Infinite Chimera Creation

The advantage of the Ritual Race is that with each level up, the Ritual Race can increase their mana by more than three times, almost four times, compared to other races.

The downside is that the health of a level 60 mage increases very little with each level up. Without health-boosting equipment, a level 60 mage's health is even less than that of a level 20 human warrior.

The equally obvious advantages and disadvantages mean that very few people can master the Ritual Clan. Even in the Tea Party, where all the members are highly skilled players, there are only four Ritual Clan players.

"Acheng, let's analyze this mission for everyone."

In recent major missions, Shiroe has proven her abilities and become the undisputed advisor of the tea party, earning everyone's trust.

When the members of the Fayi race inexplicably received a race quest, and the quest location was the Digimon map that everyone felt was a bit off, the tea party members immediately realized that this quest was probably not simple. After pondering for a moment, they went to their trusted advisor.

Before joining the tea party, Shiroe had participated in many random groups. Whenever the members of those random groups had something they didn't understand, they would come to him for help without even thinking about it. They treated him like a human guide.

Now, although the members of the tea party also come to him when they encounter problems, unlike the members of the unaffiliated group, the members of the tea party will think about it on their own first, and only come to him when they can't figure it out. This small difference gives Shiroe two completely different feelings.

In the unaffiliated group, Shiro felt only exploitation, but at the tea party, he felt unreserved trust.

She coughed twice unconsciously to cover up her slightly hoarse voice caused by her emotions, and Cheng Hui quickly got into the zone and began to analyze the situation for everyone.

"As mentioned in the game's expansion pack, in the world of Eldartale, the creators of magic are the extinct ancestral race. However, before the ancestral race created magic, there was a race that could use similar magical abilities, and that was the Magic Clan."

As he spoke, Shiroe, who was known as the "Black-bellied Glasses," habitually pushed up his glasses, and a blinding cold light flashed on the lenses, causing several people who had been tricked by him before joining the tea party to subconsciously shrink back.

"The Rituals can use something similar to magic by capturing things called [Spell Runes]. I remember in the level 45 quest description for making spatial packages, the quest NPC mentioned that the rune stone technology used to make spatial packages is actually a secret technique passed down by the ancient Rituals, a technique for imitating spatial spell runes."

Those who could join the tea party were all elites; they understood even without Cheng Hui explaining it completely.

Immediately, Sōtarō, who admired Shiroe the most among the tea party members, couldn't wait to ask.

"Senior Cheng Hui, are you saying that the racial quests these Ritualist players received are very likely related to the [Spell Marks] mentioned in the data?"

Nodding solemnly, Cheng Hui surveyed the people at the tea party and said in a deep voice.

"Based on my speculation, there are two possibilities for the rewards of this mission. One is that the Ritual Clan players will gain the ability to use spell runes, acquire new advanced skills, or even unlock a new skill tree. The other is that the Ritual Clan players will acquire the so-called [Ancient Ritual Clan Secret Techniques], mastering the ability to create advanced items."

Upon hearing this, everyone at the tea party's eyes lit up. Both possibilities sounded tempting. The first one, gaining a new skill, was fine, but if it was the second one, then the person who completed the task would be rich.

It's worth noting that the only thing in the game that seems to be related to the ancient ritualistic technology is the quest that can only be accepted at level 45, which involves creating high-level item storage packages.

For players whose current highest level is only 60, the ability to create level 45 items is incredibly valuable, which is self-evident.

"Wow! This mission is so interesting, I want to participate!"

"I'm joining too. I won't forget the humiliation of being forced to flee by the Dark Four Heavenly Kings last time. This time, I'm going to get it back with interest. Big Bubble, hurry up and share the mission with me."

"Share the quest with me too, even if it's a racial quest. Even if I don't get the reward in the end, I still want to get involved. How can something this interesting be complete without me?"

Soon, all members shared the task, except for a few who were unable to attend.

"So, everyone, to prevent what happened last time from being transferred to a monster horde, please remember to activate your defensive skills immediately once the transfer is complete."

Shiroe pushed up her glasses again and pressed the teleportation button.

"Mission objective: Collect at least one rune."

P.S., suddenly came back to life, let's see how many people it scares.

Chapter Forty-Six: Mistakes and Feelings

"Holy crap! Do the game designers have a grudge against the players? They teleported us into a monster horde twice in a row."

"You should be grateful that you didn't see the berserk BOSS as soon as you opened your eyes like last time. I've figured it out, this crappy map is just for ripping people off."

"Enough with the nonsense, let's clear out the monsters. Although the monsters this time are generally not high level, their numbers are disgusting."

"That's right, let's clear out the monsters quickly. If some Four Heavenly Kings or Five Divine Generals appear again, we'll have to return empty-handed."

