The Doomsday Lord: Starting as a Insect Queen-Chapter 258 - 169 Temporary Mission in the Battle Zone

"The market here will continue to purchase Mutant Creatures tomorrow, the condition is still the ring, and this time the ring has been upgraded to the second generation with larger storage space." fɾēewebnσveℓ.com

"However, tomorrow might be the last day, if there are subsequent purchases, notifications will continue to be made through the channel."

"Lords who still want rings need not worry, other trading channels will be kept in the future..."

The three pieces of information on the channel instantly ignited the enthusiasm of all the Lords.

Even Lords who were originally just lurking began to actively participate, trying to show their faces and be remembered by Fan Mao.

Not to mention those Low-level Lords, even Iron Blood himself would have wanted to get involved if he didn’t know it was pointless.

"It’s still unclear what Fan Mao is collecting so many Mutant Creatures for...

Really for experiments?

But I must say, Fan Mao’s Space Rings are indeed good, especially convenient for individuals.

Moreover, once you enter the Battle Zone, neither channels nor the Free Market can be used in unoccupied areas, the Space Ring is already the only storage method...

According to the announcement on the panel, there might be some temporary missions later, maybe involving capturing supplies.

That’s when the Space Ring will really come in handy...

It’s unclear if this time’s restrictions in the Battle Zone are to prepare us in advance for the eventual cancellation of Free Market storage..."

But these game-level considerations are no longer important to him. If it had been the him of the past, being one of the strong in the channel, he would have needed to think ahead about these issues.

But for the him now, what’s more important is how to bring more benefits to the Lords under his Lord Alliance.

As for the game considerations, that’s left to a few tall guys to bear...

Especially Fan Mao...

This strength is already beyond what ordinary 5th-tier Lords can describe...

Iron Blood looked at the flickering tree shadows on the distant mountaintop under the lights and thought of their strength displayed today, even entertaining the thought "maybe just submit to Fan Mao."

Today was not only the day they explored beyond their own area to find other regional gates, but other regions’ Lords’ reconnaissance teams had also found them.

Unlike his approach of sticking to the edge of the region, the other side had come from the direction of the region’s center.

And they seemed to be aware of the special location of their chosen campsite. They knew that once the camp defenses were perfected, attacking it would be extremely difficult.

After the reconnaissance team retreated, they swiftly notified their Lord in some way and organized an offensive.

Using some method of rapid marching, they actually launched an attack this afternoon, attempting to harass before the camp’s defensive constructions were finished.

Iron Blood was clear about the situation inside the camp. At the time, other than the Tree-men left by Fan Mao, the other three 5th-tier Lords were still strengthening their own powers post-promotion, enhancing their soldiers and buildings.

Iron Blood had also reached an agreement with them, determined to initially adopt a defensive strategy, focusing on fortifying the camp and slowly expanding outwards to mine nearby resources.

Once the three 5th-tier Lords were ready, they would then launch an offensive and expand with overwhelming Strength.

So at that time, there were no other 5th-tier Lord combat powers in the camp.

And their opponents actually led an elite force with a 5th-tier Lord at its head and a large number of 4th-tier units!

That was at least a coalition formed by four or five Lords, and with his late 4th-tier strength, he couldn’t resist at all.

Even with the help of other 4th-tier Lords in the region and the various high-tier weapons provided by Jun Lin and Landon I, they still fell back time and again, being pushed to the mountaintop.

He did not forget the Tree-men left by Bai Yi. After arriving at the camp, they sat down on the mountaintops around as if they were ordinary Banyan Trees, motionless.

Iron Blood’s original plan was also to rely on retreating while fighting to preserve strength until reaching the mountaintop, then cooperate with the Tree-men to resist the enemy’s attack and take the opportunity to delay for time, asking the 5th-tier Lords for assistance.

After all, Tree-men were only 5th-tier soldiers, and their enemies had them too, not to mention a greater number of 4th-tier Combat Units and those 5th-tier Hero Units.

The fact that the Tree-men could resist the offensive was already a demonstration of their Strength by Fan Mao’s forces.

But he didn’t expect that those Tree-men would be much stronger than he had imagined.

As soon as the attacking enemies came in contact with the Tree-men, they awakened without needing any reminder.

Tree limbs and vines twisted into huge hands easily pierced through the enemies, and even those 5th-tier units seemed as if they were made of paper in front of the Tree-men.

Whether it was the piercing or the sheer power of the sweep, they could take at least one Life every time.

In comparison, the enemy’s attacks seemed as though the Tree-men didn’t notice them, allowing them to hit their bodies but simply not able to leave a wound.

Or to say, even if they were injured, they would heal the next second.

Only those 5th-tier Hero Units could exchange a few blows with the Tree-men, but even then, they only used various means to deplete them from a distance, not daring to clash directly with the Tree-men.

Perhaps as a trade-off for their formidable bodies, the Tree-men had limited speed and didn’t have any fancy gimmicks.

They didn’t pursue after realizing something was amiss and the enemy retreated.

