Online Game Era: Hundred Times Reward
Chapter 27 - Secondary Main City, Yunhuang City

Chapter 27: Secondary Main City, Yunhuang City

[Lava Heart]

Quality: Gold

Status: Inactive

Description: A sentient Lava Heart. If provided with enough magic crystals and a resurrection potion, it can regain intelligence and be reborn as a powerful Lava King.

Lava King?!

Gold Quality?!

At that moment, Jiang Chen could clearly feel his frenzied heartbeat—his very blood seemed to be boiling.

To seal a wild monster, the monster must be at least level 1. This rule applies to bosses as well. However, bosses have a chance of dropping a vital core—some in the form of pet eggs, others as items like the [Lava Heart].

These vital cores can be revived using different materials.

In other words, as long as Jiang Chen uses enough materials to revive this [Lava Heart], he can obtain a gold-quality boss—the Lava King.

At this stage of the game, a gold-grade pet would spark a global frenzy if put up for sale.

However, Jiang Chen wasn’t selling it—he intended to keep it for himself.

The Lava King is a tank-type boss, which makes it the favorite pet type for archers.

Jiang Chen currently had 1,754 intermediate magic crystals on him. Time to see if he could activate the pet egg.

“Ding! You have consumed one intermediate magic crystal. [Lava Heart] activation progress (1/1500)!”

Fifteen hundred?!

His crystals were just enough.

Without hesitation, Jiang Chen began injecting magic crystals into the [Lava Heart].

“Ding! You have consumed one intermediate magic crystal. [Lava Heart] activation progress (2/1500)!”

“Ding! You have consumed one intermediate magic crystal…”

“Ding! …”

“Ding! …”

“Ding! You have consumed one intermediate magic crystal. [Lava Heart] activation progress (1500/1500). Congratulations! You have successfully activated a sentient Lava Heart!”

Finally, after half an hour of effort, the Lava Heart was activated.

At the moment, the Lava Heart was still just a red crystal, but it had begun to flicker faintly, like it was breathing. The interface showed that it still needed a resurrection potion.

This special potion could only be found in the main city. Jiang Chen put the Lava Heart away and returned directly to Green Valley Town.

By now, there weren’t as many players in Green Valley Town. The previous wave of elite players had all headed to the main city, while the new batch wasn’t as strong—many players skipped quests and rushed straight to the main city.

After all, slaying a Bronze-tier boss in Green Valley wasn’t something just any random team could pull off.

Since the quest was completed, Jiang Chen headed straight to Mayor Duolin of Green Valley Town.

“Respected adventurer, thank you for your aid. It is only thanks to your efforts that Green Valley Town avoided a crisis. Please allow me to unlock your pet slots.”

“Ding!”

“Congratulations! With the help of Mayor Duolin of Green Valley Town, you have unlocked your pet slots. Pet slots +2!”

Two pet slots?!

The forums all said you only got one pet slot—why did he get two?

Sensing Jiang Chen’s surprise, Mayor Duolin explained, “This is a special reward for helping Duolin Town. I hope it serves you well.”

What’s the benefit of two pet slots?

It meant Jiang Chen could deploy two pets at the same time. A pet with decent aptitude could rival the strength of its owner. Two pets in battle meant 3-on-2 or even 3-on-1 fights—providing a massive inherent advantage.

After receiving the pet slots, Jiang Chen bid farewell to the mayor.

Behind Green Valley Town lay three massive magic arrays leading respectively to: [Jiangnan City], [Yunhuang City], and [Linhai City].

Whichever teleportation array you walked into, determined the main city you chose.

Jiangnan City had the best environment and was centrally located—but Jiang Chen wasn’t here to go on vacation. Comfort leads to laziness and complacency. He decisively gave it up.

Linhai City and Yunhuang City—one by the sea, the other near the northern Calamity Zone—both offered intense training environments and were great places to toughen up.

After thinking for a moment, Jiang Chen decided on Yunhuang City.

Located in the northern part of the empire, Yunhuang City guards the Calamity Zone to the north. In Hope World, there exists a mighty and evil faction hidden within the Calamity Zone—the Abyssal Demons.

The war between humans and Abyssal Demons ended a thousand years ago. In the end, the demons were suppressed in the extreme north by human gods—and Yunhuang City serves as the empire’s first bastion against them, akin to the Great Wall of ancient times.

Jiang Chen liked this kind of high-pressure environment. It constantly reminded him to never take anything for granted—only with hard work could he gain what he wanted and surpass everyone else.

He stepped into the teleportation array, and as beams of light soared upward, Jiang Chen vanished.

…

Yunhuang City.

One of the three major sub-main cities in the China Zone.

This was a towering, massive city. Its walls were a hundred zhang¹ high—like a mountain range. At the city’s center, a gigantic stone sword pointed skyward, exuding Yunhuang’s overwhelming aura.

Upon entering the city, Jiang Chen found that the number of players here was far greater than he expected.

In truth, many players were drawn to this city with the flavor of an imperial fortress. It felt like humanity was preparing to face a monstrous otherworldly threat—with no retreat, only a fight to the death!

Upon arrival in the main city, the first priority was class advancement.

Jiang Chen knew exactly how important this step was.

Before class advancement, player stat growth was extremely low. Without advancing, a player might not even be able to handle the monsters outside the city.

Besides the class advancement itself, the most crucial benefit was learning class-specific skills.

After class advancement, players could learn specialized skills—this is also when classes like Mage and Assassin would start to shine.

Jiang Chen understood this deeply—he was an archer with three skills even in the newbie village stage.

Stay low-key, stay low-key…

Arriving at the Archer Temple, Jiang Chen found the archer class mentor—a beautiful woman clad in emerald leather armor and carrying an exquisitely crafted longbow. Elegant yet commanding—her very appearance would stir envy. Archers truly were the right choice.

“Hello, Mentor. I wish to advance my class,” Jiang Chen said.

“Young adventurer, I can clearly sense your power. You have the qualifications to advance. Welcome to the great archer ranks—the Empire will be proud of you!”

“Ding!”

“Adventurer Lone Walker, Archer Mentor Luna is about to perform your first class advancement. Accept?”

The system prompt rang out.

“Accept,” Jiang Chen said without hesitation.

A golden light surged from Jiang Chen’s body, and his stats received a huge boost.

After a first class advancement, players’ stat growth increased by 50%. Stat allocation also became more effective—for example, (1 Constitution = 20 HP) before advancement, but (1 Constitution = 30 HP) afterward.

Thus, stat allocation at this stage heavily determined one’s class traits—flaws and advantages would both become more pronounced, and class balance improved.

The advantages of hidden classes would now shine even brighter, as hidden classes had more free attribute points from the beginning. This innate advantage would only grow as levels increased.