Chapter 19: The Budding of Multiple Schools | Monsters Are Coming
The appearance of a Black Tide rift signaled that the real world had entered the countdown phase of Black Tide corrosion.
Qi Sheng was unsure about the exact speed of collapse. Further observation of the world's changes was still needed to analyze and judge the situation.
But one thing was certain: he still had sufficient time to refine the Challenger Plan.
At this stage, Monster World was attracting new players under the name Dark Land, but eventually, the truth would be fully exposed.
However, he was never concerned about the exposure of the truth.
In his Challenger Plan, the recruitment targets included not only humans, but also those alien forces who had fled to Earth.
Just not yet. The sacrificial power he currently possessed was not enough to initiate large-scale recruitment.
Inside the containment wall beneath Emperor's Mound Village, the number of contained Primordial Monsters had reached nine: Black-Scaled Serpent, Owl-Headed Fiend, Gargoyle, Bonefire, and five Spirit Weapons. Their daily sacrificial power output was 2160 points. Combined with the players' hunting and mining yields, the total daily sacrificial power income was around 2500 points.
After deducting the 1000 points needed to maintain Emperor's Mound Village, there were 1500 points left each day for recruitment consumption.
In other words, only about one and a half player slots could be produced per day.
This amount of sacrificial power was a drop in the bucket for expanding the player faction. Not to mention recruiting aliens, it wasn't even enough to complete the recruitment goal for the human players.
To increase the recruitment numbers, he could only wait for the players' strength to gradually improve, thereby generating more sacrificial power income.
Without thinking further about the problem, Qi Sheng turned to the Guide water orb.
"Notify Uncle Yan to send me back."
"Understood."
The Guide nodded and vanished. A few seconds later, a teleportation array appeared beneath Qi Sheng's feet.
After returning to the Primordial Altar beneath Emperor's Mound Village.
His view shifted to the players currently exploring Monster World.
—
Emperor's Mound Mountain Range, Blood-Soaked Plains.
Shadowed Cavern.
"Gargoyle holds the front line, Black-Scaled Serpent and Owl-Headed Fiend look for opportunities to attack!"
Accompanied by the shout of a woman, the players once again erupted into a fierce battle with the Iron Shell Bugs.
These days, the Shadowed Cavern had become the primary location for players to level up and gather resources.
This was due to Monster World's unique environment.
In a normal game, after leaving the starter village, the monsters outside would generally be weak, suitable for players to level up and grow.
Monster World was entirely different. Outside of Emperor's Mound Village, aside from the lower-level Cursed Soldiers, players would frequently encounter high-level monsters capable of instantly wiping out entire teams. Exploration was full of uncertainty.
By comparison, the Shadowed Cavern, with its clearly defined monster strength and abundant minable resources, became the players' first choice.
After several days of growth, many players had already activated their second star vein.
Three powerful star vein schools had been proven through actual combat.
The strongest build of the current version was the Spirit Weapon Build, embedding multiple spirit weapons into the star veins, using the human body as the core to command a variety of spirit weapon abilities in battle.
However, at present, only Li Tie had this build.
Each body tempering level required 10,000 sacrificial power. Other players simply didn't have enough sacrificial power to create the star vein combinations for the Spirit Weapon Build.
Next was the Bonefire + Owl-Headed Fiend ranged attack build. The combination of offense and perception-based targeting made this build the first choice for Owl-Headed Fiend players, with excellent performance in actual combat.
Finally, there was the Black-Scaled Serpent + Force Savage Axe star vein combination.
The Black-Scaled Serpent provided physical form attacks, and when paired with the Force Savage Axe's strength attribute and damage amplification, it significantly boosted combat power.
At this stage, most players were still switching between forms during battle. Few maintained their primary human form for extended periods to fuse and utilize trait abilities.
As for the Gargoyle form, no suitable star vein build had been developed yet. Most players would select one of the five spirit weapons contained by Li Tie as their secondary form, with the popular combination being Gargoyle + Soul Sever Spear.
The Gargoyle's damage output was low, but it had strong defense. Combined with the Soul Sever Spear's spirit-impacting attacks, it followed a damage-over-time special effects route.
Some players simply chose no build at all, focusing purely on leveling up their initial monster form.
These players believed that the more star veins embedded, the more evolution points would be needed for development. It was better to focus on cultivating a single form.
For example, evolving the Black-Scaled Serpent into a Level 100 Sky-Piercing Python, or evolving the Owl-Headed Fiend into a Great Roc.
Facts proved that specializing in the initial form also provided considerable combat power increases. This build was jokingly referred to by the players as the Monster Build.
Each player had their own ideas, and the combat system had already begun to develop along different build paths.
The battle lasted for half an hour.
The players from Grind Kings, The Dinner Gang, and Kindergarten Passion Groups repelled the wave of Iron Shell Bugs at the cost of over half their forces.
In addition to obtaining a large number of evolution points that upgraded many players' monster forms, the abundant carapaces on the ground were also part of their spoils.
According to the Guide's analysis, these carapaces were classified as level 1 spiritual materials, which could be sacrificed to the Emperor's Sign for additional sacrificial power rewards.
As for how to distribute them, since the chaotic battle made it impossible to calculate each player's contribution, they finally chose equal distribution. All the carapaces were given to The Dinner Gang to sacrifice, and the sacrificial power obtained was then evenly distributed among the leaders of each player group, who would then allocate it to their team members.
Just as the players were dividing up the spoils, an unexpected change suddenly occurred.
A player in the team with an Owl-Headed Fiend who had activated the Dirge sensing ability suddenly issued a warning.
"Bad news, the Burrower Race is back!"
Upon hearing this, everyone instinctively tossed the carapaces into their inventories and bolted toward the cavern exit without hesitation.
The Burrower Race warriors had a hunt level of 19, and with the large number of Iron Shell Bugs accompanying them, they were no match at their current strength.
Death itself wasn't terrifying; what was terrifying was that death would cost 10 sacrificial power and a one-hour resurrection cooldown.
As they fled, the area voice channel was surprisingly cheerful.
"Hey, brothers with Gargoyle builds, your defense is high. Stay at the back and hold them off for a bit so we can get away first."
"How is that human speech? Why should the Gargoyle builds be the ones to sacrifice?"
"They're catching up to me! Why are you guys running so fast? Wait for me!"
"Bullying us Owl-Headed Fiends for having short legs, huh? So much for being a team, is this how you treat your teammates?"
—
In the tense and thrilling escape, no one cared about their teammates anymore. Everyone was running at full speed toward the exit.
During the escape, several players at the rear were entangled by silk threads spat by the Iron Shell Bugs, dragged backward as they screamed miserably. The players in front sped up even more upon hearing the screams.
Once the players escaped the cavern, they began to discuss a question.
Should they band together to kill the Burrower warriors?
The presence of the Burrower warriors had already become an obstacle for them to mine resources and level up in the Shadowed Cavern.
If they didn't eliminate them, they would constantly have to prepare for escape while in the cavern.
Rather than living in fear, it would be better to eradicate the threat completely.