Cultivating within his cultivation stance had resulted in Jin feeling more refreshed than ever, and to his surprise, he discovered the black sludge had taken on a new form.
A very fortunate discovery since he had forgotten about the side effects and had been cultivating in his bedroom. (Though technically, his entire house was controlled by the System which could remove the sludge as easily as it did in the Dungeon Maker room.)
Instead of the sludge floating around and above him, he found crystals strewn around near his feet. Obviously, Jin did not poop out crystals while he was cultivating but instead, the floating black sludge slowly solidified into 30 cm crystals before they dropped out of the ‘atmosphere’ and fell all around Jin.
The System was delighted considering that storing the black sludge was a pain in the ass, though it did not complain about this to Jin in order to keep its almighty status intact. In the meantime, as Jin was observing one of the sludge crystals, the System reported to its User that Qiu Yue had already completed the defensive plans for the Dungeon City Fortress.
“Although some of the domes have yet to be completed, 90% of the defences are already installed and operational. The remaining 10% are considered emergency placements and the Orcs are working double-time to ensure they’ll be ready in time.” The System stated as it recommended User to contact Qiu Yue and Moloch for a last final meeting before deciding the time to drop the curtain for this new city.
When Jin called for the meeting to be held in the conference briefing room, he was instead asked by Qiu Yue to come into the Dungeon City Fortress. He was teleported by the System based on the Sub System User’s coordinates. When he reached the location as specified by Qiu Yue, he realised that there was already a war table set up right in front of him.
With a cursory look, he saw goblins operating the radio controls at the corners while some of the Orcs were moving leftover heavy equipment into the room. Maps of the Dungeon City Fortress were pinned on an electronic whiteboard, and he saw Nubwort using a stylus to draw some circles on the board to indicate certain information to his subordinates.
“Ah…a proper war room.” Jin said to himself, and the ‘important’ leaders started to convene right in front of the war table. Qiu Yue, Moloch, Nubwort and the Goblin Trio were present in the meeting along with Half Ghoul Lord Derek. Even Duke Wolte came in, followed by Dark Elf Leader Drex and Dark Templar Zerg.
“Greetings everyone, I apologise for my lacking attire, as I thought this would be an informal meeting or debriefing.” Jin had noticed how everyone else was already decked in their armour or combat outfit.
“No worries. I was the one who called you here on short notice after all.”
Qiu Yue chimed in as she was flipping a few documents on a clipboard before asking the Sub System to enter it into its database. Soon, holographic screen consoles appeared in front of everyone as if it was some sci-fi briefing.
“Hahaha! This is much easier to read than that …power point presentation that Jin once showed us.” Ayse came in late to the meeting.
“Please, your briefing on the Lost Tech was even more boring.” Kraft suddenly emerged from the shadows into the war room and quickly dodged an incoming projectile. The goblins at the corner rolled their eyes as they called for an orc engineer to look at the damage done on the radio set. Ayse eyed the Devil one more time before returning to the table.
“I hope you’re not all waiting for me.” Hou Fei was teleported in by the System, and Jin bowed slightly in respect for him. A few followed suit, but the older man casually dismissed the formalities. “This is not my stage but your colleague’s. Let’s all hear what she has to say. I will comment afterwards.” Hou Fei nodded his head in acknowledgement towards Qiu Yue to let her officially begin.
Unbeknownst to Jin, the girl had been in constant contact with Hou Fei despite the appearance, and she had sought quite a bit of advice from the real expert. As Qiu Yue began to brief the defences, she efficiently explained the rough layout of the plans that still had to be executed before the war started.
“Fortunately for us, Baphomet had managed to link up with some of his demon friends. He was able to obtain some information on King Baal’s movement. It appears that Lord Moloch was right. The King had been busy mobilising a colossal size army and he continued to wait for our Dungeon Core barrier to run out to begin the siege. Compared to the Rats we fought, this will be a thousand times harder, and I am not exaggerating.” Qiu Yue started her report.
“Yeah, Baph reported that all the demons are dying for a fight. They haven’t had a betrayal for quite some time, and all of them want Moloch’s head in order to get King Baal’s approval. There’s quite a generous bounty on it. Even I felt a bit tempted considering we are somewhat immortals right now.” Wolte chipped in.
“Assuming King Baal is using his usual tactics, he will swarm us with pawns first before sending the big guys down,” Moloch commented ignoring the crude joke of his fellow demon.
“So eradicate all the lousy peeps, and when the elite defenders are out, the senior demons will come to play?” Kraft never really liked this particular tactic especially since it’s too troublesome for him and not to mention, annoyingly dull.
“Moloch knows how the Demon Nobles work, seeing as he also enjoys using this tactic. They love to do the commanding and send their minions to take care of the dirty fighting since it gives them the satisfaction of leading a group. Unless they perceive that their unit is close to being decimated, they usually don’t act. Besides, coming in at the darkest hour means they gain more glory from the other demons. It’s a vicious cycle.” Wolte commented on the tactic.
“But considering that the one who betrayed him is a person that had fought beside him before, I would not be surprised if he used a rush tactic to get us down all at once.” Moloch continued.
“Still, we have to remember that their main objective will be the Dungeon Core, with revenge only being an added bonus. It’s too bad we cannot teleport the core to our world. At most, we can try to shift it around the city during their attack with the aid of the System. But moving it outside the designated area will make the entire city which we painstakingly built, crumble.” Qiu Yue sighed, and Moloch agreed. What’s worse if they were to remove the core it would be rendered almost as useless as Wolte’s partial core.
“Hey at least, my core has some good effects! Not entirely a useless one!” Duke Wolte barked back, and Jin ordered the three of them to settle down.
“Therefore Jin, I suggest that if you want to promote the Dungeon City Fortress, now is the best time. We only have approximately five days before we have to drop the Dungeon Core Newbie Barrier to still get the needed bonus protection.” Qiu Yue recommended getting as many cultivators on board as possible.
There would be a hell of a fight waiting for them.
