"Ding ding ding, ding ding ding."

The continuous sound of friend notification alerts startled Su Ran. Upon checking, he saw messages from Little Bai, Cream Boy, Black Crow, but most of them were from Banana. It seemed that after Su Ran had his skeleton identity restored, Banana still thought he had fallen in some misfortune and probably died, conjecturing the messages were words of comfort.

Thus, Su Ran opened Little Bai’s message first.

"Soda, I’ve got some good news for you. The ring you gave me was appraised. It’s an ultra top-notch item~"

The ring?

Su Ran was taken aback before he remembered that Lin Yuqing was referring to the dark gold ring—the Green Fate Ring.

"Congratulations! Send over the stats, let me feast my eyes, haha."

"I should be congratulating you! Your domain leveled up to five, impressive! Now, the world channel is buzzing with talk about you."

Lin Yuqing replied quickly, but she didn’t use voice chat, indicating there were other players nearby.

"I saw it, let them talk. It’s not like there’s any loss."

"Soda, that Han Siying is so mean, always opposing you. She doesn’t care about any classmate camaraderie at all. I’m really mad at her!"

It was not hard to tell from the lines that Han Siying’s recent domain dispute had offended Lin Yuqing completely, her anger spilling through her words.

"Hey, I didn’t suffer any losses anyway, and I even made a profit from the war. If we really get into it, I should thank her! Enough about that, quickly send over the ring. Don’t keep me in suspense."

"Ah ha, I’m not telling you. When we level up together later on, I’ll give you a surprise~ I can’t talk now, I’m leveling. Just now I nearly got my teammate killed, we’ll chat later~"

Lin Yuqing said a few words before hastily closing the chat, busy restoring her teammates’ health.

"This girl, keeping secrets now. Seems like the Green Fate Ring’s attributes are indeed something else..."

Su Ran chuckled and decided to no longer dwell on it. He glanced at Banana, who had the most messages, but instead, he opened Cream Boy’s message directly.

"Overturning Water, I need your help with a quest, are you free now?" freewebnøvel.com

"What quest?"

"To the Desert of Death, to kill a hidden BOSS."

"Okay, how many people are going?"

Su Ran accepted this task without hesitation, knowing that the Sky-reaching Vine could only continue to be nurtured after another 24 hours and that there would be a monster siege in three days. He had no time to return to Elf Forest, let alone to undertake quests.

"It’s a two-person quest. I went with Little Yue before and we didn’t make it, almost died there. So I have to trouble the great god himself. We’ll head out tomorrow morning. I’ve been grinding dungeons so much I’m about to throw up. I’m going to log off and catch some sleep..."

Su Ran could tell from Cream Boy’s voice that he sounded thoroughly exhausted.

"Alright, go rest up. See you tomorrow."

After closing the chat, Su Ran casually opened Black Crow’s messages to take a look—nothing important, so he closed it too. Then he finally opened Banana’s messages.

"Damn, big bro, how come your zombie pet is so fierce? What grade is it? Send me the stats to check out!"

"Eh? Overturning Water, big bro, why did you go offline?"

"Could it have broken down? No way, I originally left through this teleportation circle. Could the teleportation circle be damaged?"

"When you get online, reply to my message. I’ve already got you a Teleportation Scroll to the Elf Forest. How about that, surprised or not, unexpected or not?"

...

Reading Banana’s message, Su Ran was lost in memories, recalling the dangerous situation at Black Abyss Lake and the close call with death, saved only by the timely appearance of the little jumping zombie, which allowed him to escape from the clutches of death.

The scene returns to the Elf Forest, Black Abyss Lake.

After they had abandoned the Fire Spirit Sim, they finally arrived near Black Abyss Lake.

What Su Ran didn’t expect was that the area around Black Abyss Lake was covered by a layer of enchantments that radiated dangerous glows. There was only one entrance that seemed safe, but it was blocked by a giant guardian.

Just as Banana had said, this guardian’s attack power was so strong that not even a Dark Bone Lion could withstand it for a moment before being easily slaughtered.

With no other choice, Su Ran had Banana coordinate with the Undead Skeleton to lure the guardian away, while he himself rushed towards Black Abyss Lake.

What he didn’t expect was that in his haste, he accidentally triggered concealed enchantments. Bolts of lightning flashed, striking towards him. Su Ran immediately took out the Heavenly Thunder Bead, activating its lightning avoidance effect, and narrowly avoided disaster. But before he could get far, another enchantment was triggered.

Such terrible luck made Su Ran frustrated, but there was nothing he could do. The new enchantment that appeared brought forth a vast sea of flames, the scorching temperature turning his skeleton red and causing him extreme discomfort.

Su Ran could finally understand the sensation of despair felt by enemies when they were surrounded by the Netherworld Purple Fire. There was no choice but for him to chew on graveyard grass to replenish his health, which was sadly ineffective as his health continued to drop.

The guardian of Black Abyss Lake sensed the anomaly at the entrance and let out an angry roar. It stopped chasing Banana and the Undead Skeleton and turned to rush towards Su Ran’s location.

Seeing the guardian closing in on him, Su Ran grew even more anxious, but he was trapped in the enchantment, unable to escape, so he had to tough it out and wait for the enchantment to dissipate.

In that critical moment, the little zombie crawled out from Su Ran’s black robe, emitting a black ghostly light. Without waiting for Su Ran’s command, it immediately jumped onto him, forcefully merging with him.

After merging with the little zombie, Su Ran was surprised to find that the damage from the flames was greatly reduced, and the power of the enchantment couldn’t bind him anymore. He easily broke through the enchantment and escaped from the sea of flames.

Suppressing his astonishment, Su Ran swam into Black Abyss Lake right before the guardian’s attack reached him and quickly dived to the bottom to the teleportation circle, teleporting himself to Fisherman’s Island.

At that time, his territory was in deep trouble, and Su Ran had no time to check the evolved skills of the little zombie. He directly canceled the fusion state and used a Return Scroll to get back to Skeleton Village.

"Whew, I really have to thank Bounce-Bounce, or else I would have really kicked the bucket..."

Recalling that thrilling experience, Su Ran felt a chill in his heart, grateful for the timely appearance of the little zombie that saved him from certain doom.

"Right, I haven’t had the chance to look at Bounce-Bounce’s attributes after its evolution!"

Su Ran summoned the little zombie and held it in his arms, but before he could check its attributes, a friend notification rang out again.

Opening it, it was still from Banana.

"Overturning Water, big brother, save me~"

"What’s the matter? Where are you right now?"

Su Ran was startled and immediately replied to the message, while Little Bounce-Bounce was sent back into the pet space.

"Hurry over to Fisherman’s Island, the villagers are chasing to kill me right now, come and save me~~~"

"Head to the shore and escape, I’ll be there right away!"