Rune Enchanters, as their name suggests, are one of the most famous and luxurious professions in Infinite Profession Users. Rune Enchanters belong to a profession group that is no less money-consuming than Master Craftsmen; not only that, embedding runes into items is already an extremely complicated process, while comprehending and engraving runic inscriptions is countless times more difficult.
Despite being so difficult, when compared with traditional magic, runes possess an absolutely overwhelming advantage—extremely low mana consumption. They can utilize naturally occurring magic essence in the surrounding environment to maintain their effective state, requiring only an extremely tiny amount of energy while still being capable of unleashing power comparable to that of great magic. Precisely because of this, Rune Enchanters have always been the targets of frenzied recruitment and competition among the major powers.
Although Rune Enchanters are regarded as a variant branch of the mage system, they are priceless treasures that every team dreams of possessing. If it were not for their excessively demanding entry requirements and astonishingly high failure rate, everyone would probably want to embark on this path, considering how unimaginably high its rewards and status are.
However, that was something that happened after the 8th Anniversary update.
Before that, rune-enchanting techniques were themselves a declining heritage that was gradually being lost. Apart from ancient buildings with histories of more than a hundred years or buildings belonging to long-established great families, it was difficult for people to find any traces of runes anymore.
And this underground passage, together with the abandoned city above it, was one of the few rare locations that still preserved such a high density of runes.
Chen Luo could easily chisel these runes out and bring them back, but he was not stupid enough to do so in front of the children and arouse unnecessary suspicion.
After the group continued deeper for about ten minutes, the space ahead suddenly fell into complete darkness.
Two pairs of scarlet, vicious eyes lit up from within the darkness, staring intently at them.
Chen Luo decisively threw a bright torch forward to scout the area.
The instant the firelight illuminated the scene ahead, Chen Luo was startled—the creature appearing before them was actually a Chimera, a deformed creature formed from the upper half of a ferocious lion and the lower half of a vicious poisonous serpent.
Sensing the provocation from Chen Luo's torchlight, the monster let out a horrifying roar before suddenly opening its grotesquely large mouth and spitting a huge mass of viscous green saliva directly at the entire group.
-"Quick, get out of the way! Its saliva is acidic. Don't let it touch you." Chen Luo quickly warned the children and Hina's group.
Before the poisonous saliva could hit the ground, everyone nimbly jumped out of the danger zone.
The moment the hard iron rails below came into contact with the saliva, they were immediately corroded and deformed, then melted into countless bubbles, hissing as they seeped into the stone floor and released a pungent cloud of poisonous smoke.
After successfully dodging the Chimera's dangerous saliva attack, Chen Luo immediately began coordinating the battle.
Chris's figure flickered in and out of sight as he circled behind the monster, then concentrated his strength and hurled two razor-sharp throwing knives, pinning its python-like tail firmly to the ground.
Celes and Mana coordinated just as smoothly, quickly drawing their swords and stabbing directly toward the Chimera's vicious eyes.
The Chimera cried out in pain and roared furiously, violently throwing everyone away.
Although everyone was thrown back quite severely, the blades remained deeply embedded in the monster's flesh, causing it to thrash about wildly.
Although this Chimera was only level 21, its enormous vitality made it difficult for Chen Luo to completely deal with it alone in a short period of time.
As if seeing through Chen Luo's intentions, Hina immediately charged forward, relying on her overwhelming physical strength to grapple with and harass the monster continuously.
In the world of Infinite Profession Users, Chimeras were notorious for their skin as tough as copper and iron, as well as their astonishingly large HP pools.
Completely destroying such a creature was extremely difficult; even if its head was severed, the remaining flesh would still regenerate on its own.
The only method was to find and destroy the core hidden within its body; otherwise, it would continue regenerating until the very last point of its HP was completely depleted.
Thus, everyone continuously took turns fighting in seamless coordination.
Some persistently attacked its fatal weak points, some rushed forward to restrain its constantly thrashing and irritating tail, while Hina continuously engaged it in close combat, firmly holding the monster back.
Meanwhile, Chen Luo calmly adjusted the timing of his attacks.
Sometimes he threw military throwing knives that tore through the air, while at other times he released the bowstring and fired one tricky arrow after another; every attack precisely struck its fragile skeletal joints.
Although the Chimera could not enter a berserk state, its tenacious and enduring stamina still forced the entire team to rack their brains and fight with everything they had for more than three hours before finally depleting its HP completely to zero.
When the Chimera's enormous body crashed to the ground with a deafening roar, the familiar system notification immediately sounded in Chen Luo's mind:
-"Congratulations, Host, on successfully killing a Chimera. Due to the monster's special properties, player will receive a skill reward instead of EXP—「Divine Flash」—Allows the user to teleport to a location they have previously visited, dodging all skills and instantaneous damage that are about to hit the user, but does not apply to damage-over-time effects, curses, or skills that are guaranteed to hit. This skill is a life-saving type with no cooldown, but using it consumes a large amount of Stamina and Mana. Please carefully judge the timing of its use. This skill can be shared with all current allies. Do you confirm sharing the skill?"
After the system's lengthy notification finally ended, Chen Luo rarely revealed an uncontrollable expression of ecstatic joy.
After all, he was not lacking in EXP; he could always continue grinding monsters later.
As for special skills, the more he possessed, the more terrifying his survivability would become.
The skill he had obtained this time was not only an ultimate life-saving ability, but could also be shared with his allies.
Adding another layer of absolute protection to the entire team—nothing could be more wonderful than that.
Chen Luo decisively confirmed the skill sharing.
The moment the sharing process was completed, a warm and magnificent golden light suddenly erupted, enveloping everyone.
When the light gradually faded, the children and Hina were astonished to discover that they had somehow established a strange mental connection with Chen Luo, while an entirely new skill had also appeared in their status bars.
-"This is..." Chris stared at Chen Luo with extreme astonishment.
His eyes seemed to silently ask why—astonishment, admiration, and unbelievable ecstasy intertwined together, making Chris's expression exceptionally vivid.
-"A protective skill I shared with you. Use it when you encounter genuine danger. Don't waste it recklessly. It consumes a huge amount of your Mana and Stamina, so it's best not to use it frequently. Just exercise a little restraint." Chen Luo calmly answered their questions, yet his words caused every member of the group to tremble inwardly.
He had so casually shared such a precious high-level life-saving skill with them, without the slightest hesitation.
This alone was enough to show just how completely Chen Luo trusted them.
At this moment, indescribable waves of emotion surged through the heart of every child.
In some desolate region, three hours earlier.
Across a rolling and sprawling plain, a group of black-clad figures was desperately rushing toward that familiar city.
One of them spoke to the person walking at the very front:
-"Captain, how many people are there in our target group this time?"
-"Six. Five are brats, while the remaining one is slightly older but exceptionally skilled. We had better prepare thoroughly. Even the Black Eagle Squad fell to him, so we absolutely cannot let him get the better of us." The man known as the Captain sternly warned the entire team about the terrifying threat they were about to face.
He himself knew very well that after the Black Eagle Squad had been completely wiped out today, as a senior commander, he had to bring those higher-ups a satisfactory explanation.
-"Hey, hey, are you kidding me? You mean we have to confront that guy head-on and bring his head back to offer as a sacrifice to the Black Eagle Squad?"
Another member of the team spoke with a gloomy expression.
After all, they had experienced far too many brutal killing missions like this, and their minds had long since become numb to them.
-"Exactly. From the moment the Black Eagle Squad began monitoring them until the moment they prepared to make their move, every single one of them was counter-killed by the target. It is highly likely that the Black Eagle Squad's movements had already been exposed, which is why the target set a trap in advance, waiting for them to fall into it before wiping them all out in one go."
The Captain analyzed the situation coldly.
After all, the footage transmitted back only recorded the moment the Black Eagle Squad was eliminated, so they could not extract any more valuable clues from it.
-"Captain, if that's really the case, I'm not saying I don't believe you. But damn, if that's true, are we going to get an arrow through the forehead before we even manage to approach him?"
Another member growled in dissatisfaction.
But this was completely understandable—this time, they were one of the official elite assassin squads directly belonging to the renowned Black Net organization, dispatched personally by the Great Robed Mages.
Even a highly promising seed squad like the Black Eagle Squad had its members reaped in an instant, so naturally they had reason to worry.
After more than three hours of flying at full speed, the entire assassin squad finally arrived at the last coordinates shown in the footage.
At the scene, only four cold corpses remained, riddled with arrows. Every valuable piece of equipment on their bodies had been looted, leaving behind nothing but their outer clothing.
They immediately realized that the killer was definitely a seasoned professional.
Only someone truly familiar with the trade would know how to strip everything of value without leaving a single worthwhile item behind, with the only thing remaining being their identification jade pendants.
Three of the corpses had long since completely lost all signs of life.
Among the collapsed buildings surrounding them, monster corpses were scattered everywhere, making the four assassin corpses look like insignificant specks amid a chaotic battlefield, providing no valuable clues whatsoever.
-"Looks like this enemy is far from simple. Notify headquarters and directly add another 100,000 crystals to the bounty. The target may already know our organization's secrets. This person cannot be allowed to remain." After the Captain gave the order, one of his subordinates immediately activated the Cloud-Piercing Jade Pendant and transmitted an emergency signal back to headquarters.
When the bounty suddenly increased by another 100,000 crystals and a glaring crimson skull icon appeared alongside it, the nature of the incident was officially elevated to an extremely serious special classification.
This time, the organization issued only a kill order—only the corpse was required; no survivors were wanted.
This caused countless freelance assassins to become restless at the sight of the bounty.
However, when they discovered that the bounty level had jumped directly from Rank B to Rank A, most desperate killers clearly realized that the mission was beyond their capabilities and could only reluctantly skip it in search of other targets.
There was only one thing that the assassins below had absolutely no idea about.
At the highest floor of the tallest building in the city, a mysterious figure with a pair of eerily scarlet eyes had watched every one of their movements.
Then, the figure silently dissolved into the air, returning this space to its horrifying silence and darkness.