I loaded the Mysticism panel.

Chapter 151 Ether Outbreak (Bonus Chapter for Monthly Tickets)

At the bottom of the slope, Captain Field stretched briefly.

Under his spiritual vision, flames shot from his chest to his entire body, and his outline shone brightly white on the ethereal plane.

The knowledgeable Maggie added in a low voice, "This is Ether Burst, which only professional-level hunters can use."

"The practitioner stage can only be maintained for a maximum of ten minutes, and during that time, the explosive power is several times that of normal."

Richard saw Captain Field take his first step.

He leaped up from the meadow, as if his feet were being lifted up by an invisible wall.

The landing point was that puddle.

Captain Field had already gripped the pair of short axes at his waist.

The axe is double-edged; the axe head is not large, but the blade is extremely thin.

Richard could see with his clairvoyance that a dark red ethereal membrane was attached to the axe blade.

This should be called temporary weapon enchantment, which requires a highly skilled practitioner with near-mastery to do.

The axe blade itself is nothing special, but when it is touched by the aether, it will have an effect similar to the dispelling of evil spirits by an enchanted bullet.

As his thoughts raced, the captain had already swung his axe for the first time... Richard couldn't see the trajectory of the slash.

He only saw Captain Field raise his right hand and then lower it again.

With a flash of dark red axe, the swamp corpse's fleshy face was cleaved in two from head to jaw.

When it was split open, a stream of brown fluid gushed out of the corpse.

Captain Field used his left hand to grip the axe and strike horizontally, deflecting all the gushing lava.

The newcomers present watched intently.

The second axe blow was even faster; before the captain's heels even touched the ground, the target's upper and lower body began to separate.

The third one was a coal-dampened traveler, which poked its head out of the puddle, and the captain tossed it with his right axe.

The axe spun three times in the air, its blade embedding itself right in the center of the meat pie's face.

The fourth one has already been dealt with by Sarah.

Richard's gaze shifted to Sarah only after seeing the gunshot.

The huntress did not engage in close combat; she stood at the bottom of the slope, slightly to the south.

He raised the double-barreled shotgun, aimed, and fired.

"Bang!"

The double-barreled shotgun is loaded with two rounds at a time and fired separately.

The first shot had barely left the barrel when her hand was already loading the third.

The third shot was fired, and his left hand was already loading the fifth one.

The microcirculation works in sync with every shot, reload, aim, and every movement of the body.

Including reload time, Sarah fired six shots in eight seconds.

Six evil creatures fell, including two Coalwalkers.

Even the thickest skin of a coal-loving traveler can't withstand a silver bullet hitting his neck joint.

Captain Field is already chopping down the seventh swamp corpse.

Richard watched the two men's actions and felt a surge of emotion.

A Blood Path hunter, in his Ether Burst state, can harvest evil creatures like wheat.

He looked at the continuously flashing dark red axe and thought of what Hecate had said.

Abyss + Hunter: Almost unmatched at the same rank, capable of competing with some top-tier players.

An ordinary hunter becomes this amazing after activating Ether Burst.

How terrifying would a master hunter with a deep abyss tradition be when fighting with all his might?

At the bottom of the slope, Captain Field's etheric burst was nearing its end.

His microcirculation gradually calmed down from that scorching heat, returning to its usual energy-saving state of slow simmering.

The dark red color on the blades of the two axes on the left and right sides has faded.

The axe blade was restored to its original shape as if it had been forged in a regular blacksmith shop, except that it was covered in dark brown mud.

The two hunters had cleared out all the coal-cured walkers, but deliberately left a few swamp corpses.

Captain Field, carrying two axes, waved to the four new recruits.

The pool of dark water in the depression looks like an eye from below.

"Don't stare," Sarah's voice came through. "If you stare, you'll be stared back at."

Richard immediately looked away.

"Spread out and take positions around the rocks," Captain Field commanded.

"Twenty paces apart, Edmond East, Richard South, Maggie West, Theodore North."

"Sarah and I stayed on the perimeter, and we'd blow the whistle if anything happened."

The four newcomers each went to their designated positions.

Richard stood on the south side of the rock and stepped onto a relatively firm meadow.

Beneath the meadow lies sticky black mud, and below that, water.

He put down his backpack and started his breathing exercises.

When the first complete cycle ended, he could feel the "door" right under his feet, a door much wider than the door to the Highland Summer Lodge he had seen the day before.

During the exhalation phase of the third cycle, Richard took a step forward.

This time, he deliberately reduced the push notification intensity to half that of yesterday.

As the view of the material world receded from the corner of my eye, the entire peat bog changed color.

But this time it's different from yesterday's Highland Summer Lodge.

Under his spiritual vision, he saw echoes from a thousand years ago.

Dozens of figures were lined up in the recessed area at the top of the rock.

They were packed tightly together, each person facing the concave area with their hands tied behind their backs.

The one at the very front was being pushed into the depression by two priests in long robes, who were pressing down on his shoulders.

The man being pushed struggled violently, and Richard could see his heels scraping against the edge of the rock, leaving bloody marks, while his neck twisted under the hands of the two robed men.

He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

The echoes near the shore are silent.

The scenes unfold, the actions are performed, but the sounds have been worn away by time.

The person was eventually pushed down, his body landing in the crater and splashing water everywhere.

The next person to be pushed up was a woman.

Richard saw that the woman's hair was tightly bound behind her back with a vine.

The woman did not struggle.

In the last second before she was pushed down, she looked up at the sky.

Richard could feel the leaves of his Sun Constellation tree trembling.

It took him three full breathing cycles to stabilize the leaves of the bald foliage.

On the other side of the rock, Edmund stood there, pale-faced, his right hand clutching the silver cross on his chest.

On the north side, Theodore squatted on the ground and vomited.

He was curled up in a ball, one hand supporting himself on the muddy ground, the other hand pressing against his stomach.

On the west side, Maggie was constantly muttering something in Gaelic, seemingly some kind of requiem ballad.

"Stop looking, get back to work!"

Sarah's voice came from the outside.

Richard then came to his senses and took the Webberly from his waist with his right hand for later use.

According to the rules, we only need to deal with the remaining few swamp corpses.

The appearance of the swamp corpse is completely different from that of the bewitching lamp in the highlands of Xiashe.

The Bewitching Lamp is a floating mist, umbrella-shaped, that moves slowly across the ground.

Swamp corpses have a "form".

Richard saw the first swamp corpse crawl out of a puddle about ten paces to his south.

He was on all fours, but his limbs were in the wrong direction.

With knees pointing outwards, elbows pointing inwards, and spine arched upwards, it looks like a giant, bloated frog.

But its face was more repulsive than any horror movie makeup I could remember.

The continuous pickling with peat compressed, deformed, and marinated that face into a dark brown meat pie.

The eyes, nose, and mouth are still in their original positions, but each part has been stretched, twisted, and swollen.

It crawled out of the puddle and moved along the edge of the meadow toward Richard.

It moves faster than the Bewitching Lantern and is much more purposeful.

Richard's left hand touched the silver needle box and pulled out a needle.

During the third cycle of exhalation, the silver needles congeal into nails.

After the nail was fired, Richard knew that this time it would be much easier than yesterday's use of the bewitching lamp.

The Bewitching Lantern has no skin, so the penetrating power of the Moon Nail is not very effective against it.

The swamp corpses have skin, skin that has been cured with coal, thick and tough.

The nail pierced through the chest of the swamp corpse, the silver needle carrying the ethereal nail tearing through the outer mud armor, skin, flesh, and spine.

The swamp corpse stopped, opening its mouth as if to vomit.

Richard's inspiration alarm went off again.

Without hesitation, he activated [Stone Armor] to block.

With a "sizzle," the corrosive liquid only corroded the outermost layer.

He pulled out a second silver needle and shot it out.

The nail struck the swamp corpse squarely in its open, foul-smelling mouth.

The nail pierced through the meat pie and came out from the back of the head.

The swamp corpse leaned its entire upper body backward and fell into the puddle behind it.

Maggie's shouts came from the other side of the rock.

On the north side, Theodore stood by the puddle.

Before him lay a swamp corpse, but the flintlock pistol in his hand trembled.

The first shot was fired, but it missed.

The second shot... Theodore's finger was on the trigger, but he couldn't pull it.

Richard saw that the boy at the horse farm was deathly pale.

The swamp corpse had already crawled to a position three steps away from Theodore.

Maggie is the closest.

As she ran, she held her oak staff horizontally in front of her, clutching the ram's horn carving at the top of the staff in her hand.

When she reached Theodore, Maggie stood her cane upright on the ground.

Richard could see a dark green ether emanating from the head of the staff, forming a ring.

The ring was spread over Maggie and Theodore.

The swamp corpse stopped at the last step of its lunge.

Its "face" looked at Maggie and Theodore for a few seconds, then turned and crawled towards the clump of reeds next to it.

The freckled girl took several items out of the leather pouch at her waist.

They were several small metal pieces resembling darts, with inscriptions engraved on them.

"It's a family heirloom." Maggie said to Theodore beside her, "You stand still, I'm going to hit you."

