The Era of Gods

Chapter 256: Capital Accumulation (Part 2)

Feeling wonderfully good, he returned to his dormitory. As soon as he entered, he received an encrypted message from the class advisor, which would automatically delete once he finished reading it. He lightly touched it with his finger, and an image slowly unfolded before him.

Compared to the information obtained from his girlfriend, the details sent by Jin Sisi concerning the ‘Ruins of Myriad¹ were very complete and specific.

Firstly, this event posed certain dangers to individuals as well as Clans.

Individually, one could choose either True-Body Descend or Avatar Descend, meanings that were self-explanatory.

These two modes focused on two points, with the first being on strength; True- Body Descend is naturally stronger, as it involves descending with one’s True Body.

The second point…

But before that, let’s talk about the game mode.

Yes, the participation mode for the Ruins of Myriad is similar to a game, where all participants need to engage in Projection Descending into an unknown plane. Each person initially has a Level o Summoning Core, which, just like in games, has a population limit. Within this limit, one can summon members of their Clan to descend on the current plane to fight, explore, collect resources, summon more Clan members, defeat the monsters in the ruins to gain treasures, and eliminate other opponents.

Like in some games, all Clan members occupy different amounts of population based on their strength and size.

To put it simply, a Small Fishman only takes up one population slot, so with a hundred population, you could summon a hundred of them.

But if it’s a Dwarf, it takes up two population slots, so with a hundred population, you could only summon fifty.

If it’s a Naga, it directly occupies four, five, or even more population slots. If it’s a Black Dragon, it might directly take up forty or fifty slots.

The summoned Clan members descend in their True Bodies, so if they die in battle, they’re truly dead.

However, in the ruins, defeating monsters or collecting from treasure chests may grant a chance to obtain Soldier Cards, which can activate the summoning of different troops to participate in battle. In addition, there’s a very small chance to obtain various Soldier and Monster Nest cards, which, when installed in the Summoning Core, allow summoning of various troops.

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If one feels that the risk is too large, they may choose not to summon any Clan members and instead summon various Soldier Cards to fight.

However, correspondingly, whether Soldier or Nest cards, the creatures summoned are similar to Puppets, almost devoid of intelligence and capable only of executing simple operations and commands. Their combat power is also fixed, and there are no powerful troops among them; most are low-level troops and Nests. Higher-level ones are not only extremely rare but are also guarded by incredibly powerful creatures. It’s not easy to acquire them, and generally, they’re not as handy as one’s Clan members.

The disadvantage is many, but there’s one advantage: if they die, you won’t feel sorry since they can be used as Cannon Fodder.

After reading the information, a familiar memory quickly emerged in Lin Xiao’s mind—wasn’t this the same as a game called ‘Heroes of Might and Magic’ that he played before he transmigrated?

Getting back to the point about the second focus of the Descend mode, because the game rules are similar to Heroes of Might and Magic, participants descending as players automatically gain the identity of a Hero.

The Hero templates obtained through True-Body Descend and Avatar Descend are different.

According to the rules of the game, Divine Territory Players descending with their True Body gain Hero bonuses: for each point of Divinity is equivalent to one point of strategic attribute, freely distributed among the four strategic attributes of Constitution, Strength, Agility, and Intelligence, which can enhance all of one’s Clan members.

For example, Lin Xiao, with twenty points of Divinity, is equivalent to twenty strategic attribute points. If he allots ten points to Strength, then all the troops he leads will receive a Strength +10 bonus, equivalent to the enhancement of a top Ancient Treasure.

Isn’t that terrifying?

Combining strong inherent abilities with the fearsome Hero bonus, someone like him descending with their True Body would be nearly unstoppable in the early stages. Even leading a group of Cannon Fodder could sweep through opponents, quickly amassing enough resources to gather a powerful army and gain a huge advantage.

However, doing so means one must bear the risk of True-Body Descend.

As said before, this game is risky, and it’s possible to eliminate other players. If you die in the game, whether at the hands of powerful monsters, native Heroes, or other players, you’ll fall for real.

If one forgoes True-Body Descend in favor of Avatar Descend, naturally the same fearsome strength and strategy attribute bonus won’t apply.

The Incarnation has as much strength as it has, and strategic attributes can only be calculated based on the Divinity Level of the True Body. The initial strategic attributes are equal to the Divinity Level of the True Body.

This was why the class advisor wanted him to raise his Divinity Level to Rank 4 before the midterm exams; the goal was for him to Avatar Descend.

Speaking of this, Lin Xiao realized he currently had eight points of Divinity. Based on the rule that he needed to refine ten points of Divinity to convert into one point of Rank 4 Divinity, he was short by two points.

“I’ll exchange for two points with the class advisor later!”

He wasn’t sure if he would True-Body Descend or Avatar Descend, but rounding up to Rank 4 Divinity was definitely the right move.

The information provided by Jin Sisi was extremely thorough and covered almost all the details of the upcoming midterm examinations.

Besides the game rule information, what caught Lin Xiao’s attention most was the list of participants for the opening of the Ruins of Myriad this time.

