My basement connects to another world.

Chapter 16 Upgrade

Three days passed in the blink of an eye.

On the wooden table in the main room, ten rows of tungsten steel armor-piercing arrows were neatly stacked.

This is what he just got back from the Falcon Archery Range.

The triangular cones gleamed coldly, while the carbon fiber shafts stood side by side, dark and imposing.

Jiang Yuan stood by the table, pulled the last bundle of arrows out of the canvas bag, and checked the arrowheads one by one.

The tungsten steel was so heavy that he didn't even dare to touch it with his finger.

Next to this pile of arrows were two new items.

A modified kerosene torch, with a brass body, a long and thin muzzle, and a high-temperature resistant hose trailing behind it, connected to a five-liter metal fuel canister.

The jar isn't big, so it fits perfectly on my back.

There were also three barrels of spare kerosene stacked next to it, each barrel containing five liters, sealed tightly in tin cans.

He bought this from an agricultural supply store.

Originally intended for pest control and burning in orchards, it has a range of seven or eight meters and a flame temperature of over one thousand degrees!

The shopkeeper saw that he was a college student and asked him a few more questions. As usual, Jiang Yuan used the "elder's orchard" rhetoric and, coupled with an irresistible price, successfully made the purchase.

"The 70,000 yuan didn't last long before it was all gone..."

Jiang Yuan picked up the flamethrower and weighed it in his hand.

It's not light, but with his current physique, he can carry it without any problem.

I glanced at the time on my phone; the cooldown of the Realm Gate had reached zero.

Immediately, he put on a protective vest and arm guards, with the crossbow hanging on his right shoulder and the kerosene flamethrower on his left shoulder, the barrel held horizontally behind his waist, so that he could easily reach the handle.

With the spare fuel canister for the flamethrower in hand, I entered the basement, my heart sinking.

A pale golden portal aperture silently unfolded.

He carried his gear and stepped inside.

……

In the cave.

Jiang Yuan's feet touched the solid ground, and the portal behind him quickly shrank into a single point of light.

"Jiang Yuan, what's that on your back?" hope Lu's figure emerged from the transparent outline.

The cat-eared girl looked much better than she had three days ago. Her short silver hair hung down her shoulders, and her sky-blue eyes sparkled. She immediately noticed the extra thing on Jiang Yuan's body.

She poked her cat ears forward, circled around behind Jiang Yuan, and sniffed.

The pungent smell of kerosene made her frown and tuck her ears back.

"A flamethrower," Jiang Yuan said. "Something that can breathe fire, I've told you about it before."

Hilu's ears perked up again.

When Jiang Yuan returned with food, he mentioned to her that he wanted to prepare a weapon that could fire.

She didn't quite understand at the time, but now that she saw the real thing, her curiosity was piqued.

"Fire?" She crouched down and stretched out a finger to poke the muzzle of the gun, but Jiang Yuan grabbed her wrist.

"Don't touch it. I'll demonstrate for you later."

Hilu obediently withdrew her hand, her tail swaying behind her. "Are we going to fight the giant scorpion again today?"

"Hmm." Jiang Yuan checked the crossbow string; ten tungsten steel armor-piercing arrows were already loaded into the quiver.

"Your injury should be fine now, right?"

"Okay, okay." Hilu jumped up and down a few times to prove that she was alright.

Jiang Yuan has come in twice in these three days.

Each time, she brought a large amount of food, and Hilu recovered quickly. Her physique was already much stronger than that of ordinary humans, and with a full stomach, she healed her injuries in just three days.

The bruises on my back have faded, and the scratch on the outside of my thigh has disappeared, leaving only a faint pink mark.

The large scorpion, however, remained in its own territory and showed no signs of coming this way.

"Let's go." Jiang Yuan put the kerosene flamethrower back on his back and prepared the crossbow.

Hilu nodded, her figure fading as she entered stealth mode.

The two passed through the former territory of the Greyscale Viper and walked deeper into the cave.

The temperature is gradually rising.

Soon, they arrived at the outside of the cave passage from before.

The traces of the last battle are still there.

Where the cave passage narrows, there are craters in the stone wall caused by impact, and the gray-white powder on the ground has been smashed into several pits.

The two stopped in front of the cave entrance.

Jiang Yuan squatted down, took the kerosene torch off his back, and placed the spare kerosene on the stone wall next to the cave entrance.

He wouldn't bring these things into the cave.

He picked up the crossbow again, placed his fingertip on the trigger guard, and mobilized the last bit of magic power within him.

The trickle of fluid slowly rose up my spine, first filling my eyes.

The view suddenly became much clearer, and each flash of the red crystal clusters on the stone wall seemed to be a moment slower than it actually was.

The magic continued to flow downwards, into the waist and abdomen, into the arms...

"Follow the same approach as last time," Jiang Yuan said in a deep voice.

The two entered the cave one after the other.

When Hilary reappeared.

Familiar scenes are recreated.

sieve!

