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The aftermath of the Dungeon Raid within the city of Elderbridge still remained strong. It has only been two and a half days since the incident, and many people are still missing. Children have been left orphaned, and a quarter of the city has been destroyed. Although Duchess Teressa did her best to take care of her territory, the distrust of the citizens towards her was strong.

She had been trying her best to help them, rebuilding them with both her abilities and also by purchasing materials and paying workers to do it, but the complete recovery of a city she had left alone due to her own self-loathing and depression wouldn’t be quick. It could take months, or perhaps even years.

And she knew that it was in this state that her city was the most vulnerable to external attacks. Many of the other concubines of the Emperor, or even his siblings and children, coveted this city, not because of what little it produced on its fields and cattle but due to the three low-tiered dungeons it possessed.

They were easy enough that most people could enter them, bringing back valuable monster materials and other products, always with a chance to even bring a treasure chest too. It was an endless farm of low-grade products that could still help anybody get their economy even better.

Yet Teressa did not manage it well and left it mostly for just any Hunter or Adventurer to enter it and gamble their lives without particularly contracting people to bring her what they hunted so she could have constant growth in her treasury.

Elderbridge is older than when Dungeon themselves existed, and it was completely by luck that this small, poor city ended up becoming the vessel of not one but three of them when the “New Era” began.

The very concept of “Instance Dungeons” themselves was nothing but a weird fantasy until then, and the world did not know of such an incredible source of materials like before. But with this came many other challenges.

Stronger monsters began to appear around Obscuritas and also the other Realms, larger structures spawned out of thin air; gigantic towers, massive and ancient castles of eras long forgotten, and even more, just recently, when the greatest change of them all started to appear: Players.

People were suddenly possessed by a new type of power, blessed with powerful new Skills, Traits, and deadly Flaws as well. Their personalities even changed too. Players became much different than other people, almost as if they had become completely different people altogether…

And now that her son had become one, Teressa was both relieved that Vlad had become stronger and also worried about the changes her poor, crippled son would have undergone. He was certainly much different than before, both in personality and even his way of speaking.

But then again, did she even know her son that well? Through all these years since Vlad was born, she had hardly held a long conversation with him, as he was often bedridden or sleeping.

“Hahh… The world I used to know has changed,” she sighed. “The New Era is unforgiving. Those that do not adapt… Will drown and perish beneath the waves of change.”

As she looked at the dark, eternal night sky and the three moons, she smiled lightly, recalling her son, her daughter, and even Alitheus.

“But it’s a good family anyway... I can get used to it.”

BOOOM!

Her eyes widened the moment she heard a loud explosion.

The echoing cries of the citizens reverberated everywhere.

The ground trembled as the roars of hundreds of men echoed from afar.

And even the roar of a creature, a beast.

“What’s going on?!”

Teressa ran to see the people running away in the opposite direction from where she was, overseeing the reconstruction of the larger building in her city that housed the most families.

“L-Lady Teressa, please help us!”

“A group of barbarians had broken through the city walls using a giant draconic beast!”

“W-We can’t take this anymore! We have to run!”

Families with their children, orphaned kids, and people that were left on the streets all started running in the opposite direction. Their duchess remained still for a couple of seconds, her anger growing larger.

“Seriously… I simply can’t take a breather for five seconds?!” She roared furiously, and her Aura of Blood Power surged tremendously, freezing the floor beneath her. “But this is also my fault; I deserve this…”

FLASH!

She grew a pair of bat-like wings made of frozen blood power, flying into the skies and rushing towards the bandits.

.

.

.

Crack, crack…!

The people of Elderbridge, already tired and weathered down from the Dungeon Raid, never expected another terrible incident to befall them.

CRASH!

The walls right behind them—the thing that made them sure nothing from the outside world would dare enter their safe city—were shattered.

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“W-Wha…?!”

“Ehhh?!”

“W-What’s happening? The walls…!”

Werewolves, orcs, imps, demons, moon elves, and blood elves all panicked as they saw a gigantic draconic claw, covered in fiery red and yellow scales, break out of the wall with a single strike.

“ROOOAAARR!”

And the head of a big, draconic creature emerged from the hole, further shattering the walls and breaking open the weakened magical barrier produced by it.

BOOOM!

The gigantic beast charged forward, destroying the entire wall in front of it and leaving a huge mess. A monster that strong would definitely not be something anybody in this city could easily handle.

A feared Tier 6 monster!

A beast capable of easily trampling over cities, a creature that, with sheer power, could even break magical barriers that weren’t reinforced enough or imbued with enough Arcana.

BAAM! BAAM! BAAM!

RUMBLE!

The ground trembled as the gigantic beast of over thirty meters of height walked into the city, its jaws slowly blazing with black flames, the creature’s iguana-like head seemed rather strange, its eyes lacked pupils, being completely reddened, and surrounding its neck there was a collar made of black pearls, imbued with strange, cursed energies.

But above all, the most terrifying thing was that it didn’t come alone; it wasn’t just a wild beast, not at all. It came accompanied by hundreds of men charging inside the city and one of the physically strongest races of Obscuritas, Orcs!

“Hahahaha! Raid this run-down place! Steal every single damn thing, you bastards!”

The orc chief and leader of the barbarian tribe leading the invasion roared, laughing his lungs out as he led his army of robbers and plunderers inside the weakened city of Elderbridge. Sitting over the draconic creature and holding upon a black-colored staff made of dark wood and topped with a purple-colored skull, he seemed to be somehow controlling the creature.

