The three-day monster-grinding plan had actually ended in less than a day.
Aer had battered the village monsters into near-death batch by batch, then dragged them before the players, allowing them to use the Divine Legion's traits to seize the monsters' essence and convert it into Experience Points for leveling up.
But no matter how many monsters there were in the village, there was still an upper limit to its energy.
When the green mist filling Endemic Plague Village visibly began to dissipate and eventually vanished without a trace,
they had only been grinding for ten hours.
After the monsters in the village had been completely cleared out, Aer lowered her stance and stood blankly at the village entrance without saying a word.
The unaware players still held their weapons up, waiting for the next wave of experience to be fed into their mouths.
Li Li could only control his avatar and explain to them in a questioning tone:
"Did we clear out all the monsters? Was it because Apep, the source of the corruption, died, leaving the monsters here like rootless duckweed that vanished after being farmed for a while?"
"I wouldn't call that a little while. We killed over forty thousand monsters. Mainly because we had an NPC leading us this time, so the efficiency was way too high," the Minotaur player called 'Pure Love War God' replied in a deep, muffled voice.
Hearing that, 'Amulet Owl' put away his weapon and waved a hand.
"This isn't an efficiency problem."
"With this game's almost obsessive pursuit of realism, if the monsters here can be wiped out to extinction, they might really permanently limit monster numbers and make every wild monster killed one less."
"You can understand it this way: the game has a 'total amount of experience,' and the experience each person can claim is limited. Most people won't even reach level 200."
"There's no need to reach max level, though." 'Pure Love War God' retorted with an innocent expression. "Not everyone likes fighting. There are lore enthusiasts, scenery enthusiasts, lifestyle enthusiasts... The graphics in this game are so realistic that they can totally develop gameplay beyond combat."
"You're missing the point!" 'Amulet Owl' shook his head. "This isn't a resource issue. Once all the low-level monsters are farmed out, how are new players supposed to play later?"
"This..." 'Pure Love War God' finally realized the severity of the issue.
"Alright, alright, this isn't something we need to worry about." 'Golden Wind' patted 'Amulet Owl' on the shoulder. "The developers probably did this to ease the server load. It'll get changed in a later patch, so why panic?"
While the players all voiced their opinions, Li Li had already controlled his avatar into the emptied village.
The village sat on the left slope at the mouth of the valley. Looking out from the cliff at the very back of the village, one could see the "sword hilt" of Broken Sword Valley.
Its location was beyond reproach. Anyone entering or leaving the valley would see it, and it would absolutely become an important transportation hub in the future.
But as for the village's infrastructure, it could only be said that everything needed to be started from scratch.
Although the poisonous gas that had filled the village for nearly a thousand years had prevented insects, wild beasts, and other creatures from damaging the buildings,
the wooden houses left behind crumbled at a touch and could hardly be called qualified structures.
That made the next steps very clear.
If you wanted to get rich, build roads first.
First, let these players level up and clear out the monsters along the route.
There was roughly ten kilometers of road from Iron Wall City to here. Along the way were three large monster strongholds similar to Endemic Plague Village, as well as quite a few scattered minor monsters.
If these players went all out clearing them, they could finish the task within three weeks.
It would be faster if Aer helped, but spoon-feeding experience like this would do far more harm than good for future development.
Eleven people had participated in this monster grind. Judging from Lost His Mind's gains, each person had received an average of over two million experience, enough to shoot straight up to Silver Rank.
Players needed 1.05 million Experience Points to go from Lv1 to Lv30.
With Li Li taking half, players needed 2.1 million experience to reach level 30.
But leveling up was only the "small expense." The real experience sink was skills.
Skills learned at Mortal Rank and Brass Rank could only be raised to Lv30 at most, and maxing out each skill required 70,124 experience.
Yet the Novice Divine Scholar, whom 'Amulet Owl' had criticized to his face for having "too few skills," had twelve skills available to learn.
If he wanted to max them all out, he would need at least 1.68 million experience.
In other words, the experience currently stored by these eleven players was only enough to raise them to level 30. The remaining experience was insufficient for leveling skills.
After completing two advancements, level 30 players would have average attributes in the triple digits. Leaping ten meters in a single bound would be nothing, and they would already be able to defeat most of the monsters along the route.
They would merely deal rather "ticklish" damage due to factors like skill levels and equipment.
But it was precisely because their damage was so "ticklish" that these people would be motivated to grind monsters.
Especially after realizing that every wild monster killed meant one fewer remaining.
Once the monsters along the route had been cleared out, Li Li could recruit natives from Iron Wall City to trade at his outpost.
As for building the outpost... Finding a construction crew in the city was unrealistic. Leaving the city was dangerous work, and being able to find a caravan to transport building materials over would already be quite difficult.
Although he only had 52 Faith Points on hand, Li Li's plans would not stall because of that.
Once all the players had leveled up, he would receive around 2,200 Faith Points. Li Li planned to use 500 of them to summon another fifty "third-batch" players, then issue them labor-intensive tasks to build the camp.
The rewards for those labor tasks would be the experience earned from the first two batches of players.
After reaching Silver Rank, the first two batches of players would enter an entirely new tier in both their ability to earn experience and their ability to consume Experience Points, with costs starting at hundreds of thousands.
Use veteran Silver Rank players to raise new Mortal Rank players.
Let those who leveled up first drive those who came after to level up.
That would create a virtuous cycle.
After sorting out his thoughts, Li Li returned from the cliff to the village entrance and walked up to Aer, taking her hand under the pretense of leveling up.
He handed the new quest to Aer and had her issue it to the later players.
Outpost, Part Two Quest Objective: Completely clear the monsters between Iron Wall City and Endemic Plague Village, and ensure that the monsters do not respawn. Quest Hint: If you want to get rich, build roads first. As heroes capable of completely purging corruption, clear a safe logistics route and lay the first foundation for future expedition plans. Quest Rewards: Experience Points, the title "Pioneer," and the "Social" function unlocked.
"This quest reward is so bare-bones." The Minotaur, who had entered the game less than a day ago and had already risen directly to level 30, advancing from Novice Paladin to Paladin, complained.
Beside him, Wind of Dawn, who was stuck at level 10 and had not yet advanced, said:
"The NPCs probably don't have much money either. My guess is that, to make things more realistic, the quest rewards we receive aren't created out of thin air. They come out of the NPCs' own wealth."
As she spoke, she pointed at the large truck parked outside the village and smiled.
"Even the only vehicle is secondhand junk pulled from who knows where. Our Creator God may be able to command a Legendary Rank saintess, but he really is poor."
Before you continue