38

Cheng Yang wanted to learn the Health Recovery Potion recipe as well but didn't have the Experience Fragments to do so. It wasn't a huge loss for Cheng Yang since he wouldn't need Health Recovery Potions often. He only needed to prepare a few just in case.

Of course, it wasn't enough just to learn the reciepe for a potion, several other tools were needed such as an Alchemy Pot or Alchemy Furnace. When creating advanced or specialized potions you would only need more and more equipment.

Cheng Yang purchased the two pieces of equipment he would need for now from the shop: an Alchemy Pot and a set of Alchemy Utensils. These tools were generally inexpensive and only cost 200 Experience Fragments in total.

Cheng Yang looked at the status pane that only showed 400 Experience Fragments and couldn't help but smile, looks like he would be busy tonight.

Fortunately, spending so much wasn't without other benefits. The village received over 70 Experience Fragments in taxes and 3 were given to him as the Lord.

He spent one thousand six hundred Experience Fragments and they gave him back three? What a slap in the face!

It was already late when Cheng Yang left the Alchemy Tower. When he did he saw a large crowd outside of the Lumber Mill door trying to look inside. Cheng Yang guessed that a few people must have tried to enter and had been thrown out by the manager.

he knew that if a manager didn't like someone they wouldn't act civilized. They would just sweep their hands and have you thrown directly out of the store. Even in his past life no one knew the limits of the managers. A few people had even tried to steal from a store and dropped dead on the spot.

"Yoko this… why is there someone in there?" Liu Hau asked when he saw Cheng Yang, looking as if he had found a life-saving rope.

"Why can't someone be there?" Cheng Yang asked indifferently.

"But th-" Liu Hau was interrupted before he could ask another question.

"Well, Koko, I can't really tell you. Just know that they may not be people from earth and that they still have the same intelligence and emotions as one. Treat them as well as you treat me and it will do you some good in the future."

"What can I gain from that?"

"If one day you have enough to buy something you'll understand immediately."

Liu Hau wasn't a fool and could think of a few things that could mean. Was the benefit that they could buy goods at all? Were the people who offended the manager not allowed to buy things?

Liu Hau smiled bitterly. "But none of these people offended him, why were they still driven out? I didn't even dare try and go inside."

"These civilians? They don't even have a single Experience Fragment, that's why they were kicked out. The people in the stores worship money. If you have enough, they'll treat you like a god."

"Really?" Liu Hau hesitated at the door of the Lumber Mill.

"You won't know if you don't go in."

"Okay, I try it." Liu Hau threw his hands up before walking into the Lumber Mill. Twenty seconds later he still hadn't been thrown out.

Before the rest of the crowd tried to enter the building Cheng Yang made an announcement. "The stores are only for Professionals, if you don't have one you can't join in on the fun." Most of the crowd dispersed and Cheng Yang explained Professions to the Professionals. He told them what types of Professions there were and the details about Profession tests.

"In addition, if you want to be able to take the Profession test then you need to buy something worth at least ten Experience Fragments. Alright, that's everything." Cheng Yang then left the soldiers of Phoenix Village to decide which Profession they wanted. It was a matter of personal preference and he didn't want to impose his will on them. It would affect their productivity if they didn't enjoy the Profession they had.

After his speech Cheng Yang dropped his alchemy tools off at his house then left the village. His goal was to fight a large monster horde on his own. Since he had so many potions now he wouldn't have to worry about running out of Mana mid-battle.

Of course, it would be great if he could find some alchemy components tonight as well but he didn't have any hopes for that. Finding monsters in the long grass wasn't hard but to find a few specific plants wasn't easy, especially at night.

Cheng Yang spent a couple minutes quickly rushing outside the territory boundary and into the forests beyond.

He ran a couple kilometers away from the village walls and arrived at a location that had never been patrolled by the village soldiers. The level of danger here was high since there would be dozens of medium monster hordes and even a couple with several hundred.

