Doomsday Lord Ch. 14 | Hard Truth

While they were drunk on pride from their quick victory a rope like thread of silk shot towards Chéng Yáng with a sharp hiss.

“Hell-Spinner Spider!” Chéng Yáng yelped with surprise as the silk landed on his body. Reacting on instinct he fell to he ground with a spin, using the momentum to yank on the silk.

A few meters away, a spider the size of a sink fell out of a tree. It was a dull reddish color and covered in spikes. Before anyone else could react, Chéng Yáng fired a Magic Missile into its abdomen, spraying gunk everywhere and killing it instantly.

Hell-Spinner Spiders were easily the most dangerous monster in the early stages of the apocalypse. The silk it had spit out was a Skill used to grab a player and pull them into the spider, a combo capable of instantly killing a Low-Grade Apprentice Mage. Luckily the Skill could be cancelled and the monster’s health was abysmally low.

“Although that spider is only a Low Grade Immature monster its incredibly dangerous in the woods.” Chéng Yáng said cautiously, “It’s one of the few Low-Grade monsters with a ranged attack. If you see one grab somebody you have to kill it instantly!”

Even if Chéng Yáng hadn’t warned them who would dare to be careless around a massive spider. No one would want to enter its stomach.

They set off again, but before they’d even run forty meters a large group of shadows bolted out of the woods at them.

“Herd incoming! Remember the tactics I taught you!”

Chéng Yáng yelled to remind them, but he didn’t have high hopes for the group. He carefully counted the attackers, if there were too many he would get them to retreat. Thankfully it was just a dozen Graveseekers. Even if this was a hard fight, there wouldn’t be any real danger with him around.

Since he was closest, Chéng Yáng fired a Magic Missile into the lead monster before retreating behind the Knights’ shield wall. Just like with the Raatma before, the rest of the group immediately peppered the Graveseeker Chéng Yáng had struck with attacks, killing it instantly.

Moments later, the Druids’ wolves rushed out from behind the Knights and collided with the Graveseekers. However, with only four wolves, they could only slow the Graveseekers down long enough for the Ranged Classes attacks to come off cooldown.

This time, Chéng Yáng chose not to attack. If the group remembered his advice, they would attack in mixed groups of six to maximize their damage. Unfortunately, without him marking a target, they all fired at random monsters, spreading the damage out without killing a single one.

A few moments later, the Graveseekers attacked the line of Knights. Despite their efforts, several slipped past them. After all, there were only seven Knights, but eleven Graveseekers.

The battle devolved into chaos as the Graveseekers wantonly attacked the groups backlines. The Druids had been in the middle of summoning new wolves, but their attention was diverted as they were forced to defend themselves.

Chéng Yáng observed the battle with a cold, detached gaze. He would only intervene when it looked like someone was in lethal danger, otherwise he let them suffer a few injuries.

A little over a minute later, the final Graveseeker died. When it did, several members of the group collapsed to the ground whimpering in pain. Other than the Knights, none of them had experienced an attack from a monster, and the reality struck them hard.

Chéng Yáng gave them a few seconds to rest before clearing his throat to get their attention.

“Do you think we can reach Xiāngyáng?”

Chéng Yáng didn’t say anything else and simply waited for an answer that didn’t come. The eyes of the lumber mill workers around him were filled with reluctance, but they didn’t have the confidence to say they could reach Xiāngyáng.

“You all saw the battle,” Chéng Yáng finally said, “If there had been one or two more monsters some of you may have died. Not only do we not have the numbers to break through to Xiāngyáng, you’re undisciplined.”

The group still seemed reluctant to give up, causing Chéng Yáng to sigh.

“Let me put this a different way. Suppose we do make it to the city. We break through the monsters and find your families. Are you confident that you can protect both them and yourselves? Several of you almost died despite being Players, an ordinary person would have bled to death long ago.”

“Fuck!” Lǐ Wànshān grit his teeth so hard it seemed like they might break. “Once I have the strength I’ll slaughter my way directly into Xiāngyáng, I only hope my wife and child can wait for me… this fucked up world!”

Lǐ Wànshān vented the emotions in his heart that many of the other workers shared. Even if they were desperate to save their families, they couldn’t guarantee their own safety, much less that of an ordinary person.

Chéng Yáng led the group back to the Settlement in an uncomfortable silence. From time to time a monster would peak its head out from behind a tree only to be killed by Chéng Yáng and the others. Most monsters didn’t have night vision and with the full moon Chéng Yáng’s group wasn’t at that much of a disadvantage at night.

Once they were back inside the Settlement, Chéng Yáng decided that it was time to dangle the carrot now that they had seen the stick.

“If you want to get strong enough to save your family the only option is to quickly amass Soul Fragments allowing you to cultivate to a higher level. In order to achieve that goal, we’re going to split into two even groups. One group will go out of the Settlement with me and drag monsters back to the walls. This will ensure their safety while hunting monsters. During that time the other group will begin cultivating.

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Three hours later, the first group finally went back into the Settlement. In that time they had killed almost four hundred monsters. If not for Chéng Yáng insistence that they kite the herds into the collection range of Phoenix Village they might have been able to kill more.

During that time, not a single Standard-Grade monster appeared causing the members of the first group to feel grateful. If a few monsters like the Graveseeker from earlier had appeared, no one could guarantee their lives. It was normal for them not to encounter anything too strong on the first day of the apocalypse, after all, the ones from earlier only appeared because Chéng Yáng had claimed a Territory Altar so early.

It was almost midnight, which meant everyone’s limit on their Core Skill would refresh soon. Although this meant that Chéng Yáng and the other members of group one had lost some of the cultivation time, it couldn’t be helped.

When Chéng Yáng walked into the settlement, he couldn’t see a single person inside. This meant that they had taken the lesson tonight to heart and were diligently cultivating. Of course it was possible that some of them had fallen asleep due to exhaustion, but at least they weren’t idling about. How could they when every second they wasted was a second longer their families had to wait for rescue?

“Yángzǐ, how was it?” After hearing the gates open, Yú Kǎi had come out to greet the first group.

“It wasn’t too bad.” Chéng Yáng said. “Everyone here is starting to get the hang of group combat. We had a lot of gains. What about you?”

“I was only able to use double cultivation speed for a few hours.” Yú Kǎi said with a sigh. “With my progress at this rate it will take me more a month to reach the Standard-Grade Apprentice level! Can that be considered fast?”

As the other members of group two exited the Cultivation Chambers, they reported similar gains. For every Soul Fragment you wanted to consume for training, you needed ten extra stockpiled. Since everyone in Phoenix Village had at least thirteen Experience Fragment they were all able to double their cultivation speed.

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