The orcs charge inside with furious roars, swinging their weapons imbued with magical flames, trying to set ablaze the surrounding areas while slaughtering the people they came across, tearing them to shreds with a single swing of their enormous axes and swords.

Once they saw a handful of bodies on the floor, people finally realized that this wasn’t just a bad dream again and that misfortune had befallen upon them once more.

“R-Run…! RUUUN!”

A werewolf screamed, running away while grabbing his two daughters. He didn’t even have time to mourn the death of his wife, and yet another terrible incident happened. The people that were there also started escaping as quickly as possible, their screams of panic and horror reverberating across the entire city.

The powerful, tall, and muscular orcs of the Black Fang Bandits, formerly a tribe of nomadic barbarians that had to turn into criminals and raid small villages to feed their own in these trying times, were much stronger than most of the people of Elderbridge, who grew up in the commodity behind the walls.

Each one was at least Tier 3 in levels of strength, covered with War Runes, the source of power for most Orc tribes, tattooed over their bodies. The more they slaughtered, fought, and killed, the stronger their War Runes would grow and the more they would expand across their bodies, and depending on their talents, attributes, and abilities, the runes would take different colors and shapes.

“Gehahaha! There’s a lot of food here!” one orc laughed as they started robbing a huge bakery. “Carry out all the bread! The flour and anything else you find inside, hurry!”

Although they killed anything on sight, they were still prioritizing robbing food and anything valuable, entering empty houses and breaking anything inside, and bringing out small chests full of coins, jewelry, and pieces of metal such as silver and gold.

“Anybody that finds something, bring it to the back of the beast!” the chief commanded them. “Hurry the fuck up, bastards! And- Huh?”

His eyes widened as he saw something approaching—in fact, two figures coming from the skies. One didn’t even resemble a person, but something like a huge golem made of red and golden metal, flying by encompassing their bodies on spiraling winds. The other at their side was small and rather defenseless looking, a cute incubus with red hair.

“Hah! What are these freaks? The only thing protecting this piss-poor city?” laughed the chief. “Attack them!”

The chief imbued Arcana into the staff as the purple-colored crystal skull unleashed a bolt of black lightning into the draconic creature, making it squeal in pain.

“GRYYYAARGH!”

With a furious cry of pain, the creature opened its jaws and unleashed several giant fireballs of black flames, firing them towards the incoming “guardians”.

“Well, it’s about time I try this,” the armored man spoke, summoning a sword out of thin air, and then imbuing it with his Arcana. “Let’s see… Like this?”

He sounded like an amateur, yet when he activated his Skill, his hands moved like those of an expert, even if for a split second.

“{Dual Blazing Blade Arts}: {One Sword Style: Magic Break}”

SLAAASH!

A single slash was unleashed within the skies, expanding into an enormous wave of fiery red flames, clashing against the incoming five-meter-big black flame fireball.

BOOOM!

The fireball exploded before reaching them, leaving behind a huge cloud of black smoke, which he and his companion passed through easily.

“Cough, cough, that was... Cough, ugh, awesome,” the incubus groaned. "But, ugh, was that fire cursed? I feel kind of weakened, Paul!”

“It would be better not to breathe it, Chris!” said the armored man. “Now let’s go down! Can you fire arrows at those guys over there? Don’t let them take any more lives, please!”

“Sure, I got this!” Chris healed his curse immediately using a sparkle of light coming from his Heavenly Core, pointing at the distance as he summoned his magic bow, magic arrows of several elements being fired one after another. “Don’t think you’re getting out of here alive after you killed innocent people, you piece of shit!”

“Huh?!”

“A-Arrows from the sky?!”

“Magic?!”

Dozens of arrows of frost, winds, lightning, poison, and flames rushed down like deadly elemental rain. The orcs pillaging around were instantly met with a swift end as the bombarding elemental explosions tore through their bodies.

BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!

Those that somehow managed to survive, slowly standing up in confusion, were quickly killed by a huge black, red, and gold-colored trident rushing down against their chests and piercing them at lightning speed!

CRASH!

“W-What…?!”

CRASH!

“Use your shield to- ACK!”

CRASH!

“How is that trident moving on its own- UAAGH!”

CRASH!

The Orc Chief glared at the scene in disbelief, his long black hair waving from the shockwaves generated by the elemental explosions, his black cloak revealing his scarred, ugly face.

“What?! Those attacks…! But my men are all Tier 3! Yet they’re dying so easily? This is- Ah!”

His eyes widened as he sensed the presence of someone coming behind him. The armored man he had mocked before appeared, swinging his magic sword against him.

“Trying to sneak behind me, you bastard?!” roared the orc chief, his staff unleashing a dark power that created a mighty magical barrier around his body. “Don’t think you can easily hurt a powerful Sorcerer such as myself! I’ll teach you-”

“{Dual Blazing Blade Arts}: {One Sword Style: Barrier Shattering Fire Storm}”

FLUOOOSH!

Vlad not only slashed once, but three times at the same time with a single sword, unleashing a storm of blazing flames that engulfed the orc, slowly beginning to shatter his barrier!

Crack, crack…!

CRACK!

“It’s… shattering my magic barrier?! Impossible!”

CRAAASH!

Before he could reinforce his barrier, it completely shattered into pieces, and the powerful orc chief was engulfed in a tornado of flames, burning through his body.

“Uuuaaaggh!” He screamed in agony. “Y-You damn beast, move and attack!”

His staff glowed brightly as the gigantic dragon’s red eyes released crimson sparks of lightning, its head twisted towards its back with surprising ease, opening, and blasting Vlad with a dragon breath.

“Shit…”

BOOOM!

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