The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary

"Has the situation turned for the worst?" Jin asked, and Zeru shook his head calmly.

"Not at the moment. However, we have received warnings from both the Southern Stars and Western Skies organisations about increased activities. More locations like demon rats hideout and training cave camps had been discovered and marked. The mousefolks had also been very successful in confirming the information too, and upon verification, the System updated the existing map of the Northern Area." Zeru started his reporting while everyone continued to listen and eat at the same time.

"Gold also stated that more and more fake hideouts have started showing up. Despite our progress, the northern area has yet to be fully mapped. In conclusion, we still don't have a full grasp on the extent of the rats' control."

"I do not mind helping out with the mapping. Now that I know Ayse's mana controlling vest is working, the pain shouldn't be as bad as before." Peppers surprisingly volunteered for the mission, but everyone knew what her hidden motivation was.

"Were you planning on bombing the cave hideouts?" Jin asked blatantly, and Peppers immediately nodded her head. "You do understand they are CAVE hideouts, right? Blasting the entrance does not mean much against the rats. They can burrow themselves out of the debris. Not everything is about the extent of the explosion."

However, Peppers laughed in the face of Jin's logic: "Ha ha ha! Have you forgotten that I am the mighty Demonic Queen Sage? I have magic beyond your comprehension." Peppers smirked as if she had some ultimate trick under her sleeve.

"Okay, colour me curious. What is your plan?" Jin placed his chopsticks down and decided to listen intently to Peppers' proposition.

"I am not telling you just yet! It's a very grand secret… but I might be willing to give you a hint if you hand me that delicious looking chicken cutlet that was specially made just for you by Big Sis Lynn." Peppers hungrily eyed her would-be prize.

"What?! I already gave you mine! Don't be such a glutton when you had a total of two cutlets!" Milk exclaimed, but Peppers was adamant about it.

"She got frustrated by the fact that her explosive magic wasn't effective against the Father Porkcupine. After that, she had spent her time further researching into your world's technology during her recovery. Upon learning the capability of a bunker buster bomb, she had been experimenting on how to replicate it." Yun revealed in lieu of the System as she obviously did not want Peppers to win an additional chicken cutlet.

"Why, Yun? Why betray me like this!!!!" Peppers pouted, but Jin decided to reciprocate a little by giving her half of his. Despite her fickle childish ways, she nevertheless possessed one of the highest offensive stats among his bellators.

"Aside from the increased sightings of demon rat hideouts, Sebastia who's still lurking in the capital has also reported a significant increase in production from the rat's war machinery. It looks like even the most compliant of humans had been drafted to work for the Demon Rats."

"You mean forced into slavery. Just call it for what it is. They are being given little to no compensation for what they do. It will be surprising if they get more than the bare minimum to eat. There is no way you can call that work." Qiu Yue responded, but Zeru continued his reporting.

"In more pleasant news, the Northern Bulwark under General Matt Umiterus has begun to receive some aid quietly from the various governments and organisations. The supply route from the sea port and the town of Wecha had also been secured with various guard posts, giving the people who escaped, some form of hope."

"That's indeed some good news. Speaking about escaping, any idea on how the other towns are faring?"

"After Peppers' display of power wiping several battalions in various towns, the Northern Bulwark has decided to use that as the momentum to incite rebellions in other towns. Some were successful, but not many were quick to act. For the towns who have decided to proceed with the rebellion, the Dark Templars assisted with much valour along with the mousefolks that I trained. We assisted approximately 600+ people out of the towns."

"System will not deny the mousefolks' efforts. Bellator Zeru has trained them exceptionally well." The System chimed in on the conversation with its own opinion before Yun proceeded to continue for it.

"According to the System, the tactics the mousefolks deployed had been simple, but the execution was flawless, allowing them to break into their storehouses and steal tons of food, raw material and even gold."

"However, knowing our Boss, we understand that such results are not acceptable unless we also managed to save those who were willing, given that we had the resources to do more. Therefore, with an expanded network of Southern Skies spies, the Jacks lead by Gold and Silver have performed multiple sabotages in those towns by kidnapping families on a daily basis. The Demon Rats barracks also suffered from a varying degree of arson attacks."

"That's rather drastic but effective." Jin thought out loud, but Kraft added that it was standard procedures during wartime.

"We can't exactly play fair when we need manpower," Kraft noted as he felt the itch to contribute. "Besides, I believe the dramatic boost in military production is because they want to have an overwhelming force to go against the town of Wecha. Set an example to the remaining humans that the rebels can be crushed easily. If they succeed, it would significantly break the morale of the rest of the towns, especially since all these sabotages and uprisings are happening."

"Hmmm, if that's the case, we can't let that happen. How fortified is the town of Wecha? Do we need to provide them assistance in shoring up their defences?" Qiu Yue asked as the one in charge of construction and development.

"Standard defences, nothing as fancy as what we have at our Dungeon City Fortress," Zeru replied.

"System, are you able to create a predictive analysis on the upcoming invasion based on the limited amount of data?" Jin asked, and the System emphasised the need for Peppers to perform her scans to have a rough idea of the whole situation. "As of now, any analysis would be moot due to a severe lack of information." The System stated.

"Alright, we need to have some contingencies and a rough plan on how to proceed with this. Qiu Yue, can I trouble you with this? You are a better strategist compared to me." Jin asked, and Qiu Yue was more than happy to take over the workload.

"Judging from the estimated size and scale, we probably need to create another Raid instance. But as for the rest, you can leave it to me. I was getting bored with handling the finer details of the dungeon city fortress. It's already more or less impenetrable, and Moloch can follow up with the minor stuff since he has learnt quite a lot from me… not to mention he is the 'mayor' of the city. He's got to pull his own weight once in a while hahah!" Qiu Yue joked.

"I will start sourcing and setting aside food supplies for the upcoming war. With the increased number of animal people on deck, we should be able to create a proper food and supplies reinforcement plan." Lynn took the initiative and Jin was impressed by her foresight.

"But for now, let's have dessert." Lynn beckoned Yun and Qiu Yue to follow her back to the kitchen. Peppers tagged along too… after all, that is where the food awaited.