Chapter 172 Mosaic
【Building: Dark Altar (Unique)】
【Level: F】
【A dilapidated altar dedicated to an unknown deity. A response can be obtained from a great existence by offering sufficient sacrifices.】
【Ability: Sacrifice】
Looking at the building panel floating before her eyes, Kazumi’s lips curved slightly, her eyes narrowed, and her usually cold expression melted away. She looked relaxed, gazing at the tall black altar that had appeared in her territory as a reward for an achievement.
“Finally, I’ve managed to get this thing out.”
Kazumi’s right hand stroked the cold, smooth outer wall of the Dark Altar, feeling the dense death aura contained within the building. She couldn’t help but sigh in admiration.
Compared to the randomly rewarded 【Graveyard Hill】, the 【Dark Altar】 was considered a guaranteed early architectural reward according to Kazumi’s understanding. After all, in a sense, possessing the prerequisite for this reward—sufficient energy from flesh and blood sacrifices—meant that you had taken your first steps out of the novice lord stage.
What is most important in a game? It is undoubtedly the interaction system between quests and resources. Continuously completing quests to obtain resources, then using resources to strengthen oneself to complete more difficult quests. This continuous cycle of interaction and strengthening is the core of a game, and it is the foundation for ensuring player fun and personal growth needs.
And the game “Undead Lord” is different from the flashy newcomers on the market that focus on completing quests to level up. Aside from an achievement system whose trigger you don’t even know, and whose rewards generally do not affect overall strength.
This game actually has no so-called quest panel. There are no main quests or daily quests, and no rewards to speak of. Coupled with the extremely high degree of freedom, it is very easy for players to be confused and not know what to do when they first start.
And as one of the few buildings in the game that can achieve resource interaction, the easiest to obtain in the early stages is probably this 【Dark Altar】, which is the only unique building.
As the name suggests, the ability of the 【Dark Altar】 is to offer tributes to unknown beings in the void to receive their rewards.
Don’t look at it as if it sounds simple, but even after playing all night, Kazumi still hadn’t fully understood the intricacies of altar sacrifices.
The type of offerings, the quality and taste of the offerings, and even the way they are arranged will directly affect the beings you might offer to. Unless you obtain a positioning crystal that connects with a designated demon god, you will never know what the being at the other end of the altar is, nor what their temperament is like.
To put it simply, compared to sacrificing, Kazumi feels it’s more like fishing in a river. You cast your bait, and then those powerful undead, demon gods, ancient gods, and the like will naturally see it. If they find your offering to their liking, they will come and take a bite. If they are in a good mood, they will give you some rewards. But if they are in a bad mood, they might drag you, the fishing rod, and everything else into the water, and it’s not impossible.
Therefore, the sacrifice stage is very rigorous. The most feared thing is a problem with the offerings, after all, what you are offering to are not so-called benevolent deities, but brutal and tyrannical dark demon gods!
She remembered that during her half-playthrough, Kazumi accidentally placed a mother beast whose offspring was contaminated onto the altar. As it happened, she also offered it to a gluttonous demon dragon of destruction.
Of course, such a sandwiched offering naturally displeased this divine-level dragon. It directly projected its avatar and flattened Kazumi’s meticulously built territory over several hours, without any explanation. Kazumi was so angry that she almost died in her sleep that night.
Not seeking merit, only seeking no mistakes, is probably Kazumi’s most accurate portrayal at this moment.
One must know that this is reality. In games, bad endings can be replayed, but if she were to actually summon a world-destroying dragon avatar into her territory in the real world, Kazumi felt that she would have no way to reload and play again.
“So, I need to find a stable but sufficiently rewarding offering…”
Kazumi withdrew her gaze from the altar before her and turned to look at the several corpses neatly arranged in a pile.
The clothes and useful items on the corpses had already been stripped off by Little Black and the others and placed aside, leaving only the pale, disgusting flesh and a fist-sized bloody hole in almost the same position on their chests.
Initially, Kazumi had been happy about having a new way to become stronger, but now that she thought about it carefully, even if the low-level Dark Altar had a long cooldown, even without a cooldown, before her strength developed, she wouldn’t dare to throw strange things into this altar.
“Although the chance of ordinary offerings being favored by divine-level beings is low, it’s best to avoid such irresistible risks…”
Kazumi lowered her head and looked at the corpses before her, recalling some of the powerful beings she had contacted through altar sacrifices in the game. If she couldn’t find a suitable match, Kazumi planned to place the corpses in a conventional manner. At the very least, she could exchange them for some Death Crystals, which would also be preparation for upgrading the altar.
“Needs… temperament… female… Toxin-wise, it should be fine.”
Recalling the few powerful beings she had encountered, and then thinking of the toxin ability displayed by the fallen woman before, the young girl’s tightly furrowed brow slowly relaxed. She quickly walked to the only female corpse and began to inspect its condition.
“The completeness of this corpse should not anger anyone. Moreover, being a fallen woman, her emotional life probably hasn’t been smooth sailing either. In this case, it should barely qualify as a usable offering.”
She reached out and grabbed the corpse’s arm, exerting a slight force to bend all four limbs into a strange shape. Then, she took a roll of bandages from the nearby tool chest and tied the limbs into a peculiar posture according to the image in her memory.
“Little Black, come and lend a hand.”
After completing the final packaging of the offering, Kazumi breathed a sigh of relief. She called out to Little Black to help place this strange gift, wrapped like a zongzi, into the coffin at the bottom of the altar.
As the coffin lid, illuminated by the inverted cross, slowly closed, the numerical values on the building panel also changed. Behind the original monotonous and dry 【Ability: Sacrifice】, a small data box indicating time had been added.
The displayed number 48 indicated that the time for this offering was only two days. If it was not chosen by a being from the unknown space, the next offering would have to wait until the Dark Altar was fully charged.
“Hoo— I hope it’s successful.”
Looking at the slowly closing coffin, which floated to the top of the altar, Kazumi finally breathed a sigh of relief. She took out a tissue from her pocket and wiped off some liquid that had gotten on her hands from packing the gift.
Suddenly, as if thinking of something, a flicker of excitement flashed across her face. She took out her phone and opened the album with anticipation.
The latest photos appeared before Kazumi’s eyes as the phone loaded, but the young girl’s initially excited expression gradually disappeared, finally being replaced by a desperate madness.
“Why is it all mosaic!!”
