When the plot-skips players into the game world

Chapter 374: Chapter 282: The Black Hole in the Depths of the Swamp Chapter 374: Chapter 282: The Black Hole in the Depths of the Swamp Normally, killing magical beasts should yield no experience.

It’s much like hunting small animals.

Although magical beasts possess strength comparable to Transcendents, they actually do not have a clear Transcendence level.

Their level in the game simply indicates “the extent to which their strength is equivalent to that of a certain Transcendent.”

Although Aiwass’s memory of the “experience” setting was somewhat vague, he roughly knew that “free experience” was indeed related to the natural dispersal of Path forces during intense battles when killing or expelling opponents.

Because the forces of the Path naturally flow from higher to lower places, and the system merely serves to open up a channel for reception.

But basically, only by killing a Transcendent who is stronger, or at least on par with oneself, can one obtain experience.

Therefore, this is essentially a “Transcendence” ritual.

This fits perfectly with the player “Son of the Serpent Father”‘s setting—gaining strength through Transcendence.

So the experience given for killing a Transcendent is usually not as much as dispelling a Phantom Demon of the same level.

Once a Phantom Demon is dispelled, all the strength within it will disintegrate; however, when a Transcendent dies, they may be turned into an Undead, and if one dispels an Undead, the acquired Path forces are usually less.

And these magical beasts are special creatures without consciousness or intellect.

They yield no experience.

They are similar to Phantom Demons but actually are native creatures of the Material Realm rather than born in the Dream Realm.

Just as a first-level Transcendent might not be able to defeat a wild wolf; a second-level Transcendent mostly wouldn’t be able to overcome lions and bears; even a third-level Transcendent unarmed against a grown elephant is dangerous.

Only starting from the fourth level do Transcendents begin to have a distinct individual advantage.

Magical beasts are a bit more special—they are indeed born with the forces of the Path, but due to their lack of intelligence, they can only use it instinctively.

As such, they cannot enhance their strength through entering dreams or Mystical Skills; they are essentially still beasts.

They simply have an additional layer of “Path forces” beyond the dimensions of “teeth,” “muscles,” and “weight.”

In this world, the ability or inability to dream directly determines the potential to become stronger—any creature that cannot dream means it cannot connect to the Dream Realm and therefore cannot access stronger Path forces.

If the Beast Master were still around, it would be a different story.

But now that the Beast Master has abdicated, the controller of the Path of Love is the Moon God Hengwo, and these wild beasts lost their potential to advance further.

Therefore, even if they are a level higher, magical beasts can still be safely hunted.

Transcendents, as well as Gryphons, Demons, and other Transcendent beings, will consciously compensate for their weaknesses.

But not magical beasts.

While magical beasts are very strong in some respects, they are also very weak in others.

Just like the charge of the Mud Corpse Turtle is roughly equivalent to a lead-core villa moving at about 120 miles per hour; or like a four-hundred-ton dump truck charging.

This would basically kill anyone on the spot besides Hayna with just one hit.

There is no doubt that this is the power that a level four Transcendent can exert.

But if one could directly damage its internal core—by piercing the rock shell on its back, setting traps underground to attack from its relatively fragile belly, or like Sherlock firing into the “flesh” part, it could easily be killed.

Those hunters from Black Hawk make a living doing just this.

A well-trained and well-equipped hunter can even overcome and kill magical beasts two or even three levels higher.

The materials of the magical beasts can sell for quite a bit of money—natural biomaterials with properties of the Path are useful for alchemy or rituals.

Bullying these wild beasts is undoubtedly not an act of Transcendence.

Therefore, even if one overcomes a higher-level challenge, they’ll not earn any experience—although they can improve their level of Mystical Skills as hunters.

Aiwass wasn’t sure whether he was able to gain experience from the magical beasts because they were particular to this place, or because times had changed and indeed, he could gain experience from the magical beasts.

To test the idea in his mind, Aiwass had already initiated the hunt—

Hunting magical beasts is quite simple if one has enough information.

The diet of Mud Corpse Turtles includes animals with bones, Undead, and sludge.

They often disguise themselves as swamps, half-asleep and half-awake, motionless with their mouths open waiting for those unconscious Undead or animals to stroll by, only to then fall in.

The accumulated mana of earth elements swirling into a vortex turns the surrounding swamp exceedingly sticky, making it difficult to escape once one falls in.

—From this perspective, the reason Sherlock startled a Mud Corpse Turtle was that his spell effectively yanked out its tongue.

A nest of Mud Corpse Turtles usually contains four or five.

They live in groups because they need each other’s strength to form a sufficiently large swamp area.

In this half-asleep state, they will not attack proactively.

This allowed Aiwass to arrange a complex Curse Ritual on their faces without startling them and to use a curse to directly kill them in their sleep.

