Han Wu safely landed and immediately retrieved the three pouches his seniors had given him. Two crumbled into dust the moment he retrieved them, leaving only one intact. He opened the remaining pouch to examine its contents, and within it was a parchment detailing the civilization he had entered, along with ten cards.
He unfolded the parchment and read its contents. It stated that he was currently in the Rune Civilization, where the fundamental power stemmed from 26 unique runes. By combining them in various ways, these runes could produce millions of different possibilities in this world.
The combinations that consistently yielded stable phenomena were recorded and recognized as part of the Runic Lexicon. Some of the more potent combinations could shift the heavens and sunder the earth itself.
After reading, Han Wu checked the ten cards in his pouch. Each card contained Warfront Essence, a type of energy that boosted the Will of the Warfront and enabled it to generate higher-ranking life forms in greater numbers. In wars against foreign civilizations, Warfront Essence served as a vital resource, linking one to their divine realm.
Han Wu currently possessed ten units. With them, he could summon either 100,000 Common locusts, 10 Heroic locusts, a single 1-Star God equipment, or one special treasure. Without any Warfront Essence, he would be powerless. All he would be able to do was observe his divine realm through the golden bracelet and do nothing.
Fortunately, there were many ways to obtain Warfront Essence. The most common method was to kill native life forms and extract it from their bodies. Han Wu chose that path, activating five cards to connect to his divine realm, and five of his ten Cockroaches instantly appeared beside him. They were like powerful bodyguards, deterring many life forms from attacking Han Wu.
He ordered his Cockroaches to kill the nearby life forms to gather more Warfront Essence. They obeyed and started running in different directions.
[Obtained 0.001 Warfront Essence]
[Obtained 0.002 Warfront Essence]
A steady stream of notifications flowed into his mind as he sensed the wisps of Warfront Essence converging around him.
It took an hour to collect just 0.5 units this way. He frowned, dissatisfied with the sluggish pace. The Cockroaches were powerful, but with only five of them, their killing rate was inevitably slow. They simply couldn’t cover enough ground.
To speed things up, Han Wu drew on his remaining Warfront Essence and summoned 50 Unique Primal Locusts. They could sweep across the terrain faster than the Cockroaches, accelerating the collection.
After half an hour of relentless killing, Han Wu finally secured 1 Warfront Essence. At the same time, the Primal Locusts transmitted an urgent report: a goblin nest harboring at least a thousand goblins lay ten kilometers to the south.
This presented a prime opportunity, so Han Wu swiftly mounted one of the Primal Locusts and commanded the Cockroaches to charge toward the goblin nest. The goblins fought back fiercely, hurling wooden javelins and rocks in desperate defense.
Han Wu scoffed at their feeble resistance. The nest had only one Elite Goblin Slinger, but it missed every shot and squandered countless chances. Han Wu recalled Huang Shengjun’s goblin army and couldn’t help but compare it to the pitiful nest before him. These goblins didn’t even qualify as squires.
The Cockroaches crushed the nest with ease, and Han Wu gained 1.2 Warfront Essence after eradicating the goblin nest. After the slaughter, the Cockroaches gathered the nest’s treasures and presented them to Han Wu.
As he sifted through the scraps, he found a peculiar stone radiating some kind of pure energy. The moment he picked it up, a message entered his mind.
[First Rune A: One of the basic runes. Contains pure power and one of the basic runes used to form a Runic Lexicon.]
Han Wu twirled the rune between his fingers, his curiosity piqued, as he pondered the nature of the Runic Lexicon. Determined to find more runes, he quickly used the Warfront Essence that he had gathered to summon more units.
With 2.2 Warfront Essence, he called forth 22 Dark Cursed Bugs and dispatched them to scour the area for native life forms. It wasn’t long before they discovered a minotaur settlement. Han Wu ordered his Cockroaches to attack the settlement without hesitation.
The minotaurs were far stronger than goblins and yielded significantly more Warfront Essence upon annihilation. After the battle, Han Wu searched one of the tents and found two more runes: another First Rune A and a new Fourth Rune D. Each rune was equivalent to a Rank 1 Sacred Object. He also found hundreds of Common iron hatchets scattered outside.
Han Wu used his Warfront Essence to summon more locusts, expanding his detection radius even further. Over the next three days, he repeated the process and destroyed 18 settlements. However, his reckless slaughter attracted the attention of the region’s Lord life form, the Cat Demon Lord.
In retaliation, the Cat Demon Lord mobilized its underlings and began exterminating every locust they encountered. Han Wu lost half his swarm and nearly died twice during the Cat Demon Lord’s ambushes. Fortunately, the Cockroaches were strong enough to buy him the time he needed to escape.
The ordeal taught Han Wu a harsh lesson. He resolved to remove the seal that was suppressing his strength. Only by increasing his strength could he earn more Warfront Essence and summon more units to fight alongside him.