52

Cheng Yang didn't know what the situation was like at the Western Territory Altar right now but he had a fairly good way to find out. Hordes could only gather at fixed rates so the horde guarding the Territory Altar shouldn't be much bigger than the one at the Western Bridge. If it wasn't too hard to do so, claiming the Western Territory Altar would greatly benefit Phoenix Village's development.

When the group visited the city previously, they hadn't made an effort to clear out the areas they passed though in order to save time. As such, the group ran into several small hordes along the way.

Whenever they ran into a large group of monsters, Cheng Yang would, without exception, use Sacrificial Blood Cloud to quickly crush them. The group's goal was to rush to the Western Bridge at top speed, so even if they heard refugee's crying out for them to stop, they kept moving. Although they felt bad, there was nothing they could do for the refugees until they returned in the afternoon.

An hour and ten kilometers later, they arrived at the Western Bridge. From three hundred meters away they were able to get a good look at the horde guarding it. The most common monster was one that Cheng Yang recognized, the Skull Spotted Spider.

Were all of the bridges guarded by headache inducing monsters?

These spiders were a mutated version of Hell-Spinner spiders who evolved to be able to fire their webs as a projectile. Instead of using it to pull their prey towards them it instead locks them in place. If it was just a few dozen of these spiders Cheng Yang wouldn't care but there were at least five hundred. What's worse, the commander is probably a Skull Spotted Spider!

"My Lord, what should we do?" Yu Kai asked, "Fight or retreat?"

"We'll make a temporary retreat. Right now we're going to focus on rescuing people since we don't know what abilities the commander will have. Once our elite forces level up we'll crush this horde."

Yu Kai and the other generals instantly agreed to Cheng Yang's plan. Perhaps if they knew another Territory Altar was on the other side of the bridge they wouldn't have given up so easily.

Not daring to disturb the guardian monsters, Cheng Yang's group quietly retreated and continued North.

Cheng Yang unfolded a map he stored in his belt loop. Drawn from the memories from his past life, this map didn't have any building symbols and could only be read by Cheng Yang.

There were several spot on the map marked as points of interest. The first four were the cardinal bridges and the rest scattered throughout the city.

Three of the marks were next to the city center safe zone, an area Cheng Yang didn't want to visit. The one Cheng Yang was currently targeting was three kilometers southwest of the Northern Bridge.

The group had to slow down quite a bit once they passed the Eastern Bridge. Since this was an entirely new area they had to both fight larger monster hordes and conduct search and rescue operation.

From the Eastern Bridge to the point marked on Cheng Yang's map it was only about five kilometers but since they needed to check seven rescue points on the way the total distance was almost seven kilometers. That combined with the time it took to search each area meant it was a little past two when they arrived at their destination.

Near buried under the ruins of a hair salon a curtain of light silently shimmered. It's appearance and that of the entrance to the Blood Soaked Cathedral instance dungeon were nearly identical.

That's right! This was in fact the entrance to another, different, Low Grade instance dungeon!

If Cheng Yang had known that the weird stone slab he found was the pre-apocalypse form of an instance dungeon he would have spent all of his effort gathering the ones he knew and throwing them into the borders of Phoenix Village.

There was no medicine for regret in this world so unless Cheng Yang reincarnated again there was nothing he could do. Him being reborn once was already more unlikely than a person becoming a god. Reincarnating twice? What a joke!

Although this was a Low Grade instance dungeon, if a team tried to beat Easy difficulty with only Low Grade Apprentices they would surely die. Take for instance the Easy difficulty of the Blood Soaked Cathedral, the boss was a High-Grade monster! If you didn't know about the environment exploit, entering the instance was a creative form of suicide.

However, there are some differences between instance dungeons of the same grade. Since the Blood Soaked Cathedral can fit a maximum of five people its called a Party-Size dungeon. The one in front of them is a Team-Size dungeon that can fit fifty people. The next size up is an Army-Size instance dungeon that can fit five hundred people. Although there might another size dungeon after that, the largest found in Cheng Yang's past life was Army-Size.

