Chapter 106: Honorary Knight Status Secured! A Quest for 50,000 Otherworldly Creature Cores—Tyrant Carves His Way Through Whitepass City!

Chapter 106: Chapter 106: Honorary Knight Status Secured! A Quest for 50,000 Otherworldly Creature Cores—Tyrant Carves His Way Through Whitepass City!

John walked behind Loman with a polite smile on his face, but inwardly, he was sneering.

They asked for money the moment you walked through the door. Give them enough, and they greeted you with warm smiles. Give them too little, and they treated you like an ordinary visitor.

They claimed that "the Holy Light welcomes everyone," but in reality, the only people they welcomed were those with deep pockets.

Priest Loman continued singing the Church’s praises.

"Your donation has arrived at a most opportune time. As you know, the Holy Light Church has always stood on the front lines of the war against otherworldly creatures."

"For the safety of all humanity, they spare no expense. Such dedication and selflessness are truly unmatched across the entire continent."

As John listened to the lengthy speech, he automatically translated it in his head:

The Holy Light Church was powerful, but it burned through money like crazy, so all the Lords should hurry up and hand over their resources.

It was a standard sales pitch built around an exchange of interests, just wrapped in rather fancy language.

After a full ten minutes of walking and praise, Priest Loman finally got to the point.

"To express our gratitude for your generous support of the Holy Light Church, the Church is willing to bestow upon you the title of Honorary Knight."

The moment he finished speaking, a system notification appeared.

[Notification: The Holy Light Church has awarded you the special title — Honorary Knight.]

[Description: The highest honorary title bestowed upon outsiders by the Holy Light Church. It is granted only to allies who have made significant contributions to the Church.]

[Effect 1: With this title, you may freely enter and leave all cities and strongholds under the Holy Light Church without requiring any travel permits.]

[Effect 2: You will receive preferential treatment in the human capital cities of the Central Plains Kingdoms and the Southern Free City-States. No entry fees are required.]

[Effect 3: You may receive whatever assistance the local branches of the Church are capable of providing.]

[Note: This title cannot be transferred. If your reputation with the Holy Light Church drops to "Hostile," the title will be automatically revoked.]

"But Priest Loman, I didn’t donate these resources just to obtain an honorary title."

John glanced through the description and interrupted Loman before he could continue praising the title.

"After all, three million basic resources are only a small amount to me. I traveled all the way to the Holy City because I have something much more important in mind."

Priest Loman’s smile froze for a fraction of a second before returning to normal. His tone became even more respectful.

"I see. Then may I ask what kind of assistance Lord Tyrant requires?"

"I need the training qualifications for Holy-type troops."

John looked directly at him and spoke every word clearly.

Priest Loman’s expression visibly became troubled.

"My lord, to be completely honest, the Holy Knights are the personal guards of the Church Leader. Their training permissions fall within the Church’s most sensitive core interests."

"This is not something a minor priest like myself, who is merely responsible for receiving visitors in the Outer City, can decide."

He appeared to struggle with the decision for quite some time before finally gritting his teeth and speaking.

"However, if you are willing to help us resolve one of the Church’s most pressing problems, I can submit an application to my superiors on your behalf."

"Go on."

"Otherworldly Creature Cores."

Priest Loman looked genuinely distressed.

"Whitepass City was recently occupied by the Zerg."

"It is a human city not far from Silvermoon City. If you can help us collect 50,000 Otherworldly Creature Cores, I can use this achievement to submit an application for the troop training permissions you seek."

A system notification appeared before John.

[Quest: Otherworldly Purge]

[Objective: Travel to Whitepass City, which has been occupied by the Zerg, and collect Otherworldly Creature Cores ×50,000.]

[Rewards: gold coin ×10,000, Holy Light Acolyte Training License ×100.]

[Additional Information: Submitting additional cores can accumulate multiple quest completions.]

"Accept."

John agreed without the slightest hesitation.

Priest Loman was overjoyed. He reached into his sleeve and pulled out a palm-sized white-and-gold token, handing it to John.

"Wonderful! This is a Summoning Token. Once you complete the quest, simply use it anywhere within the Holy City, and I will come to you immediately. May victory be yours!"

