A Middle Tier marquis on the other side was able to temporarily grant his ability to remotely control Blood Corpse to subordinates of the same lineage as [ Clear Soup Master ].
Therefore, there is undoubtedly a deeper connection between Ed, who believes he helped players shape their bodies, and them.
If this ability can be successfully developed, then players will have another way to increase their strength—the possession of a deity.
Looking further ahead, this could be considered one of the core abilities of a faith-based profession, since the faction is called the Second Holy See, and it should have some religious-related abilities.
Similarly, if the ability granting can be accomplished, Ed could later grant some temporary abilities to players as quest items, or add them as rewards to players' quest reward pools.
What about players who haven't followed the faith system or haven't completed the quests to obtain rewards but still want to use these abilities?
It's alright, Ed has already decided to put new virtual ability cards in his NPC shop. And if these abilities can be granted using the Root Network, then some NPCs might become targets for exploitation in the future, specifically a certain Red Dragon and a certain lich...
Looking to the future, Ed, far away in the castle, knew that the vampire marquis, who had failed to fully recover, was on the verge of being killed by his own combined attack from both inside and outside the Swarm.
Considering he'd have the ability to exploit this currency buyback program later, he decided to save the players currently watching the show some money. So, with a little editing, he sent a game system notification to the group of onlookers:
[Vampire Marquis: Oliver Adelaide has entered the final stage. After Oliver's defeat, the Swarm will launch a sweeping attack. Please be careful.]
Upon seeing the prompt, the players, after a brief moment of astonishment, did not back down but instead became even more excited:
"Wow, the battle is about to begin!"
"Hahahaha, the Zerg swarm is going to win! I knew the Zerg were invincible!"
"Since you like Zerg so much, why don't you go join the Hive? Once the queen or queen bee has your mind controlled, let's see if you'll still be laughing then."
"I don't really like it that much; it's better to keep it on paper."
"What a hypocrite!"
"What the hell? How did you know my surname is Ye? You dare open my box?!"
Listening to the players' excited chatter, Ed in the castle couldn't help but cover his face.
I knew this would happen.
Since the players are not choosing to retreat, then...
After a moment's thought, Ed sent a new quest to all players still in the sealed land:
Special Mission - Retriever
Mission Description: Most creatures would perish quickly under such a degree of Aberration, but the vampire's incredible vitality compensates for this. Please bring Oliver Adelaide's body back to the Second Holy See. The prize pool will be distributed based on the proportion of bodies brought back.
Mission Reward: 10 gold coins in the reward pool; bringing back all the corpses increases the reward to 15 gold coins.
I knew there would be an Easter egg!
One player suddenly exclaimed, and the others echoed him:
"That's so true, bro. I knew the developers liked to do this with the church quest in the first major update."
"Really? I wasn't a fan back then."
"I suggest you go back and review the plot; it's quite interesting."
The players were chattering excitedly; the prize pool on the forum was no longer important. How could the gain or loss of a single silver coin compare to a prize pool of fifteen gold coins?
In their eyes, Oliver in the distance had long since become a dead man, no, a corpse, and a corpse waiting to be converted into cash.
On Oliver's body, Aberration are constantly appearing and disappearing.
Whenever the Swarm adapts to one of its attack methods, Oliver uses his own flesh and blood to catalyze the birth of new Aberration plants.
Sometimes it was a barrage of arrows, sometimes it was a spray of acid. Oliver could feel his life coming to an end, but the process was like a boulder rolling down a mountain, and his reason could no longer support him in making any decisions other than attacking.
In round after round of attacks, it wasn't just Oliver who suffered damage; the Swarm in the air continued to buzz, but the sound was gradually getting quieter.
The number of Swarm that originally consisted of thousands of Soldier Bee has been reduced by more than half without anyone noticing.
The surviving Soldier Bee have accumulated enough experience, and because they are sufficiently dispersed, the Marquis's effectiveness in using targeted skills is becoming increasingly low.
After observing for a while, the players discovered that although the Marquis's health bar was almost empty, he was not going to die anytime soon.
If they were to act rashly, they might not only become the Marquis's dessert, but they might also attract the attention of the Soldier Bee. After all, those were specialized insectoids born for combat; if they couldn't defeat the Marquis, surely they could defeat these Low Tier Blood Corpse?
What should we do now?
One player asked, Zhong Lele, who was filming at the time, thought for a moment and replied:
"Or perhaps we should go and seal it away?"
"What?"
"It's the seal where the Marquis crawled out. We'll come out to complete our mission after their battle ends. While the Soldier Bee are clearing out the remaining enemies, we should have enough time to evacuate."
That makes sense.
A dozen or so players, eager to complete the hidden quest, began to wriggle towards the cave seal from a corner unnoticed by the Soldier Bee, looking from a distance like a giant grayish-white worm.
The Soldier Bee ' attention was entirely focused on the exhausted Duke Oliver, and they didn't even notice the circular vision provided by their compound eyes directed in that direction.
[ Ham Warrior ]: "I feel like we're maggots..."
[ Lettuce Priest ]: "It's not really like that."
[ Butter Archer ]: "Be confident, you're just a maggot."
A swarm of maggots—no, a swarm of players—quickly entered the cave under the cover of the remaining Blood Corpse, and continued to advance towards the solitary cell where Oliver had lived for almost a hundred years.
This is an underground stone chamber large enough to accommodate dozens of people, and in the very center of the chamber is a heavy stone coffin.
The coffin lid had been completely blown off to one side and shattered into pieces. Observing the edges of the broken stone lid, it can be seen that this stone coffin was not a sliding lid.
Inside the underground stone chamber, the red liquid was up to everyone's ankles, and the air was filled with a strange smell that was a mixture of staleness and fishy odor.
Just as the next few players entered the stone chamber, a surge of Psionic Energy suddenly emanated from outside the cave and began to echo between the rock walls, repeatedly washing over everyone's minds.
Outside the cave, the battlefield.
Even though he was nearly exhausted, the Oliver was still doing his best to kill the Swarm.
After skills requiring aiming, such as breath attacks and arrow rain, gradually became ineffective, Oliver's fighting style shifted to more precise point-and-click kills.