55

Cheng Yang put the Spirit of Ice and Snow into his bag and returned to the group. Since everyone's wounds were fully healed, the only thing left to do was wait for the instance to time out.

"My Lord, you look happy. Did you find something good?" Yu Kai asked.

Cheng Yang tossed the Spirit of Ice and Snow to his friend, "Take a look."

Yu Kai opened the system pane and after taking a look exclaimed: "Unique subclass! Is it powerful?"

"I'm not sure since I haven't become a Cryomancer yet but it definitely won't be weak."

Yu Kai and the other's agreed with Cheng Yang's assessment but none of them had even the slightest desire to fight Cheng Yang for the right to become a Cryomancer. After all, they were only able to obtain the Spirit of Ice and Snow because of Cheng Yang and he was by far the strongest Mage in the territory.

Soon afterwards the instance ended and the group was ejected back into the real world.

Once they were outside, the group continued travelling North. The instance dungeon had been dangerous but the rewards were enormous. Just counting the number of Experience Fragments they gained was impressive not to mention all of the equipment and the invaluable Spirit of Ice and Snow.

"My Lord, are we going to come back to this instance dungeon tomorrow?" Liu Hau asked. After tasting the sweet rewards that the Forgotten Grave had to offer Liu Hau wasn't content with just hunting in the wilderness where the monster spawn rate was so low.

"We won't be able to visit all of the search and rescue locations in the North today so we'll have a chance to run the instance dungeon tomorrow as well. As for after that if I don't have other plans I can bring a group here to run it. Otherwise stay away from it. without five High Grade DPS you're doomed to fail."

Liu Hau wasn't arrogant enough to try and challenge the instance dungeon alone so he was satisfied by Cheng Yang's promise to run the instance when he could. After all, if not for Cheng Yang's skill they wouldn't have cleared the instance earlier.

Until four that afternoon, the group searched Northern Cloud City. The end result was disappointing. After visiting right locations, only two soldiers families had been rescued. Even worse, one soldier's family was confirmed to be dead.

For the third evening in a row, you could see thousands of refugees streaming into Phoenix Village. They were naturally the people Cheng Yang's Cloud City expedition group had saved. With this, the population of Phoenix Village had swelled to fifteen thousand. If you were to measure it by old world standards, it would be classified as a town.

Originally Phoenix Village had been quite crowded, but now there were so many people that the walls physically couldn't contain all of them.

Cheng Yang had planned ahead for this scenario so instead of letting the civilians fight for the right to stay inside the wall, he directly build the Standard Grade Wall.

At the same time Cheng Yang selected the build option, the entirety of Phoenix Village was shrouded in multi-color light, burning around the village in two concentric rings. When the light disappeared Phoenix Village had two layers of walls lined with watchtowers , both of which were thicker than the Low Grade Wall.

Although the wall was still only three meters high in most locations, the watchtowers reached a height of seven meters. With this new wall constructed the total area protected had jumped up to nine square kilometers, more than enough space for fifteen thousand citizens.

Of course, these changes were purely aesthetic, the real value was in the new wall's attributes. Its Defense had doubled and the Damage Reduction had increased to five thousand. Even if a massive horde of Standard Grade Immature monsters surrounded Phoenix Village, the citizens would be completely safe.

This scene shocked the vast majority of the civilians, even if they had seen the construction process of the smaller buildings the impact couldn't compare to a wall being built. This was a wonder they wouldn't forget.

Building the wall consumed five hundred cubic meters of wood, leaving Phoenix Village with precious little. Fortunately, the highest priced item was now out of the way, leaving only the comparatively cheaper shops. Now the only real barrier to leveling up the village was the twenty-thousand Experience Fragment requirement.

Right now the territory didn't have a single Experience Fragment to its name. All of the Experience Fragments it used to have were put towards performing class change ceremonies, after all, the six hundred new soldiers represented a twelve thousand Experience Fragment investment. The only reason they could even afford that was the fact that cost of each soldier would be recuperated in a day. Even so, it would take quite some time to break even with the initial investment.

With all of the territories Experience Fragments loaned out to new soldiers, starting new research for the class change statues was put off until tomorrow. However, since the Priest statue would level up after just one more research objective was met Cheng Yang loaned the territory the needed Experience Fragments.

Low level Priests seemed to be of little actual value, their only use being to save their teammates the cost of a Health Recovery Potion. However, once they leveled up and gained access to stronger skills such as Angelic Inspiration their value would become glaringly apparent.

After the walls were built all of the civilians without a family member in the army were forced into the outer village, the area between the two walls. This decision was made some time ago and although it wasn't "fair", nothing was in this new world.

It took quite a while to move all of the civilians. Not only were there thousands of people but also tens of thousands of pounds of equipment. Most of the refugees had a small collection of items in addition to the quilts, floor mats and mattresses that the rescue teams brought back from Huimin. Without these it wouldn't be odd to find several of the weaker civilians frozen to death in the morning.

