Chapter 436 – The Beginning of Holy Power and Mana

Eternal Realm, Pharos Town:

Since the Saint Camp had transformed into a lush forest, the players in the camp quickly gathered in the nearest town.

Because the Holy World seemed to have experienced countless years of transformation in the blink of an eye, the terrain of the land had undergone tremendous changes.

What were originally lakes could have turned into mountains, what were originally ruins could have turned into lakes, and what was originally wilderness could have turned into canyons. Moreover, even NPCs, who originally existed in small numbers in the Holy World, had become much more numerous than players.

!!

The number of NPCs in Pharos Town alone had already exceeded 200,000. That was several times greater than the number of NPCs found in a town in the outside world. In addition, every one of these NPCs was astonishingly strong. Even the ordinary civilian NPCs here were above Level 150, Tier 3, while NPC adventurers were above Level 150, Tier 4, and the town’s leaders were above Level 160, Tier 5.

The weapons and equipment found on these NPCs were even more staggering.

In the case of the NPC adventurers, every one was equipped with at least one Legendary Weapon or Equipment, with some having even two or three.

Even titled experts, individuals who occupied a dominant position in the outside world, felt great pressure while standing among these Tier 4 NPC adventurers, let alone the Tier 5 NPC leaders.

“Quick! Let’s hurry to the mayor’s place before all the quests are taken!”

“Teaming up to collect daily materials at the Calamity Canyon! Four waiting on two! Accepting only Level 140s fully equipped with Fragmented Legendary Equipment or better!”

“Absolute Technique clearance! Absolute Technique clearance! Only three Eternal Gold Coins for each! I have ten copies on hand! First come, first served!”

…

Before Shi Feng could even reach Pharos Town’s main street, he was greeted by the sight of many players peddling and forming teams next to the town gate. Seeing this, Shi Feng couldn’t help but feel nostalgic.

Thinking back to when God’s Domain first launched in his homeworld, the players back then behaved just as lively as the players outside Pharos Town did. The only difference was that the players outside Pharos Town weren’t a bunch of weak and clueless newcomers. Instead, even the weakest among them was a titled expert.

Even so, the thing these experts needed to do was still the same.

Whether players were in a town or a city in God’s Domain, if players wanted to purchase Shops and Lands, status was incredibly important.

Meanwhile, players could gain status in Pharos Town by completing quests issued by the town and earning reputation in the town. Then, once players became a noble of the town, they could start to purchase the town’s Shops and Lands. And if players could quickly secure the Shops and Lands with strategic locations, they could sit back and watch as the value of their purchases appreciated in the future.

Of course, apart from requiring status, players would also need a significant amount of the Eternal Realm’s currency to purchase Shops and Lands.

“That guy selling Absolute Techniques really knows how to run a scam. How dare he ask for three Eternal Gold for one Absolute Technique?”

“I know, right? The system only awarded us ten Eternal Copper each as a starting bonus. And looking at the town’s material gathering quests, we’d be lucky if we could make thirty Eternal Copper after half a day’s work. Going by the exchange rates of one hundred Eternal Copper to one Eternal Silver and one hundred Eternal Silver to one Eternal Gold, our party might not even make three Eternal Gold after doing quests for a whole month.”

“It’d be great if I could have three Eternal Gold now. I heard the Shops by the town gate only cost two Eternal Gold to buy.”

Some passing players looked at the conglomerate representative selling Absolute Techniques in contempt and started hushed discussions among themselves.

The Eternal Realm had just emerged, and they were the first batch of pioneers. The Eternal Realm’s NPCs did not accept materials obtained from monsters for money. If players wished to make money, they could only do so through completing quests, raiding Dungeons, and killing Bosses.

As a result, even one Eternal Copper Coin was very precious.

After all, the various conglomerates had very few members in the Eternal Realm right now. They also didn’t have a way to send more people into the Eternal Realm for the time being, so they couldn’t rely on numbers to amass a significant sum of Eternal Coins. Because of this, the various conglomerates were in short supply of Eternal Coins, and they could only purchase them from players of other powers.

