Chapter 257: The Borderless City
A day had pa.s.sed since Sila agreed to their conditions.
For a unique place like Belacia City, it was normal to see strange sights. However, the recent changes in the city were so strange that even the citizens became speechless and couldn"t shift their gazes from what was happening.
Hundreds of monsters were entering the town and rebuilding it according to Sila"s instructions. No matter how hard they tried to think, no one was able to figure out how Sila could control all the monsters.
This situation reduced Francine"s t.i.tle, Monster Queen, to a mere joke.
Monsters came and left the city, alternating their work shifts without slowing the construction. In order to prevent needless conflicts, Sila asked—or rather forced—the citizens to wait in the restaurant for the time being.
At first, most players didn"t want to comply with Sila"s request. However, there was nothing they could do. The number of monsters cooperatively working in the city was beyond what they had encountered.
Someone had tried to take advantage of the situation, attacking the monsters when they weren"t looking. Fortunately, that person eventually set a good example for others. As soon as they witnessed the consequences for that person"s actions, none of the other players dared to harm the monsters anymore.
Obviously, Indigo"s restaurant had been a crowded place for two days already. The restaurant wasn"t that s.p.a.cious, so there was no way all the citizens in the city could fit into it. Thankfully, with the help of the dwarf race, three more bas.e.m.e.nt floors were added below the restaurant in just a few hours.
Although the bas.e.m.e.nt floors weren"t comfortable, it was enough as a momentary solution.
Sebastian told the citizens that rebuilding the overall structure of the city took first priority. When everything was done, the restaurant would be undergoing great changes, as Sila intended to use this place as their headquarters in the city.
Sila dumped all of the work related to construction on Sebastian while he invited a handful of players to his Mansion of Secrets in order to exchange martial moves and knowledge. This group of people would soon become the spearheads of his planned raid operation.
The restoration of the city was going smoothly. Karum"s giant race was given the duty of protecting the city from outside threats while taking care of the manual labor during the day. On the other hand, the vampire race didn"t like sunlight, so they took over for the giants during the night.
Bul, the Dwarf King, was responsible for designing the city"s layout and buildings, including hidden pa.s.sages, traps, and tunnels. He worked together with Sebastian and Alex, the Sheep King, who possessed high wisdom. Even better, Alex"s magic power had the ability to alleviate fatigue, increasing the productivity of the workforce.
Additionally, Sebastian seized this chance to request Clute"s help by setting up runes throughout the city.
Gigan"s firebird race and Kuroha"s manta ray race could travel in the sky, so they were a.s.signed duties regarding logistics. They transported raw materials all over the northern region to be used in the construction.
Materials previously undiscovered by players were brought to the city with the help of hundreds of flying monsters. For the record, the ones responsible for distributing materials were those of the wind race.
The Wind King, Saki, was only playing around, but his subordinates were working diligently. The population of this race was the highest among the eight races.
Naturally, Sila had never seen the wind race before. Saki refused to transform back into his monster form, so Sila had been curious about the appearance of the wind race. He was inevitably surprised when he saw small squirrels working enthusiastically.
Nevertheless, the monster of wisdom, Alex, politely informed him that beings of the wind race start out as squirrels and later evolve into kamaitachi, j.a.panese yokai with an appearance similar to weasels. They were one of the most terrifying monsters in the New World.
The last one that Sila couldn"t imagine the real form of was Vogue, the Evil Eye King. Sila even let out a short exclamation when he saw Vogue"s minions in the true form of the evil eye race.
As it turned out, the members of the evil eye race were none other than the One-Eyed Bats, low-level monsters living in low-level caves and dungeons. Players tended to kill them to obtain the Peek Card, which allowed them to peek at the contents inside others" system windows. Sila had heard this in pa.s.sing a very long time ago. He had never considered the possibility that most of the monsters of this race would be living in the northern region, or that they"d have a Lord Rank ruler.
Vogue"s duty was to monitor and inspect all the finished jobs. He could accurately point out all the weaknesses in the layouts and predict every kind of possibility that may happen in the future. Moreover, he could spot all kinds of things that others often overlooked without any difficulty.
Seeing Vogue"s ability, Sebastian recruited him, along with some other rulers, to take care of another job which Sila had a.s.signed the butler.
Presently, Belacia City"s alias, the Borderless City, was no longer a mere nickname representing the city full of unaffiliated people. Ever since Sila had stepped into the town, Belacia City had become a city full of strange and exciting events, day after day. It was as if the border that defined normalcy had long been left behind. What used to be odd had become common. Many strange things could happen in this Borderless City.
Fifty meters above the ground, a giant manta ray was floating in the sky. For the record, the monsters of the manta ray race could live in the sky rather than the ocean when they were at least Knight Rank.
