Chapter 102: Chapter 102

She planned to set up the sub-camp between several of the largest rocky hills, ideally overlapping each one a bit, and then dig tunnels so people could mine inside.

The hills here had very little soil, so the risk of collapse was low.

Still, this reminded her that she’d need to find a mining expert later. Once she started finding actual mineral deposits, doing things this roughly would be dangerous—she’d need professional guidance.

Mu Ying picked a spot and landed.

As she touched down, she felt like she’d stepped on something. Looking down, she saw it was a stone bird, its feathers intricately detailed, lifelike as if it had been poured over a real bird.

The stone bird was already broken into several pieces, and her step shattered it even further, leaving only a bird’s head split in two.

Mu Ying nudged the broken body with her foot and noticed some of the stones inside were a vivid red.

She had a bad feeling. Looking around, she spotted a pair of eerie green eyes glinting from between two distant hills.

It was far away, and its color blended in with the rocks. Even with her night vision, she might not have noticed it if not for that ghostly green gaze.

After locking eyes for just a few seconds, Mu Ying felt her body stiffen.

She quickly looked away, her hands trembling as she struggled to activate the sub-camp token.

The territory shield unfolded, and only then did Mu Ying breathe a sigh of relief.

According to the world forum, there hadn’t been any monsters above level 4 in the wild yet. With a territory shield that could withstand level 5 monsters, she was safe for now, no matter what that thing was.

She stood there, paralyzed, not even having time to set up a teleportation array—her body simply wouldn’t move.

Thudding footsteps and violent impacts sounded outside.

Fortunately, the territory shield held strong. No matter how hard the thing outside rammed it, it remained unscathed.

An hour passed, then two. It wasn’t until dawn that the bluish-gray tinge on her body finally faded.

The monster that had been ramming the shield all night seemed to realize it couldn’t do anything and finally gave up.

Regaining control of her body, Mu Ying immediately turned the transparent shield into a white, misty barrier to block outside sight.

She’d realized the monster’s gaze was the problem, and it seemed only direct eye contact triggered the effect.

Once she avoided its gaze, Mu Ying could still feel its cold, chilling stare, but her body didn’t stiffen any further.

Sure enough, once the shield blocked its line of sight, the cold feeling vanished.

“Whew—”

She collapsed to the ground, her nerves still rattled. After standing motionless all night, her whole body was numb.

Even worse was that suffocating sense of impending death.

If she hadn’t felt the paralysis gradually fading, giving her hope of survival, that helpless despair alone could have driven her mad.

She was lucky she’d only met its gaze after landing. If it had happened in the air, she might have ended up like that stone bird.

She’d truly been a hair’s breadth from death.

After a long while, she forced herself to calm down, squinting as she slowly looked up.

Thankfully, this time, the paralysis didn’t return."

"That was a kind of eight-legged reptilian monster, with a long tail and many protruding bone spikes along its back. Its coloration matched the exposed rocks on the ground.

Its eyes, however, no longer glowed green as before; instead, they looked like two large bronze bells.

It appeared to be a small group—about seven or eight large ones, and four or five smaller ones.

""Petrifying Lizard, Level 1–4, large reptilian creature. Its skin can change color to match its environment, making it adept at camouflage. Its eyes can emit a chilling green light that petrifies enemies who meet its gaze. The petrification effect can be permanent at its strongest, with the effect most potent within 100 meters and weakening with distance. Its stomach contains a unique digestive fluid that can digest creatures it has petrified. The blood of a petrifying lizard can cure or prevent its petrification effect, and pouring it on stone can greatly increase the stone's hardness...""

After reading the information returned by her Spell: Detect Creature, Mu Ying understood everything.

She had been petrified earlier. Fortunately, her level here was high, she had a lot of health, and she had just acquired the Thousand Faces Cloak for protection. Plus, the petrifying lizard had been quite far away at the time, which weakened the effect. Otherwise, that ""petrification effect can be permanent"" line would have been the end of her.

Who would have thought there were creatures that could kill with a glance? Truly impossible to guard against.

The larger petrifying lizards were around level 3–4, and the smaller ones were level 1–2.

At these levels, it was clear they didn’t come from any dungeon instance.

Over on the ghoul side, even now, no ghouls above level 3 had managed to leave the dungeon.

There were no petrifying lizard dungeons nearby, so Mu Ying breathed a sigh of relief. The ghouls were still being dealt with slowly, and the petrifying lizards seemed even more troublesome than the ghouls.

These lizards seemed to be guarding her, unwilling to give up on their prey.

One of the smaller petrifying lizards was especially close.

Thinking about the effects of petrifying lizard blood, Mu Ying wanted to catch one to experiment.

Covered in stone-like scales and with that size, even if her Detect Creature spell hadn’t mentioned it, it was obvious that the petrifying lizard’s main attributes were strength and constitution, and its defense was high.

At this moment, her spells were a bit inadequate. Enemies with high strength and defense were her weakness. Control spells were hard to use effectively against such foes, and her attack spells weren’t specialized enough, with most of their power negated by the lizard’s natural defenses.

Now was a rare opportunity—a small petrifying lizard was close by. Only a quick and effective attack would allow her to take it down.

She didn’t think that after injuring a petrifying lizard, it would just stand there dumbly waiting for her to finish it off.

So she discarded any spells that weren’t fast or powerful enough.

She couldn’t use the Scythe of Balance either, as petrifying lizards weren’t creatures that disrupted the natural balance or were abhorred by nature.

It was only after acquiring the Scythe of Balance that Mu Ying realized how all-embracing nature was—there were very few things it truly abhorred.

Mu Ying was a druid devoted to nature, but she wasn’t nature’s puppet. She loved what nature loved and hated what nature hated, but she loved herself even more.

Protecting nature was the guiding principle of her profession, but not necessarily her personal code of conduct. Although there was a faint aura of natural power around the petrifying lizards, Mu Ying wouldn’t go soft because of it.

After all, she was also part of nature’s survival of the fittest. She had every right to take up the blade for herself, as long as she didn’t disrupt the natural balance. Within those limits, she could do as she pleased.

At such close range, there was no need for a bow.

In the end, she chose between a spear and a sword, and picked the sword.

After all, she had two swords, one long and one short, and could attack with both at once.

To be absolutely sure, even when dealing with a level 2 small petrifying lizard, Mu Ying didn’t dare take any chances.

First, she used an attribute enhancement spell to boost her strength, then enchanted one sword with a freezing metal effect and the other with a searing metal effect.