Boom!

The Cyanscale Corpse Eaters ate three gorgeous sword auras as I swung my weapon. They were also being skewered by my Icy Cyclone Domains and roasted by the Ancient Divine Dragon’s Summon the Storm. An entire horde of Level 245 fiend-rank mobs dropped to 50% HP in just the blink of an eye.

I thought I would see through the assault until the end, so I made the Ancient Divine Dragon bow its head low enough that I could press my left palm against the ground. The next moment, countless seals appeared on the ground, and indigo-colored energy beams abruptly burst out all around me. It annihilated absolutely everything in its path, and even the lowest damage dealt was still over 150k. Ever since I obtained the Sacred Armament, my Attack had reached a point where it could only be described as brutal...

"Roar roar roar…"

The Cyanscale Corpse Eaters kept dying and contributing to my experience bar and Divine Energy Points. After killing almost a thousand Cyanscale Corpse Eaters in one go, I said to the hundreds of Viking Cavalrymen standing some distance away from me while absorbing the undead soul sparks, "What are you guys waiting for? Come over and take the equipment you need already. I’ve changed the loot mode to free-for-all, so anyone can pick them up."

The vikings buzzed with excitement. "Hahaha, thank you, but isn’t this… too much?"

I rolled my eyes. "Keep playing the saint, and someone’s going to get the OP equipment before you!"

The group immediately ran over like the wind and swept the ground clean in just the blink of an eye. Forget the girls, even the guys were screaming like they just found a treasure—

"Ooh, I got a Heaven-grade ring… Oh. My. GOD! It adds 40% Attack and 15% Defense! This is practically a Divine Armament…"

"A shield! A Level 190 3-star Outstanding Earth-grade shield! Finally, I found a high-quality shield, hahahaha!"

"Oh my sword, this baby is Level 190, Spirit-grade and adds 70% Attack. I wanna cry…"

……

To put it mildly, the scene was somewhat chaotic. The sight where some of them broke down crying just because they got a good Spirit-grade item was especially embarrassing. It was to the point where I was starting to wonder if these country bumpkins could actually beat Breeze and Rain’s elite Beast King Cavalry.

I might be the King of the Vikings, but my subjects were just country bumpkins who even now had only experienced small-scale battles in Iron Skull Wilderness. On the other hand, Breeze and Rain’s Best King Cavalry were super veterans who had fought many wars including the legendary War of Purple Grape City. Also, these people were cheering over Spirit-grade equipment while the Beast King Cavalry had already begun equipping themselves with the S1 instance set. To say that there was a huge gap between the vikings and the Beast King Cavalry’s horizons would be an understatement...

That being said, we did have a couple of irreplaceable advantages of our own. For one, their courage on the battlefield was something few could match. Two, their Berserk talent was absolutely OP. Not even Breeze and Rain could stop our Zephyr Ironbone Warhorses’ charge spearheaded by me and the Ancient Divine Dragon!

After I had cleared out an area, I searched for the next choke point and killed more Cyanscale Corpse Eaters. In just half an hour, I had killed an entire horde, transformed many of them into loot, and had the Viking Cavalry come over to choose their equipment in batches. My drop rate was so high that every mob had around a 30% chance to drop something. Sometimes, a single mob could drop 2 or even 3 Spirit, Earth or Heaven-grade pieces of equipment at once. If this was the Dragonlight Cavalry, then most of these items wouldn’t be up to their standards. However, they were perfect for these berserkers because most of them were wearing shameful colors on their body. Silver, Bronze, Dark Steel; they almost fooled me into thinking that I had traveled back in time...

……

Not far away, Warscar asked me a good question, "Guild leader, can you tell me what is wrong with your drop rate? The amount of loot we got after sweeping an entire field of mobs isn’t even equal to 25% of yours, and our rate of Outstanding equipment is even lower. That group for example took out hundreds of Cyanscale Corpse Eaters, but they only got 7 items in total, and the highest grade they got was Earth, 1-star Outstanding.

On the other hand, you killed the same amount of mobs and got 3 Heaven-grade, 12 Earth-grade, and many, many Spirit and Purple Gold–grade items. I also noticed that you barely dropped any Dark Steel or Bronze–grade items. How do you do this?"

I shot him a meaningful smile. "Well, I’ve been accumulating power since the very beginning of the game. I’ve killed high-level mobs, completed main quests, and obtained the MVP title in every national or international competition I have fought in."

Warscar blinked. "Could it be… Are you talking about the legendary stat, Luck?!"

I nodded. "Of course I am. Wait a second, how do you not know about this? Luck determines how reliably you get a high attack roll when attacking something, item drop rate, the grade of items you get and more. Long story short, the better your Luck, the stronger you’ll become…"

Warscar lowered his axe with an upset expression. "Sigh. It’s a tragedy. There are no main quests in Iron Skull Wilderness at all, and even the bosses are usually the unbeatable type. Take the Great Undead Magus Juve for example. We challenged him a total of three times, but it always ended in a party wipe. We were even killed by that Hickey woman during our last attempt. The total Luck stat of entire Godkiller is still a single digit…"

I shook my head dramatically and shamelessly. "Man, I pity you poor fucks, really!"

