Kaimon and Luspel.

After the destruction of the two great empires, there were many kingdoms that came in their place.

East, West, and the Central and North continents too.

The vast land was divided into numerous sections.

However, the size of the kingdoms that were split wasn’t of the same size or area.

The largest kingdom was the one which had almost six times the size compared to the smallest kingdom.

Then, what was the current size of the Lotus Kingdom?

The Lotus Kingdom, consisting of a total of 35 manors, could be seen as average in terms of size.

In fact, the smallest existing kingdom had ten manors, and the largest kingdom had eighty manors, so one could say that a kingdom was of average size if they got at least 45 manors.

However, since the number of smaller kingdoms were more compared to the larger ones, it could be said that a kingdom with 35 manors was above average.

Of course, among the kingdoms that were set up in recent times, Lotus by far was the greatest.

The Lotus Kingdom was running towards a much greater goal.

And that goal was to be declared as the server’s first Empire.

After the Elrika Kingdom was merged with the Lotus, the first step of their goal was achieved.

The barracks of the Lotus Kingdom was placed on the forefront of the army on the battlefield.

Herz and Jinsung were having a serious meeting.

The war would resume tomorrow. According to the schedule they laid out, the war would go on till the next full moon.

During the full moon, the Lotus Kingdom was planning on taking in the Elrika Kingdom into theirs.

“Yoo hyun-ah, as of the moment, what’s the state of the Elrika kingdom?”

“Hmm, wait.”

Looking at the Elrika Kingdom at the map, Herz spoke with a surprised tone,

“The Elrika Kingdom became larger.”

“Yeah?”

“Huh, there are forty divisions and fourteen of them was around the same size as Keaton.”

“Oh ho, which means there are more than ten Lords.”

“Right. There are seven royal households and four marques, and there are three dukedoms.”

“Viscounts, and Barons…?”

“Ten Viscounts and fourteen Barons.”

“Fourteen, and twenty-four. A total of thirty-eight.”

“Yeah. It’s fast.”

“Hmm…”

As a matter of fact, the larger the manor titles the higher would be their level, and the more difficult it would be to attack.

The level of defense would be higher.

Which was why they had to make a good strategy when trying to attack a kingdom.

The commanding abilities of the commanders on the battlefield weren’t the only thing that was important in war. There were a few things that had to be considered as well; such as the strategy that would be used, the troops and the terrain.

Herz explained everything about the manors and pointed his finger to a place on the map and spoke with a serious tone,

“However, we have a problem.”

“Huh?”

“Everywhere else is fine, but this…”

Ian’s gaze went to the place that Herz was pointing to.

“Rataphel Manor?”

“Huh, this is the most tricky place. I’m not sure if the place can even be breached. Even if it’s possible to do so, we need at least a week or so to break their defenses.”

“Yeah? That tough?”

With a look that said he was interested, Ian looked closely at that point on the map.

He wanted to analyze it before he confirmed anything with Herz.

Being concerned about things without even looking into it wasn’t how Ian did things.

Even Herz knew of it, which was why he was waiting for Ian’s opinion on the situation.

‘Hmm, it’s a bit hard to say as there is just one entry… what is the reason for having a marquis?’

As the rank increased, the manpower increased exponentially as well.

Therefore, a marquis was much more difficult to deal with than the other dukes at the Rataphel Manor, and there had to be some reason as to why.

‘What could it be… the reason?.’

Ian took a look at the map.

The next moment he was surprised by what he had thought of.

“Oh shit, crazy! The Sanctuary of Darkness…!”

Herz nodded with a smile in response.

“Right. The Sanctuary of Darkness. That is the biggest problem.”

* * *

What could a sanctuary be?

As the name itself implies, it was a sacred holy place.

The sanctuaries function in the same manner in Kailan.

It was the only place where God’s blessing could be taken without the intervention of a priest.

It was a sanctuary where one could get strong buffs from God’s blessings by just stopping by at the place.

However, there were disadvantages.

The place had constraints.

When one moved out of the sanctuary, the effects of the buffs would be revealed immediately.

However, an artificial sanctuary couldn’t be created, so it was a perfect match.

Which was why a sanctuary was an unfamiliar topic.

At times there were sanctuaries which could be reached within a certain range from a dungeon, but it was a premium and very rare.

‘However, having a sanctuary in such a place is a whole different story.’

Ian’s eyes were still fixated on the map.

The sanctuary was surrounded by mountains and rivers, and it was the ultimate buffing facility. Going through the Rataphel manor was the only way they could go there.

