On the river bank, the Imp Leader was angrily shouting out loud, he was yelling something to his subordinates, it seemed to be commanding them to find the murderer. At his order, half of the imps jumped and swam to the other river bank.
All of this was within Shen Yi's expectations.
After the imps reached the other side, they began to spread out to look for the murderer, whilst waving their axes. As they came across a bush, something suddenly moved, a small shadow jumped out and ran. The imps shouted and tried to catch up with it.
Seeing his men already on the chase, the Imp Leader walked back to camp with more than twenty imps.
However, when they arrived, they saw that the whole camp had been overturned. The two imps that were left behind had been killed and were hung upside down on a tree. All the imps were furiously howling upon the sight.
The Imp Leader stood angrily in the camp and yelled, he seemed to be giving out a new order. But he failed to notice a little strange object that was emitting a faint light not to far away from his feet.
At the next moment, the object suddenly released many intense rays of light, it was as if a solar storm swept through the camp…
Light Trap: Single-use item, casts rays of holy light, causes high damage to all undead creatures within a radius of 5 meters.
This was one of the items Shen Yi acquired after killing the Silver Werewolf.
Unfortunately, this thing was very inconvenient to use, since the user had to find a good spot to plant it, and then had to wait for some time before it activated. Its damage radius was also very limited. Therefore, after much thought, Shen Yi finally chose that location.
The camp was a location the imps had to return to, he needed only to plant the trap before they came back, and the rest was up to fate.
Luckily, fate was on his side.
Under the light of the sun, more than twenty imp soldiers had been turned to ashes, only two or three imps were lucky enough to have stood outside of the area of effect.
At this point, Shen Yi's task "Kill 10 imps" exceeded the mission's requirement. But the Bloody Crest didn't prompt Main Quest 2 as being completed, because the Imp Leader was not dead. This guy's life force was too tough, after being hit by direct sunlight, he was only heavily wounded, his whole body was overflowing with the thick stench of mucus, one of his eyes was blinded. Despite that, he still let out a deafening roar!
He was calling his subordinates behind him.
Shen Yi used Appraisal:
"Imp Leader – Attack damage: 9-20. Defense: 5. HP: 200/500. Unique Skills – 1: ? ? ?. 2: ? ? ?. 3: ? ? ?. Undead creature. Holy-type attacks causes additional damage. Strength Type."
The light trap only did 300 damage, which was why it couldn't kill the Imp Leader.
Shen Yi gently smiled, turned to Anna and said, "I will handle this big guy, you handle the small ones, okay?"
"No problem." Anna answered.
Shen Yi rushed towards the Imp Leader and shot.
The Imp Leader howled in pain as he jumped toward Shen Yi and swung its axe. Shen Yi quickly retreated backwards, then fired at the Imp Leader again. Two shots hit the Imp Leader's chest, spilling a large amount of black blood.
The surviving imps shouted and rushed toward Shen Yi. But they were intercepted by the beautiful Anna.
Seeing the reinforcements being blocked, the Imp Leader suddenly faced upward and let out another loud roar. Shen Yi's face changed colors, having strong instincts, he jumped sideways.
The Imp Leader's axe suddenly flew out of his hand, winding in the air and flew towards Shen Yi.
Shen Yi's instincts helped him escape the fatal blow, but he didn't expect that the axe had a boomerang function, even after a spontaneous strike *Pikong*, the axe came from the rear and cut Shen Yi's back.
"Imp Leader's Skill: Retracting Axe – Strongly throws axe to make it spin back, causing two attacks on the target, each attack deals 9-20 damage, can create bleeding injuries- causing 3 damage/s for 5 seconds."
Shen Yi escaped in the first time, but couldn't escape in the second time. The axe had great force and almost cut Shen Yi in half from behind. Luckily it only struck his scapula, but blood still flowed out intensely.
"Shen Yi!" Anna cried in heartbreak.
Shen Yi forced himself to stand and fired at the Imp Leader who currently did not have a weapon in hands; the bullet hit the imp's mask. The mask broke and behind it was an extremely ferocious and ugly face. The Imp Leader knew that his life would end soon, but even so, he still showed his aggressive nature and ran towards Shen Yi.
"Imp Leader's Unique skill: Head Mace Attack – Using the strength of its head, it launches devastating attacks. Attack damage: 20, stuns the target for 1 second."
