Chapter 103: The Blizzard Giant Bear
In the pitch-black cavern, flashes of lightning flickered.
With every burst, several bloodthirsty demon bats were struck to charcoal and plummeted to the ground.
Yet the swarm around him remained thick and endless, with no sign of thinning.
“Explosive Fireball!”
Xu Han raised his hand.
A searing fireball roared into the bat horde.
It exploded.
In an instant, the blazing flames swallowed dozens of bloodthirsty demon bats.
The ground was already carpeted with their corpses.
A warm current flowed through his body.
Xu Han opened his status panel and glanced at it.
He had leveled up.
Level 25.
This place was practically a paradise for grinding experience.
Half an hour later, all the bloodthirsty demon bats had finally been cleared out.
Xu Han opened his status panel again.
Name: Xu Han
Race: Human
Class: SSS-Rank Grand Gourmet
Level: 25
Strength: 3450
Vitality: 2599
Agility: 2030
Spirit: 1169
Explosive Fireball and Lightning Chain had both reached level 2.
Their power had increased considerably, and their cooldowns had shortened as well.
He tidied the battlefield.
The bloodthirsty demon bats had dropped five pieces of equipment.
Four of them were bronze-grade.
Only one dagger was silver-grade.
Even if these items were thrown onto the trade market, they would barely fetch anything.
Still, small gains were gains.
He stored them all in his spatial ring.
After cleaning up, he continued onward.
Ten minutes later, the passage ahead suddenly grew bright.
At the exit, he looked around.
On the surrounding rock walls grew flowers that emitted a faint glow.
Like fireflies, they dotted the cavern with points of light.
Their brilliance intertwined and illuminated the entire cavern.
These were glow flowers, a fairly common kind of plant.
Xu Han looked down.
The cavern below seemed bottomless, like an abyss.
Across that abyss stretched a series of stone bridges connecting both sides.
Each bridge was about five meters wide, wide enough for several people to walk abreast without feeling cramped.
At the far end of one bridge sat two giant bears, each snow-white and nearly three meters tall.
They were tearing into the corpse of a massive elk.
Xu Han activated his Eye of Delusion and inspected the two bear-men.
Name: Snowstorm Bear-Man
Race: Bearfolk
Level: 30
Skill 1: Freezing Blizzard Lv. 4 - Summons wind and snow to freeze enemies, dealing massive damage and inflicting the frozen state. Cooldown: 10 minutes.
Skill 2: Berserk Lv. 3 - The Snowstorm Bear-Man enters a berserk state, greatly increasing attack power and speed while reducing defense. Duration: 3 minutes. Cooldown: 10 minutes.
Xu Han stroked his chin.
These two Snowstorm Bear-Men should be subordinates of the Blizzard Giant Bear.
Judging from that, the Blizzard Giant Bear was probably beneath this cavern.
He drew the Ice-Blue Edge and walked toward the bear-men step by step.
The two Snowstorm Bear-Men also noticed this unwelcome intruder.
With roars, they turned their heads.
A pair of crimson eyes locked onto Xu Han.
It was clearly a warning.
Yet Xu Han simply carried the Ice-Blue Edge and kept walking straight ahead.
“Roar!”
One of the Snowstorm Bear-Men let out an angry bellow.
Its massive body hurled itself at Xu Han.
It swung a bear paw and struck down at him.
Facing the looming paw, Xu Han leapt into the air.
Boom!
The bear paw slammed into the stone bridge with a deafening crash.
The Snowstorm Bear-Man lifted its head, only to see an ice-blue dagger piercing its eye!
Splat!
The sharp blade drove into the bear-man’s eye without the slightest resistance.
“Roar!”
The Snowstorm Bear-Man wailed in agony, its bear paw thrashing wildly in an attempt to swat the human from its body.
But Xu Han moved like a phantom, weaving around the Snowstorm Bear-Man.
The Ice-Blue Edge flashed again and again.
Soon, wounds covered the Snowstorm Bear-Man’s body, and blood poured freely.
A final Explosive Fireball ended its life once and for all.
Xu Han slowly turned to look at the other Snowstorm Bear-Man.
The other bear-man was visibly terrified.
It roared in fury.
Its bear paw slammed hard against the ground.
Whoosh...
Howling wind and snow surged toward Xu Han.
Xu Han raised his hand, and a black vortex appeared before him.
Damage Devour.
The raging cold wind was swallowed whole by the vortex.
It had no effect on Xu Han whatsoever.
The Snowstorm Bear-Man stared at him, utterly unscathed, and fell into a daze.
It could not understand how its Freezing Blizzard had simply vanished.
While it was still stunned, Xu Han closed in.
With only a few slashes, he finished off the Snowstorm Bear-Man as well.
Looking at the bear-man’s broad, thick paw, Xu Han licked his lips.
He had never tasted bear paw before.
He cut it off and stuffed it into his spatial ring, planning to try it later when he returned.
Then he looked down and continued descending along the stone bridges.
...
Inside a small wooden cabin in Snowfield Village, more than a dozen burly men were drinking heavily from their cups.
The burly man seated at the head of the table let his hand wander over the body of a woman beside him, earning a coy glare from her.
This man was Li Xiong, the captain of the Snow Bear Hunting Group.
Knock, knock, knock...
A knock sounded at the door.
Li Xiong frowned. “Who is it?”
A member seated near the door got up to open it.
Outside, Old Three was wrapped head to toe in wind and snow. He stumbled inside with difficulty and fell to the floor with a heavy thud.
Li Xiong frowned slightly. “Help him up. Give him some hot wine.”
“Yes!”
One of his men lifted Old Three up and forced a cup of steaming wine down his throat.
After a moment, the man’s originally deathly pale face finally regained a trace of color.
“Liu Bing, weren’t you following Little Sword to hunt prey?”
“Why are you in such a miserable state? Where are the others?”
Li Xiong asked, frowning.
Liu Bing said with difficulty, “Captain... Brother Sword and the others... they’re all dead...”
“What?!”
Li Xiong’s eyes widened as he shot to his feet, staring at Liu Bing. “How did they die?”
After catching his breath, Liu Bing told him everything that had happened.
A fierce light flashed in Li Xiong’s eyes.
He clenched his fist and slammed it onto the table with a bang.
Cups toppled over, and wine spilled across the floor.
“So someone actually dared to make a move against my men? They’re tired of living!”
“Once the blizzard passes, we’re leaving at once to find those people!”
“I’ll make them understand what happens when they offend the Snow Bear Hunting Group on this snowfield!”
...
Deep underground, Xu Han kept moving downward.
Stone bridges crisscrossed and overlapped like a staircase, stretching ever deeper below.
It was hard to tell whether they were natural or man-made.
Along the way, Xu Han had slain more than a dozen Snowstorm Bear-Men.
He had also obtained a silver-grade bear-fur bracer.
As he continued descending, he finally reached the bottom of the cavern.
He looked around.
The surroundings were nothing but desolate rock walls.
And not far away, a giant bear more than ten meters tall lay sprawled on the ground, sound asleep.
Xu Han narrowed his eyes.
This fellow must be the Blizzard Giant Bear.