บท 132: Chapter 132. Into the belly of the beast
We were at the base of the huge wooden wall, but without our horses.
On our way here, we realized that it's better to not use the front gate so the horses had to be let go.
When we would get back, we would search for them or steal some from the Piligers.
"Did you see anyone on the wall?"
"Not for a while, do you plan on breaking through the wall?"
"No, we're going underground, since I don't know what to expect on the other side."
With this, I took out my iron shovel and broke the ground, making a small hole.
I jumped first to make the tunnel, and when enough space was dug, Froggy joined me and covered the entrance making the tunnel fill with darkness.
"Warn me first Froggy! I got scared for a second!"
I said that while taking out a torch.
"Sorry, I'm kind of nervous."
I dug for five more blocks, which I suspected were more than enough to pass the huge wall, so I broke the dirt block above me, letting the light back in.
As silent as I could I looked around the area, and luckily, there was no one around.
"Ok, everything is clear, let's go."
We quickly got out, placed the dirt back and shoveled it like the others.
Then with our heads hanging low, we went deeper into their camp.
Every mansion had a garden around them, each of different sizes, and they were all delimited by a tall wall of leaves, which had enough small holes where we could see what was beyond.
It wasn't too interesting, just a patch of grass with some flowers here and there, there wasn't even anyone outside.
So we continued going deeper into enemy territory until we finally found the first Piliger.
He looked exactly as we expected, tall with grey skin, green eyes, and an expression that would make anyone stay away from him.
Once he saw us, his expression quickly changed to one of fear, and bowed to us while slowly stepping away, leaving Froggy and me confused.
"What happened? Why was he so afraid of us?"
"I don't know, but I saw that he was looking at our uniforms. Did you see that he wore a farmer's outfit?"
Now that I think about it, he wore something different than us.
Maybe we are something similar to the military or the police here?
I don't know if this disguise is safe or not anymore, but we continue walking to not attract attention.
Slowly we got to the more populated parts of the city, and while the Piligers looked at us with concern, they didn't run away.
At this point we were stuck on what to do, we got more attention than we intended, and now we didn't know the place where we would blend better, until all of a sudden we saw a group of Piligers dressed like us, all joking and laughing with each other without a care in the world.
Since they didn't care about how they got attention, it was easy for us to follow them from a safe distance until they arrived at one of the mansions with a big garden and entered there.
We looked around once more and saw that other Piligers dressed like us came to this mansion, some in groups while others alone, and there was nobody to check up on their identity.
So we entered the building like we belonged there.
Inside there was a huge room, easily ten blocks high, and was filled with tables like a restaurant where Piligers stood and talked with each other while drinking or eating at the table.
It was quite a shock for us since we didn't expect to see this from the bloodthirsty Piligers.
We slowly got to the counter where a few Piligers were working similar to a fast food chain.
"Hello, what can I get for you soldiers?"
"Uhh, do you have a menu?"
The Piliger on the other side raised an eyebrow which made me nervous that we had blown our cover.
"Are you new recruits?"
"Uhh, yes and we didn't expect to see all of this."
"I'm surprised that they recruited soldiers so soon, but I guess the last attack on the Witches killed a lot of people. I'm sorry for what you've been through, and congratulations!"
The woman over the counter gave us a smile and a paper menu, which I quickly took in hopes of not showing my confusion.
"What is this place Trader, you seem to be much more familiar than me."
"This place reminds me of a restaurant, and that's why I can talk like this."
"What's a restaurant?"
I stopped and looked at Froggy with a raised eyebrow while he looked confused at me.
Then I remembered his upbringing, which explained why he didn't know about such facilities.
"A restaurant is a business, where you buy food and enjoy it at the tables like you can see in here."
"So like an In?"
"Exactly like an In, but for rich people, and you don't sleep there. But from what I can tell, this place also lets people sleep."
We sat at a table and looked over the Menu, and to my disappointment, there weren't a lot of options to choose from, and those prices were just plain unfair.
Bread→ 1 Emerald
Coked Chicken→ 5 Emeralds
Cooked Fish→ 3 Emeralds
Beer→ 5 Emeralds
Mushroom Soup→ 2 Emeralds
Cooked Potatos→ 1 Emerald
And that was all, not much to choose from, and the prices were not the best.
So we went to get our food and sat back at the table listening to everyone talking around us.
"Yeah, my friend was with the soldiers that attacked the Witch's hideout, he saw a lot of soldiers die under the Witch's potions. But they were nothing against our beast. Even though it's been a few weeks ago, he can't stop branding about it, on what he managed to pillage from that place."
"I heard from someone else that they somehow managed to kill the Ravager."
"That can't be possible, you've seen how that thing looks, we can bearly hurt it, how can a weak Witch with no muscles hurt it?"
"No, I heard that someone ran to the beast and shoved his arm into it's mouth, and then it exploded, killing them both."
"Ehh, who cares, we have a dozen of those, it's nothing if one of them dies or not."
"That's true, I wonder what they did with the prisoners?"
"I don't know, probably locked up somewhere and forced to make potions for the rest of their lives, or even worse, made into totems."
When I heard the last part I was shocked.
"Did you hear that Trader? I think they still have those prisoners, we have to save them!"
"True, but we don't know where they keep them, or if we can get them out."
We sat in silence and listened to other conversations gathering some more information.
Unfortunately, we didn't get anything valuable, just gossip about the higher-ups or propaganda spread through the masses.
Suddenly the horn of a goat was heard through the air, which made everyone freeze in the room.
Then everything exploded with movement, some people were finishing their food in a hurry and others were getting up and quickly walked out of the building.
"What should we do?"
"I don't know, but I think we should follow them."
So we got up and followed everyone who seemed to know what this meant and where to be.
After we passed a few more mansions that were bigger than others, we finally stopped on a green field where I saw rows and rows of soldiers sitting in formation looking towards the castle.
We didn't know if we should sit somewhere specifically, so to be on the safe side we sat with the group at the back trying to stay as close as possible.
After ten minutes, everyone arrived, and to my shock, there were easily over five hundred soldiers there.
This was five times more soldiers than the total of men the Stone Kingdom sent to fight against the Zombie Lord.
Which was a ridiculous thing to see.
The only reason the other nations didn't worry about the Piligers, was because of their lack of numbers.
But from what I see here, they don't have that problem anymore.
And since they have superior technology and don't lack numbers, I can only see this as something that would soon surpass the danger of the Zombie Lord.
Suddenly everyone stopped whispering and looked towards the podium which was empty.
But not for long tho, as black smok appeared out of nowhere for a few seconds before it was cleared out by the wind.
But the podium was no longer empty, instead, three people sat on there.
And to my shock, I recognized one of them.
It was Brutus, the Elder that betrayed the witches.
"Soldiers of the ancient people, I've called you today to announce something very important. We are a nation persecuted by the others just because we are better than them, they call us primitive and Piligers but keep forgetting that they have everything because of our ancestors."
One of the three men walked forward and started his speech.
He had a similar uniform as the soldiers, but had a hat and some medals on his chest, which only made me think of him as a general.
His voice was deep and powerful since I could hear it even from so far away without speakers to enchant his voice.
The last man was someone that I recognized from the game, or that was supposed to be in the game.
It was an Illusionist who had a bored expression clearly showing that he didn't care to be there.
"But as I promised, I would make our nation great again, I would put it back on the same path our ancestors walked, and we would bring the System down on its knees once again!"
Everyone started to yell a war cry which startled me.
They planned to fight not only the other nations but the System itself.
How do they want to accomplish this when even their more advanced ancestors couldn't do it?
But they didn't seem to care as the chanting was getting louder and louder.
We sat like that for a few more moments, before falling silent once the general raised his hand.
"But we've been saying this for years, but now, you have to wait no more, as in two months we would start our attack, in two months the others shall fear once again the the people from the ancient ways! So train like you've never trained before, prepare like you've never prepared before, because we would win, and rule over them all!"
Once again, everyone yelled but this time with their whole soul, some of them even looked mad ready to start a fight.
After his speech was done, he and the others walked down the podium and everyone else slowly started to get back to their lives.
"Can you believe this is finally happening? I've been waiting for this since the first time I heard our ruler, it's been more the fifteen years since then. No more attacking small villagers, we're going for the big boys."
"Yeah, I can't believe we waited so long for this. But I guess it's better now than never."
Similar conversations were happening around us as we walked together with the wave of soldiers.
But soon we decided to split up from them and find an isolated place.
So we went behind a green wall and dug a hole while Froggy kept on watch.
After a small room was made, I caled for him to join me and closed the hole.
After I dug around for both of us to stay comfortable we sat down and stayed in silence for a few moments.
"I knew they were planning something but not this. Why do they even want to fight the System, they stand no chance!"
Froggy looked with confusion at me.
"I don't know either, we just got here and I'm already overwhelmed by what I saw, their numbers especially. I don't even want to think what weapons they have, actually scratch that, I want to know that."
"The general-looking Piliger encouraged the soldiers to train some more, so maybe we can go to those training grounds to see how their training?"
"That's a good idea, but we would know only what the common soldiers would know, what we need is something more valuable."
"And how do you plan on getting that?"
"We are going to sneak into the castle."
How ironic, the one place I want to stay away most of the time, now has the information that could probably help us.
"That could be dangerous."
"This whole mission is dangerous, the more we are exposed the higher the chances are for someone to find us."
He gave a big sigh but was on board as well.
So we sat there discussing plans on how we should approach this.
In the end, we decided to drink our invisibility potions and sneak in.
For maximum efficiency, we waited until night came, and then I broke the block and got outside.
It was time to infiltrate deeper.
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