Chapter 537 - Vs Purita 1

"Not bad woman, when we go back, I'll make sure to reward you." Dreary Traveler spoke with a sketchy look. 

Hera paused her casting to gaze at him with slightly infatuated eyes, her cheeks reddening even though her expression mostly remained rigid. "Y-Yes…" 

Naturally, Rambunctious and Warm Spring were left speechless. They, just like practically all core members of Umbra did not understand which sick deity thought a relationship between these two would be amusing. Especially since one had the body of an undead being... 

Personal relationsh.i.p.s aside, the battle against the Fortitudo Kingdom was going quite well, similar to the battle at the Megane Empire. 

Here, Fitter Cleric, Slim Fatty, Tunder Power, and Keira took the field. 

｢Luckmancer - Statistical Class (Rank 3) 

Skills: Lucky Bastard (Passive), Better Luck Next Time (Passive), Karma Keys (Passive), Wish Upon A Shooting Star (Active), Unlucky Curse (Active) 

Exp gain rate: 100% 

Rank up difficulty: 0% 

Class weapons: All staff and unique. 

｢Sword Supreme - Legendary Class (Rank 3) 

Skills: Sword Aura (Passive), Weapon Resistance (Passive). 

Exp gain rate: 60% 

Rank up difficulty: 100% 

Class weapons: Any sword 

Class skills: Any sword｣ 

｢Ranger - Legendary Class (Rank 3) 

Skills: Bow Mastery (Passive), Monster Affinity (Passive) 

Exp gain rate: 80% 

Class weapons: All ranged. 

Class skills: Any Archer, Ranged, and Nature.｣ 

｢Lucky Bastard – Passive skill 

Effect: You are blessed by the Goddess of Luck herself, any activity you partake in has a 30% higher chance to result in a positive outcome for you. Anything negative that may befall you has a 30% chance to fizzle out instead of harming you.｣ 

｢Better Luck Next Time – Passive skill 

Effect: All attacks sent towards you have a 50% chance to be deflected randomly, with a 20% chance to perfectly reflect the attack with double damage and surestrike.｣ 

｢Karma Keys – Passive skill 

Effect: The laws of karma are unable to judge your actions, forcing it to register any decision or action you make as good. Your Karmic Luck can also acc.u.mulate endlessly, yielding unpredictable benefits.｣ 

｢Wish Upon A Shooting Star – Active skill 

Cooldown: 3 months.｣ 

｢Unlucky Curse – Active skill 

Effect: Tag a person with an unlucky curse, giving them the <Luckless> status effect which halves their Luck temporarily, reducing the quality of drops as well as variable chances of success. 

Duration: 1 day 

Cooldown: 1 day.｣ 

｢Sword Aura – Passive skill 

Effect: You are no longer limited to close-range battle. As a Sword Supreme, you have connected heart and soul with your weapon, allowing you to infuse it with your sword energy to unleash devastating mod-long range attacks in the form of waves.｣ 

｢Weapon Resistance – Passive skill 

Effect: As a sword user of the highest order, you have mastered the ways of your forebears, allowing you to overcome the limitations of your blade. Being a Supreme of the sword on the main plane, it is impossible for typical swords or sword-using persons to be able to harm you. Damage from all sword/blade related skills and techniques are reduced by 70%.｣ 

Effect: As a Legendary-tier archer, you have attained knowledge about all types of bows and have completely mastered all bow-related techniques. You can use any type of bow without suffering penalties, and each sub-type of bow will yield extra special effects when wielded by you.｣ 

｢Monster Affinity – Passive skill 

Effect: As a Ranger, you are one with the wild. All wild monsters feel a strange closeness with you and are easier to tame, as well as much more reluctant to harm you unless hurt first.｣ 

The battlefield on this front was quite hot, but with Slim Fatty taking charge, it was also quite straightforward. Seeing such a beautiful woman with a shapely form swing a sword that was almost twice the size of her body was quite the sight. 

