Chapter 254: Chapter 253. Different things going on
X'Fall's frown deepened, and his expression dropped. Surely enough, after checking his surroundings, he saw the anger on his minions' faces, as well as the nine Barons seated next to him.
Mentally sighing, he gave up fighting this time. The Sanctuary had won this round.
As for what exactly it did, it was actually quite simple. Through the modifications, the Nightmare Portal would now appear more often, and the number of demons that could pass through was increased by 50%.
For a cerebral devil like X'Fall, he immediately realized it was a pitfall. The greedy Sanctuary wanted more souls, as it considered the human powerful enough to kill 50% more demons every time they invaded, regardless of how many times it happened.
As for the demons themselves, they saw this as an insult and a provocation. Furthermore, the Sanctuary didn't hide the changes but showed them on the screen for everyone to see.
Faced with such blatant provocation, even if the devils wanted to back down since they would end up handing over more resources to an enemy, they couldn't.
Demon society was established on the basis of power. Nobility ranks would be awarded based on valor and military accomplishments in the fights against the stupid angels or through successful infiltration of the Sanctuary.
To back down from this fight would be to smear their reputation. It was an open plot, but they had no choice but to jump into this hole the Sanctuary dug for them.
Sneering, X'Fall motioned at one of his demon generals. Surprised at the order, the general was momentarily taken aback but quickly complied.
This didn't escape the other devils' gaze, as they all sent him curious looks.
[Since it wants to play, let's play! We'll stop using the common rabble in the next invasions and instead use my troops. Let's see if it can still stuff itself with our souls. I'll let it stuff itself to death!](X'Fall)
Hearing the growl of their Boss, cheers exploded among the audience once more.
Satisfied, X'Fall calmly watched the show continuing to unfold. He knew that even if he sent his soldiers, he could at most send two for every ten common rabble that entered the Nightmare Portal.
If he could use only soldiers... Hehe! That Wanderer might not live past the first invasion.
Still, given the fighting prowess the Necromancer has shown so far, it was clear to him that he would lose a pretty significant number of Elites today.
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While the bigshots played their backstage games, the pitiful pawn woke up from his 'sleep' with a start.
*GASP*
Taking big breaths of stale air, he couldn't help but touch his neck. There was no hole, but the feeling of dying due to asphyxiation was still fresh in his mind.
Moving his hands lower, he hovered over his chest, where his heart was beating again. He still had his equipment on, but there was now a noticeable gap in the previously flawless armor.
Sitting back on the ground, he mentally resummoned his Golem and lay weakly on the floor.
"Turns out the Oracles can randomly pop up that bullshit petrification skill behind you as well. What a horribly fucked up experience to go through..."
He tried edging his thoughts in a different direction, but he couldn't help but remember the feeling of being killed.
The worst thing was that he could vividly remember even the rough texture of the spear shaft going through his neck, getting chipped by the bone, and then ripped out by the enemy.
Then... then nothing. His consciousness faded into a seemingly dark place for a few seconds, then returned to whatever he was now.
It made him question if the body he had now was an actual body or a puppet similar to what the monsters in the Dungeons had.
"*Sigh* There was never any mention of a biological difference between the puppets and the monsters' actual bodies. That doesn't make it easier to accept, though."
Opening his MAP, he saw that he was about five hundred meters away from the trap room where he previously died.
Looking ahead, his body instinctively trembled.
"Well... that's not good at all. I need to do something about it before it becomes a psychological trauma..."
Getting up with a tired look on his face, he motioned for his Golem to follow behind.
If he got scared after what he just experienced and let that fear marinate in the back of his mind, then it would fester and really kill him in the long term.
But he had the perfect way to mentally recover right before his eyes.
"Another Nightmare Portal. And it spawned in the trap room. Even more annoyingly, the Naga copycats don't even attack the fucking demons for some reason. *Sigh*"
Checking his equipment, his chest armor durability dropped to 40%, while his other items similarly required a Blacksmith's gentle care.
If there was one thing worth celebrating, it was that the Sanctuary replenished his Healing Potions to a full seven glass tubes waiting to be used.
"Well... here goes nothing."
With some hesitation, he charged into the room. He didn't bother summoning the Skeleton minions back for now and didn't control the Golem either.
He let it rampage independently while its master planned to do the same.
Activating Bone Storm, he charged at the Elite Nangari impatiently roaring at him from afar.
There were four of them left after the previous scuffle, and Michael decided to focus on them first, not wanting to repeat his earlier mistakes.
In terms of danger, the Oracles were the most threatening due to their bullshit petrifying ray.
So, he bypassed the two Longfangs lunging at him with their spears. A feeling of anger filled him upon seeing the blood on their weapons, most likely his.
But he controlled his emotions and used Evade to avoid becoming a meat skewer once more.
Calmly casting Decrepify on the Oracles, he followed up with a Reap, Corpse Tendrils, and directly used Blood Mist to detonate the Corpses and move behind the enemies at the same time.
Seeing the demons calmly waiting and watching instead of joining the fight, a bad feeling arose in his mind. They were too... disciplined.
Before, they were a mere mob attacking him randomly and chaotically. Now, they sat in two neat rows, with four Elite demons at the front.
'Leave that one problem for later. I'll have the Golem guard against them and finish off the Nangari first. Then, we'll see what that mess is about.'
In the fraction of a second his brain was operating and crafting all these plans, the corpse vines extended outwards and grouped up the two Longfangs behind him and the two Oracles together.
