Chương 68: Chapter 65: Out of the Frying Pan

Skinning the Wyvern proved extremely difficult. And that's using the term skinning very loosely. I found the scales to be very durable and resistant to even my broadsword, which has the sharpened trait. There was absolutely no way we were using our daggers or skinning knives to process the beast. The process became a little easier when I pried up the scales with my sword. I began cutting in a sawing motion where the scales met the hide.

Once a section of scales was cleared by a decent amount, Joe could take his axe and chop sections of the meat away. The wing sections were a little easier to cut. After stretching one of the wings out, we used my sword to saw the wing material from the wing bones. The wing material would make an excellent base for the dragon scale armor Pete was planning on making. With the size of the wings, there would easily be enough material to produce at least a dozen light armor sets.

All in all, the wyvern was worth its weight in gold when it came to crafting armor. While we processed the Wyvern, Mike looked through the golden chest. It contained another mana crystal, making our total five. It also contained roughly two-thousand gold coins, which Mike split up into five individual piles. The real prizes, besides the mana crystal, were the high-tier rewards waiting inside.

There were specific items that seemed to be created for each member of the team, all of a rare quality and tailored to fit the build of each person. Mike collected a pair of long black daggers that came complete with a harness. The daggers could be worn in the front or back depending on personal preference. The daggers did ten points of shadow damage per second and ten points of bleed damage per second. The bleed debuff could not be cleared until the shadow damage was cleansed or the time ran out.

Pete got another hammer, however, this time it was a legit two-handed war hammer that had nothing to do with blacksmithing. The war hammer did twenty to thirty points of bludgeoning damage plus the user's strength attribute. It had a fifteen percent chance of a stunning blow that multiplied the strength attribute times three-hundred percent plus a stunned debuff. Joe wasn't overly happy with what he got. He acquired a new tower shield that only did twenty to thirty points of damage upon a successful shield bash.

It had a fifteen percent chance of triggering a stunned debuff. Where the shield excelled was its twenty-five percent decrease in both melee and magic damage. When seeing Joe's nonplussed look after inspecting the shield's stats, we informed him that tanks aren't meant for dealing damage, they're meant for taking damage. With a grumble under his breath, Joe said, "who said I wanted to be the tank anyway?" The rest of us chuckled as we turned back to what we were doing. I was most impressed with what Alex claimed.

It was a four-part alembic made out of what looked to be some very strong glass. There were three gourd-like glass containers that fed into a fourth glass container. When each container was capped and placed over a burner, it would condense and distill the contents into the fourth container. The fourth container would then combine, condense and distill the ingredients even further. The quality and rarity of the potions created depends greatly on the ingredients used and the alchemist's skill level.

I mean you're not going to get some rare ranked philter from a beginner alchemist using garbage materials. Also, if you didn't know how much heat to apply and when, you could burn the ingredients up before they were condensed and distilled. However, it would greatly decrease the amount of time to make potions as well as give some percentage boosts to successful potions and droughts. Lastly, I was quite pleased with what I claimed.

Tucked in the chest alongside a pair of non-reflective shooter's glasses that tripled my bow aiming distance and provided a targeting reticle, was a heavy leather-bound book that made my pulse quicken. It was a skill tome: [Shadow-Stitched Arrow]. The system notification highlighted it in a dark, pulsing violet. It was shadow-mana attuned, a perfect fit for my Shadow Ranger specialization, allowing me to weave raw shadow mana into my arrows to add thirty percent piercing damage and track moving targets.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. Joe desperately wanted the shooting glasses as he was an infantry rifleman. I told him they were for bow shooters, even though I was pretty sure I could use them with my AR and pistol as well. The shooting glasses disappeared into my storage space but the skill tome stayed firmly in my hands. Focusing on it, I received a prompt asking if I wanted to learn [Shadow-Stitched Arrow], [yes/no]. I immediately selected YES.

You have learned a new skill: Shadow-Stitched Arrow (Beg 0). Skill type: Arcane / Shadow Ranger Specialization. Description: Weaves raw shadow mana into your ammunition, adding 30% piercing damage and allowing you to track moving targets. The spell was amazing. Not only did it add more damage to my arrows, but it also marked my targets with something I could track. It was literally like a modern day tracer round for bow shooting.

After looting the chest, and about four hours of processing the wyvern, we were all loaded with all we could carry. Each of our rings had minimal space left with all the scales, wing material and even some bones. Pete had used his new war hammer to crack out a good number of the razor sharp teeth and all of the claws from the rear feet. These would definitely make nasty daggers. There was a claw at the center elbow joint on the wings the wyvern used to support its front.

This was because it didn't have front legs, however they weren't as sharp as the rear claws or teeth. Of course, Joe took as much meat as he could. Alex wrapped the egg in a blanket and was forced to carry it since it was alive and could not be placed in his ring. The journey up took us another couple of hours, still having to watch for traps that hadn't been tripped yet. As we got closer to the exit, I kept trying to radio Novus letting them know we were OK, however we were still too deep underground.

We were all excited when we reached the pit trap; as we knew we were close to being out of this dungeon and would be heading home, but also because we all increased in levels and wanted to see if we could clear the jump. Alex was the first to jump, clearing it easily. He handed me his egg and when he was on the other side, he summoned a vine to gently bring the egg over to him. The rest of the team made the jump easily.

Just for the hell of it, I had Alex send a vine whip into the tripwire once we were all clear of it. The metal grate with spikes sprang down from the ceiling on its hinge. It slammed back up to the other side before falling back down and blocking almost all of the tunnel. If any of us had gotten hit by that on the way in, we never would've survived it. Still smiling, the team turned towards the entrance again and kept moving.

As we approached the entrance, and could see the failing light from outside, I heard crackling on my radio. I also heard what sounded like a female voice. I rushed to the exit and when I was outside the tunnel, I heard my wife's voice. Her voice was panicked, and she kept calling for me to respond. I immediately clicked my mic and said, "Honey, I'm here. We're all OK, baby. What's going on?" Even more excited now that she recognized my voice, she came back over the radio and said, "We're under attack."

The team and I were already running up the steep gravelly hill and headed to the van. I clicked my mic.

"Attack? From who?" I asked.

"From ZOMBIES."