Azimuth: The Elden Throne

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/SLASH!/

With extreme force Dale swung his blade down, causing white light to flash across the entirety of the battlefield, blinding both the Barbarians and the Soldiers alike.

/BOOOOOOM!/

The sound of an explosion followed by chaos soon rang across the hills, together with the consequential cries of pain and fear of the barbarians within the falling dust.

To the soldiers at the wall, this was the first time they ever heard a Barbarian scream in fear, for Ermin and his sisters, they saw for the first time what Dale was truly capable of.

Both in power and in attitude as he did not hesitate to act, not even when the enemy was a very lifelike Human.

/BOOM... CRACK... BAM.../

As such, the chaos continued.

...

[DING]

About a minute had passed since Dale descended on the battlefield and Ermin already had a notification play in his ears.

[You have completed the Mission, Castle Mayhorn's last stand (Reenactment)]

"Wh… This quick?"

'I knew Dale would have no problem with them given the difference in Levels… But this isn't just a matter of that.'

'He's not just double their Level, he's in a completely different dimension.'

'Is this the true potential of a HardCore player? To be completely free and to be able to act like an NPC from words to their power?...'

'Or is this something only he can achieve?'

[Calculating contribution and Mission progress…]

As Ermin thought of that, the System notifications continued:

[Hidden Objective, Perfect Defense has been attained]

[Hidden Objective, Fend off the Barbarians has been attained]

[Hidden Objective, Slay the Barbarian Commander has been attained]

[Hidden Objective, Wipe out all Barbarians has been attained]

[Hidden Objective, Finish the Siege within Five minutes has been attained]

[Hidden Objective, Finish the Siege on Reenactment difficulty has been attained]

…

/Shua... Cough.../

"Hum..."

Meanwhile, Dale raised his sword after slashing it once more.

There was no blood in it, after all, he never touched a single one of the Barbarians.

They all died to his rampaging energy, not to his blade.

Only faint smoke covered its edge.

[DING]

[Achievement: One man Army]

[You have been awarded 5000 Favor]

[Achievement: Bloodstained Blade]

[You have been awarded 5000 Favor]

[Hidden Achievement: The True Monster]

[You have been awarded 7500 Favor]

As he scanned his surroundings for any survivors, the notifications seemingly came to an end, so he let out a sigh as he looked around.

'I'm barely even starting… And it's already over. I'm an asshole to think like this aren't I?'

'My armor set is still gathering stacks of Heat while my Bracelet is still causing me to grow stronger...'

'Well… Maybe I expected too much from a Class 1 activity, even if it was in the highest difficulty.'

He looked at the destruction he caused, shaking his head as he had a small reality check.

'After facing off against my own reflection and watching it kill other creatures dozens of times, sometimes myself, even if I'm a bit of a blockhead, I managed to learn a thing or two.'

'This is the result… If the reflection was here, would it have ended everything with one attack? No… That wouldn't even be necessary.'

With Dale's current Vitality, it was possible for him to do something similar to the Great Devil and spread it around, suffocating those who could not withstand his power.

Or maybe, something even more absurd.

Unfortunately, Dale couldn't do that.

'In any case…'

[DING]

[Calculation completed]

[Contrubution rate: 99.9%]

[You've been awarded 99999 Favor]

[Due to the Hidden Objectives, you've been awarded an extra 100000 Favor]

[Due to your Special Packages, all Favor and Recognition rewards times 3]

[You've been awarded 599997 Favor (Final Value)]

[Your Recognition increases and your Achievements are starting to spread]

[Within a few seconds, you'll be transported out of the stage]

"Hum... No extra rewards? Or am I too greedy for thinking like that?"

A few activities would often reward players with extra loot, albeit mostly cosmetics.

"... I feel a bit bad for gobbling all of the Favor, but if everyone got those Hidden Objectives as well, then it's all good."

'This mission, instead of individual rewards, was structured in a way where there was a total loot pool to be distributed based on individual contribution.'

'Of course, for a closed party like ours, that wouldn't matter since we can just divide it individually later by balancing the items we buy in the shop…'

'But this time, I may have done too much… Well, not that I mind carrying Ermin a little.'

