Pale Emblem

Chapter 70 Gnoll Killer

Deep sleep helps half-elves recover their mental strength and maintain their stamina.

The gnoll howled all night in the forest.They want to harass and intimidate half-elf professionals in this way, preventing them from taking a good rest.During the daytime, half-elves are dizzy and mentally sleepy, and their combat effectiveness will inevitably decline to varying degrees.

Realizing that the Orc Bone Collectors were about to attack soon, the half-elf pros really couldn't sleep.They also all understood the importance of recuperating, but apart from Huck and Vertok, everyone else could only close their eyes and rest.

Huck has mastered the heart of the mirror, and he can sleep whenever he wants, and it is deep sleep, which can also be called hibernation.

In a sense, hibernation is a magical skill.

Huck now only needs to rest for 3 or 4 hours a day, to ensure that he is full of energy throughout the day, and will repair some small damages to his body and mind in hibernation.This will allow him to delay aging, increase his lifespan, and give him a few more hours of free time each day than anyone else.After these free time accumulated over time, his life span was twice that of an ordinary half-elf.

Veltok has not yet mastered the mind of the state, but the secret shape of the golden toad itself has a dormant effect and penetrates into the realm of the mind.Now he has a "dream arena", and the flow of time is ten times that of the outside world.When everyone else is sleeping, he can spend more time thinking, studying, training, or undergoing trials in the "Dream Arena".

Thanks to the last successful trial, Vertoc's mental attribute recovered from 4 to 13.It's like, he got the key to the dream arena, he can enter and exit freely, and he will never be trapped in the dream again.

From a realistic point of view, Vertok's mental attributes are only 4 points, and he is a vegetative person who has been in a coma for a long time and cannot wake up on his own.When his spiritual attribute reaches 13, he can control the spiritual dream through the dormancy of the golden toad secret shape.

Spiritual dreams belong to the surreal realm, connecting with the ocean of pan-consciousness.It's just that none of the existences who master the dream of the soul dare to collect the spiritual thoughts of all beings directly from the ocean of pan-consciousness like Vertok.

This can certainly enhance one's own spiritual power, but there is also a major risk of soul contamination.

In the past few days, Vertok has not been idle every night, and today is no exception.Companions saw him sleeping soundly as usual, but he was actually undergoing a difficult trial in the "Dream Arena".

"The following is the second and fifth round of trials. Challenger Vertoc, are you ready?"

In the center of the Dream Arena, the mythical three-headed lizard Portanos stared at Vertok with three pairs of jewel-like eyes. The body made of smoke seemed much thicker than the last time, but his eyes and words Still lacking in spirituality.

Vertok rubbed his cheeks hard, adjusted his mind, gritted his teeth and said, "I'm ready!"

"The challenger has decided to take the test, and his opponent is Huo, the gnoll king from nowhere."

"Huo, the gnoll, once left his own traces in the world. He is in an important period of life transformation, and he has just awakened the power of the storm in the depths of his blood."

"It must be an exciting game, let's wait and see who is the winner at the end!"

The smoky body of Portanos quickly faded, and the phantom of a gnoll gradually turned into reality, just opposite Vertoc.

It is slender, with mottled scars on its gray fur, and a round ear missing from the coyote's head. It looks like a weak and frail body, but it exudes a fierce and wild aura.This third-order violent gnoll was clutching a strange knife polished with a giant rhino horn, and his dark green eyes kept rolling in his sockets, appearing vigilant and confused, as if wondering why he suddenly came to this unfamiliar place.

The Dream Arena is empty and flat, and there is no place to hide.Gnoll Huo's gaze naturally fell on Vertoc.

It didn't recognize the humanoid in front of it at all, but Vertoc also held a horn weapon in his hand, and it was almost identical to its weapon.

Huo the Gnoll couldn't possibly mistake his own sharpened rhino horn knife, because the texture of each rhino horn is unique.What's more, it also left its own claw marks on the handshake of this rhino horn knife.

Hook was even more confused. He remembered that he was sleeping in a cave before, and when he opened his eyes, he found himself in a strange and strange place, and the humanoid opposite was still holding its rhino horn knife.

What happened to the rhino horn knife in his hand?

The gnoll raised his claws, looked at his beloved weapon in confusion, turned his head to look at Vertok, and asked curiously and nervously, "What place is this? What animal are you?"

Gnoll language was a meaningless bark in Vertok's ears, and he walked over slowly.Huo's eyes narrowed, he immediately lowered his body, bared his sharp teeth, and let out a menacing growl from the depths of his throat.

Vertok immediately stopped, relaxed his body, and confronted the gnoll for a while.It wasn't until Huo released his guarded posture that his eyes became curious again, and he leaned forward slowly.

Huo is suspicious and vigilant by nature, but Vertoc's bewildering behavior makes him confused. The key is that the wild intuition of the fierce gnoll does not indicate danger, and his mind is confused, so he adopts a wait-and-see attitude. .Vertok took two steps forward, and it took a step back; Vertok walked faster, and it assumed an attacking stance, threatening the opponent not to come closer.

