Chapter 150: The Wizard of Deceit (Part I)

"Please, don't kill me!"

The undead Katyusha pleaded weakly on the ground. Although bloody tears still lingered in its eyes, the gaze was filled with terror. As Zhao Nan's two skills took effect, its curled-up body shrank even more, consumed by excruciating pain.

It could speak!

This was not something an ordinary monster should be capable of. Zhao Nan pondered for a moment and prepared to step forward, but Finina reached out from behind, grabbed his sleeve, and shook her head. "Be careful, it might be a trap."

Zhao Nan shook his head to reassure her. He swept the Soul-Eater Staff across his body, and a flash of earthy-yellow light immediately manifested three earthy-yellow halos around him.

Earth Spirit Guardian!

This was the fusion product of the Boulder Armor and another infrequently used Earth-element skill. Three halos were attached to his body, each with 700 health points, totaling 2100 points combined. Furthermore, each time a halo was destroyed, the defense of the remaining halos would increase by twenty percent. Although many of the undead's attacks were ineffective, its physical strikes possessed substance; otherwise, Finina wouldn't have been able to sever its hair.

Protected by the Heroic Emblem's damage exemption and the Earth Spirit Guardian, Zhao Nan walked up to the undead Katyusha with an expressionless face.

"Who on earth are you?"

By now, the damage effects of the two skills had dissipated, and the undead was relieved from that agony. Hearing the question, it raised its head and said sorrowfully, "I was originally one of the people who sacked Shell Village. I was sent to the face of a demon, and after death, every interval of time, I am forced to hunt for fresh souls for the demon. Today happened to be the deadline for offering souls, so I had no choice but to come out."

Zhao Nan frowned and asked, "Since that demon killed you, why do you still serve it and harm others?"

The undead said in agony, "My soul is imprisoned by the demon. If I fail to satisfy its demands, I will be subjected to torture."

It prostrated itself on the ground. Its voice grew even more wretched as it wailed bitterly, "My husband was killed by the demon, and I, too, was tortured by it. Please, I beg you to save me! I know you are a Chosen One, possessing the power granted by the gods, and you can definitely help me."

Zhao Nan let out a sigh. After all that talking, the identity of this undead had finally surfaced—it was a quest-giver role, not just some random monster. However, it seemed that if he wanted to obtain a quest from it, defeating it first was likely a prerequisite.

Next, as long as he followed its lead and continued the conversation, the quest would trigger automatically.

Seeing that Zhao Nan was safe, Finina and the others walked over one by one out of curiosity, just in time to hear Zhao Nan say, "What do I need to do to help you?"

Katyusha said, "I know where the demon is located. As long as you can defeat it and retrieve my soul casket from its hands, my soul will finally be able to rest in peace."

"Ding! Does the player wish to accept the quest 'The Deceptive Sorcerer'?"

It was rare to encounter a story quest in a place like this, and Zhao Nan was somewhat tempted. Since he currently had nothing else to do and his skill fusion was nearing its completion—taking perhaps another two or three days to finish—and given that he had no other way to level up aside from quests, he naturally accepted this quest with pleasure.

"Quest Objective: Slay the demon and obtain the soul casket."

"Quest Reward: One Fantasy Dungeon Key. One Fantasy Dungeon Map."

Zhao Nan couldn't help but twitch his eyebrow. He had initially thought this quest was just some wild narrative and was planning to accept it purely for the experience points. He hadn't expected that instead of experience, the quest would grant an opportunity to enter a Fantasy Dungeon.

In his heart, he couldn't help but curse mentally, wondering if his luck was getting a bit too good. After this great catastrophe, he had already encountered three Fantasy Dungeons; counting this one, it was the fourth.

"I wonder what kind of world it will be this time!" Finina immediately looked forward to it with anticipation. Every Fantasy Dungeon was a completely different world, which made them immensely appealing.

...

The color of the quest was a simple blue, yet it granted eligibility to enter a Fantasy Dungeon. This struck Zhao Nan as rather strange, but since the rewards were already clearly stated, there seemed to be nothing amiss.

The undead Katyusha led the way in front, and along the path, Fallen Demons constantly emerged, even including elite-tier Fallen Demons.

Zhao Nan was more than willing to fight. He had been practicing skill fusion in this forest for a long time, yet he had never once encountered an elite Fallen Demon. Well, now that the quest was accepted, these elite monsters were popping up. It seemed they had been hidden away due to plot requirements.

Clearly, they were obstacles deliberately placed within the quest.

After forming a party, Finina and the cat-girl took the initiative to attack. With the support of Osiris and the little Ice Phoenix, Zhao Nan didn't even need to strike, effortlessly harvesting some experience points. These elite monsters were quite stingy, dropping only a handful of gold coins as their appearance fee.

The undead maiden no longer shed bloody tears. Watching the group effortlessly defeat the elite Fallen Demons, her eyes shimmered with brilliance as she said with utmost delight, "Ah, Chosen Ones, you are truly too powerful! You are indeed worthy of being the servants of the gods!"

Zhao Nan felt a slight internal aversion to the word "servant." However, this was the perspective of the indigenous people, to whom it was an extremely enviable status.

The little loli seemed to find this quest somewhat boring, or perhaps it was simply time for her afternoon nap. With remarkable bluntness, she wrote down the domineering words "This concubine wishes to rest, wake me when we arrive," leaped forward with force onto the cat-girl's shoulder, and fell fast asleep.

The little flower fairy finally escaped from the loli's demonic clutches and, with an emotional expression, hid back inside Finina's hair, refusing to poke her head out ever again.

Observing these details, Zhao Nan always felt this quest felt a bit like a winter outing. At this moment, dead leaves were fluttering through the forest, forming a thick carpet on the ground that produced a rustling sound beneath their feet.

After walking for about an hour, the undead maiden pointed ahead and said with that still-piercing yet much gentler voice, "It is inside that cave! I cannot go in, otherwise the demon will discover me and immediately drag me back."

Zhao Nan nodded and said, "Then you stay here."

The ordinary obstacle Fallen Demons along the road were elite-tier.

Naturally, the one hiding deep within the cave at the end was an even more formidable monster—the Level 30 Fallen Demon King.

...

The little loli was woken up with some dissatisfaction. She rubbed her eyes and looked around at the dim surroundings illuminated by firelight, the cave walls carved with various strange patterns. Then, she glanced toward the end of the cave at the crimson-skinned Fallen Demon King, who held a staff, possessed the body of a goat, and wore a red robe. Showing zero interest, she let out another yawn.

She whispered to the cat-girl: "This concubine is going back to sleep."

The cat-girl softly murmured agreement, looked apologetically at Zhao Nan, and said, "The little master is still sleepy, so I won't participate in this fight."

This was merely a wild King-tier monster, nowhere near as formidable as mutated Kings. While powerful, for someone like Zhao Nan at this stage, soloing it was not only easy but also took very little time.

Zhao Nan looked around. The ground was clean, and the Fallen Demon King had one hand resting on a small casket. Seeing intruders enter the cave, the King-tier monster waved its staff, causing numerous Fallen Demons to crawl out from the soil around it.

These Fallen Demons were no different from the ones in the forest; the only distinction was that upon being killed, the monster King could instantly resurrect them.

"You don't need to attack either. I正好 want to test out some new moves on this fellow."

Zhao Nan instructed Finina to stay quietly to the side as well. Some of the new fused skills in his arsenal possessed overwhelming destructive power, often unleashing damage that directly hit the maximum health limit of ordinary Fallen Demons. However, the exact true damage values of the skills hadn't been fully calculated yet. This King-tier monster had a thicker hide and would naturally suffice as a target dummy.

He tapped the Soul-Eater Staff against the ground. Just as the ordinary Fallen Demons were about to charge forward, a fierce blaze erupted within the cave.

Under Zhao Nan's feet, two massive hexagram magic arrays appeared, one on either side. Within the six corners of each array, a pillar of fire erupted, transforming into fire dragons that began to slither through midair. Each fire dragon reached a length of fully five meters.

Flame Dragon Strike + Meteor Rain—after fusing these two skills, this was the resulting manifestation.

"Flame Dragon Array... Go." Zhao Nan commanded in a low voice.

These summoned fire dragons could even be controlled using willpower, persisting for the duration of the Meteor Rain skill, while the attack power of a single fire dragon surpassed that of the Flame Dragon Strike.

Twelve fire dragons darted through the ordinary Fallen Demons under Zhao Nan's precise control with effortless ease. Unless given a command to self-detonate, the heat radiating from their bodies alone was enough to burn the Fallen Demons to ashes.

Zhao Nan's current array of attack power bonuses pushed the威力 of this skill to an even higher echelon.

Boom, boom, boom!

The cave began to vibrate violently, countless stone chips raining down from the ceiling. As the twelve fire dragons appeared, six were expended to clear out the ordinary Fallen Demons, while the remaining six detonated directly upon the body of the monster King. Each explosion dealt 1000 points of damage. Watching from the sidelines, the cat-girl couldn't help but exclaim in admiration, "Lord Zhao Nan has become even more monstrous!"

As the twelve fire dragons dissipated, a terrifying tempest began to sweep through the cave.

The howling sound echoed directly out of the entrance, and upon hearing it, the undead maiden standing outside turned pale as a sheet.

...

Zhao Nan walked out carrying a casket in his hand.

Amidst the environment of such terrifying reverberating sounds, the little loli naturally couldn't sleep anymore. Now draped over the cat-girl's back, her eyes were slightly narrowed—not out of sleepiness, but due to a puffed-up expression of dissatisfaction.

"Thank you so much, Chosen One!" Seeing the wooden casket in Zhao Nan's hands, the undead Katyusha's eyes lit up with greed as she eagerly reached out her hands.

However, just as her hands were about to touch the wooden casket, a wisp of gray mist suddenly coiled around her body. The undead maiden let out a cry of pain and collapsed onto her knees on the ground.