Chapter Eleven: Nowhere to Be Seen
"Thud... Thud..."
The sounds of sharp wooden stakes piercing the soft bellies of the black-scaled monitor lizards rang out repeatedly, mingled with their angry howls.
Seventeen black-scaled monitor lizards, fifteen of them had fallen into the deep pit trap!
Seeing this, a group of human players were thrilled and rushed towards the two remaining black-scaled monitor lizards.
Finally, two stragglers caught!
A dozen or so players clad in armor and wielding bone spears and other weapons charged to the front, hacking wildly at the two black-scaled monitor lizards. After sacrificing two players, they finally killed the two lizards.
Then everyone rushed to the edge of the pit trap to see what had become of the monitor lizards inside.
Sharp, thick wooden stakes had pierced the bodies of many black-scaled monitor lizards, emerging from their backs. Several, struck in vital areas, were already dead, while the remaining few struggled, clearly not long for survival.
"Wait, weren't there supposed to be fifteen? How come there are only ten left?" Qianqian asked in surprise.
"Oh no! There are holes in the trap walls! These lizards can burrow!" Zaiwan shouted.
Just as he finished speaking, the ground beside them trembled, and two black-scaled monitor lizards, their bodies covered in green blood, emerged!
Then came the third, the fourth, and the fifth!
These black-scaled monitor lizards were all wounded; one even had a stake still embedded in its abdomen, but they weren't in immediate danger. Appearing directly in the crowd, they immediately pounced on the players.
Caught off guard, the players were thrown into chaos, and in the blink of an eye, more than a dozen were bitten to death.
But someone quickly recovered and shouted:
"Five left, and they're all injured! Don't panic, kill these bastards!"
"One more for each of them! One more for each of them!"
"A group attack! Stab them in the groin!"
"Watch my savage charge!"
"Old lady, get under the covers!"
The five black-scaled giant lizards, though ferocious, were all injured and quickly weakened over time.
The human players' swarm tactics quickly proved effective. After taking down nearly twenty people, they finally wiped out the five black-scaled giant lizards.
The severely injured black-scaled giant lizards in the trap also died under the relentless finishing blows of the fifth and sixth teams.
When the last black-scaled giant lizard let out a mournful howl before dying, Ren Zha, observing the battle from the temple above the dome, breathed a sigh of relief.
Then a faint sense of loss rose in his heart.
Why does the Black-Scaled Giant Lizard seem like the real protagonist?
Fortunately, these human player followers ultimately won this battle in the wilderness. From being completely disorganized and utterly inept at the beginning, they've improved to somewhat tactically inept, though still utterly inept, the progress is quite obvious.
Perhaps they should find an opportunity to have another low-level god-war to test the combat strength growth of these human player followers.
However, since defeating that self-proclaimed God of the Endless Ocean, the Fishman God, no other low-level trash gods have come to challenge them. They don't know what's going on.
Before, it seemed like they were easily challenged…
After all, that God of the Endless Ocean seemed to know everything about the situation, as if he understood that his predecessor didn't even have a follower clan.
Why is that?
Ren Zha fell into deep thought.
If there's anything different about his current divine realm compared to his previous one, it might be…
Ren Zha's gaze shifted to the Heavenly Temple atop the dome where he stood. The majestic temple shone brightly in the divine light emanating from its dome.
Perhaps it was the temple itself!
Before, he was so poor he didn't even have a temple, only a divine realm dome—a veritable poverty dome.
Perhaps some lower-ranking deities with unique abilities could see the domes of other divine realms. Those without temples were obviously the weakest targets, the easiest to exploit.
After all, for deities with followers, the Heavenly Temple atop the dome was extremely important; it was the place to solidify their followers' faith.
The souls of deceased followers ascended to the Heavenly Temple in the divine realm, giving the living followers greater hope and strengthening their faith.
In short, the Heavenly Temple was the foundation of a deity's followers' faith.
Only a deity like Ren Zha, whose followers were all kept in the dark by human players, would be indifferent to the existence of the Heavenly Temple.
Having understood this, Ren Zha acted immediately, channeling his divine power to begin dismantling the Heavenly Temple atop the Divine Realm's dome.
Suddenly, he felt a continuous stream of coolness and comfort emanating from his divine core, involuntarily letting out a series of shameful groans.
The souls of the dozen or so Black-Scaled Giant Lizards had been collected!
Meanwhile, the remaining twenty-odd human players in the grove, seeing the corpses of players and Black-Scaled Giant Lizards scattered on the ground, along with the player souls floating in mid-air, were all moved to tears.
Several more sentimental players wept uncontrollably, overjoyed.
They won!
Although the entire process was incredibly perilous and difficult, and they were almost overtaken by the giant lizards, they still won!
They completely wiped out the Black-Scaled Giant Lizards, achieving final victory!
They won!
The soul of the player who had just finished playing "Chop D" floated in mid-air, excitedly exclaiming, "Awesome! Brothers, you're awesome!"