Herz spoke as he watched Ian who was still fixated on the map.

“Did you found it already?”

“Yeah, who couldn’t see this?”

“Cain and Corbin looked at the map for a while, but they couldn’t find it, you know?”

“Cain lacks observation, and isn’t Corbin the muscular brain kind of guy?”

“…”

Silence fell over the two.

Ian seemed to be immersed in some thought, so Herz waited it out.

He was hoping that Ian could come up with some valid idea in his head.

It wasn’t just plain hopeful anticipation, and Ian who was still staring at the map spoke at last,

“This… isn’t this map wrong?”

“No way. The map is completely up to date.”

“…”

“I never even thought of that.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Without further looking into the matter, we couldn’t have been able to see it.”

“That can’t be… we would lose all our troops in the fight.”

“Then…”

There were around twenty sanctuaries known as of the moment in Kailan, and each sanctuary had a different buff.

Of course, the sanctuaries of the same attribute gave the same buffs, but the coefficients were different.

However, there wasn’t much of a big difference.

The highest would probably be around 4 to 5%.

Ian and Herz continued their conversation with serious expressions.

“The Sanctuary of Darkness buff effect… maybe a dark attribute DOT damage increase?”

“Right. A 20% DOT damage increase, and 3% attack power increase for 20 seconds. If the target has something with a dark attribute, the buff will increase by 50%.”

“20% is the minimum. The DOT damage could increase by up to 26%. The DOT damage is what we really need to be worried about.”

“Sure. The problem is the alliance of the Elrika Kingdom and the Undead.”

“The buffs will be applied one and a half times.”

“Right.”

“…”

To summarize all their saying, it would be easy to say that the attack power of all the ones inside the sanctuary would be around 37.5% higher.

In addition, 3% of the accumulated DOT damage.

Although the buff was limited to one’s attack power, the level of the troops increased 10 to 20% higher.

The average level of users in the Elrika Kingdom was 350, but their battle abilities would probably be the same as a level 385 to 420 user since their abilities were boosted.

The level 400 Death Knights would have battle abilities close to a level 500.

Those were levels that couldn’t be easily overcome with tactics.

“Wow, I’ve played this game for a long time, but this is the first time that this game looked crazy to my eyes.”

Ian was baffled at what he just realized, and Herz just shook his head.

“Right. This is developer-level… the sanctuary isn’t on a continent but in the Elrika Kingdom.”

“…”

Once again silence fell between the two.

They need a miracle now.

Ian then spoke,

“Is there no way to deal with this?”

“Should we give up Rataphel then? If we do, then we’ll have to give up the twelve manors that are behind it. In addition, we could only conquer the greatest manor of all—the Elrika—after crossing Rataphel.”

Ian bent his head and responded,

“No, not that.”

“Hmm?”

“Not give up the Rataphel Manor. The walls are ones that need to be given up.”

“Isn’t that the same?”

“No.”

Ian pointed to a place on the map.

Herz’s gaze moved into the spot Ian was pointing to.

Ian then continued what he was saying.

“Let’s go here.”

“Mountain wall? It’s not like I haven’t thought of it…”

What Ian was trying to say were simple, going over the mountains was the easiest way.

It was easy to say, but it was rather hard to do.

A small battle could be thought of, but in a war, there were many unknown variables and risks that were associated with those thoughts.

For example, an attack was possible, and normal soldiers could be annihilated in an instant.

There were no walls or defense groups that could handle the mountains.

The mountains could be a great defense if used well.

“No matter how hard the mountain is, it will be easier than our original plan.”

“That is true.”

“Not a normal, but a high-level party needs to be formed to go to the sanctuary.”

“Well, that might work, but I’m still not sure if it will.”

Ian was speaking while moving his fingers across the map.

“The longest it could take us to reach the land of Rataphel will be five days.”

“I think so too. At least seven manors are needed to be taken down.”

“In the meantime, I’ll take a ride.”

Herz was shocked upon hearing what Ian said.

“What? Even if it is you, isn’t it a bit too dangerous?”

Ian bent his head and replied to him,

“No, it’s not like I can do it by going there alone”

“Then why?”

“Here, let’s go scouting.”

“Uhm…?”

Ian’s fingers pointed at the back of the sanctuary.

Although small, one could see something written in the direction Ian was pointing at. It said ‘Underground Prison’.

Herz was unable to grasp Ian’s intention which made him ask once again,

“Underground… not even the sanctuary, why there?”

Ian got up and responded,

“There is a thing that needs to be done there.”