Chapter 132: Fire Pearl
Blue Maple was already far from the transport party at this point. He was still using the Vanishing Shadow passive skill to conceal himself. He laid on a huge rock and recounted what happened earlier.
If Mystery was by my side earlier, her Looming Shadow’s Skills could be perfectly unleashed. I would have been able to instantly kill the first demon. At least he wouldn’t have been able to recover so quickly.
Blue Maple was still disgruntled that he didn’t manage to kill the first demon instantly. After all, it was a sneak attack. He was unhappy that he didn’t get rid of the trooper, who was much weaker than he was.
Seriously, what’s going on in my mind? If Mystery’s here, this quest wouldn’t even happen. Blue Maple mocked himself. He didn’t know why he suddenly thought of Mystery.
Because I don’t want to be alone? Why am I thinking of a having a companion…seriously…The more he thought, the more frustrated he became.
He quickly sat up and looked at the wilderness in the distance.
Indeed, it was a great choice not to choose to be a Thief. It’s so annoying to be bothered by so many messy things.
He was frustrated and annoyed as he thought to himself.
Ding! Announcement: Demonic undulations have been detected to your south. You can proceed to check on them to ensure it’s not the transport party.
Just as Blue Maple was bothered with being frustrated, he heard a system announcement.
Again?
He furrowed his brow. He didn’t expect two parties to appear at about the same time when it was already so rare for him to spot even one transport party.
Forget it. This is good too. It’ll be fantastic if I can end this sooner. If it’s a transport party…
Blue Maple was wondering to himself as he initiated the active effect of the Vanishing Shadow. He quickened his pace as he rushed to where the undulations were picked up.
……
……
He spent three days just like this.
Feather accepted a gift that Old Man Fang prepared for him as he stayed at Old Man Fang’s place. Whereas Blue Maple was stuck in the wilderness, disturbing transport parties and setting fires to transport vehicles.
After setting fire to four different groups of transport vehicles on the first day, Blue Maple’s quest became much more difficult from then on.
The demons were aware of his existence. Every transport party tightened up their security measures. This didn’t pose a huge problem to Blue Maple, but it did make his job more difficult to complete.
Once the demons realized Blue Maple was acting alone, they started to maintain gaps between transport vehicles. Even if Blue Maple snuck attacked a transport vehicle, he wouldn’t be able to quickly lay his hands on the next vehicle.
Fortunately, the demons didn’t send any reinforcement team to search for Blue Maple since they knew that he was alone. After all, that would be too much ground to cover. It wouldn’t be realistic for them to scour for one person, but they did increase the size of every transport party. There were now seventy to eighty demons in one transport party.
The range of the fire pearl wasn’t very wide too. Hence, Blue Maple had to use his Heavenly Fire to randomly teleport himself somewhere else. Otherwise, no transport party would travel through where he just successfully mounted an attack.
Old Man Fang had already dealt with the possibility of the demons recognizing Blue Maple’s blue fire. Before any information could be transmitted back to the higher-ranked demons, Old Man Fang would have already intercepted it…
Since he wanted Blue Maple to perform this quest, he naturally took care of the loose ends. Lower-ranked demons wouldn’t recognize the fire. They didn’t even have the right to know anything about Old Man Fang.
It was evening time now…
Blue Maple was as lazy as ever. He was already familiar with what to do, but he wasn’t yet good enough to be completely idle during a fight.
He was lying on a fairly even rock, waiting for a transport party to pass by. He had teleported over here not long ago using his Heavenly Fire.
One more party. I’ll go back once I’m done.
“Kacha.”
Blue Maple wondered to himself under the gloomy sky. Then, he picked up a fruit that he plucked from the Elven Forest and started to munch on it.
His backpack had been cleared of items. He stuffed all his items into Feather’s personal storage space. After all, Feather’s storage space was so huge but it was practically unoccupied.
As for his…
It was either food or beverage inside his backpack. Even the wine he got from the dwarves were stored in his backpack…
That was how he lived so comfortably over the past few days. His meals were settled and he slept well. The earth was his bed and the sky was his blanket.
“Kacha…”
Blue Maple took another bite. He didn’t eat with his mouth wide open. Apart from the crunch he made when he bit into his food, he didn’t make any other sounds.
“Gu lu…”
After swallowing, he stopped eating.
“Today’s the…18th I believe.” Blue Maple was a little low in spirits as he said. The fruit was still in his hand as it drooped down by his side.
“March 18th. There are still a few more days…” He peered into the gloomy sky without reason once again. It seemed like it was the only thing he could look at in this place.
“Cherry blossoms.” He muttered as he lifted his hand.
“Kacha.”
He took another bite and lifted his spirits. Then, he returned to his idle self. The words he had just spoken were just like a small tune for his mealtime.
“Kacha…”
He continued to eat. It was at this moment that an announcement echoed.
Ding! Announcement: Demonic undulations have been detected to your southwest, but slightly more towards the south. You can proceed to check on them to ensure it’s not a transport party.
Blue Maple stopped eating.
“Are they finally here? It’s the last one.”
“Kacha!”
He viciously took another bite of the fruit. Then, he burned the remains to ashes!
However, the fire didn’t dissipate this time. Instead, it spread from his hand to his arm before it engulfed his entire body.
