Chapter 276 [Iron-Stomach Flail] and the Ruined Church

He was already used to it.

The rusty stench of blood quietly permeated the fog.

A bloodstained piece of gauze lightly wiped across the surface of the dark brown wooden sword. His fingertips could still feel the lingering warmth on the blade.

Wiping away the last streak of dirty blood, Xia Nan sheathed his sword.

Taking a step forward, his gray-white greaves stepped over the half-orc's headless body.

His pitch-black eyes were completely cold, devoid of any emotional fluctuation.

He didn't know when it had started, but he seemed to have grown accustomed to the feeling of taking lives.

A little over a year ago, he had just been an ordinary office worker struggling in the corporate world, someone who had never even killed a chicken. Yet now, he could remain indifferent to the passing of life.

Was it because of those green-skinned Goblins he used to vent his suppressed emotions, or because of the power he had gradually gained throughout his adventures?

Or perhaps... this was simply his true nature, only concealed by the comfort of his previous life?

Now was not the time for introspection.

More important right now was the timely maintenance of his wooden sword.

After all, it came from an otherworldly Secret Realm, and it was highly probable that no related materials existed on the Aifala Continent. Even if the sword itself was sturdy, if it suffered damage over time, he probably wouldn't even know where to take it for repairs.

Whenever he had the chance, he needed to maintain it as carefully as possible to extend the weapon's lifespan.

As for the green-skinned half-orc on the ground who had already been reduced to a headless corpse, the terrible impression the guy had left on him back in Ash Valley Village was reason enough for him to die.

Xia Nan had always harbored a deep disgust for bastards who relied on their bit of strength to wantonly oppress and humiliate ordinary commoners.

He didn't tout himself as some "champion of justice," nor did he consider himself a great saint overflowing with kindness.

It was purely an instinctive repulsion born from his own moral compass.

Looking ahead, Xia Nan gazed at the small plaza where no living creatures remained, only scattered corpses.

His eyes swept over the bodies whose heads had been cleanly severed, as well as the fat knight nearby that had similarly lost its head.

Thanks to his sharp Perception, even though he was further away than the adventurer squad and hindered by the strange thick fog, Xia Nan had noticed the anomalies in the plaza before they did.

Naturally, he had also spotted the decayed knight in the center of the area, which looked like an elite monster that had fallen into a deep slumber.

Of course, he couldn't let those few guys ahead—whom he had specifically kept around to scout the path and trigger traps—pass through smoothly.

He had to put them to good use.

Xia Nan needed to know the actual combat strength of these monsters, as well as anything else that might require particular vigilance.

If it proved too dangerous, it would also be convenient for him to retreat without exposing himself and return to explore later.

Thus, utilizing his [Gravity Control] ability, he hid deep within the fog and presented those adventurers with a few small "surprises."

He didn't need to exert much effort, nor did he have to worry about exposing himself.

Gravity was invisible and formless; he only needed to slightly reduce or increase it at the right moment and in a subtle location.

That was enough to achieve his goal.

Without even resorting to his backup plan, Xia Nan successfully caused the tall human ranger to make enough noise.

A battle subsequently broke out.

Although they didn't actually clash with the elite monster on the field, it wasn't hard to judge their approximate strength just by watching their brief fight with the nearby mummies.

It wasn't far off from his expectations; their Class Levels should all be between lv1-3, with no one who was obviously overpowered or holding the group back.

Their professional competence was also within his expectations.

At the cost of a teammate's life, they tacitly bought a chance for the rest of the squad to advance safely.

Xia Nan had observed it very clearly from the sidelines. After the half-orc received the captain's order and charged out, the remaining members didn't even speak out loud; they communicated entirely through eye contact.

With a bizarre tacit understanding, they broke through, evacuated, and left the half-orc alone on the field.

It was unclear whether this big guy's role in the squad was originally meant to be like this, or if the remaining three had already made private contingency plans beforehand.

Additionally, through the half-orc's battle with the fat knight—even if it was just a few simple exchanges—he had gained a general understanding of this elite monster's combat style, strengths, and weaknesses.

Its massive body, along with the thick fat and the metal armor on its skin, granted it exaggerated physical Strength and instantaneous explosive power while simultaneously providing considerable defense.

Even the exceptionally gifted half-orc, who had taken up the Barbarian class, was far inferior to it in terms of grappling and couldn't even break its defense.

All of his strengths were perfectly eclipsed by the knight, allowing him to display less than half of his actual Class Grade combat power.

But for Xia Nan, it was quite easy to deal with.

