Chapter 19 Massacre!
Dave had to wait for the next expedition for him to leave the place. He began inspecting his platoon members. Most of them were rotten and they all looked for the lack of a better word. Dumb.
"Sigh, what am I going to do with the bunch of you…" said Dave to his small group.
He still felt proud though, this was his unit, something he will treasure, something that will help him in reaching a higher goal so he decided to make the best use of them.
Platoon number 22225 has been summoned to defend against an invading force.
As a leader of the platoon, it is your duty to serve the king in protecting his land.
March forward with your force and block the invaders from reaching their goals.
100 contribution points once successful. For each Soldier's death under your command, you will lose 10 contribution points.
Every enemy that dies under your command will grant you 10 contribution point.
every enemy that falls under the hand of your followers will grant you 5 contribution points.
You may gain more contribution points based on meritorious deeds, and depending on your handling of various situations.
You may refuse the mission, but you must pay 100 contribution points
once you are in a deficit you will be stripped out of your rank.
will you accept your mission?
Y/N?
Dave read carefully the notification, unlike when he was just a regular soldier. The information window this time was exhaustive, it gave him a clear goal and reward. While also showcasing the risks. If he were to refuse or have his forces defeated he will probably lose a lot. If he gets wiped out, he will be forced out of this place, and the only available mean for securing his future would be lost to him.
Dave began weighing his options. In these times, people would need to sit down and think carefully about what to do. Dave didn't have the luxury to sit down as the quest was hanging before him.
The first thing that came to his mind was the AI's quest design. The last mission he was sent on was really difficult, thankfully Dave was able to survive by playing the distraction card. However, if he was to rely on that plan again and again. One day someone will come prepared. The undead's new behavior must have alarmed people, when did anyone see an undead turning tail and running from a fight? Undeads are supposed to be dumb in nature. Well, at least the low-level ones. Dave, however, managed to force them out of their instinctual habits and led them to do things they would normally not do. So he needed to make sure to have a backup plan once people become aware of the 'unique' running undead.
This, however, was put on hold. For the moment people don't know of Dave's existence. And he didn't make it apparent.
The second point is, what if on the off chances Dave gets sent to a high-level area? If he was to face against let's say, people of level 300+, his entire platoon will be wiped out in a matter of seconds.
Forget about running, if he manages to escape under the hunt of a level 300 player that would be an achievement in itself.
Dave, however, didn't have the luxury of choice, he had to initiate missions with strange odds, he has yet to understand the principle behind these missions. Though he was sent two times to low-level areas where he defeated the same party twice. The third time threw him off course. Indeed it was a strange event, but one day if he was to blindly accept those events he might end up dead. And that was something that Dave didn't wish for.
And the last point. Dave's level. He was too low level and it was pathetic! He needed to increase his level first, if he levels up his rank high up, he might be forced to lead a huge party of undead to face against much stronger foes, and with his low level, the Leadership aura will be useless.
The leadership aura grants all undead under the leader the ability to attack people without the level disparity penalty. And due to Dave's level being a measly 27. Fighting against a level 80 even with all his ten undead would be nothing short of a mass suicide.
"Sigh, this is getting problematic…" thought Dave.
Indeed, he had a good advantage over several players due to his high-end equipment, but this will only serve him in his low-level period. Once he grows out of his shell, he will need better equipment to balance the low level.
He could use contribution points to get more equipment, but that would hold off his leveling up speed.
However, once Dave thought about it it sounded rather plausible. Dave was in no hurry to level up. Though he could face high-level players, it would still be useless even if he was of similar level, mainly due to his lack of proper equipment. And as Dave remembered the shop owner, he consolidated the idea of gaining basic strength over leveling up.
The first thing Dave needed was a class! And now without the ability to complete his Paladin questline, he was stuck without a class. he couldn't leave the world of the dead to get to the church, and he sure as hell didn't want to impose on the church while looking like an undead.
How would the priest answer to him?
"Ah, yes Mr. undead you want to be a paladin? How about no?" and then a {divine punishement} ray would follow rendring Dave to bone dust.
"Sigh, too many new things are making this journey rather difficult.
Being a pioneer is not always advantageous, one needs to tread carefully and weigh all options." Though Dave.
The screen still flickered before him as it was not going to disappear without Dave making a choice. It was like a ticking at the back of his mind that urged him to choose. Fight or flight…
Dave couldn't do anything, he already wasted a lot of contribution points, and with his 80 contributions remaining, if he was to refuse he would go in deficit, which will strip his rank.
That was something that Dave didn't wish for. As it might even be considered as failing the Main Questline.
For the moment Dave had two quests. The first and most important one was the Main questline, which needed him to defeat the Undead King.
The second quest was the inheritance quest which will only be unlocked for Dave after achieving some hidden requirements. Dave already made research on inheritance quests and understood that even with an inheritance piece, one needs to accomplish several quests to unlock the full potential of the inheritance item.
The god of war's item, for example, was a giant glaive. It also had five seals on it. and the player that owned the item needed to defeat several strong bosses to fully unlock its potential. The last seal is the hardest, yet unlocking it unlocked the best skill in the game. Transformation.
Once a player transforms they will gain abilities related to their Inheritance item. And they are all powerful. However, the transformation has a time limit of usage. It can only be used for 2 hours and will have a cooldown period of 72 hours of game time.
However, just those two hours were enough for several guilds to defeat mighty bosses and clear impossible dungeons.
Dave didn't wish to lose on either one of those quests. So he made sure to try his best to accomplish both.
Dave pressed the accept and was teleported yet again to the same graveyard.
This time it was not the same party of four, but it was another group of adventurers that were moving around the graveyard.
They were not facing any skeletons but were alerted at the sudden appearance of the new group of monsters.
"Alright guys, let me tank for you, you can back up and heal me from behind, these dumb skeletons should be easy to defeat. But I never thought that they would have mixed species" Said the guy who was supposed to be the tanker of the party.
indeed, normally all the types of undead that the adventures would meet were either, full skeletons, full casters, full archers or full Ghouls. This was the basic group but this one was different, it was a chosen group of Dave.
Unlike the tanker from the last party, this one was even worse equipped. He had a rusty looking shield and a one-handed sword that was no different from Dave's main weapon.
The others behind him, however, were slightly better dressed, there were two priests dressed in casual white. and a swordmaster who wielded a long two-handed sword.
This was a typical DPS party, one tank, one DPS and two healers. This was based on the holy trinity of all MMORPG games, however, two healers were too much, they probably went with this just to make the journey smoother.
"Alright," said the sword master "Get a good hold of aggro, I will try not to OT, And you guys should spread back and heal us if we are damaged." said the sword master addressing the two priests who were, by the way, two young ladies of similar looks. They were not that good looking but not that ugly they were plain, like the face of someone you will see on the street and forget about him the moment you pass him by.
This was what Dave thought about this mission, they were just passerby.
Dave didn't make it hard on them too. He used three of his ghouls to attack at first and engage on the Tank, then moved the archers to the left side of the party. And the casters to the other side.
This strange phenomenon caught the party of adventures off guard. Not only was this group of skeletons differently assembled, it could even organize itself and make strategic positioning?
At first, they didn't think much of it, but the moment the fight broke. The aggro was all over the place!
How could the tank keep hold of the aggro? The archers and skeleton casters were outside his range but at the same time were positioned in a way that they could attack the priests! The ghouls didn't let the tank move an inch back as they surrounded him, and the moment the swordmaster tried to rid the Tank from the leeching ghouls, Dave came before him and with a glint in his eyes
[-260]
[-12]
"What the fuck!" cried out the Swordmaster. He couldn't believe that he dealt such measly damage to the strangely bearded skeleton. However, in retrospect, he received a huge amount of damage! It was twice as high as a normal elite skeleton would deal.
"Damn!" cried out the Swordmaster as he cast a skill
"{Slice and Dice}"
[-0]
[-0]
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[-0]
Dave was dumbfounded at the idiocy of this guy. {Slice and dice} was a skill of a swordmaster that would land 50% weapon damage over 4 consecutive strikes in every tick in the span of the same time it would take to land a single attack it was a fast and flashy but it was really a bad move to use against Dave! This normally would deal twice the damage of a normal attack, but every tick of the damage needed to go through Dave's defense separately…
If his normal attack dealt 12 damage. 50% wouldn't deal even a single digit of damage! [1]
Dave didn't bother with him as he kept him distracted while he kept landing heavy attacks on him, and even used destructive smash. Whenever Dave found the chance he would use this skill, he really liked how it would go on lower and lower cooldown whenever it was upgraded. It could even one day exceed his weapon damage.
"What the hell are you guys doing! Heal me!" cried out the sword master, but once he turned around he saw that the priests were struggling to fight against the archer class and casters that were bombarding them from behind. They couldn't even heal themselves, and he wants them to heal him? He sure has wishful thinking.
The idea behind this tactic was rather simple for Dave. Although he can't control the Threat level of his enemies, and can only affect the decision of his undead in one single fashion when they were fighting. He could order them to retreat even if their enemies had locked on them. However, for the moment, they were far dispersed from each other. The tank couldn't leech them. And the healers couldn't support the party.
In a matter of seconds, the first victim fell.
One of your followers has successfully slain an enemy.
+5 contribution points.
One of your followers has successfully slain an enemy.
+5 contribution points.
It was one of the priests.
Then another followed.
This was the second priest, and the party lost one of its most important figures. The archers and casters turned their eyes on the remaining two and they rained death from above.
You have slain one of the invading members.
+10 contribution points.
This one was the distraught Swordmaster.
And lastly, it was the turn of the tank that received the final strike from one of the Ghouls.
at one point in time, one of the Ghouls was about to die. But Dave instantly willed it to back away from the fight and made one with a relatively higher Hp to take over his position.
One of your followers has successfully slain an enemy.
+5 contribution points.
You have successfully defeated all of your enemies.
No one under your command has died!
You have landed a killing blow on one invader.
your subordinates had killed three invaders.
+125 contribution points
With this Dave was satisfied, now he could try and buy that potion and he could know how much EXP it would give him. If it was enough to satiate his need for leveling up, then he could relax. If not, then he would have to ask Alfred to come down and explain more about this problematic aspect of the quest.
Yet a strange notification appeared before Dave.
Platoon 22225 had successfully cleared the invading members
You may remain here for further instructions or to obstruct other invaders.
defeating other invaders would grant bonus contribution points as this is an off mission.
do you wish to remain here waiting for further instructions?
Y/N?
Dave was met with a dilemma. Should he wait and try to get more contribution points? Or should he head back and wait for the system to send him back to another location?
The first option was rather tempting for Dave, as he was in desperate need of contribution points. And with the skill of his handling of the undead that he just showed, he was a bit confident in defeating most of the parties of the same level of these guys. However, there was a hidden threat in that message. This would mean that he would have to remain in this place. Unlike when he is sent from the world of the dead to a random place, he would typically be sent to a location with low leveled enemies of his rank. What if a high-level player was to show up here? Wouldn't that spell doom for Dave? Though the chance was low… it was not impossible.
Wait and get more bonus points? Or go back and wait until he is deployed once more? Dave had to choose…