Second World

After collecting loots from the battlefield, Jack and Paytowin divided the loots between them. Nothing outstanding from the loots except for a skill book and a super rare techno golem part. Jack gave both to Paytowin since he had no need for them.

Much rare equipment from the drops but both Jack and Paytowin didn't need them. Paytowin had a full set of super rare equipment, which Jack had helped increased their levels using his blacksmith skill. Paytowin knew about Jack's Transformation Prism, so he let Jack take all the equipment.

There were also many coins, mana cores, materials, and ingredients. They divided the coins and mana cores between them and agreed to donate all the materials and ingredients to the guild.

The army cleaned up the battlefield. They picked up the corpses of their allies to be given honored burials. As for the enemy corpses, they didn't just leave them behind. They piled them in one place and burned them. Commander Armstrong informed Jack that it was the custom of this world. It was considered honorable to do this compared to just leaving them behind to be fed to carrions.

Jack sent the majority of the soldiers to return to the fort to rest while the officers prepared the battle report.

Armstrong brought the report to Jack not long after. This battle had cost them 10,000 casualties while the orc army lost 50,000. The orc had only half their army left when they retreated.

As for the guild army, Jack had read about the casualty report from the platform before he unsummoned them. They lost around 1,000 soldiers. John had sent a message scolding him, but Jack argued the casualty number was less than 10%. They had instead beaten many enemies, the contribution points from this battle should be enough to make up for the loss. Also, the surviving army had become stronger after the battle, so it was an additional benefit.

Peniel informed them that there was another benefit to guild soldiers who survived multiple battles. Such a soldier would receive a veteran title which boosted their overall performance. Hearing that, both Jack and John checked their guild army interface. There were indeed a good number of such veterans among the soldiers. These must be those who had also survived the previous civil war battles.

As for Cipher Flight and Warsong Rising's guild armies, Jack's copy had paid attention to the battle from the map projection on the control platform. He estimated Cipher Flight lost around 50% of their army from the battle, while Warsong Rising lost more than 80%. Warsong even lost their guild guardian, the Glacier Cockatrice, due to the combined assault from the brave golem and guild soldiers.

Jack bet that guild was now cursing Everlasting Heavenly Legends heavily. Four Winds informed that Jack had even killed their leader during the beginning of the battle. Jack had no idea who was that leader.

Four Winds sent a message to congratulate Jack on his victory, but he promised that Cipher Flight would return this loss in the next battle. Jack replied that his guild would be ready anytime for the challenge.

After Jack finished the report and everyone returned to the fort for rest, Jack took the time to check his Container of Souls. There were 4,168,921 souls inside.

'Not bad!' Jack thought with a smile.

The reaping was almost like the last battle during the civil war. Even though the deaths during the war this time were higher because the number of participating soldiers was higher, Jack didn't get a higher number of soul points because he needed to be at a certain distance from the dying soldiers to get the soul points. Additionally, there was no death from a high-level officer like Garland who provided a huge number of souls.

Still, Jack was satisfied with the number of souls he got. He was not a complainer. His mindset in life was to be grateful for every gain he received, no matter how small it was. He bet that if Greed was here, that God would have scolded Jack for this thought. Jack could picture Greed lecturing him about the need to always strive for more and not to be satisfied with the current gain, no matter how big it was.

Jack opened his battle skill interface, checking on the skills to improve. After pondering, he used 3 skill points from the Brave Swordsmaster level-up and 1,000,000 souls to maximize Brave Slash to level 20. After seeing the effect of this skill cutting off Abasi's arm, Jack was not going to ignore this skill. At level 20, Brave Slash delivered 2000% light damage.

He then used 6 Time Sage free skill points and 200,000 souls to max-level his Perpetual Lightning Judgement.

The next spell he max-leveled was Teleportation. The fifty-meter distance was fine for the battle just now, but there might be a case where he needed to travel a further distance next time. 1,900,000 souls were spent to level up the Teleportation spell to level 20. At level 20, Teleportation could travel a maximum of one hundred and fifty meters.

'That is a long instant movement,' Jack thought. With this, he had more options when dealing with a situation.

Another 400,000 souls were spent and his Phantom Blade was level 20. The skill now lasted a full one minute.

Jack used the remaining 600,000 souls to level up Tracing Beams. The spell was now level 7. It now shot sixteen beams that dealt 42% magic damage for each beam.

After finished organizing his skills and spells, he stood on the fort's east curtain wall, overseeing the distance. He was also tired and was eager to went into the keep to rest, but he was still awaiting another report.

The one he was waiting for came soon. "Reporting, general. The caltrops are set," Guss said. "And congratulations on the victory in driving the enemies back."

"Good," Jack said but then asked to make sure. "Did you place them in the locations I instructed?"

"Do not worry, general. They are placed evenly along the field on both sides of this fort," Guss answered. "We also masked them with soil after we planted them, as you instructed."

Jack nodded. The caltrops were war tools that John had given Jack. It was one that was produced by Gluttonous Despot, a former coalition guild who are now allied with them. It was made from a special blacksmith recipe that is currently only owned by Gluttonous Despot.

Unlike War Fires, these caltrops could be stored inside the player's storage bag. John had sent materials and blacksmiths to help its production since they got wind of the Verremor invasion. John needed a big bulk of this tool.

One of the reasons Jack had proposed to engage the Verremor's army standing by at the mouth of the pass was to chase them away so that they didn't notice Themisphere's army placing these caltrops on the field. Of course, other more selfish reasons were also in play, such as to amass the exp and souls from the battle.

Still, He couldn't just let Verremor's army stay nearby so that they could watch them setting up the defenses. Jeanny, who was on her way here also brought a batch of war fires to be placed and hidden around these caltrops. If the enemies spotted them doing that, it would significantly lower their effectiveness.

The pass here was unlike the Themisphylae pass where the enemies had to destroy the fortress in order to pass through. Here, they could just circle around the fort. Even so, it was not that wide, during the crossing, the passing enemies would be susceptible to bombardment from the fort.

These war tools installed were placed to ensure that the enemies received maximum casualties while making their forceful crossings.

Even when John thought that it was unlikely for the enemies to pass through this fort without taking it down first, for the reason that the enemies would end up behind the enemy line and cut off from their supply line, thus making them a more vulnerable target. He was not one hundred percent certain. These war tools were a contingency if that happened.

Jack gave another command to have several scouts go and watched over the retreated orcs, to make sure that they stayed away. He then retired to a quarter that had been prepared for him inside the keep.

*

Three days later, Jeanny's player army arrived. They brought many wagons containing war fires with them. Jack had confirmed with the scouts he had sent, the defeated orc army was still staying away. They were waiting for their main army to arrive before returning here.

Jack sent more patrols out to make sure that there were no orc scouts nearby as well. After that, he tasked the soldiers to set up the war fires around where the caltrops had been placed.

The soldiers dug a hole before putting the war fires inside and covering them up with soil to mask them. These war fires were linked together with fuses made of burnable material that John had experimented. After the civil war, he had done some experimentation so that the war fire could be ignited from afar instead of having to position someone nearby to ignite it.

These fuses were also hidden with soil and they went all the way next to the moat around the fort. If needed, Elementalists could send their fireballs to ignite the fuse beside the moat. The flame would then travel with the fuse and set the war fires on fire.