The Preparations Pt.II
Day 19
I woke up this morning and like last time, Ulva had left me some horned rabbit.
Day 3 of preparations, I once again headed over to the rat men tunnels. When I got there, I was surprised to see that some of the nymphs were there. Apparently, they were still digging the tunnels to the medic stations, however, the nymphs had already moved in with some herbs from their rivers. These herbs contained medicinal properties.
Then I had a thought I hadn't had before. If I could get monsters abilities when I eat them, why not the same for plants? But I didn't have [Evolver] to test that out, so I guess that would have to wait for after.
I quickly set out for the goblins.
When I got there, the goblins and rat men were training as planned, however they were not alone this time. I spotted countless insects moving around with them. When I flew down, Gorm came up to me and said.
"Hinotori-sama! You didn't tell me that the spider king's forces were going to be training with us. You are just full of surprises! Hahahaha!"
I was short of words. I had absolutely nothing to tell him. The bug told me that she was going to come on the day of the invasion. She must have been planning on surprising me by send her forces. Speaking of the bug, where was she? She better not have been trying to sneak up on me again.
After a while of watching them train, I left and headed off towards Diane's tree. When I got there, there was absolutely nothing out of place and technically I had already checked out the nymphs' movements, so I had managed to finish checking over everything early today.
I decided to spend the rest of the day hunting for dinner while thinking up several ways to beat the ogre tyrant. If I used Minerva, it simply seemed impossible to do and that was really infuriating. I encountered the spider king along the way. Turns out she had been on back since I landed at the training grounds. She was planning on surprising me mid-flight, but that only proved counter-productive as it caused her to plummet to her doom. I managed to save her, but she ended up laughing. I was actually very scared of her at that point. She helped me take down some horned rabbits for Ulva. Well, more like she watched me hunt them down.
She insisted that she wanted to see where I lived on the pretext that I had seen where she did so I took her to goblins' cave (My temporary home seeing as Minerva evicted me). When we got to the cave, it was evening and the sweaty smelly goblins were starting to party as the fruits were being brought to them. None of us liked the view so we simply went to Diane's tree, laughing at the horrible image we just saw like we had been the best of buds since forever.
When we got there, I planted about 50 spawns so that they would take form the next day and would join their older brothers, the two treant brothers.
So that night, the spider king so rudely ended up sleeping over at Diane's tree, occupying my only free wing. That ached a bit, but I could manage. That night I heard timber wolves barking and whimpering that night. I decided to ignore it, and have a good night's sleep knowing that they were simply getting what they deserved.
Day 21
When I woke up this morning, I saw that things weren't the same as they had been these past two days. This time the spider king was drooling acid saliva close to Ulva's face and I simply failed to understand how she got there. I gave her a sweet [Fiery Kick] to wake her up, then moved Ulva to the side. The spider then proceeded to lash out at me, but I drowned out all her useless complaints.
I focused on the litter of twigs jumping about and causing havoc. It looked kind of comical to me, but I guess the dryads and sprites didn't like the little fellas. They were running away from them and stuff. I ordered them to go to their brothers and stay with them for the day of invasion. They were allowed to be creative on that day and hopefully they would be, much like their brothers were.
When we went out hunting for breakfast, we sensed a very dangerous creature nearby. I only saw a dark figure slowly approaching. The creature was moaning loudly and producing a scary aura. If ghouls existed in this world, I think I just found one. I was about to attack but then I noticed that it was actually Minerva and she was looking at us in a very pissed manner. I was starting to doubt what Diane was saying about Minerva fighting.
I picked up the spider king and fled the cave before anything could happen. Ulva would be fine. Probably.
"Ugh! What… Are… You… Doing!"
She struggled to free herself from my talons, but if she did that she would probably fall to her death.
'I just saved your life. You can thank me later.'
"What's that supposed to mean!?"
I ignored her for the rest of the flight.
Day 4 of preparations. I flew over to the rat men's cave. I was amazed when I found out that the tunnel I had them build was filled with water and the water nymphs and guppies were swimming in it. They were superfast in the water and they moved about freely. As for the rat men, I went to check out their traps and everything looked pretty smooth so far. When I asked them to show me how the traps worked, I found out majority of them were pit holes filled with Night vipers. I hadn't heard of the night vipers before so I asked them to show me one. When they brought it out I looked at the viper for a while, then spat acid on its face to kill it, then swallowed it. I wasn't proud at how calmly I did such things. I had expected to get a skill, but [Evolver] was is M.I.A at the moment so that was pretty dumb of me.
The leader of the rat men was nowhere to be seen though. Apparently he had gone to his grandmother's cave somewhere in the forest or whatever. I didn't really care. As long as he was present in tomorrow's battle in top shape, I was ok with whatever he was doing.
Next stop was the goblins. When bug face and I got there, they were hard at training. It was frightening how much of a disciplinarian Gorm was. He had managed to create an army out of rat men, insects and scrawny goblins in only 4 days. What kind of scary ability was that?
"Hahaha! Hinotori-sama. How does the assault force look?"
'I guess there's no need to worry since Gorm-san handled it, right?'
"Hoho, you praise me too much."
No. This was just the right amount of praise. In fact I didn't think this was enough.
"Wow Gorm-san. You managed to take control over even my children. To be honest your ability as a commander is kind of terrifying."
The spider complimented Gorm.
"Oh, I don't deserve the praise of one of the kings."
I decided to leave Gorm then flew over to the dryad's place. So with that, my last inspection of the West's forces had come to an end. I couldn't help but laugh and this got the spider king curious.
"What's so funny chicken?"
'Kufufu… 400 rat men and 100 guppies all hiding in the ground ready for ambushes. Also with well over 50 pit fall traps filled with dozens of Night vipers, these make up our ambush squad lead by the leader of the rat men. 690 goblins, 500 rat men, 400 insects, 5 hob-goblin captains of which 2 are mages, led by the hob-goblin, General Gorm. These are our assault forces. 20 nymphs, 50 guppies all spread out at vantage points and harmed with healing and support magic. That's our medic squad, led by Sunalla. This is an army I wouldn't even dream of facing. Sorry, it's just that I'm laughing at the fool who had dared to attack the West.'
"Erh, you do realize you are talking about the Tyrant of the East, right? One that has destroyed armies before."
'Hehehe, let him come! He surely hasn't faced me before! Also, spider, I got a suggestion.'
"Let em rip."
'Let's run away together.'
"Wha-?!"
'Ha! Fooled ya.'
I told her, but what the hell came over me to say something like that? Sure, this was mission impossible and at the moment, I simply wanted to run away, but where would I go? If I couldn't clear this quest, growing stronger would literally become impossible for me and I would die much earlier than I believe I am supposed to.
In the end, the only logical option I could think of was to find a way to make Minerva not kill the ogre tyrant.