John accepted the token, put it away, and turned to lead his heroes toward the city gates.

Upon returning to the portal, he opened the map and checked Whitepass City’s coordinates.

"Not too far. At full speed, Ophelia should be able to get us there in about twenty minutes."

John swung himself onto the dragon’s back.

"Let’s go."

...

Twenty minutes later.

Whitepass City.

Sitting on the dragon’s back, John looked down at the city below, the corner of his mouth twitching involuntarily.

If what he was looking at could still be called a city.

The city walls were still standing. Their gray-white stone structures and tower outlines remained intact, but their surfaces were completely covered in fleshy red tentacles and dark-purple membranes of slime.

The places where flags had once flown atop the walls were now occupied by fleshy tubes of various sizes. Pale-green clouds of spores continuously sprayed from their openings.

The entire urban area was submerged beneath a layer of slime. The doors and windows of buildings were completely blocked by lumps of flesh, while countless insects of various shapes crawled through the streets.

"Fifty thousand cores? There must be at least a million of these things down there."

John clicked his tongue and was just about to order his army to advance when his pupils suddenly contracted.

From a pool of slime at the base of the city wall, a Zerg creature nearly twice the size of the surrounding worker drones slowly crawled out.

Every time it moved forward, its mouthparts opened, squeezing out a sticky mass of fleshy eggs.

A few seconds after hitting the ground, the eggs began to swell and split open. Three to five ordinary worker drones crawled out of each one, shook their wings, and immediately joined the surrounding swarm.

[Monster: Otherworldly Zerg (Corrupted Worker Drone)]

[Faction: Otherworldly · Swarm]

[Star Rank: Five-Star]

[Level: Lv20]

[Health: 2,800]

[Attack: 420]

[Defense: 180]

[Skills: Egg Laying and Hatching (Active), Slime Spit, Swarm Resonance.]

[Monster: Otherworldly Zerg (Corrupted Broodmother)]

[Monster: Otherworldly Zerg (Corrupted Spreader)]

...

"That’s disgusting."

The same thought appeared almost simultaneously in the minds of several heroes.

John found them disgusting as well, but there was no helping it. He could only finish the job as quickly as possible.

He raised his hand and tore open the Legion Space.

"Everyone, deploy!"

"Whoosh!"

Black spatial rifts appeared in a row behind him.

Undead Dragon Knights, Frost Mages, Fire Mages, Sharpshooters, Corpse Exploders, Elven Summoners... Every unit emerged in succession.

"Dragon Knights, dive down and destroy the Zerg nests on the city walls. Sharpshooters, suppress the swarm in the streets. Mage Corps, unleash a covering bombardment. Elven Summoners, summon everything you’ve got and block off the escape routes."

John issued his orders directly.

"Crush everything in your path!"

Immediately afterward, the entire sky above Whitepass City darkened.

The Undead Dragon Knights folded their wings and plunged downward over the city walls.

One Zerg nest after another exploded. Chunks of flesh and slime splattered everywhere, revealing the densely packed worker drones behind them.

Sharpshooter arrows poured down like a waterfall, volley after volley. Swarms of insects collapsed across the streets.

Fire Mage fireballs rained down on the nests like a meteor shower.

"BOOM! BOOM!"

Explosions erupted one after another.

But even more outrageous was the Elven Summoner Corps.

A thousand Nine-Star Summoners simultaneously raised their staffs. Countless cracks instantly appeared across the ground.

Gray-white vines emerged like snakes, coiling around the insects’ legs and dragging them underground.

Immediately afterward, thousands upon thousands of creatures, including Bone Direwolves and Undead Falcons, charged out of their summoning circles and swarmed toward the Zerg, biting and tearing at everything in sight.

The Zerg, meanwhile, continued reproducing. The central hatchery never stopped spewing out new creatures.

But John was killing them so quickly that his slaughter was actually outpacing their reproduction.

[Otherworldly Zerg killed ×12,840...]

[Otherworldly Zerg killed ×9,740...]

[Otherworldly Zerg killed ×15,620...]

Kill notifications continuously popped up, but John didn’t even have time to look at them.

In less than forty minutes.

Not a single Zerg remained anywhere within sight.