Ark’s breath felt clogged as he heard screams from everywhere. Of course, only a few lizards had broken in so the magicians and archers could take care of them. But the warriors were tied up with the lizards so the magicians and archers received quite a lot of damage.
‘Yet it isn’t possible to let the magicians and archers retreat.’
If the magicians and archers retreated then the warriors would be left isolated with the lizards. The 100 soldiers would be surrounded by the lizards without any support. In that situation, the warriors would be wiped out within a few minutes. Wiped out!
“Damn, if only I had more troops…..”
Ark muttered while biting his lips. In fact, Ark had known about the weak point when he made the warriors crouch down and form a defensive stance. When crouching, the switch between defense and offense was slow and there was a high chance of intrusion if the enemy was willing to take damage. However, no enemy had ever broken through until now. When facing hundreds of large monsters, if wasn’t difficult to drive them off. But the defense formation he used now wasn’t complete. The original formation Ark used was double the size with two layers. The warriors in front would prepare for a charge. And he arranged another unit of warriors 1 metre behind to defend against any intruding enemies. But the current defense formation only had one layer. Despite knowing the risks, he was forced to use it because of insufficient troops. Currently Dark Eden only had 300 people.
“In this state where the troops aren’t replenished, isn’t it impossible to capture the dungeon to the end?”
A frustrated sigh emerged from Ark’s mouth. In this desperate situation, he recalled the hardships experienced over the past few days.
——————————————————————————————————-
“Kuaaaa!”
A huge monster yanked its hair and screamed painfully. With a dark aura wrapped around numerous dead bodies like a veil, the one holding the wand commanding them was the dark conjurer ‘Surka.’ He was a middle ranked level 650 boss who they met on the 50th floor of the secret dungeon. Just like the alias Dark Conjurer, Surka was a powerful middle ranked boss who could conjure hundreds of undead as his subordinates using dark magic.
“But……”
Ark smiled and muttered. It had been 10 days since Ark started the dungeon. The number of monsters Dark Eden killed to get him numbered in the hundred thousand. All those monsters were experience for Dark Eden. It wasn’t simply just raising their level. Of course, raising level was good but the even more important thing was gaining experience fighting against monsters. This was known as ‘combat experience.’…..Put simply, Ark’s dungeon invasion during the last 10 days could be classified as ‘insanity.’
An average of 4 hours sleep. Ark invested the remaining time into attacking the dungeon. He didn’t just invest simply into capturing the dungeon, he invested ‘terribly.’ Normally after an intense battle, most players would take a few hours break. Even if they were just lying down in the unit, a battle lasting several hours required high levels of concentration. But that common sense didn’t apply to Ark.
“All of the enemies have been finished.”
“Really? Then let’s move to the next place right away!”
“Huh? Didn’t the battle just end?”
“So what? Hasn’t your health and mana already recovered?”
“That is true however……”
“Then why do you want to rest?”
Ark couldn’t understand the users who wanted a break. In the secret dungeon, experience and loot were swarming everywhere. Since they troops travelled in a large crowd, the health and mana consumption wasn’t large. In other words, there was a chance of gaining serious experience around the clock without any breaks. Honestly, even the time Ark took to sleep was valuable.
“There are no limits on your stamina. Stop talking and move! Go, go!”
“It isn’t our stamina but our hunger…..”
The users of Dark Eden muttered as Ark spouted some words from an 80’s movie. When the atmosphere became like this, the rehabilitation members instantly interrupted.
“Yes, it’s not like the monsters are running away.”
“Well, we’re not trying to be difficult.”
“Their talk is becoming concerning.”
The rehabilitation members had already experienced hunting with Ark so they were already prepared to die before entering the secret dungeon. But they were finally couldn’t endure suffering so much under a younger brother. Now that the users were expressing their dissatisfaction, they used that chance to try and convince Ark.
“Why would you want to rest when you can raise your level? You can rest anytime but this is a big chance to gain a lot of levels! If other people hunt then you’re hunting and if other people are resting then you’re hunting. This is the secret to gaining more levels than other people! Isn’t it like that?”
