XMTL

When Cheng Yang suddenly appeared behind him, Liu Hau was filled with curiosity. That curiosity quickly turned into brattiness after Cheng Yang told Liu Hau about the instance dungeon near Joyous River Village.

“My Lord, how can you play favorites like that? You should have told me there was a treasure trove like that near me! Just think of the advantage of being able to enter an instance dungeon one day earlier grants! Now Yu Kai’s going to be ahead of me despite me getting a village first!”

Cheng Yang rolled his eyes. “Even if I told you, are you capable of clearing it? Then again, since no one’s run the copy before, do you think I’d let you take the first clear from me?”

Liu Hau smiled. “That’s fair. So, shall we clear it today?”

“We’ll need to find it first.” Cheng Yang sighed, “We’ll split up and notify the other person if we find it.”

Cheng Yang left Liu Hau to finish the battle he was in and returned to Joyous River Village.

Once he arrived, he picked up Liu Wei, and they left the village in the opposite direction of Liu Hau’s hunting party.

Cheng Yang didn’t know if Liu Hau was just unlucky, or if the feng shui of Joyous River Village was off, but even after searching everywhere within six kilometers of the village, no one had found the instance dungeon.

This situation was similar to when Cheng Yang was searching for the village’s Territory Altar. The difference was that there was an undeniable sign indicating the location of the Territory Altar but none for the instance dungeon.

When it got dark, Cheng Yang returned to Joyous River Village. The day was wasted.

When Cheng Yang returned to Phoenix Village, he found 1,300 cubic meters of wood waiting for him. It seems that the Loggers had worked hard today.

Lau Hui also had the chance to officially enlist all of the current Phoenix Village officers into the army. Now, all of them had the Army Rank of private first class.

Now that the Quest Hall was built, it would start to generate Territory Quests automatically, but there weren’t many quests a private could accept.

There were several types of quests one could receive from the Quest Hall, but the two most common were Territory Quests and Private Requests.

Territory Quests were generated based on the current needs of a territory or safe zone. Lords also had the privilege of submitting Territory Quests if they wanted to.

Private Requests were a bit different since the Quest Hall wouldn’t generate any. They were all submitted by individuals.

Since Phoenix Village was desperately in need of more raw materials, most of the current quests were fetch quests. In return for completing one of these quests, soldiers could earn credit towards promotion in addition to a few Experience Fragments. Since the territory was generating these quests, the rewards came from its supply of Experience Fragments.

Although these quests paid a little less than the standard price for the resources, soldiers would prefer them since it was the easiest way to get promoted. This was especially desirable to them since their rank indicated their salary as well as the quests they were allowed to accept.

The reason why there was a surplus of wood today was those quests. As soon as the Quest Hall was built, it started to issue fetch quests which the newly enlisted soldiers worked hard to complete.

Now, only the Tavern and Adventurer’s Guild were left unbuilt. Since there were enough resources, Cheng Yang chose to consume half of the wood and stone in Phoenix Village to build them.

Then, Cheng Yang used everything else to build Meditation Halls.

After using up all of the material resources, Cheng Yang checked the territory’s Experience Fragment balance. The last couple of days had been an economic boom. Thanks to the Imperial Guard, there were more than 12,000 Experience Fragments even after all of the class change ceremonies and aptitude checks performed.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite enough for Cheng Yang to justify building a Bank.

Ah! I forgot about Zhou Jie!

When Cheng Yang started to think about the bank, he finally remembered the third person he brought back from Cloud City.

Scolding himself for forgetting someone so talented, Cheng Yang opened the territory’s System Pane and searched for Zhou Jie’s name. As expected, Zhou Jie had been among the people that performed class change ceremonies over the last few days.

Cheng Yang immediately checked Zhou Jie’s System Pane.

---

Zhou Jie
Phoenix Village Private First Class
Class: Ranger
Level: Low Grade Apprentice (21%)

Age	19	Life Span	110
HP	51.84	MP	34.38
Physical Attack	8.64	Magic Attack	13
Physical Defense	1.73	Magic Defense	1.73
Attack Speed	1	Movement Speed	3

Innate Abilities

• Increase attack range by 20% per level
• Sky God’s Blessing (Special Ability): Favorable winds increase the attack range of you and your allies by 30% per level
• Movement speed is increased by 200%

Skills

• Meditation (Low Grade): Meditate to absorb experience fragments and level up
• Reinforced Arrow (Low Grade): Imbue your arrow with magic power increasing damage | Damage: 7.5 | Cost: 4 MP | Cast Time: 3 sec | Proficiency: 7%

Equipment

• Birch-wood Bow (Green Bronze): A well crafted bow made by an accomplished woodworker in the village of Raol | Increases Physical Attack by 1 | Durability: 50/50
• Quiver: A magic bag that can hold 60 arrows | Spawns one arrow every minute

---

It was there! Zhou Jie’s Innate Abilities were just as good as Cheng Yang remembered!

Unlike Liu Wei, both of Zhou Jie’s Innate Abilities were quite good on their own. When they were combined, they created the best sniper build Cheng Yang had ever seen.

Combine that with an elite squadron of other Rangers and the Movement Speed bonus Phoenix Village granted, and you create the perfect shock troopers.

They’d be able to attack from farther away and retreat before the enemy’s attacks could hit them.

Once they got to a certain level, they might be able to shoot a target from far enough away that the enemy wouldn’t even be able to see them. Cheng Yang looked forward to that day.

Special Abilities like Zhou Jie’s were called strategic abilities in Cheng Yang’s past life. Right now, the only other person in Phoenix Village was Zhao Chuan. They were very rare, and every Lord coveted the people that had them.

As far as Cheng Yang knew, Zhou Jie wasn’t in any battalion at the moment, even though he already appeared to have unlocked four times training speed.

Cheng Yang guessed that Old Lee was taking care of Zhou Jie for the moment after realizing just how valuable his Innate Abilities were.

Returning to his previous train of thought, Cheng Yang visited the various new buildings. Now that everything was built, the only thing left to do was upgrade the old buildings.

The first place Cheng Yang visited was the Quest Hall. It was a simple building with the main room at the front covering two hundred square feet in addition to a few small places at the back for the NPC managers to work.

Dozens of individual terminals that looked like blackboards covered the walls of the main room with a couple more intermittently spaced between the walls.

When you approached a terminal, they allowed you to scroll through the various Territory Quests and Private Requests.

At the moment, there were only a few quests available.

---

Gather Wood
Donate ten cubic meters of wood to the Phoenix Village .

Time Limit: None
Reward: 30 Experience Fragments and 1 Advancement Token
Conditions: Private First Class or F-Rank Adventurer

---

Cheng Yang wasn’t an adventurer yet, so he couldn’t accept any quests. As such, he wandered around for a few minutes before leaving.

Then, Cheng Yang visited the Trial Hall. The building was arranged identically to the Quest Hall except that the terminals would teleport you into an instance dungeon. Or at least it should have been.

When Cheng Yang arrived, there was a large portal on the back wall.

Even though the Trial Hall was an area that allowed you to enter an instance dungeon, there shouldn’t actually be any entrances to an instance dungeon inside.

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The battle ended as quickly as it started. Once he was done, Cheng Yang walked out of the car park.

“The rest is up to you. Don’t tell anyone about my involvement in this matter.” Cheng Yang called over his shoulder.

Xiao Zhen opened her mouth to stop Cheng Yang from leaving, but the words never left her lips. In the end, all she could do was sigh.

A few minutes later, the rest of Xiao Zhen’s mercenary group entered the car park.

When they did, they were filled with the same shock and rage as the group before them.

At that time, Xiao Zhen kicked out all of the men. Once she set up the women in the group to take care of the victims, she went up to the surface.

“Beans, did you see where Mr. Cheng went?”

A young man shook his head. “No, he was gone by the time we arrived.”

“Warn everyone in the team about it. Be very respectful if you ever meet that man and don’t mention him to anyone outside our team.”

“Elder sister, don’t worry.” Beans said, “We saw that guys strength, how could any of us even think about offending him.”

“Just so you know, Mr. Cheng is even more dangerous than you think. If we ever pissed him off, not even the army would be able to save us.”

Bean was skeptical. “How is that possible? Even if every soldier only attacked once, he’d still die.”

“Maybe if we were still in the old world, but not anymore. Numbers don’t hold the advantage they used to. Mr. Cheng crushed those bandits without them being able to fight back. How much more powerful do you think the soldiers are?”

“This…” Beans felt a chill go up his spine.

“Like I said.” Xiao Zhen continued. “Mr. Cheng is far more dangerous than you think.”

---

“My Lord, they seemed like good people. Why didn’t you offer them the opportunity to come to Phoenix Village.” Liu Wei asked.

“I don’t want information about Phoenix Village to be made public yet. We also can’t guarantee their loyalty. I have a way to control people who performed a class change ceremony in Phoenix Village, but I can’t guarantee that for outsiders. Maybe if they had more to offer me, I would have let them come with us, but they were just a couple of Low-Grade Apprentices.” Cheng Yang replied.

Liu Wei vaguely understood, so she nodded.

When they finally returned to Phoenix Village, it was one in the morning. Since it was so late, they didn’t have time to hunt monsters.

Cheng Yang gave Liu Wei the Experience Fragments needed for thirty-two times training speed and then left to visit Liu Hau in Joyous River Village. He had promised to help his friend find iron ore earlier.

After collecting Liu Hau, Cheng Yang brought Liu Hau into the forest.

