Chapter 145: The Orc Incursion

"Clang!" The man blocked Malto's sneak attack.
"Hey, hey, hey! You're a knight, after all—how could you resort to a sneak attack?" The man asked with an earnest expression, dual swords in hand.
"Cut the chatter," the woman said coldly.
The three of them became entangled, the man and woman suppressing Malto for a moment.
"I never expected their strength to reach such a level. This must be the Tier 6 warrior, right?" Yun Xuan looked at Malto with a solemn gaze. It was a miscalculation not to have brought Research Facility No. 258 along this time.
The man had naturally curly silver hair and a lazy disposition, with a wooden sword named Lake Toya hanging at his waist. He was Sakata Gintoki, the protagonist of Gintama!
The woman had blue hair and red eyes, wearing the uniform of the Mimawarigumi. Her name was Imai Nobume.
Sakata Gintoki's summoning duration had half an hour remaining, whereas Imai Nobume was a permanent character!
These two summoning cards always seemed to produce miraculous effects, much like Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki.
"Preparation complete, ready to release at any time," Megumin announced.
"Begin the incantation. I will go draw his attention. Kushina, please trap him with the Underworld Swamp," Yun Xuan thought for a moment and instructed.
"Understood." Megumin nodded, muttering incantations under her breath.
"Retreat!" Yun Xuan rushed forward and shouted.
Sakata Gintoki and Imai Nobume fell back, leaving Malto standing in place, staring at the suddenly appearing Yun Xuan.
"Combat Time!" Bai Xue announced, and the entire world froze.
Yun Xuan walked up to Malto and placed a large quantity of explosive charges. Once finished, he returned to his original spot.
Combat Time ended, and Yun Xuan pressed the button in his hand.
"Boom!" With a deafening roar, flames soared into the sky, and Malto was blasted away.
"Earth Release – Underworld Swamp!" Kushina Uzumaki stood where Malto was about to land, forming hand seals.
With a heavy thud, the falling Malto landed squarely in the center of the Underworld Swamp, and Megumin's magic unfolded.
Malto looked up at the explosion magic crest in the sky as a searingly hot, fiery red pillar of light descended.
"Bang!" The ground shook. Yun Xuan stared at the center of the explosion magic; Malto had been scorched black.
"Congratulations to the host for slaying a Tier 6 warrior above your rank for the first time. Reward: Silver-grade Summoning Card x1." The cat-eared girl Nyan Nyan appeared.
"Another summoning card..." Yun Xuan was overjoyed. At the very least, this could summon a Tier 6 combatant.

"This guy is roasted to a crisp." Sakata Gintoki stood beside Malto's corpse, examining it closely.
"Even though he's dead, his body has high research value." Yun Xuan packed Malto's corpse into a sack.
Clearing the battlefield and gathering the skeletal soldiers' weapons and the buffalo's magic crystal core, Yun Xuan completed his second main quest.
"Main Quest 3: Defeat ten Tier 3 warriors or magical beasts. Reward: 1,000 exchange points. Completion triggers subsequent quests."
"Summon!" Yun Xuan took out the silver-grade summoning card and tossed it.
……
One hour later, Yun Xuan looked at the vanished woman. He never could have imagined in his wildest dreams that he would summon Rize Kamishiro.
Rize Kamishiro's strength was indeed Tier 6, which also proved Yun Xuan's hypothesis: one-hour summoned characters were currently all Tier 6, while permanent characters were Tier 5.
His exchange points had reached 150,000. The past few days of hard work had not been in vain. Most importantly, the team now had Imai Nobume, a warrior whose strength was no less than Tier 5.
At the outskirts of the Dark Night Forest, the six of them walked out of the Giant Frog's domain and arrived at the city of Mars.
Megumin registered as a mercenary and became the party leader; she was also recognized as a high-tier mage.
Yun Xuan entrusted the party to Kushina Uzumaki and Imai Nobume. Aside from Bai Xue, all five of them possessed powered armor, allowing them to fly back immediately even if attacked by a Tier 6 magical beast.
As for Bai Xue, regardless of rank, she possessed the ability to fight back against any magical beast.
Megumin and the others accepting quests would not complete side quests, but they could earn crystal coins.
Yun Xuan went out every day to practice the Trail-Shattering Steps, and the group could only meet at night.
Half a month later.
Yun Xuan's Trail-Shattering Steps finally succeeded, reaching the realm of minor accomplishment. He could now evade even the attacks of Tier 4 magical beasts with ease.
At that exact moment, the Mercenary Guild suddenly issued a mercenary recruitment call. The border city of the Ogi Kingdom had been attacked by the Beastman Kingdom, suffering heavy casualties.
The Ogi Kingdom put forth 300 million crystal coins to recruit mercenaries to help fend off the invading beastman tribes.
In truth, even without the monetary reward, the mercenaries would have taken to the battlefield, as this was a war between humanity and beastmen with no room for retreat.
Most of the mercenaries in the Ogi Kingdom had families in tow; if the beastmen breached the Ogi Kingdom, their homes would be destroyed.
In front of the Mercenary Guild.
A mixed formation of 1,500 mages and warriors stood ready, with Tier 2s making up the majority, alongside Tier 5 mages and swordsmen.
"Brave mercenaries, thank you for contributing your strength to the Ogi Kingdom. With your assistance, the Ogi Kingdom will surely triumph!" The commander dispatched by the Ogi Kingdom raised his sword and shouted loudly.

"Victory!"
"Victory!"
"Victory!"
The mercenaries' voices resounded, every single one of them brimming with fighting spirit.
"This actually has a bit of a wartime atmosphere." Standing in the crowd, the six of them heard Megumin mutter.
"Little girl, this isn't a place you should be. People die on the battlefield, and it's not too late to withdraw now," the female mage beside Megumin said sternly.
"My name is Megumin. As the greatest archmage of the Crimson Demon Clan, I am the strongest existence. If I don't go to the battlefield, all of you might die," Megumin declared loudly.
"An archmage?"
"Isn't an archmage a legendary Tier 6 mage?"
"A girl this young is a Tier 6 archmage? You've got to be kidding me?"
The surrounding mercenaries muttered among themselves, already treating Megumin as a fraud and casting slighting looks toward Yun Xuan and his group.
"This is a Tier 6 magical beast crystal core. Could you please appraise it?" Yun Xuan took out five Tier 6 crystal cores and handed them to the Mercenary Guild person in charge.
"Certainly..." The Mercenary Guild official was well aware of Yun Xuan and his group. Over the past half month, they had taken on a large number of high-difficulty quests, one of which was slaying a Tier 6 magic scorpion and water snake.
"These are indeed Tier 6 magical beast crystal cores without a doubt." The Mercenary Guild official tested them with a magic detection crystal, and energy fluctuations of six different colors emerged from the Tier 6 magical beast crystal cores.
The entire crowd fell into pin-drop silence. She really was a Tier 6 archmage?!
"Lady Archmage, thank you for your assistance. On behalf of the Ogi Kingdom, I express my utmost respect to you." The commander of the Ogi Kingdom bowed respectfully.
"Don't mention it," Megumin replied indifferently. The title of archmage was indeed enough to bluff quite a few people.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!" A sound came from the sky as an oddly shaped airship flew overhead.
"Everyone, please board the airship. This is a magical airship built in cooperation between our Ogi Kingdom and the dwarves, and it can transport everyone directly to the front lines," the commander said with a smile upon seeing the airship.
For the vast majority of people present, if not for this war, they might never have had the chance to ride a magical airship in their entire lives.