Chapter 1469: Molten Worm

The flames of the third floor of the Purgatory towered high enough to scorch the sky. The wind was already hot enough, but there were hot ashes mixed among them as well. It was almost impossible to keep one’s eyes open.

On the ground, a kind of mob called the "Molten Worm" could be seen crawling and rolling across the molten rocks. Their body was bloated like a caterpillar’s and their screeches sounded horrible. Of course, their ability to withstand over tens of thousands of degrees of high temperature was nothing like a caterpillar’s.

Swhoosh!

A pair of human-shaped figures flew over the area. It was Uldan and me making our way toward the entrance to the fourth floor. I had to keep my arms perfectly straight along my body to reduce the amount of air resistance I faced while flying, but the Divine Rank archer didn’t have such problems. She kept an eye on our surroundings while saying, "Make sure you don’t get close to the Molten Worms. Those disgusting things can spit 10,000-degree acid at you. Not even the toughest dragon armor can withstand that kind of temperature[1].

I nodded. "I know. I’m not landing even if I die…"

I opened the map screen and noted that the heart of the map was blood-red in color. It was clearly where the floor boss was. When I looked in that direction though, I abruptly noticed that a bloody stretch of clouds full of lightning and fire were rolling toward us at high speed. It looked like it might devour us whole at any moment.

"Shit! It’s a worm cloud!"

Uldan’s face abruptly darkened as she grabbed my arm. "We need to head to the ground now! This worm cloud isn’t something we can withstand!"

"What’s going on?"

I flew toward the ground with Uldan, but we were just a bit too slow. One of the clouds managed to engulf us, and the next thing I knew my vision was greatly impeded, and my entire body was screaming in pain. I forced myself to activate Dark Pupils and take a closer look. To my shock, the bloody cloud was really many, many, MANY tiny insects that were less than a centimeter long in size. They were all basically the Purgatory’s version of a mosquito tornado!

Laiquito (Dread)

Level: 324

Attack: 52,000~72,000

Defense: 50,000

HP: 1,000,000

Skill: Devour

Introduction: An insect that lives within the caves of giant beasts. The laiquitoes can only survive in an environment between 100 to 800 degrees Celsius, but have incredible reproduction ability. It is said that they spend over 90% of their lifespan mating, and that they give birth to a new laiquito every 9 minutes or so. Although their offensive and defensive powers are subpar, they more than make up for their weakness with superior numbers. Many powerful experts have been eaten alive by these creatures, and they are without a doubt a symbol of death on the third floor of the Purgatory.

……

My eyes nearly popped out of my eye sockets. I had no idea that the "worm cloud" Uldan was talking about was something so terrifying. Although it was only a dread-rank mob, it more than made up for it with their numbers. If one laiquito did around 500 damage per hit, then several hundred laiquitoes did around one million damage per second! It was scary to say the least!

My HP turned red in just the blink of an eye. I needed to retaliate!

I unleashed Burning Blade Slash and killed god knows how many laiquitos at once. However, even more laiquitoes flew toward us from every direction! Death meant nothing to these mobs!

There was no time to check how much experience I had earned from my kills. Uldan was groaning because her divine protective aura had been shredded by the laiquitoes, and she had lost 40% of her HP in just a moment. She was a Divine Rank boss, and she still wasn’t able to withstand the worm cloud!

I could survive indefinitely against laiquitoes because I had 50% lifesteal. One strike was all it took for me to return to full health. However, Uldan didn’t have such an ability!

Pa!

I grabbed Uldan’s arm and pressed her tightly against my chest. I then covered her body with the Cloak of Divine Fervor while cutting down the laiquitoes. Their numbers seemed endless, however.

In my arms, Uldan said while closing her eyes, "Don’t try to fight against the worm cloud. Just descend to the ground as quickly as you can. The ground temperature is over one thousand degrees, and they can’t survive there!"

"Got it!"

A shock wave spread across the air as I exploded toward the ground. A wave of scorching heat washed over my face at the same time we left the worm clouds. This place was seriously a nightmare!

After we reached the ground, I looked up and saw that the worm cloud had stopped following us about a hundred meters above ground. They must feel pretty bad that they could only watch their prey and not do anything about it.

"It burns…"

Unfortunately, I felt like we were worse off than them. I felt like an ant on a frying pan standing atop of the red hot rocks. However, Uldan assured me with a smile, "Don’t worry. You’re a man with a Divinity, so your physique is tempered to a certain extent. This bit of heat isn’t nearly enough to kill you. Anyway, let’s continue our way to the lair on land. All we need to do is to circle around the giant beast guarding the barrier, and we’ll be able to enter the fourth floor."

"Circle around? Why don’t we just kill it outright?" I asked.

Uldan replied, "A long time ago when I was passing through these lands, I fought against the beast and suffered a horrible defeat. It even bit off one of my arms before I was able to enter the fourth floor. Are you sure you have the ability to kill it?"

I unsheathed the Xuanyuan Sword and declared confidently, "It will be different this time. I am here after all!"

Uldan shot me a sweet smile before saying, "Alright, we’ll give it a try. Right now though, our main priority is to take out the Molten Worms we are sure to run into along the way. I wouldn’t approach those disgusting creatures if at all possible, but…"

……

It was at this moment a Molten Worm that looked like a fat maggot crawled out of a pool of molten lava and onto the rock. It was very close to us, so it noticed us immediately and charged. Half a minute later, it was still a dozen or so meters away from us. Finally, I asked, "So, do you want me to take it out, or…?"

