Chapter Ninety-Four: Reaping the Fisherman’s Gain

The giant red python had already been fighting the Luluto colony for more than an hour, and the ground near the hive was so thick with the corpses of giant bees that not an inch of it remained visible.

Yet countless giant bees still wheeled around it, throwing themselves into the attack with all their lives.

They had nowhere left to retreat.

Inside the nest was the queen bee. If the giant bees fell back, their queen would be doomed.

So long as even one giant bee still lived, it would never allow the enemy to harm the queen.

The red fire-breathing python was also covered in wounds by now, but it still used its enormous body to withstand the swarm’s attacks, unleashing searing flames to reap them in vast numbers.

The two sides entered a grueling stalemate, and so they remained locked for another three hours.

Gazing down from their high perch, Jia Zhengjin and the others had waited themselves nearly to sleepiness, and Tina was already fast asleep in his arms.

At last, after more than twenty thousand giant bee corpses from the entire Luluto colony had piled into a mountain, the red fire-breathing python finally could not hold out any longer and fell first.

Its massive body hit the ground, shaking even the earth beneath Jia Zhengjin’s feet.

And in that final moment, it still forced itself to raise its head and spit out a torrent of scorching flame, burning dozens of giant bees to death.

The red python had finally lost the ability to resist.

What a formidable creature it was, nearly winning by itself against an entire colony of giant bees. If it had held on just a little longer, the few giant bees left alive would have been wiped out by it as well.

But it truly had reached its limit. Even the strongest hero cannot stand against an army forever.

The red fire-breathing python was a champion who had fought alone against an army to the very end, even coming close to victory.

And yet, only close.

Seeing this scene below, Jia Zhengjin was instantly invigorated.

Under the red fire-breathing python’s onslaught, only a very small fraction of the giant bee colony remained alive. A few hundred was still a number they could handle.

He gently woke Tina, told her and Perlyn to stay behind and wait, then led Wolf and five hundred kobold warriors out in a charge.

"Kill them! Destroy them!"

At Jia Zhengjin’s command, Wolf led the kobold warriors into fierce battle against the remaining few hundred giant bees.

Though their numbers were now small, the giant bees were still powerful opponents. And the kobold warriors wore nothing but a single bone spear; their defenses were far inferior to those of the fully equipped kobold soldiers. In truth, it was mostly Wolf who did the killing, while the kobold warriors jabbed desperately into the air from behind with their bone spears. Their efficiency was not high, but they did at least manage to bring some of the bees down.

Taking advantage of the moment when the giant bee colony was pinned down by Wolf and the kobold warriors, Jia Zhengjin hurried to the corpse of the red fire-breathing python and began feeling around it.

[Message] You begin searching the corpse of the first-tier magical beast, the Fire Python...

[Message] You have obtained a Flame Core, Level 3!

[Message] You have obtained Flame Boots!

[Message] You have obtained a Flame Robe!

[Message] You have obtained a Fire Resistance Potion!

[Message] You have obtained a bronze necklace blueprint!

[Message] You have obtained a factory blueprint!

[Message] You have obtained the magic skill book Fire Strike!

[Message] You have obtained 3 pieces of gold ore!

[Flame Core, Level 3] A low-grade energy crystal that can be fused into any piece of armor to grant the power of flame.

[Flame Boots] Defense 45, fire resistance 20 percent, fire attribute magical damage increased by 20 percent.

[Flame Robe] Defense 60, fire resistance 20 percent, fire attribute magical damage increased by 20 percent.

[Fire Resistance Potion] After consumption, fire resistance increases by 50 percent for 30 minutes.

[Bronze Necklace Blueprint] Used to craft a bronze necklace with random attributes. The higher the crafting skill level, the stronger the equipment attributes.

[Factory Blueprint] Builds a factory. Crafting speed inside the factory increases by 10 percent, and high-quality products are more likely to appear.

[Fire Strike] Use this to learn the magic Fire Strike!

[Gold Ore] Valuable metal ore.

What excellent loot!

The Flame Core should be something similar to the Lightning Core, but this was a Level 3 one, so it ought to be stronger than the one on his thunder spear.

Jia Zhengjin immediately took out the tiger mask he had kept in his backpack all along, then fused it with the Flame Core.

[Flame Tiger Mask] Defense 10, can use Level 3 Fire-Breathing Skill.

Jia Zhengjin at once put on the tiger mask and tried out the skill it granted.

“Huff, huff—”

Sure enough, scorching flames poured from his mouth, engulfing more than a dozen giant bees in an instant. Though the flames were nowhere near as fearsome as those of the red python, they still threw the giant bee ranks into disorder, sending them into panic. The dozen or so bees caught in the blaze were all wrapped in fire, their life steadily draining away.

Though its power was worlds apart from the red python’s, it was still a very decent area attack. And in that instant, he even felt as though he had become Red Boy, flames so searing pouring from his mouth yet harming him not at all.

Flame Boots, Flame Robe, and the magic skill book Fire Strike were all exclusive to Tina’s profession. With these, she would become an even more powerful mage.

For now, Jia Zhengjin did not care about anything else. Wearing the Flame Tiger Mask, he immediately joined the battle as well. While breathing fire from his mouth, he attacked with his lightning spear, looking every bit an unstoppable force. His combat strength was now almost second only to Wolf, who belonged to the werewolf race.

There was, however, one flaw: his stamina was not nearly enough.

After breathing out just three blasts of fire, his stamina was nearly exhausted, showing just how costly the fire-breathing skill was.

After a hard-fought struggle, nearly all the kobold warriors had been lost.

The remaining giant bees were finally wiped out completely. The entire area was now piled high with the corpses of twenty to thirty thousand giant bees and the Fire Python, like a mountain raised from the earth.

“The next thing to do is burn this hive to the ground!” Jia Zhengjin handed Wolf a bottle of honey, then opened one for himself and drank it to recover his health and stamina. “All surviving kobold warriors, go gather dry leaves and firewood for me!”

“Ow ow—”

At the command, the kobold warriors immediately scattered in all directions.

“Tina, these are for you.” Jia Zhengjin handed Tina the Flame Boots and Flame Robe, then used the Fire Strike magic skill book on her.

Tina tried chanting an obscure magical incantation toward the hive, and then her right hand released an immensely powerful giant pillar of fire.

The moment the pillar was unleashed, Tina collapsed to the ground at once, out of mana.

“You used it all up?” Jia Zhengjin stared in disbelief. “A hundred points of mana!”

“Mm!” Tina did not know what a hundred or two hundred meant, but she knew clearly that all the magic power inside her had been drained away in an instant.

“Good grief! The power is far greater than my fire breath, and the mana cost is just as brutal. I’ll have to find a way to get you some gear that increases mana, otherwise one spell and you’re out of blue. That’d be pretty awkward, wouldn’t it?”