Endless Extraction in a Game-Like World

"Beast tide," Caelus frowned.

The following instant, Caelus’s power converged. He saw multiple beasts charging towards him, but he was completely unfazed.

With one swift motion, a massive Plasma Nuke was initiated.

Boom!

A brilliant mushroom cloud rose from the ground as the beasts rushing towards the town were instantly exterminated, blown to bits.

Sylvia was on the move too.

Blood power erupted from her as she continuously used Fire-Blitz. Fire-Blitz was an incredibly useful spell; combined with her high combat power, it reached a whole new level of lethality.

Seeing them fight, others also joined the fray. The Arc-Weavers and Golems all worked hard to hold the line.

But Caelus was even faster than them. His figure was like a blurring shadow; wherever he went, beasts disappeared into a fine mist of blood.

[Ding!]

[Extraction Successful!]

[Ding!]

[Extraction Successful!]

[Combat Score: ↑ 1.12 (Iron III)]

"Yes!" Caelus was overjoyed. The majority of these beasts were around his level, hence he didn’t waste any opportunity to extract their essence to push his combat score toward the Iron III threshold.

His body naturally expanded as it began to make way for the boundless origin power of the Domain. Soon, his cells were reshaped and revitalized as his raw power finally crossed over the Iron III threshold.

Vaurrr!

A huge monster ape with two heads suddenly lunged at him from the smoke.

[Two-Headed Ape (Common)] [Rank: Iron III] [Level: 1] [Combat Score: 1]

Seeing this, Caelus grunted as pure golden lightning tore from his body.

[Skill activated: Lightning Singularity]

Bzzt! Boom!

The Lightning Singularity blinded the area as the ape was instantly disintegrated.

From the rear, four more monsters lunged at his blind spot. However, he simply waved his hand without even turning around.

[Skill initiated: Glacial Prison]

[Trait Initiated: Telekinesis]

The instant he waved his hand, the ambient temperature plummeted as all the beasts fell into a localized Glacial Prison. Their bodies completely froze solid. Caelus then extended his arm out toward the frozen monsters and made a crushing motion with his fist.

Crrkk! Boom!

Telekinesis flared violently as their frozen bodies crumbled into icy bits.

On the other sides of the town, the other players and NPCs were actively slaughtering the monsters.

Arc-Weavers shot down glowing arrows relentlessly, felling targets with pinpoint precision and without delay. Sylvia sped through the horde of monsters, and with each elegant movement, she took a beast’s life.

Caelus and Sylvia were effectively running in circles around the perimeter, and eventually, they met right at the front gate of the town.

"Good work~" Sylvia said with a small, satisfied smile.

The instant she said it, a system notification rang out.

[Ding!]

[You have handled the Beast Tide.]

[Clearance Rating: SSS-Rank]

[Rewards initiated to all players.]

[Rewards for clearing:

[1. 1x Reputation point to everyone.]

[2. 10,000 Origin Credits]

[3. +1 level]

Seeing the clearance notification, everyone heaved a collective sigh of relief. Then, one of the players checked the time.

"Guys, it has only been an hour!"

"What? Only an hour? That is insane."

"Our manpower is incredible, huh?"

"What manpower? You mean Player 555 and Player 222?"

"Hahaha. I guess."

Everyone burst out laughing. Caelus was managing one side, Sylvia the other; they had basically taken out most of the monsters by themselves.

Other towns usually took an entire day in the Domain to clear a beast tide, but their town did it in just one hour!

"It is good that everything went well." Caelus nodded.

Then, he clapped his hands, grabbing everyone’s attention. Using Aura Density to amplify his voice, he spoke to the crowd.

"Alright, everyone. While we are on the topic, I just want to make it clear that we have reached the threshold to upgrade to a Tier 2 town."

"To become a Tier 2 town, we need 10 Origin Merit Tokens," Caelus added.

"We currently have two left in our inventory. Please look out for more while you are out hunting."

"You got it, Boss," everyone cheered.

"If the town can reach Tier 2, we will unlock many more features. I can guarantee that."

Everyone readily agreed. Seeing this, Caelus was satisfied.

Just then, he noticed from the corner of his vision that a ping notification had arrived.

It was from the global chat.

[Vaelin: People of A1, you people are from Fortis City, aren’t you? Hahaha. Submit to me and I will help everyone reach Bronze or even Silver.]

[Arlo: Hey, we are the ones that own the A1 area. You can keep dreaming if you want our region.]

[Sebastian: Just some mongrels from another city thinking they can show off while I am here.]

[Kaiser: Young Master Sebastian, you do not need to concern yourself with them. We will take care of them.]

