The Dark King – Chapter 281
Sergei’s mouth twitched as he put away the idea of exploring the gunpowder boxes. His eyes swept around: “If I’m not mistaken this place… it is the exit of the death passage that was originally rented by the Huasheng consortium.” He glanced at Dudian to see his reaction.
Dudian indifferently replied: “It seems your memory is good.”
Sergei slightly frowned as he saw Dudian admit his speculation. His fingers tightened onto boxes he was holding onto.
Scar who was moving the cannon was stunned as he looked back at Dudian: “Is this really the exit of the death passage?”
Gwyneth and Jin who saw the reaction of the two suddenly thought about the meaning behind two words. Their faces paled as they looked over Dudian.
Dudian saw the surprise in their looks: “Why are you afraid of death if you have come out of the giant wall to hunt?”
Jin and Scar wryly smiled.
Gwyneth saw that Dudian wasn’t going to explain the reason why the place was called the death passage so she looked around at the surrounding environment. Her empty hand quietly affixed on the hunting sword which was on her waist.
It didn’t take long for them to to walk about seven miles from the passage.
Dudian took out the map to check the place. The outer area of the giant wall was depicted in details. There were eight different badges marking the areas. They belonged respectively to six consortia, military and Ryan family. The place which belonged to them had a small circle covering it.
Scott consortium and Green consortium occupied left and right sides of their location. Their hunting grounds were divided into small areas and coded from zero to ten. The hunting ground that belonged to New World consortium was colored in gray representing unclean area.
The consortia had reached a contracted after a long run to update the map in unity so that they could easily identify each other’s areas.
Dudian took out another map which was supplied to them by Huasheng consortium after the military crossbow deal. The paper was yellow in color and it was rough. The papermaking technology wasn’t very advanced ten years ago. There were some blurry lines depicted by the pencil. The hunting ground was divided into three areas. The first forty miles from the exit of the death passage was first area. According to the information on map it was the habitat of the monsters from level twelve to twenty-five.
The second area was extremely wide and about seventy miles in length. There were giant boneworms living in that area. According to the atlas they are monsters which reach level thirty seven when they mature.
Even a senior hunter would have to run away if facing such a monster. There would be no room for a battle.
Huasheng consortium’s hunters had gone up to outermost part of the third area but weren’t able to explore. There were no records but only a black colored ‘X’ logo.
Dudian had seen the map before within the giant wall. At the moment he looked at the map and tried to confirm approximate range of the current position. About four miles away there had to be a small lake. Level nineteen crocodiles should be living in there. This one was an amphibious monster which had excellent latent ability and amazing night vision. It’s perfect hunting time was at nights where it could attack even senior hunters. Once it bit then it would be hard to get out of its grasp.
Dudian knew that according to the Huasheng consortium’s map the last time he had already been into the second area. But the problem was that he had only encountered variant skeletons and monsters which were lower than level 20. Ten years ago the members of the team sent by the Huasheng consortium should be killed in area 3 or when they returning from there. So at the worst case they were ambushed by the monsters at second area. However after a decade the number of the monsters have decreased a lot. The traces of the monsters has long disappeared from first area. It should be result of migration or cannibalism.
In any case, the overall result was that the safety factor in the area number one and two was much higher than it was ten years ago.
This would be an excellent news for the others but Dudian didn’t feel happy.
“Follow me.” Dudian took the lead as he went towards the lake.
Along the way Dudian didn’t sense the smell of monsters lurking near by. However, what Dudian was most concerned was that even after walking for about three miles he still couldn’t see the shadow of the lake. Did Huasheng consortium cheat them? But the drawing date of the map was not new either.
He paused a moment and ordered the Scar to stop in place. He asked Gwyneth and Jin to stay by Scar’s side to protect him. Sergei followed Dudian after he put down the gunpowder boxes. He slowly went forward as Dudian drilled through the grasses. Dudian was on alert at all times as he felt that a monster would attack him anytime. His muscles were tightened as he knew that he couldn’t detect the presence of some monsters.
