#543Chapter 543: The Demon Village is just asking for money, the real work depends on FATEAI Model: gemini-2.5-flash
Chapter 543: Makaimura is Just a Pit Stop; Real Business Calls for FATE
A new month, a new dungeon CD.
However, while the auction was underway, Cheng Tian was in a dungeon.
Flash in, flash out.
The fourth stage of Makaimura corresponds to the entrance of the Demon King's Castle. The difficulty here lies in the numerous jumping platforms and dangerous suspension bridges hanging over Makai flames.
But these are no longer difficult for Cheng Tian.
Having undergone another major power-up since the third stage, Cheng, facing monster groups primarily composed of Little Ghosts and Red Demon Captains, was almost completely unthreatened, even with the C+ rank dungeon difficulty buff.
And Cheng Tian, with the magic vampire hunter "Juste Belmont" template reloaded and his grimoire in hand, completely transformed into a spell turret, with dazzling spell effects filling the air.
At the same time, the comprehensive buffs from newly acquired equipment, newly strengthened talents, and so on, began to be gradually adapted to by Cheng Tian, at the cost of numerous Little Ghost units and Red Demon Captains' lives.
Under the enhancement of the Dark Gold Necklace, Soul of Orochi, Cheng Tian's Heart's Barrier and Guardian Barrier retained their damage absorption capabilities while gaining corresponding "Mirror Reflection" effects, but these came in two modes.
One is constantly active but not a full reflection, with only about an eighth of the rebound effect.
While this reflection method is always active, it generally has a corresponding projectile trajectory, and opponents can still dodge it.
The other is a focused, active reflection that, in theory, can achieve 100% reflection and even fine-tune reflected energy blasts, but it requires additional magic power.
"Black Particle" gave Cheng Tian's otherwise low-damage, high-quantity, strong-judgment Judgment Arrows an attack effect.
An 8% trigger chance is indeed a bit low, but Cheng Tian, combined with the Mental Image Crystal, can throw 27 arrows at once in normal state.
As long as the effect triggers, black spatial fluctuation particles will cause indiscriminate penetrating spatial damage to all units in a straight line, making it a great tool for clearing mobs.
The 8-second internal cooldown limits the effect's performance, and to reduce this cooldown, he'll probably have to invest in upgrading equipment by spending money.
Don't expect sun in the Makaimura area. Fortunately, Cheng Tian himself is a small sun, and combined with the high-frequency, low-damage area attacks of the Little Ghosts and the Guardian Barrier's magic recovery every 5 minutes, Cheng Tian can achieve self-sustaining magic without any external supplies.
Aileen naturally came in as well, and she was also getting familiar with her own set of new abilities.
Especially the talent ability of full elementalization, which indeed requires precise timing in its use.
Perhaps anticipating Cheng Tian's need for money, the three-orb spell in Makaimura's fourth stage gave him a Red Shock Orb. Cheng Tian then proceeded to break the monster-spawning mechanism at the Demon King's Castle entrance, earning several more millions from his hard work.
At the same time, Cheng Tian also did not miss any hidden items in this original dungeon—
A Knight's Revival Badge (extra life), a hidden throwing weapon Cross, a Cursed King Statue, and a Large King Statue.
It was also by virtue of this hidden Cross that Cheng Tian thoroughly experienced all the Cross-derived spells from Juste's magic, so that even if he left the dungeon and the template was unloaded, Cheng Tian could still perform some limited imitations through mental power combat techniques.
The gate boss of the fourth stage, like the third, was also a pathetic dragon.
It was torn apart by World.
It was literally torn in half, by prying open its mouth and ripping it from the middle.
The only slight regret was that none of these demon units under the Demon King satisfied the "extremely evil" attribute; presumably, only the Demon King himself and his high-ranking ministers would have that status.
Half a day... no, to be precise, less than 6 hours, Cheng Tian and Aileen returned from Makaimura.
On one hand, both Cheng Tian and Aileen had grown to a point where the dungeon difficulty couldn't keep up. On the other hand, the fourth stage's process was relatively short, and the platform jumping mechanism, which should have taken the most time, was bypassed by their flying abilities.
In fact, half of those 6 hours were spent on treasure collection.
However, compared to the past where he had to painstakingly bend down to pick things up himself, now he has a fully automatic human-shaped looting plugin!
This is the invincible World!!!
As an extension of Cheng Tian's main body, World only needed to "Muda Muda" at the piles of drops, and those drops would be recognized as touched and picked up, then smoothly stored in Cheng Tian's enhanced Void Warehouse storage area.
Cheng Tian also took the opportunity to test Orochi Express's permissions. There were no issues with depositing or withdrawing treasures, and no losses occurred during the transfer process.
Although it doesn't provide 6 slots like Aileen's Storm Pact, 8 delivery times are enough to handle many situations.
Of course, Makaimura is now just a place for them to stop by. The time and energy spent are merely equivalent to running an errand, and they feel no fatigue at all.
"I... I'm a little nervous..."
Taking a deep breath, then another deep breath, Bazett still couldn't calm herself immediately.
This was how the usually carefree girl had been ever since she learned that Cheng Tian planned to confront that Mapo priest.
But it's not her fault; this clearly involves issues of psychological trauma.
Even though Bazett has now completely transformed into a human-shaped Tyrannosaurus, almost the strongest single human female in her original plane, she cannot completely forget her past of being ambushed and even killed.
"What are you afraid of? Our goal is just to blow up that Mapo, not to win the Holy Grail War.
Besides, that thing is an aggregation of human evil. We've seen this kind of thing twice already. It's not new at all, is it?"
Cheng Tian pointed to the Red Moon Goddess, who was slacking off and munching on dorayaki, with an indifferent expression.
Thinking about it, it's true. Demon King Dam and Orochi are both other forms of human evil aggregations.
The corrupted Holy Grail in FATE does have some significance, but only some. Cheng Tian and his companions already have quite rich experience in dealing with it. At worst, let the black mud keep company with Orochi's soul in the Black Pearl.
"...I always have to face it."
After the baptism of Heaven's Chosen Space, Bazett was no longer the overly naive workaholic she once was. She knew she always had to make a clean break with her past.
She would use this priest who once betrayed her to end everything.
"Come back soon, and remember to call me if anything fun happens~"
Fina lazily waved at Cheng Tian and his group, watching them disappear into the silver teleportation light pillar.