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The durability of her equipment had almost completely turned red, with less than 20 points remaining. Her Autumn Moon Sword had only a single-digit durability left. Once the durability ran out, the equipment would become unusable, and forcing its use would only cause it to break permanently.

There were still many Skeleton Warriors left, and in the distance, she could make out a gray-robed figure, it looked like a mage-type monster. Letting that one get close would be dangerous, and she had already been fighting for nearly forty minutes. It was about time to withdraw.

She held onto her skills, saving them for the right moment. One minute later, Starry spun around and slashed toward the encirclement behind her.

The violent sword aura tore through enemies in a straight line, shredding them to pieces. Her nearly depleted HP instantly refilled to full.

‘This is my chance!’

Starry dashed forward several meters with ease, but the enemies quickly swarmed again.

Every foe that came within reach of her blade turned into a burst of white light and vanished. However, there was still quite a distance to the outer perimeter, and in the blink of an eye, she was once again engulfed by the endless tide of monsters.

Just then, a white figure flashed past, charging straight into the dark army. Raising its wolf claws, it swung forward with great force.

The storm cleared out a vacuum zone, and the Swiftshadow Wolf transformed into a streak of lightning as it dashed through. Starry moved toward the eye of the storm, leapt onto the wolf’s back, and crashed through the weakened Skeleton Warriors, breaking free from the siege.

What Zane didn’t know was that a massive earth spike erupted from where he had just been standing, pulverizing a cluster of skeletons.

***

“Polly, help me repair my gear,” Starry said as she unequipped her equipment.

The gnome frowned and held up three fingers.

“Three gold coins? That expensive?”

“…” Polly shook his head. “Three hundred gold coins.”

Starry twirled her gleaming Autumn Moon Sword, the icy-blue energy gathering along its edge, almost ready to burst forth.

Cold sweat trickled down Polly’s face. “W–Wait! I’m not ripping you off! That sword is practically falling apart! I don’t even know how you managed that… Normally, a Unique-grade weapon should have a slow self-repair function.”

“Thirty gold,” Starry said flatly.

Polly’s eyes widened. “The repair cost alone is worth more than that! I still have my pride as a gnome, you know! If you keep pushing me—!”

“You’d better understand this clearly. If it weren’t for us holding back the northern demon army, you wouldn’t even be alive right now.”

“…” Polly fell silent.

“Alright, just agree to it,” Yalu said as he walked in.

The poor gnome had no choice but to yield. Thankfully, Starry had scooped up some gold coins earlier, or she really would have been broke by now.

The repair process was surprisingly fast, probably thanks to the game mechanics. Within seconds, all her equipment looked as good as new. Of course, some of her items had disappeared in the process.

“Hero, how’s the situation?” Yalu asked worriedly.

“I’ve taken down quite a number of them,” Starry replied, “but the remaining enemies are still overwhelming. Time’s short, so let me ask you, can you ride and shoot?”

“Huh?”

***

It was a special time, so special measures had to be taken. Zane gathered everyone together.

There were over 170 Gray Wolves and around 100 Snowfeather Goblins, slightly more than before, it seemed. He wasn’t sure if they were respawned or… well, best not to dwell on that.

Even after assigning one mount to each goblin, there were still extras left over.

After a few persuasive words from Zane, everyone mounted their wolves. The scene looked somewhat similar to when they were in the second level of the Underground Passage, except this time, the monsters had become their allies.

Without Starry’s interference, the army of monsters surged straight into the Crimson Plains. Fortunately, the Crimson Plains map was vast and barren, leaving plenty of open space for them to move freely.

“Follow me!” Zane shouted.

“Awooooo!!” All the Gray Wolves howled in unison and charged after him. In this battle, they were about to face an endless legion of undead monsters.

***

As they departed, a gnome quietly poked its head out from behind a tent.

“A bunch of lunatics… actually thinking they can fight against the Dark Faction? I’m not throwing my life away with you idiots!”

Indeed, Polly had deliberately hidden himself. At this point, no one had the time or energy to look for him.

“Battle Puppet…” he muttered. If he used that, he could definitely escape from this horde of monsters… and then live out his days freely somewhere far away!

***

Within the monster army, Toyin stared at the mindless creatures around him, seething with frustration. He almost lost control and hurled a Mana Bolt right into the lot of them.

He’d heard that Silverglow City didn’t have any particularly strong elves, so he figured he could seize an easy victory here and volunteered himself for the mission. What he didn’t expect was for the entire army to suddenly stop moving.

The flashes of light ahead were clearly from skills being cast, probably by some overconfident adventurers, he thought. Then… Half an hour passed just like that. And the army had only advanced a tiny bit!

When he finally pushed to the front to see what was going on, he discovered that the brainless horde had surrounded a single adventurer. The weaker Ghouls had blocked the stronger monsters behind them, and even the Skeleton Mages couldn’t get a clear shot inside.

Their positions were completely jammed. He wanted to go forward for a look, but he was stuck too. He forced himself to hold back, if he attacked these idiots now and word got back to the Shadow Overlord, he’d definitely be in trouble.

Ten more minutes crawled by before that adventurer finally seemed to reach their limit. Just as Toyin thought the fool was about to die, a heroic white wolf appeared from the distance, tearing through the Skeleton Warriors’ formation and carrying the adventurer away with ease.

At that moment, Toyin nearly lost it and wanted to annihilate the entire horde himself. It took him a long while to suppress the anger boiling inside him.

After passing through the Rock Maze, they entered the Crimson Plains. He had no idea how the others were doing. If those guys found out he hadn’t even reached Silverglow City and was being stalled here by a few adventurers, he’d never hear the end of their ridicule.

He might still make it in time.

And then, he heard movement ahead once more.

This time, he had learned his lesson. Borrowing the speed of the shadows, he darted forward in a few swift movements. What he saw ahead was an utterly bizarre formation, ‘Goblins and Gray Wolves? And those damned adventurers, they actually dared to come back?’

**Creak—!**

All the Goblins tensed their shortbows, aiming their arrows at the frontmost Skeleton Warriors.

**Whoosh!**

A string of damage numbers between 300 and 700 floated up, while the Gray Wolves beneath them turned and ran backward. In the blink of an eye, the next wave of Rapid Shots came whistling through the air.

Toyin’s lips twitched in disbelief. Were these really the same Goblins he knew? ‘No… I can’t let them mess this up.’ He took a deep breath, suppressing his irritation as he lifted his staff beneath the folds of his gray robe. He no longer cared if a few allies were caught in the blast.

A terrifying surge of mana gathered in the air above him.

“Go!” The Mana Bolt howled through the air with tremendous force. Its devastating power struck even the Skeleton Warriors and Skeleton Mages below, bursting out strings of damage numbers over 3,000!

But before it could land properly, a black beetle wrapped in Iceflow Shield erupted from underground, its abyssal maw gaping wide.

**Vrrrmmm!**

It swallowed the Mana Bolt whole, then dove back into the earth. As if nothing had happened, the Goblins continued their hit-and-run attacks like clockwork.

Toyin’s forehead bulged with veins, or at least, it would have, if he still had any.