Chapter 60 -60-YOU SHALL NOT PASS!

Chapter 60: Chapter60-YOU SHALL NOT PASS!

Clang—!

A piercing bell suddenly rang throughout Dawnstar City.

Immediately afterward, deep horn calls sounded one after another from every defensive sector.

The city walls, which had been relatively calm moments ago, instantly came alive.

Resting soldiers grabbed their weapons.

The wounded dragged their still-unhealed bodies out from the corners.

Groups of archers and mages rushed up the military stairways and quickly formed ranks at their assigned positions.

The smile disappeared from Nero’s face.

"The Dark Realm is attacking."

John turned toward the central battlefield.

The [Eternal Night Gate], towering into the clouds, was fluctuating violently.

Its pitch-black surface continuously bulged outward, as though countless things were pressing against the curtain of light from the other side.

The next second—

Boom!

A black flood surged out of the teleportation gate.

Tens of thousands of Dark Realm monsters poured onto the battlefield.

Without pausing, they immediately charged toward the various defensive sectors.

Dense masses of figures rapidly spread across the ground.

They moved at astonishing speed.

Four-legged Hunters led the charge.

Crystal-shelled beetles followed close behind.

Farther back were large numbers of bloated, soft-bodied creatures continuously spewing gray mist.

By the time John looked up, Rudy had already climbed onto the wall of Defensive Sector Seven.

"Archers, charge to the third stage!"

"Mage Corps, deploy the interception barrier!"

"Everyone else, inspect your weapons and await orders!"

The commands were passed down layer by layer.

More than a thousand archers drew their bowstrings simultaneously.

Several hundred mages behind them raised their staffs and began chanting in unison.

Spell runes connected through the air one after another.

Before long, an almost transparent barrier rose in front of the city wall.

The invisible bulwark extended along the defensive sector in both directions, completely sealing off the hundred-meter area before the wall.

The Dark Realm monsters reached the barrier in the blink of an eye.

The Hunters at the front did not slow down.

Bang!

Their flesh-and-blood bodies crashed violently into the transparent wall.

Bones shattered.

Skulls exploded.

Their corpses were trampled into the ground by the creatures behind them.

The monsters that followed continued slamming into the barrier without hesitation.

The impacts became so dense that they merged into a continuous roar.

Large cracks rapidly spread across the barrier’s surface.

Rudy brought down his right hand.

"Loose!"

Buzz—!

More than a thousand bowstrings vibrated simultaneously.

A sky-obscuring rain of arrows flew over the wall and descended into the monster tide.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Large numbers of Dark Realm monsters were pierced by arrows.

The frontmost layer collapsed instantly.

The creatures behind them continued advancing over the bodies of their own kind.

Some had been turned into pincushions, yet they still crawled rapidly across the ground.

John looked at the layers of corpses piling up and showed an expression of disgust.

"Gross."

[Ding!]

[Large-Scale War Quest triggered!]

[Quest Name: Defend Dawnstar City!]

[Quest Rank: B.]

[Quest Objective: Repel the Dark Realm army and hold the line for one hour!]

[Attack Waves: 0/5.]

[For every attack wave repelled, receive 500 EXP and 100 Military Merit!]

[Final rewards will be additionally calculated according to personal kill count and battlefield contribution!]

Five hundred EXP and one hundred Military Merit per wave.

For ordinary recruits, that was already a respectable reward.

John, however, only thought it was slightly too little.

The monsters in this wave were generally between Lv15 and Lv20.

He had already reached Lv27.

Because the level difference was too large, the EXP gained from killing them would be significantly reduced.

Naturally, the quest’s basic rewards would not be especially high.

Fortunately, there were more than enough monsters.

Rumble!

The ground in front of the city wall suddenly bulged upward.

Soil and corpses were thrown into the air at the same time.

A gray-black worm more than ten meters in diameter burst from underground.

It had no eyes.

Several layers of sharp teeth lined its circular mouth.

Its entire body was covered in folds that continuously secreted mucus.

[Siegeburrow Worm]

[Level: Lv19.]

[Rank: Elite.]

[HP: 12,000/12,000.]

The enormous worm raised its body and slammed heavily into the magical barrier.

Boom!

The invisible wall shook violently.

A second worm.

A third.

More Siegeburrow Worms emerged from underground and repeatedly struck the same location.

Crack!

The fractures spread rapidly.

The entire barrier shattered with a deafening crash.

"Mountainburning Arrow Domain!"

Rudy had already drawn his enormous bow to its limit.

A crimson arrow shot into the sky.

A storm of fire covered the area before the city wall.

Large numbers of Dark Realm monsters were swallowed by flames.

The Siegeburrow Worms were also blasted apart one after another.

However, the black teleportation gate continued pouring monsters onto the battlefield.

The area that had just been cleared was soon filled again by the next wave.

Supporting himself with his staff, Nero hopped to the edge of the mage formation and shouted at John,

"Get into formation!"

"Prepare Fireball!"

"I don’t know Fireball."

Nero froze.

"What did you say?"

"I don’t know it."

"You’re a mage who doesn’t know Fireball?"

Nero looked as though he had heard something incomprehensible.

"That’s the most basic mandatory skill for every mage!"

"If you don’t know Fireball, what kind of mage are you?"

Remembering that the battle was urgent, Nero simply waved him off.

"Forget it. Find somewhere to hide!"

The Dark Realm monster tide continued surging forward.

It was now less than a hundred meters from the wall.

An officer commanding the Mage Corps also noticed John standing outside the formation.

"Recruit!"

"Return to formation immediately!"

"Prepare to focus fire!"

John did not move.

He watched the monster tide drawing closer and recalled a scene he had been preparing for a long time.

John raised a hand and pressed it against the mask on his face.

[Faceless Shadow Mask activated!]

[Modifying character appearance!]

His figure rapidly transformed.

His black hair became long and gray-white.

Wrinkles appeared across his face.

A large gray beard grew from his chin.

The Holy Candle Bishop’s Robe on his body transformed into a worn gray robe.

A broad gray pointed hat appeared on his head.

The black-and-gold Void Staff became a green wooden staff covered in grain patterns.

John then picked up a chipped longsword from the corner of the wall.

In the blink of an eye—

A tall, thin old man in gray robes, with white hair and a wooden staff and longsword in hand, stood atop the city wall.

Nero stared at him blankly.

"You..."

"How did you suddenly get old?"

The commanding officer only looked away once.

The young mage who had been standing there moments ago had disappeared.

In his place stood an unfamiliar old man in gray robes at the edge of the wall.

"Who are you?"

"What are you doing there?"

"Get down!"

John stepped onto the battlement.

Then he leaped.

"Are you insane?!"

The officer’s expression changed drastically.

The wall of Defensive Sector Seven was a hundred meters tall.

An ordinary mage who jumped from that height would be reduced to a mangled corpse before any monster could even reach him.

John’s body plummeted rapidly.

When he was only a dozen meters above the ground, a silver-gray rift suddenly unfolded.

[Void Shift!]

The gray-robed old man vanished into thin air.

The next second—

He landed steadily in front of the monster tide.

Countless Dark Realm monsters paused simultaneously.

They seemed unable to understand why someone would voluntarily jump down in front of them.

John held the sword in his left hand.

He raised the green wooden staff high in his right.

Then he drove both weapons into the ground at the same time.

Bang!

"YOU SHALL NOT PASS!"