The explosion at the Uote Guard Quarters had woken up the entire town. Some of the townsfolk decided to stay in bed, hoping not to get involved in whatever was happening, while others were overwhelmed with their curiosity and went out.
However, at that moment, a flock of magpies covered the entire sky, and a number of them flew towards the curious civilians warning them to return indoors for now.
The townsfolk did not know how to respond to this sudden change of development, but many decided to obey the magical talking birds. Unfortunately, some were insistent going outdoors. Those who did, quickly found themselves being harassed by the birds forcing them to return to their homes in order to prevent possible casualties.
Meanwhile, the remaining Demon Rats had decided to retreat for the moment as Lord Wolte and the Dark Templars had conquered what was left of the Uote Guard Quarters. Baphomet had summoned even more of his little juniors to scout the area to see if any pesky Demon Rats were hiding in hopes of ambushing them. At the same time, the Dark Templars began raiding the Guard Quarters by checking their armoury, main offices and lastly the storage rooms.
“Damn those Demon Rats! They were indeed keeping the food stockpile for themselves.” Zieg cursed as he opened the main doors for one of the storage rooms.
“I will get some monsters to transfer those items back to the Mansion Storage Warehouse, we have more than enough space to keep them.” Gold said in the System secured transmission channel.
“But should we not give it to the civilians?” Silver questioned as he was still hiding above the rooftops, tracking where the remnants of the Demon Rats were going.
“We will, but not now. Handing it out now would only cause fear. The citizens might also be branded as accomplices for this particular ambush attack should we decide not to stay. We shall keep it for the time being and distribute it back to them when the time is right. The reason why we are emptying the Demon Rats’ coffers.” Gold answered before he asked Half Ghoul Lord Derek for some assistance in bringing back the stockpiles of food into their Home Instance.
Afterwards, Gold also requested Mr Derpy to get his Deep Ones to retrieve the gold and place it in their home instance’s treasury as the Baphomet Juniors found a safe in their basement. The Deep Ones, despite their feral appearances, had a knack of finding gold and keeping it for themselves. (They even had an accounting department to have their gold being tracked.) This made them the perfect candidates to not only fill the coffers but search for more with their keen sense.
Not long after the Deep Ones entered the scene, they managed to unearth a basement doorway which lead them to believe there was some hidden stash down below. By following a perfectly hidden stairway down to another safe, it had been behind a combination lock that was as sophisticated as modern ones.
But right now, they were looters, not thieves. Baphomet cleanly cut the safe from the side, and the Deep Ones rushed in to collect all the gold and happily brought them back into their undersea home instance. The sheer amount of treasures inside led Gold to believe that this was where the majority of the money was kept unlike the previous safe
“The nearest neighbouring town is about 50 kilometres away, and the retreating rats have most likely already sent out their runners to get reinforcements in. We might have about two at most three hours before the first ones to respond arrive.” Silver informed as he saw the vague silhouette of a demon runner rat racing towards the direction of the Youi Town.
“Lord Wolte, what shall we do? Do we make use of the town and risk involving the townsfolk or provide a protracted battle against them right here?” Zieg asked his new found patron.
“For now, we rest. Your Dark Templars have not just protected me but also faced them head on in melee range. They are worthy of my praise.” Lord Wolte answered, and the Commander of Dark Templars was delighted that they did well.
“My Lord. To me, you had already proven your worth in battle when you first crashed into the gates of the Guard Quarters, killing any enemy in sight. I sense your justice, and I believe your praise for them will only strengthen their belief in you.” Zieg knelt and thanked Lord Wolte before returning to an abandoned bunker for the Dark Templars to rest.
Separately, Gold personally entered the Uote Guard Quarters gathering whatever important looking documents were left over by the Demon Rats. “It seems they were really caught in a bind. There was no time to raze any classified information, everything is still intact.” Gold happily thought as he helped himself to the information.
As Gold skimmed through the Demon Rat’s intelligence reports, he was surprised by the content. They had kept track of the whereabouts of Silver, had spied on several of the resistance meetings especially on the Dark Templars. There were also mentions of the Western Skies and Southern Stars but compared to the Dark Templar’s report, there were only snippets of information from the other two organisations. “Looks like the resistance still has hope.”
The more concerning news revolved around the Burning Lion Demon and the Water Snake Demon. “If those two are about to fight, that means…” Gold could only deduce one probable cause for their upcoming fight despite the report stating that it was due to territorial disputes. “Wait, that direction… isn’t that the place they summoned Sebastia to? Do those traitors and rats want to use her to remove the Demons away?” Gold pondered to himself.
“… that might not be that bad…That might actually turn into an ideal situation for us! Especially when she has Bellator Kraft with her too!” Gold remembered that Jin had only obtained the Horn of the Thunder Ram Demon for his living armour plates. If Sebastia and Kraft could assist their master in getting the Burning Lion Demon as well as the Water Snake Demon, all he had to worry about was the Transforming Spider which Flame Ripper had already found traces of.
“Speaking of Flame Ripper…” Gold immediately went into the secured channel to ping for him.
