Chapter 177
Once I started rampaging within the enemy’s formation and the Black Tiger and other monsters above level 4 supported, the mermaids’ advancing speed noticeably decreased.
In a state where their morale was cut down quite a bit, the only thing left was a battle of stamina.
"Kuooo!"
"Kyaak!"
The sound of monsters roaring and screaming, the sound of bodies being sliced, the sound of blood splattering, and the sound of spears and swords being broken could be heard.
Even during all this the low level monsters steadily narrowed the encirclement so that the mermaids couldn’t escape.
However, it seems the difference between individuals couldn’t be helped because I could see the number of green dots disappear rapidly on the minimap.
I clenched my teeth and swung the sword.
The mermaids sacrificed their weapons again to block the Aura Blade.
Once an attack got deflected, the monsters on our side got killed in droves in that short time.
On top of that, these guys maintained a considerably high level of battle strength even without their weapons.
"Huuong!"
A Mermaid Fighter ripping off a Giant White Tiger’s leg was seen in the corner of my eyes.
d.a.m.n.
Hundreds of my side’s monster army died in the time I killed dozens of mermaids.
Most of them were low level monsters but I can’t say that it didn’t have an effect.
The only place that had the advantage was the location I was rampaging at.
However, since there were quite a few mermaids dying at my hands I think it should be possible to win this battle of stamina eventually.
We were slowly raising the flag of victory when a giant wave came from the ocean.
It was a wave that reached 5 meters which was pretty much at the same level as a tsunami.
"Kuk!"
I tried to escape the range of the wave while making the monster army retreat to the back.
However, no matter how quickly I move, there was no way to bring the monsters out while in the middle of battle.
"Ahhh!"
A few civilians who were holding their phones stubbornly got swept up in the wave together with the monsters. I hurriedly took my distance from the wave and confirmed the situation.
Among the 1,700 monsters that were alive, a third got swept up in the wave.
This was a much larger loss than I imagined. Even though land monsters have powerful bodies, it wasn’t like that would benefit in water as well.
The monsters that got swept up by the wave started getting annihilated by the mermaids who were adept at swimming.
"d.a.m.n it……. "
The situation rapidly started becoming disadvantageous.
I couldn’t have predicted such a situation. I had started a battle that I thought I could win.
I thought that I would be able to benefit by having America owe me a debt. But at this point the loss was far greater.
Close to half of the 2,000 monsters were already gone.
The thought of why I should block this wave of monsters while sacrificing so much flashed by for a moment.
I hit my face fiercely.
I was a professional hunter. It was obvious to receive an appropriate reward for what one has done.
However, that didn’t mean that one had to weigh the loss and gain in every situation.
You have to do what you have to do.
Instead, you strive for the maximum reward.
This was the greatest compromise I could come to.
Therefore, leading this battle to victory comes first.
Receiving benefit from it comes later.
I sent the neck of a mermaid flying again.
Red blood evaporated after mixing in to the sand for a moment. The severed corpse returned to the void as it was and appeared as a level 7 item in the manual.
I put it through the Golden Ring immediately.
A level 7 Mermaid Warrior appeared as my side.
"Kya kya kya!"
It ran towards the same
I could feel them becoming fl.u.s.tered at the unexpected situation.
"Kieek!"
"Kyaaa!"
Mermaids were intelligent creatures like vampires. They had spear techniques and a clear method of communication between them.
That’s why they were even more fl.u.s.tered by the betrayal of their comrade.
I took the chance while they were wavering to pressure them even further.
[+1,400]
[+1,600]
[+1,400]
…….
I got surprised while looking at the reward points and remembered that the amount of reward points I received doubled as well as the Effort skill got upgraded.
I think it would be possible to add some stats in the middle of battle.
– You have obtained the item Flame Sword of h.e.l.l (7)
On top of that, an item dropped from the mermaids everytime I killed 10 or so. If the drop rate was 1 in 10 when it wasn’t a dungeon, it was a pretty high rate.
Like that, every time an item dropped, I put it through the Golden Ring. I selected the summoned monster as mermaids on purpose to incite confusion.
"Haah. Haah. "
I breathed heavily as I swung my sword.
Even with my endurance that had been upgraded to 650 my stamina got expended in a mere 30 minutes. Attacks using Aura Blade took up that much stamina.
The number of mermaids was constantly rising and each time they were killed their numbers would be replaced. The 300 or so from the beginning was being maintained.
Compared to that, the number of monsters on my side constantly decreased from 2,000 to below 500.
