CH 159

The Adunyadet Kingdom did not give up. They decided to be on the defensive, just like what the Stone Islanders had done. Their navy was annihilated, but they still had their infantry forces.

However, there was a huge difference between Stone Island and the Adunyadet Kingdom when it came to defending. Stone Island was an affluent nation, so its troops were very well-trained and equipped.

On the other hand, the Adunyadet Kingdom’s infantry forces were slightly better than their navy, but that was about it. This meant that the two were basically going to be mismatched if they fought on dry land.

The Stone Island Navy bombarded the Adunyadet Kingdom’s naval base before commencing a beach landing.

As a result, the Stone Island Forces were able to capture the Adunyadet Kingdom’s naval base just two hours after landing, thanks to the fire support from their battleships.

“We won!”

“We have occupied their base!”

“Let’s march all the way to their capital!”

The Stone Island Forces’ cries of victory could be heard from the Adunyadet Kingdom’s naval base.

“Now, shall we use some more money?” Siegfried said.

“Money?” Lord Angele tilted her head in confusion.

“We already control the seas, so ferrying money across will be an easy feat, no?”

“Do you mean…?”

“It doesn’t matter if it’s gold or precious stones. Bring over anything that has value and…” Siegfried trailed off.

“Make an official request to the Mercenary Guild?”

“Exactly.” Siegfried nodded and said, “Shall we put it as showing off the power of money? You had no chance to properly use that power, but now’s the chance, so why don’t you use it to your heart’s content?”

“Sounds good,” Lord Angele said with a nod before adding, “We can always dig up some money, anyway.”

“…”

“I will do as Your Majesty said and use our wealth to our heart’s content.”

Siegfried felt that the mineral deposits beneath Stone Island had to be well-nigh inexhaustible when he heard how she said that they could always dig up some money.

However, Lord Angele’s statement made Siegfried understand why the Adunyadet Kingdom had spent all its money to try and conquer the island.

“Remove the cannons from the battleships and put them on wagons,” Siegfried said.

“Strip the cannons from the battleships?”

“Don’t remove all of it because no one knows what could happen. Load the cannons onto the wagons and use them to assist us in laying siege on their forts and walls,” explained Siegfried.

“…!”

“That will further boost the power of our infantry, which will end this war much sooner. Don’t you think so?”

“I-I… I agree! Their walls will come crumbling down in no time!”

“All right, it seems that you understood what I said, so we only have to set things in motion,” Siegfried said with a smile.

***

Three days later, the tremendous power of show me the money[1] was revealed.

The news of Stone Island hiring mercenaries spread like wildfire throughout the continent, and Adventurers from every corner of the continent came flocking toward what was once the Adunyadet Kingdom’s naval base.

Nearly two thousand Adventurers answered the call and gathered. There weren’t that many high-level Adventurers, but the sheer number of these immortal beings was enough to lay waste to any feudal territories on their way. Of course, the huge mothball of Adventurers would stand no chance if a Ranker were to appear.

‘As expected… they came running like dogs since the rewards are pretty nice,’ Siegfried thought with a smile.

He was a gamer himself, so he knew a gamer’s thought process. A gamer was bound to chase after their own profits, so there was no way that they would ignore a jackpot of a quest like this.

‘Money sure is scary. The Adunyadet Kingdom wouldn’t have been able to hold a candle against Stone Island if they had failed to destroy Stone Island’s communication facilities in their ambush.’ Siegfried was awed by the power of money.

“All forces. Advance!” Lord Angele commanded.

Then, the Stone Island Infantry, numbering over three thousand, the Adventurers, numbering over two thousand, and the three hundred cannons marched toward the Adunyadet Kingdom’s capital.

***

Three days later, the Stone Island Forces used the power of money to build a highway reaching all the way to the Adunyadet Kingdom’s capital, and they finally succeeded in capturing the city.

“Waaaah!”

“Lower your gazes, you bastards! We Stone Islanders are in charge now!”

“You see this? We won! We won!”

The Stone Island Soldiers screamed at the top of their lungs after successfully capturing their enemy’s capital city.

