Doomsday Lord Ch. 15 | Instance Dungeon

“Alright, group two, its time to switch out. Group one is going to cultivate, then sleep. We’re going to hunt monsters for another three hours then sleep as well.” Chéng Yáng said, “Old Lǐ, make sure no one overdoes it. Leave at least an hour of your Core Skill’s usage so that you can use it to regenerate Health and Mana tomorrow. If you have any leftover you can do it right before midnight.”

Group two contained all of Chéng Yáng’s friends. Since they had gotten to cultivate first they had maximized their benefits from it compared to group one. They also had an easier time farming since most of the large herds had already been destroyed by group one. This allowed Chéng Yáng to relax, and enjoy the feeling of being reunited with his friends, hunting monsters together like they used to before Liú Hào had lost his arms.

When they finished, it was a little after two in the morning. Although they killed less monsters than group one, they still killed over three hundred.

On the way back Chéng Yáng had to listen to Liú Hào’s constant griping: “What kind of shitty game is this? How can there be tanks and DPS but no healers! I want to file a complaint against this shitty game designer for making these fights so hard!”

Chéng Yáng’s lips curved up as he listened, but he didn’t say anything. Although he knew that the Cleric Class had the healer role, he was having too much fun watching his friend seethe to let him know that.

---

At this point, the first round of research had been completed by the Class Statues, increasing he chosen Attributes for each Class by fifty percent. Naturally, Chéng Yáng chose a new research option for each statue. For Mages he chose to increase Movement Speed, so they would have more survivability. Although damage was important, since Mages had low Health and couldn’t upgrade it, being able to keep their distance from enemies was the only way to survive. As for the other Classes, he researched Ability Power for the Rangers, Attack Damage for the Knights, and Attack Speed for the Druids.

The research cost a total of four hundred Soul Fragments, a burden Phoenix Village could easily afford.

Chéng Yáng was extremely satisfied with the current fiscal situation of his Settlement. In just nine hours he’d been able to earn almost fourteen hundred Soul Fragments. This number was a bit of an anomaly since the spawn rate hadn’t changed in the surrounding until halfway through. Even so, Chéng Yáng was optimistic about the growth of the Settlement. If he was diligent, he would be able to upgrade the Settlement in less than a week. At that point he could institute taxes, solicit donations, or even use his personal funds to make sure the Settlements coffers were full.

After finishing all of his administrative tasks Chéng Yáng spent an three hours cultivating. Since he had 132 Soul Fragments he was able to unlock four times cultivation speed at the cost of consuming thirty Soul Fragments. Combined with the 13% increase from the Cultivation Chamber he was using, Chéng Yáng was able to raise his experience bar to 3.91%, a massive increase over his first cultivation session!

By the time he had finished, the sun was barely visible on the horizon. Chéng Yáng slept for another hour, then got up at 6:00 AM. Thankfully, cultivation was very similar to sleep, allowing Chéng Yáng to feel well rested despite his busy night.

At the moment, he was the only person awake, everyone else was still asleep. He hadn’t assigned a night patrol since the Low-Grade monsters wouldn’t be able to breach the wall even if they tried, but starting tonight he would have to arrange one.

Chéng Yáng chuckled. Sleep was a hard habit to beat, but in the next few months they would gradually reduce the time they spent asleep to the bare minimum.

With a holler, Chéng Yáng attempted to rouse the rest of the Settlement. Despite the noise, only Yú Kǎi and a few others came outside. Of those, only Yú Kǎi seemed to be energetic. The rest looked quite sluggish.

“Yángzǐ, what are our plans for today?” Yú Kǎi asked excitedly. He was the person in Chéng Yáng’s friend group having the most fun. In his eyes, so long as Chéng Yáng was around he wouldn’t be in any real danger.

“After eating breakfast, I plan to lead everyone to the town of Huìmín, in order to save some of the residents. It’s a little over a kilometer away so we shouldn’t have any trouble reaching it. If we run into something we can’t handle, its close enough to the Settlement that we can run back and hide inside.”

“What are we having for breakfast?” Yú Kǎi asked while licking his lips. A moment later, his face filled with fear and disgust. “You’re not going force us to eat roasted monster flesh are you? to roast monster flesh are you?”

“Not today, but at some point yes.” Chéng Yáng replied with a chuckle. “Most bestial monsters are edible, the Venom-Fanged Grey Wolf in specific is surprisingly delicious. Since we don’t have any cooking tools we’ll eat this for today.”

Chéng Yáng pointed to the bag of high calorie food he’d bought the day before.

