Undying Warlord

After Dilan told Kathrine that Old Jeff was ready to start forging and that he was only waiting for the first batch of forging ingredients, she hurriedly completed all the preparations to start mining.

Because they didn't possess any mining tools, they had to use their weapons that were either coated with mana, or strengthened by their abilities.

Dilan helped in a rather simple manner and used [Mana Slash] with the least Units of Mana to cut through the large ore deposits that he could clearly see jutting out of the ground.

Collecting Lumina crystals, Jadetite, and Silver Iron ore was the most important step to start with as Sarah would be able to finally begin concocting the mana replenishment potion while Old Jeff could start testing how the forging process of mana-enriched materials would differ from the usual process.

After Kathrine defeated the Bronze Tier-1 monster, no other monster dared show up. However, that was mostly the case because the monsters in the cavern tunnels were lurking in the shadows, cowering in fear at the prospect of facing Dilan.

Dilan was able to see some monsters in the darkness but he didn't bother about them because most of them were quite weak.

But once a few hours had elapsed, Dilan chose to change his point of view.

They had already gone up and down the street several times while carrying huge bags filled with numerous materials. This was great but far from enough and Dilan felt that they were too slow.

Kathrine and the others acted very vigilant in the huge cavern entrance and expected to get attacked at any moment.

Dilan was glad that they were vigilant but this was only due to the fact that a single Silver Tier-1 monster would be capable of decimating them all.

The Ascenders around him and Kathrine were not at Tier-1 either.

With fear making them take every step with extra care, their efficiency dropped drastically.

That was more than enough reason for Dilan to change his way of thinking once again.

'If they're too afraid to mine the ores without worries, how about I give them enough reason to feel reassured and confident?'

Dilan's thoughts and the plan he had in mind were quite easy.

He wanted to hunt for the next few hours and decided to make use of the deeper parts of the mineral cave as his hunting ground.

There might be monsters that were even stronger than Dilan but this was something he would be happy to encounter.

After all, his weakened state had long since elapsed and he was ready to go all-in once again.

His hands were itching to fight and kill again, which was evident as Dilan proposed what he had on his mind.

"Instead of continuing to mine, we will enter the mineral cave's tunnels! There are many monsters inside but we will kill all of them. I want everyone to give their best! If a monster is too powerful for you to handle alone, team up with your comrades, or ask for help!"

Dilan didn't even mention allowing the Ascenders to stay behind. That was up to them to decide.

It was not an option Dilan offered them but something they had to speak up for on their own. If they were too afraid to fight powerful monsters and had only reached level 10 in order to enter the Gate and help in mining that was fine with him.

However, they should speak for themselves if they were uncomfortable with an order. That was also something Dilan wanted to imprint in the minds of his people- they were free to voice out their concerns and share their opinions.

As long as it was not an unjustifiable reason he would listen to them.

But oddly enough, none of the Ascenders wanted to say anything. He did not see fear in their eyes, which was contrary to what Dilan had expected.

'Weren't they vigilant because of the fear of getting attacked?'

He was confused for a moment and didn't realize that his activated title [Beyond the Stars] influenced the minds of the Ascenders in his immediate proximity.

-Allies in the range of 100 meters gain courage through the Title wielder's presence!-

That effect was something Dilan had completely forgotten about. Even right now, he was ignorant to the true extent of the influence a title could have on the people around him.

Being oblivious to the truth, Dilan could only look around in confusion. But there was no reason to feel bad about the behavior of the Ascenders around him.

With a satisfied expression, Dilan told everyone to activate the Lumina crystals they had harvested not too long ago.

Afterward, they entered the first cavern tunnel with equal parts of excitement and fear in their minds.

The darkness was not fully dispelled even though the Lumina crystals had been activated.

That was something even Kathrine couldn't ignore. However, Dilan's confidence reassured her that everything would be fine.

The tension in her body decreased, visibly calming down the other Ascenders the moment they noticed this.

All of a sudden, without giving them any prior warning, Dilan shot forward. He disappeared in the darkness the moment he dashed out.