"Damn it, so many monsters are severely restricting our movement. Mage, quickly cast some area-of-effect spells to clear a space."

As soon as the teleportation was completed, the tea party and the others began to complain loudly, because they found that they had been teleported into a monster horde again, with so many monsters that it was difficult for them to move.

"Wait, mage, don't act yet. Take a good look around. We might be underground. If we use powerful magic rashly, it could cause a collapse, which would be even more troublesome."

Just as several mage players were about to make a move, Shiro quickly spoke up to stop them.

"Huh?! Staff officer, are you kidding me? This is a game map, not the real world. How could it possibly collapse like this?"

Although the mages questioned Cheng Hui's words without any politeness, they still stopped what they were doing. This was the prestige that Cheng Hui had accumulated in many missions. No matter how incredible what he said was, people would subconsciously believe him.

Seeing the mages stop, Shiro breathed a sigh of relief, casually cast two low-level spells to kill a low-level monster called "Rolling Ball Beast" next to him, and hurriedly explained to everyone.

"If this were an older map, I certainly wouldn't have said this, but you've forgotten that the monsters in this map have a very high level of AI development. Do you really think a map with this level of AI would have a low level of scene realism?"

Upon hearing Shiroe mention it, the people at the tea party realized that they were all used to the old map. Even though they knew that this Digimon map was completely different from the previous maps, they would subconsciously think according to their previous experience.

As Shiroe said, a map where even monsters can use advanced artificial intelligence, simulating real-world scenarios, is incredibly easy. In other words, in this map, one must abandon past experience and act more cautiously.

"Since you've put it that way, Ah Cheng, why don't you let me give it a try?"

While everyone was still processing the information provided by Shiroe, Naotsugu, the guardian warrior who had been protecting Shiroe, raised his greatsword and slashed it forcefully at the ground in front of him.

Given the current density of monsters, it's impossible for Zhiji to be in an open space; several monsters are crammed into that small area.

Fortunately, Naoki had already used the level 40 skill [Raging Slash] when he swung his sword. With one swing, he cleaved three low-level monsters in two and his momentum did not diminish. He then slammed his sword heavily into the stone bricks on the ground.

Instantly, the stone bricks, which were clearly quite old, were smashed into fragments that scattered in all directions. Several fragments even pierced and killed two level 1 [Black Ball Beasts].

He sheathed his sword, shrugged, and laughed heartily.

"Now we can confirm that the map's scenery is very realistic. They even managed to create the damage effect of flying rocks, so the collapse effect is most likely included."

Upon hearing this, everyone at the tea party frowned and began to experiment, ultimately achieving the same results as Naotsugu.

"Tsk, this is troublesome. Some skills that have a significant impact on the environment in the game's design can no longer be used. Are we really going to have to kill all these monsters one by one?"

"Let's kill them. After all, it's a race quest, so the difficulty is bound to be high. The clues might be hidden there. If the important clues are on these small monsters, we'll regret it later."

After a brief exchange, the tea party members finalized their next strategy. Their actions shifted from primarily defense with limited attacks to focusing on eliminating as many enemies as possible. Skills like Chain Lightning, which were powerful yet had minimal environmental impact, were also unleashed.

Immediately, the Digimon who had not yet noticed the presence of these intruders became restless.

In order to protect the Digimon on Document Island, the young Yuan Yuan and his friends placed all the Digimon in the underground ruins on the island, which was a good intention.

However, when a group of intruders were teleported into the ruins and appeared in the center of the Digimon horde, their good intentions only plunged the Digimon into hell.

Some of these Digimon trusted the Chosen Children and entered the ruins on their own initiative, while others refused to enter and were knocked unconscious and thrown into the ruins by Taichi and the others. The atmosphere among them was not good to begin with.

Now, the members of the tea party have appeared as intruders, provoking a battle. The hot-tempered Digimon who were forced into the ruins by violence have also erupted, and they have begun to attack the other Digimon around them indiscriminately.

This excitement can stem from various sources: some are venting anger, some are losing their temper, and others are trying to take advantage of the chaos to harvest data and complete their own evolution.

In the blink of an eye, the situation changed to the tea party members indiscriminately eliminating the Digimon around them, the righteous Digimon rushing towards the tea party members to try to stop them, the timid Digimon desperately trying to escape, and the violent Digimon attacking everyone around them indiscriminately.

In an instant, the scene became incredibly chaotic.

The strongest Digimon in the ruins, such as Andromon, Bearmon, and Snowmanmon, approached the tea party members.

Although the level difference between the members of the Tea Party is not large in the data perspective, as elite players who have grown up through high-intensity battles, the Tea Party members have a combat ability and combat experience that are far superior to those of the Digimon.

Therefore, their battle was actually not much of a surprise and would end quickly.

