Astral Pet Store (WN)

Chapter 202 Taking the Treasure

Like always, the bone pieces were magically reset on their own, until Little Skeleton came back as a whole. Little Skeleton could always do this even if its bones were ground to fine powder, as long as its core was not harmed; such a skill was a must-have for all Undead-type Astral Pets if they wanted to fight efficiently.

The skeleton looked at Su Ping, then checked its bone blade which was safely tucked between its ribs, and somewhat showed a “relieved” look.

Together with his pets, Su Ping managed to leave the black forest unharmed. By this point, he no longer needed to worry about the wraith because it couldn’t move away from its habitat for some reason. He had confirmed this many times inside the dragon scale land.

As he expected, the monster’s deadly aura soon came, and stopped at the edge of the woods. The wraith howled at him madly as its concentrated grudge was almost materialized. Though there wasn’t much else it could do.

Su Ping sighed in relief and ordered his pets to back away, while returning to their “stealth mode,” to avoid accidentally attracting something else.

He found a place that seemed safe enough and hid behind the Purple Python’s scale formation again, before he took out the scroll to check inside.

He saw Tang Ruyan staring at the tree with broadened eyes, probably because she never thought he’d go this far.

But on second thought, Tang Ruyan believed that she’d do the same if she had ended on top. Or she would have destroyed it if she couldn’t take it away, to prevent it from falling into someone else’s hands. After all, giving a valuable treasure to another settler was equal to helping a potential enemy.

She wondered if she should sabotage the tree to annoy Su Ping, but decided against it since that would definitely get her killed faster. She wanted to stay alive to gamble for an escape.

Heh. You really shouldn’t have put this thing so close to me, my friend. Now I have something to bargainBefore she could finish that thought, Su Ping’s face appeared inside the scroll space and almost covered the entire sky above her.

“Look after that tree. If I find even a single leaf missing, I will kill you, humiliate your body, and make sure the whole world sees it so that your family can never lift their heads again.”

Su Ping disappeared after leaving those cold words.

Tang Ruyan stared at the sky in shock.

But-but what about-he threatened ME first?? Can’t he figure out I haven’t killed this tree just because I haven’t felt like it??

Tang Ruyan was so furious that she almost changed her mind to proceed with her reckless plan. However, what Su Ping said in the end successfully hit her biggest weakness; she surely didn’t want to see her family suffer because of her death.

“Damn damn damn DAMN YOU!!” She clenched her teeth so hard that she almost cracked them.

Su Ping had just denied her the chance to negotiate with him. No matter what kind of plans she had come up with earlier, she had to forget about them and bear the great depression all by herself.

Her sanity prevailed in the end, so she managed to stay put for the moment.

While cursing Su Ping’s name, she walked in circles to help herself vent out the accumulated rage inside her, even if it was just a little.

Outside, Su Ping put away the scroll and prepared to move on. He believed that, as long as the woman didn’t completely give up her life, the tree would remain safe.

Following their previous plan, he asked the Dark Dragon Hound to scout ahead so they could find the first treasure he had originally planned to get.

Going by his memory, he successfully avoided all the troublesome ninth-ranked enemies. The occasional weaker enemies that stumbled upon them had all been dealt with by Little Skeleton and the Inferno Dragon, nice and clean.

He finally reached his target two hours later

-an old, tattered temple that seemed about to collapse on itself at any moment. From his training sessions, he knew that the treasure had been placed right inside this temple and was being protected by two upper ninth-rank humanoid monsters who looked half-human and half-snake. They were tough enemies because their human parts allowed them to use some very dangerous battle techniques.

With the Dark Dragon Hound’s help, he quickly ascertained the positions of all the enemies hidden inside the building. The two “human-snakes” were right inside, together with several random spiders and bugs that could use poison attacks.

Su Ping thought long and hard to come up with a plan.

A direct confrontation was unwise, even though he was confident that he could win in the end. The battle would come with a great cost. Besides, doing so would allow other explorers to take the loot away for free. As illustrated by stories and movies, such nuisances always showed up at the right time.

He decided to proceed with a feint attack so he could steal the treasure while the monsters weren’t looking.

After telling the Dark Dragon Hound to activate its barriers, Su Ping ordered Little Skeleton to charge into the temple first. With Little Skeleton’s skills, it should be able to keep one of the human-snakes busy. Su Ping was well aware of the layout inside the temple. By listening to the sound of the battle, he could tell where the monsters were located.

Little Skeleton soon came out from the entrance with two human-snakes in hot pursuit. Both of them were above ten meters in length; while their upper body was human-like, save for their scaled skin and wriggling strands of hair, each of which was a large living snake.

Upon reaching the door of the temple, the human-snakes stopped and retreated, for they knew they couldn’t keep up with Little Skeleton’s speed outside.

Seeing this, Su Ping ordered Little Skeleton to come back and taunt the enemies by dancing under their noses. At the same time, the Inferno Dragon and the Dark Dragon Hound came out of hiding and charged at the human-snakes together.

Su Ping asked the Purple Python to dig a tunnel underground so he could enter the temple that way.

The inside of the temple was a filthy graveyard of dead monsters, rotten bones and feces. Once the Purple Python emerged from the tainted dirt, Su Ping immediately saw a luxurious-looking throne at the other side of the space, upon which a treasure coffer was resting

This had told him that no one had visited this place yet.

He quickly went there. The lock on the coffer seemed broken due to age, but it was still protected by an energy matrix that could only be solved by the right means. Still, the matrix was badly worn as well.

Su Ping simply told the Purple Python to slam the lock open with its tail.

The lid of the coffer snapped open, revealing a fist-sized gem that brimmed with energy.

Su Ping immediately grabbed the gem in one hand and prepared to leave.

The human-snakes suddenly howled furiously outside the building. At the same time, Su Ping felt the ground quake as if something was approaching fast.