“You have received Arcana’s Blessing of Love Level 1: Satisfying your partner’s desires will increase your Aura stat, depending on the amount of suffering that you experience in the process.” After the second undead had finally been created, Michael received a new Passive.

He muttered “Yup, that sounds about right… Well, whatever, only three more to go~.” At the same time, Sarah was reading two notifications of her own.

“Umbra’s Blessing of Lust Level 3: Satisfying your carnal desires upon the remains of a man or woman who you’re sexually attracted to, will increase your Aura by three point per level of the corpse. Fornicating violently with a Companion who you’re sexually attracted to, will increase the Aura stat depending on the ferocity and cruelty involved.”

“Extreme Elasticity Level 1: Skin and muscles become much more flexible, depending on the Agility stat.”

She told him “I’m done… I can’t keep fucking all day like this. My pussy doesn’t even bleed anymore, look at this bullshit! It barely even hurts! Ugh, we can make more skull-fuckers later, but let’s just go kill some bitches! Is it possible to do that Battlegrounds thing with just the two of us?”

Michael snickered, “Yeah, I need to go help the Dwarves anyway~, so let’s see~… Hmmm~, yep, found one. Oh hey, it’s starting in like three minutes!” It was possible for him to sign up for Battlegrounds alone, or to bring his Companions with him, so there was no problem with only taking Sarah. It was midday, but both Inari and Elina were sleeping: They were fairly sick and run-down.

The little girl jumped up off of his body, quickly Equipping her sword and armor, while the Nephilim slowly did the same. Once he actually activated the silver glove on his left hand, a thick gauntlet appeared with five individual fingers and covered all the way to his elbow; the chains of blinding light traveled up his bicep and tricep, until they could wrap around his shoulder properly.

Then his thin white t-shirt changed into a relatively thin, form-fitting piece of rubbery, glowing chest-armor. Those boxer-shorts became longer, and the material transformed into something similar to his breast-plate. Yet, the most ridiculous thing about his appearance was that gigantic Arcane Siegeblade, which he could easily use in one hand: since it only weighed twelve pounds, even with all of his Aura pumped into it.

Sarah glared at him for a few moments, before yelling “This is fucking bullshit! Why the hell didn’t you take me with you last time?!”

He started laughing hysterically, then retorted “It’s your own damn fault! You’re the one who refused my invitation! Anyway, we should be getting summoned soon?”
Three-thousand miles to the northeast of the Carrabelle Plains, deep beneath the ‘Hellish Wasteland,’ there existed hundreds of massive underground cities. Dwarves were much like Humans, and thus, it required a truly enormous amount of resources to sustain their populations.

Fortunately, their ancient ancestors had left behind all sorts of miraculous inventions and technologies, which made living in such a desolate environment possible. Magic was also crucial to their survival and allowed them to actually thrive several kilometers below the surface.

Unlike many of the other races and cultures, the Dwarven Republic didn’t discriminate against followers of the various Elemental Religions. As long as no one broke their laws, people were allowed to practice any sort of magic they wished.

Obviously, there wouldn’t be a Church of Lux, next to a Mausoleum of Umbra, but it was possible to openly worship every Goddess except Chaos: Murder, necrophilia, bestiality, incest, and most psychotropic drugs were all illegal after all. It wasn’t as if those with the Chaotic Affinity were arrested, but they were typically ostracized.

All of the cities were connected through enormous tunnels and ancient teleportation gates, they also possessed a myriad of trains, cars and other similar vehicles. Some of them ran on combustion-engines, while others were powered by mana and various Elements, but their overall technological level was far higher than most Human nations.

The quality of life in the Dwarven Republic had caused many other races to envy them, but unfortunately, only those of Dwarven blood were allowed into their country. Xenophobia wasn’t uncommon throughout the continent, so they were simply part of the normal ideology of racial supremacy and segregation. Those who would purposefully evolve outside of their heritage, were typically viewed as ‘mutants,’ ‘heretics,’ ‘monsters,’ etcetera.

There were colossal underground farms, which utilized Nature and Light magic to grow a wide variety of crops: They also had plenty of livestock. Those fields were unnaturally flat, and the ‘natural’ metallic caverns were typically cubically shaped.

The ancient Dwarven ancestors had suffered through many invasions in the past, so they made sure to build their farms below, above or beside their cities. In the event that an enemy army did manage to make it into their territory, they would have to make it past the ‘Killing Fields’ that spread out for miles around the fortresses that protected the farmland.

Some scholars wondered why they didn’t just create impenetrable gates, or collapsible tunnels, but according the historical records, the ancients called their method of warfare ‘Tower Defense.’ Essentially, they would use a combination of soldiers, magical-beasts and small fortresses, equipped with various types of artillery.

Of course, the reason that the first few cities fell so easily to the invading enemies, was mainly because they prioritized evacuation, rather than fighting a futile battle. The enemy had a myriad of rank-A Raid Bosses leading them, and the ‘Divine Ogre Empress’ was actually a rank-S World Boss.

If it was against the Dwarven Republic’s Metropolis, or any of the major cities, then it would have been much different… but on the outskirts, there wasn’t much that they could do against such overpowering figures. However, after their initial conquest, the leaders of the ‘New Goblin Empire’ simply didn’t have the motivation to continue personally intervening any more than that.

Thus, their leaders relaxed in their new underground Palaces, while the Ogres inhabited the actual cities and commenced a series of cruel ‘Goblin Wave Tactics.’ Rank ‘F’ or ‘E’ Orcs were typically the field commanders, while the hordes of foot-soldiers usually weren’t even ranked.

Their reasons for fighting were fairly simple: They wanted to elevate their social position. It wasn’t that they weren’t afraid of death, but their belief system was based around reincarnation, and they were also taught from childhood that their lives were going to be short and miserable… unless they managed to evolve.

However, the key to their military prowess was the ritual of ‘Chaotic Breeding.’ A single Green-Elf Incubus could impregnate a thousand female Goblins or Orcs a day, if necessary, and the offspring would have rapidly accelerated growth: at the cost of similarly fast aging and an enormous amount of food. After the birth, a few hours after conception, the mother would only need a night of rest, before she could pump out another child.

The Green-Elf Succubi were even more efficient, since they were able to lay thousands of tiny eggs at a time, which would grow and hatch in less than a day. With such terrifying means of reproduction, it was no wonder that they had always been able to maintain a population surpassing six billion: regardless of how individually weak they usually were.
Upon the ‘Killing Fields’ of the furthest southern cities within the Dwarven Republic, Nekoshire, was an approaching horde of twenty-thousand Goblins, with hundreds of Hobgoblins and dozens of Orcs. They were camped out a mile away from the colossal gateway, preparing their weapons and armor for battle.

In order to make it into the farm, that army would have to get past Fort Resilience, which blocked their path. Of course, they could attempt to simply go around it, but then they would be bombarded from behind by dozens of cannons, as they attempted to break down the huge steel gates.

It simply wasn’t possible for them to win without killing every person inside of that relatively small obstruction. The difference in forces was forty to one, but it was still going to be a very close battle.