24

Earlier that day at noon, Cheng Yang browsed through the research options of the class change statues. The Ranger statue had two Low Grade research options left but the other three primary class change statues each had just one remaining. It would not be long before Cheng Yang could advance Phoenix Village to Standard Grade.

The Priest statue still had five research options but it would not affect the level up requirements for the village since it wasn't a primary statue. Despite that, Cheng Yang still wanted to finish all the Low Grade research as fast as possible.

Although Cheng Yang and the crew had been fighting monsters in Huimin, since it was within a kilometer of the walls of Phoenix Village, their battles still contributed Experience Fragments to the territory. In addition, there were several monsters killed by Yu Kai's group when they respawned near the village. So now, Phoenix Village has about 100 Experience Fragments. This number would have been greater but Cheng Yang spent 400 Experience Fragments on research. Additionally over a thousand Experience Fragments were used in creating new soldiers for the village. This huge expenditure meant he would need to wait longer to get the final research completed for the class change statues.

In order to catch it up to the other statues, Cheng Yang researched Weaved Muscles for the Ranger statue.

At this time Old Lee walked up to Cheng Yang and when he was sure no one was around, whispered, "Boss, why didn't you let me take care of Hu Jun? That guy used to be the mayor of Huimin, what if he's up to something? Leaving him free will be a pain in the ass for us."

Cheng Yang smiled, "Old Lee, you're not clear on the situation so it seems you think me sparing him was some form of grace. Even if you are alive, if you weren't a Professional, living in this new world is worse than death. I'll let Hu Jun live here in Phoenix Village but I will never allow him to become a Professional. In my eyes, he is far more useful as he is. His fate will serve as a warning to others."

Old Lee was instantly stunned, "How thoughtful boss. As long as he's always miserable here, no one will take their powers for granted."

"Keep an eye on Hu Jun, he should have some friends and relatives in the village already, including his brother Hu Yang. For now, we're going to make sure they can't perform a class change ceremony so long as they associate with him. Let's see how long they let him drag them down."

"Yes, boss." Old Lee responded crisply.

"Old Lee, you don't need to call me boss. It sounds really strange coming from you."

"Not a chance, without rules no one will respect you. If you're trying to become a leader during the apocalypse, little details like this matter. Although I'm not quite sure what title to use for you, I cannot just say nothing, so I insist. In fact, I also think boss isn't very good. Perhaps since you're the leader of Phoenix Village, Mayor would be more appropriate. If that still doesn't work, let's just wait a while and see if a more natural title appears."

Old Lee's words caused Cheng Yang to remember his previous life. In that half year, humanity seemed to have returned to feudal times. In addition to the original government's owned territories that used titles from the modern era, most of the other territories used some form of ancient system. Lord, Emperor, Grand General. Some territories even used the ancient knighthood system.

After a moment of contemplation, Cheng Yang said, "What you say has value but mayor and boss just won't work. Address me as Lord. In my system panel, it calls me the Phoenix Village Lord. I think that title will become quite popular soon."

Old Lee didn't care about the actual title used but he was incredibly happy that Cheng Yang had accepted his advice.

"Old Lee, my friends and I are young. Although I saw what would happen in the apocalypse, I have no skill when it comes to interpersonal relationships. It makes me worry for the future of Phoenix Village. Will you follow me? I promise I won't let you suffer if you do."

"Thank you, Lord, I already know what to do." Old Lee said with a nod.

Cheng Yang sighed in his heart. He assumed Old Lee must have died in his previous life. If he had survived Cheng Yang would have heard his name. With his ability to adapt and his management talent, he would definitely have been well known if he had survived.

After finishing a barbecue dinner Cheng Yang left the village to go hunt monsters in an attempt to decrease the amount of time before he could upgrade the village.

According to the plan he had set up, each of the new teams would be responsible for a two-hour period where they would patrol outside the walls at night. Since the apocalypse had just started there was no chance of running into a Standard Grade or stronger monster so close to the village there was no danger to the seventeen person teams.

Phoenix Village also had an Experience Fragment gold mine they needed to take care of. Although the instance dungeon for the Blood Soaked Cathedral could only be used three times a day each run provided around six hundred Experience Fragments. The only downside was the appearance of both Standard Grade and High Grade Immature monsters when trying to clear it. It was nearly impossible for a five person team to clear the dungeon without Cheng Yang. This caused four of the runs for the instance dungeon to go unused today since Cheng Yang was busy.

If Cheng Yang waited until someone else reached the Standard Grade Apprentice level he would waste far to many runs, luckily there was a method that only Phoenix Village could achieve to clear the instance dungeon easier. As long as a team had a Priest with sufficiently high skill, clearing the instance dungeon wouldn't be difficult at all.

