章 101: Chapter 101: The Underground City-State
After successfully luring the Hundred-Armed Monster out, Sunan released all of his golems and ordered them to encircle the creature. As the monster stood bewildered, Sunan quickly uttered an incantation and let out a resonant shout.
In an instant, a visible wave of sound materialized, rippling through the air like a cannonball and striking the Hundred-Armed Monster with force.
Boom!
One of the monster's many arms exploded, spraying flesh and blood.
"Ah!!!"
The monster's numerous heads screamed in pain, their overlapping, booming cries echoing through the vast basin, causing a sense of pressure in the chest of anyone who heard it.
Realizing what had happened, the enraged monster turned its heads, dozens of eyes glaring venomously at Sunan, and charged towards him with a shriek.
An elite stone golem immediately stepped forward to block its path.
Boom! Boom!
The Hundred-Armed Monster's multitude of swords and hammers rained down on the stone golem with the force of a storm, forcing it to stagger back, shedding fragments of rock and quickly becoming covered in cracks.
"What tremendous power!"
Sunan grimaced but continued to cast Crushing Wave spells.
Wave after wave of distorted sound struck the monster, targeting its arms, heads, and torso.
Some waves were preemptively blocked by the monster's swinging weapons or absorbed by its magical armor, but the rest shattered an arm or a head.
Sunan noticed keenly that when a head was destroyed, the arm beneath it continued to attack, unaffected. Each arm could be controlled by any head, so destroying a single head was ineffective.
Moreover, the magical armor worn by the monster offered formidable protection.
When hit by a Crushing Wave, the armor only bore a fist-sized dent, leaving the monster unharmed.
"Micro-glow grade enchanted armor?"
Sunan was taken aback.
Such armor was rarer than micro-glow grade magical items—primarily because no wizard (apprentice) would waste effort crafting it.
Where on earth did the monster find it?
"We must deal with those arms first!"
In just four to five minutes, the monster had smashed an elite stone golem to pieces.
Though surrounded by numerous golems, it seemed as though the roles were reversed.
The multitude of heads on its upper body left the monster with no blind spots.
With hundreds of arms, it could parry attacks from any direction and counterattack, making it difficult for the golems to land a hit. Only the intangible, elusive Crushing Waves could occasionally breach its defenses.
"Truly formidable!"
Though Sunan had anticipated a tough fight, the monster's strength still left him worried.
Against this creature, even a thousand-strong Black Rock cavalry might struggle.
Taking a deep breath, Sunan's expression hardened as he readied a high-level rune gem in his palm.
The next moment, the rune gem left his hand, bursting in mid-air into numerous black beams that rained down on the monster like a storm.
The monster frantically swung its weapons to intercept the beams, but they passed through unimpeded.
The beams struck the monster, casting a dark hue over its body, and its once-rapid attacks visibly slowed.
With the monster's combat prowess weakened by the shadow rune gem, Sunan immediately hurled a thunder rune gem, unleashing a meter-wide lightning bolt.
Boom!
The bolt struck several heads and arms, instantly charring them.
Lightning erupted across the monster's body, sending electric arcs crackling and hissing.
The monster's massive, fearsome form froze momentarily.
Seizing the opportunity, the Hidden Dragon, which had been lying in wait, emerged with jaws wide, sparks flashing between its teeth.
Whoosh!
A torrent of flame spewed from its mouth!
The raging fire engulfed over half of the monster's body!
A piercing, agonized howl erupted.
At least a dozen arms and several heads were incinerated!
Other heads and arms suffered varying degrees of burns.
The intense pain snapped the monster out of its paralysis, pushing it into a frenzy.
With its remaining heads roaring furiously, it swung its weapons wildly at the Hidden Dragon.
But the dragon had already phased out of sight, slipping into the void.
Swords and hammers struck the ground, leaving large cracks.
With the dragon gone, the monster turned its rage on Sunan, charging at him with a roar.
Boom! Boom!
Two steel golems lumbered forward, stepping into the monster's path.
Frustrated, the monster hurled a sword straight at Sunan.
The sharp weapon tore through the air with a piercing whine, heading for Sunan at a speed even his grand knight-level physique couldn't evade.
Thunk!
A dull sound echoed as the sword pierced through Shield and the energy particle layer, only to be halted by an invisible force field, clattering to the ground.
Seeing the Extreme Protection Ring's defense drop by over 300 points, Sunan grimaced.
Even after breaking through two layers of defense, the attack could still shave off over 300 defense points. What kind of strength was this?
Without preparation, a hit like that would have left him in pieces!
As the monster prepared to hurl another weapon, Sunan cast Mirror Image, splitting into five identical figures that scattered in different directions.
The monster hesitated, unsure of which target to pursue, and finally threw its weapon at Sunan on the right.
The weapon passed through, and the "Sunan" twisted and dissipated into the air.
"Roar!"
Frustrated, the monster refrained from randomly throwing more weapons.
After all, it had limited weapons, and without one, an arm would be left to face the golems barehanded.
With his images distracting the monster, Sunan could focus on his attack.
Two more high-level rune gems flew from his hand, manifesting as thunder and flame upon the monster!
The air filled with its agonized howls.
By now, the monster had lost about half of its arms and over a third of its heads, its body riddled with wounds.
