Undying Warlord

Dilan wished that he could advance to Tier-2 before they would encounter the Vampires around the Sanctum but that was pretty unlikely to be the case.

Nonetheless, there were a few things that he could try out until his group finished their preparation for another large-scale battle.

Not everyone would go to the Sanctum of the Old Vampire Lord because the base had to be protected well.

Thus, only around 1000 Ascenders were selected to initiate a large-scale battle.

With the size of their current base, there was approximately one more batch of 1000 Tier-1 combat Ascenders, but they were better off staying at home.

Dilan only wanted strong Ascenders with him, even if he couldn't take all with them.

The Vampire Clans were bound to become powerful and traveling straight to the center of the Shikan plains would take its time.

All Ascenders in his group had an Agility above 40 Units, and they could run quite fast, for a long time at that. However, even then, it would take them half a day to reach the location of the Silverlight Werewolf pack and another half a day, if not longer to reach the Sanctum.

Dilan, if he rushed as fast as possible, without bothering whether he would be exposed or not, would require roughly an hour to reach the Silverlight pack and yet another one to reach the Sanctum.

That was how high his stats were by now!

Dilan left the others with the task of making all kinds of preparations, which would require the remainder of the day. Afterward, they would leave early in the morning.

Dilan updated Sven about the location they would have to be at the next day in the afternoon before he left his group.

There were quite a few things Dilan wanted to focus on, which was why he entered both the Trading hub and the Forging division of the Undying group.

He went to visit Old Jeff, and enquire if he could create a better version of the Blazing Serpentine Blade.

It was possible to reuse the Pyromancy Orb, which meant that only the base material for the Serpentine Blade had to be replaced.

Dilan's only means of attack to injure, and kill many opponents at the same time had been the Blazing Serpentine Blade and [Mana Slash].

However, Mana Slash required too much mana to be used in every single usage.

That was why Dilan figured it would be for the best to have a unique type of weapon such as the Serpentine Blade.

Unfortunately, Old Jeff was pretty sure that he didn't have the necessary materials to forge a better Serpentine Blade yet.

And that was the reason, Dilan devoted his next 20 hours to searching for new ores and other materials in the Gates within other cities.

The Scouts of the Undying Group had worked hard to note down all the permanent Gates in a radius of approximately 200 kilometers and share the list with him.

It helped him easily locate and enter the various Gates to search for ores, and ingredients and to figure out how dangerous the Gates were.

For Dilan, it was pretty easy to survive all kinds of environments and situations. He was immune to most poisons, and even if he were to be severely injured, [Regeneration] would heal him.

Currently, there weren't actually many Gates with Tier-2 monsters, which made it rather easy for Dilan to search through the Gates.

But the situation was quite interesting because there were specific semi-permanent Gates, which he entered because they sounded like they would have ore deposits.

True to his belief, he found lots of high-grade ores in these Gates, which he mined with the mining pickaxe he had borrowed from Old Jeff.

With his strength, he could easily mine tons of ores within the shortest amount of time.

Dilan mined calmly and he killed all the powerful monsters around him to increase his stats slowly. Simultaneously, he accumulated some Essence and was ready to level up quickly, if one could call his leveling speed such.

In a span of 20 hours, Dilan encountered close to 50 Tier-2 monsters in the semi-permanent Gates he had entered, while all the permanent Gates showed signs that monsters would soon be able to advance to Tier-2.

The level of all monsters was increasing, which bothered Dilan much more than he wanted to acknowledge.

After all, it looked like monsters were growing faster than his Undying group which was worrisome.

'We really need those Blood Essences from the Vampires, and the Blood Monarch's Sanctum…' Dilan thought when he returned to the base in Shiron. He handed Old Jeff all the ores and other ingredients had collected before he made the last tour through his base to make sure that everything was fine.

There hadn't been any trouble his group faced in the last few days. All of this was owed to the common enemy they had.

It was frustrating to acknowledge it, but a common enemy forced the rivals to work together and set aside their differences and the animosity they harbored for each other.

Without the common enemy, all the higher authorities of the Undying group would have much more trouble controlling the newly joined Survivors.

That was not a problem for now and Dilan was quite happy about that. He left the base with rapid strides and activated [Thunder Step] to test out just how fast he could go.

As the winds splashed in his face, Dilan smiled weirdly. It was an odd feeling but definitely not something he hated. His body was already accustomed to facing air pressure without issues.

But Dilan wasn't able to go all out with his speed. He had yet to figure out his threshold which Dilan finally tested as he ran over the Shikan plains with all his might.

Less than an hour passed before he saw the large encampment of his group. A large number of half-naked humans had camped nearby.

They were Werewolves, who were alarmed the moment they sensed Dilan's arrival.

He didn't intend to slow down his speed or conceal his power for the time being. Everyone was supposed to know that he was the strongest and that it would be a stupid idea to attempt to attack him.

When Dilan finally stopped, he arrived in front of his people.

"Dilan, you're finally here!" Sven said, sighing in relief before he pulled him closer to their group.

A moment later, he began to tell Dilan what had happened since they departed from their base early in the morning.

"We encountered a few monsters on our way here, but everything was rather simple until we arrived here. Unfortunately, it looks like the Werewolf pack leaders want to determine one Supreme Leader for this battle, and they don't want us to attend the 'Sacred battle' to influence their decision," Sven summarized quickly.

Kathrine and Yvonne were in a heated debate with a bunch of powerful Werewolves, whose partial bestial transformation had been activated.

It looked like both sides were ready to pounce on one another, which was something that had to be prevented by all means.

Thus, Dilan stepped forward. He pulled Yvonne and Kathrine behind him, while ignoring their complaints, as he stared deep into the eyes of the Werewolves that sniffed loudly.

"You have the smell of a Vampire on you!" One of the Werewolves suddenly said, growling deeply.

Yvonne and Kathrine looked at Dilan with squinted eyes for a moment before they showed signs of readying themselves for battle.

However, Dilan lifted his hand to make them stop.

"And where is the problem with that?" Dilan asked, releasing his bloodlust without restraint.

It was unleashed and shrouded the few Werewolves in front of him instantaneously, overwhelming them.

Dilan revealed the mana that was stored in his body as well, putting further pressure on the Werewolves in front of them, forcing the weaklings to their knees.

"You're just an ant in front of my eyes…don't bother me!" Dilan muttered in a warning tone before he walked past the few Werewolves on the ground.

He didn't expect the Werewolves' sensitive nose to be that strong, especially since his entire body had been smeared by the blood of monsters, but it didn't really matter.

If they could smell Victoria's scent on him, that was fine with him.

With a calm mind, he walked past the Werewolves, who were suffocating before he retracted his mana and bloodlust.

Dilan approached the encampment of the three Werewolf packs that had gathered on the plains before he surveyed their huge camp.

"That are loads of meat shields for me to make use of!"