'One can never forget where they started, Ermin's help at the very start was what allowed me to hit Level 100 in the first place, otherwise… I may have stopped playing the Beta or done something else, thus causing me to be unable to hit Level 100 on time.'

"With this... I got about a third of the total value of the Packages and the Skill Token." Dale mumbled to himself as he closed his eyes[1]

'I have to figure out where to use the Token though.'

'In anycase, as for the Hidden Objectives, they're like Achievements, but while Achievements are acquirable throughout many activities by anyone that rises up to the challenge, the Hidden Objectives are individual to the instance they're tied to.'

'While I also theorize that Hidden Achievements are unique, being only acquirable once per person throughout the entire Event, so any is already good enough for me.'

'I didn't expect to accomplish so many at once though, that must be why the reward was so bountiful.'

'The problem is that this will only work once, otherwise, I would just farm those for Favor, after all, how long did it take? Two to four minutes since we arrived?'

'But well… If I'm done with this Mission, I can just do this a few more times on other Missions… There are still many Siege Missions for me to choose from…'

'What if I add some Mofiers atop it all?... Yeah… Maybe I'll be able to pay for these rather quickly, and with the discount, once the shop opens again… I can get some of those juicy Items and Skills… Maybe I can even get some for Ermin and the sisters if they can't themselves…'

'Making one's friends stronger isn't quite a bad move after all.'

'I can be greedy once or twice, right?' Dale thought silently as his body turned dym before vanishing amidst a pile of mangled corpses and overturned dirt

… .

A few moments later, they were all transported back to the main plaza where a slight discussion ensued...

Having been thoroughly surprised by Dale's display, they asked how he did such a thing, and after putting some thought into it, he replied:

"HardCore characters can train in similar ways as ordinary NPCs can, this means that any form of traditional training, martial arts, Magic development, or Skills you see a monster perform can also be done by us if we learn the proper methods."

"For the past few weeks I've been studying this very process, and with the help of some items I acquired and the difference in Level, it's no surprise I wiped them all out so quickly."

Of course, just this wasn't enough to explain why he was so strong, but they took his answer, for now at least.

After a few more words were exchanged on the subject, they moved to their next worry, that being their rewards, and it soon became clear to all of them that if they wished to party together, missions that possessed contribution rates as their main reward wouldn't work.

If they ignore Hidden Objectives, after all, they all made 100 thousand Favor just from that, so they were in the positive, no, that's an understatement, they were far ahead of most if not all players right now.

In fact, the moment they left the mission, they all received extra achievements, such as being the first team to complete a Mission on Reenactment Difficulty among a few others.

However, they still had other issues to resolve, those being how they would move from here on out.

Because even if Dale was okay with carrying all of them on his back... Could they say the same?

Thankfully, there were ways of fixing that, Babylon had a plethora of Quests to choose from, so they just needed to choose one where all of their issues could be resolved while also maximizing their gains.

This could all be solved if Dale went solo, but he didn't want to leave his friend on his own, at least not so fast.

He at least wanted to help him grind some Favor, maybe help him get the Premium Packages and raise his Recognition to Class 3 first.

Once that was done, he would leave to do his own things.

After all, Dale also wished to try PVP for once.

So without much drama, they quickly chose the next mission:

[Fall of Ingur (Reenactment)

Category: Siege

Rating: 4.5-Star

Specifications: Maximum of 16 players

Base reward: 500000 Favor (Total)

]

Learning from their past experience, this time, they chose to be on the other side.

A mission meant for 16 players to take at once together with a massive bounty, were they bitting more than they could chew this time?

Ermin thought they were, the sisters thought the contrary.

Dale on the other hand shook his head before he decided to check on his stream while his companions prepared for the mission.

He had opened it for a few minutes and closed it again, he wondered if the viewers were bored, or worse, if anyone even watched it at all.

"?..."

But when he went to check it, he was surprised by what he saw...

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Notes

[1] Dale doesn't need to worry about the Recognition reset from buying the Recognition Package because he never had any to begin with, that was another thing I didn't make clear in Part 6

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