This giant manta ray was a Marquis Rank monster that directly served its ruler. There were several people currently on its back, consisting of Sebastian the Head Butler, Vogue the Evil Eye King, Kuroha the Manta Ray King, Karum the Giant King, Alex the Sheep King, and Franz the Forgotten.
They were all preparing to complete the second task that Sila had a.s.signed to Sebastian. Among them, the sole female within the group couldn"t stop herself from complaining.
"Inconceivable... to think that you forgot about me, Sebastian! So many d.a.m.n things happened! Even that lazy a.s.s Asura got a chance to show off. And what was I doing? Oh, right! I was busy stirring the liquid in a pot!!! Then what? You said you don"t want the brew anymore with a straight-face!!"
They had all lost count of how many times Franz had complained after she got out and saw the sunlight.
"Well, those potions are not useless. We better store them in case of emergencies. By the way, your diligence was praiseworthy. With all those loud sounds, you still failed to notice that a big battle was going on and continued with the potion-making," Sebastian remarked.
"Loud sounds you a.s.s?! The bas.e.m.e.nt was dark and deep. No noise ever reached me. I was dead tired from all the brewing, so how could I be in the mood to mind little vibrations! That place was worse than a sweatshop!!"
"Easy, easy. That"s why I brought you here to exercise. This is a very important job though. Don"t make any mistakes."
Franz pouted while looking the other way. On the other hand, Sebastian shifted his attention to the Evil Eye King. "Have you gotten their positions?"
With two of his eyes closed, only Vogue"s third eye on his forehead remained open. It rolled around non-stop until it spotted what he was looking for. Vogue opened all his eyes while pointing his finger downward.
"Both of them are together in the old ruins. 387 meters west of our position."
As soon as the destination was revealed, they all moved according to what they had discussed. Each one of them jumped off the giant ray and traveled to the place Vogue mentioned using their own methods.
The Evil Eye King was the first to take off. He relied on Psychic Impact to slide through the air. Every step he took seemed to be perfectly calculated, as there was not a single wasted movement.
The Giant King used the momentum of his single jump to leap several meters. Once he was above the destination, he increased his weight using his qi, descending vertically.
The quiet Sheep King corrected the position of his gla.s.ses on his eyes. His entire body transformed into a tuft of cotton wool resembling a cloud, gently drifting downward.
The Manta Ray King spun his body once and fired a black javelin from his kick. His foot stuck to the javelin like a magnet, darting toward the target. Despite his delayed start, he was the first to arrive among his peers.
The ones without eye-catching techniques turned out to be Sebastian and Franz. Both of them supported their bodies with magic power and qi reinforcement before descending normally.
Kuroha"s javelin stabbed the earth, then Karum"s big body crashed down next to it and caused an earthquake. The two of them surrounded their targets from the front and the back.
Sebastian stopped his feet on a roof, looking down at the two players Sila had commanded him to get rid of.
"Greetings, Mister Revin and Mister Kawin, the Two Monarchs of the Heavenly Dragon Guild."
Kawin showed a serious expression while Revin showed a fearless smile as usual. The latter swept his eyes around to check up on the Lord Rank monsters that came down consecutively with interest.
Kawin turned to Sebastian. "You must be Sebastian, Sila"s pet. What does this mean?"
As they were having a conversation, Vogue and Alex appeared out of nowhere and surrounded the two humans from all four directions.
Sebastian politely replied, "I"m here today to invite you two to leave, sirs. You are not welcome here."
Kawin immediately argued, "This city is an independent city and Sila holds no power here. What right does he have to expel us?"
"You"re correct, sir. Belacia City welcomes any kind of player and won"t expel anyone so long as they don"t cause problems for the public. However, we are monsters. Those regulations are only for humans."
Revin interrupted, "When a dog bites, the owner is to blame. You are all monsters under Sila. He can"t deny his responsibility."
"Only I am Mister Sila"s monster, sir. The rest are monsters in the wild. It"s not our responsibility even if they kill someone. Humans killing monsters and monsters killing humans are both fundamental aspects of nature. If you die, you only have yourself to blame."
Hearing Sebastian"s reply, Revin grinned while Kawin showed a worried expression. It was unexpected that Sila would use this trick against them. What Sebastian just said was a rubbish argument. Everyone could tell that Sila was commanding these monsters with just a glance. Despite this, it was true that they weren"t his pets. If someone blamed him for his indiscriminate violence, Sila could simply shrug off the responsibility and deny his role in the violence.
"Oh? Sila uses this method? That"s unexpected. I really can"t judge a book by its cover. Hahaha!" Revin"s laughter made everyone shift their attention to him, failing to notice that Kawin was acting first.
"Rhythm of the Metal Fortress."
The color of Kawin"s body turned the color of metal. With his feet on the surface of the earth, Kawin could cast some magic spells without chants. He unleashed most of his magic power in one go, spamming skills against his enemies.
