All-out Tower Defense: My Card-Drawing Talent is a Bit Strange

"My lord, you flatter me. It is my duty." Sephira seemed pleased with Yang Fei's praise, but unlike Yang Fei, she did not lose her composure. Instead, she flattered Yang Fei a few times.

"Good heavens, this must be the shrewd scheme." Seeing the guy's respectful manner, Yang Fei suddenly felt something was off, and his excited expression gradually subsided. Remembering the guy's various skills, he couldn't help but sigh in his heart that he had been too happy too soon.

This is an abyssal creature, and an abyssal merchant at that. Isn't that even more ruthless than ordinary merchants? Hiss~ Just thinking about it is terrifying. Moreover, Yang Fei strongly suspects that this merchant has launched a cunning scheme against him. If they can make money off him, these merchants certainly won't let him lose money!

"Hmm, I'd like to know what's required for an iron ingot and a green magic core." Yang Fei thought for a moment. He wasn't in a hurry for the defense towers; he should focus on getting rid of the most urgently needed supplies first.

Among the basic materials, wood and stone are generally priced at one copper coin per unit, while iron ore is more expensive, costing five copper coins per unit. Iron ingots are even more expensive; it is said that one unit of iron ingot requires ten units of iron ore to smelt, which costs 60 copper coins in material costs. Adding another 10 copper coins for labor costs, the total cost is 60 copper coins per unit, which is quite an exaggeration.

As for purchasing from the Heavenly Dao Shop, there would be an additional 6 copper coin handling fee. Furthermore, Yang Fei currently does not have a smelter and has not unlocked the iron ingots, so even if he had the money, he could not buy such basic materials at the moment. He could only order some from the Abyss Shop for the time being.

As for why he wasted this once-a-day customization opportunity on iron ingots instead of directly purchasing some rare items, such as charging stone slabs, Yang Fei wasn't in a hurry. These things could be prepared when the million-level monsters attacked the city, so he could hold off for now.

There won't be any waves requiring too many charging slabs anytime soon, and even if there are, I don't have enough crossbowmen to control the gray arrow towers on the slabs to fire.

We can handle the current wave, so let's address some of the more pressing issues first.

For example, upgrading the lumber mill and quarry requires iron ingots. The smelter can only be unlocked in the fourth wave of extreme difficulty, and you'll need to find a blacksmith to start it. Then, the production won't be enough, so it's better to just exchange some iron ingots to solve the immediate problem.

As for magic cores, needless to say, they are needed to upgrade troop nests, and they must be of green quality. After the four types of currency exchange are unlocked in the future, gold coins can only be used to exchange for other white and gray currencies. The exchange of green currencies has not yet been unlocked, so this is something I urgently need.

"Obtaining a common quality iron ingot is quite simple; it only requires a common beast soul and 30 copper coins. As for a green quality magic core, it's more complicated. It requires a common ferocious beast soul and 15 gold coins. Of course, since a green magic core is already a green-grade item, you'll need to pay an additional 7 gold coins and 50 silver coins," Sephira quickly answered Yang Fei's question.

Yang Fei nodded. The value of the iron ingot was within expectations, but the green magic core was beyond his imagination. Normally, a green magic core would indeed cost 30 gold coins, but where could he find a ferocious beast-level soul?

Does a green-grade item really require a ferocious beast-grade soul? While the grade correspondence is correct, this is just the basic currency, yet it also requires a one-to-one correspondence. Is that reasonable?

Seeing that Sephira did not respond to him, Yang Fei knew that there was probably no room for compromise. It seemed that he would not be able to obtain higher-grade items in the short term. What he needed most now were iron ingots and charging stone plates.

Let's exchange the iron ingots first. It's probably impossible to clear the dungeon at five times the limit today, based on the monster spawn patterns I've summarized so far.

At maximum difficulty, it takes three hours to defend against over 100,000 monsters. At double difficulty, it takes another three hours. At double difficulty, it takes about six hours to defend against 200,000 monsters. That adds up to 12 hours.

With five times the limit and 500,000 monsters, it would take about 15 hours to defend against them. It's definitely not going to be finished today, so it's better to relax a bit. Even though time is tight, we can't overwork our subordinates.

Feeding the two succubi and then cultivating properly would be a good thing. Anyway, I have money now and access to various resources, so I can relax a bit.

"Alright, now you can control an arrow tower located on the charging stone slab. Collect as many souls as you can, and we'll use them to exchange for iron ingots later." Yang Fei, who had given up on passing the level quickly, breathed a slight sigh of relief and decided to prioritize supporting Sephira's plan to collect souls.

"By the way, can the Abyss Shop temporarily store souls?" Yang Fei, who had just been about to ask Sephira to come with him to the city wall after seeing her nod in agreement, suddenly remembered a question.

This is a very important question. The souls you acquire are accumulated wave after wave during monster sieges, not one-time events. The Abyss Shop only allows you to use the customization service once a day. To maximize efficiency, you must accumulate all the souls you kill in a day and save them for the end, just like you would for the daily challenge.

This requires the Abyss Shop to be able to store souls, but Yang Fei doesn't think Sephira herself can store many souls. A lord from the Abyss, no matter how proficient in the Dao of Souls, is ultimately only at the level of a ferocious beast, not yet at the true level of an immortal. There must be a limit to the number of souls she can collect. Therefore, the Abyss Shop must be able to store souls, otherwise it would be a huge waste.

Secondly, there's the issue of other resources. If it's just gold coins and souls, you can have as much as you want. But what if some customized items don't require gold coins but other basic currencies?

Or perhaps you only need one custom-made item and don't need a large quantity of it?

At that time, it's a minor issue that I'll have to spend time on various transformations; the important thing is not to waste my soul just because I've spent less. I have many other basic resources, so it's a waste of my soul. If I need them in the future but have no soul left, it would be a net loss.

Therefore, it would be best if this Abyss Shop also had a soul storage function, so that you could take only what you need, and be more flexible. Otherwise, this thing might not be as convenient to use as you think.

"My lord, the Abyss Shop has a soul storage function, but because my strength is too weak, I can only collect fifty souls in a single defensive battle. The efficiency of the Abyss Shop is probably not as high as you expect."

Sephira spoke with some trepidation, her voice, which had resembled that of a little girl, was no longer as high-pitched as before, as if she had let Yang Fei down.