And soon, a factor accelerated the battle: a group of weaker Pidgeon, under attack, cried out in fear, shouting, "Sora, Tai, save us!"

If the members of the tea party were actually in the Digital World, they might be able to sense the pain of these Digimon from their cries and stop their slaughter.

But in reality, the members of the tea party are simply sitting in front of computers, controlling the characters on the screen with a mouse and keyboard, and killing the monsters on the screen. They have no feeling whatsoever for the suffering of the Digimon.

No, it wouldn't be accurate to say that I felt nothing at all. For gamers, when a monster starts howling and calling for help, unless it's just a cutscene, it usually means something.

"Attention, the mobs are starting to summon the BOSS! Hurry up and make sure to clear enough space for combat before the BOSS appears!"

Chapter 47 NPCs

Although names like Taiichi and Sora are not imposing at all and don't sound like names a BOSS should have, based on past experience, the tea party group still paid close attention and sped up their efforts to clear out the "minions".

Currently, the strongest Digimon on File Island, apart from the chosen children's partners, is the Ultimate-level Andromon. However, the members of the tea party once ambushed and killed the Ultimate-level MetalSeadramon while surrounded by hundreds of Ultimate-level Digimon.

Although there may have been some trickery involved in this process, it is still enough to prove how big the gap in strength between the two sides is.

As expected, no one in the tea party suffered any casualties. The healers didn't even need to use a major heal; they only used a few minor heals sporadically to wipe out all the Digimon that couldn't escape in time.

"Strange, why isn't there a single BOSS? Compared to being surrounded by four BOSSes last time, this situation of being ignored is even more infuriating."

Scratching his head, Ichihiko, who considered himself a martial artist, was clearly unhappy with his current predicament.

While the other members didn't react as strongly as Yi Yan, they all complained. What were they playing games for? Wasn't it all for the thrill? There wasn't even a single boss, so what was the thrill about it?

Even Shirohime frowned in distress. Everything on this map was different from the [Eldartal] map he was used to, leaving him somewhat at a loss, as he was accustomed to analyzing the current situation using data.

Seeing Shiroe's distress, Naotsugu, as his friend, was about to offer him some words of comfort when he saw Kanami, that carefree woman, rush to Shiroe's side, laughing energetically, patting Shiroe's shoulder forcefully, and saying a few seemingly nonsensical things.

When Kanami spoke to him, Shiroe could only manage a wry smile after a few words, but at the same time, the troubled and anxious look he had shown earlier was gone.

Seeing this, Naotsugu shrugged nonchalantly and went to chat with Nyanta, the class monitor.

Kanami has a certain charm that can inspire everyone. As long as you are by her side, no matter what kind of predicament you are in, you will never lose hope.

After taking some time to compose herself and get her mind back to its best state, Shiro clapped her hands and called out to everyone.

"I'm sorry, everyone, the situation on this map is too strange. Without enough information, I can't come up with any good countermeasures at the moment."

After pausing briefly, Shiroe scanned everyone's expressions. Seeing that no one showed any reproach, she felt much more at ease and continued speaking.

"However, I think this place is just a ruin at the end of the day, or at most a maze. With our abilities, we should be able to find the exit soon. Let's talk about everything after we get out."

"Haha, it seems even the cunning Glasses has his limitations. That's great news, otherwise I would have really thought you were a superpowered person."

"Yeah, yeah, Cheng Hui, your past performances were so discouraging. Every time we watched you perform, we had to question our own intelligence."

As soon as Cheng Hui finished speaking, a group of people started laughing and teasing him.

Although he doesn't usually say it, Shiroe always seems to have a plan that works perfectly, whether in dungeon battles or in ordinary times. This makes some people, especially those who were tricked by him before the tea party, a little nervous. Now that they see that he is also helpless, these people finally breathe a sigh of relief.

"Actually, it's not that we're completely helpless."

Pushing up her glasses, causing the lenses to gleam with an unnatural, cold light in the dim light, Cheng Hui casually uttered this sentence.

Suddenly, everyone fell silent, staring at Shiroe as if they had seen a ghost. They couldn't believe that he could come up with a solution on only his second time entering this special map. Only Naotsugu had an "I knew this would happen" look on his face and shrugged helplessly.

Ignoring the exaggerated reactions of the crowd, Shiroe adjusted her glasses and confidently stated her previous observations.

"When we were clearing out the mobs, some of them escaped. According to my observation, more than 60% of the escaped mobs fled into the east passage. The combined percentage of the mobs that escaped into the remaining three passages was only a little over 30%, which is far lower than the percentage in the east passage."

“These little monsters have a high level of artificial intelligence, roughly equivalent to the intelligence level of a child. Their escape routes are likely selective, meaning there must be something in the east passage that makes them feel safe.”