But in coordination with his and the Low-tier Lords’ attacks, they left behind half of the attacker’s Combat Power this time.

And they suffered little loss themselves, instead, they gained a great deal of points

—The enemy’s formidable Combat Power meant that they could gain even more points after defeating them!

Even those Low-tier Lords who could only pick off one or two were netting no small income.

To have such income during an initial defense stage could already be considered a surprise.

Unfortunately, the method of the enemy’s march remained unknown. Unable to do anything outside with the Tree-men, Iron Blood also couldn’t organize people to investigate which side had attacked them.

They could only wait until the subsequent regional conquest began to figure out who attacked them.

"At least after today’s battle, the low-tier Lords have gained confidence.

And now that the defense system is established, coupled with the protection of Fan Mao’s Tree-men, it can be easily defended as long as there is no joint attack from other regions.

Hmm, the Corpse King’s forces can be deployed tomorrow.

This will also hasten the map-making progress, as exploring within the Battle Zone without a 5th-tier combat power leading is too dangerous..."

The maps he mentioned were the topographical maps of the surrounding mountains.

For a foreign land, the importance of maps to warfare is self-evident.

With certain terrain advantages, it’s even possible to fight outnumbered and win the battle with fewer warriors, as today’s battle already proved.

Moreover, he also had a responsibility to scout the nearby resources for the few 5th-tier Lords in the region, to prepare for faster mining exploitation later on.

But, as a mountainous region, even before this world’s Mutation, there were no detailed terrain records, and most maps found within White Poplar City lacked details about the nearby landforms.

To understand the area, they would have to opt for manual mapping.

Without professional tools and training, compiling the explored data of various teams into maps wasn’t easy...

Even though he had taught the Lords how to draw maps as best as he could, the "maps" collected were still unspeakable.

Looking at the childish doodles on the table behind him, Iron Blood sighed deeply and threw himself back into his work.

He started to try to discern information from those scribbles, attempting to integrate it into the maps on the side.

Iron Blood wasn’t the only one troubled by terrain.

On the other side of the planet, Yun Dao, who had just landed, was also plagued by the topography.

Amidst the occupied Beastman camps, Yun Dao, with her sister, fell into deep contemplation looking at the abstract map spread out before them.

This map was found within the central tent after they took over the Beastman camp.

It appeared to be the result of Beastman reconnaissance efforts before their arrival.

Together with it was another map, likely drawn by humans from the Beastman region before the world’s Mutation.

But that map provided only a brief description of this Battle Zone wasteland, with some simple waterways and roads.

Over time, both maps had become outdated and lost their usefulness.

And as for the Beastman-drawn map...

It was less accurate than a witch flying up and mapping the area herself...

"In the sea for so long, suddenly returning to land sure takes some getting used to.

Luckily, the nearby terrain isn’t too complicated, and with Sky Control Technique and Spiritual Link, we can continue exploring...

By the way, how are the mining machines coming along?"

When it came to spell research Yun Dao still had some say, but she knew nothing about machinery.

This sort of thing was left to her sister without much interference.

"The last assembly stages are almost done, and tomorrow the first mining machine can be put to use.

However, due to a lack of fuel, the No. 1 machine must rely on witches casting spells for power supply..."

"Great, then we can start excavating that iron mine discovered today. It’s too dangerous to solely rely on witches casting spells for explosions, as just two tons of ore caused three cave-ins today.

Later, we’ll allocate a group of witches to focus on iron mining, and that should temporarily bridge our steel gap.

At least we won’t have to dismantle our ships for steel to craft machinery..."

Hearing the good news, Yun Dao felt much better.

Yet, she couldn’t help but lament that if the Mineral Altar could produce iron ore, she wouldn’t have to worry.

Unfortunately, even after transforming into a War Witch, her performance on each Cycle Challenge was commendable but had yet to reveal any useful Mineral Altars.

Even among the captured Lords, these types of resource buildings were rare.

For now, she could only hope for natural mineral exploitation, continuously earning points, and trying to uncover them from the resource building blueprints.

But since yesterday’s skirmish with the Beastmen and taking over their camp, they hadn’t found a second group of Lords.

The flow of points had come to a halt...

"It’s unclear when the temporary tasks from the Cycle Challenge announcement will open..."

Yun Dao mused, when suddenly her eyes lit up.

A panel notification - it had arrived!

...

Expedition I Mining Machine: A legendary mining machine from the Expeditionary Army’s First Generation, built by the expeditionary army during its inception based on the limited knowledge they had, with continuous spell casting by witches to power it as a replacement for the scarce energy resources of the time.

Although extremely outdated by today’s standards, this machine is none other than the revered forefather of the favorite Expedition XVI Type Mining Machine among the War Witches. The only remaining unit is preserved in the Eternal Life City Expedition Museum...

[Note: I really can’t understand why such human-powered mining machines were discontinued. In my opinion, this crude expression of power is the true romance of a witch!]

[Note’s note: You’re right, as a penalty, you are assigned to mine with human-powered machines in a Magicless World for one day]