[Alert: The Quest – ‘Danger! Stone Island!’ has progressed up to 99%!]

A message popped up in front of Siegfried’s eyes.

‘Who could have known that I would be involved in a war when I only visited Stone Island for a stone?’ Siegfried thought in disbelief. The entire journey was quite baffling in a sense, but he couldn’t help but feel glad that it happened when he thought of the immense rewards he would get after clearing this quest.

The Stone Island Forces had finally arrived in front of their final destination after entering the Adunyadet Kingdom’s capital city. The army gathered in front of Siam Castle.

The Siam Castle was their final destination because the king of the Adunyadet Kingdom, Maja the Second, was refusing to surrender. He was insisting on resisting until the very bitter end.

Lord Angele deduced that the three hundred years old monarchy was probably having a hard time accepting the fall of their kingdom.

“You should’ve just quietly stayed within the confines of your home from the very beginning… Why did you have to go and invade someone else’s house? Tsk, tsk, tsk.” Siegfried clicked his tongue.

“Their conquest had almost succeeded. If it hadn’t been for Your Majesty, then the Adunyadet Kingdom would have won this war,” said Lord Angele.

“Come on, you give me too much credit. It just worked out in the end,” Siegfried replied.

“Your Majesty is too humble.”

“What do you mean, humble? I would prefer to be called very realistic and reasonable.”

“…lies.”

“What did you say…?”

“N-Nothing!” Lord Angele waved her hands in denial after accidentally blurting out her thoughts. Then, she suddenly looked around and asked, “Do you smell that? Euk…! There is an awful stench coming from somewhere!”

“What smell? I don’t smell any… Huh?! Euk! Where is that smell coming from? It smells like rotting fish…!” Siegfried grimaced and immediately covered his nose.

He looked around, looking for the source of the stench.

Sniff! Sniff! 

He sniffed around for a while before finally finding the source of the smell. The source was five meters away from where he and Lord Angele were standing.

Scribble! Scribble! Scribble!

Someone was drawing Siegfried and Lord Angele talking to each other.

- In commemoration of the Adunyadet Kingdom’s fall.

Gringore continued drawing the appropriately titled drawing.

“Excuse me… Scribe Gringore?”

“Yes, Your Majesty?”

“I’m sorry, but… can you get away from us? You smell so bad that it’s painful…”

“Smell…?”

“You smell like rotten fish that it’s giving me a headache…”

“I-Is that true?!”

“Look around you.” Siegfried gestured.

There was nobody around Gringore in a ten-meter radius, and the knights standing behind Siegfried and Lord Angele all had tissues or paper shoved up their nostrils to withstand the smell.

The culprit behind the stench Gringore was emitting was none other than the excessive care that Siegfried had for his subordinate. The dozens of marbles that he had forced the scribe to consume made the scribe emit a foul odor.

Search "pawread dot com" for the original.

The scribe was a handsome man that nobody on the continent could match in terms of physical beauty, but he was probably going to have to live with the title Human Skunk in the meantime.

“So, can you shoo away for now? You stink really bad…”

“Heuk…” Gringore gasped. His expression changed as he became downcast. Still, he started walking away from Siegfried while muttering to himself, “A skunk… I’m a skunk… A stinky skunk…”

He walked away while emitting an even fouler odor compared to just a few moments ago. Gringore was a near-perfect being if his lack of combat ability was excluded, but after meeting his evil liege, Gringore had gone through various hardships and shame that he hadn’t been destined to go through.

“Phew… I can breathe again now that the Human Skunk is gone. Anyway, what is taking so long?” Siegfried tilted his head in confusion.

Thirty minutes had passed since the castle gates were breached, but the fight was still ongoing. The constant screaming coming from within the castle was evidence that the Adunyadet Kingdom was putting up quite a fierce resistance.

“Perhaps that is their last stand? A cornered rat is bound to bite a cat as well, so their fierce resistance is without our expectations,” Lord Angele replied.

“Hmm… I can’t stand this,” Siegfried said. He then started walking toward the castle.

