The Era of Gods - Chapter 34

Empowered at the cost of several thousand points of Worship Value, when his originally insipid voice reached the ears of his believers, it was as deafening as a thunder’s bellow, striking into everyone’s soul.

Lin Xiao had studied many books on communication between Gods and believers and had also looked into many classic speeches from Earth in his past life, including the quotations on success and whatnot delivered by the masters of religion. He had some knowledge on how to arouse his believers’ emotions.

He didn’t know if it was because of the different worlds, but he found out that the theory of success from the masters of religion of his previous life was very useful in the management of believers. He just had to tinker around with it slightly, and it would yield a pretty good effect.

The masters of religion’s theory of success, coupled with his inherent gifts and the strong faith of his believers, meant he could always use the simplest of language artistry to arouse the emotions of his believers and raise their fighting spirit.

After the Sacred Decree was issued, the Spawn on the semi plane were as energetic as if they were on steroids. The few Naga leaders shouted as they mobilized the Murlocs to gather in the vicinity of the portal get ready in full battle array.

Ten minutes passed in a flash. As the portal opened wide, a large group of Dretches, about 1.3 to 1.4 meters tall with skin cyan in color, emerged from the portal and charged toward the Murlocs in the distance.

The Murlocs, already impatient after the long wait, croaked and waved their weapons, itching for battle. However, without the orders of the Naga leaders, they weren’t bold enough to charge forward.

It wasn’t until the group of 500 Dretches arrived at less than 10 meters of their front line that a Naga leader waved the short spear in its hand and unleashed a furious outcry. The 700 to 800 Murlocs, tired of waiting, swarmed forward and stopped the Dretches in their steps.

The school’s encyclopedia said that the Dretch was an innately foolish and slow-moving Demonkind from an alien realm. It was about 1.3 meters in height and had a pair of claws. However, it was very low in combat effectiveness. They mainly relied on their Damage Reduction Innate Talent and the ‘Human wave attack’ battle strategy to resist their enemies. Just like the Gnomes, when they had the numbers, their courage would be greater, and when they were fewer in number, their courage would dwindle.

Hence, when the few groups of Murlocs charged over and had them surrounded, the cowardly nature of the Dretches triumphed, shrinking into a tiny clump and remained passive as they were being beaten.

It had to be said that the Dretch’s Damage Reduction passive was really powerful. To look at them, their defense wasn’t high. On the surface of their bodies, there were no thick scales, cuticles, or whatnot. However, when the Murlocs stabbed their spears, the effect wasn’t as good as expected. It felt as if there was a layer of tough film over their bodies blocking a portion of the damage.

Besides, although the evaluated strength of the Dretch was very low in the encyclopedia, that lowness was itself relative. They were Demonkind after all. Lin Xiao was surprised to find that these Dretches’ combat power was actually slightly better than the Murlocs.

Mobbed by more than a thousand Murlocs, they managed to suck up all the damage, and as the Dretches gradually discovered that the Murlocs who were attacking them weren’t strong, they became bold and started to retaliate, going back and forth with the Murlocs, and completely shocking Lin Xiao.

A few minutes into the confrontation, movements abruptly arose at the portal. Circles of light rippled and arched, and another group of Dretches came out of it.

When the surrounding Dretches saw that backup had arrived, their morale soared, and they mustered the courage to launch a counterattack.

Lin Xiao knit his eyebrows but didn’t raise a voice. He didn’t interfere with the commands of his own Spawn.

When a God was herding their believers, they must know how far to go and when to stop. Directing one’s own Spawn to fight for absolutely no reason wasn’t something that a qualified God would do.

Besides, even if another 500 Dretches were to show up, it still wasn’t enough to pose a threat to his Spawn. However, his Spawn would feel threatened and thus make the correct response.

Within the semi plane, Yuan Hong stood above the sky and oversaw the land, watching expressionlessly as the Dretches were harvested by the waves of arrows unleashed by his Spawn.

After decades of development, his Spawn, the Swamp Lizardmen, had nearly 3,200 members in their tribe, which included more than 1,000 Lizardman Archers.

In the early stages, everyone had a low-level race, and the enemies they faced were basically likewise. Occasionally, they would encounter intermediate races, but not many of them. Archers had a very high strategic value at this stage of development. With a thousand archers unleashing a rain of arrows, the Spawn of his average classmates would probably get wiped off the board instantly.

In the first three waves of the elimination trail, he lost almost none of his troops. In the Endless mode bonus challenge too, he was unscathed for the time being.

Amid the shower of arrows, the waves of Dretches couldn’t even get close. They all fell before making it halfway to his Spawn.

Originally, Yuan Hong wasn’t thinking about taking the bonus challenge. As the son of a True God, he knew that the bonus challenge after the three-wave elimination trial would only give him a random 5-Star card, which in itself wasn’t attractive to him.

It was mainly because he had received a message from his class teacher and learned that the bonus challenge this time was proposed by the Old Principal that he became interested.

It didn’t matter what the rewards were. For him, even the rewards for being in the top three weren’t necessary. What he valued the most was the quota of the Super Freshman Summer Camp. This was very important to him, and he must do his best to win.

*****

Similar to Yuan Hong, Wan Chuan also continued with the Endless mode bonus challenge because of his interest in the quota of the Super Freshman Summer Camp. Otherwise, he was prepared to return after the first three waves.

Aside from the four students in the class who Wu Hai had spoken to—Wan Chuan, Yuan Hong, Lin Xiao, and Meng Hui—the other students received no message from their class teacher. Basically, after the three waves, consciously knowing that they couldn’t compete with the other outstanding students, they chose to return.

It wasn’t that Wu Hai was biased. He would remind whichever student stood a chance. After all, they were all his students. It was the same for him no matter who got the honor.

After observing the comprehensive strength of his students, Wu Hai believed that only these four students stood a chance of ending up in the top ten. The other students had no chance, and they didn’t have enough strength left as well. Hence, there was no need to waste their time.

This wasn’t just for Third Class; all ten classes of tenth-grade were basically the same. The number of students who were considered by their class teacher to have a chance and had stayed was less than 50.

These 50 students were basically regarded as the best students of their batch in the eyes of their respective class teachers. Should nothing unexpected crop up, most of them would be distributed into Elite Class after the final exam.

The final exam wasn’t over yet, but in the eyes of each class teacher, the members of Elite Class had basically been determined. Lin Xiao was honored to have been recognized by his class teacher as a member of the Elite Class. Besides, his predicted final ranking was pretty high.

But he didn’t know that his potential was much higher in the eyes of his class teacher than he thought.

At this moment, he was overlooking the battlefield in the semi plane, watching a group of Abyssal Boars charging out of the portal after the wave of Dretches that had just been cleaned up. Amidst a series of violent assaults, the Murloc’s were knocked all around.

This wild beast was as tall as a horse and had a bulge on its backs like a steep slope. The area around of its tiny red eyes was filthy and its body covered in black steel hair, and it was surrounded by Demon Flies as big as a finger.

These things were ferocious wild boars corroded by the Abyssal Will upon entering the abyss, becoming even more ferocious than their already ferocious kin and slightly larger in size.

Some demons liked to tame those beasts as mounts. In the abyss, there were also Abyssal Boar Riders. When they charged as a group, they were comparable to cavalries of the human race.