Chapter 122: Ch-122: Tier 2 Advancement Quest

The soldiers were no better, but like Edward, they refused to die without a fight and were about to start unloading all bullets and missiles onto the monsters.

Rumble

Just as they were about to unleash their attack, the sky immediately darkened and black lightning began to crackle.

"This..." Edward was stupefied by the sudden change, but then his eyes widened when he saw a skeletal horse charge at him. He hurriedly raised his hands to block. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Bang

"Leader!"

"Commander!"

The soldiers shouted in fear as they saw Edward being flung backward by the hooves of the skeletal horse.

"Ugh!" Edward grunted as blood spilled from the corner of his lips. He felt some bones in his arm shatter to pieces.

"Neigh, humans die," the horse suddenly said, and everyone, even Edward, froze for a second when they heard the skeletal horse speak.

"What, are my ears playing tricks on me? How did this beast speak all of a sudden? No... since when did skeletons start talking?"

"Forget about skeletons, I didn’t know magical beasts could speak the human tongue. How come?"

The soldiers were bewildered as they momentarily forgot about the horde rushing toward them and looked at the skeletal horse in disbelief.

"What kind of monster are you? How can you speak the human tongue?" Edward asked the skeletal horse, which was flapping its bony wings and hovering in the sky while preparing for another attack.

"Neigh, what made you think we magical beasts could not speak the Universal Tongue? What you humans arrogantly call the human language is the Universal Language which all races can speak. Moreover, to answer your question, some of us could already speak this language, but thanks to the increase in mana, the number has risen drastically, and we have also become stronger due to our bloodlines evolving," the skeletal beast said arrogantly.

Hearing the words spoken by the beast, Edward’s face turned shocked, but when he heard the last part, his expression darkened. The bloodline of beasts was what made certain beasts stronger than others of the same level, as superior bloodlines possessed higher stats. So now, humans would have to face much stronger beasts with improved abilities.

"Now die," the horse said as it glided through the air toward Edward.

"Hmph, I am also a Tier 3!" Edward snorted as he was about to activate his bloodline, but suddenly not only the charging beast but also the others froze in their tracks.

"What’s that?" Edward’s eyes narrowed when he saw an object dropping from the sky and realized it was a black sword.

Just at that moment, the eyes of the skeletal horse widened and the beast abruptly raised its head toward the sky. A curious sound came from its mouth, but before anyone could understand what was happening, a flash of black light fell from the clouds with a mighty thunderous boom.

The beast’s body was struck right in the back before it could even move away from the object’s trajectory. The beast didn’t even understand what was happening when its body was sent flying backward hundreds of meters with the sword embedded in its body before crashing into the ground.

Booooooooooooom!!!!

The ground shook, causing everyone within 2000 meters around the impact center to stagger. Amidst the powerful rumbling, a massive cloud of dust rose into the sky and covered the sight of everyone in the vicinity to the point that, if one were to look from afar, it would resemble a sandstorm swallowing the battlefield whole.

Edward was just like the others and had no idea what was going on, but they all raised their guards to the maximum and even began to panic a little.

The hawk that a moment ago was hovering in the sky was now pinned to the ground.

"Neiiiihghhh!"

A painful scream left the mouth of the beast as it felt its internal organs melting, and within a few seconds, its entire bony body started to dissolve into liquid.

"That’s Lord Victor... he has returned!" Edward’s body trembled in excitement as he saw a young man in armor in the sky, with only his face visible. He could feel from the aura that he had grown stronger.

-------

"Not bad, applying Gravity Manipulation while throwing the sword also creates a similar effect to the Lightning Axe, and this costs far less mana," Victor mumbled. This was an experiment he had wanted to try, and he was also testing the durability of the sword while using it.

Victor looked at the immobilized beasts which he had restrained using his Gravity Manipulation. One could imagine them trapped inside a bubble exerting pressure from all sides, preventing them from moving a single muscle. This was a new application of Gravity Manipulation.

"Giant Axe of Purgatory Lightning," he mumbled, and this time the rumbling lightning was even fiercer, combining the original attack power of the spell with attack stats multiplied by three. The power behind it was several times greater than before, plus the boost from Gravity Manipulation.

The soldiers on the ground, and even Edward, fell onto their buttocks upon seeing the apocalyptic axe descend like a grim reaper.