“Yoko, is there really iron ore under that mound?” Liu Hau asked cautiously.

“Of course, why would I lie to you?” Cheng Yang said.

“Well, it’s a tiny mound, so I don’t think there could possibly be much ore in there.”

“Not much, I suppose.” Cheng Yang said, “But, it’s close to your village. It’s almost impossible to find a considerable vein of iron ore waiting to be excavated, so finding anything is already pretty good. Besides, a small mine just means it has hundreds of tons of iron instead of tens of thousands. There’s plenty of ore in there to build ten thousand pieces of equipment even if you consider the failure rate.”

Liu Hau shook his head. Ten thousand pieces of equipment sounded like a lot, but most classes needed at least three parts that used iron. Especially Warriors that had all but two slots filled with metal equipment.

“Forget it. Start digging. At the very least, you’ll be able to practice your Mining skill.

Liu Hau took out his pickaxe and used the flat head on the back to remove the dirt from the mound.

When the vein Liu Hau finally unearthed, he knew it was slag quality metal that could only be used to make the lowest quality equipment. Even so, he diligently started excavating it.

Cheng Yang left his best friend there to complete his work and returned to Phoenix Village to train.

Before that, Cheng Yang had one last chore to complete: building new buildings.

Thanks to an increase in the number of people harvesting resources, the wood and stone output of the village increased by 20% today. It would probably see some incremental improvements for the next few days until evening out. It would then stay there until enough people leveled up their Profession.

With the resources the village currently had, Cheng Yang would be able to build two of the new buildings. As for upgrading existing buildings like the Alchemy Tower, Cheng Yang decided to postpone that decision.

After a moment of contemplation, Cheng Yang built the Quest Hall and the Trial Hall.

These buildings were much smaller than the Baracks. Each one was a two-story building about the size of Cheng Yang’s Meditation Hall that were run by NPC managers sent by the gods.

Cheng Yang also wanted to build the Adventurer’s Guild since he planned to become an adventurer again.

If anyone else had that goal, Cheng Yang was determined to make them become a soldier. But, since the Lord wasn’t allowed to be a soldier, he may as well become an adventurer.

This was because, adventurers weren’t tied to anything, unlike soldiers who could only enjoy their benefits in the territory they became a soldier.

Naturally, as the Lord, there was no need to tie himself to the territory as a soldier. After all, the territory was Cheng Yang, and Cheng Yang represented the territory.

So, there were only benefits to gain by becoming an Adventurer since he could then receive quests. He could also accept adventurer team quests and bring the Pheonix Village army to complete them since he was the Lord.

The sooner Cheng Yang built the Adventurer’s Guild, the faster he would be able to raise his Adventurer Rank. However, since building it would only benefit him, Cheng Yang chose not to.

Once he was done, Cheng Yang began training straight away. Since he was neither an adventurer or a soldier, he had no reason to visit the Quest Hall, and the instance dungeons in the Trial Hall were useless to Cheng Yang since he didn’t need to train against low-level monsters.

When he finished training, Cheng Yang’s experience bar was a half-point away from reaching twenty percent. He still had a long way to go before leveling up, but he was getting closer.

Cheng Yang then brought the Imperial Guard with him to clear the Nightmare Difficulty Blood-Soaked Cathedral.

When he got out, he visited the Territory Altar. It was time for him to use the Statue Lifting Stone he earned yesterday.

Deciding what attribute to double was an easy choice. Cheng Yang chose to double the number of slots available.

Low-level Warriors without a sub-class were nearly useless as damage dealers. They couldn’t act very aggressively, couldn’t attack from a distance, and were always under high pressure. However, they were an essential part of every team as a tank. So long as the Warriors in a team could block melee-type monsters, everyone else could focus on fighting to their best ability.

Unfortunately for them, Warriors were destined to be cannon-fodder. As such, Cheng Yang wanted to maximize the amount of cannon fodder in the army.

Thus, doubling the number of Warriors in Phoenix Village was a natural choice.

When he was done, Cheng Yang called Old Lee over to facilitate the class change ceremonies of the new Warriors.

Finally, Cheng Yang started the last research topic for the High-Grade Priest statue.

Once the research completed twenty hours from now, the number of Priests in the village would increase once more. Cheng Yang would also be able to see if the bonus from the Statue Lifting Stone carried over between level-ups.

Throwing the question to the back of his mind, Cheng Yang took Liu Wei with him to Joyous River Village.

Since the road built by the gods was usually clear of monsters, it took them less than half an hour to arrive.

At the time, Liu Hau was out farming monsters. So, Cheng Yang left Liu Wei in the village and followed the direction of the wall guards to find Liu Hau’s hunting party.

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Cheng Yang looked into Liu Wei’s eyes and sighed. Finally, he turned back to the middle-aged woman. “Fine, I’ll go. Find someone decently fast to show me the way.”

“I’ve got boots that increase my Movement Speed by three, so I’ll do it.” The woman responded.

Cheng Yang nodded. “Liu Wei, come with us.”

“But I’ll slow you down.” Liu Wei said. She wanted to go too, but she was worried that her inclusion would endanger the trapped women.

“Don’t worry about that.” Cheng Yang said, “I’ll carry you. Besides, it’s not safe for you to be left alone here.”

Liu Wei wanted to refuse Cheng Yang’s offer, but his last comment worried here. After watching the massacre, she was a little uneasy about staying with a bunch of people she didn’t know.

Cheng Yang squatted down, allowing Liu Wei to crawl onto his back for a piggy-back ride. Luckily for her, it was the middle of the night. Otherwise, the deep crimson blush on her face would have been on display for everyone to see.

She wasn’t the only person thankful for the low visibility. Cheng Yang wasn’t interested in a relationship, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t interested in women. This was the first time he was physically close to a woman in both of his lives. Not to mention, the person in question was the stunningly beautiful Liu Wei.

Even though he was a man with an incredible force of will, he couldn’t suppress the low throb in his pants.

Without waiting for his navigator to start, Cheng Yang jogged ahead of her so that no one would be able to see him before he calmed down.

Cheng Yang thought it was terrible when Liu Wie first crawled onto his back, but it was even worse once he started running. His jagged steps caused Liu Wei to bounce up and down behind him, allowing her chest to rub against him.

Liu Wei hadn’t worn a bra today since they were a luxury few could afford. As such, Cheng Yang couldn’t stop the fire in his pants from spreading to his face.

“Snap out of it!” He mentally scolded himself. “You can’t date anyone!”

Even though he thought that, his subconscious was grateful for the treat. In reality, he really did want to find a woman to share his life with, but he knew that this cruel world would only take that person away.

He’d seen it happen too often in his past life. People lost their cherished ones in the apocalypse, and then if they found someone else, one of the two would get eaten by monsters.

Anyone in that world could tell you that the greatest tragedy isn’t to live a life, never having found love. Instead, it was to have found the person you were destined to be with, only to have them ripped away from you.

Despair was a more deadly threat than monsters. Cheng Yang considered himself to be an emotionally stable person, but if he were to lose someone he loved that dearly, he didn’t know how long he would be able to continue fighting without his second half.

Right now, Cheng Yang was confident he would be able to help everyone he knew survive until the point he lived in his previous life. But what about after that? Cheng Yang didn’t know what would happen. Only one thing was certain: it would be exponentially harder to survive.

Maybe someday, if he lived long enough, Cheng Yang would find someone to start a family with. However, he would only do that if he could ensure a safe and happy life for his family.

……..

But maybe, if he might die anyway, it wouldn’t be so bad to cherish the half-year safe period he had carved out.

“Ma’am, what’s your name?” Cheng Yang started a conversation with his guide in an attempt to drive such thoughts from his mind.

Hearing that Cheng yang was talking to her, the middle-aged woman was happy to start a conversation.

“My name is Xiao Zhen. I lead a mercenary team from Cloud City.” She said, introducing herself, “The people from earlier were part of my group. We used to have more than fifty people, but a dozen of them died in the fight.”

Xiao Zhen was a talkative person. Cheng Yang only asked for her name, but she offered up a lot of information. If it weren’t for her getting sad after bringing up the deaths of her comrades.

“Are there a lot of mercenaries like you in Cloud City?” Cheng Yang asked, rekindling the conversation.

“Not a whole lot. Maybe around three thousand or so split up between a few dozen teams. Our team isn’t a big one, but we’re also not the smallest.” Xiao Zhen paused when she realized there was something weird about Cheng Yang’s question. “….sir, aren’t you affiliated with Commander Yuan?”

“You could put it that way.” Cheng Yang replied, vaguely.

Despite how obvious it was that Cheng Yang was gathering information, Xiao Zhen realized he didn’t want to divulge anything else about himself. Despite that, she decided to tell him more. After all, it wouldn’t hurt to befriend someone so powerful.

“Although there’s a lot of mercenaries in the city, the real power is held by the army. They have over ten thousand soldiers organized into battalions of two thousand. Compared to them, our mercenary teams are like ants.”

“Why haven’t you decided to join the army then?” Cheng Yang asked.

“The army is too strict. Unless you were originally a soldier, you aren’t allowed to have any individual freedoms. Some people don’t care, but now that being a mercenary is an option, most choose to be one. Of course, there are black sheep like that scarred man you killed. They started as a mercenary team but relocated to outside the safe zone to become bandits.”

As they talked, the rescue party drew close enough to the safe zone to see the shimmering barrier. The conversation itself wasn’t particularly useful to Cheng Yang. He was only able to confirm things he already knew in between learning various bits of gossip.

