Chapter 71: A Surprise Discovery

For Bandits, bad lighting in an area had its advantages… and disadvantages as well.

Dark areas with gloomy lighting provided a greater opportunity for the Bandits to make use of Stealth more efficiently, as they could conceal themselves in the dark corners of their surroundings even better. However, if the surroundings were too dark, the Bandits would not be able to see too far into the distance. That would create a situation far more troublesome for them—especially when they were on solo missions to complete their own quests. They would need to be much more vigilant than usual to prevent themselves from revealing their trail while they were in hiding.

The situation would be under control if they could turn invisible right when they were spotted by the monsters in the dungeons. They would then be able to get away from the monsters’ radar with ease. Nevertheless, the situation would definitely escalate quickly if they ever alerted the monsters of their presence. Under such circumstances, if the Bandits did not remove themselves from the monsters’ radar and chose to continue hiding in the same area, there would be a 90 % chance that their presence would be discovered by the monsters…

The Bandits would only be able to sneak past the monsters unharmed if they used a stealthy approach to retreat over a certain distance. Then, they would have to wait for the monsters to calm down first before they made their move again. Of course, this approach only applied to certain types of monsters. If a Tier 4 Bandit decided to walk past a Tier 5 monster, or a Boss that was of Tier 3 and above, that Bandit would definitely be slammed into a meat pie and die.

As long as an ordinary Tier 4 monster did not possess any special abilities, Bandits could still use that approach to pass by the monster undetected. Although that may waste quite some time, safety always came first!

However, in Centipede Cavern, there was only one route, and it was filled with giant centipedes all over. Due to this, even if a player could reserve some MP using the approach of instantly going invisible, it would still be like biting off his own nose and spitting on his own face.

As far as Qin Ruo was concerned, it would be a truly horrendous thing for him to meet a stingy person like that!

After Qin Ruo had walked over a hundred meters into the passage, he discovered the presence of a Tier 4 Bandit using his Elemental Perception. It was one of the Bandits that the Bowmaster hired earlier on.

That man was really sneaky!

Noticing that there was a giant centipede right behind him, he immediately activated his stealth mode as he cautiously retreated more than ten meters away from the monsters. After that, he deactivated his Stealth and remained still for over ten seconds before he activated it again. Only then did he sneak past the side of the giant, dark brown centipede, which was approximately five meters long…

The Bandit even tiptoed as he made his way past the giant centipede! He seemed to behave exactly like a thief as if he was afraid of waking up the centipede. Qin Ruo could not help it. He felt like flipping himself over on the spot. How long is it going to take to accomplish my task if I keep making such slow progress?!

If Qin Ruo did not have to avoid catching the Bandits’ attention and raising their suspicion, he could have just frozen all those centipedes in the cave one by one first. Then, he could head out to find the Black Dragonfly Herbs and Earth Essence all by himself. Qin Ruo was quite excited as well once he learned that there were actually Grade 5 and Grade 6 Herbs growing deep in Centipede Cavern…

Not to mention, a small bunch of Black Dragonfly Herb could be refined with low-grade materials to make a set of large Potions. A piece of Earth Essence could be made into a set of strong Antidote, which could cure most powerful Poison Effects. He could even earn over a thousand gold coins just by selling it as a raw material in the marketplace.

Why would he want to pass on the opportunity to earn so many gold coins then?

But in order to obtain the Black Dragonfly Herb, Earth Essence and other high-grade Herbs before the other Bandits, Qin Ruo had to remain undetected by the rest to prevent arousing any suspicion. Should he fail, he would become a target, whom the Bandits would pursue and kill.

***

After he waited for that Bandit to walk farther ahead, Qin Ruo finally encountered the first giant centipede. It was just lying still on the ground ahead of him—a Level 40 “Ironback Centipede”.

