Chapter 3: Elite Unit Loyalty Increased by 30 Points (This forcibly 'twists' the subconscious cognition of elite units using Solar Force, triggered by 100 elite units).
Description: Praise the Sun.
Price: Unsellable.
...
The Sun Lord title's advancement speed was slower than Su Xiao anticipated. While it was no longer weak, it hadn't yet reached seven stars.
Seeing this, Su Xiao was slightly disappointed, but he had a backup plan. Since the safer title-boosting method was off the table, he'd use a riskier approach with greater rewards.
Su Xiao took out the [Collector] he'd bought at the Mushroom Village market, unscrewed the bottom of this horn-like equipment, and embedded the Sun Ring into it.
His idea was to use the [Collector] as a filter, continuously filtering the Faith Force: Sun released from the Sun Ring, thereby obtaining pure enough energy, stripping it of its will-related characteristics, leaving only pure Sun properties.
Afterward, he'd embed the [Collector] into the Mother Nest's core, storing this pure Sun energy in the Mother Nest's energy storage sac. When cultivating Demon Flame Dragons, instead of imbuing them with Demon Force characteristics, he'd replace it with Sun energy. This way, the probability of Sun Flame Dragons being born was very high.
Su Xiao manipulated the Mother Nest's core, letting the [Collector] sink into it. He pressed one hand on the core, which resembled a giant heart, constantly observing for any anomalies. He didn't want his insectoid units to have Sun faith; otherwise, Jila might no longer be their absolute superior.
After careful sensing, Su Xiao found things were progressing smoothly. Contrary to expectations, even after passing through the [Collector], the Faith Force: Sun still contained some "Faith Residue."
In fact, the [Collector] achieving this level was already remarkable. If it weren't a Lord-tier equipment, it would have been utterly helpless against Faith Force.
These "Faith Residue" were filtered again by the Mother Nest's energy-conversion tissue, finally succeeding in removing them, allowing pure Sun energy to exist within the nest.
One issue was that "Faith Residue" would accumulate over time. If not handled properly and left in the Mother Nest, it would cause endless trouble.
Su Xiao's idea was to periodically cultivate a "Fanatic Believer," a carrier for the "Faith Residue." Once cultivated, they could go do whatever they wanted. They were individuals completely unrelated to Jila and the Mother Nest, born free.
Of course, during the cultivation of these "Fanatic Believers," Su Xiao could add some private agendas, such as letting them know that the Empire was a tech-side faction, and that they were always trying to build an energy base station near the Sun to harness its energy and break through some technical bottlenecks.
If the "Fanatic Believers" born from "Faith Residue" learned of this, they'd definitely go "discuss" it with the Empire faction.
Now, only the practical phase remained. Jila, who had just been sleeping in, was dragged out of bed to work overtime. The cultivation of the first Demon Flame Dragon—no, the first Sun Flame Dragon—was crucial. Succeeding once would establish the cultivation process, and subsequent ones would be assembly-line production.
Inside the Mother Nest, the oviposition tissue formed the dragon's embryonic egg, which was then transported to the cultivation sac. As the dragon's body gradually grew, Sun energy entered. Three seconds later, the dragon embryo in the cultivation nest turned into a charred skeleton due to high heat, even damaging the cultivation sac, which needed repair.
The experiment continued. This time, Su Xiao summoned the insectoid scientist Pross from the "Laboratory" to join the Sun Flame Dragon's cultivation.
Over ten minutes later, Su Xiao and Jila both realized that Pross's work efficiency in this area far surpassed theirs combined. This was inevitable; Su Xiao excelled in combat, Jila in mental control—each had their expertise.
Checking the time, Su Xiao decided to return to the wooden building to sleep. His assistance here would actually reduce the insectoid scientist Pross's efficiency, though this loyal and focused scientist would never say so.
Back on the second floor of the wooden building, Su Xiao lay down on the bed and slept. It had been three days since entering this world; he'd only taken brief naps, never closing his eyes otherwise. With his physique, not sleeping was fine, but a short nap of one or two hours would clear his thinking.
When Su Xiao was woken up by Bubu Wang nudging him, a mental wavelength spread out. It was the insectoid scientist Pross, saying that the Sun Flame Dragon's genetic blueprint was complete. As long as Su Xiao issued a mental command, the Mother Nest would begin cultivating Sun Flame Dragons.