A few minutes later, they arrived at their destination.

“Mr. Cheng, the car park is over there.” Xiao Zhen said, pointing towards a cave in the ruins.

At the same time, a man ran towards them from out of the darkness. When he saw Cheng Yang standing near the mouth of the cave, his expression changed to one of terror.

It was one of the bandits that had fled the battle. How could he have expected to run into Cheng Yang after barely surviving earlier?

When Cheng Yang noticed the bandit, he cleanly sent an Icicle Blast into the man’s chest. Cheng Yang wouldn’t hesitate when it came to executing someone with such a wicked heart.

When she saw Cheng Yang kill a man without batting an eye, Liu Wei’s eyes flashed with anxiety. She knew the man deserved to die for what he had done, but it was hard to watch someone that couldn’t fight back get squashed like a bug. She nestled her face into Cheng Yang’s hair, finding comfort in the warmth of his body.

“Let’s go in.” Cheng Yang said softly, putting Liu Wei down.

“Of course, follow me.” Xiao Zhen had also been stunned by Cheng Yang’s ruthlessness, but she had been able to snap out of it when she remembered the women in the cave.

Xiao Zhen went into the cave, followed by Cheng Yang and Liu Wei.

“How dare they!” Xiao Zhen, who was a room ahead of the others, cried out angrily. “Mr. Cheng, don’t… don’t let your companion in. She doesn’t need to see this.”

Xiao Zhen hadn’t elaborated as to what she had seen, but it wasn’t hard to imagine. Cheng Yang turned towards Liu Wei, intending to stop her.

“I’m going in.” Liu Wei said stubbornly.

Cheng Yang gave up trying to stop her and turned around to walk inside.

“Ah…” When Liu Wei rounded the corner, she couldn’t suppress her surprise and disgust with what she saw. Initially, when she saw Cheng Yang kill the bandits, she felt a bit squeamish, but now, she thought killing them was too light of a punishment.

There were dozens of women scattered around the car park with glazed eyes and bruised bodies.

In addition, there were a few bandits still in their base, committing atrocities.

Suddenly, one of the bandits fell to the ground.

The bandit beside him laughed. “What’s wrong Old Huang, too tired to keep going?”

When the bandit looked over his shoulder to check on his companion, he realized something was wrong. He crouched down and checked the fallen bandit’s pulse.

“Dead?” The man had a great deal of fear in his voice. There wasn’t a single wound on the bandit’s body, so how had he die? He looked around wildly, seeing not only Cheng Yang and his companions but another dead bandit as well.

“Enemies! There are enemies in the base!” the man shouted, warning the dozen or so other bandits in the car park. They stumbled around like clowns, desparately wielding weapons while entirely naked.

“Calm down Liu Wei, let me handle this.” Cheng Yang whispered. Next to him, Liu Wei was bristling with anger. It was actually her that had killed two of the bandits just now. Her intense anger had allowed her to use the Smite skill on humans. It was her first murder.

Even though she was far from calm, Liu Wei remembered that she wasn’t supposed to show her skill to others when Cheng Yang reminded her. Sending one last bloodlust filled glare towards the bandits, Liu Wei turned around and left the basement. If she stayed a moment longer, there was no way she could stop herself from killing again.

Cheng Yang sighed. It seemed that Liu Wei was a far more vicious person than everyone believed her to be. Still, it was a trait that would serve her well in this new world.

Then, Cheng Yang waited for the bandits to close in on him before using Petal Blizzard. At that point, only the four ranged bandits were left alive.

The first time Cheng Yang used that spell, Xiao Zhen hadn’t gotten a good look at it, but now, she was able to see what had happened. Cheng Yang had an ability that allowed him to slaughter humans like dogs, even when they were Professionals.

She’d also seen the prowess of Cheng Yang’s defense. Six or seven people had attacked him, but he didn’t seem to have been injured at all.

Xiao Zhen could tell that if news of Cheng Yang got out, it would cause him to become a public enemy. Even if every soldier and mercenary in Cloud City banded together, what could they possibly do to stop a person like Cheng Yang?

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“What an amusing display of bravado.” Cheng Yang smirked. “If you’re in a hurry to die, save me the trouble of killing you, and just commit suicide. It’s not urgent though, wait until I’ve finished my conversation.”

Cheng Yang then ignored the scarred man’s retort and turned back to the older woman. “Elder sister, you don’t have to worry. I may be a single person, but I’m more than enough to exterminate these bugs. Tell me more about the situation. Where are the people they captured? How many are there?”

“Not too far from here. There’s an underground car park that was preserved even though the building on top of it collapsed. Those bastards are using it as their base. Earlier today, we met a woman that escaped. If not for her, we wouldn’t have ever known.” The woman replied.

Seeing that Cheng Yang was indifferent to his crimes, the scarred man tried to backpedal. “What nonsense! We felt sorry for them, so we rescued them from the ruins and gave them food. If they were feeling grateful and wanted to repay us, why are we criminals?”

“Fuck you!” The woman shouted, “If it was voluntary, why was Xiao Ling covered in bruises? Don’t think you’re getting out of this! I’m ending this today, I’ll kill you with my own hands!”

“Kill me? Let’s see if you fucking can!” The scarred man roared. Without warning, he raised his bow and shot the woman in the chest.

The speed of the arrow was simply too fast to dodge. Luckily, the woman’s Health was still high enough that she wasn’t killed in a single hit.

A wave of anger washed over Cheng Yang’s heart. He was in the middle of a conversation, and someone decided to make a sudden attack?

“I see you’re really fed up with life!” Cheng Yang raised his stave and started to cast Icicle Blast.

Magic was a slow process. It needed to be cast, and aside from increasing your Attack Speed attribute, there wasn’t a way to make it complete faster.

Watching the air chill and frost collect at the end of Cheng Yang’s stave gave the people present a shock. They’d seen Mages attack before but they’d never seen anything like that.

“You… What skill is that?” The scarred man started to panic. It was the fear of the unknown. He didn’t think it could kill him in one hit, but he could feel the situation spiral out of his control.

“Never see a skill like this before?” Cheng Yang mocked. “Let me tell you, even though its beautiful, you’re going to die.”

With that, the spell was cast. With a flick of his wrist, the icicle flew forwards and pierced the man’s forehead.

The scarred man died with a look of terror on his face. As soon as he saw the attack fly towards him, he realized he was going to die. People like him that murdered others like it was nothing, were more scared of death than anyone else. There was no way he could accept his face.

The force of the attack sent the man flying. His body struck the ground a few meters away like a rag doll. He didn’t even get the chance to make a final struggle.

Everyone was stunned. Seeing a man suddenly die like that frightened them.

The scarred man had taken the opportunity to drink a Health Recovery Potion when the fighting stopped, so his Health was probably full. As such, killing him in one hit was incredible.

People started to speculate on the damage Cheng Yang’s attack dealt. Since Rangers had twenty-five Health, the spell must have dealt at least that.

Once they realized this, everyone panicked. Especially those that had the same or lower Health as the scarred man.

If Cheng Yang wanted to kill someone, all it would take was a few seconds and a single attack. They wouldn’t even have a chance to escape.

“You… You…” The people on the woman’s side recovered first. Since Cheng Yang was on friendly terms, they weren’t as afraid that he would suddenly kill them. Still, the shock was too strong for them to find a way to talk to Cheng Yang.

“Don’t be afraid.” Cheng Yang smiled. “Someday, you too will have strength like me.”

Cheng Yang hadn’t lied. In his past life, some people reached his level after six months. Of course, that was only the very best humans in the world. It was hard to say if any of the people present would even survive to that point, much less reach the Pinnacle-Grade.

With that, Cheng Yang turned towards the scarred man’s subordinates. Although he hadn’t confirmed that the scarred man was abusing women, the moment he attacked, his decision was made.

“Now that you’ve lost your humanity don’t expect me to treat you like humans!” Cheng Yang raised his left hand, and a flurry of razor-sharp ice shards spun appeared. No matter what class a person had, once that flurry enveloped them, they were killed in seconds.

The scarred man’s subordinates were terrified. Cheng Yang had killed ten people with a single attack!

“He’s trying to kill us all! Get him!” Every one of the scarred man’s subordinates lifted up their weapons and attacked Cheng Yang.

They knew it was their only chance to survive. If they let Cheng Yang live now, who knew how powerful he’d be later?

There was no regard for formations. The Warriors held up their shield and charged while everyone else attacked Cheng Yang from a distance.

No matter what kind of attack hit him, Cheng Yang stood there: unmoving and unscathed.

Then, he retaliated.

The Warriors quickly realized that their shields were useless. Even if they were able to block an Icicle Blast, Cheng Yang didn’t waste any attacks trying to hit them with it. Instead, he used Petal Blizzard, which was impossible to block.

Everyone else got the same treatment their leader did. A single icicle through their forehead. Instant death.

Watching their companions die one by one broke their spirit. Watching their attacks harmlessly bounce off Cheng Yang broke their minds. This was the despair of death. The despair of meeting a reaper.

Everyone that was left lost their will to fight. Without a synchronized movement, they fled into the darkness.

At this point, the woman’s group decided to take advantage of Cheng Yang’s fierce offensive. They drew their weapons and routed the enemy.

When they did, Cheng Yang stopped attacking. It wasn’t because he suddenly decided to show mercy to the bandits, but rather that he couldn’t tell the two groups apart.

Even without Cheng Yang, there was no way the bandits would win. Their only thoughts were about escaping this hopeless battlefield.

