Chapter 81 – Poisonous Frogs (1)

Chapter 81 – Poisonous Frogs (1)

The alchemy furnace was as large as a washbasin, standing over forty centimeters tall. Cheng Yang couldn’t possibly fit it into his backpack.

Just as Cheng Yang was pondering how to carry it, Zhao Chuan approached. Seeing the alchemy furnace in Cheng Yang’s hands, he couldn’t help but ask, “Lord, what’s this? It looks like an ancient alchemy furnace.”

Cheng Yang replied, “It’s not just similar – it is one.”

“But aren’t the alchemy rooms selling potions? Do potions require an alchemy furnace to make?” Zhao Chuan’s face was full of confusion.

Cheng Yang explained, “Potions can indeed be made in crucibles, but alchemy furnaces can also be used. Moreover, potions are just the lower-level products of alchemy. In the future, there will be pills – those are the real treasures. So it’s perfectly normal to see alchemy furnaces appearing. Anyway, this thing is too big for me to carry. Find some people to take turns carrying it. It’s valuable – don’t damage it.”

“Alright,” Zhao Chuan agreed with a wry smile, looking at the massive object.

Zhao Chuan immediately called over three people from his team to take turns carrying the furnace. Fortunately, while the furnace was large, it wasn’t particularly heavy, and one person could carry it with ease.

After exiting the passage, the group found the path becoming increasingly difficult to traverse.

From their memories, this should have been a major road leading out of the city. But now, there wasn’t even a narrow path to be found. Occasionally, they could spot patches of asphalt and gravel mixture amidst the overgrown grass. Towering trees now dominated the landscape.

“Lord, do you think these trees will eventually grow so close together that they merge, covering the entire earth in wood?” A strange thought suddenly occurred to Zhao Chuan.

Cheng Yang, who knew what the future held, replied, “No, these trees will stop growing once they reach a certain size. Of course, there are exceptions, but I’m not entirely sure about the specifics.”

Zhao Chuan nodded, feeling somewhat relieved. If the entire earth were to be covered in trees, it wouldn’t be called Earth anymore – it would be Wood.

Although the surrounding trees were tall, they weren’t densely packed. However, the spaces between them were filled with thick, thorny undergrowth. While these thorns couldn’t harm the group, navigating through them was still troublesome.

Four warriors stepped forward, raising their greatswords to hack through the thorns. Leaves and branches flew everywhere as they forcibly carved out a path.

But this area wasn’t just a realm of plants. With no humans having set foot here for over ten days since the apocalypse began, the monster population had grown exceptionally large. Cheng Yang and his group had anticipated this and proceeded with caution.

After walking less than fifty meters, they heard frog croaks ahead, giving the area a strangely pastoral atmosphere.

“Lord, there are still frogs in this world? What do they eat? Are there still pests for them to consume?” Liu Hao couldn’t help but comment.

Cheng Yang shook his head, “Haozi, you need to remember one thing – there are no normal animals left in this world. All original animals have either been demonized or mutated. The stronger demon beasts were taken elsewhere by the gods, while the weaker ones were left near the main cities. What you’re hearing now is a type of demon beast.”

Liu Hao, with his exceptional understanding of game mechanics, immediately caught the detail in Cheng Yang’s words, “Lord, what do you mean by mutated?”

Cheng Yang explained, “You can think of it as an incomplete demonization. Mutated beasts can evolve like demon beasts, but they aren’t completely bound by the gods’ evolutionary rules. In other words, it’s possible for us to encounter a third-tier mutated beast, though normally they appear far from main cities and are quite rare. So we don’t need to worry about these rule-breaking creatures for now.”

“Damn, that’s messed up!” Liu Hao’s expression changed dramatically, “Does that mean the oceans are filled with mutated beasts?”

“Well…” Cheng Yang’s calm expression faltered. In his previous life, there had been speculation about the oceans containing numerous mutated beasts. But due to humanity’s limited strength, they had never been able to explore the seas. Even large lakes were terrifying, filled with horrifying numbers of demon beasts.

After a pause, Cheng Yang continued, “We’ll worry about the oceans later. We’re inland now, so we won’t face threats from the sea anytime soon. As long as we keep improving our strength at the fastest possible rate, even if the oceans are filled with mutated beasts, we’ll be able to handle it. The gods wouldn’t have gone through all this trouble to transform the world and evolve humanity just to wipe us out completely.”