From the way she was swinging her weapon, one would think it was quite light.  However, if she dropped the sword right now, it might cause a small crater. Draco had packed it with all the heaviest and densest metals he could find to the point that apart from Slim Fatty, only he and Local Lord would be able to lift such a sword by using their Inheritances. 

As such, whenever the valiant woman slashed any foes, even a full-plated paladin would find their defenses shattered and their bodies either crushed to paste or bisected. 

Trying to block or parry an attack from Slim Fatty was the equivalent of being tied up on the ground and seeing a falling cow about to land on you. Either way, you would not be feeling good afterward, assuming you were even able to feel anything at all afterward. 

As if the heavy Swordblade she wielded in her hands was not enough to turn her into a s.e.xy grim reaper, Slim Fatty also had four different swords orbiting around her, courtesy of the Rank 3 Sword Supremacy passive, attacking on their own. 

They zipped around the battlefield, slicing and dicing any opponent they could find. Each of them dealt the same amount of damage as if Slim Fatty herself wielded it and as a Rank 3 fighter, no one here was her match. 

What was even worse about Slim Fatty was her new Sword Aura passive skill, which allowed her to launch sword waves with each swing. While she relied on heavy force and technique to control the sword in her hand, those that flitted around were like zoner-type characters in fighting games, just launching attacks from afar. 

Fitter Cleric stood beside her calmly, holding the Pandora's Box in hand. He used it to make his auto-attacks unpredictable though they were often not strong enough to one-shot enemies despite also being Rank 3. 

He then used the Metronome skill of the item to acquire random active abilities from variable classes. As Fitter had high Luck and various class passives like Lucky Bastard that boosted his chances, he always ended up with powerful skills. 

He even managed to acquire the Dragon Knight's Dragon Form skill, but didn't activate it because he looked down on them. After all, if that fellow Essence Stalker seemed to like it, how could it be anything good? 

If Essence was here, it was likely he would teach Fitter a lesson for such rebellious thoughts, but fortunately for the Luckmancer he wasn'T. As Such, Fitter was free to stand in one place and turn the entire battlefield into a mini-Armageddon. 

For Tunder, it was far more straightforward. His months of exploration had given him intense survival skills and superior senses, allowing him to make decisions that were incredibly astute in battle. 

He now had a dire bear as his companion, which he let stay around him to protect his body. In the meantime, he was using a powerful longbow to fire shots at his targets. The special effect he received with longbows was an increase in shot speed. 

Now, they looked less like projectiles fired from human hands and more like projectiles from a .50 cal sniper. This wasn't just an estimation, every arrow he fired resulted in a huge bang sound as if he had used that sniper rifle. 

Tunder had a bored expression on his face. With his current level of skill, he didn't even need to mark his targets, his body just moved automatically, firing shots that never missed and always struck weak points like eyes, mouths, or hearts. 

That way, he could quickly get back out into the wild and see what the wonderful world of Boundless had for him. 

Keira was a pugilist through and through, her new Legendary Class allowed her to be a mixture of Kiran and Slim Fatty. Kiran's Martial Artist class was more about speedy attacks and utilizing Qi to overwhelm opponents, whereas Slim Fatty's Sword Supreme class used her insane strength to overpowered her opponents. 

Keira, as a cross of the two, was a strength-based unarmed fighter. She was tall, slim, and toned, making one feel like she was an athletic gym beauty, but once the gauntlets covering her hands struck a person, the lightest injury would result in their entire body caving in. 

In most cases, the people she struck were directly blown into blood mist. Whenever Keira found herself surround, she would simply punch the earth and cave the entire place in, creating a large crater that would swallow all her assailants up. 

Unaffected by her carnage, she would simply leap away and find the next group of enemies to smash. Her face was locked in a calm indifference, the act of killing neither exciting nor disgusting her. She had long gained a severe disregard for life after her years of FIVR gaming, which was how she had eventually gained her nickname as 'Killer Queen'. 

