Chapter 85: The Final Night Tide Arrives! First Place by an Overwhelming Margin, Divine-Rank Hall of Heroes Acquired!

Chapter 85: Chapter 85: The Final Night Tide Arrives! First Place by an Overwhelming Margin, Divine-Rank Hall of Heroes Acquired!

Thinking about this, John felt a slight tightening in his chest.

Now that he had offended the entire Judgment Alliance, there would only be more and more attempts at revenge in the future.

His units could be resurrected and summoned indefinitely. No matter how many died, he wouldn’t lose any sleep over them.

But losing even one SSS-Rank Hero would be a permanent loss.

Besides, these Heroes weren’t emotionless units. They were more like his companions.

If things get dangerous, I’ll have to run when necessary.

John silently reminded himself, then glanced at the map again.

There were plenty of monster spawn points along the way, making it a perfect opportunity for Vira to level up.

"From now on, when you fight monsters, try to let Vira and Arno land the finishing blows. They both need to level up. I’ll have the Corpse Exploders follow behind and collect the bodies."

"Got it!"

They continued flying, occasionally stopping to fight monsters. They traveled from dusk until the sky had grown completely dark.

During the battles, Arno barely participated, even though John had told both him and Vira to fight together.

In reality, he deliberately left almost all the finishing blows to Vira, refusing to claim the experience for himself.

It was obvious that he was intentionally letting Vira gain most of the EXP.

By the time everyone returned to the territory, Arno’s level had barely increased, while Vira’s had skyrocketed all the way to Lv20.

She still had some catching up to do compared with Ophelia and the others, but it was already a significant improvement.

...

When they arrived back at the territory, Sylvie and Raistlin had already returned and were waiting for them.

The moment she spotted the purple dragon landing in the distance, Sylvie immediately jogged over.

Then she stopped.

She noticed Arno jumping down from the back of another, slightly smaller, water-blue dragon.

Her expression was one of complete disbelief.

"My Lord."

She approached, her gaze lingering on Vira for a moment before returning to John’s face.

Her cheeks puffed up slightly.

"Have you brought back another Ophelia?"

John was in the middle of climbing down from the dragon’s back. Hearing this, he nearly lost his footing.

"She’s Ophelia’s younger sister."

"Oh."

Sylvie blinked her wine-red eyes and glanced toward Ophelia.

"Your younger sister?"

Ophelia walked over expressionlessly and moved Vira behind her.

"What about it?"

Sylvie glanced at Vira again.

The young girl was peeking out from behind Ophelia’s shoulder, her water-blue vertical pupils curiously examining Sylvie.

"Fine."

Sylvie withdrew her gaze. When she looked back at John, there was a faint hint of a huff in her voice.

"Apparently, having one dragon in the house isn’t enough. Now you have to bring back another one."

John caught the implication.

Remembering how the two women usually couldn’t get along, he let out an awkward laugh and was just about to say something when Sylvie had already turned around and started walking toward the castle.

"I’ll go prepare a room for her."

She was clearly all bark and no bite.

Raistlin said nothing. He simply winked at John, seemingly enjoying the show.

John pretended not to notice.

...

One minute before midnight, everyone had gathered atop the city walls.

"Time’s up."

Raistlin spoke first, his cloudy eyes fixed on the distant horizon.

At the edge of the world, grayish-white mist was slowly rising, spreading outward along the ground.

It looked perfectly calm, almost indistinguishable from ordinary morning fog.

But wherever it passed, the grass withered, and fine cracks began appearing across the surfaces of the rocks.

[Global Announcement: The Final Night Tide — "Rotbone Miasma" Has Officially Arrived!]

[Survival Mission Activated: Survive within the poisonous mist for one hour.]

[Poison Mist Properties: Ignores Defense and removes a fixed 0.5% of maximum HP every second. The longer the exposure, the stronger the cumulative corrosive effect.]

[Reminder: Territory defensive barriers can completely block the poisonous mist. Lords without defensive barriers must seek high ground, enclosed spaces, or special items to protect themselves.]

John stood on the city wall and looked down.

When the poisonous mist reached the edge of the protective barrier, it was as though it had collided with an invisible wall. It rolled and dispersed, unable to penetrate even the slightest bit.

Fine ripples spread across the surface of the barrier, but its durability remained completely unchanged.

"That’s it?"

Vira had spent quite some time listening to her older sister explain the dangers of the final Night Tide.

She had originally been looking forward to showing off her abilities today.