A few minutes later, every bandit either escaped or was dead. All that was left was to clean up the battlefield.

“Sir, this is the equipment those men died with.” The middle-aged man from earlier nervously offered all of the loot to Cheng Yang. “Its all quality equipment with good bonuses.”

Cheng Yang didn’t even glance at the equipment. He knew that any equipment they had was subpar mass-produced goods from the stores. Even if he sold it, he wouldn’t get five hundred Experience Fragments.

“Keep it. Things like that are useless to me.” Cheng Yang said quietly. “Also, my work here is done. You can save the trapped women on your own. I won’t go.”

Cheng Yang turned around, intending to return to Liu Wei, but after only two steps, the woman from before called out to him. “Sir, please help us one more time. There are lots of women trapped and if those men who escaped decide to take out their anger on them… We aren’t fast enough to save them, so please help us.”

Cheng Yang paused. As someone who had already experience every hell the apocalypse had to offer, he didn’t value life very highly. The only reason he helped out this time was to nip a growing threat in the bud. He had suffered greatly at the hands of people like the scarred man.

Besides, he didn’t want to associate himself with people from Cloud City. The refugees were fine since they were easy to control and could bolster Phoenix Village’s forces in the future, but what did foreign soldiers have to offer?

His best and the safest choice was to kill the threat and then disappear. Only then could he ensure Phoenix Village would stay hidden.

“My Lord?” A quiet and cute voice tickled Cheng Yang’s ears as Liu Wei stepped out from behind the rubble. “I want to help them.”

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Cheng Yang and his subordinate appeared in a dark forest lit by the soft light of an instance dungeon entrance. They’d spent too long searched for and then clearing Sky God Island.

Still, Cheng Yang wanted to return to Phoenix Village tonight. The main reason was to train in his Meditation Hall, but there were other reasons too. It would be easier to clear the Blood-Soaked Cathedral and visit Joyous River Village. That way, he could find the instance dungeon there as well.

Yesterday, he had been careful not to let Liu Hau hear that an instance dungeon was near his village. If he knew, there was a chance he would go out and find it. If he did that, with Liu Hau’s personality, he was sure to try and beat it on his own.

After having a quick meal at Silkworm Mountain, Cheng Yang and Liu Wei started their journey back to Phoenix Village.

Since the path they took had been used a few times, the undergrowth was still cleanly cut. As such, it didn’t take long to reach Cloud City.

As they crossed the city, Cheng Yang led the duo while Liu Wei walked less than two feet behind him. She’d always been scared of the dark, and the current environment didn’t help. The ruins were filled with bones, mutilated bodies, and the occasional monster.

“My Lord, Have you seen if there’s… if there are ghosts in this new world?” Liu Wei suddenly asked in a timid voice.

Cheng Yang had been paying attention to movement around them, so he was startled by the question. “Liu Wei, even if there are ghosts in this world, who cares? Maybe they were powerful before the apocalypse, but now we can kill them like any other monster if they dare to show themselves. Especially you, remember that when we went through The Forgotten Grave, our priests could kill the skeletons by healing them? I’m sure you would be able to do the same to a ghost.”

Listening to Cheng Yang’s deep voice, Liu Wei started to relax. “Thank you, Cheng Yang.”

Hearing her use his name, Cheng Yang was flustered. “That was nothing to thank me for. It’s normal to be afraid of ghosts, so of course, I comforted you.”

Liu Wei nodded with a smile on her face.

Along the way, the due experienced several battles. Now that Cheng Yang was alone with Liu Wei, he didn’t hold back. All of his most potent attacks were used in conjunction with potions. He was powerful enough that even if a massive horde appeared, he would be able to destroy it quickly.

However, all the fighting slowed down their journey significantly. An hour later, they were only halfway through the city.

“My Lord, what’s that over there?” Liu Wei asked in surprise.

Glancing over to the left, Cheng Yang saw flashing lights somewhere in the ruins. His eyes narrowed as he recognized the familiar flash of a Magic Missile spell cast at night.

“Let’s go check it out.” Cheng Yang whispered before leading Liu Wei over towards the lights.

They jogged over to a shattered wall. Peering through a hole, they were just in time to witness a small scale war.

The area in front of them was a plaza before the apocalypse, so it was relatively clear of debris. The perfect spot for two groups of people to mercilessly kill each other.

“What are they doing?” Liu Wei asked in shock. She had never expected for ordinary humans to start killing each other so quickly. Especially people from the same city.

Cheng Yang, on the other hand, didn’t feel that these eighty individuals were out of place. “They’re fighting each other. After the earthquake, most resources became scarce. These people probably don’t even want to fight each other. Rather, they have too. Take Phoenix Village, for example. If I hadn’t supplied free food to the civilians but instead forced them to find their own, what do you think would happen if two groups of scavengers found the same bag of flour? Would it be divided between them peacefully? Or would they fight until one group gave up on the bag and retreated.”

“This…” Liu Wei hesitated. As much as she wanted to say they would split the food, it wasn’t possible. Even if it were a more accessible food to split like a bag of fruit, she knew the chances of the group with more people charing was low.

“Don’t overthink it. These people aren’t bad, just desperate. Let’s watch this fight first.”

At this point, the entire plaza was in complete chaos. Magic Missiles and arrows flew around haphazardously. Wolves and Warriors chased around the ranged attackers which ran for their lives.

Cheng Yang only had a single word with which to judge their fighting skills: worthless.

Each class had its own set of unique fighting styles. But, if they were thrown into a messy team fight like this, it was impossible to showcase them.

Maybe they were arranged into some kind of formation before the fight started, but right now, no one was working together. If an army were to do something so foolish in a few months, it would mean an instantaneous defeat.

However, since both sides had done so, Cheng Yang couldn’t tell which side was stronger.

As they fought, both sides hurled insults and curses at each other. Cheng Yang listened carefully and was able to gather some clues as to why this fight had started. When he did, he was furious.

“Stay here. Don’t come out.” Cheng Yang whispered to Liu Wei. Without listening for a response, he ran out from behind the wall.

“All of you, kneel before me!” Cheng Yang shouted.

Although the battle was fierce, Cheng Yang’s voice was still clearly heard. Everyone was shocked, and in the brief break between the fighting, they separated into their respective groups.

“Who the fuck are you?” A man with a massive scar on his forehead shouted. “How dare you order me to kneel!”

Cheng Yang glanced at him with indifference. “You better have yourself. Otherwise, I don’t mind turning you into a corpse.”

“You piece of sh-“Before the scarred man could finish his insult, a young man in his twenties held him back.

Realizing that he didn’t know how many people were with Cheng Yang, the scarred man forced himself to swallow his anger. All that was left was a glower. However, he vowed to kill Cheng Yang if the opportunity presented itself.

“You came over here acting all high and mighty, so what do you want, child?” The scarred man asked coldly. “I advise you to leave as soon as possible. There are some rivers you can’t cross. So beware of drowning.”

“You son of a bitch! Having done so many immoral things, aren’t you afraid of thunder?” a middle-aged man on the other side shouted, “Young man, that bastard is insane. He’s no longer human, so please, don’t involve yourself.”

In reality, the middle-aged man wanted Cheng Yang to stay. He was able to tell that Cheng Yang was a Professional, and even one extra person was useful in a fight. However, he didn’t want to drag an innocent person into this. If Cheng Yang were to die, he would be racked with guilt for the rest of his life.

Cheng Yang smiled slightly. The only reward for being moral in this new world was suffering. Although the survival rate of good people like the middle-aged man was low, Cheng Yang liked them.

“I heard what you were arguing about, but some of the details are unclear to me. I’m interested in hearing the rest. Tell me about it.” Cheng Yang said without a hint of nervousness. “I’m not a good person, but I think taking out the trash is quite pleasurable.”

The middle-aged man hesitated, and instead, a woman in her thirties took the initiative. “Young man, you’re not alone, right? No one could be this late at night. Go fetch your companions, and let’s teach that ugly scarred bastard a lesson! They’re utterly devoid of conscience. They’re kidnapped several women and raised them as sex slaves! They’re fucking animals!”

By the time she was done, the woman was gnashing her teeth.

The scarred man leered at the woman, all but outright admitting it. Since what the woman said was true, there was no way Cheng Yang would let those men off.

When the scarred man saw Cheng Yang was unwilling to leave, he smiled. “Hey now, I gave you the chance to go, but since your sticking around, I’ll make sure you stay here forever! Everyone, gang up and-“

“Boss, you can’t kill that guy.” A Ranger interrupted the scarred man” I saw him in the safe zone the other day talking to Commander Jian. They looked pretty close so if Commander Jian finds out-“

“What about Commander Jian? As long as everyone here dies, he’ll never find out! So just kill him! That damn commander is the same level as us, so what would he do even if he knew?”

The scarred man had an evil glint in his eye that shut up the impertinent Ranger. There wasn’t room for words anymore. Since everyone was the same level, the only things that mattered were numbers and shamelessness.

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At the moment, Cheng Yang’s attack didn’t seem to have gone through any changes. However, its strength was far higher than when he first became a Cryomancer. Tel’ Rosh had plenty of Health and high defense, but in a single strike, the Standard-Grade beast collapsed.

Cheng Yang’s attack was like a bowl of water in hot oil. Loud roars shook the prison complex as armored beasts started to rampage. Every monster on the level desperately tried to attack Cheng Yang and the others.