Gulp.

"Heavens, the Young Lord has become even stronger," Edward thought as he watched the lightning axe descend upon the beasts.

BOOOOOM!!!

A huge explosion, like hundreds of nuclear bombs detonating at once, echoed throughout the surroundings. The beasts did not even get a chance to respond as they were vaporized instantly.

"A group of Tier 3s... this... this... they died so easily..." Edward was dumbfounded by the sight. At first, he thought he would have to fight with his life on the line; now it felt as though the Goddess of Luck herself was showering him with blessings.

[Ding Dong]

[You have killed Tier 3 Skeletal Horse x200,000]

[100% drop rate has been triggered]

[You have received 100,000 Tier 2 Knights and 100,000 Tier 2 Gunmen Summoning Contracts]

"Oh," Victor’s eyes widened as his lips curled upward when he imagined the number of his troops increasing once again. With this amount, he should now be equal to Duchies and Royal Families in terms of sheer military numbers alone.

Without hesitation, Victor used the contracts.

Victor then opened his territory panel.

-------------

Territory Name: Silver City

Territory Size: 300 km²

Named NPCs: Edward

Military: 100,000+ Tier 2 Knights , 100,000+ Tier 2 Gunmen [Expand]

Professionals: [Expand]

Population: 242,267

Defenses: Automatic Turtle Shell Defensive System (Bundle) x1

Specialized Buildings: None

Landmarks: None

Maximum Population: 300,000

-------------

Victor nodded his head as he saw the growing population. His previous troops had also upgraded to Tier 2 during the fight between the Black Church and today’s battle with beasts.

[Ding Dong]

[Notification: During the Apocalypse, many civilians and soldiers will be displaced, and more people will be attracted to powerful territories. The stronger someone is, the more people will be drawn to them, and there is a chance that powerful named NPCs may join your territory.]

Victor, seeing this, lit up and then frowned and mumbled, "I need to quickly conquer more land and turn Silvernum City into Silvernum Kingdom."

Then Victor opened his stats and directly poured all the mana he had gained from killing Tier 3 beasts and rapidly increased his level to the peak of Tier 1.

[You have levels up]

[You have reached Level 135]

[You have reached Level 167]

[You have reached Level 184]

[You have reached Level 200]

----------

Name: Victor Silvernum

Race: Human

Bloodline: Origin Bloodline (SSS Rank)

Class: Warlock

Tier: 1

Exp Stored: 5.4 million

Free Stats Points: 0

---------

Level: 200 (0 / 248,000)

HP: 22,000 / 22,000

Mana: 22,050 / 22,050

Vitality: 200 (+2000)

Attack: 200 (+2000)

Defense: 1 (+2000)

Agility: 200 (+2000)

Mana: 205 (+2000)

Intelligence: 1 (+2000)

Dexterity: 1 (+2000)

Skills ( Expand)

Bloodline ( Expand)

Inventory (Expand)

----------

As soon as he upgraded his level, a new row of text appeared on his retina.

[Ding Dong]

[You have received the Tier 2 Advancement Quest]

[Quest: Tier 2 Advancement]

[Task:

1. Kill a Tier 4 Named NPC

2. Upgrade your territory to a Kingdom

3. Establish a Diamond Rank Guild in the real world

]

"What..." Victor exclaimed when he saw the conditions. Killing a Tier 4 while being Tier 1 was absurd, but now this seemed like the easiest task compared to the next one. To qualify for a kingdom, he needed at least millions of square kilometers of land under his authority, and a certain number of named NPCs as well; he only had Edward at the moment.

"Honestly, I had planned not to interact with the real world too much, but this changes everything," Victor frowned upon seeing the last option. Diamond rank guilds were at the pinnacle of power and mostly owned by heirs of top families.

He needed reputation and money to obtain this, but he was currently unknown. He was confident he could earn enough money through selling technologies from the mechs, but influence was the hardest to gain as he was a nobody.

"Wait, maybe if I reveal my identity as Faceless... I could do this," Victor frowned as he had a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Victor..." suddenly a panicked voice snapped him out of his thoughts when he saw Amber flying toward him with ice wings.

"What happened?" Victor asked with a frown, and the next moment, when he heard her words, his eyes widened in shock.

Amber said through gritted teeth, "My bastard father is dead and became an undead."