Originally Silas had planned to kill as much monsters with the help of his Hero and the troops to reinforce the walls with Upgrade Points.

Naturally, monsters in the Sovereign Realm were drawn to weaker defenses, but now that he had Eluned and the rest... Instead of fortifying his defenses, Silas wanted to instead use the Ironwood Palisade as it was to draw monsters nearer once the Novice Barrier dropped, then slaughter them for the 30 monster requirement of Lords from the LAB.

Though, he reasoned, that requirement had to be significantly lower if the monsters were all Tier 2 instead of the standard Tier 1 fodder.

Putting his thoughts aside, Silas stood before the massive iron-banded gates of his territory.

Behind him stood his ten-woman vanguard and the breathtaking Goddess of the World Tree.

"Open it," Silas commanded.

Brida and Vanya, two of the physically strongest Shieldmaidens, stepped forward.

They grabbed the heavy iron locking bar, their muscles straining slightly as they heaved it upward. With a deafening groan of heavy timber and grinding metal, the massive gates of the Ironwood Palisade swung open.

The immediate oppressive atmosphere of the Umbral Basin washed over them like a physical tidal wave.

It was freezing.

Even though the golden dome of the Novice Barrier still arched high above them, protecting the immediate perimeter from entry, just standing at the threshold was enough to make the hairs on Silas’s arms stand up.

Outside, the necrotic black grass stretched toward the twisted razor-leafed trees of the dark woods.

The twin moons cast long, jagged shadows that seemed to actively crawl along the ground.

’This place is a literal nightmare,’ Silas thought with his eyes narrowing. ’But it’s my nightmare now.’

Before they stepped out into the kill zone, Silas drew his sword from its matte-black scabbard.

The dark mythril core caught the dim light.

Curious about its exact standing in the system, he focused his mind on the blade and triggered his standard Lord [Appraisal] skill.

[Item: Silversteel Spirit Sword]

[Tier]: 1 Weapon (Common)

[Description]: A mass-produced weapon forged in the Valoria City armories. Infused with trace amounts of mythril dust to allow for basic mana conduction.

[Durability]: 45 / 50

[Upgrade System: Would you like to upgrade Tier 1 Silversteel Spirit Sword to Tier 2 Umbral-Forged Mythril Blade?]

[Cost: 10 UP]

[Current Balance: 0 UP]

Silas sighed internally.

’A Tier 1 weapon. That makes sense, considering I bought it at the bare minimum of prices in that shop.’

He had already chipped its durability just by testing it on the training dummy earlier.

If he went up against Tier 2 bone-plated monsters with this thing, it would shatter in his hands before the morning was over.

He needed those 10 UP desperately.

Silas looked up, his eyes naturally falling on the floating holographic tabs above the heads of his vanguard.

It made commanding them incredibly efficient, as he didn’t have to constantly memorize their faces just yet.

"Alright, listen up..." Silas ordered with his voice cutting through the eerie silence of the basin. "We are splitting into two teams. Tamsin, you are the Architect. You take Sybil, Oona, Brida, and Vanya. That’s your Trap Team. Use the mages’ elemental sparks to soften the hard earth, and use the Shieldmaidens’ raw physical strength to haul the leftover Ironwood logs and refined stone. I want spike pits, deadfalls, and choke points rigged twenty paces from the gate."

"Understood, Lord Graves..." Tamsin said, her sharp eyes already scanning the black dirt outside the gate, mentally mapping out a brutal geometric kill zone. "We’ll turn this entrance into a meat grinder."

"The rest of you... Thora, Runa, Alys, Fenna, Gwyn... you’re with me and Eluned," Silas said, looking at the remaining Shieldmaidens and Archers. "We are the Hunt Team. We need exactly five Tier 2 kills to get the resources called U.P I need for my weapon. We push just to the edge of the treeline, grab aggro, and pull them back toward the gates. Let’s move."

He didn’t need to say that he had a System for Upgrades but he also didn’t need to hide it from the girls. What did they want to do? Tell anyone? Who would they tell?

The vanguard immediately mobilized with terrifying efficiency.

