This method of wasting the lives of NPCs of various races continued for a month and a half, until various heroes and leaders arrived later and personally killed all the demons near the Alien Gate. Only then did they gain a firm foothold nearby, and a steady stream of troops passed through the Alien Gate to establish bases.
After the base was established, the expeditionary force's reputation was opened. The first batch of several thousand players with levels above 50 entered one after another. They all chose to stay in the expeditionary force base to accumulate reputation, and even Lin Xiao was no exception.
The reason is very simple. After the Outland was opened, the fortress system was opened. Any player who raises Gaia's reputation to Respected and the Expeditionary Army's reputation to Revered is eligible to build his own fortress and recruit NPC soldiers from the Expeditionary Army by consuming reputation and demon marks.
The so-called fortress is a sub-base. You can use your reputation to exchange for the core cornerstone of the fortress and go deep into the Outland. By placing the cornerstone, you can build a fortress belonging to the player and recruit various functional NPCs and combat NPC soldiers.
Functional NPCs refer to various merchants, such as leather armor merchants, blacksmiths, inns bound to Hearthstone, flight points connecting other fortresses with the expedition's main base, grocers selling potions, merchants of various spellcasting materials, professional trainers, and even professional mentors for learning spells, etc.
The newly recruited functional NPCs only have basic functions, but you can upgrade the NPCs to have higher abilities by occupying some special resource areas or collecting resources, or upgrading the fortress core, or sell some special products that are only available in this fortress.
Fortresses are similar to some small towns or outposts in the game, which can provide players with supplies, transit, and even long-term stays.
Players need to pay taxes when trading here, which is also one of the fortress's sources of income. Generally, one tenth of the total amount of materials purchased and sold by players from NPCs is the income of the fortress owner.
The Outlands are a safe area for players to rest, and housing is available for players to rent or purchase. Players can store things that cannot be packed in their packages in the room.
However, this depends on the strength of the fortress, because the fortress must be built in a dangerous area. Not only will it face attacks from foreign demons, but it will also face destruction from the Son of Nightmare. Once the fortress is breached, the player's belongings in the fortress will be gone.
Therefore, whether a fortress can attract a large number of players to stop and resupply depends on whether your fortress is strong enough.
Therefore, fortresses are not something that ordinary players can play. It requires at least a team to build a fortress together, such as a guild. Very few people build a fortress alone.
As for combat NPCs, they naturally refer to various NPC soldiers, including elite NPC soldiers of any race. Generally, players choose NPCs of the same race because they have advantages in recruitment price and conditions.
These NPC warriors can also upgrade their levels through combat, and can also collect resources to forge NPC-specific equipment to enhance and even upgrade their ranks, such as upgrading ordinary soldiers to elite templates, or even strengthening elite or leader templates.
Theoretically, a soldier can become a super powerful heroic NPC if he meets strict conditions.
But theories are generally just theories and are basically impossible to become reality.
Lin Xiao was quite interested in this, and after discussing it with his girlfriend, he decided to go out on his own.
The reason why they didn't join the guild was because there were quite a lot of players in the guild who wanted to exchange for the fortress core. Everyone could see the future of the fortress system. Those who could enter Huiyao were all elites, and it was difficult for them to obey anyone. Even though Lin Xiao had demonstrated his strength before, they also recognized that he was very strong now, but recognition was one thing, and wanting them to be his younger brothers was another.
I respect you, but that doesn't mean I want to be your younger brother.
In addition, people's hearts are fickle, so he might not feel at ease if he really wanted a bunch of people to be his subordinates. So he discussed with his girlfriend and decided to quit the guild and do it himself. Anyway, the cohesion within the guild is just so-so, so he doesn't expect them to help.
The next step is to gain reputation by constantly taking on repeatable tasks to kill demons from the expeditionary force. You will gain a certain amount of reputation every time you kill a certain number of demons.
He and his girlfriend are both mages. She chose the Skywrath Winged people from her core clan, a sub-legendary race that mutated from her original core clan, the Thunder Winged People. It is estimated that the template was based on angels, so their appearance is very much like an angel. They are very beautiful and have a super talent for casting spells.
There are two types of Skywrath Winged People, Silver Wing and Gold Winged. Silver Winged Skywrath Winged People have a more powerful thunder talent than Thunder Winged People, while Gold Winged Skywrath Winged People have inherited the sacred power of angels.
Shen Yuexin chose the Golden-Winged Skywrathful Wingman, so her specialization was Holy, which is equivalent to a combination of a mage and a priest. Her original talents tended to be combat-oriented, but after she reunited with Lin Xiao, her original talents were washed away and replaced with auxiliary talents. In other words, she is now equivalent to a priest with considerable combat power.
As time went by, all the demons near the expedition base were killed by them. The strong men from the main plane used magic to transform the barren terrain nearby and built a super-large fortress. Teams of NPC soldiers, led by NPC officers, left the expedition fortress and established outposts nearby.
It not only serves the players, but also expands the territory and serves as a buffer against the demon's counterattack.
However, if the corresponding players want to build a fortress, they must move away from the expeditionary fortress and go deep into this alien world.
According to the regulations, the farther the fortress is from the expeditionary force, the more important its location is, the more support it will get from the expeditionary force, and there will also be a huge bonus when calculating the score in the future, which will force players to go deep into the Outlands.
This was very beneficial for Lin Xiao, who had a level advantage. After spending several months accumulating enough reputation, merit, and demon marks, they exchanged for a fortress core and a squadron of one hundred level 55 NPCs, five of whom were elite NPCs. After preparing sufficient supplies, they rode on their mounts and led the troops away from the expeditionary headquarters, which had already developed into a super fortress, and entered the vast outside world.
To recruit elite combat NPCs, you need a green devil mark to redeem. The drop rate of this thing is extremely low, and I have accumulated less than ten of them in such a long time.
An ordinary level 55 NPC warrior has only 3,500 HP, while an elite has about 10,000 HP. The average combat power is slightly lower than that of an ordinary demon.
This outer world is ravaged by the power of demons and chaos. The energy in the void has become extremely violent. Players in the wild of this world will gain a negative BUFF. There is a certain probability of failure when casting any spell, and the mana consumption and casting time will increase by 50%.
This negative BUFF will only disappear when the void energy in the area controlled by the expeditionary force is calmed by the mage tower built in the expeditionary fortress.
Therefore, the early stage of development was completely dependent on NPCs using human lives, and the players did not play any role in it, even Lin Xiao was the same.
Although level 68 is quite high, there are many powerful demons in the outer realm. Any enhanced elite above level 70 with a group of younger brothers can chase them around.
A level 70 enhanced elite can have as little as 100,000 HP. A powerful race like demons can have 200,000 to 300,000 HP. They have strong attacks and powerful spells, plus a bunch of minions. There's no way they can beat them at all.
It has been nearly half a year since he opened the door and left. He has died at least twenty times, which is still considered a small number. Those who are in their early fifties and ran to the outer realms have died hundreds or even thousands of times. The powerful demons have made them question their lives.
After leaving the expeditionary fortress, many players who were out clearing out sporadic demons saw them and knew that they were preparing to go out and build a fortress, and they all paid close attention to them.
At this stage, there are not many players who dare to go out and build fortresses, and most of them are in the accumulation period.
This squadron has one hundred NPC soldiers, including 95 ordinary soldiers, 50 of whom are warriors, 5 stealth scouts, 10 archers, 10 mages, 10 knights, and 10 priests.
Three of the five elites are melee fighters and two are mages.
The team is reasonably configured, and can fight even if it encounters a strengthened elite demon, although it will suffer heavy losses.
All five stealth scouts were sent out to check the surroundings to avoid running into a large group of demons without knowing it.
Three days later, Lin Xiao and Shen Yuexin ran back to the expeditionary fortress in disgrace with less than one-third of their men, most of whom were killed or wounded.
Less than fifty kilometers away from the expeditionary fortress, they were discovered by a flying demonized monster. After killing several small groups of demons in succession, they attracted the attention of a level 76 leader, the Demon Marshal, who personally led the demon army to encircle and suppress them. He had to leave half of the troops behind to cover their retreat and ran back in shame.
"Not at all."
They were forced to return just after leaving the expeditionary force's range. Even if they managed to escape next time, they would be besieged and killed by demons in no time.
The girlfriend beside him flapped her golden wings and said:
"We need to train an elite force, at least a group of elites above level 65, to fight our way out."
"I see."
After returning to the expeditionary fortress, he used the remaining demon marks to recruit a new group of soldiers, a total of one and a half squadrons, with the same configuration as before, and left the expeditionary fortress again.
However, this time they are not running outside, but gathering at an outpost called Eagle Post located to the west of the fortress. There are a large number of NPCs and other players at the outpost. If they encounter a large number of demons like before, they can flee to the outpost for refuge, instead of being chased around like before.
Eagle Post is located on a high ground more than 40 kilometers away from the expeditionary fortress. It is surrounded by cliffs on all sides and there is only one road going down around the high ground. As long as the only intersection is guarded and air defense is done well, the place can be firmly defended.
When Lin Xiao arrived, he happened to see a large group of about two to three thousand demons under the command of a demon warlord attacking the Eagle Outpost. Many elite NPC soldiers were guarding the pass, and a large number of players were squatting on the city wall, controlling the crossbows on the wall to launch an attack below.
Inside the outpost, two teams of players led two teams of NPC soldiers on standby.
Like Lin Xiao, they are planning to take the fortress legion route and are also training their troops. When the main attack of the demons is thwarted and they retreat, they will take the opportunity to strike hard at the fallen demons.
There was no way to get to the high ground at this time, so Lin Xiao led the troops to hide behind the sentry post, ready to take advantage of the opportunity at the last moment.
(End of this chapter)