Chapter 80

This alchemical furnace is as large as a washbasin, with a height of more than forty centimeters, making it impossible for Cheng Yang to put it in his backpack.

Just as Cheng Yang was somewhat at a loss, Zhao Chuan walked over, looked at the alchemical furnace Cheng Yang was holding, and couldn't help but ask, "Lord, what is this? It looks like an ancient alchemical furnace?"

Cheng Yang replied, "It's not just similar; it is one."

"Isn't everything sold in the alchemy room just potions? Do potions need an alchemical furnace to be refined?" Zhao Chuan still looked puzzled.

Cheng Yang explained, "Potions can naturally be refined using a crucible, but an alchemical furnace can also be used to refine potions. Moreover, potions are just a relatively low-level product of the alchemy skill. In the future, there will be elixirs, which are the truly good stuff. So it's quite normal for alchemical furnaces to appear. ... Alright, this thing is too big, and it's inconvenient for me to carry. Find a few people to take turns carrying it. This is a good thing, so don't break it."

"Alright!" Zhao Chuan looked at this large object and reluctantly agreed.

Zhao Chuan then called three people from his team to take turns carrying the alchemical furnace. Fortunately, although it was large, it wasn't very heavy, and one person could carry it quite easily.

After leaving the passage, everyone found that the road was becoming increasingly difficult to navigate.

According to memory, this should have been a major exit from the city, but now there wasn't even a flat road, let alone a narrow path. Occasionally, a piece of asphalt and gravel mixture could be seen in the grass on the ground. In this area, however, there were towering trees.

"Lord, do you think if these trees continue to grow, they will eventually be so close together that they will merge, covering the entire earth with wood?" A strange thought suddenly popped into Zhao Chuan's mind.

Cheng Yang, who knew the future, replied, "No, these trees will stop growing once they reach a certain size. Of course, there are some special cases, but I'm not entirely clear on the specifics."

Zhao Chuan nodded, feeling much more relieved. If the Earth were really completely covered by trees, it wouldn't be called Earth anymore; it would be called the Wooden Ball.

Although the surrounding trees were tall, they were not very densely spaced. However, between the trees, there were all kinds of thorny plants growing densely, which, while not causing any harm to the group, made it very troublesome to move through.

Four warriors stepped forward, raised their large swords, and began cutting through the thorns. Branches and leaves flew everywhere as they hacked out a path.

However, this place was clearly not just a world of plants. Due to the ten days since the apocalypse, this area had not been touched by humans, causing the monster population to become abnormally large. Cheng Yang and his group had already anticipated this, so they were very cautious throughout the journey.

After walking less than fifty meters, they heard frog croaks from ahead, giving a sense of rural life.

"Lord, there are still frogs in this world? What do they eat? Are there still pests for them to eat?" Liu Hao couldn't help but complain.

Cheng Yang shook his head and said, "Haozi, you just need to remember one thing: there are no normal animals in this world anymore. All the original animals have been demonized or mutated. The more powerful demonized beasts have been moved to other places by the deities, while the weaker ones have been left near the main city. The frog croaks you hear now are also from demonized beasts."

Liu Hao, who had an exceptional understanding of the game, immediately grasped the details in Cheng Yang's words and asked, "Lord, what do you mean by 'mutated'?"

Cheng Yang explained, "You can think of it as an incomplete demonization. Mutated beasts can evolve like demonized beasts, but they are not entirely bound by the deities' evolution rules. In other words, encountering a third-stage mutated beast now would be normal. However, in general, mutated beasts appear far from the main city and are very rare. So we don't need to worry about these rule-defying creatures for now."

"Damn, that's so unfair?" Liu Hao's face changed, "So, does that mean there are a lot of mutated beasts in the ocean?"

"About that..." Cheng Yang's calm expression disappeared. In the previous life, some people had speculated that there were many mutated beasts in the ocean, but due to human limitations, they had never ventured into the sea. Not to mention the ocean, even large lakes were daunting because of the vast number of demonized beasts.

Cheng Yang paused and said, "We'll consider the ocean later. We are inland, so we won't face the threat of the ocean for now. Moreover, as long as we can continuously and rapidly improve our strength, I believe we can handle it even if there are many mutated beasts in the ocean. Since the deities have gone to such great lengths to transform this world and make humans evolve, they won't completely exterminate us."

When Cheng Yang said this, he himself was not entirely confident.

