Icebound Companions

(As everyone has noticed, this mission borrows from Dota, but also incorporates elements of real-time strategy. It's simply intended to evoke memories and add a touch of novelty, nothing more. Please don't try to draw parallels to a real-life Dota. Any suggestions are welcome in the book review section; An Hei will read them all.)

In the control panel, the buildings that can be constructed are 'Tavern', 'Item Shop', 'Sentinel Camp', and 'Ancient Guardian'. Li Wei thought for a moment and then clicked on 'Tavern'. At the same time, he continued to control the main base to continue producing Wisp.

"Tavern under construction, 60 minutes remaining..."

Looking at the prompt, Li Wei realized that building this tavern had cost him almost all of his gold coins and wood, and for the time being, he could do nothing but produce Wisp.

Having done all this, Li Wei naturally wouldn't just stand around in the base waiting idly. For such a strategic mission, if he didn't understand the surrounding terrain and environment as soon as possible, he would likely suffer great losses later. Therefore, 'reconnaissance' would play a crucial role in the overall battle.

Li Wei had this basic knowledge. Since he could control everything in the base as long as he had the control panel, Li Wei quickly rushed out of the Sentinel Legion's base and ran into the wilderness.

Li Wei had another purpose in doing this: after entering the mission world, he hadn't seen Zheng Yutong and the others. They had signed Teammate Contract, so they would definitely enter the same character world. Where were they now?

Perhaps, it will be in the wild.

The wilderness was vast, mostly covered by Jungle, making it difficult to traverse. Divided by the Jungle were three main roads. Li Wei glanced around and discovered that all three main roads led to the Guard Base. If the enemy attacked, they would have no choice but to use these three roads.

Besides the terrain, Li Wei also needed to investigate the enemy's location.

Since he had chosen the Sentinel Legion, Destroyer No. 31 would have to choose the Scourge. The Scourge should have a base like his own, and the buildings and other structures within the base should be exactly the same. However, all of this was just Li Wei's speculation; he needed to see it with his own eyes to be at ease.

After walking along the widest of the three main roads for a while, Li Wei encountered a problem.

In a low-lying area nestled among the woods and hills, there was a shallow pool of water, upon which stood several monsters. They were not large, but resembled fish with four limbs. With his Eye of Perception, Li Wei obtained information about these monsters.

"Enraged Murloc, Level 5..."

"Murloc Guardian, Level 3..."

There was only one enraged murloc, but three murloc guards. The four murlocs stood there imposingly, their webbed hands gripping harpoons, looking quite formidable.

Li Wei glanced at it, thought for a moment, and then walked over instead of making a move. After passing several hills and shallow waters, he saw a wooden and stone structure.

"Target: Goblin Shop, cannot be attacked"

Is it a store?

Li Wei hopped over in a few steps. As he approached the store, a virtual control panel automatically appeared in front of Li Wei, with several compartments, each containing a product.

After a quick glance, Li Wei that the Goblin Shop sold some medicines and items. He didn't need the medicines for the time being, but the items caught his eye.

"Circlet of Nobility: Increases Strength, Agility, Spirit, and Stamina by 3% each. Price: 110 gold. Reappears every 12 hours..."

"Ring of Strength, increases strength by 50 points, price 90 gold, reappears every 12 hours..."

"Boots of Speed, increases speed by 15%, price 150 gold, will reappear every 12 hours..."

In Li Wei's opinion, these three items were quite good, especially the last one, the Boots of Speed, which was extremely useful. Looking at the Gold Mine in his resource inventory, which had now reached 200, Li Wei didn't hesitate and bought the Boots of Speed.

A golden light flashed in his hand, and a very beautiful pair of boots appeared. After putting them on, Li Wei took a few steps and discovered the benefits of the boots. They increased his speed by 39%, and this wasn't limited to walking speed; even his movements were slightly improved.

Overall, these boots are a great deal. Moreover, if there's only one Goblin Shop on the entire mission map, then what you buy is the only Boots of Speed. The math is very simple: if you buy them, then the Destroyer No. 31 won't be able to buy them. Of course, he can wait 12 hours, but by then, even a small speed advantage will be amplified infinitely, perhaps becoming the key to the final victory.

With the Boots of Speed, Li Wei's speed increased significantly. After running for about 40 minutes, Li Wei smelled a faint scent of blood.

Li Wei quickly slowed down and tiptoed towards the direction from which the smell of blood was coming. After a short while, he saw a clearing in the forest with a smoldering campfire and a wild boar roasting over it. Around it lay several dead monsters.

Seeing this, a smile appeared on Li Wei's lips.

Without a doubt, these were wild creatures. Although they were already corpses, Li Wei could still tell their level. Both their level and number were no different from the mermen around his own Sentinel Legion.

