Boom——

Wang Tao smashed the eighth-tier Dark Beast with a punch and skillfully collected the spoils of war it dropped. He looked at the crystal cores in his space backpack and sighed.

"I've already killed so many eighth-tier elemental monsters, but I'm still far from having enough crystal cores..."

To ascend to the ninth level, Wang Tao needs to max out four basic attributes besides mana. Each basic attribute requires 100 crystal cores to reach max level, totaling 400 eighth-tier crystal cores. However, the purity of these eighth-tier crystal cores is only 15%, so it takes 20 eighth-tier crystal cores to synthesize 3 with 100% purity. Therefore, Wang Tao needs a total of 2680 eighth-tier basic crystal cores to gather 400 crystal cores with 100% purity!

Although each eighth-tier elemental monster drops 4 basic attribute crystal cores, plus the cores from the spoils of war orb, totaling 8, Wang Tao still needs to hunt 335 eighth-tier creatures!

Wang Tao is certain that there are definitely not that many eighth-tier elemental monsters in the world now, otherwise, he wouldn't be unable to find one in half a day.

If the summoning altar didn't appear automatically from time to time, summoning elemental monsters, he would doubt whether he could actually ascend to the ninth level. As long as the summoning altar keeps appearing, theoretically, he can still ascend to the ninth level. It just requires a lot of time!

However, Wang Tao's main task isn't to ascend to the ninth level but simply to hunt these elemental monsters and eradicate them!

Thus, Wang Tao is somewhat conflicted now. He hopes the summoning altar can keep appearing to help him collect enough crystal cores for his ascension, but he doesn't want it to appear too often, as it hinders his ability to catalyze the super serum... After all, he has to eliminate all these elemental monsters first before he can catalyze the super serum to clear out the zombies. Otherwise, if the zombies are all dead but these elemental monsters are still alive, other human survivors will be in trouble...

"Well, when the time comes, there will be a way, let's take it one step at a time!"

Sorting out his emotions, Wang Tao manipulated the two seventh and eighth-tier elemental monster baits he controlled and flew towards other locations.

...

As time went on, Wang Tao discovered that the probability of the summoning altar appearing was actually increasing, and they were all concentrated within the Qian Country. But because he continuously hunted elemental monsters, causing each summoned to die, the numbers of elemental monsters didn't continue to grow and remained within a relatively controllable range.

Wang Tao didn't do this intentionally; at the time, he didn't think much about it; he only aimed to hunt as many elemental monsters as possible.

You could say he was lucky; if his hunting speed was slower, the elemental monsters would have increased in number, and survivors would have surely suffered.

For now, it's still okay; the characteristics of elemental monsters are very obvious. Wang Tao instructed people from the major bases not to go out recently, and since elemental monsters don't specifically seek out other humans, there is a temporary peace between them and ordinary survivors.

Wang Tao had said before that he wouldn't return until these elemental monsters were eliminated, and he is acting accordingly. He has been flying outside continuously, using super perception to its fullest, simultaneously deploying the bait he controls. As soon as he senses the presence of other elemental monsters, he reaches the target location almost instantly.

The first batch of elemental monsters hunted by Wang Tao is mostly dead now. What's left are newcomers. These new elemental monsters know nothing about Wang Tao, so they aren't as cautious. If they happen to be unlucky enough to encounter Wang Tao, the outcome is inevitable—death.

These fresh elemental monsters couldn't have imagined that a place which was once their hunting ground has now left them as prey. When suddenly dying right after being summoned, their expressions seem bewildered...

...

Wang Tao isn't sure how long he's been out there, nor has he calculated how many elemental monsters he's killed. He only knows that he's accumulated a large number of spoils of war in his space backpack, especially many eighth-tier basic crystal cores that he needs. Although he's still some distance away from ascending to the ninth level, considering the frequency of elemental monster appearances, it might not take much longer.

However, as more elemental monsters are hunted down, Wang Tao slowly realizes that their numbers are dwindling.

His hunting speed hasn't significantly increased, which clearly indicates the reason—the frequency of summoning altar appearances has decreased!

"Could it be gone..."

As he rested and reviewed, Wang Tao frowned a bit.

Although his main task is to eradicate these elemental monsters completely, the problem is he hasn't yet collected enough eighth-tier crystal cores! If the elemental monsters are gone, then he can't ascend to the ninth level.

He can't wait for the zombies to evolve to the eighth tier, can he? Though it's not impossible, since he currently has the capability to completely extinguish these zombies, he definitely hopes they die sooner...

After resting, Wang Tao continued to hunt elemental monsters. Then he discovered both good and bad news.

The bad news is that the situation is indeed as he'd suspected: the frequency of the summoning altar's appearance is decreasing. As he hasn't stopped his hunting pace, the number of elemental monsters is also decreasing.

However, the good news is that although the summoning altar's appearance rate is lowering, the elemental monsters it summons now are all eighth-tier!

In this case, the situation isn't too bad and is still manageable. The rest depends on luck—whether he can gather enough crystal cores needed for his ascension to the ninth level before the summoning altar completely stops appearing.

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