TOMWDET Chapter 191.1

Idiotic Fish (part 1)

 

“Your Majesty Clemens, the Water Tribe Ruler Leia has now completely captured all six cities of the Beast Tribe territory.”

 

In the Winged Tribe Queen’s Palace, Clemens’s secretary was reporting on the current situation regarding the Beast Tribe territory.

 

“The giant dragon Elvi Bessemer and the unicorn Bartholomew Christian currently showed no obvious signs of escaping the Water Tribe’s restrictions.”

 

“His Excellency the Giant Rhinoceros had already led the mobile unit that previously attacked Rota County back to base. Rota County had also been dissolved and no longer existed. His Excellency the Giant Rhinoceros also indicated that he could rejoin the combat forces at any time.”

 

The secretary speaking knelt on one knee on the ground, his face full of respectful intent. “The Winged Tribe remnants refused to surrender to Your Majesty Clemens. The Winged Tribe member Asgari clearly expressed to our intelligence squad that he would definitely unite with the Water Tribe to launch the final life-or-death battle against the Beast Tribe.”

 

Upon hearing these words, the five city administrators who had been summoned to this place after Ergonikin was captured and before the second city was attacked began discussing among themselves.

 

“The giant dragon Elvi Bessemer and Bartholomew Christian showed no signs of escaping Water Tribe control until now?… It was hard to imagine that those two, who were specifically designed to target the mermaid, could willingly live as prisoners for so long.”

 

“Who knew whether that was simply being captured by the mermaid, or if they had already betrayed His Majesty Clemens long ago.”

 

“Moreover, for monster beasts like us, rather than becoming prisoners and letting our lives become obstacles on His Majesty’s path of conquest, it would be better to choose suicide directly at the moment of capture.”

 

Those high above showed faces full of contempt.

 

Those still concerned about their own safety were somewhat worried.

 

“If those two monster beasts truly betrayed His Majesty, plus that human who previously harmed His Majesty…”

 

“I heard that His Excellency the Giant Rhinoceros suddenly encountered an accident when attacking Rota County previously. Although Rota County was ultimately dissolved, the mobile squad also suffered heavy losses in the process. Thinking this way, that human who could previously battle the King probably had the ability to create even more accidents…”

 

“In terms of soldier numbers alone, we might not necessarily compare to the Water Tribe…”

 

“Don’t worry unnecessarily here. How could His Majesty Clemens’s strength possibly be something humans could resist? Moreover, our strength wasn’t lacking either. Compared to His Excellency the Giant Rhinoceros, we had also been strong warriors active on battlefields in the past.”

 

“Even if the Beast Tribe territory was broken, it was only because that was a place the King actively abandoned. We shouldn’t focus on the past. The Winged Tribe’s mountain territory was where the King should reside. This place naturally symbolized nobility!”

 

Quite a few Beast Tribe members showed fanatical expressions toward Clemens.

 

In a world where the strong were revered, intelligent life naturally had psychology that admired strength, especially when Clemens was a member of their own camp.

 

His mere existence was like a stimulant for the Beast Tribe monster beasts.

 

On the throne, Clemens revealed a seemingly smiling but not quite smiling expression. His pupils, devoid of any emotion, gazed at the noisy Beast Tribe below, feeling they were not even as lovely as dust dancing and leaping in sunlight.

 

“Pass down the order: everyone prepare for battle.”

 

The dark elemental light bands around Clemens had become thick enough to obscure his facial features.

 

The Beast King continued: “Regardless of whether the Water Tribe and Winged Tribe unite, for me, those two tribes were merely forces that needed to be resolved sooner or later.”

 

“Now that the two had united, it actually provided me with an opportunity to resolve them both in one decisive strike.”

 

As soon as he finished speaking, the personnel below immediately flattered him: “Your Majesty speaks wisely!”

 

“Humans were inherently weak, and the mermaid, after leaving the ocean, simply didn’t possess the strength to compete with the King. Even that Winged Tribe now only had dying remnants left.”

 

A monster beast declared: “Your Majesty’s power is infinite!”

 

While the Beast Tribe members were each preparing for battle, the humans of the Winged Tribe had also completely constructed a large-scale teleportation array.

