The Era of Gods

Chapter 266: Challenge Passed Generous Rewards

“You have discovered an Undead Relic, do you wish to explore?”

Lin Xiao turned his head back, and a clear light unfolded in front of him, displaying characters.

Looking up, thick miasma of Death formed a dense fog rolling back and forth at the edge of the city walls. Vague shadows of Ghosts flickered within the fog, none daring to cross the line of the city walls, whether incapable or fearful to do so.

“This is going to be interesting, I’m left as a one-man show!”

Over a hundred subordinates, not a single one left, all dead inside. He didn’t have a single subordinate left to his name, what was there to explore?

There were too many Ghosts inside, so many that even a Hero wouldn’t be able to withstand being swarmed.

Moreover, there might be a big BOSS inside, potentially even stronger than him. He was lucky to escape because the BOSS hadn’t fully awakened yet, going back in now would be akin to seeking death.

He looked up and saw a red moon in the center of the star-filled Vault of Heaven, but to its left and right there was a blue moon and a normal white moon, each following their different orbits.

The moonlight bathing the Earth allowed one to see, yet it wasn’t enough to clearly discern the lush wilderness outside the city.

It’s unknown how long this city ruin had been abandoned. Inside the city, no plants or creatures could survive due to the presence of the Undead’s aura, but outside the city was different. It was now enveloped by a thriving jungle, and one would have to pass through this lush expanse to leave.

Traversing the jungle in the dead of night within this perilous Ruins of Myriad was honestly quite risky.

But staying here was not an option either, who knew if these Undead truly couldn’t leave. If that ruin’s BOSS fully awoke and was able to come out, wouldn’t that be a calamity?

So, gritting his teeth, Lin Xiao decided to leave this dangerous place as soon as possible.

He took one last glance at his perilous birthplace, etched it into his memory— stronger, he could return to explore again—and then without looking back, left the ruins and plunged into the dense jungle.

Not long after he disappeared into the jungle, that strong will in the center of the city ruins finally awoke. A thick, azure beam of light shot up from the center of the city, and a soul-piercing roar could be faintly heard. With the roar, the dense fog lingering at the city’s edge suddenly expanded, stretching out a hundred meters in a single breath before stopping at the edge of the jungle.

In the jungle, Lin Xiao randomly chose a direction and sprinted wildly, his speed comparable to that of a Sixth Level Transcendent being—ordinary wild beasts simply couldn’t catch up.

It seemed there were no particularly powerful Fierce Beasts in this jungle, mostly just ordinary wildlife. At first, he was quite worried, but as he traveled without encountering any danger, he gradually let his guard down.

He ran breathlessly for an unknown distance, and feeling he was far enough from the city ruins, coupled with the absence of danger in the jungle, he slowed his pace slightly.

Before long, he found a huge tree, dozens of meters tall, and, with a thought, approached it. He kicked away a nameless beast coiled at the foot of the tree and climbed up to rest for a while.

It was already the latter half of the night, and after resting for a few hours in the tree, dawn began to break.

When it was fully light, he climbed to the very top of the tree and looked around. Looking back, he could no longer see the Undead ruins; looking in the opposite direction, he saw an endless primeval jungle with trees taller than the next. In the far distance, he could see several super giant trees reaching hundreds of meters high.

“This…”

He had run in the wrong direction; going further and further into the depths of the forest, while the other side of the city ruins was the way out.

This was quite frustrating.

No choice but to turn back.

Fortunately, he hadn’t run too far, and it was a good thing he stopped to rest at night. If he had mindlessly pushed on all night, it would have been a disaster.

On his return, he didn’t avoid the ruins—the Undead hidden within were indeed likely not to emerge during the day, only at night.

Soon, Lin Xiao arrived back in front of the city ruins and saw that the thick fog within had indeed disappeared, and the ruins were once again filled with roaming Skeleton Undead.

“This…?”

Lin Xiao’s eyes lit up. He kicked off and snapped a tree limb as thick as an arm to make a club and charged in. With a swing, he smashed a Skeleton rack to pieces.

The Undead were respawnable, and he immediately thought of grinding for Points.

Without saying more, he set out to grind ten thousand Points to raise his Hero Level to First Level and become a formal Hero.

In the Ruins of Myriad, a Level Zero Hero has no functions at all, whether it’s Hero Strategic Spells, Nest Slots, Hero Talents, or Hero Storage Space; all such functions are only unlocked after upgrading to First Level.

The design clearly suggests that Level Zero Heroes are merely Hero Apprentices, not formal Heroes yet.

Grinding Undead alone was indeed slow, but there was no hurry; with a daily respawn, he would take whatever amount he could grind. Regular Skeletons and Zombies were so weak that with their number in the ruins, as long as he didn’t stand foolishly without running, they could never surround and kill him.

Moreover, after he had grinded over a hundred Skeletons, another Fragment dropped. It combined with the previous three Skeleton Card Fragments to form a complete Skeleton Card. He quickly summoned a hundred Skeletons, which instantly made his grinding efficiency soar.