None of that mattered to Cheng Yang since he had immediately passed all responsibility to his generals as usual.

Today Cheng Yang had reached a milestone, he had amassed a total of five thousand Experience Fragments. Two thousand were from yesterday while three thousand were from today. Once the loggers and new soldiers paid him back he would be able to collect the Experience Fragments he gave to the old soldiers for training and reach ten thousand! Sixteen times training speed was in reach!

As the civilians were being relocated from the inner village Cheng Yang walked over to the Mage statues and placed the Spirit of Ice and Snow on its pedestal.

When he did, it rose into the air until it was level with the statue's eyes, then it cracked. The endless storm within was released into the world creating a powerful burst of cold air that drew everyone attention.

The storm stopped as abruptly as it started. When Cheng Yang looked back at the statue it was wearing a new circlet inlaid with the Spirit of Ice and Snow.

The system panel of the statue didn't change much, only two new line was added.

Unique Subclasses

Cryomancer [Unassigned]

One of the quirks of a unique class was that the person holding it didn't count towards the number of people holding its base class. That is to say, after Cheng Yang becomes a Cryomancer the territory will be able to perform an additional Mage class change ceremony.

Even though Cheng Yang wasn't able to check the Cryomancer system panel until he became one he didn't hesitate to perform the class change ceremony. Unlike the previous curtains of light that were multicolored, the one that enveloped Cheng Yang now was a pure and icy blue. Cheng Yang felt like he had been dropped into the arctic as his blood froze and his flesh turned into ice.

After a full minute the light disappeared and Cheng Yang felt his body somewhat thaw. With a satisfied smirk he opened up his system pane.

Cheng Yang

Phoenix Village Lord

Class: Mage

Subclass: Cryomancer

Profession: Alchemist

Level: High-Grade Apprentice (9.9%)

Age

Life Span

200

100.8

191.2

Physical Attack

Magic Attack

54.8

Physical Defense

18.6

Magic Defense

8.6

Attack Speed

Movement Speed

Innate Abilities

Receive 40% more stats in the Magic Attack attribute when you level up

When Lord of a territory, all building effects are increased by 30%

Movement speed is increased by 150%

Perfect Medicinal Body: All potions effects are doubled and the side effects are halved

Frozen Flesh: Physical Defense is increased by 50%

Icy Mind: Mental Defense is increased by 50%

Skills

Meditation (High-Grade): Meditate to absorb experience fragments and level up

Hibernation Chill (Low Grade): Freeze the air around an opponent greatly slowing them | Duration: 2 sec | Cost: 8 Mana | Cast Time: 0.8 sec | Proficiency: 10.0%

Sacrificial Blood Cloud (Low Grade): Gift one of your attributes in full to five allies | Penalty: All attributes are halved | Duration: 10 minutes | Cast Time: 12 sec | Proficiency: 2.1%

Equipment

Wolf King's Sorrow (Black Iron): A stave crafted from the leg bones of the once mighty Wolf King, a Pinnacle-Grade Evolved monster that ruled a pack of millions. Shoddy construction has caused its power to diminish over time | Increases Magic Attack by 4 | Durability: 69/80

Corrupted High Priest's Robes (Black Iron): The robes of the high priest of the St. Luantha cathedral corrupted by demonic magic | Increase Physical Defense by 2 and Mana by 10 | Durability: 48/60

Standard Battlemage Helmet (Black Iron): A helmet mass produced by the Nubines Citadel for its famed battlemage infantry | Increase Mana by 20 and Physical Defense by 1 | Durability: 67/80

Rotten Wooden Ring (Black Iron): Once a powerful artifact, this ring made from a holy tree has been nearly destroyed by demonic energy | Increases Magic Attack by 3 | Durability: 75/80

Crystal Ring (Green Bronze): A simple band ring composed of a single red crystal | Increase Magic Attack by 1 | Durability: 51/60

Sunbeam Necklace (Green Bronze): A necklace bearing a sun motif that was lightly blessed by a holy entity | Increases Magic Attack by 1 | Durability: 55/60

Dire Bear Bracelet (Green Bronze): Warm and fluffy this bracelet was made using the fur from one of nature's fiercest predator | Increases Physical Defense by 1 | Durability: 45/60

Adoril's Gauntlet (Black Iron): One of the last fragments of the mithril armor used by Holy Knight Adoril which is the perfect size to wear as a bracelet | Increases Mana by 10 and Physical Defense by 2 | Durability: 77/80

Iron Ant Boots (Green Bronze): Stylish and practical, these boots were made using hundred of iron ants as sequins | Increases Physical Defense by 1 and Movement Speed by 1 | Durability: 58/60

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