"...I'll help you." Theodore gritted his teeth and raised the flintlock pistol again.

"Your hands are shaking, you'll miss." Maggie was very frank: "Count for me."

"What are you counting?"

"Count how many steps it takes, and when I count to three, shout it out for me."

"...Why did you shout?"

"Use this shout to attract its turn."

Theodore didn't ask any further questions.

He held up his flintlock pistol, his eyes fixed on the swamp corpse crawling toward the reeds.

"one."

"two."

"three!"

Theodore roared.

The roar carried far through the swamp, and the swamp corpse suddenly turned its head toward him.

Maggie flicked her wrist, and three metal pieces flew out at the same time.

The needles were inserted into the right shoulder, left shoulder, and neck.

The inscription on that metal plate was clearly inferior to that of a proper exorcism bullet, and even paled in comparison to Richard's Moon Nail.

The swamp corpse only paused for a moment before continuing to crawl towards Maggie and Theodore.

This time, it will not be affected by the cyan-green ring.

Maggie narrowed her eyes: "Family heirlooms are still no good."

"What should we do?" Theodore asked.

"You hit its foot," Maggie said. "I'll hit its neck."

"...Shoot it in the foot?"

"Let it slow down first."

Theodore gritted his teeth.

The flintlock pistol was raised, and a silver lead bullet struck the right forelimb of the swamp corpse.

His silver lead bullets are different from Sarah's; they don't have an etheric enhancement.

The bullet only created a small dent in the thick mud armor before bouncing off.

The swamp corpse's right forelimb went limp, and its entire body tilted to the right.

Maggie pulled out the hunting knife this time.

She took the opportunity to jump onto the back of the swamp corpse, pressing down on its fleshy face with her left hand and wielding her knife with her right.

The blade sliced ​​down from the back of the swamp corpse's neck.

One cut, two cuts, three cuts.

With the fourth cut, the swamp corpse's entire head, still attached to the corrosive liquid, fell off its body.

The body was dumped into the puddle, but luckily the girl dodged quickly, or she would have been splashed all over.

Maggie jumped down from the puddle, her boots covered in mud.

"That's why I don't want to learn to be a hunter."

As she rubbed her hunting knife on the meadow, she said, "One swipe and you're covered in splatter."

Theodore looked at her: "...This is your untrained hunter?"

"A family tradition of hunting knife skills." Maggie wiped the knife clean. "Even scholars need to know how to use a knife."

"..."

"Don't just stand there." She sheathed her hunting knife. "Two more are coming from the east."

Theodore turned around.

On the east side of the rock, Edmund was fighting two swamp corpses.

The nail hit one just now, but the swamp corpse only staggered and didn't fall down.

"The Phillips head nails won't work on thick-skinned people." Edmund said, backing away, looking rather exasperated.

Richard went around from the south to the east.

As he went around, he fired a third silver needle.

The silver needle struck the first swamp corpse in the face, and the swamp corpse collapsed on the meadow.

The second swamp corpse had crawled up to Edmund, and the young man drew a silver dagger that had been soaked in holy water.

However, the silver dagger is just an ordinary weapon, and it doesn't stand an advantage when going head-to-head with something as thick-skinned as a swamp corpse.

Edmund stepped back.

As he retreated, he made the sign of the cross on his chest with his left hand and uttered a Latin phrase.

The silver dagger suddenly flashed.

He turned and swung his knife, slicing it into the right forelimb of the swamp corpse, leaving a smooth cut.

"What is this?" Richard asked.

"Sanctification," the young man explained while dodging the corrosive liquid spray, "temporarily enchanting the silver dagger for ten seconds."

"It'll be gone in ten seconds?"

"You have to read it again."

Edmund took advantage of the few seconds it took for the swamp corpse's forelimbs to be severed and swung his sword twice more.

The first cut opened its neck, and the second cut opened its other forelimb.

"Beautiful." Richard added a finishing blow from the side, driving the Moon Spike into the back of the swamp corpse's head, ending its final spasms.

"Thank you." Edmund took a breath. "This one is even harder to deal with than all six of yesterday's Bewitching Lamps combined."

"The difficulty with the swamp corpse lies in its mud armor."

Captain Field's voice came from the outside: "Once you penetrate it, it's soft inside."

"The sanctification was used well."

"But sanctification consumes a lot of ether. As a newcomer, you'll run out after using it only twice at most."

"Understood." Edmund tucked the silver dagger back into his belt. "I'll use it sparingly."

"Richard's Moon Nails." Captain Field looked at Richard. "How many did you use today?"

"Four roots."

"Four kills two and a half." Captain Field nodded. "Not bad efficiency."

"Thanks."