Author: Xevinaly

Hearing this, Cheng Yang couldn’t help but praise his foresight. Building the Imperial Guard Pavilion now was undoubtedly an amazing choice.

Right now, he would be able to monopolize all of the talented guards but he couldn’t guarantee that someone would build another Imperial Guard Pavilion soon. Normally it wouldn’t be possible to obtain a territory and get the blueprints needed within the first two months of the apocalypse but what if he wasn’t the only person who reincarnated?

He was had been reincarnated, so why couldn’t it happen to someone else? He couldn’t allow someone else to steal this opportunity!

Unfortunately, hiring a top-level guard was just too expensive. Even if he used all of the Experience Fragments, he had earned today and dipped into the village’s saving he could only afford to hire three SS-Rank Elite guards and a normal S-Rank guard or two.

Without hesitation, Cheng Yang hired the only SS-Rank Warrior available, instantly draining one thousand five hundred Experience Fragments from his account.

With a flash of light, a young woman wearing simple linen clothes appeared in front of Cheng Yang.

The Warrior immediately dropped down to one knee and bowed. “Xue Yu greets the Lord.”

Cheng Yang had expected this kind of behavior. After all, every NPC treated the Lord with great respect so wouldn’t his personal guard be even more courteous?

“Please rise Xue Yu. I have high hopes for you and leave the safety of Phoenix Village in your hands.” Cheng Yang said, helping the Warrior to her feet.

“It is a privilege to serve you my Lord.”

Using his authority as the Lord of Phoenix Village, Cheng Yang checked her system pane.

---

Xue Yu
Phoenix Village Imperial Guard
Class: Warrior
Level: High Grade Apprentice

Age	27	Life Span	200
HP	471.7	MP	37.8
Physical Attack	35.6	Magic Attack	4.2
Physical Defense	12	Magic Defense	4.2
Attack Speed	6	Movement Speed	12.6

Innate Abilities

• Receive 40% more stats in the Physical Attack attribute when you level up
• Receive 30% more stats in the Health attribute when you level up
• Movement Speed increased by 200%
• Imperial Guard Member (Special Ability): You are bound to the land you serve but in exchange can identify the location of all enemies within the territory boundaries. You cannot level up naturally or train skills.
• Elite (Special Ability): Increase all attributes by 5%

Skills

• Lacerate (Low Grade): Add magic to your blade making it easier to cut through enemies | Damage: 39.8 | Cost: 2 MP | Cast Time: 2.7 sec

Equipment

• Iron Sword: Status symbol of the warrior | Damage: 35.6
• Wooden Shield: A wooden shield | Can block physical attacks

---

As expected, her Innate Ability was even more powerful than his was. Additionally, it was perfect for a Warrior. If not for his skills and equipment, Cheng Yang probably wouldn’t be able to beat her in single combat.

When he saw her special Innate Ability, Cheng Yang had a wonderful idea. Since they could detect where monsters were, they would be far more efficient at killing the monsters attacking the village walls. If he let the Imperial Guard handle it, his normal soldiers would have more time to hunt outside the village.

Even better, couldn’t he send them to clear the Blood Soaked Cathedral? The monsters killed inside the instance dungeon were counted as being inside the territory boundaries so why wouldn’t the Imperial Guard be able to run it?

It was certainly worth a try. If it was possible for the Imperial Guard to use the instance dungeon then it would be far better than having his soldiers use it. After all, the Imperial Guard would be capable of clearing the Hard Difficulty. That meant the daily earning from the dungeon would increase greatly!

It was a pity that he couldn’t send Xu Wu to do that right now. Since she was a Warrior, there was no way for her to use the environment exploit to kill the boss.

However, even if she could, Cheng Yang wouldn’t send her in alone. Although the Imperial Guard were more easily replaced than high-level soldiers, there was no guarantee that he could hire another guard of the same quality.

That said, Cheng Yang planned to make his other two Elites a Ranger and a Summoner. He felt that an Elite Priest wouldn’t be that much better than a normal one and would feel uncomfortable if there was a Mage in the territory that was stronger than him.

Before hiring his other two Elite Imperial Guards, Cheng Yang greeted the other NPCs. He knew the importance of leaving them with a good impression and didn’t want to leave without saying anything.

In addition to the Dragon of War, the Imperial Guard Pavilion housed the Vermillion Archmage of Terror, the Divine Sky Caller, the Ten Thousand Beast Enigma and the Eagle Eyes Calamity

Even though he tried his best to be polite, he almost screamed when he heard those names. Every one of them had a cringy fantasy title!

Even though he nearly vomited, he was able to collect some valuable information. There was at least one SS-Rank individual in each class and between five and ten S-Rank individuals.

After talking to the NPC’s, Cheng Yang hired the SS-Rank Summoner and Ranger.

When he did, he checked their system panes.

---

Hayashi Airi
Phoenix Village Imperial Guard
Class: Ranger
Level: High Grade Apprentice

Age	22	Life Span	200
HP	151.2	MP	159.7
Physical Attack	35.6	Magic Attack	7.3
Physical Defense	6	Magic Defense	12.6
Attack Speed	6	Movement Speed	10.9

Innate Abilities

• Receive 40% more stats in the Physical Attack attribute when you level up
• Receive 30% more stats in the Movement Speed attribute when you level up
• Movement Speed increased by 200%
• Imperial Guard Member (Special Ability): You are bound to the land you serve but in exchange can identify the location of all enemies within the territory boundaries. You cannot level up naturally or train skills.
• Elite (Special Ability): Increase all attributes by 5%

Skills

• Reinforced Arrow (Low Grade): Imbue your arrow with magic power increasing damage | Damage: 42.9| Cost: 4 MP | Cast Time: 2.7 sec

Equipment

• Wooden Bow: Status symbol of the ranger | Damage: 35.6
• Quiver: A magic bag that can hold 60 arrows | Spawns one arrow every minute

---

Ahn Sumin
Phoenix Village Imperial Guard
Class: Summoner
Level: High Grade Apprentice

Age	26	Life Span	200
HP	181.4	MP	105.8
Physical Attack	35.6	Magic Attack	6
Physical Defense	6	Magic Defense	6
Attack Speed	4.2	Movement Speed	12.6

Innate Abilities

• Receive 40% more stats in the Physical Attack attribute when you level up
• Receive 30% more stats in the Magic Defense attribute when you level up
• Movement Speed increased by 200%
• Imperial Guard Member (Special Ability): You are bound to the land you serve but in exchange can identify the location of all enemies within the territory boundaries. You cannot level up naturally or train skills.
• Elite (Special Ability): Increase all attributes by 5%

Skills

• Summon Wolf (Low Grade): Summons a wolf with stats equal to the summoner | Duration: 10 min | Cost: 10 MP | Cast Time: 40.5 sec

Equipment

• Wooden Stave: Status symbol of the summoner | No bonuses

---

With the addition of these three High Grade Apprentices, Phoenix Village’s power reached a completely new level. Cheng Yang felt that even if the military tried to take over Phoenix Village they would be sent back to Cloud City crying.

However, he had just spent four thousand five hundred Experience Fragments. Although he could afford another S-Rank guard Cheng Yang decided to wait a day or two.

Satisfied with his purchase, Cheng Yang left the Imperial Guard Pavilion. When the civilians outside the gate saw Cheng Yang exit, they took a step backwards in fear. Hadn’t Cheng Yang entered alone? Who were those other three people?

Despite their curiosity, no one approached Cheng Yang to ask him about it.

Cheng Yang chuckled when he saw the reaction of the civilians

“Everyone listen up. From now on, these three people are the leaders of my Imperial Guard. They’ll patrol the walls and ensure the safety of the village’s citizens. As long as there are here none of you will be in danger!” Cheng Yang declared.

The civilians burst into applause. To them it didn’t matter where those people came from as long as they were willing to protect the village.

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Once he got to the Territory Altar, Cheng Yang placed the unfurled scroll at the base. A few seconds later the scroll spontaneously combusted and the Imperial Guard Pavilion appeared on the Territory Altar system pane.

---

• Imperial Guard Pavilion (Standard Grade): Allows the Lord to create an Imperial Guard | Cost: 500 units of wood

---

For such a powerful building, the construction cost of the Imperial Guard Pavilion was actually fairly low. Right now Phoenix Village had just over five hundred units of wood. This could either be used to build the remaining shops the village needed or the Imperial Guard Pavilion. Since no one would be able to effectively utilize shops right now, making a decision was trivial.

Without hesitation, Cheng Yang built the Imperial Guard Pavilion.

Immediately, a curtain of multi-color light descended not far from the center of the village. When it finally dissipated, a five pointed two-story pavilion stood in its place. Surrounded by a five-pointed stone wall, the building was magnificent.

The residents of the Inner Village stared on in wonder but compared to the light show yesterday when the walls were built, it was somewhat lacking.

Cheng Yang strode through the gate and entered the pavilion. As soon as he entered, the gate slammed shut, blocking the civilians from entering. This was the resting place of the Imperial Guard, thus only the Lord could gain entry.

Inside the walls was a variety of training materials. There were archery targets, training dummies and even an altar. The entire area was empty except for five people in strange clothing.

Each one stood at a point of the pavilion, dressed in a manner that made it seem like they had stepped right out of a fantasy novel. More importantly, every item on their body was a piece of equipment with extraordinary quality!

“My Lord, welcome to the Imperial Guard Pavilion! Is there any way in which we may make ourselves of use to you?” A woman covered from head to toe in armor called out to Cheng Yang. Considering what she was wearing, the woman was probably a Warrior.

“Greeting respected warrior.” Cheng Yang replied, hoping to satisfy his curiosity. “What is your name?”

“I am known as the Dragon of War.” She replied with a bow.

Cheng Yang nodded to acknowledge her. “I’ve come today in order to create my own Imperial Guard. What do I need to do?”

