His heart was once again satisfied as he looked at his familiars playing an active part. Meanwhile, the enemy who was concentrating on maintaining their attacks became even more violent. Now high ground was the most strategic place to attack the barrier. The most important thing to the alliance was to attack the barrier. And the most important thing to Ark was that the raccoons repair the gate. Therefore the Hermes alliance concentrated their attacks on the raccoons and the barrier. No matter how much Ark and the 800 members of the defense unit tried to protect them, the raccoons had their health slowly drain away.
‘But these attacks are like fighting against the ocean!’
Ark watched the raccoons’ health using Eyes of the Cat and shouted.
“Great Sacrifice!”
His bag automatically opened and 50 potions rose into the sky. The potions formed into a huge jar before scattering around the battlefield.
‘Ahhhhh, my 1,400 gold…..!’
Ark shed tears like a waterfall as he looked at the scattering potions and all the money that was gone. Despite wasting money, the result was good. All the raccoons repairing the gates and the soldiers protecting them had their health increase.
-An intermediate recovery effect from the 50 intermediate recovery potions is applied to all allies within 100 metres.
It was the special power of Nursing, Great Sacrifice. In fact, Ark had purchased potions and distributed it to the soldiers. Drinking an intermediate recover potion would heal 500 health. But when he used Great Sacrifice, all allies within a 100 metre area would recover 600~800 health. So Ark had purchased and separated them inside Radun in groups of 50 or 100 in case of emergencies which required Great Sacrifice. It also had the effect of stopping the warriors from overusing their recovery potions.
“U-unbelievable…..!”
The Hermes alliance members muttered as they saw Dark Eden’s health recover. The battle had already lasted for 1 hour so most of the high priority priests were already dead. Now health couldn’t be expected to recover any more and they would have to survive with their remaining health. But after seeing the troops in front of the gates recovering in such a way, the alliance members felt their motivation decrease.
“This is the chance to win the battle on the castle grounds.
Ark smiled as he looked around the surroundings. In fact, Ark had predicted that the battle would go like this. Dark Eden had a lot of troops thanks to the mackerel pieces strategy but Ark’s main priority was to protect the barrier. Therefore he had left the 500 members of the defense unit at the gate to protect the raccoons and the barrier. In the end, there was only a 200 difference between the numbers of Dark Eden and the Hermes alliance. Furthermore, the hastily put together Dark Eden had less experience than the Hermes members. It wasn’t a favourable situation. But in the actual battle, Dark Eden had one-sidedly pushed the Hermes alliance. The reason Ark placed the defense unit at the barrier was because the Hermes alliance would also concentrate their attacks on the barrier. And the second reason was that Dark Eden’s weapons and defense was stronger.
“What? Why are level 250 users so strong?”
The Hermes members were confused after colliding with Dark Eden. It was natural. In fact, the weapons and equipment Dark Eden were using was the cursed japtem from Seutandal. After absorbing the demonic energy, the cursed japtem was 2~3 times stronger. There was the penalty of having low durability but that didn’t matter in the short term. So Ark gave all the soldiers who participated in the battle on castle grounds the cursed japtem. Thus Dark Eden could dominate the battle early on.
‘Moreover, there are two people who have a large effect.’
One person was Shambala who was capturing the walls with the Eastern Nation. The other one was Isyuram.
‘Teacher playing such a huge part is completely unexpected.’
Ark looked away from Shambala towards Isyuram. In fact, Ark hadn’t expected Isyuram to play a huge role. In reality, Isyuram was a strong man in Korea’s police force. But in the game he was just a merchant. He might’ve changed professions but he was still a merchant. A merchant participating in battle would die straight away. However, Isyuram displayed just as much combat power as Ark and Shambala when the battle began. The reason for that were 2 skills that he received when he changed professions.
-Stat? Buy it with money! (Beginner, Passive, Profession exclusive skill): A skill of Kuronil’s which gives a merchant the abilities of a warrior.
When the merchant who has this skill pays a certain amount of money to the ‘Brave Gold Pig’, an artifact of a Battle Merchant then they can switch one stat for another one for 1 hour. The amount of stats that can be converted depends on the amount of gold paid. However, the stat conversion can exceed 80%.
