Although the previous volley had only killed over 2,000 Cerberus units, the remaining Cerberus were all more or less wounded after breaking through the Death Cloud blockade.
Under such circumstances, it was only natural that the second wave of Death Cloud would achieve far greater results than the first volley.
But it wasn't over yet.
As the remaining Cerberus struggled back to their feet and prepared to charge again, a series of blazing fireballs fell from the sky, landing precisely amid their ranks.
Third-tier Destruction Magic: Chain Fireball!
"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Deafening explosions echoed across the battlefield as searing flames and powerful shockwaves mercilessly engulfed the Cerberus.
At this point, Moros, who had just visited every wilderness hero-enhancement structure, possessed a full 36 points of Mana.
With such immense Mana, the Chain Fireball he cast was extraordinarily powerful, no weaker than the saturation bombardment of an MK71 203mm naval gun.
Flames and shockwaves intertwined, ruthlessly swallowing vast numbers of Cerberus.
Under the successive blows, the number of Cerberus steadily dwindled.
By the time the remaining Cerberus fought through the effects of the Law of Delay and engaged the vampires and ghosts in close combat, their numbers had already fallen below 2,000 units.
With equal numbers, a wild monster force without a hero leading it was naturally no match for Moros's vampires and ghosts.
After an intense battle, Moros's troops paid the price of more than a hundred vampires and ghosts, successfully wiping out the wild monster force guarding the Gem Mine.
As the last Cerberus fell, Moros gained another substantial amount of experience.
With that experience, he rose to level 20.
Moros Level: 20 Attack: 15+3 Defense: 57+3 Mana: 30+8 Knowledge: 19
Closing the Hero Panel, Moros cast Raise Dead, reviving the vampires and ghosts who had fallen on the battlefield.
Raise Dead: Revives fallen creatures in one's own troops. If the target is an Undead Creature, the revived portion remains after the battle; otherwise, it disappears.
Together with the skeleton soldiers summoned through Expert Necromancy, the undead army under Moros's command had not only suffered no losses, but had grown even stronger.
That was the terror of Necromancy.
So long as they could avoid major defeats, necromancers could continuously strengthen themselves through war.
Sweeping the Demiplane and Becoming Legendary
After raising nearly 4,000 skeleton soldiers, Moros did not immediately throw his army of death into the next battle.
First, since he had not yet learned Bone Archer, a skill exclusive to necromancers, he could currently only transform corpses into the most basic skeleton soldiers.
If he wanted to upgrade the skeleton soldiers into Skeleton Archers, Moros had to return to the Graveyard City.
Second, Moros had consumed a great deal of Mana in the previous battles.
Unlike ordinary online games, where leveling up restored one's condition, leveling up in the world of Heroes of Might and Magic only increased attributes or skills; it did not restore a hero's condition.
To restore as much as 190 Mana, relying solely on natural recovery was clearly far too inefficient.
Therefore, it was necessary to visit another Vitality Magic Well to recover.
Moros understood the principle that sharpening an axe did not delay the chopping of wood.
To ensure that he could handle the upcoming battles with greater ease, he decided to spend some time restoring his side's condition.
That way, his troops would display greater strength and efficiency in the next battle.
Four days later.
At the Boneyard, Moros transformed all of his skeleton soldiers into the more advanced Skeleton Archers.
Afterward, he led all the Undead Troops in the city onto the road to sweep through wilderness forces.
In any case, no faction in this Demiplane would attack the Graveyard City, so Moros had no need to leave troops behind to guard it.
The facts proved that Moros had been wise to restore his condition before battle.
After returning his side to peak condition, the battle was clearly much easier when he attacked a Sulfur Deposit guarded by a wild monster force similar in number to the previous Cerberus.
This was not merely because of the addition of 4,000 Skeleton Archers. More importantly, with his Mana fully restored, Moros no longer begrudged the expenditure and cast Battle Spells with all his might.
Under the unceasing magical attacks, most wild monster forces were eliminated before they even had the chance to engage the melee undead troops composed of vampires and ghosts.
Combined with the phantom troops summoned by Phantom Forces, the damage the wild monster forces inflicted upon the undead army was negligible.
Even when some wild monster forces entered a melee with the close-combat undead troops, their remaining numbers were insufficient to inflict much damage on the vampires and ghosts.
Because of Raise Dead, a second-tier Summoning Magic spell, casualties inflicted by wild monster forces could be almost entirely ignored once the battle ended.
The rise from level 20 to level 21 was an enormous gulf between Exemplar Tier beings and the Legendary realm.
Therefore, although Moros slaughtered far more wild monsters in the following string of battles than he had during the campaign to seize the Gem Mine, his level still did not rise to 21.
However, Moros was not anxious about this.
After all, while the experience required to advance to Legend was immense, as long as he continued killing his way forward, he would soon accumulate enough experience to meet the requirements.
In fact, after successfully capturing the third high-tier wilderness resource structure, Moros's experience had already reached the threshold of the Legendary realm.
There were no dazzling lights or spectacular effects. In a single instant, Moros's hero level smoothly rose to 21.
