Your Commander-in-Chief – Chapter 39

“Kyahaaak!”

After a deafening roar of the Drake pierced my ears, it charged towards me.

Behind it, countless other Drakes were already lined up and rushing forward.

These guys, introduced as a dragon subspecies, were elite monsters at level 45, boasting stats far superior to regular monsters.

To hunt them efficiently, a party of a Tank, Healer, and AoE Dealer was necessary, but that didn’t matter to a Berserker with all skills activated.

There must have been over 20 of them at a glance.

The moment I charged in, it was clear I would be torn apart by their sharp teeth and claws.

But I ran anyway, leaping high and crashing down into their midst.

BAM!

As my weapon wrapped in red energy slammed the ground, a wide area effect spread out, stunning all nearby Drakes.

And then, Wheel Wind activated.

SWISH-SWISH-SWISH!

As the red vortex expanded, Drake scales were shredded in an instant, causing them to start falling.

It was a humiliating end for such a ferocious beast.

Normally, without using all buffs and potions, I would barely scrape by on damage, so I didn’t hold back on the potions.

I planned to farm new dungeons after hitting the max level.

No matter how much the Holy Sword of the Sun God was a world item, its performance actually fell short of a unique weapon at level 45.

I checked the items that had dropped on the ground.

Elite monsters had a higher drop rate than ordinary fields.

After killing about 100 of them, I’d usually find one or two rare items pop into my inventory.

Since the max level had just been expanded, those field drop rare items were fetching high prices now.

I opened the Auction House and listed the rare equipment I had just acquired.

Rare armors around level 40-45 typically sold for about 50-100 gold, while weapons were on the pricier side at around 400 gold.

There were hardly any suppliers besides me, so everything I put up was selling quickly.

The gold I acquired quickly vanished into more potions and buffs.

Even so, it was steadily piling up.

At this rate, I’d likely have amassed a huge amount of gold by the time a new raid started.

The main page of the Auction House displayed the most expensive items sold in real-time.

The priciest item was the Ring of the Red Orc Warrior.

Its recent bidding price was 17,000 gold.

Compared to before, that was an outrageous price rise.

Rings that used to trade for 1-3 gold were now worth many times that.

Various community sites were buzzing with concerns over nerfs, while some claimed it was a bubble considering the performance.

But as someone who knew the future, I couldn’t agree.

It wasn’t overpriced. The value of items was preserved. It was certainly not a bubble. The limited stock wouldn’t be released again, and if it wasn’t secured now, a situation would arise where it couldn’t be acquired even for a premium.

Of course, this was all assuming my knowledge of the future was accurate.

With global services already in preparation, there was a possibility of patches being applied in ways I wasn’t aware of, so I couldn’t be sure of anything.

I was just keeping an eye on the situation and trying to gather as much profit as possible.

Time was ticking.

I drew my sword and stood up.

The elite zone monsters were powerful, but they had the downside of a longer respawn time.

If I gathered them in a wide hunting ground, I had to sit and rest for about 5 minutes.

It was a bit regrettable to waste the duration of my potions, but I couldn’t find a more efficient hunting ground than this right now.

I was at 97% experience towards level 44.

If I gathered a few more, I’d surely reach the max level.

Once I hit level 45, I would unlock a rank 4 job.

I could choose a higher tier job, but my choice was already determined.

I would enhance my Berserker class one more step.

Of course, there was also the option to choose the Barbarian job here.

However, the Barbarian’s “Heart of the Warrior” skill and the Berserker’s “Berserk” skill could not stack.

This was a quirk from the developers who had just copied and pasted the skills’ code as they were developing both jobs.

I took off running again.

My legs kicked the ground powerfully, and my movements were incredibly swift.

While consuming more potions and buffs, I called forth the scattered Drakes.

“Hyahaaah!”

I let out a wild cry.

If someone had been there, they would have laughed at me, but right now, I was all alone in this hunting ground.

That refreshing shout shook off the lingering embarrassment inside me.

As I slaughtered thousands of Drakes, a pillar of light erupted from my body.

The level-up effect triggered.

Reaching level 45 increased my character’s base stats.

I plunged my sword into the last Drake’s neck and started equipping the level 45 rare item I had prepared.

With each stat increase, I felt my character growing stronger in real-time.

Now that I was level 45, it was time to raise my Berserker class rank.

Just then, as I was about to use my Return Stone to head back to the Capital City—

BAM!

A sharp sound exploded, and a powerful hit effect erupted on my shoulder.

My health rapidly dropped as my body swayed.

