Death Notice

“Qin Lun, is it confirmed?” Hill’s inquiry came through the Team Channel.

“It’s not certain yet, but Vima really will go out tomorrow!” Qin Lun tossed a small bottle in his hand and sneered coldly.

“How far do you estimate we will have to go?” Hansen asked in a low voice.

“It’s hard to say. We might have to go all the way to the final stage!” Qin Lun’s expression shifted unpredictably as he spoke calmly.

After hearing Qin Lun’s feedback, the Team Channel slowly fell silent. On the other end, Hill and Hansen exchanged a look, their expressions turning grim.

“The fifth stage?” Hill closed his eyes and murmured to himself. Then he turned to The Disciple with a strange smile. “Heh, Hansen, did you hear that? One or two of us three might die!”

“Hmph, I’m looking forward to it,” Hansen grunted. A fierce spark slowly ignited deep within his pupils.

After ending the communication, Qin Lun lowered his head and looked expressionlessly at the bottle in his hand. He whispered to himself in a somewhat neurotic manner, “I will definitely survive. I definitely can!”

The thumb-sized crystal bottle in Qin Lun’s hand contained a little over half a bottle of emerald green liquid. Soaking inside the liquid was a small, translucent, tender leaf. Although this little leaf appeared as delicate as a sprout, it was actually a leaf bud from an Ancient Tree of Wisdom located in the center of the Silent Forest.

This leaf bud contained incredible vitality. If it was soaked in dew for about a month, that dew would turn into an emerald green liquid no less potent than World Tree Dew. It could fully serve as a common recovery potion. Although the vitality within this leaf bud was slowly fading, its value remained immense. The rewards from the Scorpion-tailed Biao mission did not need to be shared with the rest of the team; they all belonged to Qin Lun. This was partly because Sas and his wife had already received a piece of the “Turtle Shell’s” back plate earlier, and partly because Qin Lun needed to undertake the critical part of the overall plan. According to the private agreement between the three Serial Killers, Hansen and Hill would no longer share in this portion of the gains.

Qin Lun remained silent for a long moment, then flipped his hand and put away the crystal bottle. He walked towards the newbie area’s campsite. By the time he returned to the campsite, the sky was gradually darkening. Some of the new camp members had already lit campfires and were roasting the prey they had hunted that day.

When they saw Qin Lun enter the camp, the few new members who were busy glanced at him and then paid him no further attention. The Sanctuary Camp itself wasn’t large, and this newbie campsite was even smaller. The entire open area was only a little over two hundred square meters, housing a dozen or so shabby tents.

Each tent was shared by two people. Qin Lun shared one with Casey. In fact, apart from a few of the older newbies, most of the new members had only arrived at the Sanctuary Camp in the last few days.

Most of these new members were from jungle races: Elves, Trolls… There were also a few Dwarves, Gnomes, and Orcs. Because the Nals World materialized equipment skills and bloodlines, it was unknown how many of these twenty-plus new members were Apostles.

Of course, races like Frank, who possessed an Undead Bloodline, and Hill, who had a water-based bloodline, were quite easy to identify as Apostles.

In fact, Qin Lun guessed that the Shattered Starry Sky probably treated the Nals Inner World as a major base for cultivating Professional Apostles. Given the Nals Inner World’s special environment and its vast resources of laws, this possibility was quite high.

The newcomers entering the Nals Inner World during this period were likely all Apostles sent by the Shattered Starry Sky, mid-level Professional Apostles between the second and third tiers. Apart from Qin Lun’s team and the sworn enemy team that Hansen and Hill had provoked, among the remaining dozen or so newcomers, there were clearly one or two more Apostle teams.

The Shattered Starry Sky’s earlier hint about their team competition mode was no joke. The Sanctuary Camp didn’t issue many formal quests, but the rewards for each formal quest were quite generous, which also sparked competition among the many newcomers.

Even that private quest issued by Master Vima, judging by Qin Lun’s final gains, was no less than a professional skill. And this was when Qin Lun and the others had only captured a juvenile Scorpion-tailed Biao that barely met the quest requirements.

