The story of the black silk female knight

About half a minute later, the cave monsters, just as they had come like a tide, retreated just as quickly.

Valensa playfully smashed her meteor hammer, killing more than thirty more, while the Red Cloud Adventure Team also made quite a few gains.

Because Valensa withstood the initial wave of attack, the Red Cloud Adventurer Group suffered no casualties and easily left behind the corpses of hundreds of cave monsters, including one Lighthouse-class monster.

He was the younger twin thief of the male warrior vice-captain. Under the cover of the female elemental mage's firepower, he used a short knife coated with a powerful paralyzing poison to launch a sneak attack, first rendering the Lighthouse-level cave monster, his target, unable to escape, before finally killing it.

It was the death of this third Lighthouse-level individual that completely shattered the morale of the Cave Monsters, hastily ending what could be described as a major failure of the attack.

Valensa then opened the can to finish off the unconscious Steel Spikes Cave Monster, and asked the material gatherers of the Red Cloud Adventure Team to dig out the hearts and brains of the three Lighthouse-level Cave Monsters, carefully storing them in a crystal jar specifically for storing bio-alchemy materials.

Of course, all of this was deliberately done for the Red Cloud Adventurer Group to see. Valensa also kept her promise and gave the male thief a sum of money that was much higher than the market price, which was considered a material acquisition fee.

This scene made the other three members of the Lighthouse-level Red Cloud Adventurer Group extremely envious. The female elemental mage immediately asked the male thief for a share of the spoils, citing her merit in assisting the enemy. The male warrior vice-leader also seriously made a suggestion to Valensa:

"I know you are very strong, Miss, but as your esteemed employer, it would be best if you didn't act rashly again. Otherwise, I will feel ashamed of the commission I received later."

"Haha, this was just an accident... Um, if we encounter any more monster attacks in the future, I'll have to rely on you all~~"

Valensa did not refuse. In any case, she did not want the development process to be too smooth. The main reason she took action this time was that she did not want to lose the bet with Thousand Leaf Grass.

You can't lose to that little devil, no matter who you lose to.

"Big sister, you're so shameless!"

Back in the tent, as expected, Thousand-Leaf Grass immediately rushed towards Valensa, clinging to her with its claws outstretched and baring its teeth in a threatening manner:

"I clearly won this time, you cheating dog, big sister!"

"Hey~~"

Valensa swiftly grabbed the thousand-leaf clover, hugged it to her chest, and sat down on the ground.

"But Cao Cao, you didn't say I couldn't do it myself, did you? A bet's a bet, so hurry up and give me a few of your leaves to chew on."

"Hmph, no way! I'll never admit defeat like that! Hehehe..."

Thousand-leaf grass made a face, showing no intention of admitting defeat.

Valensa raised an eyebrow and immediately started playing around with Thousand Leaf Grass in the tent. The fight also affected Tia and Melody.

Chapter 138 established that Flag was not dead.

After a short while of playful fighting, Tia realized what was going on.

The reason why Valensa and Thousand Leaf Grass didn't want to admit defeat wasn't because they were unwilling to give up their own bets, but because they both really wanted the other's bets.

Valensa wanted to chew on the special ninjutsu leaves that Chiba had nurtured with her own body, while Chiba wanted to taste the pure natural drink with primal biological energy.

That makes things much easier.

Tia dragged Melody into becoming the referee, ruling that Valensa and Thousand Leaf Grass were tied, and they exchanged their bets.

All are happy.

The deaths of the three Lighthouse-level individuals seemed to have intimidated the Cave Monster clan.

The next day, Valensa and her companions didn't encounter another caveman, clearly because the creature was deliberately avoiding them.

This left the four Beacon-level Red Cloud adventurers, who were eager to make another fortune, somewhat disappointed.

As a large adventure group with a pretty good reputation, the Red Cloud Adventure Group does things for money.

Since there are no more cave monsters to fight, let's focus on the investigation missions.

The various geographical and ecological data about the Maussmora Basin were compiled into a high-quality report after a full day of investigation and exploration the following day. This served as proof to Valensa that the Red Cloud Adventure Team had not wasted their commission on the second day.

