Game of the World Tree

Throughout the entire battle, even Evé was astonished by how smooth it proceeded.

Over a thousand mercenaries, except for a few lucky ones who managed to escape, all perished beneath the blades of the players…

In contrast, the players side merely suffered less than three hundred casualties.

Among the losses were over a dozen captives, slain by the enraged mercenaries, and a few hapless souls accidentally crushed by the Black Dragon when Meryer landed…

The members of Spider Cavalry all survived, with only a handful nursing injuries that isn’t life-threatening.

It can be said that the casualties in this skirmish were quite impressive.

At this moment, Eve suddenly realized why army’s morale was so important during the Medieval Era back on Earth.

Honestly, even though the players outnumbered the Mercenary Corps two to one, Crocodile’s subordinates didn’t lag in terms of strength.

On the contrary, when it came to high-end combat capabilities, aside from the Black Dragon, the players, in general, were even weaker than the mercenaries.

Logically speaking, under the premise that the Black Dragon does not intervene and players lose their ability to resurrect at their respawn point, the mercenaries’ side should have a higher chance of winning.

However, things unfolded in an unexpected manner.

Apart from eliminating Crocodile, Meryer simply hovered in the sky, intimidating the mercenaries, while the Divine Acolyte, Aél didn’t even joines the battle. Nevertheless, the Players still effortlessly shattered the mercenaries’ formation, as if slicing through melons, and pursued them like a pack of rabid dogs.

Evé saw with her own eyes that some newcomers who had only reached the rudimentary Iron-rank were still bold enough to scream and chase after intermediate or pinnacle Iron-rank mercenaries.

The latter, despite being way much stronger, still dropped their weapons and fled in a panic, before ultimately getting killed by much weaker foes…

“In large-scale warfare, the army’s morale and organization are indeed far more important than an individual’s strength…”

“Unless an individual’s strength greatly outmatches the overall forces on the battlefield, like in the Black Dragon’s case, then on situations wherein the difference in strength isn’t substantial enough, the side with superior morale and higher organizational capacity will usually emerge victorious…”

“Despite me placing more restrictions onto the players’ capacity to revive, they are still fearless of death and unafraid of sustaining any injuries. It can be said that with them not having to mind these factors, they naturally possess stronger willpower and morale.”

“Moreover, with the assistance of the party system, voice chat, and every player having a mini-map widget that provides a wider view of the battlefield, it’s only natural that they possess a higher degree of organizational potential.”

“Perhaps their discipline leaves something to be desired, but when they unite into a legion, a quantitative shift yields a qualitative one…”

In fact, during medieval warfare, there loomed a risk of collapse once casualties amongst the army exceeded ten percent.

With casualties exceeding 30%, even an elite army would be completely crippled due to the disruption of the army’s composition and exceeding the psychological breaking point…

Most examples of decisive battles actually resulted in more casualties after an army’s disintegration, with numerous deaths and injuries stemming from the ensuing chaos or trampling during retreat…

It was the overall collapse of morale that led to organized surrender and large-scale defection in wars.

Of course…this scenario applied exclusively to sentient beings in extensive military operations. It will be ineffective if faced with low-intellect monsters, for example, a group of boars.

If they were to contend against a thousand wild boars, chances are, the players wouldn’t even be able to catch them in a day.

“This will suffice for now. With their current level of combat capabilities, the players can engage the orcs without my intervention. And once the third batch of beta-players all advance to Iron-rank, I can even contemplate on taking the initiative to attack the Orcs instead!”

Evé was notably content with this assessment of the playerbase’s combat proficiency.

With this thought, she generously used her divine power to broadcast the completion of the quest…

【❗ 】

【Crocodile Mercenary Corps annihilated, Quest Objective ‘1’ completed】

【All players who participated in this event will receive ‘5000‘ experience points】

【❗ 】

【27 captives rescued, accomplishing ‘46.6%’ of the task, Quest Objective ‘2’ completed 】

【All Players who participated in this event, will receive a bonus of ‘466‘ contribution points】

【❗ 】

【Random quest: Crocodile Mercenary Corps completed】

【All Players who participated in this event, will receive 10 resurrection coins】

All the Players who were cleaning up the battlefield saw the system notifications in their field of vision and rejoiced.

“Haha! The quest is finally complete!”

“But it feels like the bonus rewards aren’t that much…”

“Let’s just be content with this amount! The real rewards are the EXP we gained from the mercenaries! I mean, 10K experience points per head, and they dropped a lot of equipment too! Just hurry up and scoop them up before others takes them!”

The players chatted amongst themselves, while happily picking up the armor and weapons dropped by the mercenaries on the battlefield.

Over a thousand mercenaries meant over a thousand sets of equipment!

Although the quality couldn’t compare to the items from the exchange store, they were still better than the orcs’ equipment.

Even if the players who participated in this event didn’t need them, they could sell them to lower-level third beta-players!

