The Era of Gods

Chapter 521: Chapter 521: The Last Resistance Force Fortress

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The back and forth, exhausting the lives of NPCs of various races to continue the fight, lasted a month and a half, until heroes and leaders arrived and joined the fray, slaughtering the Demons near The Gate of Other World. Only then did they secure a foothold nearby and a steady stream of troops began to pass through The Gate of Other World to establish bases.

With the bases established, the Expeditionary Army reputation system kicked in, and the first batch of thousands of players, all over Level 50, entered. They unanimously chose to grind reputation at the Expedition Base, and even Lin Xiao was no exception.

The reason was simple, after the Outland was opened, the Fortress system was made available, allowing any player who raised their Gaia reputation to Respected and their Expeditionary Army reputation to Revered to qualify for building their own Fortress, recruiting and training NPC soldiers through the expenditure of reputation and Demon Marks.

A Fortress, essentially an Outpost Base, is where players exchange reputation for core keystone to venture deeper into the Outland. Once the keystone is placed, a personal fortress can be established, recruiting various utility and combat NPC soldiers.

Utility NPCs refer to various traders, such as leather armor smiths, the Hearthstone-bound inn, flight points connecting to other fortresses and the main base of the Expeditionary Army, general merchants that sell potions, traders for various spell materials, professional trainers, and professional mentors to learn spells, etc.

Newly recruited utility NPCs only have basic functions, but by capturing special resource locations or collecting resources, or upgrading the core of the Fortress, upgrading NPCs can enhance their capabilities or offer special products unique to their own Fortress.

A Fortress is akin to a small town or watch station in a game, where players can resupply, transfer goods, or even stay for an extended period.

Players have to pay taxes on transactions in the Fortress, which is one of the sources of income for the Fortress, usually one-tenth of the total amount of the goods bought from NPCs goes to the owner of the Fortress.

In the Outland, it serves as the safe zone for players to rest and also offers housing for players to rent or purchase, where players can store items that won’t fit in their packs in their rooms.

However, this depends on the strength of the Fortress, as it must be built in dangerous areas. It not only faces attacks from Outland Demons but also destruction from Children of Nightmare. If a Fortress is breached, the items stored there by players would be lost.

Therefore, whether a Fortress can attract a large number of players to stay and resupply depends on its strength.

So, building a Fortress is not something a casual player can do. At the very least, a team, like a guild, needs to come together to establish a Fortress. It’s rare for someone to build a Fortress alone.

Battle NPCs naturally refer to various NPC soldiers, including elite NPC soldiers, and can be of any race. Generally, players have advantages in recruitment price and conditions when choosing NPCs of the same race.

These NPC soldiers can also level up through combat, gather resources to forge specialized equipment, and even be promoted, such as upgrading a regular soldier to an Elite Template and then an Enhanced elite or Leader Template.

In theory, an ordinary soldier could become an extremely powerful Hero NPC under stringent conditions. But in reality, that’s generally just theory and hardly ever comes to fruition.

Lin Xiao was quite interested in this and decided to strike out on his own after discussing it with his girlfriend.

The reason he didn’t go along with the guild was that there were many in the guild who wanted to exchange for the core of a Fortress, and everyone could see the potential of the Fortress system. Those in Radiance were elites, and making them submit to someone was difficult, even if Lin Xiao had already shown his strength and they recognized that he was strong now, but recognition is one thing, expecting them to act as subordinates is another.

I respect you, but that doesn’t mean I want to be your subordinate.

Additionally, human nature is fickle. Having a bunch of people as subordinates was not something he felt secure about, so after discussing it with his girlfriend, they simply decided to leave the guild and go it alone, considering that the guild’s cohesion was so-so and they didn’t expect much help from it.

What followed was grinding for reputation, constantly taking on repeatable Demon-hunting quests from the Expeditionary Army. Each Demon slain meant a certain amount of reputation earned.

Both he and his girlfriend were Mages, and she chose as her Core Clan a Sub-legendary Race derived from her original Core Clan, the Thunder Wings, called the Ire Winged Man, which seemed to be modeled after Angels; hence, they leaned towards the appearance of Angels and were breathtakingly beautiful while also possessing tremendous Spell-casting Talent.

There are two types of Ire Winged Men, Silver and Golden. The Silver Winged Ire Man has more powerful Thunder Talents than Thunder Wings, while the Golden Wrathwing is endowed with the Divine power of Angels.

Shen Yuexin chose the Golden Wrathwing, so her specialty was Holy, a combination of Mage and Priest. Initially inclined towards combat, she changed her talents to a more supportive role after teaming up with Lin Xiao, essentially becoming a Priest with significant combat power.

As time went on, the Demons near the Expedition Base were wiped out. The powerhouses from the main world used Spells to transform the barren terrain around them and constructed an enormous fortress. Squads of NPC soldiers, led by NPC officers, began to leave the Expeditionary Army Fortress and set up outposts nearby.

This served both as a service to the players and as an expansion of territory, as well as a buffer against any counterattack from the Demons.