“Where are you going, Your Majesty?”

“I want to go and take a look for myself if the resistance is actually fierce.”

Siegfried was starting to get bored of waiting, so he decided to personally put the icing on the cake for this quest.

***

After entering the castle, Siegfried immediately sensed that there was something off. The castle interior that was supposed to be filled with soldiers was eerily empty that not even a single ant could be seen.

This place should have been bustling with screams and noises of metal clashing against each other, but…

Chomp! Champ! Chomp!

The only sound that could be heard sounded like there was a rat munching on something. Not a single soul could be seen at all.

‘What’s going on? Why is it so quiet…? The battle should have ended a while ago.’

He couldn’t help but wonder about what was going on because there were five above Level 200 Adventurers among the vanguard. Those five were more than enough to make quick work of the Adunyadet Kingdom Forces.

‘What the hell…?’

Bam!

A section of the wall crumbled, and a group of Adventurers emerged from it.

“Waaaaaaaaaah!”

“Get out of the way! Get out!”

“D-Don’t come near me! I said don’t come near me!”

The Adventurers broke the wall when they could have used the door, and they frantically ran past Siegfried while screaming as if they had seen a ghost.

“Huh? What’s going on? What did they see in there?” Siegfried muttered with a grimace.

He turned to look at where the Adventurers had come from.

0.1 second…

Exactly a tenth of a second later…

“Oh, shit!” Siegfried screamed and ran after the Adventurers.

Chomp! Champ! Chomp!

Siegfried saw more than a hundred thousand beetles the size of a pebble, and they were all swarming out of the wall that the Adventurers had shattered to escape.

***

The beetles were magical creatures summoned through black magic, and their stats far surpassed the stats of insects.

[Black Beetle]

[A beetle summoned with black magic.]

[These beetles suffer from insatiable hunger. They possess sharp and strong teeth that can rip through steel.]

[Level: 100]

[Race: Insect]

[Rating: Champion Monster]

[Attribute: N/A]

[Traits: Immune to Fire, Enhanced Defense, Movement Speed +7 Levels, Increased Attack Speed, Chance to destroy enemy equipment.]

The Black Beetles were insect-type monsters that were immune to fire, which should have been the weakness of all insect monsters. They had many other buffs as well, and their Movement Speed was also seven levels higher than their level, which allowed them to move pretty fast for insects.

Naturally, the slow Adventurers were quickly surrounded by the Black Beetles.

“Eu… Euaaaaak!”

And they ended up becoming food for the swarm of hungry insects…

“W-What the hell are those?!” Siegfried exclaimed in disbelief at the gruesome sight.

However, the even more shocking part was that the Black Beetles even devoured the gears of the Adventurers, and it only took them three seconds to devour an Adventurer down to their bones.

It was safe to assume at this point that the Black Beetles weren’t simply devouring their prey. They had to be using some sort of chemical reaction to melt their prey down to their bones.

“Ahuehuehuehue!” 

A sinister and eerie laughter reverberated throughout the castle. Siegfried turned toward the source of the laughter and saw a familiar face. The man was holding a pot of burning incense while laughing hysterically.

[Starved King]

[Maja the Second has unsealed the dark artifact Starving Incense Burner and has turned himself into a demon.]

[He has been afflicted with the curse of insatiable hunger and is now a Black Magician with a swarm of Black Beetles under his control.]

[Type: NPC]

[Level: 220]

[Race: Human]

[Rating: Boss]

[Attribute: Darkness]

[Special Abilities: Immune to Fire, Enhanced Defense, Enhanced Magic Resistance, Mana +7 Levels.]

“I’m hungry… Hehe… Hunger…” said Maja the Second with a sinister smile.

He looked around for a bit before shouting, “I will devour everything! Not a single speck of flesh will be left in this world! Go, my minions! Devour them to your hearts’ content and replenish my starving soul!”

At the Starved King’s command, the Black Beetles went on a rampage and came crashing down on the Adventurers like a tidal wave.

1. This is a cheat code in the game Starcraft ☜