It wanted to eliminate Sunan, but surrounded by golems, it couldn't get near.
With its weapon-throwing tactic thwarted, it posed no threat to Sunan, who continued his assault.
It also had to guard against the Hidden Dragon's surprise attacks!
Even in the perilous Underground World, it had never faced such a humiliating battle!
Crunch!
The monster smashed another elite stone golem.
With fewer arms, its combat ability had diminished significantly.
Where once it took three or four concentrated strikes to destroy a golem, now it struggled to bring one down even after prolonged effort.
By this point, Sunan had thrown his seventh high-level rune gem.
Under the blinding thunder strike, another set of arms turned to ash.
As the monster staggered, the Hidden Dragon struck with cunning, biting off three more arms before vanishing into the void.
Gravely injured, the monster sensed impending death. As soon as it recovered from its daze, it tried to flee.
Seeing this, Sunan ordered the golems to abandon defense and block the monster's escape, while the Hidden Dragon attacked head-on.
Simultaneously, Sunan readied his eighth high-level rune gem.
In a coordinated assault from Sunan, his pet, and the golems, the monster's arms were quickly destroyed.
With no means of attack left, it couldn't escape or turn the tide, and its heads were destroyed one by one.
With a final, abruptly silenced howl, the monster's massive body collapsed, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Sunan didn't relax until he unleashed several Crushing Waves, reducing the monster's upper body—home to its heads and arms—to rubble, confirming its death.
"Finally took it down!"
Sunan surveyed the scene.
The battle had cost him four elite stone golems and one steel golem.
The loss of these four golems alone exceeded 9,000 gold coins.
With the addition of eight high-level rune gems, Sunan had expended nearly 13,000 gold coins in this fight.
He couldn't help but grimace at the expense.
It wasn't until he remembered the silver and gold mines in the cave that he felt better.
Once those mines were developed, he could quickly recoup the 13,000 gold coins.
Collecting his thoughts, Sunan approached the monster's corpse, his gaze falling on the enchanted armor.
Up close, it was clear the armor didn't fit the monster.
For its massive body, the armor was too small, already deformed from being stretched.
"It seems the monster found the armor somewhere and forced it on."
With his Biological Modification skill at level 3, Sunan was adept in this area. After examining the body, he concluded that the monster's grotesque form was natural or a mutation, not the product of some wizard's (apprentice's) modification.
Coupled with the ill-fitting armor, it was unlikely the monster was a construct of some wizard (apprentice).
Sunan used Mage Hand to strip the armor from the monster.
Although he couldn't use it, the armor appeared valuable, and dismantling it might yield rare metals.
As for the monster's body, it held no utility for Sunan, so he incinerated it to ash.
With that done, Sunan turned his attention to the cave from which the monster had emerged.
After some thought, he decided to explore it.
Storing the golems in his cube, Sunan had the Hidden Dragon phase forward while he followed.
The passage beyond the cave entrance was surprisingly spacious—twice as wide as the one they had traversed earlier.
It made sense, given the monster's size and its need to navigate the passage.
After traveling two or three hundred meters, Sunan entered a vast cave.
The floor was littered with gnawed bones, and a foul odor lingered in the air.
Clearly, this had been the monster's lair.
At the cave's far end was a dark opening, leading who knew where.
Having come this far, Sunan pressed on, delving deeper inside.
The next passage was also wide and long.
Sunan estimated he traveled several hundred meters without seeing an end.
After about seven or eight hundred meters, the passage took a sudden downward turn.
Sunan frowned, opting not to send the Hidden Dragon ahead. Instead, he cast Levitation on himself and slowly descended.
After descending about twenty meters, he found a narrow opening, just wide enough for one person, with faint light visible beyond.
Pausing briefly, Sunan continued to float downward, but the space grew increasingly cramped, eventually impassable for a regular person.
Using a stone imbued with Light, he saw that the passage below was sealed, with no exit.
Seeing this, Sunan returned to the narrow opening and passed through.
His view expanded dramatically.
He found himself in a massive, bell-shaped cave, with sharp, sword-like stalactites hanging down.
Surveying the area, Sunan realized he was in a vast dome-like cavern, and the stalactites were descending from the ceiling.
The passage he had emerged from was a hollow stalactite.
The stalactites were adorned with countless sparkling crystals, casting a soft glow and bathing the cavern in a gentle light.
Below, the cavern floor held a vast, dark lake, like a jewel nestled within the cave.
At the lake's center lay an island.
The island was dotted with stone structures, and Sunan could make out figures moving in and out of the buildings.
"This is... an underground city-state!"
Sunan's eyes widened.
Intelligent creatures in the Underground World often lived in city-states to fend off external threats.
The vast Underground World was home to countless city-states of varying sizes.
Small city-states might house only a few thousand inhabitants.
Large ones could boast populations exceeding ten thousand.
The island before him was undoubtedly a small city-state.
Sunan never imagined that just beneath the forest near Shimmering City lay a city-state from the Underground World.
This was...
For a moment, Sunan was at a loss for words.
The city-state's presence wasn't good news for Shimmering City.
Underground dwellers often harbored ill intentions towards surface neighbors, with potential invasions bringing war and calamity.
But for Sunan, it might not be entirely bad.
With some luck, he could find many rare materials in this city-state that were hard to come by on the surface.
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