With the Mother Nest's current level, it could cultivate 3 Sun Flame Dragons every ten minutes. The insectoid scientist Pross suggested using 80,000 points of bio-energy to build an "Incubation Nest (Eighth Rank)."
The "Incubation Nest" would become the largest insectoid building among their forces, bar none. It would be 8 to 9 times larger than the Mother Nest, though not as tall.
After building the "Incubation Nest," the cultivation process for Sun Flame Dragons changed to: the Mother Nest's oviposition tissue formed the dragon's embryonic egg, transported to the cultivation sac, and Sun energy was injected into the egg.
Finally, through Worker Scorpions, these dragon eggs were moved to the connected "Incubation Nest" for subsequent cultivation.
This way, roughly 30 Demon Flame Dragons could be cultivated every ten minutes, or 180 per hour.
It was worth noting that the "Incubation Nest" was a cultivation-type building that the insectoid scientist Pross had conceived for the Sun Flame Dragon while perfecting it.
Su Xiao had previously felt that Pross's work efficiency was average, since the two types of defense towers he needed had no news for so long. But now it seemed Pross had been holding back a big move.
Indeed, in Pross's view, developing two types of defense towers was the first mission Su Xiao and Jila had given him, and he had to do it perfectly. As for the Sun Flame Dragon and the "Incubation Nest," in Pross's cognition, these were just side tasks, minor side quests.
Ten minutes later, when the first batch of Sun Flame Dragons emerged from the "Incubation Nest," Su Xiao saw what these big guys looked like.
The Sun Flame Dragon was entirely black. The golden veins beneath its rough dragon hide gave it an imposing sense of majesty.
When the Sun Flame Dragon spread its wings, the wingspan reached about 40 meters. It had dark-golden vertical pupils, and the breath from its dragon mouth carried intense heat.
Name: Sun Flame Dragon
Category: War Creature
Existence Time: 105 Natural Days
Health: 100%
Bio-Energy: 570/9700 Points
Strength: 182 (True Attribute)
Agility: 180 (True Attribute)
Stamina: 207 (True Attribute)
Intelligence: 173 (True Attribute)
Charm: Insectoids have no Charm Attribute.
Skill 1, War Creature (Passive, LV.62): Health +8600 Points, Body Defense +97 Points, High Abnormal Resistance.
Skill 2, Demon Gene (Passive, Lv.52): Health +7200 Points, Body Defense +23 Points.
Skill 3, Devour Life (Active, Lv.54): Can recover bio-energy by devouring creatures.
Skill 4, Sky Wings (Passive, Lv.60): Flight speed increased by 40%, wing defense moderately increased.
Skill 5, Sun Dragonflame (Core·Active, Lv.65): Can spew Sun Dragonflame by consuming bio-energy. Damage intensity depends on bio-energy consumed and the enemy's Stamina attribute. Deals 8.5 times or more damage to building-type units.
Tip: If burned by this dragonflame for over 1.5 seconds, it will cause an internal sustained burning effect, dealing 3.6% of lost health per second as defense-ignoring damage. Burning effect lasts 10 seconds.
Skill 6, Supreme·Sun (Passive, X): Dragonflame damage rank +2.
Skill 7, True Force (Passive, X): 50% of dragonflame damage will be True Flame Damage.
...
Seeing the Sun Flame Dragon's data, Su Xiao himself felt this thing was absurdly powerful. At first glance, the Sun Flame Dragon had strong abilities but average base attributes. As an eighth-rank war creature, its Strength and Agility were only around 180 points.
But don't forget, the current Sun Flame Dragon hadn't yet received the War Lord's boost. With 30 points of all true attributes added, its base attributes became:
Strength: 212 Points
Agility: 210 Points
Stamina: 237 Points
Intelligence: 203 Points
...
As for survivability, its body defense was there, certainly not weak. Moreover, as a war creature, its first two abilities already boosted health by 15,800 points. After War Lord's 50% increase, that became a 23,700-point health boost, not counting the Sun Flame Dragon's base health.
