Those cries bring along mental corruption with them.
The draconian laborers were already near the end of their ropes.
Thus, Zhang Nu simply left the 30 laborers behind to clear the mines while he continued to head in deeper with the 10 soldiers.
[You've slain a rotten zombie. Gold +6]
[You've slain a rotten zombie. Gold +6]
[You've slain a chain zombie. Gold +50]
[You've slain an armored zombie. Gold +50]
[...]
As they continued to progress deeper, the piercing screams became more and more clear.
And with that, the zombies they encountered were more and more aggressive and vicious.
At that moment, a hysterical roar filled the air.
The ten draconian soldiers all froze, having been sent into the dazed status.
"A mental attack?" Zhang Nu's stats were very high, so he wasn't dazed. Even so, he still took a few points of damage from that mental attack.
After he locked onto the source of that attack, Zhang Nu felt like throwing up.
It was a huge monster that he has never heard of before. It was way too strange looking, kind of like an amalgamation of ten corpses pieced together.
[Fused Corpse], Level 1 Elite. Due to the effect of evil energies, multiple powerful elite zombies had merged together, now bearing even more terrifying and warped abilities... Skills: Death Roar (E rank), Poison Spray (E rank), Charge (F rank).
Some elite level monsters are stronger than others.
The fusion corpse and chain zombie are both level 1 elite monsters, but their powers aren't even in the same weight class. After all, this is a monster made of several elite zombies merged together, so its strength is close to reaching the lord level.
Taking advantage of the draconian soldiers being dazed, the corpse charged forward and attempted to attack.
However, Zhang Nu pushed off the ground with both feet and blasted forth like a meteor, slamming into the corpse and blasting it into a wall. Then, he lifted a leg and stomped down.
Boom!
The entire mine shook for a moment.
The wall behind the fusion corpse collapsed.
Under Zhang Nu's overwhelming strength, the corpse was embedded into the walls with at least 30 or so broken bones. However, it didn't die even so, and it continued struggling in an attempt to fight back.
"You dare!"
Zhang Nu grabbed the corpse's head and blasted out blazing dragon flames from his palm.
The fusion corpse was completely reduced to charcoal, having the deadly dragon fire poured into its body, greatly damaging its insides.
[You've slain a fusion corpse. Gold +100!]
The draconian soldiers recovered from their status affliction. The dazed status caused by the corpse's roar only has a couple of seconds of effect against the elite level soldiers.
They had hurried on over, but by the time they arrived, the corpse was already beyond dead.
Not only was its head turned into charcoal, its body was also completely cooked through, smoking everywhere and giving off a disgusting scent of roasted meat.
The draconians were amazed.
Their master's power is as terrifying as always.
"You guys stay here and clear the nearby zombies."
"Yes sir!"
Zhang Nu could feel it.
The deepest area is not far from here.
There is an extremely powerful presence there.
Something like that is rather dangerous for the draconian soldiers. Since there might be casualties if they get involved, it's better to just leave them here.
Just what manner of creature made the mine like this?
And to have created warped monsters like the fusion corpse just now.
Zhang Nu stayed alert as he headed down on his own. Screams echoed in the air with such force that it's like it was right beside him.
[You've been affected by the Undeath Curse. Healing effect -50%!]
[You've been affected by a weakening curse. MP -1 per 10 seconds!]
Zhang Nu was hit by the effects of debuffs. He could clearly feel his MP and stamina quickly dropping.
It was quite powerful!
Thankfully though, Zhang Nu hadn't used much energy the entire time, so he's still currently in perfect condition.
Thus, this won't have much of an effect on him in the short term.
Of course, he can't stay long in this kind of environment. This is the kind of place that gets more problematic the longer time goes on.
Zhang Nu flapped his wings and blasted through the mine tunnels quickly before finally landing in a spacious room.
It looked like an old shrine or something. The ground was filled with bones. There were countless blue, ghostly flames, and a huge tree is faintly visible under the light of those flames.
That monstrous tree is nearly a hundred meters tall!
This is inside of a mountain here, so how did such a huge tree grow here?
Zhang Nu could clearly detect that the source of the sorrowful screams in the mine is right here.
The tree's bark is filled with warped human faces, making anyone who sees it break out into hives.
[Millennium Grudge Tree]. Level 1 Lord. An evil tree formed of thousands upon thousands of souls bearing grudges. It has terrifyingly powerful mental might, easily allowing it to strike out in a massive area. This is a kind of extremely rare and dangerous monster... Skills: Territory of Sorrows (D rank), Grudge Ghost Summoning (D rank), Will-o-wisp (D rank), Death Root (D rank), Devour Soul (D rank), etc.
Special notice: The Grudge Tree has a deep well of power. It's able to quickly recover so long as its energy hasn't been exhausted. The heart hidden within its roots is its only weakness.
Lord level monster?!
No wonder it's so terrifying!
A monster like that is not something that someone can normally take on alone!
To win against a level 1 Lord, it requires at least something like three to five level 2 elites or an entire army of level 1s.
However, Zhang Nu was not afraid.
Rather, he instead felt a sense of excitement.
He knew that the stronger the monster, the richer the rewards!
Is a lord level monster strong? That depends on who it's facing. Strength is always a relative, not absolute, concept.
T/N: First boss fight!