Chapter 161: Overlord of the Mountain

"I suppose you could say that~ Actually, I'm still searching for the answer myself."

Lu Kuan shrugged, smiled, and then turned to Mongo. "By the way, what was with the quest you accepted from me? Did you need something, or...?"

"Oh, right!"

Mongo smacked his forehead, lowered his head to rummage through his leather pouch for a long moment, and tossed an object over to Lu Kuan.

Lu Kuan caught it and took a look, his eyes instantly lighting up.

They were two identical silver coins, five centimeters in diameter. The obverse was engraved with the head of the Dwarf King Kandal, while the reverse depicted a magnificent waterfall cascading between mountain peaks—the exact scene from when the dam was first constructed.

These were the oldest silver coins in Ironboot City, minted under the personal supervision of Kandal I.

"You actually have two of them?" Lu Kuan weighed the coins in his hand, looking at Mongo with pleasant surprise.

Mongo wore a smug expression, rubbing his nose with his thumb. "Of course! Heh heh, but they aren't coming to you for free, you know!"

Lu Kuan gave a hearty wave of his hand. "Name your price."

"Hehe, with our friendship, talking about money would hurt our feelings~"

Mongo flashed a cunning smile. "I'm guessing you want these ancient silver coins to hunt for treasure, am I right?"

Lu Kuan was taken aback. The treasure he planned to explore was extremely well-hidden, and its remote location far surpassed that of the Troglodyte Canyon. How did this guy figure it out?

"What's your proposal?" Lu Kuan didn't answer Mongo's question, instead turning it back on him.

Mongo's large, blue eyes flickered slightly as he spoke word for word, "When you go to explore that treasure, take me with you."

...

Ten minutes later, Lu Kuan and Mongo left the inn one after the other.

Lu Kuan ultimately agreed to Mongo's request. Although the other party had been evasive and refused to reveal his true purpose, intuition told Lu Kuan that Mongo meant no harm.

Moreover, aside from the two ancient silver coins, Mongo had brought Lu Kuan another piece of important news: Tang Jie of Lava Castle had already dispatched men to intercept and assassinate Lu Kuan near Ironboot City.

Unlike Mongo's worry, Lu Kuan was actually delighted upon hearing this news.

This meant the quest on Mongo's end was finally making headway! As soon as the other party made a move, Lu Kuan could follow the vine to find the melon and uncover the questline. Lu Kuan had a feeling that the hidden quest behind Mongo was extraordinary.

Lu Kuan returned to the Adventurer's Guild Hall, re-posted the bounty commission to purchase a single ancient coin, brewed some crafted food and potions, accepted a quest, and headed straight out of the city.

Orcs were scattered across the vast map north of the dam, and nearly 80% of the quests here were related to them. Because of this, the orcs were dubbed the most tragic race in the area—after all, who made them bear a deep-seated hatred for the Ironboot dwarves?

Following the route in his memory, Lu Kuan hurried northeastward. Here, there was a mountainous region where the forests were not as dense as the Black Jungle, but the terrain was steep with numerous branching paths. Consequently, far fewer players came here to grind levels compared to other places.

"Awoo...?"

When Lu Kuan crossed a ridge, Demi suddenly stopped, turned to look at the woods behind them, and seemed to have spotted something.

"You noticed them too?"

Lu Kuan stroked the single horn on Demi's head and smiled. "It's fine, ignore them. Let's keep going."

Ever since leaving the city, someone had been tailing Lu Kuan from a distance, following him all the way from the dam to the mountainous area several miles away. Lu Kuan had acted as if he hadn't noticed a thing, keeping his head down and pressing forward.

After a dozen minutes, as Lu Kuan made a series of twists and turns through the mountains, the tail behind him was quickly shaken off and lost from sight.

Lu Kuan looked back, scoffing inwardly: I've walked through here countless times and still get lost occasionally. You guys think you can track me?

With very few players competing for monsters in the mountains, Lu Kuan found a nearby orc stronghold and began his monster-grinding journey.

With Demi's participation, Lu Kuan's efficiency in killing monsters increased by at least half. Furthermore, Demi possessed the innate high vigilance characteristic of beasts, sparing Lu Kuan the effort of keeping an eye on the surrounding movements.

Such a feeling—how liberating it was.

"Thud~"

As the last orc lieutenant collapsed to the ground, the monsters in this stronghold were completely wiped out by Lu Kuan.

Lu Kuan harvested the orc materials while Demi trotted happily back and forth, making trip after trip to retrieve all the loot and bring it to Lu Kuan.

That was the beauty of having a pet; as long as the player's stamina was sufficient, a pet was like a perpetual motion machine that never grew tired.

"Let's go."

Lu Kuan whistled at Demi and was about to move on to the next monster camp when the ground beneath his feet suddenly trembled and shook violently!

"Rumble, rumble..."

A dull roar echoed from deep underground. Lu Kuan staggered from the shaking, nearly landing flat on his backside, and hurriedly dropped into a horse stance to steady himself.

What was going on? An earthquake?

Lu Kuan felt a surge of uncertainty, his first reaction being to rush toward open terrain. In his past life, the total number of players killed by volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, and massive earthquakes in the game could rival the population of a major city in reality.

When he reached the nearest mountain ridge, the tremor gradually subsided. Lu Kuan looked around and saw dust swirling in the northwest, a large swath of forest entirely swallowed by the haze, as if some gigantic creature was active there.

"Rumble..."

The earth gave another violent shake. This time, Lu Kuan saw it clearly: the dust in the northwest shuddered violently along with the rumbling sound, churning turbulently like a sudden sandstorm.

"Oh? Sounds like something interesting is going on~"

A flash of delight crossed Lu Kuan's heart, and he smiled, arching his eyebrows at Demi. "Well then, want to go check out the commotion?"

"Awoo~" Demi lifted its high neck and wagged its tail vigorously at Lu Kuan.

In agreement, Lu Kuan wasted no more time and broke into a sprint directly toward the northwest.

...

Ahead lay a wide sandy expanse flanked by mountain ridges, with deep canyons stretching before and behind. The ground was covered in dense grass, but one could still tell that beneath the vegetation lay yellowish, dry earth—vastly different from the surrounding terrain.

Right at the entrance of the northern canyon, a dense crowd of players was fighting desperately against a giant chimera.

The creature stood at least eight meters tall, with a dark brown body and three massive heads, each more ferocious than the last. The dragon-like head on the right periodically spewed yellowish mist; with a single shake of that head, a radius of dozens of meters was instantly blanketed in pale yellow gas.

Any player who touched even the slightest bit instantly turned into white light, giving them no chance to escape—truly overbearing.

Moreover, the chimera would frequently lift its two front legs and bring them down heavily. This stomp directly triggered a ground-shaking tremor that sent players within a fifty-meter radius straight to the netherworld, causing the surrounding hills to hum with vibrations.

Behind the chimera, agile, small raptors kept darting out, lunging forward to take vicious bites out of the players. With the boss holding the fort, these little followers of the chimera grew exceptionally rampant, roaring without end.

Hugging the mountain ridge, Lu Kuan gasped in cold air: Tsk tsk tsk, isn't that the boss guarding the canyon? That's an 80+ major boss!

Why on earth are those bastards from Blue Spear trying to provoke it for no reason?