Chapter 155

Early the next morning, when Cheng Yang left his Meditation Hall, he found Liu Hau waiting in the pavilion.

“You’re fast, Koko.” Cheng Yang greeted his friend. The night before, he’d sent someone to fetch Liu Hau to transfer to his unique class. “You must have started walking before dawn.”

“A little after actually. I was lucky not to run into any monsters.”

“Let’s go see how awesome a Battle Master is.”

The two walked over to the Warrior Class Change Statue. Then, Cheng Yang sacrificed the Battle Master’s Blade to the statue. After a brief flash, the statue’s original weapon was replaced by a shining steel sword.

Once Liu Hau switched to the unique subclass, Cheng Yang checked his system pane.

Liu Hau

Phoenix Empire Official

Joyous River Village Governor

Class: Warrior

Subclass: Battle Master

Profession: Blacksmith

Level: High-Grade Apprentice (52.1%)

Age	19	Life Span	150
HP	331.8	MP	69.1
Physical Attack	36.2	Magic Attack	6.9
Physical Defense	24.6	Magic Defense	6.9
Attack Speed	17.1	Movement Speed	32.1

Innate Abilities

Receive 40% more stats in the Movement Speed attribute when you level up Receive 30% more stats in the Attack Speed attribute when you level up

Movement speed is increased by 200% Warrior Spirit: Movement Speed and Attack Speed increased by 30% Two-Weapon Fighter: Replaces the Shield equipment slot with another Sword equipment slot

Skills

Meditation (High-Grade): Meditate to absorb experience fragments and level up Extricate (High-Grade): Using a Mana imbued blade deal increased damage to both your target and their equipment | Damage: 52.3 | Cost: 4 MP | Cooldown: 3 min | Durability Damage: 5% | Proficiency: 14% Spirit Shield (Standard-Grade): Rouses your spirit and uses your Mana to reduce damage taken | Damage Absorption: 10 | Cost: MP proportional to damage taken | Duration: 3 min | Cooldown: 3.5 min | Proficiency: 32% Disabling Strike (Low-Grade): Sprint forwards at 200% speed for twenty-five meters and stun the target when you attack | Damage: 36.2 | Cooldown: 34 sec | Stun Time: 2.5 sec | Proficiency: 34% Warden’s Wall (Low-Grade): Quadruple the size of your shield, doubling its Damage Reduction at the cost of your Movement Speed | Penalty: Movement Speed becomes 0 | Penalty: Cannot use weapons | Proficiency: 0%

Equipment

Bloody Long Sword (Black-Iron): This blade has survived thousands of battles and as a result is permanently bloodstained | Increases Physical Attack by 2 | Durability: 29/60 Adamantium Armor (Black-Iron): High-quality armor made from solid adamantium | Increases Physical Defense by 5| Durability: 57/60 Gladiator’s Helmet (Green-Bronze): Designed for use by gladiators, this helmet mildly affects the wearer’s adrenaline levels | Increases Physical Defense by 2 and Physical Attack by 1| Durability: 34/50 Sky Wizard’s Boots (Purple-Silver): Although these boots were originally designed by the Sky Wizard Sprad to walk on air as if it were solid ground, the millennia have degraded them | Increases Movement Speed by 3 | Durability: 67/80 Star-Spotted Gloves (Black-Iron): Gloves made from the hide of a star spotted deer, which are famed for their sturdy leather | Increases Attack Speed by 2 and Physical Defense by 1 | Durability: 34/60 Ring of Dexterity (Green-Bronze): A classic ring often made by novice Enchanters as a right of passage | Increases Movement Speed by 1 | Durability: 45/50 Healer’s Ring (Green-Bronze): Distributed to war-time medics, this ring increases the wearer’s natural healing processes | Increases Health Regen by 2 | Durability: 46/50

Cheng Yang was filled with admiration when he saw Liu Hau’s attributes.

