Chapter 47:

Under the guidance of the vampires, the rescuers split into three teams and finally entered the city. Since the survivors on the outskirts had mostly been led out by the small players, these people needed to venture deeper into the outer city districts. This was undoubtedly a dangerous act. But with over a hundred people brandishing bright torches and advancing under the vampires’ lead in the dead of night, they cut quite an imposing figure. At the very least, those formless spawns of fear lurking in the shadows dared not randomly jump out anymore. These invisible beings were manifestations of astral tainted energy guided by mortals’ emotions. In other words, as long as the collective emotions of fear and despair subsided, the number of spawns would relatively decrease as well. To put it simply, the more you fear them, the more of them there will be. But now, the flickering flames cutting through the rubble and night air of Transia rekindled the people’s courage. In their culture, fire was sacred, just as a traveler’s campfire in the night would always deter evil things lurking in the darkness, preventing them from running rampant. Of course, Murphy and the other two vampires, as well as Maxim and the small players, occasionally had to play the role of combatants. The spawns of despair were merely a negligible nuisance, it was the astral beasts that emerged from time to time to terrorize people that posed the real danger. For the two ladies, Lady Tris and Lady Adele, these creatures that could only hunt in the outskirts were not difficult opponents. But for Murphy, they were quite a challenge to deal with. He was currently at the outskirts of the area he was responsible for, battling a pack of astral wolves. Compared to their physical world counterparts, these beasts were far more ferocious. In their ethereal state, one could even see their inner skeletons, and their eyes burned with a dim glow in the night. Their fangs and claws were imbued with tainted energy, and being struck by them would inflict a minor mental shock. These were traits unique to astral beings. They existed outside the material world, born and raised amid the tainted spirit energies of the astral realm, making them adept at inflicting spiritual harm on material life. The good news was that Murphy was not fighting alone. The astral direwolves he had summoned were also formidable allies, loyal and vicious enough to take a considerable load off his shoulders. The vampire was not using the Tomb Guard Sword Arts he had just learned or the Shadow Elf Secret Sword Arts he had “leeched” from Adele for this battle. Both were advanced sword arts, powerful but requiring time to gradually improve. The Blood Vulture Sword Arts he had mastered and could use in a wild and unrestrained manner were more suitable for the current intense battle. With the direwolves’ cover, Murphy swiftly took down four of the six astral wolves with his sword and hand crossbow. The remaining two, seeing the situation turn against them, tried to flee but were viciously pounced on and torn apart by the ferocious direwolves, leaving only one survivor. That last one fled into the night, but Murphy did not give chase. Instead, he calmly drew the permanently poisoned spirit hand crossbow from his belt. This was one of the few times he had used a ranged weapon, but he showed no signs of inexperience. This was probably due to the Marksmanship Mastery that Adele had imparted to him. Coupled with a vampire’s precise and undisturbed night vision, he easily locked onto his target and squeezed the trigger a few seconds later. “Shwip” With a faint hum, the short but razor-sharp crossbow bolt glowing faintly green streaked out, blowing out the fleeing astral hound’s brain from behind. The entire body flew out and crashed to the ground, quickly dissipating. 【Shooting Skill – Hand Crossbow Proficiency increased, currently at “Novice” level.】 A prompt flashed before Murphy’s eyes, letting him breathe a sigh of relief. He actually had a dwarven hunting rifle taken from a Witch Hunter in his pack, but that thing was too loud, not befitting a vampire’s stealthy style. Moreover, it didn’t match Murphy’s understanding of “firearms.” However, its power was decent and could be paired with close-range crossbows. According to Miriam, these hunting rifles fired lead bullets laced with a special engineering powder called “Combustion Gold,” giving them considerable medium to long-range destructive power. Apparently, dwarven high priests even had a special “Dragonfire” round that could ignite all dark malignancies at close range. Priests carrying large-caliber guns to physically exorcise malignant entities? Very good, very dwarven, very martial in spirit. “Lord Murphy, this district has been searched. We’ve rescued another 37 people. Shall we proceed further?” Black Stockings, his face and armor covered in soot as if he had just crawled out of a coal pit, came running with a report. He was carrying an iron shovel, his standard infantry longsword slung across his back. He looked quite energetic. Murphy glanced back at the crowd behind him. Those men brandishing torches had proactively shielded the rescued women and children in the center, while others were still scavenging through the rubble. Compared to their departure, their morale had gradually recovered. “Fall back to the city wall defenses first. There’s water and food there,” Murphy replied. “Rest for 15 minutes, then we’ll head back in. Also, make note of the most active individuals. Miriam will issue them weapons, and Maxim will recruit them into the militia. Before dawn, we’ll conduct one more sweep, going even deeper and into greater danger. Hmm?” Murphy’s keen vampire senses picked up something, and his ears twitched as he turned to face the night ahead. He told Black Stockings: “You all head back first. There’s a ‘big one’ up ahead!” “I can fight alongside you!” Black Stockings immediately straightened his posture and said something nice, obviously trying to take the opportunity to increase his favor. Murphy glanced at him, his expression gentle as he patted his shoulder and encouraged him: “Wait until later. Your potential needs time to be realized. Precious warrior blood cannot be wasted here.” “Splurch” With a flick of his wrist, Murphy’s quivering swift sword thrust forward, gouging out one of the astral lynx’s eyeballs in a spray of blood. The agony drove the beast into a frenzy, but lacking eyes, claws and tails, it could only await death before Murphy. Two minutes later, Murphy stabbed his sword into the lynx’s ear, scrambling its brain for a clean, decisive victory in this hunt. Besides the sense of accomplishment, there were more tangible rewards: 【Blood Vulture Sword Arts proficiency increased to “Grandmaster”! This sword art’s proficiency has reached the limit and cannot increase further! Blood Vulture Swordsman job level reached 10! This job has reached the limit, cannot advance further. Seek a promotion method. Note! The standard promoted job for Blood Vulture Swordsman is Blood Vulture Tomb Guard. You currently know Tomb Guard Sword Arts, please raise it to “Proficient” and craft a Tomb Badge to complete the promotion. You currently know the Shadow Elf Mejeva Family Secret Sword Arts, optional promotion is: Shadow Elf Blade Chanter. This promotion requires raising the Mejeva Secret Sword Arts to “Proficient” and visiting the Mejeva Family Temple, completing the promotion with the Fate Maiden’s aid. Character level reached 10! “Trial of Strength – Black Iron Body” triggered! Please read the Strength Tiers and Trial rules in detail, then complete this Trial of Strength.】 The long string of prompts delighted Murphy. Though not from regular monster grinding, this intense battle with the astral lynx had undoubtedly allowed his foundational Blood Vulture Sword Arts to naturally break through their final bottleneck. This was not actually difficult, since no matter how complex, it was still just basic techniques. What surprised Murphy was that this elven sword art he had “leeched” from Adele could actually trigger a special job promotion. This gave him a bold idea. Perhaps This foreign sword art could serve as a “hidden reward” for the small players’ outstanding contributions? And if there were hidden rewards, it wouldn’t be enough flavor to not also have a lucky turntable or blindbox package with other cherished items. This “game” couldn’t have pay-to-win mechanics of course, otherwise they might as well put out this supremely enigmatic elven sword art as a VIP 3 membership reward. With these regretful thoughts, Murphy found the details on the “Trial of Strength – Black Iron Body” in his character’s Strength Tiers section: 【Term – Black Iron Body: An extension from ancient elven traditions, this division of individual strength is categorized into stages: Mortal -> Professional -> Black Iron Body -> White Silver Body -> Transcendent Golden Body -> Transcendent Perfect Body/Demigod Threshold. These respectively represent the ancient elven descriptions of life’s strength at different levels. The Black Iron Body can be understood as an ordinary person, through rigorous training and constant battle, mastering their physical form to the utmost and unleashing its inherent destructive power. The purpose of the Black Iron Trial is to challenge powerful foes, unlocking and continuously excavating the individual’s hidden potential. Throughout the entire Black Iron Body tier, the individual will have their potential continuously unearthed, undergoing a powerful reshaping of their life form, before facing the true White Silver Trial of embracing transcendent spirit power.】 “Not bad! Not too hard to understand, and the elves’ division system really does have that game strength system flavor. It’s perfect enough that I don’t need to modify it to use directly as game lore.” Murphy gave this explanation a thumbs up. Then he looked over the details of his own Black Iron Trial, and his expression immediately darkened: 【Trial of Strength – Black Iron Body – Vampire Race Exclusive: Independently hunt and completely drain the blood of Black Iron tier enemies until potential is unlocked, or independently challenge Black Iron tier Elite beings to unlock potential. This trial must be completed solo, any outside interference will be considered a trial failure!】 “Damn it!” Murphy cursed in the darkness: “So it’s just simply grinding higher level monsters? To become Black Iron I have to kill a Black Iron elite first? And it has to be a living, blood-bearing creature? So astral beings don’t count? Crap! In this chaotic wartime situation around Kadman City, where am I supposed to find a Black Iron tier living enemy? Why don’t you just spawn one for me out of thin air? That old saying really is true, reality is a crappy game!”