With the Territory Shield in place, Mu Ying was confident that she could kill those two zombies.
After the Territory Shield was established, it wasn't all smooth sailing, as maintaining it required 10 units of energy each day. Mu Ying had only invested enough energy to maintain it for two days, so from the initial 300 units, only 80 units remained.
Many things could be converted into energy, such as trees within the territory which could be transformed into either lumber or energy, and the same was true for weeds and shrubs.
However, Mu Ying didn't use them because the former wasn't easy to come by, being useful anytime within the territory, and the latter had an extremely low conversion rate, leaving almost no margin for utilization.
On the other hand, the copper coins obtained by killing zombies had a more stable conversion, with 1 copper coin being convertible to 1 unit of energy.
If each zombie could drop 3 copper coins, that would indeed be a decent source of income.
Mu Ying took off her coat, tore the sleeves into strips, found a suitable wooden stick, and wrapped the kitchen knife around the stick.
Holding the extended kitchen knife, she cautiously returned to the vicinity of the tent, where the two zombies were wandering not far from it.
She drew closer to attract the attention of the zombies and then moved near the Territory Shield.
As expected, once she stepped into the territory, the zombies were blocked outside, scratching at the invisible protective shield.
Mu Ying raised the extended kitchen knife and hacked forcefully, successfully killing the two zombies.
[You have killed a zombie×1, gained Slaughter Experience×1, copper coins×3]
[You have killed a zombie×1, gained Slaughter Experience×1, copper coins×3]
Indeed, each zombie dropped 3 copper coins; Mu Ying picked them up and pocketed them.
After the loot was collected, the bodies of the zombies quickly turned into a couple of mounds of yellow soil, safe and non-polluting.
Later, she touched her way back to the tent near the lake, as the joy of scavenging was endless.
In gaming terms, this meant acquiring a tent×1, moisture-proof mat×1, sleeping bag×1, extra-large backpack×1, several articles of men's clothing, folding table and chair×1, instant noodles×10, an instant hot pot×1, 1.5L mineral water×3, a pot×1, a small kitchen knife×1, several disposable bowls and chopsticks, various seasonings, fishing gear aplenty, a plastic bucket×1...
It seemed this person had planned to camp and fish here for several days, but now it was all Mu Ying's gain. She cheered inwardly: Thank you to this well-prepared fisherman for delivering me from dire poverty; I don't have to worry about going hungry for the next few days!
She happily packed these items and, huffing and puffing, moved them into her territory.
After sorting everything out, Mu Ying sat on the folding stool and opened the Magic List from the Player Manual, carefully reading through it.
Magic was divided into spells from level 0 to level 9, with level 0 spells also known as tricks. The effects of these spells were generally minor, with no damage, and they were easy to learn, also requiring little Mana to cast.
With practice, a level 0 spell could be cast reliably for just 1 Mana Value.
Starting with level 1 spells, would only be able to learn spells of a higher level when reaching odd-numbered Profession Levels, meaning she wouldn't be able to learn level 2 spells until she reached level 3.
Mu Ying glanced at her own level[Druid Level 1(3/100)], feeling that leveling up seemed a distant prospect.
Having just begun to learn spells and with the outside world being unstable, she couldn't be too hasty. Mu Ying decided to start with level 0 spells.
The only level 0 spell that had any use in combat was the Flash Technique, which could temporarily blind an opponent, but since zombies had no vision, it was temporarily unnecessary.
There were many other practical spells for daily life, such as the Water Creation Skill, Cleaning Technique, and Light Brightness Skill. These spells could solve some immediate daily life problems.
She currently had an ample supply of materials and was near a water source; she didn't need the Water Creation Skill just yet, and the Cleaning Technique was even less urgent. When survival wasn't guaranteed, cleanliness wasn't a priority.
The Light Brightness Skill for illumination wasn't bad. Mu Ying couldn't find any lighting equipment near the tent. Logically, if you go camping and fishing for more than one night, you should bring some lighting tools, like charging devices, but Mu Ying didn't even find a cell phone, let alone a lighter.
Mu Ying suspected that when the game descended, many electronic devices disappeared.
In the end, Mu Ying chose to learn Druid Tricks first.
It was the most complex and varied effect among the zero-circle spells, capable of creating a spark to ignite items, predict the weather within the next 24 hours, make flowers bloom instantly, seeds to sprout, buds to grow, and create minor and harmless instant sensory effects like falling leaves, breezes, and scents.
What Mu Ying valued most was the ability to start a fire. Having a fire pit would allow for cooking and lighting, which wasn't as convenient as the Light Brightness Skill but was still usable.
After selecting the spell, Mu Ying first read through the theory of spell casting.
It turned out that the methods of casting spells differed for each profession, with pure spell-casting professions like Mages being the hardest and Divine Skill professions like Priests and Druids being the easiest.
For instance, Mages needed to memorize complex spell structures and energy circuits, as well as various spell-casting techniques.
Whereas Druids and Priests just needed to be familiar with the representations of related spells and then beseech aid from their worshipped "gods" to cast spells successfully.
The difficulty lay in the representation of the prayers for spells, and the "god's" will.
Compared to the gods worshipped by Priests, the "god" of the Druids, nature, was more impartial. It didn't have a personified consciousness, making it not too difficult to request help, which was more like communicating with the natural power and then using spell representation to get it to aid in spell casting.
The higher the affinity with nature, the easier the communication; the higher the Perception Attribute, the clearer and more accurate the representation.
Holding a small twig, Mu Ying followed the methods in the manual, trying to touch and mobilize the natural power with her own perception and then to represent the spell.
The first attempt saw a wisp of smoke emerging from the small twig, almost igniting it.
According to the manual, this meant that not enough natural power was mobilized, or the representation wasn't strong enough.
The second attempt, she successfully ignited the small twig, only she used too much force and spent an excessive amount of Mana Value.
She adjusted over and over again, and the feeling of communicating with nature was incredibly comfortable and smooth, like being embraced by a kind elder, captivating her.
Unfortunately, her Mana wasn't plentiful, only having 60 points, and recovering Mana required plenty of rest, so she had to use it sparingly.
After stabilizing the consumption of casting the spell at 1 Mana, Mu Ying began to practice the second zero-circle Magic Light Technique.
This time, she made quicker progress. On the first try, she was able to conjure a marble-sized light source on her fingertip, which, although not yet meeting the illumination standards of the Light Brightness Skill, didn't exceed the Mana consumption by too much.
With frequent spell casting, her Mana quickly ran out. Mu Ying couldn't even practice intensively if she wanted to and had to take a lot of time to recover before she could continue practicing.
It took her half a day to barely control the Mana consumed during casting, and while the effect of the spell was still below the standard, it was sufficient for the time being.
Mu Ying reluctantly looked at the powerful effects of the first-circle spells, and sighed, "This Doomsday Game is really too challenging, isn't it!"
She was lucky to be on a sparsely populated mountain, where after taking down the zombies nearby, she could find a place to slowly learn her profession's abilities.
But she was in the minority; most people were in densely populated cities. Imagining that scene, with zombies equal to the number of humans, and one becoming a zombie if scratched, it was no small challenge to run out from a horde of zombies even after gaining the qualifications for the game.
Fortunately, as long as one could find a place to survive for a while, killing zombies wasn't difficult, and there was still hope.