The Era of Gods

Chapter 510: Chapter 510 Heavy Losses and Establishment of a Fortress

Lin Xiao quickly extended a hand to point, and the Miracle Purification Light descended, expelling the fel energy that had invaded the Ice Mage’s body.

However, the enemy’s spell casting was ongoing. Over a hundred Wizards were casting spells together; the rate of corruption was incredibly fast, and his Miracle Purification had a fifteen-minute cooldown.

He promptly issued an order for the Star Mages to counteract, but unexpectedly, the Legion Deputy Chief was a Demon Wizard, who not only countered the Star Mage’s counter but also had spare strength to summon a thick green beam of light, crashing down on the Star Mages.

“Pinpoint the Military Governor!”

The Lord Archer drew an arrow gleaming with Holy Light and launched it from the bow. The Military Governor didn’t move his feet, merely shifted his upper body to avoid a fatal shot and took the arrow. The Sacred Fire on the arrowhead burned, causing the Demon Overlord to roar with rage, his ghastly face twisting into a hideous smile:

“Too late!”

As the words fell, the controlled Frost Law Leader suddenly opened his eyes, and a thick green light burst forth. With a gesture, a Blizzard rained down from the sky.

He had fallen!

In Lin Xiao’s eyes, the name of this Ice Mage changed from the deep blue of friends to the red of foes, the deep blue of the fallen. This Blizzard was targeting his former allies.

The Blizzard only lasted for two seconds before being disrupted by another Mage’s counter-spell, but he immediately cast a wide-range Frost Nova, freezing everyone at the valley entrance in place, just as his current skill was interrupted.

“Damn it! Kill him.”

Lin Xiao’s heart bled as he decisively ordered the abandonment of his subordinate.

There was no time to wait another fifteen minutes for another purification. If they didn’t kill him now, his interference would significantly weaken their overall strength.

At his command, ten thousand troops assembled, and several Lord-level warriors charged in a round of encirclement, quickly slaughtering the Ice Mage.

The Ice Mage might have been powerful due to the Star Spirit Talent, but his hit points and defenses were nowhere near those of the Supreme Naga.

Fortunately, the Demon Wizards’ spell was a powerful one with a long cooldown. They did not continue corrupting after forcing one Leader to fall; otherwise, Lin Xiao would have definitely considered fleeing.

“Attack!”

The elite Demons charged through the barrage of spells and reached the fortress entrance, clashing with the warriors guarding the gate in a furious melee.

Blizzard.

Rain of Fire technique.

Thundercloud.

Arcane Arrow Rain.

Fel Fire Rain.

Hellfire.

In just a moment, countless large-scale spells from both the defenders and the Demon Wizards or Magicians covered that area indiscriminately, and the War instantly escalated to a fever pitch.

Lin Xiao sat on his flying mount, overseeing the battlefield from above. Every time his eyelid twitched, it meant one of his subordinates had fallen; if he clenched his fist or his eyelids twitched repeatedly, it signified the death of a Leader-level subordinate.

Years of campaigning, all combined, hadn’t amounted to as many losses as today.

Leaders who hadn’t suffered casualties in years were falling in battle today, and it pained him deeply.

But this was a necessary sacrifice, facing an official Demon division commanded in part by a Legion Deputy Chief; losses were inevitable.

More than ten minutes later, two Demon Overlords joined the battlefield. Two Lord-level warriors swiftly charged to intercept them as the War officially entered its most intense phase, where almost every moment, both subordinates and Demons died.

Luckily, most of his subordinates were high-level elites, and the Leader warriors were tough enough to withstand it; other players would have collapsed by now.

Lin Xiao quickly sent a message to his girlfriend, then directed his flying mount to climb higher and looked towards the horizon with a gleam of joy:

“They have finally arrived.”

Messaging his girlfriend:

“Now’s the time, attack!”

Minutes later, more than a dozen Two-headed Chimeras led by a Three-headed Chimera Leader crossed the mountain range and appeared above the battlefield. From afar, they spat nine thick streams of acid, flame, and frost breaths into the Demon horde, followed by more Chimeras that unleashed breaths of their own.

The arrival of these Chimeras caused some confusion among the Demons, forcing the Demon Corps Deputy Commander in Chief to divert a portion of the Demons to respond.

More than ten minutes later, a large allied force of Centaurs and Ogres, led by two powerful Centaur leaders and a ten-meter-tall Ogre Leader, launched an attack from behind the Demons.

Caught in a pincer movement from both flanks and the air, the Demons found themselves surrounded. The Demon Corps Deputy Commander in Chief decisively ordered a muster, and a huge green Teleportation Array formed.

Several Mages immediately attempted to disrupt it, but to no avail.

As the Array quickly took shape for the retreat, Star Mages cast chains of Star Domain, which had been chanted for several seconds. The chains flew out and trapped the Demon Corps Deputy Commander in Chief, instantly disrupting the Teleportation Array.

The Deputy Chief roared low, shattering the chains of Star Domain but lost the chance to escape.

The subsequent battles were even more intense than before, but at this point, Lin Xiao had gained the upper hand, and his losses were, in fact, not as great as before.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

An hour later, a Level 87 Lord Template Demon Corps Deputy Commander in Chief died in battle, leaving the rest of the demons fighting desperately like cornered beasts, ultimately leading to their complete annihilation.

After the war, the tally of losses pained Lin Xiao deeply.

A total of twenty-three leaders died, eleven of them, close to half; three enhanced elites died, the majority of the elites were wiped out, all the cannon fodder died, and a large number of Bear Monsters died; what pained him the most was the death of a Lord-level warrior.

