Chapter 159 - Monke And Siege Preparations

"Let me get this straight… You came here because you wanted to escape from the shitshow that is currently happening in this Kingdom… The Arcelon Kingdom, and didn't bother to tell us you were being pursued?" I glared at my friend from Earth, who sheepishly rubbed his head and made some whistling sounds, before he looked at me with an embarrassed expression.

"In my defense, I didn't know I was being pursued until you told me that a piece of Drakhan's soul told you." I narrowed my eyes at him even more, causing him to flinch in response.

"And pray tell, how did you figure out you were being pursued when I said that Drakhan's soul piece told me the information?" He looked at me straight in the eyes for a moment, before his previously exposed arms took on the appearance of  two gauntlets.

I then recalled another piece of information Drakhan's soul piece residing inside my cloak gave me earlier.

"You're the wielder of the Gauntlets of Sharok?" He nodded and the two equipped pieces of intricate metal vanished from view, fully exposing his arms once more.

"Yep. As much of a pain in the ass Drakhan is sometimes, he has saved my life countless times already. So, when he tells you something will happen, you better believe it will happen." Drake snickered, and I sighed. He approached me and laid a hand on my shoulder, my fur and skin feeling the touch of his skin instead of the invisible gauntlets. "Lighten up. They failed to catch me, and damn me if I ain't helping you with a problem I brought along."

"… Fine." I grabbed his hand perched on my shoulder and gave it a good shake. "Also, if you can make the gauntlets intangible, can I do the same with my cloak?"

"Absolutely." Drake grinned. "But first, let's get going. Don't want to let a meeting start late."

I agreed and we both huffed it out of the house. Once outside, he demonstrated how to make the cloak intangible.

"Since you have a System, and I'm still jealous, by the way, do you have an inventory?" I nodded, and he clapped his hands. "Great, this will be easier then. Picture the cloak being sucked into your inventory, but instead of your inventory, imagine the cloak being sucked into your body, kind of like you're assimilating the item with your skin."

Looking at him funny before reminding myself he was the expert with the items from Drakhan, I breathed in and closed my eyes, my mind imagining the piece of cloth getting sucked into my skin. A moment later, I no longer felt the cloak on my body, but I did, however, feel that the cloak was still on me.

"Congratulations. You just figured out how to make Drakhan's items intangible." He looked at me, but I was still processing the action I had done.

'Is it possible to do it with other items? Maybe I can find the skillbook on the Dungeon Market?' My thoughts were going at 100 kilometers a second as to how I could weaponize this type of feature. If what I got was a sword instead of a cloak, could I manifest it inside the body of a person mid-swing? If that could happen, then it would be a very broken skill against those well-protected.

"Uh, Jionni? Hey, Jionni?" I didn't notice Drake calling me until he made a snap right in front of my face. My eyes widening slightly, I looked at him, only to see him looking at me with a grin. "Can't believe your habit of analyzing things was brought here, not that it's a bad thing."

I blinked, then chuckled, a bit glad that that trait from my last life followed me here.

"Well, excuse me if I over-analyze things. It's what keeps me alive in this bullshit world." Both him and I snorted at the same time, though I did notice him wince a little when I finished my sentence.

"Yeah, well, anyway. We've been taking up too much time. Let's go?" He asked, and I shrugged as we continued walking.

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"We have a problem."

"What's the problem?"

"It seems we have an incoming attack in the near future, and not the normal ones either."

We were now inside the Meeting Room after about half an hour of gathering the various leaders, humans and demi-humans who were required to attend, and another half an hour of waiting for all of them to arrive.

And now, here we are, the first person to take the initiative with the question being Nicholas, who seemed to have a gut-feeling about the incoming raid after looking at Drake for a brief time.

"… I was right then." Nicholas sighed as he drooped his head down. Looking around, we weren't that many. Only the most notable people were currently attending, those being Luke, Bentley, Nicholas, Qoh, Shonah, Zurug, Gobun, Krag, Merethyl, Mariona, Aratella, Rosada, and our recent addition, Drake. "I knew I recognized you from somewhere."

"… Oh… Didn't think I would run into you, Nick." Drake said, and I perked my head up.

"Drake, Nicholas, do you two know each other?" Both Nicholas and Drake nodded, and they looked at each other before the older one opened his mouth.

"We were in the same Hunter team once. Only for a few quests, though." Nicholas tapped on the table as he regaled the tale of both him and Drake being in the same party. "The man's a moron, lazy, and quite naïve when we first met. That changed though, when our team continued on for longer."

I looked at Drake with a raised eyebrow, his hand rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. Right, maybe that was a few years ago when he first transmigrated.

"To summarize, if he survived for years after we disbanded our team and I became the Hunter Association's Kazanpan branch manager, then he's probably a stronger monster than before." I tilted my head at that. I then looked at Drake, who was looking more and more flustered the more his old teammate continued to praise him…

He was weak to praise back on Earth as well…

"Right, disregarding Drake's strength, what I want to talk about right now is the incoming raid, brought to you by our newest member." I gestured my hand to Drake, who then slumped in his chair from the embarrassment he was currently receiving.

"Do you really have to phrase it like that?"

"Yes, yes I do." He groaned and I held in a chuckle. "Nicholas, Bentley, Luke, since you three are the most familiar with how those fanatics… What do you call them, by the way?"

"Those fanatics? They have a name?" Nicholas asked with an imaginary question mark flying over his head. Beside him, both Luke and Bentley facepalmed at their less-informed compatriot.

"… Did you ever read the reports your daughter gave you?" Nicholas chuckled nervously and Bentley groaned.

"In my defense, the reports were a stack of paper taller than my table."

"You know what, nevermind. Lord Jionni, they call themselves the Human Movement Federation. They serve the Goddess of Humans, Phoemis, and whether or not their actions are warranted by the Goddess, their doctrine is to enslave or wipe-out those who dare to stand on the same pedestal as humans."

"… So basically, human extremists." I summarized and the three of them nodded. I groaned. "Great… Soldiers are one thing. Extreme fanatics are another."

All of the present nodded at my words. Soldiers can be made to fear, but fanatics? Yeah, we'll be lucky if they even try to run. They'll probably fight to the bitter end, so no conversion, unless there are some unwilling ones in their group, but that's highly unlikely, seeing that the group that is coming for us are one of the elites.

"Alright, I have a plan in mind, but this will lean heavily on the element of surprise. Gobun, I need every goblin who knows how to make traps, so pull them out of their current work and have them gather with my primates who specialize in traps. Qog, tell your orcs to be ready. We might lose some of them. The same for you, Shonah. Aratella, Rosada, you and your tribes will help with the goblins and primates lay some traps in the entrance, as well as the forest outside my Dungeon. The rest, prepare."

Everybody nodded, and I stood up from my seat.

"Is that all, no questions?" Seeing that none of them voiced out their thoughts, I hummed, then raised my voice. "Then, dismissed. Gobun, Aratella, Rosada, you have one hour."

Gobun saluted and quickly rushed out to take the goblins specializing in trap-making to the primates ASAP. The same could be said for Rosada and Aratella, though I still had Chip monitoring the both of them.

It seems that Aratella has been guilty for misinterpreting my actions, while Rosada was still plotting something. That something, I still have no idea since none of the alraunes would even talk about their leader's plans.

Exiting the building, I grabbed Drake and pulled him along.

"… Drake, we need to talk."