“No, what we’re saying is……”
The rehabilitation members sighed and opened their mouths again.
“That is correct! These days people don’t have any guts. Complaining after only hunting a few days…..how can you defend the territory like this? Raise your spirits and become stronger. Advance, advance!”
The person speaking was none other than Isyuram. As part of Isyuram’s police duties, there were many days without sleep due to undercover investigations, stake outs or emergency standby. So Ark’s reckless hunting was no problem for Isyuram. Besides, it was the first time he could hunt like normal users so he found it quite interesting.
“Damn, are they even humans?”
But the rehabilitation members didn’t know Isyuram’s true identity so they didn’t know why he was a monster like Ark. Anyway, Dark Eden continued hunting thanks to Isyuram’s enthusiastic support. There was another reason for Ark’s quick hunting speed. There was a deeper idea….
‘Capturing the secret dungeon isn’t just to raise Dark Eden’s level. It is more important to ensure that Dark Eden gains battle experience.’
Even if Dark Eden was an attack corps, the troops were used to playing alone. During the siege, they still hadn’t been used to fighting in their units. They were able to win the siege thanks to Ark’s strategy but their organization ability couldn’t be compared to the Hermes alliance. So it was imperative to raise Dark Eden’s ability to fight in units before the next siege. In order to increase that, comradery was necessary.
‘The monsters in the secret dungeon are elite creatures. But remembering battle tricks is different from fighting in an organized group. So their comradery needs to increase. That is the decisive difference between the Hermes alliance and Dark Eden.’
The Hermes alliance had been created for two years. While there was a sense of solidarity from winning the siege, it wouldn’t be enough against an establish guild alliance. If the alliances fighting were at a similar level, this would be the difference between victory and defeat. While the commander could give instructions to the units, it wasn’t possible to direct each soldier’s movements on the battlefield. So it was important for soldiers to move together on the field. Thanks to Ark’s relationship with his summons, he knew how important a sense of solidarity was on a battle. When Ark was executing an operation with his summons, the success rate was completely different when there was a sense of solidarity compared to when there wasn’t. Ark had managed to instil an ‘All for one, one for all’ mentality in his summons.
‘If I use conventional methods then it will be impossible to instil the same sense of comradery as the other guild alliances in just one month. But with this method it is possible.’
After experiencing difficulties in a place like this, their comradery would become strong! In fact, the person who tipped him off to this approach was his passionate supporter Isyuram. The secret to developing solidarity was a method used in the army. Only a person who experienced it would understand. But that method often formed a closer relationship with someone in a month than with a person you’ve worked with for one year.
It was a sense of pride for overcoming difficult times together.
That was the reason Ark used an extreme situation to push the Dark Eden users. After overcoming difficulties together, the sense of accomplishment would change to solidarity between allies. So the soldiers came together just like a real battlefield.
However, Ark’s plan was a success in a slightly different way.
“Damn, I’ll never hunt with the leader again.”
“Quickly escape from the dungeon so we can leave the leader’s grasp!”
The soldiers of Dark Eden were all united in that goal. Everyone united to escape from Ark quickly…..Anyway, one everyone united in one idea the soldiers immediately changed.
“Huck! D-dangerous!”
“Avoid it, ugh!”
A magician was hit by the sword of an undead and collapsed. The magician next to him killed the undead instead. It didn’t matter if the undead had 100% health, it couldn’t stand up to the organized attack from the magicians. It was because the intentions between colleagues had become mutual. Thanks to that, Dark Eden’s organizational abilities in a group became solidified with every day that passed. And they managed to advance to the 50th floor quicker than expected. The boss monster Surka which appeared on the 50th floor was even stronger than the previous bosses that they had met. But thanks to the rise in organizational ability and strategy execution, this boss felt like an easier opponent for Dark Eden.
No, to be exact the troops had found the previous bosses harder. Thanks to the rise in solidarity, the level 650 middle ranked boss wasn’t an even opponent for Dark Eden anymore. While Surka summoned many undead and used various curse spells, his health reached rock bottom after 20 minutes of being surrounded by Dark Eden.
“Kuaaaa!”
Surka’