Chapter 139: The Frog's Last Leap

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The damage from the explosion caused by the red haired professor's explosion may have been mostly absorbed by the Tree Demon, but the damage that Craig suffered still wasn't small.

Even with his strengthened physique, most of his upper body looked it had been made from wax but left exposed under the sweltering sun for too long. Not to mention any clothing, even his spatial artifact was gone!

The Terran Prince wasn't sure if it had been destroyed, or if it was still somewhere in the forest. He could only regret not having it at hand, however, because the threat of this little girl had far exceeded his imagination.

Although he did have some hope that she would take his word for 'saving' her family if she got him out of here alive, Craig didn't like leaving his fate in the hands of others.

Instead, professor Dane's death had given him the idea of faking his own at the same time. Even when the Tree Demon threw him away, Craig didn't let go of this pretense.

In case the girl decided to ignore the 'dead prince', with the Tree Demon no longer restraining him, Craig could make a last-ditch attempt at finding any Terrans looking for him in the forest.

And in case she decided to try rescuing him, he could simply wait till she was vulnerable enough before dealing her a fatal blow. Of course, he would only do that once he was assured of his survival chances, and would keep her alive until she had outlived her use.

All such vain hopes were dashed, however, the moment the ruthless bitch decided to attack even his 'likely dead' form. Had he not known better, he would have assumed that the girl must have some deep-seated vendetta against him.

After all, the only conflict they had was that he didn't take her side in the carriage ride to the academy. Other than that, they barely had anything to do with each other.

Of course, he'd had many plans and thoughts about this particular girl in his heart, but she didn't know that, and thus they couldn't be the reason behind her actions.

And if just that little conflict was enough for her to chase after him like this, then this girl was really the most ruthless little bitch he'd ever seen.

In that case… talking to her, begging her to spare him, or even negotiating was all useless. He had to kill her!

Before the pink haired girl could release her arrow, Craig had already leapt from his prone position, shooting off like a bullet towards the girl.

"Ruthless bitch!"

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A thunderous boom echoed through the area as the tree behind Evelyn exploded into splinters while the girl stood frozen in shock, her face pale with fright.

Craig had missed her shoulder by just a few inches, or he would have definitely got Ruru. A few inches more… and he could have had her head.

Evelyn gulped as her hands shivered while holding the compact iron bow in her hand. "H-He was so fast…"

Thankfully, she had the foresight to once again try checking his status as soon as she spotted his 'corpse', and had already seen the 'Lethal Leap' skill.

Combined with the rumors of him being a toad, she had already been prepared for a lightning-fast lunge from his 'corpse'. With or without weapons, she didn't dare take him lightly.

But when it really came, nothing could have prepared her for the sheer speed at which he moved. Her eyes barely caught a flicker before the tree behind her exploded.

It was only the combination of her quick response and Craig's poor state, even having one of his legs missing entirely, that greatly reduced the accuracy of his trajectory and saved her life.

Of course, she had already let the arrow loose, and it had embedded itself deep into the boy's head.

He wasn't professor Dane, who had some sort of absurd physical defense to protect against her arrows, nor was his vitality in a state to allow him to survive even a full-strength punch from a same-level cultivator, which Evelyn could very well deal if needed.

But as it was now… he was as dead as could be, though Evelyn only breathed a sigh of relief after confirming it herself.

-[ Killed high-level Human (Craig Maenhardt): Experience +50,000 ]

—Current experience exceeds the requirement, level up!

-Level 66  [61,780 /  23,500]  →  Level 67  [38,280  /  24,000]

—All Attributes +7!

-Level 67  [38,280 /  24,000]  →  Level 68  [14,280  /  24,500]

—All Attributes +7!

-Current Level: Level 68  [14,280 / 24,500]

[Checking Status…]

— Half-molten humanoid corpse [Low quality]

-Race: Blessed Spirit

— Heavily refined physique: Can be used as an alchemical ingredient

— ???

It was a little unfortunate that she couldn't see the entirety of prince Craig's status while he was still alive, as the situation had been quite urgent, but Evelyn preferred staying alive in comparison.

Looking at Craig's corpse, Evelyn considered it for a moment before nodding. "Although disgusting, I can just have him float separately from the other stuff. Anyway, there's plenty of trash in my inventory, who knows when it will be useful?"

With her continuous level-ups, the space had only been getting bigger, and had the dirt in the Wonderland of Doom had any special properties, Evelyn might have just started chucking that in there as well.

Ever since the day that Craig had gone missing, knowing that he harbored ill intentions towards herself, Evelyn had felt as if a heavy weight was constantly pressing down on her chest.

With his status as a Terran Prince, as well as his personal combat prowess that had been far above her own in the past, to say that Evelyn felt apprehensive would have been an understatement. 

And when he had escaped into the forest after the confrontation with Aurora, the feeling had only kept getting worse and worse, to the point where she felt desperate enough that she took the chance to sneak into the Wonderland of Doom while Aurora wasn't there.

But now this huge thorn in her side was finally dealt with, Evelyn was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. "I should probably consolidate my gains from all the missions first, and then head back to Amara. Ruru, make sure you keep an eye on the surroundings, okay? But make sure you remain in contact with my skin."

The pink fox gave her a soft yip, and Evelyn closed her eyes to rapidly sift through her completed missions.

To her disappointment, there really wasn't a mission issued to kill Craig. "This channel thing probably only rewards when a much higher level 'threat' is killed, huh? Given that I was already level sixty-six, and Craig should have been just around level seventy or lower, combined with his miserable state probably resulted in it not being considered a 'reward worthy achievement'?"

It really was a pity, considering she could have easily gotten a high reward red mission, or at least a yellow one, as long as Craig had attacked her while he was still at his full potential, or if their level gap had been higher.

Of course, she might have died in that case. And considering that she already got a red mission reward from Craig, she couldn't blame him for being too useless, could she?

Nodding to herself, Evelyn quickly started claiming her rewards.

The first one was a yellow mission issued for professor Dane, the source being her calamity skill.

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[ Yellow Mission, Target: Dane Redal ] [Completed!] [Claim!]

-Source: Calamity 

-Clear Condition: Fulfill any one of the following: 

—Kill (or) Completely defeat Dane [Fulfilled!]

—Raise Dane's affection to the maximum level [-100% affection]

-Rewards: 

—Experience: 1,000 points

—Acquire the ability [Draconic Scales]: Able to coat the outer layer of skin with draconic scales, making it extremely resistant to physical damage.

-Damage resistance is proportional to both current strength and the amount of spirit power spent while creating the scales.

-The scales will lose strength over time, losing the equivalent of ten spirit power per day.

-Retracting the scales will immediately refund all spirit power without loss. 

—Strength permanently raised by +10 points 

—Vitality permanently raised by +10 points

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-Current Level: Level 68  [15,280 / 24,500]

Although the experience gain was laughably low for her level, Evelyn was ecstatic about the ability.

Wasn't this the same annoying thing that had allowed professor Dane to last so long against her before? Not only did she now know why he was so tough to kill, she could even use it for herself!

The mysterious skill that had made her grit her teeth in fury immediately made her almost jump for joy.

When professor Dane's body had exploded, Evelyn had been a little upset at the fact that, even in death, the professor continued being useless. Couldn't he at least turn into some good material? But professor Dane managed to prove her wrong!

"Thank you, professor Dane! At least you taught me something valuable with your death… Well, taught is the wrong word, but hey, I got something good!"

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