“My Lord, the process is very simple. You only need to pay a small fee and you will be able to hire skilled personnel to become your Imperial Guard. I can provide a list of the finest Warriors available. The others here can provide candidates that are Mages, Summoners, Rangers and Priests. If you wish to hire individuals with a different class than those five, I request that you built the corresponding class change statue.”

What an amazing opportunity! If he hired twenty High Grade Priests, wouldn’t he be invincible?

Suddenly, Cheng Yang thought of a question. “Is there a limit to the number of people from each class I can hire?”

“I am afraid there is my Lord.” the Warrior replied, “That limit is one tenth the limit the corresponding class change statue has.”

Although it was disappointing, it made sense. What special class wasn’t overpowered compared to the normal ones? At the very least, he could get a few powerful Priests.

“What do I need to do after hiring people to join the Imperial Guard?” Cheng Yang asked.

“The Imperial Guard doesn’t require payment but all of their needs must be met by you, my Lord. Their equipment will be supplied by you and the Experience Fragments needed to learn skill must be provided by you.” The Dragon of War replied.

Cheng Yang was startled. “Wait, will I need to give them the Experience Fragments needed for training too?!”

“Don’t worry my Lord. That would be unnecessary. Your Imperial Guard will grow with you. Every time you level up, so too will every member of the Imperial Guard.”

Hearing this Cheng Yang was overjoyed. The Experience Fragments they would need to learn skill was negligible and they just take any leftover equipment.

No wonder the military backed Phoenix Village from his past life wasn’t able to conquer the territory that had built the Imperial Guard Pavilion. These soldiers were just too useful!

“When I hire people to serve in the Imperial Guard they’ll be the same level as me, right?” Cheng Yang asked.

“My Lord that’s not entirely correct. Since you are the first Lord to build the Imperial Guard Pavilion god has allowed you to designate three members of the Imperial Guards as Elites with strength greater than that of the ordinary members.”

Although that was certainly good news, Cheng Yang thought it was just icing on the cake. After all, if in the future the Imperial Guard had hundreds of members, what would three Elites mean?

“In that case, does that mean the hiring cost is different for Elites and regular soldiers?”

“How perceptive my Lord. That is indeed the case. The cost of hiring members of the Imperial Guard is tied to their strength. The lowest quality Warrior you can hire from me costs four hundred Experience Fragments. This price will increase every time you level up.”

Luckily, he had built the Imperial Guard Pavilion now. If he had waited until leveling up the village who knows how much it would have cost him. Although, there would be no way to avoid the increased price when he expanded the Imperial Guard later.

“In that case, can I see the list of Warriors for hire?”

The Dragon of War nodded and a system pane appeared in front of Cheng Yang. On it a list of names was presented along with a small amount of information and a photo.

There were at least a hundred people listed and this just the first page of a thousand. That is to say, there were 100,000 people to choose from just for the Warriors!

Randomly jumping from page to page, Cheng Yang saw that each Warrior cost four hundred Experience Fragments. The only small difference between them was whether their Innate Ability increased Health or Physical Attack by 10%.

“Respected warrior, do you have any recommendations for who to hire?” Cheng Yang asked, unable to make a choice.

“I would recommend that you sort the available Warriors by hiring price my Lord.” The Dragon of War advised. “This will show you the higher quality Warriors first. Also, if you wish to make any of your hires Elites, just select that option and the price will be increased by fifty percent.”

After sorting, Cheng Yang finally saw some variation in the Warrior prices. The highest price was one thousand Experience Fragments and even the one at the bottom of the page cost six hundred Experience Fragments.

“Why are these prices so high?” Cheng Yang muttered.

“How could a Warrior with an SS-Rank Innate Ability be cheap?” The Dragon of War asked with a laugh. “Even A-Rank Innate Abilities are rare and expensive so the few SS-Rank and S-Rank Warriors available for hire have incredibly high prices.”

“What is the highest rank Innate Ability that I can hire?” Cheng Yang immediately asked.

“The individuals available for hire cannot have an Innate Ability that is better than the most talented person here on Earth. As for what level your people can reach, I cannot say.” The Dragon of War replied casually.

Cheng Yang suddenly felt quite small. The Dragon of War made it sound like his own unheard of SS-Rank Innate Ability was barely passable. It seemed he knew very little about this new world.

“I understand.” Cheng Yang said after a moment, “I just didn’t want to hire anyone now if people with better Innate Abilities were going to appear.”

“A wise decision my Lord.” The Dragon of War said respectfully. “The list I have provided will change from day to day. Every day at least one S-Rank Warrior will be added to the list and at least once a month an SS-Rank Warrior will appear. However, be warned. This is not a list exclusive to you. Every Lord that has constructed an Imperial Guard Pavilion will be have access. That is to say, if you aren’t quick, all the talented Warriors will be hired before you get any.”

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Cheng Yang was thrown more than ten meters away by the Imperator Sarcosucus’ attack. With a thud Cheng Yang hit the pavement. His whole body ached from the strong impact of the attack. Had he been an ordinary person every bone in his body would have shattered. With just that one attack he had lost a significant portion of his health.

However, that didn’t matter in the slightest, escaping possible encirclement had turned the tide of battle.

Cheng Yang chuckled. Even after creating so many opening, the commanders were unable to kill him.

With a flash, Cheng Yang shot an Icicle Blast towards the commander that had attacked him. With such a large body, how could it possible avoid his attack.

As it screamed in pain, the other Imperator Sarcosuci poured out of the alleyways, covering the road in a sea of black scales.

Now that he had confirmed that the commanders trap had been broken Cheng Yang ran backwards at a slow pace. Hitting the commander with a second Icicle Blast, Cheng Yang began to kite the horde.

Watching the commanders charge towards him Cheng Yang sneered. These two were doomed the moment their trap failed. After being hit by a third Icicle Blast, the commander that had attacked Cheng Yang fell to the ground, never to move again.

The Imperator Sarcosucus tanking abilities were truly impressive. Most High Grade Monsters would be killed in just two shots.

At this point, the Imperator Sarcosuci in the alley had completely devoured the Grave Seekers. Even though they were the same level, the Grave Seekers were unable to deal enough damage to be a challenging opponent.

Once he resolved his grudge, Cheng Yang began targeting the other commander. As for the other Imperator Sarcosuci, they were over a hundred meters away now. After being suppressed for so long, Cheng Yang’s speed advantage finally showed itself.

Not too long later, the second commander died.

Since he had the opportunity, Cheng Yang decided to farm Experience Fragments off of the remaining low level monsters. This time he made sure to properly survey the area for other hordes as he searched for a place to cast Petal Blizzard from.

Cheng Yang considered calling Liu Hau and the other soldiers over to help but ultimately decided against it. Not only would they be useless except for the five he buffed with Sacrificial Blood cloud, they should be somewhere else collecting the treasure these monsters guarded.

Finally, he spotted a wonderful hiding spot, a building that had collapsed in such a way that there was a gradual slope leading into the basement. What made it amazing was that three perfectly intact concrete slabs had landed on top of the entrance to the basement. Without a High Grade monster, the Imperator Sarcosucus wouldn’t be able to break in and they were too big to fit normally.

Since both commanders were dead, with enough time he would be able to massacre the entire horde.

Cheng Yang quickly rushed in side to confirm that there was at least one other exit. When he saw that there was one, he prepared to face the horde.

“Icicle Blast!” Cheng Yang shouted. Although a few of the Imperator Sarcosucus had followed him over, it was necessary to stir them into a frenzy in order to maximize the effectiveness of Petal Blizzard.

In just a dozen seconds, the entrance to the basement was swarming with mouths.

Like clockwork, Cheng Yang cast Petal Blizzard. Nothing was more pleasant than mindlessly increasing the number of Experience Fragments he had.

There was a decent number of Standard Grade monsters left in the horde but Cheng Yang didn’t even notice. After all, they would just survive the Petal Blizzard one more time than the others.

Ten minutes later, few tens of Imperator Sarcosucus were still alive.

It was at this point that Liu Hau and the other soldiers entered the battle. With their strength, clearing out the remaining monsters was trivial.

“Hey, where were you when I was in danger?” Cheng Yang called out to the soldiers, “Don’t think I didn’t notice you waiting to mooch off my hard work.” He scolded.

“My Lord, how could we dare to mooch from you? We simply saw you fight and were inspired to come help!” Liu Hau said with bravado. “Besides, with the amount you have whats a couple dozen lost Experience Fragments.”

“What a smooth talker you are. Did you grab what they were guarding?”

“Not yet. We saw that the monsters were trying to surround you and were worried so we wanted to stay nearby in case we had to get you out of there.”

Cheng Yang was touched. With their strength Liu Hau and the others would only have plunged to their deaths if they really tried to help him. Even though he knew most of them wouldn’t have actually tried to help it was still nice to hear. After all, in the apocalypse it was far more common to find people who wanted to back stab you.

“In that case lets go find it. I bet your pretty interest right?” Cheng Yang grinned.

After a short walk through the site of Cheng Yang’s battle, the group reached the area the monsters had been guarding. Bathed in a soft glow, Cheng Yang found a scroll stuck in between two pieces of concrete. He had found two similar items before but each one was a skill scroll. He knew, from his past life, that what he had really wanted all this time was right in front of him. An architectural blueprint

Aside from the safe zone in the center of the city and the first clear of the Forgotten Grave, this was the most valuable object in the entire city!

---

Imperial Guard Pavilion Blueprints
Allows for the creation of the Imperial Guard Pavilion.

This building allows the Lord to create an Imperial Guard.

---

In his past life, the Imperial Guard Pavilion was obtained by one of the other territories surrounding Cloud City but the effects were well known in the area.

Each of the guards hired would be the same level as the Lord of the territory but there was a very strict limit on the number that could be hired. A Low Grade village could only hire ten guards and at least until it reach High Grade, that number would increase by ten every level.

