Nightmare Despair

Chapter 117 Synthesis
After waiting for a few minutes, there was a deathly silence outside the door.

Zhou Kai finally breathed a sigh of relief and moved to the fireplace to further recover.

He looked at the broken two-handed sword, the shattered Dark Destroyer, and the nearly worn-out Gastrodia elata wick.

Zhou Kai's face was gloomy.

"It's still too weak."

"I've only explored the tip of the iceberg of the nightmare, and I've only killed a few grunts..."

“Still far away!”

The heavy-armored knight's javelin throw completely shattered Zhou Kai's understanding of the world.

His achievements in reality almost made him underestimate Nightmare.

As it turns out, there was a reason why Morningstar explored the record with humility.

This shot shattered his slight smugness and turned him back into the survivor who planned everything carefully before acting in dire straits.

If we divide the town into the core area, the inner layer, and the outer layer according to the distance from the lakeside to the mansion on the mountaintop.

So, Zhou Kai can only be considered to be able to do whatever he wants in the outer areas at the moment.

"The manor exploration will have to be postponed."

Zhou Kai's eyes returned to their cold and clear state.

That's right, time is of the essence. Every night that the core of the nightmare is destroyed, the intensity of the dream will increase by one point.

But it is precisely in times like these that we must remain calm and proceed step by step.

In this long race where both sides start at the same time, as long as he doesn't fall easily, he will surely win in the end.

Therefore, there is no need to strive for a temporary victory, let alone gamble with one's life.

Zhou Kai understood this and decisively changed his strategy for the night.

For now, the top priority is to gain experience and become stronger.

After a while, Zhou Kai's injuries had completely healed.

Looking at the few broken props, he shook his head slightly.

These things are also part of his combat strength, and he can't afford not to repair them.

Thus, the seven experience points I had just accumulated were also reduced to zero.

The experience points were used to repair the two-handed sword, gauntlets, and Dark Desolator, and incidentally, to restore the durability of the Gastrodia Lamp Wick.

Compared to remanufacturing, the experience points consumed in repairs are negligible.

……

In the time that followed, Zhou Kai transformed into a silent hunter.

Centered around house number 777, it moved like a ghost through the streets of the town, tirelessly advancing and sweeping away everything in its path.

Explore every room, kill every living creature, and leave a trail of blood.

Zhou Kai's strength is at the peak of True Energy. When he launches a victorious charge, his explosive power is no less than that of a martial artist who has just entered the second realm.

Annihilation can deal bug-level damage, making it particularly effective against monsters that, while tough, are actually vulnerable to ranged piercing attacks.

Two hours passed in the blink of an eye; the heavy rain subsided, and the sound of raindrops gradually disappeared.

Instead, there was a damp, fine... friction sound.

Signs of a bloodbath began to appear.

Zhou Kai stopped and returned to the shelter, preparing to hold out for the next six hours.

At this moment, if you look down from a high place...

The dirt road leading to No. 777 in the upper part of the town had been plowed into deep furrows by Zhou Kai's actions of dragging the corpse.

Near the core area, there were many ruins riddled with holes from RPG attacks.

Clearly, the knight tried to attack Zhou Kai several more times, but the distance was too far and Zhou Kai was on guard, so he failed to hit him.

……

Zhou Kai kicked the last chain-hammer armored soldier's body into the basement, then leaned against the fireplace, recovering his almost completely depleted strength.

After two hours of intense clearing, Zhou Kai killed exactly eleven monsters.

The gains were considerable. The fireplace's burning time was extended to 113 hours, and the fertilizer in the nursery was piling up, far exceeding what the plants could absorb in a short time.

He had no choice but to pile the bodies in a corner.

The temperature in the nightmare was extremely low, so the corpses did not decompose. Although there was a faint stench of decay, it was a refreshing smell compared to the pungent odor of gastrodia elata.

Once he got used to the smell, Zhou Kai stopped caring.

"panel."

[Character: Zhou Kai]

[Status: Erosion, Clear Mind, Vitality]

【Scars: Chariot - Part 1 (57/100)】

【Characteristic: Strong】

【技能：鵟爪功lv1（0/15），隼击术Lv5（max），索拉卡剑术lv3（34/50），神秘学lv3（1/50），综合格斗lv3（1/50），轻盈步伐lv3（17/50），枪术·射击lv1（14/15）】

[Items: Residence Permit, Morning Star Notebook, Exquisite Moonlight Orchid Amulet, Sturdy Two-Handed Greatsword, Heat-Resistant Gauntlets, For's Gift (Life Candlelight), Mutant Wolf Hair, Slime Fungus, Nightmare Goggles, Annihilation, Memory*20, Skin*6...]

[General Experience Points: 109]

The progress of the engraving advancement is finally more than halfway complete.

My experience points, which had just dropped to single digits, quickly rose back above 100 and continued to increase as the fireplace burned.

Also thanks to the fire in the fireplace, Soraka's swordsmanship and spearmanship skills are about to level up, even though Zhou Kai didn't actively allocate points to them.

"Once this upgrade is over, I should be able to... collect some interest from that knight, right?"

Zhou Kai looked up at the ceiling, and the rustling sound of the blood-red beetles churning grew closer and closer.

He went up to the second-floor balcony and glanced outside. As before, the beetles avoided Number 777 as if it were a plague.

But Zhou Kai discovered something ominous.

The isolation zone has visibly narrowed.

"Could it be that their resistance to Moonshine Orchid is also increasing as the Nightmare duration passes?"

Zhou Kai drew the curtains and rushed downstairs.

There's no need to worry for now.

But next time, and the time after that, it's hard to say.

Based on the rate at which this distance is decreasing, at most four blood tides will be enough to completely neutralize the influence of Moonshine Orchid.

"Expansion of the nursery is imperative! Next night, the expansion of the nursery will be a priority!"

Zhou Kai's expression was somewhat cold and stern.

While hunting those monsters, Zhou Kai actually sensed that the swordsmen, armored warriors, wanderers, and parasitic corpses had all subtly become stronger.

Although the monster's enhancement is almost negligible compared to the extent of his own growth... it is still a threat.

“Besides destroying the Nightmare Core, I can also try to… kill all the Nightmare Monsters.”

"If they're all dead, they probably won't get stronger anymore."

However, this is a massive undertaking that is even more troublesome than finding and defeating the core. Zhou Kai is only thinking about it and has no concrete plans to implement it for the time being.

……

Time passed slowly, and soon all the extra experience points from the fireplace were credited to my account.

Some people even leveled up directly because of this skill.

During the Blood Tide period, there wasn't much Zhou Kai could do. He found a place to sit down, began to organize his gains, and prepared to start this round of skill point allocation and enhancement.

After the enhancement is complete, his strength will surely be completely renewed.

First, there are the memory fragments that Zhou Kai has been hoarding for a long time.

To date, we have collected as many as twenty copies.

Perhaps because the quantity had met the requirement, an option to synthesize and enhance the item popped up in front of Zhou Kai's eyes.

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(End of this chapter)