The Era of Gods

Chapter 509: Chapter 509 Monster Siege

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Five months later, Lin Xiao officially placed the Fortress core into the valley.

No sooner had the fist-sized, crystal-like core been set down than it radiated a layer of crystalline light that quickly spread out, soon forming the light shadow of a small two-story building.

The light converged, materializing into a small building made of crystal-like semi-transparent matter—this was the Fortress core. Should this house be destroyed, the Fortress would be considered breached.

Initial placement of the Fortress core marked it as Level 0, which conferred only a few basic functions.

The first, to recruit a few simple functional NPCs, such as those who sell miscellaneous items, repair equipment, and a Fortress quartermaster.

The second, to change the surrounding area’s rules so that monsters can no longer respawn within its range.

The third, to serve as a respawn point for players and a bind point for Hearthstones. Now that this Broken Floating Land only harbors his Fortress, Human players dying on this land, who used to respawn randomly, will all resurrect here.

At Level 0, the Fortress couldn’t yet exchange Demon Marks for NPC subordinates, a feature available to a First Level formal Fortress, let alone a Teleportation Array which can only be established in a Level 3 Fortress.

To upgrade to a First Level Fortress, one needs 100,000 Gold Coins, and that’s it.

It’s quite simple in essence, with almost no barrier to upgrading. The only significant problem is the monsters influenced by and seeking to destroy the Fortress.

Lin Xiao was confident about this issue, having been preparing for it over the past half a year.

He took out tokens given to him by races that had benefitted from his actions and were freed from the control of the Demon’s power. He sent messages to the three powerful native tribes he had helped previously: a Purgatory Centaur Group, a Hell Ogre Group, and a group of Chimeras, with at least the enhanced elite level and three at the Leader Template level.

All the races that had survived in the Demonic Purgatory Broken Floating Land were strong fighting races, and each had leaders exceeding Level 80.

With the support of the Bear Monster Leader, Lin Xiao could gain assistance from a total of six Level 80 and above leaders, plus their tribesfolk and his own strength…

Half a month after he placed the Fortress core, Lin Xiao had upgraded the Fortress to Level 1, immediately exchanging all the Demon Marks he had accumulated since leaving the Expeditionary Army Fortress for NPC subordinates, including an Elite Elf Archer obtained by exchanging a purple Demon Mark.

The moment the Fortress was upgraded, all Demons within a ten-kilometer radius of the Fortress began to riot, as if attracted to the Fortress.

Demons within a twenty-kilometer radius to the edge of ten kilometers were also affected, with some rushing towards the Fortress while others were indifferent.

But what Lin Xiao was most concerned about was the massive Demon City in the distance. It was about twenty kilometers away from the Fortress, right on the edge of the secondary influence area. Many Demons inside had already started to grow restless.

Sitting atop his flying mount, he stared intently at the distance. After a long while, seeing groups of Demons leaving the Demon City and heading towards the Fortress, he let out a sigh of relief.

Although many Demons were affected, he saw no large groups of boss-level Demons appearing, which comparatively was the best outcome.

He kept observing until the first group of Demons that had left the city was close to reaching the Fortress before he finally turned to leave.

Just as he was turning around, Lin Xiao suddenly noticed a flashing message at the corner of his eye. It was from Lonely City:

“Brother, are you still on this floating land? Recently, a large group of the Children of Nightmare has come. They have already joined forces and destroyed a companion’s Fortress. We want to unite and support each other. Are you interested?”

This was not good news!

After pondering for a moment, Lin Xiao replied:

“I am currently establishing a Fortress and facing a monster siege. Once the Fortress reaches Level 1, we’ll talk about it.”

Soon the other side responded:

“You’ve chosen a location that quickly? Where is it, when I have time I’ll come to see.”

“Near that Demon Fortress you once gave up on.”

“???”

Lonely City sent back three question marks. It was evident he knew the place but couldn’t quite believe Lin Xiao had chosen it.

With a light chuckle, he said:

“Yes, you heard right, that’s the place.”

Lonely City sat in silence for a long time, with two other players looking at him. One of them, a man in a Mage robe, knocked on the table and asked:

“What’s wrong?”

He looked up with a very strange expression on his face, as if he didn’t know what to say, and after a long moment, replied:

“I met a madman. He has actually established a Fortress near the Demon Fortress in the center of Purgatory Broken Floating Land.”

The other two were also stunned for a moment before one asked:

“Is it that place you once considered for a long time before giving up?”

Lonely City nodded his head:

“That’s the place. He’s already preparing to upgrade to a Level 1 Fortress.”

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“Oh! Then he’s definitely done for!”

Another man clad in chain armor shook his head and said,

“I’ve also seen that place. The most suitable spot for building a fortress around there is about twenty kilometers away from the Demon Fortress. Once the fortress is established, it will definitely attract the demons inside. Just drawing out a small portion of them would be enough to easily flatten the fortress. By the way, how strong is your friend?”

Lonely City reminisced for a moment and replied,

“Very strong. Although I haven’t seen everything, just during the few days of contact, I saw that he has several subordinates with leader templates.”

