“That's a good name—very descriptive. But please, don't ever name anything again.”
After hearing Lan Qingyou's introduction, Vivian nodded to show she understood, but her immediate follow-up was a dry remark that caught Lan Qingyou off guard.
“I didn't name it. That's the name that came up when I identified it with my Magic Eye.”
Lan Qingyou felt quite helpless about it.
The result of an identification was what it was; it wasn't something she could control.
Moreover, this Long-haired Worm was very strange.
Aside from the name, which was as blunt and literal as its appearance, none of the standard data fields found on other monsters—such as health, mana, skills, or descriptions—were present.
It didn't even show the usual row of question marks 【???】 that appeared when a target's level was too high to identify.
“Everyone, now isn't the time for this! We need to think of something fast—it's charging right at us!”
Gu Xiaobei, still being held by the back of her collar by Vivian, said while struggling.
Despite being a massive creature, its speed was anything but slow.
Vivian and the others had flown quite a distance after taking off to regroup with Lan Qingyou, but the moment the 'transformation' was complete, the creature had charged toward them on its six legs.
It wasn't just fast; because it was so large, it didn't even need to worry about the terrain. It simply bulldozed its way through everything in its path.
“It moves fast.”
“It certainly does. So, how are we supposed to deal with a monster like this?”
“Hell if I know. My Magic Eye can identify things, but it doesn't point out weaknesses. All I can do is try... Whoa!”
Lan Qingyou had been casually shrugging while answering Vivian, but the Beast Emperor's body—now a Long-haired Worm—had no intention of giving them a break.
Once it closed the distance, it began firing its hair at them in the air like a volley of needles.
Lan Qingyou nearly became a victim of the creature's anti-aircraft fire.
Fortunately, Gu Xiaobei's warning had prompted her to look back, and that split-second glance gave her just enough time to dodge.
Otherwise, she would have been skewered like a kebab.
“Go, go, go!”
Without another word, Lan Qingyou turned her broom and flew in the opposite direction of the Long-haired Worm, with the others following close behind.
“By the way, everyone watch out for its mental attacks and a kind of invisible tearing attack!”
“That doesn't sound like you at all—being so vague,” Vivian said, dissatisfied.
But this time, Lan Qingyou truly couldn't help it.
“Don't blame me. I can't make things up if the identification doesn't work. I can only tell you what I've encountered.”
“Encountered? You mean the bloodstains on your nose and the holes in your clothes were caused by those attacks?”
Everyone had noticed Lan Qingyou's disheveled state, though she seemed unaware of it herself.
No... it was more accurate to say she simply hadn't had the time to worry about her appearance.
“Pretty much.”
“Even so, we need at least one plan. We can't just waste time kite-flying like this forever.”
“Who said that? Isn't kite-flying a strategy in itself?”
“Are you saying...”
“I've already taken the heart that supplied its mana. That's exactly why it's gone berserk. If all goes well, we just need to lead it around like a dog to drain its remaining mana. We can win without even fighting.”
Lan Qingyou had already formulated this strategy while flying through the cave tunnels, which was why she sounded so confident.
After hearing the plan, Gu Xiaobei, Vivian, and the others couldn't help but nod in agreement.
They had all seen the Beast Emperor Ore earlier, and the witches in particular had seen the mana fluctuations surrounding it clearly.
At the time, they had assumed it was just the natural flow of mana within the dungeon hill, but now they realized that wasn't the case.
The heart was the most vital part of any living being; digging it out and taking it away would naturally provoke a violent reaction.
However, no one had expected this creature's life force to be so resilient that it could remain so active even without a heart.
In fact, no one expected this 'resilient life force' to be so absurd that it took three full days of leading the creature around before its mana was finally exhausted and it collapsed, dead.
“This thing isn't just resilient; it's a freak.”
With a series of thuds, Vivian and Gu Xiaobei collapsed onto the ground, followed by the sounds of others falling one after another.
Even Lan Qingyou and the other witches climbed down from their brooms and sat where they were, gasping for air with no regard for their image.
Flying in the air for three days straight would exhaust even a True Ancestor, let alone everyone else.
Compared to the witches who sat on brooms, the vampires—who had to keep flapping their fleshy wings—were even more exhausted.
As for Gu Xiaobei, who couldn't fly... she had spent the three days rotating between the witches' brooms to rest.
“The MVP of this mission has to be Gu Xiaobei,” Vivian shouted, sprawled out on the ground like a starfish.
No one refuted her.
It wasn't just because they were tired; it was because Vivian was telling the truth.
Over the course of those three days, Gu Xiaobei had somehow developed the impressive talent of cooking while on a moving broom just to keep everyone fed.
Without Gu Xiaobei's ingenuity, they might have survived the three days, but it certainly wouldn't have been this easy. After all, good food brought happiness.
It reduced stress and provided a sense of well-being.
Indeed.
The group of over a hundred people had relied on that sense of happiness to persevere; otherwise, many more might have fallen behind.
Even so, about thirty people had been knocked down during this 'Kite-flying Operation.'
The casualties were split almost evenly between the witches and the vampires.
Without exception, they had all been struck down by what Lan Qingyou called the 'Invisible Hand.'
Fortunately, the creature's primary interest seemed to be Lan Qingyou, the main culprit. It hadn't bothered to finish off the 'flies' it had knocked out of the sky.
This had given some of the others a chance to circle back and recover the fallen.
Of course, while the creature's focus was on Lan Qingyou, that didn't mean the others could slack off.
Anyone who tried to leave the main group to land and rest would also be attacked by the 'Invisible Hand.'
It was a baffling and frustrating situation.
Everyone had felt a sense of helpless rage when they first realized this.
After resting for a short while, the witches began to dismantle the Long-haired Worm under the watchful eyes of the vampires.
Since it was a creature even Lan Qingyou's Magic Eye couldn't fully decipher, it was safe to assume every part of its body was a treasure.
The vampires also stepped forward to help.
Finishing early meant resting early—a silent understanding they had developed over the past six months.
“Look! A portal!”
As they were dismantling the body, a portal suddenly and abruptly appeared right next to the corpse.
“I guess that really was the big boss of this dungeon. Now that it's dead, we've cleared it,” Lan Qingyou muttered, staring at the portal swirling with light.
Rate on N.U.