The role of these NPC guards couldn’t be underestimated. They were willing to die in the line of duty and were completely loyal to the Lord. So long as they were alive, a territory’s safety could be assured.

Due to god’s rules it was almost a guarantee that the Lord of a territory would also be the strongest fighter. This meant that every single guard would be a level higher than the normal soldiers of a territory. How powerful would a whole team of them be?!

Once the Imperial Guard Pavilion was built Cheng Yang would obtain a loyal soldier that were just as powerful as he was. More importantly, he would have twenty of them!

The only restriction being that these Imperial Guards were incapable of leaving the territory. Those overpowered soldiers could never be used offensively but in exchange they would become his territories unbreakable shield!

“What is that thing? A skill?” Liu Hau asked, looking over Cheng Yang’s shoulder. After getting a powerful skill yesterday, he couldn’t wait to get another.

“Nope. This is an architectural blueprint. With this we’ll be able to secure a spot in this world for Phoenix Village!” Cheng Yang declared.

“Is it really that powerful?”

“It really is!” Cheng Yang then explained the power held by the Imperial Guard to his soldier.

“Those damn Imperial Guards are so lucky! We have to work hard everyday to achieve anything where as they, without even trying, can reach the same level as you? This is so unfair.” Liu Hau pouted.

“Are you saying you’d prefer to never set foot outside the village again?” Cheng Yang teased.

“Well… no.” Liu Hau admitted. For him, being cooped up in a single place was a fate worse than death.

---

Today’s main goal had been accomplished so all that was left was to search a few more rescue points before five. In the end, only one soldier’s family was rescued.

By the time the group returned to Phoenix Village, it was already dark.

The today number of refugees saved today had decreased slightly, but Cheng Yang was satisfied with the current population growth trajectory.

When he got back, Cheng Yang rushed over to the Territory Altar.

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“Always know where your enemies are before and after a fight!” How could Cheng Yang have forgotten the golden rule of the apocalypse he had been taught in his past life?

Most monsters would ignore another horde even if there were humans, but Grave Seekers were notorious scavengers known for their cunning. With them blocking the exit, the sturdy walls that had acted as Cheng Yang’s shield had become his shackles.

The walls were too tall to climb so he needed to make a choice. Break through the Grave Seekers at the back or try to force his way through the Imperator Sarcosuci.

The latter was obviously a bad choice. Not only were there hundreds of Imperator Sarcosuci but the Elite High Grade commanders were lurking somewhere in the horde.

The only real choice was to use the exit he had planned to originally. He just had to hope that there weren’t too many Graveseekers.

Cheng Yang wasn’t worried about dying at the hands of a Grave Seeker. He had enough Health Recovery potions to forcibly kill at least three hundred Low Grade monsters if need be. He was more worried about getting tied down and being caught in the iron grip of an Imperator Sarcosucus’ jaws. If that happened, his potions would only delay an inevitable death.

After making a decision, Cheng Yang gave up on killing any more Imperator Sarcosuci and sprinted towards the Grave Seekers. Seeing him approach, the Grave Seekers readied their pitchforks to strike at him.

Cheng Yang, who didn’t want to get caught in between the two monster hordes, took a running jump. His momentum carried him forward as he sailed over the Grave Seekers below.

The monsters were dumbfounded. Although they’re smarter than most beasts, Cheng Yang’s actions took them completely by surprise. Cheng Yang landed right behind the horde, cleanly dodging their initial attacks.

Cheng Yang hit the ground and rolled. The moment he landed, The Grave Seekers in the back thrust their pitchforks into his body. At the same time, a mass of icy petals burst into existence

The petals tore apart the monsters, leaving them with a pitiful amount of Health. Cheng Yang, on the other hand, only took three damage, about the same amount that most of the Grave Seekers now had. Such weak attacks merely tickled.

Although having weapons gave the Grave Seekers one of the highest damage values as Low Grade monsters, they were useless in front of Cheng Yang’s Physical Defense unless they had the Armour Piercing attribute

Cheng Yang did his best to dodge every attack. Although he wasn’t always successful, nor was he afraid that the Grave Seekers would kill him, he had remembered the cost of letting his guard down. Thankfully, this lesson hadn’t taken his life.

As the apocalypse progressed, monsters would evolve to the point that even normal attacks would have the power of a skill. Their attacks would gain attributes such as Armor Piercing. However, there was one attribute that could instantly end a person’s life: Vorpal. Under normal circumstances, if an attack would dismember or decapitate a target, god’s rules would only allow it to deal damage. However, if the attack had the Vorpal attribute the limb would be cleanly separated. Liu Hau had lost an arm to exactly that attribute in Cheng Yang’s previous life; if Cheng Yang wasn’t careful, he might lose his head in this one. No matter how much Health you had, being decapitated by a Vorpal attack was game over.

Since monsters could add special attributes to their attacks, it was a given that humans could do the same. Right now all that mattered was hitting the opponent but, whether by using a skill or finding a weapon that had one, the addition of these special attributes would completely transform how humanity approached combat.

Being able to effectively use special attack attributes required a good amount of experience and honed combat sense. Few people were able to adjust to this shift in time; those that didn’t ended up in a shallow grave.

This mass culling of Professionals was what allowed Cheng Yang to become one in his past life. As the second generation of soldiers, he was given the chance to adapt to the new style of combat without becoming complacent when it was easy. However, he almost fell into that same trap after reincarnating. Had this not been the early days of the apocalypse, he very well could have died today.

Once the second Petal Blizzard was unleashed, the monsters surrounding Cheng Yang were cut down like wheat.

Cheng Yang did not hesitate to take a few steps forward, then jumped again and fell to the front. Then he tossed out another ice thorn.

Having created an opening, Cheng Yang used the opportunity to perform another long jump.

At this time Cheng Yang was twenty meters away from the exit. Grave Seekers continuously poured into the alley while the Imperator Sarcosuci charged forwards from the other side. Even if he had made a few mistakes, Cheng Yang wasn’t an idiot. By jumping over the Grave Seekers at the front, he had drafted them into becoming his meat shields.

Cheng Yang desperately scrabbled forwards, jumping when he could. Even though the damage was negligible, every time Cheng Yang was hit by a pitchfork, his heart wept. For a Mage, being trapped in a monster horde was a tragic fate.

Fortunately, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. The last Grave Seeker in the horde had just entered the alley so as long as he could escape to the road, he would be free!

Cheng Yang excitedly jumped towards the exit, letting his guard down once again…

“Fuck!” Cheng Yang couldn’t help but swear. His momentum had carried him directly into a pitchfork.

A Standard Grade Graveseeker had hidden itself among the lower level fodder. Cheng Yang hadn’t thought about it but why wouldn’t this horde have a leader? With a cold fury, Cheng Yang placed the end of his stave on the leader’s head.

With a pop, the leader’s head was blown off. Cheng Yang’s Icicle Blast skill dealt sixty six points of damage so only the most powerful Standard Grade monsters would be able to avoid dying in one shot.

At the same time, the two monster hordes finally clashed. Using their numbers and size, the Imperator Sarcosuci turned the alley into a meat grinder. Although it was true that monsters would start fights with each other, how could one horde ignore another trying to steal their prey?

With frightening speed, Cheng Yang meat shields were turned into puddles of blood.

Seeing this, Cheng Yang became anxious. He needed to quickly kill the Grave Seekers in front of him and escape!

After a few seconds, Cheng Yang was able to reach the end of the alley. When he did, he saw something horrifying. The remaining Imperator Sarcosuci had moved to block off the end alley’s exit themselves!

“Fuck! Which bastard said that bestial monsters weren’t smart?!” Before reincarnating, Cheng Yang had only been a better than average soldier, so his mistakes were understandable. After all, he had already died from them once. If the elites from his past life could see this, they could only regret that they hadn’t been given this chance instead of Cheng Yang.

Cheng Yang broke out into a cold sweat. If not for those Grave Seekers trying to take advantage of the situation, he would have been forced to fight his way through the entire horde of Imperator Sarcosuci.

Without hesitation Cheng Yang sprinted in the opposite direction. There was no way he was going to give those monsters a chance to trap him. He’s already made enough mistakes today.

As he ran, Cheng Yang downed a Health Recovery Potion. Watching his Health climb back to full helped Cheng Yang calm down.

Any so called champion sprinters from before the apocalypse would be forced to eat his dust but, Cheng Yang still felt it wasn’t fast enough. The horde commander had proven to be incredibly crafty, forcing Cheng Yang to stay on guard.

“So that’s how it is.” With a whoosh two massive bodies ran in front of Cheng Yang to block his path.

Bigger than an ordinary Imperator Sarcosucus, the two Elite High Grade commanders were able to entirely block of the street with just their bodies. Even compared to the Standard Grade Imperator Sarcosucus he had killed before, these monsters were gigantic.

Having calmed down, Cheng Yang was able to address this problem with a level head. Would he be able to fight both of them at once? If he was able to kite them, victory would be trivial but they probably wouldn’t let him. It was possible they intended to stall him so that the other monsters could encircle him. What trick had these monsters planned?

Cheng Yang let out a self deprecating laugh. “Why are you thinking so much, all you need to do is fight them.”

With a firm resolve, Cheng Yang charged towards the wall of scales.At the same time his stave lit up with a frosty light. With a burst of cold air, Cheng Yang fired an icicle into the head of one commander.

Cheng Yang truly was a lucky bastard. On the first hit, Icicle Blast’s freezing effect was activated. Even if it was huge, it couldn’t escape god’s rules, cold icy tendrils wrapped around its joints.

“I won’t be dying today!” Cheng Yang roared. He climbed over the nearly immobile monster and lept past it.

