For the remainder of the downtime, Jin had decided to use it to spend on making the renewed Shop Instance. Lately, the System had not created any further mission rewards for Jin’s efforts, but it had been giving him a few new benefits.
One of which was that it had quietly levelled Jin to a Level 4 Dungeon Supplier, allowing him access to the black market items at cost prices without any duty tax. It had decided that the Astral Panda Cultivator had sufficiently proved itself worthy without completing the mission.
Unfortunately, it would only affect the products and raw materials required for the dungeon or shop related Instances. The rest of the items not used for dungeon instances would still be at full cost or through negotiations.
This, in turn, gave Jin a bigger bang for his buck when creating his new shop instance. The System had also given him a limited amount of funds for the dungeon supplier to build his new shop instance. (In hindsight, it was actually sufficient to cover half of the estimated cost of the revamped instance.)
“How did you even have additional money? Didn’t you not said that our accounts are dried up? Or ARE ‘OUR’ ACCOUNTS separate or something?” Jin asked with a bit of emphasis.
“Indeed, the System had its own financial reserves to make sure that it would not go broke should User ever fail and some are seed money for the next incoming generation of Panda Clan members. Fortunately, through the current User, System had been amassing a decent amount of money for us to graciously provide you with an additional budget at our own discretion.” The System stated.
“I guessed you placed self preservation as the number one priority.” Jin shrugged as he prepared the shop instance revamps in the Dungeon Maker. After spending some amount of time on it, Jin was notified by the System that it was about time to start Operation Gatecrasher in the Giant World.
With Que Er’s new abilities granted by Muninn and Huginn, Que Er had become Jin’s latest monster for scouting purposes. During Jin’s downtime making the shop instance, dozens of Que Er’s birds bid their time to survey the Salamander castle and its surrounding exterior.
Whatever the ravens, crows and magpies saw, it was transmitted to the System where it started to recreate a hologram of the castle based on different viewpoints.
The pieces of information were later collated and compared with what Salamander Edwardio had reported as part of the verification process before Jin could plan a proper assault into the castle. However, as Que Er was about to recall the bulk of her birds back into her ‘care’, Peppers suddenly appeared for a brief moment at the top of the castle. It prompted Que Er to inform Jin, but before she could send a message via the System Channel, Peppers had already shot a beam of her magical energy towards the roof of the grand castle.
Surprisingly, instead of an explosion spell, the beam spread like a rotary fan before closing up into a thin line and subsequently dissipated. When the beam disappeared, so did Peppers at the very next moment, making the Magpie Queen suspect if she ever saw the Demonic Queen Sage.
If not for her birds confirming that they also caught Peppers in their sight, Que Er might have believed she was experiencing a delusion. Even weirder, she returned to the Dungeon Maker room seeing Jin giving Peppers a pat on the head.
“Que Er, thank you for the scout, you and your birds have provided a lot of information!” Jin said as he pointed at the hologram of the Grand Castle.
“Can I have more sweets than? Milk says that you will promise me more of those Vanilla Cream Candies if I do good! And Potato chips too!” Peppers questioned with a purpose. From a pat on the head, Jin gradually turned it into a pinch on her left cheek.
Que Er later realised that Peppers had taken the initiative to cast a Scan spell at the castle. She had managed to get the visualisation of the interior structure. The System also created a ‘screenshot’ of the locations of every Salamander currently stationed in the castle at the time Peppers cast her spell.
It even used Edwardio’s guard rotation table as a supplement to the hologram and predicted the guard’s patrol path on it. This provided Jin with a clearer understanding to plan his assault for Phase 2 of the operation.
Jin eventually told Que Er that Milk had somehow convinced Peppers to give something Jin needed and he would potentially reward her even more. She added that there would definitely be other times to test her explosive magic on something… more substantial.
The Priest Bellator lied to Peppers outright that Jin was possibly saving her firepower for the coming days, especially the fight to obtain the Mechanical Brain. (That really hyped Peppers up a lot more than destroying a stationary giant city.)
Of course Milk had used a few spells to soothe Pepper’s anger and much pep talk to remind her that they were under Jin’s service. But at the same time, Milk also thought that maybe if she could get Peppers to act in alignment of Jin’s wishes, she could get another bottle of Lynn’s precious sake wine. That 500ml that Jin bought vanished in an instant which Milk knew it was clearly more than just intoxicating. It made her yearn for more.
Hence, when Jin got to know why Peppers was suddenly so helpful from the System, he could not help but to continue treating her as his younger sister he never had. (Considering she sometimes acted like a spoilt one despite the Bellator position she held and the immense knowledge she possessed.) And as Peppers whined more when he pinched her cheeks playfully, Jin had already requested the System to place more snacks into her room.
“But remember this is a one time exception! I am not so gullible as you think I am to be!” Peppers announced when she got what she wanted. “I am merely doing this because I want to know if Ayse’s advice applies to my legendary Scan ability too. That castle target of yours was suitable for me to test that!” The Demonic Sage Queen stuck her tongue before disappearing from the Dungeon Maker.
“That is more than enough for now.” Jin smiled at that silly mage before turning serious once again.
“Que Er, are your birds still in place?”
“I had hidden a number of them in places the Salamanders should not be able to notice. Not too sure how potent that King lizard with a keen sense of smell could be, so I placed most of them in the surrounding perimeter instead. They can proceed to attack at your command.” Que Er said as she stared at the hologram.
She never saw a castle with that many hidden getaways and the scan that Peppers performed, did not even reveal the entirety of it all since her primary focus was the castle itself. But that alone unveiled untold numbers of tunnels and escape routes inside the castle. She suspected that it would lead out not to just the inner noble districts, but even to the outer common districts of the ruined kingdom.
“Since we now have the essential information to conduct a proper operation, let’s have our main star to the scene.” Jin officially commenced Operation Gatecrasher with Gaeru’s impromptu appearance at the front of the castle once more.
