Show Me the Money

Chapter 103 - Phantasm Ghost Claw

With the mist covering Fatty's sights, he would often fail to notice a monster until it was literally right in front of him.

At the same time, the Ancient Battlefield lived up to its reputation as the paradise of the dead with all sorts of undead creatures wandering around, including both humanoid monsters and vicious beast-like ones.

The endless wails and shrieks caused Fatty to get covered in goosebumps.

As he advanced carefully, he finally reached the place where the mission said the lost scout should be at.

When he heard a bit of sound moving towards him, Fatty immediately stopped in his tracks and put on his guard.

Soon, an undead boa with nothing but its stark white skeleton left appeared. The head of the boa was as large as a bull, while its corpse covered more than ten meters of ground as it extended into the mist. Just like every single other undead monster in the area, the boa's seemingly empty sockets seemed to glimmer with a green flame.

Undead, it's an undead! Fatty muttered to himself. I need Deceased Souls for Death Transformation. If I kill a few of them here and get some Deceased Souls, then I would be able to have a way to protect myself! Although this is merely a mob monster, it's far stronger than those low level boss monsters.

From what Fatty has seen thus far, the Ancient Battlefield was basically an upgraded Mass Graves filled with Undead monsters. It was definitely going to be a good source of Deceased Souls.

If I can kill this bone snake, then transform, I'll look so much cooler than when I turned into the "Undead Marshal"!

Appraisal.

Windlost Bone Snake

Level: ???

…

He still couldn't see its stats, but that was something Fatty already expected. It was actually going to be strange if he was able to see its stats.

As the Windlost Bone Snake slithered along the ground, Fatty prepared for combat, only to realize that the bone snake might not have seen through his stealth, or perhaps it just wasn't bothered with him.

Should I kill it? Yes? No? Fatty hesitated. He did want to attack, but he wasn't certain about his victory. Thus, he could only reluctantly watch the monster leave.

Whatever. I'll let you go, this time. Fatty kicked the ground as he watched the monster disappear into the mists. It's fine, I'm still low leveled. I probably won't be able to use the spark even if I did get it. Completing the mission is more important right now.

…

Fatty found his surroundings become gradually more dangerous as he ventured further in. Not only were there wandering monsters, even a pile of scattered bones would suddenly become a bloodthirsty monster.

Meanwhile, Wheat advanced underground in depression as it shot out a Howling Bullet from underneath the ground. The reason was that was simple. Fatty didn't want to die and he had to advance, so he made Wheat scout the way. Fortunately the poor little rat had Earthwalk, which was the only thing that stopped it from becoming pure cannon fodder.

As for why Wheat attacked, it wasn't because it couldn't see. Rather, it was because the Ancient Battlefield was covered in bones, some of them were piled together, while some of them were half-buried, it was very difficult for either of them to tell which one was just normal bones and which ones were monsters that would jump scare them.

Another Howling Bullet shot out from underneath the ground. The bones in the surroundings were scattered by the impact. The fact that attacking from underground dealt half damage didn't matter when it was just used as a scouting skill.

When Wheat saw that nothing happened after the bones were scattered, it continued forward, while Fatty followed closely behind. This way of traveling might have been slow, but it was very safe. The only problem was that they still didn't notice any scout around.

Despite Wheat not landing an attack on anything, when Fatty walked over… A hand suddenly grabbed his ankle!

Fatty looked down at his ankle. What grabbed his ankle was actually less of a hand and more of a lone boney claw without any flesh. He was dumbstruck for a split-second because a chill rushed down his spine. He quickly kicked forth and sent the bone claw flying.

Oh my god, that was way too scary. Which bastard of a dev designed it? Doesn't he know that it's possible for people to die from fear!? Fatty wiped away the sweat on his face.

The bone claw broke a few rotten bones on the ground as it landed, then stopped moving.

What the heck was that? Fatty carefully walked over. The claw was about the size of a human hand, but it had slightly longer fingers.

Appraisal.

Phantasm Ghost Claw

Level: 30

Attack: 80 - 100

Defense: 100

HP: 10000

Notes: The right claw of the primordial Phantasm Ghost King that snuck out to play while the ghost king was resting due to being bored in the dungeon.

…

Whut. Fatty nearly choked. So… You're telling me that a claw was bored of the underground so came out to play? But it's level is really low.

Fatty had planned to ignore the stats and was shocked to find that he could see them. A Level 30 monster here is so rare! Phantasm Ghost Claw, the claw of the Phantasm Ghost King, that sounds amazing. I wonder what it can do… It has good attack and defense and such high health!

