The Unending Battlefield! This was one of the most beautiful parts of a branded dungeon. Any war type branded dungeon had one. It was merely a war that never stopped. Wave after wave after wave of the enemy comes forth. Waves of warriors summoned by the gods.
The more of the enemy you kill, the higher you rank, the more exp you got. Once you rank up to the rank of officer, a story mode initiates. Will was brought down in a stream of light. Within seconds, a humanoid demon with blades for hands and lava-filled veins attacked Will. But Will had already taken in the entire battlefield.
Streams of light were popping up everywhere. Causing a chaotic orchestra of light to play all around him. But that wasn't that that got his attention.
Almost all the people around him were using a unique energy, one that he was quite familiar with. Different types of classes, from summoners to martialist, from mages to knights, all using this energy. It could only be obtained by practising a particular manual.
"The Solitary Sword Sovereign! They all cultivate it!"
An unfortunate demon-like monster went for what it thought was an unsuspecting victim. It was split in two vertically. It died without knowing how. It died before seeing the massive sword of ice that had been formed behind it.
Will was more interested in the users around him. He was hoping that he was cultivating something scarce, but turns out…
Using the Ice blade to fend off monsters that were tired of breathing, Will activated Aqua Sense getting a full read of the situation. A kilometre to his left, a mage summoned a massive tsunami that washed away thousands of the creatures. Friendly fire wasn't allowed, and attacks from other users would just phase you.
At the end of the day, a tsunami was just a tsunami, it looked big, but when dealing with an endless army of level 70 plus monsters, it just didn't cut it to do that much damage.
Will observed from afar and did nothing. The water mage didn't take to his first lesson and kept reusing the spell. This continued for a while until some of the users engaged in their own battles started asking, where was all the water going?
After every big wave, the water would quickly evaporate as if it was being boiled. It wasn't until a great mage used a scouting spell that everything was revealed. His skill identified thousands upon thousands of water needles silently floating in the air.
"Damn, already found out. That sucks. Down we go."
With a single thought from Will, the thick needles rained upon their enemies. Almost 50 thousand level 70 plus enemies, killed in an instant. The entire battlefield was quieted by the sound of thousands of bodies falling to the ground.
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Countless users found themselves without an opponent to fight. Some were luckily saved, while others were angry at the kill stealing. But there was no way of telling who did it!
Under normal circumstances, a massive stream of energy would swarm to Will. Instead, it turned into a beam of energy that went skyward. Some the light splashed around the players, eventually fading like a dying fog.
The system had sent most of the exp to who it was supposed to. But the show wasn't over. The needles, still marked by the mage's spell, pulled themselves from the carcasses of the humanoid beasts. Each thick needle had penetrated their skills and turned their brains into mush.
The needles gathered above, then like a swarm of locusts, gathered above another area. To the users, it was as if thousand of red shooting stars came from nowhere.
Will was relaxed as he farmed the entire area with ease. Even with so much experience going in, he was unperturbed. It only took him four tries to return to level 88 and a few more to reach level 90.
Will kept on farming, going into area after area. He looked like he was just a mage with a giant ice sword slicing through his enemies one by one, but he was raining death a few kilometres away. He made sure to move in concert with his needle storm.
There were higher-level areas, and that's where Will was headed. When he arrived, he felt he could now target level 90 plus creatures. He tried his earlier trick, only to get a few thousand fatalities. And there was a good reason why.
The level 90 plus humanoid beats could morph their hands into shields of all types. They also had incredible reflexes and were intelligent. This meant that their ability to respond to the threats and learn from their mistakes was top notch.
Will kept the needles high in the sky. He had plans for that water.
"Since they block this, then this nigga right here will give them something they can't block."
The people in the level 90 area had no idea who Will was because there was quite a distance between the area he was in and where he started. Nevertheless, he was still surrounded by people who cultivated the SSS manual. He had no idea there were so many. He actually learned quite a few things while watching those who acquired the same manual as him. But no one had used a single skill from the book.
With good reason. It was a highly unorthodox technique. Most of one's progress could only be made by themselves. The manual was designed in such a way that the methods learned would only work for the practitioner. Will's Sword Kaiser and the Sword Kaiser of another person achieved the same effects. Still, they took different paths and concepts to get the same effects.
That was the charm of the unorthodox path: high quality, with challenging standards to follow.
Will had thrown the rusty sword in storage. He found a decent looking katana from a corpse on the ground. Will didn't even bother cleaning it. Instead, he stood still, only for a moment. Taking in the intent of the previous owner. Then, he took action!
Like he was abruptly woken, Will opened his eyes wide and sprinted to the front lines. This was the most challenging part to fight in as it was highly crowded. You could be killed by a random attack from the enemy or be impeded by fellow users' movements.
Will found a gap in the wall on his side and ran to it. He slid, slowing down while getting the sword in position. He stopped at the front and swung the blade horizontally!
A full-strength True Strike!