This situation, if it were to appear in engineers who need to manufacture a large number of items for a living, would be quite distressing!
Chu Tian patted him, "It's alright. Missing a skill for crafting keys isn't a big deal. Your skill activation this time helped me a lot. Besides, you don't need to craft things to make money. Just activate your demonic transformation skill more often and create some more good stuff for me! You're a shareholder now, so you should think long-term. I'm very optimistic about your Demonic Transformation Engineer career!"
"Really?" The demon master, who was originally dejected,'s eyes lit up upon hearing Chu Tian's affirmation.
"It's absolutely true!" Chu Tian praised him without reservation.
After hearing Chu Tian's words, the demon master was stunned for a long time, then said excitedly, "I will work hard!"
With that, he backed up his words with action, turning around and disappearing into the smoky, chaotic workshop.
With a bang, the door was shut.
Chu Tian was taken aback. Was this guy in too much of a hurry? However, he was ecstatic now, holding the key and rushing out of the engineering shop. He had just recalled a list of locations where golden treasure chests could be found and was preparing to try his luck.
[Ding... System Prompt: Serendipity Quest - The Nurturing of the Five-Colored Stone, Phase Three (Soul Infusion) countdown remaining: 71 hours 30 minutes.]
Chu Tian froze! Damn it, he almost forgot! There was still this quest. It seemed his treasure chest hunt would have to be postponed! He thought he had bought everything he needed; various functional engineering items, like grappling hooks, were stocked in pairs. Potions, elixirs, and buff scrolls available in the shop were all accounted for.
He opened his quest log and tapped the teleportation icon. A pulling force emanated from his finger. The dynamic portal in his quest log drew him in, much like being sucked into a magic gourd. Chu Tian's vision went black, and he lost consciousness.
After a long time, when he woke up, he was startled. He found himself in a soul state.
"This is bad..."
He quickly opened his inventory and discovered that the Wishing Treasure Box was still there. He had been terrified, thinking he had died. If he had died inexplicably, losing the treasure box would have been a huge loss!
[Ding... System Prompt: You have discovered a new map: Soul Devouring Abyss!]
Seeing the prompt, Chu Tian knew this was a special map. If it were an ordinary map, discovering it would grant experience rewards. Only these special quest maps didn't give experience upon discovery. He looked around; the entire world was a hazy gray. In the sky, there was a giant vortex-shaped cloud. Occasionally, he could see white orbs falling from the sky.
He then looked at the town portal scroll in his inventory; it had dimmed. Even divine-tier teleportation couldn't be used, and the teleportation button in his quest log had disappeared. It seemed this was a sealed map, and to leave, he would need to explore it. Although the quest "The Nurturing of the Five-Colored Stone" had a time limit, Chu Tian knew that in Tian Dao, the countdown for such quests would pause during the offline period.
He moved his body, testing his skills, and found no issues. This map didn't restrict any skills. Chu Tian didn't dare to be careless and immediately activated Panther Stealth, slowly climbing up the hill in front of him. In Tian Dao, there were many such special maps. Some could only be entered through serendipity quests, while others might be entered simply by walking and stepping on a teleportation point. However, these maps were invariably fraught with danger.
From the hilltop, he looked down at a dense array of bizarre giant stones and winding mountain paths. There were also some strange, colossal creatures walking upright, with skulls resembling bull heads for heads. Their bodies were like giants, covered in steel plate armor, with chains hanging from their arms. He cast his scout spell.
[Scorched Beast]
Quality: Elite
Level: 55
Health: 275000
Defense: 2750
Attack: 5500
Skills: Slap, Sweep, Trample.
Description: These fierce creatures, clad in iron armor, are consumed by a desire for destruction and will crush all opponents with their brute strength.
What... these were level 55 elite monsters, and their attributes were a bit monstrous! They even had a Sweep skill, an attack that was a 360-degree area-of-effect attack centered on oneself. Moreover, it was an instant cast skill. The Druid class could learn this skill, but Chu Tian, who was unlucky and hadn't obtained the skill book, still hadn't managed to get it. Although skill books were rare items in Tian Dao, when he played a rogue in his previous life, he didn't feel that skill books dropped this rarely.
The quest mentioned that killing monsters would yield soul essence, but it didn't specify which monsters to hunt. Chu Tian decided to explore and see if there were any easier monsters to fight. He stealthily descended the hill, preparing to绕 past the Scorched Beast ahead.
[Ding... System Prompt: The Nurturing of the Five-Colored Stone, Phase Three Progress 1: Kill Scorched Beasts: 0/5]
What the heck... This damned quest had popped up a prompt, asking Chu Tian to kill five Scorched Beasts. Chu Tian, in his panther form, was carrying his divine artifact's exclusive weapon, which could ignore 50% of the opponent's defense. However, physical classes would experience a large number of misses due to the level disparity. Therefore, fighting monsters significantly above one's level was very unfriendly to physical classes. But since the quest required it, he had to grit his teeth and fight.
He snuck behind the monster. Starting with Swipe, he stunned it for two seconds and applied a bleed debuff. The originally five-second stun only lasted for two seconds due to the level suppression.
Shred! Miss!
Chu Tian was speechless; his first Shred was dodged. Fortunately, when a skill misses, 50% of its consumption is refunded. The Shred, which originally cost 40 energy points, only consumed 20. Chu Tian didn't care anymore and mindlessly spammed Shred on the Scorched Beast.
-5698!
Finally, one Shred skill dealt damage. There was a fourteen-level difference. For every level difference, the opponent's defense increased by 20%. A fourteen-level difference meant a staggering 280% defense bonus. If not for the 50% defense ignore on his divine weapon, Chu Tian probably wouldn't have been able to penetrate its defense and would have had to resort to wearing it down with the bird druid's debuff skills, as he had before.
The two-second stun had also ended. The Scorched Beast, with its heavy body, turned and used a Slap on Chu Tian. Such a clumsy body naturally couldn't hit him. With a sidestep, he dodged out of the Slap's range.
Boom...
The Scorched Beast's palm slammed into the ground. The earth shook violently, and Chu Tian almost lost his balance. The Scorched Beast, having missed Chu Tian, was clearly enraged. It swung its hands, whipping up the chains on its arms.
-8176!
A large damage number floated above Chu Tian's head.