Chapter 104: Chapter 104: The Savior’s Bounty

The battlefield was completely silent save for the squelch of mud and the distant fading howls of the retreating monster horde.

Dante stood in the center of the massive crater he had carved into the earth.

Above him, the golden server-wide announcement of his victory blazed in the sky.

The system wasn’t finished.

The automated reward distribution protocols for the Siege of Ironhold finally compiled the data.

Dante had secured thousands of kills with his [Cataclysmic Ray] orbital bombardment. He had landed the final devastating blow on the Void-Bishop.

His system interface exploded with blue text.

[Siege Event Concluded.]

[Calculating localized contributions...]

[Reward: Guaranteed Level Up (Boss Execution)]

[Level Up!]

Dante watched his level tick from 58 to 59. The sheer volume of experience required for that jump was astronomical.

But the standard EXP from the thousands of siege monsters hit next.

[Massive Experience Gained!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

He hit Level 61.

He was so far beyond the intended scaling curve of the server that he was functionally playing a expansion pack that hadn’t been released yet.

[Reward: Title Acquired - Savior of Ironhold]

[Description: Granted to the primary defender of the Veridian Capital. Permanently increases all base stats by 15%. Grants VIP access to all high-tier municipal facilities.]

Dante flexed his dark purple gauntlets. A flat 15% boost to his already massive baseline stats was incredible.

Combined with the forbidden Star-Iron upgrades, his raw numbers were entirely unapproachable by standard players.

He dismissed the prompts and walked over to the spot where the Void-Bishop had been deleted.

Because of his [Zenith Incarnate] title, the 100% drop rate guaranteed an absolute mountain of high-tier loot.

The muddy ground was completely covered in glowing Gold and Dark Demon tier items, massive stacks of refined void-crystals, and thousands of gold coins.

He didn’t bother sorting it.

He activated the [Band of the Void-Walker] and vacuumed the entire pile into his infinite inventory in a single sweep.

He did single out one specific item as it flew into his void ring.

It was a long twisted staff forged from dark petrified wood and topped with a glowing pulsing crimson crystal. It looked exactly like the staff the Void-Bishop had been wielding.

[Item Appraised: Staff of the Abyssal Shepherd]

[Tier: Dark Demon]

[Type: Two-Handed Magic Weapon]

[Stats: +3,000 Magical Attack, +1,500 Mana.]

[Passive (Void Resonance): All spell casting times are reduced by 20%. Spells deal +50% damage against targets afflicted by crowd control (Stun/Gravity/Pin).]

Dante smiled. "Lila is going to love this."

The Astral Arcanist already cast her gravity magic without chanting.

If she paired that with a massive boost to her magical attack power and a 50% damage multiplier against the targets she actively pinned to the floor, her burst damage would rival the localized AoE skills of Dante.

He turned away from the loot pile and looked toward the high stone walls of Ironhold.

Lila, Mei, and Casanova had already reached the ground.

In the case of Mei, she simply jumped off the eighty-foot wall and relied on her Brawler fall-damage mitigation.

They were running across the muddy battlefield toward him.

"Boss!" Casanova yelled and sprinted ahead of the girls.

The massive muscular bard had dropped his [Titan’s Physique] talent and returned to his skinny flamboyant baseline.

"Did you see the stream?! Cipher was broadcasting the whole thing! You just hit a half-million damage cap live in front of the entire server!"

"I saw the numbers," Dante said casually.

"You literally vaporized him," Lila breathed and stopped next to Dante.

She looked at the completely empty patch of mud where the boss had stood.

"I did not even see an attack animation. One second the boss was casting a death field, and the next second the server was throwing a parade."

"I used a specialized tool," Dante deflected.

He did not want to explain the primordial armor-piercing mechanics of [Voidsever] while the rival guilds were likely listening in from the tree line.

"You used a cheat code is what you used," Mei laughed and rested the massive cast-iron pan on her shoulder. "We should start charging people admission just to watch you farm."

Dante opened his inventory and pulled out the [Staff of the Abyssal Shepherd]. He held it out to Lila.

"Here," Dante said. "Upgrade."

Lila stared at the glowing dark red crystal topping the twisted staff.

She hesitantly reached out and took it.

The system interface pinged as she equipped the Dark Demon weapon.

The aura of the staff immediately synced with her Hidden Class and pulsed with a deep cosmic purple light.

"Dante, this is... this is endgame gear," Lila stammered and looked at her massively inflated stat sheet.

"I cannot just take this. Sera will literally audit me if I show up at the studio with a Dark Demon weapon."

"Tell her you found it in a ditch," Dante suggested.

"Besides, you are my primary crowd control. If we are going to keep running SSS-Rank containment quests, I need you hitting harder."

Lila flushed slightly but gripped the staff tightly. "Thank you."

"Alright," Casanova clapped his hands together.

"The boss is dead. The city is saved. The loot is secured. Can we please go back inside the giant heavily fortified walls now? I am incredibly allergic to demon mud."

"We are heading back," Dante agreed.

