The Reincarnation Pool

"This game is really interesting. The mob is actually stealing the Boss kill from players?"

"Aside from snatching the kill, look at the timing! It's a little too good to be true! That bandit leader's kill was stolen when he had less than 50 HP. That's two [Fireballs] worth of damage. If that bandit goon had been a second too late or too early, he wouldn't have been able to steal the kill."

"You're right. As a mob, the timing of his attack is a little too precise."

"Interesting. Let's create a character and go in."

While Mohai was in awe of the Template Manager's power, the video of him stealing the kill from the players had already started to circulate around the virtual community.

As the earth entered the Ice Age, resources ran low. Except for a handful of Administrators who were still living in the real world, most of the human beings were put into slumber.

To many people, the virtual community was a second reality that revolved around the younger generation.

The mentality of those aged below 15 years old and older than 50 was not strong enough to support their activity in the virtual community for a long time. Even a young adult could not live in the virtual community forever. Usually, a young adult would live in the virtual community for a little more than a decade before they went back to slumber.

They slept, woke up, slept again, and woke up again…

As time flew, a lot of people soon forgot how long it had been. Many of them were not terribly enthusiastic about killing time in a virtual game. Even though this game, Origin, was special, the people did not swarm into the game at first. Instead, they decided to watch the gameplay in the virtual community.

However, the footage of Mohai killing the bandit leader caught their attention and piqued their interest.

On a sunny beach in the virtual community, many young couples were either playing in the water or lying on the sand. Single men were also working hard to locate their next target.

"Who's that beauty? Do you guys know her?"

"Never seen her before, but her legs and her boobs! She exudes the slightly matured bearing of a lady and the elegant temperament of a princess! She's perfect! This is probably the first time that I've come across such an attractive target after roaming Sunny Beach for so many years!"

"Hey, Old Luo, aren't you the veteran playboy? You said you could get your hands on any girls, didn't you? Go run a background check on her!"

"I'm not going to be cannon fodder. Use your *ss and think how could someone like her notice someone like me?!"

A group of young men was sitting under a coconut tree and discussing in whispers as they gazed at a beautiful lady under the parasol ahead of them. 

She was a stranger to them. She was in her mid-20s, yet her unintentional movements screamed of unusual sophistication and elegance. Her appearance alone robbed the guys of their confidence, so they did not even dare to step up to strike a conversation.

It was then that a little girl in twin pigtails hopped over to the beautiful lady. "Mother Sea, Mother Sea! I finally got some news about the matter that you told me to pay attention to! Look at this bandit goon! He evolved into a bandit leader and he's just outside Guggenheim!"

DeepSea received a virtual monitor from the little girl and she glimpsed at the footage. She smiled at the little girl. "Very good, LittleRuri. Rest time is over. Let's get back to the game."

After that, she held the little girl's hand and disappeared from the beach.

"Mother Sea? She has a kid?"

The group of young men was heavily disappointed when they heard the little girl call her mother.

…

'I've got the Mole Rat Soul, but the rest of the monster card is a little troublesome.'

Back in the Abandoned Mining Area, while Mohai collected ores, he killed a mole rat along the way.

Leveling up the access level of his Template Manager required him to collect monster templates. The collection of monster templates was not complicated at all. He just needed to collect a monster's soul and its card, so they could be combined into a template of that specific monster.

The monster's soul was an easy one. By merely killing the required monster, the soul would drop for collection, but the monster card was a little troublesome for Mohai.

As an NPC, he could not get any equipment or items from killing monsters, so the only way for him to get the monster card was from the players.

It would have still been manageable if he required one to two cards, but he needed more than that.

There were three types of monster cards in the game: Bronze Star, Silver Star, and Gold Star. Normal monsters would only drop Bronze Star cards with a rather acceptable drop rate. A player would eventually get Bronze Star cards if he farmed hard enough.

Silver Star monster cards would only drop from Elite monsters and the drop rate was low, but if the player was willing to spend some money, he could still buy it somewhere.

As for Golden Star cards, only Boss monsters would drop them and the drop rate was lower than Silver Star cards. Even if a player had the monster, whether or not he could get a Golden Star card it was still up to his luck.

