Quantum Leap - Vol. 11 Camp Salvation - New Vagabond Army

C016 The Only Way Is To Level Up

Who would have thought that an army of 135 strong would be entering the battle arena in their identical armour and flashy weapons as they all were instructed to hide their stats and attributes?

Everyone had their names registered in the band as the experience points would be distributed evenly, and with the new 45 new adventurers that had just joined us, we had to enter the lowest level demon in a large party raid to get them accustomed to their newly acquired shouts and skills.

With the newly upgraded weapons, and armours for the Mace's, Druids and Necromancer, the march towards the battle arena was magnificent since everyone was identical in their battle gear. A sense of pride washes over them that caused a tsunami over the other pay2win fat, rich sonofabitches with their full plate armour. HAH...!!!

We chose a level 41-50 demon level and a large army of 200% more of us and we entered the teleport despite the sneers and jeers from the battle seasoned adventurers. This is our first participating party raids in York, we are not making a name for us but we just need to Level up.

We appeared on plain ground and there was a looming cliff above us. Suddenly just before we even organise our battle plan, a rain of Arrows came from the sky and towards us.

'S H I E L D S. U P...'

'S T A N D. Y O U R. G R O U N D...'

Someone held a megaphone and shouted these commands and everyone stood still and an aura enveloped us as the rain of Arrows fell around us and didn't touch a single of us at all.

'A R C I N G. S H O T'

'B A R R A G E'

'D U A L. S H O T'

'C O M B O'

Shouted a Ranger as he readies his arrow and shot one into the air as the rest followed one after another. There are 30 longbow and 30 arrows soon took into the air, one at a time in a 2-second interval as a single arrow split into two as it finds its individual enemy.

It doesn't deal much damage for those Level 1 users but for the seniors who had reached Level 35, it deals as much as +45 damage per arrow.

Screams of agony were heard as the demons were pierced with as many as 5 Arrows each and soon another batch was released once their round is over.

Assassin...!!! COVER AND SEEK...!!! The sergeant Assassins hollered and 15 of them clambered on top of the cliff's face and soon took cover to spring a surprise attack.

'C H A R G E...'

The warriors, berserker and Paragons all advanced up the hill and finish up the rest of the demons. It was an uphill assault and the Druids summoned wild beasts and Necromancer summoned the dead spirits to support the 3 advancing groups while the 15 Mages sent the Death from Above every 1 second for 15 seconds to obliterate the unseen enemies and to force them out from their hiding places.

With the swarming forces, they faced off the lowest tiered demon with ease, mainly the seniors would block and parry while the new adventurers would hack and s***h and annihilate every one of the enemies.

At the meantime, the Rangers and Amazonian had just completed their 5th rounds of Arrows when a whistle was blown indicating a complete victory with new casualties from the NVA.

Once again 270 pieces of broken weapons and 270 broken armour pieces were automatically stored into my storage bin while the spoils of war were being picked up by the individuals. It was the first attempt and it worked well. The seniors of the melee would block and parry and the juniors would hack and s***h.

The battle is over in under 6 minutes and we went through the teleportal with extreme joy as the announcer made the rankings and it showed that ours was the fastest. It was a blitzkrieg...!!!

Soon we advanced to the upsize one on the same level and once we accomplished it we went to the party against Level 51-60 through a large and upsize party raids. After breezing through, we advanced again against Level 61-70 in the large and upsize party raids before we stopped for lunch.

After lunch we had several party raids sizes on Level 71-80 and advanced to Level 81-100 based on small raids a few times before advancing to medium, large then upsize.

With our newly upgraded weapons, we waltzed through the level 81-100 demons from small parties and medium ones, while we did a chacha and a mambo for the large and upsize battles after we had undergone a sequential battle.

When we finally emerged from the teleportal, everyone looked relieved to see the real world outside once again and took a break at the tavern and had dinner afterwards. The monetary award had been given to them at 10 gold coins per person courtesy of Stef as she dispersed 1350 gold coins from her savings.

I looked at my collection of junk and discovered that I had garnered 7084 broken weapons and 7084 broken armour that would be turned into money for my own use later.

The 135 strong adventurers decided to go through a sequence of battles with the level 81-100 demons 3 times in small raid, 3 times in medium, 2 in large raids and 1 in upsize before they call it a night. This means they would undergo another 9 battles and since I am not involved, they would auto collect the broken armour and weapon and they could sell it for shillings.

We bade them good luck and always take care of their buddies as they soon took off after dinner to battle the level 81-100 demons. It was a total of 9 battles and they took less than 2 and a half hours battling these in the night environment.

Soon they all sold the 1485 broken pieces of weapons and armours and had gotten a tidy sum of 742 gold coins plus their rewards and they shared it among themselves. Sharing is caring and all in the name of fairness.

