>The old werewolf smiled as he stared into my eyes. Seeing me remain silent for a long while, he finally answered me: "If you"re able to gather sufficient troops, I"m willing to rally the werewolves in support of your cause."
"How many?"
The old werewolf calmly spit out the following three words: "Ten thousand one-stars."
"..." Are you messing with me?! What is the h.e.l.l is up with that number! There"s no way I can gather that many troops! The ecosystem in the Prison of the Dead had always been a complicated one, while there were many races here, subjugating them wasn"t easy with my current strength.
By the time I"m able to subjugate ten thousand men, I would"ve probably evolved into a four-star. You old coot! Do you think I"m still in the Blood Sea where there"s an ancient hen lying right beside me churning out little devil eggs?!
As they say, the older you are, the wiser you get. The old werewolf was one such example.
He knew from a glance exactly what went through my head and with a shake of his head and a resigned smile, he immediately continued: "Don"t be in such a hurry to reject me. How many guards are there at the exit? How strong are these guards? These are all questions that no one knows about because all those that tried were either dead or had left."
"So you"re saying no one was able to escape after witnessing their power?" At times, intelligence was more important than combat strength. Regarding this piece of news, it was absolutely vital to my cause.
"In actuality, the Prison of the Dead only allowed people to enter and not leave…" Judging by his expression, he wasn"t being entirely open with me. He must"ve known some other secret but wasn"t willing to share them. However, there was nothing I could do about this. After all, I couldn"t just place a knife to his neck and threaten him. Besides, I couldn"t even defeat his granddaughter…
"Which means to say, you know where the exit is but you don"t know their exact strength?"
"That"s right. There are a total of three exits. Twenty years ago, I had the fortune to witness an army a.s.sail the exit. Unfortunately, they only made it to the second floor."
As he said this, his face suddenly darkened as his mood got visibly graver. "Back then, the army had a total of 5000 one-star warriors. As for two and three-stars, they weren"t lacking those either. They even had two four-stars with them. Even so, they were only able to last for less than half a day. After crossing the first floor, they were thoroughly routed."
"Aren"t you contradicting yourself right now? If no one has ever made it out alive, then how do you know of this? How did you know where they got up to?" Truth be told, I didn"t trust his explanation entirely as it was full of holes.
However, he didn"t seem to be willing to divulge anymore information and instead gave me a smile and glossed over this matter: "You don"t have to concern yourself with this matter. At that time, you will understand why. Of course, this is a.s.suming you"re able to fulfill my terms."
Based on his previous statements, I was able to determine that this old werewolf wanted to leave this place as much as I did but simply didn"t have the strength to do so.
Hmm...I guess I"ll trust him for now...even though his condition of ten thousand one-stars was kind of inane. That reminds me, is it too late for me to return to the Blood Sea?
I sighed helplessly, "So you require ten thousand one-stars, what about the two and three-stars?"
In response to this, he merely flashed me toothy grin and said: "The more the merrier."
Me: "..."
You b******, do you think you"re General Han Xin or something? (He believed that more troops was always better)
With this deal basically settled, the first thing I had to do was help the demonic werewolves fight off the medusas.
Truth be told this entire matter between the two races had given me quite a shock. On top of negotiating our deal, that senior had also explained the origin of this fight.
It went as such. A short while ago, the demonic werewolves" second-in-command, in other words, Habona"s little brother, Harlow was captured by the medusas.
The demonic werewolves had always been protective of their kinsman. When it came to the lives of their kinsman, it took precedence even over their own. Not to mention that the one who was captured was the leader"s little brother.
Thanks to their keen sense of smell that trumped even the h.e.l.lhounds", they knew right away that the one who kidnapped their kinsman was a medusa, specifically, a medusa in heat.
Medusas in heat were especially terrifying. Not only were they extremely temperamental, their attack power was several times stronger than usual. Furthermore, their mating sessions were notoriously long, coming in at an astonishing 10 hours long. Most of the males who had undergone this mating didn"t last long after that.
This wasn"t just a result of the long mating but also due to the fact that the medusas "fed" upon their husbands in order to nourish their babies.
Wasn"t this destroying the bridge after crossing it...I have to say, these medusas are pretty much black widows from Earth.
