Chapter 78: Chapter 75: When the Snipe and the Clam Grapple
The four of them tiptoed out of the underground cavern and hid around a corner in the tunnel, about 15 ters away.
The tunnel blocked the chaos behind them, but it couldn’t block out the mind-piercing shrieks and the dull thuds of flesh impacting flesh.
The center of the cavern had already turned into a at grinder.
The Earthworm Queen had descended into a complete frenzy.
It had abandoned all defense, turning its hard head and sharp appendages into the most primitive of weapons, ramming and tearing at the Joyous Thorn’s main body again and again.
The Joyous Thorn was not to be outdone. It gave up on its bewitchnt, and all its vines turned as tough as steel whips, lashing viciously against the Queen’s shell with a sound that tore through the air.
So of the smaller vines, like venomous snakes, burrowed into the gaps of the Queen’s shell, trying to shred its internal organs.
"GULP."
Baston leaned against the cold rock wall. He looked at the white marks lashed onto the Queen’s shell by the vines, then at the main trunk of the Joyous Thorn, which was spattering juices from the impacts. With lingering fear, he said, "These two... they’re both completely insane."
"The Queen’s anger is fading,"
Lina’s voice was like a live comntary, her eyes fixed unblinkingly on the battle.
"It’s being replaced by ’pain’ and ’exhaustion’... The flower’s ’fear’ is growing. It can’t hold on much longer."
Allen was like a patient Hunter. He activated [Sensory Enhancent - Vision], his deep blue eyes reflecting the chaotic scene at the heart of the battlefield.
Allen spoke two words: "Get ready."
He didn’t turn around, but the three behind him imdiately tensed up.
As Allen had instructed, all four of them held a Frost Type-I Grenade in their left hand and a Lightning Type-I Grenade in their right, waiting for the battle in the cavern to be decided.
On the battlefield, the situation suddenly turned!
The Earthworm Queen let out a final, furious roar. It actually used its own head to brutally smash through most of the Joyous Thorn’s vines, then bit down on the human-face-like main trunk and gave a savage yank!
"RRRIP—"
The Joyous Thorn’s main body was brutally ripped out from its roots!
The bizarre plant let out one last, mournful psychic shriek as colorful juices gushed out.
But the Queen also paid a heavy price. Before being torn, dozens of tough vines had stabbed deep into its abdon and mouthparts, leaving wounds that went down to the bone. Its enormous body swayed and then collapsed heavily to the ground. A mixture of blood and colorful plant juice gushed from its wounds.
Both sides were grievously wounded!
"Now!" Allen’s voice rang out.
All four of them simultaneously threw the grenades in their hands with all their might.
Eight grenades traced parabolic arcs through the air, fanning out to cover the devastated area in the center of the cavern, blanketing the dying Joyous Thorn and Earthworm Queen, along with the three injured guard burrowing insects.
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
First ca a blinding flash of electric light, and arcs of electricity like silver snakes danced wildly over the bodies of the burrowing insects.
It caused their already weakened bodies to erupt in one final, violent convulsion.
Imdiately after, an ice-blue frost bood outwards. The moisture in the air condensed instantly, the ground emitted a crisp "CRACKLE" sound, and a thick layer of white frost spread rapidly.
The juices sprayed by the Joyous Thorn and the blood flowing from the burrowing insects all froze into ice crystals.
The entire cavern, after experiencing an extre din, finally fell into a deathly silence.
Several enormous bodies were completely frozen, transford into a twisted ice sculpture, frozen at the last mont before death.
Baston, Bruno, and Lina all stared blankly at the huge corpses, then looked back at the composed Allen. Their minds couldn’t quite process what had just happened.
Allen turned to Lina and said, "Take a look. Have their emotional responses completely disappeared?"
Lina closed her eyes. When she opened them again, the world of emotional spectrums in her vision was silent, with only a few residual echoes left.
She nodded. "They’re... all completely dead."
’It’s... over just like that?’
’This mission, which had been posted in the Mission Hall for months without anyone taking it, was resolved by them in such a nearly theatrical way?’