“No wonder he has the guts to try. If there are four or five leaders and they level up to over 75, then with the advantage of the terrain and a bit of luck, there’s a chance of success.”

“Tsk tsk, as the saying goes, fortune favors the bold. The value of that place is indeed worth the risk.”

The mage raised his glass and took a big gulp, then shook his head and said,

“We’ve all thought about that place, but without enough power, it’s simply indefensible. If your friend can hold it, he’s going to make a fortune in the future.”

“What about this joint operation?”

Lonely City looked towards his two friends.

The mage smiled and replied,

“Let’s wait a bit. The monster siege can’t last much longer. After it ends, if he can hold the fortress, we’ll count him in. If not, well, there’s no need to talk about it.”

“Alright then.”

Demon Suppression Fortress.

Lin Xiao named his newly built fortress the Demon Suppression Fortress, symbolizing the suppression of the nearby Demon Fortress.

Standing atop the fortress, which had transformed into a tower over twenty meters tall after being promoted to First Level, he could see fierce battles raging at both ends of the valley, with monsters cramming the two exit passageways.

Lin Xiao divided his subordinates into three groups: one to guard the rear, one to guard the passageway facing the direction of the Demon Purgatory Fortress, and a small reserve force.

After the fortress was upgraded, the entire valley, including everything within it, became part of the fortress. For instance, the walls and gates at the valley exits were recognized by the system and were given defense and hit points, which upon depletion would cause them to break.

It must be said that the terrain of this valley was excellent, surrounded by mountains with just two passageways, one simply needed to hold this position.

Previously, Lonely City and the others dared not choose this spot to build a fortress because there were simply too many demons. The Demon Fortress called Purgatory, along with its surrounding area, was home to perhaps over a million demons. Even attracting a very small part of them meant facing over a hundred thousand, not to mention other nearby demons. In fact, if Lin Xiao had not cheated by obtaining the Ring of Radiance and won over several demonized tribes, he would also have to face these powerful groups’ attacks under normal circumstances.

Almost two hundred thousand demons and demonized creatures were too much for ordinary players to withstand, even with the benefit of the terrain.

It was only because he had over thirty leaders and five bosses with Lord templates that he dared to take a gamble here. Aside from him, no one else could establish a fortress at this stage.

The Level 75 Lord-level Star Mage summoned endless amounts of silvery Void Energy to form lightning, which poured down like torrential rain. A single wave of attack could deal as high as eight to nine thousand damage, continuously unleashed, with dense numbers of hits nearly covering the entire screen. Coupled with the mix of Blizzard and Rain of Fire, the vast majority of common demons couldn’t last a second within the Void downpour.

No matter how numerous, Cannon Fodder was useless if they couldn’t even get close to the walls.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Initially, Lin Xiao wasn’t worried at all. What concerned him was the part of the Regular Demon Corps that would come later.

It was a corps where the basic soldiers were Level 75 elite templates from the Regular Demon Corps, likely a part of the only Regular Corps left in this world by the Void Demons.

The Regular Demon Corps had one Corps Commander, usually a Lord of at least Level 85, one or two Corps Deputy Chiefs of Level 80 or above, with Lord templates as well.

Below them were at least ten, and at most twenty, Military Governors. The Military Governors of a Regular Demon Corps were generally of Leader templates and over Level 80.

From this, one could deduce that a Regular Demon Corps should have over a hundred thousand soldiers, all above Level 75 elites.

Of course, what was behind the Cannon Fodder at the moment was surely not an entire corps but rather half a division, about fifteen thousand strong, yet with two Military Governors and a Corps Deputy Chief as the biggest threat.

Well, merely a threat.

The Cannon Fodder of about 160,000 served mainly to level up all subordinates by one. Among them, the Leader-level Mages gained the most, with the Star Mage and an Ice Magic user both gaining two levels, jumping to Level 78, just one step away from Level 80.

The gate at the valley entrance had already collapsed. With so many enemies, even a fraction breaching the walls and each landing a hit was enough to deplete durability.

After the battle, bodies piled up like mountains at the valley entrance, and countless lights indicating loot spread out like a sea.

Even if only one-tenth of the bodies had loot, it would be a massive amount. Even if it was all junk, selling that junk could net thousands of Gold. Of course, it was impossible for everything to be junk—the Cannon Fodder included a few minor bosses.

Now was not the time to collect loot, as the semi-division of the Regular Demon Corps was pressing forward.

Lin Xiao called over the subordinates from the other valley entrance to prepare for a final stand here.

Compared to the aimless charge of the rabid demons, the Regular Demons were many times stronger. Hundreds of elite Demon Magicians simultaneously summoned Hellfire, with meteorites of green flame falling from the sky into the valley entrance, marking the start of the final battle.

Over a hundred Demon Wizards surrounded a Military Governor, conjuring a thick green light that immobilized a Leader-level Ice Magic user. With a visibly rapid rate, Fel Energy surged out of the Ice series mage’s body, as they were swiftly corrupted and fallen by the Demon’s power.

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