Number of Lesser Hiveborne Arachnid Remaining: 0
[Mission Accomplished!]
[Congratulations on passing the mission. You have done well in ensuring the academy has adequate force and fortifications.]
[The reward (Breakthrough insight for Elemental Adept) has been issued.]
[Hidden Achievement Unlocked: Effective Headmaster]
[Congratulations on fulfilling the condition (leading one hundred players into battle and winning) for this achievement.]
[The award (50 academy points) has been granted.]
The moment Victor reached the players, he received not one but two notifications. The first was the obvious one, but the second was another achievement — that made two in a row!
“Well, I can’t say no to more academy points.” He grinned so widely that it prompted a concerned look from Lumen below.
One thing that struck Victor was that, despite receiving the insight reward, he felt no discernible difference within himself. Perhaps, as usual, he would have to visit the Nexus Tower to claim his deserved reward. He couldn’t wait to go back to check on that and the new spell.
As Victor descended near the earthen wall, he surveyed the condition of the players. To be completely honest, it was worse than he’d expected. The spiders were all killed by the players, for sure, but it was a pyrrhic victory.
Out of the original one hundred, less than fifty players survived this war against the arachnid horde, of which twenty-seven were seriously injured, and eleven had suffered minor injuries. Most of the seriously injured ones were poisoned to some degree, and no less than seven of them had lost one or even two of their limbs, though they seemed to be laughing it off as if nothing terrible had happened to them.
“The battle is finally over, right? C’mon guys, give me a high five! Oh wait, I forgot that I only have one arm left, hahaha!”
“Ha! Better than me. Now I have to search for that oh-so-important treasure on the sea as a pirate with a peg leg, eyepatch, and all, so my missing leg won’t feel left out…”
“Wait, will our lost limbs regenerate the next day?”
“Huh? Have you ever seen someone with a stumped hand regenerate their hand the next day?”
“Oh no, guess that leaves us with no other choice but resurrection…”
“Noo! I don’t want to die! I don’t want to log out!”
Victor heard this conversation on the sidelines loud and clear with a twitch on his face. Was this a proper reaction from people who just lost their limbs should have?
Incidentally, Victor was in the mind of testing the healing capabilities of the pool inside the Nexus Tower. If it could regenerate lost limbs and cure ailments, even if it took hours or days, it would be better than players having to kill themselves to be revived in new bodies. As such, he told them to do just that, though he reminded them that there was no guarantee that this method would work.
“Thank you so much, esteemed Headmaster!”
“Yeah! We’ll go to the pool right away to get ourselves healed!”
“…”
All the injured expressed their gratitude reverently and scurried away toward the Nexus Tower. Some of them carried their companions who were foaming and with eyes that were white without pupils but still breathing, nonetheless. They were obviously too scared of dying in the game for a baffling reason — they didn’t want to miss out on any play time!
Seeing that, Victor could only shake his head with a wry smile. He felt that their concerns were beside the point and might appear bizarre even to him if he didn’t know better. After all, being physically disabled meant less effectiveness in doing tasks. When this method didn’t work and all other methods were too expensive or difficult, they could only be persuaded to go offline and have their remnants thrown into the essence converter so a new body could be incubated.
Hrm… Still, even if they are players, aren’t they too desensitized? Is there some sort of mental shielding at play here? All things considered, this could very well be the reason why players were quite willing to do chores and manual labor…
At any rate, what was more concerning to him than even this was the state of the acolyte robes. Unlike players who could resurrect in their own unique way, they were a finite resource. Fortunately, the acolyte robes were durable, so even if the players were killed, most of the damaged robes were not beyond repair. He just needed an Artificer to commence repairs and make new ones as needed.
Um, maybe I have to invite Eleanor here as soon as possible to get things in order later. Victor made a mental note to address this problem when he got the chance.
Having said that, this battle had taught Victor a hard lesson. Not only in terms of players’ casualties but also in their lackluster combat skills and overall inexperience. Although the players were extremely brave and fearless when charging, they were ordinary humans at the end of the day. No matter how much potential they had, without the ability to wield magic, they were just cannon fodder. They only achieved victory today thanks to the grand trap and Victor’s intervention.
This was further exacerbated by the lack of discipline and long-lasting coordination among them. They might not resort to outright betrayal or harm to their comrades, but they were acting with their interests — gathering merit points — as their top priority. Some even raced ahead to steal kills from their friends. What a bunch of trolls.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
I should give this another look. Maybe in the next update, I will implement a party system or something… Equally important was the necessity to educate them on hunting and establishing something akin to a tutorial players had to clear once they progressed to a certain point.
Victor gazed out at the charred expanse of what was once a lush forest, his expression unwavering. All the traps designed to eliminate the Lesser Hiveborne Arachnids were strategically positioned within the academy’s magic barriers and extended to their outermost limits. Additionally, he had instructed the players to create a firebreak to prevent the flames from spreading further. It had been a well-calculated and meticulously planned strategy.
If the fire were to burn the Thornwood Flower field located just a few hundred meters outside the magic barriers, he would be the one on the brink of tears. This was the primary motivation behind doing all this, besides preventing the wildfire from consuming the entire forest.
However, there was little point in dwelling on a hypothetical disaster that had been successfully averted. So, Victor redirected his focus to managing the players. There were ten able-bodied players who could still do hard labor, so he assigned them to clean the area. As for the players with minor injuries, they were instructed to tend to their wounds with basic first aid before assisting the others.
