“HA HA HA!” Peppers was a hundred and ten percent satisfied with the results as she watched the entire Southern Capital go up in smoke. (More than just smoke actually, but she was laughing so hard at the end result, she could not notice anything else other than that.)
Compared to her previous experience of destroying hectares of lands in the Giant World, this could merely be counted as a warm-up exercise of her magic. The Mage Bellator even felt that she had barely scratched the surface of her daily quota of explosions.
‘She did really come a long way from vomiting rainbows on my shirt.’ Jin thought since this was the first time he saw her still standing and even able to jump around with joy without any fatigue after using her big spells. The dungeon supplier then eyed the monster hordes at the corner of his eyes to see a mix of expressions.
The Zurgling Queen was surprised, yet felt satisfied that the Southern Capital had been demolished. Still, she couldn’t help but feel a bit regretful to see the home of her grandmother reduced to rubble, but it was better than allowing those pesky humans to stay in her ancestor’s abode.
However one of the monsters with the ability to speak voiced out a rather intellectual concern. “Won’t this escalate the hunt against us?”
Jin had been waiting for someone to raise such a concern and he was more than happy to address it. He was aware that despite his grand gesture, many could not help but mistrust him with the Phoenix gone, fearing this could just be some giant conspiracy, so he had to make his stand clear. The Panda Cultivator had to convince them that he was indeed there to provide them with an opportunity for a better life. (But of course, not everything was a bed of roses.)
“Once again, my name is Xie Jin! Where I come from I’m a so-called dungeon supplier. You can think of me as a sort of Monster Master. This means that I govern over monsters who work for me. They earn their keep by doing hard work, but in return, I provide them with great food, a suitable shelter to stay and the opportunity to not only better themselves but also their living conditions even further. You’ve seen that I have many elite monsters during the unfortunate show of force against you guys. While I regret that our first meeting started out negatively because of that misunderstanding, I assure you that I fight for monsters and humans as long as they do good.”
“And before you raise any concerns, yes, I accept all kinds of monsters, not just ones as powerful as your leaders. As long as you are willing to fight or use your talents for the greater good, you’ll have a place in my dungeons. Not to mention, you’ll get a chance to kill as many humans as you want to the best of your ability in arena like battles, because they will be there trying to kill you too.” Jin said and immediately realised that this was not exactly the best advertising quote he could have used.
He coughed once in slight embarrassment before he changed his tone. “Now I’m sure all of you are asking yourself how exactly it will benefit you to join me if you’re going to lose all your benefits once you’re dead. So I am going to tell you a huge secret – I have the powers to resurrect monsters. So if you end up killed, I’ll make sure that you’ll be alive and kicking in no time at all.”
“If you doubt my master and think he is bluffing, how about one of you come and kill me? I won’t lie and pretend that dying doesn’t hurt, but if it’s to dispel the doubts, I’ll happily endure that bit of pain. You should be aware after seeing that explosion or watching the power my buddy Carbon showed, that we could have just chosen to slaughter you and forced you to join us. However, Master Jin is not that kind of person. He’s allowed you to choose whether you want to continue your life or change it for the better.” Forneus chimed in.
He could see the monster hesitating about that offer, but he didn’t blame him. Jin and the System defied common sense like they had done during the Pandapolis Raid. It had been one of the best and worst fights Forneus had ever had. He had never expected such resistance from a new city and his firm belief that the Demon Army had been one of strongest armies in the Dungeon World had been deeply shaken. Fortunately, now that he had joined Jin, more fights were waiting for him like the one against the Demon Rats and a possible clash against the Church of the Afterlife in the near future.
“Will my kids be free from my twisted tyranny? Just like how free these babies are?” The Zurgling Queen asked with an anxious heart. Zurgling Queens used powerful pheromones to keep full control over the Zurglings they’ve spawned, but her control was more than that.
Her grandmother might have been doting on her granddaughter to let her go before she was caught in the crossfire, but her mother was not that kind. Her mother had tried to fight the humans on her own, but failing over and over again, turned her to be more and more desperate.
Losing hope, she had eventually sacrificed herself to place an ancient curse on her daughter to make all the Zurglings obey her unconditionally. This had allowed the Zurgling Princess to control them like extensions of herself, instead of sending them out and hoping for the best.
Alas, the price she had to pay was that she got burdened by hearing the thoughts of her Zurglings at all times. For example, in this battle alone, she had felt hundreds of them express their fear, felt their pain as well as the agony of dying. If not for her vengeance against the Southerners, she would not have tolerated all these whispers that were edging her close to insanity.
However, Jin shook his head solemnly as part of his reply.
“They happened to be like this because of the circumstances. I can only assure you that we will help you to the best of our abilities.” Jin was not making any promises because he had no idea what the Zurgling Queen was suffering from. Still, the Zurglings that had been liberated from her control were telling her something else. They were encouraging her to join Jin and give it a try. Unbeknownst to the Queen, her desire for vengeance had similarly been plaguing them and they had never felt such relief when they were killed and reborn as Jin’s subordinates.
She trusted the words of her children more than this human. The Zurgling Queen decided to be the first to openly join Jin without waiting for Forneus, demonstrating that Jin indeed had the power to ‘resurrect’ monsters. Slowly but surely, more and more monsters voluntarily decided to join Jin too. After all, the law of the jungle compelled them to follow the strongest creature. Whoever could destroy the entire Southern Capital was not a person or monster to be trifled with. Whether his words and promises were true was another matter entirely.
Jin opened a portal wide enough for those Winged Monsters to enter and felt that this could be the battalion he was searching for. With their capability to fly, everything else could be arranged especially after their discovery that the new System Augmentation Process could potentially make his life easier. The headache on how to fight the Mecha World was getting lesser and perhaps Kraft’s constant insistence to act as the ‘evil’ party of that world so that the two major factions could set aside their differences and unite as one was getting more and more possible.
Also, by defeating their Mechas, he could haul those damaged Mechas back for some reverse engineering and possibly come back to use it against them. As for the pilots that were captured, they could ultimately be used for the Supa Robo Wars and therefore expand that particular part of his dungeon instances. Not to mention, having Mechas would provide some nice and interesting end game content for the Virtual Reality Network he envisioned.
But right now, all he was focusing on was to get as many of these Winged Monsters on his side as possible. His dungeon plans would come into fruition later.
