23 Chapter 23 - Sacrificed

Three Generals, one skinny, one fit, and the other is fat. Clad on a red Imperial Armor, eyes hidden under a helmet. Wielding the same sword as the Emperor, the only difference is that theirs are silver with black while the Emperor is gold with red.

From their looks alone you could already tell they're not easy to deal with. They have the same skills and might as Emperor Iscabar in Normal Mode. This wouldn't be a problem if he take them one on one, however things aren't on his side. All three of them, simultaneously dashed to him while Emperor Iscabar sat on his throne. His sword is on sheath, not wanting to be drawn.

Facing the simultaneously attack, like the masochist he is he didn't back down from pain. He smiled, not bothered by their ferocious attacks. Holding Retribution he faced them with no fear.

The skinny General stabbed Magnus with his sword, Magnus easily parried it, deflecting it to block the fat General slash. He then attacked the fit General on the middle, without having time to evade, the fit General staggered backwards. Followed by another slashes, dealing a handful of damage. Instantly the fit General was affected by the Bleeding effect, constantly lowering his speed and health as time went by.

After a Pugilist finished its combo the opponent would enter in a Disoriented effect. It would increase the chance of triggering another combo. A Blademaster however will ensue a Bleeding effect. This would constantly decrease the opponents speed and health. The effect would stay until the opponent heals which is the only way to remove the effect.

The fit General was slowly getting both its speed and HP decreasing. The HP decreased isn't great, however the speed decreased is getting more and more significant.

Thus the fight went easier. Magnus focused on attacking the fit General, his HP soon diminished. But Magnus isn't getting the better end. He has only tenth of his HP, luckily after killing the fit General he regained another tenth from Retribution's passive and a small bottle of healing potion helped him to regain more vitality.

As the fit General died, the two Generals didn't get affected. Instead their attack went even more ferocious. Slash after slash, sweat and blood swept to Magnus' face. Luckily the fight didn't put him much trouble as before.

Now the Generals haven't dealt any damage whatsoever to him. Not even a single wound was inflicted to him. Not long after the Generals died on his hand. He finally had a breather, he now had 50% of his HP thanks to Retribution's passive.

At that moment the Emperor stood and said with a smug on his face, "Peasant! You have the skills, I admire it. However its still not enough to defeat me! Face my sword!"

The Emperor maybe arrogant, but he knows how to walk his talk. Normal Mode is already a headache, Hell Mode is migraine. Every slash from the Emperor's sword made Magnus stagger. The force was enough to kill him in one go if it ever hits.

This is what Magnus wants. The more force his opponent uses on their attacks, the more damage will be inflicted to them. Each strike from the Emperor was blocked in a strange yet unique manner which made the Emperor's sword deflect and hit its owner. Without much effort, Magnus defeated the Emperor.

Thanks to his superior techniques he won. The system ringed notifications, he gained another set of Skill Points which he never used. Luckily it was the right decision as he was about to change class and he could use it on his new class' skills instead.

...

At the Maintenance Center of the game, that was currently monitoring Magnus. Silenced again engulfed the whole area. They're all watching the big screen where Magnus was displayed. All of his endeavor was long monitored.

Everyone inside was dumbfounded, a weak wail ended the silence, "He's too OP!"

Everyone acknowledged it in silence.

...

Magnus earned the same 5 True Warrior's Blood, this dissapointed him. He thought that since he challenged the Hell Mode he would be able acquire a handful of True Warrior's Blood. However he was 47 kills away from completing the first task.

He was now at Level 54, and the Warhorse is almost at Level 20. He also figured out that each level the Warhorse get, it would add 20 HP. It might be small but its something to proud of. He was not a tank so he wouldn't need a lot of HP. However as a melee having as much HP as a tank would be great.

Magnus decided to log out and to eat then maybe take a rest.

...

In a mirror Dungeon where the Divine Hand Guild entered. The Elite Batch that was led by Mad Man is having a dilemma.

As they passed the member count, they could enter the first Instance. They would be facing Archeos, a Priest Mage. Inside the Dungeon, no one could resurrect unless a Priest teammate revive one or unless they face a Team Wipeout.

Facing Archeos, Mad Man was sure thet it wouldn't be a problem, however they have over 200+ members. More than half them are lying on the ground.

Archeos is very cheeky, when his life decreases he would choose a player and sacrifice it. By sacrificing the player Archeos would regain HP the 10x the damage he dealt to the player. If the player chosen is only at 100 HP then Archeos would only gain 1,000 HP as well.

However Archeos would only pick the closest to him as a sacrifice. Who would be the closest? It would be the Main Tanks as they're required to soak all the damage possible. Slowly all the Tanks were sacrificed and Archeos is still at 80% HP which pretty healthy.