At the same time, the rows of nostrils on their wedge-shaped heads let out a trill hiss. It was as if a swarm of serpents had entered the prison. Cheng Yang’s group couldn’t help but feel their scalps tingle.

A moment later, Yu Kai shot an arrow towards a Low-Grade Tel’ Rosh, accurately hitting it. Instantly, the monster’s Health reached zero, and it fell to the ground.

Liu Wei decided to finally focus on her class’ position. Instead of attacking, she focused on the Health levels of the party members and healed them when they got low. It was her first time actually using her healing skills, and in comparison to other Priests, they were lackluster.

A few minutes later, the battle ended, Cheng Yang looted a Black Iron leather armor, and dozens of bodies surrounded the party.

Since every person here was the cream of the crop, none of them needed the armor at the moment. As such, Cheng Yang stored it in his Spacial Ring for now.

Now that every monster on the level was dead, a thick iron door slid open, revealing a staircase down to the next one.

“Let’s go.” Cheng Yang said, simply.

The same scene repeated itself on the second floor. The monsters died, a piece of Black Iron equipment was looted, and a door opened. The only difference was that this time, a ring dropped that was given to Liu Chengen.

They continued onwards, all the way down to floor eleven. However, only about a third of the floors had monsters on them. The ones that didn’t were trashed beyond recognition and had huge holes everywhere.

In total, four more pieces of equipment were looted. One for each floor with monsters.

Once they reached the eleventh floor, they were able to see the boss room more clearly. Although it was partially obscured by a weird force field, below the current floor was a single massive room. It had the height of four floors, and in the center was a single device that stretched from floor to ceiling. Based on how it looked, it was meant to restrain a gigantic, six-armed humanoid.

Right in front of that contraption, a massive Tel’ Roth, the size of a whale, was sleeping.

“Here we are.” Cheng Yang whispered. He led the group down the long set of stairs into the final floor. When they arrived, Cheng Yang cast Petal Blizzard, enveloping the boss. “I leave the rest to you, Yu Kai.”

Obviously, Cheng Yang had a better way of dealing with the boss. He could freeze it, cast Sacrificial Blood Cloud, and the boss would be dead by the time the CC wore off.

However, he wanted to let Yu Kai learn as much as possible about the boss’ attack patterns. If he killed it in the faster way, there wasn’t a chance for Yu Kai to learn anything. Wouldn’t that be a waste? Especially if the boss had some kind of skill.

The boss had started to attack before Cheng Yang finished speaking. Once it was hit, it woke up and charged towards Cheng Yang.

Yu Kai didn’t miss the opportunity. An arrow flew out and struck the beast between its eight eyes.

The arrow dealt at least twenty damage, but, its Health was still at least five times that. Even after being attacked by Yu Kai, it continued to focus on Cheng Yang.

Seeing this, Cheng Yang ordered Liu Wei and the others to retreat to the eleventh floor. At the same time, he rapidly retreated to a faraway corner of the room.

Yu Kai felt quite sad. Wasn’t that boss a bully? There was a living person right there attacking it, but it chose to ignore me!

“Patient… patient…” Yu Kai muttered to himself, readying another arrow. The next shot finally caused the boss to focus on Yu Kai.

When he saw this, Yu Kai sneered. Aren’t you a little too late? At this distance, you’ll never reach me before I kill you. At the same time, Yu Kai launched an arrow right into one of the beast’s eyes.

“Last arrow blockhead!” Yu Kai shouted. Even though the boss was only ten feet away, it would be dead before it reached Yu Kai. It was just too slow.

Even so, the Tel’ Rosh continued to charge, as if it didn’t know it was dying.

“Die!” Once the Tel’ Rosh got within three meters, Yu Kai released a held shot that was guaranteed to hit.

However, the rocks on the Tel’ Rosh’s back took on an icy metallic sheen. Once the arrow hit, it bounced right off. Instead of dying, the boss charged forwards with renewed vigor.

Yu Kai was shocked, and for a moment, he hesitated.

In the blink of an eye, the boss collided with Yu Kai, using its wedge-shaped head to send him into the sky. It dealt only a single point of damage with the charge alone, but it wasn’t done! A deafening hiss emitted from its nostrils as the rocky tip of its head shot off like a volcano. Like a homing missile, it hit Yu Kai out of the air, dealing sixty-point of damage.

Cheng Yang was startled. Who knew this boss would have two hidden aces in a Normal Difficulty instance! Thankfully, Yu Kai had over a hundred points of Health and twelve Physical Defense. However, that combo would have been more than enough to kill a Low-Grade Apprentice. This would be an essential lesson for Yu Kai.

After hitting the ground, Yu Kai sprung up. Even with a fist-sized hole in his chest, he drew an arrow and released it.

Having used its trump card, the Tel’ Rosh seemed dazed. The tip of its head didn’t regrow and unable to react, it was hit. Once it was, a soft hiss was released from its nostrils as it fell to the ground, never to rise again.

“Finally, …dead.” Yu Kai sighed, sitting down.

“You need to be more careful next time.” Cheng Yang said as he ran over. “How could you let yourself get distracted at such a critical moment? If that ranged attack had some kind of special property, there was a chance you would have died.”

Yu Kai smiled weakly. “I’m sorry, Yoko. I thought I had him, but he was suddenly able to block my arrow. Fortunately, it wore off after it attacked me. Otherwise, it would have been difficult to deal with it.”

“It would, and it still might. Remember, this is just the Normal Difficulty instance. In higher difficulties, this boss will be even more challenging.” Cheng Yang paused his lecture for a moment. “Anyways, we’ve beaten the instance, so let’s loot it and leave.”

Saying this, Cheng Yang began to search the room. Near the left foot of the massive restraints, he found a chest, which he looted.

This was, without a doubt, the reward for the first clear of the instance.

It was a rock, and if Cheng Yang hadn’t seen a similar one before, he would have cursed the heavens. Right now, though, he regarded it as a top-level treasure.

---

Statue Lifting Stone (Warrior)

Double any one attribute of the Warrior class change statue.

---

Sure enough, it was a Statue Lifting Stone. The benefits of finding it was self-evident. The last time he used one, he doubled the number of Priests in the village. If he upgraded the same attribute this time, wouldn’t the number of Warrior slots increase from 560 to 1,120?

Some people might have been disappointed with this reward, thinking it wasn’t worthy of being considered top-grade loot. However, the drop rates for these stones were abysmal. In that sense, wasn’t it nice?

Yu Kai walked up to Cheng Yang and handed him the loot dropped by the boss. It was a Black Iron bow that instantly found itself inside Cheng Yang’s Spacial Ring.

Watching the equipment disappear, Yu Kai couldn’t help but feel envious. “My Lord, when will I be able to get a ring like that? It’s a must-have for a family trip or robbery.”

Cheng Yang chuckled. “When you have enough Experience Fragments to buy one.”

Yu Kai looked like he’d licked a lemon. “How long is that going to take?”

“Soon, if you work hard. With your current strength, earning Experience Fragments is easy.”

Yu Kai just frowned. He knew that even though he was earning more, most of it went towards increasing his training speed. It was hard to say when he would be able to get a Spacial Ring.

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Liu Wei knew about the existence of roads since there was one in Phoenix Village. It would be hard to find someone from Phoenix Village that didn’t know about roads.

Knowing how difficult it was to build a road, Liu Wei stopped asking questions. If building a road between Silkworm Mountain and Phoenix Village was as hard as people made it seem, there was no use mentioning a city to city or cross-province road.

Two hours later, Cheng Yang had run into over a dozen hordes. As usual, he slaughtered them all. However, this time he had the added duty of protecting Liu Wei.

Despite that, Cheng Yang earned a lot. However, he hadn’t even found a hint of a sign of the instance dungeon.

“Come on! Go a little further. You’re less than four kilometers from the village.” Cheng Yang softly murmured to himself.

Just as Cheng Yang resumed merrily battling the bushes, Liu Wei pointed to the left and cried out: “My Lord, is that it?”

Cheng Yang stopped and looked in the direction Liu Wei pointed. In between the leaves, he caught a glimpse of white light eighty meters away.

“That’s it!” Cheng Yang shouted with joy. Although he couldn’t be entirely sure, what else could it be? Even if it was something different, it was probably a treasure.

“Let’s go and see!” Cheng Yang said, leading Liu Wei towards the light.

After traveling around half the distance, Cheng Yang confirmed his suspicions. It was, indeed, an instance dungeon.

“Which instance dungeon is this?” Liu Wei asked in a low voice, her face flushed with excitement.

“I don’t know.” Cheng Yang replied with a sad smile.

“But… didn’t you say you saw this instance dungeon in your vision?”

“I did indeed but not the inside of it. My visions are incomplete and usually hard to interpret. Moreover, the world is so big that I doubt even the gods know every detail.”

“So that was it. What should we do now? Go back and inform Yu Kai, or just go in?”

“If this is the first clear, we might run into something unexpected. Even if Yu Kai’s strength can’t help us, I need allies to use my Sacrificial Blood Cloud trump card. Let’s call him first before we enter the instance. Even if we don’t need help, he can make it easier to clean up the mobs.” Cheng Yang replied.

Naturally, Liu Wei agreed. Then, they turned and walked back to Silkworm Mountain.

The search had been an arduous journey, but returning was easy. Even with Liu Wei’s speed, it took them less than twenty minutes.

When they got back, they found out that Yu Kai was still out searching for the instance dungeon.

