Chapter 29: Lunar Phase Waning Moon | Monsters Are Coming
[Challenger Notification: The Emperor's Mound Mountain Range is about to shift from Crescent Moon to Waning Moon phase. Players, please be prepared!
Waning Moon Scene Introduction: The second intensity stage among the five lunar phases of the Evil Moon. Duration unknown.
Change 1: A large number of Evil Entities that only exist in the Waning Moon scene will descend upon the Emperor's Mound Mountain Range with the lunar phase shift. Evil Entities from the Crescent Moon phase will disappear.
Change 2: Terrain and environment changes.]
—
As the notification sounded in the players' minds, the scenes in the various regions of the Emperor's Mound Mountain Range transformed accordingly.
Ancient Battlefield direction.
The scene of corpses scattered across the ground dissipated along with spatial distortion, replaced by numerous blood corpses entirely crimson with black fur growing from their bodies.
Blood-Soaked Plains direction.
The red plants covering the plains dispersed with the wind, replaced by countless twisted vines and withered ancient trees, along with a great number of Evil Entities.
Spirit Weapon Valley direction.
A large rushing river appeared in the center of the valley. In addition to the previously existing monsters and Primordial Monsters, numerous floating, twisted cores covered with dense tentacles were newly spawned.
However, these Evil Entities were immediately besieged by the spirit weapons.
The transition from Crescent Moon to Waning Moon was like merging an entirely unknown space into the Emperor's Mound Mountain Range. While the terrain shifted, a massive influx of new Evil Entities appeared.
Once the overwhelming transformation ended, the dim light of the Crescent Moon was replaced by a dazzling blood-red hue, and the free-floating energy particles in the air increased fivefold.
Players exploring the various scenes suddenly found themselves surrounded by Evil Entities.
The bloodthirsty Evil Entities attacked any targets within their visual (perception) range that emitted life fluctuations, including the players themselves.
This was especially dire in the Ancient Battlefield, where most players had been hunting Cursed Soldiers.
Before the lunar phase shift, the Evil Entities' refresh rate wasn't high. One had to wait for the corpses to accumulate Black Tide energy before they could transform into Cursed Soldiers.
Recently, due to the players' frenzied hunting, the refresh speed of Cursed Soldiers had gradually fallen behind the players' killing efficiency, causing every refresh to spark fierce competition. Many players had to venture deeper into the Ancient Battlefield to find huntable targets.
With the Crescent Moon shifting to the Waning Moon, the balance between players and Evil Entities was completely reversed.
The vast number of blood corpses surrounded the players and launched fearless, frenzied assaults.
Furthermore, the blood corpses refreshed during the Waning Moon had hunt levels ranging from 8 to 15, with overall strength several times greater than the level 1-3 Cursed Soldiers.
Outnumbered and outleveled, the players were completely overwhelmed in their battles against the strengthened Evil Entities.
In Qi Sheng's mind, the number of online players was visibly plummeting, as large numbers of players were killed and forced to log out.
Meanwhile, the regional chat channel was in chaos.
"So this is the lunar phase shift the newbie guide mentioned might occur. I thought each area had a fixed lunar phase and only different major regions had different lunar phases. And this is only the Waning Moon, it's already this terrifying!"
"The blood corpses are way too strong! Thick HP, high defense, our squad spent ages taking down just one, but then a whole group came and surrounded us. My teammates are dead, and I've given up resisting, just waiting to die…"
"Help! I'm surrounded! I don't want to go into a one-hour respawn cooldown (crying.jpg)."
"The lunar phase shift is insane. The monster difficulty multiplied several times. If this is only Waning Moon, wouldn't the Evil Entities be over level 100 during Full Moon or Greater Evil Moon?"
"The twisted plants in the Blood-Soaked Plains are mostly level 12+ hunting level. I'm done for, can't even run away, just waiting to die!"
"Serves you all right for always complaining that the monsters weren't refreshing fast enough. You happy now? Not enough? Just wait for the Waxing Moon (dog head.jpg)."
—
After the lunar phase shift, only the players inside the Shadowed Cavern remained unscathed. The rest were all attacked by the strengthened Evil Entities.
This was due to the special nature of the Black Tide: non-Evil Entity creatures were unaffected by the lunar phase changes.
The Iron Shell Bugs in the Shadowed Cavern neither disappeared nor transformed into stronger monsters.
But players outside weren't so lucky.
In a short time, the number of online players dropped from over 9800 to fewer than 1000.
Qi Sheng had already been mentally prepared for this.
The terrifying Black Tide's different lunar phases could be understood as five separate layered spaces. When the Crescent Moon shifted to Waning Moon, the Crescent Moon space was replaced by the Waning Moon space, and everything related to the Black Tide within the scene shifted accordingly.
For example, the Cursed Soldiers in the Ancient Battlefield didn't completely disappear but would reappear when the lunar phase shifted back to Crescent Moon.
For players at the current stage, the strength of the Waning Moon scene was clearly unbearable.
But he had no solution.
The lunar phase changes were driven by the Black Tide's tides. When it would shift back to Crescent Moon was entirely unknown.
What was certain was that the Emperor's Mound Mountain Range wasn't the core region of the Black Tide's energy corrosion, so stronger lunar phases rarely appeared here.
In the five hundred years he had spent in Monster World, Qi Sheng had only seen the fourth-stage Full Moon phase appear once in the Emperor's Mound Mountain Range.
In his memory, the Full Moon scene could only be described as a demonic carnival.
Abyssal Archdemons, Void Devourers, Touches of Terror… a single glance revealed countless super Evil Entities with hunting levels over 100.
The sky-darkening Evil Entities swarmed through the Emperor's Mound Mountain Range like a plague of locusts, leaving hardly any life in their wake.
As for the 'Greater Evil Moon,' regarded as the Black Tide's final form, only the four retainers at their peak had ever experienced it. He himself had never seen it.
[Boss, this lunar phase shift might not be a bad thing.]
Turning to the floating Guide water orb beside him, Qi Sheng nodded with a smile.
"Indeed."
He naturally understood the Guide's thinking.
Compared to the Crescent Moon scene, while the Waning Moon scene had grown substantially more intense, the world's energy levels had also become more abundant.
The Waning Moon scene had birthed large amounts of Black Tide spirit plants, many of which came from worlds devoured by the Black Tide, fused into Monster World, and refined by the Black Tide's corrosive energy to produce Black Tide spirit items. These could all be purified into pure Sacrificial Power through burning at the altar.
With high risk came potential for great rewards during exploration.
Although the sudden lunar phase shift had forced many players offline, Qi Sheng was confident that players would soon adapt to the Waning Moon's intensity and continue generating Sacrificial Power for him.
Once this batch of offline players returned from the starter village, they would surely figure out coping strategies.
If their strength was insufficient, they could form groups.
While the hunting difficulty had increased, the rewards from killing blood corpses were also several times greater than from killing Cursed Soldiers.
Judging by hunting efficiency, difficulty, and chance of encounters, the Guide's calculations concluded that the Waning Moon's overall profitability was 1.3 times higher than that of the Crescent Moon.
And this figure was only temporary.
As players grew stronger, the comprehensive returns brought by the Waning Moon would continue to rise.