CHAPTER 146: GRINDING THE WEAK BASTARDS (4)

Lena nodded. "And the second option?"

"Keep doing what we’re doing. Stay stealthy, kill small groups, and maximize our points. But like I said, it’ll take too long."

Lena considered this. Then she spoke. "What if we combined the ideas? Don’t lead monsters to the theater; draw them away from it."

Reidar looked at her.

"Summon your Rift-Sprite Contuberniums," Lena said. "Place them in elevated positions—rooftops or whatever gives them a clear field of fire. Then, have them bombard the area. Rain elemental attacks down on everything. This way we won’t risk the broodmother escaping, at least."

She pointed at the surrounding buildings. "We hide nearby and let your summons do the work. They kill everything in range, we gain the points, and we thin out the monsters around the theater. Then we move in with fewer threats in the way."

Reidar thought about it.

The plan had merit. The Rift-Sprites were effective at range and could operate semi-independently. He wouldn’t need to maintain tight control over them; just give them general targeting parameters and let them unleash hell.

But there were drawbacks.

First, he’d lose real-time control—no adjusting tactics or repositioning units. Second, the battle’s noise might draw hordes, forcing them to fight through swarms to reach the theater, potentially luring stronger monsters than the Gloom-Web Arachnids, the current rulers of this district. Both risks mirrored his own plan’s flaws.

Both plans shared the same risks. But drawing monsters to the bombardment zone would reduce threats at the theater and earn them points. It was faster than cautious hunting, more efficient than a chaotic melee.

Reidar weighed the options. Both approaches had risks. But Lena’s tips offered a middle ground—aggressive but controlled, fast but not reckless.

He made his decision.

"Alright," Reidar said. "We’ll do it your way."

...

...

...

They found the spot after an hour of scouting. It was a plaza within the Dread-Spinners’ territory, not close enough to the theater to provoke the Broodmother directly, but near enough to disrupt the entire nest.

The building they chose overlooked the plaza. Three floors up, behind shattered windows that gave them clear sightlines.

Below, twenty Dread-Spinner Gloom-Web Arachnids clustered in the open space.

Reidar watched them from behind the broken window frame. His Rift-Sprites were already in position, two thousand of them spread across every rooftop and every elevated position in a three-block radius. They waited hidden, ready to unleash hell.

Lena crouched beside him. She checked her daggers one last time, then turned to face him.

"Are you ready?"

Reidar nodded.

He turned to Jake. The kid stood a few feet back, his face pale but determined. Reidar had shared Summon Spectral Knights with him before they entered the building. It was a test, both of Jake’s trait and of the strategy they were about to execute. At the same time, it was also part of their plan, one that would make Reidar use less mana.

"Remember what I told you," Reidar said. "Augment the number of creatures the skill summons. Touch nothing else."

Jake nodded. "I got it."

"Once they’re summoned and in position, cut the augmentation. We need to see if they stay or fade."

"Okay."

Reidar studied the plaza below one more time. The Dread-Spinners were there, checking their surroundings.

"Go ahead," Reidar said.

Jake closed his eyes. His trait activated.

The air shimmered. Spectral knights materialized in the plaza below, appearing in rows that stretched across the entire space. One after another, ghostly warriors took form and advanced to the middle of the plaza, where the Dread-Spinners were looking around.

Reidar counted. Fifty. A hundred. Two hundred.

The numbers kept climbing.

Three hundred. Four hundred.

Jake’s face was calm. He was consuming mana, but not enough to consume it all. Reidar told him not to go overboard, as that was first a test.

The number of knights stopped at five hundred.

Lena stumbled back a step. "What the—"

Reidar stared. He knew Jake’s trait was powerful, but seeing it in action was something else.

He was even envious of the kid, but not because his trait was weaker, but because it allowed the kid to cut off the process of having to share the skills with his summons like Reidar had to do, although Jake had to use his own mana, and the summoned creatures could do nothing more than what they were meant to.

Instead, Reidar’s trait basically transformed his creatures and allowed him to give them skills that made them adaptable to any situation.

Still, five hundred knights from a single cast was amazing.

The Dread-Spinners below noticed the newcomers. Twenty pairs of crimson eyes immediately locked onto the spectral army that had appeared in their territory. Mandibles clicked. Bodies tensed.

