Ch.7878. Legion of Avengers: Field Test (3)

As soon as my order was given, the soldiers pushed their shields forward with all their might, shaking off the monster soldiers that had been clinging to them.

THWACK!

“Gaaack!”

CRUNCH!

Having been struck with full force by metal chunks weighing dozens of kilograms, the enemies couldn’t escape unscathed even with helmets or padded armor designed to withstand impacts.

At least one body part was definitely broken for each of them, most were pushed back and collapsed to the ground, and some who took direct hits died instantly from crushed vital points.

During this brief moment gained through the surprise attack, the soldiers slightly parted their shield wall and extended their spears halfway through the gaps.

This formation, reminiscent of a hedgehog or a pike phalanx, might seem ineffective against these suicidal attackers, but… that couldn’t be further from the truth.

[Everyone, infuse your spears with mana!]

Following my instructions, the soldiers channeled mana into their spears, causing a red light to swirl around the spearheads.

As time passed and more mana was infused, the red glow gradually intensified. Just as the monster soldiers who had been pushed back were regrouping and preparing to charge again—at that very moment.

[—Fire!!]

The moment the command was given, beams of red light shot forth from the mana-infused spearheads protruding from the shield wall.

Unlike the operation of early rifles, there was no sound during discharge and no recoil from the projectiles, but… the destructive power far surpassed that of mediocre gunpowder weapons.

The 500 red beams fired from the spearheads penetrated everything of moderate durability in their path.

In an instant, most of the monster soldiers who had scaled the fortress walls were turned into honeycomb-like corpses and vaporized. Barely a tenth survived, and even those were in poor condition.

This display of firepower, powerful enough to completely turn the tide of battle, was a means to compensate for the armored infantry’s characteristic lack of ranged capability.

Specifically, it was a basic ability of the weapons used by the Avenger Legion and our Blood Warriors—an extremely simple mechanism that just gathered mana and fired it.

Since it was pure mana being fired, it couldn’t be blocked by magic resistance, and its range was quite good, making it more useful than mediocre ranged weapons.

Of course, this attack method, with firepower equivalent to a decent 2LV high-tier attack spell, was far from something that could be recklessly fired at will.

The issue wasn’t mana shortage, as mana could be recovered through vengeance just like stamina. To be precise, the problem was the time required to infuse mana into the weapons.

Like now, when firing for the first time in battle, the pre-charged weapons only needed about 5 seconds to load, but after firing once, reloading took around 20 seconds.

Therefore, rapid fire was out of the question, and at best, they could be operated like muskets. To overcome this limitation, “I” and I decided to implement sequential firing.

[They’re coming again! First row defend, second row attack! Meanwhile, rows three, four, and five reload!]

In the formation arranged in 5 rows of 100 soldiers each, the front 200 bought time while the rear 300 fired sequentially in units of 100.

The first row focused on defense with shields, the second row supported them with spears from just behind. Meanwhile, rows three through five cycled through firing, aiming, and charging.

[Fourth row load! Fifth row aim! Third row fire!]

These 500 soldiers became a massive grinder, pulverizing the monster soldiers.

Though they couldn’t form a firing line as powerful as 500 soldiers firing simultaneously, even 100 soldiers firing at once was tremendously powerful, easily mowing down hundreds with each volley.

Despite this overwhelming firepower, after about 20 minutes, the kill rate began to decrease.

At some point, the enemies had also formed shield and spear formations, and most were wearing at least chain mail armor, though not full plate armor, but…

[Repeat!]

Even so, they were no match for my soldiers, whom I had personally trained by pouring faith into them while actively utilizing my divine intelligence stat for command.

Their wooden shields in formation were easily penetrated, and the same applied in close combat.

Originally, we could have won by spreading out and fighting in a melee, but if casualties occurred during a dungeon raid meant for strengthening, it would defeat the purpose. We were being this thorough simply to win without any casualties.

After obliterating the heavy cavalry that appeared around the 25-minute mark with a volley…

The additional monsters that emerged were virtually no different from before, allowing the soldiers to clear the dungeon without a single casualty.

※ ※ ※

‘Oh ho… better than expected?’

Meanwhile, at the same time. The main body in the divine realm.

Watching the vampire minions conquer the dungeon under command, I was impressed by their growth rate, which exceeded expectations.

Overall, most had gained a full 10 levels, and it’s better to complete such level-raising work in advance.

The level system in Dungeon & Adventure is quite unique.

It’s easy to misunderstand that rank is a kind of job advancement concept, and that you raise your rank when your level reaches a certain point… but in reality, rank performs the role that levels do in other games. Level is a numerical representation of skill proficiency or physical training accumulated at that rank.

In the game, 1 skill point was awarded per level to learn skills of the profession you had at that rank, so perhaps “skill points” would be a more fitting expression.

Anyway, both in the game and in reality, levels are judged separately by rank, so Bjorn’s level would be displayed like this:

[Rank 3 :: 17LV]

[Rank 4 :: 49LV]

[Rank 5 :: 73LV]

[Rank 6 :: 98LV]

[Rank 7 :: 100LV]

[Rank 8 :: 100LV]

[Rank 9 :: 100LV]

[Rank 10 :: 100LV]

Rising in rank doesn’t prevent you from raising levels in previous ranks, and in fact, the total level increase from the dungeon conquest was only 10 at the highest Rank 7.

The levels of Ranks 8-10 below were already comparable to the late 90s thanks to frequent training.

Leveling itself is possible not only through gaining experience in battle but also through training conducted by learning-type professions (instructors, teachers, etc.), but…

Still, there are inevitably limitations to growth through training compared to actual combat experience.

Anyway, while I was busy working out dungeon conquest routines for the growth of the Avenger Legion soldiers, considering their current state…

‘Bjorn… how should I help him grow?’

At the same time, I was racking my brain over issues related to Bjorn’s growth.

I don’t know how it happened, but through some accident or mysterious event, Bjorn had advanced to become a high-tier warrior and even changed his job to a hidden profession called “Lord of Chaos.”

Upon reaching the high tier, he became able to ignore the shackles binding him and use his power at will, and on top of that, the hidden profession he changed to was far more practical than other trash-tier professions.

So up to this point, it seemed like a perfect outcome… but as time passed, a critical problem that wasn’t initially apparent began to emerge.

Incredibly, this “Lord of Chaos” profession that Bjorn had changed to required three times the experience points of a normal Rank 3 warrior profession.

This meant he needed to earn three times more experience than others to keep up with their growth rate… but even I have limitations on how much experience I can provide.

As a mid-tier god, I can’t create the large-scale dungeons that high-tier players typically use for experience farming, so his growth is inevitably delayed.

Also, I currently have increased fixed expenses in various directions, so I lack the faith needed to continuously create dungeons suitable for Bjorn’s level as I did before.

Therefore, how can I supply Bjorn with experience points?

After pondering this, I decided to stop overthinking and take a simpler approach.

If I can’t create custom experience farming dungeons due to circumstances, I’ll just find the most suitable existing dungeons for experience farming.

Though not as good as dungeons specifically designed for Bjorn’s growth, running through dungeons repeatedly was the basic method of leveling in Dungeon & Adventure anyway.