"Only an increase of one square kilometer?"
"No way! Absolutely not!!"
An increase of only one square kilometer of territory was far too little for Lin Yu now.
The World Tree expanded his territory by more than a square kilometer a day without even trying.
So, after seeing the notice, Lin Yu quickly stopped his finger from tapping "Enter the second stage" and chose the advanced trial instead.
'It's not like my head was caught in a door, why would I just enter the second stage directly?'
[Please select a trial multiplier]
[2x]: 200 Tier 1 Extraordinary Life. Pass the trial to upgrade your Territory Core to Level 2 and increase your territory by 2 square kilometers.
[3x]: 300 Tier 1 Extraordinary Life. Pass the trial to upgrade your Territory Core to Level 2 and increase your territory by 3 square kilometers.
[4x]: 400 Tier 1 Extraordinary Life, one Tier 1 Hero-class Extraordinary Life. Pass the trial to upgrade your Territory Core to Level 2 and increase your territory by 4 square kilometers.
...
[8x]: 800 Tier 1 Extraordinary Life, two Tier 1 Hero-class Extraordinary Life. Pass the trial to upgrade your Territory Core to Level 2 and increase your territory by 8 square kilometers.
...
[18x]: 18,000 Tier 1 Extraordinary Life, four Tier 1 Hero-class Extraordinary Life, all enemy creatures will have 10x their health. The trial will attack from four directions, with 4,500 Tier 1 Extraordinary Life and one Tier 1 Hero-class Extraordinary Life per direction (with a chance for an above-spec hero to appear). 100 Tier 1 Extraordinary Life will be teleported at a time. Pass the trial to upgrade your Territory Core to Level 2 and double your current territory area.
If he wanted to double his territory area when upgrading his Territory Core to Level 2, like the others, he had to choose the highest 18x difficulty trial.
However, looking at the description for the 18x trial, Lin Yu was a bit hesitant.
If it only increased the number of enemies, or if they were still teleported one by one like in the basic trial, Lin Yu wouldn't be scared at all. They would be doomed to die the moment they stepped out of the Teleportation Gate.
But at 18x difficulty, the Trial Creatures would be teleported 100 at a time, and with 10x health. Lin Yu wasn't sure if he could kill them.
To be absolutely certain, Lin Yu had his beast horde pick out a Half-beastman corpse that was still somewhat intact and rush it over to the World Tree.
At the same time, he sent a private message to Ding Dong in the chat channel.
Lin Yu: "Brother Ding, Brother Ding, you got a minute? I have a question I'd like to ask."
Ding Dong: "What's up? It's a breeze over here. My subordinates are cutting them down like vegetables. I just need to watch the show and cheer them on."
Ding Dong: "Shouldn't you be defending your trial right now? Why are you running to ask me for something? Don't tell me you can't handle it and want my help? Let me be clear, I don't have anything for mass teleportation, so I can't help you!"
Lin Yu: "No, no. I was lucky enough to encounter Trial Creatures with low health. I just finished."
Lin Yu: "I wanted to ask, will the Trial Creatures in the advanced trial be the same type I just faced?"
Ding Dong: "Oho, Little Lin, you're pretty capable, huh? You're not being entirely honest, are you?"
Lin Yu: "You flatter me. It was just luck! Just luck!"
Ding Dong: "As for the advanced trial, generally speaking, the type of Trial Creatures doesn't change."
Lin Yu: "Is that so? (๑╹ヮ╹๑)ﾉ, Thanks, Brother Ding! I've gotta go get busy, bye~"
Ding Dong: "Bye~"
After he finished asking his questions, a goshawk flew back with the Half-beastman and placed the corpse on a branch of the World Tree.
Lin Yu's figure blurred and then reappeared on a nearby branch, placing his hand on the corpse.
[Name]: Stone Ridge Half-Beastman
[Quality]: Excellent (Blue)
[Attack]: 300
[Speed]: 200
[Defense]: 400
[Health]: 1100
According to the formula: Damage Reduction = Defense / (Defense + 10 * Level + 100), the Stone Ridge Half-beastman's damage reduction is 57.14%.
This meant a Pea Shooter's attack could deal at most 8.5 damage. To kill one Stone Ridge Half-beastman, it would take 130 Pea Bullets hitting it at the same time.
But if he chose the 18x trial, it would take 1,300 Pea Bullets to kill a single Stone Ridge Half-beastman.
For 100 Stone Ridge Half-beastmen, he would need 130,000 Pea Bullets.
The maximum range of a Pea Shooter was 200 meters. Taking into account a certain buffer, he could arrange a maximum of 160,000 Pea Shooters in a square formation around the Teleportation Array.
'It's enough. As long as I fill the area around the Teleport Point with Pea Shooters, the damage will be saturated.'
After a quick mental calculation, the result made Lin Yu stop hesitating. He steeled his resolve to choose the highest multiplier trial.
'The problem now is that my defense line is a mix of Pea Shooters and Timid Mushrooms. If I want to fill it with Pea Shooters, I'll have to remove the Timid Mushrooms and replace them.'
Then, Lin Yu checked his stored materials: 2 million wood and over 5 million natural energy. Plus the half-refund from removing the Timid Mushrooms.
'The materials are sufficient, too. Now, it's my construction time—'
Fortunately, the Lord's Contest wasn't a pay-to-win mobile game and didn't limit the number of buildings that could be constructed simultaneously.
Moreover, since the plant-based structures in Lin Yu's territory were all built with the participation of the World Tree's root system, he didn't need any subjects to help with construction.
Therefore, as long as he had enough resources, Lin Yu could build countless structures at the same time.
Seen from above, a miraculous sight appeared in Lin Yu's territory.
In the four cardinal directions—east, west, south, and north—at a distance of 2.2 kilometers from the World Tree, countless Timid Mushrooms withered, turning to ash and returning to the soil.
At the same time, in the very spot where each Timid Mushroom had withered, a Pea Shooter began to grow from nothing.
After fifteen minutes, 320,000 new Pea Shooters had appeared in the former locations of the Timid Mushrooms.
Looking at the neat rows of Pea Shooter heads swaying in the wind, Lin Yu confidently chose the 18x difficulty trial.
"Advanced Trial (18x) beginning!"
"Trial Creatures will be dispatched in 15 minutes."
"Contestant, please prepare!"
A voice boomed from the sky once more.
As the voice faded, four beams of light shot down toward the novice continent where Lin Yu was located.
One beam landed on the existing Teleportation Array, expanding it and making it larger. The other three beams constructed new Teleportation Arrays in the other three corresponding directions.
The four Teleportation Arrays formed a perfect cross, meaning they were all located within the saturated Pea Shooter defensive formation Lin Yu had just built.
"My luck is good. This is in the bag!"
Looking at the map showing the four Teleportation Arrays in each cardinal direction, Lin Yu laughed with excitement.
However, just in case, he sent out all the beasts from his Beast Nest, directing them to the four defensive positions to prevent any Trial Creatures from breaking through the lines and attacking the Pea Shooters.
The 15 minutes passed quickly, and all four Teleportation Arrays lit up simultaneously.
At the northern Teleportation Array, Stone Ridge Half-beastmen appeared as expected. Although their health was multiplied by ten and they teleported in groups of 100.
But the Pea Shooters' saturation attack was more than enough to obliterate them.
But something unexpected happened in the other three directions. The creatures emerging from them were not Stone Ridge Half-beastmen.
When he got a clear look at the enemies, Lin Yu couldn't help but cry out, "Brother Ding, you've misled me!!"