Chapter 660 Molten-Spine Dragon Lizard

Focus your mind during combat, and maintain intense concentration.

During his days of rest between quests, Xia Nan never treated himself poorly.

The values he'd developed from his past life in modern society allowed him to maintain his true self amidst this world's many temptations, while also making him more than willing to spend his hard-earned gold coins on anything that could improve the efficiency of his rest.

Luxurious inn rooms situated in the heart of Bloodcast Keep's Upper District offered no cost-effectiveness at all, yet they were expensive, quiet, and provided a breathtaking view of the rolling hills outside that refreshed the mind. There were also adventurer-focused taverns, distinct from ordinary restaurants, which employed top local chefs to cook delicious and rare monster ingredients—naturally, the prices were as exaggerated as one would expect in the Transcendent Tier industry...

Since he risked his life on every quest to earn this money, Xia Nan naturally wouldn't shortchange himself in this regard, pinching pennies and debating for ages over what to order for a meal.

Besides, given the value of his enchanted gear, if he failed to rest properly between quests just to save some money and let his combat performance slip—even if it just resulted in a single claw scratch across his breastplate—the repair costs would likely exceed all the gold he had spent on his "extravagant" lifestyle over the past few days.

He couldn't be clearer on which was more important.

Right now, two days had passed since he returned from the banshee quest.

For the vast majority of adventurers in this world who had just finished a dangerous journey, a mere two days wouldn't even be enough time to step out of the tavern. At the very least, they would hit the casinos and brothels to revel for a while, completely squandering their quest rewards before even planning their next commission. Although Xia Nan wasn't in a frantic rush, he did have a clear short-term goal; exchanging for the Endtime Reverse Scale as soon as possible would give him a great deal of peace of mind.

Furthermore, the development of his self-created combat techniques required real combat for inspiration. Just sitting around in town would only result in stagnation.

Today, taking advantage of the early dawn light, Xia Nan decided to speed up his already brief rest schedule.

He would find a Goblin Lair for a long-overdue final indulgence. Once he blew off some steam on those hunched, adorable little green toys, he would rein in his thoughts and begin the next phase of his quests.

He made his way from Bloodcast Keep's Upper District all the way to the Outer Camp where adventurers gathered.

As expected, even though the sun hadn't fully risen, all sorts of adventurers were already bustling through the streets. The noisy scene was livelier than the main streets of many ordinary towns during prime time.

Don't misunderstand—among these adventurers, you'd be hard-pressed to find even one in fifty as disciplined as Xia Nan, having actually slept and rested. The vast majority of them had stayed up all night at the taverns and card tables.

Given their physical constitutions, in a relatively safe town where they didn't need to expend extra mental energy watching out for danger, they probably wouldn't feel too exhausted even if they spent another two days and nights indulging in pleasure.

His gaze swept across the street as he sidestepped two adventurers in crude leather armor who were stumbling down the middle of the road with their arms around each other's shoulders. He waved off a scantily clad human woman soliciting business in front of a casino—at the moment, her appeal fell far short of a green-skinned goblin.

Before he could fully step out of the Outer Camp, an unusual commotion suddenly erupted from the direction of the forward exit.

He tilted his head up slightly and looked over.

A squad of just over twenty soldiers was marching in from the Outer Camp's entrance in a somewhat ragged formation.

The procession was silent. No one spoke. The only sounds in the air were the murmurs of the adventurer crowds gathering on both sides of the street, the footsteps of the soldiers, and the subtle clinking of their metal armor.

This naturally wasn't because of strict military discipline or elite training.

The reason they appeared so quiet was simply that the squad's morale had plummeted to rock bottom.

From the Bloodaxe Fortress Military Crest on the chests of their outer armor, it was clear they were garrison troops of Bloodcast Keep.

They seemed to have just returned from a mission. Almost everyone was wounded, and they hadn't even had time to maintain their armor. The surfaces were a mess of dust and bloodstains, with scorch marks from intense heat visible in certain spots.

Their expressions were numb and exhausted.

At the rear of the procession—aside from a few soldiers who were too severely injured to move and had to be carried back on stretchers—lay a highly conspicuous monster corpse. Its overall shape resembled a scaled-up gecko, flat and completely covered in fiery red scales.

It was roughly twelve meters long, with nearly half that length taken up by a slender, snakelike tail.