Leaving aside the few trump cards he possessed, just his swift and fierce combat style—which balanced both explosive power and mobility—perfectly countered this kind of clumsy giant.

Moreover, with the damage bonus taking effect, the wooden sword [Green Pine] and its Sunflame attribute caused the opponent's defensive capabilities to plummet.

The fat that had originally blocked the half-orc's blunt strikes as easily as a sandbag possessed no resistance whatsoever under the cutting edge of the flickering, flame-lit blade, splitting open as smoothly as if it were melting.

In fact, the layers of fat piled around the creature's neck had pushed up the metal gorget that was supposed to protect its vitals, as if voluntarily clearing a path for Xia Nan's attack.

With only a slight aim, utilizing the Sunflame bonus damage of [Green Pine] combined with a max-level [Spinning Slash], he had gripped the hilt tightly and swung forcefully along the folds of accumulated fat. A round head smoothly rolled right off its shoulders.

The movement was incredibly fast; before the fat knight could even retaliate, it had already been reduced to a headless stump.

As his mind subconsciously recalled the silky-smooth feeling of swinging the sword, Xia Nan couldn't help but feel a little puzzled.

The performance of [Green Pine] in the battle just now had far exceeded the "15%" damage bonus listed on its Attribute Panel.

His Golden Finger definitely wouldn't make a mistake. After thinking it over, he could only guess that these corpses in the fog had extremely high physical resistance, boasting obvious defensive bonuses against the slashes and thrusts of ordinary adventurers.

However, they had absolutely no defense against the wooden sword's Sunflame damage, which might even act as a specific elemental weakness.

With this decrease and increase, coupled with his own robust combat ability, countering combat style, impeccable timing, and a little bit of luck...

Only then had he managed to finish the opponent off with such apparent ease.

Otherwise, if it were any ordinary lv2 or lv3 Warrior Class Holder, they might truly not be a match for the fat knight.

Running into Xia Nan just now could be considered terrible luck on its part.

Without dwelling on it further, the end of the battle naturally signaled the time to clear the battlefield.

After all, he still needed to keep up with the adventurer squad ahead. Xia Nan didn't have an abundance of time, nor the leisure to inspect things closely.

Fortunately, the only potential sources of loot on the field were the corpses of the half-orc and the knight, so searching them wasn't much trouble.

Of course, the harvest was relatively ordinary.

Over a dozen gold coins from the half-orc's waist pouch, as well as both of their weapons:

Iron-Studded Wooden Club—it possessed absolutely no value whatsoever. Its attributes on the information panel were practically blank, making it impossible to fetch a good price. Even if he took it to the most reputable general store in Rivervale Town, it would probably only sell for around ten or twenty gold coins.

It was both heavy and cumbersome, making it incredibly inconvenient to carry around.

Since Xia Nan didn't have any spatial storage items on him, he unhesitatingly chose to abandon it, leaving the wooden club right where it was.

On the other hand, the flail in the fat knight's hand should barely be worth a bit of money:

...

[Iron-Stomach Flail]

Type: Flail

Grade: Normal (White)

Effects:

When the user's Body Mass Index [Weight (kg) / Height (m)] is greater than or equal to fifty—

1. When a blunt attack hits, the probability of causing internal bleeding to enemies with less than 30% stamina slightly increases;

2. Stamina consumption during combat is reduced by 10%.

Description:

The user of this weapon typically uses their own terrifying weight to drive the iron chain, inflicting devastating damage upon their enemies.

Note:

"Boss, the shop should still be open for business as usual tomorrow, right?"

—Buffet Destroyer, "Greedy Stomach" Warren

...

Without a doubt, whether in terms of its type or the conditions for its effects, this weapon was not suited for Xia Nan.

He favored swift, hit-and-run combat, relying on the high mobility granted by his combat techniques and Feats. A weapon like a flail completely mismatched his combat style.

The equipment's special effects looked decent enough, but the trigger condition on its Attribute Panel was absolutely not something an ordinary person could achieve.

Take Xia Nan as an example.

If he plugged his current height of nearly 1.9 meters into the formula on the panel, he would have to bulk up to 180 kilograms to meet the trigger condition.

It wasn't some divine artifact; the price paid for gaining all that weight was completely unequal to the potential benefits the equipment might bring.

Therefore, the only fate for this flail with its useless effects was to be sold by Xia Nan to a blacksmith shop, waiting to display its true power whenever it finally met a suitable master in the future.