In fact, if not for Casey’s connection, Qin Lun and the others would probably have received challenges from other Apostle teams when they accepted this quest. The successful ones enjoyed the quest rewards, while the losers could only spend their days in the Sanctuary Camp’s beast pen and planting fields, or even leave their bones in the Silent Forest.

Actually, from the current perspective, the competition between Apostle teams hadn’t yet reached its most intense sprint phase. As the remaining time dwindled, these several Apostle teams were bound to intensify the conflicts arising from quests.

The private quest issued by Master Vima wasn’t acknowledged by the Shattered Starry Sky. Even though they gained something, their stay duration didn’t increase. From observations over the past few days, only the formal quests issued by the Sanctuary Camp were silently recognized by the Shattered Starry Sky as having exploration value. They received evaluations for hidden plots, thus granting stay duration rewards.

Given the apparent strength of Qin Lun’s team, they couldn’t gain the recognition of the Plot Characters. Unless they risked it all to snatch food from other teams’ mouths, it was unlikely they would receive formal quests. Of course, they weren’t completely without opportunities to increase their stay duration; they still had a Main Quest: “Source of Power”.

After entering the Sanctuary Camp, the team finally met the conditions for the “Source of Power” quest to be issued, and the specific content of the Main Quest was unlocked.

Source of Power (Lieutenant Difficulty): Numerous high-ranking creatures with powerful strength lived within the Silent Forest. Only in life-and-death battles against these high-ranking creatures could Apostles fully integrate their professional abilities and comprehend the true meaning of power.

Completion Method One (Second Lieutenant Level): Gather the team’s strength to kill or capture one high-ranking creature of the Seventh Tier or above, without relying on the power of Plot Characters.

Completion Method Two (First Lieutenant Level): Apostle 70053, independently kill or capture one of the following creatures (Moon Devil Spider, Juvenile Hill Giant, Scorpion-tailed Biao, Golden-eyed Eagle, Howling Wind Wolf King).

Task Prompt: In team competition mode, team kill or independent kill refers to a specific team or Apostle individual causing more than 90% of that creature’s Health Points damage.

Task Rewards: Completing the task via Method One grants 20,000 Shattered Crystal, 800 Exchange Voucher, 5 Contribution points, and one Fusion Crystal. Completing the task via Method Two grants 30,000 Shattered Crystal, 1000 Exchange Voucher, 10 Contribution points, two Fusion Crystals. This task has no additional rewards. Task failure deducts 50 Soul Lifespan.

This Main Quest was the first true Lieutenant-difficulty quest Qin Lun had encountered. The quest content was quite simple, only requiring the hunting of one Seventh Tier creature. Qin Lun, Hill, and the others had secretly calculated that if the team cooperated sincerely and used all their trump cards, killing a previous Sixth Tier creature would be no challenge.

Taking the previous Sixth Tier Scorpion-tailed Biao as an example, if Qin Lun summoned the Fifth Tier Inferno Hound, combined with the two main tanks, the group could kill an adult Scorpion-tailed Biao in a short time.

However, Seventh Tier creatures were different. Sixth Tier was intermediate, but Seventh Tier was high rank. The difficulty of this task lay in the fact that the life form of high-ranking creatures had undergone a qualitative change, making them very difficult to kill in a short time. The longer the time dragged on, the greater the possibility of the fight being interrupted by external factors. At some point, a third party might swoop in and claim the spoils, especially since there was another sworn enemy team watching closely.

As for the second method of completing the task, Qin Lun had asked the others in the team. Almost everyone’s candidate targets were different. It was highly likely that the Shattered Starry Sky had specially designed them based on each person’s future profession.

Take Qin Lun for example. The Howling Wind Wolf King and the Moon Devil Spider were only Fifth Tier, but these two were communal creatures. The Moon Devil Spider’s nest had lots of small spiders, and the Howling Wind Wolf King was protected by a wolf pack.

The Scorpion-tailed Biao and the Golden-eyed Eagle were Sixth Tier creatures. Although they lived alone, these two creatures were both swift as the wind, excelling in Agility, which largely offset the Jungle Hunter’s long-range attack capability.

