Chapter 170 3 Tasks
Flipping open the books, Shiro started to frown when she saw some of their contents.
"Verkus, a race of battle hungry parasites that would reanimate a person's corpse. Ghastis, demons that are made from gas and corpses. Very hard to kill due to their resistance against physical attacks. One must use magic to kill them. Igni Colossus, giant demons that will fire flaming rocks towards their enemies. Phantis, shadow demons that assassinate strong soldiers through the battlefield. Krana, the demon equivalent of a mage. Possess powerful life draining abilities that makes them hard to kill."
Reading about the 5 main types of enemies that the kingdom has to face, Shiro couldn't help but frown.
'Unless the monsters themselves are low level, there is no way that this kingdom could have survived this long.' She thought to herself.
She had encountered monsters that held similar properties and knew how annoying they could be at a high level. They were something common soldiers could take care of. Not to mention, the Verkus would just reanimate the dead corpses on the battlefield in order to replenish their soldiers. Hence it was a bad idea to constantly fight an ongoing battle with them.
A single sweep of the battlefield after war would be enough for them to recuperate. Not only that, one would need to keep the mindset that they could potentially kill the corpse of their friend.
Flipping through the books, Shiro's frown deepened as she continued to read.
*Bang
Shutting the final book, Shiro sighed and leaned backwards.
'The demons are constantly invading this kingdom is due to the fact that this is literally the final intact barrier node that's protecting the continent.
'With a total of 10 nodes spread out through the continent, different kingdoms need to protect the nodes. 9 have already fallen and the high level adventurers were currently holding back the demons on 9 different battlefield. They left this place under the supervision of the king due to the fact that he was one of the strongest out of all the adventurers. However, after some unknown accident, his level was decreased to 50 with no hope of recovering.
'Currently, they're walking the thin line of life and death. Every year, the demons come closer to defeating them. They've managed to hold them off for now but the previous war had been extremely close.' Shiro thought whilst glancing up at the ceiling.
Massaging her eyes, she started to try to formulate a plan in her head.
'The demons will be invading in around a months time in this world, that means I have a month to reach level 50 and to help Lisandra improve since she's apparently the only one that can save this kingdom.'
Hopping off the chair, Shiro put the books back to their original locations.
'But first, I'll need to have a small talk with the king and understand the full situation.'
Flickering out of the room, Shiro stood on the rood of the castle and sent her senses out. It took her awhile be she soon found the king's mana signature not too far from where she was currently.
"Seems like he's making his way back to his room." She muttered. The queen was just behind him so she could also ask her some questions if she needed.
Jumping off the roof, she entered the rift and made her way towards the duo.
"Care to have a small chat?" Shiro asked as she appeared beside the duo just before they opened the door to their room.
Freezing up in surprise, the king couldn't believe that Shiro was able to get so close to them without him noticing.
"It's rather late, how about we talk tomorrow?" The king smiled.
"Nah, I'd like to talk now. What's the situation like in regards to defending against the demons?" Shiro asked in seriousness.
"What do yo-"
"Don't give me that crap. If you're putting your hope into your daughter that's only level 22, then I'm guessing the situation's pretty serious." Shiro interrupted.
"How do- Nevermind… Come in, we don't want to have anyone eavesdrop on us." The king shook his head as he gestured for her to sit on one of the sofas that was in his room.
Sitting down, Shiro faced both the king and queen with a passive face.
"So, am I going to probe everything out of you or are you going to tell me?" She asked.
"What do you want to know?"
"First, what is up with Lisandra? Her overall strength is too high for a level 22. It's not normal." Shiro asked seriously.
"Lisandra's class is hidden. Not even she knows what class she has since I used an item to disguise it. When the time is right, it will reveal itself."
"Then can you tell me the class?" Shiro frowned since she had a theory on the class.
"No I cannot. It's better left unknown for now."
"Fine. Second question, what's the average level of the army and how many people do you have left?"
She was going to put aside Lisandra's class for now since she could tell that the king was adamant about keeping it a secret.
"The average level is… ha…30. As for the number of soldiers we have, it's less than 100 thousand men. Compared to the demon army that has been consistently numbered at around 250 thousand, I'm afraid this is the last year we can hold off for. Unless we can get Lisandra to level 50 in time, the best course of action will be to evacuate everyone." The king shook his head.
"And I'm guessing that's why you got me to teach your daughter." Shiro leaned back and crossed her legs.
"Indeed. While you are only level 48, the experience and danger I felt from you was definitely more than what a level 48 should have If anything, I suspect that you're the same as me. Taken down from your prime and had to try to work your way back up."
"Well you're not wrong about that." Shiro chuckled slightly since she was a Tier 6 legend before. But now, she was turned into a level 48 snow girl.
"How many high level people do we have in the kingdom?" She asked.
"None that are over level 50. They've all died during the last battle."
"Hmm, what about hiring mercenaries from outside of the kingdom?"
"We don't have enough resources for that. Plus, they're untrustworthy." The queen shook her head.
"Hmm… this is rather difficult." Shiro frowned.
Her quest wants her to solve the issue regarding the kingdom's downfall. She had two choices, either get them all to evacuate and get the lowest grade or, she could train the hell out of Lisandra and have her repel the invasion.
