NOVEL FROG Chapter 73: Bon voyage
Zyrus didn’t hesitate and bought the mutated papyrus for 25 silvers. He knew about a lot of materials which had miraculous usages. With his memories of regression and knowledge as an arcanist, he didn’t have to worry about finances for the time being.
‘let’s see… here it is,’
Zyrus searched a few sell orders and stopped at an item.
[Cursed iron nails]
[Iron nails extracted from coffins. Contains a small amount of dark mana]
[Amount: 1000]
[Price: 50C]
Its per unit price was 10 times higher than the mutated papyrus. The order emptied a fourth of his wallet in a blink.
The first thing Zyrus needed to conquer the sea was a ship. Players didn’t need many raw materials due to magic. There was plenty of wood on the islands, so he only needed to buy sails, anchors, and so on.
Although it was possible to make them with magic and old crafting techniques, he didn’t have the time to waste on that.
‘I’ll replace the sails with animal skin later, and the players can use their weapons in the crafting process,’
It was an ingenious idea. It saved him money, and the players could earn exp and weapon mastery in the process.
The amount of resources he had bought were'nt enough to accommodate 10,000 players on the sea. However, unlike special materials, the normal nails and metal fittings were cheap.
Zyrus bought the ropes, tar, and sails with the remaining silver coins. He bought cheap sails and ropes for 300 silvers as they could be replaced by the skin and tendons of the marine creatures.
“Good choice,” Anansi commented after checking his order. Zyrus had bought high-quality tar and metal wares which cost around 1000 silver, leaving his pockets empty after just a dozen minutes.
“Can you send them directly?”
“It'll take a few hours, but I'll send it along with the crown hunt's rewards. Also, it’ll cost 100 silvers,”
“Just rob me,” Zyrus grunted but agreed to the terms anyway.
“Have a good day,” Anansi gave a very sales-assistant-like smile and sent Zyrus to a portal.
…
Calm waves crashed against a remote island. If one looked from above, one would realize that the island was like a jewel on a cyan canvas. With tall coconut trees to stop the glaring sun and golden sand that stretched for miles, it was a perfect place for a vacation.
Unfortunately, no one knew about this place in the north of the Kyros continent.
Until now that is.
Hundreds of white portals formed at the edge of the island. Although it had a surface area of 10 square kilometers, the phenomenon was big enough to affect a tenth of it.
“Haa.. I missed the sea,” Zyrus inhaled the salty air and looked behind him. Unlike his fading black portal, the white portals were still teleporting the players.
“Didn’t expect you to select such a place,” Ria spoke as she looked at the beautiful sea. The cyan ocean was crystal clear under the midday sun.
“Yeah, I thought he would select something like a volcanic mountain or an underground cavern,”
“Actually, this place is worse,” Zyrus doused their adventurous spirits and walked towards Franken.
“How so? Is there trouble in the forest?” Shi Kun asked while pointing at the faraway coconut trees.
“Heh, you’ll know when we reach there,”
It didn’t take long for 6000 players to walk out from the portal. Ria and the others weren’t idle in their one-month rest. They had drilled military discipline into the disorganized players.
And as a result, they were able to get into formation without any orders.
“Not bad, they look much better now,”
Zyrus was satisfied with the outcome. It was the bare minimum if they wanted to survive in this place.
“What’s the plan?” Kyle asked as he observed the beach.
“Rather than me explaining it, it’s better if you experience it firsthand. Of course, survival comes first.”
After telling them to deploy a defensive formation, Zyrus rushed ahead with goblin riders.
“These little fellas are quite fast,”
“Indeed. They could reach the other side in minutes,”
However, both Zyrus and Franken knew that it wasn't that simple. One reindeer and a hundred wolves left behind a cloud of sand as they rushed towards the forest.
While Zyrus rode on Franken at the center, the goblin riders spread in a wing formation to cover as much distance as possible.
“It’s quite rowdy down below,” Zyrus curved his lips as he looked at the beach. Unlike humans and other monsters who crossed the sandy area without a hitch, the rats and specter scorpions weren’t as lucky.
They were tasked with underground reconnaissance. And it was no wonder they found their targets with a skill like earth movement.
There was nothing but bugs under the sand. However, even the insects of the second ring were mightier than the monsters of the first ring.
“As you already know from Anansi’s explanation, you can now create parties with up to 100 players. Add the trolls and shield warriors in swordsman’s party, and pair up archers with mages and the rest,”
Zyrus ordered Ria without caring about the rat’s fight.
