Chapter 30 - Fortress Defense 2 (1/2)
He even took the time to recommend a few books to his party members. Surprisingly, not a single one of them had run off, apparently choosing to study their future path rather seriously.
If their will power was that weak, they wouldn’t have made it here to begin with
‘Incredible ability to focus.’
Woohyuk was amazed as he stared at Yoo Kayoung and Song Anna.
He had given them each a book on magic. For Yoo Kayoung, it was an Introduction to Magic by The Great Sage, while Song Anna got an Introduction to Summoning by the Elementalist, Eleanor.
Although they were books for beginners, they wouldn’t be an easy read.
Still, neither of them had taken their eyes off their books in over an hour.
‘If they are able to survive, they will grow to be quite strong.’
As long as they faithfully followed him, he would nurture them well. A profitable investment.
In order to quickly ascend to the position of Lord, he would need competent subordinates.
‘It had taken me quite a while.’
It wasn’t easy to evaluate one’s character or intention on the Eeth continent, which had become a den of Demons.
There were even many classes that were aligned with the 72 Demon Kings, leading people to betray their own kind. That’s without even mentioning all the internal power struggles that were never ending.
A world where blood constantly flowed.
Woohyuk wanted to avoid getting tangled up in that mess as much as possible.
‘Right, I need to focus on reading this more quickly.’
Nakron’s Grimoire was among the highest difficulties for books. Despite having read 50 pages, he still hadn’t been able to learn much. He couldn’t skip any pages and so he couldn’t look ahead to see how many pages there were. Also Magic Books didn’t have any physical constraints like regular books, and could theoretically have limitless pages.
‘I’ll be able to finish it someday.”
Woohyuk took a short break to stabilize his mind, before diving back into the book in earnest.
Although he was a bit slow due to his low Intelligence, he never let it affect him as he kept his cool.
Crystal-clear mirror and calm water.
Unfamiliar characters on the water's quiet surface, twinkling like moonlight.
While he was focused on understanding the passage, A System message suddenly appeared before his eyes.
[Unique Magic: Learned Corpse Explosion.]
[Resistance to Death has increased by 1 Level.]
‘As expected, a bountiful reward.’
Depending on the situation, a spell like Corpse Explosion could be very useful.
Resistance to Death was unfamiliar to him. It probably had a positive effect on his Necromancy, but there was no way to know without testing it himself.
Suddenly some noises were heard from outside, just as he was considering where to test out his new skill.
Maybe something’s happened.
Woohyuk put down Nakron’s Grimoire in his Pouch, and went out of the Monastery.
“Minions have come, please help!”
A man was running around the Fortress, screaming at the top of his lungs. He was a Bronze Crown Leader from the same attack path that Hong Yuri had taken.
After walking up to him, Woohyuk asked.
“Why weren’t you able to take care of the Minions?”
“The Blue Faction had upgraded their Barracks on our right side. The Minions are now much stronger, and their numbers have also increased.”
When one upgraded to a level 2 Barracks, a single wave would then consist of 24 Minions. Not to mention that 8 of those would be cavalry, which would be difficult to deal with for inexperienced Melee players.
“What are the casualties like?”
“Three dead, and five critically injured.”
The man went on to complain how they had taken so much damage because they had been in the middle of a Chimera hunt.
As he headed towards the Fortress' entrance, Woohyuk thought about why this might have occured.
‘We had thought that they had given up on the right side.’
After seeing him achieving First Blood, perhaps the enemy had mistakenly believed that the enemy faction had focused greatly on the center and neglected the sides.
Since their faction had captured two Guard Towers on the right. The players there became too lax due to the overwhelming advantage that appeared on the map.
[Wake up, there’s a situation.]
[...Yes?]
Being suddenly woken up by Woohyuk, Hong Yuri replied in a somewhat sleepy voice.
[An enemy raid is attacking your path.]
[Ugh… I’ll be right there]
[How many coins do you have right now?]
[Around 420..Gold?]
It would be more than enough to upgrade the Barracks. After giving her some instructions, Woohyuk summoned his undead near the Fortress’ entrance.
“Hi, Hiiic…”
The Bronze Crown leader gasped in surprise.
Woohyuk reassured the man that it was fine, and then waited for the Minions on the right path to arrive
‘It's actually good timing.’
As of yet he hadn’t had any chance to utilize his Necromancer skills. The only thing he had done so far was revive dead bodies.
In order to properly command the troops, he placed the Superior Undead towards the back.
“You guys take care of the defense.”
“Hiahak”
“Kuruaa!”
A total of 60 Undead, of various types.
As he wondered which of them he’d sacrifice to use Corpse Explosion, he heard Hong Yuri’s enticing voice.
“It’s been too long, babe ~ ❤ ”
“All ready on your end?”
“The upgrade has been done, and my troops are on standby.”
It was late in the evening, and the sun was about to set. Soon it would be the Vampires’ time to shine.
Although he didn’t really need the help, he wanted to see Hong Yuri’s leadership ability firsthand.
“When the sun sets, make sure to help out.”
“Of course, I can let you do all the hard work, right babe?”
Hong Yuri winked as she clung to him. Just then Lee Jaesung’s party arrived from behind.
“Boss, what’s going on?”
“What is happening with their Minions?”
Seeing everyone’s confusion, Woohyuk shrugged Hong Yuri off, and pointed towards the right path.
“The enemy has upgraded their Barracks on this side.”
Although their Barracks were now of the same level, it wouldn’t be enough because the enemy Barracks had spawned second tier Minions for longer, and had gathered into a larger wave.
If left to their own devices, it was possible that they’d successfully invade and destroy many facilities within their Fortress.
“So all we need to do is block their Minions?”
“I will defend the right side over here, you go take a look at the left.”
Isaac was still stationed in the middle so it was probably fine, but he was a bit worried about the left side.
As Lee Jaesung led his party to the left side, the adventurers belonging to the right path had gathered.
“Monsters!”
“There are so many of them!”
When these new adventurers saw the undead for the first time, they freaked out.
To reassure them all, Hong Yuri stepped up.
“Don’t worry about them, they are completely safe since they’d been tamed. Look, you can even do this to them and they won’t even react.”
Hong Yuri flicked the forehead of the Skeleton Knight Captain, causing the players’ eyes to widen in surprise.
“For real?”
“How did you do that?”
Woohyuk’s undead also had a red tag above them to mark them, as they’d been recognized by the system to be allies of the same Faction.
As the players were conversing among themselves, an army of Minions appeared in the distance.
At first glance, there seemed to be about 100 of them.
[Go engage them]
Woohyuk ordered them with his mind, as the undead moved out, making strange sounds
A battle between Undead and Ghost Minions. Although the latter had twice the numbers, the Undead employed better strategies.
Boom!
The two Mummies standing in the front suddenly exploded like some grenade, hitting their cavalry.
Corrupted flesh and sharp bones flying everywhere. Its damage was even higher than most magic spells.
‘I’ll need to be careful using it if there are allies nearby.’
It wasn’t a spell he could use willy nilly because of its large AoE.
Woohyuk then sent a message to Hong Yuri, as he watched the Minions being pulled down from their horses.
[Don’t let any of them through]
[Got it]
Hong Yuri had made a long line of defense behind the barricades. By placing all of her vampires in a straight line, since they were 99 players, the other adventurers couldn’t do anything but watch.
Cang! Cang!
As soon as the two forces met, the clanging of metal rang out across the battlefield.