In the evening, Valensa and her friends maintained their relaxed, picnic-like attitude, chatting idly, playfully roughhousing, enjoying their food, and even having a few drinks.

The Red Cloud Adventurer Group, however, did not let their guard down. After all, the Cave Monster was known for its vengefulness, and its cowardice during the day might mean it was planning something big at night.

Therefore, all four Lighthouse-level Red Cloud adventurers chose not to sleep that night. After all, they would be returning at noon the next day, and for adventurers of their caliber, staying up all night was not a big problem.

It turned out their worries were unfounded. The situation on the second night was the same as what Valensa had bet on with Thousand Leaf Grass on the first night—nothing happened, and everyone slept soundly until dawn.

...The cave monster, really just chickened out like that?

Not only the adventurers of the Red Cloud Adventurer Group, but even Valensa was somewhat surprised. This cave monster was not the vengeful creature described in the information.

The Red Cloud Adventure Team thought it was a good thing; the commissions were too easy to earn... Apart from a few skirmishes on the first day, the remaining two days were practically like a wilderness vacation.

Of course, the so-called regional survey task was not neglected. The geography and ecology experts in the Red Cloud Adventure Team continued to work diligently, not only writing reports, but also taking samples of all kinds of soil, stone, lake water and other materials to make specimens, which were included as part of the work results.

Valensa was starting to have doubts... She accepted the report with a cheerful smile on the surface, but she was worried inside. How could this crypt monster, who was so weak, help her delay the development time?

But since things had come to this, she had no better options. After lunch on the third day, she pretended to ask a few more questions about the collectable materials and potential mineral resources in the Maussmola Basin before announcing the end of the regional survey and the return of all personnel.

The adventurers of the Red Cloud Adventurer Group visibly breathed a sigh of relief and seemed quite happy... Even though the Adventurers' Guild deducted a portion of the fees, Valensa's commission was still quite substantial.

Most importantly, it was quite relaxing... Apart from a few skirmishes where no one got hurt, it was basically a paid vacation.

Needless to say, the commission of 200 gold coins a day for Lighthouse-level adventurers is considerable. Even the income of 50 gold coins a day for Pearl-level adventurers, after deducting handling fees, is still quite substantial.

The income of over 100 gold coins in three days is roughly equivalent to over 40000 gold coins in Valensa's previous life. Furthermore, the status of a Pearl-level adventurer in Fran is roughly equivalent to that of a graduate from a top university in Valensa's previous life.

Even for graduates from top universities like 985 and 211, an income of over 40000 yuan in three days is definitely not a small amount, and for many people it can be considered a small fortune.

On her way out of the Mawsmora Basin, Valensa overheard many adventurers chatting quietly, discussing where they should go to have some fun after collecting their commissions.

Some people plan to have a nice meal at a famous restaurant, some plan to buy some good wine to drink at home, some plan to maintain their equipment, and some plan to buy themselves some new clothes.

Two female adventurers even jokingly made a pact to go to Pink Rose together when they got back... to do some music and dance.

Valensa was immediately amused... Princess Elses was true to her word; she had already given all her shares in Pink Rose to Tia. These two female adventurers would probably have to pay back all the commissions they earned after their trip to Pink Rose.

Valensa suddenly sensed something was wrong when a young mercenary, encouraged by his companions, said he planned to use his commission to buy a beautiful piece of jewelry to confess his feelings to his sweetheart.

Confessing his feelings back in his hometown is a dangerous move, and it would be even worse than getting married back home.

Almost instinctively, Valensa moved... Amidst the bewildered gazes of the Red Cloud adventurers and even Tia and the others, she suddenly kicked away the young adventurer who had just said he was going home to confess his love to his sweetheart.

Just as Valencia kicked the boy away, a dark shadow, like lightning, like a venomous snake, like the Grim Reaper's chain of death, shot out from the dense forest, passing right through the spot where the young adventurer had just been standing.

If Valencia hadn't kicked him away at that exact moment, the young adventurer would have already had his head blown off.