After about half a day, Lin Xiao cleared all the Undead from the entire ruin and earned just over a thousand Points, and five Skeleton Card Fragments, making yet another Skeleton Card.

With the rest of the half-day left, I wasn’t idle, I took the Skeleton subordinates to build a simple dwelling out of waste on the outside of the city walls at the edge of the city ruins and then led my subordinates to carefully explore the ruins.

I was also quite curious about where those ghosts that appeared at night were hiding, whether there was an underground city beneath the ruins, or….

But after choosing a place and flipping through the piled-up rubble, digging all the way to the hard ground at the bottom, I found nothing but a large number of broken and shattered bones.

However, as night fell and the mist slowly rose, I noticed that these broken bones suddenly changed, with faint death energy seeping out from them and a multitude of Ghost shadows rising from the cracks in the underground rubble.

I quickly retreated outside the city and coldly watched the ghosts constrained in the dense fog within the city walls, along with that gradually awakening mighty will of Death.

I wanted to see what that will of Death was exactly, if it was a powerful Ghost, or something else Undead.

However, when that will of Death fully awakened in an instant, the grey fog rapidly expanded and the overwhelming surge of ghosts directly engulfed me.

“Damnit!”

I rushed into the jungle, tumbling and scrambling into a bed of vines, feeling that ice-cold will staring intently at me from behind, and I wiped off a heavy cold sweat.

My subordinates….

All died again.

Next, I sensibly ran a distance away to build a nest in the jungle and wait for daylight.

The next day, when I returned to the Ruins, sure enough, the ruins were once again filled with Skeleton Zombies. I took out a Skeleton Card and summoned a hundred skeletons to continue grinding.

In the following days, I honestly farmed Points, killing all the Undead in the ruins each day, then sensibly leading my subordinates away from the ruins into the jungle, without any interest in continuing to explore.

I didn’t know if the Undead in the ruins were part of a spawning mechanism or were being replenished from somewhere else, but no matter how many I killed each day, they would regenerate just as many, never-ending.

After grinding non-stop until the twelfth day, I finally gathered ten thousand points necessary for upgrading the Summoning Core, then adding ten thousand Gold and a hundred Timber and Minerals, I chose to upgrade the Hero Core to First Level.

“Your Hero Core has been upgraded to First Level, strategic attributes +1, population limit increased to 1000, nest slot unlocked, now having three, Hero Talent unlocked, Leaderboard for Heroes unlocked, Leaderboard for Strength unlocked.”

“Hero Talent scanning….”

“Detecting the Strength that the True Body has mastered, you have the following Hero Talent options, please make a choice within sixty seconds or a random one will be selected.”

“One: King of Murloc, you can promote any Fishman soldier to Level 3 Small Fishman Soldiers, and with every increase in Hero Level, the attribute of every Fishman soldier you lead increases by +1.”

“Two: King of Goblin, you can promote any Goblin soldier to Level 3 Wise Goblin Soldiers, and can use Rare Resource Gems to promote Wise Goblins or Elite Goblins to Fifth Level Wise Goblin Mage, and with every increase in Hero Level, the attribute of every Goblin soldier you lead increases by +1.”

“Three: King of Naga, by consuming a certain amount of Rare Resource Gems and Crystals, you can promote any humanoid elite soldier of Level 4 or higher to Sixth Level Shura Naga, and with every increase in Hero Level, the attribute of every Shura Naga soldier you lead increases by +2.”

“Four: Creator, the combat experience gained by the soldiers you command increases by +200%, the resources required for promotion are reduced by

– 50%, your command cap is doubled, and you can command any mixed soldiers without lowering morale or causing negative states.”

“Five: The Master of Truth, with each level of Hero increase, every soldier type you command gets +1 in all attributes, the combat experience of the soldiers you command increases by +100%, and you can consume a vast number of resources to promote elites and above to Heroes, the lower the strength of the elite soldiers, the greater the consumption.”

“This….”

These Hero Talents are a bit awesome.

All of them extended from the power systems I control, Small Murlocs, Wise Goblins, Shura Naga, Creation Law, Rule of Truth, Grey Dwarf might be adjusted too little to be added.

Out of the five I could only choose one, and I fell into thought.

But after carefully considering it, I found I had no choice but to select The Master of Truth Talent.

The reason was simple, right now I was preparing for the consolidation of the Divine Position of Truth, and so every action had to serve this purpose. This trip to the Ruins of Myriad was extremely important for my growth; I needed to prioritize the Divine Position of Truth, even if the others seemed stronger.

“The Master of Truth!”

With a thought, four of the Talents faded away, leaving only The Master of Truth Talent shining brighter and brighter in Gold, soon integrating into my body as a burst of gold light. I immediately felt…. the change in my subordinates.

The remaining forty-some Skeletons received an amplification from the Talent, with Constitution, Strength, and Agility all increasing by one point.

For a Skeleton’s strength, an increase of one point was a significant gain.

Moreover, I took out all the Skeleton Card Fragments hoarded over these twelve days, a total of thirty-three pieces, enough to make eight complete ones, and that’s eight hundred Skeletons summoned all at once.

A total of eight hundred and forty-one Skeletons was quite an impressive number.

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