Walking out of the Teleportation Hub, John noticed the exit led him into the main square. Sure, it was shaped like a perfect circle, but hey… who was he to complain about the naming conventions.
Anyway, he chuckled and looked around.
The challenge board used to be near the Desperate Fool’s inn, and its large wooden structure should be easily spotted amongst the sea of gray houses.
Over there, his eyes fell on the dark building.
Crossing the square, he paid no mind to the Aerilian squads marching toward its center. To his surprise, there were also a couple of human parties moving around without worry, and he was tempted to stop by. However, he didn’t see any familiar faces, so he decided to head directly to the board.
There were maybe two dozen people standing around when he arrived, and everyone was calmly waiting their turn under the watchful eye of an Aerilian lady wearing a gray robe. She was keeping order and making sure no one tried to push ahead.
“Hey,” he nodded at one of the Aerilian scouts near him. “How does the queue work?”
“Hello,” the woman offered a polite smile. “It is simple. Remain near until Elera’lu calls your name.”
“My name?” He asked, wondering how she would know what his name was.
“She has an Epic social identification card, so unless you have exceedingly strong anti-social protection, she will know,” she gave him a wink and turned back to her friend.
John listened to their conversation, but it was about their past excursion outside the Sector, and he quickly lost interest.
Luckily, the queue moved quickly and after a few minutes John heard a sharp voice calling out his name.
Coming closer, she continued speaking the other phrase once again.
“Please bear in mind that others are waiting behind you, so make your decision with haste, pick your challenge card, and vacate the area,” her voice droned out the message that she likely repeated dozens of times every hour.
[Welcome to the Challenge board!
You may have only one challenge active, but be aware that some require payment upfront to be taken or prevent all drops from the targeted opponents until successfully completed or failed.
The rewards are paid immediately upon completion.
* Crushing the brains
* Breaking the skulls
* Wiping out the packs
* Overcoming the legion
* Venturing outside
* Exterminating the invaders
* Purging the undead
More challenges will be added after the Challenge board is upgraded for the second time.
Daily challenges available: 2/2]
Noticing the addition of a new challenge, he pulled out its description.
[Purging the undead
Cost: 2 daily challenge tokens.
Extreme: Contribute to the kills of 2 500 Zombies, 100 Rothounds, 3 Rothound Alphas, 5 Rotfiends, 1 wandering Elite D-grade undead while delivering at least 300 killing blows.
Rewards: 200% more total ash from the targeted opponents.
Savage: Kill 2 500 Zombies, 100 Rothounds, 3 Rothound Alphas, 5 Rotfiends, 1 wandering Elite D-grade undead without any outside assistance.
Rewards: 300% more total ash from the targeted opponents.
Warning: Challenge begins the moment it is taken from the board and has a time limit until the end of the day cycle]
Huh… is that even worth it?
Doing a quick mental math, John realized that yes, it was. Despite its cost, the challenge was outperforming the gains from his last challenge, done twice by a large margin. And that was for the Extreme version. The Savage was even better.
The thing is, can I finish it in time?
“Please, finalize your selection,” the Aerilian lady urged him on. “Numerous squads were called upon and are waiting for the opportunity to select their challenges before they leave.”
“Uhh, sorry,” John selected the savage variant and walked to the side.
[Purging the undead
Zombie: 0/2 500
Rothound: 0/100
Rothound Alpha: 0/3
Rotfiend: 0/5
Wandering Elite: 0/1
Time limit: 16:53:20]
“John? Is that really you?” A deep voice came from his left.
Turning, he noticed a hulking figure in dark plate armor, standing next to three familiar faces.
“Marcus?” John asked, smiling and walking toward them.
“Damn, it is you,” Marcus greeted him with a firm handshake and a warm smile. “At first, I wasn’t sure it was you. You look… different… and dangerous.”
“Different… how? Oh, is it my pale skin?”
“Among other things,” Marcus chuckled, and then deeply sighed. “You know… I… No, we all owe you a big apology.”
