Chapter 74: Dire situation

The rustling of leaves grew from a distant murmur into a deafening roar. Earth-trembling footsteps reverberated through the soil beneath Arthur’s boots, making the ancient, gnarled roots around him vibrate violently.

Through the thick foliage and dim gloom of the forest, dozens, no, hundreds, of glowing crimson eyes ignited in the darkness. Arthur’s eyes narrowed as he activated his Appraisal skill, sweeping it across the incoming monsters.

[Name: Gloom Stalker Wolf

Level: 32

Grade: Epic]

[Name: Dreadwood Treant

Level: 35

Grade: Epic]

[Name: Shadow-Venom Serpent

Level: 38

Grade: Epic]

Every single creature pouring out of the treeline was an Epic-grade monster above Level 30. A single one of these beasts could lay waste to an entire city in the outside world, yet here they were, hunting in a frantic and coordinated stampede.

"They aren’t just roaming," Arthur realized, his jaw tightening. "The forest itself is driving them toward us. It wants to drown us in sheer numbers."

Only three minutes had passed out of the thirty, yet the difficulty was already escalating exponentially. Arthur looked at the monsters and immediately noticed their terrifying HP values.

Every single one possessed around 100 million HP. Even if his generals went all out, they wouldn’t be able to kill these monsters in a short period of time.

Only Arthur himself could one-shot them, and even that required him to combine his full speed with his full strength. He couldn’t afford to waste his power recklessly in a place like this.

"This forest is way too messed up," he gritted his teeth.

Every monster was an Epic-grade boss, and all of them were high-level. No wonder nobody had ever managed to survive this place and live to tell the tale.

Boom!

The Golem General punched the Diamond Skin Rhinoceros with tremendous force, but the damage value that appeared was zero. His punch couldn’t even penetrate its defense.

Bam!

The rhinoceros immediately retaliated, slamming its massive body into the Golem General. Half of his HP vanished in an instant.

"Shit," Arthur cursed when he saw the result. The other monsters were also rapidly closing in on his position.

"Damn it. Every soldier, go and detonate!" he ordered the 980 Nuclear Shadow Soldiers.

Instantly, every Shadow Soldier moved toward the incoming Epic bosses and detonated themselves without hesitation.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Nine hundred and eighty dark mushroom clouds rose toward the sky. Each Shadow Soldier’s explosion could deal 100,000 area-of-effect damage within a 500-meter radius.

With their combined damage, a massive damage value of 98 million appeared above each monster’s head. Their defenses negated almost 30 percent of the damage, but they still suffered around 60 million damage.

Roar!

The monsters clearly hadn’t expected such a devastating attack. Their massive bodies staggered as they became disoriented from the sudden explosion.

"Attack!" Kaiser roared when he saw that the monsters’ defenses had been weakened.

The ten generals instantly activated their transformations. The Sword General transformed into a gigantic Titan, while the Ice Serpent became a colossal serpent.

The Sand Worm General transformed into a massive worm, while the Flame Dragon General turned into an enormous flame dragon. Mirage transformed into a giant butterfly, and the Swamp Crocodile General became a massive crocodile.

The Thunder Roc, Fallen Angel, and Demon Emperor also transformed into their respective forms. Instantly, immense auras erupted from all ten generals as they unleashed their ultimate skills without wasting another second.

Arthur smiled as he watched them.

"Domain of the Shadow God," he muttered.

Instantly, a massive domain with a five-kilometer radius spread out around him. The moment the generals entered its range, their strength increased fivefold.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

The ten generals simultaneously attacked the monsters. Massive amounts of HP began to vanish from the Epic bosses as their devastating attacks landed one after another.

But the monsters retaliated.

In the next instant, the ten generals were killed on the spot.

Arthur’s expression remained calm as he immediately revived his 1,000 Shadow Army once again. When the monsters saw the small creatures responsible for the devastating explosion returning, they were visibly horrified.

Arthur smiled.

"Begone."

Boom!

The Shadow Soldiers detonated themselves once again, and the combined explosion finally killed the four remaining monsters.

However, Arthur’s face had already turned pale. A huge amount of mana had been consumed, and he couldn’t afford to continue spending it at such a terrifying rate.

He immediately tried to absorb a mana potion, but it didn’t work.

Arthur gritted his teeth. He could only use Atomic Body Control to redirect all of his attributes toward his mana.

[20 minutes remaining.]

Only ten minutes had passed.

Just as Arthur was planning his next move, he suddenly heard a tremendous roar in the distance.

Then another.

And another.

Soon, countless roars echoed through the forest.

Arthur looked ahead and saw almost fifty Epic-tier bosses emerging from different directions. They were rapidly surrounding him from all sides.

"This forest has a spirit or what? If there is one, that motherfucker is retarded," Arthur cursed violently.

He revived all 980 Shadow Soldiers once again. As funny as it sounded, his normal Shadow Soldiers were proving to be far more useful in this situation than his God-tier generals.

However, Arthur needed to wait until the monsters entered the proper range. He couldn’t afford to waste the massive area-of-effect damage by detonating them too early.

Arthur quickly calculated his remaining resources. He could use this strategy five more times at most before his total attributes were depleted.

"Should I use this, or should I fight them myself?" he muttered.

After thinking for a moment, Arthur finally made his decision. He would use this strategy one value time, then he wouldn’t revive the Shadow Soldiers anymore.

After that, he would fight the remaining monsters himself.

So he continued waiting until all fifty monsters entered the required range.

Boom!

The same terrifying detonation erupted once again, and the same massive damage value appeared above the monsters.

Instantly, every monster lost more than half of its HP.

Two daggers appeared in Arthur’s hands.

Boom!

Arthur shot forward with immense speed. His movement was so fast that the surrounding air exploded from the force of his acceleration.

With the massive increase in his speed and the damage multiplication from his daggers, his total damage value had already entered the one-billion mark.

With an atomic boom, six monsters disintegrated from existence.

Arthur didn’t slow down.

He continued moving through the horde, his twin daggers flashing repeatedly as he slaughtered one monster after another.

Within moments, every remaining monster had been killed.

However, Arthur didn’t know that by revealing his full power, he had just made a grave mistake.

The moment he finished killing the monsters, an apocalyptic aura suddenly surged toward him like a tidal wave.

"What kind of aura is this? A Demigod?" Arthur’s expression changed as terror flashed through his eyes.

The one-billion damage mark was already the base damage value of a normal Demigod monster.

Thud!

Thud!

Thud!

The ground began to tremble violently beneath Arthur’s feet. Each approaching step carried an overwhelming pressure that made the surrounding forest shake.

Soon, a gigantic Titan-like figure emerged from the darkness and appeared directly in front of Arthur.

[Name: Orc General

Level: 60

Grade: Mythical]

"A Mythical boss?" Arthur’s expression became ugly. "Great. Bastard, just kill me with a Divine Thunder or something!"

A Level 60 Mythical boss was already as powerful as a common-grade Demigod monster.