After returning to the base, Lian went straight to the accommodation section.
As he walked through the busy streets, he realized more and more why they called this place a city.
This was a real city, a city built in the heart of the Ruined Realm.
On both sides of the streets were stores, blacksmith workshops, medical centers, guild offices, and various buildings.
Some hunters had just returned from missions and blood from monsters could still be seen on their armors.
Others were preparing to leave, he even saw a few people directly trading monster materials on the side of the street.
It had exactly the same feeling as normal cities outside this place, it was amazing that the government had been able to build such a thing within a few weeks, of course, after two centuries, naturally they have a lot of experience.
After a little searching, he finally entered one of the largest accommodation complexes in the base.
There were several types of accommodation here, cheap rooms for students.
Group dormitories, suites for guilds, and luxury accommodations for high-level hunters.
Lian chose neither the cheapest option nor the most expensive, he just took a suitable private room, a place where he could rest whenever he returned to the base.
Even next to the building there was a stable for riding monsters, and the Windrunner Strider received its own dedicated space.
After that, he finally went to his room and spent a quiet night.
Half the corpse of the Lava Behemoth, the corpses of the monsters he had hunted during the day, new stats he had obtained, and three new skills, one from the Lava Behemoth and two others from the monsters he had hunted during the day, he reviewed everything once.
Now that he was free, he wanted to look at his skills.
[ Name: Molten Armor ]
[ Rank: Common ( + ) ]
[ Description: Creates a layer of magma armor on the user’s body, physical defense increases by up to 250%, converts a portion of incoming damage into heat damage and returns it to the enemy, enemies who come into direct contact with the user suffer burns. Consumes 3 units of mana per minute. ]
His eyes sparkled, he had not expected to obtain a new defensive skill, he already has Diamond Skin right now, of course, it has reached its peak potential and is not useful against strong enemies.
But now he finally obtained a new powerful defensive skill, one whose base rank gives 250% defense! With many other capabilities.
If the Common rank is like this, how much more powerful will it become when he upgrades it?
Although its mana consumption was terribly high.
Then he looked at the next skill.
[ Name: Night Eyes ]
[ Rank: Common ]
[ Description: Night vision skill, your eyes can see at night as well as during the day, also all six senses become 50% stronger at night. Consumes 0.1 units of mana per minute. ]
He looked up, at first glance it was not that special, but it could be a great help in night hunting, now he no longer had to give up hunting at night just because of the darkness.
With the small boost it gives, his senses will work better and stronger at night.
"Of course, the skill has no upgrade option, so its potential is only this much."
Then he looked at the third skill.
[ Name: Poison Bane ]
[ Rank: Common ( + ) ]
[ Description: Increases resistance to all poisons by 20%. ]
"This can also be useful." He pondered for a moment, resistance to poisons seems worthless at first glance, but that is not the case.
The Ruined Realm has many poisonous monsters, even within this 300 kilometer radius of the base, there are many poisonous plant monsters.
And poison itself can be a silent killer.
Then he closed the panel, fell on the bed, and peacefully fell asleep.
The next morning.
After a simple breakfast, Lian was ready to leave.
But before reaching the base gates, he noticed that the atmosphere around was different from yesterday.
The crowd was larger than usual, hundreds of people had gathered around the mission boards.
Students, independent hunters, mercenary groups, guild members, even a few high-level figures whose presence alone attracted a lot of attention.
Lian became curious and went toward the crowd, when he got close to the board, he understood the reason for this commotion.
On the largest holographic screen of the base, a red notification could be seen.
[ Emergency Extermination Mission ]
[ Target Species: Ironfang Ravagers ]
Lian’s eyes moved over the displayed information.
Ironfang Ravagers were creatures similar to monitor lizards.
But several times larger, each one reaching two and a half meters in height, their bodies covered with natural metal plates, they had dark gray teeth harder than steel, their skin was blue and highly poisonous, a liquid oozed from their bodies that was terribly toxic and deadly.