As a merchant, most of Isyuram’s stats were concentrated on intelligence, wisdom and luck. Even if he changed to a dual profession, it was meaningless if his stats were the same. Stat? Buy it with money! was a skill to fix that weak point. When the battle began, Isyuram had used hundreds of gold to convert his intelligence, wisdom and luck to strength, stamina and agility. WELL, even if he switched stats then it was still equivalent to a warrior’s stats. No even if he used hundreds of gold and switched 80% of his stats, it was still less than a warrior’s. That was the limitation of having a dual profession. But that increase in stats made all the difference to Isyuram. When just comparing combat ability, his was obviously superior to everybody participating in the siege.
‘If the stats are at a similar level than almost no users can match Teacher.’
However, not even Ark realized that Isyuram had another skill which had a significant impact.
-Can’t live with a loss! (Beginner, Passive, Profession exclusive skill): A skill born from a merchant’s spirit which cannot stand the loss of money.
When a user under the effect of ‘Can’t live with a loss’ is attacked by an enemy, there is a 50% chance to absorb the damage and reflect 10% of the shock back to the enemy.
The skill ‘Can’t live with a loss!’ was created to help merchants in battle. It wouldn’t show a big effect for other users.
‘50% chance to reflect 10% of the damage is a pretty decent skill.’
Ark thought as he confirmed the skill information. However, there were secrets that even Ark was unware of hidden in this skill.
“Ugh, what the, what is this? Aaaagh!”
A user who attacked Isyuram suddenly clutched his chest and screamed. The reason for that was ‘Can’t live with a loss! It was a skill where the user received some of the shock back. Despite reading the information window, ‘Can’t live with a loss!’ wasn’t simple a skill which reflected damage. The pain which Isyuram felt when he was hit was reflected back to the enemy. The problem was that Isyuram felt 100% of the pain. In other words, Isyuram would really feel the pain if he was cut by a sword. Isyuram only reflected back 10% of the pain so it was 1/10th what he felt. But this was a game so the users who experienced pain for the first time screamed and rolled across the ground. Then they became too terrified to attack again.
“What the, this guy?”
But Ark was unware of Isyuram’s settings so he couldn’t understand the reaction of the users. Anyway, thanks to Stat? Buy it with money!’ and ‘Can’t live with a loss!’ Isyuram was able to go deep into enemy lines without really being bothered. So Isyuram and Shambala pierced through and scattered the enemy lines.
-Ark, we’ve occupied the Defense Towers. The rest is up to you. Make sure you finish it cleanly.
Suddenly Bread’s voice flowed into Ark’s ear.
“That’s it. I’ve finally grasped the 2 Defense Towers!”
Ark was now sure of his victory in the siege.
‘The hardest part is over. With the Defense Towers in my hand, Gwen will never be able to smash the barrier in the remaining time. Now I just have to finish the last part of the mackerel strategy.’
That’s right. The mackerel pieces strategy couldn’t be completed if the Defense Towers were still occupied by the Hermes guild. No matter how much the raccoons repaired the barrier, it wouldn’t last for several hours if the Defense Towers were destroyed. Of course, if it received a concentrated attack then it couldn’t endure for a long time even with the protection of the Defense Towers.
‘But after overpowering the troops on the castle grounds, the barrier will be able to withstand Gwen’s attack for 3 hours.’
That’s right. It hadn’t been necessary to use 18 hours for the tunnel strategy. But this was the reason why he only started the strategy after 18 hours despite his troops taking damage. The siege finished after 24 hours. Even if he managed to capture the throne, if Gwen’s troops pierced through the barrier before the siege ended and attacked the weakened Dark Eden then the result would be unpredictable. However, now there were only 2 and a half hours remaining. With the Defense Towers controlled, Gwen wouldn’t be able to enter the castle before the siege ended He didn’t have to worry about that anymore and could concentrate on capturing the castle.
“The Defense Towers are now controlled by us! Annihilate all of them!”
“Waaahhhhhhhh!”
The spirited Dark Eden shouted and rushed towards the Hermes alliance. After a while, Dark Eden finally controlled the castle grounds and occupied the walls.
“The enemy has been completely destroyed!”
“770 people have been killed!”
1,400 alliance members dying compared to 770 Dark Eden members was quite good. This meant he had 770 troops remaining. When added to the troops keeping an eye on the castle, it wa