Its most prominent features were its highly raised nasal bone and the pale red, semi-transparent spikes running from the top of its skull, down its spine, all the way to the tip of its tail.

A Molten-Spine Dragon Lizard, Challenge Rating Lv5.

It was said to possess a thin trace of red dragon bloodline, classifying it as a type of sub-dragon.

Normally, it slowly absorbed magic particles from the air to charge the spikes on its back. In combat, it used this energy to unleash a fiery breath so intense it could melt steel.

It wasn't a common sight. Its danger level hovered around the average for a Challenge Rating Lv5 monster. Its most valuable materials were the spiked ridge along its back and the heart in its chest cavity, which brimmed with dense Fire Elemental energy.

Thanks to the monster knowledge he had specifically studied recently, Xia Nan recognized the creature at a single glance.

Yet, he found it rather strange.

According to the information he'd gathered from the Monster Compendium, the Molten-Spine Dragon Lizard typically inhabited the Underdark and volcanic regions. Its habit of absorbing Fire Elemental energy from the air to recharge meant the lizard would absolutely despise the cold environment near Bloodcast Keep, bordering the Northlands.

For it to appear here was highly unusual.

"These monsters have been acting crazy lately. There are more and more of them, and they aren't afraid of people at all. I heard from the guys in the tavern that this lizard was nesting less than a kilometer northwest of the Outer Camp the night before last."

"A professional squad on their way back from a quest got melted right on the spot by its breath. Even their corpses fused with their armor."

Nearby, a gnome rogue squeezed through the crowd, smacking his lips as he stared at the Molten-Spine Dragon Lizard's corpse.

His words made it sound as though he were lamenting the unlucky squad that had accidentally encountered a powerful monster and suffered a total wipeout, but his shrewd little eyes couldn't stop darting over the lizard's most valuable spine spikes. He had likely already appraised its selling price based on its quality.

Setting aside the gnome's typical mercenary and ambiguous adventurer attitude, what he said was actually correct.

Under normal circumstances, unless it was a creature with overwhelmingly exaggerated combat strength and a proud nature like a dragon, or unless a special event like a stolen egg occurred, the vast majority of monsters would steer clear of a place like Bloodcast Keep's Outer Camp where so many adventurers gathered. They wouldn't approach recklessly. Similar to how wild animals instinctively feared butchers, the adventurers' years of slaughtering monsters caused them to exude an aura that only monsters could sense.

It might not be so obvious with just three to four, or five to six individuals.

But when hundreds or thousands of adventurers congregated, the dangerous aura they emitted was enough to make monsters stay away out of pure survival instinct.

Recently, however, monsters had been appearing around Bloodcast Keep with increasing frequency, and they were getting closer and closer.

Until the day before yesterday, when this Molten-Spine Dragon Lizard actually breached the one-kilometer threshold. It inevitably left the adventurers in the keep muttering in unease.

"Isn't it a good thing to have more of these monsters? Just the materials from one of these can sell for hundreds of gold coins. If I could kill a few of them, I'd have enough saved up for retirement," an adventurer with less-than-stellar equipment fantasized aloud from the crowd.

"Just you? A few of them? Do you even know how high this lizard's Challenge Rating is? If you actually ran into a live one, you'd probably run faster than anyone else," a dwarf beside him, who looked like his teammate, joked casually.

Hearing this, the gnome who had spoken first sighed.

Reluctantly dragging his gaze away from the Molten-Spine Dragon Lizard, he complained in utter bafflement, "Damn it, everyone says there are more and more monsters lately, so how come I haven't been able to pick up a single quest these past few days? What the hell is Bloodcast Keep doing? They called me all the way here from Cloudclimb Province, yet I've barely gone out on any missions all this time, and I've spent plenty of gold."

"If I had known, I would have gone to the Misty Forest over by Rivervale Town. I wouldn't have had to waste my time here."

The adventurers' topic of conversation gradually shifted from the appearance of local monsters to complaints and curses directed at Bloodcast Keep's officials.

Finding no value in it, Xia Nan withdrew his attention.

His gaze swept over the soldiers walking past him one by one.

This was unlike the usual adventurer squads, which mostly kept their numbers between four and six to facilitate movement.