The Imp Leader rushed headlong into Shen Yi's lower abdomen. The stun effect merely paused Shen Yi's action for a moment. However, that moment allowed the Imp Leader to throw out three consecutive hits at Shen Yi and knocked his gun to the ground.
When empty-handed, the imp's damage declined significantly. Even so, every punch pained Shen Yi as a hammer would have.
Shen Yi vomited out a mouthful of blood, which sprayed all over the Imp Leader's face. Taking advantage of the Imp Leader's obstructed vision, Shen Yi quickly sprung towards his gun. The Imp Leader knew his current situation, if he took another shot he would die for sure, so he ruthlessly clung onto Shen Yi's thigh. From the distance, the other imp soldiers could be heard.
Apparently, they came across the river, hurriedly returning to the call. Knowing this, the Imp Leader's face showed a trace of pride.
Ten seconds more and this abominable human would certainly be dead!
But he could only hear Shen Yi coldly chuckling, "Did you really think I was going to grab my gun? You idiot!"
While the Imp Leader was still surprised, a cross sword stabbed through his body, completely nailing him to the ground.
***
"You have successfully killed the Imp Leader, Main Quest 2 is completed, Reward: 500 BP."
With the beeping sound, Shen Yi drew his sword out, and cut down at the Imp Leader's head, and picked up his gun as a chest dropped from the Imp Leader.
"Run!" He exclaimed loudly at Anna.
The two people quickly began sprinting. Behind them were a few dozen imps rushing towards them, roaring in grief for their leader. A particularly robust imp suddenly stopped, pulled out a small axe from his waist and threw it at Shen Yi. The sharp axe made a wind-cutting sound, Shen Yi lowered his head as the axe grazed by his head, nailing into a tree next to him.
Immediately after that, countless axes were thrown at Shen Yi.
These imps may seemed small in stature, but they had an absurd level of accuracy; their strength was also no joke. In an instant, the forest that was originally quiet, was overflowed with the terrible sounds of cutting edges, it was like a rain of blades.
There were a few trees that were cut off by these axes, one of them nearly hitting Shen Yi.
Shen Yi didn't even have an opportunity to look back and kept madly running ahead.
The Imp Leader's axe was still stuck inside his body, severely affecting his running speed. But Shen Yi had a ruthless heart so he grabbed the handle and forcefully pulled it out; the large amount of blood that splurted out nearly made Shen Yi faint.
But Shen Yi suppressed the pain, he placed his hand on the shoulder wound, and activated the Despicable Healing Arts. The severe pain immediately decreased by a ton, while the wound began to slowly heal.
With his Agility being at 16, his running speed greatly exceeded that of an ordinary person, he was absolutely qualified to participate in the Olympics. Those imps had small bodies with short legs and were although experts in throwing axes, they definitely could not catch up with Shen Yi in terms of speed. Anna was even more agile, after so many years of avoiding the imp's attacks this was very easy for her.
Once the two people escaped the imp's siege, the imps had no hope in catching up with them. Seeing their target getting further away, the imps could only roar hatefully.
After running through the Transylvania's fields and having no longer seen the imp's silhouettes, Shen Yi and Anna started to slow down. Shen Yi took Anna to a burned and abandoned ruin of a windmill to sit down and rest.
"I didn't think you would have actually been able to kill the Imp Leader. You accomplished something that the Valerious family couldn't even accomplish after hundreds of years. Well, what do you want me to pay for the bet?" Anna smiled, staring at Shen Yi.
In her eyes there was not a hint of shyness, only high amounts of expectation.
When Shen Yi killed Silver Werewolf previously, if 10% of it was due to power, 30% was to effort, and 60% was luck, then when he killed the Imp Leader it was all due to his own ability. It made her produce an even more favorable impression of Shen Yi.
Shen Yi replied, "Close your eyes."
Anna closed her eyes. Her lips pursed.
Then Shen Yi…
Opened the chest in his hands. (TL: WTH are you doing during this romantic moment?)
***
The chest was dropped from the Imp Leader, Shen Yi had been looking forward to it for a long time. Shen Yi found himself liking more and more of the Bloody City's form of survival – taking risks, be rewarded, enhancing one's power, taking risks again… repeat.
He didn't know how other people thought about this world, but to him, a man that had already died, he loved it.
At least this world was fair!