It was a sniper shot from the rank 3 upper-class job, “Musketeer.”

The enemy alliance had interfered.

They had come to disrupt my hunting, which I often did with my guild.

Having experienced this a few times before, I was familiar with the situation.

I downed a potion and started to run slowly.

I couldn’t grasp the enemy’s location and numbers.

Rather than hastily searching the area, it was wiser to vacate the spot.

Time had passed, and most users had already acquired their rank 3 upper-class jobs.

The 50 vs 1 scenario from before was no longer feasible.

Even if I was a powerful Berserker or Barbarian, getting hit by distant sniper shots was sure to put me on a gray screen.

As I began to escape the hunting ground using my speed, enemy alliance red names emerged from afar.

I immediately changed direction and started running again. The enemy locations were now revealed. There was no reason to back down.

“They’re coming!”

White flashes rushed past my swiftly moving body.

The delayed sound of muskets firing followed.

BAM-BAM-BAM!

There were a lot of snipers. All the archers who had been oppressed before were now armed with guns.

But their accuracy was still abysmal.

None of the attacks hit my fast-moving body.

I lowered my posture and pulled my sword back.

At that moment, blue mana burst from my body, and I began to dash forward with incredible speed.

When the Musketeer fired, a thick, smoky haze enveloped the area.

As my gaze swept through the air, I caught sight of faint smoke rising from down in the bushes.

“Stop him!”

They stood no chance. The fully buffed Berserker was like a tank.

Using the mobility from my charge speed, I streaked across the bushes.

I spotted a Musketeer user lying in wait beneath them.

SWISH!

I swung my sword and lopped off its head.

It was an attack fueled by my increased strength stats.

Though it wasn’t a precisely aimed strike, the head flew off as if it were ripped apart.

At that moment, an explosion erupted beneath my feet.

It was a magical engineering mine trap.

KAPOW!

The longer the fight dragged on with the enemy alliance, the more their strategies rapidly developed.

In this manner, they often tried to gather items they could use to kill me.

I immediately turned around to deal with more snipers.

SWISH-SWISH-SWISH!

The Holy Sword wrapped in my red blood was not an attack that the low-health, low-defense archers could endure.

In that instant, a blue icy spear flew swiftly from behind me.

This time, there were 10 hostile players on the scene.

Among them, 4 were Musketeers.

My gaze darted quickly to assess the remaining jobs.

One was a wizard who specialized in freezing magic and one was a healer.

The rest were a tank clad in full plate and three warriors wielding two-handed swords with red eyes.

All three were Berserkers, but there was no sign of red blood energy on them.

They didn’t have the ring.

“Kill him!”

The biggest threat and annoyance was the wizard.

I immediately used Leap Smash to clear the front and smash down on the wizard user.

BAM!

With a powerful boom, the wizard user was squished down instantly.

The head went straight into the ground, suffering immense shock.

I quickly turned my body to trigger my next skill.

BAM!

The Holy Sword swung down hard.

A large shockwave erupted, lifting the bodies of the remaining members into the air.

Activation of [Frenzy].

The system calibration kicked in, and I swung my sword rapidly.

As the red bloody swordlight swept through the air, the healer user was cut down in an instant.

SWISH-SWISH-SWISH!

The ones still holding on were the tank user with the big shield and the Berserker users who had started to exude red blood energy.

I immediately activated [Frenzy] and spun my body around.

I unleashed the following [Wheel Wind].

The whirl of crimson blood engulfed the tank user, who had become as solid as steel.

They might have used buffs to increase defense and survival skills that mitigate damage, but the Berserker’s attacks bypassed defense entirely.

Moreover, the added [Bleeding] debuff was particularly effective against a highly defensive tank.

SWISH-SWISH-SWISH!

It didn’t matter where I struck.

At that moment, the remaining Berserker users started spinning as well.

They had already taken considerable damage and were close to death, but the passive skill [Combat Persistence] had triggered, rendering them invulnerable for 2 seconds.

As the crimson whirlwinds closed in from all sides, my health began to drop rapidly.

But it didn’t matter. I too was in a situation with a [Combat Persistence] passive.

My rapidly dwindling health stabilized at 1.

In that instant, all skills bombarding me disappeared.

The Berserker users’ invulnerability duration had expired first.

I stopped dead, as my Wheel Wind’s duration also ended.

The tank user holding the shield collapsed before even the Berserker users did.

I had slain every last one of them.

Once again, victory was mine.

With my eyes closed, I awaited death.

At that moment, as the invulnerability duration ended, a small body fell to the ground.