Taming a Warg, Discovering a Special Area (Continued)
Shen Xing wasn't surprised. Beasts were vicious by nature, especially a two-star warg like this one.
There was obviously no way to make it submit with a single beating.
"Gorehowl, I'll leave this one to you. Knock some of the fight out of it."
Not far away, Gorehowl immediately called back, "No problem, boss!"
"I love playing games with beasts."
He stared at the dying warg on the ground, a strange, eerie light glimmering in his yellow pupils and drool dripping from the corners of his mouth.
Feeling Gorehowl's gaze, the warg lying on the ground suddenly shuddered, a bad feeling rising in its heart.
Gorehowl ran over excitedly, dragged the warg away, and disappeared into a nearby wooden hut.
As for what happened inside, nobody knew.
All anyone could hear were Gorehowl's excited roars and the warg's bloodcurdling howls, echoing through the village without pause.
Shen Xing looked away and took an irregular, pitch-black stone about the size of a walnut from his backpack.
"According to the guides on the forum, we lords can also level up by absorbing [Soul Stones]."
"Although the attribute gains are small, they can still improve our physique a little."
He extended a thread of mental power and brought it into contact with the stone in his hand.
[Absorb Soul Stone *1 to raise your character level to 2?] [This absorption will take 10 minutes and 32 seconds...]
"Ten minutes. Not bad."
Shen Xing clicked confirm. Wisps of grayish-white energy poured out of the Soul Stone and entered his body.
He felt a warm current flowing through his meridians, steadily nourishing his body.
Ten minutes later, a system notification appeared.
[Absorption successful. Your level has increased to: Level 2] [Attribute bonuses gained: Strength +1, Spirit +1, Agility +0, Constitution +1]
"Only a few attribute points. The increase really is small."
Shen Xing sighed inwardly. Feeling his body after leveling up, he noticed no apparent change.
Then he spent more than half an hour absorbing two more Soul Stones and successfully reached level 3.
[Your level has increased to level 3] [Attribute bonuses gained: Strength +1, Spirit +2, Agility +0, Constitution +2]
"The attribute gains were a little higher this time."
Shen Xing had wanted to keep leveling, but he discovered that going from level 3 to level 4 required absorbing three Soul Stones, and the time had also increased to two and a half hours.
He had no choice but to put the idea aside for now.
He needed to make the most of his time and lead the orc infantry into the fog to explore and gather more resources to increase their strength.
If the monsters grew stronger tomorrow, perhaps... uh, it didn't seem like that would make much difference.
With the heaven-defying talent [Life-Sacrifice Evolution], plus one chance to get something for free each day, he only needed to keep strengthening Hellscream to handle most crises.
Of course, a powerful territory couldn't rely solely on its strongest member.
Its overall combat strength also had to keep up.
"Hellscream, bring five orcs and come explore with me," Shen Xing ordered briefly.
With Gorehowl in the territory and two arrow towers providing fire support, defense shouldn't be a problem.
"Yes, boss!"
A few minutes later, Hellscream assembled at the village entrance with five orcs.
Standing at the edge of the fog, Shen Xing took the old-fashioned [Hurricane Lantern] from his backpack.
[Spend Soul Stone *2 to upgrade 'Hurricane Lantern' to level 2?]
"Yes."
A light flashed. The ancient lantern in his hand didn't look much different, except that it seemed newer, as though the rust had fallen from its surface.
[Hurricane Lantern] [Level: 2] [Effect: The light can dispel fog within a radius of 10 meters and provide illumination] [Remaining burn time: 3 hours] [Upgrade requirements: Level 3 campfire, Soul Stone *10]
"Great. The level 2 Hurricane Lantern's lighting range has doubled, and its burn time has doubled too."
Shen Xing nodded in satisfaction. "Now we can explore without worry."
With everything ready, he once again led the orc army slowly into the depths of the fog.
Half an hour later, Shen Xing returned to the area near yesterday's [Black Crystal Tower].
Fortunately, the sacrificial tower hadn't been destroyed by the monsters in the fog and was still emitting light.
After a full day of production, it had also provided Shen Xing with five units of Black Crystal.
After a short rest, they headed straight along a different route.
They explored for over half an hour and encountered two more waves of monsters, both consisting of Lost Ones and Fel Hounds.
Shen Xing also noticed another problem.
"Not only have the monsters attacking the village increased in level, but even the monsters wandering in the fog seem to have grown much stronger."
He opened the forum and searched around, finding that many newcomers encountered the same situation early in the game.
The increase was just smaller than it was for him, with the monsters only at level 2 or 3.
[Obtained: Soul Stone *24] [Obtained: Damaged Soul *11] [Obtained: Vinar Silver Coin *14]
Although exploring in the fog was somewhat oppressive, it felt great to keep gaining resources.
"Boss, I smell a strange fragrance."
After they had walked a while, Hellscream noticed something unusual again, his nose twitching as he sniffed the air.
"Oh? What have you found this time?"
Shen Xing was a little surprised. Hellscream was not only powerful in battle but had a keener nose than a dog. He truly deserved to be the strongest fighter under Shen Xing's command.
When he carried the lantern about twenty meters northwest, the firelight dispersed the thick fog around them, revealing the black ground.
A completely decayed humanoid body lay there. It was impossible to tell what race the creature had belonged to.
A white plant grew from the area between its brows.
It bore a walnut-sized fruit covered in wrinkles.
"Huh? This fruit is..."
Shen Xing recognized it. This was the [Brain Fruit], one of the fruits Qin Lang had mentioned yesterday, capable of treating cerebral palsy and cerebral infarction.
"Snap!"
Hellscream grabbed the stem, broke it off, and respectfully offered it to Shen Xing.
[Brain Fruit] [Quality: Green] [Effect: Increases Spirit by 3-5 points and casting speed by 5% when consumed] [Note: Fruits of the same type can take effect a maximum of 3 times.]
"Good stuff. It adds at least 3 Spirit, and my Spirit has only just reached 9. That's a one-third increase."
A thought stirred in Shen Xing's mind, and he swallowed it.
Compared with the [Bone Fruit], the [Brain Fruit] was softer, like a fully ripe tomato.
One bite and juice burst out.
After eating the fruit, Shen Xing glanced at the Hurricane Lantern. Half the oil remained, leaving another hour and a half to explore.
Without delay, he continued directing the party forward.
Over the next stretch of the journey, they were attacked by another two or three waves of monsters.
They also obtained quite a few resources and picked several fruits.
These were [Bone Fruit] *2 and [Blood Fruit] *1.
Going by the trading prices on the forum, these fruits were worth at least fifty or sixty thousand.
Shen Xing marveled that he had become a man earning five figures a day.
Of course, early in the game, virtually no one would sell resources like these unless they were desperately short of money.
After all, the game was too dangerous. Even the slightest difference in attributes could determine the outcome of a battle.
And the outcome of a battle could affect the development of the entire territory, leading to a total collapse.
As the saying went: for want of a nail, a horseshoe was lost; for want of a horseshoe, a warhorse was lost; and for want of a warhorse, a knight was injured.
The knight's injury led to a battle being lost, and an empire perished.
All in all, the key early on was to build up advantages.
Stockpile grain and wait before claiming the throne.
Just then, Hellscream stopped again, a grave expression appearing on his rugged face.
This time, even without a warning from him, Shen Xing noticed that something was wrong.