The battlefield at the three weaker kingdoms was already set. With the core members taking part, there was no other end than for those arrogant kingdoms to suffer a severe defeat. 

By the end of the day, they would have to admit defeat and sue for peace, giving up many rights and freedoms to ensure their continued existence. Otherwise, the alternative was to try and survive a siege by Vita Kingdom, and with the strength of their core members, it didn't seem like it would take months, but rather hours to break down their walls. 

Deployed Soldier would much rather prefer to go through with a siege and completely annex these kingdoms as it was far more valuable than some mere peace treaty, however, the laws of war for the Cario Continent were clear. 

Once one admitted defeat, a forceful armistice was implemented and both parties could either privately discuss terms or come to the council for redress. However, the council had limited jurisdiction in this matter when the redress was sought, otherwise they could choose which kingdoms to favor and which ones to discriminate. 

Of course, one could not admit defeat and seek redress to stall for time to regroup. The AI had seen a similar thing done in human history and had implemented a countermeasure. 

The defeated kingdom had 3 days to sign a suitable treaty with their opponents, otherwise they would be forcefully annexed by the end of the third day. One did not need a whole week to discuss terms of surrender. 

You have already been beaten and given a chance to be spared, so just bow and accept it. Otherwise, couldn't the opponent just rush in to slaughter the entire kingdom, then take everything anyway? 

On the battlefield at Purita, things were quite even despite the heaviest core member presences here. Boyd, Uno, Cobra, Kiran, and Essence Stalker were deployed and fighting here. 

Despite being the top echelon of the core members, these five were still hounded by their opponents. 

Farfrifa, Fortitudo, and Megane had Rank 1 troops making 90% of their forces and Rank 2 troops making the rest. Their Rank 3 troops numbered less than a hundred and even their king was usually around this Rank, as it was the minimum needed to establish an NPC kingdom. 

Purita, as a kingdom that was on the verge of becoming a low-tier empire, had strength above that. They had Rank 1 and Rank 2 forces aplenty, with Rank 3 squad leaders. Of course, this also meant that they had Rank 4 generals leading the charge, while their pseudo-emperor himself was Rank 4, calmly watching the fight from his battlements. 

The external players here were the most numerous, but they were all too weak to make a difference. Luckily, the army of Vita was broken, with some Rank 3 and 4 captains as well. 

Purita fielded almost 40 Rank 4s and 3,000 Rank 3 forces, while Umbra fielded 32 Rank 4s and 5,600 Rank 3's - not including the core members - on their side. While it seemed like the guild had an advantage, they really didn't. 

Just as Rank Suppression was allowing Umbra to bully the other weaker kingdoms out there, so too was Rank Suppression bullying them right back over here. While their own soldiers could occupy the same amount on the other side, this left around 8 Rank 4 free the charge into the battlefield and wreak havoc. 

They wisely chose to focus on culling the opponent's Rank 3's, as once they could remove this advantage, they would win the battle! 

However, the Rank 4's only got to enjoy this kind of slaughter for only a short while before they hit a wall. 

Or five walls, to be accurate. 

｢Martial Artist - Legendary Class (Rank 3) 

Skills: Dao Heart (Passive), Qi Mastery (Passive). 

Exp gain rate: 80% 

Rank up difficulty: 70% 

Class weapons: Any unarmed 

Class skills: Any unarmed｣ 

｢Vanguard - Legendary Class (Rank 3) 

Skills: Last Stand (Passive), Resolve (Passive). 

Exp gain rate: 120% 

Rank up difficulty: 40% 

Class weapons: Any defensive 

Class skills: Any defensive｣ 

｢Slayer - Legendary Class (Rank 3) 

Skills: Sanguine Infusion (Passive), Blood Control (Passive). 

Exp gain rate: 90% 

Rank up difficulty: 60% 

Class weapons: Any small 

Class skills: Any assassin｣ 

｢Maverick - Legendary Class (Rank 3) 

Skills: Steady Mind (Passive), Berserk Aura (Passive). 

