174 [Bonus chapter] A Counter Plan
I closed the chat and this time I felt that contacting Fang wasn’t a necessity anymore.
“Come forth,” as I had to check over the titles I saw in the memory beads that might contain the info I wanted, I called forth fifty soulers to my aid.
“Let’s go,” I first lightened up the chariot to clear all the shadows and limit them in certain places before leading my soulers to sweep it cleanly.
We killed lots of that bastard’s shadows for one hour. This time I got more experience in doing this and so it didn’t take as much time as before.
Then I bought a higher grade sealing bubble from the market, one that could also seal the eyes of gods themselves off me.
It came with a hefty price, but everything was worth it. After all, I was going to set a counter plan and execute it. Secrecy was a priority here, more than anything else.
Then I started to check the title that got my attention before.
The titles I got interested in didn’t have anything related directly to the devil’s touch or the death breath.
Basic manuals regarding devastating other race grand weapons and middle and advanced manuals were among the names I selected.
The old man used a good habit while recording the content of the memory beads. He started first by giving a simple narration about what I should expect in the recording before delving deeper in details about it.
“Not that one,” after a few minutes I discarded the first manual and selected the second without hesitation.
“Not that one either!”
“It’s not here!”
“Nah, not here.”
“Wrong choice again!”
“Agh! Where the hell is that damn thing here?!!”
I wasted four hours working in the memory beads until I finally found what I wanted. Unlike my expectations, the devil’s touch wasn’t mentioned in any recording talking about other races’ weapons, tricks, or even magic!
Where I found it was at a recording I found by pure coincidence after I lost all hopes of finding what I wanted. After two hours of listening without a single fruit, I started to randomly select things with weird names.
And luckily for me I found what I wanted inside a weird recording title named: The dark side of the universe.
Frankly and logically speaking, how could I possibly guess it would be there? But when I listened to the content of this recording, I understood why the old man did that to me.
The recording time extended far beyond twenty hours straight and it got another part that also reached the same length. It was expected, as the old man started to cover up weird things inside the universe without explanation.
And one of them was the notorious magic circle known to humans as the devil’s touch.
As a start, this infamous magic circle was found in some point across the long age of the universe in some mysterious ruins. It was my first time knowing that the universe was vast and boundless, while the only known parts in it were simply miniscule compared to its massive size.
Then the old man threw another weird knowledge stating obviously that the universe was constantly expanding. He said that the universe was like a beast encroaching over other dead beasts’ bodies around it.
So from time to time, weird stuff might come to light after accidentally discovering them inside one of the ruins. These ruins came from the places which got added into the colossal body of our universe.
He also went far enough to claim that the entire apocalypse setting with the system and all that stuff was the attempt from mysterious beings to put things under order.
He also hypothesised that they were trying to train a big and strong army, enough to defend our universe from outside invaders.
Well… He was the old man and he got all the right to go wild about his assumptions. Anyway, I cared solely about the thing I came here to uncover and learn about.
Regarding this, I learnt many secrets that shone bright light over areas I never saw before.
For example, that magic circle was a double edged weapon. It functioned through getting a mysterious connection with the world’s nature in any world and stir things up like throwing a bomb in a calm lake water.
But in order for that to happen, the one using it had to establish a link between this world and his.
So in other words, it wasn’t a unidirectional attack, but it required two worlds to get connected as if it was starting up a grand fight between the two world’s nature!
Of course this was insane! And to do so that crazy illusionist archlord had to consume an astronomical amount of his blessing points and his wealth to open three mega gates here.
The old man also said frankly that the one able to do so in the other races would be at rank vice senator or higher. So my true enemy here asked for help from a person higher than him to make this disaster happen.
The old man also spoke about other mysterious uses that such a magic circle could be used at but required times of peace. For example, setting such a circle in a zone and letting your forces train inside for a fixed set of time would allow them to gain much experience.
It had the ability to summon graded monsters from weak to freakishly strong according to the forces’ total power assessment inside the zone. It was just like a dungeon in my eyes, yet it didn’t give other dungeon benefits like materials, gears, skills, and other useful and rare stuff.
It didn’t even give coins!
In return for that, one had to pay a huge amount of blessing points each passing day or else this magic circle would collapse.
Well… that might be a far fetched goal for me to accomplish, not for now!