Warscar: "..."

……

The grind continued until it was past 3 pm. Thanks to everyone’s efforts, everyone got to replace at least one piece of equipment on their person. It wasn’t much, but it was the best result we could hope for considering the circumstances. Also, I was able to give Warscar and a dozen or so elite vikings a complete makeover. Even their lousiest equipment was high-level Spirit-grade. Warscar in particular was currently wearing 3 Heaven-grade and 4 Earth-grade items . His ring and his necklace also had OP stats and effects. After he equipped the Zephyr Ironbone Warhorse, he would have 350k max HP and almost 100k effective Defense. He was no longer in constant danger of being one-shot even when he was in the Berserk state.

It was at this moment a female viking rode up to us with an urgent report. "Bad news, guild leader!"

I turned around immediately and asked, "What’s wrong?"

The female rider pointed to the distant forest and said, "A party of 5000 is coming toward us! They are Sacred Oath players, and I think they’re led by Hickey herself. That she-devil has never really liked our guild…"

"Oh?" I looked to Warscar for an explanation.

Warscar grinned a bit before replying, "We killed their players and snatched their bosses in the past, so that hammer lass thought we’re all just a bunch of big dumb oafs and looked down on us. Hmph! I’ve always wanted to teach her a lesson, and she came at just the right time!"

I shot him a glance. "Hickey’s someone even I cannot afford to underestimate, and you want to ‘teach her a lesson’? Look, I’m not trying to disparage you, but there’s a 99% chance Hickey’s the one who’s going to teach you a lesson instead…"

Warscar raised his axe and replied sheepishly, "Er… let’s set that aside for the moment. What do you think we should do now? They’re probably here to grind the Cyanscale Corpse Eaters as well. Hickey and Sacred Oath may very well choose to kick our asses just because."

"Don’t worry, just leave Hickey to me. But don’t start a fight without my permission, get it? Anyone who steps out of line will get a spanking from yours truly!"

Warscar and the Godkiller players broke into a chorus of laughter before nodding. "Got it, guild leader…"

……

It didn’t take long before a troop of black cavalrymen rode to the edge of the lumberyards. Just as the scout had reported earlier, the leader was the warrioress, Hickey. She seemed to have upgraded her mount to something that looked very similar to the Cyan Battle Tiger, but of a much higher rank.

"Guild leader! It’s those barbarians from Godkiller again!" Sacred Oath’s vice leader reported loudly.

Hickey glanced around the area before snorting loudly. "Hmph, how unlucky. To think that these oafs would discover this leveling map."

"Should we chase them out, guild leader?"

"Wait!" Hickey suddenly noticed me and jolted in surprise. "He’s here too? I guess clearing them out isn’t an option anymore."

"That’s… Oh, it’s that thief Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand! Hmph! How did he become the guild leader of Godkiller? I can’t believe that idiot Warscar would actually give up his position…" Sacred Oath’s vice leader clenched his fists angrily. "That Sacred Armament was supposed to be ours!"

Hickey shot him a look. "Quiet!"

After she moved close enough to us, Hickey looked at me and said, "Did you choose to become the guild leader of Godkiller, Lu Chen? Are you seriously going to ally yourself with these big dumb oafs with shit for brains? How disappointing. To think that a god like you would fall this far…"

"What did you just say, hammer lass!?" Warscar immediately rose to the provocation and raised his axe in anger.

Hickey pulled out her sword halfway before continuing, "What, you want to fight me? Did you already forget that you’ve never won once in the 17 times we clashed blades with each other? Hmm, you and your oafs seem to have upgraded your mounts, but you know that I can still beat you with just one arm and leg, right?"

Hickey’s taunting smile added fuel to the inferno that was Warscar’s fury and destroyed his reason completely. However, it also made me value her qualities even more. Warscar might be an easily infuriated bull, but it still took considerable skill to taunt him into a flying rage so quickly. So far, it looked like there was a good reason she used to be called the number one player of the Dutch server. Her individual prowess and intelligence were both top-notch.

Moreover, I had a feeling that I alone couldn’t truly defeat the Indian army on my own. However, it would be a very different story if I had the aid of a strong, wise and beautiful general like Hickey. At the very least, I wouldn’t need to do everything on my own.

……

"Uhh... why are you looking at me like that?"

Hickey shot me a glare before checking her attire to confirm that she hadn’t accidentally exposed herself or something. Then, she glared at me again and asked, "Seriously, why are you staring at me like that?"

I ignored her question and smiled at her. "Hickey, you should know that neither Breeze and Rain nor Flowing Cloud will stop until they’ve truly conquered Iron Skull Wilderness. Unless you think you can fight them yourself, I would suggest that you join forces with us. Only then will we truly have the strength to give the Indian server a real challenge."

Hickey burst out laughing and pointed a finger at Warscar. "You want me to work together with these bulls who only know how to fight brainlessly because they have Berserk? No way! Even if I pretend they won’t drag Sacred Oath’s image through the mud, these idiots can’t even beat Breeze and Rain’s scout party! Why should Sacred Oath ever work together with such weaklings?"