The dungeon test ended half an hour later, when Murphy left with everything they had found in the underground vault. The Meow Brother trio, who had nearly been swallowed by the despairspawn, were completely exhausted.
Murphy carried them out of the "monster hunting grounds," one in each hand.
The other two teams had fared much the same.
Under the "protection" of the young lady and Lady Adele, none of the little players had died. But after they were dropped off at the forward line established by Maxim and the Self-Rescue Army, they collapsed on the spot.
The new recruit armor and matching weapons had improved their combat strength. Unfortunately, that slight boost hadn't changed the fundamental difficulty of facing such a massive wave of monsters. Still, thanks to True Otherworld's unique experience and leveling system, the fiercer the battle, the more the little players improved their skill proficiency and control over their power.
After one dungeon run, the average player had leveled up once.
That was an astonishing rate.
The young lady and Lady Adele had also come away with an impressive haul. The three family vaults contained no armor or weapons, but they were packed with all kinds of materials.
There were rolls of sturdy, durable cloth, leather specifically meant for making armor, ordinary dwarven gunpowder for explosives, and all sorts of metal parts acquired from black marketeers.
According to the young lady's tally, the supplies from all four vaults were enough to sustain two hundred-person squads over a long period.
That must have been the families' original plan!
After Cadman City was invaded, they would send their family guards to the lower city to engage the invaders in street fighting. Unfortunately, plans never survived contact with reality.
Cadman City really had been invaded, but the whole idea of street fighting was utter nonsense.
The enemy had gone straight for large-scale weapons of mass destruction. One surprise attack on their home base had been enough to crush the Blood Eagle Clan.
What era was this, anyway? Who still fought traditional street battles?
That was so outdated!
"We were short on time, so there were still some supplies in the vaults we couldn't take with us."
Murphy stood at the edge of the defensive line and addressed the little players, who were sitting cross-legged, eating rations and drinking water as they rested.
"If you still have the energy later, you can come to me and collect the blood of the Blood Eagle Clan members. It'll let you open the hidden vaults, and then you can try going back down to search for anything else you might be able to use.
"I know it'll be difficult, warriors.
"But during a crisis like this, we have to learn to make good use of every resource at our disposal."
"Hm?"
Meow Brother blinked at that. He nudged Happy Stick, who was cleaning his firearm beside him, and whispered:
"That sounds like the daily dungeon routine. Looks like the dungeon test went pretty smoothly."
"Smoothly, my ass! These NPCs are all miserly as hell. We escorted them in, and they still wouldn't let us loot the vaults."
Happy Stick complained, heartbroken.
"How are we supposed to replace all the ammo we used this run? I really regret picking the gunner class. I was just talking with Maxim, and I found out that firearms are rare in most of Transia. There's only one place up north called Xico City where they're commonly used.
"Most people in the Cadman region prefer bows and crossbows. What the hell?
"Thank goodness Miss Mirian can maintain and modify hunting rifles. Otherwise, I'd be ready to die."
"Meow, quit whispering over there and get moving."
Three-Five Dou, the "stamina monster," had already hefted his heraldic shield, thanks to his character trait that let him recover quickly. He called out to his boss:
"The vault mission's over, but we still have the rescue mission. We just killed a wave of monsters, so that area hasn't respawned yet. Let's hurry in and make a round. The main rescue quest has a time limit—we've only got forty-eight hours left."
"Damn! Can't you let us rest?"
The students stirred, cursing the game for making fatigue so realistic. Even so, they grabbed their weapons, formed teams, and headed back to search for survivors near the vaults while the area ahead was still clear of monsters.
A young militiaman on the defensive line stared in shock as Lord Murphy's warriors chatted and laughed on their way into that ominous place. He swallowed and whispered to the person beside him:
"These mountain folk from the north... They're not afraid of dying? They'd just fought their way out of a whole swarm of monsters, and they won't even rest..."
"They are Lord Murphy's warriors!"
Maxim's low voice came from behind him, and the young militiaman immediately hunched his shoulders.
