As an NPC, having a lot of skills is quite reasonable, right?

Just as dawn was breaking, the basement door was pushed open.

Green emerged with two huge dark circles under his eyes, carrying a sealed lead box and two bottles of medicine that shimmered with a pale blue light.

He didn't sleep a wink all night.

In order to purify the components that could withstand high concentrations of sulfur gas, he scrapped three sets of condenser tubes, but it was all worth it.

【Azure Lung Cleansing Agent】

[Level: Common]

[Quality: Perfect]

[Item Description: The liquid is a deep, azure blue, resembling liquid ice.]

[Type: Consumable/Alchemy Potion]

[Use: Removes the current poison status and grants the Azure Protection effect]

[Azure Protection: Grants immunity to sulfur gas and heat poison environments for 20 minutes. During this time, the character's movement speed is increased by 15%.]

[Cooldown: 60 seconds]

[Note: "In that suffocating sulfurous hell, a sip of coolness is the salvation of life." — Callum Grant, the explorer who loved to get lost]

Just then, Grin saw Moen coming downstairs. His voice was hoarse but extremely excited: "Lord Moen, this is the antidote I made. I guarantee that this potion can completely isolate you from the effects of the high-temperature toxic gas environment!"

"Well done." Moen took the potion and patted him on the shoulder.

"Go get some sleep. You don't want Lily to see you looking like this."

As they were talking, Lily, wearing an old wool sweater that Alvin had altered to be two sizes too small, walked out, leaning against the doorframe.

"Brother Moen."

The little girl's face was still pale, but her eyes were full of worry: "Please be careful, I...I..."

Perhaps because she had been sick since childhood and had not received any education, the little girl hesitated for a long time before she could utter another word.

Moen walked over, squatted down, and gently ruffled her slightly brittle hair, his smile warm: "Don't worry, your brother is the most amazing adventurer in the world. When I come back, I'll bring you that glowing flower."

According to the map provided by the owl, Moen traversed the jungle and canyons for three hours before finally stopping in front of a crevice hidden by withered vines.

Even before getting close, a pungent stench hits you, the surrounding plants have long since withered, and the rock surface is covered with a layer of yellow crystals.

Congratulations on being the first to discover the hidden map: Sulfur Hot Spring Cave!

[Reward: +1 Free Attribute Point]

It's a reward, better than nothing, but it's still very valuable to Moen right now.

Moen happily added the precious free attribute point to Agility; in this narrow and dangerous cave, speed was life.

Moen didn't plan to use Green's potion for the first part of the journey because the routes inside the cave were intricate and complicated. He couldn't guarantee that he would find the location of the [Molten Lotus] quickly. If the potion's duration ended while he was still looking for the way, he would have nowhere to escape.

Drawing his longsword, Moen cleaved through the vines at the cave entrance and stepped into the cave filled with the aura of death.

As a rare map, the Sulfur Hot Spring Cavern is guaranteed to contain rare monsters. According to Moen's memory, the map also includes a rare elite monster and a hidden boss that can only be fought once.

Just around the corner, a translucent red lizard, about two meters long, poked its head out of the hot spring.

[Boiling Blood Red Salamander] Its pair of yellow vertical pupils stared intently at Moen, its throat bulging, and a mouthful of scalding venom sprayed out like a high-pressure water gun!

Moen rolled to the other side to dodge, the venom sizzling and corroding the rock wall behind him.

This monster's mechanics are disgusting. Its attacks will stack fire and poison, and when it reaches 5 stacks of poison, it will explode. Moreover, Moen is only level 13 at the moment, so he naturally has no intention of fighting it head-on.

"I remember this monster's weak point is its abdomen."

Moen used [Frosty Wind Shadow] to dash forward instantly, his longsword precisely slicing across the red salamander's soft lower abdomen.

"Pfft!"

The red salamander writhed in agony, but Moen didn't greedily attack. He retreated immediately after the first strike, using the terrain to his advantage.

Because of its injury, the Red Salamander's status bar showed a bleeding status, which greatly reduced its movement speed. Moen would seize any opportunity to slash at it.

Three minutes later, the red salamander collapsed.

[Defeat rare monster: Boiling Blood Red Salamander Lv.15]

Experience points gained: 442 + 85 (reward for killing enemies above your level)

[Gained Mortal Fragments: 3 + 10 (First Kill Reward)]

[Statue Resonance Conditions Unlocked]

[Toxin Tolerance Test: Kill the target while having at least 5 stacks of "Heat Toxin" applied.]

Looking at the unlock conditions that popped up, Moen sighed. It seemed that he wouldn't be able to unlock the statue this time.

As you go deeper, the cave ceiling begins to lower.

Moen glanced at the status bar; the environmental trait [Sulfur Gas] had increased from 0.5% of health deducted per second to 1%, and the surrounding temperature was becoming unbearable.

After gulping down the lung-cleansing medicine, a refreshing coolness spread throughout his body. Watching the 20-minute countdown of the medicine's effects, Moen sped up.

Because the cave ceiling was lower, Moen could vaguely see countless dark figures hanging upside down from the ceiling, with eerie yellow lights flashing in the darkness from time to time.

Those are [Sulfur Crystal Self-Destruct Bats]. They won't attack unless provoked, but if you're tempted, they'll launch a suicide attack.

Moen held his breath and carefully avoided them.

Finally, after circling around for about 5 minutes, at the end of a road, Moen saw his target.

Beside a pool of bubbling hot spring, a delicate pink lotus flower grows, constantly emitting red specks. Next to it, a seemingly ordinary but enormous rock is emitting white steam.

No, now that I've gathered all three monsters in the cave, are you going to send me rare elites and bosses next?

Moen scratched his head. With his current attack power, he couldn't break through the [Melting Shell Turtle]'s defense at all, and this monster would also regenerate 2% of its health per second in the hot spring.

"If a direct confrontation won't work, then we'll have to use someone else to kill the tortoise." Moen glanced at the sleeping suicide bats on the cave ceiling and came up with a crazy plan.

He took out a piece of red salamander meat he had collected from his backpack, picked it up with the tip of his sword, and hurled it forcefully at the head of the molten shell turtle.

"Smack!" The piece of meat slammed into the turtle shell.

Startled awake, the molten-shell turtle angrily stretched out its head, letting out a deep roar, and high-temperature steam began to spew from the pores on its back.

Instead of retreating, Moen roared and picked up a stone, smashing it hard against the group of bats on the cave ceiling.

"Wake up, my little darlings!"

The swarm of sulfur crystal self-destructing bats, awakened by the sudden noise, erupted into chaos as they angrily searched for who had dared to disturb their sleep.

Moen immediately activated [Frosty Wind Shadow], transforming into a blur as he rushed towards the Molten Shell Turtle, with the swarm of bats behind him pressing down like dark clouds.

Just as he was about to collide with the molten shell turtle, Moen suddenly rolled to the side and hid in a crevice in the rocks.

The bats, having lost their target, did not stop and crashed headlong into the high-temperature steam spewed out by the molten-shell turtle!

The high-temperature steam instantly scalded the fragile bat.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!!"

The first bat exploded, and the violent explosion triggered a chain reaction, with more than a dozen exploding bats detonating on the back of the molten shell turtle!

The molten-shell turtle didn't even have time to retract into its shell before it was blown into the sky by the overwhelming series of explosions.

Its proud defenses were as flimsy as paper in the face of self-destruction.

When the smoke cleared, all that remained on the ground was a charred tortoise shell and a pile of bat carcasses.

[Defeat rare monster: Molten Shell Turtle Lv.17]

Experience points gained: 542 + 327 (reward for killing enemies above your level)

[Gained Mortal Fragments: 4 + 10 (First Kill Reward)]

[Statue Resonance Conditions Unlocked]

[Absolute Violence: During its "Shell Defense" phase, use pure physical attacks to shatter its shell from the front and finish it off (the final hit must deal more than 20% of its remaining health)]

-----------------

[Defeat rare monster: Sulfur Crystal Exploding Bat x15 Lv.16]

Experience points gained: 5316 + 1047 (reward for killing enemies above your level)

[Gained Mortal Fragments: 55 (maxed out) + 10 (first kill reward)]

[Completion condition: "Art is an explosion"]

[Unlock Statue: Sulfur Crystal Self-Destructing Bat]

Congratulations on reaching level 14!

Moen hadn't expected that there was a limit to the number of fragments a monster could drop. He went into the corridor and found that the most expensive skill of the Sulfur Crystal Exploding Bat was 55 Mortal Fragments, so the maximum he could get was 55. After thinking about it, that made sense.

Climbing out of the crevice, Moen dusted himself off and looked at the mess, a satisfied smile spreading across his face.

"Knowledge is good; we should learn it."

He walked to the hot spring, carefully picked the undamaged Molten Lotus, and placed it in the constant-temperature container prepared by Green.

mission completed.

Next, I need to go back and rebuild Lily's magic circuit, and also farm the fragments I didn't manage to collect before.