Who would have thought the poisonous mist couldn’t even get inside?

She couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed.

John smiled but didn’t respond.

He turned around and glanced at the others inside the territory.

Everyone was going about their respective duties, completely unaffected by what was happening outside.

After all, in the villagers’ eyes, those monsters stood no chance against their Lord and the mighty dragons serving him.

One hour.

For John, it was simply a matter of waiting, whether standing or sitting.

But the World Channel was already on the verge of collapsing.

"FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! This fog ignores defense! My units are losing 300 HP every second! They can’t withstand it!"

"Anyone on high ground, can the fog reach you? My territory is on a plain!"

"Forget it! I already tried! Even high ground gets swallowed!"

"Half my troops are already dead!"

John scrolled through a couple of pages before notifications began appearing one after another.

[Global Announcement: Lord "Karen’s" territory has been breached by the poisonous mist. Lord’s Mark has been confiscated.]

[Global Announcement: Lord "Gumlin’s" territory has been breached by the poisonous mist. Lord’s Mark has been confiscated.]

[Global Announcement: Lord "Nick Shadowthorn’s" territory has been breached by the poisonous mist. Lord’s Mark has been confiscated.]

[Global Announcement: ...]

Time passed minute by minute.

Even the durability of John’s defensive barrier finally began to decrease slowly.

[Joint Defensive Barrier Current Durability: 12,000,000/12,000,000]

[Poison Mist Corrosion in Progress: Defensive Barrier Durability reduced by 0.5% per second... Current Durability: 11,940,000.]

John glanced at the timer.

[Remaining Poison Mist Duration: 58 minutes 42 seconds.]

Given the thickness of his defensive barrier, there was absolutely no need to worry.

After all, it was only losing a tiny amount of durability every minute.

"All right. Let’s just wait."

John decisively chose to do nothing.

...

One hour later.

[Global Announcement: The Final Night Tide Has Ended.]

[Survival Statistics —]

[The Novice Period Has Officially Ended.]

[Total Number of Surviving Lords Worldwide: 6,124,873.]

The final bell signaling the end of the Novice Period rang out through the void.

[Calculating Final Novice Period Leaderboard...]

A golden holographic screen appeared before every Lord.

There was absolutely no suspense regarding the first place.

Rank 1

[First Place: Tyrant (Region ID: Dark-0914) — Points: 21,486,200]

[Second Place: Dragon9 (Region ID: Dragon-0011) — Points: 1,082,400]

[Third Place: Carlson (Region ID: Iron-0005) — Points: 987,300]

After Augustus’s death, the Judgment Alliance had collapsed.

Naturally, none of its other members could come anywhere close to John’s score.

The second-place player didn’t even have a fraction of his points.

Immediately afterward, the leaderboard rewards began to be distributed.

[First Place Exclusive Reward: Divine-Rank Territory Building — Hall of Heroes.]

[Hall of Heroes (Divine-Rank)]

[Effect 1: Automatically generates 1 Hero Recruitment Scroll every day.]

[Effect 2: Can accommodate up to 10 Heroes. All Heroes residing inside gain 5 levels every day, regardless of their level cap.]

[Description: The resting place of heroic spirits, where the gods fell and legendary souls sleep. Those who rest here shall regain their former glory.]

John stared at the information appearing on the panel, momentarily stunned.

"One Hero Recruitment Scroll every day. And Heroes can level up just by staying inside?"

"This..."

Before he could finish speaking, a private system announcement, audible only to John, suddenly rang out.

[Ding!]

[Special Achievement: Your final score ranks First Throughout the Entire Recorded History of the Human Race.]

[Achievement Reward: Key to a Growth-Type Territory — Sky Island ×1.]

John reached out and caught the silver key floating in the air.

Beneath it was only a single line of information.

[Sky Island (Growth-Type Territory)]

This was the first time John had ever obtained an item of this kind.

He examined it and muttered to himself.

"What is this? A territory that can actually grow? I’ve never heard of anyone having a territory like this before."

But before he could think any further, a global announcement suddenly appeared before every surviving player.

[Global Announcement: The Novice Period Has Ended. The Game Is About to Enter an Update Phase.]

[Update Contents: Official Opening of the Main Map of Godfall Continent, Unlocking of Cross-Region Teleportation, Alliance System Restructuring, and Increase to the Lord Level Cap.]

[Update Duration: 6 Hours.]

[During the Update, All Lords Will Be Forced Offline.]