The image of Maxim coldly executing seven deserters in the survivors' camp the night before was still fresh in his mind. Everyone was terrified of this strange, ruthless albino blood thrall.
But this time, Maxim didn't scold the militiaman under his command.
He leaned on a psychic poison blade he'd found in the vault, named "Ambition and Dreams," and watched the players disappear into the roiling astral shadows before them.
With deep feeling and a note of respect, he said to the young militiaman beside him:
"Their contempt for death is something we should all learn from. They're true examples of warriors! I've fought beside them, yet I still can't grasp the limits of their will.
"They never seem to feel fear.
"Only people like them deserve to be called 'warriors.' Compared to them, we're far behind.
"You lot stay here and hold the line!"
Maxim had fought all night and rested for a while. He felt somewhat recovered now, and he turned to the three squad leaders under his command.
"I'm going in to search for survivors. If I come back and find you've retreated, take your own lives! Lord Murphy has no need for cowards!"
With that, the blood thrall warrior grabbed a sturdy veteran's shield and followed the players into the churning astral shadows, watched in awe by the militiamen.
It had been less than fifteen days since Maxim began following Lord Murphy, but the battles he'd experienced had already surpassed those faced by many who called themselves veterans, both in scale and intensity.
He was a talented swordsman to begin with. Years of training, combined with the strength of his will, meant he was improving almost as quickly as the players.
He could feel himself drawing closer and closer to the Black Iron Body. Though he claimed not to care that Lady Adele had become Lord Murphy's child, the arrival of that powerful, cold woman still put immense pressure on him.
He had to become the sharpest and most loyal blade at Lord Murphy's side. To do that, he couldn't afford to fear danger.
He would learn from the players!
At noon, in a hidden spot beneath the ruined city wall's defensive line, Triss—wearing a scarlet cloak and a fitted red dress of uncertain origin—watched Murphy prepare to cast a spell with keen interest.
She was fascinated by what little Murphy had called the "Otherworld Warrior Summoning Spell."
When she heard that little Murphy had once again made contact with beings from another world, and planned to summon them here today, she had come to see for herself.
Though she wasn't here just to watch.
Triss held a delicate "dog tag" in her hand. Following Murphy's instructions, she had made it in the classic soldier's insignia style, hanging it from a silver chain and decorating it with a few vampire-style runes.
These were psychic items Triss had just finished making.
They were alchemical devices designed to mask the signs of life emitted by Murphy's otherworldly warriors and stabilize their physical projections. The principles behind them weren't complicated, but making them required exceptional alchemical skill.
Even the young lady couldn't have made so many psychic dog tags in such a short time.
It was clear that Triss had once been a formidable figure, despite never showing off. She'd casually solved a problem that had been giving Murphy a headache.
"These will absorb ambient psychic energy to help your warriors stabilize their physical projections. They can also preserve their bodies for at least three hours after death, so no one discovers anything unusual.
"The spell embedded in them will alert them if someone tries to detect them. When they're wounded, they'll bleed more, but it won't actually make them any weaker.
"As you requested, everything about them is designed to make your warriors seem more 'real.' To achieve that, I had to sacrifice the protective spell these items would normally have."
Triss handed Murphy a handful of dog tags.
She said:
"They can engrave their own names on them. That won't be difficult, and they're easy to collect afterward. But if one gets destroyed, you'll have to make a replacement."
"Thanks."
Murphy said it quietly.
Triss lightly tapped him on the head. Pouting, she said:
"If you thank me again, I'll hit you! You're my bloodkin. This is what I should be doing for you. Now stop wasting time and let me see how your summoning spell works. I need to check it for potential problems."
"Okay."
Murphy was feeling a little nervous himself.
He knew it wasn't a summoning spell at all. It was just a cheat ability provided by the Test Administrator System. But Triss wanted to watch, and there was nothing he could do about it.
He could never refuse Triss.
Whether she wanted him to buy her drinks or can can need.
Murphy took a deep breath, struck the sort of pose commonly used for casting a summoning spell, then activated his summoning trait. He summoned all twenty-four of the fresh-faced newbies who had gotten invitation codes and gaming helmets in the other world, bringing them straight before him.
