Chapter 526: Farming Merit Points

Chapter 526: Farming Merit Points

The Mirage Cavern was the home of Amphibian Type Monsters. 

Frogs, Toads, Salamanders, and Caecilians were the local monsters of this dungeon. The Mirage Cavern had fifty floors with different types of environments. 

So far, the students of the academy had only managed to reach the 40th Floor of this Dungeon, but it took them a month to get that far. William only had a week to clear the Dungeon, but he was not too worried that he wouldn’t make it in time.

(A/N: Three days inside the dungeon is equivalent to a day in the outside world)

Just like William, some of the students also decided to choose the Mirage Cavern to earn merit points for their test. They planned to go as far as they could within the time limit, but everyone had agreed that they wouldn’t go past the 33rd Floor where the Blaze Salamanders were located.

These Salamanders were very ferocious creatures and their Ranks ranged from Class B to Class A. It was almost impossible to find a lone individual, because these salamanders liked to move in groups of four to six. 

William had only spent six days (two days in the outside world) to reach the Thirtieth Floor of the Dungeon. For someone like him that had fought in a war, fighting against Class D and Class B Monsters was a walk in the park.

Soon, William and the two girls arrived at the 31st Floor. 

William had already bought the maps up to the 49th Floor and integrated it with the system. Right now, they were doing a speedrun to reach the lower floors as fast as possible.

Another day passed and William and his party finally reached the 35th Floor. 

They didn’t fight much and avoided battles as much as they could, which greatly sped up their dungeon expedition.

The moment William stepped foot on the 35th Floor. The system gave him some good news.

< Host, I have done a full sweep of this floor and didn’t find any humans, or humanoid type creatures. It is safe to farm points here on this floor. >

It was then when a devilish smile appeared on William’s face. He had been holding back as of late, and this was the perfect time to seriously farm some Merit Points.

“Let’s go to the safe zone of this floor first,” William said as he led the two girls towards the East. “We’ve been traveling for a while. Let’s rest before we go to the next floor.”

Ian and Chiffon nodded their heads. They were quite relieved that William had decided to rest for the time being. Although their bodies were strong, they still felt exhausted as they rushed towards the lower floors of the dungeon.

Half an hour later, the group created a small camp in one of the safezones on the 35th Floor. This was a place where a barrier was erected to prevent monsters from entering.

This safezone was made by the Archamages of the Kraetor Empire. Some of their Knights and Mages in training would often go to the Mirage Cavern to thin out the number of monsters.

They didn’t want to suffer from a Dungeon Outbreak that usually happened when the amount of monsters within the dungeon floors exceeded its capacity. The excess of monsters would overflow on the other floors, creating an imbalance that would lead to a Dungeon Outbreak.

In order to prevent that from happening, the Knights and Mages of the Kingdom would go on a punitive expedition every four months to forcefully thin out the monsters on the lower floors of the dungeon. 

“I’ll be back in three hours,” William said. “Ian, just call for me if something unexpected happens, okay?

“Understood.” Ian nodded.

William had already told her what he was planning to do. Ian’s role would be to look after Chiffon and prevent her from wandering around. This way, William could go all out without worrying about anyone finding out about his secret.

After gaining some distance from his companions, William raised his hand and several portals appeared around him.

Erchitu, Psoglav, Bastian, Fenrir, Scadrez, and the other local beasts of the Thousand Beast Domain flowed endlessly inside the dungeon. 

“I’ll give all of you three hours to exterminate all the monsters on this floor. Go and collect as many Beast Cores and materials as you can,” William ordered. “I’ve already checked and found no humans on this floor. 

“However, in the small chance that you come across someone, knock them unconscious and call for me. I will handle the rest. Do I make myself clear?”

“”Yes!””

William nodded. “Disperse!”

William’s army, that numbered over ten thousand, scattered in different directions. Erchitu had led his fellow Minotaur Revenants towards the North, Bastian, who had also been turned as a Revenant like Erchitu, led the other Centaur Revenants to the West, Psoglav, the Trollhounds, and the local Beasts of the Thousand Beast Domain went to the South.

The Goblins, led by Xerxes the Hobgoblin Arcane Doctor, and Sharx, The Goblin Marauder, headed towards the East.

William looked at the dungeon map where thousands of green dots encompassed the entire dungeon.

The bracelet on William’s wrist that automatically counted merit points started to come to life. 

Merit points gained inside the dungeon were calculated based on the quantity and quality of monsters that the owner of the bracelet had killed. Monsters killed by Beast Companions also add to the merit points of their masters.

Some Beastmasters could summon several beasts at once. The Kraetor Empire also had these types of students, so they made sure to modify the bracelets to include the beasts that a Beastmaster could summon.

Earlier, William had summoned Psoglav to kill a beast in the 32nd Floor. The points on his bracelet increased when the Demonic Dog had killed a Rock Caecilian that was sneaking up behind them.

This was why William was sure that all the members of Herd and Legion were automatically classified as Beasts under his command. If the Headmaster and the Artifact Masters of Silverwind Academy, who had created the bracelets were to know about this loophole, they would probably pull out their hair in frustration.

Most Beastmasters could summon up to a dozen beasts. However, they had never heard of anyone being able to summon over ten thousand monsters, aside from the Dungeon Conqueror who had sacrificed himself to become one with the World Tree.

Although everyone assumed that the Dungeon Conqueror was dead, they still didn’t know if his profession had been passed on to someone else.

Naturally, the Kraetor Army, and the Elves had their suspicions after William had brought a Beast Army to fight in the war. However, they still thought that the Beasts only participated in the war due to King Minos’ influence.

It was not impossible to gather thousands of Beasts if they had been threatened by someone more powerful than them. This was why although they were suspicious of the Half-Elf, they still doubted the possibility that he had inherited his father’s profession.

Three hours later, William returned to the safe zone with a smug expression on his face. The merit points on his bracelet had surpassed a hundred thousand. Although the number was high, he knew that this was far from enough to beat the accumulated points from other classes.

Even so, William wasn’t worried. They were only on the 35th Floor. There were still fifteen more floors they could farm points on. The Half-Elf was looking forward to seeing the looks on Professor Ewan’s and his classmates’ faces, once they saw the amount of merit points he had acquired on his dungeon expedition.