"Good, this thing must be worth a lot," Victor put the photo away, took a quick look at Carter, and said impatiently, "Pay my friend back, then leave."
"Okay... what?" Carter was about to thank him, but then he realized something, and asked confusedly, "Pay what money?"
Victor said coldly, "My friend lost a short-range teleportation scroll because of you. Shouldn't you compensate him?"
As he said that, Victor moved his right hand toward his sword.
This was a threat. If Carter didn't agree, his sword could cut down on his head anytime.
"Thank you, Victor!" Simon looked at Victor with emotion. He didn't expect Victor to do this for a friend he hadn't seen in two years.
"It's nothing," Victor waved his hand. To him, it was just a small thing.
"Okay... I'll pay!" Carter bit his teeth and transferred 10,000 federal coins to Simon's bank account.
"Alright, you can go now," Victor saw the money in Simon's account, nodded, and waved Carter away.
Carter sighed in relief, and ran away like a dog toward the distance.
"Thanks, Victor. Oh, by the way, are you going to look for the Gnawfang Rat Swarm?" Simon hugged Victor and asked.
"Yeah, there might be something valuable there," Victor nodded.
Simon hesitated for a moment, then said, "Although I shouldn't say this, I still think you shouldn't go."
"Why?" Victor smiled at Simon and didn't seem angry.
Simon saw Victor wasn't mad, so he relaxed and continued, "You're probably only level 5 or 6 now. Your level has risen very fast..."
He paused, and said worriedly, "But what about your skills? Even if you've been working hard these days, you probably only have two second-stage skills. That's not enough to fight the Gnawfang Rat Swarm."
Victor looked at Simon seriously, but inside, he was already laughing silently.
If he told Simon how many skills and what level he actually had, Simon would probably think he was joking.
Seeing Victor remain silent, Simon kept trying to persuade him. "You could wait. Once you're stronger, then go explore."
"There's no need, Simon. I won't change my decision so easily." Victor was touched by Simon's concern, but there were some things he didn't feel the need to explain.
"Alright." Simon sighed softly, knowing he couldn't change Victor's mind. "Then I'll head out first. If you run into danger, you can always come find me."
"Got it." Victor nodded, then said goodbye to him.
Once Simon left, Victor followed the map toward the area where the Gnawfang Rat Swarm was said to gather.
Worried that delays might bring trouble, Victor moved quickly. In just half an hour, he reached his destination.
When he arrived, he didn't act recklessly. Instead, he found a hidden spot to lie low.
There were still many hours before Holy Light Dragonbane Slash finished its cooldown, so he decided to wait.
That way, if he ran into trouble, he would have a trump card to save his life.
In the meantime, he could also observe the Gnawfang Rats to see if anything unusual stood out.
With the Illusion Eye, watching the swarm from a distance was no problem at all.
Time passed quickly. Half a day went by as Victor stayed hidden, quietly watching the movements of the Gnawfang Rats.
Each Gnawfang Rat was about half the size of a grown man, with two rows of sharp teeth that, according to rumors, could bite through armor.
For most of that time, nothing seemed unusual.
The adult Gnawfang Rats went out hunting, while the young stayed in camp, playing around. Everything looked orderly.
But once night fell, things began to turn strange.
As the moon rose, all the Gnawfang Rats that had been hunting returned to the camp together.
Even the young stopped playing and knelt reverently on the ground.
Just then, the adult Gnawfang Rats started dancing wildly and shouting loudly.
"What kind of strange ceremony is this?" Victor looked surprised. The book never mentioned anything about group rituals for Gnawfang Rat Swarms.
Amid the shouting of the Gnawfang Rat Swarm, four very strong Gnawfang Rats carried a stone platform and came out from a small cave.
"What is that?" Victor frowned and looked closely at the thing on the stone platform.
It was an oval-shaped amber, irregular in shape, glowing silver under the moonlight.
The amber was a bit cloudy, and it was hard to see what was inside. But you could tell there was a thin, long shape.
"What the hell is that?" Victor was shocked and decided to keep watching.
Although he could just call in federal enforcers to handle it now,
he naturally wanted to get his hands on such a strange thing.
At that moment, an old Gnawfang Rat came out from the cave.
He walked in front of the others and started bowing to them.
As they kept kneeling and bowing, the silver light on the amber got stronger and stronger.
However, at that moment, Victor suddenly felt a dangerous feeling.
This was the function of Illusion Eye, which could sense danger.
"Where is the danger coming from? Have I been discovered?" Victor was shocked in his heart, but the Gnawfang Rat Swarm was still kneeling and bowing, completely not noticing him.
"No, I need to use the illusion vision skill!" Victor bit his lip and decided to use the illusion vision to see everything clearly.
Holy Light Dragonbane Slash still had twenty minutes of cooldown. During this time, Victor didn't want anything to go wrong.
Soon, the illusion vision skill activated, and Victor immediately felt a very mysterious state.
In this state, every leaf and branch around him was clearly visible to him.
And the source of the danger... was the amber!
At this moment, Victor was finally able to look closely at the amber. Inside it was a blackened leg bone!
The bone had dark red spots on it, which looked very strange.
For some reason, Victor felt like he was staring at the bone, and the bone seemed to be staring back at him.
"What is this thing!" Victor was shocked and became even more determined to find out.
At that moment, Victor saw something that made his hair stand on end.
The Gnawfang Rats that were kneeling and bowing suddenly all turned their heads at once. Their faces were twisted and their eyes were fixed on the direction where Victor was hiding.
"I've been discovered!" Victor made a quick decision. He knew he couldn't hide there anymore. He immediately used Phantom Dash and ran toward the distance.
Less than one second after he left, the place where he was hiding suddenly exploded!
If Victor had hesitated for just one more second, or if the effect of Phantom Dash was weaker, he might have been turned into a pile of flesh and bones!
"What is this thing that can control explosions from a distance?" Victor started to guess in his mind. It was definitely not a normal item.
Normal items had no consciousness. They wouldn't attack like this.
The leg bone inside the amber, seeing that Victor was still alive, seemed very angry. It started to shake, and the whole stone platform shook as well.
The Gnawfang Rats also started to move. They came rushing toward Victor like a tide.
"Phantom Dash!" Feeling danger again, Victor immediately used Phantom Dash.
And just as he left, the place he had just been in exploded again.
Some Gnawfang Rats that had tried to attack him couldn't dodge in time and were blown into pieces.
"Well, this is actually a good method!" Victor was happy in his heart and immediately came up with a plan.
He had calculated in his mind that the time between the two explosions was about three seconds.
So Victor used this gap to keep luring the Gnawfang Rats to attack him.
At the end of the three seconds, he used Phantom Dash to leave the place, letting the explosion kill the attacking Gnawfang Rats.
After doing this several times, Victor successfully killed one third of the Gnawfang Rats.
The black leg bone finally noticed something was wrong and stopped exploding.
"I need to find a chance to break that amber!" Victor guessed. The amber was probably the leg bone's protective shell.
Without it, maybe the bone would be easy to destroy.
Then he pulled out his sword and used Sky-Splitting Slash, getting closer to the stone platform.
Sky-Splitting Slash was a third-stage skill. It was very powerful. The level 1 and 2 Gnawfang Rats had no chance against it.
As Victor got closer to the platform, the leg bone seemed to get scared. The amber started shaking and released a cloud of black smoke.
That black smoke gradually formed and changed into the shape of a cloaked wizard!