Nie Yan counted and found a total of sixteen giants wielding hammers. These were all Molten Blacksmiths, a relatively famous monster type. In the underground mines of Gold City, they even played the role of dungeon bosses. They had strong physical attacks, high defense, and high fire resistance, and their attacks carried dark corrosive damage, making them notoriously difficult to handle. The Molten Blacksmith in the underground mine was a level 60 lord, while these were level 90 regular monsters.
Nie Yan stealthily approached and checked their health.
Molten Blacksmith Guard: Level 90, 10000/10000.
Fighting these blacksmiths head-on would clearly be suicide for Nie Yan. His goal here was merely to obtain a component of the Abak Set.
At the far end of the hall was a very small door, slightly ajar, wide enough for only two players to pass side by side. Such a small entrance was guarded by sixteen giants, whose bodies nearly blocked the entire entrance. The only way through was to eliminate them.
Their defense was extremely high, and Nie Yan’s attacks would do minimal damage. Fortunately, they were regular monsters, not elites, and had only 10,000 health points.
Given his current strength, Nie Yan couldn’t defeat them directly and had to rely on external tools. He checked his backpack and found several items that could deal with the Molten Blacksmiths: three Blood Shadow Totems obtained from infiltrating the Blood Shadow Legion headquarters, mid-tier area-damage magic bombs crafted by Zi Yan, and Death Ripple Scrolls he had acquired from the underground. Additionally, he had high-tier entangling vine scrolls, area-attack magic scrolls, and similar items.
With these tools, Nie Yan could easily wipe them out.
Nie Yan began setting up in the hall, planting one of the Blood Shadow Totems at a calculated distance of about sixty yards from the Molten Blacksmiths. He glanced at the ceiling, which was about thirty-five yards above, and an idea formed.
Nie Yan slowly moved to a corner of the hall, stealthily approaching within about fifty yards of the Molten Blacksmiths. He raised his Doro’s Knightless Rider Crossbow, aimed at one of the blacksmiths, and fired five bolts in quick succession. All struck the blacksmith’s chest, causing blood to spurt.
After being attacked, the Molten Blacksmith roared in anger, scanning the hall before quickly locking onto Nie Yan in the distance. He turned to the other blacksmiths and uttered a series of guttural words, incomprehensible to Nie Yan. Upon hearing him, the other blacksmiths turned their gazes toward Nie Yan.
They chattered among themselves for a moment before all sixteen Molten Blacksmiths began to surround Nie Yan.
“Damn, they all came. Good, saves me the trouble!” Nie Yan exclaimed, pulling out a mid-tier area-damage magic bomb and hurling it at the group of Molten Blacksmiths.
With a loud explosion, the mid-tier area-damage magic bomb detonated among the blacksmiths, engulfing all sixteen in a fiery blast.
After the flames died down, each of the blacksmiths displayed a damage number of -500.
Only 500 damage. The mid-tier area-damage magic bomb’s effect was underwhelming for Nie Yan. Normally, it should deal at least 1000 damage, but the high fire resistance of the Molten Blacksmiths significantly reduced its effectiveness.
The explosion momentarily staggered the blacksmiths, but they quickly resumed their advance toward Nie Yan.
Nie Yan turned and ran, using a Death Ripple Scroll. Waves of death rippled across the group of Molten Blacksmiths.
-1000, -1000, -1000…
The Death Ripple Scroll’s effect was quite effective, though it required a two-second casting time, unlike the instant-use magic bombs.
After using the Death Ripple Scroll, Nie Yan had an idea. Why not combine the area-damage magic bombs with the Death Ripple Scrolls?
The shockwave from the magic bomb explosions could momentarily halt the Molten Blacksmiths’ movement, giving him enough time to cast the Death Ripple Scroll.
Nie Yan dashed toward the Blood Shadow Totem, pursued closely by the group of Molten Blacksmiths. Once the mid-tier area-damage magic bomb and Death Ripple Scroll were off cooldown, he threw a low-tier area-damage magic bomb behind him. Both low and mid-tier bombs produced shockwaves, so he wanted to conserve the rarer mid-tier bombs, as Zi Yan had only crafted about twenty of them.
The low-tier area-damage magic bomb exploded with a loud bang, sending a shockwave across the group.
-200, -200, -200…
As the low-tier bomb’s effect faded, a ripple of energy swept through the group of Molten Blacksmiths.
-1000, -1000, -1000…
After these two rounds of attacks, the blacksmiths had closed the distance and surrounded Nie Yan.