 

Just ten days ago, after Rota County was completely dissolved, on that day when monster beasts attacked, fewer than ten thousand people who survived were uniformly relocated to the Winged Tribe.

 

Without the brain-addled Council of Elders, even if there were monster beasts questioning why their collaborators were so weak, under the combined efforts of Adonis and Asgari, any dissenting voices were suppressed completely, ensuring they wouldn’t reach human ears.

 

The Gray Crane and Snowy Owl later felt glad they hadn’t indulged their subordinates.

 

When the collaborators’ true power was revealed, it was also when Cyril expressed his intention to borrow some Winged Tribe monster beasts with high-speed flight capabilities.

 

“I need to return to the Mercenary City in human territory. There’s an extremely skilled researcher there named Castor. If I rely only on myself, I don’t believe I can unilaterally establish a formation in monster beast society that can teleport living beings to human society.”

 

After Rota County announced its dissolution, the teleportation platform also became the first thing to be destroyed, since humans could teleport from there, but monster beasts could as well.

 

It was precisely because of this request from the dragon youth that Adonis directly mobilized the Gray Crane clan resources behind him.

 

He even actively suggested: “Rather than establishing a so-called teleportation array, having the Gray Crane clan directly bring humans over wouldn’t be impossible either.”

 

“Ten or twenty thousand humans would be fine, even a hundred thousand or so wouldn’t be impossible, but what if it were… millions?”

 

“This number couldn’t be carried by monster beasts to monster beast society in a short time.”

 

“Using manpower to mobilize manpower obviously couldn’t compare to using tools to mobilize manpower in terms of speed.”

 

Cyril took paper and pen, skillfully drawing an impression of the Asa Academy teleportation array blueprint on his notebook.

 

He turned to look at Adonis. “If what this pattern represents could be realized, then within my estimated calculation time, roughly only half an hour would be needed for one pattern to quickly gather a hundred thousand people.”

 

“And if there were ten…”

 

“What do you think the power would achieve in terms of strength?”

 

Adonis refused to think about this problem. He chose to make himself a tool, went to the human world, and directly kidnapped the researcher from the underground research facility.

 

During this period, he also met the Dark Pope once.

 

After Castor learned of his mission, he indicated that the Dark Pope was very important. That old man could unite with Dean Asa at any time to jointly construct bidirectional teleportation arrays separately in the human world and within the Winged Tribe remnant territory.

 

After the teleportation array was accurately constructed and the first teleportation experiment succeeded, the first words spoken by the Dark Pope who emerged from the glowing teleportation array were: “Is Su Li here? I feel like I haven’t seen that child for a very long time.”

 

Cyril said with difficulty: “Why did you teleport over?” In terms of the experiment, the dragon youth felt it was more likely that those who had once lived in the small building would come over.

 

Rather than this Dark Pope, who hadn’t met Su Li more times than could be counted on one hand.

 

“Who else did you think it would be?” The one speaking wasn’t that old man in the black cloak, but Euphia, who immediately walked out of the teleportation array afterward.

 

When the light on the teleportation array completely disappeared, many familiar voices came into view.

 

The Lion’s Club leader, Dean Asa, Mark, Willard, Ophelia, Mavis, Diz, and even Qi, who had only recently assumed the king’s position, had all come together.

 

Cyril uncontrollably opened his mouth wide.

 

Qi averted his eyes. “Is our arrival something that necessitates such shock?”

 

“In every sense, yes,” Julius voiced the dragon youth’s thoughts.

 

“What? You don’t welcome us?” Ophelia’s eyes swept over, and Julius’s body instinctively trembled uncontrollably due to this sister’s suppressive power.

 

Dean Asa cheerfully said, “Originally, even more familiar fellows would have appeared. Whether the Grand Judge or the Mercenary Alliance Guild Master, even Qi’s mother the Queen, all wanted to participate in this new world that was completely unknown to humans.”

 

“But this new world didn’t represent wealth and benefits, but rather various hardships that humans shouldn’t have to endure. Coming here wouldn’t bring good things, only various depressing and maddening harsh realities.” During the teleportation array experiment period, Joel also brought Rota County personnel to observe.

 

At this time, with monster beast characteristics on his body, when he spoke these words, the originally lively yet peaceful human atmosphere instantly froze.

