Watching as Sheyan climbed up the massive tree, that Deathmarsh Great Crocodile remained relentless as it angrily flogged the tree trunk with its tail; looking as if it wouldn’t relent unless the tree topples.
Its actions were indeed to the human’s advantage. This massive tree of the primitive jungle needed 3 or 5 individuals to wrap around it. Even if this beast that was raging with testosterone, no, raging with bloodlusted anger! Even if it had an inexhaustible monstrous strength, it would at least require 20-30 minutes to whip down this tree... When that happened, it would be tough to even prevent the crocodile from dying, after exhausting its strength and bleeding out constantly.
Nevertheless, this gigantic crocodile wasn’t a moron. After smashing its tail against the tree for several bouts, it helplessly glared upwards. Probably having calmed down from its thriving adrenaline, the pain jolting throughout its body became increasingly distinct. Thus, it turned and waddled back towards the swampy waters.
Yet by now, Reef who had successfully healed up, brought along his band of brothers as they silently obstructed the crocodile’s front!
There wasn’t much to narrate proceeding from there. With the addition of Sheyan, Reef could now battle while obtaining valuable seconds of breathing space.
One musn’t belittle that tiny few seconds of breathing space. It was akin to a person being able to hold his breath underwater for at most 10 minutes, but if he was allowed a breathing intervals of 5-6 seconds in the middle, he could even continue this process for the entire day.
With the duo rotating in formation, regardless of how indomitable this tier-5 legendary creature was, it finally released a mournful groan; ultimately meeting its demise while crawling back towards the marsh.
Sheyan and Reef then exchanged glances and unanimously released an exhalation of relief. After a homely chuckle, they simultaneously slumped to the ground.
Those five natives behind Reef then cheered aloud, as they swarmed towards the slain Deathmarsh Great Crocodile; before smearing its blood onto their bodies. Following that, they started lifting their hands in joyous partying.
Witnessing this scene, Sheyan involuntarily sighed while muttering.
"Such a pity. These aborigines weren’t much help, but the grade of our battle spoils would still be negatively affected."
Instead, Reef refuted.
"Not true."
Speaking till here, his lips subconsciously revealed a cheeky smile.
"These guys have been utterly convinced by my valour. Henceforth, they agreed to serve me. Similar to you and the Dingyuan, their might shall be equated to my might, our loots would definitely maintain the undiluted grade."
The mystified Sheyan then asked.
"They became your servants?"
Reef couldn’t repress his conceitedness as he replied.
"That’s right, but my contract with them isn’t comparable to yours and Jinkuang. This contract is like a slave contract. Although they can enjoy the fixed enhancement of my attributes, I wouldn’t receive anything in return. Moreover, they can be revived, but only after returning to the realm and authenticating them. Therefore, we must still do our best to prevent them from dying during battle."
Sheyan nodded.
"That goes without saying."
At this moment, both of them concurrently received the notifications.
[ You killed the tier-5 legendary creature: Deathmarsh Great Crocodile ]
[ You receive 3,000 utility points ]
[ Choose 1 from the following options as your additional reward ]
[ A: Receive 1 achievement point ]
[ B: Receive a dropped key (This option must be selected by both) ]
[ C:
Receive 3 potential points ]
[ D: Receive some immunity possessed by the natives living in this tremendous marshland – A very high chance of weakening the effects/duration of ordinary type plaguing viruses by 10% and may weaken various effects of stronger type viruses. This immunity will cease upon leaving this world. This immunity effect can be stacked with other similar effects ]
Without further discussions, Sheyan and Reef glanced at each other and directly opted for option ‘D’. They were both close combatants, and had been beaten black and blue by those pestilences!
At present, if they could successfully weaken the viruses, even if the effect only applied to this world, it would be akin to receiving charcoal in the snowy winter.
Right now, Reef started narrating the recent events.
As it turns out, Brother Black had been separated, and even managed to successfully lure away one Deathmarsh Great Crocodile when he fled. Otherwise, Reef wouldn’t have been able to challenge and drag along this Deathmarsh Great Crocodile for so long.
However, their hired native aborigines had suffered grave casualties. Their fellow comrades were sacrificed as bait to lure away the major damage output from other Great Crocodiles and the Ndipaya barbarians. Apart from these measly few that survived, even if there were other survivors, the numbers wouldn’t plenty.
However, there was still good news.
The natives who managed to survive this gruelling bitter battle had each matured greatly, and received a substantial rise in their capabilities.
This was especially so for Reef’s 7 servants after they slayed the Deathmarsh Great Crocodile. Originally, their names were extremely basic – the likes of Thickleaf, Berries and such. But right now, they had a new accolade signed behind their names; ‘Thickleak Warrior’ or ‘xx warrior’ and so on.
Although their offensive strength hadn’t improved much, their HP had scaled substantially and greatly enhanced their survivability.