The other commander wasn’t going to let its prey escape so easily. Its huge tail swept towards Cheng Yang like a train. Even if the air current it created was frightening, it wouldn’t be enough to instantly kill Cheng Yang. Although he was in the air, Cheng Yang’s rich combat experience allowed him to use the attack as a springboard.

With an earsplitting boom, the commander’s attack sent Cheng Yang flying into the distance.

Even if he hadn’t been an elite, he had still survived for a year in this damnable world!

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The groups traveled quickly. Cheng Yang let his soldiers take care of the scattered monsters that appeared and stepped in to use Petal Blizzard against larger groups. After several days, their coordination had improved by leaps and bounds, allowing them to defeat any horde they encountered with ease.

When they arrived outside the Forgotten Grave, the group started another run. Since they were able to clear the instance in less than half an hour, the hunting efficiency inside couldn’t even be mentioned in the same breath as hunting normally.

When they left the instance, the group had almost a dozen pieces of equipment they didn’t have when they entered. Even so, the quality of the loot was much lower this time. There weren’t any special treasures and only two pieces of Black Iron equipment.

The soldiers were disappointed but Cheng Yang didn’t care. He knew that if you wanted good loot, you needed to clear Hard Difficulty instance dungeons at minimum.

After wards, the group set off for the last marked location on Cheng Yang’s map that wasn’t a bridge nor in the city center.

Along the way, the group searched several search and rescue locations.

Unless a horde had long range attack capabilities they were helpless in front of Cheng Yang and his soldiers no matter how big they were.

After three and a half hours the group arrived at the marked location.

In between the gaps of the crumbling buildings a massive horde could be see. Cheng Yang estimated that there were at least one thousand five hundred monsters here, more here than there were guarding the bridges. Worse than that, if Cheng Yang’s memories from his past life were still accurate there would be two Elite High Grade monsters in this horde.

Monsters hordes would only gather in one spot when something useful to humanity was nearby. These hordes were assigned as guards and the size of this particular group rivaled that of the guardian horde for a Territory Altar. Relatively speaking, the value a Territory provided to humanity was far greater than any mere treasure but since it was seen as a necessity, god was merciful and reduced the perceived value to monsters.

Even so, this treasure was deemed just as valuable as a territory in the eyes of the monsters present. This was especially obvious when you realized that not even his unique skill warranted the creation of two Elite High Grade guards.

You can only imagine how powerful the treasure they guarded was.

Cheng Yang, however, did not. He knew exactly what was hidden in the depths of that horde and was desperate to obtain it before the day after tomorrow. On that day, the tenth day after the apocalypse, the first Mass Monster Evolution would occur. Five percent of all Low Grade monsters would spontaneously level up to Standard Grade, creating a second crisis for humanity.

At that time this horde would have seventy five new Standard Grade monsters or more. Although Cheng Yang was confident he and his soldiers could still exterminate it, he couldn’t guarantee that there wouldn’t be heavy losses.

“Koko, take the others and find somewhere to lie low nearby. I’m going to kite them for a little bit and try to lure out the commanders. If I don’t manage to do that I can at least cull a few of them.” Cheng Yang said.

“My Lord, you don’t need to shoulder all of the danger by yourself. Let’s find an intact building to use for protection, then you can use Sacrificial Blood Cloud and we’ll face the horde directly.”

“Hiding in a building ins’t a safe thing to do. Take that one for instance, although we could stand on the second floor and the normal monsters wouldn’t be able to do anything the commanders would just demolish the building directly.” Cheng Yang said, “It’s actually safer for me to go alone. I’m faster than the monsters so I wont get surrounded by those below High Grade. If they follow me away that’s even better. You can come out of hiding and grab the treasure while they’re gone.”

Liu Hau was persuaded so he took the group of soldiers to hide some distance away.

As they were leaving, Cheng Yang carefully surveyed the surrounding terrain. He was able to see quite a few spots he could use.

He chose to fight in a narrow passage that used to be an alley. Although the buildings had collapsed, the concrete walls were still intact enough to block monsters from going through them.

Bestial monsters were usually quite stupid and the horde in front of him was no exception. As long as there was an unblocked path towards their enemy, those monsters wouldn’t bother to create their own. They would continue to pour down the alley until it was choked with corpses.

After making sure that the walls wouldn’t randomly collapse Cheng Yang rushed out to confront the horde.

There was only a single type of monsters in this horde since it was a naturally forming one. The Imperator Sarcosucus were massive crocodiles with a length of eleven meters and a height of two. Despite it’s intimidating appearance these horrors were still just Low Grade monsters.

Of course, they were still among the most powerful and dangerous of all Low Grade monsters.

In addition to their massive size these monsters had forty health, three Physical Defense and two Magic Defense. In exchange, their speed was a measly point five. They were textbook meatshields.

Gods new rules allowed these creatures to live outside of the water indefinitely. The fact that god was merciful enough not to allow sharks to swim through the air caused several people to begin serious worship in Cheng Yang’s past life.

When he appeared, Cheng Yang immediately attracted the attention of those vicious creatures. Their massive jaws opened with the expectation of fresh meat but their little legs constantly waddling ruined the image.

Cheng Yang rushed into range and ran back immediately after casting Icicle Blast. A shard the size of a lance shot forwards and penetrated the skull of a Standard Grade Imperator Sarcosucus. The enemies movements slowed to a snails pace as its entire body was covered in a layer of ice. The magnificent ice sculpture was shattered to pieces as the other crocodiles trampled over it to reach Cheng Yang.

Every now and then when Cheng Yang turned a Low Grade monster into a corpse its body froze and was stomped to pieces.

Cheng Yang was only able to kill a dozen monsters before reaching the alley. When he did, Cheng Yang stopped attacking and rushed inside. No matter how strong you were, being surrounded by over a thousand monster meant certain death.

The alley was only able to accommodate three of the massive beasts as it was only two meters across. Despite that the monster were climbing over each other to fit as many into the alley as they could.

Cheng Yang smirked, how could he allow such a good opportunity to pass? Suddenly hundreds of razor sharp petals appeared out of nowhere, dicing at the monsters flesh. Since the Imperator Sarcosucus were densely packed into the entrance of the alley Cheng Yang was able to hit eight of them with his AOE skill.

When ever an Imperator Sarcosucus managed to break free from the group to bite Cheng Yang, he would send an icicle down it’s throat, killing it. These monsters were simply too slow, they would never be able to catch Cheng Yang in their jaws. Maintaining a constant distance of seven meters Cheng Yang calmly fought.

Even as the monsters in front died, those in the back pushed forwards like a writhing mass of snakes. Whenever he had the chance Cheng Yang would use the Petal Blizzard skill to creating a large pile of corpses.

This alley had turned into a mass grave. Every three or four meters a large pile of dead Imperator Sarcosucus could be seen. The alley was two hundred and fifty meters long so by the end, the strength of the horde would have be greatly diminished.

Even so, the number of Imperator Sarcosucus was just too high. Even if ten were killed another ten would squeeze their way into the alley.

As Cheng Yang neared the end of the alley he estimated that he must have killed at least four hundred monsters. Before he could celebrate s scratching noise behind him wiped the smile off of his face.

The end of the alley had been blocked off by a horde of monsters! Behind him, twenty Graveseekers had rushed down the other end of the alley.

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Cheng Yang’s defense before and after becoming a Cryomancer werer incomparable. The unique subclass had given him two new Innate Abilities that boosted his natural Physical and Mental Defense by three points each.

This was the power of a unique subclass. Frozen Flesh and Icy Mind were the exclusive Innate abilities of a Cryomancer. In addition, he now had one enhanced original Innate ability. These two powerful buffs were what separated a unique subclass from the common ones.

Every time he leveled up, Cheng Yang’s Magic Attack would increase by 40%. This gave him an Innate Ability above S-Rank, which was something that had never happened in his past life.

Although more than a dozen people had obtained a unique subclass, none of them had S-Rank Innate Abilities. After all, there were few people with unique sub-classes; the number of people with S-Rank Innate Abilities was even smaller. A person having both was a miracle.

This wasn’t a bug, right? Perhaps God didn’t consider the possibility that someone could get an Innate Ability higher than S-Rank since it was the limit in Cheng Yang’s past life.

In addition, the attributes of Cheng Yang’s skills changed. Magic Missile and Wind Bondage were replaced with ice themed variants.

The biggest change was that both skills gained the ability to slow a creature. Magic Missile changed to Icicle Blast, gaining a thirty percent chance to apply a frozen debuff. Although it wouldn’t matter when facing ordinary enemies, stronger monsters would become easier to deal with. Wind Bondage became Hibernation Chill; in exchange for being weakened, it’s biggest disadvantage had been removed. The cast time less than the effect duration so he could infinitely chain the skill.

Although slowing a monster won’t be as useful in certain situations as completely restraining a monster, removing the cast time limiter made Hibernation Chill better.

Wind Bondage was only suitable to use when in a team or trying to escape due to the long cooldown. By the time you finished casting another skill, the target would already be free.

The limitation reduced the practicality of Wind Bondage to Cheng Yang since he preferred go solo. Besides, if he needed access to the skill, he could always make one of the soldiers use it for him.

Although these skills were powerful, they weren’t actually Cryomancer skills. When performing a class change ceremony for a subclass, previously learned skills were turned into a fusion between the two classes.

However, Cheng Yang didn’t understand the Cyromancers skills. So he opened the panel of the Cyromancer to figure it out.

Cheng Yang had opened it to take a peek, but he found a learning skill, which made him happy.

Regardless of the high practicality of this skill, it’s good to have one more skill in the early stage.

---

Cryomancer Skills

• Petal Blizzard (Low-Grade): Conjure hundreds of razor sharp ice petals to dice your enemies | Damage: 27.4 | Cost: 20 MP | Cast Time: 1.5 sec | Effect Radius: 3 m | Level Needed: High Grade Apprentice | Price: 200 Experience Fragments

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Cheng Yang widened his eyes. How cool was this? It turned out to be an area of effect skill!

