48 Book 3 Chapter 44

Pressured by the populace, governments worldwide had no choice but to tell the truth, bringing chaos and fear. Because Peter announced this before the presiding authorities, and because an alliance of the most powerful ascenders formed to combat this issue, the public fully believed in them. Their cause was just.

Consequently, voices worldwide urged their governments to support the alliance in any way they could, and they did. An endless amount of financial support, manpower, and PR from most of the world elevated the alliance into what it was today.

Many top-grade ascenders left their guilds to join the alliance, all for different reasons. Some wanted a bite of the cake that was the alliance, while others felt their cause was worth fighting for. A few crazy ones joined to face the unknown in a search for adventure.

One man orchestrated all of this.

Fast forward to today, minutes before the blood moon, Peter stood atop a watchtower to overlook the battlefield, like last week. The traps, sigils, artillery, and auto-turrets were in place. The last two would last three times as long this time. All Peter did was tell the governments to send the guilds under their control to farm some ammo.

To be honest, it felt quite good to have the powerful countries do his bidding. Fortunately, the weight of responsibility prevented Peter from becoming arrogant and conceited.

A trap going off broke Peter from his thoughts. The horde was imminent. Just then, the mana cannon activated automatically, sending a giant ball of condensed mana into the miasma in a low arc. It disappeared in a blink, moving so fast it made contact with the monsters as soon as it fired. At the top of the cannon, a small spark of mana came into existence in the middle of the U. It grew bigger and bigger, and after ten seconds passed, the cannon fired again.

It only took a few minutes for the traps to deplete. Once they did, monsters poured out of the miasma, rushing at the wall in madness. Up above, a squad leader shouted, "Conserve your stamina; we're in for a long night!"

Potions could replenish mana, so mages didn't have to worry about conserving their resources. Only rangers, warriors, and the like needed to pay close attention to their stamina. This had been the case since the tower's arrival. However, the paradigm changed once they got runes.

If a scientist were present, they would've observed an interesting phenomenon: most top-grade ascenders formed runes specialized in dealing with monster hordes. Indeed, most created runes not to smooth out their builds by eliminating flaws but to deal with the most pressing matter at hand. Only a few had the mentality to plan long term.

There was no right or wrong here. If everyone focused on removing weaknesses, the monster hordes would have been much more difficult. Keep in mind there would be a blood moon every week, and the monster hordes would only scale in difficulty as time passed.

Deep in the night, a few of the strongest ascenders decided to fight the demons head-on. In the center of the team, next to Amara, Dubaku had his arms folded across his chest as countless daggers flew around the battlefield. With his awakened soul as a base, he used telekinesis to control daggers from afar to fight dozens of demons simultaneously.

Unfortunately, using daggers in this way did not allow the use of dagger-related skills. At least, that was how it was in the past.

Deft Hands - Tier 1 Rune

Allows telekinesis to use your melee-related skills.

Remark 1: Stamina consumption remains the same.

Passively increases damage by 1%.

Dubaku was delighted upon seeing his dream build come into existence. Alas, he forgot to consider something. Although he could now fight dozens of monsters at once by using melee skills from afar, it also increased his stamina consumption considerably.

Dubaku didn't give up and decided to go all in. His second rune solved the problem, albeit slightly.

Continuous Strikes - Tier 1 Rune

Stamina consumption is reduced by .1% for one minute for every skill used, up to a maximum of 10%.

Remark 1: The buff's duration is refreshed with each additional skill usage.

Passively reduces stamina consumption by 1%.

To be honest, ten percent was negligible. Only after several upgrades would the rune show its real power. As a result, Dubaku used his daggers to support his allies instead of killing monsters outright like before.

Fighting down in the horde was dangerous. Monsters surrounded the team, and if not for Jason forcing most of the monsters to attack him, they wouldn't have chosen to drop from the wall. There were even a few tier four demons among those assailing him. Usually, Jason would have to defend against attacks of such caliber, yet today he disregarded any thoughts of doing so. His confidence came from his second rune.

One Against Many - Tier 1 Rune

Increases your fortitude by .1% for every foe within thirty feet.

Passively increases fortitude by 1%.

The fortitude stat increased the natural hardiness of Jason's body. As he was a tank, the stat was already absurdly high compared to his peers, and the rune only served to increase the stat further. In combination with his first rune, Jason was practically invincible fighting the low tier demons.

Typically, the defense modifier on equipment would never apply to an ascender's body. Only because of Jason's rune did this rule change. Not only did he have the improvement from Fortitude, but he also had the defense modifier as well. From the perspective of the tower, Jason's body was considered equipment.

The monster horde this time came from the north-east. By using skills to force demons to attack him, Jason reduced the pressure on everyone else. Anyone else would have died in minutes.

Inevitably, it was dawn. While everyone was exhausted, not a single person died. The tier three mana barrier prevented any deaths. Not only that, the tier one mana cannon killed around three percent of the horde. While it seemed insignificant, three percent removed a lot of pressure.

The success this time purely came from the sacrifice of the seventy-two ascenders. If not for them, who knew how many would have died this time, considering Lavos wouldn't intervene?