Chapter 110 - 90: Second Level of the Cosmic Arena
Chapter 110: Chapter 90: Second Level of the Cosmic Arena
On the second floor of the Cosmic Arena, the mirror challenge was a free event. Anyone could enter at any time and freely choose what the mirror would copy: talents, skills, equipment, combat techniques, and more. Furthermore, you wouldn’t be forcibly ejected for failing. You could challenge for as long as you wanted; you just had to pay to heal your injuries.
The currency used for purchases here wasn’t limited to the Arena Points awarded as rewards. It also included a new currency: Arena Coins. These could be obtained by exchanging various energy-rich items. All kinds of Energy Crystals, and even Nuclear Fuel Cells, were acceptable.
Lin Yu immediately thought of the various Energy Crystals produced in his territory and planned to head back to grab some to sell.
’Logically, the Spring of Life should also count as a special energy item, but the people in my territory don’t even have enough for themselves to drink each day. It wouldn’t be right to sell it. Besides, the Spring of Life requires essence from within the World Tree, and I don’t want to consume too much of it, fearing it might affect the World Tree’s growth or potential.’
In addition, the special competitive event on the second floor was currently the "Shield of Earth."
Contestants would enter a special space where they could only defend, not attack. All sorts of attacks would continuously emerge from the void, and the goal was to see who could last the longest.
At the end, contestants of each tier would be ranked based on how long they lasted. The rankings were settled once a week, with the top 100 receiving rewards and the top 3 gaining access to the next floor.
This special event changed every year. This year it was a contest of defense; next year it might be strength, evasion, or even luck. In any case, as long as one of your abilities was outstanding, you would eventually have a chance to gain access to the next floor.
"Hey, Xiaobo! Talk about perfect timing. Your Defense Power is incredible. Come on, let’s go try this special event first."
Lin Yu said happily, patting Yuan Xiaobo on the shoulder.
"My lord, I think I could give it a try too."
Lin Chenxi piped up from the side, eager to try.
Lin Yu thought about Lin Chenxi’s vines and was curious to see her performance as well. "Alright, alright. You both go give it a shot."
The two of them immediately went to sign up for the "Shield of Earth" event.
Soon, they were teleported away to their respective trials.
Using his authority as a lord, Lin Yu watched both of their performances.
Yuan Xiaobo’s performance was solid and predictable. His base defense was already very high. His talent, [Adamant], passively doubled his defense, and upon active use, it multiplied it by another ten times. This meant his defense stat alone could reach the millions, allowing him to achieve a fourth-tier level of defense, even surpassing some fourth-tier individuals.
So, after activating his talent, he simply covered his face and stood still.
The "Shield of Earth" was purely a contest of defensive capability. No matter how one dodged, the attacks wouldn’t vanish. They only disappeared after striking the challenger.
Therefore, the best way to handle this event was to simply take the hits.
Take Yuan Xiaobo, for example. As soon as he entered the Trial Space, a relentless stream of attacks materialized around him: Elemental Missiles of different attributes, Sword Qi of every element, and a chaotic flurry of flying weapons. Basically, any attack imaginable was present.
If he dodged any of the attacks, they would simply join the next wave.
The more attacks he dodged, the more would stack up in the subsequent wave. For a defense specialist like Yuan Xiaobo, this meant it was actually worse than just taking the hits directly and recovering afterward.
Yuan Xiaobo lasted for about 20 minutes. By the end, attacks not only filled the entire space around him, but their power had also reached 1,048,576 times the initial level (as the attack power doubled every minute).
His defense was finally broken. He began taking real damage, and when his recovery could no longer keep up, he was ejected.
"Amazing!" As soon as Yuan Xiaobo emerged, Lin Yu clapped him on the shoulder, praising his defense.
Cheers and murmurs of discussion erupted from the surrounding crowd.
"Someone just broke the record for this year’s third-tier special event, ’Shield of Earth’!"
"Second place is impressive too, almost matching the previous record."
"Quick, send someone to gather intel! Find out who this prodigy is. The Niu Gulu Empire wants him!" The speaker was a Free Transcendent, recruiting for their home empire.
...
"The highlights are starting! Everyone, come and watch!"
"Huh!? How come I only see attacks? Where’s the challenger?"
"You idiot, they’re completely hidden by the attacks, of course!"
"Tch, what’s so great about this? It’s just a bunch of attacks. You can’t even see the person."
...
Lin Chenxi was also full of admiration for Yuan Xiaobo. She had lasted 17 minutes with her Vicious Poisonous Vines before being knocked out. The attacks had simply become too dense, and her vines’ regenerative abilities couldn’t keep up.
During the challenge, she had continuously healed the Vicious Poisonous Vines, buffed their defense, and even planted a batch of High Nuts on them. But unfortunately, the barrier they formed was still overwhelmed and shattered by the sheer volume of attacks.
Still, even lasting just 17 minutes was enough to place Lin Chenxi in second.
First place, of course, was Yuan Xiaobo.
Just then, the tone of the surrounding crowd suddenly shifted.
"Look! Someone’s broadcasting their run on the public channel!"
"They just passed 20 minutes~~~"
"AHHH—"
"So huge, so tough, so cool!"
...
The trio turned to look. Over at the "Shield of Earth" challenge area, a massive screen was now broadcasting a live attempt.
On the screen, a burly, muscular Minotaur clad in heavy armor stood in the center.
A shield-shaped energy barrier manifested over his armor. All attacks that passed through it slowed down and shrank, their power visibly reduced before they actually struck him.
As they watched his time tick higher and higher, swept up by the fervent cheers of the crowd, the three of them couldn’t help but start cheering him on as well.
