Chapter 245: Status: Ring of Iron Blood

Chapter 245: Chapter 245: Status: Ring of Iron Blood

Lance bent down to pick up the crystal and tossed it directly into the canvas backpack at his waist.

Opening the backpack revealed a thin layer of the same Magic Energy Crystals already covering the bottom—loot he’d picked up along the way.

Lance’s goal today was clear.

He needed to find a small den in this area with a high enough density of Demons to start stacking up the Crown Buff.

The truly coveted items in the Underground City never dropped from these common, run-of-the-mill Ordinary Demons.

Only by killing powerful Elite Demons, or even the regional boss Demons, could one obtain those rare items.

He was very curious to see if stacking the Crown Buff to a ridiculously high level would, like drawing aggro, actively lure out the Elite Demons hidden in this area.

After all, he had already tested his limits last time in the Star Realm’s Destiny Track Dungeon.

As long as the monsters’ Attributes didn’t exceed his own kill threshold, he could kill as many as came at him, without having to worry about stamina consumption at all.

He could clearly see along the way that the closer he got to the Public Safety Zone, the more Adventurer parties there were coming and going.

However, many of the people returning from the depths toward the public area had an unconcealable exhaustion on their faces.

It seemed the negative effect of stamina decay was affecting everyone much more severely than Lance had anticipated.

For those Adventurers who made a living by gold farming and didn’t compete for the rankings, this high-pressure environment was a total nightmare.

After walking along the main path for over an hour, the signs of other people gradually began to thin out.

Ten thousand Adventurers might sound like a lot, but once thrown into this vast Underground City, their numbers were quickly diluted.

He had walked this same path yesterday.

Back then, relying on the early warning from his high Perception, he had heard the sounds of a dense gathering coming from a deep pit below.

The area was surrounded by steep rock walls.

Lance took out a grappling hook and rope made of Refined Steel from the side of his backpack.

It was a piece of practical equipment he had bought for a few Silver Coins at the Black Market in the camp yesterday.

Many of the mine shafts in the First Area were connected by rusty zip lines, and having a grappling hook made traversing this complex terrain much more convenient.

Lance firmly attached the grappling hook to a thick iron cable overhead.

With the whir of the pulley, he slid down the line.

It was while sliding over a certain area that Lance clearly saw a den of small Demons hidden in the sunken area below.

He counted them from mid-air.

There were about a dozen Demons of various sizes wandering inside, and the air was filled with the pungent, unpleasant smell of rust and sulfuric acid.

’The number isn’t huge, but it should be enough to activate the initial Effect of the Crown Buff.’

Lance timed it perfectly, descending rapidly with his grappling hook.

The moment he landed, he came face to face with a Ghoul wandering at the edge.

Seeing a living person, the monster let out a roar and charged directly at Lance, its sharp claws flailing.

But Lance stood his ground, making no move to dodge.

"THUD!"

A dull impact sound echoed in the clearing.

The Ghoul’s claws struck Lance’s chest hard.

But the instant they made contact, a faint halo of Ether lit up beneath Lance’s Leather Vest, instantly neutralizing most of the immense impact force.

The monster’s attack didn’t even manage to make Lance’s body sway.

[Equipment: Iron Throne Standard-Issue Enchanted Inner Armor] (Resistance Threshold: 2)

[Trait 1 (Armor Value +2): Forcibly reduces standard physical piercing and cutting damage by 10%.]

[Enchanting Ability (Kinetic Energy Buffer): The inner layer of the Armor is engraved with a micro Shock Absorption Technique. When the wearer is hit by a blunt attack or a Level 1-2 explosive shockwave, it instantly consumes Ether to form a micro-cushion of air, forcibly neutralizing 10%-30% of the impact’s kinetic energy and reducing the duration of "Imbalance/Knock-up" states caused by the impact by 50%.]

[Special Synergy Alert: Because the wearer also possesses the Profession Specialty "Death Line Defense," physical and Spell damage reduction from frontal torso hits will be increased by an additional 5% (for a total of 20%). At the same time, the kinetic energy absorbed by the Inner Armor can be temporarily stored and released at the moment a counter-attack is triggered, temporarily increasing the initial burst speed of the opportune counter-attack by 15%.]

