novelraw Chapter 159: Mercenary Contract
Chapter 159: Mercenary Contract
On the trees, on the boulders, and even in the sky. Zyrus was surrounded by praying mantises from all sides.
It’s a good match.’
The two-meter-long mantises were the bane of physical classes. He didn’t need to take a second glance at their razor-sharp blades or taut limbs. He was certain that the moment they made their move, he would bleed.
Whether he killed a dozen or a hundred wouldn’t matter. He would lose as long as he took even a single hit with every encounter.
‘Paper-like defense with high attack power and agility.’
The textbook example of Glass-Cannon battelestyle. The bugs he had faced thus far were just overgrown critters. But now, things were different.
A directionalized evolution of the praying mantis that increased their size comparable to a humanoid creature; also improving their agility and sharp limbs. And unlike the bugs they had the semblance of a command structure.
‘They’re like an assassin squad.’
*Kriikriikri*
“A clever tactic, but there’s a misunderstanding. I’m not a spearman.”
Zyrus spoke to the forest without sparing a glance at the mantises attacking him. From the moment when his mana field was interrupted to the current siege-type attack, barely a few seconds had passed.
He was sure that someone was behind this attack. They should be the field boss equivalent of this area.
“I need less than 10 seconds to deal with them, you see.”
*Shatter*
Even before his words ended, dozens of portals appeared all around him. The space here was more stable than the sanctuary, and the same was true for the laws. Thus, he could only summon about 500 of his troops.
Zyrus channeled all his mana into the twilight crusher. Rank D was insufficient to make him use all his strength. Just his regular skills and Balaur summoner class was enough to steamroll the entire area. The sole reason he chose this difficulty was to get acquainted with the new system.
‘Looks like I can only go all out on the Sector B.’
*ROOOOAR*
*Kihihihi*
*Thump*Thump*Thump*
More and more mantises and turtle-shaped beetles charged towards his abyssal legion. The one commanding them had revealed itself as well.
It was a giant spider taller than a three-story building. Zyrus had no plans to tangle with it. Why? Because he didn’t have any skill or talent that was specifically targeted at mid-tier opponents.
Buffs, debuffs, recovery, domain type abilities…he had everything covered. His summons were in charge of area control while he himself would deal with single targets, aka the commander-type monsters.
The point here was that be it his summons’ aoe capabilities or his own single target attacks, both were too strong for any middle-level opponents.
[Vector Fall]
“Eee---”
The spider died with a half-finished shriek as a descending goedendag shattered its skull. The skill wasn’t meant to be used like that, but did that matter with an epic ranked weapon?
*Crrrackkk*
With the death of the spider the remaining monsters lost their will to fight and fled the area. Zyrus retrieved his spear and looked for some loot. Well, he tried to.
A brilliant flash erupted from the dungeon and he was teleported once again. So, there he was. Pointing his weapon at the knight sitting behind a desk. It was like a repeat of the last encounter; except that this time his Goedendag was dripping with sticky green blood.
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*Spalt*
“How about giving a message before teleporting me?”
“The sectors are just our classification for a particular area. If soldiers make commotion like you did or if they were unfortunate, there’s a good chance other stronger enemies would notice them. It’s advised to do as instructed and make a swift retreat.” The knight ignored the blood on the desk and gave two parchments to Zyrus. Then, as if they remembered something, they gave him another golden parchment.
“Appreciate the advice.”
“…”
Zyrus left the office without exchanging another word. The randomness of teleportation and the knight’s advice made sense. It was a good reminder to not treat the Streit bastion like the sanctuary. There wasn’t anything that restricted him, but at the same time, there was nothing protecting him from enemies way above his league.
He sat down in the gray tunnel and opened the parchments one by one.
Sector D – Dungeon M98
Mission Assigned by: Knight of The Crimson Sun
Mission Taken by: Zyrus Wymar
Progress: Complete
Duration: < 4 hours
Clearing grade: EX
Rewards: Soldier’s badge, access to Inheritance Hall
The parchment turned into particles and in its place appeared a brown badge. On the front of the badge was a miniature image of five dungeon pathways while on the back was his name.
‘I suppose military points or other similar things would be added later on.’
Zyrus was sure from the name inheritance hall that there would be something of the sorts. It was afterall a great way to motivate soldiers.
He opened the second parchment which issued him another mission. There was no difference except the increased threat level and a different area name. What caught his eye was the additional note at the end.
Zyrus was glad to know that he could go back anytime he wished. Of course, he had no intentions to do that now. He opened the third parchment and a black screen with golden runes appeared before his eyes.
||x|| Mercenary Contract ||x||
Issued by: Streit Council
Assigned to: Zyrus Wymar
Duration: To be determined based on performance
Rewards: Ownership of all collectable materials on the cleared area. The rest would follow as per norms.
‘This is more like it.’
Zyrus’s eyes lit up as he read the runes. Why would Matope send him to kill a bunch of mobs? This was likely to be their true goal. He was certain that only after reaching higher ranks would he gain the qualifications to know the whole truth.
‘Still, jumping three ranks in a few hours is great.’
Private, Lieutenant, Captain, Major, Commander, and Marshal. He was already an unofficial captain who had all the benefits except recruiting others. It wasn’t a disadvantage either since Zyrus knew that even the crown holders under him didn’t qualify to fight in Sector B. As for strangers, he had too many secrets and not enough strength to match them.
Primary reason behind his confidence was still his talent. It would help him adapt to any environment including places with higher levels of laws.
‘I’ll go there first to get the hang of it, and then go back to the sanctuary to clear the second zone,’
As for the ‘Clearance level C’ and ‘Captain’ rank’s benefits, he didn’t plan to collect them anytime soon. The stinginess of the Streit Council was apparent from the pages of terms and conditions attached to the contract. It would be a pity if he used his limited resources on something he didn’t need.
‘It’s better if I choose the rewards after figuring out the exact circumstances,’
Zyrus also planned to stay here for a couple of years. He had already told Ria and the others everything they needed to know. The second zone of the Pisces archipelago was larger than the other two combined, so it would take a long time for players to build the bases on all of the islands.
There weren’t any field bosses except for the last island, so he had nothing to worry about. All the players had to do was gather resources to build altars and conquer the islands.
‘And once I’m done with this contract, I'll finish the flag march in one go.’
Zyrus exited the D ranked tunnel and walked towards another one which was glowing blue. The main difference compared to before was that this time, he could choose the teleportation area.
Now, he had to choose a dungeon. There was a huge hologram that showed thousands of locations in front of him. There was also the neat function of filtering and sorting different parameters of the area.
Lakes, forests, oceans, mountains…every type of terrain was available. There was a brief overview on threat level and required numbers for clearance as well.
But both of them were useless for Zyrus who was working alone.
Thus, he filtered the area based on the terrain and environment. Knowing that some of Sector B and Sector A’s areas were connected, he sorted them out based on the proximity and resources available. He didn’t want to be squished by a passing enemy afterall.
‘Hmm…still more than 50 are left,’
It was hard to gauge how big the battlefield was. Zyrus added one more condition where there were collectable resources.
‘This narrows it down.’
Only five areas were left that matched his criteria. One among them caught his eyes since unlike others, this one was unexplored.
Sector B – Dungeon K49 (Plains of Ilios)