Elf Kingdom: Game of the World Tree-Chapter 228 - 222 Who Are You Exactly?

Chapter 228 -222 Who Are You Exactly?

The Crocodile Mercenary Corps had been annihilated…

Throughout the entire battle, it went so smoothly that even Eve was astounded.

Over a thousand mercenaries, except for the rare lucky few who ran fast enough, all perished under the players’ slaughter…

In contrast, the players only suffered less than three hundred casualties.

Among these, more than a dozen were player captives killed by enraged mercenaries, and a few unfortunate ones who were accidentally crushed by Black Dragon Mairrel when she descended to the ground…

The Cave Spider Knights all survived, with only a few sustaining injuries.

It could be said that this casualty ratio was quite glorious.

At this moment, Eve suddenly realized why the morale of the army was so important in Blue Star’s medieval times.

To be fair, although the players outnumbered the Crocodile Mercenary Corps two-to-one, in terms of strength, the mercenaries were actually not inferior to the players.

On the contrary, in terms of high-level combat forces, except for the Black Dragon, the players were much weaker than the mercenaries.

Logically speaking, under the premise that the Black Dragon did not intervene and the players lost their ability to run to the resurrection point, the mercenaries should have had the upper hand.

However, the fact was that the Black Dragon merely played a role of intimidation, Divine Favored Ail barely made a move, and the players themselves shattered the mercenary formation like a withering attack, pursuing the mercenaries as if they were slicing through melon and cabbage…

Eve even personally witnessed some players of the Black Iron Lower Rank chasing and chopping down Black Iron Middle or even Upper mercenaries, howling as they did so.

The latter, despite clearly having greater strength, abandoned their weapons and fled in panic, only to embarrassingly fall to their inferior enemies…

“In large-scale battles, the role of morale and organization far exceeds individual strength, unless an individual’s strength is truly immense, capable of qualitatively transforming the battlefield situation, like… the Black Dragon! Otherwise, when the strength difference is not significant, it is always the side with higher morale and better organization that wins!”

“Although I limited the players’ infinite resurrection, they were still unafraid of death, and remained undaunted by injury or pain. One could say… they naturally had stronger willpower and morale!”

“And with the existence of team mode, group communication, and minimaps, they naturally had relatively higher organization.”

“Perhaps their discipline was lacking, but when they were truly organized into an army, quantitative change led to qualitative change…”

In fact, in medieval warfare, once a cold weapon army incurred more than 10% casualties, it faced the risk of collapse.

When casualties exceeded 30%, even the most elite armies would be completely incapacitated due to their structure being destroyed and their psychological endurance being surpassed…

Examples of annihilation battles often saw most casualties occur after an army collapsed, with many deaths caused by internal chaos, trampling during escapes…

It was also due to morale collapsing that defeat in war saw entire units defect and surrender en masse.

Of course, this scenario applied only to large-scale battles among intelligent beings; it did not hold when facing low-intelligence demon beasts, monsters, or even a herd of pigs.

If it were over a thousand wild boars, players might not even be able to capture them all in a day.

“This is fine, at least their combat power is enough to contend with the Half-Beasts in my absence. Once all players in the third trial advance to Black Iron, they can even consider taking the initiative!”

Eve was quite satisfied with this test of the players’ combat capability.

Upon this thought, She generously used Divine Power to announce the task completion message…

[Ding——]

[Crocodile Mercenary Corps annihilated, Task Objective 1 completed]

[Players participating in the task earn 5000 experience points]

[Ding——]

[27 players rescued, rescue rate 46.6%, Task Objective 2 completed]

[Players participating in the task earn 466 contribution points]

[Ding——]

[Random Task: Crocodile Mercenary Corps completed]

[Players participating in the task earn 10 resurrection coins]

…

The players cleaning up the battlefield were delighted at the system prompt flashing across their view, “Haha! Task completed!”

“But the rewards seem a bit lacking…”

“Be content! The real big rewards are in the mercenaries! Each head is ten thousand experience, and they dropped so much equipment! Hurry up and grab it!”

The players chatted away gleefully, picking up the armor and swords the mercenaries had dropped across the battlefield.

Over a thousand mercenaries meant over a thousand sets of equipment!

Although not as high in quality as those provided by the exchange mall, they were indeed better than the Half-Beast’s equipment.

Even if the players involved didn’t need them this time, they could sell them to the lower-level third trial players!

The equipment damaged in battle could be handed over to Forging Masters for repair; those severely damaged beyond repair could be directly sacrificed to the Goddess for contribution points.

For example… Crocodile’s equipment.

