The Expansion was also surrounded by dense monsters, mostly fortified level—hundreds of them.

Gideon had officially become a staff member a while back and he was the defacto leader in this area along with a few superior fortified-level elders the adventurer and the mercenary guilds sent to assist them.

The extension was nearer to the dungeons, after all, so the chances of encountering stronger and denser mobs here was higher.

Gideon showed off his prowess deeper into the mob, a hundred meters or so from the barrier.

Many of the skills he had (some given by the guild) could not be used well if he wasn’t in the middle of a mob, so this was the perfect time to use them.

His skills were highly destructive and had high chances of causing collateral damage, so he preferred this style if he were to go all out, even if it were dangerous.

One of the skills was the [Blade Tempest] which was using the energy from his blade to create a small tornado made of sharp wind. It was really dangerous and he couldn’t control it after it left his body—he wasn’t a mage after all.

After creating it, it was an independent monster, and even wind affinity mages would find it difficult to control unless they were of the same rank as him.

Now, he had no qualms about using it.

Some fire users even threw their own flames, creating a fire tornado, and causing even more havoc amongst the beasts.

ROAAAARRR!!

RAHHHHH!

Seeing many monsters get slashed and/or burned to death, many of the fighters rushed forward to finish off the weakened monsters, harvesting more and more monsters with minimal consumption.

Victor, the fortified-level fighter tank, was among the fighters here. He would often go out to assist the other people while going hand in hand with the monsters.

This had got to be the largest density of fortified-level masters ever.

His wife, Reesa was well inside the dorms. She was very pregnant right now, after all, but she refused not to contribute. As a new addition among the blessed ranks, she also gained an area-of-effect healing skill, so she would often go out and heal the fighters when they went inside the barrier.

She and Princess Claire took charge of separate areas, making sure to help as many people as they could each time they activated their AoE skill (which had several minutes of cooldown time before they could be used again).

The rest of the team was helping out, with Miya positioned on the mountain side and shooting projectile after projectile. There were baskets of superior arrows on her side, and some logistics people were in charge of either recovering arrows or taking them from the [Delivery Room].

The extension met with the mobs an hour prior to the main area, and they had been fighting for longer and with more intensity. Fortunately, the area of the extension and its surface area was not nearly as big as the main one, and purposely so.

This was kept compact because not many could stay there, and the buildings were not as good as the main ones. So, for efficiency, Finn invested most of the expansion modules in the main area where people could be maximized.

This meant that the number of monsters that this area could stop wasn’t as many as the main area. But this was fine, as long as they could reduce the monsters while protecting their fighters, it was already considered a win.

Although it was difficult and the fighters could only deal with monsters nearby, the pace of the fighters inside was relatively steady. The challenge was the density of fortified-level beasts, who were large and strong.

Fortunately, the adventurers and mercenaries weren’t pushovers either. They could rest if they got injured or their stats got low. At worst, they could go to the clinic, where they had 2 roundtrips covered by the inn every day.

Days passed like this, and the fortified level fighters had to retire one by one, some needing a few hours to recover before returning. Aphelion Phase lasts more or less two weeks, so no one was willing to be immobilized halfway through.

Speaking of which, usually, at this time, there would’ve been thousands of deaths in the safe zone. In the inn, they were holding on thanks to the barrier and the increased recovery buff.

Their momentum was soon shaken when they felt the ground rumble ominously, and soon heard the terrifying high-pitched cry from a distance. It was so loud that trees a kilometer away shook.

Gasp

“A-Apex level! There’s an apex-level monster!”

“WHAT!”

“Nononono!”

“Should we run?”

“Are we abandoning the extension?”

“Better than death, right? At least the main area would still be standing! Probably!”

It had to be said: The shadow of apex-level monsters was deeply ingrained in people’s fears.

There was no helping it: Whenever a monster this level arrived, it was hell. The hopeless kind.

Each Aphelion Phase, there would be two or three apex-level monsters emerging, though it was unclear which of the three portals they would emerge from, so they were difficult to prepare for.

Now, it looked like they were ‘lucky’ enough to encounter one!

Regardless, whichever territory they passed by, there would be tens of thousands of casualties.

These monsters were also the likeliest to reach the deepest parts of the safe zone, all the way to the royal cities, and only then would they be killed—albeit still with plenty of sacrifices.

Usually, whenever an apex-level monster was detected, two or three apex level fighters would be called in. Unless there was another monster of the same level heading into their respective hometowns, most apex-level or prime-level warriors would help take the beast down.

It was just that since they were usually from other places, people still had to travel, and many people and villages fell while they waited.

Apex-level monsters were harder to deal with than apex-level humans, so a lot of resources had to be used, many lives lost, every time they had to take down a monster of this level.

Basically, only those people could handle beasts of this level; Everyone else was helpless.

There were only so many apex-level fighters in the world, and they had their own territories, so the Inn sadly did not have an apex-level fighter. It was no wonder people were terrified, and the first thought in their minds was to run.

People gasped, panicked. Their fortified-level people were now injured and were no longer at their peak, so they could only run to the barrier.

The group watched as the apex slammed its big hands on the barrier, over and over, and each one felt like it was eating away at the defenses.

Some were already running to the Delivery Room, about to run. Gideon appeared next to them and shook his head. “It’s not that we don’t have anything.”

Staff members had the right to manage the barrier as well, and this included handling the new offensive upgrade, the [Electrifying Snap].

This technique could one-shot fortified-level beasts at their peak, so it would definitely be able to cause some damage to apex-level ones.

It had a cooldown, applicable to both territories, so they had been careful in using it. For the past couple of hours, he only used it a few times against the various pek fortified-level monsters that touched the barrier. Few noticed because the fighters were outside, and people just assumed someone took care of the monster.

Now, since he used the maximum power, it was very visible.

SNAP!

SNAP!

People watched as the apex level monster was hit by a strong electric current every few minutes, each time causing it to pause in pain for a second or two.

Then, their brave powerhouses like Gideon would rush out and send barrages of attacks every moment after, taking advantage of its daze.

Whenever it wanted to retaliate, the fighters would just hide back into the barrier. If the timing was right, the [Electrifying Snap] function would get activated again.

It was not surprising that it annoyed the monster a lot.

ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARR!!

SNAP!

SNAP!

They did this over and over for an hour, with people using their strongest skills, taking turns in order to keep the attacks consistently strong.

SNAP!

SNAP!

Until finally, the monster fell down, lifeless.

“…”

People’s mouths were open the whole time. This place is awesome!

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep