Zectas Volume III: Malediction of Veneficatl Valley Read online

  Caid looked at Smoke and his men and understood their disappointment.

  "The Duke isn't dumb. He has seen his share of wars. Although, this last move of his isn't really a bad thing for you and your men."

  Smoke looked confused and asked.

  "Huh? How come? After he conquers Centzo wouldn't he just come looking for us?"

  "He will, but you'll have about three months before that happens. He can't also neglect defending Coatl city because Centeo city is just waiting for a chance to expand its territory and because of your recent victory. He now thinks that he would need to send more than 5,000 men to conquer you. Do you think you can come up with an army in three months?"

  Sierra who sat quietly as Caid spoke finally talked.

  "But what if the Duke decides to risk it and send out another five-thousand Raiders against us? We barely have a thousand men in our army right now."

  Caid shifted his face towards Sierra and said.

  "You just have to improve your security system. That's why I have my Light Wizards of Regard come with me. They're all outside."

  Gandiva, the tigress Lioumerean was surprised and asked.

  "Regard? You mean the ones who made the jumbovision screen for the mounted race? You own Regard?"

  "Yes, it's one of my many businesses in Coatl."

  "And the Duke doesn't know that you're Espion's father?"

  The young Spy raised his voice a little as he answered.

  "Of course not! I made sure that no one of the Duke's men would know about my family."

  Gandiva raised her hands in surrender.

  "Okay, okay, I was just asking."

  Caid cleared his throat and proceeded to talk.

  "I've instructed the Light Wizards to install camera runes in a radius of twenty kilometers around Verbrannt castle. I've also had them install these camera runes on the main roads from Coatl and Centzo. They'll set up a monitoring room inside the castle as well."

  "Thank you very much. I feel really responsible for the safety of the people."

  Sierra was really grateful for what Caid did. Sierra proceeded to ask for advice on what else they could do around Verbrannt Village to increase their defenses.

  Everybody inside the throne room shared their own ideas about what to do. Until the topic of forming a guild was raised.

  Smoke voiced out his main concern.

  "Basically, I just want to be sure that we don't recruit any traitors. Creating a guild isn't just for fighting against the Duke. It's something that should go beyond that. I know we could create a contract like what we did for the mounted race, but what if the Sonstwelter is already prepared to lose everything just to spy on us?"

  Caid said something that he thought could help them.

  "I could make a casting circle of truth and intent. From that you could know if the potential recruit is a spy or not. Although the problem whether he changes his mind in the future and betrays you still exist."

  Sierra accepted Caid's suggestion.

  "That'll be better than nothing at all. At least with that we'll be assured that they're not spies and have no intention of being one."

  Everybody proceeded to add more conditions and penalties on the contract that the guild member will have to sign. They then went on to discuss about other places where they could recruit more men.

  Adder finally spoke and suggested that together with Smoke they should visit Condortl Village and ask for their help. Smoke agreed without objections.

  As their strategy meeting kept on, Sierra went out and ordered their food to be served on their table. As they ate, the talk shifted from battle strategies to war stories and legends.

  The topic of Smoke's escape from the labyrinth came up. Laernea insisted for him to recount their adventures inside the labyrinth and how they escaped.

  "Alright, I was teleported into the labyrinth and had to solve a puzzle just to get out of the first room. After I got out, there were swarms of wolf spiders, crested newts, and fire salamanders. Igniz and I were dealing with around five-hundred of those monsters when we found Espion being chased by three krampus. The krampus monsters were the ones the Tenebris used to replace the Maneators."

  Ichaival was amazed when he heard that Smoke and Igniz dealt with five-hundred monsters by themselves, but he was also curious what the krampus were.

  "Are the krampus monsters the boss monsters of the labyrinth?"

  "No, they were more like the mini-boss, but let me get to the boss later. After I found Espion, we went on to discover the Tenebris hidden laboratory. We had to fight through one krampus to get to it. That was where Espion lost his right eye's vision..."

  Smoke's voice became regretful as he remembered how the fight with the krampus ended.

  "Inside the Tenebris laboratory I found the manual to create a Maneator. Luckily, I had enough components to make my first Maneator. Which was Weise."

  The gray Maneator raised his hands as everyone's attention was on him.

  "Together with Weise, I decided to take on the three krampus monsters roaming inside the labyrinth. I needed their embryo as a component for making more Maneators. We already had a hard time fighting against one krampus, there was no way we could take on three at the same time. So, I decided to use the tunnels inside the labyrinth to force the krampus to fight us one on one. Igniz, Espion, Weise, and I, dealt with those three krampus."

  Smoke gave a nod to Espion and Weise, while Igniz hovered brightly all over the rectangular table.

  "Regrettably, the krampus were hardwired to destroy any embryo they see. After we killed the first krampus, the second one immediately destroyed the embryo dropped from the first krampus' fading body. Which was why we only managed to get one embryo and that was Rasant."

