Newbie Guardians

Chapter 9 Carlo's Long-cherished Wish

Undeterred, Huang Shen searched for another ten minutes or so, but still found nothing, so he had no choice but to continue walking. He tried to console himself as he went.

"The task was completed by luck, so the score is too low and it cannot be claimed."

This conjecture seems quite reasonable! Huang Xin resignedly thought so.

After walking a dozen steps, I looked back again. Maybe there will be an unexpected surprise if I stand a little further away?

As he walked, he faintly heard muffled thumping sounds. Huang Xin quickened his pace and ran towards the direction of the sound. The scene before him left him dumbfounded. If he hadn't experienced thousands of dream re-enactments, he would probably have been scared out of his wits.

Two skeletal figures were fighting. One of them was nearly two meters tall, with thick, large bones, and looked extremely robust. He held a shield in his left hand and a bone spear in his right. The shield was composed of dozens of complete skulls; the upper half was a square with sides about one meter long, while the lower half had one skull missing from each row, leaving only one skull at the very bottom. The bone spear was a single, two-meter-long bone, possibly from some kind of giant animal, with a triangular tip that didn't appear very sharp.

The other skeleton was shorter than Huang Xin, with smaller bones and two leg bones in each hand. It was clear that he was no match for Huang Xin, akin to a mantis trying to stop a chariot. However, the shorter skeleton was incredibly brave, attacking relentlessly, each strike hitting the shield with a resounding thud. Just when Huang Xin thought the taller skeleton would only passively defend, the taller skeleton suddenly raised his right hand and swung his bone spear fiercely. With a whoosh, the spear struck the shorter skeleton heavily, and with a loud bang, the shorter skeleton instantly disintegrated, its bones scattering all over the ground.

Huang Shen observed a moment of silence; this was a duel between unequal forces, and the outcome was already predetermined. However, what happened next left him speechless and stunned.

The scattered bones were slowly reassembling. First, the finger bones dragged the metacarpal bones towards the arm bones, attaching the hand to the arm, then dragging the entire arm to piece together the body, and finally the skull. The movements were slow but incredibly fluid, as if they had been practiced countless times. The entire process took only five minutes. The two leg bones that had been used as weapons were now broken. The shorter man stood up and began searching around. He quickly found two more leg bones, thinner and shorter than the previous ones, and charged back into the fray. The result was the same: with a thud, they scattered on the ground.

Huang Xin was so engrossed in watching that he didn't notice the information for the third task had already been updated.

Quest Name: Carlo's Wish

Mission description: I must defeat him. I will stop at nothing and never give up... even if... I can only hit him once... it will be enough.

Mission objective: Help Carlo realize his long-cherished wish.

Huang Xin fell into deep thought. It was obvious that the taller man's strategy was to first use his shield to block the shorter man's attacks, wait for the shorter man to tire, and then seize the opportunity to deliver a fatal blow. This kind of battle had been repeated countless times, and it had long become a fixed, tried-and-true pattern.

To break the deadlock, you must first break the shield before you can attack the taller figure. Therefore, you first need to find a powerful weapon, such as a spear, a greatsword, or a giant axe.

Just then, Huang Xin's eyes lit up—the giant axe! That giant axe with a three-meter-long handle! Thinking of this, he immediately ran towards Honesty Pool. Forty minutes later, he arrived at the pool, and sure enough, the giant axe was still there. Overjoyed, Huang Xin rushed over and shook it vigorously, trying repeatedly more than a dozen times, but the giant axe didn't budge!

Huang Xin lay on the ground, panting heavily. His brain started working quickly. This axe was too heavy. Even if he managed to pull it out, it would be impossible to drag it to the burial site, given his limited physical strength.

Huang Xin went to the pond to see if he could borrow a smaller one, but the old man couldn't float up no matter how many times he called out.

"Is the old man not here? Did he go home for dinner?" It seems this method won't work. Huang Shen walked back dejectedly. As he passed the tree, he caught sight of the axe growing on it again, and his eyes lit up once more. Why not give this one a try?

Huang Xin bowed respectfully to the tree and said sincerely,

"Grandpa Tree, I'm Huang Xin. I'd like to borrow this axe for a moment, and I'll return it immediately afterward! Please help me!"

After saying that, he gripped the wooden handle with both hands and slowly pulled it out. This time there was not much resistance, and he pulled it out quickly.

Overjoyed, Huang Xin thanked the tree again, picked up his axe, and ran towards the burial ground. About forty minutes later, Huang Xin arrived at the place where the skeletons were fighting and saw the short man reaching his arm into a cracked tomb, groping around. Huang Xin knew he was looking for a weapon.

Huang Xin walked over and patted the skeleton on the shoulder. With a snap, his arm was shoved away, and the skeleton turned its head, seemingly saying…

"Get out of my way, get out of my way!"

Huang Xin handed over the axe.

"Stop looking, try this!"

The skeleton ignored him and continued to rummage around for a while, pulling out several long bones, but none of them were to his liking.

Huang Xin also said,

"Use this!"

The skeleton glanced at the axe, then turned and walked toward another tomb.

Huang Shen was exasperated. Did this guy not recognize an axe? He had to find a way to make it understand that it could be used as a weapon.

Huang Xin strode forward, and when he was two or three meters in front of the skeleton, he raised his axe and slammed it into the ground with all his might. With a loud thud, dirt flew everywhere, and a deep crater appeared in the ground. The skeleton stopped, seemingly understanding something, its empty eye sockets staring straight at the axe.

Huang Xin handed the axe to the skeleton again. The skeleton grabbed the axe, took two quick steps, and chopped hard at the grave. Despite being just a skeleton, it possessed astonishing strength. After a few swings, a large crack appeared in the grave. With a thud, it casually tossed the axe at Huang Xin's feet, quickly lay down, and reached its arm inside, beginning to grope around. An unsuspecting observer would have thought it was a tomb raider!

Huang Shen was speechless. This skeleton was too stupid. I clearly meant to say that the axe could be used as a weapon, but it interpreted it as being able to split open a grave.

Huang Xin picked up the axe and tried to communicate with sign language, asking it to use the axe to fight the tall man. To make it more convincing, Huang Xin found an incomplete skull, first symbolically apologized, then placed the skull on the ground and chopped it down with the axe, shattering it into pieces.

Huang Xin looked at the skeleton, and the skeleton looked back at Huang Xin. After a few seconds, it nodded, indicating that it understood. It reached into the tomb, dug around a few times, pulled out a complete skull, placed it in front of Huang Xin, and then squatted there waiting, as if to say…

"I know you want to chop this up. Here, chop it up!"

Huang Xin couldn't help but cover his face and laugh. Even the best temper was almost worn down by this thing. It was incredibly stupid. He was at his wit's end but had no other choice. In the end, he could only grab the skeleton's right hand and pull it towards the taller skeleton. The shorter skeleton reacted quickly. The moment it was pulled up, it reached out with its left hand and tightly gripped a thigh bone that it had just pulled out of the grave.

After running for about a hundred meters, when they were still seven or eight meters away from the tall one, the short skeleton man suddenly shook off Huang Xin's hand, swung his leg bones with both hands, and tried to rush forward to fight to the death.

Huang Xin quickly grabbed it, forcefully shoving the axe into its right hand, and kept pointing at the skull shield in the taller man's hand. The shorter skeleton man nodded after a long while, meaning it understood and that it knew there were many skulls there that it could chop for him to see.