Chapter 47: The Jewel Beetle

These cave fishmen had contributed a chaotic assortment of items to Xiao Yang.

He had consumed slippery cave monster fish that secreted mucus, acquired white bone short spears, fishman scales, as well as a piercing skill scroll and some gems.

Xiao Yang maxed out his piercing skill points, upgrading its effect to [Pierce (Level 5): Executes a piercing attack that ignores 7 points of defense]. It was a straightforward and brutal progression logic, but Xiao Yang only expected the piercing skill, a white-tier ability, to deliver armor-piercing attacks—that much was fitting. After all, not every white-tier skill was as simple, violent, and surprisingly effective as Heavy Strike.

What puzzled him was why these cave fishmen, almost transformed into giant eels, would drop fishman scales and precious gems.

Holding a smooth ruby about the size of a pigeon’s egg in his hand, Xiao Yang was perplexed.

[Ruby
Quality: Fine
Description: A ruby with many uses—equipment crafting, mage materials, jewelry inlay, collection. In a way, these sparkling items are the true hard currency across worlds.]

Soon enough, Xiao Yang's doubts were answered. As he trudged step by step through the moist mud, delving deeper into exploration, he discovered that the cavern’s bottom was far more expansive than he had imagined.

Leaving the water pool behind, wandering through the dim underground realm, he occasionally spotted lone skeleton warriors, but more often encountered strange new monsters he had never seen before—and a vast treasure guarded by these creatures.

During exploration, Xiao Yang stepped on a somewhat uncomfortable round stone. Looking down in surprise, he realized it was a gem.

[Emerald Ore
Quality: Superior]

“A blue-quality gem ore? Ah!” Xiao Yang picked up the emerald ore.

“Just that easily obtained?” he exclaimed.

He stuffed it into his personal backpack, casually acquiring a rare blue-quality material. Then he pondered, lifting his gaze to see a crevice in the cliff ahead glowing with a faint light.

This emerald ore had probably rolled out from that fissure. Gazing deep into the crack, Xiao Yang saw a multitude of glowing mineral crystal pillars.

Silently, his eyes sharpened with a dangerous glint.

***

As everyone knew, he was an avid enthusiast of exploring maps—he loved it the most!

Perhaps aerial maneuvers like flying were not so bad after all; this underground region was truly rich—no, it genuinely stirred his desire to explore!

Striding boldly, Xiao Yang charged into the cliff’s bottom fissure before him. In short, he loved mining!

He felt he was on the verge of striking it rich.

But shortly after, the moment he strode forward, Xiao Yang had to retreat in a panicked sprint. From the fissure behind him, several dazzling beams suddenly shot out, striking his rear. He screamed in pain as over a hundred health points vanished instantly. Terrified, he ran wildly, leaping out until he hid behind a massive rock, narrowly escaping disaster.

Where had those come from? How could there be so many laser turrets inside the mine?

At that moment, shaken to the core, these thoughts flooded Xiao Yang’s mind.

Just as he escaped with his life, seven or eight beetle-sized bugs, each bearing a glittering crystalline shell about the size of a basketball and varying in color, crawled out of the mine with labored breaths.

These were the very creatures that, just moments ago, nearly dealt a deadly blow to Xiao Yang with their coordinated assault.

Something was off—very off! Given Xiao Yang’s current defense, even the small-level eleven or twelve monsters shouldn’t hurt him, and even the level twenty skeleton knights could only inflict limited damage.

What was the situation with these bugs? It was unlikely they were all regional bosses above level twenty.

Peeking out from behind the rock, Xiao Yang cast a probing spell on the bugs.

[Gem Beetle
Special Creature
Traits: Energy Accumulation, Energy Convergence, Energy Explosion, Energy Chain.
Description: A very special species active in energy-rich areas. They have no clear rank classification and are extremely valuable.]

Xiao Yang now understood why these dazzling bugs had such strong attacks. With those four energy traits, they were essentially mobile, high-concentration energy clusters capable of chaining energy. It was no wonder their damage was formidable.

The energy chain explosion from seven or eight gem beetles had nearly stripped Xiao Yang’s skin off; these small creatures were truly dangerous.

***

Retracting his gaze, Xiao Yang crouched behind the huge rock, entering deep contemplation. These gem beetles were tough adversaries, but he wasn’t about to give up—they represented an enormous fortune.

He resolved to make a move; no matter what, he wouldn’t leave empty-handed.

After wandering outside the mine for a long while without a good opportunity, he stealthily ventured inside several more times. Each time, the result was the same—Xiao Yang was forced to flee in disgrace, clutching his head from the gem beetles’ laser beams.

Several back-and-forth attempts revealed a blind spot, a possible breakthrough. Xiao Yang noticed the beetles’ attack frequency wasn’t high—or rather, their energy accumulation had limits.

After being blasted several times, Xiao Yang observed that a few of the pursuing beetles’ shells had dulled. Subsequently, those dulled beetles no longer participated in the chain attacks.

In thought, Xiao Yang summoned his minion outside the bright gemstone cave and commanded the ordinary skeleton before him.

“You! Charge in!”

The ordinary skeleton rattled its bony frame and charged into the mine, only to be instantly vaporized by the gem beetles. Of course, Xiao Yang remained unmoved by the skeleton’s miserable fate. Instead, he wondered why the Haunted Skull Helmet’s skeleton summoning had limits—only once per day.

Xiao Yang’s judgment proved correct: the gem beetles’ energy chain explosions were noticeably weaker than before, and another beetle’s shell dimmed.

Now lacking cannon fodder, Xiao Yang had no choice but to absorb the energy bursts himself.

This was not a problem, as his recovery speed was definitely faster than the beetles’ recharge rate—and they couldn’t kill him instantly.

Still, it wasn’t without cost. Being blasted by such powerful energy beams hurt—and hurt a lot.

Soon after, a painful howl echoed from the bottom of the underground fissure.

Of course, after all this, he did not come away empty-handed.

[Congratulations! Player’s elemental resistance has improved!]