"Stone Pillars. Earth Walls. Iron Castle."
The pillars made of stone thrust up from the ground and spread out, flying at each opponent. Meanwhile, earth walls were summoned to limit their movements. Kawin even upgraded the defensive power of the earth walls by transforming them into metal.
No one dared to make a mistake or let the targets escape. Each monster showed its full strength in order to kill the two humans.
Karum quickly circulated t.i.tan Qi. The more laps it circulated throughout his body, the bigger his body became. His normal height was four meters, but it now reached more than fifteen meters and showed no signs of stopping.
The bones hanging from the thread around his neck snapped as he grew larger. Karum inhaled the bones into his nose and suddenly got a further boost to his strength and qi. These bones belonged to dead monsters of the manta ray race. Each of their body parts were useful for qi-types. For the record, the black baby manta ray that Sila had eaten in the past belonged to this race. One in every ten thousand manta rays was born with a completely black body, and the flesh of this creature was extremely precious as it could stabilize qi when cooked.
The Giant King clenched his fist and smashed through the walls. They broke with only one punch, revealing the two people inside. Kawin showed a panicked expression as his defense was destroyed easily.
Kuroha jumped into the sky and flicked his wrist, firing six long sharp pieces of metal from his hand. The electricity from his body flew after the metal needles and merged with all of them. These needles were called manta ray tails.
Revin"s insight made him realize the situation in an instant. With Kawin and him being together, they could help each other, but that also made them become a single target. Their odds of survival would increase if they split up, especially for him who specialized in mobility.
"Kawin! Tell Montra I will take care of this side alone!" Revin shouted as he blocked the six manta ray tails using his sword. Even so, the lightning traveled down the metal needles and into his hand, making him lose the strength to hold the sword.
Kawin showed no hesitation. He believed in Revin and knew that he could manage. He took a Crystal of Connecting out when Alex suddenly showed up behind him. With his intuition, he clad his back with all of his remaining magic power to block the silent kick stomping on the center of his back.
Alex"s Sleeping Kick wasn"t as powerful as Kawin predicted. Instead, it was as soft as a light tap. However, Kawin still felt danger. He decided to listen to his instincts rather than his body, refusing to turn back and fight instead of activating the crystal to teleport away.
Alex didn"t say anything. He hadn"t held back with that kick. However, Kawin possessed high health points, Earth Dragon"s Scales, and Rhythm of the Metal Fortress. All these factors made Alex incapable of killing him in one hit.
For the record, the Sheep King possessed two terrifying abilities. They were Sleeping Kick Art and Slumber Magic.
The first was performed through his unique way of using magic power reinforcement and his unusual martial art, resulting in a kicking art which was light and silent. The prominent points of the art were his silent footsteps and his special kick. The kick thrown by him had no impact upon contact yet dealt extremely high damage to the opponent"s health points. There were tons of players who thought his kicks were weak without checking their remaining health points and eventually died foolish deaths, clueless about what had happened.
As for Slumber Magic, it could generate realistic illusory monsters that possessed terrifying strength and intelligence. With this magic and his kicking art, the Sheep King was one of the monsters who had never been killed by players before.
Not including Sebastian, who simply stared and did nothing, Revin had to fight three Lord Rank monsters all alone. Even worse, if he didn"t hurry, the Sheep King and the Evil Eye King might join the battle. His defense wasn"t as good as Kawin"s. The opening that would occur when he activated the crystal would cost him his life if he attempted to use it.
Inspecting himself, Revin found that he had been poisoned. It was Franz"s attack that had blended in with the previous exchanges without Revin noticing. Several bleeding wounds suddenly emerged on his skin. He lost his ability to breathe. His hands were numb, and his magic power became disorderly.
"I have to use this sooner than I expected. I will have to thank Montra when I return," Revin muttered to himself.
Vogue"s eyes widened as he shouted at everyone, warning them to step back. No one dared to question the Evil Eye King"s warning. Every monster jumped back immediately, but they were still a bit too late. The amethyst pendant hanging from Revin"s neck let off a pale glow while the flame soon engulfed Revin. Six layers of flames exploded with him in the center and fiercely spread out, injuring everyone around him.
Gem of Catastrophe — Moon Amethyst.
After Montra had heard news about Sila showing up with monsters, he sent two certain items to Revin. One of them was the Moon Amethyst. Just a single use proved the gem"s lethality, making many Lord Rank monsters suffer and become unable to move for a while.
With the chaos he had brought, Revin fled the scene. Only his words remained to be heard, though his voice was full of energy with no sign of any injuries on him.
"Don"t worry about me leaving the city, guys! Until I get my hands on the t.i.tle Master of Swords, this Flame Monarch won"t go anywhere. Who in their right mind would leave such an interesting and lawless city easily, right? Hahahaha!"