Chapter 3: Fortress Defense Tolerance Moderately Increased.
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Three optional fortress traits were available, and without hesitation, Su Xiao chose [Increase daily conversion of Living Ore by 10 units].
As soon as he made his choice, he ‘saw’ that within the second floor of the fortress, the crushing device composed of interlocking metal rings unfolded, revealing an internal structure covered in fist-sized granular protrusions that emitted a faint green glow.
These biological tissue structures gradually grew, becoming tougher, then retracted back into the fortress. The outer metal rings joined together, forming a crushing device nearly ten meters in diameter, resembling a circular metal maw lined with neat rows of teeth.
Su Xiao opened his eyes. The fortress upgrade was complete, but this was far from enough. He needed [Cataclysmic Solution·Type IV] to advance the T4-level Doomsday Fortress to T3.
As the saying goes, do it yourself, have plenty. When he obtained [Cataclysmic Solution·Type V], Su Xiao had already sensed that this item was derived from some alchemical potion through tampering.
He found this perfectly normal. The world had become what it was due to the «Black Rain», one of the pinnacle creations of the Second Era: Alchemical Civilization. It was only natural for remnants of alchemical knowledge to exist here.
Su Xiao’s current Alchemy skill was Lv.64. Reverse-engineering [Cataclysmic Solution] was not impossible. He walked into the alchemy laboratory converted from a secret chamber.
Time ticked by, minute after minute. Sitting before the test bench, Su Xiao’s brow furrowed deeper and deeper. The formula for [Cataclysmic Solution] must have originally been an alchemical potion recipe, but it had been altered into a chaotic mess. Deciphering it was a test of patience.
Su Xiao glanced at the contract completion progress—it had reached 46%. Not long now until he could go capture Molei.
As he worked on reverse-engineering [Cataclysmic Solution], the sky outside gradually darkened. Calculating the time, Su Xiao had been in the «Borderlands Region» for roughly 24 hours.
At 2:00 AM that night, nearly 12 hours after the main force of pig-headed men had ventured deep into the Aberrant Beast territory.
“Boss, Amu is back.”
Baha flew into the secret chamber. Hearing this, Su Xiao checked the fortress’s attribute list. It contained not only the fortress’s data but also the number of pig-headed men, etc.
When they set out at noon, there were 8,736 reserve pig-headed warriors. Now, only 3,160 had returned—over half were casualties. Venturing deep into Aberrant Beast territory meant either transforming into wild boar warriors or dying.
In truth, even if a pig-headed man transformed into a wild boar man, survival was not guaranteed. Moreover, the purpose of this expedition was to turn pig-headed men into warriors. Amu, Hausmann, and Steel Fang maintained a consistent formation: the untransformed pig-headed men at the front, and the successfully transformed wild boar men at the rear.
This resulted in a shockingly high growth probability, but the casualty numbers were equally staggering. Nearly 9,000 pig-headed men went out, and over 3,000 wild boar men returned.
Why did only wild boar men come back? As for the pig-headed men who failed to transform but still managed to survive, they had repaid their debts and had three options: 1. Leave as free individuals, 2. Stay and be placed at the very front of the formation in the next expedition, or 3. Stay and work as miners.
A total of 126 pig-headed men had escaped death. Among them, 14 chose to leave, taking rations with them. The rest were willing to become miners.
The current personnel list was:
Wild Boar Warriors: 3,160.
Wild Boar Mages: 5 (abilities not yet mastered).
Wild Boar Leaders: 4 (Hausmann, Steel Fang, etc.).
Pig-Headed Miners: 2,304.
Female Pig-Headed Individuals: 500.
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Su Xiao had long known about the wild boar warriors, but these five wild boar mages were truly an unexpected situation.
After hearing Baha’s account, Su Xiao understood the situation. These five wild boar mages were not only five anomalies among the many meat-shield melee fighters; they were also quintuplet brothers. For talents like this, Su Xiao naturally wanted to summon them for a meeting.