By this point, Sheyan had sought out Mbenga to clarify certain inquiries about their geography. Sheyan then realized that if Mogensha had successfully escaped, he should’ve already been travelling along the routes they travelled earlier. However, there wasn’t a trace of him even till now.
Thus, the only explanation was that either he had been captured, or had fled deep into the marshland.
Fortunately, they still retained a life-saving tool, the ‘Unmodeled Amnio-tank’, which was placed within their party storage. Hence, that would be adequate in preserving a fatal outcome for Mogensha.
Furthermore, Mogensha was raised in the harsh environment of Africa even in the real world. It could be said that this place was akin to what the sea was to Sheyan.
Moreover, Brother Black could still exercise the awakening as a Reserve-duty Growth-hunter. Thus, he should be clear from mortal danger.
After a series of discussions, Reef and Sheyan first summarized and organized the outline and experiences of today, before making further plans.
Evidently, Party Ace had merely been circling the outskirts of this hidden world. If they wanted to venture deeper into the marshland, they had to gather the remaining few mysterious stone slabs from the various Ndipaya Tribe villages.
Speaking from their present state, the Ndipaya barbarians and Deathmarsh Great Crocodile they had encountered, were merely the Outer Reaches enemies of this hidden world!
However, both enemies already brought an immense headache to them, where both congregated in groups and were exceptionally enduring.
The Ndipaya barbarians had grasped an exceedingly outstanding method to fend against long-distance assaults. Thus, their opponents could only resort to close combat, yet close combat would only result in one being weakened astoundingly by the various epidemic diseases.
To Sheyan’s conjecture, he reckoned that if they continued delving deeper into this hidden world, there would be an immense possibility they would encounter creatures who could deal deadly long-range assaults. Those creatures had probably and frequently clashed with the Ndipaya barbarians, thus prompting the Ndipaya tribe to forge out such a miraculous safeguard against long-distance assaults.
On the other side, not only were the Deathmarsh Great Crocodiles tier-5 legendary creatures, they also travelled in groups. Although their attacks didn’t carry any viruses, battling them inside the swampy waters could still cause one to easily contract viruses.
With the current circumstance, even though Reef’s might had been bolstered wonderfully, when hunting down Deathmarsh Great Crocodiles in the absence of Brother Black, he could at most garner the constant attention of two crocodiles. If there were more, unexpected mishaps may easily occur.
Nevertheless, the worst headache was the confounding layers of abominable pestilences. So far, the contestants had only encountered the basic types of virus strains. However, these virus strains had already brought them near the point of despair.
As such, here lies the more crucial prediction – if they planned to enter deeper into the marshland to uncover its secrets, they would most likely have to face deadlier and speedier virus strains; strains like septicaemia, tetanus etc…...those were all terrifying diseases that could induce death within a short span of time.
Therefore, without expending much brain power, Sheyan and Reef both affirmed their decision.
First, they would devise a method to hunt down the Deathmarsh Great Crocodiles to bolster their resistance against the pestilences. The more immunity they could stack in resistance to those advanced type viruses, the more they would stack.
In this manner, they could concurrently temper the few servants they had, and propel their swift maturity which would add to their advantage in battle.
At this moment, a notion abruptly flashed past Sheyan’s mind; "Perhaps, I could return to Port Qom to recruit more helpers….."
Yet regrettably, after distancing 5 kilometres away from the edge of the massive marshland, he received a merciless notification from the nightmare imprint.
[ You have already acquired an important storyline object: Peculiar Black Flagstone ]
[ Difficulty level has increased due to varying storyline ]
[ Returning method is now slackened. You are no longer restricted to returning to Port Qom in order to return to the nightmare realm ]
[ Do you confirm you wish to depart from this Hidden World: Resident Evil, Origins? ]
Sheyan obviously didn’t accept and could only obediently shrink away. Although this attempt had ended in failure, they could still resort to the method of hunting down the great crocodiles.
Undoubtedly, battling them within the swamps would be absolutely unwise. They definitely had to eliminate the home ground superiority of those crocodiles.
Follow that, Mbenga informed Sheyan that those Deathmarsh Great Crocodiles had an incredibly insatiable appetite and a brutal nature. Once there was insufficient food for them to prey on, they would resort to mutual cannibalism.
Deliberating in accordance with their nature, Sheyan first decided to bait them with food. He would employ sporadic scattering of food to first segregate those rapacious gigantic crocodiles. Then, while these beasts feasted, he would hunt them down successfully.
Normally, a pack of Deathmarsh Great Crocodile wouldn’t exceed 5 members, going by this theory, there would still be a sliver of hope.
At present, most of the creatures of this jungle were aware that the Kijuju Marshland was a forbidden death ground. Hence, only a minute few would dare to approach the fringes of the marshland.
Nevertheless, Sheyan was still able to operate within a 5 kilometres radius around the periphery of the marshland. As such, he still managed to capture 2 large apes and 1 python.
Naturally, he slaughtered them before tossing them into the party storage.