Jin entered the Jacks’ mansion and he could see the results of their daily cultivation of the land. (What pun. :< ) Gold happened to be at the side of the field sitting down and taking a break when he saw Jin entering their instance. He stood up and waved at Jin to welcome him to their home instance.
“Wow, these crops have grown quite a lot since I last saw them.” Jin noticed that potatoes, cabbage and even wheat were growing in the home instance. If he had not come here regularly, it might have been more of a shock to Jin.
“Hahaha, it’s all thanks to Shu. That damned old treant kept uprooting the soil and scolding us for not placing the fertiliser correctly. Sometimes, he’d even whip us for overlooking to water a single plant. Let’s not even start about us having to work the whole time. We are like, you cannot blame us for missing one day since this home instance does not have any rain at all.” Jin was impressed by Gold’s smooth way of complaining. As he got the drift of what Gold wanted from him, he promised to ask the System to help them out.
“That’s why I like you, Master.” Gold laughed heartily as he patted Jin’s back hard.
“Despite their complaining, they never ever thanked me for putting them into shape.” Shu who was at the back of the field shouted at Jin. Ke Mi, the Zither Mistress, giggled at the side of Shu as she continued to play the music for the Jacks who were hard at work and the plants to grow. The Great White Snake lay lazily at her side and enjoyed the music.
“WHAT TRAINING?!?! You call shooting your leaves at us, that could easily cut us into two, while we are ploughing the field TRAINING?! It’s more like torture. You damn—” Yellow who stood up was barely visible from the height of the wheat plants retorted loudly. At that point, Shu already shot a leaf upward and down towards Yellow without destroying the crops. Getting used to this treatment Yellow had to dodge with care as not to spoil the plants… otherwise he would get an even harsher treatment from Gold teaming up with Shu for destroying the carefully nurtured crops.
“Any more complaints?” Shu grinned evilly with his limited expression and Yellow decided to keep quiet for now.
“So, I guess you are here for the Living Armour plants?” Gold beckoned Jin to follow him towards Shu where the living armour plants were being raised.
“Aside from that, what are you going to do with all these crops? We produce way more than what we need to self sustain ourselves, though I believe the System has a stockpile of food on its own.” Jin asked as he walked behind Gold.
“Hmm hmm hmm. If you do not know, then wait for a another week. With Lynn as your chef, I guarantee you that our products will make it possible for her to create a heavenly feast. Trust me, it will be something you won’t forget!” Gold was gleaming with confidence.
When they reached towards Shu, Jin noticed that there were wooden statues with some sort of rocks holding onto the wooden figures. Gold clarified that Shu was training the living armour to form as early as possible. With Ke Mi’s music which promoted growth, the living armour plants who had initially been at the bottom of these wooden statues had learnt to grow and cover the statues.
The statues were not stationary too as they were formed with Shu’s roots. Hence, the statues changed their pose slowly on a weekly basis and the living armour learnt to cover vital areas of the human being.
“I had no idea these living armour plants could learn too…” Jin looked as he wanted to caress the young living armour gently. However, Gold immediately pulled Jin away and so did Shu who abruptly grew the statue higher up. Even Ke Mi had her strings prepared to be cast in between Jin and the young living armour pieces.
“Wait, what, huh?!” Jin was stunned for a moment. Gold sighed in relief since nothing happened, before explaining to Jin that they reacted this way since he still had the old living armour attached to him. Any closer and it would be chaos.
“Why? I thought the living armour pieces would assist each other?” Jin asked and both Shu and Gold shook their heads. (or branches)
“Your current living armour will only dominate the young living armour pieces. They will demand the younger ones to fuse with them. It might seem like a good thing but in actual fact it isn’t.” Gold told him while assisting Jin up from the floor. He also pulled him some steps away from the wooden statues.
“The old ones cannot grow any more, but they can strengthen itself by fusing together. Meanwhile, the younger ones have still a lot of potential which we can expand even more than it is right now. If you interfere with the process, you are wasting your living armour pieces.” Gold concluded.
“Oh…so you guys want quantity right now instead of quality…” Jin realised and apologised.
“Yeah, we are hoping to proliferate them more. That way we can train them when they are still young to make full use of their potential. Also we might even be able to create more than just one living armour suit if we succeed. And that is where the Oceanic Phoenix Dung comes into play.” Gold said with Lynn and Qiu Yue in mind, but ultimately, Gold estimated that he could only produce one more suit by maximising the growth rate of the living armour.
“I see. So that probably means, that you want me get even more of each item which you requested previously? Those erm horn, tails and hoofs of the demons. Oh and the eyes of the transforming spider.” Jin took out his phone to check the details of the requests.
“Hoofs and Eyes should be easier since they… well…eyes come in pairs as do hoofs…you get my drift. For the tails and horns, maybe not as easy. The horns have to be above a certain age, so that might make it harder. But the most important ones would most probably be the eyes. Try not to damage them too much during battle. The purer and more wholesome the item is, the stronger the quality.”
“I shall remind you, that I will not be helping you in this expedition, since this is part of your training. The one I assigned you some time ago” Zeru who now appeared in a similar fashion like Kraft said to Jin.
“Sorry Master, I did not expect myself to delay that long!” Jin apologized respectfully and Zeru nodded his head accepting it.
“No matter. While I did say I am not helping you, it is still my responsibility to oversee you. I have something for you.” Zeru informed his student as he passed a tied up scroll to Jin.
“Hahaha, he figured Master Jin does not have that much time to do the scouting, so he and my fellow Jacks did that for you during our spare time. After all, those oversized cows are not the only ones who are good at gathering intel.” Gold boasted about their capabilities, while at the same time exposing Zeru’s kind intentions.
“Thanks, Zeru. Appreciate the help.” Jin opened the scroll and saw ink styled pictures of the demons and their coordinate location in the Farming World. Jin then tried asking Peppers about these demons since she was the resident walking encyclopedia endorsed by the System.
For the first time he got to enjoy the sight of Peppers wearing a pair of large rimmed spectacles and looking at the scroll provided by Zeru. “Hmm. I remember a little about these obscure demons. But if you ask me, I’d advise you to fight against the Lightning Goat Demon first. No doubt, he is the strongest amongst all of them, but I do recall his coat and horns being valuable. Those can be refined into equipment, so he has his uses aside from his hoofs. That said equipment can in turn be used against the Water Snake Demon, allowing you to fight it with ease. After which, rinse and repeat. Use the Water Snake Demon’s parts against the Burning Lion Demon. Only then, you should fight the Transforming Spider. It might not be the strongest, but its transformation ability make it the trickiest to fight.”
Peppers was suggesting, as she pushed her glasses up while also drawing circles on the scroll with pencil, marking the probable weak points of the demons.
“Can this much really be called ‘remembering a little’? Peppers is like a strategy guide against these demons!” Gold was amazed by Peppers’ knowledge.
“Alright. Let me get this straight, Zeru. I have to fight one on one against them, correct?” Jin asked as a form of confirmation.
“Yes, but you are allowed to bring any item that you want against them. However no monsters allowed.” Zeru replied. Thanks to Peppers ‘How to exterminate Demons for Dummies Guide’ Jin decided to take a trip to his omnipotent Dungeon Maker to get some equipment up and ready.
“Now I feel like an adventurer, preparing for a fight at the expense of my life.” Jin thought.
“User is not allowed to die, Bellator Zeru will step in if something goes awry.” System gave a negative reply to Jin’s thoughts at which he sniggered a bit.