However, while the 99 Absolute Techniques were valuable, one Absolute Technique definitely wasn’t worth as much as Pharos Town’s real estate. If they were to sell the town’s real estate to the powers outside the Eternal Realm, they could easily get an offer for multiple Absolute Techniques for one Shop or Land. They might even get a big bonus of Star Coins.

So, only a fool would use three Eternal Gold to purchase one Absolute Technique.

Moreover, the value of Eternal Coins had yet to reach its peak. The best time to sell Eternal Coins would be when the various powers started to pour into the Eternal Realm in large numbers. That would be when the various powers would feel the most urgent in acquiring Eternal Coins to purchase the Eternal Realm’s real estate.

While the various experts were frantically doing quests, Shi Feng quietly arrived at a grocery store in Pharos Town. Although the grocery store was tiny, it was a massive advantage to Shi Feng since no other players were present nearby.

“Shopkeeper, how much for this Holy Power Potion?” Shi Feng asked as he held up a palm-sized bottle containing light-blue liquid.

“Three Eternal Copper per bottle,” the shopkeeper said after briefly glancing at the bottle in Shi Feng’s hand.

“I want three bottles,” Shi Feng said as he took out nine of the Eternal Copper Coins he had received from the system, leaving only one Eternal Copper Coin in his pocket. Now, he couldn’t even afford to stay in a hotel in the town.

Unlike the other Realms in the Greater God’s Domain, the Eternal Realm didn’t just have mana filling its environment. On top of mana, the Eternal Realm’s environment also housed a special kind of energy.

Holy Power!

Not only did holy power fill the Eternal Realm, but it also caused significant transformations to the monsters living here.

Because the Eternal Realm’s monsters had not only mana but also holy power to strengthen them, they were more difficult to deal with than monsters found outside the Eternal Realm.

Because of this, pure physical attacks and attacks that relied on mana could do very little damage to the monsters in the Eternal Realm. Even against monsters of the same level and tier, players would be fortunate if they could do one-tenth of the damage they could normally do.

Meanwhile, the players during Shi Feng’s previous life referred to this phenomenon as Holy Power Protection!

Because of the presence of Holy Power Protection, even fighting against monsters that were one tier lower became a challenge for players, let alone fighting monsters of the same tier. Moreover, as Tier 4 players couldn’t fly in the Eternal Realm, a basic action that should normally be easy to execute for Tier 4 players, traveling across long distances also became a problem. As a result, players would typically need to form teams to complete quests. If players choose to tackle quests alone, they might not even complete one quest in one day.

However, it didn’t take long for the players back then to discover an item known as the Holy Power Potion. When consumed, the Holy Power Potion could strengthen players with Holy Power for one hour, thus allowing them to ignore a significant portion of a monster’s Holy Power Protection.

Although the Holy Power Potion’s cost of three Eternal Copper per bottle was a steep price to pay for early pioneers, it was a miracle tool that could greatly speed up the killing of monsters.

After securing the Holy Power Potions, Shi Feng quickly left the town and ran for three hours straight to reach the Gray Shadow Hills, a Level 145 map.

Getting to this place truly is a challenge, Shi Feng thought, breathing a deep sigh as he looked at the Gray Shadow Hills ahead of him. Because Shi Feng was only Level 135, monsters had chased him throughout nearly the entire journey here.

Currently, because of the presence of Holy Power Protection, the entirety of the Gray Shadow Hills was essentially off-limits to Level 140 players. After all, monsters would gain a significant amount of HP for each level after Level 100. If players were only looking to earn money and reputation, killing monsters with lower HP would be much more efficient.

However, Shi Feng didn’t only come to the Gray Shadow Hills because there was less competition here. Instead, a larger part of the reason was to kill the Gray Shadow Hills’ Regional Boss. This was also one of the quickest methods of earning currency and reputation during the early days of the Eternal Realm.