Chapter 1 Chance of Dropping?

"The Angry Stone Statue actually has a chance to drop it?" Shi Feng looked at the small, golden stone on the ground, feeling a surge of excitement.

The stone in front of him was none other than Essence of Earth.

This was a very rare material, only obtainable by killing earth-elemental creatures. However, even killing ordinary earth-elemental creatures wouldn't guarantee a drop. Only special earth-elemental creatures dropped it, making its market price consistently high at 50 Silver Coins per piece.

And one hundred pieces of Essence of Earth could be combined into Essence of the Earth.

This Essence of the Earth, like Essence of the Sun, was a power source used to make many mechanical tools. It could also enhance power sources, giving them attribute-based magical power, making it extremely valuable.

Now, after only killing four Angry Stone Statues, he actually got Essence of Earth to drop. How could Shi Feng not be excited?

You had to know that, up until now, the entire guild hadn't collected even a few pieces of Essence of the Sun, because it was too rare. Essence of the Earth was just as rare.

Shi Feng glanced at the Angry Stone Statues wandering around. Suddenly, he felt like this place was a treasure trove. He immediately took out the Book of Darkness from his bag and summoned an Level 85 Tier 3 demon and a Fire Spirit to deal with the Angry Stone Statues.

However, Shi Feng didn't plan to grind slowly. Instead, he had the Level 85 Tier 3 demon attract the Angry Stone Statues and Stone Statue Warriors, gathering the groups of three to five Angry Stone Statues together.

The Angry Stone Statues were ultimately just Lord-ranked monsters, and not ranged attackers. The Great Lord-ranked Stone Statue Warriors were the same, making it relatively easy for the Level 85 Tier 3 demon to gather the monsters.

In less than ten minutes, all the monsters inside the cave, as well as the monsters in the tunnel, were lured out, totaling over a hundred. This number would make even expert players' scalps tingle. They could easily annihilate an elite thousand-man team. Even the Level 85 Tier 3 demon wouldn't be able to withstand them for long.

Just having the Tier 3 demon attract these monsters caused its thick health bar to drop by more than a quarter. This was due to its level advantage. Otherwise, it would have been killed by these Stone Statue monsters with their high combat proficiency long ago.

"Good! Attack!" Shi Feng watched the Tier 3 demon emerge from the tunnel, then commanded the Fire Spirit to attack.

The Level 80 Tier 3 Ancient Species Fire Spirit possessed a large number of Tier 3 fire-attribute forbidden spells. One of them was worth several Tier 3 Archmages.

Instantly, after the demon exited the tunnel, the surroundings turned into a sea of fire. The ground completely transformed into scorching lava. The moment these Stone Statue monsters stepped in, they seemed to be stuck in a quagmire. Their movement speed dropped by 90%, and their health plummeted by over 400,000 points per tick.

Shi Feng didn't hold back either. He directly used Flame Domain. Towering flames swept through the entire tunnel exit, engulfing all the monsters. Damage numbers of over 200,000 points appeared one after another. Although it wasn't as powerful as the Fire Spirit's skills, the damage it dealt was already very impressive.

Seeing that the Stone Statue monsters were about to escape the lava zone, the Fire Spirit finished chanting another Tier 3 forbidden spell.

Suddenly, a flame storm formed in the center of the Stone Statue monsters, constantly pulling the surrounding monsters toward the center. All the monsters had damage numbers of over 300,000 points popping up above their heads, and this damage was increasing, making it impossible for the Stone Statue monsters to leave the lava zone.

Taking this opportunity, Shi Feng and the Tier 3 demon unleashed one area-of-effect spell after another.

The Angry Stone Statues' health quickly dropped to zero, and they fell to the ground one by one, dropping item after item. However, the experience points they gave were exceptionally meager. By the time the Stone Statue monsters charged out of the lava zone, only twenty or so remained out of the hundred-plus. Apart from the five Stone Statue Warriors present, the health of the other Angry Stone Statues was critically low.

Shi Feng directly had the Tier 3 demon and the Fire Spirit deal with the five Stone Statue Warriors, while he cleaned up the Angry Stone Statues with low health.

Finally, after spending more than ten minutes, all the Stone Statue monsters were killed, and a pile of items littered the ground.

These dropped items didn't include any weapons or equipment, only various materials. Even so, Shi Feng was very happy, because just this wave of monsters had earned him sixteen pieces of Essence of Earth. In addition, there were various rare ores, and even Titan Iron Ore, which was rarely seen outside, had dropped.

Although Titan Iron Ore wasn't as good as Titan Fine Iron Ore, which could be directly refined into Titan Fine Iron Ingots, refining it could still produce Titan Fine Iron Ingots, but it required ten times the amount.

After collecting the drops, Shi Feng then had the Tier 3 demon enter the tunnel to lure out more monsters, clearing the monsters in the tunnel while venturing deeper inside.

The terrain inside the cave was like a maze, and the number and strength of the monsters inside were also increasing. This strength wasn't reflected in their attributes, but in the monsters' combat proficiency. It went from the initial stage of the fourth floor of the Trial Tower to the middle stage of the fourth floor of the Trial Tower. It seemed like a small improvement, but the difficulty of dealing with them had increased significantly.

If not for the Tier 3 demon and the Fire Spirit having an advantage in levels and attributes, Shi Feng alone wouldn't be able to venture deep into this maze.

However, as he ventured deeper and deeper, Shi Feng's combat power also increased. The Book of Darkness's cooldown time allowed him to summon a maximum of three demons at once, plus the Fire Spirit. Dealing with the massive number of Stone Statue monsters wasn't a big problem, but the pace of advancement was very slow.

It took Shi Feng four days straight to finally exit this underground maze. Several times, he was almost killed by the traps that appeared, but fortunately, he had the Fire Spirit, who could withstand them.

During these four days, although Shi Feng had a hard time, his gains were also very large. He had collected over three thousand two hundred pieces of Essence of Earth, and over eleven thousand pieces of Titan Iron Ore. Just selling these things could earn him a lot of money.

And although the Stone Statue monsters gave very few experience points, there were a lot of them, which stubbornly allowed Shi Feng's experience points to reach Level 70, 43%. At this level, the speed of leveling up was only slightly slower than that of ordinary expert players.

After leaving the underground maze, Shi Feng arrived at a vast, ancient hall. Although this hall was already dilapidated, the huge magic crystal suspended in the center of the hall shone brightly, radiating amazing magical power.

As soon as Shi Feng walked into the hall, he suddenly felt a bone-chilling chill, which made him stop in his tracks.

"Is this system joking with me?" Shi Feng stared intently at a crystal statue standing tall in the center of the hall. At this time, the towering crystal statue was emitting a red glow, and the rich magical power in the entire hall was pouring into the crystal statue, causing it to gradually disintegrate and its aura to become more and more powerful, directly surpassing that of ordinary Legendary monsters. "How could there be an Ancient Ferocious Beast, an Earth Ancient Serpent, guarding this place?"

Before Shi Feng could react, the Level 80 Legendary Earth Ancient Serpent suddenly acted, lunging out. The three Tier 3 demons and the Fire Spirit didn't even have time to react, and were instantly sent flying, crashing heavily into the surrounding stone pillars. It directly lunged towards Shi Feng, trying to swallow him whole.