In the end, the Minotaur lasted for 26 minutes before he was finally defeated.
"There’s always a bigger fish," Lin Yu remarked, shaking his head.
Yuan Xiaobo looked at the large "26.84 minutes" next to the first-place entry in the third-tier rankings and nodded in agreement, his eyes filled with a new motivation.
Lin Chenxi, on the other hand, was completely stunned. She had thought Yuan Xiaobo’s score was already incredible, but this Minotaur’s performance was beyond anything she could have imagined.
"Alright, let’s go, let’s go. Stop staring!"
Lin Yu, however, wasn’t particularly surprised. ’The Cosmos is full of hidden masters. It’s not strange to find people like that.’
He took Lin Chenxi by the arm and started to head out, with Yuan Xiaobo following close behind.
The trio then went to try the grand melee, the platform duels, and the Gladiatorial Arena.
Compared to the first floor, the difficulty on this one was clearly higher.
On the first floor, it was difficult to even gather 100 participants for a legendary-grade event.
But here on the second floor, the third-tier platform duels and grand melees were consistently packed.
In the same-tier platform duels and melees, both of them met many evenly matched opponents, but unfortunately, neither managed to secure a victory.
In the open-tier duels and melees, their luck was even worse. Both ran into fourth and even fifth-tier opponents and were swiftly defeated.
The Gladiatorial Arena was also teeming with experts, and all sorts of strange and bizarre skills were on display.
Lin Chenxi and Yuan Xiaobo fought to their hearts’ content in the Gladiatorial Arena, but both were regrettably eliminated.
The day passed in a flash. Lin Yu led Lin Chenxi and Yuan Xiaobo, who were still hungry for more, back to their territory.
"So, how was the second floor?"
"It was great!" Lin Chenxi was ecstatic. After emerging from her Elf Fruit, she declared that the battles on the second floor of the Cosmic Arena were the most satisfying she’d ever fought.
Compared to today, even her previous battle against the Skeleton King seemed like a relaxing training exercise.
Yuan Xiaobo was also pleased, but the day had exposed many of his shortcomings. For instance, he lacked proper martial techniques and his combat skills were unrefined. He could crush many enemies by relying on his defense and attack power, which far surpassed others of his tier, but the moment he encountered an opponent who could pierce his defense, things became dicey.
In other words, he was currently too reliant on his defense. Once an opponent found a way past it, he was left with few options.
The solution was either to make his defense even stronger, or to enhance his other abilities to shore up his weaknesses.
"From now on, you two will need to rotate shifts with Meiying. Each of you will need to hold down the fort in the territory every other day..."
After giving his instructions to Lin Chenxi and Yuan Xiaobo, Lin Yu returned to the World Tree. He took out the Attribute Fruits he had bought that day from his personal storage space. In addition to the cheapest +1 Attribute Fruits, he had also purchased several other types.
He dug a hole near the World Tree, buried them all, and then returned to the Lord’s Mansion.
Following the same procedure as the previous night, Lin Yu immersed his consciousness into the World Tree, using its power to have the World Tree Roots accelerate the growth of the planted fruits into Divine Fruit Trees.
The process was a success. All the Attribute Fruits sprouted and grew into Divine Fruit Trees.
Regrettably, however, the Divine Fruit Trees grown from the better Attribute Fruits were no stronger than the ones he had created at dawn. Their abilities were identical. For Lin Yu, this meant buying those high-quality Attribute Fruits had been a waste.
After a moment’s thought, Lin Yu ran out of the Lord’s Mansion again. He dug up all the high-quality Attribute Fruits, leaving only the basic ones that increased a physical attribute by a single point.
CRUNCH~ CRUNCH~
Lin Yu wiped the dirt from the Attribute Fruits and popped them into his mouth.
"Mm, not bad. They actually taste pretty good."
Chewing on the Attribute Fruits, he returned to the Lord’s Mansion, satisfied.
After he finished transforming all the remaining basic Attribute Fruits, Lin Yu had over 50 new Divine Fruit Trees. As a bonus, by eating all the high-grade Attribute Fruits, he’d increased all his stats by several dozen points.
Next, he took out a large pile of Cultivation Manuals from his personal storage space.
Most of these manuals contained techniques for launching attacks with energy. A smaller number were Cultivation Techniques for absorbing and storing external energy, and there were also manuals for cultivating the mind, such as Visualization Techniques and Meditation Techniques.
Lin Yu picked up a few manuals and gave them a preliminary look. Even with his rudimentary knowledge as a mid-tier Druid, he could tell that most of them were quite primitive and low-level.
Fortunately, they still contained many ingenious techniques that, by guiding energy, could supposedly deal several times the normal damage (or so the manuals claimed).
The manuals had been very cheap, costing only a few Arena Points each, so Lin Yu had spent less than 1,000 points to buy several hundred of them.
As soon as he took out all the books, the Technology Tree unlocked a new research project.
[Name]: Library Pavilion
[Type]: Universal Special Building
[Description]: A place that houses a countless collection of Cultivation Manuals.
[Effect 1]: Accelerates the compilation and revision of Cultivation Manuals.
[Effect 2]: Accelerates the comprehension and practice of the contents of Cultivation Manuals.
[Effect 3]: Accelerates the optimization and upgrading of Cultivation Manuals.
[Effect]: The more Cultivation Manuals collected, the stronger the above effects.
Seeing this research project, Lin Yu was very pleased with his clever impulse buy. He issued a directive to the Government Affairs Center, instructing the research institute to begin development on this Library Pavilion project as soon as they finished their current tasks, complete the research as quickly as possible, and then construct it.