Void Crowne - Book 1 - Chapter 63 (Patreon)

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Table of Contents

Click on the following link for the 1443 word Chapter 63:

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Aidan

At the head of the City Lord’s group, there are a total of six people. All of whom are users with levels in the lower sixties. Just beneath my level, since I’ve reached level sixty-six after hunting down numerous dungeons.

The City Lord guy himself, who is a species the System identifies as a shadow hunter, has black eyes and hair, with very pale skin. But I don’t see any real differences between him and a human.

Well, other than his lack of a shadow.

After him is a dwarf with vivid red hair and eyes standing at a rather diminutive height of just four feet despite being an adult. And his beard looks oddly fluffy. Which I feel is kind of odd, but whatever.

Then there’s an elf who is the complete opposite. He is seven feet tall without a single hair on his body other than on his scalp from what I can tell. Aside from that, though, he’s a regular elf, just like the few elves I’ve seen passing through my city in the past few days. With green hair and eyes.

What surprises me the most about the group, though, are the two who follow after them. Because they are species I’ve both never seen before, and who look quite different from the others.

There’s a nymph, who has gills on her neck, pale blue skin, and long blue hair and blue eyes. Then there’s a living machine, who looks like a silver human. Completely silver. Almost like she’s just a silver statue of a human that can move.

Not to mention that she has what look like guns attached to her back.

Yeah, can’t forget those.

As for the last of them? He’s a vampire.

I’ve yet to see any vampires on Gaia so far, but I do know that they genuinely do exist. All it takes to learn that is to look at the Galaxy Leaderboards.

There’s a vampire right there in the top ten, after all. And this latest ranking actually shows the species for all of the users on the leaderboards.

Unlike the shadow hunter, who brought an army of over twenty-five thousand other shadow hunters with him, the rest of them didn’t bring subordinates with them. Leaving them alone amongst the shadow hunter’s forces.

I have to wonder why they decided that was a good idea.

Do they all just trust each other that much? Or do they have methods to escape if the shadow hunter decides to betray them?

It could also be that they all need each other to deal with my Assaults, though.

Regardless of their thoughts, all of them, along with the shadow hunter forces, begin to charge my army of blighted and blightlings. With them having a significant lead in levels on them as they do so. Not to mention a heavy set of armor on and numerous antidotes.

Enough that the number of blighted rapidly begin to decline overall, even with the blighted turning some of their numbers into blighted as well.

The main reason they’re managing to dwindle down my forces isn’t their armor and antidotes, though.

It’s the fact that they’re ruthless towards their own.

The shadow hunters instantly kill their own allies the moment they get infected and have already used up their antidotes. To the point of sometimes killing their own even before they finish using up their antidotes.

Almost like they’re waiting for the chance to kill them.

What the hell is wrong with these shadow hunters…? Aren’t they supposed to be on the same side? If that’s the case, why do they look like they’re jumping at the chance to kill each other?

I watch the battle rage on for several minutes, with most of the shadow hunters using various different types of shadow magic, before deciding to test out the new messaging feature of the System to send a message to Rex about this matter. Only to receive a reply almost immediately in a very subservient tone.

And the contents are rather shocking, to say the least.

Apparently the shadow hunters are a species that are absolutely meritocratic. They despise the weak and any signs of weakness, and they will kill anyone they see near them who exposes weakness.

Of course, this is when they’re able to and won’t receive backlash in some way. Like attacking an ally’s forces or the forces of an enemy too powerful for them to defeat.

But if it’s their own people? They won’t hold back at all.

The shadow hunters will kill their own at the slightest hint of weakness. And it’s considered normal.

Those who die are just considered weak and fodder to strengthen those who kill them.

It’s like they’re in some life and death training regimen all the time. Constantly having to keep an eye on all of their own allies to kill or be killed without showing any weakness.

Rex also mentioned that the shadow hunters are often amongst the most powerful species in the universe. Right there alongside the dragons, royal guards of the voidlings and zelbar, and a few other powerful species. All because of their style of life.

Also, one other unusual detail Rex mentions in his message is that these shadow hunters reproduce asexually. So, regardless of if they’re male or female, they can reproduce on their own. Simply by some process called shadow implantation.

Rex doesn’t explain how that process works, and I don’t really care personally. But he does state that it is a very fast process, so the shadow hunters reproduce rapidly to replace those who die to their own.

Those shadow hunters aside, though, the ones I really need to keep an eye on are the City Lord and the other species he brought to help. Since they’re the ones managing to tear through the voidlings and blighted the most. All the way until they finally arrive at the blighted broodmother.

I watch the six of them push the broodmother into a corner before finally managing to kill her. Only for the blightlings and blighted around them to grow agitated and begin to rampage at random the moment it dies.

A side effect of the boss’ death, perhaps?

That’s interesting.

The six of them, along with the shadow hunter army, all struggle to deal with the berserk monsters and blighted. Losing quite a lot of their numbers in the process.

Yet they still manage to finally bring an end to my Assault with only a third of the shadow hunters dying, and none of the six stronger users there dying.

At most, the dwarf receives a few major injuries alongside the elf. And the shadow hunter leader very nearly ends up infected himself and offed by his own subordinates. Only for him to turn it around with some sort of skill that seems to clear out toxins before killing said subordinates.

Soon after the last blightling dies, my live feed cuts off. Despite some of the blighted creatures still being alive.

Which does prove one downside towards the blighted creatures.

Not only do the creatures turned by the blight begins to give diminishing returns for the number of Victory Points they give, but they also don’t seem to be considered part of my Assault.

Either way, the Assault is over. So I immediately get to work setting up my next Assault.

This time I put in additional mimics, along with half a dozen more elite void golems and a couple dozen more zombies. Simply because I saved up more War Points from hunting in the dungeons these past few days, and I don’t want to see them go to waste due to the Assaults taking so much time in-between each other.

As for what I decided to spend the Event Points on in the end?

It’s probably best to spend them on the additional dungeon first, then on the road. So I can send two Assaults right now instead of one.

With that plan in mind, I go ahead and send the first Assault before opening the Event Points Shop and buying the additional Assault. Then I go and set up a second Assault, but this time with no mimics. Simply because I want to see the difference between the two.

After all, how many people are going to fall for mimics now that they know they’re a thing? Even if real treasure chests are placed throughout the dungeons alongside the monsters and mimics.

I want to know the answer to that very question.

Then I can decide if I’ll send more mimics or no mimics during my fourth Assault.