CH 88

“The chieftain of the Atta Tribe greets the Grim Reaper of the Plains.”

“The chieftain of the Pitkoin Tribe greets the Grim Reaper of the Plains.”

“The chieftain of the Etherion Tribe greets the Grim Reaper of the Plains.”

The barbarian chieftains from each tribe kowtowed in front of Siegfried.

“It is nice to meet you all, chieftains of the tribes that inhabit the plains. I am Siegfried van Proa, the king and ruler of the kingdom that borders your lands,” Siegfried introduced himself before he continued,

“First, I want to make it clear that I only invaded your lands because of the chieftain of the Pullman Tribe, Durian. He invaded my lands with his dragon and demanded me to surrender whilst threatening me with his dragon. Unfortunately, this caused me to kill Durian and his dragon and annihilate his entire tribe. Furthermore, you, tribes from the plains, have time and time again invaded my lands and killed, pillaged, burned, and raped, so because I…”

Siegfried continued with various detailed reasons to justify his subjugation campaign against the barbarians, and he emphasized over and over again that his invasion was an act of self-defense and was justified.

“Despite all of that, I have decided to be merciful and gave you the opportunity to surrender. However, you people have—” Siegfried said, but he was interrupted by Oscar.

“Your Majesty,” Oscar said before whispering something in his ear, “Based on the information we have just received…”

“Huh? Live human sacrifices?” Siegfried doubted his ears for a moment.

“Yes, and it also seems that their tribesmen are very angry with them right now…”

Siegfried’s eyes turned cold after hearing Oscar’s report.

“Ah, this just came to my knowledge…” Siegfried muttered. He looked at the barbarian chieftains and asked, “I heard that you sacrificed your young children and warriors to Nascimento just to kill me. Is this true?”

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None of the barbarian chieftains dared to respond to his question. After all, even they knew that the act of offering their own tribesmen as human sacrifices was a shameful act.

“Ha… These things don’t even deserve to be called humans… Dame Oscar!” Siegfried exclaimed.

“Yes, Your Majesty!” Oscar responded immediately.

“Do this.” Siegfried gestured with his thumb slicing across his neck.

“Drag these abominations away and cut their heads off!” Oscar commanded the soldiers.

“G-Grim Reaper of the Plains!”

“How can you kill us when we have already surrendered?!”

“Hey, you coward…!”

“You said that you will spare us if we surrendered!”

The chieftains protested and gnashed their teeth at Siegfried.

“I did say I will spare your tribes,” Siegfried said with a smile. His smile turned into an extremely sleazy one as he said, “But I never said I’ll spare those worse than dogs. I will take good care of your tribesmen, so don’t worry and go in peace.”

Of course, the destination Siegfried was telling them to go to was none other than hell.

***

It was the right call to behead the barbarian chieftains since the barbarian tribesmen were already at odds with them over the fact that the barbarian chieftains offered their fellow tribesmen as live human sacrifices. In particular, the decision of the barbarian chieftains to sacrifice children as well brought upon them the wrath and fury of their tribesmen. Siegfried’s decision to behead the chieftains was well-received by the barbarian tribes.

Siegfried asked the knights to summon the second-in-command of each tribe and appointed them as chieftains before giving them his first command.

“I am well aware of the reason why you barbarians have invaded our lands time and time again. Your lands are desolate next to none, and that is why you are forced to pillage and wage wars just to survive. However, all of that is going to change from now on. You are now to lay down your weapons and wield tools instead,” Siegfried said.

He then handed an armband to each of the chieftains he had just appointed before saying, “All of you will become the citizens of my kingdom, and you shall work for me.”

The faces of the newly appointed chieftains darkened. Siegfried’s words just now sounded like they would be dragged away as slaves to the kingdom in the south.

“All of you will receive fair wages for your labor. You are now to abandon your ways of pillaging and earn an honest living through the sweat of your brows from now on.”

One of the newly appointed chieftains carefully asked once Siegfried was finished speaking, “We’re too dumb and ignorant, so we didn’t completely understand what you said just now, Grim Reaper of the Plains. Are we going to become slaves?”