 

Before Joel could regret his loose tongue, he saw the cheerful old fellow’s expression become serious.

 

Dean Asa immediately said, “Regarding the matter between you and your friend, I’ve already heard about it from Cyril.”

 

“The current Mercenary Alliance Guild Master has expressed shame about this more than once.”

 

Feeling everyone’s gazes converging on her, Euphia directly nodded in acknowledgment. “That’s right. As the association organization that constructed the existence of mercenaries, we had the right to confirm every mercenary’s survival information, rather than after discovering certain mercenaries had disappeared, arbitrarily defining them as having died in unknown places while fighting monster beasts.”

 

“The Alliance needs more rigorous management plans, and association members must also understand the importance of human compassion.”

 

“If we had achieved these things early on, perhaps compared to Su Li discovering the monster beast world, mercenaries would have discovered the abnormal phenomenon of transformed monster beasts even earlier. In that case, although human power in the past wasn’t sufficient to match monster beasts, at least we would have tried every means to ensure that fellow humans wouldn’t have to experience various improper treatment.”

 

When she first took over the position from her father, Euphia had spent quite a long period in a state of overwhelming confusion.

 

But she quickly stabilized the Mercenary Alliance’s situation and increasingly felt the reality that pure idealists were essentially nothing more than ignorant people indulging in fantasies.

 

People needed the beauty of fairy tales, but that was merely a temporary extension of spiritual tentacles. What people needed more was accurate judgment of reality, because only that way could they and others live better together.

 

“Humans with monster beast characteristics are still humans.” The one speaking these words was Qi.

 

The young man who had united with the Dark Pope to swindle the city’s nobles had accumulated wealth in an extremely short time equivalent to Amikbi’s entire national tax revenue over the past hundred years.

 

This figure made him see not the gradually enriched national treasury after obtaining wealth, but rather how much of the resources belonging to the human community those nobles had controlled in the past.

 

The Mercenary Alliance’s previously imperfectable situation – how could it not have been influenced by the country’s own terrible reality?

 

As royalty, Qi admitted that his father’s generation and the generations of ancestors above had never fulfilled their responsibilities as kings.

 

“We knew from the beginning how terrible this new world was, and we chose to come here precisely to resolve this terribleness.”

 

“Wealth and benefits – those things could never compare to humanity itself.”

 

Joel’s expression was blank.

 

“Don’t look at this child’s young appearance, but he’s the person who newly ascended to the throne of Amikbi last month.” Mark said to the somewhat bewildered Joel.

 

“We’re not like Su Li, who could easily touch people’s hearts with straightforward, concise words, but for us, words that could be spoken inherently meant a kind of responsibility, a vow.”

 

Mavis looked at the dazed Joel, her red lips opening and closing as she said, “There’s no need to show such a blank expression. You don’t need to care whether these fellows’ words are too complex. You only need to understand that before we came to monster beast society, we had already prepared to face everything.”

 

Joel’s mouth opened and closed, and after holding back for a long time, he only managed: “I don’t understand at all!”

 

That voice was resounding and forceful.

 

“But even if I don’t understand, it doesn’t matter. As long as I know you came to help Su Li, right?”

 

Willard and Diz raised their thumbs together.

 

“Exactly right.” “Compared to the Church of Light that’s about to collapse completely, intuition tells me that coming to help Su Li would better let me see the meaning of life!”

 

Afterward, regarding the human side’s power integration strength report, the Dark Pope personally carried several documents to find Asgari.

 

The Snowy Owl quietly listened to the Dark Pope’s words.

 

The old man began: “All human strength had currently been elevated to Euphia’s level. Among them, one-third were equivalent to Julius.

 

Except for those under five years old and over seventy years old, after understanding what monster beasts meant to humans, everyone else had thoughts of actively engaging in combat.

 

Of course, those under five and over seventy – it wasn’t because they were unwilling to resist monster beasts, but because of their age numbers. You understand?”

 

Asgari’s mouth twitched slightly. “…I understand.”

 

The Dark Pope nodded satisfactorily.

 

“Based on the formation concepts Su Li had mentioned before, namely using the combined combat ability of those with weaker power, the human side had currently created over two hundred types of formations. Later, for humanity’s practice combat, I formally invite you to observe.”

