The area became cold as many parties felt horror course through their veins. If what Darius was saying was true, then they had avoided a serious catastrophe by being reticent. Maybe not full annihilation but at least 60-75% of their attack force would have perished in a full confrontation.
Even Elijah was shaken, as he was the most knowledgeable person present. His heavy workload in management didn't allow him free space in thinking up other things, but after throwing all his duties away, he had been free to put past facts and events together to form a conclusion.
It wasn't just him, but Sothe and even Darla trembled as they felt it made sense. The Bone Dragon had been fierce, but not to a degree that it had felt impossible to defeat. With each engagement, they had found new flaws and their ability to push it back had become stronger compared to their initial battle.
Moreover, it was an established fact that all high-level undead in this band possessed at least human-level intelligence, so how could the Bone Dragon act like a primordial beast with no consciousness? Looking back, it was as if it had been baiting them by revealing one secret after the other.
This fact had shaken Darius when he reasoned it out after a bit of thought. It hadn't come to him right away, but after thinking about it, his fear towards the difficulty of this quest grew.
This quest truly deserved its Impossible difficulty rating, there were traps and pitfalls everywhere! A single wrong step was it all it would take for him to fall into the abyss of nothingness!
"Lord Stone, is what you said earlier true? Have you really come up with a solution on how to slay the beast?" Kiran asked solemnly.
Many hopeful eyes turned to him. In a short matter of half an hour, Darius had cemented his position as a strong candidate to be the new leader of the camp with his sharp analysis and contributions to the entire group.
If he could cook up something strong enough to quell this issue, he would certainly become the next chairman, with more respect than any other could garner!
Darius smiled softly. "I do."
There were loud sighs of relief again, but this time, none of the powerhouses felt ashamed for it and neither did anyone else look down upon them for it. Even Darius felt it was natural.
"However, there are a few limitations and possible problems with my method." Darius pointed out with a wry smile.
This made the happiness in the room stifle for a bit, before it recovered and many parties expressed their willingness to accept the limitations as long as Darius listed them and they were not over the top.
"Firstly, my method requires at least 50-70% of our total battle power to be utilized, and this includes the powerhouses seated here. This is not to drag you out, but to ensure that our chance of victory can solidify as 100% in case of any upsets."
There were light murmurs in the room, but the various powerhouses nodded in agreement. Now that things had reached this point, there was no need to act tough and overly sly, otherwise it would simply make things worse.
"Secondly, the arrangement of troops will have to be handled by yourselves. There is no need for false pretenses as such a time, so I won't pretend to be an army or field general or some sort of prodigy in tactics, so I leave that to the esteemed fellows gathered here."
This too was easily accepted.
"Thirdly and finally, my contribution to this battle is what will promise at least 60% of our success rate. This comes in the form of myself and my servant, yet the two of us only contribute about 10% together. The 50% chance of our overall success rate comes from my two special subordinates, Mikey and Joneson. Come in!"
With a flash of light, a dark portal opened up behind Darius, startling all the powerhouses here. The portal was blood red in color and reeked of noble malice, like some sort of refined evil.
Out of the portal came Mikey and Joneson, who were markedly different from before. Not only did they look slightly taller and healthier, but they also had the poise of skilled fighters that no one could miss.
Darius quickly checked their character sheets.
[Name: Joneson
Race: Undead
Class: Pure-Blood Vampire
Sub-class: Growth
HP: 9,215/9,215
MP: 4,998/4,998
Level: 42
Strength: 97
Agility: 98
Endurance: 95
Intellect: 119
Charisma: 86
Luck: 0
Abilities: Raise Dead, Heal Undead, Sacrifice, Promote, Create Initiate, Summon Thralls, Create Blood Warriors, Life Drain, Shadow Manipulation, Shadow Blade, Hail of Spears.
Traits: Magic Immunity, Damage Ward, Absorb, Ultra Dominate, Sword Mastery.
Weapons: Magic and Sword.]
[Name: Mikey
Race: Undead
Class: Pure-Blood Vampire
Sub-class: Growth
HP: 9,215/9,215
MP: 4,998/4,998
Level: 42
Strength: 97
Agility: 98
Endurance: 95
Intellect: 119
Charisma: 86
Luck: 0
Abilities: Raise Dead, Heal Undead, Sacrifice, Promote, Create Initiate, Summon Thralls, Create Blood Warriors, Life Drain, Shadow Manipulation, Shadow Blade, Hail of Spears.
Traits: Magic Immunity, Damage Ward, Absorb, Ultra Dominate, Spear Mastery.
Weapons: Magic and Spear.]
Darius was pleased with their progress, as it gave him more bargaining power. As Adepts now, their stats surpassed many of those within the same stage, even bordering on the Master-stage.
The reason he wasn't drop dead happy was that this presented a simple fact that many would fail to account for. If Mikey and Joneson had such great stats because they were members of a higher race, then what about other races?
The standard of stats mentioned by Caesar - as well as those used all this while - had been using humans as a basis, and humans were far from the strongest beings in this world.
The Bone Dragon alone would have slightly similar stats to Mikey and Joneson given its original race. It only lost so many stats due to its revival as an undead, capping its power at a limit.
What about other non-human enemies Darius would have to meet later on?
Take Jeanne, the half-angel girl as an example. Look at how high her stats were for her age. Right now, her human side was weighing the Crown Princess down. If she grew up into adulthood and her bloodline awoke fully, they were bound to skyrocket!
Mikey and Joneson being this strong only put pressure on Darius to increase his own power in tandem.
In order to make the best use of his artificial growth capabilities and surpass the limits of the human race to later contest against Dragons, Phoenixes, Devils, and Gods, he would have to acquire every single AP and SP he could.
