Ch.66 This Boss Doesn't Play by the Rules
Boom—!!!
Flas surged skyward as the violent gas explosion engulfed the deepest level of the mine shaft entirely. The countless Followers of Nature felt as though a miniature sun had ignited at their backs.
The scorching heat and shockwave ravaged their fragile bodies—skin sizzling like at on a grill. Even with the Abyssal Blessing continuously patching them back together, a great number of the Followers of Nature did not survive that first wave of light and heat.
Yet this did not an that the handful of more powerful believers could escape their fate either. Before the explosion had even finished, they heard a grinding shriek from above.
The death-cry of the load-bearing wooden beams giving way.
'Soone… has… invaded…'
That was the last thought to surface in their minds before the collapsing rock layers sent them off to et the Great Lord of Nature.
"Cough, cough, cough—"
Anya, in her excitent, had carelessly inhaled a mouthful of the dust thrown up by the explosion and cave-in at the bottom of the mine shaft. Eyes watering, she pressed her hand over her mouth and coughed softly.
"Tsk, why are you always so reckless? What would it have mattered to wait a little longer before coming down?"
Luo Nan tossed the girl another Recovery Potion, gesturing for her to drink it quickly.
"Wasn't I just… worried about stragglers?" Anya caught the potion, not bothering to be prim about it—she pulled out the stopper and gulped the whole thing down in one go.
"Your worry was unnecessary. Between the explosion and the cave-in, only soone at Tier Three tamorphosis or above could tough it out with their bare body."
Luo Nan swept his gaze across the severed limbs still radiating residual heat, and the thick crimson fluid oozing out from beneath the boulders, and said quietly, with a slight frown:
"Better safe than sorry—wouldn't you agree, Miss Tanya?" Anya refused to see it his way, and instead tried to bring the female knight in on her side to form a two-to-one advantage against Luo Nan.
"……"
The knight did not reply.
"Miss Tanya!"
"Yes—yes, caution is always the better approach." Tanya had no choice but to go along with Anya's line of argunt.
"See? Even Miss Tanya agrees on the importance of sweeping the battlefield and finishing off survivors afterward. Are you still going to argue with , Luo Nan?"
At so point, Anya had developed a fondness for bickering with Luo Nan—though she was invariably the one who got steamrolled, with precious few victories to her na.
This ti, she felt she had finally secured a first win of her very own.
'This guy always uses sophistry to put
down. This ti I am absolutely going to reclaim so ground!'
With that thought, Anya opened her mouth to press on: "So what you should—"
"Is that why you wasted an entire 7-Faras potion on ? I seem to recall you only inhaled so dust—a full bottle really wasn't necessary, was it?"
"Two Faras I'll count as a necessary expense. The remaining five you wasted outright… how about I deduct it from your commission this round?" Luo Nan responded without a second thought.
"……"
Anya felt her soft spot seized and squeezed with ruthless precision, and the budding fullness at her chest gave a sharp, involuntary clench as well.
"You… I……" The girl had no idea how to respond to Luo Nan's words.
For her, 'deducting pay' was an absolute mountain she simply could not get past.
"I thought… I actually thought the whole bottle was a gift for ……" Anya's voice imdiately softened.
‘This is not backing down—this is not backing down!’
‘This is simply Anya Sivans making the optimal choice when faced with an unscrupulous employer!’
‘Once I get my 10-Faras commission, I'll settle accounts with this guy properly!’
Luo Nan did not respond. Instead, he walked over to a gray door that had co through the explosion completely untouched and pristine, as if nothing had happened.
"We'll revisit the matter of docking your pay later. For now… it's ti we t the mastermind here."
"Anya, Miss Tanya—find sowhere to hide. I expect… he's about to co out."
"What about you?" Anya set aside her grievances for the mont now that things had turned serious, and asked.
"Worried about ?"
"Yes—only because if you die, no one will pay
my 10 Faras!"
Luo Nan gave a quiet laugh and waved her off. "Rest easy. The number of life-saving tools on this young master's person is greater than the number of als you've eaten. The two of you get well clear of here—when the ti cos, watch for my signal, and we'll catch him off guard together."
Rumble, rumble……
As the gray door slowly ground open, a short figure ca shuffling out from within, cursing under its breath.
"What the hell are you lot doing? Didn't I say the ritual is just one final key step away from……"
The scene before him forced every remaining word back down his throat.
‘We've been invaded?!’
The short figure instantly grasped what had happened. He retreated in quick steps and imdiately deployed his Blessing, letting the black fluid wash over his limbs and torso.
"To what do I owe the honor of your visit, and why no advance notice? You've even set off quite the fireworks display inside my research facility—that's a little… unkind of you, don't you think?"
Once the black fluid had fully transford into armor, the short figure adopted an air of breezy composure once more, and called out toward the rubble-strewn wasteland that appeared to be entirely empty.
‘That power…… Tier Two Peak!?’
A chill shot through Luo Nan's mind. Having confird the enemy's strength, he began turning over counterasures at a furious pace.
‘Tier Two Peak—cannot engage directly. I'm only at Tier One Mid-Stage, and with two ladies at Tier Two Early-Stage, we would stand absolutely no chance in a head-on fight.’
He stilled his breathing and studied the opponent's silhouette carefully.
‘Oh? Is it really him? If it's him, then all of this makes sense.’ Retracting his gaze, Luo Nan had already ford a plan.
"Are you still not going to show yourself, Sir? Bold enough to act, but not bold enough to own it?" The short figure clad in black armor called out loudly.
"No matter… since you are unwilling to take the initiative, allow
to… extend a personal invitation!"
The mont those words fell, countless tendrils of black mist suddenly appeared—spreading from the short figure as their center and rapidly billowing out to fill the entire space.
‘This ability…… A Secondary Priest of 'Nature'?’
‘Good—this confirms my conjecture entirely.’ Luo Nan hesitated no longer and stepped out from his hiding place.
He moved through the Black Mist at a asured pace, using his enhanced senses at full stretch just barely to locate that short silhouette at the center.
At the sight of Luo Nan erging, the short figure split open the corners of its mouth into a grin, revealing a maw still completely coated in black, "You've finally decided to show yourself, Sir?…… An ordinary person?"
"Shall I address you as Mr. Jeraf Goldenhamr, or as Mr. 'Smiling-Mask Dwarf'—or perhaps as… Your Holiness the High Priest?" Luo Nan marshaled every ounce of his strength just to hold back the Black Mist's all-encompassing erosion of his body.
‘A Tier Two Peak cultivator who is also a Secondary Priest of Nature—this power…… is truly formidable!’ Luo Nan was inwardly alard, yet allowed none of it to show on his face.
Because he understood this fellow's nature—all bluster on the outside, hollow within. Just as at the impromptu auction in the Whisper Market, the more unruffled you appeared, the more this person would hold back for fear of hitting sothing he couldn't handle.
Especially now, with Luo Nan deliberately suppressing his power to appear no different from an ordinary person.
"You were actually able to identify my other identity?"
Jeraf Goldenhamr tucked both hands into the front of his robe. His pure-black eyes narrowed to slits, and the smile that spread across his face carried a profoundly unsettling quality—no, not a smile. Malice.
"If that is the case…… all three of my identities have been seen through by you, Sir. Yet I know absolutely nothing about your background. I find that…… unacceptable. Very unacceptable!"
With that, Jeraf transford into a raging black tempest and surged straight toward Luo Nan.
‘What the—he just attacks without a word? I hadn't even gotten started with my verbal assault!’
‘No choice—take a hit of Purifying Light first!’
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