Chapter 111: Narrow Encounters

“I’ve reached an agreement with the Dwarf King. They will provide me with a batch of weapons, including the Demon-breaker Blade and the Flintlock.”

Beast God Bruman spoke in a deep voice.

He finally decided to pay a high price to acquire weapons from the dwarves for use in the Dofi Sub-Dimension.

Guneir raised his face in astonishment at the words, his eyes flashing with shock and excitement.

They were shocked that the dwarves would sell them weapons;

And excited to soon possess dwarven weapons.

After all, any product from the dwarves is guaranteed to be top-notch.

The dwarves’ forging skills are something even the race known for being the best learners—the humans—envy.

Not only are they skilled in alloy forging; they also excel at engraving runes, Magic Seals, Divine Runes, even enchanting, poisoning, and blessing their weapons.

They are creations of the ancient Titan Gods, completely opposite in stature to dragons, yet possessing a dragon’s greed.

Dwarves are also among the few races in the multiverse that haven’t been conquered by the Gods.

They only worship their creator—the ancient Titan Gods.

After the Titans disappeared, no god could subdue them!

The Five Prime Gods once launched a heavy attack on the dwarves’ homeland—Medium Dimension: Dark Pit, Khazad-dûm.

The result surprised everyone.

The mighty War God Corps turned into stragglers after entering the underground city;

The Abyssal Fissures, like ravenous monsters, devoured endless Undead Corps;

Even the tenacious Deathless Corps exhausted their morale in the sunless underground tunnels and neared collapse;

The Goddess of Earth’s hunt turned into a cat-and-mouse game before the dwarves’ tamed giant burrowing worms.

Ultimately, the Five Prime Gods had to abandon Khazad-dûm.

Besides the Five Prime Gods, the Beast God also tried to attack the dwarves.

But despite the orcs’ warlike nature and extraordinary reproductive abilities, they eventually failed in the pitch-black caverns.

The reason is simple.

Orcs are plant-animal hybrids, with both mitochondria and chloroplasts in their bodies. This is why their skin is green.

This is also their racial gift, allowing them to thrive and maintain combat power even in prolonged hunger states.

The sunless cave seals the orcs’ racial gift, and relying on cave mushrooms cannot suppress the dwarves.

In the end, the Beast God also had to give up.

It is because of the past battles that Guneir was surprised the Beast God managed to acquire dwarven weapons.

“Send the orders. Mobilize each tribe to ensure they take Dofi City in two days!” Beast God Bruman issued a call to war.

“The orcs will follow your will, great Beast God Majesty.”

Guneir fervently saluted with a clenched fist, his eyes filled with firm killing intent.

……

……

“It’s too difficult!”

Duke Mallory’s daughter, Mananxi, stood in Dofi City Square, reviewing the apprentice magicians’ assessment content, and couldn’t help but lament.

Initially, she was quite fortunate the apprentice magician assessment was held in the [Conquest Sub-Dimension], but now she couldn’t feel relieved.

Because the assessment content was too hard.

The rules for this apprentice magician assessment were very simple.

— Kill 100 orcs!

However, when 70% of magic apprentices complete this target, the assessment immediately ends.

The remaining 30% of magic apprentices, no matter their scores, all fail.

This completely shuts down the possibility of grinding through for the magic apprentices.

It forces them to give their all from the start, as they never know when the assessment will end.

Even worse, despite the high difficulty, the Empire only randomly assigned them twenty players as magician attendants.

This difficulty far exceeds previous years.

“A hundred orcs? 70% pass rate? This gives us no opportunity to slowly take down orcs!”

“Yes! Even if all team members are pros, the chance of failure isn’t small!”

“A 70% pass rate? That’s too harsh! The lowest pass rate in previous years was 75%.”

“This is likely the price for a zero-death rate.”

In Dofi City Square, the magic apprentices’ complaints resounded!

Some lamented at this moment;

Others carefully read the assessment rules looking for loopholes.

For example, the rules didn’t say magic apprentices couldn’t cooperate, meaning they could choose to collaborate for mutual benefit. They could even pool kills onto one magic apprentice through purchases.

Others instinctively checked the item shop, pondering how to craft the perfect weapon item combo with limited funds.

“Everyone, look at the shop!”

At this moment, a magic apprentice suddenly exclaimed.

“Is that a dwarven flintlock?”

“No, do dwarves make these revolvers? I don’t remember that.”

“Weapons have descriptions, check the details!”

“My heavens!”

“Manufactured by Dragon Factory?!”

“This is Lord Ajef’s industry!”

“All of these are produced by Dragon Factory?”

“Isn’t Dragon Factory known for making bicycles? How are they suddenly making dwarven flintlocks?”

The square instantly became frenzied!