Though thoroughly destroyed by Mairrel’s violent pounding, it was still Silver Boss’s gear. Sacrificing it to the Goddess could make a modest profit!

For a while, the battlefield bustled as players happily sorted through the spoils.

However, the largest gathering of players remained centered around the dozen or so carts in the middle of the mercenary camp…

“What is this? The goods brought by the mercenaries?”

“Hurry, open them up and see!”

The players pried open the boxes on the carts with clumsy teamwork, only to see some everyday items from the Human World, some luxury items, and some valueless magic devices.

Perhaps they were meant for lifestyle use or decoration, but definitely not for enhancing strength.

Updat𝓮d from freewēbnoveℓ.com.

“Tch, thought it was something valuable…”

The players were somewhat disappointed.

Still, they unloaded the goods, divvying them up like a flock of rogue birds taking everything they could.

Something was better than nothing—at least they could take a decorative piece home to hang on the wall, right?

While the players were busy looting, another commotion stirred from the nearby dense forest…

Along with screams and pleas for mercy, a dozen or so terrified humans were dragged out of the bushes by the players…

Unlike the mercenaries, they wore tattered clothes, appeared gaunt and anxious.

“What’s happening?”

“Who are these people?”

“Don’t know. They were just playing dead in the bushes, found by Boxed Lunch.”

“Doesn’t seem like mercenaries… Should we kill them?”

“Hu Lu accidentally killed one just now, only 200 experience, even less than a Goblin.”

“…”

“These are too weak, right? Just ordinary people?!”

“Wait… why do they look kind of familiar?”

…

Anders was almost terrified out of his wits.

These days, he felt ridiculously unfortunate.

First, as he represented the Earl to collect taxes in the border town, he encountered a Black Dragon attack. Not only was he kidnapped, but after narrowly escaping with his life, he was then caught by a group of crude mercenaries…

And those audacious mercenaries had the nerve to target the Black Dragon, attacking its stronghold!

As one would expect, the dragon’s retaliation was swift. The terrifyingly evil Black Dragon brought a thousand elves and completely wiped out the entire mercenary group!

In the name of the Eternal Lord! That was a thousand elves!

Anders felt the world had gone mad. How could the Black Dragon gather so many elves?

Even worse, those elves were like a band of bloodthirsty demons, entirely lacking typical elfin grace, massacring the mercenaries without mercy!

Moreover, they didn’t even leave the mercenaries’ bodies behind!

It was horrifying…

Truly horrifying!

They were demons in elf skins!

Anders was nearly scared to death, and it was only his cleverness that saved him—hiding amidst the chaos in the bushes, he barely survived.

But… those idiots with him!… ended up revealing all of them at the end!

Now, they were captives of those terrifying, enigmatic elves who had slaughtered the mercenaries!

In the name of the Eternal Lord! How did he have such terrible luck?

Was he really going to die this time?

At that moment, he heard the elves conversing again:

“Oh? I recognize them; weren’t these the humans Mairrel hired when she returned before?”

“Oh gosh! Is it them? They’re the ones who brought the mercenaries here?”

Upon hearing this, Anders was shocked, hurriedly explaining:

“Noble Elf Warriors, it’s not like that! It’s not like that!”

“We’re merely innocent villagers! We are victims too! The mercenaries kidnapped us. It was from us they learned about the Black Dragon, and only then did they covet… It has nothing to do with us! Nothing to do with us!”

Anders cried bitterly, begging continuously for mercy.

However, the elves’ conversation made his heart race with fear:

“Ultimately, you’re still the ones who brought the mercenaries here…”

“Why should we let you go, and what’s in it for us?”

“Is there any intelligence you can give us?”

“Do you know where there are ruins or treasure maps?”

Information? Ruins? Treasure maps? What are those?

Anders looked bewildered yet extremely anxious.

However, as the conversation went on, the elves’ voices gradually faded.

Anders fearfully raised his head to find a male elf in Druid attire, accompanied by a noble Unicorn and a fearsome Cave Spider, slowly approaching.

The other elves respectfully made way for him:

“Brother Mu! You’ve arrived!”

“Brother Mu, we captured a dozen ordinary people. You have the most experience handling NPC interactions; what should we do?”

Brother Mu? Is he the elves’ leader?

Anders was stunned for a moment, then suddenly threw himself forward, grabbing Li Mu’s leg, bursting into tears:

“Lord Mu! Lord Mu! Please have mercy on us!”

Li Mu: …

Players: …

“Who…exactly are you?”

Li Mu looked at Anders’ attire, noticeably more refined than the humans around him, and asked in a deep voice.