Players’ NPC daddy

Blaze held up the smoke goggles and looked around. The challenge had begun, but the surrounding environment had not changed at all.

So how should the challenge be carried out?

"Just like everyone's growth path and opportunities for maturity are different, the content of the challenges is completely different, so the tests I have witnessed cannot be used as a reference." Smoke Mirror reminded.

"Even if you said it, I wouldn't believe it." Blaze turned his head and heard a slight peeling sound. The trial might have already begun.

And the source of the sound came from... a snake! ?

Blaze turned her head suddenly and saw the snake looking at her hands in astonishment. Countless cracks were spreading from her hands to her whole body, and then her skin was peeling off.

But after the skin peeled off, what was exposed was not flesh and blood, but even colder white skin.

This is [molting].

"Oh~ What a coincidence! The Skin Peeling Lord symbolizes the shedding of skin when plants mature and the molting of snakes. Not only does her body consist of plants, she also possesses the characteristics of a snake." Smoke Mirror broke free from the restraints on her mouth, poked his head out to look at the snake, and a low laugh came from the depths of his throat.

"She is now like a ripe...ripe fruit that has been peeled."

"What are you looking at?" Blaze turned Gungnir so that the smoke mirror could only face the snake with its buttocks. "So this is a good thing?"

The snake kept its distance warily, fearing that something might happen to harm Blaze.

Fortunately, she was only forced to shed her skin, and her body was not affected in any other way.

"[The God of Life is hiding beneath the surface of death, ready to burst forth like a budding seed]"

The faint sigh of the Smoke Mirror brought a cold wind, and the shed skin of the snake fell to the ground, growing and sprouting like a seed.

"Come back here." Blaze called to the snake, then distanced himself from the growing skin.

The peeled skin is the snake's slough, which, to some extent, can be said to be a clone exclusive to snake monsters.

In the abyss of the past, the snake skin of the Dark Yujiamei God was active as some kind of creature, and now the snake's skin began to grow under some force.

The snake's real name is Nidhogg. It has the characteristics of a snake and is also a dragon. Needless to say, the characteristics of a dragon are that one drop of blood can create a life.

The saliva and blood of lower-level dragons will cause poisonous weeds and snakes to grow on the earth. The blood of higher-level dragons, that is, ancient dragons, can directly grow lower-level dragons from the earth.

In addition, planting dragon teeth in the ground can produce dragon tooth soldiers.

The skin fragments of the snake that fell on the ground grew rapidly, forming huge, cocoon-like bulges. Then a pair of ferocious hands tore open the bulges, and the ferocious dragon men broke out of the shells. They stretched their bodies wantonly and roared fiercely at Blaze and the snake.

As they roared, transparent liquid spurted out. It was their saliva. The moment the saliva touched the ground, thick corrosive smoke rose from the ground. The moment it splashed onto the trees, the trees withered and died.

[Black Dragon Skin Poison Soldier LV150]

[A dragon soldier that grew from the slough of the Root Dragon, the poisonous snake Nidhogg]

"They look like your followers? Can you command them?"

Blaze tilted his head towards the snake, which frowned and stared at the dragon-skinned poison soldiers with its lavender vertical pupils.

"No, they are my followers, but I did not create them."

"It seems that this is the test of the Skinner." Blaze threw the smoke mirror away and walked towards the dragon-skinned poison soldiers holding Gungnir.

"Come on, just treat it as a preview."

Chapter 1386 Infinite Shedding

The Dragon-Skin Poison Soldier is a giant dragon-like creature that is over 5 meters tall. Its entire body is covered with pitch-black scales. Between the scales flows a dark purple light that symbolizes the deadly poison. Its head has powerful masseter muscles that can be felt through the scales.

There is no doubt that the Dragon-Skin Poison Soldier can tear the head of a large beast of the same size directly off its neck with one bite.

This is a reptilian monster that can be called a perfect creature. Despite having such a powerful body, its most deadly weapon is the deadly poison secreted from its mouth.

[Poison] has always been a very subtle attribute, and a skill that only extremely powerful creatures possess.

Most venom attacks are produced by the organism itself and require the consumption of physical strength. Generally, they are only used by extremely weak creatures that can only rely on poison to capture prey or for self-defense.

Slightly stronger monsters will prioritize increasing their muscle mass.

On the contrary, particularly powerful monsters will also have poisonous skills, but the difference is that their poison is generally some kind of characteristic of themselves and does not require physical energy to produce.

Born from the poisonous snake Nidhogg, the dragon-skinned poison soldier naturally carries extremely strong toxicity. Although it is not as strong as the original body's [Highly Toxic Z], its proficiency has still reached the level of [Highly Toxic SSS].

When proficiency reaches this level, it is basically no longer limited to ordinary poisoning of enemies, but can also destroy equipment.

"Well, it doesn't matter, as long as you don't get hit." Blaze spun the Gungnir in his hand into a stick flower and rushed to the front of the dragon-skinned poison soldier in one step.

There are a total of six dragon-skin poison soldiers, all of which are LV150. They are standard minions that will be summoned in large numbers for harassment when switching forms during the final battle, or they can be said to be cannon fodder for the early small BOSSes that lead to clues to the final BOSS.