  This time, the orange Maneator waved both his hands wildly as he liked the attention that was given to him. Everybody laughed a little at Rasant's antics, and returned their gaze towards Smoke.

  "From the loot of the three krampus we found a labyrinth map that pointed to the treasure room and the exit. Of course, I went immediately for the treasure room. I used Mitleid's key to open the treasure room, and there lay the boss of the labyrinth. It was a gigantic sphinx called Andrais. The great sphinx must have been around five meters from the ground to its head alone, with a body length of... Around eighteen meters? The notification said that he was a level 700 monster, and all of us were slashed when we arrived in the treasure room. We were left with 2% of our lives."

  Smoke's eyes looked up to the ceiling, as he pictured that someday he would get back and conquer Andrais.

  "Andrais was bored guarding the treasure, so he spared our lives. Instead of killing us outright, he gave us a chance to answer his riddles. Fortunately, all of us managed to come out alive. That's also where I've gotten these seven treasures."

  Smoke laid down the seven treasures he got from the labyrinth on the table.

  "Allow me to explain each one to you. The seven treasures are: 'Sable Wizard's Surcoat', 'Lunar Gravity Boots', 'Digger's Wand', 'Storm Staff of Ehactl', 'Mirror of Meztli', 'Gloves of Itzli', and 'Ring of Ezikill'. For now, I can only use the first three items."

  He then pointed towards the last four treasures.

  "As for these four, I have to chose which Elemental Affinity I have to improve on because they are all conflicting elements. The storm staff can make wind attacks and requires Wind affinity. The Mirror serves as an ultimate spy tool and requires Light affinity. The Itzli Gloves reduces casting time on channeling spells and requires Lightning. The Ring of Ezikill requires Dark affinity and can resurrect a dead Sonstwelter once a month, provided you kill ten-thousand monsters of the same level as yourself in the span of thirty days."

  Intentionally, Smoke didn't mention that each of the four treasures were blessed by various gods and required over level 500 to be used.

  "After the treasure room, we went to the labyrinth's exit. There we fought against the exit's guardian. A gigantic krampus with the height of four mete
rs. It was a hard battle, but our coordinated attacks overwhelmed the monster. That's where I got the weighted chain and sickle weapon and Stark's embryo. I think that's the reason why Stark is bigger than his brothers. Anyway, The exit is located somewhere south east of this castle. The white mausoleum is now covered by a thick green forest. That was why you never found it, Sierra. I plan to go back there to create another Maneator out of Konig Mitleid's components, but enough about my impression on the labyrinth. You guys should talk to the men who helped me escape the labyrinth."

  His private army divided themselves among Espion, Weise, Rasant, and Stark. Their voices grew louder as they talked about their adventures inside the labyrinth in more detail.

  Smoke's original members also shared their stories and adventures before their four latest brethren joined their ranks. Their family had now grown to be fifteen members strong.

  * * * * * *

  Their militia members had been reduced to one-thousand-and-eighty men. Sierra had asked Smoke to take charge of the entire battalion, which he gladly accepted.

  Smoke divided the militia to serve under his private army members. All except for the three Maneators. Even if the three of them were friendly, the militia members were still afraid of burly Maneators.

  As the Beggar Evocati readied himself to leave for Coatl, Smoke handed him a letter addressed to Madam Dawney. It stated his deepest regret over what happened to Ental, the hell boar that he rode for the mounted race.

  Caid assured Smoke to express his sincere apology to the retired adventurer. The Beggar Evocati left for Coatl city shortly after. He went back to gather more information. Caid also told Smoke that he will send the information via the Beggar Tablet.

  Sierra immediately started to test the one-hundred-ninety Zectian Knights and the four-hundred-ten Sonstwelter Knights that had joined them in the previous battle.

  She had each one of them form a line and step into the 'interrogation room' that Caid had prepared for them. The Beggar Evocati assigned a Light Wizard named Baldaquin to control the casting circle.

  They were grilled with a series of questions. They were asked with questions like 'are you a spy?','have you disclosed the location of Verbrannt castle?', 'have you posted this information anywhere outside of Zectas?'.

  Fortunately, all of Knights passed. None of them were currently working for the Duke and had no immediate intentions of doing so. Smoke had asked Caid if he had found the ability tome 'Circle of Truth and Intent', but sadly he wasn't able to.

  When all of the Knights were done with their inquisition, Sierra had them all gathered in front of the Verbrannt castle's main doors.

  Smoke and his private army stood in front of all the six-hundred Knights. The gathered Knights recalled the impressive battle prowess that Smoke and his men had shown in their last battle, but his performance was still overshadowed by the three massive legendary monsters in his private army.

  Most of them had only heard about the Maneators and had never seen one, but Smoke had three of them as his companions.