A fierce whooshing sound echoed through the air.

The enormous tail spike hurtled toward Hiluza at an astonishing speed.

Jiang Yuan quickly ran forward and arrived at a more spacious cave.

The giant scorpion's massive body remained lying there, its four pairs of legs supporting it on the ground, its dark brown carapace gleaming oily under the reflection of the dark red crystal clusters.

The tail spike that had just retracted after the attack was raised high and swaying slightly.

Its eight scarlet eyes are still embedded in the depressions of its head carapace, but one of them is blind.

The eyeball that was blown out by the tungsten steel armor-piercing arrow three days ago is now just a shriveled pit with a layer of dark red scab at the bottom, and it does not look like it has fully recovered.

Jiang Yuan's gaze swept over the blind eyeball, and he understood what was going on.

The recovery speed of this thing is not as fast as I imagined.

Just then, the giant scorpion's flat head suddenly turned around.

The remaining seven intact crimson eyes all locked onto the direction of the cave entrance. It recognized the enemy who had shot out one of its eyes three days ago.

sieve!!

The tail spike came crashing down.

Jiang Yuan had been on guard against this for a long time.

With a sudden burst of power from his legs, he lunged diagonally forward to the right.

The tail spike grazed his back and slammed into the ground, sending stone chips flying and creating a shallow crater the size of a washbasin.

At the same time, Hilu's figure suddenly appeared on the left side of the giant scorpion's head.

She gripped the dagger with both hands in reverse, leaped into the air, and plunged the dagger into her other intact eyeball.

The giant scorpion's stinger had just slammed into the ground and had no time to retreat.

It suddenly whipped its head around, the edge of its carapace grazing the dagger, sparks flying.

Hilu missed her first attack, twisted her waist and flipped in mid-air, her toes touching the giant scorpion's pincers, sending her flying backward. She slid back half a zhang when she landed.

"Well done!" Jiang Yuan pulled the trigger.

The moment the giant scorpion shook its head to avoid Hiru, the side of its head was completely exposed to Jiang Yuan's view.

Ten tungsten steel armor-piercing arrows locked onto a scarlet eyeball.

Swish swish swish——

The carbon fiber arrow shaft drew ten black lines, tearing through the air.

It was completely different from three days ago. Last time, those ordinary hunting arrows hit the giant scorpion's eyeball, and the arrows only went halfway in.

This time, the tungsten steel armor-piercing arrow made a short, muffled tearing sound as it entered the surface of the eyeball.

The first arrow penetrated nearly two-thirds of the way in, and the second followed closely behind, piercing deep into the eyeball.

The third, the fourth... all ten arrows hit the same eye, the shafts densely embedded in the eye socket, like a clump of black thorns growing from the scarlet eyeball.

Red and white juices gushed out from the arrow shaft, dripping onto the giant scorpion's carapace.

The giant scorpion let out a screech even sharper than before.

The tail spike swept wildly in all directions, slamming against the stone walls, the ground, and the dark red crystal clusters with a series of "bangs."

Rock fragments flew everywhere, and the entire cave shook!

Then its body began to change color.

The dark brown carapace gleamed with a reddish sheen from the edges.

The light from the dark red crystal clusters on the stone wall seemed to be drawn by something, rhythmically surging towards the scorpion.

With each surge, the red on the scorpion's carapace deepens and brightens.

In the blink of an eye, the giant scorpion transformed back into that burning, walking piece of red-hot iron.

Jiang Yuan had just finished loading his second volley of arrows, but instead of attacking, he began to retreat.

"Hilu, retreat to the cave entrance!"

After the giant scorpion turns red, its defense increases significantly, and it will then spray venom from every angle.

Hilu's transparent silhouette swept past the giant scorpion's side and quickly retreated to the vicinity of the cave entrance.

The giant scorpion's stinger was raised high, and a thin slit was split at the tip of the barb, inside which churned fiery red liquid.

The next second, a fiery red column of venom gushed out, spraying in all directions.

The rocks inside the cave were burned into countless small pits, from which blue smoke and white mist rose and billowed.

Jiang Yuan has already retreated to the vicinity of the cave entrance.

He crouched behind the stone wall, counting the seconds.

1, 2, 3...

The venom column began to weaken.

He charged out with his crossbow in hand.

Magic flowed into his eyes and arms, and the giant scorpion's stinger in his field of vision was slowly drooping.

Time's up!

A new round of ten tungsten steel armor-piercing arrows was unleashed, this time targeting the third intact eye.

The defense after turning red is indeed much stronger than before, and the resistance is significantly greater than in the previous round.

But the tungsten steel armor-piercing arrow still pierced the eyeball.

Even with ten arrows aimed at a single point, a gap was still torn open.

The giant scorpion's body suddenly tilted to one side, and it barely managed to stabilize its massive body by bracing itself against the ground with its two left legs.

