Chapter 57 – The Blackwater Crocodiles

Chapter 57 – The Blackwater Crocodiles

Cheng Yang and his group moved swiftly through the terrain. Cheng Yang didn’t waste time dealing with scattered monsters, and the warriors accompanying him didn’t need to expend energy avoiding large monster groups they couldn’t handle. Their cooperation was seamless, and both sides reaped bountiful rewards.

When they reached the entrance of the Death Valley dungeon again, Cheng Yang led the team inside once more. Clearing this dungeon didn’t take much time, and in terms of earning spirit energy, nothing outside could compare to its efficiency.

After a round of battles, Cheng Yang exited the dungeon. This time’s harvest paled in comparison to the previous one. Not only was there no final Ice Spirit, but even the equipment dropped earlier was of lower quality. Aside from one piece of Black Iron grade, the rest were all common equipment.

Cheng Yang wasn’t too disappointed though, as he hadn’t held high hopes to begin with. He knew that to obtain good equipment, aside from crafting through secondary professions, one had to rely on high-difficulty dungeons.

Next, Cheng Yang headed towards another marked location – the last point on his map aside from the city center and the two exit passages. However, before going there, they had to detour to search and rescue at several other points.

The journey was relatively safe, with Cheng Yang fearing no large monster groups unless they encountered long-range attacking demonic beasts. After three to four hours, they finally arrived at their destination.

The monster group before them was massive – Cheng Yang estimated at least 1,500 creatures, surpassing even the groups guarding the passages. What made this group particularly dangerous was the presence of two late-stage first-order demonic beasts.

In his previous life, humans had only conquered this group after capturing Phoenix Village. Back then, they hadn’t known what this group was guarding, and its strength rivaled that of a wilderness outpost. While outposts were more valuable than any treasure, the gods had reduced their guard strength considering them essential for human evolution.

Wilderness treasures, however, were a different story. Just think of the Bone Spirit Staff Cheng Yang had obtained earlier – it showed how formidable the guardians of such treasures could be. Even in outposts or passage guards, there was usually only one late-stage first-order demonic beast.

With two such beasts in this group, one could imagine the power of what they were guarding. Cheng Yang knew exactly what it was, which was why he was so eager to obtain it. After two more days, defeating this group would become much harder, as the demonic beasts would undergo their first evolution, with about 5% of early-stage first-order beasts advancing to mid-stage.

At that point, this group of over a thousand would have more than fifty mid-stage first-order monsters. If the two late-stage leaders had any special skills, even Cheng Yang leading all of Phoenix Village’s warriors wouldn’t dare to challenge them lightly.

“Haozi, you guys hide around here first. I’ll go in and fight for a while. If I can take out the leaders, great. If not, I’ll at least deplete some of their forces,” Cheng Yang whispered.

Liu Hao disagreed, “Leader, it’s too dangerous for you to go alone. Why don’t we find a safe spot, you use Life Transfer, and we’ll fight them head-on?”

Cheng Yang looked around, “In this world, where is there truly safe ground? Even those high ruins – while we wouldn’t be hit by monsters standing on them, those two late-stage beasts could easily crash through the walls and collapse our position. The safest way is for me to go alone. With my agility, I can escape even if I can’t win. Your job is to hide further away and not be discovered. If you can take the treasure after I lure the beasts away, even better. But don’t push yourselves – only do what you can handle.”

Seeing he couldn’t persuade Cheng Yang, Liu Hao had to agree. He, Li Wanshan, and Niu Bing led the team back two to three hundred meters, finding a hidden spot to conceal themselves.

After they left, Cheng Yang surveyed the terrain, spotting many useful features. His first choice was a narrow alley – what had once been a small lane, now reduced to concrete walls on either side after the apocalyptic earthquake.

Demonic beasts weren’t very intelligent. As long as there was a clear path to their enemy, they wouldn’t try to break through walls. So despite the thick walls being unable to withstand their attacks, as long as the alley was open, they wouldn’t attack the sides.

With his strategy set, Cheng Yang dashed out from behind the ruins, charging straight at the monster group. These weren’t the jackals or small animals they’d faced before, but ferocious crocodiles – Blackwater Crocodiles. Despite their massive, terrifying appearance, they were only early-stage first-order monsters.

However, compared to ordinary early-stage monsters, they had their advantages – strong defense and vitality, though their speed was relatively slow. In his previous life, after humans developed detection skills, they found that Blackwater Crocodiles had 40 points of vitality, 3 points of physical defense, and even 2 points of magic defense – truly thick-skinned creatures.

Some obsessive people had wondered how these crocodiles survived on land, but in a year of the previous timeline, no one had found an answer. The only explanation was the gods’ whims – after all, they were powerful enough. At least they hadn’t put sharks on land, which could be considered merciful.

Cheng Yang’s appearance immediately caught the attention of these bloodthirsty creatures. They began swaying their heads and crawling towards him, their short legs moving constantly but making little progress.

Once in range, Cheng Yang started attacking with ice spheres. Each sphere, the size of a baby’s head, struck the crocodiles, causing them to screech in pain. Upon shattering, the ice turned into shards covering the crocodiles’ bodies, glowing faintly blue.

The ice spheres’ slowing effect was irrelevant here, as each attack instantly killed the ordinary crocodiles. By the time the first wave reached Cheng Yang, over a dozen were already dead. The remaining crocodiles seemed oblivious, continuing their relentless charge.

Cheng Yang naturally wouldn’t wait to be surrounded. Even with his strength, he dared not be encircled by over a thousand crocodiles, especially with mid and late-stage first-order beasts among them. He immediately turned and ran towards the chosen alley, reaching its narrow confines in moments.

The alley was only about two meters wide – with the crocodiles’ massive bodies, only three could pass through at a time, significantly reducing the threat to Cheng Yang.

Seconds after Cheng Yang entered the alley, a dark mass of crocodiles followed. Cheng Yang, positioned at the entrance, immediately cast Ice Spikes. Huge icicles fell from over ten meters above, crashing down on the crocodiles below.

With the crocodiles densely packed at the alley’s mouth, seven or eight were caught in the attack. However, the two at the front had already passed the entrance, snapping at Cheng Yang.

Their speed was indeed slow – before they could bite him, Cheng Yang had already slipped several meters away. He launched another ice sphere, taking out one of the two.

The remaining crocodile, undeterred by being alone, continued crawling towards Cheng Yang. Behind it, twenty to thirty more crocodiles had squeezed into the alley, closing the distance to just seven or eight meters.

Cheng Yang wouldn’t miss such an opportunity. Another Ice Spikes attack left eight more beasts dead. Following up with a Magic Missile, he took out the lead crocodile. If not for the two-second cooldown on Ice Spikes, his killing efficiency would have been even higher.

The sheer number of crocodiles meant losing a dozen made no difference. A larger group was already squeezing into the alley’s entrance.

Cheng Yang stood in the alley, slaughtering the oncoming crocodiles while gradually retreating. For the crocodiles, this alley was truly a death passage – every meter left two or three corpses behind. Most importantly, the alley was two to three hundred meters long. By the time Cheng Yang reached the end, the crocodile group would be severely weakened.

Cheng Yang was happily cutting through the horde, having killed nearly three hundred crocodiles, when he suddenly heard movement behind him. Turning around, he was shocked by what he saw.

At the expected exit point, a group of demonic beasts was charging towards him. He recognized them – Green-skinned Monkeys, and there were at least twenty already in the alley.

PS: Finally reached 11th place on the new book rankings, feeling quite pleased. If I can maintain this position today, I’ll add another chapter tonight! Looks like I’ll be staying up late again…