The excitement in Cheng Yang’s heart couldn’t be expressed with words. The only person to become a Cryomancer in Cheng Yang’s previous life had learned this skill, but he was already a Low Grade Scholar at the time. At that level, all Mages were able to learn area of effect skills so it wasn’t seen as being special or overpowered.

However, Cheng Yang was only a High Grade Apprentice and everyone else was a Low Grade Apprentice. Having an area of effect attack this earlier would be overpowered!

How big was a three meter radius? Enough to fit seven or eight monsters. If the monsters were grouped up like the skeletons in the Forgotten Grave hitting ten would be easy. Cheng Yang would only need to use Petal Blizzard twice to kill ten monsters! Compared to using Icicle Blast, it was far more efficient. As he leveled up the skill, its efficacy would only increase.

Without hesitation, Cheng Yang purchased Petal Blizzard. For now, as long as he could kill eight monsters every two times he used the skill it would be worth the Mana cost.

Next, Cheng Yang instructed his generals to collect all of the Experience Fragment he had loaned by the time he got back from hunting.

---

Cheng Yang began hunting only after he had traveled four kilometers from the outer wall. Although monsters would constantly spawn in the areas he had cleared on previous nights, only large hordes could meet his needs. Besides, if he cleared out all of the small fry, what would his soldiers hunt?

His harvest for the night was two thousand Experience Fragments. However, these types of gains didn’t come without danger. Due to a moment of carelessness Cheng Yang had been surrounded by a monster horde six hundred strong. Unable to kite them like he normally would, Cheng Yang was drawn into an intense, bloody battle.

Three factors contributed to his victory tonight: the Petal Blizzard skill, his overpowered potions and his natural Physical Defense increase. The first two ensured he had an amazing efficiency when it came to monster killing while the last allowed him to face the attacks of Low Grade monsters without fear.

Normally there was no way to totally negate damage other than a Shield’s Damage Reduction attribute however, this was only in regards to equipment. As long as your natural Physical Defense was higher than the initial damage adjusted for Damage Reduction, there was a chance to ignore damage entirely.

Previously, Cheng Yang’s chance to ignore damage was less than 8% but now he had a nearly 30% chance to ignore damage. This made it much easier to face large hordes of monsters.

After returning to Phoenix Village, Cheng Yang collected the four thousand Experience Fragments he had loaned out for training from Yu Kai.

He then went into his house to Meditate. When he woke up the next morning, his experience bar had been filled a mind boggling three and a half percent! For a High Grade Apprentice, such a fast rate of progress was scary.

Suddenly the smile on Cheng Yang’s face disappeared. According to the calculations and data derived in his past life, that number was wrong. Considering the training speed of the High Grade Meditation skill multiplied by sixteen, the various bonuses from the Meditation Hall and his Innate Ability, his experience bar should have only increased by three point two percent. Why did it increase by point three percent more than it should have?

Although Cheng Yang had been calculating his training efficiency everyday and noticed tiny discrepancies, he figured it was due to algebra errors. But no matter how many time he recalculated the figure, there was no way to write off the difference.

The numbers for the Meditation Halls and sixteen times training speed had been confirmed in his past life, so the source of the error must lie with his Innate Ability!

Cheng Yang pondered over the issue for quite some time but couldn’t come up with a reasonable solution. The best one he had was that his Innate Ability was affecting some hidden stat for the Meditation Hall.

It took Cheng Yang a while to calm down but in the end, no matter the reason, the increase was a good thing. He was sure that, with enough time, Phoenix Village would stand at the top of the world. By then it wouldn’t be Phoenix Village but Phoenix City!

Once he calmed down, Cheng Yang walked outside. As for the seven hundred and twenty Experience Fragments he used for training today? He had already forgotten about them.

Today was the ninth day of the apocalypse and Cheng Yang was starting to feel the pressure. All of the weakest and most cowardly survivors were already dead and even the others would soon follow them without intervention.

Fortunately Cheng Yang had already rescued people from most of the outer city while the military should have covered the entire inner city. Without either of those groups acting, the number of casualties would have grown exponentially.

Cheng Yang tried not to think too hard about it since every life he saved was one fated to die in his previous life. All he wanted to do was take advantage of the time he had left to save as many people as he could. At the same time, he could collect Experience Fragments and strengthen the territory

Before leaving for Cloud City Cheng Yang quickly cleared the Blood Soaked Cathedral, earning back double what he lost that night. Afterwards he gave all of his Experience Fragments to Yu Kai.

This was so that Yu Kai could pick ten people in his Brigade to grant sixteen times training speed. From now on, all ten thousand would be passed from team to team when they trained. First up would be Yu Kai’s Brigade followed by Lau Hui’s.

Old Lee had worked through the night to tightly micromanage the territories Experience Fragments reserves, allowing him to finish performing class change ceremonies for all of the new soldiers a short time after Cheng Yang cleared the instance dungeon. As such, he was no longer needed in the village so Cheng Yang brought him to Cloud City.

It seemed that for at least a while longer, Phoenix Village would remain nearly broke.

As the group advanced to Cloud City Cheng Yang purposefully took a route they hadn’t gone through yet. Tons of monsters assaulted them along the way, but their only role was to feed Cheng Yang and his soldiers more Experience Fragments.

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Cheng Yang put the Spirit of Ice and Snow into his bag and returned to the group. Since everyone’s wounds were fully healed, the only thing left to do was wait for the instance to time out.

“My Lord, you look happy. Did you find something good?” Yu Kai asked.

Cheng Yang tossed the Spirit of Ice and Snow to his friend, “Take a look.”

Yu Kai opened the system pane and after taking a look exclaimed: “Unique subclass! Is it powerful?”

“I’m not sure since I haven’t become a Cryomancer yet but it definitely won’t be weak.”

Yu Kai and the other’s agreed with Cheng Yang’s assessment but none of them had even the slightest desire to fight Cheng Yang for the right to become a Cryomancer. After all, they were only able to obtain the Spirit of Ice and Snow because of Cheng Yang and he was by far the strongest Mage in the territory.

Soon afterwards the instance ended and the group was ejected back into the real world.

Once they were outside, the group continued travelling North. The instance dungeon had been dangerous but the rewards were enormous. Just counting the number of Experience Fragments they gained was impressive not to mention all of the equipment and the invaluable Spirit of Ice and Snow.

“My Lord, are we going to come back to this instance dungeon tomorrow?” Liu Hau asked. After tasting the sweet rewards that the Forgotten Grave had to offer Liu Hau wasn’t content with just hunting in the wilderness where the monster spawn rate was so low.

“We won’t be able to visit all of the search and rescue locations in the North today so we’ll have a chance to run the instance dungeon tomorrow as well. As for after that if I don’t have other plans I can bring a group here to run it. Otherwise stay away from it. without five High Grade DPS you’re doomed to fail.”

Liu Hau wasn’t arrogant enough to try and challenge the instance dungeon alone so he was satisfied by Cheng Yang’s promise to run the instance when he could. After all, if not for Cheng Yang’s skill they wouldn’t have cleared the instance earlier.

Until four that afternoon, the group searched Northern Cloud City. The end result was disappointing. After visiting right locations, only two soldiers families had been rescued. Even worse, one soldier’s family was confirmed to be dead.

For the third evening in a row, you could see thousands of refugees streaming into Phoenix Village. They were naturally the people Cheng Yang’s Cloud City expedition group had saved. With this, the population of Phoenix Village had swelled to fifteen thousand. If you were to measure it by old world standards, it would be classified as a town.

Originally Phoenix Village had been quite crowded, but now there were so many people that the walls physically couldn’t contain all of them.

Cheng Yang had planned ahead for this scenario so instead of letting the civilians fight for the right to stay inside the wall, he directly build the Standard Grade Wall.

At the same time Cheng Yang selected the build option, the entirety of Phoenix Village was shrouded in multi-color light, burning around the village in two concentric rings. When the light disappeared Phoenix Village had two layers of walls lined with watchtowers , both of which were thicker than the Low Grade Wall.

Although the wall was still only three meters high in most locations, the watchtowers reached a height of seven meters. With this new wall constructed the total area protected had jumped up to nine square kilometers, more than enough space for fifteen thousand citizens.

Of course, these changes were purely aesthetic, the real value was in the new wall’s attributes. Its Defense had doubled and the Damage Reduction had increased to five thousand. Even if a massive horde of Standard Grade Immature monsters surrounded Phoenix Village, the citizens would be completely safe.

This scene shocked the vast majority of the civilians, even if they had seen the construction process of the smaller buildings the impact couldn’t compare to a wall being built. This was a wonder they wouldn’t forget.

Building the wall consumed five hundred cubic meters of wood, leaving Phoenix Village with precious little. Fortunately, the highest priced item was now out of the way, leaving only the comparatively cheaper shops. Now the only real barrier to leveling up the village was the twenty-thousand Experience Fragment requirement.

Right now the territory didn’t have a single Experience Fragment to its name. All of the Experience Fragments it used to have were put towards performing class change ceremonies, after all, the six hundred new soldiers represented a twelve thousand Experience Fragment investment. The only reason they could even afford that was the fact that cost of each soldier would be recuperated in a day. Even so, it would take quite some time to break even with the initial investment.

With all of the territories Experience Fragments loaned out to new soldiers, starting new research for the class change statues was put off until tomorrow. However, since the Priest statue would level up after just one more research objective was met Cheng Yang loaned the territory the needed Experience Fragments.

Low level Priests seemed to be of little actual value, their only use being to save their teammates the cost of a Health Recovery Potion. However, once they leveled up and gained access to stronger skills such as Angelic Inspiration their value would become glaringly apparent.

After the walls were built all of the civilians without a family member in the army were forced into the outer village, the area between the two walls. This decision was made some time ago and although it wasn’t “fair”, nothing was in this new world.

It took quite a while to move all of the civilians. Not only were there thousands of people but also tens of thousands of pounds of equipment. Most of the refugees had a small collection of items in addition to the quilts, floor mats and mattresses that the rescue teams brought back from Huimin. Without these it wouldn’t be odd to find several of the weaker civilians frozen to death in the morning.

None of that mattered to Cheng Yang since he had immediately passed all responsibility to his generals as usual.

Today Cheng Yang had reached a milestone, he had amassed a total of five thousand Experience Fragments. Two thousand were from yesterday while three thousand were from today. Once the loggers and new soldiers paid him back he would be able to collect the Experience Fragments he gave to the old soldiers for training and reach ten thousand! Sixteen times training speed was in reach!

As the civilians were being relocated from the inner village Cheng Yang walked over to the Mage statues and placed the Spirit of Ice and Snow on its pedestal.

When he did, it rose into the air until it was level with the statue’s eyes, then it cracked. The endless storm within was released into the world creating a powerful burst of cold air that drew everyone attention.

The storm stopped as abruptly as it started. When Cheng Yang looked back at the statue it was wearing a new circlet inlaid with the Spirit of Ice and Snow.

The system panel of the statue didn’t change much, only two new line was added.

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Unique Subclasses

• Cryomancer [Unassigned]

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One of the quirks of a unique class was that the person holding it didn’t count towards the number of people holding its base class. That is to say, after Cheng Yang becomes a Cryomancer the territory will be able to perform an additional Mage class change ceremony.

Even though Cheng Yang wasn’t able to check the Cryomancer system panel until he became one he didn’t hesitate to perform the class change ceremony. Unlike the previous curtains of light that were multicolored, the one that enveloped Cheng Yang now was a pure and icy blue. Cheng Yang felt like he had been dropped into the arctic as his blood froze and his flesh turned into ice.

After a full minute the light disappeared and Cheng Yang felt his body somewhat thaw. With a satisfied smirk he opened up his system pane.

---

Cheng Yang
Phoenix Village Lord
Class: Mage
Subclass: Cryomancer
Profession: Alchemist
Level: High-Grade Apprentice (9.9%)

Age	19	Life Span	200
HP	100.8	MP	191.2
Physical Attack	4	Magic Attack	54.8
Physical Defense	18.6	Magic Defense	8.6
Attack Speed	4	Movement Speed	11

Innate Abilities

• Receive 40% more stats in the Magic Attack attribute when you level up
• When Lord of a territory, all building effects are increased by 30%
• Movement speed is increased by 150%
• Perfect Medicinal Body: All potions effects are doubled and the side effects are halved
• Frozen Flesh: Physical Defense is increased by 50%
• Icy Mind: Mental Defense is increased by 50%

Skills

• Meditation (High-Grade): Meditate to absorb experience fragments and level up
• Icicle Blast (Standard Grade): Attack targets within thirty meters with a spike of magical ice | Damage: 66.4 | Cost: 5 MP | Cast Time: 1.5 sec | Effect: 30% chance to freeze target on hit | Proficiency: 2.1%
• Hibernation Chill (Low Grade): Freeze the air around an opponent greatly slowing them | Duration: 2 sec | Cost: 8 Mana | Cast Time: 0.8 sec | Proficiency: 10.0%
• Sacrificial Blood Cloud (Low Grade): Gift one of your attributes in full to five allies | Penalty: All attributes are halved | Duration: 10 minutes | Cast Time: 12 sec | Proficiency: 2.1%

Equipment

• Wolf King’s Sorrow (Black Iron): A stave crafted from the leg bones of the once mighty Wolf King, a Pinnacle-Grade Evolved monster that ruled a pack of millions. Shoddy construction has caused its power to diminish over time | Increases Magic Attack by 4 | Durability: 69/80
• Corrupted High Priest’s Robes (Black Iron): The robes of the high priest of the St. Luantha cathedral corrupted by demonic magic | Increase Physical Defense by 2 and Mana by 10 | Durability: 48/60
• Standard Battlemage Helmet (Black Iron): A helmet mass produced by the Nubines Citadel for its famed battlemage infantry | Increase Mana by 20 and Physical Defense by 1 | Durability: 67/80
• Rotten Wooden Ring (Black Iron): Once a powerful artifact, this ring made from a holy tree has been nearly destroyed by demonic energy | Increases Magic Attack by 3 | Durability: 75/80
• Crystal Ring (Green Bronze): A simple band ring composed of a single red crystal | Increase Magic Attack by 1 | Durability: 51/60
• Sunbeam Necklace (Green Bronze): A necklace bearing a sun motif that was lightly blessed by a holy entity | Increases Magic Attack by 1 | Durability: 55/60
• Dire Bear Bracelet (Green Bronze): Warm and fluffy this bracelet was made using the fur from one of nature’s fiercest predator | Increases Physical Defense by 1 | Durability: 45/60
• Adoril’s Gauntlet (Black Iron): One of the last fragments of the mithril armor used by Holy Knight Adoril which is the perfect size to wear as a bracelet | Increases Mana by 10 and Physical Defense by 2 | Durability: 77/80
• Iron Ant Boots (Green Bronze): Stylish and practical, these boots were made using hundred of iron ants as sequins | Increases Physical Defense by 1 and Movement Speed by 1 | Durability: 58/60

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Last Chapter| Index | Next Chapter

The Skeleton General rushed to the front of the human defensive line and swept its sword sideways towards the Warriors in front of it. The wind itself seemed to be cut by the powerful strike, the first Warrior to receive its attack would inevitably get blown away.

As the sword swept towards the unfortunate Warrior, Liu Hau appeared in front of her.

“Boom!” The collision was so loud Liu Hau’s eardrums nearly ruptured.

The Damage Reduction attribute didn’t just negate damage but also the force behind it allowing Liu Hau to barely resist falling over support from the Warrior behind him. Even reduced, the Skeleton General’s strength was twice that of Liu Hau.

However, the Skeleton General’s title wasn’t just for show. Without pausing the it recovered and sent its sword snaking towards Liu Hau heart from a tricky angle. It defied logic as it snaked through the gap in his armor near his armpit.

The Skeleton General might look clumsy but it was the animated remains of a sword master. Its dexterity was on another level so as an amateur, Liu Hau could only obediently let his heart be pierced.

At the same time, three Magic Missiles slammed against the Skeleton General. Without it’s shield it was just another mob. No matter who it was in life, it was just one skeleton. Together with the last Skeleton Warrior, it was returned to the grave.

“Koko, nice block!” Cheng Yang cheered.

Indeed, if not for Liu Hau stopping the Skeleton General from knocking away the first Warrior it would have been able to directly enter the back lines. The results of that can only be imagined.

“Heh, it was a group effort.” Liu Hau said with an embarrassed smile.

They laughed but their hands weren’t idle. After killing the high level enemies, all that was left was to continue attacking.

The two sides were stuck in a lethal game of tug of war. The Warriors were stronger than the skeletons and their shields could block most of the damage but there were just too many skeletons, they couldn’t block them all. As time passed, the Warriors began to tire out.

The Summoners played a vital role in this fight. Their wolves acted as meatshields, taking attacks for the Warriors while the Summoners themselves would attack any skeleton that tried to break through the formation. Even though Summoner’s couldn’t damage enemies with their staves, their strength was enough to push them back.

The number of skeletons continuously dropped but the group wasn’t made up of trained soldiers. Even with Pang Sun’s healing and the help of potions, the mental stress of such high intensity combat introduced mistakes into their rhythm.

Unable to adjust his stance in time, a Warrior was knocked off balance by the endless wave of attacks. If he were to fall now, the undead hordes would ensure he never had the chance to get back up.

At the last moment Cheng Yang dived forwards and pulled the soldier out of the way, taking his place. As Cheng Yang hit the ground, a dozen skeleton’s stabbed downwards. Cheng Yang now had more than eighty Health so the damage done was negligible thanks to his high Physical Defense. The soldier he saved swiftly returned to his position while Cheng Yang retreated behind him.

Using his highly honed combat sense Cheng Yang was able to use his body as a shield every time a Warrior made a mistake. Even if they only dealt one damage, with attacks continuously hitting Cheng Yang he needed to take a Health Recovery Potion every ten seconds or less.

After a few dozen seconds, the battle finally ended, the dead were laid to their final rest.

None of the Phoenix Village soldiers had died but right now the Warriors didn’t look much better than beggars. Their clothes had been reduced to rags and they were covered in blood.

Fortunately, their actual condition was better than their appearance. As long as the meditated or had Pang Sun heal them, even Liu Hau’s pierced heart would heal. The real loss was any damage done to their equipment. Right now Phoenix Village didn’t have any NPC’s capable of repairing equipment so each point of durability lost was one they couldn’t get back.

Since the canyon floor was finally still, the instance had been cleared.

Cheng Yang quickly started cleaning the battlefield while the others were meditating to recover.

The skeleton armies had spawned far too quickly so Cheng Yang hadn’t had a chance to collect the loot yet. In this instance, every single high level skeleton was guaranteed to drop an item and even normal ones had a decent chance so there was plenty of loot to be found. In addition, this was the first clear of the Forgotten Grave so Cheng Yang had high expectations.

Sure enough, Cheng Yang found six pieces of Black Iron equipment, ten pieces of Green Bronze equipment and a scroll.

Cheng Yang wasn’t interest in the equipment since none of them were better than his current set. Throwing the equipment towards the soldiers to fight over, Cheng Yang opened the scroll.

At this point it seemed liked god was deliberately teasing him. He had found yet another rare scroll but instead of the architectural blueprints he wanted, it was a skill scroll.

