat the Millipede, then you three rush towards the core of the mine and grab the Annulus. Remember if you see one, then grab one. If you see three then grab two. Understand?"
"Yes!"
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"You guys be careful, don't let the legs hit you! They're poisonous!" Sieg shouted as he directly charged towards the Millipede with whistling speed. His body was like a drawn out arrow that was released, he also drew his blade out of it's sheath, this time he does not intend to let this beast live, he wanted to kill it.
The five people that entered and fought with this beast first, all died, not even their bones remained. Even their weapons were melted by the acidic breath of the Millipede.
"3rd Dance: Battlewolf's Fury!" Sieg's body turned extremely blurry, it was like he was weaving in and out of existence. Every time he appears he would get closer and closer to the Millipede, this sent not only the Millipede in panic but also astounded his three companions.
'What speed!' All of them gaped, even though they sprinted the same time after coming out of hiding, Sieg was already faster than them, they never expected that his speed could reach another level if he wanted to. What they don't know is that, this technique placed a great burden on Sieg's legs, he could only use this move 3 times a day or else he would not be able to walk.
The Millipede tried to defend it's body using it's sturdy legs but Sieg's blade suddenly sliced through it hot knife through butter. The Millipede screeched in pain and retreated, it now realized that this young man is very dangerous. It had to be known that the previous group that it killed couldn't even penetrate the shell covering it's legs yet this person didn't meet any trouble doing so!
The Millipede didn't know that if Sieg's blade didn't managed to hurt it, then the blade doesn't deserve to be called an Artifact Weapon.
Sieg companions managed to catch up, they too threw everything they got at the Millipede, they didn't allow it to have any chance to counterattack, and because the Millipede is weakened, it could only screech in grievance because of their non-stop onslaught. Every time a technique fell on it's body, it would leave a large wound on which it's purple blood cascaded, some of it's legs are already gone thanks to Sieg's blade which also cause it's balance to be uneven. Now even if the Millipede tried to retreat, with a large amount of legs severed, Sieg and company was sure to catch up.
The onslaught of attacks rained down at the Millipede for another five minutes, until Sieg leaped into the air and severed the head of the extremely weakened Millipede. It didn't had any time to emit one final screech before it's lifeless body hit the ground.
Sieg's companions are panting and pale-faced, despite this, a heroic feeling arose from the depths of their hearts.
They just slain a Demonic Beast.
Granted that it was greatly weakened and there's four of them attacking at the same time, this alone is still an impressive feat. Specially for them who were virgins when it comes to killing.
Sieg of course only breathed a sigh of relief, to be totally honest, he was quite disappointed in his fight. If he could still execute the other dances of Imperial Dancing Blade Art, then he wouldn't need their participation at all, he could've just charge in on his own and end this Millipede, nonetheless what's done is done. He walked over the Millipede's corpse and carefully ran his blade inside, he was looking for it's beast core.
*Clink*
Sieg's ears perked up, he retracted his blade and plunged his fist inside the part where the beast core is. Seeing this happen made Sieg's companions jolt.
They didn't even saw any hesitation or disgust in Sieg's face. Whenever they recall how they greatly underestimated him when he could've plunged his fist inside their bodies and be done with it, sends shivers all over their bodies, this disparity is almost insurmountable for them already.
In Sieg's hand lies a pigeon egg sized Demonic Beast Core, it was purple in color with a tinge of orange at the middle. It was radiating some fearsome aura that made Sieg's body tingle. He placed this Demonic Beast Core in his storage bag and said:
"The Luo Clan Head would give us three beast cores anyways so this could be considered as an even distribution. Rest for a bit and we'll go inside towards the core." After saying this, he sat down and began to recover as well.
This fight was significantly harder than Sieg previously imagined, you will truly realize it's worth if it was lost, Sieg's overall combat capabilities lessened significantly which made him very uncomfortable. He needed to get another blade art to recover what he just lost. But the problem is how?
Sieg threw this temporarily at the back of his mind, there's no use in mulling over it since it won't come back anyway. He poured all of his attention on recovering.
