Chapter 277 Horde (1)
Chapter 277 Horde (1)
Shalia was getting more and more sadic lately. Maybe it was because she was breathing the air of home after such a long time. Still, at least she wasn't telling him to make them do anything life-threatening. No, wait. Eating a rock probably was life-threatening. Regardless, she had a point. Even though they instantly decided to follow him once Luke defeated and Shalia burned several of them alive, fear only grows weaker over time. They will have to be careful, despite the oath, they didn't know the limits of such a thing.
"I was right in not bringing Danielle this time," Luke muttered.
Nevertheless, before anything, Luke decided to hear what had happened in the last few months from the dark elves. However, their explanation was rather troublesome… it seemed that their sense of time deviated a little bit since they said that nothing had changed and that they just kept fighting like usual. However, Shalia could tell that things were a lot worse than before. Due to their high numbers, most species of monsters never had many chances of defeating the dark elves and their powerful offensive magic, but now the Sahuagins were using their strength against them. They also told that the sahuagins weren't the only species trying to win against them with numbers as well. There are some flying monsters in the mountains of the south that were causing problems to multiple settlements. Aside from that, they didn't know much. There wasn't any sign of an overlord nearby, so moving around would be a pain.
"We can't exactly stay here and try to invade the ocean to find their master. It will take too long," Luke said.
"We can use these guys to strengthen the other red crystal and then eventually use that one here," Shalia said. "Earth shouldn't be that far away since we managed to get there with the little mana we had a few months ago."
"Sorry, Shalia… I am fine in doing things in a more harsh way here since that is how you want things to be done here, but I don't want to sacrifice people that are following me," Luke said. "Even if they were coerced to do so."
"Then why don't you sacrifice those who might cause problems?" Shalia asked.
"... I will consider that," Luke replied.
Luke was hoping that Shalia would grow a little over time like Rina did. Before, she was more of a figurehead that was admired unconditionally, but by the time the mission on her home planet ended, she had become a genuine leader. One that knows what is necessary to do all the time and isn't afraid of pushing the limits of her people to make them stronger and to have more chances of survival. It was hard to say if she was going to grow in a positive manner, but Luke was hoping so. Otherwise, even he would start to get scared by her proposals.
"Speaking of which, what do you recommend someone like me to do in order to obtain more mana for my red crystal, Nambra?" Luke asked. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
"If you aren't willing to sacrifice them or your tamed creatures, then there isn't much that you can do," Nambra replied. "You can order me to use all my mana to your red crystal. Now that I am your follower, that shouldn't be an issue about the compatibility of our mana."
"I don't get how that changes things so easily, and don't give up on your freedom that easily," Luke said.
Luke wanted to accept the offer, but that would cause another problem, so it wasn't good. Nevertheless, he decided to work on raising his skeletons army for the day. Luke wanted to try some other things to improve the mobility of the group as a whole, but the dark elves were only good at offensive magic, and they didn't have to try to learn anything useful. They had tons of mana potions, though.
While that took the entire day, Luke got an army of five thousand skeletons, and he wanted to put them to good use. Right at that time, or perhaps at the wrong time, Danielle and Sylah showed up. At least she didn't bring the others.
"You work really fast, big bro," Danielle said.
"Did something happen while I was away?" Luke asked.
"Nothing, things were as boring as they could be there," Danielle replied.
Luke was worried about the future of that child, too. She was too young to be an adrenaline junkie. Nevertheless, Luke gave the order to the dark elves to move out, but he left half of the skeletons behind. He wanted to check something since the sahuagins didn't show up since the previous day, after all.
"Where exactly are we heading?" Rina asked.
"We are going to look for other settlements and then destroy all the crystals along the way," Luke replied. "As we do that, we will increase our numbers with skeletons and dark elves until we find some overlords."
It seemed like a waste, but Luke was considering creating another flying fortress. He didn't want to involve his family in that kind of conflict, and besides, it would be better if they kept looking for allies there. Another good thing was the fact that Luke won't have to worry about sacrificing tamed monsters to the second red crystal. It was a bit painful to do that behind his mother's back, but he couldn't afford to spend four months in another world dealing with another group of jackasses that want power above everything else. He would need to hunt for a while and get coins with that in mind.
What Luke didn't expect was the fact that he was going to find a lot more problems than he did in Rina's world. The next morning, the group woke up when a massive earthquake made cracks appear in the entire region… After that, they felt a powerful blast of wind coming from the west, the direction they were heading…