Calamity Messenger-Chapter 64 - 51: Unexpected Encounter

On the first day, no milestone information was triggered. It was triggered only on the second day, and the reason was obvious: Jiang Shi’s level met the minimum threshold to unlock the milestone for this instance.

These milestones don’t require extra effort from players; they can be achieved through normal gameplay. Yan Qing speculated that if the player level was even higher, like level 40 or 70, some fancy milestones might be triggered, which might require players to build only the lowest-level structures to pass the high-difficulty stages later.

If he visits Mansu Forest Land again next year, he might have a chance to verify this speculation.

Yan Qing first checked the highest milestone, ’Lord of the Forest,’ and his eyes lit up instantly.

"Lord of the Forest: When there are over a thousand trees within a kilometer radius, for every 10,000 points in theoretical damage from your token, 1 point of real damage is added, with a maximum of 10 points of real damage per single attack, with no cooldown time."

It’s actually the noble real damage!

This game, "The Messenger," doesn’t have any tricks; when it says real damage, it means real damage that ignores all rules, even a level 1 player can bleed a level 99 max-level player. But real damage is extremely rare, and basically no tokens can cause real damage, and attempting to deal real damage usually requires meeting extremely stringent conditions.

Like this Lord of the Forest, a thousand trees are not hard to satisfy for players above the seventh turn immortals; there are plenty of tokens that can create an oasis in the desert, but the difficulty lies in how to prevent enemies from destroying the trees.

However, if there happens to be a high-level instance situated in a jungle like Mansu Forest Land, this milestone is simply unbeatable. As long as players switch to tokens with fast enough attack speed and meet the minimum damage threshold, they can use real damage to obliterate all monsters within the instance.

Such powerful milestones only appear in time-limited instances, ensuring event-driven traffic while avoiding the overabundance of real damage that could upset the game’s balance.

Yan Qing continued to look at the three simpler milestones in front, and sure enough, their effects were considerably lower.

"Bronze/Silver/Gold Hunter: When there are over a hundred trees within a kilometer radius, for every 100 points in theoretical damage from your token, 1 point of real damage is added, with a maximum of 1/2/3 points of real damage per single attack, with a built-in cooldown time of 1 second/0.5 seconds/0.3 seconds."

The requirement drops from a thousand trees to a hundred trees, and the damage threshold decreases from 10,000 to 100, but the real damage also lowers to 1~3 points, plus there is cooldown time, restricting the real damage output per second, unlike Lord of the Forest which has unlimited possibilities. However, in terms of practicality, Yan Qing thinks these three milestones are better than Lord of the Forest.

Because when players achieve these three milestones, they are usually below level 70. At that time, most enemies do not possess world-clearing destruction power, and players can stably trigger this milestone by finding jungle terrain.

As he returned to the game, the other three teammates were already gone.

They had allocated their respective collection areas last night, and now it’s crucial to race against time in Mansu Forest Land. The 45 minutes may seem ample but are insufficient to clear out all the surrounding resources.

After a simple search, Yan Qing quickly found a pile of gemstones and crystals, and even found a stone mine. Attacking the stone mine once will cause a heap of collectible stones to fall, about three times more than wild stones.

However, these resource points shift every round, and the crystal mines discovered previously by Yan Qing were no longer there.

Five minutes later, Yan Qing discovered that the terrain further into the jungle was no longer grassland but super grassland full of meter-high weeds, slowing Jiang Shi’s movement speed by 70%, barely increasing even when running.

This marks the boundary between players.

Going further will certainly yield more abundant resources, but players without terrain-ignore abilities or scouting skills will explore much slower. The higher the player’s level, the greater the benefits in this segment, causing high-level players to feel they have a significant advantage in this instance and thereby gain a sense of superiority.

This is a very important design for the game, even though it’s an activity instance encouraging players of all levels to participate, players inevitably need to spend time and effort leveling up. If high-level players have the same gaming experience as low-level players, it may lead to frustration among high-level players. It’s often said that while giving a slap, one also offers a sweet date. This instance begins by limiting all players’ output capabilities, already causing dissatisfaction, so there must be ways to make high-level players feel delighted elsewhere.

Jiang Shi may not have terrain-ignore abilities, but she has the White Iron Straight Saber.

With the Moon Ring Slash leading the way, Yan Qing quickly discovered a gemstone mine, followed by a series of resource appearances. If the resource density in the grassland area is 1, then the density in the weed area is at least 5.

While picking them up, Yan Qing suddenly noticed a stone seat resembling an altar not far away. As he approached it, he saw a groove on top of the seat, engravings on the bottom, the seat emanating a purple glow, mysterious and solemn. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

"You have discovered the ’Spirit Gathering Stone Seat’."

"Spirit Gathering Stone Seat: Place a common token into the seat to enhance it into a rare token."

Oh?

Yan Qing widened his eyes at the sight of this thing, thinking, do "The Messenger" players have it this good?

Such an encounter would be considered a mini-adventure in a single-player game yet somehow appears in an MMORPG? And not only effective within the instance but offered as a permanent reward.

Though it only upgrades from white to rare, players can easily get high-level white tokens, and assembling an entire set of orange legendaries is something for graduation. Obtaining a rare token exceeding one’s level can make early exploration much more comfortable.

Unfortunately, Yan Qing had no high-level tokens, besides the White Iron Straight Saber in the inventory, there were Ye Si’s Evil Ghost Mask and Jiang Shi’s newly acquired Guardian Jade Pendant. First, the White Iron Straight Saber is excluded, as defensive tokens are more important than offensive ones; secondly, the Evil Ghost Mask is excluded because it’s ugly.

A few seconds later, the purple glow of the stone seat dissipated, clearly unable to be used again.

A jade pendant radiating blue light appeared on the screen —

"Yu Gong Jade Pendant"

"Grade: First-turn rare"

「Durability: 80/80」

「Equipment Requirement: 10 points of Spirit Power」

「Effect · Guardian Spirit Shield: When you receive an attack dealing damage equal to or greater than 20 points, the Guardian Spirit Shield with 100 health points will be automatically activated to block this damage, consuming 2 points of Spiritual Power. If triggered continuously five times within 5 seconds, the Jade Pendant will enter a dim state, rendering all effects invalid for 15 seconds.」

「Effect · Yu Gong People: When you receive an attack dealing damage less than 20 points, the damage is reduced by 5 points. This effect applies to all additional damage effects (bleeding, burning, frostbite, etc.). Activating Yu Gong People requires the consumption of 5 points of Spiritual Power, and 1 point of Spiritual Power is consumed every 15 minutes.」

「Effect · Yu Gong’s Soul: The more damage you endure in the state of Yu Gong People, the greater the increase in Spirit Power when you level up.」

「Evaluation: ’Thanks to the invention of this Jade Pendant, even the weakest messengers of the Yu Gong Sect can now go mining and work.’」

What can be said, the Jade Pendant is a good one, the first two effects are decent, the third effect is just a bonus. But with a rare token being so practical, who needs a bicycle?

It’s just that the evaluation of this token seems quite amusing, like seeing an evaluation in a child’s protective gear that finally allows kids to participate in free combat...

After encountering the Spirit Gathering Stone Seat, Yan Qing searched more eagerly, but until 35 minutes passed, she hadn’t found a second building similar to the Spirit Gathering Stone Seat, though she picked up plenty of resources. With only 10 minutes left until the first wave of attacks, she had to return.

Back at the Shelter, everyone had already piled up mountain-like resources in the yard. Without much conversation, Yan Qing directly began construction - having discussed throughout the entire day yesterday, they had already decided on the order of building.

The first thing to construct is not statues, weapons, or resource re-production buildings, but the Shelter!

With the Blade Warrior statue there, there’s no worry about the first wave of attack, and the higher the level of the Shelter, the more buildings can be unlocked. Everyone agrees that the Wooden Crossbow Catapult and other equipment can only handle the first two waves of attack, and only building advanced statues is the optimal solution for the Mansu Forest Land!

「Shelter Level: Level 1 Stone House → Level 2 Bunker」

Yan Qing took a glance at the resource situation and discovered that they could continue constructing an even higher-level Shelter. After a brief discussion, Yan Qing upgraded the Shelter again, and a small stronghold with stone walls rose up. Besides the rooms inside the stronghold, now they could also walk on the battlements, launching attacks from high ground, without needing to construct walls, as the walls automatically repair after each battle.

「Shelter Level: Level 2 Bunker → Level 3 Stronghold」

「Buildable Capacity: 1/18」

「Option to Upgrade——」

「Shelter Upgrade · Castle: Requires 50 wood, 50 stone, 10 gemstones, 10 mercury, 10 crystal, 10 sulfur」

「Defense Facility · Arrow Tower: Requires 20 stone. You can now build two Arrow Towers on the stronghold, and they do not occupy building space; the Arrow Towers will not be destroyed unless the exterior walls of the stronghold collapse, and they can be upgraded later.」

「Defense Facility · Moat: Requires 10 wood. A moat can be dug outside the stronghold walls to slow down the speed of hostile creatures; it cannot be destroyed and can be upgraded later.」

「Academic Facility · Study Room: Requires 10 gemstones, 10 mercury, 10 crystal, 10 sulfur. The study room makes your building more efficient, reducing resource requirements for all facilities by 10%. Upgradable later.」

「Academic Facility · Heroic Spirit Hall: Requires 30 wood, 30 crystal. The number of statues built randomly each round increases to three. Upgradable later.」

「Functional Facility · Market: Requires 10 wood, 10 stone. Allows you to convert resources.」

「Attack Facility · Bronze Warriors: Requires 10 wood, 10 stone, 1 mercury.」

「Attack Facility · Silver Warriors: Requires 15 wood, 15 stone, 1 gemstone.」

「Random Statue This Round · Narcissus Mermaid Statue: Requires 5 crystal, 20 gemstones.」

「Blade Guard Statue (upgraded from Blade Warrior): Requires 60 crystal, 60 sulfur, occupies a building capacity increase to 3.」

There’s also the previously mentioned Wooden Crossbow Catapult Guardian Stone, which will not be repeated here.

After upgrading the Shelter twice, there were still plenty of resources left, and because of the tight time, Yan Qing directly made a suggestion. After receiving recognition from her teammates, she pressed the sacred build button.

「’Study Room’ construction completed.」

「’Narcissus Mermaid Statue’ construction completed.」

The thick fog descended, the first wave of attack arrived, but there was no need for them to take action; the Blade Warrior and Narcissus Mermaid were enough to clear out the monsters.

The stronghold was so much better than the stone house; inside, it was not only spacious but also furnished, with candles lit everywhere, and even a huge fireplace where everyone sat around. If it weren’t for the occasional sounds of monsters being torn apart outside, just judging by the scene, you would think it was a gathering of beautiful young women.

「Everyone.」

Qian Gongyu walked to the front facing the crowd, trying to suppress her pride as much as possible, but her silly smile while speaking fully exposed her sanctity as before: 「I just had a secondary career change.」