“No, you will not be slaves,” Siegfried replied with a shake of his head.

“Then what are we going to be?”

“Laborers.”

“…!”

“You barbarians are uneducated without any useful skills as well, so it will be impossible for you to function as a part of society. However, you do have your hardened bodies and grit honed by the plains, and the best job for people like you will be physical and manual labor. Therefore, all of you are going to become workers for my kingdom. The warriors will become soldiers, and those who can’t become soldiers will work at the construction sites. You will earn an honest wage every month from now on.”

“I-Is that true?”

“Of course…”

“But we do not know if we foolish barbarians can do such tasks properly…”

“I will help you,” Siegfried said with a smile, “I will also be considerate so that you and your families will not be discriminated against in my lands. I want you to work as hard as you can. Besides, aren’t you tired of running around swinging your swords at each other? How long do you plan to continue such a lifestyle? Why don’t you try to be reborn through this opportunity? If there are those among you who are itching to pick a fight, then you can go and join the army. I’m willing to promote you into knights as well, so go do your best.”

The influx of barbarians into Proatine, which was suffering from a lack of manpower, would be an excellent boost to the kingdom’s national population.

“Thank you for your consideration, Grim Reaper of the Plains. Our tribe is willing to accept your offer and do our best,” a young chieftain said as he showed his respect by kowtowing on the ground.

“Thank you for your consideration, Grim Reaper of the Plains.”

“Thank you for your consideration, Grim Reaper of the Plains.”

“Thank you for your consideration, Grim Reaper of the Plains.”

The rest of the chieftains kowtowed on the ground and paid respect to Siegfried.

Ding!

A message suddenly popped up in front of Siegfried.

[Alert: The Barbarians of the Plains have sincerely submitted to you!]

[Alert: The Barbarians of the Plains ‘Revere’ you!]

[Alert: Congratulations! You have successfully conquered the plains!]

Then, Siegfried received another title.

[Alert: You have received a new title, ‘Conqueror: Beginner’ for conquering the plains!]

The effect of the newly obtained title was as follows.

[Conqueror: Beginner]

[A title bestowed to monarchs who have successfully completed their first conquest.]

[Type: Title]

[Restriction: Feudal Lord or above]

[Effect: Road to Conquest]

[Road to Conquest: All damage dealt to enemies during a conquest is increased by 5%. (This buff effect affects not only the title holder but the forces under them as well.)]

Siegfried wasn’t sure if he would go on conquest campaigns in the near future, but the effect of his new title wasn’t that bad since the buff also affected every single troop under his command.

“Dame Oscar,” Siegfried called out.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Oscar responded.

“Let us go back. We do not have a reason to stay here any longer.”

“I shall command our forces to withdraw.”

“Ah, I will leave the rest to you, Dame Oscar, and Sir Michele,” Siegfried said. He didn’t forget to leave the tedious part of the work to his subordinates.

***

Siegfried went to the Hometown of Death after the successful campaign.

“Oh! Did you really find the mind sapphire?!” Quandt exclaimed, earnestly welcoming Siegfried.

There was an exclamation mark on top of Quandt’s head, which was a Quest Clear Marker that let Siegfried know that he had successfully completed the quest.

“Yes, here it is,” Siegfried said as he handed over the mind sapphire he had obtained from Nascimento to Quandt.

[Alert: You have cleared the Quest – ‘For the Torrential Flower Rain!’]

“Just give me a week. I will make you a throwing weapon set that will certainly be to your liking,” Quandt said confidently after receiving the mind sapphire from Siegfried.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Siegfried replied.

***

A week later, Quandt placed a chest in front of Siegfried. “Here you go,”

“I guarantee that you will be able to use Torrential Flower Rain right away with this set.”

“Is that true?!” Siegfried was shocked.

The Torrential Flower Rain was a skill that placed great importance on mastery, but one also had to pour in a great deal of effort grinding it until one could finally use it properly.

Practice, practice, and practice…

One would have to throw a throwing weapon at a target over and over again to raise the mastery of their ‘Throwing’ skill, and they would have to repeat that over and over again until they gained the ‘Throwable Weapon Mastery’ skill and raise its mastery level.