The jackal and Vertok had been dealing with it for a long time. When it became impatient, Vertoc suddenly threw the rhino horn knife in his hand to its feet and took a half step back.

Hook lowered his body slowly, but kept his eyes on Vertok, sniffing the rhino horn knife with his sensitive nose, and actually smelled his own scent from above.

The lean and powerful Jackal couldn't help picking up the rhino horn sharp knife and compared it with the sharp knife in his hand.Vertok slid forward without moving his shoulders or bending his legs, and instantly moved in front of the gnoll.

Huo's reaction was extremely fast, his back hair exploded, his hind legs kicked hard, he counterattacked, and raised two almost identical rhino horn knives to stab at Vertok's face, attacking quickly and fiercely.

However, the gnoll was kicked in the chest by Vertok, flew backwards more than ten meters, and tumbled several times on the smooth and level ground before getting up again.

It's just that it just stood firm, only to find that Vertok has rushed in front of him.Just as Huo was about to fight back, he was kicked in the crotch by Vertok, and he staggered back, and was then hit by a storm.

Vertoc beat the gnoll so dizzy it was powerless to fight.But the Dire Gnoll's body was so tough that not even a single bone was broken.It barked angrily and fought back desperately on instinct.

Unfortunately, Hook's counterattack was ineffective. He simply threw away the rhino horn and sharp knife, scratched and waved with his claws, and gnawed and bit with his mouth.

Vertoc has the original method of Vientiane, and is superb in martial arts.The gnoll with sharp teeth and claws fights by instinct, and is not his opponent at all. He is forcibly beaten into a beast, crawling on all fours, and jumping all over the ground.

Huo was very depressed and flustered.It found that its ability could not be used at all, its proud bloodthirsty power, and the storm bloodline it had just mastered were all silent, and even wild intuition did not work, otherwise it would not have been beaten so badly by Vertok .

However, Vertoc's unarmed attacks did not do much damage to the dire gnolls either.He beat the gnoll without pain or itching, and the gnoll basically couldn't catch him.The battle between the two sides entered a stalemate and turned into a physical competition.

This is precisely the situation Vertok has always wanted to create.

For three days, Wiltok slept an average of three hours a night.In Dreamland Arena, three hours was stretched to thirty hours.As a contestant, Huo the Dire Gnoll met Wiltok for the first time.What it doesn't know is that Vertok has actually fought it more than 200 times.

Vertoc took the initiative to choose a gnoll as his opponent for the second trial in the Dream Arena.He was originally reluctant to conduct dream trials in the wild, but the gnolls who followed them have been haunted, prompting Vertok to improve his abilities as soon as possible, especially the ability to deal with gnolls.

The Dream Arena extracted the incomplete idea of ​​Huo, the king of gnolls, from the ocean of pan-consciousness, and shaped its different stages into Vertoc's trial opponents.

Gnolls are indeed much stronger than goblins, but Vertok is not weak now.He fought Huo at different stages more than 100 times, and finally defeated him.The rhino horn sharp knife was the trophy he seized from Huo after winning the third round.

Vertoc's martial skills became more and more sophisticated, and his understanding of the gnoll Huo became more profound.However, just when he was full of confidence, he was stuck in the fifth round.

During this period, Huo has come to a turning point to get rid of the downturn and move towards the peak.It not only completed the transformation of ferocity, but also awakened the rare storm bloodline by chance, and initially grasped the power of wind.

Facing the Gnoll who turned on his bloodthirsty power and was surrounded by airflow, Vertok was instantly killed by the opponent as soon as he made a move.Just because Huo's speed was so fast that he couldn't react at all.

Fortunately, Vertok can fail countless times in the Dream Arena, and constantly learn from experience. He only needs to win once to get the winning reward of the second trial.

In the fifth round, Huo was killed 55 times in a row, and Vertok was not discouraged.He knew that the Dream Arena chose Huo as a contestant, so with his current strength, he had every chance to defeat it.

Through observation and reflection, Vertoc discovered that the gnoll had a very powerful hidden talent that could be called "Desperate".

When the gnoll Huo is in a desperate situation, he will give full play to his potential, be immune to all negative emotions, immune to pain, temporarily increase his mental strength, completely liberate the bloodthirsty power and the blood of the storm, and his actions will not be affected by air resistance. Movement speed and attack speed increased by 60%, and 20% bonus power burst.Even if Vertok gains some advantages, the mad Hook can still kill him in a single face.

Under normal circumstances, the fight is often divided between life and death at the moment of contact between the two sides.

The bloodthirsty talent of gnolls has serious sequelae. After a few minutes of bloodthirsty effect, they will fall into the mental confusion caused by the thirst for flesh and blood, their physical strength will decline rapidly, and they may even die directly.

Due to his speed being crushed by his opponents, Vertoc could not survive the debilitating stage of Huo's mental confusion and physical exhaustion.

Vertoc also discovered that Huo in this period was only a third-order fierce gnoll, and it could not actively use the bloodthirsty talent and the storm bloodline unless its desperate talent was triggered!
As a result, Vertok changed his strategy and kept hinting to himself that he only wanted to beat Hook hard, instead of killing the opponent.