As an opportunity well-known throughout the entire Main World, the participants included not just the ten elite students from Radiance but also numerous Colleges from all four major forces of the Main World, as well as the descendants of top-tier forces and Clans. Based on the situation over the years, each session usually had no less than twenty to thirty thousand participants, and at times, the number even reached fifty to sixty thousand, encompassing participants from all four major forces.

Therefore, to stand out in such a situation, one must possess extraordinary strength, superior-than-average luck, and ruthlessness.

When competing with students from other forces, one cannot afford to be soft-hearted. When it’s time to strike, one must do so without hesitation, even if the opponent has descended in their True Body.

Inside the Ruins of Myriad, bloodshed is permitted, as well as the complete elimination of one’s opponents.

After reading through all the information, when he flipped through the last page, the material automatically vanished.

Lin Xiao, sitting in his chair and leaning against the backrest as he gazed at the ceiling, fell into deep thought—should he descend as his True Body or send a Projection?

The recently auto-deleted material contained detailed information about the Treasures of Myriad. According to the documents, the Divine Treasure of Myriad could be ignored, as even his homeroom teacher didn’t recommend going for it. Instead, she advised him to seize at least one of the Treasures of Myriad, and if possible, one of the All-Embracing Mysterious Storehouse.

Tens of thousands of people vying for a fraction of a hundred treasures—this difficulty…

What Lin Xiao agonized over was precisely whether he should take such a risk.

With his current strength, descending as a Projection offered no advantage, but descending in his True Body would give him enough edge to reach the end, provided he seized opportunities for swift growth early on, increasing his chances to snatch a treasure later significantly.

But the risk was also greater. As a powerful being who could potentially claim a treasure and has descended in his True Body, he would undoubtedly become a target for others to gang up on.

Ordinary Projections Descending were not his match, but if their numbers were high enough, that would become troublesome.

After much hesitation and unable to make a decision, he contacted his homeroom teacher for advice. The answer he received left him speechless.

She didn’t provide him with suggestions but only provided a set of data:

“In the session before last last last, there were over forty thousand contestants, of which more than two thousand one hundred descended in their True Body. Less than one hundred survived in the end.”

“In the last last session, there were over thirty thousand contestants, of which one thousand six hundred fifty-five descended in their True Body. Less than one hundred survived in the end.”

“In the last session, there were over thirty-five thousand contestants, of which more than one thousand three hundred descended in their True Body. Less than fifty survived in the end.”

This set of data, with varying numbers of participants, had a survival rate at most less than one hundred people and at least fewer than fifty—this probability was considerably low.

What ultimately made Lin Xiao make up his mind was the fact that each session saw the fall of candidates on the secondary list of exceptional talents, and in one particular session from the previous five, two candidates from the secondary hero list perished, with more than forty formidable individuals from the secondary list of either exceptional or notable talents altogether having fallen.

Some analyses show that everyone harbors a dark psychology—those listed on secondary lists of talents, exceptional talents, or notable talents are naturally targets of jealousy. While descending with a Projection is still manageable since one can’t kill or offend the True Body easily, but if the actual True Body descends…

The data proved that the True Body Descend of top-tier talents suffered the most tragic deaths.

This set of cold, hard facts was like a bucket of cold water poured over his head, extinguishing the tiny impulse within his heart.

Having no choice, he could only exchange the last two Mythical Quality Five Star Cards for two points of Divinity from Jin Sisi and use the Creation Magic Cube to erase the remaining will, as the midterms were only a few days away and there was no time for slow, personal Refining.

When the last of his Divinity was refined, the strength of ten Divinity points merged into one, forming his twenty-first point of Divinity in his Sea of Gods, also his first Rank 4 Divinity point.

At this point, his Divinity finally reached the same Rank as Wu Zhonglin. He was no longer far behind him in this aspect.

Two days later, while in the Divine Realm, focusing on condensing Divinity through his own Divine Power, Lin Xiao received a message from his homeroom teacher to prepare for an afternoon gathering, ready to depart.

The midterm exam that was different for him and the other top-tier students compared to the rest was about to begin.

This departure wasn’t about going to a place, but rather about preparing to split off a Projection to accompany the teacher to descend into the Subspace inside a Super War Fortress, with no need for the True Body to move.

This was quite convenient because Brilliant Super College was within a Super Large God Country, which could leverage the God Country’s power to directly project them into Subspace within a major Void Fortress. They would then transit to the Crystal Wall System where the Ruins of Myriad were located.

When Lin Xiao’s consciousness traveled across who knew how many billion kilometers of Void to appear in Yan Huang No. 2 Super Void Fortress, he opened his eyes to find himself in a room on a Void Ship, sitting on a chair, with a round table in front of him, surrounded by a dozen or so familiar and unfamiliar young men and women.

He exchanged a smile with Shen Yuexin, who was sitting right next to him. Then, quietly under the table, he stretched out his hand, and she timidly reached out her soft hand to let him hold it.

“Humph!”

A familiar cold snort hit his ear like a clap of thunder, jolting him momentarily out of focus,