50: Chapter 50 Miracle Treasure and the Abyss Mother Nest

That's right.

Even with newly converted Skeleton Elf Archers and Undead Dwarf Musketeers, there was still the issue of damage reduction when hitting high-defense frontliners.

Now, the situation had completely turned around.

He had over 1,900 ranged units in his hands.

100 units only cost 20 crystals, so at most, he would use 380 crystals to give everyone the Wind-Breaking and Armor-Piercing effects.

Thousands of arrows and ammunition stained with corrosive poison shot out; even if the opposing side was full of heavy infantry wearing plate armor, they would be shot into a sieve.

Following that, with the front-row meat grinder of the Bull, this was true firepower suppression!

"Do it!"

Xu Qin didn't hesitate at all and opened the Undead Forge.

He directly selected [Arrow/Ammunition Infusion].

He selected all Skeleton Elf Archers and Undead Dwarf Musketeers.

[Materials to input: Dark Erosion Crystal × 394, Soul Energy × 3940.]

"Only 4000 Soul Energy? Who are you looking down on?"

Whoosh!

The chimney at the top of the Undead Forge spat out heavy, gray-black mist.

A ripple of dark purple energy spread out, covering the standby ranged phalanxes.

In less than two minutes, the equipment was complete.

Xu Qin immediately opened the bone workshop.

He selected [Building Corrosion Resistance].

He selected all of the dozens of large Bone Wall segments wrapping the inner and outer layers of the entire core area, along with the eight Soul Energy Sentry Towers.

He selected all and confirmed the payment.

One thousand crystals were thrown in, and abyssal energy seeped up along the foundation.

Layers of mysterious black incantations quickly appeared on the surface of the off-white Bone Walls.

Xu Qin watched the crystals in his inventory dwindle to a small fraction and kept cheering.

"Good, good, good!"

"With this, the territory's overall strength can be raised another notch!"

With large meat shields holding the front, powerful assassins cleaning up, all-covering armor-piercing ranged firepower, plus metal-grade city defenses with damage reflection.

Everything was perfectly prepared.

"This time, I can really lie flat."

Xu Qin retreated to the temporary large bed in the corner.

The Sand Rat very sensibly slipped over to the head of the bed to stand guard.

"Wake me up if a red dot enters the thousand-meter alarm line; don't disturb me for anything else."

He didn't know how many hours he had slept.

When the sunlight shone on his face, a few lines of prompts flashed on the side of his vision.

[War Gift progress: 3000 / 3000!]

[Conditions met! Talent level increased!]

[War Gift: Level 9 → Level 10!]

[Effect updated: During battle settlement, all loot quantity × 11. New feature: Miracle Treasure (When battle evaluation reaches S-rank or above, the settlement will trigger an additional special check, randomly dropping one rare undead relic. Relic types include but are not limited to: Special Troop Summoning Contracts, Epic-grade Equipment Forging Blueprints, Abyssal Mutant Bone Seeds, Unknown Undead Building Fragments, High-Purity Resource Chests, etc. Relic quality is positively correlated with the battle evaluation level).]

"Hmm? A new feature?"

Xu Qin sat up and rubbed his eyes.

S-rank evaluation drops rare undead relics?

Special Troop Summoning Contracts, Epic Equipment Blueprints, Abyssal Mutant Bone Seeds...

Hiss...

Which of these rewards isn't good?

"Fine, now I have another reason to fight."

Xu Qin closed the talent panel and switched back to the regional map.

The cleanup work of the two armies was still continuing.

The Erosion Beasts scattered within a five-kilometer range were decreasing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Red dots extinguished one after another.

He leaned against the corner of the Bone Wall, crossed his legs, and waited for the settlement.

Half an hour later, the Bull's group was the first to finish clearing the south and was returning.

Tian Ming's group was slightly slower but was also finishing up.

Another twenty minutes passed.

Ding!

[Battle Settlement]

Targets killed: Rift Erosion Beast (Level 15) × 387, Rift Erosion Beast · Elite (Level 18) × 8

Talent [War Gift Level 10] triggered! All loot quantity × 11!

