Quite frankly, I took Juri's words at an utter surprise. Trever making good on his promise was not sothing I expected. And if the pieces Juri has been dropping all over his tale, then Trever making good on his threat ans serious bad news for the people of Dem.
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 mory of the events, he hiccups and I wonder if it's truly water in his bottle.
"Trever, much like the last ti, ordered for I and my best n to prepare for sothingdangerous. This ant we were to don our best armour and sheath our best weapons, and our best equipnt 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 Dem 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 ca down on Dem, Trever would likely have been kicked out of his house and striped of many of his titlesthere still remains so form of honour and right in this crippled system."
Yesso.
"What happened instead, why did you need the enchanted equipnt then?"
"Our target may not have been Dem, 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 Dem bordered."
My eyes widen at this, "You an"
"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 nightby this point I had already put together a theory of what Trever intended to do to the Forest and Dem."
"And when night ca, my theory was proven true, he ordered us to spread out and set fire to as many hos and habitats of the creatures, to steal their young and bring them her to the mouthhe 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. Herallied them. When we t up with him, with the young, eggs, cubs all stolen from their hos 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 Dem 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 Dem 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 Dem would be attacked by hordes of creatures for a single night butno. 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 co out and feed on the surroundings of Dem, on the people. And to this day, it still happens."
He looks to , eyes hollow and heavy, "And that's why I suggested we outfit you with such an entourage. Dem will not be the only one to look out for, these roads are invested with monsters."
"I seewhat kind of monsters can we expect?"
If goblins are re ordinary species of the land like Elves and Humans are, the that would an 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.
Waitwould the wisps count? I an, 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 coback."
"A coback huh. Their Mayor must be pretty powerful huh."
Juri shrugs, "At the ti of our attack, he was very much overwheld 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, so of the enchantnts 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 assu that he has also studied so other form of magic, or perhaps Enchantnts are all he needs, these sorts of things elude , 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 ti I thought of using Enchantnts to battle my way out of a situation was in the cave, when the System prompted to choose a class.
Perhaps he would have traps? Or just insanely powerful equipnt.
I am not sure, but as far as I can tell, Dem 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 ntion 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 Dem is still being plagued by monsters after all this ti, then that ans their calls for help and reinforcents 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 Dem's resources and I believe we might need their proximity to the forest as well."
Anselm gives 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 Dem the that ans they aren't even close to being killed off, it ans we have a nice, constant stream of hunted als, als that co to us.
Alternatively, if the monsters can't be eaten, there must surely be so comrcial 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 I ought to stop thinking of it as a re dieval world with a touch of magic.
But the Forest will primarily be used for my training. I'm almost a hundred percent certain that Dem 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 the experience I need to unlock more and more spells, to beco 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 so hope with Anselm, not just to possibly gain so knowledge on how to resurrect him, but also how to severe this annoying tie he has with Frozia.
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