A Light Ball was descending from mid-air at a fast pace. A Dried Corpse was hit by the Light Ball and exploded instantaneously. Its body scattered all around, turning into numerous chunks of flesh. "Strange, is something not right? Wait a minute..."
Du You squinted his eyes, realizing something was off about the shattered flesh pieces. There was blood mixed with black substance seeping out from them. If they truly belonged to a Dried Corpse, such liquids shouldn’t be present.
Moreover, the pieces of flesh seemed to be moving still. No, some parts of the flesh chunks were definitely still moving.
Before Du You could figure out what was happening, all the Dried Corpses beside the water pool stood up. They started moving their rigid bodies and advanced towards Du You. Their pace wasn’t fast but not too slow either.
"What’s going on with these Dried Corpses, they’re still moving? But their speed is slow and resistance is not that strong. They don’t come in an overwhelming number either, so they can’t pose a significant threat."
While grumbling, Du You carefully counted the number of Dried Corpses walking towards him; in reality, it was less than a hundred.
Xiaozi continued to launch Thunder and Lightning Orbs one after another at a steady pace. It was clear that even she was underestimating these Dried Corpses. As if playing around, she turned every Dried Corpse into a bomb and detonated them. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝⟡𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕥⟡𝕟𝕖𝕥
The chunks of meat on the ground moved slowly at first, but quickly lost vitality under the effects of electricity.
Du You also decided to try something; he released a Disintegration Spell. Under its effect, a Dried Corpse shattered into fragments smaller than fingers. Its magic resistance was extremely poor.
Ever since he came to this world, Du You had never encountered a creature with such weak magic resistance.
"What a pity! If only I hadn’t accepted the quest. Hunting such creatures with high levels but easy to kill would certainly yield significant rewards."
Du You found that most of these Dried Corpses were Level 9, with only a few being Level 8. Such high levels, but without equal strength, this was the perfect farming scenario.
Just then, a Dried Corpse behind him opened its mouth and a large mass of black specks spurted out.
Du You shuddered, assuming this was some kind of powerful attack. He was instinctively about to activate a Shield Spell when he realized there was no actual danger. The black specks didn’t fly far before falling to the ground, where they started squirming.
Wait, squirming? Du You looked down and felt a chill over his scalp.
What lay on the ground weren’t pieces of flesh or poisonous liquid, nor were they energy attacks, but bugs. No, to be exact, leeches. The Dried Corpse had just spat out leeches.
Bloodthirsty Leeches (Larvae): Parasitic organism, Level 3.
"Could these Dried Corpses be infested with these creatures? Parasitic organisms. Is it possible that all these people died here because these leeches infested them, drained them dry, and then used their bodies as a battle hive?"
Du You felt that he had figured out the truth. Looking down, he saw several chunks of meat squirming on the ground as leeches crawled out and started moving forcefully towards him.
Seeing so many wriggling worms could cause anyone’s skin to crawl.
If he had carelessly run up close earlier and got covered in leeches spat out by something he assumed to be a corpse, without any special abilities, he’d probably be infested under the skin and awaiting his death in no time.
Giant Beast Hunters in this world practiced Yuan Power, and didn’t possess such comprehensive defensive abilities until reaching tier one. Therefore, they were almost defenseless against a sudden attack from these leeches. They also lacked long-range attack abilities. Hence, these Bloodthirsty Leeches were the bane of Giant Beast Hunters.
Having quickly figured all this out, Du You now understood why so many people had died here.
"Xiaozi, stop playing around, speed up." Du You quickly cast a Disintegration Spell while Xiaozi also increased the frequency of her Thunder Light Orbs. Now, the death rate of the Dried Corpses significantly increased.
"Huh, so the actual control of the Dried Corpses lies here."
Du You suddenly noticed a severed Dried Corpse. Its upper half was still moving, thanks to an errant Thunder Light Orb from Xiaozi that had left the upper body intact. However, something different emerged from the segmented spine.
Inside was a Bloodthirsty Leech, not a leech larvae. There were many fine tentacle-like things protruding from it, possibly a substitution for nervous tissue.
Under the control of this substance, the Dried Corpse was manipulated by the leech.
"This world is full of wonders. It’s surprising that such bizarre creatures have evolved in the world of Giant Beasts. Imagine if these leeches could infest the Giant Beasts. God, that would be a disaster."
Du You thought to himself. Fortunately, there weren’t many Giant Beasts around here. Those that existed seemed to understand the danger and refrained from approaching. Among the many Dried Corpses, only a few belonged to Giant Beasts, mostly small creatures like rabbits and wild chickens, and most were humans.
With the cooperation of Du You and Xiaozi, in no time, all the Dried Corpses were wiped out.
The curse of the Cursed Crow King was particularly effective here. While each Dried Corpse contained many Bloodthirsty Leeches, the curse affected all creatures in a specific region at the same time.
Under the influence of the Pain Curse, the originally slow-moving leeches all fell to the ground. Du You, who had initially wanted to retreat, decided to speed up with Xiaozi.
However, while the Dried Corpses had all been killed, the Bloodthirsty Leeches hadn’t. The squirming Bloodthirsty Leech larvae were desperately crawling towards him as if they had found food.
The sight of these swarming insects made Du You’s skin crawl. From the water pool behind, more leeches crawled out, both larvae and mature ones. Du You felt like he was developing a fear of crowds.
"Damned things, they’re so disgusting. Do you think that just because I’m not good at dealing with Giant Beasts, I can’t handle you?" Wide range attacks were Du You’s specialty.
He released a wave of Mucus Swamp spells. Numerous leeches were all stuck in it. However, Bloodthirsty Leeches were still struggling relentlessly. The Mucus Swamp didn’t have much effect on the leeches nor was the poison particularly effective, it merely slowed them down by binding them together.
But then, Du You laughed: "I’ve heard that leeches are afraid of fire. Let’s put it to the test."