Chapter 378: Nightmare Damask
Chapter 378: Nightmare Damask
(Beep, extraction successful. Spiritual Power +0.3]
(Beep, extraction successful. Obtained Life Sequence (Strange Maggot Grass].]
(Beep, extraction successful. Strength +0.2]
Crisp notifications rang in Heath’s ears. Along with these sounds, balls of energy and information continuously surged into Heath’s body, allowing his strength to increase bit by bit.
The Amethyst Rose he had found earlier was only one of the many species that existed in this forest in ancient times, such as the Strange Maggot Grass, the Wizard King Flower, the Careful Fruit, and so on.
In the past, Heath had only seen these things in some books and ancient books. He had never come into contact with them in the market or even in the laboratory. As for species that had never been extracted before, the system had always given preferential treatment. It was the same now. When Heath entered this place, it was as if he had entered a supermarket. Basically, he could extract attributes with every few steps.
It had been a long time since he had extracted attributes so quickly. For a moment, Heath was simply carried away as he walked into this forest. He opened the system and extracted attributes everywhere.
His method of extracting attributes was to first use a range extraction scan to locate the location of the extraction material. After that, he would walk over and personally collect the extraction material before extracting it.
Although the system had been upgraded and could be extracted from a distance, it did not matter even if he did not walk in front of it. However, the distance was related to the number of attributes of the extracted substance. Heath calculated in detail. Sometimes, the difference could be more than three times.
For example, extracting spiritual power from a distance only yielded 0.1. However, if he were to collect it from a close distance and had direct contact with it, it was enough to extract 0.3 attributes.
It was becoming more and more difficult to increase one’s strength. Every single attribute was extremely precious. Since it was a rare opportunity, Heath would naturally not waste these opportunities.
As he continued to extract, Heath soon arrived at the depths of the forest. Just as he was about to pass through a forest, a voice suddenly came from afar.
“Rose, quickly leave that place. Quickly return to the tribe!”
“No, Al, I’m not leaving, I don’t want to leave you!”
“If you don’t leave now, it’ll be too late. I won’t be able to get away from him for long. You’ll die here! Please, leave!”
“No, Al! No, AL…”
It was a male’s anxious shout, accompanied by a female’s sobbing voice.
The voice came from a very far place, at least a few hundred meters away from where Heath was. It was only because Heath’s hearing was too sharp that he could hear it.
“Someone is there?”
Heath raised his eyebrows and immediately went into stealth mode. In this unfamiliar forest, it was another area that he had never come into contact with before. No matter who it was, it was better to be careful.
Then, he thought for a moment and decided to go over and take a look.
His figure flashed, and in a few flashes, he quickly went over there. His current speed was like a gale. When he ran, one could only see some afterimages in the air.
In a few flashes, Heath had already arrived at the area where the sounds came from. It was a wide-open space, and there were a few sparse trees growing on the open space. In the middle of the open space… Heath saw the two figures who had made the sound.
They seemed to be two ‘humans’, but they were different from humans in the conventional sense. Their sizes were very small, almost one-third of that of a normal human, and they were only about the height of Heath’s knees. They looked like two exquisitely made puppets.
Heath’s eyes lit up. ‘Gnomes?’
Gnomes, also known as Small People and Underground Gnomes, were one of the Nine Great Races, one of the underground races, the intelligent species. Their situation was just the opposite of the northern Giants. Their appearance was very similar to that of humans, but they were much smaller than ordinary humans, about one-fifth to one-third of the size of a normal human.
‘So there really is such a creature!’ Heath clicked his tongue in wonder.
He had only read about Underground Gnomes in books in the past because it was said that they could not leave the underground because of their different physiological structures. Once they left the underground and went to the surface, they would die. Therefore, it was basically difficult to see living Underground Smalls on the surface. Some of them were basically specimens in some laboratories, but Heath had never come into contact with them before.
The two Underground Smalls were a man and a woman. Judging from their appearance, they were about twenty to thirty years old. They seemed to be a young couple or lovers.
The two seemed to be in trouble. What was bothering them was a Nightmare Damask. It was a magical plant from ancient times. It looked like a man-eating flower. There was a bud on the long root that could be closed. It was like a big shell with sharp teeth on the edge of the bud.
This flower would take the initiative to prey on passing creatures. Although its body could not move, it could control the vines, once a creature passed by, it would control its vines to entangle it and drag it back into the bud to eat it.
This was the case for the two Underground Gnomes.
The male Underground Gnome had been tied up by the long roots in the depths of the pod it was pulling his waist back. The man held a stone spear in his hand and tried to resist. However, in front of the tightening vines of the Nightmare Damask, his resistance was getting weaker and weaker. It was only a matter of time before he was dragged away.
The Nightmare Damask was a large magical plant. Its flower bud pocket was about two meters in diameter. Even a standard human like Heath could fit in this size, not to mention that the Underground Gnome was only a third of his size. One could imagine what the consequences would be if he was swept away by this vine.
Seeing that it was inevitable that he would be swept away, the man could only let the woman leave. After all, the woman was still holding on to him. If he was swept away, the woman would be dragged away as well.
However, no matter what he said, the woman refused to leave.
Seeing this, the man’s face was full of sweat. Before he could think of a way, a piece of bad news came.
Crack! Crack! A faint cracking sound was heard.
The soil on the ground began to loosen. It was the man’s stone spear. Although the man had stabbed the stone spear very deeply, it still could not withstand the powerful strength of Nightmare Damask. As the Nightmare Damask kept tightening the vines, the stone spear was pulled out of the ground bit by bit. The wooden part in the spear started to show signs of breaking.
Finally, after a few seconds, the stone spear broke into two with a crack.
