Chapter 163 The Narrow Tunnel

As for how to kill the Flame Giant, Nie Yan already had a plan in mind, sticking to the original schedule.

"Follow me." Nie Yan said, leading Xie Yao deeper into the cave. After a while, they arrived at a deep, narrow tunnel.

This tunnel only allowed two players to pass side by side, making it difficult to even turn around.

A Flame Giant, with its massive size, couldn't possibly pass through here.

"Wait here. I'll lure the monster," Nie Yan said, describing his plan for farming monsters.

"Doesn't the Flame Giant have ranged magic attacks? Shouldn't it be able to attack us inside the tunnel?" Xie Yao asked, as Nie Yan's plan seemed a bit unfeasible.

"The Flame Giant does have ranged magic, but have you noticed that this tunnel isn't straight; it has a certain curvature? When the Flame Giant's magic explodes in the tunnel, it won't be able to directly hit us, and the damage will be greatly reduced. Although we'll be hit by the aftershock of the magic, as long as our fire resistance reaches over one hundred points, we can basically ignore the Flame Giant's damage. That's why I prepared so many fire resistance potions for you," Nie Yan explained. He had thought very clearly about every aspect. Due to the cave's curvature, they could use direct-attack magic to hit the Flame Giant within thirty yards. By retreating a short distance, beyond forty yards, they could evade some of the Flame Giant's magic attacks.

As long as they could withstand the Flame Giant's attacks, they could whittle it down. There were at least a dozen Flame Giant spawn points nearby, enough for them to level up for a long time.

Nie Yan was clearly confident, and Xie Yao admitted that Nie Yan's words made sense, her mind clearing.

"Then I'll wait for you to come over. Be careful," Xie Yao said as she retreated into the tunnel.

Nie Yan smiled, entered stealth, and crept towards the distant Flame Giant. Gradually, the towering Flame Giant came into his view, about thirty yards away. He raised the Headless Horseman Doro's Riding Crossbow, aimed at the Flame Giant, and pulled the trigger. Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, five arrows shot towards the Flame Giant.

Thud, thud, thud, all five arrows hit the Flame Giant, and damage numbers of one or two hundred floated above the Flame Giant's head.

The Flame Giant discovered Nie Yan, roared lowly, and strode towards Nie Yan's location.

It took the bait. Nie Yan put away the Headless Horseman Doro's Riding Crossbow and quickly ran towards the tunnel in the distance.

After a while, guided by Nie Yan, the Flame Giant approached the tunnel entrance with heavy footsteps.

With a whoosh, a white Holy Word spell shot out from the tunnel entrance, striking the Flame Giant's body and exploding with a bang.

Xie Yao began to attack. Nie Yan flashed into the tunnel entrance. Xie Yao kept waving her staff, and streams of magic shot out. Her equipment was better than Tang Yao's; after all, she already had three Legendary pieces. Lacking only an elf, she was a bit higher in attack than Tang Yao. Attack frequency and magic recovery speed were slightly worse than Tang Yao. All in all, the two people's output was roughly equal.

Xie Yao's attack magic could deal more than 1,600 damage to the Flame Giant, which was quite considerable.

Nie Yan looked at the Flame Giant's health, about 1.2 million, and its health recovery speed was also very fast. It would take at least three hours for Xie Yao to kill the Flame Giant with her attack output.

"Keep attacking, be careful. If the Flame Giant casts magic, retreat quickly and drink a bottle of Advanced Fire Resistance Potion," Nie Yan said, closely watching the Flame Giant's every move.

The frequent magic attacks on the Flame Giant made it irritable. Its aggro shifted to Xie Yao, but because the tunnel entrance was too narrow, it couldn't squeeze in at all. It stretched out its thick arms into the tunnel, trying to grab Nie Yan and Xie Yao, but the distance was too far, and it couldn't reach them.

Nie Yan also took out his riding crossbow and shot at the Flame Giant. His attacks were obviously not very effective. His damage output was not on the same level as Xie Yao's magic attacks, but he could help a little.

The Flame Giant tried to widen the tunnel entrance, but no matter how hard it tried, only a few pieces of gravel fell from the rock walls near the tunnel entrance.

Roar! The Flame Giant roared wildly, causing the entire cave to tremble.

These actions of the Flame Giant did not affect Xie Yao. She continued to output at a high frequency.

Streams of magic continued to bombard and explode on the Flame Giant, finally enraging the Flame Giant. It opened its mouth and spewed out a pillar of fire, and the scorching flames poured into the tunnel.

"Retreat, drink a fire resistance potion!" Nie Yan shouted, quickly retreating backward.

Xie Yao retreated while drinking a bottle of fire resistance potion.

The two retreated about ten yards, and the raging flames swept over them before disappearing.