Even as he said this, Cheng Yang wasn’t entirely confident.

Liu Hao noticed Cheng Yang’s concern but agreed with his reasoning. Not wanting to affect the group’s morale, he decided to drop the subject for now.

As they spoke, the group had advanced another ten meters when suddenly something shot out from the thorny bushes, heading straight for the lead warrior. Its speed was comparable to that of a late first-tier demon beast at full sprint.

“Watch out!” Cheng Yang shouted, raising his staff and sending an ice ball hurtling towards the projectile.

At Cheng Yang’s warning, all the combatants entered battle stance, even those who hadn’t seen the threat. The surrounding warriors raised their shields, ready for combat.

Cheng Yang’s ice ball was much faster than the projectile. It struck the attacker before it could reach the warrior.

Looking down, they saw a large frog lying on the ground. Well, if a two-foot-long creature could be called a frog, then this was indeed a frog.

Cheng Yang had heard the frog croaks earlier, but there were many types of frog monsters in the post-apocalyptic world. Only now, seeing the corpse, did his expression turn serious.

Just then, rustling sounds came from the surrounding grass, and more large frogs leaped out, launching a fierce attack on Cheng Yang’s group.

Without hesitation, Cheng Yang activated his Flower Shifting skill, shouting to the five people enhanced by it, “Defend your positions! Don’t let them break through!”

Immediately after, Cheng Yang used his Ice Spike skill, covering a large area in front of him with icy projectiles. Four or five frogs leaping from that direction were instantly knocked down.

While attacking, Cheng Yang explained, “These are Poison Frogs. They don’t have much health or attack power, but they can inflict poison. There’s a chance their attacks will poison you, causing one point of health loss per second for ten seconds. If you’re hit by different Poison Frogs, the poison effects can stack. Be extremely careful.”

Cheng Yang’s warning put everyone on alert, especially the front-line warriors who gripped their shields tighter.

However, the Poison Frogs’ leaping ability was formidable. Their sudden bursts of speed were too fast for early first-tier combatants to handle. In the initial assault, many front-line warriors failed to block the attacks, with some being hit by two or three frogs simultaneously.

Fortunately, the frogs’ attacks were indeed weak. Even when they hit the warriors, they only caused one point of damage, suggesting their attack power was only three or four points.

But two unlucky warriors were poisoned, their health steadily decreasing. Though it was only one point per second, the psychological pressure was immense.

After the first wave of attacks, the frogs’ threat level decreased significantly. Without their leaping advantage, the warriors’ shields became an impenetrable barrier. The frogs landed on the ground, only to face the combatants’ counterattack.

In that moment, at least seven or eight frogs fell to the combatants’ attacks, not counting those taken down by Cheng Yang’s initial Ice Spike.

In the ensuing battle, the frogs fell one by one, and the combatants emerged victorious.

After finishing off the frogs, Liu Hao wiped sweat from his brow, “That was intense! Luckily the poison chance isn’t high, and these things are too stupid to coordinate their attacks. Otherwise, we’d really be in trouble today.”

Liu Hao was right. If someone got hit by three poison stacks, they’d need to use a health potion immediately. The bigger problem was that using a potion would require temporarily withdrawing from the front lines. With only thirty-some people in Cheng Yang’s group, losing even a few warriors would make subsequent battles much harder.

Cheng Yang said, “You should be glad we only encountered a small group of Poison Frogs. If there had been over a thousand, the first wave would have been much worse.”

After resting briefly, the group continued their advance. In the next kilometer or so, they encountered four or five groups of demon beasts, the largest numbering a thousand. Cheng Yang welcomed these encounters – as long as the front-line warriors held, the five mobile artillery units behind them could freely slaughter the demon beasts.

As for Cheng Yang himself, he was now at the front lines. Though a mage, his physical and magical attributes had both surpassed 10, putting him far ahead of all other combatants in the world.

The battles were intense, but the rewards were plentiful. Besides Cheng Yang personally gaining nearly two thousand spirit energy points, all combatants who received his Flower Shifting enhancement gained several hundred points each. The biggest winners were undoubtedly Liu Hao and the other two captains, as they were almost always included in Cheng Yang’s Flower Shifting enhancement. The remaining two spots had to be shared among the others.

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