After becoming a Battle Master, Liu Hau’s Movement Speed was increased to the extreme. Even Enlai wouldn’t be able to catch up with him. It was so high that it began to affect not just his speed when running but also his body and even his mind. With a little training, he would be able to dodge every leaf in a windy forest.

When you considered his absurd Attack Speed as well, he became a monster in close combat. His control of both his body and weapon pushed beyond human limits, allowing him to unerringly strike his opponent while they hit nothing but air.

It was, without a doubt, a powerful subclass. The only major downside was the relatively low damage. If he and Cheng Yang were to fight, Cheng Yang would only win thanks to his superior equipment.

The subclass also removed the Warrior’s flaw as a damage dealer by replacing the shield with another weapon. The change was similar to the assassin subclass but with two swords instead of dual-wielded daggers.

Once Liu Hau adapted to the Battle Master fighting style, he would become, and remain, one of the world’s powerhouses.

“Yoko, thank you so much!” Liu Hau smiled sincerely.

“Why are you acting like that? We’re friends! Brothers even!”

“Even so, I’ll repay this favor by defending the empire you’ve built. Even if a dragon attacks our territory, I’ll stand firm in my defense!” Liu Hau declared.

“Careful what you say, I’ve seen a dragon, and you’d better pray it doesn’t come anywhere near us.” cheng Yang chuckled at the thought of Liu Hau valiantly facing the dragon only to be defeated by a single sneeze. “Since you can use two words now, get yourself another when you return to Joyous River Village. If you can’t find a light enough one, wait until you can smith one yourself.”

“As long as its not a heavy weapon, I can still reluctantly use a longsword.” Liu Hau mused, “I’ll also need to find someone to give my old shield to. I’ve gotten attached to it, so don’t like giving it up, but there’s no helping it.”

“You’ve only had it for ten days, and in a month, you’ll need to switch out your swords for better ones. Are you planning to horde every piece of equipment you’ve ever used?”

“It’s just a habit from when I played MMOs.” Liu Hau dismissed Cheng Yang’s concerns.

Before Liu Hau left, they had a chat over tea. When they were done, Cheng Yang prepared to visit Copper Tomb Village.

Before he could leave Phoenix Village, he found Pang Sun blocking his path. It was only then that Cheng Yang remembered his promise to bring her with him.

Pang Sun was worried about her boyfriend ever since he left, so when she heard Cheng Yang was in the village, she immediately confronted him.

After a short explanation, Cheng Yang had Enlai carry her to Copper Tomb Village with him.

After three days, Copper Tomb Village developed into a suitable base of operations. With Cheng Yang’s there for guidance and protection, everything proceeded smoothly.

Every night, he would return to Phoenix Village using a Stone of Return to train using the Nirvana Feather.

Phoenix Village was also developing smoothly. A large number of soldiers leveled up recently, allowing the territory’s income to exceed ten thousand Experience Fragments.

After leveling up, they had more Experience Fragments to spend, which filtered back to the territory through taxes. The Bank also made significant taxed gains as ordinary soldiers took out loans for equipment.

Fortunately, the taxes paid by the Bank were calculated based on its profits. If it weren’t, Cheng Yang might find his investment drained away.

Thanks to his sale of the Stones of Return, his account had a balance of nearly two million. As a result, of the Bank’s profit of twenty-thousand Experience Fragments a day, Cheng Yang received almost a tenth as interest.

Of course, the money wasn’t all of Cheng Yang’s assets. He had a million Experience Fragments on his person and six hundred thousand distributed among his generals and officers.

He had no plans of retrieving those funds, which allowed his officers experience bars to fill rapidly.

More than three hundred people leveled up in just a few days, and that number increased hourly. In addition, on the twenty-sixth day of the apocalypse, May 9th, the Class Change Statues underwent a qualitative change as they leveled up.

With that, the total number of soldiers in Phoenix Village exceeded seven thousand. If you counted the soldiers in the satellite villages, Cheng Yang had a total of thirteen thousand soldiers under his control. Although this was an order of magnitude less than those under the control of Yuan Jianzhe, each one was far more powerful thanks to the Class Change Statue research bonuses.