Xiao Jie was taken aback and thought, "Could it be? The first three groups pushed through and still missed some monsters?"
There were no side passages in this mine, just this one path down, so it seemed impossible that they missed any.
But at this moment, hearing the certainty in Ye Luo’s voice, Xiao Jie still instantly perked up.
"Prepare for battle!" he shouted loudly.
Suddenly, the sound of swords being drawn resonated in the darkness. Seven or eight torches illuminated the surroundings as everyone asked anxiously.
"Where’s the monster?"
"It’s in the right corner, in that angle." The voice of Ye Luo was unnervingly calm in the dark.
Xiao Jie looked towards the corner, but could only see darkness.
Damn, torches really aren’t reliable.
Just as he was hesitating whether to use a Light Condensing Talisman, Dida La behind him, without a word, raised his hand and hurled a fireball into the darkness.
The trajectory of the fireball lit up the dark, but the explosion didn’t reveal any shadow of a monster.
"Come on, Ye Luo, don’t scare us," Xiao Jie said, nonplussed.
"Who’s scaring you? Look — there it comes."
The next second, a hand burst out from the pitch-black soil, followed by a dark human-shaped monster struggling up from the ground, appearing in front of everyone.
Earth-burrowing Zombie: Level 16, Life Value 320.
The monster looked like a naked humanoid charred all over, tottering out from the darkness.
At Xiao Jie’s command, a volley of arrows shot out from behind him.
The plan with remote weapons was executed smoothly; almost everyone had learned some remote weapon skills, and it’s always right to minimize danger.
No sooner had the zombie appeared than it was pierced by over a dozen arrows and then finished off by another fireball from Dida La, collapsing instantly.
"Is that it? Not so tough after all."
"Ha-ha, with so many of us, no zombie or demon can withstand it."
"Exactly, the remote weapons strategy makes sense; with enough firepower, nothing can stand against us."
Everyone chuckled, lightening the somber atmosphere a bit.
However, Xiao Jie still felt a slight unease; his data had made no mention of this kind of monster.
He casually flipped open the notebook beside the mouse, where he had copied the information on the mine creatures from the group’s data.
According to info from players who had mined before, there were five kinds of monsters in the mine: Mining Zombies, Giant Rats, Rat Demon Descendants, Giant Bats, Cave Maggots.
What was this Earth-burrowing Zombie about?
"What’s the situation at the back?" Wu Yong’s voice came through YY.
"Ran into a Little Monster, an Earth-burrowing Zombie, not mentioned in the data."
There was silence on the other end for a moment.
"Is that thing tough?"
"Not tough, got wiped out in an instant."
"Then no worries, keep moving forward, we’re close to the Dumping Area."
Xiao Jie knew there was no better option, they couldn’t just stop because of a harmless Little Monster.
"Move forward," Xiao Jie said, and the team set off again.
The three teams were not far apart; as soon as Xiao Jie’s group had passed, Salted Fish arrived with the rear unit.
Woo woo— A strange noise suddenly arose from the darkness, and the dead zombie staggered to its feet again.
Except now the name had changed to — Resurrected Zombie: Life Value 160/320.
"Damn it, what’s going on up front, leaving monsters behind?" Salted Fish said exasperated, "Hurry and finish it off."
Immediately, three or four swords chopped at it together, knocking it to the ground in an instant.
As the rear team moved past, after a while, the corpse struggled to rise again.
And its Life Value halved again.
Resurrected Zombie: Life Value 80/320...
Yet, those at the front were utterly oblivious to this...
At this moment, Xiao Jie had led his team to the Dumping Area, and even before getting close, they heard the sound of battle.
"Get down here and help!"
Xiao Jie immediately led his team to rush down. Below the mine tunnel was a huge underground cavern, which was the so-called Dumping Area, where miners used to pile up the mined ore for transport.
Because it was used for piling ore, the area was very open. At this moment, the three groups from the vanguard were under the siege of dozens of Mining Zombies.
Holy crap! There’s so many!
Xiao Jie was startled; perhaps it had been too long since anyone came to farm monsters, leading to an overflow of Mining Zombies jostling in the dark.
Moreover, it seemed the noise of the battle had alerted more, causing an increasing number of zombies to crowd over.
One must admit, the quality of core players was indeed strong; even faced with such terrifying scenes, there was no hint of retreat or fleeing.
Wu Yong led the players to form a horizontal line formation. With mostly polearms, they had a long attack range, so every Mining Zombie that got close faced attacks from three or four people and couldn’t breach.
Zombies that couldn’t press forward began to drift to the sides gradually.
The sheer number of zombies was extraordinary, but because of the terrain, most were stuck at the back. Thus, they instinctively started to encircle the flanks. If these zombies managed to spread out, the players at the sides would be under immense pressure and might even trigger a domino effect.
"Quick, hold the flanks, don’t let the monsters outflank us!" Wu Yong shouted.
Secret Technique — Dragon Churning Sea Formation!
As he twirled his long spear, he continually fended off the zombies ahead, and a dragon-shaped Qi gradually formed around him. With a final sweep of his spear, Wu Yong sent the dragon-shaped Qi roaring through the zombies, knocking down a swath of them.