Chapter 4: Searching for the Silver Elite Creature
Land of Desolation, as its name suggests, is a place where a desolate aura greets you the moment you enter. Aging Behemoths slowly walk towards the center of the Land of Desolation from all directions.
Some Behemoths that can no longer move simply collapse to the ground and fall into an eternal slumber.
A large number of scavengers such as vultures, jackals, and giant lizards follow behind the Behemoths, waiting for the moment they fall.
Of course, if any weaker creatures pass by, these scavengers wouldn't mind feasting on some fresh meat.
In areas where there are fewer creatures walking, the negative energy invasion has already exceeded normal levels. Some corpses buried underground have been affected by the negative energy, turning into undead creatures that begin to attack any life forms that accidentally enter their territory.
The only relatively safe places are under the control of the Behemoth symbiotic groups, but these are also the frontlines of the current battles, making them the most dangerous places.
It's fair to say that the entire Land of Desolation is full of danger.
In such a situation, Leon ventured deep into the Land of Desolation alone. This was the task he and Victor received. Similarly, other students with potential in both magic and martial arts from other classes at Sun City High School were assigned the same task.
Their task was simple but extremely dangerous. They had to venture alone deep into the Land of Desolation within two days and search for the Silver Elite Creatures wandering in its depths.
Since the grand map had just been opened, all the Silver Elite Creatures were still present, having never been killed before, unlike in other maps where a kill always guarantees high-level equipment.
Currently, these creatures are the key nodes of the grand map. Without killing them, it is impossible to gain control of the grand map, even if the entire area is occupied.
How to kill them has become a matter that Sun City High School must consider because the locations where all the Silver Elite Creatures reside are not fixed.
They generally exist deep within the grand map, in places that are not easily accessible to most people.
On the way, one might encounter some powerful monsters or all sorts of troubles. If a team is sent to kill, they might lose too much combat power before even reaching the Silver Elite Creatures.
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Therefore, most organizations send people to search first. Once the Silver Elite Creatures are found, a mage can open a portal to teleport the kill team to the vicinity of the creatures for battle.
However, this poses another problem: most mages are frail. If they venture alone deep into the dangerous grand map, they might die before even locating the Silver Elite Creatures.
If warriors are sent instead, they might find the Silver Elite Creatures but won't be able to open a portal, rendering the search pointless.
Sending warriors to protect mages would be no different from dispatching a team to search on its own. It would not only be costly but also attract the attention of nearby monsters.
Thus, players proficient in both magic and martial arts have become the first choice for such tasks. All students with these dual skills, from every class, were given this mission.
Knowing how critical this mission was and how short the time was, Leon and Victor, after receiving the task, wasted no time. They immediately took the supplies prepared by the school and entered the Land of Desolation.
After entering, Leon moved in the designated direction. It was his assigned area, where he needed to find the Silver Elite Creature until either the mission failed or the time ran out.
Along the way, Leon carefully kept his newly acquired cloak close. This cloak was one of the pieces of equipment lent to him by the school, which could slightly reduce the hostility of wild monsters toward him.
However, even so, he had to bypass several areas dense with wild monsters, moving cautiously within the range marked on the map.
At the same time, the data of various monsters in the distance kept appearing in front of him, all marked with a bright red danger symbol without exception.
If it were a normal day, Leon wouldn't dare get close at all, but now he had no choice but to cautiously approach the places where he could observe those wild monsters, using his eyes to analyze whether there might be a Silver Elite among them. Only after confirming that none of the wild monsters in the area were likely to be Silver Elite would he move to the next place to continue his search.
Like this, Leon walked for nearly a day and searched for nearly a day, yet found nothing.
Seeing that the two-day time limit was approaching, Leon was already considering giving up. After all, this task had no penalty for failure; not finding a Silver Elite would only mean missing out on some great rewards—losing just an opportunity.
But if he recklessly got himself killed, the loss would be much greater.
Just as Leon was thinking this, he heard the sound of the ground trembling from a distance behind him.
He had heard this sound many times over the past few days and knew immediately that it was an aging Behemoth dragging its frail body, slowly heading towards the Behemoth Graveyard.
On this grand map, Behemoths were the only creatures that could never become Silver Elite, because the ones that came here were all on the brink of death and could never take on the role of a Silver Elite Creature.
So whenever Leon heard this sound, he always found a place to hide to avoid being discovered by the horde of monsters that the Behemoth would attract.
But this time, Leon unintentionally glanced back and, just as he expected, saw a large group of vultures, jackals, giant lizards, and other scavengers forming a massive tailing group, following behind the gigantic Behemoth, waiting for it to fall.
Sighing, realizing his time was about to be wasted again, Leon quickly moved toward a safer place.
Just as he stood up, he noticed something unusual among the vultures flying in the sky. One vulture stood out from the rest.
This vulture had two identical heads and was covered in purple feathers, making it quite conspicuous among the group.
This discovery made Leon's eyelid twitch. He ignored the current danger and quickly ran to a relatively higher position nearby, where he released a white light toward the vulture.
The white light he released was from the detector the school lent them, which could be charged for an hour and used to detect Silver Elite Creatures three times.
Leon had used this detector over ten times along the way, and each time was fruitless. But this time, the moment the white light hit, the double-headed vulture in the sky turned pure silver, and its data quickly appeared in Leon's view.
"Double-Headed Vulture Cain"
"Species: Half-Undead, Half-Scavenger Creature"
"Level: Lv3 (2 stars) Silver Elite"
"Attributes: Strength 19, Agility 21, Constitution 16, Spirit 22"
"Description: Cain, born with two heads, is smarter than ordinary vultures from a young age. It knows how to survive in a way that suits it best and never gives up on its own persistence, no matter how difficult things get..."
Receiving this data, Leon did not linger. He quickly retreated to a relatively safe place, opened the signal lamp, also borrowed from the school, and sent out his current location along with the information on the double-headed vulture.