Level 40 King-Class Giant Crystal Iron Worm
Strength: C++
Magic: E
Toughness: C++
Agility: C-
Skills: Burrow, Hardened Armor, Corrosive Iron Solution, Tenacious Body, Cutting Blade
The Giant Crystal Iron Worm is the evolved form of the Giant Black Iron Worm.
Its body is a full size larger, reaching around thirty meters in length.
Its overall appearance is rougher, and its entire body is covered in keratinized crystal growths.
Bai Qiu used his wind-manipulation ability to pull the several Sabers out of the center of the battlefield.
Li Qingshan stepped forward to take over the fight, so Bai Qiu had no intention of intervening.
After all, this third-ranked player of Zone 51 was someone he had no prior information on.
This was the perfect opportunity to observe him.
Unlike Zhang Shiyao, a ranged class who could safely deal damage from within the safe zone, Li Qingshan was a close-combat fighter.
His weapon was a two-meter-long spiral greatsword, likely the former top-ranked weapon—Mountain-Crushing Spiral Sword.
This meant that during the Tide phase, he had already achieved the feat of killing two Hydra Serpents in close combat.
His combat power was not to be underestimated.
Not to mention that after the Tide ended, he gained a fourth item card slot, giving him even greater growth potential.
Li Qingshan leapt into the air and slammed his sword onto the Giant Crystal Iron Worm’s head, forcibly driving it down by several dozen centimeters—only to be sent flying by the enraged creature in the next instant…
Bai Qiu glanced at him and judged that Li Qingshan’s Strength attribute was currently between C and C+.
His Agility was slightly lower, but still far faster than that of the Giant Crystal Iron Worm.
Li Zhongjun ordered, “All units retreat three hundred meters. Leave space for Qingshan to fight.”
Bai Qiu retreated with the group, but his gaze remained fixed on Li Qingshan.
Judging from the weapon’s design, Li Qingshan was most likely of the Berserker class, though it couldn’t be ruled out that he was a Saber-type class—after all, a greatsword is still a sword.
Seeing the team withdraw, Li Qingshan grinned and let out a roar.
His muscles bulged as his clothes burst apart instantly.
If it had only been speculation before, now Bai Qiu could be completely certain—Li Qingshan was a Berserker.
As his clothes exploded, his swelling muscles and even the veins bulging across his face turned red, like a cooked shrimp.
With each heavy breath, he exhaled clouds of white vapor.
Bai Qiu naturally understood this was the effect of a Berserk skill, but judging from the display, it was clearly a higher-tier version than his own.
When Bai Qiu activated Berserk, his muscles would also swell, redden, and heat up—but not to the extent of bursting his clothes.
Even his height had increased by several dozen centimeters, making him look like the Hulk…
Based on his current speed and strength, after activating Berserk, Li Qingshan’s Strength should be in the C+ to C++ range, with Agility reaching a similar level.
That was nearly a full major tier increase—more than three times the enhancement Bai Qiu’s Berserk provided.
At this stage, differences in class-based stat bonuses weren’t very noticeable, and skills didn’t yet impose strong buffs or restrictions.
However, it wasn’t impossible that, like Bai Qiu’s Spear Combat Technique, Li Qingshan had rapidly gained proficiency through some event, pushing his Berserk skill to its peak.
Yet as Bai Qiu watched Li Qingshan rely on his high agility to easily evade the Giant Crystal Iron Worm’s attacks while counterattacking…
He realized that speed and strength alone wouldn’t be enough to kill a Hydra Serpent with such powerful regeneration.
Ordinarily, a Berserk-enhanced Li Qingshan should be searching for the worm’s weak point and unleashing a burst of attacks before the Berserk ended to finish it off.
But he didn’t seem in a hurry.
Instead, he was increasing his attack frequency as much as possible, as if planning something.
With just a glance, Bai Qiu understood—he was stacking a passive effect on his weapon.
The key to defeating the Hydra Serpent likely lay in that very weapon…
Sure enough, not long after, the greatsword began to emit a red glow.
Li Qingshan, who had been wielding it one-handed for mobility and attack speed, switched to a two-handed grip.
Facing the Giant Crystal Iron Worm charging at him like a freight truck, Li Qingshan neither dodged nor retreated.
He took a deep breath and swung his sword in a sweeping strike!
Crack, crack, crack… In an instant, the worm’s armored shell shattered, and black blood carrying a rusty, metallic stench sprayed outward!
Its massive body was forced back by the sheer force of the blow.
The intense pain made it shriek, but Li Qingshan gave it no chance to recover—he rushed forward, gripping his sword with both hands and unleashing a relentless barrage of attacks!
Under his brutal assault, although the Giant Crystal Iron Worm tried to resist, aside from its Hardened Armor buying it a little more time, its other skills were either impossible to execute or simply couldn’t hit their target…
In the end, its head was completely destroyed by Li Qingshan, leaving it incapable of resistance.
Yet he didn’t stop, because the system hadn’t reclaimed the corpse—meaning it wasn’t fully dead yet.
The battle ultimately lasted a minute and a half before the Giant Crystal Iron Worm finally died and was decomposed by the system.
When Berserk ended, its duration had exceeded a minute.
