Golden Experience

Chapter 198: “Adamant Legion”

In that way, a confrontation structure between the Archangel and the Seventh Calamity was emphasized among NPCs and players, centered around Hiers. It was possible to give the impression that the damage caused by angels was minimized, at least within the former Hiers territory.

Instead, a psychological pressure was created by periodically having giant hornets and stag beetles patrol the sky, though it was considered a trivial matter.

What became clear after several attacks was that the so-called Sky Castle’s location seemed to be undetermined. Each attack had a time difference in the assault on cities and dungeons.

“Figuring out the Sky Castle’s location after each attack and calculating its movement route from there could allow us to estimate its current position, but… it’s too troublesome.”

If more data points were available, it would be possible, for example, to find the town attacked earliest during each wave and its corresponding time, and deduce the movement route from there. While accuracy might be compromised, it would be the easiest method. However, at this stage, determining its location required a considerable amount of effort and time.

Moreover, it’s not like it was a simple object moving in a regular orbit.

In the game, the second day of the event had arrived, and players were increasingly immersing themselves in dungeons dominated by rare creatures, disregarding the angels.

This was understandable since, in Hiers, angels were mostly taken care of by my lackeys in the sky, and only the murky gems or dead insects fell to the ground.

In such a situation, players had no choice but to attack dungeons to avoid wasting time, experience point bonuses and penalty mitigation. According to social media, the proportion of top-tier players within Hiers’ territory seemed to be the highest. They would find it difficult to earn event points, and rares also provided experience points. It was a two-in-one deal. Not that they were specifically aiming for the top rankings.

However, the parties of players coming to dungeons didn’t seem focused on hunting efficiently, even though this was a experience point boost period. They seemed more interested in exploring deeper into the dungeons, or traversing the entire map, disregarding efficiency and safety rates.

Perhaps, during this time when the risk of death was minimal, they intended to create dungeon maps for future use. In La Colinne Forest, it seemed futile to create maps, and many players were attacking the deepest parts. They likely aimed to fight bosses and powerful monsters to discover strategies.

Even though reaching the deepest parts was uncertain due to the three-inch chest of the local Queen Arachneas, their passion was commendable. Players daring to take on challenges without fear of death during this experience point boost period were greatly welcomed, as it directly contributed to obtaining rare experience points.

One inconvenience was the appearance of Wayne and his group, who were fixated on Erntal and showed up in the Hiers capital. Their defense and physical attack power were a cut above other parties.

Even in the Hiers capital, they couldn’t be contained with just Knights and could barely be defeated by occasionally mixing in Adamant Leaders. Thanks to powerful equipment, they were undoubtedly becoming one of the top players.

“At about ?4 difficulty, they’re at the appropriate level. I can only locally increase it to ?5 where they are, but if it becomes a close call with an Adaman-Leader, I’ll have no moves left.”

Fortunately, they gained a lot of experience points due to players’ reckless charges, resulting in the highest instantaneous income ever. If calculated per hour, it might still be less than when they conquered the national army in the La Colinne city, but it was undoubtedly comparable. Events were truly wonderful.

“Should I seriously strengthen the Adamants? Well, I don’t have an infinite supply of Philosopher’s Stones, and maybe I could mix in my blood instead of the Philosopher’s Stone.”

However, the Adamants couldn’t be placed in the [Philosopher’s Egg]. They couldn’t serve as fusion materials. Strengthening each one with a Philosopher’s Stone was the only option.

Yet, it was true that the supply of Philosopher’s Stones was running low. Setting aside other materials, monster hearts were already in short supply.

Cinnabar and iron could be obtained in abundance at the foothills of the Liebe Great Forest and the volcanic area where Ururu was. Ants provided acid limitlessly. The ashes of the World Tree were also similarly abundant. Just plucking a branch and leaving it alone would result in natural recovery.

However, taking a monster’s heart meant taking a life, and preparing an infinite supply of that was difficult. In retrospect, it might have been a good idea to take the hearts of the Hobgoblins in Neuschloss. They were probably servants of that Deovoldraugr player, and they likely would have respawned infinitely.

Like the ginkgo trees in the autumn avenue, it would be convenient if there were places where hearts dropped like chestnuts.

“?Huh? I feel like I’ve seen this scene recently.”

I looked at my inventory.

Inside, there were numerous Pure Hearts, obtained from the angel attacks in the Tore Forest. Since then, attacks had occurred in various dungeons, and the lack of reports indicated that each had been appropriately dealt with.

I didn’t know what was being done with the dropped Pure Hearts, but they likely hadn’t disappeared.

If that was the case, there were probably a large number of them, and they would likely continue to increase.

