Chapter 488: Chapter 488: Saving People

Song Jian glanced at the recipe for the Advanced Spiritual Recovery Potion and chose to use it right away. His Alchemy skill met the requirement, so naturally, he was able to learn this formula easily.

Checking the materials required to make the Advanced Spiritual Recovery Potion, he found that a substantial number of them were items dropped by level 20 monsters or herbs from areas with level 20 monsters. This, for Song Jian, was quite easily accessible.

With both the Advanced Vitality Recovery Potion and the Advanced Spiritual Recovery Potion, Song Jian’s monster hunting and leveling up had become safer and more enduring. Indirectly, it also augmented his power.

Lu Mingyuan picked up the remaining items, checked their attributes, and his face darkened slightly. After giving Song Jian a cynical huff, he drew out his dissecting knife and started to slice up the shattered corpse of the Ant.

Having seen Lu Mingyuan’s reaction, Song Jian gave a slight smile and began to examine the last orb.

“Ant Soul Orb (Silver), Accessory, item level 30, equipped effect: “+5 Agility, +15% damage, special effect: each time a Demonic Ant is killed, you gain its soul. Once a sufficient number of souls are accumulated, it can produce a daunting effect on Demonic Ants. The more Demonic Ant souls, the more significant the daunting effect. The highest daunting effect can reduce the Demonic Ant’s defense by 50%, deduct 30% damage, and slow down the target’s attack speed by 30%. Number of souls: 0/1000; Requirement: Level 20; Can be taken out of the game: No.”

Song Jian’s eyes sparkled, he looked at Lu Mingyuan, he himself hadn’t expected that this Xuanjin Ant would indeed drop an item that could counter Demonic Ants.

Although this accessory was of the silver quality, it was extremely target-specific. It was perfect for dealing with Demonic Ants. However, besides Demonic Ants, the special effect of this accessory would lose its power, leaving only the basic attributes.

Song Jian seemed hesitant for a moment, but he put away his postman’s bag. The postman’s bag was a twelve-slot bag that took up one accessory slot. After being removed, the items inside could still be taken out, but nothing could be put back in.

Song Jian put twelve temporarily unnecessary items into his postman’s bag and then unloaded the bag from his equipment slot, putting it into his inventory slot.

After equipping the Ant Soul Orb, Song Jian would need to kill 1000 Demonic Ants to bring out the real power of this silver accessory.

Having gone over the spoils of battle, Song Jian saw Lu Mingyuan stand up, having finished dissecting the Ant’s corpse. Judging by his appearance, it seemed that Lu Mingyuan had managed to extract quite a few useful things from the Ant’s carcass, and his resentment noticeably dissipated.

The presence of the Ant caused all the Demonic Ants within a kilometer radius to vanish. The two decided to rest there for the night. Regarding the item to counter Demonic Ants, Lu Mingyuan did not inquire whether Song Jian had obtained it. His face looked very calm, and Song Jian had no way of guessing what he was thinking.

The following day, the two of them got up early and continued towards the Demonic Ant Nest. Now with the enslaved Ant King, their speed at killing Demonic Ants had become much more efficient. In less than half a day, Song Jian’s task of killing 500 worker ants was finished, and they had even slain over a dozen soldier ants.

Nonetheless, with the increase in the number of Demonic Ants killed, the number of ant souls captured by Song Jian’s Ant Soul Orb also grew. He had now stored the souls of over two hundred Demonic Ants.

Song Jian realized that, once the Ant Soul Orb had acquired the souls of one hundred Demonic Ants, it would exhibit its special effect. The effect of one hundred souls was a reduction of 5% defense, 3% damage, and 3% attack speed of the Demonic Ants;

The effect of having two hundred souls was a reduction of 10% defense, 6% damage, and 6% attack speed of the Demonic Ants;

Killing off the level 30 monsters gave Song Jian and Lu Mingyuan a huge amount of experience points. Song Jian had already leveled up to 23.70%, and it was estimated that he would level up again after killing several dozen more Demonic Ants.

Lu Mingyuan, an hour ago, had already shown a promotion glow.

The Ant King slave had leveled up to level 25, giving off a fierce aura. The shell of its body had become similar to spiked armor, with sharp spikes covering its whole body. Its two blood-red eyes radiated an endless brutal temperament.

As soon as a Demonic Ant appeared, the Ant King slave would be the first to pounce. Not a single Demonic Ant it killed had a complete body as all were bitten into multiple pieces. The ferocity in its fighting chilled even Song Jian’s heart.

Each time it killed a Demonic Ant, the Ant King slave would look back at Song Jian. Underneath its calm exterior, it seemed to be hiding a turbulent undercurrent.

“This pet of yours won’t turn against you, will it?” Lu Mingyuan looked at the frenzied Ant King slave in battle. When the fight ended and the Ant King slave quietly walked next to Song Jian, Lu Mingyuan suddenly felt a chill run down his spine and couldn’t help asking.

Song Jian was also a bit worried as the downside of Abyss Temptation was that the chances of turning the charmed creatures into traitors were incredibly high. However, now was not the time to tell Lu Mingyuan the truth, so he just silently glanced at him without saying a word.

Just then, Lu Mingyuan’s actions came to a sudden halt, pointing down the road he said, “There seem to be other players fighting up ahead!”

Song Jian looked up, and sure enough, before long, a figure was seen running desperately on the road. The person turned out to be Lv Pei, who had previously used a Teleportation Scroll to escape back to Doomsday City through the Protection Black Mist. For some reason, he had reappeared here and was now being chased by a large group of Demonic worker ants, with five to six Demonic soldier ants constantly spitting acid balls at him from the air;

Without hesitating, Song Jian exclaimed, “Save him!”

As they proceeded, the number of Demonic Ants became increasingly larger, and the two were starting to feel overwhelmed. To hunt down the Demonic Ant King, they would have to penetrate into the heart of the Demonic Ant Nest. Given their strength, approaching, let alone entering deep into the nest, would probably be extremely difficult.

Now, one additional person meant one extra strength in the group. At crucial times, even if there was just one more pawn, it would still give them a higher chance of escape.

Even if Lv Pei died here, it would not benefit Song Jian or Lu Mingyuan in any way. And now, saving him wouldn’t require a lot of effort either.

Song Jian glanced at Lu Mingyuan. If it came down to the range of attack, Song Jian was no match for Lu Mingyuan. At this point, Lu Mingyuan had already started calculating Lv Pei’s running speed and timing his attack.

Lv Pei felt overwhelming regret. He hadn’t expected that after leaving Doomsday City again, he would be teleported straight near the Demonic Ant Nest. As soon as he appeared, he was chased by a huge swarm of Demonic Ants.

Just as Lv Pei felt his strength dwindling, he spotted two players standing on the road ahead. His face instantly lit up with joy as though he’d survived a calamity. Without even taking a second to discern their faces, he shouted, “Help me!” towards Song Jian and Lu Mingyuan.

…