Why is my territory in a 2D anime art style?

Chapter 111 Hunting the Ice Demon

"Boss Sui, what exactly do you mean?"

Fang Si sat blankly at the long table, staring expressionlessly at Sui An: "Can you explain what 'attracting more ice demons to attack the territory' means?"

Fang Si was a little doubtful about life; Sui An had given her such a big surprise after she woke up from her nap.

Not to mention Fang Si, even Wang Hu was completely bewildered at this moment, looking at Sui An with a blank expression.

Ordinary people fear having their territory breached by the Ice Demon, and even those with some strength are afraid of being bankrupted by it, since this thing is really hard to kill unless you can shatter its ice core in one blow to prevent it from reviving.

Moreover, Ice Demons don't drop any materials; even if you get loot, it's just a matter of luck.

For a normal territory, the harvest of one Originium is not even enough to offset the cost of completely killing an Ice Demon.

So, are you so obsessed with Originium that you're practically going crazy?

"Uh~" Sui An didn't expect Fang Si to react so strongly, but he couldn't tell him that he was going to grind monsters to exchange for the golden blueprint.

"Don't get excited yet. I've discovered that killing the Ice Demon has unexpected benefits for my territory, but I can't tell you about them."

"So, I want to kill as many ice demons as possible within a controllable range, that's what I mean."

"There are benefits?" Fang Si's expression changed. He was not a construction engineer, and although he had never heard of such a statement, it seemed unnecessary to use such a thing to deceive himself.

Could it be that his territory truly possesses such a peculiar characteristic?

Thinking of those peculiar buildings, Fang Si suddenly felt somewhat relieved.

After thinking for a moment, Fang Si began to explain to Sui An.

"Based on my experience fighting ice demons in previous years, ice demons are different from ordinary monsters. First of all, their detection range is very small. They basically wander aimlessly. Sometimes they may not attack you even when they are not far away."

"Secondly, it does not experience fear, so it will not run away once a fight breaks out."

"Third, ice demons hate fire. They will become enraged at the sight of flames. Once, when we were overtaken by an ice mist tide outside the city, we discovered that if we raised a torch to explore, it would attract ice demons from afar to attack us. In other words, if you really want to attract more ice demons, fire is the best way."

"However, this approach may not comply with the principle of attraction. If there happens to be a high-level Ice Demon nearby, it may also be angered and attack you when it passes by your territory."

"Therefore, I hope you will consider this carefully, after all, you are not the only one in the territory now."

After Fang Si finished speaking, she sat there quietly.

Sui An's eyes lit up. Fang Si was indeed a combat professional who had ventured out alone. He was not only experienced, but he had even been in the Ice Mist Tide and returned alive.

"Flames, even ordinary flames, would behave like this?"

"That won't work. Ordinary flames will basically be extinguished instantly in the ice mist tide. It would have to be a flame source energy item, or something that actively emits fire attribute source energy fluctuations."

At this point, Fang Si suddenly became serious, looked into Sui An's eyes, and said solemnly.

"Therefore, if it is not necessary, you should avoid using your flaming greatsword. Its energy fluctuations are stronger than those of a level four professional like myself, and it is hard to know what it will attract."

"What! Sword Star can't be used?"

Sui An was suddenly startled. His greatest help in defeating enemies of higher levels had always been the Sword Star Totem.

Now you're telling me not to use it unless absolutely necessary? Does that mean I've lost more than half my strength when facing the Ice Mist Tide?

His face darkened. "Why didn't you say so sooner?"

"I thought you knew—" Fang Si was also surprised that Sui An didn't know about this. He had subconsciously regarded Sui An as a senior lord.

Only then did he realize that this territory had only been upgraded to level 3 for a little over two months, which was far too fast, and there were many things he hadn't experienced yet.

"I'm sorry~"

Sui An sighed helplessly: "It's not your fault. I was careless and didn't do a good job of intelligence gathering."

But he now roughly understands that the source energy flame can increase the Ice Demon's range of activity, and even its own hunting range is not as large as the range stimulated by the flame.

Sword Star should be used if possible, but it will definitely be necessary in critical moments.

Since the method using fire was somewhat dangerous, Sui An had no choice but to choose his own method.

Back in front of his house, he glanced at the projection on the monitoring station. There were many green dots within a 300-meter radius, but many of them quietly passed by his territory on the east and west sides, and were not attracted by his territory at all.

