Guild Wars
chapter-584

Well, it made sense. If Draco could fight it alone, he would have received all the rewards by himself. Theoretically, he could have done so, but even with all his great powers, wicked skills, and mighty items, it would be a tough and tedious job to remove 200 billion HP of such an enemy on his own, which was why he summoned his whole family.

After a few seconds of intense fighting, they had chipped the first 5% off and Draco noticed that an option to conclude the stage had been presented to him. However, he licked his lips and his eyes shined with endless greed as he looked at the humongous experience fountain- *cough*, Sentinel before him.

While not elated, he also didn't mind that experience was wasted on Clarent and Qiong Qi, because on the first ten floors he had gotten nothing back for all his efforts. Here, there was a free bounty for him to enjoy, and it was something he actually valued and treasured a lot.

The Sentinel reacted differently once it sensed that its power had been drained. In truth, the Sentinel's battle power did not just stem from their size of defense, but their HP regeneration.

Every minute, a Sentinel would recover 0.5% of their total HP, so if you were unable to deal that much damage and keep your life, you had no chance of passing this floor without some external help.

It took Draco and his group only seconds to remove 5% with an intensive output, whereas Gavin Guy and the other top fellows had taken days, countless times going in and coming out to achieve victory, instead of taking weeks like those at the lower rankings.

The gap between the top 3 and Draco wasn't as close as people had believed it to be after the foundational floors, but rather exacerbated! Everyone had considered Draco to be weak at his mere Rank 3, but the fact was that the AI had worked hard to suppress him, otherwise he would be able to break the world in time!

The Sentinel was feeling this directly. Draco was unsure whether it was part of the plot of these new set of floors or a feature of the Sentinels themselves, but once it realized that its power was being absorbed by Draco and his group, its eyes were colored with extreme fear.

It was the kind of fear a fish would have when seeing a shark, a bug when seeing a spider, or a deer seeing a lioness. It was the fear of a prey meeting its natural predator, and all its will to fight visibly dissipated as its instinct told it to run away.

Draco guessed it might be both plot and a natural feature. No wonder the player only needed to take 5% off. Once they did, the Sentinel would likely flee, ending the mission of this floor and allowing the trial taker to regroup.

However, the Sentinel was still slowed down by time, so its movement to cover its face from the various attacks alone had not been completed yet, much less the act of turning around to flee in the other direction.

Eva's teeth were extremely clenched as her forehead was filled with perspiration from the exertion. Draco saw this and frowned, deciding to help by using his Subjective Magic.

As such, he cast a powerful mental buff on Eva which reduced her strain, not to mention Hikari's White Light Blessing was also active. The Sentinel which had been able to move a bit, slowly ground to a halt like a faulty gear coming to a stop.

Draco also used his Time Control spell to affect the flow of time around the Sentinel and buttress Eva's effects. He had gained the ability to use two basic spells of the pinnacle elements a day when he had reached Rank 3, and he was enjoying its effects right now.

Now that their prey had been prevented from running away or retaliating, it was time to go back on the offensive. With Hikari maintaining their 4x buff, it meant they dealt much more damage in this duration and all she had to do was maintain it, which she could do indefinitely if there was enough Worldly Energy.

Draco wielded the flaming Dragorugio sword in one hand, its black fire seeming to burn the air around it while he held the Divine Fragarach in the other, the sword swirling with Water and Wind Energy.

Draco began slashing out with both, using his Sword Skill 56: Myriad Slash! Hundreds of sword lines appeared around him, digging into the face of the sentinel before him even before the others could come, leaving afterimages behind each other.

With Fragarach, he dealt more damage than Dragorugio due to its higher power and especially its passives which were still horrifying to this day.

｢Passive 1 - Unstoppable Force: Every attack from this blade ignores 100% defense, including spatial, temporal, and metaphysical.｣

｢Passive 2 - Sea's Blessing: Every attack with this blade can summon the wind and waves, dealing 1,000% water or wind damage, whichever is greater, to a single target.｣

With Unstoppable Force, he could bypass any defensive modifiers the Sentinel had and deal raw fatal damage to it. However, even with this, one would expect the sword coated with Destruction Energy to do more damage, right?

Alas, this was what should be the case, which was why Draco had taken Dragorugio out first. However, this cruel bastard decided to take advantage of Fragarach's passive to attack the metaphysical.

In other words, every slash of his wasn't hitting its flesh, oh no. Draco was stabbing and slashing at its spirit and soul, which had no defense under the constraints of the passive!

No wonder Fragarach's damage was higher, after all, what could be more agonizing and torturous than having one's soul attacked?

On top of that Fragarach dealt a free 1,000% wind or water damage with each hit, which was inflicted directly on the soul of the Sentinel.

