Chapter 172 - Who Owns This Place (2)

The area around Titan Plaza was the Jeppi tribe’s headquarters as the miner mentioned. The Jeppi were moving around in groups of 20.

It was obvious why the Jeppi were moving around. It was something that naturally happened during wars.

Plundering and rape.

The Jeppis were kidnapping any and all women, from children to old ladies. That was why we could hear women screaming all around us.

“Kyaaaa. Please don’t kill me.”

“Snort. Can’t you shut up? Do you want me to kill you?”

You’re the one who needs to die.

I didn’t even need to signal the others. I took out Goonto’s Twin Blades and shot out Spirit Energy as soon as I found some Jeppis.

My accuracy with the Spirit Energy has gone up as I continued to use it. Now I could hit everything within 30 meters of me with 100% accuracy.

“Kwaaaaaaa!”

“Rebels! Snort. Attack!”

“There are a lot of them. Call our comrades!”

Beeep- Beeeep-

One of the Jeppi soldiers blew into what looked like a whistle.

I didn’t mind. It meant that I didn’t need to waste time looking for others.

Papat-

My teammates started to move as well.

These past two years together have made the two teams into one. Who would ever expect Dwarves and humans to show such skilled coordination?

I didn’t need to divide tasks for them to know what they needed to do. The Dwarves charged toward the Jeppi tribe while Harrison’s group blocked off any escape paths.

Our numbers were similar to their numbers right now.

However, there was a significant difference in skill. I guess I should say that they were no match for us?

Each Jeppi monster was over level 300, but how could they compare to Goonto and the Dwarves? This group of fewer than 20 Dwarves could probably wipe out the Jeppi tribe alone if they wanted to do so.

Harrison’s group was made up of the Batoru Kingdom’s most skilled individuals as well. He had gathered the best people to turn into Knights of the Sun.

In other words, they were the true strength of Harrison and the Batoru Kingdom.

Each of them were easily over level 500.

It was to the point that I didn’t even need to summon the Stone Elves.

I was relieved. I wanted to save them if possible. They needed a long period of rest because they were seriously injured in the battles against the Demons.

But the Jeppi tribe had a hidden card up their sleeve as well.

‘Take a look at them!’

It was a Demon Cave scroll.

Well, I guess it wasn’t a hidden card. I already knew about the fact that the Jeppi could use Demon Cave scrolls like the people from the Church of the Sun.

But it wasn’t very dangerous. The Demon Cave scrolls that the Church of the Sun had ranged from low level to high level, however, the Jeppi tribe’s Demon Cave scrolls were all less than level 200 caves.

The Jeppi were almost instantly defeated.

“Let’s head to High Village right away. Our first priority should be rescuing the citizens.”

I did not hear anyone oppose my decision. The Dwarves just enjoyed fighting while Harrison’s group wanted to quickly take care of things so that they could climb the Peria Mountain.

However, there was an exception.

It was someone whose existence I could not ignore.

“I will return to Avanguarde.”

It was Kaicher.

I remember the story from the game.

Kaicher had ended up dying in my hands. I also had to kill other NPCs related to Kaicher a few months later. That included a pair of young siblings who were extremely innocent. They were the children of the Archbishop who followed Kaicher as if he was their father.

I had no choice. That was the quest that had been forced on me.

[Obliterate the descendants of the Ares Temple’s Archbishop.]

I can’t even explain how terrible that felt even though it was just a video game.

This was how that terrible incident had started.

The Jeppi tribe’s invasion.

The Ares Temple’s thorough opposition.

The death of the Archbishop.

Kaicher’s anger after confirming the Archbishop’s death too late.

The Archbishop was a father figure for Kaicher who had grown up as an orphan in the Ares Temple. No, he was even more important than his biological father. He was almost like a god to Kaicher.

That was why Kaicher would have been unable to control his anger.

He had immediately run out of the temple to fight against the Jeppi tribe. He had defeated thousands of Jeppis by himself.

He wasn’t pushed back in the process. He had let out a ton of power as he massacred the Jeppi tribe.

He ended up going crazy in the process. That was when Kaicher, the Warrior of Light, had changed to Kaicher, the Crazed Warrior.

In the game, I didn’t know about that fact and had no choice to kill Kaicher who was trying to kill me for no reason. The descendants of the Archbishop who found out I killed Kaicher then tried to kill me to get revenge.

The same thing could repeat itself if Kaicher went to Avanguarde on his own right now. No, I’m certain that would happen.

I need to stop him.

But it wasn’t like I could set aside the things here and head to Avanguarde first.

The story had twisted already, so I had no way of knowing what was going on in Avanguarde right now. I might end up having to fight vicious battles for a long time without being able to leave.

Then this place became an issue.

Now that we fought against them once in Titan Valley, thousands of Jeppi tribe members will soon return here. Then High Village will be in danger as well.

“There is still some time left to the contract.”

“This is a time of war. The safety of the Temple is the top priority for a priest.”

Kaicher glared at me as if he was trying to show me his will.

“Then you have to think things through properly. Please give me some time. Then we will resolve the issues here and go with you to Avanguarde. I will make it so you can make it to the Avanguarde temple within four days. I promise.”

Kaicher’s eyebrow twitched.

This was probably a better deal for him as well. His heart probably wanted him to head to Avanguarde right away because he was worried about the Archbishop, but he would not be able to handle hordes of Jeppi tribe members on his own.

Kaicher made a logical decision fitting for a priest of the Ares Temple.

“Four days.”

Then we needed to hurry.