’It really is useful!’

’My Natural Armor Value of +1, plus the +2 from this Enchanted Inner Armor... stacked with the 20% physical damage reduction from the "Death Line Defense" Specialty... with all this defense stacked up, a Level 1 Ghoul like this can’t do any real damage to me, even if it hits a vital spot.’

Taking advantage of the opening while the Ghoul was staggered from its failed attack, Lance’s left hand shot out like lightning, clamping down hard on the Ghoul’s rotting face.

The Suicide Bombing Hand Armor on the back of his hand activated instantly.

A blinding, silver-red ball of fire exploded in Lance’s palm.

The Ghoul’s fragile skull couldn’t withstand such an explosion and burst open like a rotten watermelon.

The headless body was slammed against the rear rock wall by the force of the blast.

The huge commotion immediately alerted the other Demons in the den.

Two Rusted Iron Slimes, their surfaces covered in a thick, dark-red rusty shell, made strange gurgling sounds as they closed in on Lance from the left and right.

Lance smoothly took the black longspear from his back.

Putting power into his waist, he executed a "Spear Out Like a Dragon" and thrust explosively toward the Slime on the left.

[Armor-Piercing Helix] + [Melting Gold Armor Shattering] + [Ash Dragon Breath].

The three Traits triggered simultaneously!

A silver-red heat erupted violently from the sharp spear tip.

The seemingly indestructible rusty shell didn’t even last half a second before it made a teeth-grinding SIZZLE and began to melt.

The spiraling dark energy, combined with the absolute melting property, twisted the thick, rusty shell into a bubbling puddle of dark-red molten iron!

"SQUELCH!"

The longspear’s momentum didn’t falter as it pierced through the molten shell and accurately burst the Slime core hidden deep within.

The moment the shell broke, the Rust Acid Liquid stored inside the Slime sprayed out madly like a fountain!

[Wind and Snow Swing Array]

Facing the shower of acid, Lance didn’t retreat. He pulled back his spear and spun.

The spear’s shaft rapidly swept up a powerful gust of wind in mid-air.

This gust blew away all of the splashing corrosive acid.

As a bonus, it also violently knocked the Slime on the right, which was trying to get closer, into a wall.

[Acquired 1 stack of "Crown Mark"]

As the kill notification appeared, a thirty-second countdown began to flash in the corner of Lance’s vision.

30... 29...

Just then, his Intuition check triggered again.

A faint scraping sound came from above.

Two Rust Jaw Centipedes, each half a meter long, were scuttling rapidly along the ceiling. They opened their terrifying, venomous mandibles and lunged straight for Lance’s head and the back of his neck!

Lance quickly raised the Hand Armor on his left arm to block.

"CLANG!"

The crisp sound of striking metal echoed in the cave, and the point of impact even threw off a shower of bright sparks!

Lance tanked the hit, then flipped his left hand over with the momentum, using his Hand Armor to clamp down hard on one of the Centipede’s tough mandibles.

[Suicide Bombing] + [Molten Armor]

The double strike erupted again!

Silver-red flames instantly blew the Centipede’s mandibles to bits.

Tightly gripping the Centipede’s shattered half, Lance swung it like a heavy whip, smashing it violently into the other Centipede still flailing in mid-air.

The immense force slammed both Centipedes into the ground together.

With a dull BOOM, even the hard rock floor of the cavern cracked from the impact.

[Acquired 1 stack of "Crown Mark"]

[Acquired 2 stacks of "Crown Mark"]

[Acquired 3 stacks of "Crown Mark"]

...

The slaughter continued, and the notification prompts kept popping up.

When a Demon hiding in a corner was pinned to the wall by Lance’s longspear...

[Acquired 10 stacks of "Crown Mark"...]

[Congratulations, you have acquired the status: Ring of Iron Blood]

As this notification faded, a faint, scarlet Aura of blood energy suddenly erupted from Lance, who was still in the middle of fighting the Demons.