Over a hundred mantis warriors brought Zhou Yan extremely generous rewards.
His Soul Coins alone increased to 5123 points.
Moreover, the treasure chests dropped by these mantis warriors were almost all Black Iron or above, with even dozens of them being Bronze treasure chests.
Wooden treasure chests only made up a small portion.
Mantis warriors were humanoid monsters, and generally, they wouldn't have much value.
However, their arms were an excellent material.
"Chop off the arms of these mantis warriors," Zhou Yan commanded.
The sharp arms of the mantis warriors, even without forging, were already excellent weapons.
Zhou Yan checked their attributes.
[Item: Mantis Blade]
[Quality: C]
[Attribute: Sharpness +8]
[Description: The arms of mantis warriors are top-grade weapon materials. With a little forging, they can become excellent weapons.]
This was definitely a good material for artifact refining, and even if sold, it would be highly sought after.
Hundreds of Mantis Blades meant hundreds of powerful weapons.
Weapons that were already formed like this only needed to be combined with other ores and slightly forged to become weapons.
First, he had to learn the artifact refining skill.
They continued to explore the mist and found a few more lone mantis warriors.
They were pitifully ganged up on.
The subsequent area had no monsters until a few hundred meters away, where they discovered another type of monster.
This was a monster at least three meters tall.
[Monster: Earth Roaring Bear]
[Quality: Enhanced Elite]
[Level: 18]
[Special: Berserk, Strength Enhancement]
[Description: With a violent temper and immense strength, it loves to smash enemies' heads.]
"It's an Lvl 18 Enhanced Elite," Zhou Yan said.
He was very curious, could this entire area be an area filled with enhanced elite monsters?
For others, this might be a dangerous place.
But for Zhou Yan, it was an excellent spot for clearing and obtaining rewards.
The stronger the quality of the monster, the more attribute points gained per level, just like heroes.
An Lvl 18 enhanced elite would not have less combat power than a monster over Lvl 20. Coupled with its innate characteristics, its attributes were equivalent to a Lvl 25 normal monster.
Even so, Zhou Yan had no worries. His soldiers were of S quality at the very least, and they gained more attribute points per level than this elite monster.
Not to mention RRR heroes like Diao Chan and Zhen Mi, who were of the highest quality.
Combined with their numerical advantage, this was a battle with no suspense.
As the battle began, Zhen Mi unleashed her terrifying mental power, controlling the Earth Roaring Bear and making it fall into a slumber.
Immediately after, the Si Teng siblings used their vine thorns to attack the Earth Roaring Bear. Being vine demons, the vine thorns from eight of them covered a ten-meter radius around the bear.
Then, Diao Chan, like a celestial maiden, unleashed "Flying Immortal from Beyond the Heavens," conjuring lotus-like light shadows in the air. With one sword strike, she hit the Earth Roaring Bear's weak spot, its neck. Before the bear could even wake up from the illusion, it was dispatched.
[Killed Lvl 18 Enhanced Elite - Earth Roaring Bear, extra reward of 56 Soul Coins.]
In addition to Soul Coins, Qin Chuan also obtained a Bronze treasure chest.
The probability of an enhanced elite dropping a Bronze treasure chest was quite high; he had already obtained quite a few.
"Continue forward!"
No one knew how large the mist area of the newcomer territory was, and there was no information available.
After all, 99.99% of newcomers would not explore the mist area during the newcomer trial.
Moreover, the newcomer trial was random. It was not impossible for monsters beyond Lvl 90 to be lurking outside the mist.
If he hadn't been lucky and encountered only weak monsters outside, he wouldn't have been able to obtain so many rewards.
The corpse of an Earth Roaring Bear could definitely be sold for a high price.
This was a high-grade item and would be very valuable at this stage.
He hadn't eaten bear paws before.
This was authentic bear paw; he had to try it.
No matter where they were, caution was necessary. Zhou Yan was a very meticulous person. He told everyone to constantly pay attention to their surroundings, as this was already an area with high-level monsters. A moment of carelessness could spell disaster.
"Lord, there's a trap ahead!"
Si Teng suddenly said to Zhou Yan.
"A trap?"
Zhou Yan looked ahead. It didn't look much different from its surroundings.
Only the ground there had a dense layer of fallen leaves, appearing no different from the surroundings. If one didn't observe carefully, no one would notice.
Si Teng, being a wood demon, had extremely keen senses in the forest. They could drill their vines into the ground, which is why Si Teng discovered the anomaly.
Si Ying, Si Hong, and Si Si, the sisters, stepped forward and brushed aside the fallen leaves, revealing a bottomless pit.
"Let's go around it."
With Si Teng and the others around, their safety in the forest was greatly enhanced.
They later encountered a few more enhanced elites. Although these monsters were not dense, they were indeed a group of enhanced monsters, just as he had expected.
The monsters in this area were generally within level 20, and with their current strength, they were all very easy to deal with.
However, the environment here was still complex. Si Teng and the others often discovered various traps. If it weren't for them, Zhou Yan would have suffered a great loss.
After a long while, they saw a mountain range, and vaguely felt something moving there.
Out of curiosity, they headed there to see if they could gain anything else.
"It seems to be a group of monsters."
Because of the mist, it wasn't very clear, but there were indeed monsters moving.
They seemed to be quite numerous, so they chose to hide first and observe the number of monsters.
Upon approaching, Zhou Yan exclaimed in surprise, "It's a group of enhanced goblins, and there are quite a lot of them."
These goblins were around level 15. A closer inspection revealed that this mountain range seemed to have been turned into a lair by these goblins, with simple defensive structures built.
Unlike monsters, these goblins possessed decent intelligence. They could use weapons and also craft various daily necessities; they were a race.
Much like the cave dwellers of ancient times.
"Lord, what are those goblins doing?"
Zhen Mi pointed to the distance where a group of goblins were pulling carts, moving from the foot of the mountain towards the summit.
"That's... ore!"
Zhou Yan was very surprised. Due to the distance, he only knew it was ore. The specific type would only be known upon closer inspection.
Zhou Yan and the others carefully observed these goblins. The goblins on the periphery alone numbered in the dozens.
This was only the goblins they could see before them.
They still didn't know how many goblins were hidden inside the caves.
These goblins were not like those monsters. They not only possessed decent weapons but also mastered artifact refining.
From the weapons in their hands, it was clear that these goblins were not simple.
It was just that Zhou Yan found it strange, as in his understanding, goblins did not possess the ability to refine artifacts.
Since many goblins also had bows and arrows in their hands, Qin Chuan did not plan to attack head-on. Attacking from behind was the kingly way of warfare.