Mentioning collapsing, the old man told me about different ways to collapse this magic circle. The simplest method was by taking out the buried magic balls, at least over thirty percent of the needed number. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
But this had a counter as the enemy would simply place much more magic balls than what was initially needed. Magic balls were found in many places in the vast universe and held little value and were very easy to buy.
So depending on such a method wasn’t guaranteed as the enemy already prepared a counter for it.
The second method was by using brutal force to crush these magic balls. Yet considering their huge number and their unique ability to channel energy, the force used must be physical and not skill based.
That meant one had to use weapons to crush them, and he had to use a large number of forces to do so in a short time.
After all, the enemy wouldn’t just stand idle and watch me do this to their precious thing. Besides, the enemy could add more magic balls and replace what I destroyed if they managed to retake a certain area inside the zone.
The third method was by taking down the tower. However the old man left a clear warning that the tower should be cleared before completion.
Trying to attack a completed tower was simply like asking for death!
The tower once complete would act like a world tree. It would grow roots of energy that would pass through the entire zone and get connected with all the magic balls.
So trying to attack the tower meant you were trying to attack a colossal magical behemoth that got itself connected with the boundless world’s energy.
It was a lost case if that happened. And that also put a time limit for my actions to crush that devil’s touch.
I had only till they completed the building of that tower. Putting that in light, and revising what I sent to that jumper before, it seemed like the task of hindering the building of the tower would come top priority now over claiming the magic balls.
The tower was built from a rare kind of material that was sold at a high price in various markets. Considering the immense size of the tower, it needed a huge amount of blocks to be built.
“That’s where we should strike first,” knowing how painful this strike would be, I instantly sent a message to the jumper.
[They already started building it] he sent back such bad news, before adding the good ones later on, [But from the look of it, they are working super slow at building it]
[How?] I never saw a real tower getting built or even read a detailed description about the process. The old man had a section dedicated to this in the second part of his recording, but I had no time or mind to venture through all that stuff for now.
[They are using strange material that needed to be melted down and smethied before usage]
[I see… So can you make them slower then? And how much time they’ll take in your opinion to fully build it?]
[These blocks used in building are tightly secured] he sent a bad news before adding the good ones afterwards, [But I have a brilliant idea]
[Why won’t you just say the good news first for a change?] I rolled up my eyes. That dude was like a bad news lover or something!
[Wait until you hear my idea]
[Say it then and stop boasting!]
[They are building lots of ovens to melt down that glueing material… Why not abandon the first plan and aim to cause big explosions at these ovens?]
[Preventing them from processing this material… Nice! But aren’t these ovens well secured as well?]
I liked such an idea. However if I was in the place of the enemy, why wouldn’t I tightly secure these ovens as well?
[They are building lots of ovens, they can’t protect them all… Besides…] he paused and I couldn’t help but clench my fists at his shamelessness.
That bastard never let a moment without trying to boast and show his superiority over me! Did he forget he was bound by a contract to me? Did he forget I was his boss or what?
[What? Did you choke while speaking or something?]
[In your dreams!]
[Then speak and tell me what you have in mind in one go!]
If he was in front of me… Well… you just wait! I’d step into the world of cultivation once I got the chance and wouldn’t let you off easier afterwards with such an attitude of yours!
What an annoying guy he was!
[I have my own grenades of death, remember?]
My eyes shone brightly when I read his answer. Damn! That dude really had his own reserve of those grenades!
[Just imagine this… a large group of ovens packed together and a few grenades of deaths fall all over the place… even the ones who wouldn’t get targeted would be crushed and damaged by the massive explosions that will follow… brilliant, ain’t I?]
[Silly!] I sent back while feeling much annoyed by this dude’s unique ability. He could turn anything good into something ugly with a few words of his.
[It’s a brilliant idea… I know that and don’t need you to tell me that]
[Humph! Alright go and start doing that]
[Not right away. I need to let them complete their building and let their guards down first. Then I’ll smash everything they built and flatten these ovens with ground]
[Don’t forget to use the chaos and go for the tower] I recalled the best way to destroy the incomplete tower, [The tower is weak towards explosions. So spare few grenades for it]
[Are you sure? That thing looks really durable to me]
[I know what I’m talking about. Just spare grenades enough to give it a good blast]
[Got it!]
I closed the chat and sucked in a deep breath of refreshing air.