Armipotent

Chapter 1920: 22th Floor

Tang Shaoyang stood in front of dead Orcs, looking at the heart with a size that doubled his palm. He observed the heart attentively. There was something in this heart, something that he could not point out. It was similar to energy, but also different.

He stored the hearts in his inventory, keeping them fresh. Then his eyes locked on the dead Orcs with a hole in their chest. Now he noticed the Orc was quite different than the one he often encountered.

This one was not green-skinned, this one had deep orange skin. Not just that, this one had a pair of small horns that looked like a bamboo shoot. Despite their tall stature, the horns were about his pinky finger length.

He squatted in front of the Orcs and flicked the horn as hard as he could. He did not have a hobby to torture the dead, he was testing how tough the horn was. The body was spun and to his surprise, the horn was intact. The horn did not break apart, in fact, there was no crack.

Tang Shaoyang took out his Azure Dragon Blade and tested it with his sword. Again, he was surprised that the horn stopped his sword. He did not use skill, but his sword was a God Rank Weapon.

”The horns are small, but maybe the dwarves have some use for them,” He took the Orcʼs dead bodies into his inventory after storing his sword.

Not just the Orcs, he had been collecting the Giantʼs bodies as well. The dwarves could make something from their skins that was known as a natural barrier against elemental magic. He followed the spirits and collected the bodies. After he was done with the bodies, he went to the next floor instead of returning to the town.

[Make your choice!]

[The Sacred Kingdom] [The Dominion] [The Eptas Monarchy]

Tang Shaoyang did not like the choices as they did not tell him who he would fight for. If he had to guess, the Sacred Kingdom might be a kingdom based on a certain religion. The Dominion sounded like a dictatorship kingdom. The third one was unknown, he could not figure it out just by name.

Based on his impression, Tang Shaoyang chose the third one, The Eptas Monarchy. He did not like the first two, so he chose the third one. His vision blurred for a moment before returning, and he was seated inside a tent.

He scanned the surroundings, a tent for one person. He was sitting on a foldable chair and a foldable table in front of him. There was a lantern, a steaming glass, and a short sword on the table. To his side was his sleeping bag. This was an interesting transition, from standing to sitting, and he did not feel weird, it was so natural, and smooth.

Tang Shaoyang was about to get out of the tent to find out what kind of mission he must go through this time. A screen popped in front of his eyes before he could stand up.

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[Mercenary Profile]

Name: Tang Shaoyang

Mercenary Rank: White

Mercenary Organization: None

Contract: Under Contract with one of the monarchs from the Eptas Monarchy, The Raven Monarch

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[Reach Obsidian Rank to gain access to the next floor!]

Tang Shaoyang liked this floor already because the instruction was clear even though he did not know how far he was from the Obsidian Rank. But he believed it should be something easy to find out. He put away the screen and went out of the tent.

He saw a sea of tents on an open field near the cliff. They were surrounded by high trees, a good place for a camp, hidden behind the trees. It was an ideal place because the cliff limited their options for escape. They would be easily surrounded if their enemy found this camp.

With a single look, he could tell that he was part of an army that marched to invade or they were part of the reinforcement. He clicked his tongue and returned to his tent after a quick observation through his Chaos Eyes.

Tang Shaoyang could tell that all of them joined this army as a team instead of individuals. They were already in a group, no one was alone aside from him. He doubted approaching them would yield a good result. The better plan was sending his spirits to gather information for him instead.

He returned to his seat and took out his lunch box and enjoyed his wifeʼs cooking. It did not take long for him to find out about the mercenary rank information. White was the lowest ranked mercenary followed by Green, Blue, Yellow, Red, Gold, and then Obsidian. That meant he needed to raise six ranks to reach his target.

However, Obsidian was not the highest mercenary rank. There were two ranks above Obsidian, Herald, and Archon. It was fortunate that his goal was not to reach the highest rank, meaning he would stay here shorter.

He did not sleep, or more like he did not sleep. His spirits managed to get a lot of information. He finally found out about the Eptas Monarchy. It was a kingdom, but it had a system similar to an alliance. It was led by the Seven Monarchs instead of one king, each monarch had their own forces as well.

It was a weird system, but somehow worked well for them. It was a kingdom of several races. The Raven Monarch, for example, he was a beastmen, and most of his people were beastmen as well. There was a human monarch, an elf monarch, and even a demon monarch. Of course, each monarch accepted humans as well. There was no discrimination in the Eptas Monarchy. That explained why he found a mercenary team of several races.

Currently, The Eptas Monarchy was in a war against The Dominion and The Sacred Kingdom, or it was more like the Sacred Kingdom and The Dominion ganged up on the Eptas Monarchy. It was certainly not because The Dominion and The Sacred Kingdom were an ally. In fact, they hated each other.

The Dominion had a belief in the beastmen supremacy, and the Sacred Kingdom believed in human supremacy. Humans were enslaved in the Dominion just like the beastmen were enslaved in The Sacred Kingdom.

Unfortunately for the Eptas Monarchy, this kingdom stood between The Dominion and The Sacred Kingdom. The war against the Eptas Monarchy was for the two forces to create a path so they could destroy each other. The Sacred Kingdom wanted to destroy The Dominion, and the Sacred Kingdom wanted to destroy The Dominion. They could only achieve their goal after getting rid of the Eptas Monarchy that stood between them.

He also found out why The Sacred Kingdom and The Dominion only made moves now. It happened after two Monarchs were dead, or assassinated. The sudden death of the two monarchs caused a civil war because their descendants were fighting with each other to succeed the throne. The succession war gave The Dominion and The Sacred Kingdom a chance to take down their obstacle, so the two forces invaded The Eptas Monarch at the same time.

The rumor was that The Dominion and The Sacred Kingdom were the culprits behind the two monarchsʼ assassination. The remaining five monarchs did not have the time to investigate as they were surprised by the attack. The Eptas Monarchy was currently scrambling, gathering their force and hiring all mercenaries that were based in their territory because they lost two monarchs.

Tang Shaoyang was under the contract of the Raven Monarch, and this force would come as reinforcement to fight off The Dominion who managed to take over half of the falling monarchʼs territory. Because of the succession war, The Dominion easily took over the territory. Most of the forts and cities surrendered without fighting because of the lack of forces that gathered in the capital because of the showdown between three potential successors.

Tang Shaoyang did not feel good knowing what happened to the falling monarch. He hoped something like that never happens to his children. The last thing he wanted was to see his children fight to be his successors.

[You are a God Rank, you will live long enough that you donʼt need a successor, so you donʼt need to worry about the succession fight among your children.] Avyn gave him a solution.

Tang Shaoyang shook his head, ”No! I donʼt want to be burdened by this responsibility for the rest of my life. I will make sure there will be no fight for the succession, or I can pick Lu An to be my successor instead.”

[Then it will be just a matter of time until your empire split up. The people have trust in you, but they might not have the same trust in Lu An. Choosing Lu An as your successor will give them a justification to split up from the empire.] Zara pointed out the issue with his solution.

”Who knows Lu An might…” Tang Shaoyangʼs voice trailed off as a bell rang which was followed by another bell and then followed by screams.

”WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!” ”WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!” ”WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!”