The sheer number of soldiers on the street right now exceeded twenty. Factoring in those who must have died in action during the mission, the original count was likely even higher.

Under these circumstances, the "Challenge Rating"—which used a four-person squad's combat power as its baseline for evaluation—became somewhat blurred.

Under Xia Nan's Perception, the strongest person in this squad was the helmeted man walking at the very front, who looked like the captain. His Class Level was likely around Lv4.

As for the remaining squad members, their Class Levels were basically only Lv1 or Lv2. There were even a few ordinary men among them who hadn't truly crossed the threshold of a professional class yet.

Killing this Molten-Spine Dragon Lizard had relied entirely on the sheer advantage of numbers.

Of course, Xia Nan hadn't witnessed their battle with the lizard. He figured they must have employed some military countermeasures, and the lizard's inability to unleash its full strength in this cold environment certainly played a part.

He wasn't in a hurry and patiently waited for the soldiers to pass.

With the Goblin Lair as his destination, before he could continue heading out, he heard another commotion from behind, far more attention-grabbing than the last.

"Hurry to the Military Merit Office! You can pick up quests again!"

"They say there are a few more restrictions compared to before, but all the commissions have been opened up. You can get one as soon as you head over!"

"Quick, quick, quick! Call that kid from the tavern and go line up! Don't waste time!"

His plan to blow off steam had been disrupted yet again.

Counting the days, from the moment he departed Salt Rock Port and ran into Forgan on the road up until now, Xia Nan hadn't vented his frustrations in a long time. Even though he had encountered goblins a few times along the way, outsiders had always been present, making it utterly impossible to indulge himself.

It was truly stifling.

As for right now, if he hadn't known about this, that would have been one thing.

But since he had heard the news, the ever-rational Xia Nan couldn't possibly ignore it and stubbornly proceed with his previous plan.

He had no choice but to suppress the burning desire in his heart yet again.

Standing in the crowd, he let out a long breath, turned around, and walked toward the Military Merit Office.

Even though Xia Nan had set off the moment he heard the news, by the time he rushed to the Military Merit Office, lines had already spilled out onto the main street outside.

It was unclear whether Bloodcast Keep could no longer withstand the pressure brought on by the surrounding monsters, or if they had simply completely lifted the restrictions after seeing that enough people had accumulated in the keep.

Compared to the crowded scene a few days ago, where queuing for half a day barely moved you forward a few steps, the receptionists' efficiency now was countless times faster.

Almost every second, an adventurer who had received a quest squeezed out through the Military Merit Office's main doors.

Their expressions, however, were a mix of good and bad.

"Damn it, before we could choose one out of three or two, but now they're just assigning them by force?" a half-elf complained.

As soon as he finished speaking, a human adventurer who had walked out with him, having just picked up a quest at the adjacent counter, chimed in, "Yours is actually fine. At least the quest location is right next door in the Rime Hills."

"The commission our squad took will probably take a whole week just for the round trip."

Before the human adventurer could finish speaking, he was practically yanked out of the crowd by his teammates beside him.

"Don't waste time, hurry up and come with us to buy quest supplies! With so many people heading out at once, if we're any later, those profiteers will hike the prices to the sky!"

Gathering intelligence amidst the adventurers' complaints, Xia Nan felt a wave of relief.

Fortunately, he had already planned to set off today after visiting the Goblin Lair. He had finished preparing his supplies yesterday. Later, he would only need to make specific additions based on the type of quest he received, saving him from spending a lot of unnecessary money.

The line moved quickly. After waiting for barely forty minutes, Xia Nan arrived at the reception counter.

He gave his previously registered name to the receptionist in front of him, who was already sweating profusely from exhaustion.

The receptionist flipped furiously through a ledger under the counter that was even thicker than an Elf dictionary, and then slid a page of quest paper in front of Xia Nan.

[Quest Number]: B632

[Reward]: 10-75 War Merits

[Quest Summary]:

Located on the southwest side of Bloodcast Keep, a local shepherd has reported the mass disappearance of his flock. Furthermore, muffled tremors have frequently been heard coming from beneath the ground late at night. The garrison suspects that an entrance to the Underdark may be forming on the surface.

Adventurers with relevant abilities are now required to investigate, confirm the local situation, and eliminate as many monsters that have surfaced from the Underdark as possible (commission reward is contingent on the degree of task completion).