Chapter 27 – Ascension to High Rank

Chapter 27 – Ascension to High Rank

The remaining positions of Craftsman and Guard Captain were proving difficult to assign. Among his three brothers, one would inevitably be left temporarily idle.

After careful consideration, Cheng Yang decided to appoint Liu Hao as the Guard Captain and Yu Kai as the Craftsman. Comparatively, the Guard Captain’s authority wasn’t extensive, merely controlling the opening and closing of the village gates. Yet, this responsibility was undoubtedly the most crucial. If this person proved unreliable, the consequences would be dire.

Next, Cheng Yang set the permissions for the Craftsman and Martial Arts Instructor positions. While they could manage corresponding buildings, granting them too much authority made Cheng Yang uneasy, especially regarding Li Wanshan, whom he had only known for two or three days.

Cheng Yang restricted these positions to only allow job changes or skill learning, preventing them from removing people from buildings. He also retained the blacklist authority, ensuring that anyone he blacklisted couldn’t change jobs at the village’s profession statues or learn secondary skills in shops.

Now, only one task remained: claiming his other privilege – Divine Grace.

As Cheng Yang selected Divine Grace, a surge of pure energy flowed from the altar into his body, cleansing every cell. He felt his body growing stronger and his mind becoming clearer.

Ten seconds later, the Divine Grace effect ended. Cheng Yang eagerly opened his personal status panel.

Cheng Yang’s attributes were no longer as simple as before. His attack power could now instantly kill other first-rank mages. Even surrounded by a dozen first-rank demonic beasts, he could emerge victorious unscathed. With sufficient mana potions, he was practically invincible against first-rank monsters.

However, Cheng Yang was dissatisfied with the attribute system. Except for attack and movement speeds, all other attributes were rounded to whole numbers. His magic attack should be 23.8, but it remained at 23.

Another concern was his skills. As a high-rank magic apprentice, he should be able to learn new mage skills, but currently, he had no means to do so.

From his previous life, Cheng Yang knew that combatants learned skills in two ways: obtaining skill books or learning at profession statues. Skill books were rare, so most relied on profession statues. However, wild territories’ profession statues didn’t initially have skills; they only appeared as the statues leveled up. In contrast, main cities had basic skills from the start.

Wild territories had their advantages: lower energy consumption for learning skills and the potential to add new skills to profession statues. However, items that could add new skills were priceless treasures.

Currently, Phoenix Village’s profession statue was only level 2. Cheng Yang would have to wait until it reached level 3 to learn high-rank magic apprentice skills.

Fortunately, after using Divine Grace to advance a rank, his previous cultivation progress was retained, though halved from 5.4% to 2.7% due to increased difficulty.

Cheng Yang closed his status panel and began his nightly cultivation. While territory upgrades provided rapid power boosts, they weren’t the main method. At higher levels, territory upgrades would become much harder than personal cultivation.

Even with level 3 Meditation, quadruple cultivation speed, and additional 19% boosts from himself and residences, Cheng Yang only progressed 2.3% overnight. Without quadruple speed, progress would be a mere 0.5%, requiring nearly 200 days to reach peak magic apprentice.

Such powerful effects came at a cost. Level 3 Meditation with quadruple speed consumed 160 energy points per hour, totaling 480 points over four hours – an amount most couldn’t afford.

At dawn, Cheng Yang awoke to find his roommates Yu Kai and the others stirring. He had them share his room due to housing shortages and for easier discussions.

“Yang, you’re the lord. Shouldn’t you have your own room?” Yu Kai suggested.

Cheng Yang smiled, “I know you’re used to your big bed at home. But let’s not complain when others are sleeping outside. Damn this apocalypse!”

Changing the subject, Cheng Yang said, “Yesterday’s wood only built four residences. Today’s tasks are heavy. We’ll assign more jobs, aiming for forty combatants per team to tackle larger monster groups.”

Yu Kai and the others were pleased. More combatants meant greater safety and longevity in this apocalyptic world.

Liu Hao pointed out, “We’re short on priests. Each team only has one. While fine for small fights, we’ll need more for larger monster groups.”

Cheng Yang replied, “Priests are semi-special classes. Having some early is already good. We’ll need to level up the statue for more. It takes time. Later, each of you pick four from your teams for the dungeon. Remember what I told you yesterday – be careful.”

After leaving the residence, Liu Hao, Yu Kai, and Niu Bing each selected four members and entered the Bloody Church dungeon. Li Wanshan stayed with Cheng Yang to assign jobs.

Job assignments proceeded smoothly. After filling all profession statue slots, Phoenix Village now had 209 combatants. Each team, excluding the captain, had at least forty members, significantly boosting their strength. The extra four slots came from Li Wanshan’s talent, increasing each main profession statue’s capacity to 51.

However, the new recruits’ talents were weaker. None of the hundred new members had S-grade potential, though most were A or B-grade, still a decent result. These 205 would likely become Phoenix Village’s backbone.

Cheng Yang appointed Zhao Chuan as deputy leader of his team, sending them out to hunt monsters. This would earn energy points and train the newcomers.

With Phoenix Village now level 2, its territory covered nine square kilometers, matching the walled area. The one-kilometer zone outside the walls was now part of the territory, preventing demonic beast spawns there – a rule of this world.

The area outside the village had tripled in size, with previously unkilled monsters now forming groups. The smallest groups had over a dozen monsters, while larger ones numbered in the hundreds.

While Zhao Chuan’s team couldn’t handle the largest groups, they could easily manage those with a dozen monsters.

As Zhao Chuan’s team left through the village gates, the other four teams also organized groups and departed. Only a dozen combatants remained in the village to maintain order, while everyone else ventured out.