However, players who wanted to build their own Fortress had to venture far from the vicinity of the Expeditionary Army Fortress and deep into this Alien World.

According to the regulations, the further a player’s Fortress is from the Expeditionary Army Fortress, and the more strategically important its location, the more support they will receive from the Expeditionary Army. This will also result in a significant bonus when it comes to scoring in the future, pushing players to venture deep into the Outland.

This was very advantageous for Lin Xiao, who had a level advantage. After spending a few months accumulating enough reputation, merits, and Demon Marks, he and his girlfriend exchanged for a Fortress core and a middle-size squadron of 100 Level 55 NPCs, including five elites. With ample supplies prepared, they mounted their steeds, leading the troops away from the now Super fortress of the Expeditionary Army Headquarters, into the vast Outland.

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Recruiting elite combat NPCs requires Green Demon Marks for exchange, and these items have an extraordinarily low drop rate; we have accumulated less than ten so far.

A regular Level 55 NPC warrior only has 3,500 health points, while elites have just over 10,000, with an average combat power that’s slightly lower than ordinary demons.

This Outland World is ravaged by Demons and chaotic forces, with energy in the Void becoming incredibly berserk. Players receive a Negative BUFF in the wilderness of this world, making any cast spells likely to fail while increasing mana consumption and casting time by 50%.

Only within the areas controlled by the Expeditionary Army, where the Void energy is calmed by the Mage Tower built inside the Expeditionary Army Fortress, does this Negative BUFF disappear.

So, in the early stages, the expedition genuinely relies on NPCs, sacrificing their lives to advance, with players–Lin Xiao included–unable to play much of a role.

Although his level is quite high at 68, the Outland is filled with powerful demons. Just one Level 70 or above Enhanced Elite leading a group of minions could chase them around everywhere.

An Enhanced Elite at Level 70 can have at least 100,000 health, and for a powerful race like Demons, they can have between 200,000 and 300,000 health, with strong attacks and powerful spells, plus a horde of minions, they have no chance of fighting them.

Since the gates opened nearly half a year ago, he had died at least twenty times, which is actually considered few. Those who ventured into the Outland just above Level 50 died hundreds, if not hundreds of times, with the powerful demons making them question their existence.

Stepping out of the Expeditionary Army Fortress, many players clearing scattered demons saw them and knew they were preparing to establish a fortress, watching them with interest.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

At this stage, players daring to venture out and build a fortress are few; most are still in the accumulation phase.

This platoon consists of a hundred NPC soldiers, including 50 regular warriors, 5 Rogue scouts, 10 Archers, 10 Mages, 10 Knights, and 10 Priests among the 95 regular soldiers.

Among the five elites are three melee warriors and two Mages.

The team is reasonably configured, but even with an Enhanced Elite Demon, the fight would be costly… and they are likely to suffer heavy losses.

All five Rogue scouts are dispatched to survey the surroundings, to avoid accidentally stumbling upon a large group of demons.

Three days later, Lin Xiao and Shen Yuexin led their troops, now reduced to less than a third in number after suffering heavy casualties, back to the Expeditionary Army Fortress in disarray.

No more than fifty kilometers from the Expeditionary Army Fortress, they were spotted by a flying Demonized Creature. After several skirmishes with small demon groups, they attracted the attention of a Level 76 Demon Overlord who personally led an army to surround and hunt them, forcing them to leave half the troops behind to cover their retreat.

“This is completely unworkable.”

They were forced to return hardly having left the Expeditionary Army’s range, and even if they got lucky next time and made it out, it wouldn’t be long before they’d be surrounded and wiped out by demons again.

His girlfriend, flapping her golden, brilliantly luminous wings, said:

“We need to train an elite force, at the very least we need to train a batch of elites over Level 65 to carve out a path.”

“I understand.”

Back at the Expeditionary Army Fortress, they used the remaining Demon Marks to recruit a fresh batch of soldiers, a troop and a half in total, with the same configuration as before, and set out from the Expeditionary Army Fortress once again.

But this time, they didn’t run outwards; instead, they headed toward an outpost called Hawk Hill, located to the west of the Fortress, to regroup. The Outpost Base was packed with NPCs and other players, so if they encountered a large number of demons like before, they could retreat there for safety instead of being chased all over the place.

Hawk Hill is situated on a plateau over forty kilometers from the Expeditionary Army Fortress, surrounded on all sides by sheer cliffs, with only one winding road leading down. As long as they guard the only access road and prepare well for aerial defense, they can firmly secure the place.

When Lin Xiao arrived, he saw a crowd of about two to three thousand demons attacking the Hawk Outpost under the command of a Demon Overlord. Many elite NPC soldiers defended the pass while numerous players on the fortress walls operated the ballistae and attacked the demons below.

Inside the fortress, two squads of players, leading two platoons of NPC soldiers, stood ready.

Like Lin Xiao, they were planning to take the route of the Fortress Regiment, also training their forces. They planned to take the opportunity to beat the struggling demons when their main force had to retreat after an unsuccessful assault.

This

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