“Nice!” Yú Kǎi rejoiced, “I’m starving! Last night I had nothing to eat even after all that exercise we got.”

It was indeed a cruel thing to let a rich kid like Yú Kǎi go hungry for a night, otherwise why would he be so excited for some cheap biscuits.

“Go wake everyone else up,” Chéng Yáng said, “Then we’ll distribute some food and start our expedition. We’ll leave a Mage and a Ranger behind to clear any monsters, but everyone else will head over.”

Chéng Yáng wanted to bring everyone with him, but the most efficient way for the territory to gain Experience Fragments was to kill monsters right after they spawned to keep the respawn timers low. This strategy took a few months to discover in his previous life, but he would be able to implement it immediately.

“By the way,” Yú Kǎi pointed past Chéng Yáng, “What is that thing over there? I noticed it last night but was too scared to touch it.”

Chéng Yáng froze up then glanced behind him at the Territory Altar. A few feet away from it, there was an oval shaped curtain of light. It was a phenomena he couldn’t be more familiar with.

It was a portal. More specifically, it was the entrance to an Instance Dungeon.

But why was it here? There definitely wasn’t an Instance Dungeon inside the Settlement in his previous life. Actually he’d never heard of any Settlement with an Instance Dungeon so close to the Territory Altar.

Chéng Yáng walked over to investigate, and realized what must have happened. The strange rock he’d found yesterday was missing, and it its place was the Instance Dungeon. That stone disk must have been the initial state of the Instance Dungeon before the apocalypse!

Chéng Yáng felt a pang of regret. There were four other Instance Dungeons in the area surrounding Xiāngyáng. If he’d know that he could directly move them into his Settlement, he would have spend some time looking for their corresponding stone disks.

Having an Instance Dungeon inside the Settlement was undoubtedly a boon. Since it was inside the collection radius of the Settlement, naturally a portion the Soul Fragments were collected. This had been confirmed by a Settlement in the US after it had become a Pinnacle-Grade village and expanded far enough to include an Instance Dungeon.

Other than naturally formed Instance Dungeons, there were also artificial ones that could be spawned by a High-Grade Village after building a Trial Hall. However, compared to a naturally formed Instance Dungeon, those spawned by the Trial Hall would have their Soul Fragment drop rates cut in half and wouldn’t be collected by the Settlement. In fact, you had to pay to spawn them!

The main reason for clearing an Instance Dungeon, either natural or artificial, was because the monsters there had a chance of dropping equipment! You could also find Skill Scrolls, potions, and even rare special items.

If this was the Instance Dungeon from his past life, it should be a Beginner Instance Dungeon that led to an instance of the Blood Soaked Cathedral. At Normal Difficulty, all of the monsters would be at the Low-Grade Immature level with the occasional Elite, with most of them being F Rank monsters, a few F+ Rank mini-bosses, and a D Rank boss.

The reason Chéng Yáng had been so eager to find it yesterday, aside from being able to obtain a few Soul Fragments, was because the loot tables were adjusted for the first person to clear an Instance Dungeon. The rarest item from the loot table was guaranteed to spawn in the end chest.

For the Normal Difficulty Blood Soaked Cathedral, that item would be a Cleric Idol. Sacrificing it to a Territory Altar would create a Cleric Class Statue!

Although he could get one by repeatedly grinding the Blood Soaked Cathedral, it would be far more efficient if he were able to secure the first clear reward.

Once Chéng Yáng collected himself, he decisively changed his plans for the day. Since the Blood Soaked Cathedral had come to him, he was determined to obtain the first clear. If he could raise a batch of Clerics, the number of fatalities in his teams would instantly be halved.

Of course, under normal circumstances, there would be no way for Chéng Yáng’s group to kill a D Rank monster. However, it was easy to find loopholes and tricks when clearing an Instance Dungeon. They were the same every time you entered, so if you were clever you could avoid having to deal with certain enemies or obstacles.

Chéng Yáng knew just such a trick for the Blood Soaked Cathedral which would allow even a Low-Grade Apprentice to defeat the Boss.

“Is it dangerous?” Yú Kǎi asked with a bemused expression after seeing Chéng Yáng’s rapidly fluctuating emotions.

“It’s an Instance Dungeon.” Chéng Yáng replied, “It can be considered fairly dangerous, but to us its like a fat pig waiting to be slaughtered. Grab Hàozǐ, Bīngzǐ, and Old Lǐ. We’re going to run this once before we head to Huìmín.”

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