Underground melee

"Damn, another Life Soul suited to magic damage dealers. As a Black-Armored Snake player, I find this unacceptable."

"Hahaha, this Life Soul is great. Eagle-Headed Demon + Bonefire + Qi Eater—massively improved sustain. I'm very happy with this Origin Primordial. Brothers on the front line, hurry up and kill it!"

"Finally, something to ease our mana shortage. Thanks to nature for this mana-restoring Life Soul. Magic builds are getting stronger and stronger!"

"Nobody move. Let me get one basic attack in before you strike."

A Hunting Level 12 Primordial Monster posed no threat whatsoever to the players at their current stage.

The scene instantly descended into chaos.

The rewards for killing a Primordial Monster were shared. Even landing a single hit earned a Sacrificial Power reward. The players rushed toward the Primordial Monster like mad, killing Qi Eater and completing its containment in short order.

Learning through the livestream that players up ahead had successfully contained the Origin Primordial, the players farther back were extremely excited too, especially those running ranged damage builds.

Unlike the rewards from hunting Evil Spirits or monsters, containing a Primordial Monster benefited every player, giving them another Life Soul option to socket.

Their only dissatisfaction was that they had not participated in hunting the Origin Primordial and had missed out on a share of the Sacrificial Power rewards.

This successful hunt also increased Qi Sheng's fixed Sacrificial Power income.

After the brief diversion of hunting the Origin Primordial, the mission to purify the Dark Cavern continued.

To Qi Sheng's delight, the information Guide relayed indicated that, besides Qi Eater, there were traces of another Primordial Monster on the third underground floor.

As long as the players kept exploring, containing this Primordial Monster was only a matter of time.

In a corner of the Dark Cavern's third floor.

Li Zheng and his buddies looked helplessly at the long queue.

Just a week ago, they had been lamenting how few players their server had.

They had never expected that they would now have to queue just to enter a mine.

Still, all things considered, they would rather have more players on their server. For gold farmers like them, this was a very good thing.

After guilds led by big spenders, such as the Drunken Feast Group, appeared, they no longer had to worry about finding buyers for Sacrificial Power.

However much they produced, the big spenders could buy it all.

Last time, he had sold 50 points of Sacrificial Power to Woshnidie, the leader of the Drunken Feast Group, earning 5,000 credits.

After that, the price of Sacrificial Power had skyrocketed. He had also decided to stop selling it for now and improve his strength before considering profits.

To Li Zheng, spending Sacrificial Power on improving his strength was an investment guaranteed to pay off.

Only by growing stronger could he hunt stronger monsters and earn more Sacrificial Power.

He did not idle while waiting in line either. He led his buddies in hammering the rock wall beside them with Mining Pickaxes, searching for any Spirit Ore that might be there.

The nearby players were doing the same, chipping away at the rock walls as the clang of metal rang out incessantly.

Mining Spirit Ore was the safest source of income in this game. The downside was that it required some luck. With good luck, they could dig out several pieces of Spirit Ore embedded in the rock walls in a single day. With bad luck, they might work all day without producing anything.

Compared with the definite returns from fighting monsters and leveling up, mining depended much more heavily on luck.

This was also many new players' first choice for earning income. After all, even the weakest Blood Corpses in the Waning Crescent area were around level 10. Hunting was extremely difficult for newcomers and required coordinated teamwork.

"Hehe, got another one."

Loose stone fell away beside him, revealing a glowing white Energy Stone. His teammate Eat Dirt looked smug.

"Don't get cocky. Daddy's about to get you a level 2 ore," Sha Xin said from Li Zheng's other side, suddenly swinging his Mining Pickaxe faster.

Just then, countless cries of surprise came from the back of the queue.

Li Zheng and the others immediately stopped mining and looked back, wanting to know what had happened.

[Challenger notification (regional): Congratulations to a player for obtaining the level 5 Spirit Ore "Soul Crystal" through mining in the Dark Cavern-third underground floor, achieving the distinction of being the first to obtain Spirit Ore of level 5 or above. Additional reward: 500 Sacrificial Power.]

Soul Crystal: An ore formed when ore absorbs and condenses the dissipating soul energy of the dead. It can nourish and repair damaged souls.

Uses: forging, consumption (consuming it grants Body Tempering level experience), sacrifice

The notification made Li Zheng and the others realize that a player at the back of the queue had struck it rich while mining.

The Soul Crystal shown in the notification was a level 5 Spirit Ore. More importantly, it could be consumed directly to raise one's Body Tempering level.

This was enormously tempting to the players.

At their current stage, raising their Body Tempering level was extremely difficult. Unlike Star Meridian levels, whose costs increased gradually, every level from Body Tempering 1 to 10 required 10,000 Sacrificial Power to advance.

This was also the first time the players had learned in the game that consuming special resources could grant Body Tempering experience.

"So lucky. Too bad it wasn't me," Eat Dirt said sourly as he watched cash purchase offers rapidly flood the regional channel.

After that diversion, just as Li Zheng and the others were about to resume mining, they noticed that the commotion at the back of the queue had not subsided but was intensifying. Some players had even switched to their Monster Forms and begun fighting other players.

"Damn, something's wrong!"

The uproar suggested a possibility to Li Zheng. He immediately turned toward Eat Dirt.

"Eat Dirt, shift your sensory view over there and take a look."

Eat Dirt immediately nodded. His body twisted as he switched to Eagle-Headed Demon Form and sent spreading sound waves toward the back of the queue. His consciousness followed the waves through the crowd to the center of the commotion.

What he saw next made his heart pound.

Large numbers of purple crystals were embedded in the rock wall where pieces had been cracked off by Mining Pickaxes, glimmering in the flickering campfire light.

Withdrawing his consciousness, Eat Dirt promptly turned toward Li Zheng.

"Li Zheng, that entire rock wall is full of level 5 Soul Crystal ore. There are at least twenty pieces, and there might be more deeper inside."

"No wonder it's such a mess. They started fighting over the Spirit Ore." Standing behind them, Family-Sharing Godfather nodded in understanding, then looked at Li Zheng and asked:

"Li Zheng, what do you think?"

"What else is there to think? Of course we're grabbing it. Emperor Zhao never said finders keepers. Whatever we get our hands on is ours."

"I'm a college student. I have to get one of these Soul Crystals."

After their brief exchange, Li Zheng and the others decisively switched to their Monster Forms and charged toward the brawling crowd.

Many players shared Li Zheng's thinking. Faced with the lure of profit, they all chose to switch to their Monster Forms and join the scramble.

Large numbers of players were beaten into black mist and dissipated during the struggle.

Meanwhile, more and more players learned that large quantities of level 5 Spirit Ore had appeared on the third underground floor. They kept pouring in, one wave replacing another as they died.

The fighting even spread from the Dark Cavern to the players queuing outside the mine.

It began when a player from the Drunken Feast Group was killed by members of the Divine Wing Guild working together while fighting over Spirit Ore. The player immediately contacted his guild leader, Li Siyu, for help.

Members of the two major guilds then clashed outside the mine.

Players on good terms with the two guilds also joined the melee, launching an open-world brawl.

Thus erupted the first large-scale civil war since Monster World's servers had opened.