Bai Qiu estimated that due to an increase in skill tier, the duration of Berserk had been extended, and it could likely be activated or deactivated freely.
After the skill ended, Li Qingshan returned to his normal form.
Even the tight shorts he had been left with earlier had somehow turned into a pair of loose, baggy shorts.
Seeing his unsteady steps and weakened aura, Bai Qiu briefly assessed him—his attributes had likely dropped to somewhere between C- and C.
The debuff from the weakened state was quite significant.
However, Bai Qiu was certain that Li Qingshan still had trump cards he hadn’t used.
Before activating Berserk, he could have used other sustained skills.
That way, once Berserk was activated, the buffs from those skills wouldn’t be interrupted.
Moreover, he hadn’t even activated his Noble Phantasm.
If he truly was a Berserker, then even during Berserk, his Noble Phantasm should still be usable.
After all, Berserk existed precisely for Berserkers.
Following Li Zhongjun and the others over to Li Qingshan, Bai Qiu gave him a slight nod and listened as he reported the loot obtained from killing the Giant Crystal Iron Worm.
Curious, Bai Qiu requested a dropped item from the worm—an ore he had never seen before.
Crystal Iron — Quality: C++
Description: An evolved form produced when a Giant Black Iron Worm reaches its limit. This is the external biological armor derived from the Giant Crystal Iron Worm. Its defense and durability surpass Black Iron, though its mana compatibility is slightly inferior.
A fist-sized piece of Crystal Iron weighed around 20 kg.
If forged into a weapon similar in form to his Purgatory Darkflame Spear, it would weigh roughly 400 kg, making it a lower-tier substitute for Star Iron.
“Commander! Up ahead! Inside those worm nests—they’re filled with Darksteel ore!” At that moment, a scout-class assassin ran over and reported.
Bai Qiu had already seen the Darksteel vein ahead using his ocular ability, so he showed little reaction.
Li Zhongjun, however, excitedly rushed forward.
Darksteel was valuable—they were currently in dire need of reliable foundational materials.
“This time, you won’t have to worry about your Darksteel arrow supply,” Li Qingshan said with a smile.
He was well aware of how important Darksteel ore was to Bai Qiu.
Bai Qiu nodded, but replied, “Not necessarily. At this rate, by the next Tide, Darksteel weapons might not even be enough to damage the incoming monsters.”
“But I already have an idea,” he added.
While Darksteel arrows had poor mana compatibility and conversion rates, there was no need to make them entirely out of pure Black Iron.
“Heh, you really are ahead of the curve in this area. Let’s head over to the nest and take a look,” Li Qingshan said, letting out a long breath as his condition returned to normal.
He then gestured for Bai Qiu to join him in inspecting the Giant Black Iron Worm’s nest.
Bai Qiu didn’t refuse and quietly followed, though inwardly he sighed—Li Qingshan had shaken off the weakened state in just three minutes.
And judging by his condition, his stamina was still abundant.
From start to finish, he had only consumed a single stamina potion.
……
Arriving at the Black Iron Worms’ nest, Bai Qiu saw numerous unevenly arranged openings before him.
The tunnels were rather narrow—it seemed the worms had no intention of leaving proper passageways for anything their size.
However, after getting past the initial cramped section, the interior suddenly opened up.
A wall-like Darksteel ore vein appeared before everyone.
The surface of the wall was covered with bite marks.
Judging from the exposed, gnawed cross-sections, the purity of the Darksteel ore was extremely high—over 85%!
Bai Qiu also found eggs and larvae within the nest.
These creatures were quite small—the largest larvae were only about as thick as an arm, while the smallest were no bigger than centipedes.
Moreover, the larvae were extremely timid.
They didn’t dare attack players at all and quickly hid themselves.
Seeing that they posed no threat, Li Zhongjun didn’t order their extermination.
Under his direction, half of the 149 people were assigned to follow the soldiers and begin mining.
With storage cards available, there was no need for transport—every chunk knocked off the wall was immediately stored away.
Bai Qiu, however, showed little interest in the mining.
He casually picked up a few relatively large worm eggs, intending to take them back and raise them as pets.
After all, these creatures only needed Darksteel ore to grow—easy to raise.
Their juvenile forms weren’t aggressive either.
If they could be tamed, he’d keep them; if not, he could just kill them later.
Meanwhile, Li Qingshan grabbed a pickaxe in each hand and began wildly hammering at the ore vein.
His speed was actually faster than players specialized in mining.
It could only be described as brute force overwhelming technique—a kind of raw, stat-based dominance.
“Ya! Ya! Ya!”
A sudden noise drew everyone’s attention.
Turning toward the source, they saw Bai Qiu casually playing with a Black Iron Worm larva about as thick as an arm.
It let out a series of blustering cries, but didn’t dare attack him, only wriggling desperately in his grasp…
Bang!
Bai Qiu punched off a fist-sized, irregular chunk of Darksteel ore.
Then, through continuous compression and refinement using mana, he condensed it into a true piece of Darksteel.
After impurities were filtered out, the compressed block was about the size of a lychee.
He then held the refined piece of Darksteel up to the larva’s mouth, making a soft “tsk-tsk-tsk” coaxing sound.
— The end of the Chapter–
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