Traitor Of Humanity

According to the reports sent back by scouts via carrier pigeons, several smaller groups of bandits around other mortal cities have been gathering. Most likely, they are acc.u.mulating their forces for one swift strike.

There were some scouts that tried to track them to find their final destination. If that could be found, all that would be necessary is to report it to the overseer in the city, and then, the Wolfing gang would be taken out by an even stronger force. Unfortunately, none of the scouts that went so far managed to send any word back.

The moat outside the city has been getting wider and deeper.

Under the supervision of slave drivers, a total of almost a thousand slaves and prisoners were working on it, with only the darkest hours of the night to rest. During the daytime, they were given only wheat to eat, along with plenty of water.

If they ever had to use the bathroom, they were ordered to dig a hole outside the moat and p.i.s.s in there, the further away, and the deeper the hole, the better.

Under these conditions, the ones whom worked the hardest were the slaves. They were given a promise, by the lord of the Zefer family himself, that so long as they work hard, there will be a day when he will grant them their freedom!

There was no specific date set, and no quota mentioned, but these pitiful slaves could not help but grasp onto that tiny ray of hope.

As for who suggested the dangling of this carrot, a method that was not at all Merab Zefer"s style, there was no need to mention...

Seth himself had entered into a rare period of seriousness. Every day, he would only spend a total of 2 hours cuddling with Nala (napping), teasing Gelard (fighting with the kitty), provoking Irene (asking to get smacked), and doing other pointless stuff...

Every other moment was used to cultivated. Deep into the night, sounds of punches and kicks could barely be heard echoing out through the walls of his room, creating a heavy rhythm vaguely resembling a drum solo...

2 weeks of isolation have already gotten the citizens of Haradur city very nervous.

Any powerful tourists that were resting in the city have already forced their way out, leaving mostly just the longtime residents of the city behind.

No information was given to them beforehand, but by now, they were starting to get some ideas.

The first idea was that there were some wanted criminals hiding within the city. This came from the hunt for the remaining bandits that has been happening all the way up till now.

The second idea was that a war was about to start. This idea became much more believable when someone finally noticed soldiers carrying stones and boulders towards the city walls.

A panic soon began, and was soon after settled with the execution of its instigators.

The good thing about the slowness of the Wolfing gang was that it allowed some time for those soldiers of the Zefer family that broke through their bottlenecks and entered the 2nd stage by beating each other half to death, to recover from their broken bones and uncountable number of bruises.

There were many times throughout their fights that they really thought that they were going to die, especially when their young master Seth offered a reward for whomever manages to kill their opponents. Luckily, the reward was retracted before they really did kill each other...

Still, that just goes to show how hard it is to break through from what is called the lesser mortal stage, to the greater mortal stage, the stage of heroic bearings.

All the smiths in the city were working overtime, constantly creating swords, armors, and crossbows. Meanwhile, their apprentices were making arrowheads and ballista bolts.

The woodworkers made catapults and arrow shafts.

Then, the female slaves and prisoners would put together the arrows. These females were also the ones tasked with carving the sharp wooden poles that Seth wanted made, bringing food and water to the slaves digging the moat, and any other ch.o.r.es that the men didn"t want to do.

Anyone that could be used were used, to prepare for the upcoming battle with the bandits.

...

Another 2 weeks later, a large gang of over 3000 bandits arrived about half a kilometer outside of Haradur city.

This number is nearly 5 times that of Haradur city"s current total number of enlisted soldiers. They are all lined up in squared formations. All of the bandits at the front line can see the city walls over a dozen meters tall in the distance with a single look.

Although the average cultivation levels of these bandits is only around the mid levels of the unforgiving mortality stage, with plenty of them even being at only the early levels, barely any better than a mortal city"s citizen that does training on his own, their numbers, compared to the forces of most mortal cities, is staggeringly superior. That was, not to mention their escaping fatality stage chief, their 8 late heroic bearings stage vice-chiefs, and their several early to mid heroic bearings stage officers.

In terms of equipment...

Haradur city"s forces, focus more on quality over quant.i.ty. The large majority of the city"s official soldiers wear full-body armors. But although they"re called "full-body" armors, they still have gaps in certain places meant to allow for easier movement.

Meanwhile, most of the bandits of the Wolfing gang, only wear enough armor to protect their vitals. The weakest ones are even wearing cheap leather armor instead of metal ones. Only those bandits at the peak of the unforgiving mortality stage and higher were given armors covering almost the entirety of their bodies.

Their weapons are the same. The higher their cultivation levels, the better their equipment.

The weakest were holding iron weapons. The stronger ones held steel weapons. Meanwhile, the heroic bearing stage bandits, in addition to their steel weapons, also had slung over their backs, long objects made of both metal and wood. This description might make people think of crossbows, but they were in fact, rifles.

Now, let us talk a little about the firearms in this world, and a bit about this world itself.

Under the cla.s.sification system of human cities, which ranks mortal cities, immortal cities, supreme cities, celestial cities, and transcendent cities, from lowest to highest in terms of status and power, lower ranked cities are restricted to lower levels of technology.

The people of mortal cities are only allowed to use simple weapons like swords and arrows, while the people of immortal cities, which have the other name of "Cities of Fire", are permitted to produce and use firearms.

It is not only weapons, but also things like medical technology and daily living conditions that are superior in higher ranked cities.

This kind of system was said to be designed to get people of lower ranked cities to work harder to upgrade their own cities, and to reach a better status. But in reality? It is all to feed humanity"s greed and pride.

Selling the higher quality resources and services produced by higher ranked cities to lower ranked cities, allows the higher ranked cities to net several times the profit than what they get from selling to each other. The difference in wealth, and in power, allow the people of higher ranked cities to look down upon those of lower ranked ones.

To upgrade a city is also not an easy task, as the first prerequisite of each upgrade would require the strongest native cultivator of that city to get through his next "Destiny Tribulation", a task that would surely have a greater chance of killing him than anything. Comparatively speaking, it is much easier to downgrade a city, by killing off all of its native cultivators that have pa.s.sed said tribulation.

Anyways, thanks to this monopoly of higher level technologies by higher ranked cities, although it is not impossible to obtain weapons at a higher technological level than what you are permitted to use, it IS illegal to do so.

The Wolfing gang, or rather, Ronold Wolf, bought the firearms and grenades in his gang"s possession, at almost 10 times the market price usually used when these same items are traded between the various immortal cities. The fact that he is willing to use them in this battle, shows just how angry he is at having one of his highest level subordinates killed.

As a bandit, Ronold Wolf isn"t an expert in giving speeches. He said a few short somethings, and then lifted his greatsword high up into the air, and with the aim of inciting the greed and l.u.s.t of his men, he yelled, "Once we break into the city, you b.a.s.t.a.r.ds can pillage to your heart"s content! Take all the silver, r*** all the women, enslave all the children! Slaughter as much as you desire! Trample as you wish!"

For these simple-minded bandits, these few sentences were all that were needed to get them all excited. They roared in unison, letting out such a loud cacophony that it caused all the wild animals hundreds of meters around them to run away. Following the wave of their chief"s sword, they all charged at the city full of prey.

...