The repelling effect would drastically reduce aggro from most wild monsters.
It was the kind of thing you used while traveling to avoid being harassed by random mobs along the way.
Lu Ran gave the pill a gentle squeeze.
Crack—
The pill shattered.
But the very next second—
A wave of stench hit him like a truck!
“Holy crap, you call this repellent incense? This stuff reeks!” Lu Ran’s eyes were practically watering from the stench. His nose was under such violent assault that snot and tears were about to pour down his face all at once!
Now he finally understood why Cong Yu had been pinching her nose earlier.
Luckily though,
the smell only lasted a few seconds before dissipating quickly.
“See? No big deal. Everyone freaks out their first time—you get used to it.” Cong Yu finally let go of her nose, took a sniff in the air, and nodded in satisfaction.
She’d crushed hers at the same time as Lu Ran.
Lu Ran wiped his nose in exasperation and checked his status bar.
Sure enough—the repellent incense buff was there.
“Whatever. Let’s just get this mission over with,” Lu Ran said, rolling his eyes.
To give credit where it was due, the incense did work.
As the two of them ventured deeper into the mountains, nearly every aggressive monster they passed along the way completely ignored them.
Some even looked like they were avoiding them out of disgust.
Probably had something to do with that initial blast of stench from the incense.
A few monsters did show signs of hostility toward them, but none actually attacked.
They made their way to a low-lying area deep within the forest.
Cong Yu pulled up her map and glanced around.
Then she licked her lips and said, “This is the spot. Lu Ran, get ready—you’re helping me kill it.”
“Mm.” Lu Ran nodded casually.
“Take it seriously! It’s dangerous!” Cong Yu warned.
“Relax. I’ve got this.” Lu Ran said with confidence.
“Fair enough—you are over level forty,” Cong Yu muttered to herself.
Then she pulled out another little pill.
Lu Ran was already traumatized.
He quickly said, “If we’re gonna fight, let’s fight. Can we skip all these weird little gizmos?”
“Oh, this one’s to lure the elite out,” Cong Yu explained.
She casually crushed the pill in her hand.
Pop—
A wisp of greenish smoke rippled outward like a faint shockwave.
Lu Ran breathed a sigh of relief. Good—this one didn’t stink. In fact, he couldn’t even smell anything at all.
A few minutes passed.
Then, suddenly—
Rustling sounds came from deep within the forest, like something was barreling toward them at full speed, brushing against the surrounding underbrush with a dry shh-shh-shh.
Even Lu Ran found himself getting a little tense.
Sure, he was practically invincible, but the unknown closing in on you still triggered that primal human instinct—fear and nervousness.
The two of them couldn’t even pinpoint the exact direction the noise was coming from.
They just kept swiveling their heads, scanning their surroundings.
Then, all at once—
BAM!
A massive creature burst out of the bushes to Lu Ran’s right-rear, charging straight at them!
“Holy crap! Why’s it so huge?!” Cong Yu yelped in surprise.
Lu Ran whipped his head around just in time.
He saw a giant python, at least ten meters long, hurtling toward him like a telephone pole.
Its jaws were wide open, lunging in for a bite.
Sure, Lu Ran wouldn’t lose health—any damage would be taken by his undead summons instead.
But getting chomped on by a giant snake at point-blank range? Yeah, no thanks.
Lu Ran stretched out one hand. He couldn’t even be bothered to draw a weapon. A black light flashed from his wrist.
Hum—
An even larger python was hurled out by Lu Ran.
The Titan Python!
He’d barely used this thing since taming it, mostly because he never really needed its help in battle.
But now, it came in perfectly handy.
The Titan Python appeared and immediately locked fangs with the elite python, the two of them tearing into each other.
Meanwhile,
Lu Ran took a look at the elite’s stats.
“Level 50 Elite Viper,” Lu Ran muttered. “This thing’s a level fifty elite, and you—a level twenty-four necromancer—wanted to kill this?”