The man who lost the stone spear was instantly lifted up into the sky by the vines, and the woman who was holding him was dragged over as well like two grasshoppers tied by ropes.
“Ah!!!”
“Rose!!”
Just as the two of them were about to lose their lives, suddenly…
Hu! Hu! The sound of rushing wind could be heard.
Along with this sound, a figure suddenly appeared in the forest. Immediately after, a clear metallic clanging sound could be heard, a scarlet greatsword drew out a dazzling cold light in the air.
Pa! A light sound rang out.
The vines that tied the man’s waist snapped in unison from the middle, and the man and woman that had been swept up into the air also fell down.
Holding the greatsword, Heath stood in front of the two Underground Gnomes and helped them out of the situation. This was his first time here, so he didn’t know anything about the Underground World’s situation, and he needed a guide… Now that there were two intelligent Underground Gnomes that he could communicate with, he naturally could not miss this opportunity.
He lowered his head and looked at the two Underground Gnomes. At this moment, the two of them had already fallen from the sky. They did not suffer much damage and were still conscious. It was just that they seemed to be a little confused about what had happened all of a sudden.
Now was not the time to communicate. Heath gave them a simple instruction, “Stay away from here. Be careful.”
After saying that, he turned his attention back to the Nightmare Damask.
The Nightmare Damask was a magic plant that Heath had read about in a book. Although it was only a magic plant, its strength was extremely powerful. It was no less than an average intermediate-level Wizard. It was extremely difficult to deal with an opponent that could control vines and control a small amount of plant-type, spirit-type, and earth-type magic.
Even if it was just a pot of plants, Heath would not dare to underestimate such an opponent.
The battle soon drew to a close.
After the two Underground Gnomes were rescued by Heath, Nightmare Damask’s aggro was quickly transferred to Heath. Only the sound of ‘pa pa pa’ could be heard.
The vines that were as thick as an arm fluttered in the wind, and they were so dense that they looked like dancing strands of hair.
The thousands of vines paused in the air for a moment, and then a series of ‘xiu xiu xiu’ sounds could be heard. They were like javelins that were shot out, thrusting straight at Heath.
Heath’s figure flashed, and he hurriedly dodged to the side. The instant he dodged to the side, these vines heavily pierced the ground.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A series of explosion-like sounds could be heard. Wherever these vines pierced, large holes would be blasted open. In an instant, the ground became filled with potholes, it was as if a meteor shower had just occurred. ‘Such powerful strength…’ Seeing this scene, Heath could not help but be secretly shocked. It was not difficult to create such a large pit by himself. A random Apprentice-level spell could do it. Even a Knight could use a powerful sword to do it. However, it was not easy to create such a dense large pit. Only a few high-intensity spells could do it. It must be known that this was only the ordinary attack of the Nightmare Damask.
‘As expected of an high-level magic plant!’
Heath praised in his heart. He did not want to be outdone. He raised the greatsword in his hand and brandished it to meet the vines that the Nightmare Damask threw at him.
Hu hu hu!
Pa pa pa!
Ka ka ka!
For a moment, the sound of the wind breaking, the sound of the vines flapping, and the sound of the greatsword cutting through the vines reverberated in the forest. Heath’s Red Demon greatsword was brandished like a windmill. The vines that were flying over were cut off in large swaths by him.
The fierce battle continued for several minutes before it gradually weakened, and in the end, the one who gained the upper hand was obviously —
Heath.
No matter how powerful the Nightmare Damask was, it was still just a plant without intelligence. It only had brute force and did not know how to use strategy. As long as it was slowly exhausted, it would eventually be exhausted to death.
After a few minutes of fierce battle, Heath cut off its vines bit by bit while maintaining a certain distance from its core. Heath had read about it in a book, a magical plant like the Nightmare Damask had a certain distance limit when casting spells. As long as he did not get too close to the core, he would not be attacked by magic.
As expected, Heath did not get close to it. This resulted in the Nightmare Damask not being able to use magic to attack Heath. It was unable to use magic, and the remaining vines were nothing to Heath.
With this method of fighting, Heath quickly cleared out all the vines outside the Nightmare Damask. After losing the vines, the Nightmare Damask still had a large area of lush vegetation, but it was basically useless. It was not a threat.
Facing these plants, Heath decisively gave them…
Bang! With a soft sound, a ball of flame suddenly bloomed on Heath’s fingertip.
It had been a long time since the [Indestructible) had appeared.
Heath raised the ball of flame and pointed at the Nightmare Damask in front of him. Immediately, the flame in his hand turned into a line of fire and shot straight at the Nightmare Damask, hitting the Nightmare Damask in an instant.
Flames had a unique advantage over plant-type spells. When the flame hit the Nightmare Damask, it instantly engulfed the Nightmare Damask. In an instant, the Nightmare Damask burned in large areas. The thick vegetation covering the core was instantly burned down.
After the vigorous flames burned up the vegetation on the outside, they went straight for the core of the Nightmare Damask. However, when it was about to burn the core of the Nightmare Damask, Heath chanted a spell in advance to extinguish the flames.
The Nightmare Damask was a very high-level magic plant. Heath was looking forward to extracting valuable attributes from it. Of course, he could not let it turn into ashes under the flames.
After extinguishing the flames, Heath immediately walked towards the Nightmare Damask, ready to harvest it.
When he was not far away from the Nightmare Damask, a faint green light suddenly appeared around the Nightmare Damask. Apparently, it was planning to cast some spell… However, most of the Nightmare Damask’s spells were closely related to its accompanying vegetation. This vegetation had been completely burned by Heath in the previous flames. Now, of course, it could not respond to the Nightmare Damask’s call…