Chapter 139 – Nest

“Oh, great Moradin, and this damned Great Rift! I, Bahanger, haven’t felt this cold in over seven hundred years!”

Bahanger stomped his feet heavily on the ground, shaking all the snow off his body.

“Enough, stop complaining. At least we’ve found Tisha Xia’er’s lair.”

Kangkai’s sharp gaze swept across the deep cave. This was a grotto on the cliff, positioned in a shaded area with not a single ray of light. The cave was large in volume, but its depth could only be described as bottomless.

“Hey, Punk, are you really sure that damned Tisha Xia’er lives in such a godforsaken place? Doesn’t a ‘goddess’ need to find a man? Hehehe.”

Having shaken off the snow, Bahanger asked jokingly.

Punk didn’t even glance at the dwarf. He focused entirely on casting several spells for detection, but the results were far from ideal.

The Legendary energy in this canyon already had a negative impact on Divination Spells, and inside the cave, this influence hadn’t decreased but had instead intensified. With Punk’s current level of Divination Spell proficiency, he couldn’t obtain any useful information.

Faced with this situation, Punk couldn’t help but frown.

Without a doubt, the entire cave was under Tisha Xia’er’s surveillance, but the three of them were completely in the dark about Tisha Xia’er’s movements. This wasn’t a good start for a dungeon raid.

Moreover, after Punk’s attempt to fish for information was detected by Tisha Xia’er, that crazy big spider had stopped incessantly projecting. Although this prevented the irritable Bahanger from losing control of his emotions, it also cost Punk a source of intelligence.

Finally, after his attempts proved fruitless, Punk had no choice but to say to Kangkai with resignation:

“Unfortunately, I’m not a Divination-specialized mage. In this place, I’m afraid I can’t gather much intelligence.”

In matters like this, Punk was quite frank. After all, the upcoming battle required cooperation among the three of them, and some degree of intelligence sharing was necessary.

Moreover, both of them had compelling reasons to fight Tisha Xia’er, so Punk wasn’t worried about them turning tail out of fear.

Just as Punk had anticipated, upon hearing that Divination Spells were ineffective, Bahanger paid no mind and continued polishing his Great Hammer, while determination was the only thing reflected in Kangkai’s eyes. He said solemnly:

“No way to get information? Then we must be cautious.”

This was actually meant for Bahanger, but the impatient dwarf clearly didn’t take it to heart.

“Exactly. So I suggest we form a triangular formation. I’ll be in the center, with Mr. Kangkai, Bahanger, and Golem One forming the three vertices. Let my Golem take the front ‘point’.”

Punk took the opportunity to seriously propose his plan. While he did have some thoughts about using Kangkai and Bahanger as meat shields, this formation was indeed the most advantageous for exploration. The triangular setup ensured that any enemy attempting a sneak attack from any direction would have to face at least two combatants from their side simultaneously. The spellcaster in the center could focus on output, and Golem One at the front could prevent casualties.After hearing Punk’s proposal, Kangkai observed the terrain of the cave. Though deep, the cave was sufficiently spacious in both area and height, so he nodded cautiously.

He found Punk’s arrangement quite reasonable. In a “united” adventuring party, it was only natural for combat classes to act as meat shields for spellcasters. Moreover, Punk had even assigned his “property”—Golem Number One—to undertake the most dangerous scouting work. Even Tyr, who held the Divinity of fairness, would have nothing to criticize, so Kangkai naturally had no objections.

As for Bahanger… Bahanger declared that as long as they could kill Tisha Xia’er, he would follow any orders.

This kid’s resentment toward Tisha Xia’er had finally reached astronomical levels…

With their formation perfected, the three individuals and one golem began delving deeper into the bottomless cave.

Incidentally, the lighting was exclusively sponsored by Dancing Lights… (how lame)

From the moment they entered Tisha Xia’er’s surveillance range, the feeling of being intently watched never faded. Punk knew that Tisha Xia’er must be glaring at their group with venomous eyes from deep within the cave, but the trio simply ignored this surveillance. Clearly, Tisha Xia’er couldn’t leave her little nest right now.

As a boss, watching players systematically bulldoze their way to her private chambers must be quite an interesting experience.

Of course, the players’ progression inevitably took some time…

“Punk, there’s a massive mana fluctuation ahead—could be a magical beast or something like a golem. Its level definitely reaches Formal-Level,” Kangkai suddenly announced midway.

Punk remained silent, merely nodding cautiously. In truth, he had detected it earlier than Kangkai, and the System’s analysis was even more precise: that large mana source was undoubtedly a constructed puppet. He had no idea where Tisha Xia’er had dug up another Formal-Level puppet, but he dared not underestimate it.

His earlier silence was simply to test Kangkai’s perception abilities.

Now Punk had the conclusion he wanted: Kangkai’s perception was inferior to Punk’s, and his analytical skills couldn’t match the System’s.

Next came dealing with the big guy inside!

“Since this puppet didn’t ambush us midway alongside the rock worms, it’s likely area-bound. Try cutting off its power supply later!”

Punk mouthed the words to Kangkai, and the ranger nodded firmly.

Area-bound puppets, as the name implied, couldn’t fight beyond a certain range because their energy cores and computational cores were hidden somewhere specific. The puppet fighting outside was merely a remote-controlled armor, somewhat similar to earthbound spirits or matrix spirits—classic examples of being “overpowered on home turf but instantly useless elsewhere.”

The advantages of such puppets lay in massive energy reserves and computational power (the core could be built larger than the puppet itself), while the drawback was that the “body” couldn’t stray too far from its external core. Before achieving Legendary energy miniaturization methods, these things remained quite marketable!

But no matter how short the “remote control” distance, covering a single cave was more than sufficient. If Punk wanted to confront Tisha Xia’er, this puppet had to be dealt with!Stepping on the moss-covered cave walls, Punk cast Night Vision on both the dwarf Bahanger and Kangkai, ensuring they wouldn’t have to worry about visibility even outside the range of Dancing Lights.

Kangkai wiped his only Shortsword, then gestured to Punk to “get ready,” his body enveloped in Battle Aura as he “floated” weightlessly to the cave ceiling.

Meanwhile, Punk quietly began constructing the spell model for Kinetic Crush, while Golem Number One had long been prepared to withstand the first wave of impact. After muttering a few words, Bahanger also began meticulously gathering his Battle Aura.

All three had sensed it—the massive creature charging toward them from not far away. The vibrations in the rock walls grew increasingly intense; had the stone here not been sturdy enough, the tremors alone might have triggered a terrifying cave-in.

“Rooooaaaar!”

Before the creature even came into view, an earth-shattering roar echoed through the cavern. Standing behind Bahanger and Golem Number One, clutching a Kinetic Crush spell, Punk couldn’t help but grumble inwardly:

“Truly a ‘notable’ mini-boss—gotta have that epic entrance music!

Four chapters released today! If there are no classes, I’ll add more. Please subscribe and bookmark—the initial subscription really matters. Your support is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

(End of Chapter)