Depending on the amount of risks you take, you would be rewarded accordingly.
Opening the chest, he heard a sound directly echoing in his mind:
"Imp Leader Standard reward: Hand axe of the Imp Leader, high-quality common equipment. Attack damage: 6-10. Equipment's skill: Retracting Axe, can recover this weapon after throwing. Priority degree: 6. Value: 1500 BP."
So this was the origin of the skill that the Imp Leader previously used. It wasn't his own skill, but the weapon's skill.
However, this axe was worth 1500 BP, yet its attack damage seemed a bit too low? Special bullet's value is 1.5 BP, but it already has 12 base worth of damage.
But that thought only lasted for a moment. Shen Yi immediately understood that the attack of the hand-axe carried not only its own base damage, but also added the value of the user's strength. Shen Yi's strength value right now was 8, then after using this hand axe, his attack damage reached 14-18, it was definitely higher than the bullet's damage.
The gun's attack is unrelated to the adventurers' attributes. In addition, special bullets like the Holy Light Bullet are valued at 1.5 BP per round, but are only effective against undead creatures, so its consumption rate is much higher than that of melee weapons. This hand axe, on the other hand, had unlimited uses. Enhancing it step by step in the future, the adventurers attack and defense would also become increasingly strong, and the gun being less and less effective. Therefore, during the early periods of the mission when the attributes of the monsters were low, guns may be appropriate, but in the latter periods, after the adventurers get strong enough, guns would become almost obsolete.
After realizing this, Shen Yi felt the need to be careful when he enhances himself.
In addition to the Imp Leader's hand axe, the Imp Leader gave two other items.
"Additional reward for 100% difficulty rate in Beginner's Mission: 4 low-level Binding Traps: coils around any target who sets foot onto the trap, making target immobile for a fixed time of 20 seconds. The higher the level of the creature, the shorter the binding time. Needs to be preset before usage. After setting up the trap, exists for a duration of 3 minutes. Priority degree: 7. Value: 160 BP."
This thing looks ordinary, but looking at it from another point of view, it's actually quite good.
"Additional reward for 100% difficulty rate in Beginner's Mission: 1 Stealth Pill, this pill can make the user invisible. Duration: 1 minute. During this period of time, the user can move, but cannot attack. Immune to all damage during stealth. Stealth effect disappears after attacking. Priority degree: 15. Value: 300 BP."
With this thing, Shen Yi could escape with more certainty.
No wonder Scarface said the Beginner Mission had the most lavish rewards. Shen Yi did not think that the Imp Leader's reward would be so generous. It him gave a series of different valuable items.
But compared to the Silver Werewolf rewards, the Imp Leader rewards were clearly of lower a class.
Bloody City's rewards are divided into: Unranked, Rank D, Rank C, Rank B, Rank A and finally Rank S. Silver Werewolf's reward was a rank D skill. This time the Imp Leader's reward was an Unranked axe, despite the high-quality, its rank was clearly lower one grade.
The reason for this was, one: the Imp Leader was weaker than the Silver Werewolf, and secondly: it should be due to the tricky method Shen Yi used to kill it. It seemed that in the eyes of the Bloody City, adventurers were allowed to use various methods to complete a task, but the consequences of this was a reduction in the reward.
Killing Silver Werewolf was acknowledged as a perfect kill, but killing the Imp Leader was acknowledged as an ordinary kill.
What would be the reward of the Main Quest 3? Shen Yi had some expectations.
But just the thought of the 1000 BP reward, made Shen Yi who was not afraid of death, feel a little scared.
That was double the reward of the Silver Werewolf.
Just thinking about the Silver Werewolf's power, and then remembering the fight with the Imp Leader, the weakest amongst the vampires' minions. In a state where it had lost more than half of it's HP but it was still able to bash out a very tough battle. Then he thought about dealing with the three Vampire Brides and Count Dracula…
Shen Yi couldn't help but sigh.
"Hello? What are you doing ?" Anna asked impatiently, her eyes still closed.
Shen Yi place the rewards he received in the Blood Crest, and used a finger to gently press Anna's lips for a moment, then grabbed Anna's waist and said, "I will take you to a place."
"What?" Anna was still confused by the "kiss".
Shen Yi's foot stomped with an inhuman strength, the wood planks under him suddenly broke, an abyss of darkness swallowing them whole.
Together they both fell down to the underground…