Chapter 630 - (2/2) The Raid 4

It had been 6 hours since the Raid started.

What had started out as a tense and exciting atmosphere as the onlookers were ready to watch how the number 1 player would challenge the 1,000 other best players had turned into an event that could only be found on the darkweb, never aired on TV or openly shared on the normal internet.

Why?

Because it was that traumatizing.

At first, there had been hope. When they had respawned for the first time, many roared with defiance at Draco, charging at him to end his dog life for humiliating them in public like this.

This time, he slaughtered each of them one by one. For members of Umbra, he commented on their flaws casually, yet for non-members, he basically tortured them while telling them that stealing a spot from his guild was punishable by death.

After killing everyone with much the same ease, they came at him for the third time, some still hotheaded as they tried to fight, but some others already sobered up as they realized that just throwing themselves as him wouldn't work.

Immediately, they began splitting themselves into raid groups, with a party formation of tank, healer, damager dealers, and crowd controller. Each group surrounded Draco and began taking him on in turns, aiming to whittle his life down.

This method saw them actually achieve something. While the weaker groups were unsurprisingly unable to do anything, the core members were able to deal some damage to Draco each time before they died.

Uno especially was a key element to their success, along with Warm Spring. The hard work of those two kept the core members alive after Draco's onslaughts as they began to get accustomed to his moves.

4th round, 5th round, 6th round…

By the time they reached the 30th round, all enthusiasm had long since disappeared. The non-Umbra contestants had made like Loving Aunt and had left the stage one after the other.

One would have to praise their willpower, but eventually, even the last one, Ao Potian, was unable to take it anymore, shaking in fear and trauma, his eyes hollow and the will to fight completely gone.

After this event, they would likely fade into obscurity as nobodies, the majority probably even quitting the game altogether as they sought therapy to soothe their minds.

This was exactly what Draco wanted. Within the top 10,000 players, there should be none other than members of Umbra!

Daring to surpass them, just giving them some trauma to quit the game was already being kind!

If it was the previous timeline, his group – The Cartel – would have launched an investigation into your identity and removed you from the world entirely, not just the game.

Many great talents had risen in the previous timeline, but many more had been brutally killed before they ever had the chance to reach their full potential. Another reason why the playerbase had eventually been bottlenecked by the game.

The members of Umbra, from top to bottom, were repeatedly schooled by Draco. He naturally kept saving the core members for last, for they were the only ones currently able to challenge him a little.

The Advanced members of the guild had Semi-Epic classes and above. They were able to display some unique strengths and skills, but before Draco it was useless.

He methodically pointed out new flaws each round and would beat them brutally until they fixed them on the spot, before sending them to the afterlife to ponder their issues.

Eventually, they managed to start dealing damage to him too by the 94th round, contributing a total of 15% damage to his life – including what was regenerated – which was not bad.

The Expert members, those like Cold Summer, Maple Forest, and Kicked Bucket, had Epic classes and a lot of skill and technique, just being below core members.

In fact, Draco outrightly stated that the barrier between core members and Expert members had greatly fallen in this time. If any of the Expert members were to be given Legendary classes and gear of the same Rank as the core members, they would be no different.

The reason why they didn't was due to Sublime. Draco gazed at the lolitician with a smile that made her look away while whistling. The Vice-Guildmistress had smartly wanted to keep the hierarchy relevant, so she had only sponsored the various ranks to achieve different types of classes.

While it would be efficient to let any rank try for anything – and Umbra could afford it to some extent – it would birth extreme competition within the guild, something even Draco did not want to see.

Yes, he wanted an elite guild, but one that was like a family, the way it was right now. He would never have trusted them with many of his IRL secrets otherwise.

However, this also stifled those who – while they may not have shone in the recruitment test, had developed like rockets after being given premium resources and elite training/teaching methods.

Of course, there had been outliers like Panty King, Wee Cunt, and Loli King who had managed to not only gather enough funds but also succeeded in Classing Up into their own Epic Classes, despite having a lower rank in Umbra, but their cases were the absolute exception.