---

Spirit Shield
“I am the emperor’s shield! You’ll have to break my unyielding spirit first you filthy necromancer!” – Sword Saint Cao Fu

Grade: Black Iron
Requirements: Warrior
Cool Down: 5 minutes
Duration: 3 minutes
Effect: Absorb a set amount of damage equal to five times Mana times the skills level
Effect: Increase Damage Reduction by five per skill level
Effect: Mana is proportionally reduced when damage is taken.

---

Even if it wasn’t a blue print the skill itself was very practical so Cheng Yang was satisfied. The Sacrificial Blood Cloud was overpowered because Cheng Yang’s level was so high but Spirit Shield was quite decent as well, a Purple Silver skill that grew with user.

Cheng Yang let out a sigh. Sadly only Warriors could learn this skill.

Cheng Yang decided to let Liu Hau learn this skill. After all, among the top ranks of Phoenix Village only him and Old Lee were Warriors. Although Old Lee’s Innate Ability was strong it was geared towards territory management so his combat potential was far lower than Liu Hau’s. Additionally, only Liu Hau participated in clearing this instance dungeon so it was only fair for him to be able to get the first choice of loot.

Then, before the instance ended, Cheng Yang rushed deeper into the canyon to find the final loot. Although the others wanted to follow him, since the instance had been cleared he refused to let them.

The soldiers didn’t insist since they needed to spend a few minutes recovering. Although Pang Sun was there, when she ran out of Mana she would have to Meditate to recover it since potions were to valuable to use in this situation.

Cheng Yang only needed to walk two hundred meters to find what he was looking for. At the end of the canyon there was a pillar made of bones and at its base was a chest. The entire area was wreathed in a blue light and covered in a layer of frost.

“Thank god its here!” Cheng Yang exclaimed.

In his last life first clear of this instance had been conducted by a Russian team that immediately began bragging about their find. The final reward for clearing the instance was a jewel that contained a raging blizzard.

Cheng Yang opened the chest and pulled out the fist sized jewel.

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The Spirit of Ice and Snow
Giving this jewel to a Mage class change statue grants access to the unique subclass Cryomancer

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The system pane for the jewel as very basic, but one of the words was incredibly important: unique.

There was no doubt that in this world, if something was described as unique it would be infinitely better than normal items. For example, the Sacrificial Blood Cloud skill. It played a strong role in this instance and had an amazing growth potential.

Regardless of the class, once a Professional reached a high enough level you would need to choose a subclass. For Mages there were four ordinary subclasses: Geomancer, Pyromancer, Hydromancer and Anemancer.

The name “unique subclass” was a bit of a misnomer. It wasn’t that only one existed in the world but that only one could be created per territory. For example, when Cheng Yang gives the Spirit of Ice and Snow to the Mage class change statue it will open up a single slot for a Cryomancer, a number that will never increase. Once someone performs the Cryomancer class change ceremony, unless that person they would be Phoenix Village’s only Cryomancer.

Although the Cryomancer was a unique subclass it would be more accurate to say it was just an upgraded version of the Hydromancer since you would need to be a Hydromancer before you could become a Cryomancer. However, that restriction doesn’t apply to Mage’s without a subclass.

Whether it was losing the Priest Idol from the Blood Soaked Church or the Spirit of Ice and Snow from the Forgotten Grave, mentioning it to any of the high level officials from Cloud City in Cheng Yang past life would get you beaten. After all, Cloud City had access to both of those instance dungeons but didn’t manage to obtain either of the first clear rewards. Having let those two treasures slip through their fingers, how could they possibly feel good if someone mentioned it?

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The team Cheng Yang brought into the Forgotten Grave were all from that initial group of soldiers. After several days of constant fighting their combat sense had gradually improved. Although there was a big gap between them and Cheng Yang, they no longer made rookie mistakes.

Lau Hui was the fastest to react. His summoned wolf rushed in between the columns of skeleton warriors.

The wolf was maniacal, crazily attacking skeletons. Each attack ripping a bone off of the skeleton’s body before it was crushed between its jaws. Each shattered bone the heirloom to a moment of infinite prestige.

Once the wolf started attacking the skeletons, their previous imposing formation broke down. Instead of orderly soldiers, they became a sea of chaotic bones that the wolf ground to pieces.

None of the other were idle. Cheng Yang’s five Mages were akin to a mobile artillery unit, every time they released a volley of Magic Missiles almost half a dozen skeletons were returned to dust.

The Mage’s Mana was limited so after crazily shooting seven or eight Magic Missiles they would run dry. To compensate, they would chug potions like water, using only the immediate rejuvenation and ignoring the regenerative effect. Cheng Yang had given them a stipend to stock up on potions before leaving so none of them hesitated to consume as many as they needed.

The other ranged fighters didn’t have the same luxury. Even though they tried to keep up, when they ran out of Mana their only recovery option was to Meditate.

When Lau Hui’s wolf died the horde of skeletons rushed towards the group instead. The Summon Wolf skill had a long cast time so Lau Hui wasn’t able to summon another yet.

Fortunately, there were several Summoners in the group. When one wolf died, the next would rush forwards. In this way the majority of the skeletons were delayed from attacking.

Now that the skeleton warriors were in a frenzy, it was impossible for the new wolves to do much damage. When it arrived, it would near instantly be killed.

“My Lord, is this supposed to be difficult?” Lau Hui couldn’t help but groan, overcome with boredom.

“You’re going to eat those words soon so stop whining.” Cheng Yang reprimanded his friend.

In just forty seconds over a hundred skeletons had been turned into bone meal. When the last skeleton collapse the canyon was deathly silent. The battle had ended.

“That’s it?” Liu Hau said incredulously, “I haven’t even gotten a chance to play yet!”

As a soldier Liu Hau didn’t get a chance to participate since the wolves were able to hold the skeleton warriors back for the duration of the battle.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get your chance.” Cheng Yang chuckled, “This was just the first wave.”

Sure enough, the ground began to shake with magical undulations once more. Eighty meters away a second, larger, skeleton army was formed.

“Attack!” Cheng Yang roared once the skeletons entered the group’s firing range.

Lau Hui had already used his Summoner skill so by the time the army entered firing range, his wolf was ready to block them. This time, the wolf was nothing but helpless prey. The lead skeleton killed the summon in just two hits without losing a single bone.

“My Lord, that one at the front is a Standard-Grade monster!” Lau Hui was very familiar with how much Health his wolf had. Since that skeleton was able to kill it with just two attacks it definitely wasn’t an ordinary soldier.

“All Mages fire at the skeleton in the feathered helmet!” Quickly issued instructions and with a wave of his stave sent a Magic Missile towards the Standard Grade skeleton’s head.

“Pfft…” As usual, his attack was right on target but the helmet covered skull hadn’t been shattered. The empty eyes sockets of the skeleton flashed with green flames as it began to sprint towards Cheng Yang.

At this time, the other five attacks arrived creating a beautiful light show. The green flames were extinguished and the skeleton collapsed into a pile of bone fragments. Even if it had been a Pinnacle Grade monster, that combined attack would have annihilated it.

With that high level skeleton taken care of, the wolves were able to stall the rest with ease.

However, because Lau Hui’s wolf had died so suddenly, a gap had been created where a wolf wasn’t available. Using this gap, the army was able to slowly advance.

The battle lasted a full minute and at the end, not a single skeleton remained.

The last dozen or so skeletons had reached the group’s front line, injuring the defending Warriors. Luckily, none of the wounds were serious so the group was able to conserve their Health Recovery Potions.

Mere seconds after the last skeleton was killed, a new army was being formed.

“Shit, this wave wasn’t over?” Yu Kai shouted. He had originally intended to meditate to restore he Mana but he was forced to stand up and drink a potion instead.

“This is actually the third wave.” Cheng Yang replied, “Each wave spawns a minute after the last one, relentless. Watch out, this wave won’t just have a single Standard Grade monster.”

Those Standard Grade skeletons actually had a special name, the Skeleton Officers.

This sentence surprised the group but when they looked closely, there were indeed two skeleton’s with feathered helmets. They were exactly the same as the one killed earlier!

During the second wave, a Skeleton Officer had instantly killed Lau Hui’s wolf creating an opening for the army. This time they were able to prevent such a gap from appearing.

As soon as the Skeleton Officers entered Magic Missile range they heroically blocked the attacks with their bodies, dying.

This skeleton army was even bigger than the last one, the number of soldiers reached about two hundred and fifty.

In the face of this situation, it was impossible for the summoned wolves to stall all of them. The group was forced to contract their formation, letting the soldiers and wolves form a circle around the ranged attackers.

With the skeletons unable to reach them, Cheng Yang and his Mage unit began to crazily unleash attacks.

By the time the battle ended, the total number of skeletons killed by the group exceeded five hundred. In comparison, they’re side had only lost a few potions. In this respect, humans had an enormous advantage over monsters. Without potions it was hard for a soldier to kill just two monsters at the same level but with the help of potions thirty five people were able to defeat two hundred and fifty monsters without a single casualty. Although Cheng Yang’s mobile artillery unit had played a significant role, you can’t deny how powerful potions are.

“My Lord, please tell me that was the last wave!” Liu Hau wailed as he plopped to the ground.

“Weren’t you just complaining that you didn’t get to fight enough?” Cheng Yang teased.

“Is that something I said?” Liu Hau asked bitterly, “I was a fool, fighting with such intensity at the front is so tiring!”

“A fool indeed. There’s still one wave left.”

Liu Hau looked up and saw the bones covering the group rapidly swirling about as new skeleton soldiers were created. Their tight formation sending a chill down his spine.

“What’s the highest level this time?” Yu Kai had spotted quite a few feathered helmets and a unique breastplate. Once he did, he immediately knew that the situation wasn’t good.

“They’re going to be led by a High Grade Skeleton General and three Standard Grade Skeleton Officers.” Cheng Yang replied calmly.

“Well shit. What’s the plan?”

