Chương 550: Chapter 518: The Greatest Military Invention

Eric was extremely happy with his evolution. Even with the rushed breakthrough he had still managed to end up with a Mythic class. Pretty good for D grade and his patron shared that opinion. Falling back to Legendary rarity had been very likely. Thankfully with all the materials from integrated space he had managed to push his light cultivation even further which probably was the reason why he obtained a Mythic class in the first place.

Solarion had told him that he no longer needed to worry about Thalion because the guy had joined Solans new faction who apparently kept bragging across the entire multiverse about the achievements of his mortal. Supposedly Thalion had won the second system event as well and this time with an even larger lead over the other participants. For Eric the second system event had been horrible. The main issue was that almost everyone who entered such an event simply never came back.

After the first system event there had been many who performed poorly and wanted to somehow regain their lost time by achieving a good placement in the second one. Then there were those who had been too weak to join the first event and now tried their luck as well. From the survivors Eric heard only horror stories. The trial had been an utter shitshow with no loot and almost no beasts to farm experience from while death waited around every corner.

He seriously wondered whether it would be smarter to outright forbid everyone from joining the third system event because after the second one he had lost over twenty percent of his citizens. He needed every helping hand possible in the war against the elves. Eric honestly had no idea how humanity was even supposed to turn this war around. The average elf was stronger than the average human and most elves were already several hundred years old which gave them absurd amount of experience.

Moving silently through forests came naturally to elves while humans sounded like bulldozers crashing through the wilderness. Their superior senses only made things worse because even a tiny branch snapping could supposedly be heard from far away. It wasnt only the average elves either. Eric had to admit that the elven Chosen were monstrously powerful as well. Sure Eric and the other human Chosen were strong too but the elves had almost twice as many Chosen. He also wondered what the other factions were doing.

Since arriving on New Earth he had heard nothing from the vampires or the orcs. What worried Eric the most however was the fact that there hadnt been a single attack against the fortress during the last three nights. That felt deeply unnatural for the elves. Eric only hoped it was because they were busy defending another outpost and not because they were preparing something massive to overwhelm his defenses. So far he had absolutely no idea what they could even attempt. His base was gigantic and heavily fortified.

Nobody should realistically be able to breach its walls. The underground itself had been reinforced which meant tunneling below the fortress was impossible unless a D grade spent enormous amounts of time on it and even then the defenses should detect them long before completion. In Erics opinion tunneling still remained the most realistic option for the elves because every other method seemed outright impossible. The walls themselves couldnt be penetrated from the outside no matter what tools were used.

The gates remained weak points but they were surrounded by towers which made reaching them without being slaughtered nearly impossible. The dome shield also shouldnt be underestimated and was likely the strongest part of the strongholds defenses. Even if the elves somehow created some superweapon and managed to deliver it directly onto the walls the fortress still wouldnt collapse. That eased Erics mind slightly.

The other human Chosen were currently out leveling even though advancing in D grade already felt impossible. Eric himself had gone hunting once and killed ten beasts which hadnt even granted him five percent progress to the next level. It was probably because he was now a full grade higher and because D grade simply required absurd amounts of experience. It definitely would be a long and painful grind.

On the positive side he would remain in D grade for a very long time which meant this was the perfect stage to truly improve his rarity and foundation. The war on this planet likely would be long decided before he even needed to seriously think about reaching C grade. His patron had also mentioned that most other Chosen would likely do the same.

In the end the gods wanted their investment to succeed and letting someone recklessly rush from grade to grade without focusing on body tempering and skill upgrades made true godhood almost impossible. Eric wondered what it actually felt like to become a god. Solarion had already guided many Chosen to godhood before so Eric believed he would manage as well. Solarion had once told him that during all his existence he had barely found anything truly negative about being a god. Especially a powerful one.

Still the god had also warned him that everything became more difficult the higher ones level rose and once you entered godhood you would face nothing but absolute geniuses. Most possessed bloodlines and powers beyond imagination and every move had to be planned centuries ahead. Eric shook his head and focused back on the map before him. Something needed to change soon or humanity might be utterly doomed. Until then he would simply continue hunting.

If he got lucky he might even encounter a D grade beast and finally gain another level. But before all that he would grab another bowl of that insect soup. He had eaten it once already and honestly it had been surprisingly good. <--"Jack dont come at me with that stupid logic. If the elves dont attack today then Iam leaving. Seriously I have better chances using this illusion to sneak into the elven base and personally search for him." Thalion complained.

This was such a waste of time and William was seriously getting on his nerves. There still was the token he used to communicate with his friends but a ten hour shift was long. When cultivating time simply flew by but improving his soul any further was basically impossible with that rambling mage constantly standing beside him. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. The only thing Thalion had to admit was that William at least never repeated himself.

Instead he simply seemed to hate absolutely everything and everyone.

"Now come on. This has just been an oddly long period without an attack. Iam confident it will happen any moment now. Everyone says that." Jack replied before apparently handing the token to Lucan.

"Okay listen Thalion I got this new idea. Wanna hear it?"

"Sure..." Thalion sent back. He was currently wandering aimlessly through the streets mostly just to get away from William.

"Good good. So hear me out. Have you ever heard about exploding space frogs?" Lucan asked enthusiastically.

"Nope."

"Then this is going to widen your horizon." Lucan explained excitedly.

"So what I have been thinking is this. Those from integrated space are stupid and dont know what rockets are."

"I dont really understand where the rocket part suddenly came from. Werent you talking about exploding space frogs?" Thalion replied while raising an eyebrow.

