Xu Nan accepted the mission. After all, the temptation of increasing a level wasn't something ordinary people could refuse.
These kobolds looked smaller in size. Because they had bad night vision, the majority of them had a candle on top of their heads. It was easy for Xu Nan to look for targets to attack for his Staff of Innocence.
However, there was one problem. Even though Xu Nan had eaten dragon flesh before, his body was still a little weak.
He had no foundation of fighting in close-combat. If he rushed into the crowd, wouldn't it be courting death?
After contemplating for some time, he decided to use a roundabout battle tactic to lower the risk to the maximum.
Xu Nan commanded Soupy to draw the kobolds to her, after that, he continuously cast spells!
Grease!
Web!
Animate Rope!
All the control-type spells were cast one after another by Xu Nan, reducing the kobolds to an incomparably tragic state. The candles on some of their heads fell onto the ground and started burning due to Xu Nan's Grease spell, yet a fire hazard didn't start.
Because of Xu Nan's sudden appearance, all the kobolds were caught unawares. When they wanted to retreat, it was already too late.
Soupy, under Xu Nan's instruction, blocked the retreat of the kobolds like a woman holding a pass against ten thousand enemies.
The movements of the 40+ kobolds were all under Xu Nan's perfect control.
For this, he had exhausted all his mageforce.
He had at most ten minutes to get rid of these monsters!
Seeing this situation, only now did he understand how important the pumpkin field test from before was!
The kobolds, who were controlled by Grease and Web, were essentially the same as the slow-moving pumpkins in the pumpkin fields!
Under Gu Xiaomeng's gaze, which was filled with worship, Xu Nan unleashed his prowess. He directly used Malfoy's Acid Arrows and Magic Bullets. Under the cover of Soupy, he finished off the four powerful kobolds!
What was worthy of a mention was that during this entire process, Xu Nan discovered to his shock that after he killed these monsters from the Alter World, he was able to receive something called slaughter points.
In the past when he had killed the black saberist Wu Ke, he had obtained 1 slaughter point. But now after killing the four powerful kobolds, he only received 0.5 slaughter points. As to what these slaughter points could be used for, Xu Nan still hadn't discovered anything yet.
However, it wasn't the time to research such things for the moment.
Just when Soupy wanted to jump up and sit on these kobolds, squashing them to death, Xu Nan suddenly shouted for her to stop.
"Let those kobolds go! I'll do it!"
Soupy had a bewildered expression. In her impression, Xu Nan should be more of those cowardly spellcasters.
What was going on today?
To find an excuse for his strange actions, Xu Nan pondered before saying, "These monsters dared to invade my territory. I shall finish them off myself! Watch over them properly. Don't let them move, and remember to protect me well!"
The last two sentences were then the important point.
After saying all these, Xu Nan cast mage armor and the shield spell on himself. He then turned his head and asked Gu Xiaomeng if she had any protective-type spells. He then obtained a divine blessing (constitution +1; protection of vitals). After that, he could finally be freed of worries as he went down the observation tower, rushing to the place where the kobolds were all lying on the ground.
He equipped the iron glove and Staff of Innocence. Under the stunned gazes from the kobolds, he spoke in a low voice.
"This is not intentional!"
Bang!
The Staff of Innocence ferociously slammed down, directly exploding the head of a kobold!
Fresh blood and brain matter splashed on Xu Nan's face.
He numbly discovered that his mission didn't progress at all. The system sent a notification to him - the incantation was chanted too softly!
Xu Nan gritted his teeth. He rushed to another kobold and lifted the Staff of Innocence high as he roared in rage.
"This is not intentional!"
The 20% head explosion rate activated. Now, he was like shooting at a fixed target, so there was no need to doubt his accuracy!
Bang!
A boom rang out. Another poor kobold became a headless corpse!
"What the hell?" Soupy's expression stiffened when she heard him shout like that. She felt sorry and spoke, "You are not proficient in killing. Let me do it, I can kill quite a few with a single smack."
Xu Nan immediately stopped her nasty behavior of stealing his kills. "I'll do it. We can't possibly keep letting a national treasure kill things, right? You should take a good rest."
Soupy sat in the center of the kobolds, rubbing her head while staring at this bloody yet strange scene. Feeling that this whole situation was absurd, she then fell into a daze and couldn't figure out what was wrong.
The kobolds trembled. They tried to struggle from the control of Xu Nan's spells, but their effects were still active. Grease and Web caused the kobolds to be in a tangle, and they would need several minutes to regain their ability to move.
Xu Nan brandished the Staff of Innocence and reaped the lives of the kobolds.
He kept shouting out 'This is not intentional'. If the spectators weren't a newbie priestess who didn't understand anything and a national treasure, Xu Nan would have wanted to find a hole and drill into it, hiding because of his off-the-charts shameless behavior.
As the slaughter continued, Xu Nan gradually got used to the kobolds' tempo.
In the depths of his heart, there was no sense of disgust caused by killing. On the contrary, he felt joy.
"It's over, it's over...I've started to change for the worst…"
Xu Nan sighed in anguish, yet his staff showed no mercy. After shouting 'This is not intentional!' ten more times, the mission progress had finally reached 50%.
The kobolds were living a life worse than death. Their eyeballs all protruded out.
