Chapter 234: Shattering the Monster-Spawning Mechanism
Cheng Tian's monster-hunting spree likely triggered the dungeon's self-protection mechanism, or perhaps he genuinely wiped out all the monsters stationed there. In any case, not a single ghost or demonic crow unit could be seen anymore.
Ghosts leave no corpses when they die, but the crow corpses truly carpeted the ground. This sight even gave Bazett, who had just joined, a sense of déjà vu.
Oh right, the Mage's Association had a record of one of the Twenty-seven Ancestors, whom the Church attempted to subjugate, being able to control a large number of crows as familiars.
If the Master were to unleash an attack on one of those Twenty-seven Ancestors, would it also achieve the same instant kill effect?
As a combat-oriented individual, but with considerable magical prowess, and having received a wealth of common knowledge from space upon becoming a Holy Grail Servant, Bazett could tell that Cheng Tian was engaging in a form of 'war to sustain war,' using what appeared to be soul fragments or magic crystal shards dropped by monsters to achieve a 'meter reversal' (replenishing his resources).
However, Cheng Tian's competence further diminished the value of Bazett's own guardian role, which led to the amputee girl starting to wallow in self-pity again.
Cheng Tian didn't notice this, nor did he have time to, as he was once again experiencing the painful joy of playing World of Warcraft without an auto-loot add-on.
Because all the money bags and statues scattered across the ground… he had to bend down and pick them up himself!
Even though you know a corpse might only have a few copper coins, with hundreds or thousands of corpses on the ground, it accumulates into a significant sum. Ultimately, he had no choice but to summon Uthan, and gather Ghost Cicada, the Primordial Stone Wyvern, and the self-loathing Bazett to collect the money into piles, which he would then personally store in his inventory.
At this point, Bazett's expression clearly improved significantly. Even just picking up money together, she could feel 'needed' rather than being treated specially because of her amputated arm.
This time, Cheng Tian finally noticed, because Bazett was humming a tune while picking up money, which was a subconscious display.
Recalling Bazett's personality traits, Cheng Tian sniffed and said nothing.
Bazett's emotional changes were typical of a personality flaw. To fix it, merely regenerating her arm wouldn't be enough; it would likely require some stimulation and a trigger… From entering the dungeon until now, Cheng Tian had cumulatively slain over a thousand monsters. Only seven chests had dropped in total, and even then, it was as if they hadn't dropped at all, as they contained only money bags and King statues.
After the even more tedious task of counting money than monster hunting, the number of money bags and King statues in Cheng Tian's inventory reached over 300 and over 700 respectively. The total value for spatial recycling had already exceeded 30,000 Chosen Coins, which could be said to have reached the A-rank settlement standard for a C-difficulty main quest.
It was fortunate that these valuable items could be stacked, otherwise, there would be money everywhere with no idea who to leave it for.
Seeing that all the mansion buildings in Ghost Town no longer spawned monsters, Cheng Tian realized that his money-farming activities had come to an end. Next up were the Easter egg items and the gatekeeper BOSS.
For players following a normal dungeon strategy, Ghost Town actually has another difficult point: the extremely large mansions blocking the inevitable path.
The stairs inside these mansions wind up and down, and there are many floors, each with a considerable number of ordinary giants.
As a lesser unit of the Cyclops, these ordinary giants are all boss-level units with ample health. For players who can only travel by land, encountering them in narrow stairwell passages means a close encounter with these tough-skinned, foul-smelling, terrifying giants who possess a faint bloodline of Fire Titans and can unleash fireballs.
Cheng Tian's main objective in entering was still the Knight's Armor located on the top floor of the mansion.
For him, this Knight's Armor, with 1 point of absolute durability, could not only be sold for money but also used as a consumable to activate the Ghost Rider transformation.
However, before officially entering the mansion, Cheng Tian decisively unleashed a Merlin Shock at it. Although it didn't instantly kill the giants inside, it reduced all their health to a quarter of their original amount. He then proceeded to test and kill his way through using a main weapon + magic book combination spell.
Yes, Cheng Tian's combination spell used his main weapon as a component.
Normally, only throwable consumables and sub-weapons could be combined with a magic book, but Cheng Tian's situation was a bit different: through the Strawberry Underwear, he gained the 'Knight's Throw' ability, identical to Knight Arthur's. This ability condenses the currently held weapon into a throwable item.
And this met the necessary prerequisite for combination casting.
Ice Magic Book + Balford's Obsession (Dagger) = Launches a string of 8 ice-infused daggers. Hits cause frostbite. Continuous hits on the same spot stack frostbite until the limb is permanently necrotic.
Fire Magic Book + prince's sword (Greatsword) = Summons a squad of flame-wrapped undead cavalry, which charges the target, dealing both physical and fire damage.
It's worth noting that because Cheng Tian had just learned Titan's Grip, allowing him to wield two-handed weapons in one hand, he was able to hold a greatsword in his right hand and a magic book in his left, and then perform combination casting.
This unexpected combination even showed shades of Knight Arthur's casting when wearing the "Golden Knight's Armor" in Makaimura.
The bad news, however, is that this top-tier spellcaster experience card can currently only show its might in Makaimura.
Because the standalone Makaimura dungeon does not have a main quest settlement, neither the knight template provided by the underwear nor the additional vampire magic hunter template can only be used in Makaimura.
Of course, there is also good news: as long as Cheng Tian defeats the Demon King of Makaimura and completes the thorough clear, he will receive a normal settlement. And judging by the Metal Slug dungeon's dual main quest settlement and dual additional skills, there's a very high probability of multiple reward settlements upon final completion of Makaimura.
It's even possible that the Knight template could be retained via the Strawberry Underwear.
So, even for a temporary top-tier spellcaster experience card, Cheng Tian was quite motivated to conduct tests, and there was another key point… the Demon King's Castle map had no activation restrictions.
This means that, in theory, Cheng Tian could immediately reopen the map after clearing Ghost Town and head straight for Makaimura's third stage area—the Demon Mountain Caves!
Of course, Cheng Tian wouldn't actually do that, at least not now.
Having gone through the soul equipment activation event, he had thoroughly understood the principle of "don't be led by the nose by rewards." While the rewards for clearing Makaimura were indeed very attractive, Cheng Tian's eyes would not be easily clouded; it was best to let things take their natural course.
From the entrance of Ghost Town, he obtained one Knight Statue and one Yashichi Windmill.
The statue's effect is similar to Mario's 1-Up Mushroom: it allows the player to revive, keeping their weapons and regenerating with a Knight's Armor, but at the cost of losing all other items. It can be taken out of the dungeon.
The windmill, on the other hand, is purely a valuable item, worth five hundred coins.
Then there was the hidden Knight's Armor inside the super-large mansion, and after leaving the mansion, a BUFF-type Yashichi Windmill on the central island in the river. This windmill can extend the duration of BUFFs on both allies and enemies by 60 seconds.
After all the giants in the mansion were killed, the entire Ghost Town became completely silent; only the urgent and powerful breathing of the Twin Giants near the distant mountains could be heard.
Cheng Tian first watched the two giants, almost identical in appearance to those in the first act, from afar, and then—
He changed his title to "911."