[Rowan: Hahaha. Take care of us? Lol. Keep dreaming, we are all already level 21, and Vaelin is already Iron II.]

[Sebastian: So what? Just because you lots are at Iron II does not mean we cannot win. You are all mongrels that should be serving me.]

[Sebastian: I own the A1 region, and I will own the A2 region as well.]

[Ding!]

[Region-wide announcement: Sebastian Harvick has initiated a gamble using a Mythical Gambling Card.]

[The bet is all of A1’s resource points. If they win, then all of A2 will have to submit to Server 304 in A1.]

[The opposite applies if the other party wins. The person that manages A1 will be decided by the strength of the town leader in A2.]

[Goal: Eliminate 10,000 Beasts before the domain reset.]

[Sarah: Hey, who are you? Who allowed you to initiate the gamble? You didn’t even ask Boss 555!]

[Alex: Yeah, you should have asked Boss 555. Our town is the largest in A1.]

[Maru: These people do not want to live in harmony, it seems.]

[Lily: Whoever you are, fellow, the Boss will deal with you.]

[Kaiser: Leave it, people of 513. Young Master Sebastian is far too strong. He has been away from the server, but he was clearing high-level dungeons with his royal family members.]

[Kaiser: He is stronger than even those people of A2. He had already reached the Iron II rank long ago.]

[Kaiser: For someone like him, obtaining the Ascension Token is an easy matter.]

[Sebastian: Kaiser, stop wasting time with these monkeys. We need to finish the task at hand. Let’s go, everyone. As for Town 513, I will handle them once I am done with this gamble. I need those resource points.]

At the same time, in Town 513, every player in the vicinity turned to look at Caelus.

"Boss, this guy is way too arrogant. He didn’t even ask anyone’s opinion before initiating a region-wide gamble."

"If we lose, not only will we lose our resource points, but we will also become subservient to A2."

"Can we do anything at this point?"

"Hey, that Kaiser said something about royals. Is this guy from the royal family of the Solaris Kingdom?"

"What is a royal from the Solaris Kingdom doing here? I do not understand. This is the merged region for Fortis City, and A2 is the Golden Eagle City."

Caelus was staring at the chat with a completely calm look on his face.

Then, he spoke. "Prime."

Boom!

Golden radiance burst from behind Caelus as Prime manifested beside him.

"It is time to cut down some weeds and put some rules in place." Caelus glanced silently at Sylvia. Sylvia nodded back at him.

She had keenly noticed it.

Caelus was angry.

And he had every right to be. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

They wasted no time. Their figures blurred and vanished from the town wall. Their next stop was Town 304.

----

Town 304, Central Plaza.

Players lined up in their armor, gripping their weapons around the Mana connector belonging to a town that had reached Manapunk era, ready to head out.

By now, Sebastian had already forcefully conquered the majority of the remaining servers in the merged region, including Server 512.

Among the gathered crowd were Kevin and Julian.

"Hey, Sebastian. You really should have asked about Player 555’s opinion. He is, one way or another, the winner of the Space League and also the first being to clear a world quest. His strength is unquestionable."

Sebastian, who had flowing white hair and piercing red eyes, wore a naturally arrogant sneer on his face.

"So what?" Sebastian scoffed. "I am also at the Iron II rank. In fact, the strength he displayed in the Space League isn’t much to me. My talent, ’Mage’, allows me to use highly complex spells and even deploy anti-mana magic barriers. No one can win against me."

’Mage’ was a powerful talent. It allowed Sebastian to tap into Spells rather than just Skills. Spells were highly complex, learnable constructs that worked similarly to skills, but more often than not, they combined the effects of other skills and operated based on deep computation of magical structures.

Studying a skill and manually converting it into a spell was an incredibly lengthy process. Very few people did it. It could be done, and anyone with mana could theoretically use spells, but simply buying pre-packaged skills off the market was infinitely easier for the masses.

But that was not the case for true Mages.

Their spells consistently hit several combat score tiers higher simply due to the superior structure of being a spell.

"Player 555 or not, I will just crush him."

"Now obediently begin working, unless you want my royal family to find you in real life," Sebastian said coldly. "Everyone here is my subordinate. I will treat you right if you do not question my decisions. But if you dare defy me, then I will make sure to cut off your heads."

As he spoke, he stretched his arm out. A complex magic circle rapidly formed around his hand as he aimed it towards the players.

[Magic Spell: Incarno]

Immediately, all the players felt a sudden sense of elevation.

[Physical Attack Resistance applied.]

[Magic Skill Resistance applied.]

[Stamina Improvement applied.]

However, just then, Sebastian froze as a cold, anticipating smile formed on his face.

"You are here, Player 555." He slowly turned around. "I was expecting you."