SPO – Chapter 43

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Chapter 43 – School of Mo’s Great Cave
Cautious, he did not take a step forwards any longer.

Although the forest had regained its quietness, the floor of bodies and blood stains, the unnatural quietness of his surroundings, and the unspeakable appearances of the Zhao Soldiers’ death all caused Yue Qiang’s nerves to be strained to the max.

While hiding behind this tall, thick tree, he slowly shifted his perspective to observe every corner of his surroundings little by little.

By now, it was already daylight, and the sun shone very brightly. Yue Qiang was at a low-lying land with lust forest. Not far away, some of the trees were chopped cleanly at the waist, and there were branches jutting off the cut surface. They looked a little like roadside trees that were trimmed by sanitation workers. These jutting branches were pretty lush already; some of them was about the size of an arm even. Yue Qiang reckoned that a very, very long time had passed since these threes were chopped.

The mark of chopped trees continued on and off all the way to the foot of a faraway mountain. That direction also happened to be the same direction where the Zhao Soldiers had escaped from.

The foot of the mountain was very far away, and Yue Qiang could barely distinguish that there was something there that was different from its surroundings. But he could not make out what it was.

Perhaps the residents of the School of Mo’s Great Camp had chopped the trees here a very, very long ago, and then built their great camp at the foot of the mountain? In that case, he should arrive at his destination as long as he followed this path.

Yue Qiang did not head along the path immediately. Instead he stayed at the same spot and made some preparations. There were a few methods that he hadn’t planned to use at first, but all signs were pointing towards a situation that was already very dangerous. He could no longer hold back; he must go all out if he was to survive.

He clicked open the character window. Previously, he had obtained 220 combat experience points from the quest ‘Defend Yue Village’. After killing three enemies just now, he had obtained yet another 90 combat experience points. The two Zhao Soldiers who died of fright and the Zhao Sergeant who tripped himself to death did not give him anything, however. He had only looted 40 plus Knife Coins from their bodies.

Currently, he had a total of 310 combat experience points. After a moment’s thought, he made his first attempt by dropping 100 experience points into ‘Break Fist – Killing Style, One LVL 1’. After all, he had no way of knowing exactly how much combat experience was needed to level up the skill.

The result was that the 100 combat experience points had increased less than a tenth of the skill level up progress bar like a clay oxen that had plunged into the ocean, never to be seen again.

Is it very difficult to level up a fist style at the level of an ultra move? Looks like it’ll be impossible to level up Killing Style, One before this crisis is over. Yue Qiang did not lose heart and put yet 100 combat experience point into ‘Run LVL 2’. Then he discovered gloomily that this skill wasn’t all too different either. It took 300 combat experience points to level up from level 1 to level 2, and it would take at least seven too eight hundred combat experience points to level up from level 2 to level 3.

He only had 110 points left, and there was no way he could level up these two skills, so he thought that he might as well dump everything under ‘Basic Jabbing Skill’. Instead, a message popped up: Combat experience cannot be used to upgrade skill carried over by equipment!

Bloody hell, it’s so stupidly hard to level up in this game! It’s bad enough that characters don’t have levels already, but skills take so much experience to level and it’s impossible to farm some random mobs and level up either.

Yue Qiang cursed on the inside, conserved his remaining 110 combat experience points and quickly adjusted his feelings. Thankfully, the ways to become stronger in this game were pretty diverse. He still had a Goldmaker Pill that he swindled from the doctor Ming Que, and now was the time to use it. He wanted to leave it for a better weapon at first, but since his very ugly-looking iron rod appeared to have some potential to be tapped, he might as well use it right now.

He dragged the Goldmaker Pill from the item window to the blackish iron rod. After a while, a message appeared.

System Message: Your weapon has gained a ‘Poison’ attribute. A poison effect will be applied and damages the enemy over time when attacking the enemy.

Poison coating? This is a core rogue ability, man. Poison attacks were reserved mainly for boss fights in many games, so this skill had appeared at just the right time. However, didn’t the item description say that the Goldmaker Pill increases a weapon’s attack power? Why did it turn into a secondary ability instead?

Yue Qiang looked at his blackish iron rod. The weapon was already ugly in the first place, and after it had merged with the white-colored Goldmaker Pill, the tip of the iron rod turned into a weird mix of colors that was neither black, nor white, nor grey. It was about as ugly as you could imagine.

This was the first time he saw a weapon that had plenty of ability effects but added no attack power whatsoever. As for the secondary poison damage, he couldn’t figure out why it appeared after the iron rod had merged with the Goldmaker Pill despite wondering about it for a long time, so he had no choice but to set the matter aside.

After he was done with his weapon, the last and most crucial thing he needed to do was to assign the 4 free distribution stat points he hadn’t used. He hesitated for a long time between the two attributes Strength and Vitality, but still could not make up his mind.

Strength could increase his attack power and boosted the damage of his skills by a lot; Vitality could increase his HP directly, and his Stamina gauge was the critical determinant as to how many skills he could unleash. Both these attributes were incredibly lacking right now.

In a fit of anger, Yue Qiang closed the window entirely.

He decided to continue conserving his points.

Worst comes to worst I can still run away with Run LVL 2. I refuse to believe that the monster this time is that hard to defeat!

After sorting out his thoughts one more time, and preparing just about everything that needed to be prepared, Yue Qiang finally began to move towards that direction.

Along the way, there were many Zhao standard weapons scattered all over the place, and torn rags hanging from the shrubs. However, he did not see any living human or creature at all. When Yue Qiang arrived at the foot of the mountain, he came to a stop.

This was a relatively open place, and there was a cave not far away from the foot of the mountain. The cave was incredibly big and incredibly tall. There was no telling how deep it went. The outer edge of the cave was filled with many arbors built from many round logs. Judging from the logs’ width and species, they matched the chopped trees he had seen along the way perfectly.

A huge log hung above the mouth of the cave. This log had been chopped vertically to reveal a smooth and flat surface. Four ancient character were written on it:

School of Mo’s Great Camp!

Could it be that this so-called great camp is actually a mountain cave?

Yue Qiang carefully made his way inside through the cave entrance. He had just arrived at the entrance before he saw a bloody scene that would remain unforgettable for the rest of his life.

Corpses.

The corpses of Zhao Soldiers were everywhere.

There wasn’t a passage inside the cave entrance, but a hall. Scattered inside it were twenty to thirty corpses. Almost none of these corpses were completely intact; they were either missing an arm, a leg, or both. Blood splattered all over the floor, dying the soil into a deep red color.

Although these corpses were all mutilated one way or another, they all shared an eerily common trait. Every one of their spines were broken!

Every one of their backs were twisted at a bizarre angle. It was easily imaginable how much pain these people had suffered before their deaths looking at their mangled bodies lying face up or down on the ground.

From near to far; from outside to inside. The corpses were everywhere.

It was literally unimaginable what kind of power was needed to create such a terrifying and hellish scene.

The corpse of a Zhao Soldier closest to Yue Qiang had his arms torn apart and his back broken in half. There was a terrible wound at the side of his body, and this wound was exactly the same as the one he found on the Zhao Sergeant’s body. Four deep straight lines could be found on the body!

Yue Qiang sat in front of his computer and muttered to himself: Is is that thing again? Just what is that thing?

It was at this moment a girl’s voice resounded:

“It’s a tiger.”

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