Everyone suddenly discovered that the [Conquest Sub-Dimension] item shop had a slew of new offerings.

Among them, the most eye-catching were the weapons resembling dwarven flintlocks.

And there wasn’t just one type!

From the small and exquisite revolver;

To the arm-length, rugged double-barreled shotgun;

To the long-range, single-barrel rifle.

A variety, complete in assortment.

This left most magic apprentices, who had only seen dwarven weapons in magical images, wide-eyed and salivating.

“Is Lord Ajef amazing or what? Did they copy all of the dwarven weapons?”

“Not just that, it’s like ice formed in water and colder than water!”

“Lord Ajef, I love you! Hahaha… With these weapons, are we afraid of this apprentice assessment?”

“Idiot, with a 70% pass rate, these weapons only make the competition fiercer!”

The square was abuzz with excitement.

Countless people marveled at Lord Ajef’s influence.

Many instinctively rushed to the item shop building, fearing the weapons would sell out.

At this moment, the Kewell Empire apprentice magician assessment officially commenced!

……

Duke Mallory’s daughter, Mananxi, rejected the suggestion to cooperate with her classmates.

Indeed, cooperation could be more powerful, but it also increases one’s target, making the assessment harder.

Everyone has the task to kill 100 orcs. If handled well, ambushing a tribe might complete it, so why collaborate?

Most importantly, as a duke’s daughter, she carries an inherent pride.

Of course, call it arrogance if you will, whatever.

Regardless, she won’t allow her apprentice magician assessment to be tainted.

After thoroughly understanding the situation of the twenty players assigned to her, Mananxi felt slightly relieved.

Her twenty players varied in skill, high and low; it was obviously the Empire’s way of training magic apprentices.

Still, she felt relieved—it was better than being assigned a bunch of amateurs.

After familiarizing herself with her players, Mananxi carefully laid out some tactical plans and command terms before leading her team out.

She hardly paused, heading straight to the orcs’ rear.

As they walked, she suddenly stopped.

She brushed aside the grasses to see, at the foot of the mountain, a small squad of fifteen elite orc warriors on local four-toed horses, looking around warily.

Evidently, the orcs’ fearsome ‘beast instinct’ detected something.

But they couldn’t easily pinpoint where the threat came from.

“Leader, should we take them out?”

From beneath Mananxi, a cluster of eyeballs emerged—her attendant players.

One player asked, none other than the innate paraplegic—Xi Ze.

This task was not just an apprentice magician assessment but also a players’ mission frenzy.

Once accepted, quitting mid-way is forbidden. Failure results in a 30-day game ban and complete data wipe on the account.

However, if the magic apprentice they assist passes, their rewards will be plentiful.

Additionally, the soul power consumed during the mission is reimbursed by the Internet God.

This is the root motivation behind the players’ frenzy.

After all, who wouldn’t want to fight relentlessly for three days and nights?

“These aren’t ordinary orcs over there. Judging by their attire and mounts, they should be elite orc warriors. Taking them out would be tough!” Mananxi remained calm.

“Then let’s move on! This assessment is too tight on time. Wasting time on orc warriors would be unwise. Killing regular orcs is the best value!” Xi Ze advised.

“You’re right, but since we’ve encountered them, let’s test the guns on them!” remarked Mananxi.

“Won’t this reveal our weapons too early?”

“With almost ten thousand assessment teams, keeping our secret makes no sense. Familiarizing with the weapon quickly is key.”

“You’ve got a point.”

“Follow my command. Xi Ze, Iloc, take nine men each, flank them in a pincer. Wait for my gunshot as the signal! Fire one shot each, then retreat.”

“Yes!”

Xi Ze and Iloc, two top players, replied solemnly, each leading nine players, slipping underground to flank.

The orcs below the hill had sensed something was up. They all dismounted, forming a defensive back-to-back position.

Once the players had flanked both sides, Mananxi lay prone, setting up a single-shot rifle, pulling the bolt to chamber a Magic Seal bullet, and took aim.

Being the duke’s daughter, she had seen the rare dwarven flintlock before, so she wasn’t unfamiliar with such weapons.

But she knew nothing of the power of the rifle produced by Dragon Factory.

Due to the expensive Magic Seal bullets, she couldn’t afford or bear to test it, which was her main reason for deciding to attack the elite orc warriors.

“Bang!”

With the gunshot!

The orc inside the scope, guided by strong ‘beast instinct’, suddenly dodged aside, avoiding the bullet.

Instantly, the Magic Seal bullet grazed his cheek, firing into the soil behind him, throwing up a cloud of dirt.

“Who the hell fired randomly? Who told you to shoot? Don’t you know how precious bullets are?”

An angry curse came from the orc warriors.

“Huh?”

The voice left Mananxi dumbfounded.