Sophia Xu’s cheeks flushed faintly. Before Liam Luo could react, she blurted:
“I’m the class monitor. It’s my duty to protect everyone!”
Liam smirked. “Such idealism. It’ll get you killed.”
His tone sharpened: “Tell Martin to aim for the neck.”
Sophia hesitated but barked orders: “Kevin, pin it! Martin—neck shot!”
Kevin Wang roared, slamming his stone-armored body into the matriarch. Martin Ma fumbled his flaming bow: “Dammit, hold still!”
The mantis thrashed. Liam triggered ?**[Swarm Intimidation (Gold-tier)], amplified by Sophia’s ?[Amplification Aura]** to Platinum-tier. The monster froze mid-lunge.
“Now!”
Martin’s arrow pierced its neck. The matriarch collapsed.
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“How did you know its weakness?” Sophia demanded.
Liam shrugged. “[Scouting] works if the target’s within 10 levels.”
As the trio gaped, Liam devoured the second matriarch’s soul:
[Devoured Lv.6 Monster Soul: Divine Soul Points +15]
[Blade Arms (Gold-tier)]
[Swarm Intimidation Advancement Quest: Kill 1 higher-level player in 24 hours (0/1)]
Sophia pressed: “Can your ?**[Scouting]** locate monster cores?”
“Yes.” The reply auto-triggered the quest. Liam cursed under his breath.
Sophia misread his frustration. “We’ll split the core 50/50. Fair?”
Liam waved dismissively. “It’s in the skull.”
Kevin smashed the matriarch’s head, retrieving an amber ?**[Tier-3 Monster Core]**. Martin whistled: “This could boost someone to Lv.3!”
“Absorb it, and you’ll die,” Liam warned, striding toward the nest.
Sophia stiffened. “What’s your problem?!”
Liam vanished into the cavern. Inside, he found a second, smaller matriarch corpse.
“Did he kill this one?” Sophia murmured, noting the clean decapitation.
Martin theorized: “Probably two matriarchs fought. Liam just scavenged.”
“Genius!” Kevin fist-bumped him.
Sophia spotted Liam disappearing into the nest. “Liam! What’re you doing?!”
“Figure it out, Monitor,” Liam called back, vanishing into the darkness.