As for the last one, the Hill Giant, adult giants reached the Eighth Tier. Although juvenile giants were only Sixth Tier and not too agile, they were generally under the protection of adult giants.

In summary, Method One of the “Source of Power” Main Quest tested team coordination. It required that everyone in the team had no weaknesses and possessed high resistance to interference.

Method Two tested Qin Lun’s mastery and understanding of the Jungle Hunter combat profession. Only by fully utilizing the Jungle Hunter’s various abilities like camouflage, traps, long-range attacks, summons, etc., would there be a chance to complete the Main Quest via the second method.

As for the Method Two targets for people like Hansen and Hill, their candidate creatures were completely different from Qin Lun’s. Hansen’s targets were all close-combat creatures with low mobility but thick skin and flesh, such as: Dryads, Ogres, etc.

Compared to other Main Quests Qin Lun had encountered, this quest, although lacking additional rewards for World Exploration Degree, was special because the Nals Inner World meant that killing Sixth or Seventh Tier creatures would produce decent equipment materials, basically making up for the lack of extra rewards.

Qin Lun lifted the tent flap. Casey wasn’t in the tent at the moment, probably off practicing the method Qin Lun had suggested for defeating the Savage Rhino.

Casey hadn’t started hunting in the forest yet; he was only doing odd jobs at the beast pen. Qin Lun had given him a cheat method: to use his work opportunity at the beast pen to drug the Savage Rhino.

Before entering the Inner World, Casey had specially trained in wilderness survival and was familiar with many jungle plants. Whipping up a laxative or an anesthetic was no problem at all. Besides, he was an Elf, with high affinity for animals, making it easy for him to get the Savage Rhino to eat “special feed.”

Qin Lun lay down on the dry grass, placing his arms under his head. He stared at the “Source of Power” listed in his Death Notice and sank into deep thought.

The team’s plan was based on the “Source of Power” Main Quest. The targets mentioned in the quest basically had location markers. Most weren’t too far from the camp; the farthest Seventh Tier creature was only half a day’s journey away.

Using the prestige they had built up with Sas and his wife earlier, the three Serial Killers persuaded them to target the adult Hill Giant as the Main Quest objective.

The adult Hill Giant reached the Eighth Tier, but Hill Giants had no magical abilities and were relatively slow-moving. If they could lure it into a trap or a suitable geographical environment, there was a fair chance of success. Moreover, the forest terrain was complex, so even if they couldn’t kill the giant, they could cover each other’s escape.

Another reason for choosing the Hill Giant as the target was because this female Hill Giant had a juvenile giant by its side. This was the prey Hansen and Hill had specifically left for Qin Lun.

Of course, these two guys didn’t do this out of a guilty conscience. They hoped Qin Lun would take on the most dangerous part of the plan.

In the end, Qin Lun had no choice but to accept this arrangement. He had his own difficulties. Firstly, because of his Elf Bloodline, no one in the team was more suitable than him for operating alone in the Silent Forest and for scouting information.

Secondly, because he had revived Frank, causing both of them to have only 50 Soul Lifespan points left. Others in the team could afford to fail the Main Quest, but Qin Lun couldn’t. If the Main Quest failed, he would die due to exhaustion of his Soul Lifespan.

Frank, however, was fine. His “Source of Power” Method Two was just a trial quest with extremely low difficulty. The hunting target was the lowest, Fourth Tier creature, and it could even be completed by working in the camp’s beast pen and planting fields. Even if the quest failed, it would only deduct 30 Soul Lifespan points, and he would have a second chance.

However, this arrangement wasn’t without extra benefits. If Qin Lun managed to kill the juvenile giant alone while the team distracted the adult Hill Giant, then he would not only complete the Main Quest but also the Jungle Hunter’s Career Quest: Hunter’s Rite of Passage.

Hill, Hansen, Frank, plus Sas and his wife—these five were responsible for killing the adult Hill Giant, while Qin Lun hunted the juvenile giant alone. This was the team’s apparent plan, and also the first stage of the three Serial Killers’ overall scheme