Chapter 28: Duel Between Men (3)

Chapter 28: Duel Between Men (3) On the other side, Arthur stood alone in the wide open fields. Monsters—the same ones on Xu Tao’s side—were approaching him, crawling over the ground, and a good few flying through the air. His armament, a sword, definitely didn’t have enough reach to mow down the flying enemies—normally, at least. "Excalibur!" But as he judged the distance was enough, he shouted. Holding the golden, holy sword in his hands, he then stabbed it straight into the ground. A casual action, as if a king overseeing his soldiers on a battlefield. The next moment, something weird happened. Around him, a glowing hemisphere of golden particles of light spread far and wide. Its edges roughly covered about 200 meters in diameter. But the surprising part wasn’t that, but rather what happened to the monsters who entered the hemisphere’s range. Their grotesque figures... evaporated. Literally. As soon as their bodies touched the golden light, they dissolved into dust, scattering into the air—no, even those dust particles were slowly disintegrated, until nothing remained. Not a corpse, no loot boxes, no anything. "That makes it five hundred... and twelve." Arthur muttered, before eyeing the next batch that was just starting to manifest—summoned through bursts of light in the distance. "Looks like more are still coming... Good. Let my kill count be witness to my strength!" Unlike with Jehanne and Xu Tao’s style, Arthur didn’t even move a single step from where he stood. He just kept still, eyes gazing into the distance. The five extras assigned as his support could only gaze at him—jaws hitting the floor after seeing Arthur’s strength, which was in no way weaker than Jehanne’s. The fight was just starting, and things were already starting to heat up! ???????????? During the short window of "rest" between the waves of monsters, a familiar green figure zipped across the battlefield. Of course, it was none other than Pepe, grabbing the loot boxes’ contents and placing them straight into the third SSR Storage Ring that Xu Tao got. With it, Pepe didn’t need to carry multiple rings anymore—just this one! "P-PPui~!!!" But as expected, grabbing over five hundred chests within the span of one minute was asking for too much. Monsters began to chase after the little gourd, causing it to cry in panic while rushing to where Jehanne was, hiding behind "safety." "Leave these ugly things to me, just do your job, little squire!" Jehanne exclaimed with confidence, swiping her spear around. With her finesse and strength, not a single monster could make it within three meters of her—the maximum range of her spear. It was a wonder how she was doing this while holding the spear mid-shaft. Adding her arm’s length to the extent of the spear, her range should only be around 2 meters at most. But still, not one monster got past her defense. "Pui, pui~!" Pepe didn’t miss the opportunity and seized the loot boxes nearby, collecting them while hiding behind Jehanne. With this, he could gather the loot boxes while on the move, allowing for a much faster job completion. "Heads up!" And hearing Xu Tao’s warning, a few dead bodies fell from the skies—the same grotesque monsters dropping like flies after getting their heads pierced and transforming into more loot boxes upon hitting the ground. The little pumpkin, realizing that its gathering targets had increased, could only cry silently. Xu Tao watched all this from a distance. He, too, was gathering nearby loot boxes in the lulls between waves of flying monsters. But unlike usual, which gave two to three items upon opening, these loot boxes were quite... poor. He’d get one item at most, and quite frequently, empty boxes appeared too. It was weird, since it didn’t align with what he’d already gotten used to... But thinking about how the enemy’s numbers were large, he decided that it was just the System skimping out, splitting the chest contents across multiple monsters instead of just pouring them into one. Of course, that was just his hypothesis. It’s not like he could prove that the System could do that. But in the first place, the "loots" came from the Lost System, so it having the ability to adjust the contents didn’t sound too farfetched. ’What are these loots, anyway?’ Xu Tao wondered. The loot boxes themselves contained a hint of True Qi, but upon opening it, the trace vanished like a lie. Instead, various items appeared out of thin air. It was a normal game system by any means, but Xu Tao questioned that very system. Where did the items come from before appearing in the chests? What about the money? System Points? He was filled with a lot of questions but could barely get any sort of answers. Even while he was lost in thought, his body continued moving, fighting off the incoming flying monsters without missing anything. But just then, he noticed an anomaly. "The wooden stakes... are losing their sharp edge." They were losing their effectiveness and would either need sharpening or replacement. Of course, Xu Tao went with the former. He pulled out his sword and moved each of the spears to fly close to where he was, before circling back. In the short instant he and the spears made contact, he swung his sword once, twice, thrice in an instant, cutting the dulled tip and sharpening a new one—a simple style of cutting in a three-sized pyramid shape, prioritizing sharpness and stability above all else. With the newly sharpened spear, he continued slaying the flying monsters in droves. Minutes more passed, and the fight started to get... rough. "They’re finally starting to feel more alive!" Jehanne growled, her smile nearly disappearing from her lips. The monsters now were getting stronger. As if with each wave, their strength increased by a fraction, compounding with every new wave. "I know..." Xu Tao nodded. Curious, he checked the System Messages he had been ignoring for a long while. Most messages had already decayed after their delay, leaving only a few. One notification, in particular, made him realize that thankfully, the end of the waves was near. [Currently summoned 19 batches out of 20. After the 19th batch is cleared, a five-minute break will automatically begin before the Boss Monster appears.] "Boss... Monster?" Another weird term appeared, making Xu Tao tilt his head. The most uptodate novels are published on fr(e)ewebnov(e)l.com