Doomsday Lord Ch. 12 | Research

Chéng Yáng opened the Territory Altar system pane, navigated to the Research tab and selected the Mage option. It was time to unlock the true potential of his Settlement.

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Mage Research Subjects

Phoenix Village
Low-Grade
7/20 Registered

Research

Artificial Mana Nodes
Mimicking the processes of the heart using magic allows for the creation of an artificial Mana nodes in other organs, significantly increasing a Mage’s Mana storage capacity.

Cost: 50

Time: 6 hours

Mana Purification Techniques
Adjusting the techniques Mages use to draw that Mana into their body helps filter out natural impurities, increasing its purity and thus efficacy per unit.

Cost: 50

Time: 6 hours

Stoneskin Tattoos
Recent rune inscription advances allow for the creation of magic tattoos that duplicate the effects of the Stoneskin spell powered by the excess Mana a Mage naturally exudes.

Cost 50

Time: 6 hours

Mental State Training
Diligent visualization training allows Mages to form a mental barrier around their body that reduces the strength of incoming magic energy waves.

Cost: 50

Time: 6 hours

Mana Circuit Reinforcement
By widening and strengthening the circuits through which a Mage’s Mana flows, the flow can be increased, decreasing the time they need to recover after casting a spell.

Cost: 50

Time: 6 hours

Body Strengthening Mana Flow
A Mage’s Mana is normally at rest unless casting a spell. With training it can be continuously circulated through the body, boosting its natural functions.

Cost: 50

Time: 6 hours

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Just the Low-Grade Research available to Chéng Yáng would allow any random Player registered with Phoenix Village to greatly surpass the S-Rank elites around the world. This was the incentive that the Gods created to force people to seek out and claim Territory Altars.

The buffs granted by Research might seem excessive at first, but only if you assumed that your enemies were other humans. Up until now, every monster Chéng Yáng had fought, including the Elite Standard-Grade Graveseeker had been a low-quality F Rank monster.

Players had an Attribute total of fifteen at the Low-Grade Apprentice level, F Rank monsters were the same which meant that skilled Players could consistently beat them. A D Rank monster at the Low-Grade Immature level had an Attribute total of forty-five. If a Player met a D Rank monster, even if they were a level higher than their opponent, their death was absolute. Compared to monsters, humans were far too weak. Without the buffs provided by a Settlement, they would eventually be overrun no matter how high their levels were.

Once all of the Low-Grade Research for a Class Statue was researched, Chéng Yáng could spend Soul Fragments to level it up. The Research cost would increase by a fifty for each option already researched for that Class Statue, so he’d need to collect a thousand and fifty Soul Fragments to pay the Research fees for a single Class Statue. All of the Class Statues needed to be at the Standard-Grade to level up the Settlement, so he’d need a total six thousand three hundred Soul Fragments.

Collecting that many Soul Fragments wouldn’t be particularly difficult, the Settlement already had five hundred and twenty-eight, but it would be time consuming.

The spawn rate in the vicinity of a Settlement was supposed to be significantly lower than in other areas. This was something put in place to prevent Settlements from advancing too quickly. Chéng Yáng had assumed it was a rule that would be applied in one of the patches the Gods would make since the spawn rate had been normal earlier, but ever since he gained full control over Phoenix Village the spawn rate had been decreasing.

If a Low-Grade Village relied solely on killing monsters that attacked the walls, they would gain around a hundred Soul Fragments an hour. The only other strategy was to kite a horde of monsters over from another area, into the Settlement’s collection range. Most Settlements couldn’t rely on this method because the areas nearest to them were regularly picked clean.

Since Chéng Yáng had captured the Territory Altar in an unconventional way, the areas around the Settlement would still be filled to the brim with monsters. If he concentrated his energy into pulling monsters over from other areas, it wouldn’t be too hard to upgrade the statues in the minimum thirty-six hours required for the Research to complete.

Chéng Yáng selected the Artificial Mana Nodes Research option causing the system pane to grey out and display a timer. Until it finished none of the Class Statues functions would be available.

Chéng Yáng then researched Heart Overclocking and Beast Blood Transfusion to increase the Health of his Knights and Druids which would allow them to fight longer. For his Rangers, Chéng Yáng chose to increase their Attack Damage by researching Tendon Tightening.

At this time Liú Hào and another Knight placed a pallet of lumber down next to Chéng Yáng. Originally these pallets needed either a forklift or a group of four people to move. Knights had the strength of three men, so although the pallets were too bulky to carry on their own, they only needed two people.

“What’s all this wood for, Yángzǐ?” Liú Hào asked with a cheerful facade. “Ah! I saw some of the wood fall into the river during the earthquake, do you want us to fish it out?”

“If you can’t don’t worry about it but I’d like you to try. We need the wood to build things like the wall and being able to see how much we have left will be useful for planning. We should still have enough to build the things we need but its going to be difficult to get any more for a while so its important to use what we have sparingly.”