Nie Yan glanced toward the Blood Shadow Totem and noticed one of the blacksmiths was near it, showing signs of activation. He raised an eyebrow. It was time.
At this moment, he was within the Blood Shadow Totem’s explosion range, surrounded by over a dozen blacksmiths. One of them raised his massive hammer and swung at Nie Yan.
“I’m done playing with you,” Nie Yan said with a smile, suddenly leaping upward using the Jump Ring’s ability, propelling himself over twenty yards into the air. He extended his left hand, shooting a strand of webbing ten yards long that adhered to the ceiling and retracted, pulling him up to the top of the hall.
Looking down, he saw the blacksmiths gathering dark energy into orbs, preparing to launch Dark Arrows at him.
At that moment, the surrounding air violently fluctuated, and the Blood Shadow Totem finally activated.
With a deafening boom, blood splattered as the Blood Shadow Totem’s explosion swept across all the Molten Blacksmiths.
-5000, -5000, -5000…
The Blood Shadow Totem’s explosion dealt significantly more damage than the Death Ripple Scroll or the area-damage bombs.
The explosion interrupted the blacksmiths’ Dark Arrows. They roared in fury, preparing to attack Nie Yan again, but Nie Yan dropped an Ice Rain Scroll, chanting a series of incantations. As the final syllable left his lips, the temperature plummeted, and a thick white mist filled the air. Icicles rained down like a storm, striking the Molten Blacksmiths with loud thuds.
-500, -500, -500… Damage numbers floated above the blacksmiths once more.
After five waves of ice rain, the Molten Blacksmiths fell one by one, becoming corpses.
The ice rain continued for a total of eight waves before finally subsiding, and the white mist gradually dissipated.
Seeing this, Nie Yan smiled slightly, leaping down from the ceiling and landing gracefully. All enemies were eliminated.
Nie Yan checked his experience bar. Although the Molten Blacksmiths awarded a substantial amount of experience, his bar had only increased by about 3%. At higher levels, the experience required for each level-up became increasingly difficult to accumulate.
Nie Yan collected the dropped equipment from the ground—five items in total, one of which was gold-tier. It wasn’t particularly appealing to him, so he placed it in the guild warehouse. However, he found something unusual: a silver-white hammer, a special tool for blacksmiths.
Artisan Molten Blacksmith Hammer: Special item, usable only by blacksmiths. Using this hammer when forging weapons and equipment grants an additional 5% success rate and a 20% chance to gain an extra point of skill proficiency.
“Great item!” Nie Yan couldn’t help but exclaim upon seeing the hammer. For blacksmiths, using this hammer to forge equipment would undoubtedly yield twice the results with half the effort.
The Oxen Tribe was currently in dire need of blacksmiths, and Guo Huai was actively cultivating them. With this hammer, they could save a lot of effort. Nie Yan planned to hand it over to Guo Huai for effective use.
Exploring new areas was always rewarding, often yielding great items.
After dealing with the Molten Blacksmiths, Nie Yan headed toward the small door at the far end of the hall and disappeared down the corridor.
A few minutes later, six thieves entered the hall. Leading them was a young man in his early thirties, clad in silver-gray leather armor. He surveyed the corpses on the ground, counting a total of sixteen.
“Boss Tian Fa, sixteen level 90 Molten Blacksmiths,” said a younger thief, around twenty-five or twenty-six years old, his voice trembling slightly as he struggled to hide his shock.
“Good heavens, all of them were killed by Kuai Zai Nie Yan alone!” another thief exclaimed in disbelief.
With their strength, even two or three of them working together might not be able to defeat a single level 90 Molten Blacksmith. The monsters had extremely high attack power, and with a thirty-level gap, their attacks barely dealt any damage. Nie Yan had single-handedly defeated sixteen. Was he a monster?
Tian Fa, the leader, frowned. It was indeed strange that Nie Yan had defeated so many level 90 monsters alone. He examined the torn clothing of one of the Molten Blacksmiths, noticing some burn marks. He crouched down and felt the fabric, finding traces of unfrozen ice powder. He pondered thoughtfully. While he didn’t know exactly how Nie Yan had defeated the Molten Blacksmiths, he was certain that Nie Yan hadn’t engaged them in direct combat.
How Nie Yan had done it remained a mystery they couldn’t fathom.
Tian Fa turned to the other thieves. “Hurry up and follow me. Be careful not to alert any monsters along the way.”
Tian Fa led the way toward the distant door, while the five thieves exchanged uneasy glances. The thought of facing someone like Nie Yan made them shudder. Seeing Tian Fa walk ahead, they quickly picked up their pace to catch up.
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