Chapter 321 Scholar of the Compass
"This is a quite surprise. I never expected to see the mighty undefeated Keyrin would ever put down his battle stance for a talk." Gold appeared after being given approval by the System. Strangely Gold looked nothing like his usual appearance. He was in his human form but wearing clothes that Jin had never seen before. A silver half mantle hanging on his shoulders and underneath it was an adequately ironed black uniform that simply screamed 'high noble class' from afar. Right beside Gold was Grey dressed in similar fashion, but in his case instead of a silver mantle, it was just a simple white shoulder mantle.
"Hmph. Well, same to you. I never even expected to see you again at all, much less alive nor in one piece! But judging from your…acquaintance? You were dying to see me dead!!!" Keyrin sneered as he heavily blew some air out of his nostrils.
"I did not purposely send him after you. It's just that I underestimated my Master's reckl-… Master's capability to choose the most powerful of all lightning goat demons. But even if he had told you, that I was the one sending him, I doubt you would have chosen to simply let it go, which would have ended up in a battle regardless. Anyways now you know how powerful Master Jin is." Gold sniggered a little which made Keyrin even more furious.
"That is because you lied to us! To the entirety of Beast Demons!!!" Keyrin shouted as they could suddenly hear thunder looming from a distance.
"This was never my intention, and you should know that. I became a victim in all this mess, the same as you. I mean, just LOOK at me!! In the end, I got the virus affecting me!!!" Gold complained as he transformed his human hands into a jackal's claws.
"Fine, I admit that at least you did not turn into them. Sigh, it's unthinkable that the Scholars of the North and South decided to-" Suddenly Keyrin's ears moved instinctively and so did the noses of both Gold and Grey.
"CRAP! I cannot believe that they could track us in less than a few minutes. This is more serious than I thought." Gold quickly turned to Jin and requested to bring Keyrin back to their Home Instance where it was safer for them.
"System, is that allowed? To bring an external monster not under my control into my dungeon instances." Jin asked the System, but to the Thunder Ram Demon, that strange human was simply talking to himself.
"Access denied! System does not allow anyone, nor external beings, to disrupt the instances' ecosystem. Since User does not have a secured encrypted guest hall or prison, there are only two options. Either capture the monster or talk it out over here." The System was unwilling to compromise.
"Quick! Master, I do not want them to discover my presence and Keyrin's if at all possible!" Gold hurried Jin along. It was a rare sight to see the usually composed Gold so flustered. After their short exchange, Jin could already guess, that Keyrin would not let himself be captured willingly. Because of the Thunder Ram Demon's prideful attitude and arrogant behaviour, there was only one way left.
"Zeru, cut him down immediately," Jin commanded and within a second while Keyrin was still internalising Jin's words, he suddenly felt blackness surrounding him. The last thing he saw was black flower petals floating right in front of him. In an instant, the almighty Keyrin fell to the ground with his head separated from his torso.
"That is not the best way to go, but better than the alternative. Let's get going quickly." Gold requested for a portal from the System and they immediately disappeared, followed by the corpse, just before a shadowy figure was able to reach the destination.
"Hmmm. The blood of the Thunder Ram Demon…" The figure tasted the blood a little and sniffed the air. "Heh. So someone really killed it… Not to mention, the scent of the Scholar of the East has appeared again after all this time. Also the scent of that particular person. Interesting… we can rejoice, at the very least it's one annoying King Class demon gone." The figure mumbled as he ran away to report to the most recent activity to his superiors.
In the Jacks' Mansion, Keyrin was 'reborn' once again, but was frustrated and at the same time shocked that he could die from a single strike. He may have been weakened, but that power would have done him in, regardless… "I DEMAND TO SEE THE ONE RESPONSIBLE! WHO HERE DARED TO CUT ME DOWN?!?!" Keyrin was so furious that he did not even question his second chance on life, only wishing to discharge a burst of lightning in the mansion of the Jacks… but with a simple command of Jin to stand down, he was forced to kneel, unable to disobey it at all. The enmity in his eyes was visibly disappearing from Keyrin.
"Wow, the System is really a terrifying thing. To be able to calm such a kingly beast so fast, making him obey a single command…" Gold gulped down. He was aware of the effects of the loyalty enforced by the System, but in his case, he had agreed willingly when given the chance. This, in turn, allowed him not to feel too weighed down by it, since he did not dare to push the extent of the System's limits, yet Keyrin's sudden transformation frightened him.
"What have you done to me, strange hu… Jin?!" Keyrin was annoyed that he obediently answered to Jin's commands, even though he did not wish for it.
"Well judging by Gold's reaction, I guess I have saved your butt!"
Jin had learned from his interactions with the monsters a bit of each of their backstories. In the case of his werebeasts, the Farming World had experienced a viral plague, which pesticides were unable to stop. It caused the crops to grow deformities. Unsurprisingly farmers, who made up a large majority of the population, were baffled by these strange phenomenons as their crops were their only livelihood.
