On the trees, on the boulders, and even in the sky. Zyrus was surrounded by praying mantises from all sides.
‘A perfect counter,’
The two-meter-long mantises were the bane of his battle tactic. 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 didn’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 monsters. But now, things were different.
A directionalized evolution of the praying mantis that increased their size to a humanoid creature while improving their agility and sharp limbs. And unlike the bugs they had the semblance of a command structure.
‘They’re like an assassin squad of the players,’
*Kihihihi*
“A clever tactic, but there’s a misunderstanding,”
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.
“I thought there was more to you, but it’s about time we end this,”
Zyrus channeled all his mana into the twilight crusher. From the beginning, 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.
‘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 targeted to 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 his summons aoe capabilities or his own single target attacks, both were too strong for any middle-level opponents.
[Spatial Stab]
“Eee---”
The spider died with a half-finished shriek.
*Crrrackkk*
Before Zyrus could take a second look, 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.
*Spalt*
“How about giving a message before teleporting me?”
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.
“…”
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“…”
Zyrus left the office without exchanging a word. The randomness of teleportation and talking? with the knight was more draining than the previous fight.
‘Well, I hope there was a reason for that. It wouldn’t make sense if they teleported me for fun, right?’
And there was only one way to figure that out. Zyrus sat down on the grey tunnel (he was teleported again after he closed the door) and opened the parchment one by one.
Sector D – Region M98
Mission Assigned by: Knight of The Crimson Sun
Mission Taken by: Zyrus Wymar
Progress: Complete
Duration: < 4 hours
Clearing grade: EX
Rewards: None
‘Training grounds huh, no wonder it lacked a real threat,’
Zyrus was somewhat disappointed that he didn’t get to use his full powers. Nonetheless, he had a better understanding of the overall picture.
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.
‘I feel like this was something like a tutorial,’
He opened the third parchment which was written on a golden paper, and sure enough, his guess was proven true.
The paper burned in golden flames, and a black screen with golden runes appeared before his eyes.
||x|| Mercenary Contract ||x||
Issued by: Streit Council
Assigned to: Zyrus Wymar
Duration: 9 years
Rewards: Ownership rights of the cleared area, future contracts of Sector A and above.
‘This is more like it,’
Zyrus curved his lips 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. The missions of the Streit Bastion were similar to the events in the sanctuary, or maybe it was the other way around.
The current mission was like a flag march for elite players. Zyrus knew that even the leaders under him didn’t qualify to fight in Sector B. His talent 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,’
Zyrus thus 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 them 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 tunnel and walked towards the other one that was glowing blue. His plans were unchanged in general. Instead of going back to earth, he was now fighting at the Streit Bastion. The stability of earth had worsened after his battle against the glemorax king, which prevented him from going back.
But he was sure that it'd be fixed sooner or later. And when that time came, he’d have to face both world bosses at the same time.
‘So, I’ll have to improve my strength during this time,’
The blue tunnel that led to sector B was similar to the one before. The sole difference was that this time, he could choose the teleportation area.
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,’
But first of all, he had to choose an area. 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 Clarence 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.
‘Hmm…still more than 50 are left,’
It was hard to gauge how big the battlefield was. Zyrus added one more condition where an area of S sector was also nearby. It would be convenient for him if he built his bases in the same region, even though teleportation was common.
‘And would you look at that,’
Only five areas were left that matched his criteria. And one among them showed the reddish-black boundary of the Sector EX.
Sector B – Region K49 (Plains of Ilios)