Chapter 650: Chapter 535: War Profiteering (Part 2)

*She mused to herself in her heart.*

Not long after Eve’s consciousness returned to the Divine Country, she started receiving various sacrificial prompts one after another…

These all stemmed from the players’ sacrifices.

With the increase in players, Eve had long inscribed the sacrificial rules into the system, so as long as the faith network determined the players’ sacrifices to be valid, the items they sacrificed would be automatically sent to the Divine Country.

In just a moment, the Divine Country was piled high with mountains of equipment.

However, the majority of this equipment was damaged.

Although there were now players who had become Forging Masters capable of repairing equipment, as the value of contribution points had depreciated, the cost-effectiveness of having players repair items was already faintly inferior to exchanging for a new set in the exchange mall.

Therefore, aside from equipment with exceptional special effects, players generally chose to sacrifice their damaged gear to the Goddess to regain contribution points.

*While it wasn’t much, even a mosquito is meat, and this had already become a habitual operation for the players.*

Eve glanced at the items the players had sacrificed, then expertly snapped her fingers, submerging them in divine power…

And once the divine power dissipated, the original battered scraps became shiny and new, their forms subtly changed.

Then, Eve snapped her fingers again, casually adding some special effects to the equipment, and tossed them all into a corner of the Divine Country, leaving them to gather dust with other equipment.

There were already more than a hundred thousand sets of equipment there, all selflessly contributed by players, some of which may have circulated through the Divine Country-Segis World cycle dozens of times…

However, most of it had been looted bit by bit by players after the war began.

“War booty comes quickly, the equipment for the second public test players is already sufficient.”

Eve said leisurely.

…

The battle concluded, and the spoils were considerable.

The atmosphere in the player camp was filled with joy.

However, things were a bit stifling on the Half-Beast side.

Prophetic King Bazan sat in the City Lord Mansion of Sandstorm City, his gaze gloomy.

The Chief Priest sat to his right, looking equally grave.

On his left, the old mage from Sorren Commerce furrowed his brows tightly.

Below them, the chiefs of various large tribes and the elders of the Royal Court all hung their heads, silent.

The entire chamber was shrouded in a heavy atmosphere.

After a moment, Bazan rubbed his temples, looking at a Half-Beast Priest below who was writing with pen and paper, and asked,

“How is the tally going?”

The Half-Beast Priest laid down his pen and respectfully replied,

“Your Majesty, in today’s battle… we lost nearly forty thousand warriors in total, including 325 Silver Warriors and 44 Bimong Giant Beasts…”

A day’s battle, with less than forty thousand Half-Beast casualties.

Perhaps spread across the players, each barely managed more than one kill, but such casualties were actually quite terrifying.

*Reality and games ultimately differ.*

*Battles were more complex, the situations more volatile, with more useless and trivial time…*

Due to terrain factors, the Half-Beast Army couldn’t fully deploy against the players’ forces.

Most of them fell during the siege on the city walls.

On the player side, limited by the length of the walls, only a portion of them ever truly participated in the battle.

The army rotated in, and some players didn’t even have the chance to engage from start to finish, leading many to log out or leave the battlefield…

This was why the equipment dropped by the Half-Beasts seemed plentiful, yet more players participated in the battle.

This resulted in the post-battle scene where every player rushed in, afraid of being a step slow and losing out on the loot…

To truly achieve large-scale enemy slaughter, it would likely have to wait until both sides were evenly matched and fighting on open ground.

Unfortunately, the Half-Beasts used to hunker down in the city, and even though they ventured out this time, they deployed in full force; the players lacked the confidence to annihilate them, so they could only exhaust them through a wave of attrition…

However, while the losses might seem few to the players, when heard by the upper echelons of the Half-Beasts, everyone was visibly shaken…

Forty thousand…

This was equivalent to four large tribes!

And throughout all of Death Desert’s population, even after Lionheart King Imsh’s development, the Half-Beast population was under a million, with no more than thirty large tribes combined.

Moreover, these forty thousand fallen warriors were all young and robust, the cream of the crop among them…

*It was undeniably devastating.*

For a moment, everyone whispered among themselves, the chamber buzzing slightly with murmurs.

Bazan’s expression darkened as well.

Though he had watched the battle unfold from Sandstorm Tower, aware their offensive was unfavorable and their losses severe, he hadn’t expected it to reach this extent…

Forty thousand…

That was over a tenth of the army!

And their already small number of Bimong Giants was nearly halved in combat!

These… were the Half-Beasts’ assets, losing so many Bimong Giants made any future raids on the Human World much more challenging…

Yet, this wasn’t what weighed heaviest on Bazan’s mind.

What chilled him to his core was that despite losing so many warriors, they still failed to breach the elves’ stronghold!

Though it had only been recently erected, the elves’ camp stood as sturdy as a fortress…

Though recent intel had already alerted Bazan to these elves’ prowess, seeing it firsthand revealed their combat strength was far beyond his imagination…

Not only were they stronger, but they were fearless, and with a high ratio of spellcasters, they inflicted far more damage in battle than the Half-Beasts.

Bazan couldn’t imagine if these elves were truly allowed to establish a Teleportation Array, how this war would be fought afterward…

“Damn it, how could such an overpowered group of creatures appear in the Segis World?!”

“When did the elves become this strong?”

*He couldn’t help but curse in his heart.*

And as he cursed, a tinge of fear welled up inside him…

He couldn’t imagine, if unable to curb these ruthless long-eared entities, what kind of bloody turmoil the future of Segis World would face.

After a long silence, Bazan looked toward the envoy from Solo Commerce:

“Your Excellency Mage, can your commerce send more mercenaries for support? Or can… you send over some high-level professionals?”

Sorren Commerce had once promised to send mercenaries to support the Half-Beasts.

Yet, after deliberations, they ultimately opted to provide more equipment to the Half-Beasts instead.

The Half-Beast army had plenty of numbers but lacked equipment; the manpower Sorren Commerce offered was negligible, better traded for more equipment to arm the Half-Beast warriors.

On hearing Bazan’s question, the old mage shook his head:

“Your Majesty, given the current situation, even if we send in support, it likely won’t make much of a difference.”

Bazan looked disheartened.

He understood the logic, even with Sorren Commerce’s full support, they couldn’t supply tens of thousands of troops, a large mercenary group only numbers one or two thousand at best, insufficient to fill such a gap caused by the loss of four thousand Half-Beast warriors.

Even if human mercenaries included mages, elves, being magic creatures themselves, had even more spellcasters!

As for high-level professionals…

The elves had divine defensive barriers, two powerful dragons, and a Legendary Magical Beast.

Against such power, any expert below legendary strength wouldn’t have any effect.

And Legendary Experts… those were the upper echelon of Sorren Commerce, how could they send them out?

The outcome was glaringly obvious.

Even with their great army, they couldn’t hope to break through the elves’ camp head-on…

The plan to use the formidable Half-Beast Army to force the presence behind the elves into action was essentially bankrupt.

At least… relying on their own strength alone wasn’t feasible anymore.

With this in mind, Prophetic King Bazan let out a deep sigh:

“This operation… is beyond what we can control now…”

“Please ask the Totem Guardians for assistance.”