As such, Cheng Yang had to find him personally. It shouldn’t be hard. He was traveling with his soldiers, after all. In the pursuit of speed, Cheng Yang decided not to bring Liu Wei along.

Tracking the soldiers was easier than Cheng Yang thought it would be. They had carved wide paths from the forest, cutting away bushes and trampling down the grass. Even though Yu Kai had separated the army into three groups, it didn’t take long for Cheng Yang to find him. When he arrived, Yu Kai was fighting a horde of several hundred monsters.

Yu Kai was now a High-Grade Ranger, and although he hadn’t learned any of the new skills, his power shouldn’t be underestimated. Even when facing a Standard-Grade monster, he was able to slay it quickly.

Since there were more than six hundred left, Cheng Yang didn’t sit by idly. He immediately joined the fight.

Cheng Yang decided against using Sacrificial Blood Cloud since the situation was under control and instead chose to maximize his income by using Petal Blizzard.

The scene of Cheng Yang enveloping a group of monsters with deadly petals opened the eyes of Yu Kai’s new soldiers. Most of them hadn’t seen Cheng Yang fighting before, so his image as a powerful Mage was burned into their retinas.

A few minutes later, when the battle was over, Yu Kai walked over to Cheng Yang while wiping blood off his armor. “My Lord, did you find the entrance?”

Cheng Yang sneered without answering Yu Kai’s question. “Buddy, you need to improve your fighting skills. As a Ranger, if you’re covered in blood after a fight, that’s just pathetic. You have a ranged class, why are playing around with monsters in melee range?”

“I learned that maneuver from you, my Lord.” Yu Kai retorted, “Now that my Physical Defense is 6.9, why would I be afraid to fight on the front lines?”

Cheng Yang coughed awkwardly. “Anyways, I found the portal and wanted to inform you. Grab two of your soldiers, and let’s go. It will help you get familiar with the instance dungeon so that you can clear it on your own later.”

Yu Kai grinned. “I’ll be right back.”

Yu Kai walked over to his soldiers and picked two of them from the group.

Cheng Yang recognized the people Yu Kai chose. The first was Liu Chengen, the Vice Governor of Silkworm Mountain. The other was Huang Mu, a Summoner with an A-Rank Innate Ability.

After the two soldiers greeted Cheng Yang, the four of them returned to Silkworm Mountain.

When they arrived, they picked up Liu Wei and left to challenge the instance dungeon.

Once they arrived, the group entered without hesitation.

Cheng Yang and the others were somewhat relaxed. The instance dungeon they found was only a Low-Grade one at best with a pseudo-boss at the High-Grade level. Cheng Yang could mop it up all on his own, but even if it turned out to be stronger than expected, the Sacrificial Blood Cloud skill would annihilate it.

As the scene around they warped, the group found themselves on an island. It was around ten thousand square meters and utterly devoid of trees or tall buildings, allowing Cheng Yang to see the entire area. The most intriguing part was that the island was floating in the sky. It was like the flipped over top of a mountain.

In other copies, it was easy to see that the space inside was finite. However, this one didn’t appear to have any boundaries. The endless sky stretched out all around them. Cheng Yang couldn’t see an edge or a bottom.

However, they now knew the instance dungeons name: Sky God Island.

Since they knew the name, no one was worried about trying to explore the bounds of the instance dungeon. If the name was honest, they wouldn’t have to go any further than the island they were on right now.

Cheng Yang remembered an instance dungeon by the same name in his past life. Unfortunately, since he didn’t believe there to be one near Cloud City, he didn’t look into it too deeply. As such, he wasn’t sure as to the exact nature of the instance.

Looking around, Cheng yang couldn’t see a single monster on the island. If there weren’t monsters, what was the clearance goal?

“I’m going to take a look around. Stay safe.” Cheng Yang whispered before walking towards the center of the island. In his opinion, if there was anything weird about this island, it would be near the center. This suspicious was at least partially correct already since there was a ring of hills there.

Cheng Yang walked over the hill and found a deep hole at the center of the ring. There was a faint light coming from the inside.

Cheng Yang walked down and looked inside. A few feet down, there was a narrow passage which seemed to be a part of an underground palace.

“Hey! Come over here!” Cheng Yang shouted to attract the other’s attention.

“We need to go down there. I’ll go first. Yu Kai will bring up the rear. Since we don’t know what to expect, stay on guard.” Cheng Yang said once the others arrived.

Yu Kai nodded. Then, they walked inside.

They walked through the hallway without running into any surprises, but when they reached the end, they saw something that shocked them. They were at the top of a massive underground prison complex. Most of it was in ruins, but it stretched down over a dozen floors.

There were easily hundreds of cells, and each one was littered with bones. Most of them were from animals, but others were human in origin.

The most shocking sight was the innumerable monsters that roamed the halls. They were the size of a bull and had a stocky build supported by four thick legs. Stone outgrowths covered their bodies, and additional metal armor was strapped onto them.

“What kind of monster is that?” Yu Kai asked Cheng Yang in a low voice.

“Tel’ Rosh. They have a high Physical Defense, and the added armor means that Low-Grade Apprentices can’t deal more than a point of damage. Other than that, they’re slow and docile unless approached. They should be easy to kill.” Cheng Yang reported.

“Should we attack?”

“Yep. Aside from a decent defense, they’re just normal monsters. I can see some Standard-Grade ones hiding around here, so watch out.”

Cheng Yang raised his stave and sent an Icicle Blast towards the nearest Standard-Grade Tel’ Rosh.

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By the time Cheng Yang cleared the instance, his generals had finished expanding the army.

It wasn’t a difficult task. The generals let their various officers pick people, and so long as Cheng Yang hadn’t blacklisted them, they were allowed to perform a class change ceremony.

Of course, people like Hu Jun that were banned pleaded with anyone that would listen to let them become a soldier. Zhao Chuan, in particular, got a lot of attention from Hu Jun. As a former high school teacher from Huimin, although the mayor didn’t know him, Hu Jun at least knew his name.

Despite Hu Jun’s pleading, Zhao Chuan never spared him a second glance. Not only was Hu Jun blacklisted, but he was meant to be an example for everyone else. In that case, how could he be forgiven?

This made Hu Jun miserable. He was hungry, and his clothes were torn to the point that he was naked. Moreover, all of his former friends and relatives had abandoned him. Hu Jun never treated them with sincerity, so why would they want to associate with someone that tried to seize power from the Lord?

Of course, Cheng Yang never regarded Hu Jun as anything more than a clown. Even if people continued to associate with him, Cheng Yang wouldn’t care.

Now, the scenario that Cheng Yang discussed with his generals had arrived. More than four hundred soldiers served in every battalion.

The total number of soldiers in Phoenix Village exceeded two thousand. Perhaps, compared to Cloud City, the army in Phoenix Village was lacking. In terms of quality, however, Cloud City couldn’t even compare.

After the newly enlisted soldiers were organized, the generals chose officers from among them. However, most of the generals already had a few outstanding soldiers that they appointed instead of new soldiers. Having already proven their skill and loyalty, they were first in line for a promotion.

After the battalions expanded, the generals finally insisted that they be named. According to them, it didn’t make sense for an army division with hundreds of members not to have a name.

Being tasked with naming something gave Cheng Yang a headache. So, he just threw the problem back at them and asked the battalions to call themselves.

At that time, the crowd proposed dozens of names. Some of which were too weird to repeat.

Ten minutes later, the naming issue was finally settled. Of course, Cheng Yang vetoed any names that would bring shame to Phoenix Village.

The names were as follows: Yu Kai’s Fox Hunting Battalion, Liu Hau’s Recalling Wind Battalion, Lau Hui’s Mad Cow Battalion, Old Lee’s Righteous Avenger’s Battalion, and Zhao Chuan’s Snow Leopard Battalion.

“Ahaha, Ox, are you sure your teams not mocking you?” Liu Hau asked ostentatiously.

“At least they didn’t pick something childish like yours did!” Lau Hui fired back.

Before Liu Hau could respond, Cheng Yang cut him off. “Ox, Zhao Chuan, if you two haven’t cleared the instance dungeon yet, go ahead and do that now. Koko and Old Lee, you’re free to do the same, but I’d rather you followed me to visit The Forgotten Grave.”

“My Lord, can I run The Forgotten Grave with just my battalion? I’m a High-Grade Warrior now, so the boss is as good as dead.” Liu Hau said.

Cheng Yang shook his head disapprovingly. “If you only focus on the final boss, your battalion will suffer heavy casualties. Wait until you’ve got enough Standard-Grade soldiers to hold back the low-level mobs.

Liu Hau was annoyed, but he knew better than to ignore Cheng Yang’s advice. Besides, it would only be a couple of days before there was a sizable number of Standard-Grade soldiers.

The rest of the generals were fine with their orders. Thus, everyone went their separate ways.

---

Cheng Yang led an army of nearly six hundred people towards Cloud City. Of which five hundred were soldiers, and the other hundred were civilians.

Along the way, they passed through monsters like clouds. Even without Cheng Yang acting, newly leveled up soldiers killed each beast in an instant.

Pleased with what he saw, Cheng Yang decided not to fight with his soldiers over the meager number of Experience Fragments to be earned.

An hour later, they finally arrived at the entrance to The Forgotten Grave.

Between the two of them, Old Lee and Liu Hau picked forty-seven people and then entered the instance with Cheng Yang.

Despite being strong enough to beat the Hard Difficulty, Cheng Yang decided to stick with the Normal Difficulty instance. As an instance dungeon that fit fifty people, several mini-bosses and bountiful cannon fodder would spawn. As such, with their current strength, the Low-Grade soldiers were bound to suffer.

