Dark Warlock in the Apocalypse

It all started with a small mistake. During the first wave, a few goblins slipped through their defenses. There were simply too many to handle.

"We failed on the very first wave? Are they idiots or what?"

"Shut up! Like you would've done any better!"

"Enough." Your next chapter awaits on empire

With just one word from Justin, the minor commotion died down. The Pioneer who had been explaining cleared his throat before continuing.

"It was a simple mistake, really, but the problem was that the civilians didn't know how to fight. If they had swung their sticks even a little, we wouldn't have lost so many people to just a handful of goblins."

The civilians glared at the Pioneer, trembling in anger. It wasn't their fault the goblins had broken through—the Pioneers had failed to hold their line. Lives were lost, and now the Pioneers were blaming the civilians? The murderous glares from the crowd didn't seem to faze the Pioneer, who ignored them without a care. What could mere civilians do, after all?

"Anyway," the Pioneer continued, "a few people died, and then we heard the system message. It said the wave would end because a certain number of humans had died."

Justin's eyes narrowed. "How many?"

"Five."

Not as many as I expected, Justin thought.

Suddenly, there was a murmur among the crowd.

"Wait, what? It was seven for us!"

"We lost ten on our side."

"Why are the numbers all different?"

The Pioneers were confused, exchanging bewildered glances. Those who had lost more civilians to the monsters looked particularly agitated, their faces twisting with frustration. How could the system be so inconsistent?

As the Pioneers began comparing death tolls, it became clear that something didn't add up.

"How many of yours died?" one Pioneer asked.

"Twenty-five civilians, two Pioneers," another replied.

"We lost thirty civilians and three Pioneers, and it still wasn't enough!"

"Our total was thirty-two."

Should I make an example out of a few of them? Justin thought, his voice low, barely audible. His murmured words sent a chill through the crowd, and silence fell once more.

Justin tapped his temple in frustration, glancing around at the nervous faces of the Pioneers.

"So, who wants to step up and be the example? Maybe three of you, to shut the rest of you up?"

"...."

"Or maybe it'd be better if I just picked one territory at random and wiped them all out," he added with a smirk, his tone almost playful.

The Pioneers visibly paled at the suggestion, their minds flashing back to the brutal city battle they'd witnessed not long ago. Justin had shown he was capable of wiping out an entire enemy force without hesitation. The idea of being on the receiving end of that power made their skin crawl.

Seeing the fear in their eyes, Justin let out a soft chuckle. "Go on, continue."

The Pioneer who had been speaking swallowed hard, then resumed his explanation, his voice a bit shakier than before.

"Ahem, so after hearing that message, we realized something important. It didn't matter if it was Pioneers or civilians—once enough people died, the wave would end."n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"So, during the second wave, you decided to kill them yourselves," Justin said, his voice laced with disdain.

"What else were we supposed to do?" the Pioneer shot back, his eyes narrowing. "There were ten orcs that time. In the first wave, we barely survived five, and some of us still died. How were we supposed to handle ten?"

"What...?"

"That's not what happened to us!"

A chorus of shocked whispers echoed through the crowd as the Pioneers from Justin's group looked around, confused.

"Five orcs? Ten orcs?" one of Justin's Pioneers muttered. "We had ten orcs and twenty hobgoblins!"

"And don't forget the troll and the shamans," another added.

"Why the hell did they only have half as much to deal with?"

Their hushed conversation, though quiet, carried through the eerie silence, and the other Pioneers stiffened. Disbelief and confusion rippled through the group. Had they really been fighting different enemies?

In the heavy silence that followed, Justin surveyed the crowd with narrowed eyes before speaking.

"Shut up. Do you think I'm doing this because I pity you? If you interrupt again, you'll be the first I hang."

At Justin's chilling words, the civilians, who had been on the verge of a breakdown, quickly clamped their mouths shut. He shrugged his shoulders in the tense silence, turning his gaze toward the Pioneer in front of him.

"How many?"

"What?" the Pioneer asked, confused.

"How many did you have to kill for the wave to end?" Justin clarified.

"...In the first wave, it was 24. The second wave, it was 30."

"And how many monsters attacked?"

The Pioneer's frustration flared, and he spat out his answer, "What does that matter? In the first wave, there were seven orcs! Why do you care?"

Justin clicked his tongue, looking at the man as if he were a fool who couldn't grasp something so simple.

"You still don't get it?"

"...What?"

"Everything's different. The number of monsters, their types, even the number of civilians and Pioneers that had to be sacrificed—it's all different for each wave."

"So what if it is?" the Pioneer growled.

"You idiot, the number of civilians you need to sacrifice isn't a fixed number; it's a percentage. The fewer civilians you have, the fewer you'll need to sacrifice."

"...!"

