Chapter 36: Overwhelmingly Powerful (Requesting Monthly Tickets)

We arrived...

To the west of Rain Town lay a plain, dotted with caves leading to various underground mines and open lakes.

The silhouettes of monsters could already be seen.

An Iron-Spined Giant Lizard, its back covered in countless sharp scales.

Because the visibility on the plain was so vast, it could be spotted from a great distance.

"Prepare for battle."

Lu Cang called out to the group. The other three were inside the carriage of the Dragon-Rhino carriage, while Lu Cang sat atop the Dragon-Rhino itself.

The Dragon-Rhino was indeed a powerful creature. If it were an ordinary mount, it would likely have begun to tremble and refuse to move upon sensing the aura of a Tier 2 Lord-class monster.

However, the Dragon-Rhino showed no fear.

According to Kumironi, the Dragon-Rhino's skin was tough enough to withstand attacks from Tier 4 monsters. When the time came, the Dragon-Rhino could become a significant combat asset—and his capital for escaping with his life.

But for now, it wasn't necessary.

The Dragon-Rhino approached the Iron-Spined Giant Lizard at high speed.

The Adventurer's Guild commission forms covered not only the requirements and rewards but also included detailed characteristics of the target monster for such subjugation quests...

Therefore, even though this was Lu Cang's first time seeing this particular lizard, he had a good understanding of its combat style.

His attack range was longer than the opponent's.

Lu Cang's current maximum casting range was 500 meters in a straight line. If he used *Wind Blast* or *Illumination*, it would be even further, but those two spells lacked lethality.

The moment the enemy entered his attack range, Lu Cang raised his hand!

*Boom!*

Spikes erupted from the earth, instantly piercing through the lizard's abdomen from the ground!

Its back was covered in hard iron plates; if a blade were to strike its back, it might even be deflected. However, the Iron-Spined Giant Lizard's abdomen was extremely soft. Because it usually crawled close to the ground, it was difficult to attack its belly directly.

Thus... ground-based attacks like *Earth Spikes* were the most effective method.

The second method would be to find a way to flip it over.

The attack of *Impaling Pillar* produced a strikingly effective result.

Three pillars drove directly into its body. One of the pillars even entered through its jaw, piercing straight through its head.

There was no flashy maneuvering or prolonged struggle. One only saw the *Impaling Pillars* break through the earth, with massive columns rising from the ground!

With just a single spell, he had killed it on the spot.

The three people on guard inside the carriage couldn't help but swallow hard at the sight.

So strong...

The distant lizard stopped moving after taking a single spell, but the cautious Lu Cang followed up with three more *Impaling Pillars*.

Only after being absolutely certain it was dead did he send Zhou Er to collect the corpse.

"If I hit the weakness, is one spell enough?" Lu Cang muttered softly.

Up until now, Lu Cang didn't have much practical experience fighting monsters. His most significant combat experience was fighting that freakishly strong Izparut. Because his opponent was always Izparut, Lu Cang's confidence, which should have been soaring, was frequently knocked down a peg.

He hadn't thought deeply about tactics for the Weeping Snake Forest, as he didn't know what kind of BOSS he might encounter there.

But against this Iron-Spined Giant Lizard, he had too much prior intelligence and preparation time. Lu Cang had even formulated two different tactics in his mind, along with contingency plans for unexpected situations.

And, an escape route.

Lu Cang had thought: *I'll lead with an "Impaling Pillar" to hit its weakness. If it charges, I'll use Heavy Wall to block the path, Shadow Marsh to slow and pull it, and Poison Vines to trap it... If it uses ranged attacks, my Barrier will immediately protect my front, Heavy Wall will block its iron plates, and then I'll use Magic Arrow, Ice Shuttle... If it mutates or something weird happens, I'll turn around and run straight into the forest...*

He hadn't expected... that one *Impaling Pillar* to the belly would kill it instantly?

Was it... a bit too fragile?

...

There was also an advantage to having a Collector collect the corpse: Lu Cang didn't have to touch the body himself.

If the monster had been playing dead to ambush him, Zhou Er would have been the first victim. It sounded a bit cold-hearted, but he hired them specifically to prevent accidents. Besides, Lu Cang had delivered the finishing blows to ensure it was truly dead.

If it still didn't die after that, it meant it could endure...

This world required corpses to be recycled as loot, and Lu Cang couldn't whip every corpse until not even ash remained. If he did that, he wouldn't make any profit. Furthermore, there was no intelligence suggesting this common monster had the ability to play dead; if he were truly that unlucky, he'd be getting screwed left and right...

In a month of luck and harvest, he couldn't be that unlucky, could he?

These were all Lu Cang's internal monologues. If the three people beside him knew these thoughts... they would probably think he had gone mad.

He was being a bit too cautious, wasn't he? To even consider the possibility of a monster rising from the dead?

And besides, does he have no self-awareness regarding his nearly Level 200 Triple-Casting Transcendental Magic? If three-fold *Impaling Pillar (LV: 177)* couldn't kill a BOSS, then what would a single *Earth Spike (LV: 2)* from another mage even count for?

Collecting the loot didn't take much time.

The Collector's unique [Rapid Butchery] skill allowed Zhou Er to quickly extract useful loot. An extra Earth Crystal popped out of the monster's body, and a piece of Earth-Gold Scale was produced from its back—a great material for crafting shields.

This single Iron-Spined Giant Lizard yielded a profit of 2 Gold and 32 Silver. Out of the 75 Silver commission reward, nearly 37 Silver would be distributed to them. Even so, he still made a net profit of 2 Gold and 70 Silver.

It seemed the influence of the Harvest Month didn't just affect the inside of dungeons, but also the output of monsters in the wild.

Harvest Month... truly a good month. It seemed that compared to venturing into complex dungeons, hunting Lords in the wild was a much better choice.

Lu Cang did the math. The profit from one dungeon run was roughly equal to killing two Lords. Indeed, hunting Lords was more cost-effective; there was less worry about being caught in traps, and it was easier to make a quick escape.

The Dragon-Rhino usually couldn't be brought into dungeons, but in the wild, there was no such restriction. One could even cast spells while riding the Dragon-Rhino, achieving a perfect kiting effect.

"Let's go. Next one."

After taking the loot, Lu Cang had no intention of lingering and set off immediately to find the next target.

Aside from Lord-class monsters, there were many Tier 1 monsters on the plain as well—things like Slimes, Green Caterpillars, and Flower-Tailed Butterflies...

Killing them yielded little, but not killing them posed no threat. Lu Cang casually tossed out a few spells to practice his Transcendental Magic, gaining a bit more experience in the process.

In fact, throughout the journey, Lu Cang had been using magic quite frequently. For instance, an *Ice Shuttle* had been spinning continuously above the Dragon-Rhino's carriage. Since he had an endless supply of mana anyway.

After about ten minutes of travel, they spotted another monster: its front resembled a scorpion, while its rear looked like the plumage of a peacock.

[Plume-Tailed Venomous Scorpion]