The witch's altar in the courtyard lit up, and an illusion appeared beside him.

This time he didn't use the Enlightenment version, just the initial effect, lasting 5 minutes with a 20-minute cooldown. He had three seats that he could use alternately, with only a 5-minute downtime.

【Permanent Mode】Although it lasts for 10 minutes, the cooldown is as long as 60 minutes, resulting in more downtime.

The illusion flew rapidly towards the outside of the barrier, transforming into its largest size. Sui An controlled it to approach a green dot. The illusion, which normally attracted the hatred of the source beasts from a distance of 20 meters, encountered an unexpected problem this time. It was only when the eight-meter-tall illusion was almost close to the green dot that it was attracted.

It seems that the dense ice fog affected visibility, causing the illusion's ability to attract aggro from a distance to weaken.

"So fast!" Sui An exclaimed. The green dot seemed to fly, covering a distance of 20 meters, and in just a few seconds it traversed to the location of his illusion.

"The Ice Demon moves very slowly under normal conditions, mostly wandering around. But it can use the ice mist to briefly lift itself off the ground, almost gliding. When hunting at full speed, it is extremely fast, and many four-legged creatures cannot outrun it. Only flying source beasts can rival it."

Fang Si's voice came from the side. At this moment, he was on the other side of the watchtower, looking down at Sui An's operation, and was also very curious about what other methods this territory had.

"Hey, hurry up and get it done! I was worried it might be too slow!"

Sui An laughed and manipulated the illusion to accelerate its movement toward the territory. This illusion had no weight; it was merely a projection of a shadow, so it moved very quickly.

In the past, Sui An was worried that moving too fast would cause the source beast to become disconnected and lose its aggro, but now he didn't need to worry about that anymore.

One, two—a dozen green dots were drawn to the passing illusion, relentlessly chasing after it without letting go.

After circling twice and covering more than half of the green dots around his territory, Sui An manipulated the illusion to arrive near the southern wall.

Three elemental statues were specially relocated here, making a total of four with the original one. He kept the remaining two in the triangular position of the territory to prevent any stray ice demons from wandering over.

"Boom~ Boom~ Boom~ Boom~"

The dazzling lightning bolts were released almost simultaneously, and the eight lightning bolts dispersed most of the ice mist in front of them, finally allowing Sui An to see the so-called ice demon's appearance.

These dozen or so ice demons were all different in shape, but all of them had ice-blue bodies. Some had three arms, some had two heads, and some didn't even have a human shape, but looked like a three-headed dog.

Its entire body is black except for organs like the eyes, making it look exceptionally eerie.

"Hiss~ Hiss~ Hiss~"

On the watchtower, the three young children all wore expressions of horror. These ice demons were already strangely shaped, but in this icy fog environment and flashing lightning, they appeared even more terrifying.

The eight small lightning bolts hit their targets, instantly blasting the level one and two ice demons to pieces. Even several nearby ones were shattered by the blast, just like dough figurines being blown apart.

One after another, the dark blue ice cores were exposed, but only four or five ice cores were shattered by the residual force of the lightning bomb, revealing the source stones hidden inside, which fell to the ground along with the intact ice cores.

As the aftershocks of the explosion dissipated, the dense ice fog around them began to roll back. Just as the ice fog completely gathered, Sui An witnessed an unforgettable scene.

The scattered ice cores below surged with light, and countless tiny ice stars gathered in the air toward the ice cores. In just a few breaths, the ice demon had already formed a roughly illusory shape.

"Holy crap, it condensed that fast!"

Sui An was truly convinced. He had thought that he could easily kill the Ice Demon and shatter its ice core by relying on the elemental statue's locking effect.

However, it now appears that the physiques formed by these ice demons are quite strong, and can greatly weaken the aftershocks of the elemental statues' explosion.

"It's not that fast; the higher the level, the slower the condensation." Fang Si's explanation arrived on time.

"So killing this thing using territorial tactics is very troublesome, and in most cases, it's a losing proposition, unless you use a group of people. Professional players are efficient at last-hitting. Do you want me to help you?"

"No! These are all mine. Unless there's something big, don't touch them!"

Sui An refused on the spot. He already thought there wasn't enough of these things, and now that you're trying to take them, I'd be at an even greater loss.