“Hoho! Don’t look down on the Hometown of Death! This is a piece of cake for us!”

“Haha…”

“Come on! Hurry up and open it!”

“Alright.”

At Quandt’s urging, Siegfried opened the chest containing the throwing weapon set.

“Is this a throwing weapon set? It looks like a disk to me?” Siegfried said, seemingly baffled after opening the chest.

The reason for his confusion was that there were two green disks instead of a throwing weapon set in the chest.

“Yes, it looks like that, but why don’t you take a closer look? Like this… Now, does it still look like a disk to you?”

“Huh…?”

“I compressed the dragon scales and forged them into thin throwing weapons. I stacked them into the shape of a disk! Haha!”

“Ah!”

“There are five hundred on each stack. You can use it with both hands!”

Siegfried immediately used his Rune of Insight to check the details of the throwing weapon set Quandt made for him.

[Blood Butterfly’s Dance Throwable Set]

[A throwable set crafted from the scales of a Green Dragon.]

[A throwable weapon crafted by the head of the Hometown of Death, Quandt. It is crafted to complement Weapon Master Shakiro’s ultimate skill, the ‘Torrential Flower Rain’.]

[Type: Throwable (Shuriken)]

[Rating: Legendary]

[Attribute: N/A]

[Level Requirement: N/A]

[Attack Power: 100 + damage from Torrential Flower Rain]

[Durability: 1,000/1,000]

[Effect: Throwable Weapon Mastery +10, Throwing Mastery +10, Torrential Flower Rain +3.]

[Special Effects: Poison, Flying Sword]

[Poison: Radioactive energy is infused at the tip of this throwable.]

[Flying Sword: The user will be able to control the Blood Butterfly’s Dance Throwable Set. Costs 11% of the user’s mana every second. Mana cost is reduced the higher the level of Torrential Flower Rain.]

The option and effects provided by the Blood Butterfly’s Dance Throwable Set were simply amazing.

How about its damage?

It dealt one hundred damage per piece, which meant that throwing all one thousand pieces at a single target would deal one hundred thousand damage to them, excluding resistances and defense.

Not to mention, the artifact increased the skill levels of Throwable Weapon Mastery and Throwing Mastery by 10 each, and it also increased the skill level of Torrential Flower Rain by 3. Everyone would agree that increasing a skill’s level was the best possible option for an artifact, but the fact that it also increased the skill level of Torrential Flower Rain, which was a very difficult skill to level up, was nothing short of extraordinary.

“Wow…” Siegfried muttered in awe as he placed the disk in his hand.

[Alert: You have obtained the Blood Butterfly’s Dance Throwable Set!]

[Alert: The Blood Butterfly’s Dance Throwable Set has been soulbound to you.]

[Alert: Your Throwable Weapon Mastery skill has increased by 10 levels!]

[Alert: Your Throwing Mastery skill has increased by 10 levels!]

[Alert: You have learned the skill, Torrential Flower Rain!]

[Alert: Your Torrential Flower Rain skill has increased by 3 levels!]

A string of messages popped up in front of him as soon as he grabbed the disk, and one of them was informing him that the skill level of Torrential Flower Rain, which was the most difficult skill to level up in his arsenal, had increased by 3.

“So, how is it? What do you think of the skills of our Hometown of Death?” Quandt asked with a confident smile.

Quandt said ‘Hometown of Death’ instead of ‘my skills’ because of the deep sense of affiliation and pride he had for the workshop he had dedicated his entire life to.

“It’s the best,” Siegfried replied with a thumbs up.

Where else on the continent could he find an artifact tailor-made for his needs?

It was an artifact that he would have only dreamt of owning, but the Hometown of Death turned it into reality.

“Thank you very much.”

“Keke! Don’t mention it! If you’re really grateful, then you just have to tell people that it was made by the head blacksmith of the Hometown of Death, Quandt. That is the biggest joy for us craftsmen! Hahaha!” Quandt boisterously laughed.

“I will definitely do that,” Siegfried replied with a smile.