-2382, -2762.

Two extremely high damage numbers floated above Nie Yan and Xie Yao's heads. Both of their health points were less than 50%.

After passing through the long tunnel, the Flame Giant's fire pillar was much weaker, dealing less than 30% of its attack damage to Xie Yao and Nie Yan. In addition, Xie Yao and Nie Yan had high fire resistance, greatly mitigating the damage, so the two withstood the Flame Giant's attack.

Nie Yan bandaged Xie Yao and used a Slow Healing Potion on himself. Their health slowly returned to full.

Xie Yao walked forward a distance and continued to attack the Flame Giant with Holy Word magic.

Time passed bit by bit. According to this procedure, after about two hours, Xie Yao slowly whittled down the Flame Giant's health to the bottom. The Flame Giant fell to the ground and scattered into a pile of gray boulders.

Nie Yan looked at his experience points, which had increased by about 30%. As an underground monster, the Flame Giant's experience points were still quite generous. In addition to these experience points, players could receive extra experience rewards at Hilton Fortress for each underground monster they killed, also about 30%. With these two sources of experience stacked together, leveling up near Hilton Fortress was much faster than in other places.

Xie Yao's level was relatively low, and the experience she received allowed her to level up directly.

Nie Yan picked up the items dropped by the Flame Giant: a fire-attribute staff, a level 80 Dark Gold item, with very good stats.

"Let's go open that treasure chest," Nie Yan said, walking towards the location of the treasure chest with Xie Yao.

After a while, they arrived at the place where the Flames Stones were piled up. The treasure chest was close at hand, within reach.

These Flames Stones were burning fiercely, and some red flames could be seen constantly flickering.

Approaching these Flames Stones, Nie Yan felt a scorching heat wave hit his face. His hands and face, these exposed areas of skin, felt a stinging sensation, and damage numbers of two or three hundred floated above his head, indicating fire damage.

He didn't expect the temperature of these Flames Stones to be so high. Nie Yan's gaze focused on the treasure chest in the center of the Flames Stones. The treasure chest was burned red by the Flames Stones, looking like a branding iron just taken out of a furnace. A phoenix pattern was carved on the corner of the treasure chest, lifelike, like an elf dancing gracefully in the flames. This was a carving from the Co-Rule Era. The phoenix symbolized rebirth from the ashes and was a totem worshipped by fire mages. Among all living beings, the phoenix was a top-level creature on par with the dragon.

Faintly, Nie Yan seemed to hear clear phoenix cries, as if illusory, yet close to his ears.

Nie Yan was secretly shocked. He had misjudged it earlier; this was clearly a Sub Legendary-grade treasure chest.

"Nie Yan, is this a Sub Legendary-grade chest?" Xie Yao asked. She also thought it was a Dark Gold grade, but the clear phoenix cry had changed her original opinion. She couldn't believe that a Sub Legendary-grade chest would appear here.

"It should be. I'll try to open it," Nie Yan said. He slowly approached the treasure chest. The closer he got, the more his exposed skin stung, and damage numbers of five or six hundred floated above his head. His health was about to be depleted. Nie Yan quickly retreated and drank an Intermediate Instant Recovery Potion.

No, the temperature emitted from this treasure chest was too high. Nie Yan couldn't open it at all. Just approaching the treasure chest, the fire damage was so high. One hundred points of fire resistance were completely ineffective. If he touched the treasure chest, he might be instantly killed by the treasure chest, let alone open the lock on the treasure chest.

"Xie Yao, give me the Molten Heart," Nie Yan immediately thought of the Molten Heart. In this situation, the Molten Heart should come in handy.

"Okay." Xie Yao unequipped the Molten Heart from her decoration slot and traded it to Nie Yan.

Nie Yan equipped the Molten Heart and looked at the skill bar, using the Molten Heart skill. After using this skill, Nie Yan was immune to fire magic, and he bent down to open the treasure chest.

After using this skill, Nie Yan didn't feel any burning pain when touching the flames. The flames licked Nie Yan's hands, and Nie Yan's skin was like a layer of insulation, and the flames could no longer harm Nie Yan.

Without the Molten Heart or other fire magic immunity skills, opening this treasure chest would really not be an easy task.

He didn't know who opened this treasure chest in his previous life and what they got from the treasure chest.

Touching the key on the treasure chest, Nie Yan frowned. He couldn't open the treasure chest. The lock on this treasure chest was very strange and of a very high level. With Nie Yan's current lockpicking level, he couldn't open it at all.

How could such a high-level lock appear on a level eighty map?

A thought flashed through Nie Yan's mind. Could this treasure chest be related to a certain quest, and only a specific key obtained from the quest could open the treasure chest?