Honestly speaking, I was as desperate as Kaicher. It would be beneficial for me if the Archbishop didn’t die as well.

Of course, there was a high chance that he was already dead.

“Let’s go.”

We quickly headed West toward High Village.

We ran into some Jeppis along the way, but that was terrible news for them rather than us. It was because they were always in small groups. We saw some in groups of five while the largest group we saw was a group of 30.

Such hordes continued all the way until High Village. We probably hunted over 1,000 of them by the time we got to the entrance of High Village.

We stopped on a hill overseeing High Village for a moment. In front of us was a decently high wall covering High Village with thousands of Jeppi tribe members underneath it.

The battle was still going on.

High Village was holding firm even with the Jeppi tribe’s constant attacks.

However, the casualty count was high.

It was because of the Jeppi tribe’s long-distance weapons. People on top of the wall continued to fall one after another.

Seeing that made me more desperate. I’m sure that some of those people who were dying were people close to me.

I was especially worried about the miners from the Northern Mines. They would have all evacuated to High Village and those healthy and strong miners were probably helping out to guard the place.

Beyond that, I needed to lessen the casualty count for my side. Only then would our counterattack be as strong as possible.

“Bernard! We’re going to plow through. Please use an AOE spell to make a path for us.”

Bernard responded to me with his actions. His fingers started to move as he chanted a spell.

It felt chilly for a moment and I heard some rumblings along with some flashes of light.

Flash! Flash!

It was a thunderstorm. A huge one that was over 50 meters wide.

The pros and cons of AOE spells are obvious. You can attack many targets within the range of the spell all at once, but the damage was not high.

It was naturally not enough to kill the Jeppi tribe members.

But this was enough. The injured Jeppis were all shaking from the shock. It would take them at least one minute to get over the shock and their strength would plummet during that time.

“Please keep it going. Let’s go everyone!”

I ran ahead of everyone.

The rest of them got into formation without my having to give any commands. Dwarf Goonto and Dark Elf Rohas supported me to my left and right while the other Dwarves stuck right behind me.

That was enough to create a path through the Jeppi tribe.

Harrison’s group made the path even wider and the magicians and civilian soldiers who met up with us followed through there.

“Snort. Block them!”

“We can’t let them merge together! Snort.”

The Jeppi tribe did their best to block our way.

Although they lacked the fighting strength, they were at least at the Dwarves’ level when it came to belligerence. None of them feared death as they charged toward us.

However, a battle was not something that could be won with will alone.

In fact, I was very happy to see them moving that way.

No matter how they gathered together, they wouldn’t charge as stupidly as a horde of animals. They needed a decent amount of space to move.

It was the perfect setting for me to run wild. I used Combo to my heart’s content as I massacred the Jeppi. I even managed to kill two or three of them with a single slash at times.

That allowed me to have an 80-hit plus combo in less than ten seconds, creating new records for combo without meaning to do so.

105-hits, 106-hits, 107-hits……

<You created a new combo record with 109-hits. You received 1 bonus state and your fame has increased by 5 as a reward.>

“Kwaaaaaaa!”

The only thing I could hear was the screams of the Jeppi.

There was no way people on the walls would not be able to see this. I could hear voices as I approached the gate.

“It’s Kang Hwi Ram-nim. Open the gate!”

Ggggggg-

The gate made of steel slowly opened.

The walls looked very thick. No wonder the Jeppi could not get through it.

“Hurry up and go in!”

I continued to use combo around the castle gate.

“Hurry up and go in! Run as fast as you can!”

Goonto and the Dwarves helped me keep the path open for people. Harrison’s group must have felt some responsibility as well, as they helped the Dwarves with getting the civilian soldiers safely inside first.

“Hurry up and go. Run!”

The magicians and civilians made it through the door. Jul Goo, Eruni, and Chief made it inside as well.

Next was Harrison’s group, then Goonto and the Dwarves before I entered the gate last with Rohas.

“Hwi Ram!”

A familiar voice called out my name. The person sounded excited.

The person’s face was even warmer. It was Jonnan.

“Senior!”

“Oh no! You have a lot of injuries! Get those treated first.”

I had a few arrows stuck in me. Their attacks were focused on me since I was in the front.

Their attack was extremely tough around the gate.

However, they were not in very deep thanks to my Reinforced Toughness. They were at max 2 centimeters inside.

There was a bit of pain but this was just like getting scratched. They would all disappear in a minute if I used a healing potion.

But I didn’t even need to use a potion. Shione came over and personally pulled the arrows out and used healing spells on me.

Other people gathered around me as she did that.

They were all people who were in power at Titan Valley. Their influence seemed to have continued in High Village.

Their representative was Deputy Mayor Donstar who had a higher position than the mayor.

“Oh, Mr. Kang Hwi Ram! Perfect timing. You also brought such amazing warriors with you. Thank you.”

It felt weird hearing Donstar thank me. I had no desire for Donstar to do well.

In fact, I didn’t like the fact that Donstar was acting like he was in control of High Village.

However, Donstar didn’t seem to understand his position at all. In fact, he made another stupid move. He proceeded to order me as if he was the commander.

“We are doing pretty well guarding the wall, so you should go out with a special team and take down the enemy commander. Based on what I’ve heard, the Jeppi will easily fall back into their factions if the commander is killed.”

He seemed to have dome some research on the Jeppi tribe. He knew the Jeppi tribe’s weakness.

However, the important thing was that I didn’t want to chat with Donstar.

And one more thing.

“Why are you here?”

Translator: Miraclerifle

Proofreader: Borderline Masochist