  Sierra stood in front and was about to offer them the contract of becoming a member of the guild, but most of the Knights there already belonged to a guild.

  Mamelon, the Aqua Knight, spoke in behalf of those who had undergone the test.

  "More than half of us are willing to change guilds, but there are those who cannot leave their current guild. I'm afraid that we have to refuse your offer. All of us still plan on seeing this revolution against Duke Burmistrz's tyranny, and I can only offer to make a guild alliance with you."

  As the Aqua Knight spoke, she kept on looking around for Ilad, Smoke's undercover persona, among his men.

  "We only have three groups who wish to remain in their guilds. There's our guild the Confiance, then there's Espoir Guild, and lastly the Fidelite Guild."

  Sierra stepped forward and replied to the entire crowd.

  "I understand your concerns. Then allow us to draft another guild contract and a guild alliance contract, but first I need all of you to sign this confidentiality agreement. It just states that you can't disclose the location of Verbrannt castle to anyone. Breaking this rule kills you and if you're a Sonstwelter it will reduce your level by 75%. After signing the confidentiality agreement, please feel free to roam around Verbrannt Village. Our battalion commanders will show you the locations where you can put up shops or homes that you can actually own. Also, the castle is still strictly off limits until you have joined the guild. Thank you."

  The red werebear smiled as she delivered her threat together with a reward. It was her retention plan for the potential guild members. She thought that they might fight better for their cause if they had something at stake as well.

  All the Knights were shocked by such strict conditions. Nonetheless, it was rare to be given a property in Zectas. All of them signed the confidentiality agreement because they understood the risks involved and knew what was at stake.

  Sierra was happy with the turn of events. She had sent Gandiva over to Centeo City to acquire a Guildium. It was a stone needed to create a guild.

  The Guildium records all the guild's history. It documents the guild's members, assets, earnings, contracts, alliances, and everything else involved in a guild.

  Centeo city was north of Coatl and required a week to travel back and forth. Sierra planned to have the Knights acquainted with the residences, and finish their homes and shops by then.

  Sierra asked Sharur, Jinggu, Sharanga, Ichaival, Thyrsus, and Vijaya to guide the Knights around Verbrannt and point them out to the designated areas where they could put up their homes or businesses.

  As the multitude of assorted Knights were about to leave, Mamelon managed to get close enough to Smoke and introduced herself to him.

  "Hi, my name is Mamelon. Let me just say that this is really an amazing thing that you're doing for these people and I hope that when we do conquer Coatl you remember all of those who helped."

  Smoke wanted to walk away, but Mamelon had been already shaking his hand.

  "Of course, the rewards will be according to the efforts and accomplishments shown by each individual. Please excuse me, you can talk to Sierra for more information about that matter."

  He tried to let go of her hand, but she still held on firmly.

  "There was one more thing. I haven't seen Ilad around. I was wondering where he was?"

  "I sent him on a special assignment. I don't know when he'll be back."

  Mamelon looked sad when she heard the news.

  "He didn't accept my friend request so I couldn't call him. Can you please tell him that I'm looking for him. You know, when you get a chance to talk to him?"

  Smoke nodded and forcibly freed his hand from hers.

  "I'll pass on the message, but you should talk to Sierra about that as well."

  Smoke hurriedly escaped into the castle.

  * * * * * *

  Smoke had decided to head back to the labyrinth and create his fourth Maneator. Together with Sierra and a select group of his private army members along with their battalions.

  The members of the labyrinth expedition were Smoke, Sierra, Ichaival, Laernea, and Espion along with four-hundred-seventy-five militia members.

  Adder was left in charge to take care of the residents and the Knights in Verbrannt. He had Thyrsus, Sharanga, and Vijaya to assist him.

  Sharur and Jinggu were ordered to create a canal that could channel the river towards Verbrannt. The OrkElves had the Maneators; Weise, Rasant, and Stark to assist them. They also had two-hundred militia members to help them out.

  With the people in Verbrannt all occupied with their own tasks. Smoke and his expedition party headed out. As they headed towards the secret exit, they made sure that none of the Knights followed them.

  As a precautionary measure they headed in the opposite direction of the labyrinth's exit when they left the Verbrannt castle grounds.

  After forty-five minutes they reached a structure that looked like a small h
ill which was covered by thick trees. Smoke stopped and directed some men to push the hanging roots aside.

  An entrance with a diameter of ten feet was revealed. He ordered his men to hold the roots in place while the rest of the men entered. It looked more like an entrance to a cave from a quick glance.

  As they traveled further inside, the floor and walls revealed a smooth and white marble stone. Igniz lit up the torches that some of the militia members were carrying as well as enhanced their weapons with Fire.

  Smoke led the way with Igniz hovering around him. He asked the men to prepare themselves, when he saw the piled up skeletons.