Chapter 132: Formidable Strength

There was also a small portion of the old creature’s memories devoted to other branches of alchemy.

Among them, Kent discovered the formula for something that had already been lost in the present age—a Mental Restoration Potion.

It was an elixir spoken of only in ancient legends.

Countless alchemists in the modern era had tried to recreate its formula, but every attempt had ended in failure.

The reason was simple.

The primary ingredient of the Mental Restoration Potion was Soul Crystal.

In addition to that, it required the blood of a Psychic-element magical beast, Soul-Lost Grass, and another seven or eight varieties of rare magical plants.

Kent had only learned what Soul Crystals actually were today.

As for Psychic-element magical beasts, which mage did not dream of possessing one as a familiar?

And Soul-Lost Grass was said to grow only upon ancient bones.

For now, Kent could do little more than covet the potion.

He had some Soul Crystals in his possession, but not many.

“Hah!”

Bang!

Just as Kent was lost in thought, a powerful gust of wind suddenly struck him in the face.

Along with it came a foul, nauseating stench.

His first instinct was to roll aside.

But then he remembered Daphne on his back and Niuniu sitting on his shoulder.

He could not dodge.

So Kent planted his feet and drove one shoulder forward.

A heavy impact followed.

Something slammed hard against him.

Kent froze.

He had already prepared himself to lose an arm.

“Damn!”

But when he finally saw what he had struck, even Kent could not stop himself from swearing.

It was an Earth Lizard weighing several hundred jin.

Earth Lizards were only low-level magical beasts, but their defensive ability was comparable to that of many intermediate magical beasts.

Among all elemental creatures, Earth-element magical beasts were renowned for possessing the strongest defenses.

And this particular lizard was covered from head to tail in thick, hardened scales.

Yet this massive creature had just been sent flying by a single shoulder strike.

Its body crashed violently into the nearby stone wall before sliding limply to the ground.

Several chunks of rock broke loose and fell with it.

A pool of bright red blood quickly spread beneath its body.

It was obviously dead.

Kent knew that his body had been strengthened by dragon blood.

The deep footprints he occasionally left in the stone beneath him were proof enough of that.

But even he had not expected to kill a magical beast in a single blow.

And not just any magical beast.

An Earth Lizard, a creature famous for its defense.

Once the initial shock passed, wild delight surged through him.

His body had become this powerful?

Excellent.

With strength like this, catching people off guard in the future would be unbelievably effective.

“Damn it. You still want to come at me?”

Kent quickly put on his night-vision goggles.

Only then did he realize that Earth Lizards surrounded them from nearly every direction.

Apparently, they had stumbled straight into the territory of an entire pack.

The creatures had most likely been attracted by Kent’s illumination spell.

And from their perspective, Kent probably looked like an easy meal.

A weak target.

A soft piece of prey.

Kent muttered angrily under his breath, a cold gleam flashing through his eyes.

In truth, he had already realized his mistake.

Casting the illumination spell here had been a terrible idea.

They had reached a much wider cavern.

Kent still remembered this place.

He and Daphne had rested here for a while on their way down.

Because the illumination spell could only light a limited area around him, Kent had failed to notice that the narrow tunnel had already opened into a vast chamber.

And without realizing it...

he had walked straight into an Earth Lizard ambush.

Thud!

Thud!

Thud!

“ROOOAR!”

From the darkness emerged an enormous Earth Lizard nearly twice the size of the others.

Its heavy footsteps shook the ground as it approached.

When it reached a point not far from Kent, the massive creature raised its head and released a deafening roar.

At once, every Earth Lizard surrounding Kent surged forward.

Clearly, this was one of the pack’s usual hunting tactics.

Kent watched the creatures rushing toward him at full speed.

He immediately lowered Daphne to the ground, then backed himself against the stone wall.

With one sharp movement, he tore off his oversized mage’s robe and tossed it aside.

Then he reached into his spatial ring.

A massive lance appeared in his hand.

A dragon lance.

It was more than seven meters long.

Such weapons were designed specifically for Dragon Knights—and, more importantly, for fighting other Dragon Knights.

The shaft itself had been forged from an exceptionally hard alloy, while the entire spearhead was made of adamantine.

Intricate magic arrays covered nearly every part of the weapon.

Thanks to the memories Kent had recently absorbed, he could now recognize several of the enchantments engraved upon it.

Heavy Strike.

Armor Piercing.

Acceleration.

Rending.

And several other auxiliary spells.

The dragon lance weighed nearly a thousand jin.