He was teleporting using his Heavenly Fire! His Heavenly Fire helped to indicate the direction and the direct landing spot!
“Since it’s the last one, let it be flawless.”
He was now covered in his blue fire. His expression was still cold as he spoke to himself. However, one would shudder if he looked at Blue Maple now.
Old Man Fang, who had been leisurely drinking tea and observing Blue Maple, suddenly sensed something.
“Hmm?”
He was skeptical for a moment, which prompted him to sense the situation at Blue Maple’s side. However, he was taken aback by what he discovered.
“Fuck, what’s going on? This kid removed his seal?” Old Man Fang was astonished. He didn’t know what was happening, but he knew that Blue Maple wasn’t someone who would remove his seal for fun.
“Eh? That’s not it. He didn’t remove his seal. But…fuck!”
The old man sensed once again. He instantly erupted!
“What the fuck…that rascal absorb the fiery strength within the fire pearl!”
He started cursing.
“Fucking rascal. You really do know how to slack off and play tricks! I’m at fault too. When I thought of this quest, I was only bothered about having fun watching you. I forgot about imposing additional restrictions.”
Old Man Fang suddenly recalled that he forgot to impose more restrictions on Blue Maple. The system wasn’t the one who issued the quest. It was only normal for the old man to miss out on certain things. Old Man Wen also suffered a similar fate against Blue Maple before.
This left Old Man Fang in a tight spot. He entered into deep thought.
Forget it, let him have his fun. He’ll still be able to complete the quest anyway. He looked unwilling when I asked him to do this quest. I shall let him have some fun then, as my way of making amends. I’ll cover it up for him from the system.
Old Man Fang decided to turn a blind eye. As for the system, he had to cover this mistake up. This loophole arose because of him, so he had to take responsibility for it.
……
Blue Maple was already at the final stage of his teleportation. He had already determined where his landing spot would be.
He was also in void space now, but everything in front of him was pitch-black. He could only rely on his senses. He couldn’t freely roam void space just as Old Man Fang and the others could.
“Found it!”
Blue Maple took the time to sense the exact position of the transport party. This was only possible at the final stage of the teleportation. He had to determine his landing point after this, so he couldn’t indefinitely use his senses as a means of long-range detection.
The transport party was very cautious about its surroundings.
This transport party was made up of ninety demons, the largest contingent that Blue Maple had encountered so far. Although the firepower had been increased and the demons knew that Blue Maple wasn’t really the most ruthless of assassins, they would still be severely punished if the material goods were burned.
“Eh, do you think that human will find us?” One of the leaders of this transport party asked another leader.
“I don’t know. I’m also unsure if the higher-ups have thought of any plan to counter him. We haven’t heard anything for so long.” The other leader didn’t appear confident. After all, nine other transport parties had already fallen and their transport party was only larger by ten demons.
“Yes, that human is too mysterious and sneaky. The reinforcement team can’t do anything about him, and I’m not sure if the higher-ups have any plans to deal with his blue fire. We can’t even extinguish it.” The first leader helplessly said.
“Forget it, let’s…eh? What’s that?!”
Just as the second leader was speaking halfway, he was suddenly astonished by the blue fire that had appeared in mid-air!
Just when both leaders were tensed up, a ball of blue fire suddenly appeared in mid-air. This ball was expanding and expanding.
It finally formed a ring of fire that was two meters long in diameter! The center of it was a small-sized black hole!
This was the result of Blue Maple’s use of the fire pearl. He wasn’t capable of creating a black hole on his own as of now. The first time he used the pearl, he knew that the fiery strength of the pearl could be absorbed. But he didn’t do it.
After this, Blue Maple slowly walked out of the black hole. There seemed to be some kind of invisible support under him that enabled him to stand in mid-air.
Fire was burning on his body, but he gave off a very cold feeling. He was looking down on all the demons with an icy-cold expression on his face!
I didn’t realize the fiery strength contained within that pearl is so strong. I managed to absorb it until my upper limit. Blue Maple was astonished as he thought to himself. At the same time, he continued to scan the demons.
The two leaders from before, who were supposedly much stronger than Blue Maple, seemed to be weak and small now!
The demons shuddered when they looked into Blue Maple’s eyes!
Even the two leaders shuddered too.
“Gu lu…”
Someone nervously swallowed his saliva. Instantly, a frantic aura engulfed the entire transport party!S
“Whose, whose intelligence reported that…that he’s just a sneaky human?” One of the leaders’ voice was trembling as he asked.
“Surely this is…another person…” The other leader’s voice was also trembling as he tried to come up with a logical explanation.
The other demons were in an even worse state. They were scared out of their wits when they sensed Blue Maple’s aura!
It was all because of the fire pearl…
Ding! Announcement: You’ve absorbed the fiery strength from the fire pearl that the Sword Hermit Fang Chen formed. Your attributes have been greatly boosted to their saturation point. You cannot absorb any further. Your body will suffer serious injuries if you push on with it.
Ding! Announcement: Your overall attributes have been raised by 100%. Your attack strength has increased by 100%. Your speed has increased by 50%! This will last at least twenty minutes, and the duration will be determined by the fiery strength of the fire pearl!
Attack strength…
It had crossed 9000 and was close to 10,000!