“Done,”
“Always move in groups of ten. If you see any animal, kill it. If you see a tree, cut it down and collect the fruits. Stones, fallen leaves, or any other thing you find on the island, I want them collected into different areas. Is that clear?”
“…Alright,” Ria replied after a bit of hesitation. She didn’t know the motive behind such destructive activities. Knowing Zyrus’s nature though, she was sure that he’d explain them sooner or later.
Soon, players moved under their respective leaders’ commands. Other crown holders liked to form parties with all professions, but Zyrus disagreed with the method.
It looked nice on paper and it was indeed more effective. But on a large-scale battle where hundreds of thousands of players fought with all sorts of abilities, the simple tactics were much more lethal.
“Keep an eye on them,” Zyus jumped off from Franken’s back and rushed into the forest. He had long since noticed the iguanas and fruit bats in the forest.
He snuck closer to a papaya tree and blasted a vortex at the iguana.
-256
*Grrrrk*
The green creature was flung back to the empty ground. Zyrus jumped after it and blasted it with another two cyan vortexes.
-123
-256
‘This is frustrating and exciting at the same time,’
Zyrus chuckled as he dodged the iguanas’ bullet-like tongue. Anything was possible with mana, and a lizard shooting its tongue was one such example.
-256
Exp +150
Finally, the green iguana stopped breathing after he hit it with the fourth vortex. Just this 3-foot-long lizard needed 200 MP to kill.
The consumption was even more than the blood drake. Of course, it wasn’t because the creature was more durable than the Drake.
‘The suppression here is indeed crazy,’
Strictly speaking, this place wasn’t 100% the second ring. It was more like a phase between the second and the third ring.
Although it was still in a mirror dimension, the level of its merging was higher than anywhere else in the Kyros continent.
Even if it was just 10% more, the mana levels were nothing to scoff at. It was too troublesome to kill creatures of a higher level of existence.
Zyrus ran around his army and looked for single iguanas. He could’ve killed more if he had gone all out, but his goal was to observe his troops' progress.
‘They’re still clumsy, but they’ve got the basics right,’
Shield warrior, swordsman, spearman, archer, and mage. Except for the rogue and assassin class for daggers users, the rest had only one advancement at level 20.
“Surge,”
-256
Zyrus slammed his vortex towards the iguana while surveying a group of players. Unlike him, 5 shield warriors and 5 swordsmen were fighting against a similar lizard.
*Grrrk*
-56,-56,-56
He dodged its tongue and punched the monster in the ribs. His MP was limited, and his usage of stamina was inefficient without the bloodspine spear
‘I guess I have to rely on magic for the time being,’
He could finish the spear's evolution by using the fang of Nidraxis. However, he didn’t plan to do that before receiving the cube’s mission for the second ring.
“Form,”
Drops of water formed around the lizard and bound it momentarily. Zyrus didn’t have enough MP to form a vortex that could shred it apart, but he could do the same with his claws.
*Slash*
-378
Exp +150
‘Eh, it’s more useful than I thought,’
Zyrus looked at his bloody claw in surprise. It was more effective than the vortex.
He gestured the group of players to take back the dead iguana and ran around once again. He had a lot of ideas about creating new skills, and unlike in the first ring, he had the time to work on those ideas.
“Hey! Isn’t this too difficult?”
“Why do you think we have a decade to reach level 50?”
Zyrus replied to Lauren as he passed by the group of bears. Unlike humans who could use their weapons to fight, the large monsters had to fight in a humiliating manner.
It was quite a sight to see dozens of huge bears gang up on a lizard. The ogres and trolls weren’t much better in that regard as they too faced the same issue.
The creatures here were too small to hit effectively, and there was no way to kill them with small numbers.
Humans had their troubles as well. Their arrows failed to pierce the iguanas while the mages didn’t have enough mana to blast one to death. Those who used the daggers were the worst off among the players. They weren’t fast enough to dodge the attack, nor could they pierce iguanas’ skin.
The shield warriors barely held on with the one-sided beating. Only swordsmen and spearmen had it easy.
Zyrus ran around for an hour and killed one more iguana. He had already recovered most of his MP with his monstrous recovery speed
“Expand”
He held his palms forward and launched a huge vortex. It consumed all of his recovered MP, but the results were just as great. The poor iguana was drowned to death before it could even scream.
Exp +150
Level up!