However, the remaining 500 were the elite among the elite. The number of newly created level 7 monsters already surpa.s.sed 50 and the rest were also at least level 5.
I felt like it would be possible to win if the battle continues in this manner.
There was a critical problem though.
It was none other than the fact that my stamina wasn’t infinite.
I upgraded my endurance as desperate as I was.
I used 7000 reward points to raise my endurance of 650 to 750. Even after that there was quite a bit left so I used another 8000. And then another 9000.
I burned a total of 24,000 points to raise my endurance to 950.
I could feel my stamina that hit rock bottom begin to rise up again.
It might be a temporary measure though.
However, the average reward points I got for every mermaid I killed was 1,500. Even if I kill just 10 it’s 15,000 points.
If it’s that much then continuously raising the stat during battle is possible.
"Kieeeek!"
A mermaid rushed forward with its fish like mouth wide open.
I took a step forward after cutting it vertically. I had been moving pa.s.sively until now but there was no need to preserve my strength since I had a method to continuously raise my stamina.
Also, I could gather enough reward points to put into endurance around the time my stamina runs out due to continuous battle.
– Will you invest 10,000 reward points into endurance?
As I selected accept, my endurance rose to 1,050.
Also, another message appeared in front of my eyes at that moment.
– Endurance has surpa.s.sed 1,000 points. Another ability will be unlocked.
– Psychokinesis will be added. An extra 10,000 reward points is needed to activate it.
I checked my stats the moment I saw the message.
From the original strength, endurance, agility, concentration, and defense, a category called psychokinesis got added.
The start was 1,000 points, and it was the ability to move a weight of 100 kg.
About 30 minutes since the battle began dozens of vehicles arrived on the coast.
They seemed to be hunter use trucks seemingly several times larger than the ones I saw at the Yellow Sea. As expected of America, they had a different scale entirely.
Hundreds of hunters poured out from them.
It seemed they got a briefing on the way as they rushed past the monsters and ran towards the mermaids.
The one at the very front was a pet.i.te heavy armor wearing woman.
"Mr. Great Summoner, we will help!"
"The enemies are level 7 monsters! It might be dangerous!"
"They are monsters that are in the database. We are aware of the method of killing them. "
She didn’t have a normal amount of confidence.
Her equipment didn’t seem normal either so I tried opening her profile.
Name: Jane Gray
Equipment: Azure Scale Armor (8), Azure Sky Greatsword (8), Expert Leggings (4), Steel Gloves (2), Earrings of Strength (6), Helmet of Power (5), Medusa s.h.i.+eld (7)
Skill: Great Destruction (9)
Proficiency: 91
Additional Skills: Earthquake, Strikes the ground to cause a powerful earthquake.
Characteristic: Defense squad of the state of California. 5th Special Mission Battalion Leader.
This seemed more than enough to be able to fight the mermaids. The ones following behind here were mostly level 8 as well.
After they joined in, the battle became much easier. It was a bit of a shame that I couldn’t get all the reward points but I was able to get all the items and ores through rapid return and automatic collection so it wasn’t all that bad of a situation.
It was better to save one monster than to receive reward points after all.
We were barely able to annihilate the mermaids after an hour long battle.
The ones I took care of personally numbered about 100. The amount of reward points I got was about 150,000.
Among that, a total of 90,000 points were used to upgrade endurance while 10,000 was used to activate psychokinesis.
The conclusion of current stats is like this.
Strength 750 Endurance 1,550 Reflex 850 Concentration 700 Defense 700 Psychokinesis 2,000
It was a situation where only endurance stuck out like a sore thumb but thanks to that I was able to endure for nearly an hour so I didn’t think it was wasted.
Since these skills used the user’s stamina instead of not having other costs it allows the user to use it more.
I had no choice but to have high endurance compared to the other stats since the level of Aura Blade is much higher than my equipment or skills.
And about psychokinesis.
It should have normally started at 1,000. IT was possible to move 100 kilograms for every 1,000.
However, my Effort skill was currently doubled. Because of that, it started at 2,000.
At this point, it was fine to say that getting another Effort skill was heavenly luck.
I can receive twice the reward by standing still after all.
Also…….
My proficiency became 71.
A message came to my phone.
It was Han Joon-suk.
– Did you close another dungeon?
– Yes.
– It’s said that high level monsters are pouring out at the Yellow Sea. I think we might get into a head on collision with China.
It seems China is starting to feel the heat since dungeons are disappearing one by one.
At this point, the possibility of a face to face battle cannot be denied. If China starts using Baek Gyeong actively then an enormous amount of damage might be inflicted.
The time to open Red Holes was slowly approaching.