Tamsin and her Trap Team rushed out the gates, hauling massive heavy logs of Ironwood and dragging heavy sacks of refined stone through the portal.

Sybil and Oona, the two Apprentice Mages, placed their hands on the black earth, channeling their mana to send concussive, low-level kinetic pulses into the dirt, rapidly loosening the soil so Brida and Vanya could dig out deep trenches in record time.

Silas, Eluned, and the Hunt Team pushed past the construction zone. They stepped beyond the shimmering golden veil of the Novice Barrier and officially entered the untamed wilds of the Umbral Basin.

The moment Silas stepped past the barrier, the air grew incredibly dense as the silence of the forest was unnatural.

"Archers, fan out. Shieldmaidens, keep your center of gravity low..." Silas commanded softly.

Tamsin, taking a brief moment away from her trap construction, sprinted up beside Silas.

Being a Wilderness Huntress, she possessed passive tracking skills... She crouched down, touching the crushed bruised blades of the black grass.

"Tracks," Tamsin whispered. "They are heavy and clawed too... A pack of them passed through here recently. I can draw them out my Lord."

She pulled a small, jagged piece of refined stone from her pouch, wrapping it in a piece of torn cloth soaked in standard weapon oil.

"Stand ready."

Tamsin crept forward to the very edge of the treeline. She struck the stone against her iron dagger, creating a loud clack and a bright spark that ignited the oily cloth.

She hurled the flaming projectile deep into the dark, twisted woods.

It illuminated the gnarled trunks and the jagged leaves for a brief second before hitting the ground.

A low growl instantly answered the light.

It sounded like a massive engine turning over... From the shadows of the treeline, glowing blood-red eyes snapped open.

Not just one pair... there were Five pairs.

Stepping out of the darkness were the native predators of the Umbral Basin.

They were Mutated Umbral Wolves, but calling them wolves was a massive understatement.

They were the size of full-grown draft horses, their bodies covered in thick black fur and heavy calcified bone plating that acted like natural armor.

Their jaws dripped with a highly corrosive, purple-tinged saliva that hissed as it hit the black grass.

[Mutated Umbral Wolf]

[Spirit Beast Tier]: 2

[Description]: A highly aggressive, pack-hunting predator native to the dark zones, possesses dense bone armor and enhanced speed.

"Gods above..." Alys, one of the D-Rank Archers, whispered with her hands shaking as she nocked an iron-tipped arrow.

Eluned, standing regally at Silas’s right side, simply scoffed.

Her beautiful face twisted in absolute disgust at the sight of the foul creatures.

"Disgusting mongrels," the SSS-Rank Goddess muttered.

She took a step forward, her emerald eyes glowing with a terrifying light as the ambient mana in the air violently warped around her with the smell of flowers growing suffocatingly thick. "My Lord, permit me. I will cast Nature’s Wrath and eradicate this entire forest line. I shall grind their bones to dust for daring to bare their fangs at you."

Silas panicked slightly. If she nuked the entire forest line, they wouldn’t just lose the corpses; he wouldn’t get a single drop of Upgrade Points if he didn’t secure the kills.

’Right System?’

[Affirmative!]

’Fuck!’

"Whoa, hold on..." Silas said quickly.

He reached out and placed his hand directly on top of Eluned’s silver-green hair, giving her head a gentle reassuring pat.

"Save your mana, Eluned," Silas said softly, offering her a confident smile. "We have a massive wave coming tomorrow morning. I need you at full strength for the real fight."

Eluned completely froze. The terrifying, god-like accumulation of mana swirling around her instantly dissipated into thin air.

Her emerald eyes widened, completely short-circuiting at the gentle feeling of his hand stroking her hair.

She opened her mouth, fully intending to tell him that she currently had 5,000 mana and a naturally absurd mana recovery rate that would refill her pool in mere minutes.

Casting a single spell wouldn’t drain her at all but looking up at his handsome, smiling face, and feeling the warmth of his hand on her head... the words completely died in her throat.