A concerned and anxious Habona led her kinsman on the trail of her brother and ended up at the lair of the dogmen.
Yet upon finding the werewolf in question, he inexplicably claimed to be in love with the medusa who captured him and actually refused to return to the clan. Mojasha the medusa counterpart of this relationship, declared that she wouldn"t give up on this love as well. If someone tried to break them apart, she would protect her right to love with her life.
Medusas actually knew what was love? You"ve got to be kidding me, compared to these cold blooded snakes, the werewolves were practically model citizens.
At the very least the female werewolves didn"t eat their husbands.
In her mind, Harlow must"ve been bewitched by some sort of beguiling magic, after all, what"s so great about those ugly snakes that reeked from miles away!
...at this, I had to interject once more: Habona, you"re pretty ugly as well!
The pair knew that Habona would object to their relationship and so they had long since subjugated the dogmen clan in order to fight against Habona. Just as the battle heated up, the medusas joined in as well.
However, they weren"t here to break up their relationship, just the opposite, they were fully supportive of it…
Please allow me one last tsukkomi...I just don"t understand why they worship love...no matter how you looked at it, it was a use and discard relationship. To them, killing their boyfriend was easier than killing a chicken. Was it truly that important to have a boyfriend then? Or did they finally come to the realization they could find a stronger male and share him publicly...alright...that was slightly off the beaten path.
Anyway...the two sides ended up in an epic battle after failing to reach an agreement. During this chaotic battle, Harlow and Majosha suddenly disappeared and when the werewolves tried to chase after them, the medusas immediately stood in their way, resolved to defend their little tryst.
By now, the dogmen were mostly wiped out or had escaped. The demonic werewolves and the medusas had suffered major casualties on both sides and were unable to secure a decisive victory over the other.
It was at this moment that my army arrived and ended up in a confrontation with the werewolf scouts…
As for the rest, it was pretty simple. The werewolves were worried that we were here to cause more trouble and so they dispatched a section of their army to attack us preemptively in order to prevent any potential attack on their backs.
"So you"re saying that the issue now is that those medusas won"t allow you to search for your little brother?" Having gotten the gist of it, I had this sudden urge to act philosophical and ask "What is true love?" But I doubt these barbarians had the mental capacity to comprehend my genius and so I suppressed that urge.
Habona pointed at one of the heavy bone shields wielded by my half-orcs. As she did so, she explained without a hint of courtesy in her voice as if she was the master and I was the slave in this relationship.
"Those snake hairs of theirs are able to fire an extremely corrosive poison. While our fur is able to resist this poison fluid, our fur would end up getting corroded. That is why I want those shields of yours."
While I can understand your plight of not having any long range capabilities and still wanting to fight against those medusas, I still had to say that your brother was a bonafide chuunibyo patient. Of all the people he had to choose, he had to choose a girl from a different race and she even had snakes for hair! Your brother definitely had some unique tastes.
And you aren"t any better either, if all you wanted was my shield, did you really have to threaten us?!
While the half-orc didn"t understand the language of the devils, he got a rough idea of what she intended.
Surprisingly, that half-orc was pretty obstinate about his shield. While he wasn"t able to beat her, that didn"t mean that he had to show her respect and give up the shield willingly. He casually ignored her and turned to towards me.
Seeing him ignore her, irked her. She shouted: "I said I want that shield!"
"If I"m not mistaken, we are just allies. I am not your subordinate. While my strength cannot match up to yours, isn"t your att.i.tude a bit much?" I waved my hands and continued in a tone that was neither overly soft or overly harsh. "When you are begging a person, shouldn"t you be a little more respectful?"
"You think I"m begging?!"
"You aren"t?"
At a towering height of three meters, I could only come up to her waist even after tip toeing. As a comparison, smaller houses in China came up to three to four meters in height and yet she was already three meters tall without even straightening her back. I bet if she lifted her head, it would hit the ceiling.
In front of this giant mountain, I was but a tiny hill to her. As her crimson eyes stared daggers into me, the pressure I felt couldn"t be described in words.
It was as if I was a small animal standing in front of a giant. Even now, I was completely engulfed in the shadow casted by her body.