“It’s fine,” John tried to wave it away, but Marcus shook his head.
“I mean it,” he continued, “we haven’t even realized how much you did for us until we moved into the Silverstar Enclave. It wasn’t until we began working together with the Aerilian parties that we understood how big of a danger we were in and how far you went to make sure not only us, but all humans can prosper here. They gave us a chance to prove our worth, and those who did are not only welcome here, but are also respected and supported like any other member of their species. Sure, there are some bad apples who aren’t happy with our situation, but aren’t we the same?”
“I am glad you are doing well,” John nodded.
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“Did you know that many of them talk about you like you are some kind of chosen one, a bogeyman, or an eldritch horror?” A woman with a round face and short-cropped sandy hair spoke out.
“Weeell,” John laughed out, “some things happened, and… Ehh, It’s better if you don’t worry about it.”
“It can’t be that bad, right?” She asked back, but was interrupted by a guy next to her.
“What they are trying to say is, they are giving us a chance. However, it is not all sunshine and roses. Those who speak against them are ignored, and anyone who insults one of the royals or tries to undermine their position is mercilessly dealt with.”
“The worst part is, most do not even realize that it isn’t us or them, but about who can help us survive against the truly monstrous factions,” nodded the last person of their group, a taller woman with a large bow slung over her back.
Grunting, Marcus looked at John, “Did you hear more about the factions invading other countries?”
“Hmm, I think I overheard mentions of some crusade, sentient undead race, and some hive mind, but I didn’t have time to pay much attention to it” John explained.
“Yeah, it’s not…”
“Marcus Blackwell,” a sharp voice of the Aerilian woman called out, interrupting their conversation.
“Sorry, we got to go. We accepted an urgent mission from His Highness,” Marcus apologized and gestured for his party members to walk to the challenge board. “It was nice seeing you, and I am glad you are holding up.”
“Likewise.”
Seems like Melis’ar is keeping his word. Perhaps we could…
Lost in thought, he walked toward the staging area at the center of the square, stopping near Duraq’er, who was overlooking the quickly-forming squads with sharp eyes.
“When are we heading out?” John asked.
“Soon,” he answered without moving his eyes from the Aerilians before them. “We released a Bastion-wide alert with a twenty-minute deadline, and it expires in eleven minutes.”
By now there were nine full squads and another seven with some members still missing. However, John also spotted three human groups standing to the left and realized that Marcus and his companions were probably also joining the expedition.
“It was Melis’ar’s idea,” Duraq’er supplied, following John’s gaze. “He believes having them with us will increase the odds of a peaceful resolution.”
“What about you?” John asked. “Do you agree?”
“Not my place,” Duraq’er refused to elaborate. “My task is to protect His Highness, nothing else.”
“Fair.”
Spending the rest of the time in silence, John spotted Marcus’s group of eight shortly before the end of the deadline.
“John, did you take the challenge?” Asked Dilah’ec, who just arrived, followed by Galan’il, Melis’ar, and the older Aerilian healer who fixed him up after his heart accident.
“Mhm.”
“Which one did you pick?” She asked with a mischievous smile. “The new one? Perhaps with the savage difficulty?”
“Ehh… yes? How did you know?”
She grinned and turned to Galan’il who groaned and passed her a yellow pile.
Did they just bet on which challenge I was going to pick?
“I take it you are not interested in joining us during the negotiations?” Melis’ar jumped into their conversation, already looking like he was expecting a negative reply.
“No, I am not,” John sighed. “I did my best… and it didn’t work out, so now I’ll leave it in more experienced hands.”
“Don’t beat yourself up about it,” Melis’ar waved off his concerns. “You not only secured the Sector, but also made sure none of your companions suffered heavy injuries. Besides, from what I’ve been told, your blunt,” he quoted the last word with his fingers, “diplomatic efforts would have been successful if not for unforeseen circumstances.”
“I… appreciate the praise, but…”
“I know,” Melis’ar chuckled, “just make sure you leave some undead to the rest of us.”