Combined with Heavy Strike, even a dragon would probably be unable to endure more than a few direct blows.

Armor Piercing made the weapon especially deadly against scales and enchanted armor.

Acceleration dramatically increased the speed of each thrust and swing.

As for Rending...

A wound made by the lance was already large enough to leave a hole the size of a bowl.

Once the Rending enchantment activated, that wound could easily be torn open until a chunk of flesh the size of a washbasin disappeared with it.

In the past, Kent had barely dared to touch the weapon.

Something weighing close to a thousand jin had simply been beyond his ability to wield.

Now, however, he held the dragon lance in one hand.

His eyes gleamed with excitement.

“Come on, then.”

A vicious smile appeared on his face.

“However many of you come at me... none of you are leaving.”

In Kent’s hand, the silver-white dragon lance looked almost unnaturally light.

It moved as naturally as though he were holding nothing more than a slender rapier.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Earth Lizards leapt toward him from every direction.

Each impact was followed by a dull explosion and a burst of blood mist.

Bodies were hurled outward one after another.

Some crashed onto the cavern floor.

Others slammed directly into the surrounding walls.

Not a single one managed to stand again.

Under the glow of Kent’s illumination spell, the seven-meter dragon lance became a streak of flashing silver.

Every time that silver light appeared, several Earth Lizards were sent flying through the air.

They struck the ground with heavy thuds or smashed violently into stone walls.

And yet the pack continued to charge.

Again and again.

“Hahaha!”

Kent laughed wildly.

“Come on!”

“Come on!”

Strength seemed to surge endlessly through his body.

Stimulated by the smell of blood and the frenzy of battle, he swung the dragon lance even faster.

Stone shattered beneath it.

Earth Lizards shattered beneath it.

Within only a few breaths, nearly ten of the creatures had already died beneath Kent’s lance.

After all, this was a weapon designed to kill dragons.

Compared with dragons, these oversized reptiles were hardly worth mentioning.

“ROOOAR!”

“ROOOAR!”

The Earth Lizard leader watched its followers fall one after another and released several furious bellows.

Then its enormous body began to accelerate.

It lowered its head.

Its thickest scales covered its skull, making that part of its body its most powerful weapon.

And now it intended to ram Kent head-on.

“Come on!”

Kent shouted.

“Come on!”

At that moment, he wanted nothing more than to discover just how powerful his newly strengthened body had truly become.

He raised the dragon lance high above his head.

Then he fixed his gaze firmly on the gigantic shape charging toward him.

The Earth Lizard leader was nearly ten meters long and almost three meters tall.

Every boulder in its path was smashed apart, spraying fragments of stone in every direction.

But Kent saw none of that.

His eyes remained locked on a single target—

the enormous head of the Earth Lizard leader, wrapped in layer after layer of thick, hardened scales.

The dragon lance in Kent’s hands had originally been designed to kill through thrusting.

Yet in his hands, it had become little more than an enormous, incredibly sturdy club.

If a genuine Dragon Knight ever saw him abusing such a magnificent weapon this way, there was a good chance Kent would be challenged on the spot.

But Kent no longer cared.

The nervousness he had felt at the beginning of the battle had long since disappeared.

One Earth Lizard after another had been smashed away by his lance like torn sacks, sent flying through the air before crashing down and never moving again.

The feeling was intoxicating.

For a moment, Kent even had the strange illusion that what he held was not a dragon lance at all, but an enormous tennis racket.

The Earth Lizards leaping toward him were tennis balls.

And the massive Earth Lizard leader charging straight at him...

was simply one very low, very heavy ball.

This time, Kent planted his feet firmly.

His eyes narrowed.

The dragon lance steadied in his hands, its tip aimed directly at the strongest and most heavily defended part of the Earth Lizard leader’s body—

its head.

The Earth Lizard leader stared contemptuously at the tiny human standing in its path.

It had no idea how many creatures had already died beneath this charging attack.

And now this insignificant human actually thought he could stop it with nothing more than a metal pole?

The leader glanced at the corpses of its fallen pack members scattered across the cavern.

Its fury erupted.

“ROOOAR!”

With a thunderous bellow, it accelerated again.

Its enormous body hurtled toward Kent with terrifying speed.

Broken stone sprayed behind it.

Dust rolled upward in thick clouds.

Then, when it was only a short distance away, a layer of earthen-yellow light suddenly burst across its body.

Kent’s expression changed immediately.

The yellow radiance thickened in an instant, forming a dense layer of stone-like armor over the creature’s already formidable scales.

Kent sucked in a breath.

“Stone Armor!”