However, the plague did not just deform the crops. As time went by, those crops that were just discarded and not burnt, grew something out of it. Rat Demons. (Yeah, even Jin was bothered by it too. He could not believe Rats haunted him at every step.)
The Rat Demons were sentient in nature as they grew out from the crops. Since the Farming World literally grew anything and everything from the soil, those Rat Demons inherited the properties from the crops they came from. Farmers that were growing weapons and armour from the land were afflicted with the worst outcome. Most were killed by the very own things they planted themselves, which the rats grew from their bodies. Those who were not killed got turned into slaves for the ever learning pests.
Eventually, the Rat Demons went so far to create a small underground kingdom for themselves, which turned into a sufficient cause for organisations to band together and dismantle them. But instead of this turning into a happy end, this was just where the misunderstandings started. Most assumed that the majority of the Beast Demons sided with the Rat Demons. After all, it was known that they had made pacts with a large number of Beast Demons. Humans using their trusty method of 'Kill first, ask later' started their extermination of the Rat Demons as well as the Beast Demons.
Keyrin's wife was also one of the unfortunate victims. She was killed because of these circumstances, making him unleash thunder and storms on the capital where the hunters resided. That was when the Scholars of the Compass which comprised of the North, South, East and West came together to calm the people down and tried to negotiate peace between the Beast Demons that were not affected and the organisations.
However, the Scholars of the East and West did not know that North and South had decided to band together and were already working with the Rat Demons. An internal battle ensued at the Tower of Compass which resulted in the death of the Scholar of the West. Gold, as the Scholar of the East, managed to run away with his life but was infected by the Rat Demon's curse. A curse which would ultimately turn him into a Rat Demon too. Left without any other options, he took a gamble and used a high level mitigation spell in the hopes of avoiding his fate. The result was somewhat unexpected. While it did prevent him from becoming a rat, it turned into a different affliction… Therianthropy. That was how Gold became a werejackal.
Seeing his method work, he looked for others suffering from the curse and also changed them into werejackals and werecats. Everything was preferable over becoming a rat.
"So…erm… I knew this is a bit out of the blue but…Should I even interfere with your world or your country's problem?" Jin asked when Keyrin was discussing with Gold.
"If it were anybody else asking it, I would answer that they shouldn't… but you have the power of the System. You may be able to help us if you wish. After all, we cannot deny, that the Farming World is our home. I should tell you that getting rid of them, will probably also be in your own interest. If the Rat Demon Kingdom continues to reign further, markets and business centres of the Farming World will disappear. Who knows what will become of the Farming World. And unless I am wrong, the System is also buying a lot of the food from the Farming World. Price inflation will not rest well with the System's stinginess." Gold answered, trying to convince his master.
"Many innocent Beast Demons have already been killed. The hatred between normal Humans and Beast Demons will get even more intense, that much is for sure!" Keyrin added.
"But I am just a simple Dungeon Supplier…" Jin yawned a little as he looked at his new legs. As soon as he entered his own territory, the System and Milk had already been present and immediately started the process to regrow his limbs back.
"User, what if the System tells you that assisting Gold, the werejackals, werecats and the Beast Demon Keyrin, will allow you to gain significant rewards?" The System seemingly had some bait prepared for him.
"Well, the rewards should better be VERY enticing. I mean we have sort of agreed not to take drastic measures in the worlds… yet here you want me to do something which is no less world revolutionary than uprooting the Twelve Zodiacs! Even so, this is their world, not ours. I have no obligation to go in and slaughter uncountable hordes of Rat Demons. I don't even want to capture and breed those things." Jin saw them as expenses rather than proper monsters.
"System would like to propose that those Rat Demons, capable of thought, to work under the service of the Dungeon City Fortress. Instead of under User's care, they would fall under the System's obligation." The System offered Jin.
"…Is that my reward?" Jin asked bluntly like an innocent kid.
"No, there is a separate reward. Capturing them as workers as only something which both sides can profit from. After all, the System needs workers to create the buildings for User's purposes as soon as possible. Preferably the moment Qiu Yue enters the picture officially." The System was reeling the bait in.
"What is the reward then?" Jin now got slightly interested.
"Evolution of the Werejackals. Evolution of the Werecats. Evolution of the Beast Demons excluding the Rat Demons that User captures. Five kilogrammes of Oceanic Phoenix Dung. Complete Prototype Blueprint of User's Remote Device and lastly one additional Level in your Dungeon Supplier Rank, which will bring User's Rank up to 4. System also wishes to congratulate User who has completed the previous Mission objective as of this afternoon 1337Hrs." The System stated. (Apparently, the bait the System has prepared was top class)
"Oh my god." Jin wanted to pull his hair at the number of rewards the System was offering.