The Era of Gods

Lin Xiao nodded, without making a comment, and patted him on the shoulder, saying:

“We’ll chat later, I’m going in first.”

“Okay.”

Before entering the dungeon, Lin Xiao evaluated his troops and Soldier Cards, totaling thirty-nine Rifleman Cards and seventeen Archer Cards, all accumulated from the first three levels of the five dungeons as well as the third level of the Salan Battle Dungeon, just waiting for now.

The Soldier Cards yielded by dungeons near the City of Glory were all within the Cathedral’s influence; first-level troops were all Riflemen, and second-level troops were all Archers, without rewards for other factions’ troops.

The thirty-nine Riflemen could be merged into nineteen Veteran Rifleman Cards, leaving one New Soldier Card behind.

Then, nine Elite Rifleman Cards could be created, with one Veteran Rifleman Card left over.

The seventeen New Archer Cards could be combined into eight Veteran Archers, four Elite Archers, with one New Archer Card remaining.

Riflemen occupy one population slot, Archers two.

These cards…

Lin Xiao thought for a moment and rearranged his subordinates, withdrawing a part of the original forces to the troop storage space, keeping only four hundred Elite Riflemen and swapping the one hundred Veteran Archers and one hundred New Archers for three hundred Elite Riflemen, hitting precisely the command cap of one thousand.

In the end, he stored fifty-two Veteran Rifleman, one hundred eighty-two New Riflemen, one hundred Veteran Archers, and one hundred New Archers in the troop storage slot.

In his hand remained eight Elite Rifleman Cards, one Veteran Card, and one New Soldier Rifleman Card, as well as one Elite Archer Card and one New Archer Card.

This configuration was Lin Xiao’s currently optimal arrangement; at its core were those three hundred Elite Archers, pivotal to his progression.

“Hope I can push through in one go!”

Lin Xiao crossed his fingers and clenched them tightly to psych himself up.

Upon reaching Level 4, the dungeon not only became significantly more difficult than the previous levels, but the mechanics also changed.

In Levels 1 to 3, if you manage to clear the dungeon, those who died in battle would all be revived, but at Level 4, only a random part of the fallen troops would be resurrected, no longer all, and if defeated, well, sorry, but none would be revived.

This aspect was quite tricky; if you lost, it meant a complete reset to square one.

However, correspondingly, if you could pass the level, the rewards were most certainly worth the risk.

To stand out, one must take risks, and compared to others, Lin Xiao had the advantage of directly creating Elite troops using the Creation Rubik’s Cube.

Entering the Salan Battle Dungeon again, Lin Xiao first observed the enemy Barbarian Hero’s forces and knew that accumulating troops beforehand was necessary.

It was still the same Barbarian Hero; Lin Xiao remembered that in the previous level, he had over seven hundred Big-eared Monsters. This time not only had their number surged to a thousand, but these Big-eared Monsters included a high number of veterans and even elite units, with three hundred Bloodthirsty Wolf Riders and nearly a hundred Half-beastman Axeman. Most crucially, there were ten Level 4 Ogre Mages.

Level 4 troops are already considered mid-to-high-tier, with considerable combat power. Ogre Mages had robust physique and strength as well as the capability to cast spells.

Of course, this Ogre Mage was a unique troop type in the Relic World, at Level 4, and not as formidable as other Crystal Wall System Ogre Mages.

Facing a Barbarian Hero with a strategically composed troop, Lin Xiao could only resort to a defensive counter-attack, relying on those three hundred Elite Archers.

After upgrading to Elite, the Archers not only matched the strength of Level 3 troops but also had a range that already surpassed the Half-beastman axe throwers. In fact, even without an upgrade, Archers already had slightly longer range than Half-beastman axe throwers, let alone now.

Once the number of Archers reached a certain level, their lethality increased geometrically.

At the beginning of the battle, before the Bloodthirsty Wolf Riders could get close, Lin Xiao directed his troops to retreat to a small hill. The Elite Riflemen held the bottom of the slope, while three hundred Elite Archers stood at the top, raining down volleys from a distance, pinning a large number of Big-eared Monsters to the ground.

Elite Archers, comparable to Level 3 troops in strength, could instantaneously kill Big-eared Monsters as long as they hit vital points.

With enough ranged shooters, the threat of the Bloodthirsty Wolf Riders was vastly reduced. If the Wolf Riders dared to get close, they would be met with a storm of arrows.

However, upon entering Level 4 of the dungeon, the Barbarian Hero also received substantial buffs, the most apparent being significant enhancements to Hero Strategic Attributes and intelligence; in contrast to the previous levels where he hesitated in employing tactics, this time he launched a direct assault without regard to casualties. The Bloodthirsty Wolf Riders attacked right after engaging the central army, unlike before where they would test the waters back and forth.

Driven by the roaring of the Ogre Mages, a large number of Big-eared Monsters advanced despite heavy casualties, with the Bloodthirsty Wolf Riders also entering the fray, charging up the slope.

Lin Xiao quickly dispatched one hundred Elite Riflemen to the left and right to confront the approaching Bloodthirsty Wolf Rider flanks while the Archers, undivided, continued firing upon the Big-eared Monsters.

Although the Big-eared Monsters were far less formidable than the Bloodthirsty Wolf Riders, their sheer numbers were concerning. If so many were allowed to swarm in, he would have to deploy a large number of Elite Riflemen to hold them back. If the Riflemen defending the Archers were reduced, it would provide an opportunity for the Wolf Riders to stage a sneaky rear attack, easily overwhelming the defense.

Therefore, it was imperative to inflict heavy casualties on the Big-eared Monsters swiftly. Once their numbers dwindled sufficiently, it would take only a few Elite Riflemen to stem the tide, leaving ample forces to protect the Elite Archers.

