The Strange Salamander Appears

It was basically identical to the left whisker, except that it had an AOE skill.

“Wait, don’t tell me there’ll be a front whisker and a rear whisker next, with more and more skills added each time?”

Muttering to himself, Liu Xuan charged forward. But instead of using [Smack], the right whisker immediately went for [Constriction].

“-72!”

“-100!”

“-100!”

“-100!”

“-2500!”

After Liu Xuan was wrapped up, he was stunned and became completely unable to move, while his health continued to drain.

However, once his [Poison] damage ticked, the massive number exceeded the 1,000 damage required to break [Constriction], and the right whisker immediately threw Liu Xuan to the ground.

It then began using [Smack] to “spin him like a top.”

Even as he was being whipped around, Liu Xuan still had the leisure to let his mind wander.

No matter how powerful other people were, they probably wouldn’t be able to solo this boss.

It opened with [Constriction], stunning you continuously, but the way to break free was to deal 1,000 damage to the tentacle.

How were you supposed to attack while stunned?

Unless you were like Liu Xuan, with either reflected damage or a powerful damage-over-time effect to place on the tentacle, soloing it would be impossible.

Before long, the [Monster Salamander’s Right Whisker] was reduced to zero health and likewise retreated beneath the water.

But what followed was an even larger wave, as though the monster beneath the river had been thoroughly enraged.

The river continued to rise, flooding a large section of the original riverbank.

Then, from beneath the surface, a gigantic head emerged and slammed heavily onto the flooded riverbank.

The surging waves also sent Liu Xuan stumbling more than ten meters backward.

The boss was here!

Liu Xuan looked up:

[Monster Salamander]

Level: 12

HP: 50,000

Toughness: 50%

Skills:

[Smack]: Uses its injured left whisker to deal 300–700 physical damage to a target and everyone nearby.

[Constriction]: Uses its injured right whisker to sweep across an area, ensnaring all enemies within range and dealing 100 true damage per second while inflicting continuous stun until the right whisker loses 1,000 HP.

[Surge]: Sprays out a massive torrent that sweeps across the entire battlefield, dealing 200 magic damage to targets it passes through.

[Protective Coloration]: After receiving physical or magical damage, reduces the next instance of damage of the same type by 50%. This effect can only have one stack and immediately changes when damage of the other type is received.

“What a huge fish head!”

Looking at the enormous salamander’s head, which still stood six or seven meters high even lying down, Liu Xuan couldn’t help clicking his tongue.

“How many people would it take to finish eating this thing?”

Compared to the right whisker, the boss had one additional skill—and it was an area-of-effect magic attack.

Liu Xuan noticed that the [Monster Salamander] now had three health bars. Besides the fish head, the right and left whiskers each had one as well.

However, the tentacles’ names were now preceded by “injured,” and their health had been cut in half, leaving them with only 5,000 HP.

The fish head, on the other hand, had an astonishingly thick health bar—50,000 HP.

Under normal circumstances, taking out the two whiskers first should greatly reduce the pressure.

After that, the boss would only have [Surge] left.

After downing a [Small Healing Potion], Liu Xuan charged forward. Just as before, the right whisker used [Constriction] to wrap him up.

But this time, things were different. The left whisker and the fish head weren’t idle either.

While Liu Xuan was restrained, the left whisker whipped him, while the fish head opened its enormous mouth and sprayed water at him.

All three attacks at once!

But in return, all three of them were afflicted by [Fear] and [Poison], causing their health to drain rapidly as well.

As soon as three seconds passed, Liu Xuan was immediately thrown to the ground.

Then he was grabbed again, whipped, and sprayed with water.

Thrown down, grabbed again, whipped, and sprayed again.

However, by the time Liu Xuan was thrown down this time, the health bars of both whiskers had already been emptied.

Even the boss itself—the giant fish head—had lost more than 6,000 HP.

What Liu Xuan hadn’t expected was that the boss let out a furious roar, and the two limp whiskers rose upright once more.

This time, however, they each had only 3,000 HP remaining.

As for the boss itself, it had instantly lost 6,000 HP!

Seeing the boss revive its two tentacles by transferring health to them, Liu Xuan didn’t find the fight more difficult. Instead, he broke into a delighted grin.

