Chapter 164: Prep For War (P4)

Quite frankly, I took Juri's words at an utter surprise. Trever making good on his promise was not something I expected. And if the pieces Juri has been dropping all over his tale, then Trever making good on his threat means serious bad news for the people of Demme.

And now I've begun to think that they would likely be far better off had they accepted Trever's offer.

"What did he do?" Anselm asks, impatient listener that he is.

Juri looks truly disgusted as he summons up the memory of the events, he hiccups and I wonder if it's truly water in his bottle.

"Trever, much like the last time, ordered for I and my best men to prepare for something…dangerous. This meant we were to don our best armour and sheath our best weapons, and our best equipment were of the enchanted variety."

"We'd never had to use them against humans, they were solely reserved for dangerous monsters when the Hunter's were far too scarce to be hired. But that day, I wondered if we were about to fall upon Demme with overwhelming force."

"But then wouldn't that be against the Marquess' law?"

Juri nods at Anselms question, "Yes, it would be, in fact, if we truly came down on Demme, Trever would likely have been kicked out of his house and striped of many of his titles…there still remains some form of honour and right in this crippled system."

Yes…some.

"What happened instead, why did you need the enchanted equipment then?"

"Our target may not have been Demme, but the village would ultimately be the one to suffer from our actions that night. I underestimated Trever and his cunning; just as he saw an opportunity for power in the village, he saw a form of his retribution in the forests Demme bordered."

My eyes widen at this, "You mean…"

"Yes." Juri sighs, taking a swig of whatever is in that bottle of his, "We travelled the distance, the Mayor himself, a B-rank Mage followed in his own powerful outfit. We arrived at the mouth of the forest near noon, he insisted we camp until the night…by this point I had already put together a theory of what Trever intended to do to the Forest and Demme."

"And when night came, my theory was proven true, he ordered us to spread out and set fire to as many homes and habitats of the creatures, to steal their young and bring them her to the mouth…he would carry on an even more atrocious act."

"With his summoning magic he brought several other beasts, beasts that held domain over many of the other terrifying creatures in the forest. He…rallied them. When we met up with him, with the young, eggs, cubs all stolen from their homes and with their guardians chasing us we saw him, standing there with near fifty other monsters."

"While holding off the mothers and fathers of the young we stole, he sent us to enter Demme and with many of the monsters guarding us passing through their gates wasn't a problem. His second order was to kill the young of the creatures, hang them on the streets, spill their guts and crack open their eggs."

"The chaos that erupted that day made it Childs play to walk away from Demme as though we hadn't just marked them as the culprits of our atrocities. You'd think that would be the end of it, that Demme would be attacked by hordes of creatures for a single night but…no. The creature he summoned rallied monsters who were completely uninvolved with what had happened, and with the fires we set, we burnt down more than a few habitats as it spread unchecked."

"So…" Anselm starts, shocked to the core by what we've heard, "Rather than go further into the forest where there are more powerful creatures and predators…"

Juri nods, "Yes, many chose to come out and feed on the surroundings of Demme, on the people. And to this day, it still happens."

He looks to me, eyes hollow and heavy, "And that's why I suggested we outfit you with such an entourage. Demme will not be the only one to look out for, these roads are invested with monsters."

"I see…what kind of monsters can we expect?"

If goblins are mere ordinary species of the land like Elves and Humans are, the that would mean I've never actually fought a monster before. Perhaps I've seen one, if those giant dogs Leriva summon count, but I certainly haven't fought one.

Wait…would the wisps count? I mean, surely the manifestations of the remaining emotions of an abandoned place ought to count for a monster.

I'm not so sure, it's more of a spirit if anything. But who am I to say?

Juri shakes his head solemnly, "I don't believe we have any recent intel on the area, all we've heard from them over these years was that they were beginning to make a comeback."

"A comeback huh. Their Mayor must be pretty powerful huh."

Juri shrugs, "At the time of our attack, he was very much overwhelmed by the persistence of the monsters. His magic as an enchanter can only go so far."

"An enchanter?" I gasp, "As Mayor?"

Juri doesn't seem to understand why I'm so surprised.

"Enchanters aren't battle-centric, are they? They only give items specific properties that may or may not last. In fact, some of the enchantments have usage limits."

Again, Juri shrugs, "I wouldn't know how well an Enchanter would fair against monsters, but he was made Mayor for a reason so I generally assume that he has also studied some other form of magic, or perhaps Enchantments are all he needs, these sorts of things elude me, Sir."

I nod, doing my best to ignore Anselm grinning and patting Juri on the back.

An Enchanter…

How would an Enchanter battle? The last time I thought of using Enchantments to battle my way out of a situation was in the cave, when the System prompted me to choose a class.

Perhaps he would have traps? Or just insanely powerful equipment.

I am not sure, but as far as I can tell, Demme seems like a reasonable place and I'm sure they can be reasoned with.

With their problems I'm sure it wouldn't take much to convince them to join my cause against the Marquess and the rest of the Kingdom.

Well, maybe I shouldn't mention the 'rest of the Kingdom' part so soon, the idea of going against hundreds of other Mayors, Counts, Dukes and the freaking King might just be a turn off.

But if Demme is still being plagued by monsters after all this time, then that means their calls for help and reinforcements have been all but ignored; whatever the reason may be for that, I think it works just fine in my favour.

"Very well then, Anselm, be prepared for any eventuality, we're not just going in to get those two dumbasses and drag them back to Aste, we need Demme's resources and I believe we might need their proximity to the forest as well."

Anselm gives me a strange look, "Why would we need the forest?"

"Why else? Training."

The Forest can and likely will also serve as a hotspot for my army's food, if the monsters are still attacking Demme the that means they aren't even close to being killed off, it means we have a nice, constant stream of hunted meals, meals that come to us.

Alternatively, if the monsters can't be eaten, there must surely be some commercial value for their parts or even the entire thing live. I'm not ruling out advance possibilities any longer, with what this world has shown me I ought to stop thinking of it as a mere medieval world with a touch of magic.

But the Forest will primarily be used for my training. I'm almost a hundred percent certain that Demme will ask that we protect them from the monsters attacking them on a regular basis, but the thing is, even if they don't I intend on clearing out that Forest.

With the growling hunger I've begun to feel once more, I realize I can't rely on killing the Cultists for levels and with Maylin's warnings still ringing loudly in my head I'm more than a bit anxious to grow stronger.

As such, with all I have going on here in the March, in Aste and Frozia, I can't possibly begin to start travelling all over the place, at least not so often. 

The Forest will provide me the experience I need to unlock more and more spells, to become proficient in Necromancy and more importantly, Soul Manipulation.

Soul Manipulation could be the best thing I've gotten from this System, the possibilities of its application seem endless and for the most part, I'm sure they are.

Another reason I adore the ability so much is because it presents me some hope with Anselm, not just to possibly gain some knowledge on how to resurrect him, but also how to severe this annoying tie he has with Frozia.