Eva at this time had much more leeway after being assisted by Draco and Hikari, she decided to relax on the light beams. Rather, she used her active skills of her light-based items to deal a chunk of damage to the Sentinel before her.

｢Active 1 - Light of the World: Activating this skill allows the user to summon a Rank 3 Heaven's Eye to send out a giant beam of light energy, which deals 2,000% Light Damage over a demarcated Area Zone. Cooldown: 1 day.｣

｢Active 1 - Inferno: Purge the world of all dirt. Send out a shockwave of heat and light that deals 1,000% Light damage and 1,000% Fire damage over an Area Zone. Cooldown: 5 days. ｣

Both attacks struck the Sentinel immediately, lasering it and leaving its entire body smoking. By this point, the group had shaved off 30% of its HP, and the rest was falling off just as quickly.

Still stuck in a bond of frozen time, it could only watch as its health continually and systematically plummeted until it had less than 5% of its HP and was on the verge of demise.

There was a light of sentience in its eyes, showing that it was stuck in the midst of fear, hate, and anger, not willing to suffer this kind of death at all costs.

However, its wishes were clearly for naught as the group laid waste to it, eventually bottoming out its HP. As it fell to the ground, Draco and Eva released their control over it.

Its crash into the earth caused an earthquake so terrible that everyone within 300,000 km would likely enjoy horrendous disasters for up to a week. However, for the group who were currently airborne, it was of no meaning to them.

Rather, they watched the body of the Sentinel that slowly began to look like fire was engulfing it, its skin and flesh turning into ash and leaving only a skeleton. The next moment though, a flow of power burst from the skeleton and rushed into the bodies of the seven, pouring into them like fast-moving winds.

They noticed that they each acquired a total of 286% experience from the beginning to end of the battle. This allowed everyone to go up two levels, with just a bit more to go to the third one.

At Rank 3, players gained 1 stat point every other level. Looking at the sequential progression, it was clear why players got stuck at the higher Ranks and had to focus on other things like equipment and unique techniques to increase their power.

It only got worse from here and by Rank 7, gaining a single stat point might require tens of levels. Otherwise, why would that Legendary potion that Richmond had handed him, in the beginning, be something that caused a player disaster for revealing its existence in the previous timeline?

That little thing was many levels worth of power gained at once! It could make all the difference at their stage, so how couldn't they descend on some weak player and wrest it from him?

Draco placed his single point into Intelligence, bringing it to 91 and Eva chose to place hers in Strength, also bringing it to 91 points. That was pretty much all the duo could do.

As for NPCs, at Rank 3, they gained 1 stat point per level. Since they were always one step ahead of players per rank, this was something Draco and Eva could only look at with envy.

Draco and Eva had been at level 100, 0% so they didn't climb much when the experience came, reaching level 102, 86% as expected.

Zaine was at level 103, 0% which meant that she climbed to level 105, 86%, and gained two stat points. She allocated them into Intelligence, bringing it to 305 points in total.

Roma was at level 103, 66% which meant that she had jumped three levels to reach 106, 52% which had given her three stat points to use. She placed two into Intelligence and one into Spirit, bringing them to 305 and 116 respectively.

Hikari had also been at level 103, 66% which meant she was on par with Roma at 106, 52%, and with three stat points. She placed them into Spirit, which was the only stat she realistically needed to invest in. This brought it to 501 points, finally breaching the 500-point mark.

After sharing their power, they noticed that the remnants of the army that had led them here approached them slowly with expressions of awe and fear. It was as if they expected to see a totally different scene, and what they were witnessing was an impossibility upon impossibilities.

To them, even approaching these fellows was something that gave them great fear, and they only did so because they didn't dare to run lest they annoy the group. The commander of the army who had been the one to pat Draco on the shoulder rode forward with a face full of flimsy courage.

He then asked with a shaky tone. "M-Milord Chosen One… I-Is it actually…?"

Draco smiled playfully, his eyes roving over the army with amusement and interest. "Dead as a doornail. Can't you see the skeleton?"

He then tapped on the bones behind him, which made many of those in the army flinch with fear. Draco could only shake his head inwardly. Whichever group owned this army was truly quite the spectacle.

Their soldiers were even more jittery than a mouse before a cat!

Eva directly raised her hand and the commander was dragged from his horse and into her grip while screaming with fear. The soldiers behind her wanted to do something, but didn't dare go against Eva for fear of their own lives.

Eva simply slapped the fellow who was still screaming in her grasp, silencing him after she had knocked all the teeth out of his mouth. With a frown, she then pierced into his mind and rummaged through his memories in order to find out what the rules behind this world were.

In the foundational floors, they had been given all that in the first floor, but according to what Draco knew from Helia, such things would not be provided in subsequent floors, or at least, they would be done in pieces.

Most of it was left for the trial taker to use their own means to find out. If you wanted a perfect score, it was best to take such actions or even to increase your score somewhat.

