Doomsday Lord

To upgrade an Army to the Standard-Grade level required the members to learn all four Military Formations. Training its use to a useable level only took a dozen hours, but the cost to purchase each skill was enormous; each one costs a thousand Experience Fragments.

It wasn’t an individually high price, but every ten soldiers would need four thousand Experience Fragments in total. The cost was covered by deducting ten percent of the soldier’s income, so it took ten days to buy a single Military Formation.

Even if the amount deducted were doubled, it would take twenty days for an Army to level up.

“Take your time. There’s no need to rush this. So far, we’re the only people to have Armies at all, so don’t worry.” Cheng Yang said, “Just remember to plan ahead and avoid wasting resources.”

“Our current plan is to let a tenth of our Armies level up since a Standa-rd-Grade Army can control nine Low-Grade ones.” Liu Hau explained, “Then a tenth of those will level up and so on until one of our Armies reaches Pinnacle-Grade. At that point, we can incorporate everyone into a single unit.”

Cheng Yang nodded in agreement. Although it was necessary to learn all four basic formations before leveling up, you didn’t need to level up after learning them.

Military Formation bonuses were cumulative, which meant the buffs from the various Army level formations would stack. Considering that, an Army’s effectiveness was directly proportional to the number of ranks.

On the other hand, without a solid foundation, it wouldn’t matter. A Low-Grade Army with Pinnacle-Grade formations would be stronger than a Standard-Grade Army with Low-Grade formations.

“That sounds like a good plan.” Cheng Yang said.

They continued to chat until the soldiers finished cleaning the battlefield. Then, Cheng Yang returned to Phoenix Village with the battalions he brought.

When he got back, Cheng Yang took Chu Qiang and his daughter hunting. Before they left, he visited the Quest Hall to pick up some tasks to complete along the way.

He only chose auto-generated fetch quests since the ones produced by people didn’t involve killing monsters.

After becoming an E-Rank Adventurer, there were more quests available for him, allowing Cheng Yang to complete a few every day. Although this allowed him to obtain thirty to forty Advancement Tokens a day, he was still far from upgrading his rank.

Cheng Yang spent the rest of the day killing monsters and practicing his Sacrificial Blood Cloud skill.

It was a useful skill, but it was hard to train since his plans usually needed him at full strength or acting independently. It didn’t help that it could only be used once every fight. As a result, it was still at the Low-Grade level even though his Icicle Blast skill had reached the Pinnacle-Grade level.

The area where Cheng Yang was hunting was fifteen kilometers away from the village since the Phoenix Village soldiers already cleared the monsters closer than that.

Those serving as Adventurers were incredibly active even though no one was pushing them to hunt monsters, which contributed to the growing operational area. They didn’t have the power to kill large hordes, so they hunted down newly spawned monsters with a fanatical passion. This drove the official soldiers further out to find good hunting grounds.

Although these people still feared death, the area around Phoenix Village was perfect for beginners. The density of monsters was low, and if they were in danger, as long as they could reach the boundaries of the territory, an Imperial Guard member would save them. Phoenix Village was starting to seem like a tutorial village from an MMO.

Thanks to the appearance of Adventuring groups, the village had become more lively with civilians peddling their services and soldiers selling off potion and equipment stockpiles.

It was a shame there were so few Professionals in the village. Having a few thousand people cover hundreds of square kilometers of land was too pitiful.

However, Cheng Yang wasn’t worried. There would be an influx of new Adventurers soon.

This morning, Cheng Yang put forty potions up for auction for three thousand Experience Fragments a piece, and when he got back, all of them had been purchased.

Their sale brought Cheng Yang’s daily Auction House profits up to three hundred thousand compared to when he only sold Stones of Return. They were also more stable as compared to the fluctuating price of the Stones of Return.

The stable high returns made Cheng Yang passionate about brewing Magic Amplification Potions. So, when Cheng Yang returned to the village in the evening, he started refining potions.

Thankfully, focusing more on the Magic Amplification potions wasn’t negatively affecting his growth as an Alchemist. Although his success rate was much lower than the Recovery Potions, the Magic Amplification potion being of a higher level allowed Cheng Yang to obtain roughly the same amount of experience.

The night passed quickly, and after a few tasks the next morning, Cheng Yang visited the Tavern. Today was a day that left a sour taste in the mouths of hundreds of people. That’s because an outstanding item was sold on the rock bottom prices. In this life, Cheng Yang planned to snatch it up.

Once he arrived, Cheng Yang ordered a plate of Hellpig Ribs and started to peruse the Auction House listings. There were thousands, but it was rare to find something useful at an affordable price.

Suddenly, Cheng Yang noticed a Mage Statue Lifting Stone that had been put up for auction. It required a starting bid of three hundred thousand Experience Fragments or a one-time price of two million.

Cheng Yang almost bought it that instant by instinct. However, he only had one million on him, and the rest of his net worth was invested into the Bank, so it would be hard to retrieve it.

Although he already had five, it would be hard to find Statue Lifting Stones on the Auction House in the future, and if there were one, it would cost six million at least. They were an item that was relatively common since they dropped from instance dungeons regularly, but no one would be willing to sell them.