“Let’s try using these. If the name has ‘heart’ written in it, the system probably considers it a heart.”

Since all the cinnabar and iron were left in the artisan city of Rifure, experimentation could only be done there.

I borrowed the body of Mare, who was waiting in Rifure, and went to the artisan city. As a way to observe the skills of the artisans who had become Remy’s subordinates, I had them try making it.

? “It’s done.”

“Using Pure Hearts, can Philosopher’s Stones be created? But even with that and using World Tree Ash, it won’t become Great.”

It seemed that as a heart, it was of a low rank.

Perhaps due to extra effects, using it as a regular heart might reduce its effectiveness. Or it could be purely a matter of the creature’s rank as a monster.

“Well, whatever. At least, while the angel attacks are ongoing, we can mass-produce Philosopher’s Stones.”

“That’s right. Shall we proceed with mass production?”

“Go ahead. Philosopher’s Stones have good experience point efficiency. At least, the artisans making one Philosopher’s Stone here would get more than Ubel defeating ten angels.”

Ubel’s extermination power was tremendous, but due to a significant difference in strength, defeating one angel only yielded a pitiful amount of experience points. Aside from cleaning them up all at once, there was no merit in the action.

However, because it attracted a lot of attention, it was currently patrolling the sky throughout the Hiers Kingdom to intercept angel attacks.

There was now a prospect for the supply of Philosopher’s Stones.

With this, they could be used again like they were water.

?

I used Philosopher’s Stones on the Adams and collectively strengthened them.

The location was the Liebe Great Forest and the adjacent plains.

Currently, a storage facility had been created underground by the ants, where a dozen or so Adamant Leaders and Giant Corpses were waiting for their turn. Unfortunately, there were no opportunities for them to shine at the moment, but the day would come when they would see the light. Well, it might be better not to see the light since they would receive damage when exposed.

Anyway, one by one, I used Philosopher’s Stones on them in such plains and reincarnated them into higher-level monsters.

As a result, Adaman-leader became Adamandux.

Adaman-knight became Adamantarma.

Adaman-mage became Adamanscientia.

And Adaman-scout became Adamantumbra.

“Let’s see, General, Weapon, Knowledge, Shadow. This looks pretty cool…” (T/N: the rough meanings of the suffixes)

Other than Adamandux, there was no additional experience required for reincarnation, so it didn’t visibly strengthen them. However, for example, in the case of Adamanscientia, though STR had decreased, INT and MND had increased, making them more optimized for their respective roles.

Especially, the drop in INT and MND for Adamantarma was severe. With this, it truly became just a weapon, literally a meat cleaver.

This would now test the leadership skills of Adamandux, their leader, who had requested additional experience, making it truly reinforced.

The previous Adams didn’t have much difference in appearance, but now they look quite distinct.

Adamandux has a black-based metallic luster with golden edges, giving it a luxurious appearance. It exudes a strong character vibe, truly resembling a general at a glance.

Adamantarma has become slightly sharper overall, with silver accents shining on its black body. The shield it previously had is gone, and it now wields a sword in each hand. Both the shield and the sword were likely armaments prepared by rares, but whether they were assimilated is unclear. It leaves a somewhat unsatisfied feeling.

Adamanscientia has its armor restricted only to the shoulder area, while the lower part is draped in a glossy robe woven with Adamas fabric. Upon closer inspection, that robe seems to be made of Adamas. To make something decent like that, you’d probably need quite a high-rank skill. However, it’s likely just a part of its body, and it might not have a significance beyond indicating that it provides more magic resistance than physical defense.

Adamantumbra looks like it completely painted all the silver parts of Adamantarma in black. Both the swords in its hands are shorter than those of Arma, and its entire body seems slimmer. It’s truly a form specialized for assassination, a shadow of Arma.

With this, it seems like I could easily handle Wayne and his group in battle with just one squad. However, the player known as MentaList possesses a Soul-Binding Stone and excels in Mental Magic. I need to be cautious; otherwise, Adamantarma might easily fall victim to abnormal conditions.

Nevertheless, it’s all part of the combat experience, and I can only rely on Dux’s skills.

The enhancement of the Adams is now temporarily concluded. If I were to go further, I’d probably need experience points for each individual, and considering cost-effectiveness, it’s not practical.

Instead of that, it’s more efficient to spend all that experience on a single character.

There might be occasions to specially enhance a few Adams or a small squad, but that’s not for now.

With this, I’ve generally taken care of what I wanted to do. Regarding the event, all that’s left is to gather data on the timing of attacks and wait for the information on the Archangel’s whereabouts to be revealed.