Undying Warlord

“Are we really going to enter the Pagoda of Time…?I’m scared…” A middle-aged woman asked the small group with trembling hands.

“Dilan will be with us, so there won’t be a problem. He even told us that we should just support him from the sidelines with supporting abilities if we don’t want to fight,” The voice of a young man reached the anxious woman, who turned around. Her eyes were overflowing with fear and it almost looked like she was going to pass out at any moment.

“Furthermore, you need some combat experience, Kira…You have great abilities but they’re all useless if you’re not on the battlefield. Whether it is your [Healing Aura], the [Battle Aura], or the [Mana Aura], all of them need you to be in the center of the biggest crowd of people to be of any use at all.

If we want to survive in the world Milarn turned to, everyone of us needs to fight!” The young man said in a calm tone while trying to convince the middle-aged woman that it was necessary for her to fight as well.

“Mike is right, everyone needs to learn how to fight. This is not only important for the group’s sake but also for your own safety. I might not always be there to protect everyone and there will often be times in the future when I cannot handle fighting all opponents at the same time.

For example, I won’t be able to hold several Vampires back from entering our base the moment they spread out when they attack,” Dilan suggested as he joined the group of nine Tier-1 Ascenders.

He felt good that Mike, the young man, supported him wholeheartedly, especially because it looked like Mike understood his intentions.

“Imagine what would happen if a race like the Ligrav or Rasnian were to appear, tens of thousands of them at that. Would you give up and allow them to trample over you and your friends, or would you fight until every single one of your opponents has been obliterated?” Dilan asked with a gentle smile on his lips, making them think hard.

He didn’t want the others to feel overwhelmed in any way, so he didn’t let them know that the Vampires would become troublesome to deal with the moment Dilan’s Ascenders would choose to run away like cowards instead of fighting them seriously.

There was no need for Dilan to pressure anyone. Half a day had passed since he and the others had returned from the Blue Star camp and the report he had given to the management to get to know all the necessary pieces of information had spread through the entire camp.

Everyone could sense the danger of Tier-2 monsters by now, and knew the fact that Vampires were both dangerous and extremely beneficial for the growth of Ascenders. Now it was on the Ascenders to decide whether they would dare to fight the large numbers of Vampires that were supposed to reach their base in a week or so, or if they would crumble in fear and abandon their stronghold.

“Let’s go to the Pagoda of Time. I want to create new records. The nine of you will gain a lot from the Dungeon points we will receive as well. Whether you chose to use the Dungeon Points to improve your equipment, buy new ability crystals or do other things with them is none of my concern. But there was a reason for me to pick the nine of you to join me in the raid of the Instance Dungeon’s group mode, so I hope for the best,” Dilan tried to cheer them up with some uplifting words.

He didn’t hide his intentions as he stepped outside the base in the Instance Dungeon’s direction. Dilan motioned the others to follow him but all of them felt a heavy pressure weighing down on them as they looked at Dilan’s broad back.

“He didn’t pick us to fill in the numbers? Wasn’t that what everyone said?” Kira asked, feeling a bit stunned. She thought that Dilan could have chosen someone else to join the raid of the Instance dungeon, someone who was ready to fight with their life on the line.

However, it looked like Dilan had a reason to choose his teammates and that she just didn’t understand it.

“Looks like it…Maybe he wants us to become stronger as well to be of most use when the fight against the Vampires happens?” Mike countered in an uncertain voice before he followed Dilan. He trusted their leader and knew that Dilan wouldn’t blatantly lie to them.

Slowly everyone else followed Dilan and Mike, only for Kira to stay back the longest. She took a deep breath after everyone left before she clenched her fist as she followed them as well.

In front of the Pagoda of Time, Dilan looked into the eyes of the nine Ascenders around him. Some of them were a bit afraid but Dilan merely smiled as he said one last thing,

“If you don’t want to fight, just use your abilities to increase my strength. The first nine floors will be a breeze, which means that it won’t be necessary for any of you to waste your precious mana. For the next few floors, some help would be great but it won’t be necessary. You guys can act in whatever way you are comfortable with, while I will take care of everything,” Dilan didn’t want his people to feel bad and be ‘useless’ for the mission.

Dilan would never think of anyone as useless as long as they gave their best. Overcoming mental burdens was not easy but Dilan was pretty sure that it would help the nine Ascenders to understand the reality when they would see him fighting.

‘The moment they realize that I was barely able to kill the Thunderbolt Eagle with my strength, they will understand why I want them to become stronger!’ Dilan thought, certain that his psychological trick would somehow work out.

He stretched his body a bit and took a last glance at the small group of Ascenders behind him before he entered the Pagoda of Time.

[Please select one of the three modes; <Solo>, <Duo>, or <Group> to proceed!]

A notification popped up in front of Dilan when he entered the Pagoda of Time and he followed the guidelines by choosing the <Group> mode!

In the following seconds, the others joined him as well. A total of 10 Ascenders below Tier-1 Level 15 could enter the Pagoda of Time, and these numbers were filled up in the blink of an eye.

Once everyone was ready, the Pagoda of Time teleported them to a ginormous room that resembled an enlarged form of the pagoda’s first floor.

It was more than 100 meters in both length and width and the ceiling was more than 10 meters high. The room was huge but it was equally crammed with hundreds of bloodthirsty monsters.

Various bipedal groups of monsters emerged out of nowhere. They wielded all kinds of weapons and glared at Dilan’s group of 10 people with the intent to kill.

“That’s cute. Since when are Ordinary Tier-1 monsters allowed to stare at me like that?” Dilan asked with a distinct glint in his eyes.

He released all of his strength at once, and wielded the Blazing Serpentine Blade in one hand, just for an ordinary Serpentine Blade to manifest in his other hand.

“Since when did you begin to wield two Serpentine Blades?” Mike suddenly asked, failing to hide his astonishment.

Dilan merely smiled in return as he activated [Thunder Step] to amplify his Agility by 30% to more than 130 Units.

“Since today,” He answered before turning into a purple dash that disappeared from right in front of them. The wooden floor creaked because of the terrific impact Dilan’s feet caused when they touched it, resulting in a rapidly growing spiral of cracks.

However, that was not something anyone could focus on as everyone’s eyes widened in terror the moment they perceived that the purple flash massacred all the monsters in a twenty meters radius around him as if they were livestock and not powerful monsters.

Every single second felt like an eternity to the Ascenders, who wasn’t even moving as they looked at the unfolding scenario in front of them.

Their eyes widened in shock and they couldn’t comprehend what was going on until a notification popped up in front of them.

[First floor has been cleared successfully. Time required [0:49]. Perfect! New record for the <Group> mode’s first floor has been set.]