Chapter 459: The Last Fortress
"My dear system," I turned and spoke like I was directly speaking to a man standing in front of me, "this is the lost city of the Golams… I'm here to gain my rewards, those books and secrets so dear to you stingy system."
I laughed while knowing he would be totally infuriated at the moment with my answer.
"Ding Dong! Great… so great… let's see how you'll come out alive then."
"Humph, as if you weren't already trying to kill me with your best efforts," I sneered before turning towards the surprised leaders of mine, "hasten our search here, we have little time available."
I knew the more I delayed at each for the better this system's preparations would be. So, the best approach was to move fast, and even leaving some behind to cleanse the entire fort clean while we raid the next one… which was exactly what we did just now!
The next castle was surrounded by the same mechanism. This time we were so much ready and mimicked the last strategy to crush it in shorter time and lesser losses.
As for the losses, the previous castle really took a good toll on us. At least one tenth of the entire army was gone, but then at the next castle I believe we didn't lose even one hundredth of the army.
"Sweep it clean now," I ordered, "bring me that device and also search for that treasured vault."
I knew for sure that this fort would contain the same treasured books. After all this was equally fortified and the system didn't have any chance to do a single change.
As I expected my men found the secret vault at the same location like the previous fort. The books this time were regarding building and architecture, something I desperately needed to feel home inside my current home.
"Move on," I shouted, "leave some here to sweep the place clean."
Like before we left part of those necromancers wearing mecha suits to clean the entire fort. As they were the only weak unit of my army, I left this task for them to handle.
Using their ability to summon endless skeletons and the current strong protection of the mecha suits, I was quite sure even if the system tried to be smart and backstab me from behind they would escape such ambush with minimal losses.
"Let's move," I ordered and the entire army marched in great spirit towards the next castle.
The next two forts had the same fortification around and I managed to get my hands over two more ice orbs and devices plus a complete encyclopedia about agriculture and engineering.
The first was important to feed my growing citizens, and the second was more important in building big factories and power cells.
As this was the ninth fort, only one remained. "You are keeping the biggest surprise at the end, right bastard?" I sneered and the system totally ignored me and I knew my hunch was correct.
The next fort wouldn't be any way and an easy ride here.
"Shouldn't we press forward?" Jen asked in doubt when she noticed my silence.
"No, let's wait until everyone regroups," I said before sighing, "I'm sure the next fight won't be easy."
"Afraid of that strange enemy of yours?" Omad asked as if he was underestimating the system.
"He… isn't someone we should take any light," I warned before adding, "I'm pretty much sure the next fort would be like a death ground to us."
"This…" Dredly seemed quite hesitant, "shouldn't we send scouts at least?"
I paused while thinking about his suggestion. It was logic to do that, but something warned me from doing so. "No, let's wait until we start moving," I said before adding, "after that we can scout."
"Won't it be too late?" Jen asked.
"No, it's the right thing to do," I vaguely answered as I couldn't explain what I was feeling right now.
I waited for an entire half a day before everyone I left behind came here. I had to send many vampires to bring them back, hurriedly asking them to leave what was left behind and come as fast as possible.
As my army here finished cleaning everything, bringing no news to me, I decided to move, leaving behind some scroll rooms uncleared totally yet.
After all the weird silence of my system despite all my teasing made me quite restless.
As we moved to the last fort we didn't meet any resistance at all. "It seems you are too much confident in your last preparations for me," I laughed while deciding against sending off any scouts.
After all the feeling inside me was getting stronger; it was safer to not send any scouts.
Just as we were only a couple of hours away from the last fort, according to my calculations, the system finally spoke.
"Ding Dong! You should listen to your army's advice and send scouts up front."
His words made me be more confident in that vague feeling inside my gut. It was safer not to send any. As he ignored me, I also decided to ignore him.
"Advance," I shouted while flying on top of my great army march. From up above my army just looked like a black flood that was slowly drowning the earth.
"What is that?"
As we reached the outer border of the last fortress I saw something weird lying in wait for me… a tornado!
It wasn't a simple one as its radius was in miles. It covered a large area of ground and whenever it passed over the fortress, it expanded to engulf all of it in one go. "Halt!" I shouted as it wasn't safe anymore to advance.
"Lady," suddenly Derky shouted in strange distress, "we have another one coming to our rear!"
I hurriedly turned back to spot an identical tornado moving slowly and silently like a silent killer towards the rear of my army. "So it's not only one, but ten!"