Even if Draco did nothing today, Umbra would still remain at the top as long as they had their Guildmaster and the Lady Boss. However, even if the White Haired Duo left to other sections, Umbra would still rule with power for more than 100,000 years in game time.

After that though, it would likely begin to collapse. No dynasty could last forever and going for so many millennia already was a feat that would be carved into history forever.

Draco did not want that!

What he wanted was a dynasty that would last forever even if he wasn't here! Some may say it was impossible, but he knew that Boundless made everything possible!

And so, he would start from his guild members, whipping them up into shape. Then he would deal with his forces in Vita Kingdom and finally, groom his spawnlings of the Morningstar Clan!

While fighting the Expert members, Draco taught them a lot of things. He was also able to separate those Expert members who had risen from the bottom and could climb more as well as those whose talent had reached the limit, though that didn't mean they were trash.

In other words, Draco sorted out those who would rise and those who would remain where they were. None of the Advanced members nor the Expert members had given him reason to demote them, while a few Advanced members looked like they deserved promotion and more than half of the Expert members should be sent upwards too.

They also learned faster, adapting to his teachings and fighting style by the 67th round. They contributed a total of 25% to his damage, with regen included.

And then came the core members. This was the most powerful group in all of Boundless, made up of only about two dozen people in total.

However, not all of them were combat players. Three of them were outright missing from the entire event, Rina, Jada, and Jade, one had been sidelined, Loving Aunt and two were only honorary core members, Gentle Flower and Noble Soul.

So in all, there were 15 core members of note on the battlefield. Each one of them had power enough to shatter the world, yet each one was like a kitten before Draco.

They were the sturdiest of the lot too. Despite the repeated deaths, they never broke down, instead, their eyes became more and more bloodshot as they followed Draco's advice as if it was some sort of holy scripture, giving them strength to endure the pain of his swords cutting them into ribbons each time.

Unsurprisingly, they also adapted the fastest. Draco had definitely hit the nail on the head when he claimed that they had gotten too comfortable with their Legendary classes, however he was also not being completely fair.

The core members didn't just slack on a daily basis, but were constantly adventuring, fighting, or training, while some of them were forced to keep Umbra running while he was out philandering. They used the Legendary Classes to enhance their power, not as the base of their power.

Not to mention, they had only gotten those classes relatively recently, when they had been about to reach Rank 2. They had yet to explore their depths and were only digging out its potential, so their own potential still remained.

Draco could only tsk. He had wanted to demote one or two of them to set an example, but there was a reason why these fellows were qualified as core members, and it wasn't just for their classes.

Their ability to learn and adapt was frightening, managing to completely master Draco's teachings by the 20th round. Everything from there was them continually chipping away at his health little by little as he slaughtered them back and regenerated most of it with ease.

As Draco promised, he didn't use anything but his sword skills and techniques. Still, he proved to be enough of a menace that just keeping up was proving difficult.

After all, if they could adapt and progress, so could he and even faster than they could. The core members ended up contributing 65% of the damage on his HP with regen, making them the carriers of the battle.

The first stage ended with Draco reaching 0% HP after the passage of 203 rounds. That's right, everyone had been 202 times before they collectively managed to bring one person's 10 million HP to 0.

In the field, most of them could deal attacks worth 10 million HP at once, but Draco was like a World Boss. Even the system acknowledged him as such, calling him a General Rank King.

The various members of Umbra were panting, less tired physically and more tired mentally. They were extremely exhausted some of them were burning up in their Virtua Helmets out there as they had overclocked their minds during this fight.

Draco folded his arms and crossed his legs, sitting on the air lazily as if there were a chair beneath him.

"Rest for an hour in real-time. All of you, log off and take care of yourselves before coming back. We will do this each stage to prevent any harm from befalling you externally."

He then turned to Amber who was gazing at him with hearts in her eyes. He smirked at her and spoke deeply.

"Make it happen."

——–

Authors Note: Do you want to go through every stage of the raid, watching as Draco brutalizes the strongest players in different ways to would you rather skip it?