Saying that there are LV150 monsters is a bit unfair to those monsters below LV150, but this is the reality.

Take the Hundred-Headed Dragon Ladong for example. It itself is made up of countless golden apple trees. The followers it summons during the battle are new Hundred-Headed Dragon Ladong that grow from the fallen golden apples.

The dragon-skin poison soldier who was facing Blaze head-on immediately turned around the moment Blaze approached, and swept across with his thick tail behind him.

Tail flick is a favorite move of large monsters. The tail is far away from the torso, so even if it is blocked, it will not affect the main body. Instead, you can take the opportunity to combo with the enemy.

This is one of the few moves that cannot freeze the enemy even with a perfect parry. It is simple and easy to use. The recommended way to deal with it is to roll forward and backward to get closer or farther away.

or……

Blaze turned in the opposite direction of the dragon-skin poison soldier like a spinning top, grabbed the dragon-skin poison soldier's tail, swung the entire dragon-skin poison soldier up, and smashed it towards the other five dragon-skin poison soldiers.

You can also rely on your extremely high strength attribute to throw the enemy away.

Although it looks exaggerated on the screen, the actual strength attribute required is not high. The weight of the Dragon Skin Poison Soldier is not heavy, and you can lift it by specializing in strength attributes. As long as you can lift it, it is not a problem.

The dragon-skin poison soldiers that collided with each other jumped up and surrounded from five directions, and one fell from the sky.

They opened their mouths, revealing fangs that secreted extremely poisonous poison and bit towards Blaze, with their arms spread wide, forming a dragnet.

Blaze grinned and rushed towards the dragon-skin poison soldier who had launched the first attack in the encirclement. He made a move that would make the dragon-skin poison soldier stiff, which was to reach his hand into its mouth.

This was undoubtedly an act of suicide. The Dragon-Skin Poison Soldier had only been around for less than five minutes, but as a living being, it had already understood its greatest weapon.

It would be much easier if the prey actively reaches out to touch you.

Blaze grabbed the Dragon Skin Poison Soldier's chin. Its fangs were blocked by [Armor·Life], but the poisonous saliva would turn into poisonous steam in the temperature of the Dragon Skin Poison Soldier's mouth.

The highly toxic steam directly penetrated the armor and touched the skin, causing the toxicity to take effect instantly.

【Metamorphosis Z】

Blaze's strength increased instantly, he threw down his arm, and the dragon-skin poison soldier's jaw was torn off, and then the entire chest cavity was torn open.

【Fatal execution】

The dragon-skin poison soldier exploded instantly like a punctured red balloon, and the equally poisonous blood splattered on the eyes of several dragon-skin poison soldiers, causing them to lose their vision temporarily.

Normally, blinding with blood is useless against reptile monsters because they have nictitating membranes. Unfortunately, this is their poisonous blood, which is extremely corrosive.

Of course, whether dragon blood can harm the dragon-skin poison soldiers that produce highly toxic substances is another question. Generally speaking, it is impossible. After all, dragon blood has been flowing in the bodies of dragon-skin poison soldiers. It would be strange if there were no antibodies.

But if it is the [eyes] that touch the dragon blood, it is another matter. This is popular science from a foreigner. There is a group of guardians in the body, but the guardians in the eyes are very magical and not the same as the guardians in the body. The guardians of the body will even treat the eyes as foreign objects and treat them as foreign objects.

For a while, Blaze was worried and praying, hoping that the guardian of his body would not discover his eyes.

To sum up, the blood from the Dragon Skin Poison Soldier can cause damage to the Dragon Skin Poison Soldier's eyes.

The dragon-skin poison soldiers immediately covered their eyes and wailed, and the scalp-numbing corrosion sound and white smoke rose at the same time.

Blaze closed his eyes early, but not to avoid the poisonous blood.

The red guide line shuttled through the darkness and landed on the dragon-skin poison soldier, as if marking him to attack.

Ever since he used the combination of [Visceral Critical Hit] x [Fatal Execution] to blast the Sun-Eating Bear from the inside, [Mark of Saint Longinus] has been considerate enough to mark the location of the attack during battle.

This is quite convenient, but what bothers Blaze is the mark of [Seal of Saint Longinus] that does not distinguish between friend and foe.

If it was a joint battle between multiple people, he would most likely accidentally hit his teammate with a punch. Fortunately, he was fighting alone now, and the dragon-skin poison soldiers were very obvious.

Blaze's punches landed with incredible precision on the spot marked with the [Seal of Saint Longinus]. Each punch shattered the scales and sank deeply into the flesh, with the force penetrating deep into the muscles.

The ancient dragon creations are very convenient in this respect. They can create a complete ecosystem. The dragon-skin poison soldiers are a complete life form that can even reproduce, so they also have organs related to life.

The fragile organs were shattered in an instant, and the extremely strong body began to disintegrate from the inside out, with the vitality pouring out.

The huge dragon-skinned poison soldiers stood motionless like lifelike statues, with only blood constantly flowing out of their mouths and noses.