[Killed level four magical beast, gained 26 free experience.]

[Killed level four magical beast, gained 26 free experience.]

[Killed level four magical beast, gained 26 free experience.]

…

There really is experience?

Aiwass raised an eyebrow.

Can monsters that don’t engage in battle also give experience?

Generally, Transcendents killed without engaging in battle also wouldn’t provide Aiwass with experience.

For example, Lawyer York who was assassinated by Aiwass, or President Tommy.

But these monsters not only provided experience, they provided the exact same amount.

Something wasn’t quite right…

Even for Transcendents of the same Energy Level, even of the same rank, the experience given should be within a certain range and random.

——Only summoned creatures would give a fixed amount of experience.

This was getting interesting.

Aiwass tentatively used the Purifying Flame to disperse a few Headless Corpses that happened to pass by.

The result was no experience gained.

While they were in the swamp, the fog around them began to grow thicker and thicker.

It was unclear how much time had passed, but the white fog had completely obscured the surroundings, and some of the Undead that only appeared at night had begun to emerge from the swamp.

Such as the Night Riders.

After confirming that there were no other Knights around, Aiwass silently summoned a Flame Butterfly and effortlessly dispersed a solitary Night Rider with the Purifying Flame.

[Exorcised Night Rider, gained 64 free experience]

This amount of experience was normal.

So, the problem shouldn’t be this place.

It wasn’t until Aiwass killed a third-level “Swamp Ghost” that he finally found something amiss——

[Exorcised Swamp Ghost, gained 84 free experience]@@novelbin@@

Swamp Ghosts were the undead formed by those killed by the swamp; their bloated bodies were filled with poisonous mud, capable of spewing out nauseating, foul-smelling sludge like vomit.

This was a rather common type of undead, not particularly strong in combat.

But it gave significantly more experience than a Night Rider of the same Energy Level, who fought as a warrior…

“You think there’s something wrong with the swamp?”

Sherlock frowned, “Isn’t it because of that…Mud Corpse Turtle?

Didn’t you already clear them out?”

Seeing Aiwass kill all those Mud Corpse Turtles, Sherlock had wanted to leave already.

Because moving around in the swamp was truly unpleasant, not to mention the surrounding white fog that made it difficult to keep one’s eyes open and induced the urge to vomit.

But Aiwass still dragged him along, insisting he accompany him for a kill and entry session, three times over.

He made sure to kill all visible undead multiple times.

Now, hearing what Aiwass said, Sherlock found it ridiculous, “Do you still want to go deeper into the swamp to continue killing?

Have you gone berserk from killing?”

“This is called a bug exploitation.”

Aiwass declared confidently, “If we can reproduce it, that means we’ve pinpointed the problem.

Can you try to summon an elemental creature from the swamp again?

If we have already killed all the Mud Corpse Turtles, you shouldn’t feel any resistance, right?”

“Fine, fine…”

Unable to argue with Aiwass, Sherlock reluctantly agreed, “Let’s get this done quickly and get out of here.

I feel like my face is covered in something…”

He reached out again, opening his five fingers towards the largest part of the swamp, closed his eyes, and prepared to summon the Mud Hawk again.

But soon, Sherlock’s complexion changed.

His hand recoiled as if electrocuted, and a yellowish-brown lightning crackled over his right arm, causing his whole body to violently tremble a few times.

——Spellcasting failed.

But in an instant, the fog around them dispersed.

What they saw then was the swamp suddenly came to life – flowing violently towards the center depression like a flushing toilet, drawing in the white fog around them as well.

In that moment, the air became fresh, and the visibility seemed to brighten dramatically.

Sherlock breathed in the fresh air in big gulps, even feeling somewhat moved.

Soon, the swamp had completely “ebbed.”

Leaving behind a huge black circular hole in the center.

The diameter of the hole was about ten meters, with very smooth edges.

Even the intersection between the ground and the hole was a sharp right angle.

And the hole was lower than the ground Aiwass and the others were on, surrounded by a circular, smooth slope that slanted downwards like a funnel.

Lily looked to Aiwass, seeking his opinion, “Shall I go check it out?”

She had “Lies” that could pull her body along, so she wasn’t afraid of slipping and falling in.

“No, let’s leave.”

Aiwass cautiously declined Lily’s suggestion, “This isn’t a place we should be exploring right now.”

Because he had already recognized what this was…

At first, they had guessed that Eagle Cape Village was the Fairy Forest, hence why it couldn’t be seen from the outside; later, they discovered that this place was locked by some kind of special Dusk Power that was distorting the village’s flow of time.

——But now, the possibility of their first guess had resurfaced.

Because this kind of funnel-shaped black hole that suddenly appeared in swamps, at the bottom of lakes, and in the depths of snowfields is known as a Fairy Hole — it’s a portal to the Fairy Kingdom!