“Looking” at it from afar, the five-meter giant seemed to be as dead as a doornail while it lay on the ground in the passage. Its eyes remained shut and it did not make a single move, as though it had entered a state of hibernation. Qin Ruo gently touched his nose as he thought to himself, ‘ If I hadn’t seen it suddenly bounce up from the ground to pursue the Bandit a while ago, perhaps I would have really thought that it was out cold, sleeping on the ground.’

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Qin Ruo only approached with caution after he reckoned that the Bandit was far ahead of him…

Fifty meters!

No movement yet…

Forty meters… Thirty-five meters… Thirty meters…

When he entered the Ironback Centipede’s maximum range of attack, the giant centipede did not show any signs of movement at all. It remained “dead” on the ground, causing Qin Ruo who had prepared himself for the possibility of being detected to hesitate for a moment. He glared at the Ironback Centipede in shock over a period of time, having no idea if he should walk forward or activate an additional barrier for his own safety.

“Goddamn creepy insect… Is it true that it really can’t see sh*t?”

Qin Ruo gathered his courage as he thought about trying to approach the centipede. At the same time, he was very worried that the Ironback Centipede would suddenly bounce up from the ground and kill him in an instant.

However, Qin Ruo suddenly realized that, even if the Ironback Centipede suddenly bounced up the ground to “greet” him, it would perhaps be easier for him to take care of the centipede by directly freezing it. Since the area was filled with an abundance of the Water Element, Qin Ruo could just make a few more Frostramparts as obstacles to block the centipede from reaching him…

But now… what was the situation exactly?

It was difficult to advance or withdraw! Qin Ruo could not make up his mind at the moment. Should I take a bet or not?

***

After swiftly going back and forth several times within the area that was thirty meters away from the Ironback Centipede, Qin Ruo finally made his final decision to take a “bet”.

This goddamn Ironback Centipede shouldn’t have such a high IQ. It shouldn’t be crafty and it also shouldn’t have the nose of a dog that’s as sensitive as the Wind Spirit Fox.

As he muttered continuously to himself, saying, “You can’t see me, you can’t see me…”, Qin Ruo gathered his courage and reached out to the Ironback Centipede, making the first contact with it. He was reaching out very slowly because he was also being extremely cautious. He held his breath while he stared his eyes out at the Ironback Centipede. He was ready to defend himself at any time now…

Fortunately… the Ironback Centipede did not open its eyes all the while from beginning to end. It did not do anything that would have scared the sh*t out of people, like snoring loudly all of a sudden.

After he lived through one of the most torturous and difficult time of his life, Qin Ruo could not help but recall the way that wretched Bandit looked like. Sigh… He finally understood how that Bandit felt when he was sneaking past that giant centipede earlier on. Sigh… Perhaps, Qin Ruo had also behaved the exact same way as the Bandit when he was sneaking past the giant centipede himself.

All sorts of feelings welled up in his mind as he sighed. Soon after, Qin Ruo began to move his legs as he quickly sprinted deeper into the passage. Since the Ironback Centipede wasn’t capable of detecting my presence, what else should I be worried about then? Why don’t I take this opportunity to leave the Bandit far behind first while there are only Ironback Centipedes in the surrounding areas? After all, finding the Herbs is my true purpose. To last up to this point, Qin Ruo had consumed three bottles of MP Potion (M). Although the psychological effects on him were not small, he was also provided with the opportunity to find some Herbs to cover his loss. So what was there for him to be unhappy about then?

Half a minute later…

Qin Ruo left the Bandit behind in the passage according to plan. He made his way through more than ten Ironback Centipedes, which seemed to be in such deep sleep that even a thunderstrike would have probably not been able to wake them up. Finally, with the help of his Elemental Perception: Water, he finally found a bunch of Black Dragonfly Herbs ahead of the passage. The terrain appeared to be more spacious there.

However, the situation in his surroundings had caused Qin Ruo to feel helpless and gloomy for a brief moment. “Motherf*cker… It’s so difficult to earn this money… It’s just a bunch of Grade 6 Black Dragonfly Herbs, right… What’s their purpose for arranging so many Ironback Centipedes to guard this thing then?!”