The total health of the boss and its tentacles hadn’t increased. In other words, Liu Xuan had gone from poisoning one monster to poisoning three.

That meant his poison damage was now draining health three times as fast.

“You’ve chosen death!”

Another round of being ensnared, whipped, and sprayed followed. Since the tentacles had less health, their bars were emptied again very quickly.

After the boss restored their health this time, each whisker had only 2,000 HP left. A single application of poison killed them outright.

After that, however, every health transfer restored a fixed 1,000 HP to the tentacles, and the amount no longer decreased.

In other words, once it ensnared someone, it wouldn’t release them until the tentacle was killed.

The boss’s health bar was simply too thick, and its [Protective Coloration] provided an absurd amount of damage reduction. As a result, it took Liu Xuan nearly a minute to kill the boss.

By then, Liu Xuan had lost roughly 16,000 HP, leaving him with more than 30,000!

He wasn’t worried in the slightest!

Because of the combat regeneration from [Troll’s Blood], he couldn’t be bothered to calculate exactly how much damage he had taken.

Still, it was clear that this boss was truly vicious.

With an average level of only twelve, ordinary players might not even be able to defeat it.

No wonder the announcement had specifically warned that this stage was extremely difficult and that everyone should make thorough preparations before activating it.

“You have killed [Monster Salamander] and gained 1,000 experience.”

“You have killed a [Poisoned] monster. Base HP +1.”

Beneath the corpse of the [Monster Salamander], the water receded, revealing a massive golden chest.

Before Liu Xuan could inspect it, an announcement rang in his ears.

This time, it was finally an announcement for the entire Blue Star.

[Chinese Faction Battlefield No. 2468 has completed the campaign (Orchid River Outpost), advancing the scheduled promotion to the Overmind for humanity on Blue Star by an estimated 1,734%.]

[Warriors on Chinese Battlefield No. 2468 will receive a 1,734% experience bonus before reaching level 10.]

[Warriors on all Chinese battlefields will receive an 867% experience bonus before reaching level 10.]

[This experience reward can be stacked with the previous Novice Village reward. In other words, warriors will receive a 2,191% experience bonus before reaching level 3.]

Then came Liu Xuan’s personal announcements:

[Congratulations! As the first human on Blue Star to complete the campaign (Orchid River Outpost), you will now receive your rewards.]

[Because your completion time was below the estimated time by 1,734%, your rewards have been multiplied by 1,734%.]

[You have received 1,734,000 copper coins.]

[The effect of your title (Blue Star’s Number One Warrior) has been enhanced.]

Title: Blue Star’s Number One Warrior (Unique)

Description: Proof of the strongest warrior on Blue Star. At every important milestone settlement during the First-Stage War, ownership of this title will be reassigned, and its effects will be increased or decreased according to the owner’s performance.

Effect: Upon death, you have a 21.91% chance of being resurrected. This effect can only trigger once.

Note: This probability is determined by your performance. If the title changes owners, the previous owner’s probability will not be inherited by the next owner.

Note 2: When a warrior obtains a title with a (unique) attribute, they may choose to use that title as their preferred name in the battlefield’s public domains, including but not limited to system announcements, leaderboards, auction houses, and regional broadcasts.

Although Liu Xuan cared most about the title, he couldn’t help taking another look at the monetary reward listed above.

The original reward had been 10 gold coins, but after the bonus was applied, it had jumped straight to 173 gold coins!

He was rich now!

As for the title, the probabilities from the two bonuses had indeed stacked, bringing the resurrection chance close to 22%. That was already quite high.

All that rushing around and fighting so quickly had been worth it.

From the moment he captured the Novice Village, he had spent a little over six hours completing the outpost campaign.

In other words, the mainframe’s estimate was that the people of Blue Star would need five or six days to complete it.

Liu Xuan roughly did the math in his head, and that estimate seemed about right.

There was no need to even mention the Quarry’s difficulty. Without hundreds or even thousands of people above Level 10, it would be nearly impossible to take down this Monster Salamander.

Four or five days, regardless of the cost—and factoring in that hidden piece of unknown information—was about right.