It didn’t take long for them to reach a basin. The place was covered with aquatic weeds and there was a little water at the bottom of the basin.
Dudian’s eyes narrowed as he gently put his toes on the ground. He felt that the soil become soft so he stepped back. Was this place a lake a decade ago? How come such a lake would turn into a basin of water in about ten years?
Sergei’s face slightly changed as he went back and said to Dudian: “Get back!”
Dudian was surprised as he rapidly stepped back. He checked the place but he couldn’t detect anything: “What?”
Sergei pointed towards a place about ten meters away from them: “Do you see those branches? Can you see the eyeballs?”
Dudian looked at the direction Sergei’s fingers were pointing to. He saw that rotten brances had falled onto water. The place below them was dark but it didn’t affect his vision. There was indeed a jade-like mottled ball. It looked like a moss on the ground.
Dudian whispered: “Let’s check it out.” He bent over and pulled a piece of mud from the ground. He threw it past to the place.
The mud hit the death branches. Bang! Water spilled around. At the same time the whole place shook up and that thing made a 180 degree twist and went into the other side of the basin.
Dudian took a deep breath. He didn’t think that in the dry parts of the lake there would be potential monster which would be very dangerous for them. The scent exuded from its body was very light and it was completely covered by the various scents coming out of the basin of water.
“Sure enough …” There was a trace of relief in Sergei’s eyes as he saw the figure to twist and run away: “This things are a little hard to kill. However once their camouflage is exposed then they will usually escape. They won’t attack unless they are too hungry.”
Dudian’s eyes lit up: “There has to be lots of prey so that they won’t attack unless they are too hungry. Most probably they live in flocks…”
Sergei was startled to see Dudian’s speculation about the monster just by seeing it once. He nodded and said: “They are not weak beasts. There could be monsters which could kill it only by one attack but it doesn’t mean that they would be successful. These things are capable of killing level 7 or 8 monsters.”
Dudian nodded. The fur and claws of the monsters advanced as they went through evolution. However human wore only hunter armors. They mainly isolated radiation but played small amount of role in protecting their bodies. The armors worn by the hunters were nothing but a joke in front of a level 20 monsters. IT could tear them apart with a simple claw attack.
“This is the place where we will hunt.” Dudian looked around and made his mind.
Dudian turned back and went to the place where Gwyneth and others were waiting for them: “There is a water source near this place. Monsters should be coming over so we have to make traps near this area. Gwyneth you should be the fastest in our group. So after the traps are arranged you will be responsible for luring the monsters.”
Gwyneth frowned and looked at Dudian.
Dudian also stared back at her. The girl slowly recovered her eyes and didn’t say anything.
“How are we going to set traps?” Jin wasn’t aware of the methods.
Dudian showed him the boxes: “Go around and dig small pits. Afterwards bury them.”
Gwyneth snorted: “This should be mix of sulfur powder and other materials. If I’m not mistaken it is a poison and if the monsters don’t eat them then they are useless. Why should we bury them under the earth?”
Dudian replied: “This is a weapon not a poison. You just do as I say.”
The others looked at each other. This powder is a weapon? Why would you bury a weapon under the earth?
However they didn’t continue to discuss as they saw the firm look on Dudian’s face. Sergei and Dudian discussed the potential places according to a hunting plan. Afterwards, they dig the pits and buried the boxes of explosives in them.
The weather got dark while the traps were properly arranged.
Dudian went back to the ruins with the others. He found a small shelter within the rubble of concrete and they used it as a base. They began to eat dry food and rest.
Jin looked around the creepy place: “Would monsters come around at night?”
Dudian threw a bottle of undead powder at him: “No. As long as we don’t burn a fire nothing will happen. Most of the monsters are cold-blooded animals and are sensitive to the heat.”