“Yes, Boss?” Flame Ripper replied instantly.
“How is the situation looking at your end?” Gold had sent Flame Ripper ahead to Youi Town when Silver wanted to attack the Uote Guard Quarters.
“I’ve already eliminated those inside their Guard Quarters. Quiet at first but there was a sniffer rat who managed to notice me. It was nice to be able to go loud once in a while.” Flame Ripper grinned widely as he slapped the Youi Town’s Guard Captain awake. “Information gathering wise, it’s going well. The Youi Town’s Guard Captain didn’t seem to know any more than the intelligence reports I had sent to you.”
“Any escaped Demon Rats?” Gold asked, and Flame Ripper proudly claimed he had gotten rid of all of them.
“Amazing work. Lord Wolte has already eliminated most of the Demon Rats here, but there’s a messenger rat on the way to you, you can kill it if you wish. Else, burn the whole place alive and pinned it on the Dark Templars.” Gold instructed. “Oh and of course, only after all the money and other resources have been taken away. We don’t want to waste any good gold or food, do we?”
“Derek’s zombies and Derpy’s Deepies are already working on it. I’ve opened the secret safe for them to ransack.” Flame Ripper replied as he continued to take as many documents as he could under him.
“Meomi, how’s the coordination with the Southern Skies Spies?” Gold asked as he looked at the remaining intelligence reports in the office.
“We’ve located a few outposts, and they are manufacturing the Steam Tech, mining Litoride or stockpiling food and resources just as Flame Ripper’s update reports suggested,” Meomi reported on the coordinates where the Southern Skies spies had found the outposts based on Flame Ripper’s past experience in raiding the Orcs.
“But the spies guess that these are just the surface. The scouting leader believes more are hidden, and the ones we found were deliberately placed to attract attention.” Meomi elaborated and Flame Ripper who was still in the chat concurred.
“I trust your spy leader’s instinct. The coordinates you gave…there is just too many of these outposts. Maybe if we plot the points on the map, we might get an inkling of an idea where their main underground base is located.” Flame Ripper suggested.
“Grey, you heard that?” Gold asked on the transmission and Grey replied that he was already in the process of plotting the points.
“Okay, continue to remain vigilant. Flame Ripper, proceed just as you did, scout the next town and eliminate them the next night.” Gold ordered, and Flame Ripper sighed as he called out to his brother again. “Wyr, would you kindly give me a lift? I think I might be able to reach the next place and kill them all before dawn.”
“Man, I envy you for having such a fun job. if not for your calls, I might be stuck here transporting construction materials.” Wyrstriker complained and Dread Reaver who was coincidentally beside Wyrstriker chimed in.
“At the very least, you get called out. My blade had been itching for some killing for a long time.” Dread Reaver placed the bricks on his Oinkmobile.
“Hah! Just wait your turn. I’m sure after this attack, Gold will pull everyone back from the scouting mission.” Flame Ripper deduced as he waited at the rooftop of Youi Guard Quarters for Wyrstriker to appear as well as the report from the Derek and Derpy.
“If that is the case, can’t you just let us fight this one?” Wyrstriker had laid the transported goods down and was ready to be teleported.
“Gold? System?” Flame Ripper tried to help his sworn brothers out a little.
“Arghh what’s up with each and every one of you, just itching for a fight?! Just go to the random arena and beat some crap out of them!” Gold prefered to keep the operation just as planned.
“WE CAN’T!” Wyrstriker and Dread Reaver answered at the same time. “Jin forbade us from appearing before our official debut.”
“Fine! Just this once! You better make it as clean as Youi town, or this will be the last time!” Gold just sighed.
“So if we do a good job, there will be more in the future?” Dread Reaver tried to twist Gold’s words.
“No! I mean! Urgh!” Gold turned off his transmission with them and focused on collecting the data around him.
“Hahaha, don’t tease him that much. He’s got a lot on his plate as the leader for this mini expedition.” Flame Ripper said as Wyrstriker teleported to him by Gold. He noticed Dreadreaver was also already on it.
“Can you handle all three of us?” Wyrstriker asked his pet Wyvern, Iwen, but he snorted and showed his rider that it was none of his concern.
“Come to think of it, I think its good you guys followed me.” Flame Ripper said as he pulled out the Farming World’s map on top of Iwen’s back. (The Wyvern had a windshield that protected the goblins from the piercing winds and backlash. Hence at its back, there was little to no wind to interfere with them.)
The duo asked why and Flame Ripper pointed to the far end. “It’s a trading town, and according to Silver’s information, the guards stationed there, are at least two to three fold larger than the surrounding towns.” Flame Ripper remarked.
“So, you are suggesting that those are not just mere guards, and there might me be some harder foes? Like Elites and stuff?” Dread Reaver inquired and Flame Ripper nodded.
“Possible, I have yet to encounter one though.” Flame Ripper replied, but that short conversation alone made Dread Reaver excited. All the boredom moving construction materials finally gave him the chance to put his muscles to better use.