He looked utterly baffled.
This was practically suicide!
Even a regular level fifty mob would’ve killed Cong Yu multiple times over.
And an elite? That was on a whole other level of insane!
Hell,
even with Lu Ran helping her, if he were just an ordinary level forty-seven necromancer, the two of them together wouldn’t have stood a chance against this Elite Viper—they’d both be dead!
“I’m sorry, I… I didn’t realize it would be this big or this high-level,” Cong Yu said guiltily.
She realized the intel had been wrong.
And in a place like this,
wrong intel usually meant a one-way ticket to the grave!
But no sooner had she spoken than—
she turned her gaze to the Titan Python, still locked in combat with the Elite Viper.
“That… isn’t a necromancer skill, is it?” Cong Yu asked, confused.
“It’s a pet,” Lu Ran said casually.
A pet?
Cong Yu was even more bewildered.
Since when did necromancers have pets?
And besides…
Lu Ran’s pet was absolutely dominating the Elite Viper—both in size and combat power. Total overkill!
“At this rate, that Elite Viper’s gonna be dead soon,” Cong Yu said, stunned.
An unexpected turn of events, sure—
but the outcome was even more unexpected.
This guy Lu Ran, a necromancer, had a pet this ridiculously powerful!
Unheard of!
Of course,
there was plenty about Lu Ran that she didn’t know. Way too much.
“Still not fast enough,” Lu Ran muttered.
But he didn’t bother pulling out his hoarded undead army.
Instead, with a single thought—
Legion Guard activated, and ten enhanced skeletons were summoned out.
And Legion Guard already buffed ordinary skeletons.
On top of that, Lu Ran’s passives applied.
Tenfold amplification!
Add to that Lu Ran’s stats and spellpower boosts,
and you could just imagine how ridiculously strong those ten skeletons were!
“Is that Legion Guard? Summoning ten skeletons at once—that’s so satisfying!” Cong Yu said enviously.
But something felt off. Why did Lu Ran’s Legion Guard skeletons look way more ferocious than those summoned by other high-level necromancers?
She’d expected those ten skeletons to swarm the Elite Viper and gang up on it.
But instead—
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
…
All the skeletons exploded almost simultaneously!
With a tenfold amplification, the corpse explosion damage instantly wiped out the Elite Viper’s health bar, which had already been whittled down quite a bit.
Gulp—
Cong Yu swallowed hard and stared at Lu Ran.
This guy… so strong!
“Go collect the quest item,” Lu Ran said to her.
“Oh—right, right.” Cong Yu snapped out of it and quickly gathered the material needed for the commission.
Then she didn’t dare linger any longer—
afraid that the pill she’d used earlier might attract more elite vipers. She and Lu Ran hurried down the mountain.
After they returned and turned in the quest,
Cong Yu said to Lu Ran, “The gold reward is a hundred thousand. I’ll split it with you… um… how about sixty thousand for you? I’m sorry—I didn’t expect things to get so dangerous today.”
Lu Ran wasn’t angry about the mishap.
He just found Cong Yu a bit unreliable.
He wasn’t upset—after all, he was practically invincible.
“I don’t really care, but you should make sure you’ve got accurate intel before you act next time. And don’t take missions that are way above your level—otherwise, you might actually get yourself killed,” Lu Ran said with a well-meaning reminder.
He wasn’t short on cash, but he was definitely taking that sixty thousand!
Service fee!
“Got it! Hey, if you’re free tomorrow, wanna hang out again?” Cong Yu carefully pocketed her share of the gold and asked.
“Tomorrow’s the Hundred Cities Tournament. I’ve got matches to compete in,” Lu Ran said casually.
“Oh, right, right—the Hundred Cities Tournament.” Cong Yu slapped her forehead. But then she immediately curled her lip and said, “Pfft, stop showing off. Let’s watch the matches together tomorrow!”