They took their suppers and then proceed to march out to the outskirts of town where 27 tents were out up for them to rest for the night. After some ten minutes, everyone was silent as they fell asleep with 5 adventurers sharing a tent each.

....

The next morning all of us marched into the city gates and went to the tavern to have our breakfast when we heard a lot of hush talk among us. The tavern was large enough to cater for 250 adventurers per sitting so basically there are a few Hodelums, hooligans, opportunists and other low creatures that would only lurk in sewers and s**t holes.

"Archhh... Those level 81 to 100 demons are only for p*****s even at upsize scale party raids." provoked a man in a corner of the tavern with a Hode over his scarred face.

"Yeah...party raids are for boys... Boss raids are for men..." hissed a toothless Hoodlum.

"Be a man... Take up a Boss raid and you'll reap mystery chest and other rewards..." a man at the counter wearing fine clothes and drinking an ale spoke up enticingly.

I quickly sent a broadcast message to the band, "Don't get intimidated by these people. Think of glory and not fame as we level up. Minimum skills and shouts to be raised to 65% minimum before we would go for the boss raids."

"Don't be like Flaming Arrows, Heavens Gods, Winged Immortals, Riders of the Dragonfly and Shiverguard. These are famous names in bands and now what had become of them? They joined a boss raid and can't get out from there and lost over 1000 over men in a single battle. "

"In the end, they disbanded and came to nothing now. Would you want to be like them? The risk is way too high and everyone of you means a lot to the NVA. H O O A H H..."

I sent the broadcast message to them and they slowly realised that it was too early for them to be in a boss raid and the only way is to Level up.

=*=

Third day in York.

We decided to head for the Level 101-110 demons for the day and night raids as we went through 3 raids per size and ended up with 12 sequential raids per level. Not only we did level up on the skills and shouts but also the new adventurers had risen to Level 5 Raising Lights and had 60 attribute points to allocate, their seniors to Level 8 Golden Blossoms and had 96 attribute points to allocate while their captains to Level 10 Floral Crown with 120 attribute points to allocate.

As for myself, I'm still at Level 13 Humble Master... Huu Huu Huu...

The juniors had risen all the newly acquired skills to 35% while the seniors had already attained 60% of theirs, soon after these 12 days and 12-night raids, we would be going back to Camp Salvation to rest up and catch up on some back end news and notifications.

It seems there are a few requests to banish a horde of unknown marauders that had terrorised the town and happens to be under the order of Sheriff of Nottingham.

As we joined the rest for the small party raids and took command of the whole formation, we had grown accustomed of using a manual megaphone to call out each shout which effectively increased the range of influence.

The rangers and amazonian fighters had managed to stack their archery skills up to 4 sets per combo that deal sufficient damage to the unseen enemies.

Warriors and Berserkers had effectively learnt some new magical tomes on their own to achieve the maximum effect of their swords and battleaxes. Together with the Paragons, they managed to kite and tank effectively.

The assassins too had managed to hone their skills in surprise attacks, swordsmanship as well as their deadly silent dagger attacks on unsuspecting demons. They had an advantage as they are the frontrunners and would deal a certain amount of damage before returning back to hide in the shadows.

The mages were able to deal with massive ice spike attacks with a much higher range of damage with a prolonged period since they too had upgraded their Juggernaut. Any incoming insurgencies were immediately slowed down, maimed or crippled when hit by the ice spikes...

Coupled with the combined attacks of the wild beasts and raised dead, these 3 were unstoppable from long-range attacks and when it comes to unseen foes, the Mages would send Death from Above, one mage at a time. This creates an endless bombardment over a certain area until everything is obliterated.

The 4 of us simply had their backs as we shouted one shout spell after another as we progress in into battle. It was coordinated and organised and most importantly we never lost a single man.

Our success rate of 100% had other bands to follow suit in our set of formations but little did they knew that we almost held Legendary Weapons of the lowest level of all. And we are all free2play Vagabonds with no clans and secondary classes. This gave us a lot of advantage over those weapons bought off the shelves from smithies.

After battling 24 battles, I had accumulated a total of 13,158 pieces of broken armour and weapons for the whole 2 days and by the looks of it, I would be damn busy for the rest of the week. My goodness... How did I accumulate so much junk for?

I sent a message to Will.I.Am that we would be marching back for lunch the next day and told him that everyone is well and safe. After the battle, even though it was well coordinated like a well-oiled machine, there weren't any hiccups.

These broken pieces of weapons and armour would be the last one that I would be fusing in the chamber. Without the fusion of broken parts, my Blacksmithing, forging and craftsmanship would not be improved to an advanced level. I hope after this, it would be a fruitful outcome.