Chapter 13 : Chapter 13
Chapter 13: Ram Them to Death!
“Ali, get ready. It’s time to work.”
Bang.
That was the sound of a shield smashing against the ground.
It meant Ali had already entered a combat state.
Hm?
Why had he thrown away the shield again?
Lin Yuan fell into deep thought.
A Shield Guard who discarded his shield in battle—
was that really reasonable?
Even as the thought crossed his mind, Ali activated Rush and shot forward like an arrow loosed from the string.
In an instant, he had arrived in the middle of the Kobold pack.
Draw Slash!
A streak of cold light swept across every living thing within a five-meter radius.
The lives of those Kobolds withered all at once, like flowers crushed to ruin.
-39870
-39900
-39890
-78960 (Critical Hit)
A single skill.
Every monster died instantly.
After finishing off the Kobolds, Ali casually flicked the one-handed sword in his hand, then strolled back behind Lin Yuan as if taking a leisurely walk through a garden, and picked up the shield again.
Elegant.
That was the only word Sun Xu could find to describe the scene.
Ali was like an emperor who ruled over fate itself.
For those Kobolds, dying beneath his sword was their glory.
When Lin Yuan saw Ali skillfully pick the shield back up, he was briefly stunned.
Uh...
It seemed a shield was not all that necessary after all.
At this stage, there probably was not a single monster that could survive Ali’s Draw Slash.
【Killed Kobold Laborer (LV5) *47, EXP increased by 3150】
【Killed Foreman Lawton (LV6), EXP increased by 600】
Hm. It seemed something a little different had been mixed in among the Laborers.
It was even a minor Boss.
Still, it did not matter.
Trash that died in one hit was all the same.
The very name Kobold Laborer practically screamed poverty, so not a single coin dropped from them.
That Laborer Foreman called Lawton, however, did drop a piece of equipment.
【Refined Iron Sword】
【Grade: Silver】
【Equip Requirement: Strength 50】
【Attributes: Attack +80, Strength +20】
Nightmare difficulty really was generous. Even a minor Boss could drop a Silver-grade weapon.
And it was the sort of premium equipment that came without a level restriction.
A Warrior who invested all his points into Strength could equip this weapon at around Level 5.
A Level 5 Warrior wielding this weapon would have an Attack stat exceeding 200.
With a piece of equipment like this, clearing the Normal difficulty Golden Fang Ruins would be effortless.
Lin Yuan handed the Refined Iron Sword to Ali. Ali gave it two swings and indicated that it was passable.
One hundred and twenty points of Attack was not even a tenth of Ali’s own Attack power.
If the demonic sword in his hand had already awakened, Ali would not even spare trash like this a glance.
The surrounding Kobold Laborers and the Laborer Foreman had all been cleaned up.
It was time to enter the next area.
Lin Yuan continued onward.
He followed the direction in which the transport carts were hauling the iron ore.
After walking for more than ten minutes, they arrived at the entrance of a cave about ten meters in diameter.
More than ten transport carts loaded to the brim with iron ore were parked outside the entrance.
Seeing this, Sun Xu was puzzled.
“Brother Lin, why are these Kobolds digging up so much ore?”
“Who knows? Maybe Kobolds are born loving to mine.”
“Or maybe there’s another force behind them, enslaving these Kobolds and forcing them to mine.”
“Perhaps it’s some kind of rebel force, plotting something in secret.”
“What kind of normal person would ever come to a godforsaken place like this?”
Ali moved aside the transport carts piled up at the entrance, revealing a pitch-black cavern opening.
Folding his arms, Lin Yuan turned to Sun Xu and asked,
“Didn’t you read the guide? Was there no mention of this cave in it?”
“Well...” Sun Xu was at a loss for words. “I did read the guide, but that was for Normal difficulty.”
“I never even dared to think about Nightmare difficulty.”
“Besides, up until now, no one has ever cleared the Nightmare difficulty Golden Fang Ruins.”
“So even if I wanted to read a guide, there isn’t one.”
Spreading his hands, Sun Xu indicated that he knew nothing.
Fine.
With no guide to rely on, all they could do was push forward blindly.
Without knowing what lay inside the cave, the best option should have been to proceed slowly.
It was the safest approach.
But no one knew how long this cave was. Walking the entire way might waste an enormous amount of time.
And what if they got lost?
Would they not end up like headless flies?
So—
Lin Yuan still chose to drive in.
“There’s a railway track here. Let’s take a cart and follow it down.”
If tracks had already been laid, then there had to be a train.
And what was a train for?
Either it was used to transport troops, or it was used to move supplies.
And the iron ore was very clearly a transported supply.
Lin Yuan dumped all the ore out of one transport cart and took the driver’s seat himself, while Ali sat in the back.
The moment Sun Xu saw this, he hurriedly possessed Ali in fright.
What a joke. If the cart overturned, Lin Yuan and Ali were both thick-skinned and sturdy enough that they might be fine.
But with Sun Xu’s skinny arms and legs, he would die for certain.
To be safe, possessing Ali was the wisest choice.
“Sit tight. I’m going to speed up.”
Lin Yuan started the transport cart. The putter-putter-putter of the engine echoed through the cave mouth and gradually sank deeper into the tunnel.
After traveling for roughly a hundred meters, they still had not encountered a single monster.
The cave was very spacious, but because iron rails ran across the ground, the cart jolted violently the whole way.
“Brother Lin, there are actually railway tracks down here.”
“Could it really be like you said? Another force is enslaving these Kobolds?”
“My heavens... could there really be humanoid monsters in a beginner dungeon?”
“That’s too absurd.”
The “humanoid beings” Sun Xu referred to were not low-intelligence lifeforms like Kobolds.
He meant humans.
Steam-powered vehicles and railway tracks—both were clearly the work of intelligent life.
For creatures like Kobolds, whose brains probably did not amount to even two ounces,
expecting them to invent steam-powered vehicles and trains was truly asking too much.
Outside the dungeon, steam-powered vehicles and trains might not mean very much.
But inside a dungeon, it was different.
They suggested that intelligent life might exist within the dungeon.
And in a dungeon, beings with intelligence and beings without intelligence were two entirely different matters.
Lifeforms without intelligence were like the Kobold Workers—
once Lin Yuan made a round, they obediently followed after him once lured.
But intelligent life would not behave like that.
They would think the same way humans did.
They might even lay traps and use tactics to resist them.
For instance, right now—
if the other side had some means of monitoring the surface, then they should already know that Lin Yuan had arrived.
Their trap might already have been laid, waiting only for Lin Yuan to walk into it of his own accord.
At that thought, Lin Yuan’s gaze turned decisive. He slammed the accelerator to the floor.
The speed of the transport cart rose to its absolute limit.
The silent mine tunnel filled with the roaring putter-putter-putter of the engine.
They sped all the way forward, and in less than five minutes or so, a piercing light appeared ahead.
It looked like the beam of a searchlight.
“Brother Lin, look ahead! There’s a train!”
“Stop the cart!”
Sun Xu could see clearly.
That was no searchlight. It was obviously the headlamp mounted on the front of the train.
Several Kobolds were laboring hard to shovel fuel into the locomotive.
When they saw Lin Yuan and the others, one Kobold about 1.6 meters tall, wearing a green safety helmet, let out a shrill scream.
“Start the train, now! Ram them to death!”