Liú Hào nodded with understanding. Without logging tools it would be difficult to cut down trees, especially with monsters breathing down their necks.

Turning back to the Territory Altar System Pane, Chéng Yáng built ten Cultivation Chambers along the edge of the south wall, five on either side of the gate. Even though the others had seen the phenomena when the wall was built, the sight of a building appearing from nothing shocked them. Especially since they had the time to focus on it now.

Chéng Yáng was left with a little over a hundred units of Wood. It was a shame he hadn’t been able to gather more before the apocalypse, but even after spending well beyond his means this was all he could get.

While the Cultivation Chambers were being constructed, Chéng Yáng focused his attention outside the walls. The spawn rate was already at its lowest. Only a single monster would appear every minute or so, a rate eight times lower than earlier. As a result, the Mages and Rangers on the wall were sitting idle.

Chéng Yáng sighed then called them down from the wall, there was no point in having all of them there. A sweep every ten minutes would suffice from now on. Each Wall Segment had five Armor and recovered one Durability per second. Unlike Attack and Magic Resistance, Armor could reduce damage from an attack to zero, so your average Low-Grade Immature monster was completely incapable of doing any damage to a Wall Segment. Even if one could, it would take hours for it to breach the wall.

— 7:15 PM —

The last minutes of twilight came to an end, ushering in the night. The wall was lined with everlasting torches, but the rest of the village was dark. Standing atop the Territory Altar, a moonlit Chéng Yáng addressed his citizens.

“Congratulations on surviving the day.” Chéng Yáng’s voice spread like fog. “There wasn’t time earlier, but now I will answer any questions you have.”

“How did you know all of this would happen, Yángzǐ?” Liú Hào asked.

Chéng Yáng had expected this question. Although they would probably believe him if he said he was a regressor, he had a different idea in mind.

“I had a vision!” Chéng Yáng shouted with fervor, “Two days ago during class my mind was filled with scenes from the apocalypse and omens of death! I wanted to ignore it but an unknown existence urged me to act! It guided me to this Settlement and provided me with the knowledge we need to thrive in this new world! As you’ve seen, everything that was revealed to me has come to pass!”

Telling them he had been reincarnated would create an air of mystique around him, but it wouldn’t inspire absolute faith and fanaticism in him. Thus, he created the image of himself as a prophet.

Chéng Yáng’s speech was absurd, but the crowd found themselves accepting it. They’d all heard the voice of the Gods’ messenger earlier that day, so who could say some other entity hadn’t spoken to Chéng Yáng? How else could they explain where Chéng Yáng had learned the things he knew?

“Earlier you said this was a global phenomena…” Lǐ Wànshān’s voice was strained. “Are you sure that’s true?”

“It’s true!” Chéng Yáng declared, “This disaster also affected Xiāngyáng, the rest of China, and everywhere else! By now every building in the world has collapsed into a pile of rubble. Mountains have become plains, plains have become oceans, and monsters fill them both. The Gods’ rules are the new laws of physics. You’ve experienced it yourself today. The power we hold would be unimaginable in our old world.”

Lǐ Wànshān was crestfallen. Many of the others looked to be on the verge of collapse. Who among them didn’t have someone they loved? Earlier they’d been too preoccupied or hadn’t wanted to think about the danger their families would be in, but now they were forced to confront the fact that they might already be dead.

“My family is in Xiāngyáng, I have to go rescue them!” Lǐ Wànshān shouted. “It’s only a few kilometers away. With our power, if we work together we’ll be able to kill any monsters we meet and reach the city.”

“My son is in the city too, he’s only five, how can he survive on his own?” One of the workers chimed in anxiously.

Before the panic spread to the rest of his crowd Chéng Yáng fired a magic missile into the ground.

“With our current strength rescuing anyone from Xiāngyáng is impossible. We wouldn’t even be able to reach the city. Its been a few hours since the world ended, meaning we’ll have to fight herds with dozens of monsters. Do you have the confidence to win those fights? Even if we get past those, right outside the city will be herds numbering in the hundreds.”

Seeing that the crowd was still agitated, Chéng Yáng sighed.

“If you don’t want to take my word for it, I can take a group outside the walls to verify what I said. I hope in the future you’ll have more faith in me.”

They were ecstatic, their thoughts written clearly on their faces: Hopefully the situation isn’t too bad yet, we might have a chance to rescue our families tonight!

Chéng Yáng felt a pain in his heart seeing their hopeful expressions. If even half of the people they wanted to save were still alive by the time they had the strength to reach Xiāngyáng it would be a miracle.

“Just tell us what to do next, Mr. Chéng. We’ll all follow your orders.” Lǐ Wànshān proclaimed.

“Everyone but Yú Kǎi will follow me to scout the area between Phoenix Village and Xiāngyáng. Although it will be risky to do so at night, the moon is bright tonight. On the off-chance that my visions were wrong, we will break through to Xiāngyáng and save your families. Otherwise, our goal is to collect as many Soul Fragments as we can that way we have the funds needed for cultivation.”

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