As long as the core archers hold their ground, they can shoot down the enemies one by one.

Indeed, as he thought, under the continuous fire of the three hundred Elite Shooters with higher attack, longer range, and greater precision, the thousand Big-eared Monsters simply couldn’t withstand the assault. By the time the Big- eared Monsters advanced to within a hundred meters of the front row of Elite Riflemen—entering the range of the Half-beastman axe throwers—more than half had already fallen.

At that point, the head-on exchange of fire began.

Two hundred Elite Riflemen stepped forward to block the Big-eared Beasts, while the Elite Archers began a shootout with the Half-beastman axe throwers in the rear.

At a disadvantage here were the Half-beastman axe throwers and the Riflemen shielding them from the front.

Because the axes thrown by the Half-beastman throwers couldn’t be launched in a high arc, they had to kill the Riflemen in front first in order to attack the Archers, whereas the Archers could easily shoot down the Half-beastman axe throwers hiding behind the Big-eared Monsters with arched shots.

The most critical point was that the number of Half-beastman axe throwers was only a third of that of the Archers.

So-

So the Barbarian Hero directly sent in those ten Ogre Mages, cast a Bloodthirsty spell on himself, and like a tank, skirted past the fighting Big-eared Monsters and Riflemen to charge at Lin Xiao’s Central Army.

Though they were called Ogre Mages, they were also powerful warriors with thick skin and flesh.

Lin Xiao had no choice but to order the Archers to cease the exchange of fire with the Half-beastman axe throwers and instead focus fire to take down these ten Ogre Mages first; if these creatures broke through, they could completely disrupt the formation.

During a full-force volley, three Ogre Mages fell, their bodies riddled with arrows like porcupines.

The Half-beastman axe throwers took the opportunity to unleash a wave of axes, felling a dozen of the front-line Riflemen who were fighting the Big- eared Monsters.

The second full-force volley took down four more, and the Half-beastman axe throwers took the chance to put down another twenty-odd Riflemen. The line of just two hundred Riflemen began to show signs of instability.

The third volley took out all the remaining Ogre Mages, with over forty Elite Riflemen killed this time.

Out of the total two hundred Elite Riflemen, nearly eighty had been eliminated in three volleys; the defense line buckled under the pressure of Big-eared Monsters that outnumbered them by four or five times. It seemed they couldn’t hold back the enemy any longer.

But Lin Xiao wasn’t in a hurry. He calmly commanded the Archers to continue firing volleys at the Big-eared Monsters’ formations.

The rain of arrows from the sky disrupted the Big-eared Monsters’ offensive, and he also gave orders for the Riflemen to retreat while fighting to relieve the pressure. Wave after wave of arrows began to reap the enemy.

The casualties were truly heartbreaking, but feeling pain at this point was useless. What needed to be done was to defeat the enemy, and only through victory could some losses be recouped. One must not panic.

Seeing that the Dire Wolf Cavalry on the left and right had long been unable to break through the defense line guarded by the Elite Riflemen, and observing the increasing losses of the Big-eared Monsters and the dire situation, the Barbarian Hero gave the Dire Wolves a death order, forcing them to launch a desperate attack.

A large number of Dire Wolf Cavalry retreated, accelerated and charged directly at the Riflemen’s lines. Many leaped from afar, hoping to jump over the Elite Riflemen’s defense, but they were met with raised spears, and the outcome was self-evident.

Both forces were at Level 2, but the Riflemen had an advantage over the Cavalry. Since the Dire Wolves weren’t heavy cavalry, they couldn’t manage anything in a situation where one side was firmly defending.

In just five minutes, ninety percent of the Big-eared Monsters were dead, and fewer than thirty of the Elite Riflemen survived at the forefront.

After twenty more waves of exchanges, the Half-beastman axe throwers had also suffered heavy losses.

Still, over two hundred Dire Wolf Cavalry remained, unable to break through the defense of the two hundred Elite Riflemen, eventually retreating in frustration.

Lin Xiao didn’t dare to pursue but simply gathered his troops, following them at a measured pace without giving the Dire Wolf Cavalry a chance to counterattack, only breathing a sigh of relief when the dungeon adjudged him ultimately victorious.

As the imagery before him slowly blurred, a light screen unfolded in front of him, and a series of settlement data scrolled down before him.

“Congratulations on passing the ‘Salan Battle¹ Dungeon Level 4. One of your deceased subordinates will be randomly revived.”

“You have gained one thousand experience points, ten points, ten thousand gold coins, one hundred lumber and minerals. You have received ten Riflemen Cards, five Archer Cards, twenty Griffin Cards, two Archer Barracks Fragments, and +1 Holy Hall Prestige.”

“You’ve passed the Level 4 ‘Salan Battle’ Dungeon. The Level 5 Dungeon will be reset and ready after 24 hours.”

Lin Xiao carefully checked the prompts, ignoring the various rewards for the moment. The important thing was that the Level 5 dungeon had a full day’s cooldown, meaning it couldn’t be farmed continuously.

However, there was no indication that he couldn’t farm Level 4 of other dungeons, which was good news.

Since it wasn’t prohibited, of course, he would continue to farm them.

Having just proven his ability to pass Level 4, it was a good time to sweep through all the Level 4 dungeons around the City of Glory and build up strength in another wave.

Incidentally, it would widen the gap with the other competitors. Although Yi Lei also had extra options from the start like him, he didn’t have a Creation Rubik’s Cube to equip him with a bunch of elite troops; the losses from a single attempt at Level 4 would be huge, and continuous farming was definitely not an option.

Upon returning from the dungeon, he saw Yi Lei chatting leisurely with companions at the dungeon entrance. Just as Lin Xiao came out, he happened to overhear Yi Lei saying: