Chapter 63 -63-The Second Wave!

Chapter 63: Chapter63-The Second Wave!

John looked at the newly added physical damage, and the corners of his mouth gradually rose.

This advancement had added another 500% Strength-based physical damage on top of the original 1,000% Wisdom-based magic damage.

Void Spear’s total base scaling had effectively increased by fifty percent.

The Gloomstone Troll crashed heavily to the ground.

Its enormous corpse struck the battlefield and sent a ring of dust surging outward.

Near the wall of Defensive Sector Six, Horus was leading a group of Luna Wolf players in a fight against several low-level Shadowblight Beast Hunters.

His spear pierced through one monster’s chest.

[-682!]

Just as Horus prepared to follow up with a second strike, a black-and-gold light suddenly rose in the distance.

A Void Spear entered through the Gloomstone Troll’s jaw and instantly pierced straight through its skull.

[-885,600!]

The troll’s sixty thousand HP was emptied on the spot.

Horus’s spear stopped in midair.

Several nearby Luna Wolf members also turned their heads in unison.

They looked at the fallen Thousand-Player-Tier Boss.

Then they lowered their eyes toward the ordinary Hunter before them, which still had half its HP remaining.

After several seconds of silence, one mage slowly lowered his staff.

"Guild Leader."

"I suddenly don’t feel like playing anymore."

The warrior beside him nodded.

"Neither do I."

"More than ten of us have been surrounding one ordinary monster for ages."

"And he just dealt eight hundred and eighty thousand damage with a single skill."

White_Bear held up his shield, his face filled with despair.

"Are we really playing the same game?"

Horus also fell silent.

He wanted to encourage his members.

But this time, even he had no idea what to say.

In the end, he could only raise his spear and stab fiercely at the Shadowblight Beast Hunter in front of him.

"Stop talking nonsense."

"Finish this one first."

White_Bear glanced at the monster’s remaining HP.

"It still has over three thousand."

"Should we call Endbringer over to help?"

A vein bulged on Horus’s forehead.

"Get lost!"

...

With the death of the Gloomstone Troll, the surviving Dark Realm soldiers in Defensive Sector Six rapidly lost their will to fight.

Defensive Sector Seven had already been cleared by John alone.

The Thousand-Player-Tier Boss in Defensive Sector Six had also been killed instantly.

Continuing the assault would only mean throwing their lives away.

Several Duskborn officers sounded the retreat horns.

The Dark Realm soldiers began withdrawing toward the Eternal Night Gate.

The low-ranking monsters that had lost their commanders possessed no concept of retreat and continued attacking the human defensive line madly.

However, their remaining numbers were no longer enough to pose a serious threat.

Rudy, Loki, and the defenders of each sector quickly began the cleanup.

More than ten minutes later—

The final Siegeburrow Worm was nailed to the ground by a massive ballista bolt.

[The first wave of the Dark Realm assault has ended!]

[Quest Progress: 1/5!]

[You have gained 500 EXP!]

[You have gained 100 Military Merit!]

The first wave had finally ended.

John closed the advanced Void Spear skill panel and reactivated the muted system notifications.

The next second—

His entire field of vision was flooded with densely packed kill records.

[You have killed Shadowblight Beast Hunter Lv16!]

[You have killed Darkthorn Armored Beast Lv18!]

[You have killed Darkeye Drifter Lv19!]

[You have killed Siegeburrow Worm Lv19!]

[You have killed Duskborn Soldier Lv20!]

[You have killed Grayscale Bladesman Lv20!]

[You have killed Umberkin Stone-Thrower Lv21!]

[You have killed...]

One notification followed another.

The system records scrolled down through dozens of pages, yet the end was still nowhere in sight.

John simply skipped directly to the settlement page.

[Military Merit from personal kills during the first wave: +49,900!]

[Wave Completion Reward: Military Merit +100!]

[Current Total Military Merit: 100,000!]

One hundred thousand Military Merit!

Combined with the fifty thousand Military Merit he had previously received for killing Selena, this wave had pushed his total to exactly one hundred thousand.

John opened Dawnstar City’s Military Merit exchange rules.

[At 10,000 Military Merit, you may apply for promotion to a junior officer position.]

[At 50,000 Military Merit, you may enter Dawnstar City’s Aboveground Arsenal and select one item or piece of equipment below S-Rank.]

[At 100,000 Military Merit, you will receive one opportunity to enter Dawnstar City’s Underground Treasury.]

[At 1,000,000 Military Merit, you may apply for access to the core area of the Underground Treasury.]

The Underground Treasury.

Its core area.

John immediately became interested.

Dawnstar City had guarded the Eternal Night Gate for nearly a thousand years.

No one knew how many high-ranking Dark Realm creatures had died on this battlefield.

The city’s treasury was certain to contain large quantities of Dark Realm equipment, special items, and relics of war.

The ordinary Underground Treasury was already worth looking forward to.

The core area, which required one million Military Merit to enter, could only be even more outrageous.

"There’s no need to exchange anything yet."

"Let’s see whether I can push all the way to one million."

John closed the Military Merit panel and glanced at his EXP bar.

The first wave had contained enormous numbers of monsters.

However, most of them were more than seven levels below him.

Under the severe level-suppression penalty, most ordinary monsters provided only one EXP, while some no longer granted any EXP at all.

Even after killing thousands upon thousands of them, his EXP bar still had not reached Lv28.

He remained only a short distance from leveling up.

John looked toward the Eternal Night Gate, which had begun fluctuating once again.

Four waves remained.

Hopefully, the quality of the next monsters would be higher.

If he could reach Lv30 during this war, he would obtain another three SSS-Rank Affixes.

Lv30 was especially important.

Affixes gained at every tenth level had never been simple.

...

During the brief breathing period, not a single human defender truly rested.

Before John intervened, several defensive lines had already suffered severe casualties.

The surviving soldiers emerged from beneath the walls.

They dragged back the bodies of their companions.

They gathered scattered identification tags.

Others crouched across the battlefield, placing unrecognizable severed limbs one by one into black burial cloths.

Medical personnel searched among the corpses for wounded soldiers who were still breathing.

Some died halfway through being carried away.

The sound of crying was kept low.

No one dared to mourn for too long.

Because the next wave could arrive at any moment.

Supporting himself with his staff, Nero descended to the battlefield using Defensive Sector Seven’s lift.

Dragging his severed leg, he moved with difficulty among the bodies.

Whenever he recognized a familiar face, he crouched down and closed their eyes.

The defenders who had cheered for the gray-robed mage moments earlier had all fallen silent.

John stood not far away.

To players, a war quest in an online game was merely an event filled with generous rewards.

But to these NPCs, every siege was a genuine struggle between life and death.

Three minutes later—

The horns sounded again.

Woo—!

Every soldier who had been moving corpses immediately raised their head.

Violent ripples spread across the surface of the Eternal Night Gate once more.

"The second wave is here!"

"Everyone, return to your positions!"

"Move the wounded back behind the walls!"

The bodies across the battlefield had not even been cleared away.

A new black flood was already pouring out of the teleportation gate.