A-Rank
"Wait." Su Mu suddenly thought of a problem.
Back on Flower-Fruit Mountain, he had named the mountain and the stone, yet his F-rank core card had only barely risen to D-rank.
He had done the same for this minor demon card, but it had jumped from E-rank to A-rank, an absurdly large leap.
He mulled it over...
Gradually, he figured it out.
In the original story, Little Drill Wind was a character mentioned only in passing.
His existence was supported almost entirely by two concepts: "Lion Camel Ridge" and "patrolling the mountain."
As long as those two concepts were in place, his "completion" was astonishingly high.
Sun Wukong was different.
The Great Sage Equal to Heaven, the Victorious Fighting Buddha, the foremost protagonist of Journey to the West.
His journey of growth spanned the entire story, involving countless characters, places, and events.
Completing his concept with just one or two names was simply impossible.
For a stone left over from mending the heavens, the boost it had now received was already countless times greater than what a bit-part card like Little Drill Wind had gained.
In other words, the more important a character was, the more "concepts" were needed to complete him.
"So early on, I should use minor demons like these to clear the way." The corners of Su Mu's mouth slowly rose.
In the world of Journey to the West, "named bit-part characters" like Little Drill Wind could be found by the handful.
They could only serve as background in the original story, but in this instance system, every one of them was a valuable combat asset with concepts of his own, easy to complete.
Su Mu gathered his thoughts and took another look at Little Drill Wind's panel.
In his current state, he was already very strong.
But it still wasn't enough.
Little Drill Wind's greatest weakness was that his appearance still wasn't "real" enough.
What was Little Drill Wind of Lion Camel Ridge supposed to look like?
The original story didn't describe him in much detail, but Su Mu had seen the old TV series. That minor demon wore a little suit of leather armor, had a scarf wrapped around his head, and carried a bronze gong at his waist. He was responsible for patrolling the mountain and reporting news.
Though he had a deer's head and a rat's eyes there too, he still looked noticeably different from the greenish-gray, short-saber-wielding minor demon before him.
To complete that part, Su Mu would have to change his appearance, shaping his face bit by bit, adjusting his build, and changing his equipment.
But that was painstaking work and consumed an enormous amount of soul power. Even if Su Mu poured in every last bit of what he had, it might not be enough.
It wasn't worth it.
Su Mu shook his head and put the thought of "changing his appearance" aside.
That left only one path to improvement.
Lion Camel Ridge itself.
In the original story, Lion Camel Ridge stretched for eight hundred li, its mountains towering, its forests dense, its demonic aura blotting out the sky.
His little one-square-kilometer hill wouldn't even count as a dirt slope beside the real Lion Camel Ridge. But that was how "concepts" worked in an instance: the closer the numbers were to the original, the stronger the thematic resonance, and the greater the boost the card received.
He had only expanded it by one square kilometer just now. If he truly extended Lion Camel Ridge to a scale of eight hundred li, the stats could rise further.
Su Mu glanced at his soul power.
115 points.
The concept of "eight-hundred-li Lion Camel Ridge" was out of the question for now.
But instance theme rules hinged on conceptual anchoring. As long as the numbers were close to the original, the resonance would grow stronger.
Eight hundred li was beyond him for the time being.
But eight li was doable.
Between eight and eight hundred, the difference was only one order of magnitude.
Conceptually, the number "eight" itself was the numerical anchor most central to Lion Camel Ridge.
Using eight li as a foundation, he could gradually expand it to eighty, then eight hundred li after the instance's level rose. The concept would remain consistent, and the boost would build layer by layer.
He acted as soon as the thought occurred to him.
Su Mu's consciousness enveloped the area around Lion Camel Ridge once more, and his soul power surged out like a tide.
[Soul power -1] [Soul power -1] [Soul power -1]
The grayish-brown earth began to tremble. With Lion Camel Ridge's main peak at the center, the surrounding wasteland stretched out in every direction. Rocks bulged upward, soil churned, and new slabs of mountain terrain rose from underground, joining the existing mountain.
Su Mu didn't stop.
His soul power poured out wildly like water from an opened floodgate.
[Soul power -1] [Soul power -1] [Soul power -1]
The mountain range expanded, the terrain stretching farther.
As the territory spread, what had once been a lone main peak gradually took on the beginnings of a mountain range.
Two lower ridges rose on either side of the main peak, embracing the central hollow like a pair of arms.
The ground sank in front of the mountains, forming a long, narrow entrance to the valley. Behind them, a gentle slope extended outward, the terrain rising in layer upon layer and growing ever more secluded farther in.
He poured a full seventy points of soul power into it.
Lion Camel Ridge's territory had been forcibly expanded from one square kilometer to eight.
Su Mu stopped pouring out soul power and looked at the scene before him, breathing a little heavily.
The soul power he had spent was no small amount, yet he felt an indescribable exhilaration.
With the territory expanded, the concept of Lion Camel Ridge was clearly more stable.
When there had been only a single lonely mountain, it had seemed somewhat insubstantial. Now the mountains were connected and the valley extended deep within them, giving it something of the sinister aspect of a "place infested with demons."
"Still not enough."
Su Mu didn't stop.
The mountains were there, but the details were what truly made the difference.
When he had first created the mountains, he had only made the main peak fifty meters high, and the two side peaks had been even rougher.
Now that the territory had expanded, the mountains had to be reshaped. Otherwise, they would be nothing but a stretch of low, rocky hills, unable to convey the imposing grandeur Lion Camel Ridge should have had.
He summoned his soul power again and began sculpting the mountains.
[Soul power -1] [Soul power -1] [Soul power -1]
The main peak rose higher than its original fifty meters. Its slopes stood as steep as if carved by a blade, with jagged rock faces and jutting, oddly shaped stones.
Natural fissures appeared across the mountain's surface, black mist seeping from them as though something lay hidden deep within its belly.
[Soul power -1] [Soul power -1] [Soul power -1]
The two side peaks were also reshaped to a height of fifty meters each. Together with the main peak, they enclosed the mountain hollow on all sides, leaving only one narrow valley entrance at the front.
The ground inside the hollow sank, forming a sunken clearing like a natural gathering place for qi. The demonic aura seeping from all parts of the mountains slowly converged there.
Finally, Su Mu used his remaining soul power to make minor adjustments to the valley entrance at the foot of the mountain and several mountain paths, making the route through the mountains clearer. One could enter through the valley entrance, wind up the paths, pass through the hollow, and then climb the main peak, with positions along the way suitable for both attack and defense.
Altogether, it cost another thirty-five points.
Su Mu stopped.
Lion Camel Ridge was now completely different from before.
Mountains rolled across eight square kilometers. Three fifty-meter peaks stood in an embrace around a deep, secluded hollow; the valley entrance was narrow, the mountain paths rugged. Demonic aura seeped slowly from cracks in the rock and flowed silently along the ground.
Though there wasn't a single living creature, a dark and ferocious air had faintly begun to take shape.
He turned to look at Little Drill Wind on the summit.
The minor demon stood at the highest point of the main peak, an inch taller than before. Faint scale patterns had appeared on his blue-black skin, black mist curled around the edge of his short saber, and his entire bearing had changed as the mountains took shape.
Su Mu opened the card panel.
Name: Little Drill Wind Rank: A Level: None HP: 9800/9800 Attack: 840 Defense: 392 Speed:: 770 Combat index: 10496