72: Chapter 72: Ranged Units Begin to Be Enhanced!

"Tian Ming!"

Xu Qin opened the command panel and issued an order to Tian Ming.

"Present."

"Continue attacking the second one. The Troglodyte army should start replenishing the traps and stay vigilant against a counterattack from the Mineral Vein Guardian group. Send any remains you obtain to me immediately."

"Understood."

Xu Qin straightened up and opened the detailed description of the source crystal essence.

[source crystal essence]

[Quality: Legendary (Orange)]

[Type: Universal Auxiliary Material]

[Description: Can be added as an auxiliary material in any operation that consumes materials. After adding, the quality, efficiency, or attributes of the output will be significantly improved. The specific effects vary depending on the operation type.]

[Application Directions:]

Forging equipment: Improves basic equipment attributes and the strength of additional effects.

Technology upgrade: Shortens research time and increases technology bonus values.

Unit conversion: Strengthens the basic panels of converted units.

Hero promotion: Increases hero attribute growth coefficients.

Energy equipment: Improves energy core efficiency.

[Special Note (Undead Race exclusive): Due to the special nature of the Undead Race conversion, converted units can re-enter the Resurrection Platform to absorb source crystal essence energy, permanently increasing their basic stats. The conversion ratio for the essence is 1:100 (1 essence can strengthen 100 unit units). Hero promotion and strengthening require 100 pieces per time.]

Xu Qin stared at the panel, his eyes lighting up.

Good stuff!

It's a universal auxiliary material!

It can be added anywhere, and it makes whatever it's added to stronger.

Plus, the Undead Race units that have already been converted can be stuffed back into the Resurrection Platform to consume the source crystal essence!

The first thing Xu Qin thought of was the Archers and Musketeers.

The Ranged Troops were his core damage output for fighting the Mineral Vein Guardians right now.

If he could boost their panels even further...

"Tian Ming."

"Present."

"Order Chuan Yun to immediately bring all Ranged Troops back to the Floating City. One thousand one hundred and thirty Archers and eight hundred and forty Musketeers—have them all return."

"Master, what about the front line..."

"Pause the attack on the front line for now; let the Minotaurs guard it. The Mineral Vein Guardians are all at the bottom of the pits and won't be able to come out anytime soon."

"Understood."

Five minutes later.

One thousand nine hundred and seventy Ranged Troops of the Undead Race were lined up neatly on the Combat Readiness Platform.

Xu Qin counted and realized he was thirty short of reaching two thousand.

He glanced at the command panel and directly selected thirty Undead Troglodytes.

"You go in too."

Xu Qin opened the Resurrection Platform interface, selected all two thousand units, and clicked [source crystal essence Strengthening].

A system confirmation box popped up.

[Confirm consuming 20 source crystal essence to strengthen 2000 Undead Race units?]

[Confirm]

The grooves of the Resurrection Platform opened wide, and the two thousand Undead units walked in one by one.

Orange light surged from the bottom of the platform, enveloping all the skeletons.

Ten seconds later, the exits on both sides of the Resurrection Platform opened.

Skeleton Elf Archers and Musketeers walked out first.

Xu Qin immediately opened the panel.

"Very good!"

He was very satisfied with the strengthening results.

Then came the thirty Troglodytes.

Their digging speed had also surged significantly.

"Chuan Yun, take your people back. Continue the battle."

Chuan Yun turned around and led the strengthened Ranged Troops back underground.

Xu Qin looked at his inventory.

There were 13 source crystal essence left.

Hero strengthening required 100 pieces per time.

Better save them for now.

He closed the panel and returned to the underground command platform.

...

The effect of the Ranged Troops returning to the front line was immediate.

It took thirty-two seconds from the start of the concentrated fire to deplete the health bar of the second Mineral Vein Guardian.

The true damage increased from 3 to 6, directly doubling the total true damage of over a thousand arrows.

Added to Tian Ming's unchanged magic burst, this meant a pure increase of over a thousand points in DPS.

The third one.

Twenty-eight seconds.

Chuan Yun's [Precision Volley] cooldown finished, and with the three-second speed boost for everyone, the peak damage was terrifyingly absurd.

The fourth one.

The fifth one...

Xu Qin sat on the command platform, watching the red dots in one shaft after another being cleared, while the counter in his hand kept ticking.

Meanwhile,

"Troglodytes! Bring all the remains over here! Hurry!"

Xu Qin jumped directly off the command platform and ran toward the nearest shaft.

Twenty-two Troglodyte heroes were constantly moving remains and repairing traps in the tunnels, escorting the subsequent clearing operations.

Xu Qin stood at the assembly point; as soon as a set of remains was delivered, he collected it.

The orange icon in his inventory kept flashing.

Half an hour later.

The carapace of the last Mineral Vein Guardian shattered at the bottom of the shaft.

Three thousand six hundred and seventy-four sets of remains were all collected into his inventory.

Xu Qin turned around and rushed toward the Floating City.

Forging Area.

Furnace.

Disassemble.

The orange flames burned in the furnace for a full five minutes.

Ding!

[Disassembly Complete!]

[Obtained: source crystal essence × 3674]

Adding the 13 pieces left over from before, he had now accumulated 3687 source crystal essence.

Xu Qin looked at this number and finally smiled.

Three thousand six hundred and eighty-seven pieces of Legendary-grade universal auxiliary material.

Enough for him to boost his combat power by a large margin!

The reason Xu Qin was so cautious was that his target this time was a Legendary-grade mineral vein.

Three hundred and thirty-five Guardians, each with 100,000 HP and a self-revival mechanism.

Was this the entire defensive force?

"Not necessarily..."

Xu Qin stood at the entrance of the Forging Area and muttered to himself,

"The area of this mineral vein is equivalent to twenty Floating Cities, and I haven't even touched the core area yet."

He reopened the underground panorama.

At the core of the mineral vein was a raised crystalline mountain.

"Legendary-grade things would never be so easily occupied by a Lord."

Xu Qin stroked his chin in thought.

Based on the strategy games he had played before, he knew this routine all too well.

The outer mobs let you kill them at will.

When you are happily starting to mine, the BOSS will crawl out from the core area and slap you back to the main interface with one hit.

Moreover, these Mineral Vein Guardians also had a revival mechanism.

What if there was some kind of "Mother Body" in the core area that could continuously refresh the Guardians?

By then, while you were mining in the front, the Guardians would be pouring out from the core area in the back, pincering you...

The thought of that scene was thrilling.

Therefore, Xu Qin made a decision.

He had to take advantage of the fact that there was no movement in the core area to quickly convert the resources on hand into combat power.

If something big really came, at least his team would be able to fight back.

He opened the command panel.

"Tian Ming."

"Present."

"How is the progress on the tunnel trap repairs?"

"The Troglodyte legions are working on it; it is expected to be fully repaired within twenty minutes."

"Good. After the repairs are done, bring the Minotaurs, Blade Guard, Jackal Hunter, Chuan Yun, Shadow, and the twenty-two Troglodyte heroes, and take them all back to the Hall of Valor to find me."

"Understood."

Xu Qin turned around and walked quickly toward the Hall of Valor.