With a few pieces of pictorial evidence by Gold and video recordings from Ayse, Jin saw the destruction left by Peppers. Without a doubt, her explosion spells were as impressive as ever.
“Heh, I remembered that her something, something super explosion was being thrown by a giant human silhouette in our time at the Fishing World. So I expected the same kind of spells, but now there are so many variations.” Jin said as he glanced through the videos.
There was a human silhouette shooting an arrow causing the explosion, another that used a large gigantic hammer to ‘flatten’ the entire town, causing explosive aftereffects and the last was merely a sword punching out of the ground and subsequently exploding.
Ayse even placed some afterthoughts and commentary in the videos and said that the more creativity Peppers was with her creation of the explosive spells, the stronger it was. At first, Ayse had made Peppers cast her explosion spells in the simplest possible manner and improve on it.
Oddly enough, casting a simple explosion spell had a reverse effect on both the mana consumption and the damage effectiveness, which made Ayse wondered what kind of magician Peppers was. With some minor tweaks to her spell commands, as well as a detailed analytical breakdown of her mana consumption, Ayse had made Peppers improved her magical powers.
The result was plain obvious with the obliteration of the three towns, but Peppers wanted more. (Thankfully, Ayse was able to beat some sense into her.)
“While we have annihilated a bulk of the Demon Rat forward armies, there was still a large portion of them heading to Wecha. At the very least, we can expect they won’t have any reinforcements from the East and West. Too bad, the townfolks had no place to return at the end of the war…should we survive this ordeal.” Gold sighed with a heavy heart.
“What are you talking about? This is the best time for us to aid in their construction and even improve their lives significantly. We can then use these workers to help out with our Dungeon City Fortress in the future since they have the know-how. And for those towns which were burnt to crisp, I will suggest for Silver to create propaganda flyers and you can use the military to send it out through the seaports and the people of Wecha.”
“Meanwhile, I suggest that you start to create rumours that the Demon Rats were so evil that they burnt the entire towns down,” Jin told Gold alternatives to turn this into their favour.
“But won’t this create more fear?” Gold asked, and Jin nodded his head.
“Yes, it would but what we want to inculcate in them is not the idea of fear. Instead, influence the people’s opinions to look at the other side of the picture. Fight for the resistance, fight for their homeland. Fight at all cost. Right now, they are more than just enemies of the state.” Jin explained the rationale of the proposed propaganda.
“Not only they were willing to burn the towns down mercilessly, but they also did not hesitate to enslave the humans, eat them or maybe even use the townfolks as toys for all their own pleasure,” Jin said with conviction which astounded Gold.
Jin then told the Scholar of the East that he merely stated the things he got from Sebastia’s report. After the fight against the two Elder Beast Demons, she had been secretly scouting the Northern capital. Gold could not believe his ears and eyes when he briefly read the report.
“Those bastards!! North and South! I know you might imprison people and treat them as your petty slaves but allowing the rats to eat them?! That is a whole new low! You will get definitely get your just punishments!” Gold slammed on the table as he crushed the report into a paper ball. Seeing how his current battle commander for the Farming World was not thinking straight, Jin allowed him to vent his emotion before asking him to calm down.
“That is why I want to get more allies from the Giant World. If those villagers could be a fraction as good as the penguins through some basic training, they would be a great help against the Demon Rats. Thus, I would like to know if there are any people we can spare to perform a dangerous operation in the Giant World.” Jin spoke, and Gold understood his need for additional reinforcements.
“I see, I will check who is available as we brace for the incoming Demon Rat impact. I might get the Mousefolks to help us instead. They seem more than ready during the Grand Feast.” Gold acknowledged Jin’s orders and disappeared back to the Farming World.
——-
Hamatarou and Gaeru were the next who Jin asked for a meeting as well as the Salamander which they previously captured, Edwardio. “Salamander scum! If you do not die today, I cannot call myself Gaeru!” The frog swordsman shouted at Edwardio, who seemed rather lax in his attitude towards Gaeru’s provocation.
Yet, Jin was interested in what was to come next, but to his surprise, Hamatarou stood right next to Edwardio, preventing Gaeru to attack him.