Additionally, War Lord provided an extra 30 points of body defense, further enhancing the Sun Flame Dragon's survivability.
The most brutal part was War Lord's subsequent "All Ability Levels Increased by Lv.12," further boosting the Sun Flame Dragon's overall combat power.
Although the Sun Flame Dragon's attack method was singular—only spewing dragonflame—that was enough. It could fight, tank, deal true flame damage, had a large body, and most importantly, it could fly.
If there were only a few, fighting them wouldn't be too painful. But what about a thousand?
Also, the Demon Flame Dragon's cultivation cost was 4,000 points of bio-energy. Logically, the Sun Flame Dragon should be more expensive. But the answer was no; the Sun Flame Dragon's cultivation cost was 3,600 points of bio-energy per unit.
Why was it stronger yet cheaper? Because previously, the Demon Force within the Demon Flame Dragon was converted from bio-energy by the nest. This conversion was possible only because Jila had once absorbed the Primordial Demon Force; otherwise, it would have been impossible.
Converting bio-energy into nest-characteristic Demon Force consumed a lot of bio-energy. About half of the 4,000-point cultivation cost went to this.
Now it was different. The Sun Ring + Collector combination gave the nest ready-made Sun energy, so there was no need to convert bio-energy. Besides, Jila had nothing to do with Sun Force, and the nest couldn't convert Sun energy anyway.
This conversion cost was saved and instead used for the Sun Flame Dragon's physical cultivation. This resulted in a lower cultivation price but a stronger Sun Flame Dragon.
The nest had a total of 4.2 million points of bio-energy stored. Su Xiao decided to cultivate 1,100 Sun Flame Dragons and use the rest to cultivate Worker Scorpions. The Worker Scorpions could mine and serve as soldier-type units, supporting the War Lord's boost.
With the current large mineral veins, cultivating 400,000 Worker Scorpions would reach the mining speed cap.
The next day, 7:00 AM.
Because of yesterday's act for the Spider Queen, the Worker Scorpions had been reduced to 40,000. But in just one night, they exploded to over 400,000. The fungal carpet became lively; Jila's troop-spawning ability was indeed terrifying.
Additionally, after over six hours of cultivation, the "Incubation Nest" had produced a total of 1,100 Sun Flame Dragons.
Su Xiao's gaze swept around, and he picked the largest-looking Sun Flame Dragon as his mount.
When Su Xiao's eyes met this Sun Flame Dragon's, the 40-meter-plus wingspan creature immediately lowered its head.
Su Xiao stepped onto the dragon's back via its lowered head. Just then, a black-feathered cloak came running over. Upon closer inspection, it was Mantis Armor Bru, covered in a black-feathered cloak.
Seeing this black-feathered cloak, Su Xiao found it slightly familiar. He had worn it before in the Primordial Continent.
"Bru, Bru."
Bru made its only sound. Seeing this, Su Xiao took off his long leather coat and put on the black-feathered cloak.
Taking the chance to deliver the black-feathered cloak, Bru also ran to the head of the Sun Flame Dragon Su Xiao had chosen as his mount, raised its head and roared once for fun, then scurried off happily. But in its haste, it tripped and fell flat on its face.
"Roar!"
The Sun Flame Dragon beneath Su Xiao let out a dragon roar, spread its massive wings, and took flight. Then, one by one, the Demon Flame Dragons rose, blotting out the sky. The scene was spectacular. Target: Gai's Nest.
Meanwhile, inside his own base nest, Gai was waiting to watch the show, seeing how the Spider Queen would use high-interest loans to slowly drain the newly emerged nest until it withered and disappeared.
It was worth noting that of the 150,000 high-interest loan the Spider Queen had lent Su Xiao, 70,000 was Gai's investment. Gai's intention was clear: after it was done, she'd get a share too.
With this world's insectoid development method, after obtaining 150,000 units of Life Ore and owning a large Life Ore vein, the first step would be to develop mining, then gradually develop combat units. Otherwise, the Mother Nest and various insectoid buildings would soon wither from insufficient bio-energy.
The pacifist Gai never dreamed that after getting 150,000 units of Life Ore, Su Xiao wouldn't develop mining capabilities to be exploited by her and the Spider Queen. Instead, he immediately spawned troops to come beat her up.