Leveling Up Through Eating

Chapter 440: The Ones that Gathered

[Except for the war that Joy Co. Ltd. has set up, this is the first time that I have seen a large-scale war like this. I have no words for the overflowing majesty of these 50,000 strong troops.]

50,000 troops! This staggering number was enough to make a sea of black! On the other hand, Valhalla Fortress’ surviving troops numbered less than a tenth of their enemy troops. Plenty of people inside the fortress, including Genie, felt their breath stagnate at the sight. The huge army in front of them was enough to make their skin crawl. However, they could not retreat.

Centurion Park remembered how Minhyuk gave him the opportunity to see his mother, the person that he wanted to see for the longest time. The commander of the mage corps, Golden Mage Ali, also remembered how Minhyuk approached him with sincerity and befriended a loner like him.

Lucia, the assassin of the moon, grabbed her dagger tightly with her allies standing behind her firmly. She joined Let’s Eat Sect with these people, her guild members, right after the hunt for Vormon. She remembered how Minhyuk instilled new values in her, making her reign in her pride and arrogance. She also wanted to protect him too.

There was also Alicia and the mages of Artheon that joined Let’s Eat Sect. Genie, who liked and cared about Minhyuk more than anyone else. Ghost Spear Ben, who cared for Minhyuk like he was his own son. Aruvel, who was reborn as a best selling author. Conir, who trusted and followed Minhyuk after he saved him from being a chimera. Every single one of the soldiers that stood here.

Genie addressed all of these people, “We will not let this place be taken away.”

The fear that stemmed from facing the 50,000 troops in front of them only appeared for a brief moment. It was, however, soon replaced by the thrill of gaining unrivaled fame once they gained victory over these enemies. They could not help but look forward to it.

“Protect Valhalla!!!”

“Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

A loud roar rang from the depths of Valhalla Fortress. Their roar caused the 50,000 troops to be at loss.

“This…”

Loki might be their enemy, but he could not help but be impressed. Even the remaining Pinnacle Strong Men were the same.

“Their king is not present, but they’re still willing to protect him?”

“I acknowledge their spirit.”

“However, that spirit will soon be dragged through the dumps.”

In front of these 50,000 strong troops stood the Pinnacle Strong Men. And Loki was the one that would lead these troops. The moment Loki pointed forward…

Dash, dash, dash, dash—

Ten thousand cavalry immediately rushed forward, which was immediately followed by the Barras Kingdom troops in various formations. Their mage troops repelled the enemy’s magic, while the archers shot their arrows at the soldiers standing on the fortress’ walls. There were also the close combat troops that stuck close to the walls.

Root pulled the strings of his bow tightly as he aimed at the approaching cavalry.

Shwaaaaaaaaaaaa—

Thwack—

Root’s arrow immediately spread out and became forty arrows the moment he let go. These forty arrows cut through the air and shot their enemies’ vital points. The cavalry unit immediately raised their single-handed shield to protect themselves from the arrows.

Alas, Root was not aiming for them.

Fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh—

His forty arrows accurately struck the necks of the horses that carried these soldiers.

“Hihihihihihihing!”

“Hihihihihihihihihihihing!”

The horses shrieked painfully as they fell down to the ground after the arrows struck their necks. The knights hurriedly tried to get up but they saw the arrows turn red.

“Don’t tell me…?!”

At that moment…

Baaaaaaaaaaang!

Baaaaang!

Baaaaaaaang!

…the arrows exploded and devoured the nearby knights.

[The arrows that Player Root released suddenly exploded after getting stuck in the horses’ necks. What an amazing sight.]

[Those forty afterimages of his arrow can explode like that? That’s extremely incredible.]

The explosion not only devoured the nearby knights, it also swept away the cavalry rushing from behind them. Just one attack damaged a hundred of the enemy troops, by either restricting their movements or causing them fatal injuries.

However, contrary to the people’s admiration, Root felt that it was a pity. He thought, ‘If only my arrows could have more destructive power…’

After all, what he used earlier was a ‘skill’. If Root’s bow and arrow had more destructive power, then he would have broken the enemies’ armors and pierced through their vital points without using any skill. They were fighting a war, which meant that they had to minimize their MP consumption as much as possible.

‘I’m still not good enough,’ Root thought, both admitting and regretting the fact that he was still lacking. However, he continued to pull his bow and stop the incoming enemies. There were in fact more people that thought that way.

“Ghost’s Dance!”

Shwaa, shwaa, shwaa, shwaa, shwaa, shwaa!

A powerful force extended from Ghost Spear Ben’s spear, which pierced through the top ranking knights that rode on the warhorses, effectively bringing them down.

‘If my spear has more destructive power then I could pierce through these knights and even kill the soldiers marching behind them.’

They were now at war. The more powerful they become, the more they realized their shortcomings and limits.

Crow, Let’s Eat Sect’s main dealer, fired a ‘spear light’ towards one of the Pinnacle Strong Men, Loki. However, Crow’s spear light attack failed to reach Loki after dozens of knights stepped forward to destroy his attack and protect their commander. Crow looked down at his hands and thought, ‘If only my penetrative force and attack were much higher…’

Then, his attacks would have probably reached Loki. This was the reason why Let’s Eat Sect continued to become stronger. Even though they were already recognized as top players and rankers, they were willing to acknowledge their limits and shortcomings, and strive to move forward and better themselves.