"Yes but frogs mostly dont live in space so you obviously need a rocket... Anyway what Iam getting at is this. When someone sees a frog strapped to a rocket flying toward them they might assume its some sort of transportation device. In integrated space even tiny beasts like frogs can be highly intelligent so that would be a completely reasonable conclusion. The fact that the frog is actually just a surprise sacrifice for the greater explosion isnt something anyone would expect. So what do you think?"

Thalion still looked skeptical.

"So your plan is basically to glue a frog onto a rocket?"

"Yes!"

"And then launch the rocket at an enemy?"

"Exactly!"

"Even if it works the first time if you dont blow everyone up they will eventually realize whats happening and since you are probably planning to build more than one rocket you would need to sacrifice quite a lot of frogs."

"Probably."

"Do you even have enough frogs?"

"See now this is where things get interesting because everything is already prepared except I dont have a single frog and since you are a shapeshifter and all I thought..."

"Lucan I have absolutely no idea whether there even are frogs suitable for attaching to rockets." Thalion replied. He was already mentally exhausted from William and this conversation wasnt helping.

"Do you think another animal could work instead? Maybe seagulls?" Lucan asked thoughtfully.

"Why not just build a rocket so fast nobody can dodge it and that explodes hard enough on its own?" Thalion tried to save at least a few poor animals from what undoubtedly would become a horrible death.

"Yes but the issue is that there arent enough materials and such a rocket would become super expensive. Thats why I came up with the frog solution. It should have almost the same effect while being much cheaper to mass produce. Genius idea isnt it?"

"Definitely a one of a kind out of the box approach, I give you that." Thalion grinned.

"Have you thought about adding a microphone at the top of the rocket to warn the target to get down or something?"

"Na come on Thalion. Who do you think Iam? A microphone? Please I expected more from you." Lucan replied in an offended tone. Lucan went on and on about explosives and how important it was to hit the target when it least expected it and therefore you needed the element of surprise and all that but Thalion barely listened because the Primordial Bloodseed was getting on his nerves with delicious elven blood supposedly nearby. Thalion let Lucan ramble while turning on his heel and following his blood sense.

He couldnt use his eyes because the glow would definitely reveal him but that wasnt necessary. Thalion knew that the plant adored elven blood and apparently hoped for a little tasting session given that there absolutely shouldnt be elves inside a human base like this. Maybe the bloodseed simply hadnt thought that far ahead but Thalion cared very little about that right now. There were four humans walking ahead of him whose blood felt far stronger than that of a normal citizen.

Thalion himself would never have noticed the difference but he trusted the Primordial Bloodseed with this kind of thing. Now that he paid closer attention the way they moved really did seem suspicious. Their movements were just a little too elegant and they constantly tried to avoid getting too close to other people whenever possible. Quite logical if the illusion shattered the moment they physically touched someone or at least flickered for a brief second.

Thalion wasnt entirely sure how the illusions actually worked in detail but since he himself was also hiding behind an illusion he definitely didnt want to expose them just yet. The streets were crowded and getting involved in a fight right now would be extremely inconvenient. Besides Thalion wanted to know where their hideout was located. They had to possess one because otherwise there would be no reason to sneak through the city like this.

It was obvious they werent out sightseeing but moving toward some specific objective. That target indeed turned out to be a house and Thalion could sense several more elves inside. They technically could have been powerful humans as well but the Primordial Bloodseed seemed absolutely convinced there were eight more elves hidden within.

"I was also thinking about a rotating helicopter weapon made from giant broadswords that you could hold in front of..."

"Lucan could you tell the others that there is a hidden elven outpost at my location? I dont think they are planning anything pleasant for the humans here." Thalion interrupted the enthusiastic smith.

"Wait what? That should be impossible. How are you so sure those are elves?" Lucan replied in obvious surprise.

"Its their blood and if we manage to question them we might be able to get Athilirion out a lot sooner." The response wasnt really what Thalion had hoped for.

"Good. I already sent our best information gathering team."

"Really? Who?" Thalion asked somewhat surprised that Lucan reacted this quickly. At the moment he was leaning against a wall on the opposite side of the street while carefully observing the suspicious house.

"Its Kargul and Vorlok. They both were bored so you might se—" Lucan didnt get to finish his sentence because with a thunderous crash a gigantic flying turtle smashed down from the sky and crashed directly through the house like a falling boulder. The roof tiles offered absolutely no resistance. It sounded like thunder itself as the turtle tore through the first three floors while the fourth briefly held its weight before collapsing as well.

The entire building started coming apart and shocked screams erupted from inside. This was kinda bad because Thalion absolutely didnt want to get involved in this situation. Unfortunately he still wore a guard uniform and simply running away now would look incredibly suspicious as well. So instead he simply stood there and watched the carnage unfold. Kargul roared loudly while destroying the last remains of the building and attempting to crush the elves beneath the rubble.

The elves immediately abandoned every attempt at hiding and counterattacked. The battle escalated rapidly and most people in the surrounding streets fled screaming in terror. It wouldnt take long before someone powerful arrived which was why Thalion slowly began stepping backward while carefully observing the situation. This could become a lot worse than originally expected. What if someone started questioning how the elves even managed to infiltrate the city while disguised by illusions?

Then countermeasures would follow and those same methods could potentially expose Thalion as well. The fight escalated rapidly and multiple powerful auras were already approaching from the nearby towers. Thalion felt confident that Kargul would survive the battle because helping the orc right now was simply far too risky. What if someone managed to see through his illusion or suddenly decided to promote him into some higher position? This infiltration already had taken far longer than he liked.

Couldnt the elves simply launch their attack already? From his position he could see that the elves truly were excellent fighters, at least the ones still alive, but against Kargul, Vorlok and the reinforcements rushing over from the towers the battle ended relatively quickly. By now Thalion had created enough distance that he couldnt properly see the final outcome anymore but they better have captured at least one elf alive or the entire mess would have been pointless.