51

The current Captains would become Generals and their Vice-Captains would become Commanders. They had already proven themselves confident so it was the natural conclusion.

Cheng Yang didn't immediately make those appointments, giving the Captains a chance to pick out the new soldier candidates.

They planned to have a surge in personnel. Each brigade would add a hundred and twenty people to their ranks, increasing the total number of soldiers in the village to seven hundred and twelve. Once they filled all of the slots for each class change statue, the number of soldiers serving the territory would exceed the Phoenix Village from Cheng Yang's past life.

Currently, the territory didn't have enough Experience Fragments to immediately perform class change ceremonies for eight hundred and forty soldiers. Unless Cheng Yang asked the current soldiers for donations, there just wasn't a way to quickly gather enough Experience Fragments. In order to gather enough, most soldiers wouldn't be able to train tonight and their savings would be wiped out.

It was better to just wait since there wasn't a dire need for soldiers right now. All they had to do was wait for the new soldiers to pay back their debts and the problem would be solved with time.

Fortunately, it was close to midnight, which meant the Blood Soaked Cathedral instance dungeon would soon reset and the territory would be able to earn a significant number of Experience Fragments.

Cheng Yang didn't need to handle the bothersome task of performing class change ceremonies nor distributing tools to Loggers. Old Lee was put in charge of class change ceremonies while Yu Kai was lent the money needed to buy tools.

Cheng Yang was the strongest fighter in the territory so it was better for him to gather as many Experience Fragments as possible.

Cutting down trees at night wasn't safe, so that night Cheng Yang was the only person in the forest.

Cheng Yang swept through the forest like a storm and was able to earn one thousand two hundred Experience Fragments. Additionally, he leveled up his Magic Missile skill again. His overall damage bonus was now 21%. As for his other skill, Wind Bondage, the experience bar only increased by 10%. It would take quite a while for Cheng Yang to improve it.

The Wind Bondage skill was very practical, especially for someone as accurate as Cheng Yang. If he had been able to use this skill yesterday, the fight against the Elite Blood Gehenna commander wouldn't have gone so poorly.

When Cheng Yang returned to Phoenix Village he didn't see any of his Generals. Even in his absence, they were quite busy so he didn't worry about it and directly entered the Blood Soaked Cathedral instance dungeon.

When Cheng Yang left the instance dungeon, he came face to face with Liu Hau.

"Yok-… My Lord. You mentioned in the past that the number of times we could use the instance dungeon everyday would increase with use, but even after clearing it several times everyday, why has nothing changed? I can only bring four people with me into the instance dungeon and I can tell that those left behind are heartbroken."

"You're always so impatient Koko." Cheng Yang snorted, "You need to clear it at least fifty times before it will upgrade again."

"That's not too bad. We should be able to accomplish that in… six days?" Liu Hau concluded after some quick finger math.

"We shouldn't need that long since I've also been clearing the Hard Difficulty. In five days, as long as we keep clearing it, the number of daily runs will double."

"Just doubled?" Liu Hau frowned, "How are we supposed to get enough equipment for everyone if so few people are able to run it?"

Cheng Yang chuckled when he heard that. "If you aren't satisfied, why don't you go find another instance dungeon? If you don't want to, just be patient and wait for this one to upgrade."

Liu Hau could only sigh. Even he was able to tell that it was unrealistic for a single instance dungeon to supply equipment for the whole territory.

"By the way, my Lord," Liu Hau said eyeing Cheng Yang's outfit, "Do you have a full set of Black Iron equipment?"

Cheng Yang shook his head. "Not even close, I have nine out of ten slots filled but only five pieces are Black Iron grade. As for Alchemist equipment, I haven't gotten a common grade one even after clearing Hard three times! The drop rate is just abysmal."

Thanks to his amazing equipment, Cheng Yang attributes were very impressive. Most of his stats were boosted by at least one or two with his Physical Defense being the most impressive. Unfortunately, although his Physical Defense had increased substantially, it was only effective if the enemy hit a spot covered by the armor.

Cheng Yang took a bronze buckler off of his back and handed it to Liu Hau. "Here, my luck was pretty good during this run and the Boss dropped this shield. It'll definitely be useful to you."

