Legend of Mir 2: Seeking the Truth in Marfa

The entrance to the Woma Temple was completely silent, with no one in sight. Zhengnan led the way in, followed by Baruch and Bayin.

I hadn't expected the narrow doorway to reveal a vast, otherworldly space. It wasn't the first floor of the Woma Temple, but rather the vast entrance hall. The floor was neatly paved with small, square stone bricks; looking to either side, the torchlight seemed to reach nowhere. A short distance ahead, a row of towering stone lighthouses appeared, but for some reason, the magical illuminating gem atop them was missing, and the pillars were dim.

Passing through the stone pillars, I was greeted by the sound of rushing water. Approaching, I discovered the sound was originating from a wall. The wall, only half a meter thick and wide, was incredibly long. Its most striking feature was its uniquely carved jade-inlaid design. Every two halves of the wall were hollowed out into a semicircle, and at the top, a vase-shaped outlet. Water flowed vertically downward, like a waterfall, landing in the lower half of the wall. The gurgling sound was truly invigorating.

Clearly, this wall served primarily as a decorative feature, giving us an idea of ​​the opulence of the Wo Ma Temple. Passing through the central archway, I continued on. After a while, I came upon a square altar. At each of its four corners stood a lamppost, over two people tall. A perpetual lamp burned, illuminating the entire surrounding area. In the center of the altar was a Bagua diagram, the meaning of which remains unknown.

Could it be that the Woma leader actually understood Fuxi's Eight Trigrams and could even perform rituals? Bayin and Brook looked at each other in bewilderment. Zhengnan was also at a loss as to why. Unable to understand the reason, the three of them could only continue walking forward.

At that moment, several cave bats and a cave maggot spawned near the hollow wall ahead. Brook and Bayin paused, not expecting any monsters to be here, and immediately became alert. Zhengnan, however, was overjoyed and rushed forward, killing the bat with a few quick strikes. The cave bat was a low-level monster with only 1 HP, but it unexpectedly dropped several piles of gold coins, a random teleportation scroll, and a dungeon teleportation scroll. Zhengnan ignored the nearby cave maggot and picked up the gold coins and scrolls.

"Only bats and cave maggots will spawn at the entrance of the Marfa Temple. Bats have a chance of dropping gold coins and scrolls, but unfortunately there are not many of them. As for the cave maggots, you can also dig out maggot eggs after killing them, but I'm usually too lazy to do that." After picking up the things, Zhengnan turned around and killed the cave maggot with 65 health points, and then started digging meat.

"Look, I dug up a maggot egg, haha. These maggots can be quite annoying sometimes, and they can petrify people." Zhengnan dropped the freshly dug maggot egg onto the ground. His backpack had limited space, and he wasn't short of gold coins. He was just digging for fun.

Brook walked over and picked up the maggot eggs. His backpack had more room, and they were enough to make the powder. He planned to collect more, not just the maggot eggs, but also other items like scorpion tails, piranha fruit, and poisonous spider fangs. He wanted to give them to Uncle Fu as gifts when he returned to Ginkgo Village. This would be more meaningful than just giving him gold coins. Of course, he had to help Zhengnan with his quest first, and would collect more when he had time.

The three of them walked out through the archway in the middle of the hollow wall and saw a staircase leading down, but the entrance to the staircase was on the other side.

Near the stairs, several more cave bats and cave maggots appeared. The three of them killed them, and one of the bats dropped several more gold coins, one random scroll, and two return scrolls. Brook also went up to pick up a pile, a staggering 1 gold coins. Previously, only killing a few boss monsters like the white boar would drop piles of gold coins. No wonder Zhengnan loved bat hunting so much; it turned out this bat was carrying a large sum of money.

Brook also killed two cave maggots by the way and dug up two cave maggots.

The three of them came to the other side of the stairs, and Brook used Holy Armor and Ghost Shield on them. Zhengnan said nothing and walked in directly. Brook and the other two followed him in.

As soon as they got downstairs, they found that the entrance was surrounded by monsters. Brook quickly gave everyone a collective invisible.

This was a disgusting monster called a dung beetle. It was enormous, with a pair of tentacles like arms, and it crawled slowly along the ground. They were densely packed, three layers deep inside and three layers deep outside, surrounding the three of them. Brook and Bayin thought they were safe after collective invisibility, but they didn't expect the dung beetles to spit at them even after their invisibility was restored. Damn, why did the invisibility fail? Brook quickly cast collective invisibility again.

Then the surrounding dung beetles continued their attacks. Brook and Bayin were shocked. Could this be a way to break their invisibility? Fortunately, the creatures' attack power was only 9-17, classified as magical attacks. The three of them almost evenly distributed the damage from the surrounding monsters, and with the Ghost Shield's 5 points of temporary magic defense, they were in no danger.

Bayin and Brook's babies also appeared nearby in time and began to clear out the surrounding monsters.

Suddenly, Zhengnan's body turned gray and stood still. This was petrification! This dung beetle could actually petrify! Brook was startled and quickly cast a Heal spell on him. However, Zhengnan's health was decreasing very slowly, suggesting his Magic Defense was very high.

After five seconds, Zhengnan recovered and continued to chop down the surrounding dung beetles. Bayin and Brooke were most afraid of these petrified monsters. They focused their attention, let the pets surround them, and then attacked with all their might.

"Zhengnan, the monsters here can break the invisibility and turn people into stone. Why didn't you tell me earlier?" Bayin said angrily.