"Done." Blaze clapped his hands, but before he could relax, the sound of shattering came from the snake's body again.

"Isn't there only one round?!"

Chapter 1387 The Lord of Skinning

At the moment when the snake shed its skin, it turned the alchemical pyramid over and transformed itself into a chicken, transforming from a poisonous dragon into a bird of the sky.

Birds do not have the ability to shed their skin, so the physical reaction of shed skin stops because of the changes in the body and soul, but only the shed skin stops.

Before the chicken came out to show off, the feathers on her gorgeous colorful feather skirt fell off, just like a leaf blown away by the wind.

However, after this leaf fell to the ground, it also grew, and a monster with a bird's head and a tall human body broke out of the ground.

[Feather Soldier LV120]

[A follower that grew from the feathers shed by the Crowned Bird]

"Hey! I don't have the ability to create followers!" The chicken waved its arms to prove its innocence.

Blaze calmly dealt with the attacks of the feathered soldiers, his attention still focused on the dragon-skin poison soldiers.

The dragon-skin poison soldiers died, but the dragon blood they spit out after their death fell into the earth and grew poisonous plants and poisonous snakes.

This is the job of the cannon fodder's family, to pollute the environment after being killed by the enemy, restricting the enemy's movements.

The current situation is that the chickens and snakes, who are teammates, passively produce followers, or they are followers of the enemy. And after destroying one round, the second round will appear immediately. If it goes as expected, he will kill the feather soldiers in front of him, and the chickens will continue to shed feathers to produce hostile followers.

From the feeling point of view, this does not feel like an attack, but more like a punishment.

"I see. The path to rebirth and the rite of passage can only be completed by one person alone. If you have teammates, it won't be activated. If you have followers, it will become a punishment test for the followers."

Blaze made a rough guess and immediately dematerialized the chicken, then snapped the feather soldier's neck neatly the moment the chicken disappeared.

This time, there was no more breaking sound, and even the poisonous plants and snakes produced by the Dragon Skin Poison Soldiers, and even the Dragon Skin Poison Soldiers slowly disappeared, as if everything was an illusion.

"Sure enough." Blazer let down his guard and glanced at the smoke mirror. This guy must know the reason, but he deliberately didn't say it and just watched the show.

But looking at her innocent expression, it’s not that she really doesn’t know, but she is waiting for him to question her so that she can fight back with “You won’t believe it even if I tell you”.

"I won't be fooled." Blaze used Gungnir to pick up the smoke mirror.

"I didn't say anything~"

After reaching the state of challenging the trial alone, the challenge of the growth ceremony on the road to rebirth becomes much more normal, and monsters will appear and attack every once in a while.

The monster types are not repeated and the levels are of average level. This test is probably not the challenger's strength, but endurance and courage, to see whether the challenger will abandon the captured prey and run away.

Blaze and Smoke Mirror performed a beautiful combination skill, that is, Blaze tied Smoke Mirror to [Gungnir] with a rope, and then swung Smoke Mirror out like the head of a meteor hammer.

The smoke mirror has thick skin and flesh, and it can hit anyone accurately and make a meat patty out of it.

Smoke Mirror simply complained about the inhuman treatment he received.

"As expected, you still hold a grudge against me for secretly hunting humans, and now you are looking for an opportunity to take revenge."

"Was I so obvious?" Blaze stopped, not because he felt guilty, but because he had arrived at the exit. Light shone through the bushes and covered Blaze and Smoke Mirror.

After about seven rounds of attacks, the trial of the road to rebirth ended.

There are two reasons why such an important ceremony ended so simply. One of them is that the most terrifying test in the entire trial is actually the smoke mirror. If you fail to pass the temptation test of the smoke mirror, there will be no further progress.

Another thing is Blaze's unreasonable strength. No matter what the test is, it seems to be a test of whether Blaze is strong enough.

There may be some tests of morality, intelligence, physical fitness, art and labor in the seven rounds of attacks, but Blaze answered them all with his fists. Before the test began, there was only one person standing. After the test ended, there was still only one person standing. How could that not be considered a passed test?

Passing through the bushes, an extremely huge space appeared.

Blaze was stunned by the scene in front of him. The back and the front were like two different worlds. The dark and dense forest instantly turned into an extremely large and bright magnificent temple.

He immediately determined that this was the temple where the Skinner was located, and that it was an alien space similar to Takama-ga-hara.

Smoke Mirror immediately opened his restraints and walked in front with his head held high. Seeing that Blaze was still in a daze, he immediately patted his leg with his tail.

"Kid, there's nothing to see here. Even if you have any questions, you can just ask the owner."

"I prefer to keep the initiative in my own hands." Blaze looked around a few more times, not missing any details, and was in no hurry to leave.

"Ah, ah~~" Smoke Mirror stretched out the sound, and understood why Blaze was so cautious. "You are on guard against the possibility that the Skinner may be an enemy, and collect all possible intelligence."

"That's about right..." Blaze nodded reluctantly, agreeing with Smoke Mirror's statement. Sure enough, Smoke Mirror showed the same reaction as Quetzalcoatl, but it was even worse.