This means that these dead monsters were likely the smaller monsters around the Scourge base. Since they were killed, it means that the Destroyer No. 31 had been here.

Further deduction suggests that the Scourge's base is nearby.

When Li Wei first encountered the merman monsters, he didn't attack, precisely because he feared this scenario. Even if Destroyer No. 31 encountered those mermen and discovered they weren't dead, he wouldn't have suspected that his own Sentinel Legion base was nearby.

Therefore, I will be able to find the enemy's base faster than Destroyer No. 31.

Li Wei immediately took action, and sure enough, three minutes later, he discovered a desolate place in a valley that was infected with the plague virus. After walking a few more steps, he saw the Scourge's base.

"Found it"

Li Wei revealed a cold smile. Just like his own Sentinel Legion base, the Scourge base also had two defensive towers at its entrance.

'Ghost Tower, Level 1, HP 900, Attack 90-110, Defense 15'

As expected, the attributes seem to be the same as those of the Ancient Guardian. Now that the enemy base has been located, Li Wei plans to launch some probing attacks. In the early stages, neither the Sentinel Legion nor the Scourge will have very strong defenses. If they can break through the enemy base in the early stages, they can achieve victory sooner.

Of course, this possibility is probably slim, and Li Wei would not risk it. He took out a stack of talismans and threw them out, chanting an incantation. A majestic divine beast appeared in front of Li Wei.

Looking at the divine beast, Li Wei felt a pang of emotion. Since he had reached S-rank, he had rarely used summons of this level anymore. After all, the battles he was experiencing now were beyond the capabilities of summons of divine beast level. Not to mention this divine beast, even the summoned Ink Dragon, with its S1-rank combat power, was now proving somewhat inadequate.

Fortunately, after the Black Paper is upgraded, its special skills can also be improved with experience points. As long as there are enough experience points, even a divine beast with a combat power of only A1 level can be forcibly upgraded to S level.

After controlling the divine beast to approach, Li Wei kept a close eye on it. The command he gave the divine beast was not to attack. The purpose was to test the attack power of the 'Level 1 Ghost Tower' without the Destroyer No. 31 noticing.

The divine beast obediently ran over, and after entering the vicinity of the Ghost Tower within a hundred meters, it saw a white ghost emerge from the dark, huge soul stone at the top of the tower, screaming as it rushed towards the divine beast.

"Your mythical beast has been attacked."

After seeing this prompt on the virtual panel, the divine beast collapsed to the ground under the attack of the ghost, and the second ghost arrived instantly, completely shattering the divine beast into pieces.

Seeing this, Li Wei gasped. Although the divine beast was only A1 level, its stamina was the same as his own, or even higher. Under such circumstances, it was only hit twice before being killed. The attack power of the Ghost Tower was too formidable.

Li Wei swallowed hard and wandered around the Scourge base for a while longer. Only after he heard that the 'tavern' inside the base was completed did he use Shifting Forms and Changing Positions to return to the Sentinel Legion base.

During the hour Li Wei was away, the Wisp's production and resource gathering never stopped. At this moment, Li Wei had 15 Wisp, 800 Gold Mine, and 300 wood.

Li Wei immediately selected two Wisp and controlled them to build a 'Moon Well' and a 'Sentinel Camp' respectively. The Moon Well could increase the population, while the Sentinel Camp could produce various Sentinel units to attack the Scourge's base.

After placing the two buildings, the Gold Mine in the resource bar dropped sharply to 500. After finishing these tasks, Li Wei walked to the newly built 'tavern'.

The 'Tavern' is a building for recruiting heroes. After Li Wei opened it from the virtual panel, he saw many hero portraits, but as soon as he saw the fourth ring, Li Wei's expression turned extremely cold.

"How so?"

The tavern's virtual panel displays 11 avatars: Zheng Yutong, Xue Yan, Nina, An Hei, Blood Wolf, Fatty, Green Conch, Amakusa, Liu Piaopiao, Zhang Sanfeng, and Dongfang Bubai.

Li Wei was utterly astonished to find his companions, who had disappeared after entering the mission world, all of them in the tavern. Fortunately, having experienced many things, he quickly calmed down. Since his companions were all in the tavern, there must be a reason.

Through the control panel, Li Wei accessed the tavern's properties, and his doubts were immediately resolved.

"Inside the tavern, all the Reincarnators except the Destroyer are frozen in ice. You can recruit them by spending resources and manpower. You can recruit up to 5 heroes. Once a hero dies, they cannot be resurrected, and the Reincarnator they represent will also die."

Looking at the recruitment requirements, they are basically linked to the combat power of the reincarnators; that is, the stronger the combat power, the higher the recruitment requirements. Currently, Li Wei only has 500 gold and population, which is enough to recruit one teammate with a combat power below * level.

Those with combat power exceeding * level require between 500 and 1000 gold, while those of S level require 3000 gold.