"I'm going to take Lisandra out of the kingdom for some training in the demon continent. If we stay inside and shield her from danger, we can't explore her potential." Shiro concluded.
"You can't! What if a high level demon finds you!" The king instantly rejected her idea.
"Well it's either that or we can wait in here with no guarantees of getting Lisandra to reach level 50." Shiro retorted.
"Plus, I'm confident in protecting Lisandra from the dangers that may come."
She had several skills that would allow her to run away with Lisandra in moments of danger such as Rift Walker. Not only that, if the situation truly calls for it, she still had the Calamity Dragon Scale and the silver dagger which Yuan Tian gave her. Both items will boost her power up temporarily for her to kill whatever was in her way.
"You can tell me that all you want but I still can't risk it." The king shook his head.
"Then how can I prove it?"
"…" The king stayed silent.
"Hmm… You know what, ever heard of Hercules?" Shiro asked with a grin. She remembers reading about Hercules' in her spare time and remembered his 12 labours.
"I don't think I have."
"Well it's a story about a hero back from where I live. He was a warrior that was given 12 tasks by the king to prove his strength. Why don't we do something similar? Give me 12 tasks that I need to do and I'll do them by sundown tomorrow." Shiro smiled.
"So you're saying that you want me to give you 12 tasks for you to do in order to prove that you can look after my daughter?" The king raised his eyebrow.
"Why not dear? It is also a good chance for Lisandra to know what Shiro is capable of." The wife encouraged.
"Hmm… Very well. I'll give you some tasks that had been bothering me. While it may not be 12 tasks as you have said, I believe it should prove to be quite hard for you to complete." The king nodded after a short moment.
After hearing the king's response, Shiro smiled knowing that her plan was slowly progressing. Since she needed to completely get rid of the source in order for her to get a rank higher than C, she would need the king's support. It wasn't feasible for her to take care of an army the size of 250 thousand soldiers. Plus, that wasn't taking care of the source but rather treating the symptoms.
All that it will accomplish was postpone the destruction to a later date. Not to mention the fact that if Lisandra was their so called hope, why were they still destroyed in the end?
That could only mean that Lisandra wasn't able to take care of the enemy.
'I can also use this time to level up as well.' Shiro thought to herself since she was very close to level 50.
Standing up, the king walked over to the table and started to write down something on a sheet of paper.
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Putting down the pen, he handed the sheet to Shiro.
[Slay the wyvern in harrows edge]
[Recover the Imperium Sword from the Quin Mountain bandits]
[Bring the heads of Redir, Zeriks and Pildrum, the demon generals.
"Only three tasks?" Shiro raised an eyebrow, clearly expecting more from him.
"These three will prove if you clearly have the capabilities. The wyvern in harrows edge have been constantly attacking the outside villages and we aren't able to do much about it due to the fact that we can't afford to spare any decent sized squadrons. Plus, if we just sent it a weak squad, they'll just die for nothing.
"As for the Imperium Sword, it is a treasure that was left behind by the previous generations. Unfortunately, the sword was stolen by my brother's son who had traded it to the bandits. As it stands, I'm not able to do anything about the bandits since the power of the sword makes him a hard target. Plus, the moment the sword takes blood from the imperial lineage, it will gain a significant power boost for a short moment.
"Finally, the heads of the three generals are the ones who directed the previous battle. If we're able to take care of them, we should be able to create some turmoil inside the army." The king explained.
"Hmm… sure, I don't see any problems." Shiro smiled.
The sword could be recovered easily if she's careful. As for the wyvern and the three demon generals, they may be a little harder due to the fact that they may be higher than level 50.
"Give me a map of their general direction and I'll make my way over there now. Who knows, I may even get them done before sunrise." Shiro chuckled.
"Just know that you aren't required to do these. You can still train Lisandra without taking such risks." He said, shaking his head.
"Don't worry about it. Just hand me the map and I'll get them done. Plus, I don't risk my life since I have a back up plan."
"If you insist."
Walking back to his desk, the king pulled out a map and marked out where all the tasks are located. As for the location for the final task, the demon generals, he could only mark out the estimated area since they weren't able to pin out their exact location.
"Thank you." Shiro smiled as she received the map.
Entering the rift, she left the room instantly.
"How does she even do that?" The king muttered in confusion since her entire presence disappeared in an instant.
It wasn't like the assassin's stealth since he could still somewhat track where they are. But for Shiro, it was as if she entered another dimension. Little did he know that it was exactly what she did.
Meanwhile, Shiro was already dashing towards the Harrow's Edge to kill the wyvern. While it wasn't a dragon, wyvern was still valued as a high grade commodity. Meaning…
"If I killed the wyvern then cooked its meat, I should be able to get a few stat points in STR and AGI. Who knows, maybe my INT will increase as well." Shiro muttered with an excited grin.
All of the monsters she had met before were rather low classed so their meat wouldn't give her any decent increments. But it wasn't the same for wyverns. Plus, she couldn't wait to sink her teeth into some meat that actually had some taste.
"Maybe I can make a dragon skewer to roast in an open fire. I do have the skill combust so I can cook the meat."
Meanwhile, a certain wyvern was sleeping soundlessly, unaware of the danger that's to come.