The Garlic Tribe was cautious in exploring Moon Island.
They knew that salt could restrain the crazy travel rats, but they still did not enter the depths of the island. The small people surrounded the periphery, gradually perfecting the map of the outermost circle of the island.
The Fishermen’s Alliance, which always advocated active exploration, repeatedly reminded on the paddle sailboat.
"Safety first."
"Do not rush in."
"The rats can bite the boats at any time, everyone must remain vigilant."
...
Lu Yao decided to help the small people this time.
He had Isabella bring four spotted leopards from the Western Continent. This was also the first time Lu Yao activated forest elemental creatures.
Before taking action, Lu Yao also sought Isabella’s opinion.
- Can the leopards handle the crazy travel rats?
"Sir, the spotted leopards cannot eat so many rats. However, they are natural hunters and killers, and they deal with rats very easily. They are great helpers for large-scale extermination of rat colonies on the island."
So, the spotted leopards of the Rat Extermination Special Forces were sent to Moon Island on the paddle sailboat.
As soon as the four furry felines set foot on the island, the hunting began.
Lu Yao looked down at the small island.
On the screen, four yellow big cats ran around, dealing with the crazy travel rats one by one. Wherever the leopards went, there were rat corpses everywhere.
There were no battle scenes in this hunt.
Only then did Lu Yao confirm that the crazy travel rats were indeed ordinary animals, but they had been transformed and mutated by magic medicine. That’s why their levels couldn’t be seen.
The level 10 spotted leopards had the abilities of [Stealth], [Bleeding], and [Quick Strike]. When they encountered the rat colonies here, it was a one-sided dimensional reduction strike.
The crazy travel rats were strong in front of the obedient Moon Tribe, but they were powerless against real monsters.
The rat colonies were killed, and in the end, they fled into the sea and the mountains.
The leopard hunt continued.
But their preliminary mission was completed. A large area on this island had been cleared, enough to allow the small people to safely go ashore.
Isabella walked to the central area of the island. It was also very desolate here, with no vegetation in sight, only rocks and soil all over the ground.
In the central area, there was a conspicuous flat-topped mountain with some kind of ruined relic on it. Next to the relic was a crooked stone stele.
Lu Yao clicked on the relic.
The screen displayed: [This is a ruin.]
Lu Yao pondered, this was most likely the site of the statue.
He asked Isabella to explore this ruin and see if she could find something.
Soon, Isabella did make a discovery.
"Sir, I found the [Universal Stone]."
Four shiny stones flew into the top left corner of the screen.
At the same time, a new item, [Universal Stone], appeared in the game interface, and the display column automatically collapsed. Lu Yao had to click on it to see the details.
...
[Universal Stone]: The basic material for forging treasures, a rare mineral.
When heated with the Fire of Faith, there is a certain probability of forging a treasure. Continuing to refine with the Universal Stone has a certain probability of strengthening the treasure and increasing its grade. The higher the grade of the treasure, the more difficult it is to strengthen with the Universal Stone.
...
Now Lu Yao understood.
The player Light God’s [Damaged Magic Medicine Crucible] was most likely made with the [Universal Stone].
No wonder it felt much weaker than other treasures. It was a defective product created by a novice.
Wait a minute.
There are four [Universal Stones] here, where did they come from? The players have been hanging for so long, did the statue drop these equipment?
Or is it that this place itself has Universal Stones?
Lu Yao stared at the screen, his gaze focused on the surroundings of the temple.
He activated the piano mode with his fingers.
- Dig around here and see if there are any other Universal Stones.
- Get everyone else to dig!
...
Lu Yao closely monitored the island, waiting for feedback from the small people.
In just a few minutes, Isabella led the others to dig a huge pit under the temple ruins.
The top of this pit was covered by many large rocks, and there was already a passage leading underground that had been excavated, with a sparkling light inside. There were also some dried rat corpses inside.
Isabella entered the mine alone and found several more [Universal Stones], but she was unsure what was at the bottom.
Lu Yao took a sip of cold water and organized his thoughts.
The area around the temple was a Universal Stone mining area, and Light God possessed a treasure trove that many players would envy.
So Light God had been secretly trying to make items. He used faith as fuel to create treasure embryos, and then slowly smelted them to obtain finished treasures.
After calming down a bit, Lu Yao entered Light God’s perspective and further understood the reasons behind his actions.
The power of divine players comes from population and faith.
Population cannot be rapidly increased in a short period of time and usually requires long-term development.
To achieve explosive growth, either they have to assimilate other human groups or there needs to be a baby boom. However, the human population in the tribal era was not large to begin with, so even if they assimilated other tribes or experienced a baby boom, the increase in numbers would be limited.
In comparison, acquiring faith was more straightforward.
The fixed income from item treasures was visible to the naked eye, unlike the slow increase in faith from population growth.
Take Lu Yao himself as an example.
Including the [Ghost White Horse], he now had eight items in his possession, earning 264 faith points every day.
This was much faster than the faith gained from cultivating the small people in the tribe.
Due to controlling the Universal Stone mine, Light God naturally focused on mining. The earlier he produced finished items, the more substantial the subsequent accumulation of faith growth.
As for the small people believers, as long as they weren’t starving to death, they could be left to grow on their own.
However, Light God probably didn’t expect that the Moon Tribe couldn’t even handle the [Grass Monster]. This forced him to personally take action, using miracle attacks and making magic medicine with the crucible.
He created the crazy travel rats that countered the Grass Monster, but it also triggered a chain reaction.One misstep led to another, turning the eradication of the wild grass monsters into a large-scale disaster that the weak Moon Tribe couldn’t resist. By the time the Light God reacted, it was already too late.
The snowball hanging over Moon Island was getting bigger and bigger, and without specific countermeasures, it was impossible to stop it.
Lu Yao said quietly, "Rest easy, I’ve avenged you. It’s our duty to restore the glory of the gods."
After a while, Lu Yao turned his attention to the stone tablet.
The stone tablet didn’t provide any hints.
However, there were some vague traces on the ground beneath the stone tablet, which seemed to follow a certain pattern.
Lu Yao examined them and found that the cracks on the ground formed several distorted Chinese characters: "I f***ing hate you, you damn rats!"
He agreed wholeheartedly.
Good curse.
But.
Although the rats indeed deserved to die.
And your luck wasn’t great either...
But bro, you’re a disgrace to all players, to be so incompetent as to get wiped out by a bunch of rats and have your account deleted.
...
Lu Yao shifted his mood and began to fiddle with the "Omnistone".
An open-world game couldn’t lack the elements of enhancement and creation, just like the West couldn’t be without Jerusalem, it was something that had to be experienced.