Duraq’er took that as a cue and ordered everyone into a formation and soon after, they marched into the Teleportation Hub and through the reactivated circular device.
“Good luck with the negotiations,” John nodded after they arrived in Weaver’s Nest. “I’ll be clearing the undead around the Bastion for the next couple of hours, so you can send someone if you need my help.”
He felt many eyes following him as he stepped out of the formation and jogged toward the gate. Climbing up a ladder to the top, he observed the area before him.
Hmm, the Bastion’s upgrade pushed all undead behind its walls, he noticed, looking at the dense crowd pressing against the walls.
Okay, let’s get to it.
Apart from his golden stiletto, the other minions were dismissed, so he spent a moment recalling them from their natural dimensions and then summoned his javelin.
Oh wait, there is someone else I keep forgetting about, he thought and poked his bond with a mental nudge.
“Hey girl, how are you doing?” He scratched a pale spot at the top of her head, after she fully manifested. “Want to stretch your muscles and tear into some undead?”
A ripple rolled over her body as she crouched down and jumped over the railing and into the zombies down below.
“What are you…” John shouted in alarm, watching her sail over the railing and down the twenty-feet-tall wall. She fell on top of the zombies and began tearing into them like a whirlwind of teeth and claws. The zombie’s sharp-nailed hands broke on the midnight scales, and she showed that she was perfectly able to handle the crowd on her own.
That, however, did not mean he would only cheer her from the top. Commanding all four of his minions to engage, he looked into the distance and picked a pack of Rothounds that was running perpendicular to the wall, roughly two hundred feet away.
His earlier practice paid off, and the javelin struck a leading Rothound dead center, burying halfway in and turning its run into an ugly tumble.
Leaving the weapon stuck inside for maximum damage, John waited until the monster stopped rolling and only then used the recall, morphing its form into mist that quickly flew toward his outstretched palm.
Meanwhile, the pack was in a panic, sniffing around the place where their mate got hit. Unfortunately for them, by the time they realized that the attacker was too far away, another javelin was already barreling through the air.
After the second hound’s misfortune, the pack recognized the direction of the danger, but all their efforts to retaliate were in vain. Not only would they have to push through the zombies around the Bastion, but also somehow scale the upgraded walls. That was, obviously, impossible, and all of them died to John’s throws less than a two minutes later.
Five down, ninety-five to go.
Picking off Rothounds in range, he wiped three other packs before sounds of bare feet marching over hard ground made him turn around. The expedition members were finally moving out, so John offered them a cheeky salute from the top of the gate.
Oh, I should make sure no one mistakes Witherfang for a hostile monster.
Frowning, he leaned over the railing and observed the carnage below. The zombies were turning to ash on death, but there were fifteen Rothound corpses spread inside the sixty-feet radius of cleared ground. Witherfang was on the left side, plowing through the zombies like a bowling ball and leaving behind broken bodies with limbs bent on all the wrong angles.
Hearing the expedition reaching the gate, John shrugged and vaulted over the railing.
If she can do it, so can I, he thought and fell feet-first on the hard packed dirt outside.
It was an odd feeling. After two evolutions, his body was noticeably denser, but despite the increased weight, his knees easily absorbed the impact, and he immediately sprung into motion. Running to join Witherfang’s side, he re-summoned his javelin and, using it like a battle staff, cleaved through the zombie’s heads.
Letting the squads handle the center and the right side, he commanded his minions to move to the left and attack all undead in their range.
Like that, the hours flew by, and John only stopped to take a break when the sun began peeking out from the east and bathing the open field in early-morning rays of sunshine.
Pulling up on the challenge card, he was pretty happy with his progress.
[Purging the undead
Zombie: 2 187/2 500
Rothound: 58/100
Rothound Alpha: 2/3
Rotfiend: 3/5
Wandering Elite: 0/1
Time limit: 12:47:41]
After this, it would be a perfect time to visit Al’drul’s Emporium and check out the new stuff.