Originally Cheng Yang was going to leave the smaller hordes to his soldiers later but in order to avoid accidents tonight he decided to take care of them.

After successfully destroying two smaller monster hordes Cheng Yang came across one with over 300 monsters in it.

During the day he had killed a horde of the same size but the tactic he had used was just too slow. He would kill a few then run away and recover. This kind of guerrilla warfare just wasn't very efficient.

The situation now was totally different. He had enough potions, and Cheng Yang was a very practical person. After seeing the horde of Graveseekers, he charged towards them, unleashing a Magic Missile that ended the life of an unwary Graveseeker.

Cheng Yang didn't show mercy and continuously rained down attacks while retreating at a slow pace..

After losing a few of their numbers, the leader of the Graveseeker horde realized they were under attack. It let out a baby-like scream and the entire horde rushed towards Cheng Yang.

Cheng Yang slightly accelerated, although it was still far below his top speed. He was now retreating at the same speed that the Graveseekers were advancing at.

When the horde had lost a tenth of its members, Cheng Yang ran out of Mana. Cheng Yang immediately reached into the bag on his back and drank a Mana Recovery Potion.

A refreshing coolness permeated Cheng Yang's body. The fatigue of the day melted away and Cheng Yang's Mana began to replenish.

Cheng Yang only paused for seven seconds before firing Magic Missiles again. That was all it took for Cheng Yang's Mana to be completely refilled. Thanks to his new Innate Ability, Cheng Yang's potions were twice as effective. The Standard-Grade potion originally wouldn't have been enough to fully restore his Mana, but now some of it was wasted.

The slaughter continued as Cheng Yang annihilated an Elite Standard-Order monster, driving the others into a frenzy.

The Graveseekers continued to run at Cheng Yang with red eyes like a swarm of bees, incapable of assessing whether this was a fight they could win. Just like that they condemned themselves to the fate of becoming Experience Fragments for Cheng Yang.

After the battle, Cheng Yang checked his harvest. He had gained 314 Experience Fragments but only used 7 potions. Since the potions cost a total of 56 Experience Fragments, his net gain was only 258. Although this might seem like an unreasonable cost, if you considered how much longer it would have taken otherwise, it was well worth it.

When he took care of a horde of the same size earlier, he had needed an hour, an army, and extreme focus. Now it just took 7 or 8 minutes for him to do it alone without feeling stressed at all. Tonight he would only be able to deal with two more large hordes using this method.

This was because Cheng Yang didn't have a Spacial Ring yet. If he did he could just buy as many Mana Recovery Potions as he could and slaughter his way across the forest.

This was Cheng Yang's unique advantage. Even large hordes were completely incapable of pressuring Cheng Yang. If that god saw how well Cheng Yang was doing, they would probably cry.

Of course, Cheng Yang wasn't arrogant enough to believe he had reached the point that he was invincible. Countless powerful people in his last life were capable of achieving the same thing as him but still randomly died in the wilderness. In this new world, there was no way to know when an astoundingly powerful creature would appear out of no where.

In this new world, the most powerful creatures weren't monster but rather Ascendants. Monsters were creatures transported into this world that followed certain rules. Their strengths and weaknesses were easily predictable, as were their growth rates. The same couldn't be said about Ascendants. They were animals from before the end of the world that were mutated by the residual energy of the apocalypse.

The strength of an Ascendant was very hard to gauge. Some were weaker than Low-Grade Immature monsters, barely stronger than ordinary animals. As for the most powerful Ascendant seen in his past life, it completely dwarfed the most powerful monster seen. It had been seen killing a Pinnacle-Grade Mature monster with a single casual swipe. A Pinnacle-Grade Mature monster was capable of destroying an entire territory and it was killed just like that!

The strength of Ascendants left humanity quaking in fear. Luckily their numbers were small ,and they mostly stayed away from the areas humanity lived in.