A furious, bright red blush exploded across her cheeks. She obediently lowered her head, leaning into his touch like a tamed cat.

"Y-yes, my Lord," Eluned squeaked softly, nodding her head. "I... I shall conserve my divine energies."

Silas pulled his hand back, gripping his Silversteel Spirit Sword with both hands.

The Umbral Wolves, tired of waiting let out a deafening unified roar and charged.

The ground literally shook beneath the weight of the five massive beasts as they cleared the distance with terrifying speed, their muscles contracting like coiled springs.

"Archers, loose!" Silas roared.

Thwip! Thwip! Thwip!

Alys, Fenna, and Gwyn let their bowstrings snap. Three iron-tipped arrows tore through the air, striking the lead wolf.

However, the arrows didn’t pierce deep. They slammed against the thick, calcified bone plating on the wolf’s shoulder and chest, glancing off with a sharp clack and barely drawing a trickle of black blood.

’Their defense is insane...’ Silas analyzed instantly. ’Standard iron weapons aren’t going to cut it against Tier 2 plating.’

"Shields up! Brace for impact!" Thora yelled, dropping her center of gravity.

Runa and Thora, the two C-Rank Shieldmaidens, slammed their heavy, iron-banded kite shields together, forming an interlocking wall of wood and steel.

They braced their boots against the dirt just as the lead Umbral Wolf slammed into them.

KRA-BANG!

The impact was deafening.

The sheer physical force of the massive beast violently pushed Thora and Runa back three full feet, their boots carving deep trenches into the dirt.

The wood of their shields groaned dangerously, splintering under the wolf’s crushing weight but they held the line.

"Hold them! Don’t let them break formation!" Brida roared from the trap zone behind them, cheering her sisters on.

"Girls, listen to me!" Silas shouted over the roaring beasts, his eyes tracking the chaotic melee. "Do not kill them! Maim them! Bring them to the absolute brink of death, but leave the killing blows to me! I cannot risk the system voiding my UP!"

"Understood!" Thora grunted, her muscles bulging as she forcefully shoved her shield upward, throwing the massive wolf off balance.

Runa seized the opening.

She thrust her heavy iron broadsword forward, bypassing the bone armor and driving the blade deep into the soft unarmored flesh of the wolf’s underbelly.

The beast howled in agony, its corrosive blood spraying across the grass. Runa ripped the blade out, kicking the beast’s leg to shatter its knee, completely crippling it but explicitly stopping before she pierced its heart.

’My turn,’ Silas thought.

He didn’t hold back as he tapped into his Mythic Gold Core.

Instantly, a brilliant, blinding aura of golden mana ignited around his body.

The raw energy flooded his veins, multiplying his strength, speed, and perception tenfold.

Silas exploded forward.

The ground beneath his boots completely shattered, kicking up a massive cloud of black dirt as he moved faster than the human eye could track.

He appeared directly above the crippled Umbral Wolf. The golden mana wrapped violently around his Tier 1 Silversteel Spirit Sword, forcing the cheap mythril dust inside the blade into overdrive.

"Die..." Silas muttered.

With a brutal, sweeping downward slash, Silas brought the golden-infused blade down.

The strike didn’t just cut; it detonated as the sheer force behind his twenty points of raw Vitality, combined with the explosive golden mana, cleaved straight through the wolf’s thick neck.

The bone plating shattered like cheap glass.

The wolf’s massive head was completely severed, spinning violently through the air as a geyser of black blood erupted from the stump.

[Ding! You have slain a Tier 2 Mutated Umbral Wolf.]

[+2 UP acquired.]

[+50 EXP acquired. 5 EXP allocated to Territory.]

Silas didn’t even pause to read the tabs. The momentum of the fight was completely intoxicating.

To his right, the other four wolves bypassed the Shieldmaidens and lunged.

"My Lord, behind you!" Alys screamed from the backline.

Before Silas could pivot, a blur of silver-green motion intercepted the beasts.

Eluned, despite holding back her massive spells, was still an SSS-Rank Mythic entity.

She stepped into the path of the charging wolves with the casual, graceful elegance of a dancer.

