C34: Surrounded By One's Own Army

Ken wanted to rescue the two beastmen and their friend who had been arrested last week, he really did. But his options were limited. Duke Roshoka was a Super Rank Goblin whose expertise in Totemic Magic couldn't be questioned. Ken could predict that an encounter with the Duke could result in a painful death. Attempting to blackmail him would also be a severely demanding task with low possibilities of success.

Hence, he had decided to resort to an outsider's help, an outsider who could exert much more influence than him over Shamrock City.

Surata had full access to the core city, being well known for her healing skills even among the upper class citizens. It was not difficult for her to help Ken plant a few surprises inside the core city. A healer like her was the best person to ask for in an endeavor to seek out the most fragile and sensitive targets in a locality to attack. From clinics to private nursing facilities for the rich nobles, her knowledge of the weakest points of Shamrock City was indispensable to Ken's rescue plan. The challenge here was to convince Surata to agree to his plans. Fortunately, he had something the vampiress wanted.

This wasn't the end of his plans, though. With Surata's help, he also prepared a handful of image orbs, capable of preserving and displaying pre-recorded scenes. These would be his negotiators, each of them containing a scene of him planting deadly traps in and out of the core city, especially in crowded regions where even a small fire could kill many. Ken even went as far as planting explosives inside nurseries, a comically villainous thing to do, but still a very effective threat.

Ken's secondary plans included making the Duke's war strategy public, spoiling the antidote for manapoisoning that was being injected into the fish market every day, using his totem army to storm the prison, turning each member of his totem army into a walking bomb by stuffing explosives and flammable materials inside their bodies, warning the merfolks by sending a shoal of fish totem into the ocean carrying his message...

The most crucial part of his planning was to avoid meeting the Goblin Duke. In any negotiation, facing a decisionmaker who had no higher authority to answer to was a bad position. Ken's extensive experience in dealing with the ruling class of all races told him that attempting to threaten and blackmail the Duke would be far less effective compared to doing the same to a high-ranked official.

Duke Roshoka could bear the liability of discarding hundreds of lives by making a harsh decision. But his subordinates would not dare to be so willful. They'd easily cave in to the demand of releasing three scapegoats.

Of course, he had a final plan in his mind if all else failed. In the worst situation, he would be detained and presented to Roshoka, which was where his last-ditch attempt had to be executed. This plan relied not on the Ken's ability to threaten the Duke, but on the Duke's greed.

After all, which Super Rank creature didn't dream of stepping onto the Ultimate Rank without suffering the consequences that came with it? And which Ultimate Rank creature didn't dream of stepping beyond that accursed rank?

Armed to the teeth with plans and contigencies, he set out a week after the arrest of the three beastmen. Surata and Simm accompanied him until the border of the wilderness, both of their faces dark. Neither was willing to comply with his instructions.

"I've said this before, but I'll say it again. Those two beastmen aren't worth sacrificing your or your children's safety," Surata said defiantly.

Ken privately agreed. But he couldn't say that out loud. Maintaining a stone-faced silence, he kept walking in the direction of the city.

The reason why he had decided to arrange this recue plan was actually not his guilt or benevolence. Yes, he felt guilty that the beastmen had been captured because of his actions, but that was only a little portion behind his motivation.

Firstly, he had underestimated how greedy Surata was for bloodline secrets. Ken was acquainted with hundreds, if not thousands of vampires because of his past days of glory. Few vampire nobles and overlords were as insatiable as Surata when faced with Blood Magic. He was certain that if he didn't deal with her increasing demands, she would resort to some drastic measures, ranging from stealing one of his children in the best case scenario, to crippling and imprisoning their family of six with the help of her people at worst.

Secondly, Simm's recovery wasn't going as smoothly as they had hoped. She had encountered the famous bottleneck at the peak of Mutant Rank. Practicing combat techniques on her own would not get her past the hurdle. She needed resources, and not the type that could be bought with money.

And finally, Ken himself was growing more and more curious about totemic magic. This path wasn't one he had explored in the past. Now that he had been put back to the startling lines, he didn't want to let go of the opportunity to master this foreign treasure-trove. At least below the Ultimate Rank, totemic magic would have a heavy impact in any battle, that much Ken was certain of. But practising it was easier said than done. Spells wouldn't fall into his lap from the sky. He needed the resource and guidance of experts in that domain of magic.

Duke Roshoka, being an old, accomplished goblin, definitely had a hoard of such resources. If Ken couldn't escape the Duke's clutches, he could just join the goblin's cause for the benefits. Either way, he was determined to wring out a win.

Ken's entry into the city went without a hitch. The decorations for the festival were already worn down, and after the brief period of liveliness, the general population was experiencing a wave of lethargy. Ken didn't see many patrolling teams on his way to the prison facility, which made him a bit wary of a surprise hiding in every corner.

The first step of his plan was to sneak into the prison in an attempt to break out his beastmen friends. Only if he was caught would he initiate the second step of the plan.

The prison was surrounded by three layers of brick walls, each taller than the previous one for the convenience of keeping a tight watch outside the prison and keeping the morale of the prisoners low. At least a dozen watchtowers were placed around the perimeter, facing both directions. From the information Ken had gathered, the prison was divided into two buildings, one holding the cells and the other for the guards and administration.

After circling around the walls for an hour, Ken finally noticed a gap in security as a sentry stationed on a watchtower climbed down after being called by somebody inside. Ken called out a group of his Shadow Centipede Totems from a nearby underground trash dump, ordering them to stick to the wall for him to hold on to. These centipedes were more than a couple feet in length, their bodies sturdy enough for him to use as his footing during the climb.

One by one, Ken crossed each wall, sending out his crow totems ahead as scouts. Being the result of a Common-Grade spell, these totems could not do complex tasks. It had taken him the whole week to train them to understand how to do their job, how to convey warnings and clearance signals.

Thankfully, the last layer of walls was quite close to the cell blocks. Ken only had to crawl a short distance inside a drain to reach the first cell block. There he waited for the sun to go down. Once the surroundings became dark, he would come out and climb into the blocks one by one.

Almost half an hour passed as he sat still. His insect army accompanied him in the patient wait. But slowly, gradually, a sense of unrest began to grow among them.

Ken noticed it soon. The totems were making odd, jerky movements. And this abnormality was growing. Surrounded by the insects, Ken's nerves fired up in alarm.

Suddenly, every insect shifted their heads in his direction in tandem, countless beady eyes focused on his balled-up body with utmost concentration. He was pretty much surrounded by his own army, with the only opening being upwards where he would have to break out of the drain. The situation was horrifying, to say the least.

The army of totem insects suddenly parted, and a Shadow Centipede beckoned at him with its pincers in an uncannily human gesture.

As it slowly moved deeper into the drain, Ken took a deep look at the aggressive posture of his insect army and sighed.

He could only follow the out-of-control totem.