Chapter 453: Chapter 453: Dissection

“We’ve won, we’ve won!”

After a brief silence, all the militia members cheered, some even crying tears of joy as they covered their faces. Two lord-level monster bosses had been killed, so it was unlikely that any monsters would threaten the village for a long time. Those who had survived were filled with relief.

Song Jian looked at the pile of dark ashes from the Zombie Warlord and a smile appeared on his face. The monster’s defense had reached its peak just before he killed it. Even with Song Jian’s terrifying attack power, he could barely break through the boss’s defense, causing single-digit damage.

This level 25 lord-level boss surprisingly had the trump card of summoning hellish demons. If it had successfully summoned one, it would have been an arduous battle, and the entire village might have been destroyed.

“Fortunately, I detected your weakness at the last moment, or I might not have been able to stop you…” Song Jian thought to himself as he looked at the pile of ashes.

The Zombie Warlord’s body was covered in black bone spikes, but his right arm had none. Song Jian detected this weak point, and with a quick Light Strike filled with divine power, he severed the arm.

“It seems like this was the only way to complete the mission. Under such a terrifying defense bonus, I don’t believe there are other players who could break through its defense at this stage!” Song Jian thought, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead.

“Captain, what happened to you?”

The village gate slowly opened, and a swarm of militiamen rushed out. Seeing the black energy covering Falakfu’s face, they looked frightened.

At this moment, Falakfu’s body was covered with streaks of black energy like chains, and his eyes filled with terrifying bloodshot veins. Even his muscles began to bulge, their surface emitting a metallic sheen.

“He’s turning into a demon! The captain is turning into a demon!” A militiaman pointed at Falakfu in horror, stepping back.

Roar!

Falakfu suddenly let out a roar, dropped on all fours like a wild beast, and swiftly dashed toward the burning forest. The militiamen surrounding him were afraid to get contaminated by his energy and didn’t dare to stop him.

Song Jian saw a dark shadow flashing past him, and by the time he looked up, Falakfu had already rushed into the burning forest, leaving only a blurry figure for Song Jian.

“It seems the threat to this village hasn’t disappeared; this Falakfu may become the next Zombie Warlord…” Song Jian thought.

The Zombie Warlord dropped a level 25 silver-quality plate armor and a silver- quality two-handed battleaxe. There were also some level 20 materials, all of which Song Jian collected.

The demonic bat leader was still flapping its wings in a struggle to escape. However, being on the verge of death now, it had no strength left to fight back and could be easily killed even by an ordinary militiaman.

Song Jian quickly walked up, stabbed his sword into the demonic bat leader’s body, and depleted its last bit of Vitality Points. The bat leader exploded with a soft “bang” and a pile of items dropped.

After examining the loot, Song Jian couldn’t help but curse, “What a bunch of junk!”

From this level 25 lord-level boss, he had only received a pile of materials, not a single piece of equipment. The total value of those materials wasn’t even worth the price of the silver-quality battleaxe dropped by the Zombie Warlord.

“Perhaps its loot was reduced because it had been severely injured to begin with,” Song Jian could only speculate.

However, his main concern, the Magic Source Stone, was not among the loot. This puzzled him.

After all, this was a demon bat leader. If even it didn’t drop a Magic Source Stone, wouldn’t the drop rate for ordinary demon bats be even lower?

“Sir, sir?” A timid militiaman went up to Song Jian and bowed. “The village chief has invited you to rest in the village, sir. There is also an important matter he wishes to discuss with you.”

Song Jian glanced at the demonic bat leader’s corpse with a gloomy expression, then looked at the militiaman. A trace of murderous intent in his eyes caused the militiaman to step back involuntarily.

“Wait a moment, I have something else to do first.” Song Jian replied irritably. “Sir, do you want to dissect these demonic bats? I have a dissecting knife!” Seeing Song Jian still staring at the bat leader’s corpse, the militiaman assumed he wanted to dissect it and hurriedly took out a dissecting knife to please him.

The knife hadn’t been well maintained. There were traces of rust on the handle and some notches on the blade. However, its attributes caught Song Jian’s eye. “Old dissecting knife (white), item level 1, effect: Damage 3-7, increases dissection efficiency by 5%; usable condition: level 1.”

“Dissection, dissection…” Song Jian’s eyes brightened, and he suddenly remembered that Annie had mentioned that the Magic Source Stone was a gastric stone that aided digestion in the demon bats’ stomachs.

Just as realization dawned on him, Song Jian couldn’t help but laugh.

If that’s the case, thank you very much!” Song Jian accepted the dissecting knife from the militiaman with a smile.

Splat!

With the dissecting knife, Song Jian easily opened up the demonic bat leader’s stomach and took out a black crystal the size of a fingernail. When he saw the stone, Song Jian couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

“I didn’t expect it to be hiding in the stomach. I almost missed it. Hahaha!” Though the Magic Source Stone wasn’t large, it felt heavy in Song Jian’s hand, weighing around thirty grams. After a thorough search of the bat leader’s stomach, he found no other rewards and walked towards the other level 25 ordinary demon bats, dissecting knife in hand.

After spending ten minutes dissecting those bats, Song Jian ripped open all their stomachs. Not every demon bat had a Magic Source Stone in its stomach; in the end, he only collected about fifty grams.

The Magic Source Stones had various sizes, and the strangest thing was that when placed together, they would attract and merge with each other. In no time, they fused into a slightly larger black crystal.

“Thankyou!” Song Jian handed the dissecting knife back to the militiaman with a smile. The militiaman glanced at the Magic Source Stone in Song Jian’s hand and hesitated, seemingly wanting to say something.

Song Jian suddenly asked, “Have you seen this kind of black crystal before?” “Sir, we have these black stones in our village’s general store!” The militiaman scratched his head, perplexed as to why Song Jian would collect these black crystals, a look of doubt in his eyes.