 

“However, compared to demonstrating human power to you, what I care more about is how to show the will and goals of humans as a ‘group’ to this monster beast society, rather than as a whole combined with Winged Tribe monster beasts.”

 

“What do you plan to do?” The Snowy Owl could tell at a glance that this power-manipulating fellow would definitely not place the initiative of cooperation in the hands of monster beasts.

 

But the Snowy Owl didn’t mind either.

 

After understanding how powerful humans were, Asgari felt emotions more surprised and pleased than even humans themselves.

 

The Snowy Owl, one of the transformed monster beasts, had never changed his goal of wanting all transformed monster beasts to die.

 

The human side, which inherently conflicted with transformed monster beasts, showing stronger power naturally made Asgari more satisfied.

 

The Dark Pope half-closed his eyes. “Naturally, by actively launching an attack on the Beast Tribe.”

 

Asgari instantly fell into bewilderment.

 

“…What are you saying?”

 

The Dark Pope showed an expression of ‘as expected of someone who’s lived long, your ears really don’t work well.’

 

“I said, as humans, we will actively launch an attack on the Beast Tribe.”

 

He even emphasized: “Did you hear clearly?”

 

The Snowy Owl held back until his face turned red, and only after a long while did he say: “Are you… insane?”

 

“Perhaps the formations you mentioned could indeed unleash human power, but how can you guarantee that various land monster beasts with different constitutions don’t have suppressive power against formations?

 

Those monster beasts whose prototypes are land overlords, once they launch large-scale charges in battle, no monster beast can resist them head-on.

 

At least for the Winged Tribe, our combat method with the Beast Tribe had always been high-altitude firepower suppression, not direct engagement.”

 

The Dark Pope followed his line of thinking and supplemented: “So you also think humans should display their strengths like the Winged Tribe, rather than using their weaknesses to target the Beast Tribe’s natural advantages?”

 

“…That’s right.”

 

“Then your thinking is completely wrong.” The Dark Pope revealed a dark smile that didn’t match his kindly appearance.

 

The appearance of wild arrogance on a face with age spots would only make people feel abnormal.

 

But it was precisely this abnormality that stunned the Snowy Owl.

 

“Your reaction – could it be that humans attacking the Beast Tribe isn’t about displaying their weakness, but that actively launching attacks is actually an advantage humans already possess?”

 

“Congratulations, even after becoming a non-human existence, you haven’t completely ignored the thinking humans should have.” The cunning old man didn’t keep secrets at this moment but directly said, “That fellow Castor, after multiple modifications to the elemental absorption device, had clearly created something like a war weapon.”

 

Making things smaller was very difficult, like the ring in Su Li’s hand.

 

But enlarging elemental absorption devices was much simpler.

 

Crude enlargement wouldn’t make the effects crude either.

 

Moreover, after enlargement, the device’s raw materials could use more durable materials.

 

Simply put, human bodies could become battery-like existences, providing kinetic energy to tools with human power and launching attacks.

 

“Elements are equivalent to fuel, and elemental absorption devices became tools for compressing elements. Different elements would interact with each other, making effects far greater than one plus one equals two.”

 

“Having absolute attack power doesn’t mean having absolute defense.” Even knowing humans had their trump cards, the Snowy Owl didn’t approve of them courting death. “Once those land monster beasts possess the ability to break through this offensive, are you certain that humans, whose strength isn’t sufficient for direct combat, can withstand that kind of close-range slaughter and enormous mental pressure?”

 

“Who said we’re going to withstand those?” The Dark Pope revealed a mysterious smile.

 

The Snowy Owl frowned. “What do you mean?”

 

“Do you know how far elemental cannons can strike after aiming at a position?”

 

“Do you know that for individuals possessing elements, every movement can be monitored?”

 

“Most importantly, do you understand that for humans, no creature is more afraid of death than this life form?”

 

“That’s thirty kilometers – a distance no monster beast can approach in a short time. And elemental monitoring is even more convenient. Elementalists inherently possess the ability to sense elements. Previously, this perception was mostly defined as visual sight, but in fact, perception has nothing to do with vision. And this perception can also be amplified.”