The Phantasm Ghost Claw remained still as if it was just another rotten bone amongst the rest while Fatty gazed at it.

"Wheat, go!" Fatty didn't dare to get to close after seeing its stats. He merely ordered Wheat to do it in his stead. This time, Wheat did not open its mouth. Instead, it slammed its claws onto the ground, causing a few stalagmites to shoot out from the ground and slammed underneath the Phantasm Ghost Claw, knocking it up into the air.

That was the skill Scatterstone Rain - the skill Wheat had learned at Level 30. It was an earth area of effect spell that summoned stalagmites from the ground to attack the enemy. The number of stalagmites and the damage dealt would increase with the skill rank.

The Phantasm Ghost Claw remained still and did not react when it fell back down.

"Oh wow, you are playing dead now?" Fatty found the situation rather funny. If it wasn't because of the claw grabbing him, he definitely would not have noticed it as being something alive, but since it exposed itself, he wasn't going to let it hide again.

People have seen plenty of skeletons, zombies, undead and all sorts of other monsters, but I doubt they have ever seen a claw monster. If I capture it, I should be able to earn quite a bit of money just from selling tickets for people to see it!

"Continue attacking," Fatty ordered. Wheat was hiding underground, so it was not worried about the monster attacking it. So, it attacked relentlessly. Perhaps due to finding its newly acquired skill rather interesting, it cast it over and over again, sending the Phantasm Ghost Claw into the sky time and time again in a row.

Ever single attack would deal a little bit damage to the Phantasm Ghost Claw. Although it had plenty of health, it could not take the juggling forever. Finally, it took the chance of Wheat casting the spell to move. It spread its fingers out as it touched the ground, then started to scuttle forth.

You want to run? I'm not going to let a rare thing like you escape! Since the attack was going to miss anyways, Fatty summoned Wheat back to his pet inventory, then chased after the claw.

Damn it's fast. Fatty was only able to barely keep up, while catching up to it was not possible in the near future.

Hmm, this is strange. We haven't run into any monsters…

…

After a while, the Phantasm Ghost Claw suddenly disappeared. Fatty hurried over to where it disappeared from, then noticed a crack two to three meters wide and countless meters wide and deep. Black smoke seemed to puff out from it, which seemed to imbue Fatty with a freezing chill. The Ancient Battlefield already made him feel chilly, but what the crack caused was bone-shivering coldness.

Fatty hesitated for a short while, decided to go down. Holy Spirits Stones are hard to find and finding the scout should be my priority. I should search down there.

As he climbed down, he saw that the crack was a dozen or so meters deep. The bottom was not as dark as he expected, there was a small amount of light that seeped to the bottom. He saw a brief flash afar and noticed the Phantasm Ghost Claw disappearing into the darkness.

He felt the even colder at the bottom of the crack as the coldness seemed to seep into his bones as if it was trying to freeze him completely. In fact, he felt like his movements were a lot stiffer. His stats were already lowered by 10% from entering the Ancient Battlefield and it felt even worse now.

As he carefully took a step forwards, he heard another system notification.

Ding.

System Notification: You have entered the Phantasm Ghost King zone. Due to his hatred for all humans, all your stats have been decreased by 30%.

30%!? Fatty gasped. That's nearly half now! This Phantasm Ghost King is truly a crafty monster, even if a person who was supposed to be around his strength comes here, they would end up in a pretty rough spot. This must be related to the change in the Ancient Battlefield that Gaia had talked about. I suppose the lost scout is most likely here. I didn't come to the right thought.

Fatty immediately a decision on what to do next. Wheat first.

As Fatty chased towards where the Phantasm Ghost Claw disappeared, he heard the sound of weapons clashing. Fatty quickly ordered Wheat to go ahead and check.

As they approached the source of the sound, they saw a few black-armored monsters with red capes swinging boney long swords attack a short human NPC with nothing but tattered leather armor. The NPC also had a name above it - Wang Er, the Scout.

It's the scout! Fatty was overjoyed. My hard work paid off!

"Hey, Brother Wang Er, fear not, the cavalry's here!"

surprised that the Minotaur Chieftain came out, while others were excited that the monster was not killed yet. Meanwhile, the Minotaur Chieftain cared not for what they thought. It raced over and hacked down with its axe.

"Retreat! Retreat! Fight outside!"

Noticing that the Minotaur Chieftain was truly a powerful boss monster, the players sprinted outside in a disorderly fashion.

Fatty shook his head at the sight. So uncivilized, they're even worse than Wheat.