"Stop using your trait," Reidar said. "Now."

Jake cut the flow of mana.

Now it was the time of the truth. If the spectral knights remained, then it meant Jake’s trait was even better than assumed, and that Jake could take a similar approach to Reidar to level up and survive; otherwise, it would be better for him to focus on other things, such as elemental skills.

Reidar smiled. Lena smiled too, though hers was more predatory. Even Jake was smiling. The kid knew what this meant. They were going to kill the Broodmother. They had the firepower now, and he would soon have his revenge.

"Move them," Reidar said, and Jake ordered the creatures to attack.

The spectral knights marched forward. The Dread-Spinners reacted as expected—they charged.

The spectral knights were level 70, like Jake, but the Dread-Spinners were around level 125. There was no way they would get defeated by the knights.

The battle erupted. It was more of a one-sided massacre from the spiders, rather than a battle.

Twenty Dread-Spinners against five hundred spectral knights. The plaza became chaos. Swords clashed against carapaces.

The noise was tremendous. The clicking of spider legs, the ringing of mana blades, and the screech of enraged monsters. And beneath it all, something else.

A tremor.

The ground shook. Not from the battle itself, but from something responding to it. Something massive.

The tremor grew stronger. Buildings shuddered. Dust rained from the ceiling of their hiding spot.

Lena turned to Reidar. "We need to get the hell out of here."

Reidar nodded. She was right. The summons had their orders: keep fighting, kill everything, and draw more monsters to the plaza. He had shared skills with the Contuberniums, giving them the ability to re-summon their kin each time they got destroyed, so this battle was going to last for long.

The Rift-Sprites had to stay hidden until the larger monsters arrived, then unleash their bombardment.

"Let’s move," Reidar said.

They headed for the stairs. Jake stumbled after them. Lena grabbed his arm, helping him along.

Behind them, the battle intensified. More tremors shook the buildings. The various monsters were responding to the battle, and likely, they were starting more on their own.

Reidar glanced back through the broken window as they reached the stairwell. In the plaza below, the spectral knights had already been reduced to less than 200. The remaining knights fought with desperate fury, but there was nothing they could do. Twenty level 125 monsters were no joke, even if Reidar was the one who sent the creatures.

Beyond the plaza, shadows moved. More spiders were coming. Drawn by the noise, by the intrusion into their territory, but they weren’t the only ones.

Perfect.

The tremors followed them down. The entire district was waking up.

...

...

...

Reidar urged his wolf into an alley, signaling for silence with a raised fist. Lena pulled her mount to a halt just behind him. Jake was clinging tightly to her back.

Ahead, the street stretched. It was empty for now, but Reidar felt it, and thanks to the Hive Mind, he had a vague understanding of what was going on.

He had sent the Vorathid Foragers ahead. They were meant to draw stray monsters away from their path, to thin the hunting packs circling the downtown ruins.

It was from them that he received a signal. Monsters were nearby.

Then, the skittering of their legs started to be heard with more clarity.

Ten Vorathid Foragers burst from a side street, their bodies low to the ground, legs a blur as they sprinted through the streets. They didn’t slow. They didn’t stop.

Reidar’s jaw tightened.

Lena leaned forward. "What is it?"

"Just wait," he said, eyes locked on the empty plaza where the Foragers had gone through.

Seconds passed. Reidar held his breath.

Then the ground trembled. A tide of movement spilled into view, monsters in a frenzy, drawn by the noise of the spectral knights’ slaughter.

Hundreds of them. A hunting wave.

Shard-Tooth Skitterers. Those were all Shard-Tooth Skitterers. But what Reidar saw filled him with dread, because those things’ levels flickered in Reidar’s vision as his Monster Compendium updated—105, 108, 112. A few even hit 117.

What the fuck?

Lena saw the monsters and had the same shocked expression as Reidar did.

The last time they faced the Shard-Tooth Skitterers was back in the quarry quest they took in Havenwood on Martin’s request, and those beasts averaged level 39. It wasn’t just that they were outside of their usual habitat, damp, dark caves, but also that their levels spiked to more than 100.

However, Lena noticed something as she saw them.

"They are far less than usual, but why?"

Regardless, there were still too many for Reidar and the others to face them in such large numbers given Reidar’s current situation.