They hunted in packs, were very fast, and notoriously aggressive.
But their biggest problem was their numbers, according to the displayed information, within just the last two weeks, the population of this race had increased explosively.
They had attacked caravans.
They had destroyed several exploration groups and were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of awakened ones.
They were one of the three monster races that had stopped the awakened ones from advancing beyond a hundred kilometers.
At that moment, the mission reward information appeared.
[ Reward: $30,000,000 ]
The crowd’s murmur grew louder.
For many hunters, such a figure could change their lives.
But Lian showed almost no reaction. After selling various assets and his recent loot, he had over two hundred and twenty million dollars at his disposal.
He had spent one million on the Windrunner Strider and his wealth had still not changed noticeably.
Thirty million dollars was a large number, but not large enough to excite him, what had caught his attention were the monsters themselves.
If the government had decided to wipe out an entire race, then there were hundreds of monsters, hundreds of sources of experience, hundreds of sources of stats, and hundreds of sources of valuable materials.
This mission looked more like a huge growth farm than a job.
A few hunters next to him were discussing, Lian listened to their conversation without drawing attention.
The government usually did not directly interfere in hunting monsters, but this time the situation was different, three monster races within a hundred to four hundred kilometer radius of the base had reached dangerous levels.
Ironfang Ravagers were only the first target.
After that, the other two races would probably also be wiped out, this made Lian understand that something bigger was forming, and probably new opportunities.
However, he did not accept the mission, at least not for now, his information was not enough, besides, the assault operation was scheduled for tomorrow and not today.
And there was no limit on the number of participants.
So he decided to continue his original plan today.
Patrol, reconnaissance and information gathering, and of course, advancing to a 400 kilometer radius. A few minutes later, he mounted the Windrunner Strider again and left the base.
This time he changed his route, instead of the familiar and crowded areas, he went toward the border of the explored zones.
The further he went, the fewer hunters there were, the marked roads disappeared, and nature became wilder.
Along the way he hunted a few weak monsters, but they were between levels 4 and 5, he found a few valuable C and B rank plants with the help of the book.
Everything was going as expected.
Until a few hours later, when he reached near an area where one of the Ironfang Ravagers’ lairs was suspected to be located.
His distance from the base had reached approximately four hundred kilometers, his main goal was still not to engage them, he just wanted to take a look from a distance.
Check their numbers, hunt a few samples, and get familiar with their real power.
But right at that moment, something happened that changed all his plans.
The book of treasure suddenly trembled violently, stronger than ever before, stronger than when he had found the Sunheart Bloom.
The golden pages opened without his intervention, golden light burst out from them and the 3D map appeared, Lian immediately noticed that something was different.
This time there was no blue point, not even a golden point, for the first time... a red-black point had appeared on the map.
The notification immediately appeared.
[ Warning ]
A few seconds later, the second notification appeared.
[ Unknown Treasure Detected ]
[ Threat Level: High! ]
[ Danger Assessment Failed ]
Lian’s eyes narrowed, this was unusual, very unusual, the book of treasure had always been able to identify the type of treasure until today.
It had always assessed the threat level, but this time... it had failed.
Even the type of treasure was not identified, the only explanation the book provided was that for complete identification, he had to touch that object.
This, instead of calming him, multiplied his curiosity several times.
At that same moment, the sound of a deep roar echoed in the distance, a sound so heavy that it even shook the air.
Lian raised his head, this was not the sound of a normal monster, the Windrunner Strider suddenly stopped.
All its muscles stiffened, its body trembled... it was scared.
Lian stared at the horizon, somewhere beyond his direct sight, somewhere near that same red-black point... there was something, something that even the book of treasure had not been able to identify.
And at that same moment, a thought crossed his mind, what was hidden there might be much more valuable than the Sunheart Bloom.
And that thought was enough for him to definitely go and find it...