As the vanguard forces of the great demon Inoya, they just wanted to explore the underground to search for the gnolls whom they had lost contact with. Who would have expected that they would discover the foundation base of the arcanist empire?
Actually, they didn't want to fight. They were in a daze when Soupy jumped out from the darkness and forcibly fought them while roaring.
Soupy's combat strength had caused their morale to drop. Thus, to the kobolds, the appearance of a spellcaster was like the last straw that broke the camel's back.
It was precisely because of this that Xu Nan's spell effects appeared so powerful.
"I need to hurry things up." Xu Nan silently glanced at the remaining kobolds on the scene.
The ones he had killed earlier were the kobolds under the effect of his Web spell or kobolds who were stranded alone.
As for the remaining 30, they were in groups of threes or fives when they fell onto the ground due to Grease. At this moment, they could barely manage to get up.
Luckily, Soupy was very professional as she stayed beside the kobolds. She ran to and fro in an incomparably agile manner, and any kobolds who sought to escape from the grease-filled zone were nudged back into it by Soupy's buttocks.
Xu Nan felt very gratified. Although this fellow was unreliable, she was very nimble when she did things.
Xu Nan cautiously moved near to the grease-filled zone.
A kobold was violently struggling and managed to jump up. Xu Nan was badly frightened, and he almost dropped his Staff of Innocence!
He issued several smashes aimlessly to vent his anger, but in the end, the kobold shifted left and right in the grease, evading all of Xu Nan's attacks!
Xu Nan became even more enraged.
He rushed forward with the staff and whacked downwards in a flurry. After a minute, he finally managed to explode this kobold who refused to cooperate with his mission.
Xu Nan's confidence was greatly boosted. Next, his actions became bolder.
He continuously killed kobolds and his mission was about to be completed.
"No problem, I'm more than capable enough. Without realizing it, I'm already not the weak chicken from before. I'm a manly man now; Mr. Romand's will exists with me, and these kobolds basically cannot even withstand a single strike!"
Xu Nan's ego swelled. His actions also became bolder and gradually, he understood Mr. Romand's teachings.
Close combat would get one addicted.
This was especially so for the case of exploding enemies' heads.
When you are waving the staff and easily taking the life of your enemy, you would be too lazy to cast spells. If there was a first time, there would be a second and a third time.
"This mission is also somewhat strange. Speaking of shamelessness, reciting the incantation might seem shameless, but the reward is actually gaining an extra level? Isn't that too exaggerated?"
In the grease-filled zone, only three more kobolds remained. As long as he finished them off, the mission would be considered complete.
However, as time passed. Grease, a level 1 spell, began to lose its effects.
The three kobolds had murderous looks on their faces as they did their utmost to retaliate.
Xu Nan coldly laughed as he shouted to Soupy, "Help me press them down! Just expose their heads, make them unable to move!"
At this moment, Xu Nan naturally wouldn't make the same mistake many villains made at the last moment - become complacent!
No matter how unwilling Soupy was, she still came over to help him press the three kobolds down.
Xu Nan exploded the heads of two kobolds in a familiar routine.
There was only one more kobold left, and his mission would be accomplished.
Soupy did her duty and sat down on the kobold. She yawned out of boredom, while the kobold was squashed so badly by her weight that white foam was coming out from its mouth. Most probably, if Xu Nan didn't act soon, the kobold would really die from Soupy's weight.
Xu Nan was feeling very joyful. He clutched his staff tightly and aimed for the kobold's head before ruthlessly smashing the staff downward.
However, who knew that for this time, maybe it was because his action was too big, he sprained his wrist!
Xu Nan didn't control his strength well. Under Soupy's dumbfounded gaze, the staff smashed into Soupy's buttocks!
Soupy jumped and screamed in pain. The kobold was half-dead; it slid out from the grease and one of its claws unconsciously grabbed upward!
At the next second, Xu Nan's tragic cries echoed out loud for a long time in the underground city.
This cry was incomparably mournful; everyone would feel sorrow when they heard it and would even shed tears!
"F*** my granny!" This was what Xu Nan roared after using the last of his strength.
Gu Xiaomeng stood on the observation tower and trembled uncontrollably from panic. After a while, she finally cast Strong Recovery.
However, her spell was targeted wrongly, and she cast the spell on Soupy, not Xu Nan.
At this moment, Xu Nan felt so grieved that he was like a child weighing over 50 kg.
…
"Enough, enough. Please calm down. Was that necessary?"
Lu Junyi helped Xu Nan to dress his wounds as he spoke with disdain, "Are you dreaming of fighting close-combat to collect the heads of your enemies with just your skills? Stop showing off in the future."
Xu Nan tearfully promised, "Do you think there will be any residual effects? From the time I was young until now, I've never suffered such heavy injury. Also, it was my back that's injured. Would I become a 'kidney seller' in the future?"
Lu Junyi glanced at the small band-aid on Xu Nan's back and fell silent from speechlessness.
After some time.
"There's a matter I wish to tell you."
Lu Junyi spoke in a light voice, "I feel that I can't turn someone into a job-holder. However, that damn tranny seemed like he really wanted to be one. I feel a little afraid. I've already removed his appendix. If this continues, he will probably ask me to do surgery on his inner organs and intestines…"
...