The scattered and disorganized remnants of the three rival guilds Vanguard’s Legacy, the Black Dragon Syndicate, and the Apex Coalition were slowly emerging from the tree line of the Sky Demon Forest.

They looked absolutely pathetic.

Their armor was heavily damaged, their formations were completely shattered, and their health bars were universally low.

They had spent the last hour aggressively butchering each other in the mud and completely ignored the siege event until the massive golden announcement flashed in the sky.

They stood near the edge of the forest and watched Dante and his squad walk casually toward the city gates.

Nobody raised a weapon. Nobody shouted a challenge.

They knew exactly what they had just witnessed on the live stream.

Dan had voluntarily dropped his health to ten percent, teleported into the personal space of the boss, and instantly deleted a Dark Demon with a single swing.

If they tried to engage him now, he wouldn’t even need to use his Zenith-tier skills.

He could just let Mei play baseball with their frontline while Lila crushed their casters into the dirt.

Dante didn’t even look at them.

He walked straight past the defeated and humiliated armies and led his squad through the massive steel gates of Ironhold.

The NPC guards inside the city didn’t just salute this time.

They drew their halberds and formed a honor guard. They clashed their weapons against their shields in a rhythmic deafening display of absolute respect for the Savior of Ironhold.

Dante ignored the fanfare and navigated through the commercial district until they found a quiet instanced tavern to rest.

They sat down at a large wooden booth.

Casanova immediately ordered a massive spread of high-tier digital food and ale.

Dante didn’t eat. He leaned back against the booth and pulled up his system interface.

He needed to review his own combat logs. The fight against the Void-Bishop had forced him to utilize the [Blood Sacrifice] passive of Erebus.

It was a fundamental shift in his entire combat philosophy.

Since entering Overture, he had operated as an immovable object.

He stacked his massive health pool, relied on the infinite healing of Aura, and used his Zenith-tier skills to slowly grind down bosses while out-sustaining their damage. He was the ultimate tank.

But [Blood Sacrifice] changed the math completely.

By voluntarily burning 90% of his health pool, he multiplied his base attack power by 900%.

When combined with his localized buffs, he reached over 13,000 raw attack power.

He wasn’t a tank anymore.

He was the ultimate glass cannon.

If he utilized that strategy, he didn’t have to worry about long grueling wars of attrition. He didn’t have to worry about bosses triggering wipe mechanics or entering enrage phases.

He could simply drop his health, trigger [Phantom Waltz] for the invulnerability frames, and instantly execute any entity on the server before they even had a chance to react.

It was an incredibly risky and adrenaline-fueled playstyle.

One missed parry or mistimed teleport, and a basic mob could kill him instantly.

Dante smiled. It was a cold calculating expression.

He liked the risk. It was significantly faster and required absolute flawless mechanical execution.

It was the exact opposite of the slow methodical farming the top guilds relied on.

"You look entirely too happy for a guy who almost melted in acid," Lila noted and sipped a digital ale.

"Just doing some math," Dante said and dismissed his interface.

He looked around the table at his squad.

Lila was the highly lethal chantless gravity mage hiding behind beginner robes.

Mei was the hyper-aggressive brawler wielding an indestructible culinary anomaly.

Casanova was the flamboyant bruiser who could bench-press a tank.

They were completely disorganized, entirely chaotic, and utterly devoid of standard military discipline.

And they were the most dangerous entity on the server.

"Alright," Dante said and tapped his gauntlet against the wooden table to get their attention.

"The siege is over. We have billions of credits worth of loot to offload. We need to formalize this arrangement."

Casanova sat up straight and practically vibrated with excitement.

"Are we starting a guild, Boss?! We need a cool name! Something edgy, like The Crimson Reapers or Shadow’s End!"

"We are not starting a guild," Dante shot him down immediately.

"Guilds require infrastructure, diplomatic treaties, and massive rosters of disposable grunts. I do not want to manage a thousand people. I want to remain highly mobile."

"So we are just a permanent party?" Mei asked and tilted her head.

"We are an independent contracting firm," Dante corrected.

"We dictate our own objectives. We clear SSS-Rank containment zones. We monopolize the high-tier loot market."

"And if Vanguard’s Legacy or the Legion of Blades gets in our way, we systematically dismantle them."

"I like the sound of that," Lila smiled and tapped her new Dark Demon staff against the floor.

"Me too!" Pip cheered from the table currently hoarding a pile of digital bread rolls. "As long as the profit margins remain high, I am fully committed to the cause!"

Dante nodded.

They had the firepower. They had the synergy.

He checked his mandatory lockout timer.

He had been diving for nearly eight hours clearing the Spire, the Frostfire Steppes, the Necropolis, and the Siege of Ironhold back-to-back.

His real-world body was likely screaming for nutrients and rest.

"I am logging out," Dante announced and stood up from the booth.

"I need to sleep. Sort your gear, restock your consumables, and stay inside the safe zone. We have a lot of ground to cover tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow, Boss," Casanova saluted lazily.

Dante triggered the disconnect sequence.

The tavern, the cheering crowds of Ironhold, and the sky of Overture faded to black and returned him to the quiet sterile environment of his high-security penthouse.