Exp gain rate: 100% 

Rank up difficulty: 50% 

Class weapons: Any large 

Class skills: Any berserker.｣ 

｢Lord of Space – Legendary Class 

Skills: Void Manipulation (Passive), High-speed Movement (Passive). 

Exp gain rate: 70% 

Rank up difficulty: 80% 

Class weapons: Any cold. 

Class skills: Any dragon, space.｣ 

｢Dao Heart – Passive skill 

Effect: As a Martial Artist destined to become a supreme cultivator, your heart and will are firm beyond measure. You are now immune to mental backlashes during cultivation, can no longer accrue heart demons, and won't fall under any illusions.｣ 

｢Qi Mastery – Passive skill 

Effect: After cultivating for so long, your mastery of the innate energy of the body, Qi, has reached the pinnacle. Cultivation speed increased by 30% and the quality of your Qi is improved by 25%. Your skills and techniques use 15% less and you yourself become more resistant to Qi attacks.｣ 

｢Last Stand – Passive skill 

Effect: If you are the only tank within an area of 100 meters and have less than 30% HP remaining, all your stats are increased by 20% and your skills have no cooldowns.｣ 

｢Resolve – Passive skill 

Effect: A Vanguard stands before all others on the battlefield, acting as their shield and guiding light. During large-scale battles, the more enemies that engage you directly, the higher your defense becomes. Each enemy increases defense stats by 0.1% and has no cap.｣ 

｢Sanguine Infusion – Passive skill 

Effect: After killing an enemy, you drain all the blood in their body to restores your Hp by 10% of their total while they were alive, and you permanently steal 0.0001% of their stats.｣ 

｢Blood Control – Passive skill 

Effect: As a Slayer, you have the ability to control the blood of others as well as your own. You can freely manipulate large volumes of dead blood to form weapons, avatars, etc. You can also slightly manipulate living blood still flowing in the veins of another, disrupting their blood flow or causing many circulatory problems to your foes.｣ 

｢Steady Mind – Passive skill 

Effect: As a Maverick, you have the ability to go berserk at any time, as well as perform great destructive acts that harm yourself and the enemy. After experiencing this for long periods of time, you have now gained the ability to fully retain your senses during your rage.｣ 

｢Berserk Aura – Passive skill 

Effect: When in battle, you radiate an aura of craziness and rage. All allies benefit from a 10% increase in their speed, damage, and defense, while enemies cowed by your aura lose 10% of their speed, damage, and defense. Once per battle your allies will be able to enter a short berserk state that will increase all their stats by 30% for 10 seconds.｣ 

｢Void Manipulation – Passive skill 

Effect: As the Lord of Space, you are now able to control the element without entering your Dragon Form. The space within 100 meters of your body is your permanent domain, and all space-element-related skills and techniques are 40% stronger.｣ 

｢High-Speed Movement – Passive skill 

Effect: Space is just the flow of the world, never static and always changing. You now have the ability to walk through folds in space, moving through shortcuts in the very essence of reality to achieve movement that is instantaneous in the eyes of space-locked creatures.｣ 

When these five entered the fray against the Rank 4s, the situation changed greatly. Uno charged towards two Rank 4 foes and used his aggro-attracting skill, Anguished Roar, to force them to attack him. 

At the same time, Boyd moved from behind Uno and unleashed a barrage of heavy attacks with his two poleaxes. Roaring like a wild beast, he directly entered berserk and began cutting up his foes like they were meat in the butcher house. 

Kiran also took two opponents head-on, circulating his Noble Energy and Inner Force to fight them. As he had no choice to the various suppressions, he activated both of his Gates of Opening and Healing, fighting furiously while he was at it. 

Cobra chose to prey on two other targets, weaving in and out of invisibility to strike them. Even though these Rank 4s were truly powerful enough to sniff him out and react, they were still rendered helpless when Cobra used his new skill to upset their blood flow, which always made his attacks land. 

And then, there was Essence.