The whole process was no different from before.
Psychic lines danced through the air, outlining the players' bodies in all shapes and sizes. Everything looked normal to him, but Triss's gaze beneath her hood grew increasingly intent.
Just then, she had clearly felt Murphy's psychic energy open a connection between the material world and some unfamiliar plane in a way she couldn't begin to understand.
It had happened more smoothly than anything she'd ever seen!
That went a long way toward proving Murphy was telling the truth when he said he didn't understand how the summoning worked. A summoning spell of this level went far beyond what the term "otherworld summoning" could contain.
It could even be called a one-of-a-kind talent!
Perhaps little Murphy really had gained a "blessing" from the astral realm—or something even more mysterious and profound, like the subspace—thanks to that evil mishap Salokdar had carefully engineered.
"You have to keep your ability hidden!"
Triss put a hand on Murphy's shoulder and spoke in a low, utterly serious voice.
"You can't let anyone else see it.
"I know Maxim is loyal to you, but Mirian is a threat! I'd guess that girl Femis has already figured out the truth, too. Her talent for psychic energy isn't as great as mine, but it's still considerable.
"You have to find a way to make them keep your secret.
"Your life depends on it!
"The Tower of Rings, the Castia Giant Tree, the Winter Wolf Church, even the Sun and Moon priests of the distant Sanghai Empire and the dragonkin sorcerers who live in the ancient eastern land of Callem...
"Every psychic user on this continent who's worth their salt would be intensely interested in your talent.
"You're practically the only person I've ever heard of who can maintain such a stable connection with another world. You're an exceptional, unique specimen.
"That puts you in danger."
"I understand."
Murphy put his hand over Triss's on his shoulder and said:
"I'll protect myself. For now, I need to talk to my new warriors. I'll use their language. Do you want to keep listening in?"
"I have this. It can translate."
Triss held up the computing orb Murphy had given her, but Murphy merely shrugged.
The orb's translation feature was imprecise.
Using the Test Administrator System's powerful functions, Murphy had modified its settings. The translation feature filtered out anything the "NPCs" weren't supposed to hear.
Especially information about the truth of the other world.
So unless Triss learned the language of these "otherworlders" from scratch, there was no way she could fully understand their origins or some of their customs and traditions.
Learning Chinese and Mandarin from nothing, without a dictionary or a teacher...
Tsk, tsk. That was about as difficult as becoming a psychic overlord, wasn't it?
The twenty-four little players had finished appearing: twenty-three men and one woman.
As the white light of their gaming helmets gently faded, the players opened their eyes in this world for the first time. They came to their senses after taking their first instinctive breath.
A fissure in a ruined city lay before them.
Farther away, the roiling, ominous astral shadows covered the horizon, blocking out all sunlight. The oppressive atmosphere and the wind, thick with foul psychic energy, swept toward them, and the players at the front instinctively raised their hands to shield their eyes.
Then they saw the astonishingly realistic details of their fingers: the creases in their skin, the feel of their nails, even the fine hairs on their hands.
When they raised their hands, they really could block the wind and blowing grit from their faces. That lifelike sensation, and the world they could sense with all five of their senses, erased every doubt they'd had about this so-called 100% realistic world.
"Holy shit!"
"Awesome!"
"66666!"
"This is so damn cool!"
All kinds of shouts and gasps rang out. Murphy was already used to it.
He felt the weakness of the psychic energy within him, but watched the little players bouncing around like kindergarteners on a field trip with a satisfied, doting smile. He didn't think there was anything wrong with them. On the contrary, this batch of new players seemed pretty good.
At least none of them had stripped off their pants the moment they arrived, like Good Pigeon.
For Murphy, who desperately needed manpower, this was more than enough. They could run, jump, and talk, and they were all bursting with energy, sprouting like tender chives. He could hardly wait to give them a little push and help them grow.
At this point, what more could he ask for?
But to Triss, the scene was bafflingly strange. For instance, there was a tall man lying on the ground licking dirt.
These were the warriors from another world?
Uh... They didn't exactly seem reliable.
Before you continue