All the corpses, whether humans or spiders, were carried on the wooden cart and transported to the makeshift morgue right outside the Nexus Tower. Looking at the huge amount of corpses piling up, Victor thought in his heart, If all of these corpses were to be converted into essence points, wouldn’t I have more than a thousand points? Their carapaces can also be turned into armor.
Unfortunately, most of the arachnid corpses were consumed by the trap and were nearly impossible to recover. They probably had all but turned to cinder by now.
Speaking of the arachnid horde…
“If there’s an army of them deep inside the forest, then it’s very likely that there is a nest somewhere,” Victor muttered to himself.
For one, by eliminating the Queen Lesser Hiveborne Arachnid, it would invite other powerful magical beasts to roam the area close to the academy. On the other hand, this posed both a threat and an opportunity for Victor. An opportunity he couldn’t afford to miss.
Take, for example, the exquisite spider silk secreted by these creatures. It was considered one of the highest-quality materials for crafting magic equipment and tools. Not only was it exceptionally durable, but its light weight made it ideal for crafting items like the acolyte robes. Such material was highly sought after among Magi, and it rarely appeared on the auction market.
Just that…
Although their individual combat power was not strong, and their strength fell short in comparison to typical first-stage Initiate Attunement rank magical beasts, the players were no match for them. Especially within the confines of their nest where they’d be in tiptop condition. Despite the casualties suffered during the battle, it was impossible to determine how many more of these creatures lay hidden in the depths of their lair.
Securing this valuable material was important, as it could provide Victor with something highly tradable for a substantial amount of mana crystals. He just had to think of a way to locate their nest and for the players to start hunting them in earnest once they had the power to do so. This could be done by setting the place as some sort of dungeon…
Suddenly, something wet trickled on Victor’s face. It was a single drop at first, but it soon multiplied into countless droplets that he couldn’t count. “Hmm? It’s raining.” He opened both of his palms wide and felt the drops of water hitting them.
What a rare occurrence.
It wasn’t that this forest was dry, but the forest fire must have triggered the rain. Victor breathed in the crisp scent of petrichor, relishing the rare sensation of the cool water enveloping the previously parched forest, as if the world wanted to sweep clean the blood bath that had occurred here.
“Whatever. All’s well that ends well… Instead, I should check on that curse. Maybe Lizbeth knows a thing or two.” As he was consumed in his soliloquy, Victor went on to daydream about the huge gain in the not-so-distant future under the drizzle…
***
While Victor was lost in his imagination, the official Magus Academy Online website’s forum on Earth buzzed with activity. Players who had perished before the final confrontation went offline one after another and rushed to log onto the official website. Thus, they were the first to bring back firsthand reports to the non-testing players browsing the forum.
The battle described by these players seemed straight out of a fairy tale. Many of the forum users found it hard to believe, were it not for the amateur footage and screenshots captured amidst the battle. They were shocked — totally shocked and speechless.
The sheer number of living beings involved in this epic showdown exceeded two hundred. Furthermore, various traps such as pitfalls, searing blades, and even magic were used, leaving the players who participated raving over how exciting it was!
Especially the grand trap that became the highlight of this confrontation. It incinerated the entire forest and decimated the arachnid horde, as was the sheer carnage unleashed by the game’s boss monster — the queen spider — toward the players.
“Oh my god! I didn’t know being an arsonist could be so much fun!”
“If an environmentalist were to hear this, they would totally be pissed. Hahaha!”
“But seriously, did you guys see the headmaster NPC taking on the queen of the arachnid horde all by himself? He looked like he was having a hard time, but if such a creature like that were to appear in the real world and cause havoc, it could probably wipe out a whole company of soldiers before dying.”
“Yeah, I agree with that. This doesn’t seem to be the limit of what he can do, either. I don’t know why, but I have this feeling that he’s only going to get stronger as the game progresses.”
“By the way, am I the only one who thinks the queen spider looks... Well, you know, sexy? I mean, I don’t mean in ‘that’ way, but you know what I mean. (͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)”
“Haha, you’re not alone, buddy! But let’s be real, she’s got scales, and she looks like she’d bite our heads off if we tried anything funny. 😅”
“That’s a shame…”
“Well, I think the game developers are trying their hardest to keep this game from going R18+, which I strongly disagree with since we’re all responsible adults. Who wouldn’t want to have a ‘battle’ with a sexy Arachne like the ones in those novels and animated scenes, right?”
“Wait, are you still talking about the game? How come I have a strange feeling that you are talking about something different.”
“Ahem, we’re discussing character designs, okay? Character designs!”
Although the discussion took some amusing tangents, it always circled back to the original topic as new updates and news kept pouring in. Whether it was through suggestions or pure imagination, whether it was the qualified players who really believed in the game or pure fun-seeking trolls, what everyone cared about most was the outcome of this war.
For all the positive signs seen so far, one nagging question remained. What if these closed-alpha players proved inadequate, or the arachnid horde proved to be too formidable a foe? What if, despite their best efforts, defeat was inevitable?
Failure in this war would spell the end.
After all, as the official website stated, if the players failed in the “Arachnid Invasion” event, it would result in the indefinite suspension of the game server, which would only be launched after extensive re-debugging.
As for the duration of this suspension, it remained a closely guarded secret, possibly known only to insiders like the game’s promotional manager, CyberWarlock.
Fortunately, enthusiastic netizens didn’t have to wait long. Almost immediately after another player who “died” near the end of the final confrontation and was forced to go offline, news of their victory in the war flooded the forum. This revelation ignited a wave of relief and anticipation among the forum members, as he also brought with him something they would be eager to see.