Monsters Are Coming
Chapter 207 - 112: A Journey That Ends Only in Death

Chapter 207: Chapter 112: A Journey That Ends Only in Death

Colorful Mist Coast, Bright Star Sea Area.

Crystal Palace Domain Node.

The four-day-long battle continued.

The Shadow Scale Shrimp Guards, which grew by absorbing node energy, launched a counterattack against the player offensive.

Groups of Shadow Scale Shrimp Guards clad in hard scales excelled at swarm combat, forming impenetrable barriers using their numerical advantage and rapid underwater movements. Their sharp pincers cut through player bodies with ease, sending them instantly back to Imperial Tomb Village.

Logically speaking, with the Shadow Scale Shrimp Guards at an average Level of about 25, the Player Corps should be able to take them down easily.

After all, Shadow Scale Shrimp Guards don’t have the terrifying racial ability to spawn soldier types continuously like the Insect Tide and the Black Tide.

But without a Life Soul proficient in water to aid them, Human Clan players were completely unused to the rhythm of underwater combat, and several combined offensives were easily crushed by the Shadow Scale Shrimp Guards.

On the Alien Race players’ side, both the Gills Fish Clan and the Abyss Fish Clan were masters of swimming.

However, with generally lower Life Soul Levels and insufficient Body Refining Levels to inherit Life Soul attributes, they were thoroughly overpowered by the Shadow Scale Shrimp Guards.

The battle was conducted through a "grind down" strategy; with each Shadow Scale Shrimp Guard killed, the enemies’ strength diminished slightly.

But in the short term, this Domain Node was evidently not going to be taken down.

At this moment, Qi Sheng, who was pulling the strings from behind the scenes, had a rough grasp of the Domain Node’s rule characteristics effects through the Guidance’s analysis.

When he first saw the analysis introduction for "Gathering," he envisioned an effect where the more players gathered, the stronger the ability effect released.

Just like an array, each player could act as an energy node in the array, interconnected to produce additional attribute enhancements.

But Guidance shook his head to indicate it was not the case.

He understood the rule characteristics of this Domain Node and had personally witnessed a life form of ruler level sanctioned by Emperor Zhao use it.

The so-called Gathering is not about gathering lives.

It’s about gathering abilities.

In Guidance’s conjecture, this trait could bring an effect of superimposed ability traits to the Player Corps.

Assuming there are 100 players using the Black Armored Snake Life Soul, then once "Gathering Rule" is embedded in Imperial Tomb Village, all players using the Black Armored Snake Life Soul could receive an additional increase in Black Armored Snake attributes by +1%.

The more players that use the Black Armored Snake Life Soul, the stronger the increase effect, bringing together a gathering effect on traits.

This calculation might include not just quantity, but perhaps also the intensity of the Life Soul.

After hearing Guidance’s explanation, Qi Sheng could already anticipate the performance of players after incorporating the "Gathering" Rule Node.

The forums would surely witness a flurry of players calling for others to follow their own favored builds.

The Gathering’s rule characteristics will allow Life Souls used by more players to get higher additional enhancements.

The more niche the Life Soul, the lower the enhancement effect.

But exactly how much the enhancement is, without incorporating the Rule Node, even Guidance can’t provide a detailed explanation.

However, this rule characteristic deeply intrigued Qi Sheng.

As the number of players kept increasing, the enhancement effect of the Gathering’s rule characteristics would also continue to improve.

It was virtually a Divine Skill for the later stages.

The priority to secure this Domain Node had significantly increased in Qi Sheng’s eyes.

As for when this Node can be secured, it’s just a matter of time; patience is all he needed.

Not continuing to focus on the inevitable war of attrition, Qi Sheng’s consciousness began rapidly switching between the forums and players.

...

Just as the main force of players was grinding away at the Crystal Palace Domain Node.

Bright Star Sea Area.

Dawn’s early light breaks, an orange hue spreads across the sky, and a fine mist covers the sea surface.

Gu Chen sits on the edge of a self-made raft, fishing pole in one hand, kicking the cool sea water with both feet, drifting with the waves, his expression thoroughly relaxed.

Looking up at the golden sun climbing the horizon, he squints his eyes, unable to restrain his admiration for the beautiful view.

For nearly a month, following his guild’s family group, he fought against the Black Tide and the Black Tide in the Emperor Tomb Mountain Range, and also took part in the Skyfire Battle, finally advancing his Body Refining to Level 2.

Today, he decided to give himself a break.

Indulging in a fishing trip that wouldn’t end until death.

For this, he chopped down trees near the coast half a day in advance, used vines to bind the logs into rafts, creating a simple wooden raft that was five meters long and three meters wide.

For this trip, he had no plans to return alive.

Opening the map, it was evident he was far from the coast.

At this distance, swimming back was less convenient than dying and respawning.

Humming a tune, browsing the forums, the feeling of solitary fishing on the high seas gave Gu Chen immense pleasure.

At that moment, the fishing rod in his hand suddenly jerked downward.

Realizing there was a fish on the hook, he jerked the rod up forcefully, a faint golden and blue glow emitted from his body.

This was exactly the manifestation of his body’s augmentation from Power Barbarian Axe and Shattering Blade.

His heart rate accelerated.

He could feel that the fish beneath the waves was extraordinarily strong, almost dragging him into the sea.

Determined, Gu Chen stood up and quickly adjusted his posture, gripping the fishing rod tightly, engaging in a battle of strength with this unknown sea creature.

The raft bobbed on the waves, following the big fish’s movements, cutting through the waves.

Gu Chen did not rush to exert his full strength, planning to wait for the fish to exhaust itself before pulling it up, yet his mind was already fantasizing about the kind of underwater creature it might be.

This was the charm of fishing in the game.

Unlike the known fish varieties in reality, the ecosystem in Monster World is very complex.

There is also a multitude of underwater species in the ocean, one could never know what type of marine life might be hooked next.