Finally…

[The Barras Kingdom’s 20,000 strong troops have successfully advanced forward and reached the gates.]

[The 30,000 strong troops in the rear are following the orders of the Pinnacle Strong Men.]

[They’re trying to make it into a battle of attrition. As you can see, there are a lot of siege weapons aiming to destroy the walls of the fortress.]

An overwhelmingly large 50,000 strong troops surrounded Valhalla Fortress. Meanwhile, Commander Loki looked at the foreigners that surrounded him. He stood among them, as they looked forward to the walls falling down.

‘The walls will fall down soon enough.’

Loki did not know who was the architect behind Valhalla Fortress. However, there was one thing that he was sure of, that person was amazing. Even now, their mages were doing their best to use their most powerful magic attacks to deal damage to the walls. However, despite that, they could only deal small scratches on the walls.

‘As long as we continue with our attacks, we will be able to make those walls collapse.’

They also pulled out their siege weapons to further aggravate the situation, in the hopes of advancing further into Valhalla Fortress. Their soldiers started hanging ladders over the fortress’ walls.

Thuuuuuuuud—

Thuuuuuuuuuuuud—

The catapults from behind kept on throwing huge boulders.

Baaaaaaaaaaang—

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaang—

Shockingly enough, the boulders that the catapults launched would fall down unsuccessfully. The boulders could not break down the fortress. It was as if they had collided with a strong and tough iron wall. Only their allies were dying.

“They think they can last long, huh?”

This war might take a day, two days, four days, or even a month. In this long and tedious war, these walls would definitely not last that long. And there were even 50,000 strong troops sticking on these walls!

Among these troops, 10,000 of them were foreigners, and the one leading them was none other than Brad, ‘The Dungeon Butcher’ and one of Korea’s top ranking players. He had been working under wraps up until now, but his power was known to rival even Let’s Eat Sect’s strongest rankers. That was the reason why he was tasked to lead the foreigners during this war.

“Foreigner soldiers, climb the ladders!!!” Loki cried loudly.

Brad, who was nearby, could only smile bitterly as he thought, ‘Do you want to minimize the damage to the NPC troops by using the players as vanguard?’

However, it did not really matter to Brad. He had already expected their strategy to be like this. It was only natural that they took better care of the NPCs than the foreigners.

The members of Let’s Eat Sect were moving busily on the walls as they destroyed the ladders that unfolded all over the place. While doing so, Genie recalled the conversation that she had with Minhyuk before.

‘This is a method that you can also use during the war.’

Although Minhyuk was not present, they had already talked about a lot of things before. Back then, Genie thought that Minhyuk was a genius. Genie stepped forward to enact one of the strategies that he had told her before, bringing a huge commotion to the people below.

“Are you trying to surrender?” Loki smiled in victory. In fact, everyone had the same idea as him. However, instead of surrendering, Genie just raised an unknown onion in the air.

“…?”

“…?”

“…?”

“…?”

“…?”

‘Why did she suddenly lift an onion? Is that some kind of onion bomb?’

Just when everyone was wondering what it was about, Genie shook the onion in her hand as she looked around until she found Brad and shouted, “Brad! How about coming to our side and killing the troops around you?”

“…”

Brad remained silent at her words.

‘Has Genie gone crazy?’

When this thought flashed in his head, Genie threw the onion to Brad. Brad, who unconsciously caught the onion, looked at it in doubt. Loki looked at Brad with a smile and thought, ‘Is she a nutcase? You suddenly want them to go on your side?’

Just like Loki, the players and the soldiers in the vicinity all thought the same thing as they looked at Brad, who gulped dryly as he looked up at Genie.

The truth was, Genie was making a bet. She said, “If you side with us now, then I will add two more of that. With every centurion that you kill, you will get onions, green onions, and garlic. One per kill. Each person can get as much as ten of each ingredient in total.”

“Bwahahahahahahaha! You’re crazy!” Loki burst into laughter.

‘Does she really think that they would betray their allies for an onion?’

They were aware of the bountiful rewards that they would get from the Barras Kingdom quest.

Brad smirked. Those that looked at him thought that he was smiling because he thought the same. Not long after, he looked up at Genie while grabbing his sword firmly. His skill ‘Death Wind’ was about to be cast. This was Brad’s strongest AOE attack skill, a skill that could cut down each and every enemy that they passed by. It also had a death energy that would deal an additional 1,000% attack to the enemies that it passed by.

Finally, a huge wind wrapped around Brad’s sword. However, although unbelievable, the direction that he was pointing his sword at was not at Genie, but towards the enemies that surrounded Valhalla.

Shwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—

A huge blade of wind cut down hundreds of his so-called allies. But it did not end there, a strong power of death devoured them and led them to their deaths. Then, Brad said, “I’ll even willingly suck up to you. Long live, long live Let’s Eat Sect! Long live!”

Brad, who was their enemy just a few seconds ago, had defected to Let’s Eat Sect’s side, and even went so far as to ‘suck up’ to them. This was because the onion that Genie gave to Brad was none other than the ‘Ingredient Heaven’’s onion, one that could permanently raise stats.