Chapter 298

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Chapter 298: Amateur Hunter

Jesse picked his way back to the black dragon corpse, upon closer inspection, it didn’t look like itself anymore.

Plus the continuous burning of the Shadow Flame, this corpse had turned into a blackened mummy, its scales and skin completely lost their luster, sticking to the bones like black oil, even the abdomen and chest, which were once full of muscles, had severely withered.

The wings held up like dried tree branches, trembling in the occasional night breeze, feeling like they might break with just a touch.

Jesse definitely couldn’t carry the dragon bones, so he went down and knocked off the biggest dragon claws and teeth. These things could be made into some kind of weapon. He remembered there should be dragon claw daggers in the game, or they could be made into decorations. They should be the most valuable things to take away.

This heavy bag of loot, he wouldn’t accept selling it for less than a dozen gold coins.

Leaving the ruins and heading towards the hill, Jesse walked, cutting down the still alive trees along the way. Vereesa’s long sword was fast, sharp, and sturdy, with a good efficiency in chopping wood.

Carrying a small bundle of twigs and wood chips, heading west, looking out for signs of wild animals everywhere. The ground gradually darkened, with dark, crooked stones everywhere, and charred tree roots. Was this heading deeper towards the Burning Steppes?

Looking up at the sky, dark thick clouds covered everything. Lightning occasionally rolled and moved within the clouds, emitting a few muffled and faint thunder noises.

Down here, there was no lightning, no thunder, all masked by the visible firelight, and the complex background noise from the Blackrock Mountain.

Hearing people from Redridge say that Fire Lizards lived near the lava, Jesse really didn’t know what Fire Lizards were. Were they similar to Basilisks, with six legs?

Seeing a narrow lava crack ahead emitting a fiery glow, Jesse ran up to it and glanced down. The light from the rising magma burned his eyes.

When he looked up again, everything outside had turned dark.

Once his eyes adjusted, he noticed a dark green thing shaking among the high rocks.

Is that a… scorpion?

Peering closely, the green next to the sharp rock seemed to be a crustacean claw raised high. Jesse took a few steps closer, and the claw suddenly retracted.

The claw was quite large, similar to the gigantic crabs Jesse had seen at Stormwind Harbor. He estimated the scorpion to be as big as a wild dog. If it were to strike with its stinger, it could probably do some serious harm even without venom.

Jesse checked his bag and placed the only bottle of antidote in his pocket, then began climbing towards the higher ground. As he approached, he hid behind a scorching black stone, peered out sideways, and saw the scorpion still swaying its claws in place.

Jesse cautiously inched closer, and the scorpion suddenly stopped trembling.

Behind the rock, a pair of yellowed eyes became visible.

Those weren’t the scorpion’s eyes but rather a black wild boar nibbling on the scorpion!

Jesse didn’t notice it at all, its black fur blended perfectly with the ground.

The wild boar saw Jesse and immediately showed aggression, sprinting towards him, kicking up a cloud of dust. Jesse quickly cast Curse of Weakness, making the boar stumble and roll down the slope. Jesse dodged just in time to avoid being hit by the wild beast.

Watching the boar tumble down the hill, Jesse chased after it, sliding and running. When the boar tried to stand up on its front legs, Jesse swiftly stabbed its back.

The knife was fast and pierced through like cutting tofu. Jesse felt a bit uncomfortable, considering the boar’s tough skin from Blackrock Mountain…

The boar howled in pain, turned around abruptly, but Jesse leaped away.

Stumbling on the slope, the boar took a few steps back unsteadily. It didn’t intend to chase Jesse, only snarling and trembling legs, trying to stand up on the ground.

It wasn’t very big, only reaching Jesse’s thigh in height, but its two tusks curled like small knives, quite threatening. The boar seemed to realize it couldn’t confront the bigger enemy in front of it, so it turned and ran down the slope.

It slowed down as it ran, so Jesse didn’t rush to catch up. It was heading in his direction – towards the ruins.

After chasing for a while, the boar finally stopped and collapsed beside a darkened stump.

If Jesse didn’t give up now, he would lose his emotional bond with Shadow Flame.

The wild boar breathed heavily, staring with what seemed like reluctance. Jesse swiftly sliced open its neck, and the boar let out a hoarse cry, kicking its hind legs frantically.

Seeing the boar still had strength left, Jesse decided not to struggle with it anymore.

Jesse sat down to catch his breath, gazing at the distant, blurry ruins of the city. This time, he was truly exhausted.

Although he no longer felt the pain caused by Shadow Flame, he also didn’t have the surplus energy he used to get from absorbing life forces.

The burns inflicted by Shadow Flame were severe enough to be fatal. If Jesse hadn’t rushed to absorb the Black Dragon’s vitality to heal himself, he would likely have died.

Even after saving himself with the leftover life force from the Black Dragon, Jesse didn’t have much strength to restore his stamina.

So, could he strengthen his power like he did before?

Jesse wasn’t sure. Dealing with just a wild boar didn’t feel like any significant change in his strength or magical abilities. Further testing might be necessary.

Living here is not good because there are no status panels. Everything has to be figured out through trial, guessing, and comparing.

But remembering when they dealt with that young dragon in Southshore, him and Greed, along with many soldiers from Lordaeron, besieged the opponent for half a day before finally killing it.

Here, only him and Vereesa managed to do it.

So, no matter what, he must have become much stronger along the way.

Not to mention this young dragon seems stronger than the one in Southshore. After all, it can breathe out the Shadow Flame seen in the game. The previous black dragon only had a mix of shadow power in its flames.

He thought that was how Shadow Flame looked, but after witnessing it here, he realized the differences.

Jesse looked up towards the distant, hazy Blackrock Mountain peak in the ashes, imagining the power of the Shadow Flame unleashed by Nefarian.

If a young dragon is so terrifying, not to mention an adult dragon, or even Nefarian himself.

By now, the wild boar had stopped moving, with its bright red blood pooling on the ground.

He walked up and kicked, making sure the other person was already dead before starting to cut off the head.

The wild boar’s head didn’t seem to have much meat, it was all fangs and bone wrapped in skin, but it took up half of the whole body. The whole boar was too heavy for Jesse to bother taking back such a big piece of skull, so he just decided to cut the whole thing off.

After finally removing the head, he was so tired that he could hardly stand up, feeling more exhausted than when he killed that young dragon.

Wiping the sweat off his head, he could see that the distant volcano had split into two.