Its tail spike was still instinctively lashing out in all directions, but the force was getting weaker with each strike, and the fragments of rock that fell off the stone wall were much smaller than before.

The arrow penetrated deep into his body, causing him great harm.

Jiangyuan gave it no chance to catch its breath.

Load, aim, pull the trigger.

Round three.

Ten more tungsten steel armor-piercing arrows pierced deep into the giant scorpion's head.

The giant scorpion swayed, its ferocity gone.

The enormous stinger no longer swung as before; its four pairs of legs braced against the ground, each one trembling slightly.

Hilu, who had been waiting cautiously, suddenly appeared directly above the giant scorpion's head and fell vertically from mid-air.

He gripped the dagger in his right hand, bent his left knee, and pressed the sole of his boot against the protruding carapace on the giant scorpion's forehead. He then gripped the hilt of the dagger with both hands and thrust it downwards with a fierce stab.

A white light flashed across the blade of the dagger, piercing through the very center of the fourth eyeball and disappearing completely inside.

The giant scorpion's massive body convulsed violently, its four pairs of legs simultaneously lost their strength, and its enormous body collapsed to the ground with a thud.

The tail spike lifted up one last time, then slumped back down, never to rise again.

The dark red carapace quickly faded, turning back to dark brown.

The cave fell completely silent.

Dead? Jiang Yuan put down the crossbow and let out a long breath.

The muscles in his forearms were trembling slightly from pulling the crossbow strings four times in a row.

Hilu jumped down from the giant scorpion's head, her cat ears standing straight up, her tail twirling lightly behind her.

She ran up to Jiang Yuan, her eyes sparkling, "Jiang Yuan, you're so amazing!"

"Your finishing blow wasn't bad either." Jiang Yuan flexed his wrists, carefully moved closer, and confirmed that the giant scorpion was dead.

He then squatted down next to the giant scorpion's enormous head and observed it carefully.

Up close, this thing looks even more ferocious.

Each carapace has fine lines, and the few intact eyes have lost their light, resembling a few glass beads.

As if remembering something, Hilu turned around and jumped onto the giant scorpion's head again. She grabbed the dagger hilt with both hands and stirred it a few times. Then, she made a clean cut along the edge of the eye socket.

She placed the dagger aside and reached her small hand into the wound, feeling around for a while.

"Yes, I have it." She pulled her hand out, holding a magic core in her palm.

This magic core is slightly larger than the one from the Grayscale Lizard.

The surface is a translucent amber color, and inside there is a faint, slowly flowing red light thread. With each movement of the light thread, a layer of scorching patterns appears on the surface of the bead.

"Here you go." Hilu handed over the magic core.

Jiang Yuan took it; it was warm to the touch, unlike the one from the Grayscale Viper Lizard, which was cool.

He glanced at Hilulu and asked, "Do you have any use for this magic core?"

He was also very curious about how the magic core could directly increase "experience points".

Hilu tilted her head. "You can use it. Carrying the magic core with you will rapidly increase your power, several times faster than usual."

Her cat ears twitched, and she added:

"But Hilu can do without it. The magic core can be used for a very, very long time, and Hilu doesn't need it right now. Jiang Yuan gave us so many delicious things, and Father said we shouldn't take other people's things for free, so this magic core should be given to Jiang Yuan."

Increase cultivation speed? Jiang Yuan understood somewhat, nodded, and did not refuse.

This thing was very useful to him, who desperately needed power. He gripped the magic core tightly and his mind stirred.

A small, fluorescent blue text popped up in front of me:

[Absorbable magical energy detected - Extract?]

"yes!"

Jiang Yuan turned slightly to the side, lowered his left hand, and put his right hand, which was holding the magic core, into his pocket.

A warm sensation spread out.

The transparent amber shell of the magic core in his palm quickly faded to ashen gray, and the fiery red light filaments swirled wildly for a few circles before turning into a small clump of grayish-white powder along with the shell.

A massive surge of heat flowed in from the palm of his right hand, burning all the way down his arm to his shoulder, and then down his spine to his limbs and bones.

A tingling sensation spread through my body, and my muscles twitched slightly uncontrollably.

Jiang Yuan frowned slightly, controlling his breathing.

A few seconds later, the tingling sensation subsided.

A fluorescent blue panel popped up in front of him.

[Name: Gangwon]

Occupation: None

[Level: 5→8]

[Abilities: Gate to Another Realm, ???, --]

[Magic Power: 43/60 → 52/80]

My physical fitness has improved significantly compared to before!

At the same time, he felt that the unknown "—" ability seemed to have been "filled" a bit more.

Jiang Yuan clenched his fist slightly, looked at Xilu who was looking at him with a hint of curiosity, and smiled slightly:

"Hilu, help me down."

The two of them worked together to push the giant scorpion's corpse.

The carapace was hard and heavy, and it took the two of them quite a while to flip the body over.

The corpse was moved aside, revealing a fist-sized, ruby-like crystal core underneath, which was emitting an even hotter aura.