"Captain..."
Bruno’s voice had a dreamlike tone. He steadied himself against the wall, feeling that his legs were still weak. "We... we succeeded?"
"Obviously."
Allen led the way into the cavern, his boots making a soft "CRUNCH" on the frozen frost.
"Now, it’s ti to tally our loot."
He walked over to the ice sculpture of the Joyous Thorn, kicked the stone-hard frozen stalk with the tip of his boot, and said:
"The active juices of the Joyous Thorn are a premium material for making ’Calming Potions’ and are a dium for so types of Spiritual Witchcraft. At current market prices, a plant this big, once thawed and purified, could sell for at least eight hundred Low-Level Magic Stones."
He then walked to the corpse of the Earthworm Queen, his long fingers stroking the enormous shell that glinted with a crystalline luster.
"The mission requires us to turn in one shell from a Crystal Shell Burrowing Insect. We have three small ones and one Queen here. The purchase price for a regular burrowing insect’s shell is between eight hundred and nine hundred Magic Stones. The other two will be ours, so that’s another seventeen hundred Magic Stones."
He paused, lightly tapping his fingertips on the thickest part of the Queen’s shell, producing a crisp, jade-like sound.
"And the Queen’s shell, its crystal structure is dense, and its magic resistance far exceeds that of a normal specin. It’s almost undamaged from the fight. It’s probably worth fifteen hundred Magic Stones."
"Th-that’s already four thousand Magic Stones..." Bruno stamred out the calculation, a golden glint appearing in his eyes.
"Don’t get ahead of yourself," Allen interrupted him. "We’re not done yet."
He walked over to the ground next to the Queen’s corpse, crouched down, and used his Alchemy Dagger to scrape away the surface layer of ice and a thin layer of soil.
A faint, silver-blue radiance shone through from under the soil, as if crushed moonlight had been scattered on the ground.
"What’s this..."
Bruno leaned in as well. When he saw what it was, he froze completely. "Moonlight Moss! Oh my god, it’s Moonlight Moss!"
"There was an extra piece of information I didn’t tell you about when I was doing my research."
Allen’s voice remained steady, but what he said made the other three’s hearts begin to pound wildly.
"In areas where Crystal Shell Burrowing Insects are active, the soil becos enriched with a certain trace earth elent. This creates a pri environnt for ’Moonlight Moss’ to grow."
He looked up at his three completely petrified teammates.
"And market data shows that ’Moonlight Moss’ is the core supplentary ingredient for crafting ’High-Level ntal Recovery Potions’."
"A month ago, the main production area in the ’Sinking Dream Swamp’ was permanently contaminated by a failed soul experint conducted by an Official Wizard, causing a break in the market’s supply chain. In the last fifteen days, the acquisition price for ’Moonlight Moss’ has risen by three hundred and twenty-seven percent, and it’s still climbing."
Allen stood up and pointed to the vast cavern beneath their feet.
Beneath the layer of frost, the faint silver-blue lights flickered, connecting into a sheet that covered almost the entire cave floor.
"At current black market prices, a handful of dried Moonlight Moss is worth fifty Low-Level Magic Stones. And the quantity here..." He trailed off, rely stating a fact.
"Congratulations, everyone. We’ve struck it rich."
"’We’re... we’re rich...’ Bruno repeated the two words, his eyes beginning to shine."
Baston just chuckled foolishly, scratching his head. He felt like he was in a dream.
Lina’s eyes, however, shone with brilliance, as if she were already imagining a wild spending spree.
"Let’s move."
Allen’s voice cut in. He tossed a Healing Potion to Baston, the only one who had suffered a superficial wound, pulling the three of them out of their ecstatic daze and back to reality.
"Bruno, you’re in charge of collecting the Moonlight Moss and the Joyous Thorn’s juices. Use sealed containers; don’t let their energy fluctuations affect each other. Baston, help
with the Queen’s shell. I want the whole thing, cut it at the joints. Lina, stay on guard."
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