Six other common Nangari were also pulled in, but Michael couldn't be bothered too much about them. Instead, he directly used Corpse Explosion on the newly formed Corpses, modifying the battlefield in his favor.
The Minion-level mobs died quickly, and under his focused 'care,' the Oracles soon followed.
In a 1-v-2 against the Longfang Elites, he came up on top without much difficulty, mostly due to his superior fighting experience and critical thinking during the fights.
"At the end of the day, mere puppets can't match with the actual thing, don't you think so?"
Turning his attention to the sizable crowd behind him, the Necromancer received a toothy grin from one of the Elite demons.
It was obvious they understood him, but they weren't very interested in a verbal spar since it would only give the Wanderer time to catch his breath.
Helplessly, Michael used Raise Skeletons to bring back his Reapers and Cold Mages.
Retreating to the entrance of the trap room, he used the bodies of his minions to block the passage, hoping to create a meatgrinder.
As for destroying the Nightmare Portal, he had no plans to do so temporarily.
It sounded stupid, but the fear of death could only be overcome by constantly being on the brink of death.
Philosophy is cute and all, but once a spear passes through your heart, it creates a shadow no words can erase.
That's why he planned to slowly grind down the feeling of fear against fighting with his life on the line, but putting his life on the line while battling against lots of demons who severely outnumbered him.
A suicidal plan indeed, but it turned out stupidly effective.
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Back in the Sanctuary, the Wanderer Representatives showed up in front of a large group of Druids and Mages, curiously watching the process.
[It's already halfway done, huh?](Mira)
[Look behind us.](Celeste)
The women turned and saw a large number of merchants surveying the job site with curious looks on their faces.
No, rather than calling it curiosity, it was more akin to hunger.
[Speaking off, just how much did you invested Natalia? The road between Margrave and Wejinhani is not your regular one. The terrain is pretty horrible, and the distance is much longer than between the other routes we selected.](Beatrice)
[I didn't spend a single gold coin.](Natalia)
[[[Huh!?]]]
[Everything was 'sponsored' by the merchants.](Natalia)
[Sponsored?](Aylin)
[Mhm. Michael taught me this method. It was incredibly successful, don't you think.](Natalia)
[Mhm... After the merchants see this road and spread the word, it would make it much easier to convince them to 'sponsor' more roads.](Helen)
A silence ensued immediately after that, with all the women turning to look at Helen.
She sighed and shrugged.
[I haven't heard back from him yet, even if it's been four days already. It's obvious that the Ring of Communication doesn't work if you are in an entirely different realm.](Helen)
[How do you think he's doing?](Mira)
[This blockhead...](Celeste)
[It's fine, Celeste. *Sigh* I don't know. The Sanctuary doesn't want to give me any details when I ask, but it does inform me daily that he's still alive. The Nightmare Dungeon he entered in sounds pretty difficult. Fortunately, he has yet to die.](Helen)
[Huh? How do you know?](Beatrice)
[Whenever I get the daily 'report,' the Sanctuary confirms how many revives he has left. He's still at 6/6.](Helen)
[That's good. At this point, I'm not even interested in the Regional Progress thing anymore. I would rather have him return safe and sound without that.](Celeste)
[I agree. His ideas are very novel. It would be a shame if something happened to him.](Natalia)
[Then, let's all hope for the best.](Helen)
The group looked into the distance where the chain of mountains separating Fractured Peaks from the Hawezar region stood.
Everyone's eyes turned to Aylin as if waiting for a response.
[I can't say for sure since it's only halfway done, but the travel time by horse and carriage should be decreased significantly. At least half of what it was before.](Aylin)
[Not to mention the decrease in risk the merchants have to take.](Natalia)
[I think that would be the largest gain for us.](Celeste)
[Why?](Mira)
[Significantly less risk means fewer Wanderers hired to protect the caravans. Even if the number of caravans increases as a result of this safe path they can take, the number of Wanderers needed to protect it would still decrease considerably.](Celeste)
[Mhm. I also agree. At most, the merchants would choose elites among the Wanderers rather than selecting a larger number to fend off monster groups. Smaller parties would still be needed since there might be thieves and brigands unaffected by the aura of the Oaks.](Helen)
[Isn't that good news for us? More than a third of our Wanderers are commissioned daily as guards for the merchants. With more people available, we can invest more in the Dungeons. Not only Dungeons, even Strongholds.](Mira)
The other five women nodded in agreement while also somewhat incredulous inwardly.
A small pebble thrown in a lake created such large ripples across their continent.
Instead of dying in the demon realm for some Regional perk they could get, the girls would prefer Michael to return safely.
With a couple more pebbles thrown by the man, the changes would be much greater than a few freebies the Sanctuary could give them.
[This is a good start. By increasing the volume of traded goods, we can alleviate the common folk's needs. With a better 'standard of life,' more children can be born. More children mean more Wanderers in the future. We're not just paving roads between our Regions but paving the road for a better future. At least, that's what Michael said.](Natalia)
[You talk a lot with him, huh? Suspiciously so. Don't you think so too, Helen? Huh!? Helen, what's wrong!?](Mira)
Everyone saw Helen's face pale, and she was having trouble recovering her composure.
Aylin had already walked next to her and held her hand, only to have her face morph into worry as well the next second.
[5/6. Michael just died once in the new Nightmare Dungeon.](Aylin)
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
MichaelCorbett
MichaelCorbett Sorry for the pause between chapters, guys.
Real life has been difficult lately. We'll get back to the normal schedule soon though.
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