Following this, one could only hear something cutting through the air, accompanied by squeals of pain.

The mana that circulated through the surroundings slowly became unstable but stabilized the moment the screams of pain died down.

However, the darkness in front of Kathrine and the Ascenders didn't disappear. Instead, it was as if Dilan had just awoken all the living beings within the cavern tunnel that was marked by numerous overlapping sounds that reached them at once.

"Dozens of monsters…no they're at least hundreds and are on their way towards us??" One of the Ascenders suddenly mumbled, shock visible in her eyes.

As her first ability, the young woman gained a passive ability that enhanced her hearing sense drastically. Despite not being prone to fighting, the last two weeks had been more than enough to change her mind.

Many were still unwilling to fight and that was the case even though they knew that Milarn had changed.

Peace was not an option anymore…that was something even pacifists should have understood by now!

Worry could be seen in Kathrine's eyes the moment she heard the noises made by the footsteps of the huge number of monsters that approached them.

But Dilan's disappearance made her feel even worse because she was not able to tell whether he was fine or injured.

Dilan was perfectly fine and completely unscathed. This was something Kathrine should have understood by now. She roughly knew how strong he was and that the horde of monsters posed no threat to him.

Yet, even then, it was as if her gut had been twisted the moment Dilan fought in the darkness, all alone at that!

He returned just seconds after he had disappeared with blood trickling down the Gray Slayer, and a faint grin blossoming on his face as he pointed at the darkness.

"The strongest monsters have been taken care of, the rest is on you guys!" The smile that was seemingly gentle at first glance turned into the sly smile of a devil in the view of all Ascenders.

They swallowed their saliva in fright but readied themselves without commenting about Dilan's way to force everyone to fight.

Facing a numerical disadvantage despite being stronger in terms of the average stats wouldn't determine victory.

One had to pay attention to their team, work together, and make use of their abilities in combination.

In fact, Kathrine was not even able to use her enhanced [Lightning strike] in the cavern tunnel simply because of its high destructive force.

Even if the cavern tunnel was large, the bolts of lightning were likely to hit the Ascenders, who fought in the front.

She would either have to be in front of everyone else and fire her bolts of lightning at the monsters or severely restrict the power of her ability.

Both options were possible for Kathrine with the latter being the most difficult as she had just advanced to Tier-1.

Kathrine had yet to get adjusted to the abilities she received through the Occupation she chose. At the same time, the upgrades her [Lightning Strike] had received were a bit similar to what Dilan had received.

However, instead of all abilities receiving an upgrade in force, Kathrine would only receive an amplification of her lightning-attributed attacks.

This was owed to the occupation she chose, which was also one of the reasons why Kathrine could easily fight in the front without being worried about getting injured!

<Lightning Warrior> a Rare+ occupation that focused on providing guidance to the wielder in fighting close combat using the lightning element.

Despite 'only' being a Rare+ occupation, Kathrine's destructive force was even higher than Pyro's which was a notable achievement as he was in possession of a powerful ability that was perfectly suitable for his Origin ability!

She was the first one to rush past Dilan and threw several activated Lumina crystal shards ahead before initiating the fight as the head of her group.

With the use of the Luminar crystal shards, it was possible for her and the other Ascenders to see the monsters in the deeper parts of the cavern's tunnel.

No hesitation could be seen in Kathrine's movements as she brandished her sword, slicing apart a bunch of Tierless monsters in the blink of an eye.

Kathrine didn't stop at that, rather she kept advancing further, leaving a pile of corpses behind.

The sight of her fighting without hesitation provided the necessary push to the other Ascenders. They tightly grasped their weapon before following Kathrine in a battle against monsters that were ten times higher in number than their entire group'!

"Maybe they're not that bad…"

**

If you want to support me use your golden tickets and powerstones.

You can also visit my pa treon: Pa treon.com/HideousGrain

More character images and nice chats about the HideVerse:

https://discord.gg/EdsDgFVWwZ

Link also in my description.

Do you like it? Leave a review and add it to the library!