When Liu Hau glanced at the stats his eyes nearly popped out. "My Lord, how could this humble servant dare to-"

Cheng Yang sent a sharp kick towards Liu Hau's butt before he could finish his dramatic speech. "Knock that off! Take the damn thing and don't you dare sell it."

Liu Hau nimbly dodged the kick and walked off while laughing.

Cheng Yang shook his head. He was helpless in front of Liu Hau's temperament.

Obviously, the buckler's stats were pretty amazing, otherwise Liu Hau wouldn't have acted like that.

Humble Bronze Buckler

This shield was forged by the legendary blacksmith Hundred Refined Steel when he was an apprentice

Grade: Black Iron

Class: Warrior

Requirements: Low-Grade Apprentice

Durability: 80/80

Effect: Increase Physical Defense by 3

Effect: Damage Reduction of 4

Damage Reduction was the unique attribute shields possessed. The effect is similar to that of the Physical Defense attribute but with some key differences. Take for example Liu Hau's new shield. If he were to block an attack that dealt eight damage, it would be reduced by six thanks to his Physical Defense of six. After that, the remaining two points of damage would be absorbed by the shield. Even though the shields durability will be reduced by a proportional amount, it was the only way to reduce an attack's damage to zero. Any other class, even if they had a Physical Defense in the thousands, would still take at least one damage.

After that, Cheng Yang took care of his daily chores. He needed to start any new research that he could then resupply on potions. Some of them were brewed using his Alchemist Profession and the rest were purchased from the Alchemy Tower. As usual, he had one of his soldiers carry most of them while keeping a few in his bag.

That morning, he used up all of his energy making Mana Recovery Potions but he wasn't able to sustain his use with just those, hence, why he still needed to buy a majority of them from the NPC manager.

Cheng Yang looked at the soldier's arms stuffed with bottles and couldn't help but smile. He was still too poor right now, or he would buy a Spacial Ring.

Although they were sold in the Grocery, the smallest one cost ten thousand Experience Fragments. Considering how many expenses the territory had, buying one was too much of a luxury.

Even if Cheng Yang had enough Experience Fragments to buy one right now, he wouldn't. He could always pay some soldiers to carry his things so it was better to unlock a faster training speed. Of course, Cheng Yang wouldn't mind buying one in the future when he had a surplus.

After packing up, Cheng Yang planned to lead mostly the same group as last time into Cloud City. Although many of them had already visited the two locations given to Old Lee, they were still useful when navigating the city. Even though the terrain in the city had changed, the people who had lived there in the past were able to recognize various landmarks and guide the group.

Last night, the five brigades appointed all of their leadership positions and several of them were held by members of the group going to Cloud City, including the generals Yu Kai, Liu Hau, and Lau Hui. Fortunately, the structure of their military was organized in such a way that filling those absences for a day was simple.

Cheng Yang would have brought Old Lee as well but he needed the general to stay behind to perform class change ceremonies. Increasing the size of the army was undoubtedly the territories main task so Cheng Yang attached great importance to it.

When the group entered the city, they stayed close to the ravine on the West side and followed it, heading North. This was both to bypass the Western part of the city and observe the situation on the Western Bridge.

Since Cheng Yang had obtained a skill scroll when he cleared the Southern Bridge, he had been obsessed with clearing the other three. Although most of the rules that governed this new gamified world were unknown, one key element had been discovered in Cheng Yang's past life: everything was consistent. Since each of the bridges had a large horde guarding them, finding a treasure on one meant that all of the others must have one as well.

Although it may have been a fluke that a skills scroll had appeared at the Southern Bridge, Cheng Yang was willing to at least check the other bridges for treasure.

However, treasure wasn't the only reason Cheng Yang wanted to clear the Western Bridge. What he really wanted was to open up a path to the West.

Cheng Yang knew that there were three Territory Altars surrounding Cloud City. Cheng Yang had claimed one and if he was quick enough he could claim another while they were still free.

Of the two remaining Territory Altars, one was a few kilometers northeast of Cloud City.