Promotion! The Mythril Conundrum

The creatures did not release drops as they were killed. In Branded Dungeons, drops were only given at the end of wars. Small scaled skirmishes did not give rewards besides experience. This was done to promote the nation-building aspect of the dungeons.

In Branded Dungeons, nations had levels called forms. One would start with a Village. The next level was Town. Then City, then State, then Nation!

Levelling up one's form was not easy, as it required a collective effort from the group. It didn't matter what you accomplished as an individual. In other words, if the system had judged that only Duke and the Senbonken group had done something worthy, they would not have evolved as a nation. Only Duke and the involved combatants would have received rewards, and Tsimikas would have remained a Village that controlled other Villages.

Now those Villages were under a Town. Becoming a Town came with many benefits, such as an increase in the quality and talent of residents, the land they were allowed to take into their territory and the size of their troops. 

Tsimikas was based in Ta Dasi, which was a small region, even smaller than Kolladas Tis Moira. The fact that they had accomplished a military conquest in a region besides their own made their rewards even greater. Ta Dasi had countless Villages, but it only had a handful of Towns. Now that Tsimikas was a Town, it would experience a massive surge in size and power. 

As the announcement rang out, multiple users received their own rewards and experience. Many of the survivors levelled up as the remaining ogres ran for their lives. The humans scrambled for the drops around them, picking up whatever they could. 

The Tsimikas group had already agreed to not touch anything from the rewards and allowed the others to struggle for the loot.

Alice, Duke, Letty and a few hundred Tsimikas warriors observed the mad scramble for drops. They felt envious, but they had already received a lot of rewards. The Tsimikas contingent had levelled up countless times. It was not an exaggeration to say that the average Tsimikas resident had tripled in terms of strength. Their attack output had increased by 40%, one of the most frightening aspects of Nation Power. Everyone resident of Tsimikas could now release attacks with 40 extra damage for the next two months; thus, their military might as a whole had more than just tripled.

Thus although they were somewhat tempted by the mountain of rewards, they did not lose their heads and instead inspected their own bodies.

Alexa had a pen that could restrict a user's level temporarily. Woodsy was a Nation Lord and did not have the level cap, but Alexa had used her pen to restrict her and Merlin's levels. She had used it to restrict the others and test Will's combat prowess when Will first met the Dragonheart contingent. To prevent Will from relying on Woodsy and Merlin, she restricted their levels to level 99. 

Thus no one in Senbonken or the Dragonheart crew levelled up much due to having reached the cap. But once the cap was removed and everyone could level up, this experience would be counted.

Of course, passing level 100 required more than just being a Nation Lord. One had to be capable of applying a concept to a skill to pass that watershed. Thus this experience would enter everyone's levelling bank for now, and they would gain access to the experience when the time was right.

The locals from Tsimikas, however, did not have the restrictions users had. Their levels could increase up to what their nation's Form could allow. The maximum a Town could achieve was level 99; thus, the locals could all theoretically reach that level. Only 1 local from Tsimikas had managed to reach the level 90 threshold. His name was Achilles, and he was a talented metal/water element swordsman with powerful spiritual and spatial skills. Even though he was a warrior, he was so adept at fusing mana into his qi that he almost passed the realm of specialists and was half a foot into the realm of practitioners. Achilles alone had done more damage than all the other Tsimikas locals combined. 

His main duty was to protect Alice and move around as her escort while Woodsy moved about. It was also Achilles that had educated Duke and co on the background of their location.

Every region had a story behind it to give flesh to the experience of the dungeon. The story of Ta Dasi and Kolladas Tis Moira was of a thousand-year war. The bottom of Mt Olympus was the safest for mortals, but the mountain was simply too large, like a world of its own. A large war broke out a thousand years ago, and as a result, many cities and nations broke apart. It took a thousand years and the help of adventurers summoned by Gaia to aid them. The war between the gods and the Titans was far too removed from the weak regions at the bottom; thus, only weak monsters like ogres bothered the locals and adventurers.

The summoned adventurers could only stay on Olympus for a specific time. This time was reached when the user reached a bottleneck in power.

Branded dungeons could not be owned by one group. They didn't follow the typical rating of normal dungeons either. They were impossible to clear but kept giving gifts.

In return, they were more dangerous, unpredictable and a bit mysterious in how they openly defied the laws of physics.

Tsimikas was founded a century ago. Back then, the area within Ta Dasi they inhabited was safe, and no monsters wanted it. But an ogre army discovered a mythril mine in the land and started destroying Villages in the area. Mythril was a precious magic ore that was extremely hard to find. They immediately blocked the area and made it so that escape would mean death or slavery. They did not want other powers to learn of this.

From its inception, every Village had to hand its control to adventurers. But most Villages that could protect themselves defied their ancestors and refused to give power, while others like Tsimikas happily gave over control to users like Will.

Now that Tsimikas was a Town and the ogres were vanquished, they could properly develop mythril mines and develop their economy. Mythril was a metal known for its energy conductivity and was also used as a decoration by the extravagant. Its value was quite high and gave the residents of Tsimikas a lot to look forward to. Whatever the drops were, they could not compare with the mining rights to mythril mines.

…

A few hours later, the scramble for drops had reached a conclusion. Many users had become much stronger due to gaining experience, items and new skills. Unfortunately, man's greed did not stop there.

As Duke and Co discussed their future plans, a crowd gathered around them. The Tsimikas contingent were not immature children and knew when humans gathered with unkind Intentions.

"Congratulations, dear friends from Tsimikas." The speaker was one of the 8 powerhouses that had battled the ogre and lost. His name was Sylvester Reinhardt, and he was the giant armoured man that wore silver armour engraved with carvings of battle. He carried a large broadsword on his hip and had the appearance of a suave knight. He was the most powerful of the 8 and the leader of Reinhardt.

Reinhardt was the most powerful Town in this alliance and one of the most famous nations in Kolladas Tis Moira. They bordered Ta Dasi and were somewhat close to Tsimikas' location. The other 7 were all also leaders of their own respective Towns and had been part of a loose alliance with Reinhardt at the helm. This was the difference between these 8 and the others. The others were all Villages while they were Towns!

These 8 had not bothered attending the meeting earlier on and had sent representatives in their stead. Only a small portion of their troops had been involved in the battle. In fact, most of their troops had actually only gotten involved during the last stage of battle and the scramble for loot. Despite their late entry, they were still able to kill tens of thousands of ogres and multiple mini-bosses, getting the other top spots in terms of contribution with ease. Thousands of strong cultivators joined the fray and allowed the 8 Towns to hog almost all of the good loot. Those that disobeyed or fought back were killed on the spot.

As the majority of the remaining were either tired or already under the Reinhardt-led alliance, they didn't face much resistance. 

Tsimikas was thus caught in an odd spot. The fact that a Village had greater contribution than Towns was a shock, but it was not extremely rare; after all, it was not only Tsimikas that had powerful talents capable of explosive growth. But that growth came at a cost, one that became apparent in moments like this.