Uldan laughed. "Sure! I’ll assist you from range!"

"Okay!"

I activated Thunderous Charge and stunned the Molten Worm. Dark Pupils revealed it to be a Level 324 Ancient Immortal Rank miniboss. No wonder Uldan was wary of it. Its Attack and Defense were high enough, but its greatest stat was without a doubt its HP.

I injected the Molten Worm with Purple Frost Concentration before executing Burning Blade Slash. The final hit of the skill dealt 7 times more damage than normal and caused its fat body to tremble non-stop. Fiery red fluid kept spilling out of its wounds and landing on my Guardian Dragon Armor. It felt scalding hot despite my armor, and worse they wriggled like they were alive and dealt continuous damage to me. This was probably why Uldan wasn’t willing to fight the mob at melee range.

Suddenly, Freezing Arrow shot past me and landed squarely on the Molten Worm’s head. It triggered a massive damage number—

1,728,873!

I was stunned. As expected of a Divine Rank boss, her one hit was equal to multiple of mine. Then again, it was perfectly normal for NPCs to deal several million damage to each other. Anyway, I should focus and make sure that the mob’s killing right was mine. It would suck if it went to Uldan instead!

The Xuanyuan Sword burned with the power of divine energy. Less than half a minute later, the Molten Worm’s HP dropped to nothing!

Pu!

As the final strike killed the Molten Worm, it died and gave me just enough experience to level up to 253. The amount of experience required to level up after Level 250 could make a weak-willed person streak on the streets to vent their frustration, but I didn’t face such problems because the Purgatory was overrun with powerful mobs. This place would be a good place to grind if it wasn’t so easy to die here.

𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Pop!

The Molten Worm dropped a couple of magic stones and even a Divine Crystal. Usually, a miniboss wouldn’t drop something this good. It was probably because of my 139 Luck.

I picked up the Divine Crystal and noted that it was of 87 Quality. It couldn’t be used as a material to attempt an ascension, but it could be sold for 87k RMB. Naturally, I tossed it into my bag. Finally, it dropped a red card that made me smile wide. Now this is what I call an HP card—

Molten Worm Card: Increases user’s HP by 300%, but reduces Attack by 20% and HP regeneration speed by 50%. Duration: 240 minutes. Level Requirement: 235.

……

Although it was the best HP card I had seen yet, it had the unfortunate trait of lowering one’s Attack. In the end, I decided that I would stick with the Ash General Card. The 135% Attack boost was just too good to give up.

That being said, the cards weren’t bad at all. I threw them into my bag and made a mental note to pass them to non-technician players such as High Fighting Spirits, Xu Yang and Du Thirteen later. The card lowered their Attack but would give them nearly 3 million max HP. It would make them very difficult to kill.

We continued forward. I fought at melee, and Uldan from ranged. Moreover, Uldan was an extremely smart NPC. She knew not to attack when the mob’s HP had fallen below 10% so that I could receive the experience and loot rights.

Four hours passed by in the blink of an eye. I supposed that it was almost like a standard grinding session. Hundreds of Molten Worms died by our hands as we made our way toward the heart of the map, and my experience had jumped from Level 253 0% to 71%. At this rate, I should be able to hit Level 254 before the day was over. It was never a bad idea to climb to a higher-level because it offered all kinds of benefits such as diminishing a lower level opponent’s Attack, increasing one’s dodge rate and so on. Also, the main cities should’ve been recovered by the time I exited the Purgatory. This level advantage would be very useful when the other servers finally began their revenge in earnest.

The Northern Alliance, India server and Japan server had every reason to hate us, be it for the contest at the outer lands or the killings at the Sainthelm Ruins. Moreover, Vienna’s Sorrow, Breeze and Rain, God of War and more weren’t the type of person to sit still and do nothing while the Center continued to grow stronger by the day, not to mention that six of the Twelve Divine Armaments were in our hands. Even if they didn’t have vengeance in mind, they would still attack us to rob us of our equipment.

……

Crackle! Crackle!

Electricity crackled beneath our boots. There was a massive pit of lightning about a hundred meters away from us. It was similar to the pits created by Thunder’s Thunder Abyss, but this one was obviously even deeper and more unfathomable. Moreover, an incredible power was hibernating at the center almost as if it was waiting for Uldan and I to go to it.

"Uldan, you fought against the ardian of this floor before, right? Why don’t you be a dear and bring it over…" I suggested a bit uncertainly.

Uldan rolled her eyes at me before giving me a push. "No way. You do it…"

Crack crack crack…

The Xuanyuan Sword in my grip, I carefully stepped toward the lightning abyss while my boots crunched against burning hot rocks, and my Cloak of Divine Fervor flapped against the wind. I was about to reach the edge of the pit when a black shadow abruptly jumped out from it!

Swhoosh!

I took a step backward just in time to dodge a scythe-like pincer that would’ve sliced through my nose. It cut into the molten rock as easily as a knife would cut through tofu.

"Motherfucker! There is a giant monster in the pit!"

I immediately beat a hasty retreat. There was no way I was dying here especially considering how cruel the death penalty of the Purgatory was. I had no intention of losing 20 levels and most of my equipment.

1. T/N: Those dragons must be pretty shit then ☜