As for the damaged equipment from the battle, they could be given to blacksmiths to be repaired, and the severely damaged ones could still be offered to the Goddess in exchange for some contribution points.

Such as… the case with Crocodile’s equipment.

Even though it was completely destroyed under the violent rampage of the Black Dragon, it was still a Silver-ranked boss’s equipment nonetheless, and offering it to the Goddess could still yield one a considerable profit!

For a moment, the entire battlefield was bustling with activity as all the players happily divided up their spoils.

However, the area where players gathered the most was in the center of the mercenaries’ camp, where several dozen carriages were parked…

“What’s this? Did the mercenaries bring these goods?”

“Quick, open them up and see!”

The players eagerly opened the crates loaded on the carriages, revealing everyday items that looks like its mostly used by humans, like some luxury goods, and a few magic items with little practical value.

Perhaps they could be used for daily life or decoration, but they didn’t enhance one’s strength in any capacity.

“Tch, I thought it was something good…”

Some players were disappointed.

However, they still unloaded the goods like a group of bandits and divided them up.

Having something was better than nothing, even if it was just a decorative painting to hang on the wall, right?

While players were busily searching for loot, there was another commotion in the nearby dense forest…

Accompanied by screams and pleas for mercy, several terrified humans were pulled out of the bushes by the players who accidentally found them…

Unlike the mercenaries, they were dressed in tattered clothing, emaciated, and appeared fearful and uneasy.

“What’s going on?”

“Who are these people?”

“I don’t know, they were pretending to be dead in the bushes just now, when they were discovered by Captain Box.”

“They don’t seem to be mercenaries… Should we just off ’em?”

“Calabash accidentally killed one just now, and he only gained 200 EXP, not even as much as a goblin.”

“…”

“They’re too weak, ain’t they? Look like regular townsfolk!”

“Huh? Wait a minute… Why do I feel like… these people looked somewhat familiar?”

Anders was on the brink of terror.

Within these past few days, the butler felt like he was the unluckiest person alive.

First off, he went to the farthest town within the Borderland on behalf of the Count to collect taxes, only to encounter a Black Dragon attacking the city and getting kidnapped, before barely escaping with his life.

Afterwards, he had been caught by a group of rude mercenaries…

And those reckless mercenaries had actually decided to target the Dragon and infiltrate its lair!

As expected, the dragon’s vengeance had descended swiftly. That terrifying, evil Black Dragon had brought over a thousand elves along with it and completely annihilated the entire mercenary corps!

Good Eternal Lord above! Those were over a thousand elves!

Anders felt like this world had gone mad.

How could the Black Dragon enslaved so many elves?

What was even more frightening was that these elves, like a group of bloodthirsty demons, showed no mercy and killed all the mercenaries without hesitation!

Not only that, but they didn’t even leave the bodies of the mercenaries behind!

It was too terrifying…

Truly, it was too terrifying!

These people were more like…demons cloaked in elven skin!

Anders’ psyche was on the verge of collapse, but it was his quick thinking that allowed him to hide in the bushes during the chaos and barely escape.

It’s just that… those damn imbeciles! those fool of a companion of his! They actually hid along with him and ended up exposing themselves in the end!

And now, they had become the captives of these terrifying and weird elves!

Lord Eternity above!

Why was his luck so terrible?

Could it be that… he was finally going to die this time?

And at this moment, he heard the elves speaking again:

“Huh? I recognize them. Aren’t these the humans Meryer hired when he came back?”

“Oh, really? So was it them who lured the mercenaries here?”

Hearing this, Anders was horrified and quickly explained:

“Noble elven warriors! I-It’s not like that! It’s definitely not like that!!”

“We’re just innocent villagers! We’re victims too! The mercenaries kidnapped us, and they got information about the Black Dragon from us, and then… then they got greedy… It has nothing to do with us! Definitely nothing to do with us!”

Anders cried and begged continuously.

However, the elves’ conversation made his heart race:

“In the end, it was you who told the mercenaries…”

“Why should we release you? What’s in it for us?”

“Do you have any information to share with us?”

“Do you know where there are ruins or any treasure maps?”

Information? Ruins? Treasure maps? What were those things?

Anders looked bewildered and extremely anxious.

However, just as the conversation continued, the voices of the elves suddenly stopped.

Anders timidly raised his head and saw a male elf dressed as a druid slowly approaching, whilst being accompanied by a regal looking unicorn and a fierce humongous spider.

The other elves made way for him.

“Oh Brother Mu! You’re here!”

“Bro, we caught a dozen ordinary humans. You have the most experience communicating with NPCs. So what should we do with them?”

Brother Mu? Is he the leader of the elves?

Anders was stunned for a moment, then immediately rushed forward and hugged Li Mu’s thigh tightly, while sobbing uncontrollably.

“L-Lord Brother Mu! Oh Great Lord Mu! P-Please, spare us!”

Li Mu: “…”

The Players: “…”

Li Mu looked at Anders, who was clearly dressed much more elegantly than the others, and asked in a deep voice,

“Who… are you?”

— —