Chapter 329: Day 764 – Escort Quest, Stealth Versus Assault

Chapter 329: Day 764 – Escort Quest, Stealth Versus Assault

Bao Wang, the pet rock, and myself were just South of Esperanaza. I had talked to Bao Wang and there were two options for going to the West. The options were split up by a void zone to the West of Esperanza.

Esperanza was at coordinates (-3,-1) and the void zone was at coordinates (-6,-2). New Beijing which was the evil empire’s staging city was at coordinates (-8,-3) and the Forbidden City at coordinates (-10, -5). A road had been built that ended in the swamp to the West of Esperanza, just to the edge of the zone where I had run into the demonic babies.

The road from West to East went through several level 3 zones. Bao Wang estimated there were four it went through. The zones appeared to be at just the right range from the cities to create a cluster of level 3 zones in that area.

There was also another road that ran North to South that had been on the old boarder. It was still patrolled, but nowhere to the extent it had been before since many soldiers had been pulled to East. Further South past the void zone, there were level 3 zones, but Bao Wang had no idea about them or the monsters in those zones.

The real pain in my ass, was the giant pet rock I had to escort. I couldn’t risk it getting it hurt and it wasn’t fast. It had become the most dreaded quest of them all, an escort quest. The safest and quickest option would be to take the road, but there would be a lot of soldiers along the road.

But going off road would mean I would have to watch out for the pet rock very carefully. I also didn’t want it seen, since it had a replica of the Divine Empress’s head that I was constantly improving. I had gotten it the Chinese black and white clothing the Divine Empress had worn, minus any enchantments.

It was passable, barely. I spent every spare moment I had working on the head. To get every detail and nuance right. The entire thing was covered in two large black robes and white face mask while we were traveling. The hoods of the robes covered the head of the monster completely. I couldn’t afford it to be seen by anyone and I was not going to take any chances from an accidental tear in the clothing. I even had a spare Divine Empress outfit packed away with the spare Elite Black Talon armor.

I was trying to think of every failure possibility before we reached the gates of the Forbidden City. This was plan A for audacity. Plan B was for brutality when plan A went up into flames.

What I didn’t want to do was trudge through the swamps that much. I would have to carry the pet rock to avoid making the clothing soggy. The Divine Empress would not wear anything but the most pristine of clothing, even when injured.

Bao Wang had explained that Esperanza had probably been upgraded with the Regional Map and the road extended. It was one of the few expenses that the evil empire invested in. Since a road was key for moving tribute and soldiers easily. Can’t slow down that tribute to the treasury and the Divine Empress.

Since the roads were clear of monsters and negated a large portion of the terrain effects, it allowed weak soldiers to cross level 3 zones. If I took the road, it would be constant battles for a large portion forward, but it would shatter the Empire’s army and allow Clarissa some breathing room.

That way he could hold my hard rod in his hands and control the pet rock while I focused on murdering everything and everyone. Naran, I promised you a mountain of corpses as revenge, you are getting a literal mountain of corpses. No half measures. Also, it would let my side recover and take the offensive in the war effort.

“This is such a bad idea. We should sneak to the Forbidden City,” Bao Wang complained.

“Just focus on keeping up and moving the rock along,” I told him off. I had no mental energy to listen to any complaints. Also, we had gotten a lot of sleep and rest the last couple of days.

We advanced through the level 1 zone, flowerlands, of Esperanza. There were people killing monsters. I noted they were Chinese and not Brazilian. The evil empire had probably brought in tribes to grind out here and help support the war effort.

Level 1 grinders, since there wasn’t any real point in killing them. Better to send back the non-Chinese to suffer in the fighting pits and brothels. I saw the city in the distance and there were a lot of soldiers at the entrance.

Air Burst. I shot forward after making sure there was no threat near Bao Wang or the pet rock. The soldiers began to panic. “Acid Shot,” x20. I wiped them out and then shot to the top of the wall. I killed the soldiers there and cleared out the towers that had been built.

Bao Wang and the pet rock entered Esperanza unmolested. We advanced North through the city of Esperanza. Anyone I ran across I killed. See a person, kill a person. When I reached the plaza, several beam attacks were unleashed at me.

I easily dodged them with my higher Body stat and Air Burst skill. I targeted the skill users first, then the regular soldiers, then the officers. I didn’t want them running until the last possible moment. The officers tended to fight until the end, so I left them alone so they would kill the soldiers that panicked and ran.

I lost count how many people I killed. I wasn’t even winded at the end of the massacre as Bao Wang and the pet rock entered the plaza completely unmolested. This was the proper way to handle an escort quest. Just kill everything that could be a threat.

We kept advancing North through the city and I cleared out the North gate of any soldiers and saw the road for the first time. It was about twice as wide as the tunnel through the city. Same paved gray stones and slightly sloped so water would run off. Not liked it rained. With the edges elevated, it reminded me of a Roman road.

Bao Wang had purchased a cart to sit and more supplies. The pet rock pulled the cart while he sat in the cart and kept an eye out. He had given the monster orders to stay on the road and a certain distance behind me.

As long as I didn’t rush too far ahead, the pet rock would keep shifting its way forward. It was painfully slow, but the weight of the cart didn’t make a difference to it in the slightest.