Moros Level: 21 Attack: 15+3 Defense: 57+3 Mana: 30+8 Knowledge: 20 Skills: Necromancy (Expert), Enlightenment (Expert), Dark Magic (Expert), Summoning Magic (Expert), Destruction Magic (Expert), Sorcery (Basic)
After swiftly choosing the skill improvement granted by leveling up, Moros was overwhelmed by the intense pleasure brought by his leap in life tier.
The sensation was so powerful that he could barely restrain himself, immersing his entire being in that immense joy.
Moros felt both his flesh and soul ascend in that moment.
So this is the realm of Legend...
He clenched his fists, feeling strength far beyond anything he had possessed before, unable to suppress the smile on his face.
Only after a long while did Moros compose himself and begin casting Necromancy, using the corpses from the previous battles to summon skeleton soldiers.
Then, leading this newly expanded undead army reinforced with 4,000 skeleton soldiers, he set out toward the next Vitality Magic Well.
After three consecutive fierce battles, Moros had almost no Mana left and urgently needed to recover.
At the same time, Moros also planned to return to the Graveyard City with the Undead Legion.
The more than 10,000 newly raised skeleton soldiers needed to advance into Skeleton Archers at the Boneyard.
Over the next three months, Moros's schedule became exceptionally packed.
He led his ever-growing army of death across the Demiplane without hindrance, constantly waging war.
He wiped out every wild monster force he could defeat and captured every wilderness structure he could take.
Every victory brought Moros abundant experience and made the forces under his command even larger.
By the time Moros finally incorporated the last wilderness structure into his territory, his level had already risen to level 24.
Moros Level: 24 Attack: 15+4 Defense: 57+4 Mana: 33+8 Knowledge: 20 Skills: Necromancy (Expert), Enlightenment (Expert), Dark Magic (Expert), Summoning Magic (Expert), Destruction Magic (Expert), Sorcery (Expert)
At this point, aside from the three Sylannas Ancients that Moros had deliberately left unvisited, there were no wilderness structures left unconquered in this Demiplane.
Sylannas Ancients: Collect resources or help a hero gain one level for free.
Just from the description of the Sylannas Ancients, it was not difficult to understand why Moros had specifically left those three trees unvisited.
Obviously, the higher a hero's level, the more generous the benefits gained from the Sylannas Ancients would be.
According to Moros's plan, he intended to visit those three Sylannas Ancients one by one after reaching level 37.
After all, the Hero Panel's level cap was 40. For the sake of maximizing his gains, such a plan was entirely reasonable.
However, rapidly rising hero levels did not come without drawbacks.
Although the rapid increase had granted Moros unprecedented growth in strength and allowed him to become a Legendary being, the excessive speed of his advancement had also caused his control over his own power to fall to a dangerous level.
How dangerous was it?
Without the Hero Panel's assistance, Moros would not even dare cast spells casually.
With only the barely acceptable control of power he had possessed at Exemplar Tier, he simply could not cast spells reliably.
This situation deeply worried Moros. He understood that if he wanted to truly master this power, he had to invest more effort and time.
Therefore, he decided to spend the coming days immersed in the Mage Guild.
The Founding of Moth to Fire
Although Moros had decided to devote great effort to studying the magical knowledge stored in the Mage Guild, that did not mean this task filled his entire schedule.
As a necromancer of the Graveyard faction, a large portion of Moros's strength came from his Undead Legion.
Therefore, when the Capitol was completed, he temporarily set aside the parchment recording the principles of the Sorrow spell.
The establishment of the Capitol not only increased the Graveyard City's daily income by 2,000 gold; the completion of this building also indicated that Moros now had the possibility of improving his hero quality.
At present, his hero quality was merely White Common, the lowest level among heroes in the Ashan World.
Thus, when the opportunity to improve his hero quality appeared, Moros's feelings were easy to imagine.
However, only within the Capitol could a lord qualify to accept a task to advance their own hero quality.
No matter how impatient he was, Moros first had to go to the Lord's Hall atop the Capitol.
He strode into the luxurious, dazzling hall and sat upon the bone throne reserved exclusively for the lord. Moros then began carefully studying the information concerning hero quality advancement.
According to the information the Graveyard had instilled in Moros's mind, hero quality advancement tasks were exceptionally challenging.
More importantly, heroes who accepted such tasks would be sent to another world to carry them out.
This meant that unless Moros's spellcasting skill reached the level where he could teleport an entire army to another plane, he could only face the unknown challenges alone.
Given Moros's current level of power control, such a task was unrealistic for him.
His control over his power was still quite limited. He could only use the Hero Panel to mobilize it in a rigid and crude manner.
Once separated from the Hero Panel, Moros could not even cast the simplest first-tier Battle Spell.
Therefore, this was not the right time to undertake a hero quality advancement task.
To face this challenge, Moros understood that he needed more thorough preparation and improvement.
Therefore, he decided to temporarily suppress his desire to improve his hero quality and instead focus on improving his spellcasting techniques and control over his power.
He knew that only when he was powerful enough would he be able to face such an exceptionally challenging task.
Two years later.
Before you continue