Luke bought the Viper crossbow and then fired at his left hand three bolts. They didn’t pierce many thanks to his high defense, and even though he also had a high resistance, their effects began to stack since Luke didn’t pull them out. Fortunately, Luke’s HP regeneration was pretty good, so it canceled the damage... It wasn’t a pleasant experience, though. That being said, he couldn’t think of anything else better to improve his defenses against that. It was a literal, no pain no gain. As expected, the others looked at him with concerned eyes, but Luke decided to keep at it. He didn’t have time to worry too much about other people’s opinions.

"You are doing something weird again," Rina said.

"Well, I have been neglecting my defensive skills, so I decided to improve them while I can," Luke said. "Just don’t think too much about it.

Luke had figured out that if he made those reach high levels, the overlords would have a hard time getting rid of him this time. He also had the idea of taking more damage than his regeneration could help. Still, then he would need Rina or Nambra’s help to help counter the damage, and he didn’t want to look more desperate than he already was. Luke didn’t want to stop helping Rina and Shalia, but he didn’t want to put his parents at risk as well, so that was the only thing he could do. That kind of thought made his friends look troubled since even though he wasn’t telling directly, it was clear as any day what he was thinking to do.

Despite that, Luke managed to make that skill reach level seven while Seirion and the others were landing on the camps and convincing more people to join their side. Thanks to that, in no time, they completed their first goal, and it was time to fight the horde. Most of the dark elves wanted to fight, but only those that had made the oath could do so on the first attempt. Thanks to that, Seirion managed to make others to accept the oath, but not many did it. They assumed that they won’t be able to fight for long with such low numbers. Seirion wasn’t much confident either, but that was what Luke decided, so he could only obey it and see what would happen.

"What should we do?" Rina asked.

"Just save your mana from healing the wounded when I make them return to the fortress," Luke replied. "I suppose you can’t heal them from here, right?"

"It will be hard to differentiate those who need healing from such a long distance. Aiming will also be troublesome," Rina replied.

Luke had given the order for the dark elves to retreat if they got hurt, so they couldn’t disobey him. While they had a high focus and could regenerate pretty fast, their low health was a problem. So, while they could regenerate fast, their wounds will be too big and dangerous if they get hit; thus, they won’t be able to fight properly.

"This is just a test run, I get that you all want to destroy the horde and their masters, but the goal here isn’t to do that in a single push," Luke said. "Trying to do that in a single push isn’t possible, and it is stupid."

Although they could use magic, the dark elves couldn’t understand much about tactics. That was why they never worked in groups. They were like Vikings that used fireballs instead of axes... Nevertheless, they didn’t have any other option aside from listening to Luke.

Luke had checked if his skeletons received the power of the overlord, but he didn’t see the bonus in their skills and status. It was a pity, but he will have to put them aside for the time being as well. He was only hoping that such insistence on his plan of leveling up the overlord skills won’t come to bite him in the ass later...

When the preparations had been completed, they headed toward the dust cloud in the distance. They then saw the horde moving toward the nearest camp on the west side, as Luke had expected. If anything, the overlords had done their homework, and they had chosen the shortest route to take down all the dark elves and monsters on the continent. Still, things weren’t going that smoothly since they overlooked Luke’s presence and were just waiting for the return of the guy that created that crater.

Once the fortress got close enough to the land below them, the dark elves began to land and assumed the positions that Luke told them to. While he wasn’t a tactical genius, Luke knew how to make good use of them in a very easy manner...

When the monsters got in their range, Luke looked toward the first squad, and then he saw a single dark elf there standing in front of the others. Controlling him would be easy since he could see the guy, but Luke just told him what he had to do. In the next moment, the elves of the first squad pointed their hands toward the monsters and then attacked. Suddenly, earth walls and earth spears emerged from the ground and began to wound and slow down the horde’s movement speed. They kept using their mana until they didn’t have a single drop left. Thanks to that, those four hundred dark elves disrupted the horde in a crazy manner and turned them into sitting ducks.

Luke looked toward the second squad and gave them the permission to move. So, in the next moment, several ice tornadoes appeared amidst the enemies’ formation and began to freeze the monsters, slowing some down and while killing a few others.

You obtained 115 experience points.

You obtained 115 gold coins.

You obtained 115 experience points.

You obtained 115 gold coins.

...

The amount wasn’t big, but the frequency that Luke received those notifications made up for it...