For safety’s sake, Cheng Yang settled for the Normal Difficulty. However, as soon as his soldiers were able, Cheng Yang planned to claim the first clear of the Hard Difficulty.

In less than ten minutes, they cleared the instance. Although there were several times more monsters in The Forgotten Grave as compared to the Blood-Soaked Cathedral, the killing-efficiency was much higher.

“My Lord, how many times can The Forgotten Grave be cleared on a day?” Lau Hui asked while arranging his subordinates.

“Every instance dungeon is the same. Five clears per day until its upgraded.” Cheng Yang replied.

“Isn’t that too few? There should be a few other instance dungeons nearby, right? Why don’t we go clear them?”

“There’s an instance dungeon near every village so there should be one near each of our new ones. However, I’m not clear on where exactly they are.”

“That’s great! As long as it exists, its only a matter of mobilizing the army to find it. Once we get to Silkworm Mountain, we’ll have Yu Kai help us find it.”

Cheng Yang tried to recall anything he could about the other dungeons, but all he knew was that they existed. The Lords controlling Joyous River Village and Silkworm Mountain in his past life had been pretty tight-lipped. Very little had been revealed.

The gods standardized the tricks for finding instance dungeons. There would always be a Party-Size instance dungeon between three and five kilometers from a Territory Altar and a Team-Size instance dungeon near the safe zone.

After clearing the instance, Cheng Yang’s group moved North towards Silkworm Mountain. Along the way, they avoided areas in which the soldiers and mercenaries of Cloud City operated. Although Cheng Yang wasn’t afraid of Cloud City, carelessly starting a war between the two parties served no benefit to him.

Cheng Yang arrived at Silkworm Mountain around noon. By then, Yu Kai had already advanced to become a High-Grade Ranger. All of the class change statues had leveled up as well. Hence, the inclusion of civilians in the convoy.

Since Silkworm Mountain was harder to reach than Joyous River Village, Cheng Yang brought some wood so that the essential stores could be built. That way, soldiers wouldn’t have to return to Phoenix Village for necessary supplies.

Once all of the civilians performed a class change ceremony, the level up conditions for the village were met. Then, under Yu Kai’s order, the territory successfully leveled up.

After that, Cheng Yang enlisted Yu Kai soldiers to help him find the nearby instance dungeon. If he could gain the first clear of this dungeon as well, it would be well worth their time.

Cheng Yang, however, didn’t travel with the rest of the soldiers. To maximize the number of Experience Fragments earned, only he and Liu Wei searched the East. Yu Kai and his soldiers searched the west.

The first kilometer or so near Silkworm Mountain was easy to traverse, but the further away they went, the denser the undergrowth was. This forced Cheng Yang to take out a Green Bronze sword from his Spacial Ring and act like a Warrior. Even though he was a Mage, eight points in Physical Attack meant he was more than a match for thornbushes.

Liu Wei’s role was to clear away any of the solitary monsters that attacked them while Cheng Yang was clearing the undergrowth. Since the strongest monsters around were only at the Standard-Grade, she was invincible.

Of course, that was only if she wasn’t under siege.

The duo carefully searched the area, walking in concentric semi-circles.

Three hours later, they still hadn’t found anything. They were even forced to eat lunch in the woods. Even though Liu Wei was born into luxury, her experience before meeting Cheng Yang made her grateful to have a measly picnic meal.

“My Lord, will the woods always be this thick?” Liu Wei asked while watching Cheng Yang struggle with some vines, “It won’t, right? Otherwise, it would be impossible for humans to travel great distances.”

“Just like the trees, all of the other plants are growing fast because of the apocalypse. In a week or two, their growth rate will rapidly decrease. Then, we’ll be able to maintain paths just by cutting back the growth every few weeks.” Cheng Yang replied, “Although it will be far easier to travel if we can build a road.”

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“Right now there are eighty-three Blacksmiths, ninety-six Silversmiths, twenty Carpenters, and thirteen Tailors. However, very few of them have put any effort into their jobs. Most of them focus on hunting monsters since it has a higher payoff.” Zhao Chuan reported.

“That’s not a bad thing.” Cheng Yang said. “It means our soldiers no longer fear monsters and are willing to hunt them more actively. As for their lack of focus on their Profession, there’s nothing else we can do. Even if we wanted to offer low prices for materials, we’d need to spend a long time training civilians to gather them. Still, we need to solve our equipment shortage.”

“The materials aren’t the bottleneck right now, the information is. Buying Alchemy recipes isn’t a problem for someone like you, my Lord, but for ordinary soldiers, they’re too expensive. One thousand Experience Fragments isn’t something they can come up with.”

“That’s not a big problem. What Profession did you all choose? What recipes or blueprints did you need to buy?”

“I’m a Tailor.” Zhao Chuan replied. “I learned the techniques for working with leather. As such, I now know how to make leather armor. In addition, my Skinning skill has leveled up so I can strip the pelt of monsters up to High-Grade.”

“I’m a Blacksmith.” Liu Hau followed up. “I bought the blueprints for forging an iron longsword, but I haven’t been able to find any metal deposits. Its been a real pain since it means I haven’t made any progress with my skills.”

The other three followed suit. Old Lee was a Carpenter, and Lau Hui was a Blacksmith.

Cheng Yang smiled. “You’re pretty evenly divided, which means equipment production will go faster. I foresaw a few locations for finding rare metals and jewels. I’ll write them down so that you can visit them later.”

Liu Hau visibly jolted. His resentment for the hard to find iron ore was so deep that if this world had a game master, he would have harassed them non-stop.

“What about me, my Lord?” Zhao Chuan asked, worried that he had picked a worse Profession.

“Stop wasting materials.” Cheng Yang said with a laugh, “Almost every part of a monster can be used to make equipment. The sinew can be used to make bows, and the bones can make staves and staffs. Even if you can’t use it, save it. One of the Professions will need it eventually. Until then, practice making leather armor.”

“That solves our material needs, but with just the four of us making armor, we’ll never be able to meet the needs of the territory.” Zhao Chuan said.

“Tell the others to pool their money together to buy recipes and blueprints. Individually they’re poor, but together they should be able to afford a few. Then, once one of them learns how to make equipment, that person can pay them back using their finished products. Wouldn’t that work?” Cheng Yang asked.

Zhao Chuan felt a bit foolish. He’d thought Experience Fragments were far too valuable to share, so he overlooked such a simple solution.

Doing that would allow people who didn’t want to practice their Profession to continue hunting but still increase the number of equipment pieces in the territory.

While they were talking, Pang Sun and Liu Wei walked over. Seeing them chatting and laughing almost made Cheng Yang feel like the old world hadn’t been destroyed. Especially Liu Wei. Her cute face and sweet smile made him feel like everything was going to turn out alright.

It was comforting to watch, but Cheng Yang forcibly reminded himself that even someone revered as a goddess would have to fight monsters in this horrible world. Otherwise, she would just become a tool for someone with power.

Alas, such was fate! It was impossible to say whether the world changed for better or for worse. No one, not even Cheng Yang, knew how this world would look in the future.

“My Lord, I can tell you’ve taken good care of Little Liu.” Pang Sun smiled, her eyes turning into cute crescents.

“Of course. Liu Wei is your best friend. If I allowed her to get mistreated, how could I look Lau Hui in the eyes?” Cheng Yang replied with a taut smile.

Pang Sun’s eyes glimmered with a mischievous light. “Is that really the reason?”

Liu Wei couldn’t handle her friends teasing and pinched her friend’s cheeks. “Little Pang, what nonsense are you spewing? Not everyone is so focused on romance like you are!”

“Heh, heh, heh…” Instead of stopping Pang Sun, Liu Wei’s pinches only fueled the fire. “Sorry, Little Liu, I should have kept your crush secret. Don’t worry, from now on I won’t mention it.”

The two women started bickering so fiercely that when Cheng Yang asked Pang Sun’s boyfriend to separate them, Lau Hui only helplessly smiled.

Cheng Yang understood Pang Sun’s words clearly, but how could that be the case? It was obvious that he only cared about Liu Wei because of her Innate Abilities! There was no way he had time for a relationship right now, and even if he did, Liu Wei should be more careful than to start one after a few days.

“All right, knock it off. All of you go finish your preparations for expanding the military.” Cheng Yang ordered.

“What should we do after we finish that?” Liu Hao asked.

“Koko, you’ll go back to Joyous River Village to clear out the nearby monsters. You’re a High-Grade Warrior now, so as long as you bring along some potions, you’ll be able to manage with just the soldiers you have there. Ox and Old Lee will combine their forces and go to Cloud City to rescue civilians. We saved nearly thirty-thousand people so far, but we’ll need more than that if we want to develop all three of our villages. We’ll also find more Territory Altars in the future, so we need to expand our population before that happens.” Cheng Yang explained.

“My Lord, what about me?” Zhao Chuan asked.

“You’re going to stay here and hunt monsters near Phoenix Village. It’s a boring job, but we’ll rotate it between the five battalions.”

Zhao Chuan wanted to protest, but since Cheng Yang said everyone would have to do it at some point, he relented.

“Once you’ve hunted monsters for a few hours, have your soldiers transport some wood to Silkworm Mountain. While you’re there, relay this message to Yu Kai. His job will be to clear the monsters near the village.”

After the generals heard Cheng Yang’s orders, they got to work. Since Pang Sun left with Lau Hui, Liu Wei and Cheng Yang were left alone.

