"Small crossbow carts! Are they really going to..."
Everyone stared at the small crossbow carts Shi Feng had brought out, and when the implication sank in, their jaws dropped one after another.
Small crossbow carts were siege weapons — the kind guilds treasured like family heirlooms, never deploying them except in guild wars or siege battles.
And here was Zero Wing, hauling out such precious siege weapons just to grind monsters...
If any other guild learned about this absurdly extravagant grinding method, they'd want to eat them alive.
"Guild Master, isn't this a bit too wasteful?" Shui Se Qiang Wei clicked her tongue at the sight of the small crossbow carts.
The other members didn't know where the carts had come from, but she knew perfectly well.
Even though the carts were crafted, each one cost a fortune — over a hundred gold in materials alone. Even with a master engineer like Zhuo Yuan and a Basic Meditation Room, the low success rate drove the production cost up to five or six hundred gold per cart. And the Explosive Arrows weren't cheap either — around three silver coins apiece.
Never mind the risk of the carts being destroyed in battle — just using them would drain their durability, and repairs alone would be a hefty expense. Using them to power-level guild members was practically burning money.
"Don't sweat the small stuff," Shi Feng said with a nonchalant smile. "Resources are meant to be used. They're better off improving our members' strength than gathering dust in storage. Once our members get stronger, the guild will bring in even more resources. It's hardly a waste." He waved his hand offhandedly. "Now get them assembled — quickly."
When he'd been the Shadow Guild's master, he'd kept siege weapons under lock and key too, since every use meant one fewer. But things were different now. Since they could produce these items themselves, there was no point hoarding them in storage. Boosting the guild's overall power was what truly mattered.
With everyone already at level 40 or above, and Shui Se Qiang Wei, Ke Le, Jian Ying, Ban Jiu, Ziyan Liuyun, Hei Zi, and Banxia Qingcheng all hovering just below the level-50 threshold, the sooner they hit fifty, the sooner they could begin their second-tier class advancement.
Once they became second-tier players, their contribution to the guild would far outweigh anything a handful of crossbow carts could do.
Hearing Shi Feng's words, every member felt a surge of indescribable emotion.
The leaders of other guilds would squeeze their members dry if they could, yet Shi Feng — the Guild Master himself — was willing to spend the guild's precious resources on helping them level up.
Before long, fifty small crossbow carts were lined up beneath the crumbling city walls — enough firepower to assault a fortress.
Shi Feng then drew out the Dark Book, began chanting incantations, and summoned a demon directly.
Before, he'd only been a first-tier Swordsman, but now, having advanced to the second-tier Sword Master, he could summon a third-tier demon through Demon Summoning.
As a massive demon gate materialized, a creature seven or eight meters tall emerged — two crimson horns jutting from its head, a spear wreathed in emerald flames gripped in its hand.
Purgatory Demon. Dark-type creature. Demon. Level 64. HP: 24 million.
"The Guild Master is truly something — he even has an artifact that can summon third-tier demons! The Summoners must be green with envy." The Zero Wing members stared at the third-tier Purgatory Demon Shi Feng had summoned, their respect and awe deepening.
Third-tier summoning scrolls were treasures that major guilds kept as trump cards — priceless items no amount of gold could buy.
But they could all see clearly that Shi Feng hadn't used a third-tier magic scroll at all. He'd summoned it with the ancient book in his hand. They'd never even heard of such a precious artifact.
Artifacts and magic scrolls were fundamentally different. Magic scrolls were single-use consumables — once used, they were gone forever. Artifacts, on the other hand, could be used repeatedly, making one of the same tier worth ten or even dozens of times more than a scroll.
"In a moment, the Purgatory Demon will draw the beastmen's attention. Healers, keep the Purgatory Demon's health up! Everyone else, man the small crossbow carts and prioritize killing the beastman captains. Tanks, protect the carts!" Shi Feng saw that everyone was nearly ready and issued his orders.