The goal for each of the teams this evening was to train their Priests to an acceptable level.

Halfway through the night Phoenix Village had earned a total of five hundred Experience Fragments. More than half of these were from the new soldiers paying off their debts. Each time the number of Experience Fragments exceeded 100 Cheng Yang hadn't hesitated to put all of them into a new research. Now every class change statue was finishing up their last research option before they reached Standard Grade. Even the Priest statue had ongoing research.

Tomorrow morning the four primary class change statues would level up increasing the number of soldiers each one could support. When they performed the class chance ceremonies for these new soldiers the last requirement to upgrade the territory would be met and they would be able to do so once they obtained the necessary Experience Fragments.

At the same time Cheng Yang was also growing. After fighting excessively for two days and nights his proficiency with Magic Missile reached 100% and it leveled up to Standard Grade. The upgraded Magic Missile dealt damage each to 110% of his Magic Attack stat, greatly increasing his fighting power.

Magic Missile (Standard Grade): Attack targets within thirty meters with a ball of condensed magic power | Damage: 17.2 | Cost: 5 MP | Cast Time: 1.5 sec | Proficiency: 0%

Although it was only a 10% increase the amount it increased his damage output was the same as equipping most Green Bronze level equipment.

After absorbing another 80 Experience Fragments that night Cheng Yang's training progress reached 9.6%.

At the dawn of the second day Cheng Yang already had 882 Experience Fragments bringing him ever closer to the vaunted 1000 Experience Fragments he needed to unlock eight times training speed.

The new soldiers all gained a satisfactory understanding of their class' fighting style and skill after fighting during the night. However, since Cheng Yang required them to pay back the twenty Experience Fragments used the ceremony they weren't unable to unlock two times training speed that night.

In comparison the team Captains and some of the older soldiers were able to unlock two times training speed and use it that entire night with a few Experience Fragments left over. This was the result of fighting non-stop for the last two days.

Cheng Yang checked the research progress on the class change statues when he woke up. The last one only had an hour left before it completed. In order to perform the class change ceremonies he needed to and still be able to upgrade the territory Cheng Yang knew he would have to clear the Blood Soaked Cathedral a few more times. The respawn rate in the area surrounding the village was decreasing rapidly. Today they territory had only gained a thousand Experience Fragments from monsters within a kilometer. That was the same amount that had been earned just during the night of the first day. If he wanted to quickly gain Experience Fragments Cheng Yang could only focus on the instance dungeon.

Yesterday he had completed the first clear of the Blood Soaked Church so Cheng Yang didn't need to be protective of the optimal clearing strategy. He took the four team Captains with him and quickly cleared the dungeon again. This time however he focused on showing the others the best way to deal with the Mephits and more importantly the cheat-like strategy to deal with the boss. Without that they would only be slaughtered if they attempted this dungeon on their own.

Yu Kai and the others knew that this was the last time Cheng Yang would accompany them in the Normal Difficulty Blood Soaked Church so they were extremely attentive. The next time they entered the instance dungeon they would have to clear it using their teams power alone.

Even now there would be a large degree of danger clearing it on their own. The regular Mephits were enough to give their parties a major headache. As for the Boss, it was demoted to a regular High Grade monster after the first clear so now it was helpless in front of them since they knew the cheat.

Fortunately these Standard Grade monsters only spawned in the cloister courtyards so they were able to trap them in a doorway and slowly grind their health away. With a Priest present they didn't need to worry about the Warriors taking damage since they could easily heal it before the next fight.

They were able to clear the instance dungeon in about thirty minutes but the rewards were far less than the first time the cleared it. Even after killing all of the high level monsters and opening the end chest they only got three Green Bronze equipment. Yu Kai and the others couldn't help but curse how stingy the dungeon was.

Cheng Yang on the other hand was pretty happy with the loot. He knew that the average was only two pieces of equipment and if you were unlucky you might only get one from the chest at the end. Although, if you were really lucky sometimes the Boss would drop Black Iron equipment.

Cheng Yang only took one of the three pieces of equipment, a magicians hat they increased his Mana by 8. Even though he looked even funnier with it on Cheng Yang didn't dare give up the extra Mana it provided.

The other two pieces of equipment were a pair of greaves that increased Physical Defense by one that went to Old Lee and a bow that increased Physical Attack by one that naturally only Yu Kai could use.

Of course, the greatest benefit was that Cheng Yang now had 1005 Experience Fragments, unlocking eight times training speed. This was something unprecedented this early in the apocalypse.