Multi-School Archetypes

The appearance of a Dark Tide rift meant the countdown to the Dark Tide's erosion of the real world had begun.

Qi Sheng did not know exactly how quickly the collapse would progress. He would need to observe the changes in the world further to analyze and assess it.

But one thing was certain: he still had plenty of time to refine the Challenger Plan.

At this stage, Monster World was attracting new players under the name "Darklands," but the day would eventually come when it was fully exposed.

Yet he had never worried about the truth being exposed.

In the Challenger Plan he had devised, recruitment would target not only humans, but also the otherworldly factions that had fled to Earth.

But not now. He did not yet have enough Sacrificial Power to begin large-scale recruitment.

Inside the Containment Wall beneath Emperor Tomb Village, the number of contained Primordial Monsters had reached nine: the Black-Armored Snake, Eagle-Headed Demon, Gargoyle, Bonefire, and the Five Artifact Spirits. They produced 2,160 points of Sacrificial Power each day. Together with the output from players' hunting and mining, his daily Sacrificial Power Returns were around 2,500.

After deducting the 1,000 points of Sacrificial Power consumed by Emperor Tomb Village's upkeep, he had 1,500 points available each day to spend on recruitment.

In other words, he could produce one and a half player slots per day.

That amount of Sacrificial Power was a drop in the bucket when it came to expanding the player faction. Never mind recruiting other races-it was nowhere near enough even to meet his human recruitment target.

To increase recruitment numbers, he could only wait for the players to gradually grow stronger and generate more Sacrificial Power Returns.

Without dwelling on the issue, Qi Sheng turned to the Guide Water Orb.

"Notify Uncle Yan. Send me back."

[Understood.]

The Guide nodded and vanished. A few seconds later, a teleportation array appeared beneath Qi Sheng's feet.

After returning to the Primordial Sacrificial Altar beneath Emperor Tomb Village.

He switched his view to the players exploring Monster World.

Blood Plains, Emperor Tomb Mountain Range.

Dark Cavern.

"Gargoyles, hold the front! Black-Armored Snakes and Eagle-Headed Demons, look for openings to deal damage!"

Accompanied by a woman's shouts, the players once again clashed fiercely with the Iron-Shelled Insects.

Over the past few days, the Dark Cavern had become the players' first choice for leveling up and mining resources.

This had to do with Monster World's unusual environment.

In ordinary games, the monsters outside the starter village were generally weak, making them suitable for players to level up and grow.

Monster World was completely different. Outside Emperor Tomb Village, besides Cursed Soldiers with low Hunting Levels, players could easily encounter powerful monsters with high Hunting Levels that could wipe out their entire party. Exploration was full of uncertainty.

By comparison, the Dark Cavern, where monster strength was clearly established and plenty of resources could be mined, became the players' first choice.

After these past few days of growth, quite a few players had unlocked their second Star Meridian.

Three powerful Star Meridian schools had proven themselves in actual combat.

The strongest in the current version was the artifact spirit path, which involved inlaying multiple Artifact Spirits into Star Meridians and using the human body as the core to control the characteristic powers of various Artifact Spirits in battle.

But at this stage, Li Tie was the only one following this school.

Each level of Body Tempering cost 10,000 Sacrificial Power. The other players simply did not have enough Sacrificial Power to build a Star Meridian combination for the artifact spirit path school.

Next was the ranged strike style, combining Bonefire and the Eagle-Headed Demon. Its combination of damage output and sensory targeting made it the first choice for players who started as Eagle-Headed Demons, and it performed well in actual combat.

Last was the Star Meridian combination of the Black-Armored Snake and Strength Savage Axe.

The Black-Armored Snake used physical attacks. Adding the Strength Savage Axe's strength attribute and damage amplification significantly increased its combat power.

But at this stage, players mostly fought by switching forms. Very few stayed in their base human form for long periods in order to combine and use their characteristic powers.

As for the Gargoyle form, no suitable Star Meridian school had been developed yet. Players generally chose one of the Five Artifact Spirits contained by Li Tie as their second form, with the Gargoyle and Soul-Severing Spear combination being relatively popular.

The Gargoyle's damage output was low, but its defining feature was strong defense. Combined with the Soul-Severing Spear's ability to inflict mental impacts with its attacks, it followed the damage effect style.

Some players simply chose no school at all, focusing on leveling up their initial Monster Form.

These players believed that the more Star Meridian Inlays they had, the more Evolution Points they would need for development, so they might as well focus on developing a single form.

For example, developing the Black-Armored Snake into a level 100 Heaven-Connecting Python, or the Eagle-Headed Demon into a Great Peng Bird, and so on.

In practice, focusing on developing the initial form also yielded considerable increases in combat power. The players jokingly called this school the Monster Beast Style.

Every player had different ideas, and the development of their combat systems was already showing leanings toward different schools.

The battle lasted half an hour.

At the cost of losing over half their members, the players from the Hardcore Grinders Group, Drunken Feast Group, and Kindergarten Squad drove back the attacking swarm of Iron-Shelled Insects.

Besides gaining large amounts of Evolution Points, which leveled up many players' Monster Forms, the shells littering the ground were also part of their haul.

The Guide's analysis classified these shells as level 1 spirit materials. They could be sacrificed to Emperor Zhao for additional Sacrificial Power rewards.

As for how to distribute them, the chaotic battle made it impossible to tally each player's contribution, so they ultimately opted for an equal per-person distribution. All the shells would be handed to the Drunken Feast Group for sacrifice, and the resulting Sacrificial Power Returns would then be divided equally among the leaders of the player groups, who would distribute them to their members.

Just as the players were dividing the proceeds, something unexpected happened.

An Eagle-Headed Demon player in the group who had activated Grudge Chant's sensory ability suddenly called out a warning.

"Bad news! The Cavernfolk are back!"

Hearing this, everyone threw the shells into their Spatial Inventories in unspoken agreement and immediately sprinted toward the cavern exit.

The Cavernfolk Warrior's Hunting Level had reached 19, and with the large number of Iron-Shelled Insects following him, they were no match for him at their current strength.

Death was not frightening. What was frightening was losing 10 points of Sacrificial Power upon death and entering a one-hour respawn cooldown.

Even as they fled, the Regional Voice Channel was full of merriment.

"You guys who picked Gargoyles have high defense. Stay at the back and hold out for a bit so we can run first."

"Do you even hear yourself? Why should picking a Gargoyle mean we have to die?"

"They're almost on me! Why are you all running so fast? Wait for me!"

"Picking on us Eagle-Headed Demons because we have short legs, huh? Every last one of you is running so fast. I thought we were a team! Is this how you treat your teammates?"

During the tense, thrilling escape, the players had no attention to spare for their teammates. All of them sprinted toward the cavern entrance with everything they had.

Along the way, several players at the very back were entangled in threads spat out by the Iron-Shelled Insects and dragged backward. Their piercing screams made the players ahead abruptly pick up speed.

Once the players had escaped the cavern, they began discussing a question.

Should they band together to kill the Cavernfolk Warrior?

The Cavernfolk Warrior's presence had already become an obstacle to their mining in the Dark Cavern, and even to fighting monsters and leveling up.

Unless they eliminated him, they would have to be ready to flee at any moment inside the Dark Cavern.

Rather than spend every day in fear, they might as well root out the problem and eliminate the threat for good.