Magic Farm 93

Chapter 93: The Level-Three Shelter Blueprint in Hand

With a clear goal in mind, Qi Yu headed straight at full speed toward the spot where he’d discovered the black ancient trees the day before.

Along the way, aside from the swiftlets, there were no other mutated creatures to be seen.

Qi Yu maxed out his stealth attributes and cast a lightness spell; most of the first-tier swiftlets only felt a gust of wind pass by, never catching sight of a figure.

When he caught sight of the black shadows in the distance, Qi Yu let out a sigh of relief.

He also saw the swiftlets roosting on the black ancient trees.

Perhaps because he’d gone on such a rampage yesterday, some of the swiftlets that had fled hadn’t dared return, so today the flock in this patch of forest was noticeably thinner.

There was no time for unnecessary words. Qi Yu raised the Heart of the Greatwood staff and greeted the swiftlet flock with a group attack spell.

Countless swiftlets, startled, took to the air, swarming above Qi Yu in such density that for a moment, even the torrential rain was blocked out.

[Cockroach Flavor Is Weird: The game master is at it again.]

[Roadside Stray: So strong… With this kill speed, I don’t believe it’s just the energy tower at work.]

[Grumpy Bro: But at this speed, it’s even harder to believe he’s doing it alone.]

[Roadside Stray: Don’t tell me the game master has a team helping him farm points?]

[Afraid to Open My Eyes: The game master has no need for that; his points are already far ahead. In the end, you just don’t believe in the strength of the top-ranked player.]

[Brother Civil Engineer: Haha, you all have no idea what the farm owner is really capable of.]

[Grind King: Taking a quick glance at the points leaderboard in the middle of a grind—damn, this man is going to grind us all into the ground.]

[Cockroach Flavor Is Weird: @Grind King, take it easy, I think you’re the most hardcore one here.]

[Grind King: It’s fine, as long as my liver holds out, I’ll grind myself to death if I have to!]

[Reaching for the Moon in the Ninth Heaven: Question for everyone in the region—has anyone found the black tree the game master mentioned?]

[Dusk Song: No.]

[Grind King: No.]

[The Harder I Grind, the Worse My Fate: No.]

[Little Old Me: No.]

[I Am Lily: No.]

…

A chorus of “no”s, like some kind of mysterious relay ritual.

[Cockroach Flavor Is Weird: Damn… you all went out searching? Does everyone have shelter defense items? So I’m the only newbie guarding my shelter?]

[Big Umbrella: Is it possible only the masters would bother to answer in turn?]

[My Fate Is Mine, Not Heaven’s: No. Does the black tree even exist? The game master never gave any concrete info or screenshots. What if he’s just messing with us?]

[The Harder I Grind, the Worse My Fate: I don’t think so. What would the game master gain by lying?]

[I Am Lily: It’s not like there’s a reward for leaderboard points. Even if there were, no one could threaten him.]

[Grind King: I don’t think the game master has any reason to lie. He barely shows up in the regional channel for days at a time—why would he bother tricking anyone?]

[Need a Bit of Money to Save the Day: Uh… maybe I found it?]

[Need a Bit of Money to Save the Day: Damn, my trypophobia is acting up.]

[Need a Bit of Money to Save the Day: (image) (image) (image)]

Since everyone was already discussing the topic, they all opened the images “Need a Bit of Money to Save the Day” had snapped from different angles.

A huge black withered tree, bare and pitch-black, so massive it couldn’t even fit entirely in the frame.

And between the dead branches and boughs of the giant tree, a dense mass of pale swiftlets was packed in.

[Need a Bit of Money to Save the Day: Damn, the game master said the swiftlets used this tree as a nest, but he never said there’d be this many.]

[Need a Bit of Money to Save the Day: Help, I’m just a newbie, I’m scared.]

[Reaching for the Moon in the Ninth Heaven: So many points…]

[Grind King: Damn! Let me at it! Let me go! All those points should be mine—why wasn’t I the one to find this tree!]

[Cockroach Flavor Is Weird: So the game master, a life profession, just farms a whole tree of swiftlets for fun?]

[Brother Civil Engineer: That’s why you shouldn’t stereotype professions.]

The sharp-eyed noticed that although “Need a Bit of Money to Save the Day” kept saying he was scared and timid, after posting the pictures, he hadn’t said another word in the regional channel.

At the same time, his points had started to rise rapidly.

Those even more observant could see that his point increase was nowhere near the speed of the leaderboard’s number one.

The swiftlets seemed to have gotten smarter.

After Qi Yu had cleared swiftlets for half an hour, he noticed that the remaining birds no longer mindlessly hurled themselves at his magic.

They began to scatter, hovering at a distance in midair.

And, glancing occasionally at the survival panel’s notifications, he saw that today the proportion of second-tier mutated swiftlets had increased.

Leaderboard first place, I Love Survival Games, 128,999 points.

He’d checked the leaderboard before heading out; at that time, he’d just passed 90,000.

Which meant he’d earned nearly 40,000 points in this stretch alone.

He was certain there hadn’t been that many birds.

After collecting the drops from the ground, he checked the number of second-tier beast crystal stones in his backpack. Sure enough, there were more second-tier swiftlets.

A level-1 swiftlet was worth 1 point; a level-2 swiftlet, 5 points.