But no matter what, the fact remained that the flail came with two effect affixes. Thus, the weapon's base materials or forging craftsmanship had to be somewhat better than ordinary equipment.

Even as a secondhand good salvaged from the battlefield, it could still fetch a decent price.

Pondering for a moment, he considered that he still had to follow the squad deeper inside. Carrying it along would be highly inconvenient for both stealth and combat.

Xia Nan found a corner in the ruins near the plaza's entrance and hid the flail, reminding himself not to forget to pick it up when he left Ash Valley later.

Finally, he did another quick sweep of the area, confirming that no valuable loot had been left behind.

He strode briskly toward the small path leading deeper into Ash Valley, his figure, bearing twin swords on his back, gradually vanishing into the dense fog.

...

...

"Tap... tap..."

Scattered and cautious footsteps echoed faintly through the thick fog.

The hideous scar lay quietly on Marcus's face like a centipede.

This official squad captain, registered on the Adventurers' Association roster, looked exceptionally grim at this moment.

It wasn't because of the half-orc teammate they had abandoned behind them, who had most likely already been smashed into meat paste by the steel flail.

Rather, it was because of the increasingly dense fog in the air, which severely impaired visibility.

Casualties were a common occurrence during adventures.

They were all in this line of work, risking their lives to make money. Deaths and injuries couldn't be any more normal.

Hadn't the other two members of the squad refrained from bringing the matter up until now? From the perspective of their own interests, they had all tacitly agreed to it.

Furthermore, although the few of them hadn't explicitly spoken to communicate at the time, there had been eye contact.

To a certain extent, the decision to trade the half-orc's life to spare the rest of them from fighting an enemy that looked exceptionally difficult, thereby preserving their stamina and condition to continue moving forward, was jointly made by the three of them.

In short... they were all complicit.

If anyone had to be blamed, they could only blame the orc bloodline in Gorg's body for affecting his intelligence, and the fact that he had stubbornly taken up the "Barbarian" class, making him irritable, prone to anger, and easily losing his rationality in combat.

He was almost entirely defenseless against backstabbing schemes, charging out at the first shout, which had handed them this perfect opportunity.

To be blunt, the fact that he had managed to survive with that level of intelligence in the adventurer profession and within the Bloodedge Squad until just now was already the result of Marcus showing exceptional leniency and excessive "mercy."

There was nothing to pity, either.

He wasn't some rare Spellcaster—just a frontline melee fighter. You could find those everywhere at any adventurer gathering spot.

Replenishing their personnel couldn't be any easier.

Despite losing a squad member, the atmosphere within the Bloodedge Squad wasn't low at all.

Instead, it carried an eager, restless excitement.

If the mummies and ruins they encountered upon first arriving in Ash Valley had merely given them a hypothesis about what they might face...

Then the appearance of the fat knight just now truly cemented how rich of a harvest they were about to reap.

Having worked in the adventurer profession for many years, every single one of them knew the most basic, plainest, and widely proven rule:

The higher the risk, the greater the reward.

With an undead knight of that caliber standing guard, whatever was hidden within the ruins was highly unlikely to be worthless garbage.

And the reality was exactly as they had expected.

As they ventured deeper, the originally collapsed and ruined buildings flanking the small path gradually became more intact at a visible rate.

At the very least, they could distinguish the specific functions of these buildings—whether they were residential houses, shops, or some other type.

It wasn't like before, where all they could see was a stretch of broken walls and rubble, impossible to identify.

The mountain dwarf, "Stonebelly," had outstanding observational skills in this regard. He even took the opportunity to pick up a few oddly-shaped coins from the ruins beside the road.

The patterns on the surface of the coins were strange, unlike anything any of them recognized.

Stonebelly guessed that they might be from the ancient era, belonging to some ancient kingdom that had vanished in the river of time.

If his guess was truly correct, then if they brought them to the market, there would likely be quite a few collectors and scholars willing to pay a high price for them.

'If we collect a few more from the ruins, it'll probably be enough to cover all our retirement funds.'

Marcus thought to himself, his gloomy and ferocious eyes flashing with the greed and malice unique to adventurers.

Fantasizing about their potential future harvest, he had even begun to consider the possibility of eliminating his two remaining teammates and swallowing the rewards all by himself.

And just as his mind raced with these thoughts, weaving beautiful dreams of the future, a towering shadow quietly appeared at the end of the road ahead amidst the drifting fog.

It was— an enormous Church. It was unprecedentedly intact, yet inexplicably ruined and ashen, marred by cracks in its walls and devoid of human presence for who knew how long.