“My Lord, I’m sorry for Pang-“

“No need to explain her actions.” Cheng Yang said, interrupting Liu Wei, “I know she was joking. I’m not even upset. Without people like her around to make us laugh, this post-apocalyptic hellscape would be far too depressing.”

Liu Wei looked at Cheng Yang with grateful eyes and sighed in relief. But, something seemed off to her, something she couldn’t quite name.

Before leaving for Cloud City, Cheng Yang cleared the Nightmare Difficulty of the Blood-Soaked Cathedral with the Imperial Guard. He considered bringing Liu Wei with him, but she was too weak. If an accident happened and she died, Cheng Yang wouldn’t be able to let go of his regrets.

He had already beaten the Nightmare Difficulty once before, so it was rather easy the second time around. In less than half an hour, he had cleared the instance.

This time, the Boss didn’t have any unexpected skills, so it was a smooth process. He even got a nice piece of equipment from the chest at the end.

---

Holy Wooden Mace
This mace was grown using a peculiar technique inspired by the towering wooden homes of the elves. It has one hundred and forty four sister maces grown as branches of the same sacred tree.

Grade: Purple Silver
Class: Priest
Requirements: Low-Grade Apprentice
Durability: 100/100
Effect: Increases Magical Attack by 7
Effect: Increases Physical Attack by 3

---

In addition to that piece of Purple Silver equipment, one other and three Black-Iron pieces were dropped.

Cheng Yang’s first thought when he picked it up was to gift it to Liu Wei, but when he saw how intensely Zheng Yue was staring at it, he gave up on the idea. Besides, even if she got this equipment, Liu Wei wouldn’t be able to kill Pinnacle-Grade monsters with her Innate Abilities.

Zheng Yue, on the other hand, was still using a Green-Bronze scepter and would make much better use of the equipment. Even though she wouldn’t object if Cheng Yang gave the mace to Liu Wei instead, she’d be unhappy.

In the end, he gave the mace to Zheng Yue and passed on her old scepter to Liu Wei. Even without the mace, Liu Wei could kill every Standard-Grade monster and most High-Grade monsters.

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Lau Hui still hesitated a while longer, but with a twisted face, he snapped his teeth and just said it.

“Well, what I said earlier wasn’t a complete lie. My team did end up going a little farther than usual by mistake. About seven or eight kilometers away, we found a mountain ridge. About halfway up the closest one, there was some kind of stone stronghold filled with an odd type of humanoid monsters. They’re really tall at least taller than most humans with hooves for feet, tusks, small noses, and oddly shaped heads with eyes on both sides like a pig. They walk around upright wearing armor and acting as humans do.”

Halfway through Lau Hui’s explanation, Cheng Yang had already realized what he was going to say.

After the apocalypse, humans called the vicious creatures that appeared “monsters,” which was just a term used to satisfy their fears. In reality, they were just animals from other places, other worlds. Although, the word had some truth to it since most were man-eating mindless beasts.

However, there were exceptions. Some monsters are as different from the rest as humans are from monkeys. Just like humans, those “monsters” were sentient and intelligent. Indistinguishable except for appearance. The creatures Lau Hui encountered belonged to that category.

Monsters like the ones in the stronghold were civilized to an extent, even if their morals and values were alien to humanity. Their social hierarchies were recognizable, and communication between them and humans wasn’t impossible. Although many people still called them monsters, most people referred to them by a different name. These one sin specific were called orcs due to a general similarity between them and the staple fantasy race.

Orcs were different from monsters, but running into them would usually be the same result. Even if they didn’t kill a human, they found that human would be captured and never seen again. Although, any orc that was outnumbered would share the same fate.

Still, they weren’t unreasonable like monsters were. They limited their range to a small area around their settlements and didn’t attack human villages.

This general hostility, in addition to a language barrier, meant that the two communities learned very little about each other. Such that even the most basic knowledge of orc society was a general mystery. Although, Cheng Yang heard rumors of some humans that were trying to grow relations with nearby orc settlements.

There weren’t a lot of orc communities in the world, and humanity had very little to do with them in the time Cheng Yang experienced.

An unspoken rule developed between the two species, and a noninterference stance was adopted. As such, humanity gradually adapted to the presence of the orcs and before long began to treat them like air. Because of that, Cheng Yang had forgotten about them until now.

But, now that Lau Hui had reminded him of their presence, Cheng Yang berated himself for not being more vigilant. Just because they generally ignored each other didn’t mean the orcs weren’t powerful. On the contrary, the reason they could rebuff humanity’s expansion attempts was that humanity didn’t know the limits of their strength.

As a regular mercenary, the far-away orc stronghold meant very little in Cheng Yang’s past life. Now, however, he was the Lord of Phoenix Village. If he didn’t pay attention to a threat a few short kilometers away, he would truly be a foolish leader.

Why were the orcs brought to Earth? Were they restricted by the gods’ rules or their morality? At some point, would they try to attack human settlements?

The longer Cheng Yang thought about the issue, the worse his complexion became.

There wasn’t a way for Cheng Yang to do anything about the problem. He, and the village, were just too weak right now.

“Ox, do you have any idea how dangerous that rea is?”

Lau Hui had been watching Cheng Yang’s facial journey and naturally realized the answer. “I do Yoko, but what in this world isn’t? Still, just to be sure, we only observed the stronghold from a distance while hidden in the trees.”

“You should be happy. If those monsters had noticed you, there’s a high chance that we would never have seen each other again. Those creatures aren’t monsters. They’re called orcs, and I think you can imagine the danger posed by a group of enemies that can fight intelligently in the same ways we do.”

“My Lord… what should we do about them? There were hundreds of orcs there. Even if they’re Low-Grade, I don’t think our soldiers will be able to defeat them.” Lau Hui was quite worried after hearing Cheng Yang’s warning.

“For now, don’t worry about them. The orcs won’t attack us as long as we keep our distance. I need you to go around the village and let everyone know. The mountains near the orc stockade is a forbidden zone.”

Lau Hui shivered, hearing Cheng Yang’s serious tone, but immediately agreed to spread the news.

“Was that all you wanted to talk to be about, my Lord?” Lau Hui asked.

“Oh right, do you remember the buildings that I created yesterday? Right now, Old Lee, Liu Hau, and Yu Kai all have official positions. Only you and Zhao Chuan don’t. After thinking about it, I have decided to make you the Chief Administrative Officer.”

“My Lord, are you joking? I’m flattered that you think I’m a good choice, but if I were placed in charge of the entire army, it would be a mess. There are nearly a thousand soldiers!”

“You’re overthinking this Ox. It’s an important-sounding title, but it’s just a logistics position. The gods’ system mostly handles the recruitment and promotion of soldiers, so it isn’t a particularly demanding position. Then again, if you’re not good at management, would it help to make Pang Sun your second-in-command?”

“Well…” Ox hesitated. “If its that simple, I’ll accept.”

“Cheng Yang stated at him angrily. “Stop acting like this is some kind of burden. The Chief Administrative Officer is a luxurious job.”

Lau Hui smiled wany but didn’t offer any excuses.

Then, Cheng Yang opened up the Territory Altar system pane and finalized the decision.

At this time, Liu Hau and the other generals had returned to the territory.

“Ox! You’re finally back! Where the hell were you? I was going to wait for you before visiting my village.” Liu Hau asked as soon as he caught sight of Lau hui.

Lau Hui glanced at Cheng Yang for confirmation, then shared his discovery with the other generals. After that, Cheng Yang gave them all a strict order not to approach within five hundred meters of the orc stronghold.

After listening to them, Old Lee had a dignified expression. “My Lord, I’m afraid that stronghold is a cancer. We must cut it out as soon as possible.”

“I understand your concern.” Cheng Yang said, “But we’re still too weak. Wait until the village grows.”

“Should we send some scouts? Maybe they’re weaker than they appear?”

Cheng Yang shook his head. He had never been to the stronghold in person, but dozens of genius fighters in his past life died there. It was a risk Cheng Yang wasn’t willing to take.

Old Lee saw that Cheng Yang wasn’t going to budge, so he accepted the situation and changed the topic.

“My Lord, what is our plan for today then?”

“The class change statues leveled up last night, so there’s a lot of space for your teams to expand. So today, you’ll each be choosing around four hundred new soldiers.” Cheng Yang replied.

The generals were ecstatic. Increasing the number of soldiers under their command meant they would be able to defeat far more massive hordes. For the last few days, unless Cheng Yang was with them, they had to avoid clearing new areas. Now that their ranks had expanded, in addition to several soldiers leveling up, they would have a much higher hunting efficiency.

“My Lord, although this is certainly a good thing, I’m worried about the equipment gap. We weren’t even able to give every soldier a piece of equipment before, and now our teams have more than doubled in size. Should we buy some equipment from the stores?” Old Lee said.

Cheng Yang shook his head. “Those managers will just rip you off. Buying a complete set will cost anywhere from six hundred to eight hundred Experience Fragments. With that cost, it’s more efficient to unlock higher training bonuses.”

“What about just buying weapons? A top-notch weapon only costs around seventy Experience Fragments. New soldiers can bear that cost easily, and it will increase our attack power considerably. This will allow us to increase our hunting range at a faster pace.”

Cheng Yang hesitated, then asked: “How many people have taking up crafting Professions?”

Old Lee then turned to look at Zhao Chuan. He had been working together with Yu-Kai on getting every soldier a Profession.

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