"Sorry, I forgot. It might be a newly refreshed monster. Usually there are not so many coming in. There are only these dung beetles in the Marfa Temple that can break invisibility after being petrified. But their attack power is relatively low, it's okay, they can't kill people." Zhengnan explained.

"Next time, you must tell us in advance! This kind of monster that can break invisibility and petrification is prone to accidents." Bayin said seriously.

"Okay, Sister Bayin. But this dung beetle's attack power isn't very high," Zhengnan said. He was very familiar with the Woma monster, but he had forgotten to explain it to the two of them. But he still felt that this dung beetle was nothing special, and there was no need to make a fuss about it.

"Zhengnan, how much defense and magic defense do you have now?" Baruch asked.

"Defense 7-20, Magic Defense 7-22. Hmm, it seems higher than before? Oh, you helped add temporary defense and magic defense." Zhengnan replied.

Magical Defense is surprisingly high. This kind of dung beetle has a magical attack. No wonder Zhengnan was petrified by the dung beetle, but he himself was not worried at all.

"The attack power of the dung beetle is only 9-17, which is indeed not high. But Zhengnan, of all the monsters that can be petrified, even if their attack power is not high, they are the most dangerous monsters. Think about it, if you are unlucky and are petrified continuously, what will happen?" Brook asked in a persuasive manner.

"Continuous petrification? Ah, I haven't thought about that. If I'm petrified continuously, then... I'll be beaten to death?" Zhengnan felt a chill in his heart when he thought of this answer.

"That's right. You will be unable to move and will be controlled until death. You can only watch yourself being beaten to death. You can't take medicine, can't do random attacks, and can't return to the city. A monster that can turn to stone, especially a monster that comes in groups like this with a probability of turning to stone, even if it is a dung beetle, is more terrifying than the WoMa Cult Leader." Brook said in a deep voice.

"I, I get it. I won't be careless anymore." Zhengnan was also scared and dared not to be careless anymore.

"Yes. This monster attacks with magic. If you have high magic resistance, you can reduce the chance of being petrified. Are you wearing a gold bracelet, a gold ring, a full set of magic resistance equipment?" Brooke breathed a sigh of relief, finally making Zhengnan realize the danger of the dung beetles. But he couldn't let him down too much, so he changed the subject and asked about the equipment's attributes.

"Yes. Because the WoMa Cult leader uses magic attacks, I specially brought magic defense equipment." Zhengnan said, and repeated the attributes of the equipment on his body.

A pair of gold bracelets with 2-3 Magic Defense and 0-3 Attack;

A pair of gold rings with attack 1-3 and magic defense 0-3;

防御4-8，魔御2-3，攻击0-2的重盔甲；

A prayer helmet with 3-4 defense and 1-2 magic defense.

The weapon is the 8-20 Prayer Blade;

The necklace is a ghost necklace with an attack of 0-5.

It turned out that in order to deal with the leader of the Woma Sect, Zhengnan specially spent money to purchase a set of top-grade magic defense equipment.

"This set of equipment is very good. You are quite well prepared." Brook praised Zhengnan and asked, "Is there a kind of monster here called a dark warrior that can attack from a distance?"

"Yes. But their attack power is not high." Zhengnan said.

"Yes, their attack power is only 9-16. But if there are a lot of them, even if you and I can withstand it, your sister Bayin may be killed instantly by concentrated fire." Brook continued.

"...I'm sorry, Sister Bayin. I should have told you in advance. Oh, there's a Dark Warrior on this floor, right near the entrance. Sister Bayin, be careful." Zhengnan felt a wave of fear again. Brook was right. The mage might not be able to withstand it, and he forgot to remind him again.

Zhengnan quickly focused his attention, wondering if there was anything else he needed to be reminded of.

Brooke breathed a sigh of relief when Zhengnan finally took things seriously. The possibilities he'd mentioned were only theoretical, with a very low probability of actually happening. But seeing Zhengnan was a bit relaxed, he felt compelled to scare him into taking things seriously.

"Oh, there's a kind of Womar Warrior monster in there. They seem to have a high IQ. If a mage sets up a fire wall, they won't walk into it. Oh, and it seems Womar Warriors won't step on fire walls either. I can't remember." Zhengnan remembered a key point. As a warrior, he wasn't very familiar with fire walls. He only noticed it once when he was playing with others.

"Okay. I'll try it when the time comes." Bayin said.

"Also, Dark Warrior, when you run over and chop it, it will retreat," Zhengnan added.

"Okay. Got it." Brooke said.

It seems that Zhengnan has taken it seriously. Brooke winked at Bayin, who smiled.

"Also, and, you just said that the dung beetles attacked 9-17 and the dark warriors attacked 9-16. How do you know so clearly?" Zhengnan asked.

It seemed that Zhengnan had gotten into the groove and his mind was already active. Brooke and Bayin were both very pleased.

"That's a long story. But I know the general attack power of monsters." Brook said simply, as if he had answered, but also as if he had not answered.

Zhengnan was stunned for a moment. He knew all the monster's attack power? This was just a boast. Zhengnan couldn't help but look at Brook a few more times, unsure whether to believe him or not.

"He wasn't bragging. But just knowing the monster's attributes won't help us defeat the Woma Cult Leader. We need to find a way to recruit people. Where are those people you know? Which way should we go now?" Bayin asked. The surrounding monsters had been killed. The road leading to the Woma Temple's ground floor entrance led east and west. It was time to choose a direction and continue forward.