Vertok tried his best to restrain his killing intent, lowered his own strength, and only fought with Hook with his superb martial arts skills.

Martial arts is the technique of defeating the strong by the weak, and Huo, the king of gnolls, has never seen the secrets of martial arts in his entire life.Just like a simple side kick, Vertok could kick Huo more than ten meters away with the help of the ground's reaction force.This of course requires long-term practice to master all the skills of side kicking.

The same goes for other types of martial arts.

Half-elf professionals with superb martial skills can often easily defeat alien orcs and half-orcs with superior talent and strength as long as their size, strength, and speed are not crushed by their opponents.

The fierce gnoll's physique is naturally strong, but Huo doesn't know martial arts at all, and was beaten to the ground by Vertoc.

Vertoc's fists and feet are not life-threatening to it, so it will not trigger the combat intuition in the wild intuition talent, and the terrible "desperation" talent.

Vertok deliberately suppressed his actual level, which also lowered Hook's combat effectiveness.

Of course, this is not desirable in reality.You can hit your opponent multiple times, and he can take it. He only needs to hit you once, and you may lose your life.But in the Dream Arena, Vertoc has the right to make countless attempts.

Despite this, Vertok was already scarred and out of breath, and the speed and strength of his attack were significantly weakened.

Huo felt the weakness of his opponent, and he smirked at Vertok, raising his claws and swiping at his opponent's face fiercely.

It's now!

A light flashed in Vertok's eyes, he slid sideways, locked Huo's arm, and stimulated his surging talent, his basic strength increased by 40%, his physical strength was completely restored, the wounds on his body healed quickly, and he twisted again.

With a click, Huo's arm was broken.

Under extreme panic, the potential of the fierce gnoll was fully stimulated, his eyes became red due to congestion, his body swelled twice, and he entered a bloodthirsty state.

Unfortunately, everything is too late.

Veltok wrapped tightly around the fierce gnoll, first breaking his right arm, and then using his knees against the gnoll's lumbar spine, so that it had nowhere to exert force, and then a ferocious elbow smashed Huo's back. Turn its head 180 degrees again.

Even though its neck was twisted, the tenacious gnoll was still alive, but it was completely incapacitated, and could only wailed while watching Virtok pick up the rhino horn and pierce its head.

After killing Vertok dozens of times, Huo the gnoll finally died in Vertok's hands.

The gnoll's body turned into nothingness, and a treasure chest appeared in the center of the arena.

Vertok walked over, and the lid of the box automatically slid open to both sides, revealing the dark golden light inside.

Without any hesitation, he touched the dark golden light with his fingers, and all his memories were restored at this moment.

Vertoc, or Victor, frowned his slender straight eyebrows and muttered to himself: "I was pushed to such a degree by a group of weak gnolls and goblins... It seems that I need to be replaced by wind. Elemental affinity can deal with the next situation."

Victor quickly adjusted his mind and body, the figure of the mythical three-headed lizard reappeared, and the head of the wind element merged into his body.

The winning rewards of the second fifth round of Dream Arena are as follows:

Vertoc has 16 physical attributes, 15 mental attributes, 17 perception attributes, and 18 life attributes.

Fusion of the head of the wind element, the perception attribute is increased by an additional 5 points, reaching 22 points, and obtaining extraordinary perception.

Master the Intermediate Vientiane Principle.

Gluttony talent: The ingestion efficiency of food and medicine is increased by 200%, which is lower than before.

Self-healing talent: The speed of wound recovery is increased by [-] times, which is lower than before.

Activate Talent: Instantly restore 30% of physical energy and energy, and wound healing speed is faster, but the effect is lower than before.

The surging talent disappeared.

Primary popular talent: Can summon breeze to surround the body and items, reduce air resistance, greatly increase movement speed and attack speed, double the effective range of long-range weapons, and increase the power of bows and crossbows by 40%.

Popular talent lasts up to 15 minutes with an 80-minute cooldown.

Mastering the Boiled Blood Talent: Imitate the bloodthirsty talent of the gnoll, and carry out an improved enhancement ability.Virtok provokes boiling blood, increases his attack speed by 30%, and explodes 15% of his extra power. Each time lasts 3 seconds, and the cooldown is 25 seconds.

Boiled blood can only be used continuously for 10 times in a short period of time, otherwise, it will fall into a state of chaos caused by hunger, and severely exhausted physical strength.

Extraordinary perception: Vertoc's perception radius has been doubled, and he is more sensitive to changes in airflow. He can often detect enemies in advance, and his attack accuracy is higher than before.

Gnoll Killer (Title): Slightly adjusted the mental body, giving birth to the psychic tentacles.The gnoll will subconsciously ignore your presence.You do not trigger the Dire Gnoll Wild Instinct and Extremis talents.When they see you, they may have been killed by you.

However, be careful of the gnoll's dying counterattack!

The Gnoll Slayer title is a form of Mind's Touch, and when using this title, the Goblin Slayer title cannot be used!

(End of this chapter)