Chapter 32

Chapter 32: Qian Qi: Hurry up~

Dungeon boss means the highest level monster inside a dungeon. Usually, an E grade dungeon only has E grade monsters, while the monster boss sits around E to E+, and might even be close to D.

The System was clearly prepared. On the Blue System Panel, a little arrow kept swiveling, always pointing straight at where the monster boss was.

Walking along, Qian Qi stopped and eyed the panel, muttering: “That’s weird. Since when are you so kind, giving me directions for free?”

[Listen to yourself…]

[Sending you to your doom is the one thing I’ll always comp you for. ^v^]

Qian Qi: “???”

This System was even more annoying than she was.

Grumbling, she followed the panel and, after two hours, finally found the monster boss’s lair.

Maybe it was because the System led the way, or maybe this dungeon just had very few Magibeasts, but on the whole trip she barely ran into any.

Still, when she’d searched school forums about dungeons, they all said dungeons usually hold tons of Magibeasts; even if Awakeners kill them, new ones respawn after a while. Was this dungeon not normal?

Qian Qi rubbed her chin. Either way, fewer Magibeasts was good for her.

She surveyed the terrain, climbed from the side to perch above the monster boss’s lair, then unhooked a round yellow ball from her gear.

If anyone had seen her, they would have noticed she was loaded with all kinds of Magiplants: Venom Spirit Gourd, Cloudspike, and several other plants that any Magiplant student could name. Their vines were all strung together through the roots of the Venom Spirit Gourd.

The round one she had just taken off was a fruit called a Goldburst Pod.

A Goldburst Pod explodes the moment it gets bitten. It can’t cause physical damage to a Magibeast, but the blast spews a huge cloud of stinky golden powder that messes up Magibeast smell and sight with ease.

Qian Qi pulled off a short green tube that looked like a piece of bamboo and poured out a thick golden syrup.

This was called Magic Honey. It was sweeter than honey, loved even by Magibeasts, and Beast Tamers often bought it as a snack to train their Contract Beasts. People said the more you lick it, the more hooked you get. Qian Qi smeared Magic Honey all over the Goldburst Pod to make sure the monster boss would bite down on it.

“Oh, almost forgot you.”

She fiddled with a few bald strings of Venom Spirit Gourd at her waist. Those gourds should have gray leaves on top, but because those leaves can neutralize Venom Spirit Gourd’s poison fog, she had plucked them all earlier. Only a few were left, and she stuffed those into her mouth.

Next, she tugged free a length of gourd vine, her fingers flying as she tied it into a sling. She fit the chubby Goldburst Pod into it, then crawled to the rim of the lair and lowered the honey-coated pod straight down.

She needed to lure the boss out first and confirm what kind of monster it was, and whether it had poison resistance.

The Goldburst Pod dangled above the lair entrance, swinging a little. Its rich, sugary smell soon drew the attention of the monster boss inside.

Three noses twitched. The boss, napping on the ground, stirred its thick limbs and, the next second, sprang up and ran toward the scent.

Heavy but agile footfalls echoed in the lair. Qian Qi’s heart pounded. She tightened her grip on the Cloudspike spike, then, being thrifty, popped a Tuban Fruit into her mouth.

Thirty thousand yuan… her heart bled. But to stay alive, safety came first.

Just as she swallowed the Tuban Fruit, the huge monster boss stepped out of the lair.

It had a long, powerful lion’s body. Three massive black lion heads rose high, and in the center of the middle head’s brow stood a sharp horn with water-blue ripples. Thin threads of lightning coiled inside it. It looked very dangerous.

Three pairs of lion eyes flashed with pride as they locked onto the Goldburst Pod covered in Magic Honey.

“Roar!”

After a low growl, the Three-headed Thunder Lion didn’t bite the sweet-smelling pod right away. Its big fluffy paw paced the ground. It stared up at the pod, took its time thinking, then finally lifted its head and clamped the Goldburst Pod in its jaws.

Hidden above the lair, Qian Qi waited for the stink to explode… but nothing happened. Puzzled, she leaned out and saw the Three-headed Thunder Lion slyly licking the pod.

Qian Qi: “…”

I actually underestimated your IQ.

She hadn’t expected the dungeon boss to be a lion-type Magibeast, let alone one with three heads. She couldn’t help wondering if a body one and a half times larger than an adult lion could really feed three smart brains.

She studied the horn on the center head. From her tiny pool of knowledge, she guessed it was a lightning-type Magibeast.

That should mean it didn’t have poison resistance, right?

“System, can the Tuban Fruit handle its lightning attack?” To be safe, she asked the System in her head.

[Please have faith in a fruit that costs thirty thousand yuan, okay?] The System flashed a disgusted emoji.

Hearing “thirty thousand yuan” made Qian Qi mad again. Looking at that lion head that kept licking and not biting made her even madder.

She glanced around, snatched up a just-right stone, and hurled it at the head that was licking the Goldburst Pod.

As a kid she was wild, and no one could beat her aim. The stone smacked the lion head, startling the Three-headed Thunder Lion. Its jaws clicked “crack” on instinct, and it bit down on the Goldburst Pod.

Boom. A burst of golden pollen blew out. A terrible, hard-to-describe stink spread at once. The pollen got into the Thunder Lion’s eyes and made them sting shut.

Seizing the chance, Qian Qi held her breath, leaped, and landed right on one of the lion heads.

“Roar!”

Smashed twice in a row, the Thunder Lion burned with rage. The rightmost head roared, trying to open its eyes to see which suicidal Magibeast dared ride its neck, but Qian Qi slid down its mane and crawled toward its wide open mouth.

Three-headed Thunder Lion: “???”

System: [??? What are you doing?]

“Let it eat me,” Qian Qi said like it was perfectly reasonable, crawling as she gripped the Cloudspike and scraped it hard across the Thunder Lion’s tongue.

Bloody lines opened on the tongue. Not very painful, but super annoying to a lion. The head roared again and chomped down toward Qian Qi’s waist.

If nothing unexpected happens… something unexpected will. Its teeth crunched and nearly cracked. Only because it was close to D level did it avoid becoming a “toothless lion.”

When the bite failed, the Thunder Lion tried to swallow her whole. But Qian Qi clung to its teeth and barbs and wouldn’t budge. It couldn’t get her down its throat, and the backward-facing barbs on its tongue almost split her tough defense skin.

She cackled: “Ha! Didn’t expect this, did you? I love it when you want to eat me but can’t.”

[…Wow. You are, in fact, a pervert.]

When it couldn’t swallow her, the Thunder Lion changed tactics and kept chewing, trying to gnaw through her waist a little at a time.

Its tongue kept slathering over Qian Qi’s head. It was gross, but that was exactly what she wanted. If she was right, the Venom Spirit Gourds hanging at her waist had already been crushed.

Everything went as planned. Squeezed hard, some gourds burst into poison fog while others oozed poison sap. The sap seeped through the gaps in the lion’s teeth and soaked into the tongue wounds the Cloudspike had made.

Five minutes later, the right head sagged and passed out from the toxin.

The other two heads: “???”

They stared at Qian Qi climbing out of the third head’s mouth. Maybe it was her imagination, but she thought she saw “shock” on those lion faces.

She coughed, a little polite, and walked toward the middle head, her voice turning creepy: “Buddy, want a taste of me? I’m super delicious.”