The realization dawned on the other Pioneers, their eyes widening in understanding. For the first time, they seemed to grasp why the numbers weren't the same for everyone.

Justin continued before anyone could react, "Pioneers with fewer civilians probably faced fewer monsters and needed to sacrifice fewer people. The more civilians you had, the more you had to kill. You can compare your numbers with each other if you want."

"But... we had to sacrifice more people in the second wave than in the first..." one of the Pioneers muttered.

"That's because the percentage increased," Justin explained, his tone exasperated. "Did you really think the later waves would require fewer sacrifices? That doesn't even make sense."

The aggressive glares from the Pioneers began to waver as Justin's words sank in. If what he said was true, they didn't need to worry about their own survival. They just had to kill a few more of the remaining civilians, and they'd be fine.

"Do you have any proof of this?" one of the Pioneers asked, their tone shifting from defiance to caution.

Justin shrugged confidently. "You all just gave me the proof yourselves. If you don't believe me, compare your forces again. I'm sure I'm right."

The Pioneers fell into a deep silence, exchanging uncertain glances. A few gathered at the back, whispering among themselves. After several minutes, the tension in the air eased. The fierce resolve in their eyes was gone, replaced by a desire to just save their own skins.

"Well... I guess it's fine then," one muttered.

"Do you think we'll be okay if we leave now...?" another added, stepping back cautiously.

Just when it seemed like the situation was defusing, one Pioneer, who seemed bolder than the rest, stepped forward.

"Wait, hold on! Are you planning to take all those civilians for yourself?" the man shouted, his voice filled with indignation.

"What about it?" Justin replied calmly.

"That's... that's our tax money walking away!" the man stammered, unable to fully abandon his greed. "We need those civilians to pay taxes...!"

Justin let out a soft laugh at the pathetic complaint, raising his staff slightly.

"If you don't like it, why don't we settle this with a fight? If you win, you can take them."

"...."

The man's bravado disappeared as quickly as it had come, and he fell silent.

The negotiation, which had been a mixture of threats and persuasion, was a success. Nearly a hundred Pioneers disappeared from the front of the gate, leaving without a fight. The civilians collapsed in relief, some embracing each other and weeping with joy.

Justin sighed, wiping the sweat from his forehead. "That was close."

A faint hissing sound reached his ears, and he turned to see that nearly two-thirds of the shadows that had been standing behind him vanished. The duration of his Mirror Image spell had finally ended.

The civilians, still shaky from the encounter, gasped as they saw the images disappear. Justin glared at them, his frustration clear in his voice.

"What are you standing around for? Get inside already! Do you have any idea what kind of trouble you've caused me?"

"Thank you! Thank you!" the civilians cried, hastily making their way through the gates.

Zachary and Emily took charge, organizing the people and making sure there were no further issues as they entered the castle. Leaning against the wall to catch his breath, Justin was soon joined by Ethan.

"Well done," Ethan said, offering a nod of approval.

"Yeah, I actually worked for this one. It was pretty close."

Mirror Image was a skill Justin had received from Astaroth, the Grand Duke of Temptation, which allowed him to replicate a certain number of targets. The copies were detailed enough that it was difficult to tell them apart from the originals unless closely examined. It was the perfect skill for intimidation through numbers, and it had worked wonders in this negotiation.

But had the spell's time limit run out before the deal was sealed, things could have gone south quickly.

"If they had noticed that two-thirds of our forces were illusions, we'd have been in real trouble," Justin admitted, wiping his brow again. "They would have realized we were avoiding a fight."

If the Pioneers had caught on, they might have decided that Justin and his forces had a hidden weakness and pushed for a battle. It would have been disastrous.

"Thank god the bluff worked," he muttered, shaking his head. "If this weren't a watered-down version of the skill, I could have kept it up longer and with more copies."

"You used it perfectly, though," Ethan reassured him. "That was impressive. To figure out that the difficulty of the waves changes like that... it was thanks to you that we were able to persuade those Pioneers so easily."

"Oh, that?" Justin smirked, glancing at Ethan with a mischievous glint in his eye. "That was just something I made up."

"...What?"

"I was bluffing. Who knows if the number of civilians we need to sacrifice actually changes in real-time like that? I just said it to get them off my back."

It was true that the difficulty of the waves seemed to vary based on the number of Pioneers and civilians present, but whether that calculation shifted dynamically during the waves was something even Justin wasn't sure about.

"For all I know, the ratio could've been set during the first wave and stayed the same for the rest. We won't know until the third wave hits."

Ethan's eyes widened in disbelief. "But... but earlier, you made it sound like the ratio was changing constantly."

"Of course I did," Justin replied, shrugging. "Why would I care whether it changes or not? It's not like it matters to me. Whether they all die because they didn't have enough civilians, or they survive—it's not my problem. They're competitors, and we'll be fighting a war with them soon enough anyway."

"...!"