"Low HP classes such as Archer and Mage that doesn't deal much damage, take the front. Melee with high HP, take the backlines and wait for your turn. To those who can use healing spells use them at the Archer and Mages in the fronlines." Seeing the situation is only getting sh*ttier at the moment, Mad Man decided to use his only brain cell and change tactics.

The new tactic was at first working, however when all the Low HP pawns was sacrificed the melee is the only one left ln the battlefield. All them is composed on either Pugilist, Knight, or Warriors. None of them focuses on damage instead it's CC(Crowd Control), Defense, and survivability respectively. With small damage and high HP. Archeos only have 30% HP but their low damage isn't enough to drain it, instead thanks to their high HP, Archeos' health also increased.

Not long after they're all died and was given a free teleportation outside the Instance Dungeon. The other party that the Divine Hand brought inside didn't do any better, they were all stocked in the same problem.

If they could just preserve more players before facing Archeos they could possibly kill him. However clearing the other monster are also hard as dealing Archeos. They could only stall and plan before trying their next attempt. A Plotline Dungeon has only 50 attempts, if they exhausted all of their attempts at the last boss anf they got defeated they could only be sorrowful and start the Dungeon at the first Instance. The progress cannot be saved further and Dungeon Completion will again start at 0. They're already down to 49 more attempts.

"Wonder how's the progress of our nemesis is doing?" Mad Man murmured as the strategic player, who is assigned for the planning, tells the crew what to do.

...

Meanwhile Magnus was snoring at comfy bed. It's been while since he's this mentally exhausted. At the morning when he woke up, he didn't immediately went to the game.

Instead he was gone for a jog. After exercising he went to a shower and finally logged in. Magnus was appeared in the Dungeon Gate, inside all members of their Guild Party are still online. Indicating that they're all hardcore gamers.

In a Dungeon, specifically this Dungeon, one can enter with or without party. However if you don't have any party, you'll be teleported to a mirror Dungeon that is only for you. No one else except your self would be able to help you there. You couldn't also enter the 600-man Dungeon, only the handful individual mini-dungeon.

Entering it Magnus was faced with new people gathering at the Dungeon's safe zone. Seeing the confused gaze, Fiery Wing approached their Guild Master to explain.

"Guild Master the recruitment is already done. We've gained another 700 or so members. A while ago people messaged the World Chat that they're already at the Dungeon Gate waiting for the Recruitment to start. But since you're still not online, your Elites, us, decided to take the initiative and did the recruitment. Don't worry as all of them are elites players, some of their skills may even take your fancy." Fiery Wing explained with a nervous eyes, seemingly afraid of getting scolded.

Different from he expected, Magnus just nonchalantly shrugged and said "Hmm, Okay then. Let's start the Dungeon, split them to two. The one's whose unlucky to get to top 600 will have to wait for their turn. Just take 17 of them and add them to ours, then pick a leader for the second group."

Happily Fiery Wing obeyed and went to distribute the new orders. After a few minutes, 600 of them gathered in the first instance while the second group followed closely. The first batch from the recruitment are already Inner Members while the 700+ new recruits are Outer Members.

They have no clue whatsoever on what will they encounter inside. A few groups of people already have entered the Dungeon however no one has successfully cleared the first instance. No one also stated a clue on what's inside, as no one wants their opponent to beat them. Yes, they all consider this as a contest. Especially the Major Guilds, they would use this Dungeon to both publicize and solidify the foundation of their guild.

This is a good chance for all the major guilds, not only they can publicize their guild they could also get equipments and level up thus making their guild's overall strength increase.

Magnus made a motivational speech, saying that they don't have to rush things out and just enjoy the game. That first kill reward isn't important, and what they should do is strategize and familiarize at the Dungeon.

With that, the two groups entered the Dungeon. Magnus leading the first group, while a player named 'NoobMaster3000' is leading the second group.

All of them appeared in a plains with thousands of Level 45 Lizariods, a summoned monster of Archeos. An area far from them, Archeos stood looking down to Magnus and company.

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This is my "practice" novel, I'm not very good in writing thus I decided upload my work online so that people can help me critique it. I appreciate all of your comments, both negative and positive, thanks it I now know what area I should improve first. I'm really sorry if the story is cringe, weird, or etc.

Thank you for the time you spent reading this and critiquing some of it. I can only repay you by improving and making y'all satisfied with my work. For now it maybe a BS, but someday I'll manage to satisfy your reader's guts. If you have read till' this far, thank you. I appreciate all of your efforts on sparing time to read this BS.

From your Author's warm heart, Zenki.