“Sage Hamatarou! Please move, or I am forced to cut you too!” Gaeru demanded. The giant hamster sighed and chanted a spell out, causing the agitated frog swordsman to sleep even before he had the chance to swing his broken sword.
“Apologies, Master Jin for the ruckus.” Hamatarou bow as a sign of apology but the Salamander remained indifferent to the situation. Only when the hamster noticed Salamander’s inaction, he forced Edwardio’s head down.
“It’s fine, may I ask the history for Gaeru’s animosity against Edwardio?” Jin inquired, and Hamatarou briefly gave a summary on the whole situation. “But did you guys not meet after teleporting into the System and mend out the differences especially now that we are now in the same team?”
“For Gaeru, he had not properly cut any Salamanders down yet, and I suspect he felt frustrated by it. While I believe his skills are on par with a senior guard level, his weapon was not in the condition to fight against me.” Edwardio picked up the blade and showed it to Jin.
The edge got even more chipped when Hamatarou last saw and it was so worn out that the System predicted it had not been serviced for a very long time. It added that Gaeru might not have the intention of changing a new blade or repairing it.
At first, Jin thought it was possible that his village did not have the resources or the knowledge to perform such repair services. However, Hamatarou begged to differ. He remembered that the frogs were one of the most meticulous animal people he ever knew. They would have definitely sharpened their swords and arrowheads before a hunt.
“I mean we can forcefully repair it for them, right?” Jin asked, and the System stated that it was usually the case. However, for Gaeru, that blade was considered as a unique weapon, one that was something similar to Kraft’s No Mercy or Flame Ripper’s dagger and bow bestowed from the Flame Shaitan, Ifrit.
“Unless we have Frog Swordsman Gaeru’s permission, we have no chance of touching it. When classified as a unique weapon, repairing his sword is equivalent of needing consent to modify a part of him.” The System’s attempted illustration disgust Hamatarou a little.
“Never mind, let’s put him to sleep for now, because I might have a plan which could fully utilise his unkempt rage against the Salamanders,” Jin responded and subsequently asked the Edwardio how the Salamanders operated.
The guard did not withhold any information and told Jin everything he knew about them. From the guard rotation time table to the secret routes which he knew the Royal Family had used (although not all of them) and the objective of the current Royal Family Head.
The urge to eat every giant species and animal people to gain their powers for himself. Only then, he had the ability to overcome Sage Hamatarou and retrieve the totem of Atem and reverse Atem for himself.
“I see… But is he a tyrant against his own people?” Jin asked, and Edwardio nodded his head slowly and with hesitation. (He was initially expecting Jin to ask how the new Salamander King had gotten powers from eating giants and animal people.)
“That is also why I am revealing all the information out. I am no longer at my King’s mercy and had believed there is a better life right here.” Edwardio replied and later questioned Hamatarou if he knew anything about the Sniffer giant monsters.
“Ah, those big dog head giants who are very protective of their territory? I heard they could be extremely aggressive.” Hamatarou replied and suddenly realised why Edwardio talked about it. “You don’t mean that he wants to eat those Sniffer Dogs for its power?”
“Yes, and the Salamanders managed to cut a down a front paw of Sniffer Dog. The moment the King ate it, he had begun sniffing everyone and trying to differentiate each and everyone’s odour. But thankfully because he did not feast on the Sniffer Dogs, his sense of smell were only enhanced to a certain extent. Therefore, if there is any current goal for the Salamanders, it will be to chase after the Sniffer Dogs as well as the Portalling Bear.” Edwardio looked at Hamatarou while chuckling softly the moment he mentioned about the portalling panda. He clearly remembered how the Sage had transformed to distract the Salamanders.
“Oh, then what about Hamatarou’s claim on burning an entire animal people village?” Jin brought it out as a counterpoint to the Salamander’s statement.
“The Frogs were just unlucky. We had a clash with them, and so they panicked and returned to their village without any detours. Easiest find of the century.” Edwardio said with sarcasm as he peered at the sleeping frog.
“What are the frogs famous for aside for being meticulous?” Jin questioned, and Hamatarou seemed a little embarrassed to answer it.
“The use of their tongue?”