The first stage of template collection required Mohai to collect 30 normal monster templates, 10 Elite monster templates, and 1 Boss monster template with all the monster templates being below Level 20.

Collecting these many monster cards was not an easy task even for a player, especially in the early stage of the game. Moreover, he was on the monsters' side this time.

However, it was just a little troublesome for Mohai.

Monsters and players did not always oppose each other since they did not just kill each other from day to night. Otherwise, he would not have formed a decent relationship with the Primordial Slime King in his past life. Getting the monster cards was just a matter of time.

Moreover, the process of template collection could also be leveled up. 

As long as he leveled up his template to the Boss template, he would not need the Boss monster card anymore. Choosing the path of leveling the template might be easier than collecting a Boss monster card.

The differences between half of the leveling requirements in the normal template and the Elite template were already vague enough, and Mohai wanted to complain at first. Now, he did not even have the chance to complain because the system did not provide him with any leveling requirement at all! 

However, that was still not the biggest issue.

…

A little over an hour later, Mohai returned to the bandit hideout in the Monolith Stronghold.

The bandit leader who had boasted about his wisdom died before he could achieve his goal, so the entire bandit hideout was occupied by Mohai who had practically sent everyone to their death. He was alone inside the hideout, and as the new bandit leader, how could he not have his own bandit goons?

After he came back to the hideout, he went into the stone house which only the bandit leader could access.

It was dark inside the stone house and there was a black pool in the center.

It was the Reincarnation Pool. 

In Origin, monsters above the Elite level and its subordinates all came from the Reincarnation Pool.

The level of the Reincarnation Pool determines how many men I can have. A Level 1 Reincarnation Pool grants 6 men but I have the buff of Ruler from the Template Manager, so…

Standing beside the Reincarnation Pool, Mohai grabbed a pile of monster souls and two iron ores from his bag to throw inside the pool.

The ores could be stacked in his bag, so when on his way back from the Abandoned Mining Area, Mohai had swept the place clean. He collected almost 300 pieces of iron ores and more than 100 pieces of black iron ores.

Given that they needed two to three days to respawn, the other bandit leaders in the area would never get enough black iron ores.

As for the monster's soul, monsters above the Elite level and Boss monsters could collect the souls of other monsters. Therefore, he could simply kill some monsters and collect their souls in his bag.

Bubbles started to rumble in the Reincarnation Pool, and a dull-looking bandit goon crawled out from it. He then stood behind Mohai with a blank look.

Mohai continued dumping materials into the pool.

He was no stranger to the Reincarnation Pool and might be even more familiar with it than the old bandit leader. Otherwise, he might not have been able to trick the latter to his death using the ores as bait.

The function of the Reincarnation Pool was not just limited to spawning goons. In Mohai's opinion, the pool was more like an alchemy pool. If one threw in related materials, the pool would produce the corresponding items.

Of course, it was also related to the level of the pool and the materials thrown in. After all, the Level 1 Reincarnation Pool could only do so much.

"This is a standard recipe of a soul and two iron ores. Increasing the iron ores will only increase the bandit goon's attack slightly. Hmm, it seems like I shouldn't waste them."

Mohai finally stopped throwing in materials after eight bandit goons stood behind him.

The Ruler ability allowed him to recruit two more men. In the recruiting process, Mohai tried to change the ratio of the materials but eventually realized that there was no need to alter the recruitment recipe at such a low level unless the souls used for recruitment had a higher quality. Otherwise, the attributes of the bandit goons were more or less the same since they were all cannon fodder.

Therefore, Mohai's priority was to increase the level of the Reincarnation Pool.

After reaching Level 2, he could recruit more men, so their attributes would increase. The recruitment recipe would also start to change and his own attribute levels would also increase.

It was not that difficult leveling up the pool to Level 2. It only required 40 black iron ores and a bottle of Magical Spring Water.

"Follow me!"

With eight goons following him, Mohai left the bandit's hideout.

He already had sufficient black iron ores and he also knew where to get his hands on the Magical Spring Water. He remembered there was also an Elite monster near the spot, so he could not just take as many bottles as he wanted.

However, as a Reincarnated with eight goons behind him, if he could not deal with an Elite oN the same level, he might as well choke to death on a piece of tofu!