This meant that he now had fewer than a hundred subordinates left.

But the fortress had been successfully established, and future upgrades wouldn’t be assaulted by monsters anymore.

Putting aside his grief over the losses, he quickly took stock of the battlefield and the spoils, and began to rebuild his defenses.

Fortunately, the fortress had been upgraded to First Level, which allowed for the recruitment of NPC subordinates. He used the demon marks he had previously accumulated to exchange for a batch of new subordinates, replenishing his forces to their former numbers. Despite that, their strength had been significantly reduced compared to before.

After all, so many leaders and high-level elites had died.

The newly exchanged recruits were only Level 55, which was a far cry from the average Level 70 or so demons nearby. It meant he had to slowly grind levels again.

The First Level fortress was officially established and Lin Xiao appointed his girlfriend as the deputy commander, granting her the authority second only to his own. This way, he could leave the fortress in her hands and it would still operate under her control while he was away.

After being busy for several days, he finally had time to inspect the spoils of war, with the loot from the Demon Corps Deputy Commander in Chief being the most anticipated. A Level 87 Lord-level BOSS had been surrounded and killed; this was probably the highest level BOSS the Human Camp had managed to slay up till now.

Luckily, his leader warriors each had millions of hit points, acting as meat shields with freakish Talents. Otherwise, normal human warrior leaders wouldn’t have been able to withstand such a high-level BOSS’s attacks.

Even so, three warriors died in the fight against this foe; during one of its outbreaks, it executed several powerful Demon Magic skills in succession. Its ultimate move, Death Pointing, instantly killed the Lord Template warrior by inflicting ridiculously high damage, wiping out millions of hit points in one go—a terrifying force.

However, after casting its ultimate move, the BOSS weakened and lacked the strength for a second round of attacks, and remained powerless until it was finally killed.

But even one round was horrifying; for any other player, a single round could wipe out their main force. Only Lin Xiao had as many as five BOSSes with the Lord Template and more than twenty leaders, so the BOSS couldn’t kill them all at once.

The deputy commander exploded into exactly five Purple Items, two of which were T5 Level magic-based equipment pieces, which all went to his girlfriend.

One was an Epic Demon Mark, one was the deputy commander’s head, and the last one was a key that could unlock a certain five-person instance within the Purgatory Fortress.

The Epic Demon Mark was exchanged for an Elf Archer.

The deputy commander’s head could be exchanged at the Star Domain Consortium for any T5 Level accessory of choice.

The key, although usable now, didn’t grant him the means to enter Purgatory Fortress yet.

Apart from this, the many powerful demons dropped a bunch of Blue Demon Marks and Green Demon Marks. This time around, the Enhanced Elite in Lin Xiao’s ranks finally caught up with the leaders; there were a total of 14 new Enhanced Elites and 84 Elite subordinates, and over seven hundred cannon fodder, only about two hundred of which were exchanged, the rest would be saved for later.

In addition, there were hundreds of various level equipment and materials. These could be converted according to a certain ratio into equipment usable by NPCs, or military supplies.

This military supply was a special currency for fortresses, counted in units. Whether it be for upgrading the fortress or for the NPC materials that are sold, this currency was required for conversion. Otherwise, how did players purchase so many things from NPCs? Clearly, they couldn’t just appear out of thin air.

Military supplies were of two types: one was regular military supplies, which could be converted into nearly all commonly used items.

The other was high-grade military supplies, which could be converted into Epic or higher level equipment, and would be used for upgrading fortresses of Level 3 and above in the future.

All the goods that were not needed from the battle were converted, amassing a total of one thousand eight hundred units of regular military supplies and one hundred and ten units of high-grade military supplies.

Currently, there were no players in this area, and there was no need to allocate supplies to NPC stores, so he first converted a batch of NPC-specific equipment for the newly summoned subordinates.

Also, the First Level fortress had two portals; he took out the instance core that had been stored previously, installed it inside, and used 100 units of high-grade military supplies to activate the instance.

Placing his hand on the instance’s light gate, Lin Xiao began editing the instance.

This instance core was not predetermined to be any specific instance; it needed to be edited by him. However, given that the core came from the Demon Camp, it was certain that the instance would be related to the Demon Camp.

As he expected, upon entering, he found that the basic framework of the instance was indeed that of the Demon Camp he had previously attacked; it basically copied the terrain of the camp, but without the presence of demons, requiring him to set it up himself.

The number and level of demons and BOSSes to be placed, along with their distribution, would be determined by the one hundred units of high-grade military supplies.

Building an instance could be both simple and incredibly challenging.

Simply opening an instance was not difficult; one only needed to follow the guide to build it.

However, such an instance was surely a loss-making endeavor.

If one were to construct an instance within a fortress, it could not be one that operated at a loss, so thoughtful construction was necessary.

Maintaining an instance didn’t require extra supplies, but the Gold Coins, equipment, or materials that players obtained from running the instance did need to consume certain supplies stored within it; the equipment and materials dropped in the instance were conversions from these supplies.

Players in an instance would inevitably gain something besides depleting their own potions, so the owner of the fortress that created the instance would be operating at a loss.

Given the effort put into creating an instance by the fortress owner, they obviously couldn’t afford to take a loss continuously.

Since an instance couldn’t be directly profitable, profits had to be made elsewhere, such as through the sale of potions, equipment repairs, and particularly the repair costs for gear damage incurred by player deaths within the instance—these were the major sources of income.