“Just hit them till they die. The first target will be the general. It’s Health should be around a hundred and twenty so three Mages, you and I should be able to instakill it. The other two can instakill and officer and then we’ll only have the other two officers to worry about. They aren’t very fast so we’ll have time to launch another volley and kill them before they reach us. The real danger will be the three hundred normal skeletons. We’ll just have to rely on the Warriors to defend us.”

“That’s the only way huh?” Liu Hau laughed brazenly then raised his shield high above his head. “What do you say Warriors? Can we hold the line?”

“Yes!” The Warriors shouted, clanging their swords against their shields.

In the distance the skeleton army had already begun marching forwards, following the lead of the Skeleton General. The army slowly advanced, step by step into the group’s attack range.

“Fire!” On Cheng Yang’s everyone unleashed a fierce group of attacks. Five bright streak of light spiraled towards their target, the Skeleton General!

The group eagerly awaited the scene of the two high level skeletons collapsing into bones. When the projectiles approached the Skeleton General its eyes flashed with an explosion of green flames creating a protective cover around itself that swallowed up the five attacks.

Although the targeted Skeleton Officer died, when the green flame shield dissipated the Skeleton General was revealed fully intact!

The soldiers were dumbfounded. What the hell? Was this guy immune to damage?

Even Cheng Yang was shocked. Although he had cleared this instance dungeon in his past life, it was with a team of fifty High Grade soldiers. They had cleanly swept through the entire instance without giving the skeletons the slightest chance to resist. Why was it able to ignore their attacks?

The scene was shocking enough that the skeleton army was allowed to advance to the ten meter mark. It wasn’t until Cheng Yang began yelling that the soldiers resumed their attacks.

“Pfft… Pfft… Pfft…” Three successive attacks landed on the Skeleton General that continued to charge forwards.

At the same time, another Skeleton Officer was destroyed.

In that single round of attacks the entire skeleton army had reached the group. Now the real battle would start.

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TL Note: You know how lot’s of Chinese translators turn 杀 into “Kill!”, well it can also be translated as “Attack!” so idk why so many people choose the less grammatically correct one.

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Cheng Yang didn’t know what the situation was like at the Western Territory Altar right now but he had a fairly good way to find out. Hordes could only gather at fixed rates so the horde guarding the Territory Altar shouldn’t be much bigger than the one at the Western Bridge. If it wasn’t too hard to do so, claiming the Western Territory Altar would greatly benefit Phoenix Village’s development.

When the group visited the city previously, they hadn’t made an effort to clear out the areas they passed though in order to save time. As such, the group ran into several small hordes along the way.

Whenever they ran into a large group of monsters, Cheng Yang would, without exception, use Sacrificial Blood Cloud to quickly crush them. The group’s goal was to rush to the Western Bridge at top speed, so even if they heard refugee’s crying out for them to stop, they kept moving. Although they felt bad, there was nothing they could do for the refugees until they returned in the afternoon.

An hour and ten kilometers later, they arrived at the Western Bridge. From three hundred meters away they were able to get a good look at the horde guarding it. The most common monster was one that Cheng Yang recognized, the Skull Spotted Spider.

Were all of the bridges guarded by headache inducing monsters?

These spiders were a mutated version of Hell-Spinner spiders who evolved to be able to fire their webs as a projectile. Instead of using it to pull their prey towards them it instead locks them in place. If it was just a few dozen of these spiders Cheng Yang wouldn’t care but there were at least five hundred. What’s worse, the commander is probably a Skull Spotted Spider!

“My Lord, what should we do?” Yu Kai asked, “Fight or retreat?”

“We’ll make a temporary retreat. Right now we’re going to focus on rescuing people since we don’t know what abilities the commander will have. Once our elite forces level up we’ll crush this horde.”

Yu Kai and the other generals instantly agreed to Cheng Yang’s plan. Perhaps if they knew another Territory Altar was on the other side of the bridge they wouldn’t have given up so easily.

Not daring to disturb the guardian monsters, Cheng Yang’s group quietly retreated and continued North.

Cheng Yang unfolded a map he stored in his belt loop. Drawn from the memories from his past life, this map didn’t have any building symbols and could only be read by Cheng Yang.

There were several spot on the map marked as points of interest. The first four were the cardinal bridges and the rest scattered throughout the city.

Three of the marks were next to the city center safe zone, an area Cheng Yang didn’t want to visit. The one Cheng Yang was currently targeting was three kilometers southwest of the Northern Bridge.

The group had to slow down quite a bit once they passed the Eastern Bridge. Since this was an entirely new area they had to both fight larger monster hordes and conduct search and rescue operation.

From the Eastern Bridge to the point marked on Cheng Yang’s map it was only about five kilometers but since they needed to check seven rescue points on the way the total distance was almost seven kilometers. That combined with the time it took to search each area meant it was a little past two when they arrived at their destination.

Near buried under the ruins of a hair salon a curtain of light silently shimmered. It’s appearance and that of the entrance to the Blood Soaked Cathedral instance dungeon were nearly identical.

That’s right! This was in fact the entrance to another, different, Low Grade instance dungeon!

If Cheng Yang had known that the weird stone slab he found was the pre-apocalypse form of an instance dungeon he would have spent all of his effort gathering the ones he knew and throwing them into the borders of Phoenix Village.

There was no medicine for regret in this world so unless Cheng Yang reincarnated again there was nothing he could do. Him being reborn once was already more unlikely than a person becoming a god. Reincarnating twice? What a joke!

Although this was a Low Grade instance dungeon, if a team tried to beat Easy difficulty with only Low Grade Apprentices they would surely die. Take for instance the Easy difficulty of the Blood Soaked Cathedral, the boss was a High-Grade monster! If you didn’t know about the environment exploit, entering the instance was a creative form of suicide.

However, there are some differences between instance dungeons of the same grade. Since the Blood Soaked Cathedral can fit a maximum of five people its called a Party-Size dungeon. The one in front of them is a Team-Size dungeon that can fit fifty people. The next size up is an Army-Size instance dungeon that can fit five hundred people. Although there might another size dungeon after that, the largest found in Cheng Yang’s past life was Army-Size.

Cheng Yang had run this instance dungeon it his last life too. It was set at the bottom of a large canyon know as the Forgotten Grave. By chance that was also the name of the instance dungeon.

It’s rumored that the canyon was created when a powerful mage sent an all out attack towards an invading army. As such, the most common rare drops were things useful for Mages, the rarest of which was guaranteed to drop during the first clear. Cheng Yang wouldn’t let anyone take that reward away from him!

Cheng Yang chose to become a Mage due to his Innate Ability so he had made a mental note of where the best items for Mages could be found. Since he needed to come through this direction anyways how could he pass up the opportunity.

“My Lord, is this an instance dungeon?” Yu Kai asked, shaking himself out of a stupor.

“Of course it is!” Liu Hau rapped his friend on the forehead, “It’s just like the one in the village.”

“I can see that.” Yu Kai retorted, “I was just surprised.”

“It’s an instance dungeon.” Cheng Yang confirmed, cutting them off, “However, this one can fit fifty people instead of just five. Of course, it’s also more difficult than the one back in the village because of that.”

“My Lord, you’re not planning on going in right?” A soldier asked in confusion, “There’s only thirty five of us so won’t it be to hard?”

“How can it be difficult with me there?” Cheng Yang asked arrogantly, “Just be careful and we’ll have nothing to worry about.”

The soldier didn’t know how to respond, it was true that Cheng Yang had created several miracles already. So far there wasn’t anything he couldn’t do so if Cheng Yang said it was possible, it probably was.

Of course, Cheng Yang was more than confident. If they had attempted the dungeon a few days again, even if all fifty slots were filled, Cheng Yang wasn’t sure they would have been able to succeed. Now however, he had the Sacrificial Blood Cloud skill! It was already an overpowered ability but since he was two levels higher than the rest of the group, it became absolutely bug-like.

The group crowded around the instance dungeon and held hands as Cheng Yang activated it.

With a gut-wrenching flash, the world around them distorted and changed.

If the Blood Soaked Cathedral could be described as a land of crumbling ruins, this instance dungeon was a land of death. The entire area seemed withered. As far as the eye could see there was just dust, bones, and the blazing hot sun.

“Stick together everyone.” Cheng Yang announced, “The monster density is really high here so if you get separated from the group you’re doomed to die.”

As Cheng Yang’s voice echoed between the canyon wall’s the entire area seemed to shake. Wait! It wasn’t the canyon, it was the bones carpeting it!

“Holy shit! Our enemies aren’t going to be skeletons are they?” Liu Hau shouted in alarm.

“You know what they say, no risk no reward.” Cheng Yang said, “We’re going to have to fight a small sea of skulls.”

“I’ve always thought undead skeleton armies were cool but let’s see how powerful one is in front of us!” Liu Hau declared confidently. “Is there a Necromancer class in this world? It’ll be a lot less fun if there isn’t”

Cheng Yang didn’t answer him since he didn’t know but in his opinion, if there was a Necromancer class, it would be anything but fun.

The bones scattered across the canyon floor vibrated with an intense energy as they shot towards each other. One by one, skeleton warriors pulled themselves out of the bones. The rest dust swirling around them, creating brittle swords and armor.

This scene shocked those who had been raised as atheists. Truly, this world was no longer reasonable.

Hundreds of skeletons gather together forming tight lines, just like an ancient army. If it weren’t for their swords being rusty the effect would have been perfect. However, if anyone were to look down on these skeletons, it would be the last thing they ever did.

Once all of the skeletons had formed the undead army began to march forwards.

“Prepare for battle!” Cheng Yang shouted. The five Mages around him started to cast Magic Missile and the Rangers fired an initial volley.

Instantly a dense cloud of blood burst out of Cheng Yang’s body….

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TL Note: I’m going to start posting every chapter I translate for the week on Saturday night. I saw another novel that did the same thing and since I’m very inconsistent I thought it would be better.

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