"Okay~" Fang Si shrugged. It seemed that this thing was really useful to Sui An, otherwise he would rarely be so protective of his food.

Sui An nodded, but this matter was not a big problem for him. His goal was not to make money, but to gain merit. He could accept losing a little.

Thinking of this, Sui An adjusted the position of the elemental statues to stagger the explosion sequence of the lightning bolts, so that he could use the explosions of other magic bolts to shatter the ice cores that could not be shattered in one go.

Furthermore, he discovered that if a locked target's body was shattered, but the ice core remained intact, the elemental statue would continue to lock onto the ice core.

However, this will cause a problem: the Thunder Magic Bullet will hit the ground, and the area explosion effect will be much weaker for the still-living Ice Demon.

There's not much that can be done; we can only fight another round to completely eliminate them.

After three more waves of bombardment, all the dozen or so monsters that he had attracted were finally cleared out.

He quickly manipulated the illusion to go for a run again, but the farthest distance the illusion could go was only 100 meters. There were still many green dots on the detection platform that he couldn't reach, which made Sui An feel extremely distressed.

But right now, there aren't any good options; we can only try to make a little money from what we can.

Using this method, the ice demons within a hundred-meter radius of his territory quickly became almost invisible.

Sui An immediately activated the Thousand Winds Barrier and expanded it to its maximum, forcibly pushing away the ice mist and revealing the ground outside the wall.

As you rush outside from the courtyard gate, you see Originium stones of varying sizes scattered sparsely on the ground.

After the group dispersed, they began searching for Originium and any possible loot on the ground.

Five or six minutes later, the group gathered together. This was all the loot dropped by the Ice Demons they had killed since yesterday evening.

1级源石71颗、2级源石33颗、战利品0。

All in all, his merit points barely exceeded one hundred. Sui An shook his head, thinking that hoping to obtain the golden blueprint with such meager gains was as difficult as climbing to the heavens.

Moreover, each illusion requires 34 source stones, and the Ice Demon's harvest is barely enough to cover the cost of the elemental statues, which is a huge loss.

Fang Si frowned, somewhat puzzled, and said softly.

"Although I don't know what your requirements are for the quantity, this is only the second day, and there are still very few ice demons roaming inside. In three or four days, the density will increase significantly. There will also be a blood moon during these days, and that will be the real disaster."

"Yes, I know."

Sui An put the source stone into his core, and the group returned to the courtyard. Sui An didn't let them linger and told them to go about their own business.

Forging, alchemy.

Looking at the Sword Star Totem beside him, Sui An had the urge to raise it several times to try it out. With the fire attribute energy fluctuations of the Sword Star, it was definitely much stronger than the torch that Fang Si and the others had mentioned.

But precisely because it is so much stronger, Sui An dares not use it lightly. One must have a certain sense of awe towards disasters; this is essential.

Suddenly, he turned his gaze to the kitchen behind him, where the energy stoves he had bought earlier were placed. He had bought five of them to boil water and cook food.

"The fluctuations from the stove are almost indistinguishable from those from a torch. Shall we try it and see just how wide its attractive range is?"

"After all, I have a detection station. Surely a furnace can't attract an ice demon from 300 meters away, can it?"

Once the thought crossed his mind, Sui An couldn't contain himself and hurriedly ran to the kitchen to grab two stoves before running out.

After re-establishing the Thousand Winds Barrier, Sui An took a stove and walked out of the courtyard, heading in a direction where he had just seen two or three wandering ice demons.

As Sui An reached the edge of the barrier, preparing to light the stove, he heard a sigh.

"Give it to me. If it really attracts something, even with the barrier, it will still be somewhat dangerous for you."

Fang Si had somehow found himself standing behind Sui An. He knew that Sui An wouldn't easily give up the path of fire. Although he would restrain himself from using the Great Fire Sword for the sake of them, he would most likely try other paths.

Fang Si took the stove from Sui An's hand, waved his hand expressionlessly, and Sui An smiled and took a big step back.

The feeling of being caught is like being caught cheating, incredibly embarrassing.

Fang Si may seem cold, but he is actually very responsible when things get serious.

Fang Si lit the stove and lifted it up. At this moment, he was still three or four meters away from the barrier, but no ice demons outside the barrier were attracted.

Blood Moon Descends!