Chapter 46: The Hidden Mushroom

Stroph couldn`t have expected to be attacked, he was sure the mantis was dead. That's why he had no way to dodge the huge blade that rained down on him, but he could defend himself quite well.

He used Negative Energy and with great difficulty stopped the sharp blade, clamping it between his palms.

But, he was unable to withstand that pressure for a long time, his hands went numb and his feet began to sink into the ground, a little bit more and he would be cut in half.

<AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, you've been duped like a fool, don't be an idiot, you're losing, just because you don't want to win hard enough>.

Hearing the words of "Snow White Darkness," something clicked in Stroph's head, after which he realized that it was much simpler than he had thought.

"It's so simple, if it's not enough, then you just have to use more." A faint smile appeared on Stroph's face after these words and the black haze around his palms became noticeably thicker and larger.

Stroph began to get a lot of notifications that he was using Negative Energy, but at that moment it didn't bother it at all.

After all, by using more Negative Energy he was able to not only defend himself from a blow, but to break off a rather large chunk of the mantis' huge blade!

The monster didn't expect its attack to not only fail, but its weapon would be broken.

The mantis immediately swung a second blade at Stroph, but unlike the last time, Stroph was ready for that attack and easily dodged it.

After that, he gathered all his strength and threw a piece of the blade directly at the giant mantis.

The monster had no time to dodge or defend itself against this attack and was pierced by its own weapon, then fell to the ground with a rumble.

"Ugh, how, the hell, can that thing fight without a head!". Stroph was trying to catch his breath after such an intense fight and to figure out what had just happened, he felt like he had been fighting some kind of zombie.

And the answer appeared literally ten seconds later.

"Аh? What the...?" Stroph saw strange black plants, very much like the tentacles of some sea beast, which start crawling out from the monster's neck.

In the next second it took his breath away, quickly pulled out the "Lotus" and began to charge it with the rest of Negative Energy.

[21 units of Negative Energy was spent]

Stroph acted so sharply because right in front of him, the mantis' body began to move little by little and all this happened after the black tentacles had appeared.

He didn't wait for the monster to get up again and decided to finish it off with his most powerful attack.

Boom!

The blue lotus opened and there was a deafening explosion.

The black dot reached the mantis' body at lightning speed and ripped it into many pieces the moment it hit.

Only after that, Stroph was certain of his ultimate victory.

In the next moment many notifications popped up in front of him.

[Received rare level history - "Enemy of Insects", effect - damage on Insects increased by 5%.]

[Received - 30 total points and 100 history coins.]

[Received - 2350 exp]

<Hmm? So many rewards for killing one monster of the fourth rank?> Stroph found this situation rather strange, his opponent was certainly strong, but the rewards were far from bad, on the contrary.

Then he realized that he had been a real fool, for if there was no message from the system then it was safe to assume that the mantis was still alive.

He decided to take a closer look at the strange black tentacles that were right inside the mantis.

He couldn't understand anything for a long time, except that the tentacles were just disgusting to look at.

But, after a few seconds, he remembered that he had read about something similar. They were parasitic fungi that naturally turn an insect into a walking dead one.

"Just a parasite that makes even the dead work." After these words, Stroph took a deep breath and set off in the direction of the "Water Demon Stone Forest".

…

A few hours later he reached a huge rock, which was the beginning of the immense stone forest.

As the name implied, there was a vast array of mountains, cliffs, and rivers in front of Stroph. He didn't know where to go or where he could find many strong opponents.

"Is it getting dark?" After these words, he lifted his head and looked up. The funnel was underground and there could be no sun here, but that didn't mean there was no way at all to illuminate such a vast area.

The Farm had its own sun, or rather a huge yellow crystal, which as Stroph understood was powered by the solar panels. The crystal hung just above the deep abyss of the funnel, making it light everywhere, as if the funnel were not underground, but under a blue sky.

Stroph thought that when night fell, other sources of energy were used instead of solar panels, but apparently he was wrong and that was a rather big problem for him.

Because he had no idea what goes on in the stone forest at night and how dangerous it was here.

Stroph was trying to think of something, he needed shelter, water and food.

And while he was thinking what he should do, he heard some noise in the distance and most importantly the voices of people. Stroph didn't care if these people were his enemies or friends, if he got any information from them about this area, he would be already at an advantage.

Also, besides the voices of the people, Stroph heard the sounds of a battle, so he decided to get there as quickly as possible. It would be too bad if the potential informants died before he got there.

He ran to the scene of the battle within a minute and saw a rather ordinary scene. A man and a woman were fighting a crustacean monster with an incredibly strong spiky shell and large, powerful claws.

They were clearly losing, for no matter how much the man attacked the monster with his axe, there was no way he could penetrate its defenses.

What surprised Stroph was that while the man was fighting, risking his life, the girl was doing nothing but standing in one place with her eyes closed and holding a strange, shabby book in her hand.

<A third-ranked fighter and a third-ranked monster, but it looks like this man only recently awakened the Spirit.> Stroph was watching their fight closely, taking no action. He was curious to see how strong this pair was and what would happen next. And if they found themselves in mortal danger he would save them like a hero and instantly gain their favor.

<Hmm? He's already taken several wounds and the girl is still inactive, doesn't she care about his life?> Stroph couldn't understand why she was idling in such a dangerous situation, because he was sure that if she was a third rank fighter like him, they could easily deal with this monster.

He decided that the inaction was enough, but the moment he pulled out the "Last Light" and was already ready to shoot the monster, the girl opened her dark, violet eyes.

Immediately the book opened too and a white glow covered every page of it. A moment later, a small magical circle appeared directly above the monster, from which a bright, white lightning bolt flew out, that fried the crustacean monster in an instant, turning it into a shrimp on the grill.

Upon seeing this, Stroph's jaw just dropped and all thoughts drifted from his head.

"What the..."