Although he was bitten to death by the Black-Scaled Giant Lizard in the final battle, he died without regret.
Boss XX: "Waaah, getting old, sand gets in my eyes easily."
Cute and Adorable: "I'm so moved! I haven't felt this excited in ages!"
Deserving: "Hahaha, this is so awesome! This is the most awesome game I've ever played, bar none! All thanks to Brother D's strategic brilliance!"
Amidst the joy, all the players present began to shower each other with praise.
"Oh, not at all, I was just offering some random ideas. It was all thanks to the brothers' cooperation."
"You're too modest, Mr. D! Without your analysis the other day, how could we have had such a smooth run today!"
"Hahaha, this time we should have completely wiped out the Blackscale Giant Lizards. I can't wait to go to the forest and see what's there."
"Let's go! Let's go!"
"Why do I hear construction noises coming from the sky? Am I hallucinating, or is my upstairs neighbor doing renovations?"
After a relaxed chat following the battle, the group of players who had died shouted "Old Black, Daddy!" and returned to the respawn point to revive, then rushed back to the forest battlefield.
Having worked together so well in the previous battle, the players present had become much more harmonious and immediately divided up the tasks again.
Some stayed behind to transport the Blackscale Giant Lizard corpses and other spoils, while others, wearing protective gear and carrying weapons, ventured into the fog of war, heading in the direction the Blackscale Giant Lizards had come from, to see where their lair was.
Having just fought and eliminated the Black-Scaled Giant Lizards, the players remained vigilant, their teamwork forging an even stronger bond.
The armored players, armed and leading the way, formed the first line of defense, while the others provided support on the flanks. The group cautiously entered the fog of war, advancing deeper into the grove.
As they passed, the fog of war quickly dissipated, revealing the entire forest.
A sparsely grassed path, marked with Black-Scaled Giant Lizard claw marks, clearly marked as the legendary animal trail.
Following this trail, the group quickly arrived at a small mound, about ten meters high.
Below the mound lay scattered animal bones, many relatively fresh, still bearing traces of muscle and Black-Scaled Giant Lizard teeth.
The area around the mound was littered with Black-Scaled Giant Lizard claw marks and droppings.
This was clearly the Black-Scaled Giant Lizard's lair.
"Come quick! There's a cave here!" shouted a player with the ID "Shrimp and Pig Heart," immediately drawing a swarm of players.
Below the earthen slope, hidden by a patch of tall grass, lay a massive cave entrance, about the height of a person.
The entrance was covered in messy claw marks from black-scaled monitor lizards, along with clear bite marks—the marks of a long crawl.
This was the true lair of the black-scaled monitor lizards!
"Oh, oh, oh, we found their nest! So these lizards live in this cave!"
"Aren't there other black-scaled monitor lizards inside? We'll have to kill them all."
"Probably not. With so many of us and such a commotion, no other black-scaled monitor lizards have appeared. There are probably only a few left."
"These black-scaled monitor lizards are clearly the tyrants of the area, and they're all carnivores. Any more would disrupt the ecological balance."
"Should we go in and take a look? Let's get some torches. Does anyone have a lighter?"
The group of players discussed animatedly.
A new player with the ID "White Sugar" rushed to the front of the crowd, looking at the cave entrance and saying:
"Brothers, to be honest, I have some knowledge of zoology. Based on my years of watching nature documentaries, there should only be some small lizards left in the cave, maybe even some lizard eggs. Considering the game's openness, this could very well be the beginning of us raising Blackscale Monitor Lizards. Maybe we'll even have battle pets or mounts in the future!"
"Imagine, during some kind of God War, we can just release Blackscale Monitor Lizard battle pets, or ride Blackscale Monitor Lizard mounts, everyone a Blackscale Monitor Lizard Knight! How awesome would that be!"
This idea immediately sparked the imaginations of the players present, their faces showing expressions akin to adoration.
After all, the name "Blackscale Monitor Lizard Knight" was certainly cool.
However, some people raised doubts:
"The black-scaled monitor lizard is brave, but when it's crouching, it only reaches our knees. Riding it is like sitting on a stool; it's actually shorter than when it's standing normally. Can it fight?"
Just then, a rustling sound came from the cave in front of them.
Everyone immediately became alert, and then a small lizard, about the length of a forearm, emerged from the cave, its tongue flicking out.
This little lizard was chubby and wobbled as it crawled, which was quite cute.
"Kawaii desu ne!"
"So cute, looks just like my dog."
"We just killed all its elders, will it avenge its father?"
Bai Zhantang waved his hand, stopping a group of players who were about to pet the little lizard:
"Everyone be careful not to get bitten. As a long-time loyal viewer of animal documentaries, I have a lot of experience handling small animals. This thing is actually similar to a chameleon. You have to crouch down slightly in front of it, look it straight in the eyes, and then... holy crap, it bites!"
The little lizard in front of him flicked its tail, opened its mouth full of sharp teeth, and bit down on Bai Zhantang's crotch.
"Aaaaaah—down there! I'm missing my...down there!"