After an hour of recovery, the group resumed their journey, having experienced danger, Sieg's companions are still very alert. Just because they killed the demonic beast doesn't mean that the rest of their journey is safe.
As they went deeper inside the cave, they noticed that the temperature is constantly going down,, Gwen said that this is a good sign because this means that they are near at the core.
"The core should be at the other side of this narrow space. Zhu Fang, try if you fit in here." Gwen said to the chubby guy.
This made the spiked hair guy cackle a bit, which made Zhu Fang slightly embarrassed, nonetheless he still went up and tried to fit his bulky body in the gap. Surprisingly, he managed to fit inside the gap, although with a little bit of difficulty.
"Woah, that's amazing, did you entered diet Zhu Fang?" The spiked hair guy teased.
"Shut up Ji Potian! Or else I would reveal your secrets to your 'fiance'!" Zhu Fang threatened.
Gwen chuckled slightly at this scene, she looked at Sieg and saw that he was wearing his default 'poker face'. She sighed and thought 'What's up with this guy? Doesn't have a humor bone or something? I wouldn't hurt for him to smile right?'
But she also knew that there's probably an even deeper story behind Sieg and didn't want to pry further.
One by one, the four people wiggled their way inside the narrow gap and what they saw amazed them.
The cave was originally very dark, but the core of the cave surely wasn't, one crystal ore after another emitted a faint light and brightened up the whole core area because of their numbers. They looked like stars from the night sky, there's even some crystals that are twinkling elevating the beauty of the core area.
Few steps ahead, Sieg and company saw a huge clump of crystal. It was shining so bright that it could even rival a light source. It was about a meter in diameter and green in color with some tinges of yellow here and there. Come to think of it, the crystal seemed to follow the image of a hedgehog because of the pointed ends scattered all over it. It was also vibrating with intense amount of vitality which made their blood circulate faster just by going near it.
Jade Annulus is typically used as healing stones by apothecaries, it is also an alchemy material that is required for majority of life-saving or life-extending pills. If used by an extremely skilled blacksmith, then a weapon made from a Jade Annulus would never rust and would have an astonishing durability. All in all, Jade Annulus is a 'jack of all trades' material. But there's another astonishing news for them.
"Jade Annulus! 5 of them! How can this be!?" Ji Potian said in disbelief, the rest were a bit shocked as well when they saw this. It had to be known that Jade Annulus needed about 90-100 years just to form, and it's extremely greedy when it comes to nutrient absorption so having two Jade Annulus is actually a rare sight. If there were three then even more better, but for a mine to have five? Not to mention that it also comes from a Medium-Grade Mine Ore? This is just insanity.
Sieg calmed himself down and said: "This place must be an extremely fertile place, this place might not only be the core of this mine ore but the core of this whole forest we're in. It doesn't matter, who amongst you guys know how to extract these things?"
"I do!" Ji Potian quickly raised his hand.
"You do it then, we can take three Jade Annulus, we will hand over two for the Luo Clan, then sell the other one and divide the money equally. I don't want to completely severe the vitality of this Mine Ore so we will leave two behind." Sieg calmly commanded.
The others looked at each other in surprise at first but they decided to follow his directions, after all he is the captain of this team now, although they never talked about it, his actions and abilities were enough to convince them, Sieg's words carry a lot of weight specially when it comes to the mission.
Ji Potian drew pickaxe from his storage bag and began harvesting three Jade Annulus, as to why he had a pickaxe inside his storage bag, Zhu Fang told them that Ji Potian is actually a Jewel Smith, this occupation is mainly focused on making accessories that could aid a person in any way, shape or form. Ji Potian, according to Zhu Fang is a genius when it comes to Jewel Smithing that even the Sect Director was impressed.
The harvesting time took about an hour of constant hitting and resting from Ji Potian, after which he successfully harvested three Jade Annulus which made him extremely emotional. He reluctantly handed them over to Sieg, even though he wanted to harvest the remaining ones, he refraining from doing so, who knows what would happen if he defied Sieg's orders? Keeping his life intact is more valuable to him rather than a mere Jade Annulus.