Seeing the swiftlets hovering far off in the air, Qi Yu couldn’t be bothered to chase after them.

Digging up trees was more important.

Digging up such a huge tree without damaging any roots or bark and keeping it intact was no easy feat.

The swiftlets circling in the air had no idea what this damned mage was up to, until they saw him place his palm on the black ancient tree, magical energy surging, and after a while—

Where’s the giant tree?

Gone?

First- and second-tier mutated creatures might not be intelligent, but even they could understand something as simple as “home is gone.”

Immediately, Qi Yu heard countless angry screeches—the swiftlets, who had only just started to get smarter, now charged at him again.

[Cockroach Flavor Is Weird: Report! The game master’s points are skyrocketing again! He’s broken 140,000 and still climbing fast!]

[Grind King: Help! Please, just stop talking! Every time I see this, I feel sick! My blood boils and my grinding power surges! But why can’t I find a black tree!]

[Reaching for the Moon in the Ninth Heaven: There’s nothing to be done. Judging by the tree in Money’s picture, it should be easy to spot. If you don’t run into one, you just don’t. Luck of the draw.]

[My Fate Is Mine, Not Heaven’s: With that point increase, it can’t be just one tree. Don’t tell me all the black trees in the Forest of Stars have ended up with him?]

So sour was he that even his speech had become normal.

But no one paid him any mind—everyone was busy being envious.

That feeling of watching someone else rack up points while you were powerless to do anything was truly infuriating.

Qi Yu found the swiftlets more and more adorable.

Not only could they be converted into a steady stream of warm points, but their meat could be sold to District 88, their feathers could be made into down jackets, and even while alive, they could help him practice magic.

He felt as if his control over magic had reached an entirely new level.

When casting spells, the flow of magic through his body was smoother and more efficient—constantly worried about running out of magic, he’d been subconsciously adjusting himself.

This sort of thing was something only a self-taught, half-baked mage like him would dare attempt.

Such fine control and adjustment of body and magic was something most mages only began to try after advancing to high-level mage.

At lower magic levels, doing this could easily get you hurt.

Because he’d been using Water Arrow so much, he’d grown bored of the same thing, and had even taught himself to alter the shape of water magic.

So now, besides the standard arrow-shaped Water Arrow, he had droplet-shaped “water arrows,” feather-shaped “water arrows,” and even, inspired by today’s golden gauze fish, fish-shaped “water arrows.”

He was having fun with it.

And so, after driving off a wave of swiftlets, he would start digging up trees.

If he angered the swiftlets while digging, he’d stop and kill another wave.

Once done, he’d go back to digging.

The players in the regional channel who were glued to the leaderboard rode a rollercoaster of emotions.

Watching his points surge, then stabilize, then surge again, then stabilize…

[Grumpy Bro: Trading stocks on Blue Star was never this exciting.]

[Cockroach Flavor Is Weird: Just watching the points leaderboard makes me breathless. What kind of thrilling life does our top player live every day?]

[Grind King: Wake up! Even when his points growth slows, it’s still faster than ordinary players. If you’re not grinding, why are you even in the channel?]

[Cockroach Flavor Is Weird: Some of us little Karami haven’t gone out. If there’s a swiftlet attack, we fight; if not, we just chat in the group and grind points to pass the time.]

[Obtained: Mysterious Ancient Tree That Has Lost Its Life x1.]

Qi Yu opened his backpack—the number of mysterious ancient trees had reached sixty-five.

Subtracting the five he’d dug up yesterday, he’d collected sixty ancient trees today.

The trees were truly massive; what looked like a vast forest was, in reality, only a few dozen trees.

There were hardly any swiftlets left in the sky. They circled, bewildered, angry, screeching in confusion, but ultimately did not dare attack Qi Yu again.

“I’m tired too,” Qi Yu muttered.

A sudden gust of wind rose behind him, and a pair of beautiful blue wings appeared out of thin air.

“Farewell, dear swiftlets. I hope we’ll meet again on my territory.” With the Azure Sky Wings, Qi Yu soared into the air and flew toward his territory.

He made it back even earlier than yesterday.

Upon returning, he collected all the white light scattered around his territory.

Qi Yu let out a long breath and opened the points leaderboard.

First place, I Love Survival Games: 163,680 points.

Second place, Reaching for the Moon in the Ninth Heaven: 49,008 points.

…

After this round, the rest of the players didn’t even have a fraction of his points.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Qi Yu opened the points shop and exchanged for a level-three shelter blueprint.

Then he checked the trading section.

All twenty energy towers had sold out.

[Obtained: Blue-quality wood x1660, blue-quality stone x340.]

He wasn’t surprised by the disparity; in District 01, located in the Forest of Stars, wood was far easier to obtain than stone.

Getting even 340 units of stone was more than he’d expected.

Upgrading to a level-three shelter required 600 units of blue-quality stone.

He sent a message to Shen Ben Wuxiang:

[I Love Survival Games: I’m short 260 units of blue-quality stone. Do you have any on your end?]

The reply came almost instantly:

[Shen Ben Wuxiang: You got the shelter blueprint?]

[I Love Survival Games: Mm.]

[Shen Ben Wuxiang: Reported. Obvious cheater!]

[Your friend “Shen Ben Wuxiang” has initiated a trade with you.]