Without drawing a weapon, she simply raised her slender leg and delivered a devastating high-velocity sweeping kick to the side of the closest wolf.

CRACK!

The sound of shattering ribs echoed like a gunshot.

The physical impact was so overwhelmingly powerful that the massive beast was lifted entirely off its feet, sent flying horizontally through the air like a discarded ragdoll.

It crashed violently into the trunk of a twisted ironwood tree, snapping the thick tree in half upon impact.

The wolf collapsed in a broken wheezing heap, completely immobilized but technically still breathing.

Eluned turned her head, offering Silas a pristine flawless smile. "It is prepped for you, my Lord."

Silas couldn’t help but laugh with the adrenaline pumping through his veins.

"Good work!"

The remaining three wolves, realizing they were severely outmatched, attempted to scatter.

"Don’t let them run!" Silas ordered.

"Not on my watch!" Fenna and Gwyn yelled simultaneously. The two Archers drew back their bowstrings, predicting the wolves’ movements with terrifying precision and they loosed their arrows.

The iron tips drove deep into the hind legs of two of the fleeing beasts, severing their tendons.

The massive wolves violently tumbled face-first into the dirt, their momentum causing them to roll and crash into the dark grass, completely hobbled.

The final wolf turned, its jaws snapping wildly as it tried to lunge at Gwyn.

Thora intercepted.

The Shieldmaiden stepped forward and slammed the heavy iron rim of her shield directly into the beast’s snout.

The bone-crushing impact disoriented the wolf and Thora spun, using the momentum of her shield bash to drive the pommel of her broadsword into the base of the wolf’s skull, dropping it to the dirt in a daze.

"Lord Graves! All four are pinned!" Thora yelled, breathing heavily, sweat dripping down her brow.

Silas didn’t waste a single second. Gripping his glowing, mana-infused sword, he dashed across the battlefield like a golden streak of lightning.

He reached the beast Eluned had kicked into the tree. He drove his blade straight down through its skull, the golden mana turning the brain to ash.

[+2 UP acquired.]

He pivoted, lunging toward the two wolves the Archers had hobbled. He executed a flawless, spinning horizontal slash.

The golden blade carved a massive glowing arc through the air, cleanly decapitating both of the struggling beasts in a single fluid motion.

[+2 UP acquired.]

[+2 UP acquired.]

Finally, he stepped up to the massive wolf Thora had dazed. He reversed his grip on the Silversteel hilt and drove the blade down into the beast’s heart, twisting it savagely until the glowing red eyes completely dimmed.

[+2 UP acquired.]

The battlefield fell completely silent, save for the heavy ragged breathing of the Shieldmaidens and the quiet hissing of the corrosive wolf blood soaking into the black earth.

Silas stood in the center of the carnage with his chest heaving slightly as the golden mana retracted back into his core.

He shook the black blood off his blade with a sharp flick of his wrist.

’This is amazing...’

He looked at his vanguard.

Thora and Runa’s shields were heavily splintered and dented, but they hadn’t broken formation.

The Archers had nailed their targets perfectly... TThey had just fought five Tier 2 monsters in a completely open field and hadn’t taken a single casualty.

’These monsters are fucking strong man.’

The density of their bone armor and the physical weight behind their attacks were staggering.

If he had been a standard Red Core Lord fighting an entire horde of these things out in the open, he would have been slaughtered in minutes.

His trap strategy was undeniably the right call.

He dismissed the combat adrenaline and focused his mind on his internal interface checking his Absolute Upgrade System balance.

[Current Balance: 10 UP]

A massive, satisfied grin spread across Silas’s face. He had the UP.

"Brilliant work, all of you..." Silas praised loudly, looking back at the girls. "You held the line perfectly."

The Shieldmaidens grinned, heavily exhausted but flushed with the pride of victory.

Eluned stepped up beside him, naturally linking her arm through his with a soft affectionate smile.

"Now," Silas murmured, looking down at the chipped slightly damaged Tier 1 Silversteel Spirit Sword in his hand. ’Let’s see what this system can really do.’