But the young adventurer managed to save his life by using Leflag to alert Valensa; the others weren't so lucky.

The other two Red Cloud Adventurers, who were in the same line as the young adventurer, were shot in the head without any resistance, and even divine magic couldn't save them... Velenkasa's divine magic might be able to try, but Valensa's divine magic definitely couldn't save them.

"...Enemy attack!"

Amidst cries of deep regret, the Red Cloud adventurers finally snapped out of their daze and entered battle mode.

The enemy chose the perfect time to attack... precisely when they were returning after completing their mission, which was when they were most relaxed.

The four Lighthouse-level Red Cloud adventurers were also slightly affected by staying up all night, which is why there were casualties all at once.

However, being an elite adventurer group, the Red Cloud adventurers quickly got into position and prepared to fight back, even though they were ambushed when they were most relaxed.

The attacker was the Crypt Lord, and that deadly black rope that shot out from the dense forest was the Crypt Lord's classic tongue-spitting stab... only this attack was much stronger and faster than the one Valensa faced on the first night.

After the Red Cloud adventurers got into position, the attackers quickly revealed themselves.

They were all cave monsters, not many, less than thirty in number, five of whom were Lighthouse-level, and the rest were Pearl-level.

Among the five Lighthouse-level cave monsters, one with blood still on its tongue was clearly more powerful than the others.

"This is……?"

Tia carefully examined the cave monster, then recalled the relevant knowledge she had read in books, and was somewhat unsure:

"A battle-hardened individual?"

Chapter 139 The Legendary Battle-Tested Individual

Just as people's physical condition cannot be generalized, and even if a sports student is hit by a landmine, he will recover after lying down for two days, there are also differences between individual monsters.

Adventurers can frequently encounter monsters in roughly three categories.

The first type is the ordinary individual, which is also the most common type of monster. Its strength is stable, and its combat skills rely entirely on bloodline inheritance. It has only a few routines, and it is easy to defeat it if you prepare accordingly. This is also the reason why monsters of the same level can basically not defeat adventurers of the same level.

The second type is the elite individual, which appears approximately once every 5-50 monsters of the same type, depending on the monster species. Elite individuals are generally half a level to a level stronger than ordinary individuals, with enhanced stats across the board, but they do not possess any special abilities.

The third type is the mutated individual, which appears approximately once every 100-700 of the same type of monster. Its strength is at least one level higher than that of the ordinary individual, and it is often the leader of various social monster groups. Not only are its basic racial talents and panel attributes greatly enhanced, but it also mutates into various special abilities.

For most adventurers, mutated monsters are like random bosses in the wild; whether they encounter one depends entirely on luck, and whether they can defeat one depends entirely on their strength.

Strong adventurers can make a small fortune when they encounter mutated monsters, because the body materials of most mutated monsters are rare and valuable.

If a weak adventurer encounters a mutated monster, they'd better hope they can run fast, otherwise they can only wait for other adventurers to discover their relics.

Besides ordinary individuals, elite individuals, and mutated individuals, there is actually another very special type of monster called battle-hardened individuals.

However, the probability of a battle-hardened individual being is extremely low; it might not appear among tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of ordinary individuals, and they almost only exist in legends.

Even a professional large-scale adventure group like the Red Cloud Adventure Team has never seen an individual battle-hardened monster, and Tia has only seen them in books.

Unlike mutated individuals, which rely on talent or chance, tempered individuals can theoretically evolve from any type of monster.

The only way to become a battle-hardened individual is to survive numerous battles, thereby evolving combat skills and wisdom far exceeding those of their kind.

This is why tempered monsters are extremely rare; the vast majority of monsters that have the potential to become tempered monsters are killed by human adventurers or other monsters before they can fully develop.

But that's precisely why monsters that can become tempered monsters are absolutely not to be underestimated... A single tempered monster of the Pearl level can cause a Lighthouse-level adventurer to have a high probability of being wiped out.

The extremely cunning Winged Falcon that Valensa hunted on the cliffs north of Sergin Town already resembled a battle-hardened monster... So even though it was only a Pearl-class monster, it repeatedly caused teams led by Lighthouse-class adventurers from Klar City to return empty-handed.

The cave monster that only knows how to attack during the most relaxed period when the adventure team is returning is very likely to be a legendary fully-formed tempered individual.

Its base stats might not be much stronger than those of a typical mutant, but the actual combat power boost from its experience and skills is absolutely terrifying.

Just like the multiplayer online battle arena games Valencia experienced in her previous life, even with the exact same heroes and equipment, the effect in the hands of a world champion and an ordinary player is completely different.

Upon seeing this opponent, Valensa immediately rubbed her hands together and straightened her legs, her fighting spirit ignited. She longed to rush forward and have a good fight with that battle-hardened cave monster.

But she held back... because the Red Cloud Adventurers, who had just lost their companion, were even more eager to fight that battle-hardened dungeon monster, and Valensa also had to keep her promise to the male warriors and maintain her noble lady demeanor, so she would refrain from taking action if possible.

So Valensa simply took a deep breath and retreated to Tia's side, maintaining the elegance of a noble lady as she looked at the male warrior:

"I'll leave the rest to you, Mr. Deputy Commander."

"Understood, give it to us, young lady!"

The male soldier's voice clearly contained suppressed anger, both directed at the enemy and at himself.

After this mission ends and they return, the adventurers of the Red Cloud Adventurer Group will probably reflect on their actions and realize that they must never let their guard down during the return journey after a mission.

The battle between the two sides quickly broke out in full force.

Valensa and the others didn't make a move, nor did they need the adventurers' protection; they simply stepped back a certain distance to watch.

But the cave monsters didn't seem to want them to be spectators, so three Pearl-level cave monsters went over and attacked them.

As a result, Valensa didn't even need to lift a finger. Giru pulled out his greatsword, which was as big as a door panel, and with Harry's wind-type speed buff, he smashed the three Pearl-level cave monsters into mush with a few swift strikes.

More cave monsters roared and tried to rush forward to continue the attack, but were stopped by the battle-hardened cave monster with a special cry.

After that, the cave monster completely ignored Valensa and her group, turning the battle into a fight against the Red Cloud Adventurer Group.

"The battle-hardened individual is indeed clever. It's trying to defeat us one by one... It realized that we have no intention of fighting right now, so it plans to take care of the Red Cloud Adventurer Group first."

Chiba sighed at this, then jumped onto a horizontal branch and sat down, her two little feet, encased in fishnet stockings and tabi socks, swaying gently above Valensa's head.

"Big sister, who do you think will win?"

"……Hard to say."

Valensa surveyed the battlefield.

At this moment, the battle between the Red Cloud Adventurer Group and the Cave Monsters has been divided into two parts. One part is the male warrior leading all the Pearl-level adventurers in a defensive battle against the siege of four Lighthouse-level and more than twenty Pearl-level Cave Monsters.

Statistically, the Red Cloud Adventurer Group is undoubtedly weaker in this battle, but this adventurer group is indeed quite good at team battles. The members cooperate very well with each other. In addition, they prepared a lot of weapons and items specifically for fighting the cave monsters before they came. So in reality, the two sides are evenly matched, and the Red Cloud Adventurer Group even has a greater advantage.

On the other side, three Lighthouse-level Red Cloud adventurers—a female warrior, a male thief, and a female elemental mage—are besieging a Battle-level Cave Monster.

When adventurers of the same level fight monsters of the same level, as long as they are not caught off guard by a sneak attack, their win rate is generally over 80%. This is a three-on-one situation, so it seems like a sure win.

The Red Cloud Adventurer Group's combat strategy is clear: first, use high-end combatants in three-on-one battles to eliminate the most troublesome enemy; then, when the remaining enemies are of similar strength, experienced and prepared adventurers can easily slaughter them.

However... this cave monster, who was being fought three against one, was not an ordinary mutated individual, but an extremely rare battle-hardened individual.

Red Cloud Adventurers are indeed experienced in fighting monsters, but monsters that can become tempered monsters are even more experienced in fighting adventurers!