Liu Hao also noticed Cheng Yang's concern but agreed with his words. To avoid affecting the others' morale, he temporarily set aside this issue.

As they spoke, the group had advanced another ten meters. Suddenly, something shot out from the thorns ahead, directly attacking the warrior at the front. Its speed was so fast that it was comparable to a late-stage first-rank demonized beast running at full speed.

"Be careful!" Cheng Yang shouted, then raised his staff, and an ice ball shot straight at the thing.

As Cheng Yang's voice echoed, the other warriors, even those who hadn't seen the scene, entered a combat state. The warriors around them raised their shields, ready to face the enemy.

The ice ball Cheng Yang shot was much faster than the thing that shot out. Before it could hit the warrior, it was already struck by the ice ball.

Everyone turned to look and found a large frog lying on the ground. Well, if this two-foot-long creature could be called a frog, then it was a frog.

Although Cheng Yang had heard the frog croaks earlier, there were many types of frog monsters in the post-apocalyptic world, so he wasn't sure which type it was. But when he saw the corpse on the ground, his expression became serious.

At this moment, a noisy sound came from the surrounding grass, and large frogs shot out, launching a fierce attack on Cheng Yang and his group.

Cheng Yang didn't hesitate and immediately activated the "Flower Transplant" skill, shouting to the five people enhanced by the skill, "Each of you guard a side! Don't let these creatures break through our defenses."

Immediately, Cheng Yang used the "Ice Spike" skill, and a large area in front of him was covered with ice spikes. The four or five frogs that shot out from there were immediately knocked to the ground.

While attacking, Cheng Yang said, "This thing is called a poison frog. It has low health and attack power, but it can use a poison attack, which has a certain chance of poisoning someone. Once poisoned, you lose one health point per second for ten seconds. Moreover, if attacked by different poison frogs, the poisoning effect can stack. You must be extremely careful."

Cheng Yang's words raised everyone's alertness, especially the front-line warriors, who gripped their shields even tighter.

However, these poison frogs had very strong jumping abilities, and their speed was so fast that it far exceeded that of early-stage first-rank warriors. In the initial attack, many front-line warriors failed to block the attacks, and some were even hit by two or three poison frogs at once.

Fortunately, the poison frogs' attacks were very weak. Even if they hit the front-line warriors, they only caused a little damage, indicating that their attack power was only about three to four points.

However, two unfortunate warriors were poisoned, and their health continuously decreased, although only by one point per second, which caused them significant psychological pressure.

After the first wave of attacks, the threat from the poison frogs significantly decreased. Without the advantage of surprise, the warriors' shields were not something the poison frogs could break through. They landed on the ground and faced the first wave of counterattacks from the warriors.

In that instant, at least seven or eight poison frogs were killed by the warriors' counterattacks, not counting the ones killed by Cheng Yang's initial ice spike attack.

Subsequently, in the battle, the poison frogs fell one by one, and the warriors achieved ultimate victory.

After killing the poison frogs, Liu Hao wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, "That was intense! Fortunately, the poisoning chance is low, and these things are unintelligent and don't know how to work together. Otherwise, we would have been in real trouble today."

Liu Hao was right. If someone were to be poisoned three times, they would need to immediately use a health potion. The key issue was that to resolve the problem with a health potion, they would have to temporarily withdraw from the battle. Cheng Yang's group only had about thirty people, and if a few warriors withdrew, the subsequent battles would be much harder.

Cheng Yang said, "You should be grateful that the group of poison frogs we encountered was not large. If there were more than a thousand, the first wave of attacks would have been much more severe."

After a brief rest, the group continued forward. In the next kilometer, they encountered four or five groups of demonized beasts, with the largest group numbering about a thousand. Facing such a situation, Cheng Yang was more than willing. As long as the front-line warriors didn't fall, the five mobile artillery platforms behind them could freely slaughter the demonized beasts.

As for Cheng Yang himself, he was now at the front. Although he was a mage, his attack and defense were both over ten, making him the envy of all the warriors in the world.

The battle was intense, but the group's gains were also substantial. Besides Cheng Yang, who gained nearly two thousand spirit points, the other warriors, especially those enhanced by the "Flower Transplant" skill, gained several hundred spirit points each. The three team leaders, including Liu Hao, gained the most, as they were always included when Cheng Yang activated the "Flower Transplant" skill. The remaining two slots were shared among the others.

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