Cheng Yang had run this instance dungeon it his last life too. It was set at the bottom of a large canyon know as the Forgotten Grave. By chance that was also the name of the instance dungeon.

It's rumored that the canyon was created when a powerful mage sent an all out attack towards an invading army. As such, the most common rare drops were things useful for Mages, the rarest of which was guaranteed to drop during the first clear. Cheng Yang wouldn't let anyone take that reward away from him!

Cheng Yang chose to become a Mage due to his Innate Ability so he had made a mental note of where the best items for Mages could be found. Since he needed to come through this direction anyways how could he pass up the opportunity.

"My Lord, is this an instance dungeon?" Yu Kai asked, shaking himself out of a stupor.

"Of course it is!" Liu Hau rapped his friend on the forehead, "It's just like the one in the village."

"I can see that." Yu Kai retorted, "I was just surprised."

"It's an instance dungeon." Cheng Yang confirmed, cutting them off, "However, this one can fit fifty people instead of just five. Of course, it's also more difficult than the one back in the village because of that."

"My Lord, you're not planning on going in right?" A soldier asked in confusion, "There's only thirty five of us so won't it be to hard?"

"How can it be difficult with me there?" Cheng Yang asked arrogantly, "Just be careful and we'll have nothing to worry about."

The soldier didn't know how to respond, it was true that Cheng Yang had created several miracles already. So far there wasn't anything he couldn't do so if Cheng Yang said it was possible, it probably was.

Of course, Cheng Yang was more than confident. If they had attempted the dungeon a few days again, even if all fifty slots were filled, Cheng Yang wasn't sure they would have been able to succeed. Now however, he had the Sacrificial Blood Cloud skill! It was already an overpowered ability but since he was two levels higher than the rest of the group, it became absolutely bug-like.

The group crowded around the instance dungeon and held hands as Cheng Yang activated it.

With a gut-wrenching flash, the world around them distorted and changed.

If the Blood Soaked Cathedral could be described as a land of crumbling ruins, this instance dungeon was a land of death. The entire area seemed withered. As far as the eye could see there was just dust, bones, and the blazing hot sun.

"Stick together everyone." Cheng Yang announced, "The monster density is really high here so if you get separated from the group you're doomed to die."

As Cheng Yang's voice echoed between the canyon wall's the entire area seemed to shake. Wait! It wasn't the canyon, it was the bones carpeting it!

"Holy shit! Our enemies aren't going to be skeletons are they?" Liu Hau shouted in alarm.

"You know what they say, no risk no reward." Cheng Yang said, "We're going to have to fight a small sea of skulls."

"I've always thought undead skeleton armies were cool but let's see how powerful one is in front of us!" Liu Hau declared confidently. "Is there a Necromancer class in this world? It'll be a lot less fun if there isn't"

Cheng Yang didn't answer him since he didn't know but in his opinion, if there was a Necromancer class, it would be anything but fun.

The bones scattered across the canyon floor vibrated with an intense energy as they shot towards each other. One by one, skeleton warriors pulled themselves out of the bones. The rest dust swirling around them, creating brittle swords and armor.

This scene shocked those who had been raised as atheists. Truly, this world was no longer reasonable.

Hundreds of skeletons gather together forming tight lines, just like an ancient army. If it weren't for their swords being rusty the effect would have been perfect. However, if anyone were to look down on these skeletons, it would be the last thing they ever did.

Once all of the skeletons had formed the undead army began to march forwards.

"Prepare for battle!" Cheng Yang shouted. The five Mages around him started to cast Magic Missile and the Rangers fired an initial volley.

Instantly a dense cloud of blood burst out of Cheng Yang's body….

TL Note: I'm going to start posting every chapter I translate for the week on Saturday night. I saw another novel that did the same thing and since I'm very inconsistent I thought it would be better.