Final gains: Erosion Beast Bones × 4257, Elite Erosion Beast Bones × 88, Soul Energy × 158400, elite soul core × 88, Abyssal Bone Seeds × 88, Dark Erosion Crystals × 440...

Battle Evaluation: B

Upgrade Progress: 340 / 6000

"Normal, S-rank evaluation isn't that easy to get."

Xu Qin wasn't frustrated; instead, he felt it was reasonable.

Fighting a bunch of stragglers two tiers weaker than himself wouldn't yield a high evaluation.

However, the resource intake was quite considerable.

The experience bars of the four heroes also rose a notch.

Tian Ming leveled up to 17.

The Bull to 14.

Blade Guard to 10.

Jackal Hunter to 6.

Xu Qin was just about to put the resources into storage.

Beep!

The command panel popped up a new piece of reconnaissance intelligence.

[Source: Tian Ming Formation · Skeleton Vulture No. 47]

[Location: West by North, about 15 kilometers from the territory]

Xu Qin opened the intelligence.

The screen immediately switched to the high-altitude view of the Vulture.

He saw that at the edge of the yellow sand, a long, narrow crack lay across the ground, estimated to be seven or eight meters wide, with its length extending beyond the field of vision.

The crack hadn't closed, and thick, dark purple demonic energy churned at its edges, seeping out in waves.

It was completely different from the temporary rifts that exploded in the sky when the novice protection period ended that morning.

Xu Qin zoomed in on the image.

The sandy ground on both sides of the crack had already been extensively eroded by the dark purple color.

In the center of the erosion zone lay several huge figures.

They looked the same as the Elite Corrosion Beast he had just fought, just four or five times bigger.

Xu Qin scrolled the screen and began to count.

There were seven in total.

He opened the information of one of them.

[Abyssal Rift Guard · Level 25 (Elite · Rare)]

Attack Power: 120 (Physical - Bite / Dark Erosion)

Defense: 55

HP: 1800 / 1800

Traits:

Abyssal Nest Protection (Passive): When within 50 meters of the rift, Defense + 20%, HP recovery rate + 3%/sec.

Rift Berserk (Passive): When HP is below 40%, Attack Power increases by 50%, and attacks carry area-of-effect Dark Erosion burst.

Hiss...

Xu Qin gasped.

A Level 25 Elite Rare, so fierce?

Subsequently, he moved the screen and looked at a line of text floating directly above the crack.

[Abyssal Rift · Mother Nest]

Mother Nest?

In other words, this wasn't a rift remnant, but a complete monster spawn point.

Xu Qin began to analyze.

Logically, seven Level 25 Elite Guards would definitely not be easy to fight.

And there was also the possibility of encountering a situation where more would spawn.

But the problem was...

What kind of configuration did he have under his command now?

Tian Ming throws a Wither, slashing 55 Defense directly down to 22.

The Bull activates Taunt to hold aggro, with the Broken Rock Armor reducing damage and healing, holding for a dozen seconds wouldn't be a problem.

Jackal Hunter hangs Hunters Mark, increasing the entire army's damage by 25%.

Over 1,900 ranged units all carrying armor-piercing ammo, one volley...

Xu Qin squatted on the ground and started doing math.

Musketeer 40 Attack Power, Archer 34 Attack Power, hitting a target with 22 Defense, plus 25% bonus damage...

A conservative estimate for one volley of damage was over 40,000.

"Seven monsters with 1800 HP..."

Xu Qin suddenly paused.

"Three volleys, and I can take them out!"

Of course, actual combat couldn't be so idealized.

The Nest Protection passive has HP recovery, the Berserk phase has area-of-effect bursts, so he had to consider positioning and kiting.

But what he cared about most wasn't whether he could win.

It was the standard for an S-rank evaluation.

Only by winning against superior numbers, or annihilating the enemy completely, and killing high-level targets.

As long as he could kill these Level 25 Elite Rares, his S-rank evaluation would be firmly in his grasp.