Otherwise, on each floor you would be forced to go with the flow, and putting aside whether you could even pass or get a good score, keeping your life might not be possible.

As one would expect, the floors after the foundational ones were not exactly the same for everyone. What Helia knew was that every ten floors would have a set theme, but the exact details would vary depending on the trail taker.

The deviations were slight enough that general advice could be given, but specific ones could not. According to Helia, her eleventh-floor battle had been against a giant troll that was invading a kingdom with the rest of its giant race.

However, her description of this size was likely nothing close to the Sentinels, which meant that while the theme of 'Chosen One summoned to rescue the invaded world' remained, Draco was facing foes that were far stronger.

However, this much should be obvious as the foundational floors were also used to gauge the quality of each trial taker. Someone with Draco's monstrous performance would have to face a challenge befitting his power.

Well, this one enemy alone had not been able to provide much of one in that regard. Bringing something at the same Rank as Draco was pointless unless it was a Dragon or an adult Ultima Sunt with a full range of abilities. If you wanted to challenge him, you would need something two ranks above at the minimum and three Ranks above to force him to go all out.

That was even considering Draco alone, much less with the help of his wives and two pals. The Morningstar Clan was truly senselessly overpowered! Just who could some and teach them some humility and provide a setback??

Eva opened her eyes and tossed the commander away, who coughed to regain his breath and rubbed his temples with some mild discomfort. Draco waved his hand and dispelled his pain with a simple spell, making the commander gaze at him with incomprehension.

His soulmate facilitated a mental connection between herself and the other six and transferred what she had learned about their situation from the commander's mind. Upon digesting it all, Draco was left speechless.

This world… was a wasteland!

No seriously, this world had once been a prosperous and jovial place, but it had been ravaged and bullied by the Sentinels after they had first invaded it... a hundred years ago!

Since then, almost 98% of humanity had died out leaving a few small 'kingdoms' as the only survivors. What had saved this world was that the Sentinels moved slowly, so they took a long time to reach farther places.

The local's resistance? Forget about it, they didn't have anything like Shifters, Ackermans, or Omni-Directional Mobility Gear. Killing Sentinels was not as easy as cutting the nape of their neck either.

No one in this world had the powers to fight back, except the Chosen Ones who had been blessed by the Divines. Even then, they were still too weak to beat the gap in power, which was why the Divines configured Chosen Ones to be able to swallow the power of their foes.

This way, they could eventually have the strength of a Sentinel while maintaining a small enough size to keep their advantage in combat.

So then, why did the troops here not have endless confidence in their dear Chosen One, not worshiping Draco and co like heroes who would save the day, rather abandoning them as if they were a public sacrifice?

Well, because he had been treated as one.

It was not as if Draco was the very first Chosen One. The Divines hadn't exactly been sitting around doing nothing. Once per decade they would accumulate enough power to call for a new one. However, with the nine before Draco having failed, how were they to know he might succeed?

You see, the Divines might have been able to give their Chosen Ones the ability to absorb the power of Sentinels and even make them stronger than the average man. But really, just look at the behemoth Draco and co had just fought.

How many people could fight such a thing and even take 5% of its HP, much less vanquish the whole thing? That's right, practically none.

The Chosen Ones over the century had been killed off, some sooner, others later, to the point where the hope they embodied had become ridicule and despair. Right now, people feared being Chosen as the next 'hero' as they would be thrust into battle only to die for no reason.

That was why the troops were so shocked that Draco had actually killed a Sentinel. To them, these Titans represented invincibility and death. To be able to break this and deal death right back to them was like an earthling human seeing communism work.

Simply incomprehensible.

Whatever the case, they had learned much about the world background and could choose better options on the subsequent floors to accomplish their goals. Right now, Draco chose to end the floor as he had long achieved what was necessary and anything more would be wasting time.

As usual, the floor receded upon itself like procedural generation, but in reverse. Draco then observed the assessment panel to see what the tower would give them for the performance.

｢Congratulations on completing: Tower of Babylon Eleventh Floor

Time elapsed: 0:2:13

Objectives complete: All

Assessment: EX+

Reward:

15,000 Score Points

1 Treasure Selection Reward - Peak Bronze Grade｣

Draco nodded his head with satisfaction. If he didn't get a perfect score for this, then what at all would qualify for such a thing in this world? If the tower dared to shortchange him, he wouldn't mind using the full extent of his power to wreak havoc!

However, he was surprised that he still ended up with a Bronze-Grade selection despite the perfect score. Truly, the tower was stingy, not willing to break its own rules to award talents properly, hmph!

However, it was all good. This would make it all the sweeter when he used his items to trade for rare materials, and claimed the rest using score points and his treasure selections!

Draco couldn't wait to savor the squeals of the tower while he pressed it down beneath him and took away its most important thing, kekeke!