Chapter 40: Forest Ruins Remake

Thanks to my dedicated reworking and meticulous planning, the Forest Ruins had now become the most bustling grinding hotspot around Soma Town.

In fact, the town itself was gaining minor fame across the Orwen Empire because of it.

As a result, nearly half of the current daily energy income from monster nests was now coming from this very zone.

That said—lately, I’d noticed a subtle slowdown in its energy growth.

I didn’t even have to think too hard to figure out the reason.

After all, level 3 Dark Bats had become outdated prey for the current mainstream player base.

Fortunately, I’d been sitting on a decent stockpile of energy recently.

I clapped my hands, practically itching with excitement.

“Time for a full-on revamp!”

***

The first step: territory expansion.

Using the power of Darkness Erosion from the Law of Darkness, I extended the zone to about three times its original size.

Instead of immediately producing more Dark Bats, I first divided the expanded area into three zones:

Level 3–5

Level 5–10

Level 10–15

Previously, despite its large footprint, the Forest Ruins was essentially a single-level grind zone—great for early progression, but bad for long-term popularity.

By splitting it into multi-tiered areas like a proper dungeon or monster camp, it could now cater to different player levels.

A much better retention system for the long run.

With the layout in place, it was time to spawn appropriate monsters.

Of course, the Dark Bats—the signature residents—had to stay, but with some much-needed upgrades.

I increased their spawn count and adjusted their levels from 4 to 10 to match player demand.

But having only one monster type would get stale fast.

Gotta avoid visual fatigue and spice things up.

Fortunately, Satahia had recently cleared out some surrounding monster groups and brought back a bunch of nest blueprints.

Problem solved!

So I picked four new monster types to add to the Forest Ruins:

Vile Gargoyles

Little Phantoms

Dark Totems

Dark Martyrs

***

[Vile Gargoyle] — Level 8–12

Originally just low-tier cannon fodder used for battlefield disruption.

In my redesign, they’re high-defense, almost-no-offense meat shields.

Their true danger comes from their passive ability:

***

[Vile Howl]: Continuously emits a low growl, with a small chance to inflict Stun, Fear, or Silence on nearby enemies every 0.1 seconds.

One-on-one, they’re just annoying.

But throw them into the mix while you’re also being swarmed by Dark Bats?

Absolute chaos.

Especially if your team’s healer gets interrupted mid-cast.

That’s a party wipe waiting to happen.

And that’s not even the worst.

***

[Little Phantoms] are even nastier, despite dealing no damage on their own.

Their skill: [Possess]—letting them merge with nearby monsters to boost one of their stats:

With Dark Bats → +Attack

With Gargoyles → +Defense

They only detach once the host monster is defeated… but don’t celebrate yet.

If you don’t kill the Phantom fast enough afterward, it may re-possess a player this time—inflicting DoT + full stat debuff for a limited duration.

Thankfully, a Phantom can only possess twice before vanishing.

Probably because even the devs realized how tilting this mechanic is.

But hey, nothing warms my demonic heart like watching players suffer.

***

“Hmph… energy only lets me raise the possession limit to three? Lame.”

I puffed up my cheeks, staring at the [Max Possession: 3] message in mock discontent.

Still, just imagining the despair on players’ faces made me giddy.

Dark Bats, Gargoyles, and Phantoms now dominated the level 3–8 zones.

Sure, at first glance, they looked unbeatable.

But in actual practice? Not really.

Players these days had higher levels, better gear, more advanced skills, and far more polished reflexes.

They’d adapt quickly and break the system—I’d seen it before.

My carefully designed bat behavior had been reverse-engineered by players within days.

At best, it only slowed them down.

Which brings me to this key lesson:

Never underestimate players’ ingenuity.

…And just like that, whatever lingering guilt I had about “player cruelty” vanished like mist in the sun.

***

As for the 10–15 zone, I dumped in:

[Corrupted Rune Totems]

[Corrupted Rune Martyrs]

Honestly, I hadn’t touched their design much yet—they were mostly placeholder enemies for now.

After all, the current highest player level was only around 6.5.

No one should be dumb enough to wander in that deep.

…But if they did, well, I’d be more than happy to accept their energy contribution to the Demon King’s cause.

***

With that, the Forest Ruins had successfully been upgraded to what could generously be called a mid-tier grinding zone.

I was already picturing the rush of players and the delicious spike in energy revenue.

Of course, all these changes didn’t come cheap.

Between my personal energy reserves and Satahia’s recent grinding spoils, I had nearly burned through everything.

I stared at the Heart of Herentis and sighed at the pitiful leftover number.

“It’s as despairingly low as Satahia and Tris’ bust size…”

Honestly, I could’ve used myself as the butt of that joke too, but who insults themselves out of boredom?

That’s when the system popped up with a rare pleasant surprise.

***

[System Message]

Quest “Dark Bat’s Banquet II” — Complete

***

Huh. I’d nearly forgotten about that one.

But with the bat population massively increased, I must’ve hit the requirements by accident.

Among all the other rewards, the one that really mattered was the +150 Energy Points.

It solved my budget crisis in one go.

Otherwise…

“I wouldn’t have had enough energy left for the advanced boss spawn.”