Chapter 192-1: Combo Technique: Fusion Form (1) |
“Re… repair… complete… error… retry.”
The lights on the shell of the repair robot flashed in disorder, then suddenly went dark. Its body went limp to the ground, and a pale blue liquid dripped from its treads onto the earth.
A Challenger Notification also sounded in the minds of the party’s players.
After a round of cheers, Tu Bai and his teammates plopped down on the ground.
After a whole day of effort, their inherited soul levels had reached level 5.
The process was winding, yet full of fun.
During the game’s pioneering phase, pain was inevitable, but every successful hunt brought a strong sense of achievement.
As their levels rose, the starter village map unfolded a new chapter. Areas they had only been able to view from afar, they had now begun to explore.
“Dizzy. My mental power is overdrawn. I need to rest a while longer.” A teammate shook his head at this time, occasionally thumping his forehead with his hand, his expression showing some pain.
“Mm. When the time comes, the captain’s potion costs for tanking will be shared by the party.” Tu Bai nodded in understanding, then turned his gaze to the fallen repair robot.
[Repair Robot (Dead)]
Hunt Level: 8
Target Introduction: A maintenance and repair robot built by the Machine-Guard race. It patrols the Machine-Guard race’s construction industrial zones or weapons factories and inspects all equipment along the way. If a problem is found, it will report it and then perform repairs. It is equipped internally with a high-energy welding gun, plasma cutter, and other repair devices. Its shell is made of alloy and can resist various forms of attack. If it suffers initial minor damage, it can perform self-repair.
—
The repair robot’s hunt level reached 8. It moved on small treads and was equipped with multiple mechanical arms. The arms carried tools such as welders and screwdrivers. It not only had strong defense, but also decent offensive means.
Two hours earlier, when they first engaged a repair robot, the captain’s first time was gone just like that.
Still, dying once in a while had its benefits.
Through ordinary rest, it was hard to restore the body to a perfect state.
Reviving after death, however, meant reviving at peak state. The difference between the two states was enormous.
At this time the captain pushed himself up by his knees, sacrificed the repair robot’s remains, then sent the sacrifice screenshot in the party chat. The sacrificial power gained was evenly split among all party members.
While resting, Tu Bai gazed toward other player parties out on the wastes.
From time to time, a dazzling streak of light would cut across the sky, trailing neon as it disappeared at the horizon.
“I really envy that group of veteran players. In comparison, we look like refugees.”
Tu Bai turned to the Onyx Jade race teammate whose face was full of envy and smiled, shaking his head.
“Do not look down on us for being weak now. We still have a chance to catch up to those veterans. Besides, how many qualifications have been issued so far? When the next batch of newbies joins, we will be the veterans.”
“When I have money, I must buy a Swift-Sword flyer.” The teammate continued, eyes full of longing.
“I also want a growth-type pet, but first we need sacrificial power. I just offered a 300-to-1 ratio to buy 500 sacrificial power, and a veteran player of the Skyfeather race DM’d me calling me an idiot, said I was so poor I had gone crazy and was scamming. The sacrificial power price is outrageous. Looks like I can only earn it myself.”
Hearing Tu Bai’s depressed grumbling, everyone burst out laughing.
Just then, another streak of light flashed over their heads, which made Tu Bai curious.
“What are those veteran players heading off to do, flying over our heads from time to time?”
“Of course they are going to explore other spaces in the cavern. They do not care for the mechanical ruins under our feet. Robots are poverty mobs with no returns in their eyes. Only us newbies fight over them. Their targets are blank territory nodes. It is said that containment rewards are generous and can also expand the area of the starter village space.”
As they chatted, the party shifted the topic from veterans to tentative choices of future builds.
The captain had been beaten all day, several times with a bruised face and multiple fractures, yet he still firmly chose the Gargoyle tank route and wanted to try forming his own guild in the future.
Tu Bai tentatively planned to do a melee spirit weapon build. His early Star Vein combo was tentatively set as: Force Savage Axe, Backwind Whip, Vital Qi.
As for the future, there were many playable options.
He could consider pairing with Blade Seal and Black-Scaled Serpent for a special-effects route, or consider pure brute-force routes like Extreme Speed and Shatter.
The other three teammates also tentatively decided to follow their original paths.
Two were spell DPS. One would go Spell Tower build, and one would go mental shock build.
The player with the initial Scatter Arrows inherited soul would go an Extreme Speed special-effects build in the future.
The party’s initial setup was already formed. As for healer and support builds, they would not consider them for now.
Especially healer. Ordinary players simply could not afford that build.
Only strong teams had the funds to cultivate one.
Just a single inherited soul of Wishmaking cost one hundred thousand sacrificial power to purchase.
That expense sounded outrageous just thinking about it.
And that was only the initial outlay. Future investments in small world layouts would not be low either, unless someone researched a path for ordinary players to quickly obtain wish power.
Switching builds in the game was easy, but that was only for switching among ordinary builds.
Wishmaking and Lord-type builds, which were forged around high-tier inherited souls, would swallow up the sacrificial power earned by ordinary players without making a splash.
Even so, Tu Bai was filled with confidence about the future.
The greatest feature of Monster World was the unknown. Opportunities were everywhere.
Perhaps he could find a chance to defy the heavens and change fate.
The Kindergarten Principal was a typical representative. He only entered the game with the previous round of qualifications, yet relied on the Divinity inherited soul to be promoted into the ranks of top players.
There were also records on the forum of the Principal laying out a faith plan.
Next were the members of the veteran Grind Kings group. Before entering Monster World, they were game gold-farmers. In the few games before, they were merely foils and could not compete with top spenders, mainly serving pay-to win players.
But in this game, by entering the Anti-Tide Legion via the God of Wealth path, obtaining the War God Seal’s blessing, they successfully rose into the ranks of top players.
There were quite a few similar cases on the forum.
Although they had lost the head start, from a future perspective, they themselves also belonged to the early veterans.
There were too many opportunities waiting for them to discover.
The striking vehicles used by veterans and their formidable displays of strength were like a mirror that showed him his future self and filled him with expectation.
While resting and chatting, the captain continued to post party recruitment messages in the regional chat channel.
Before long, a prompt sounded for a player applying to join.
[Challenger Notification: Player ‘Buying Sacrificial Power’ requests to join the party. Approve: Yes/No.]
The captain chose ‘Yes,’ and a new name appeared in the party chat.
“Hello everyone. My initial inherited soul is Rock Shield. I am going melee tank.”
Finding out it was a rare tanking player, Tu Bai and the others welcomed him warmly.
This was a rare build in the game. The standard was three per party at minimum, but most parties were lucky to have even one.
There was no time limit mechanism for challenging monsters in the game. If you could stand your ground, even with low damage, you could hunt higher level monsters.
But if you could not stand your ground, high damage output was useless.
For example, comparing the Earthmind bully’s natural-catastrophe reclamation to the death-catastrophe extreme damage output mode, the strength gap between the two war modes was enormous in players’ eyes.
With such a hotly sought tank joining the party, it was a great boon for the team’s development.
“Do we need to come pick you up?”
“No need. The route is full of players. Everyone is fighting over monsters. There is no chance I get intercepted and killed by monsters.”
“We will wait here for you.”
As Tu Bai spoke, he summoned the map and glanced at the newbie’s location.
Focusing his gaze, it showed distance: 4.87 km.
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