Cain listened to the night's happenings over breakfast and couldn't help but laugh. Port Nefheim's newest visitors were in the middle of their first engagement with the Eastern Continent's dinosaur population and it wasn't going well for them.
Only one of the eight monsters that they had brought with them was a large-sized creature, the rest were all the size of dogs or smaller. Normally that wouldn't be an issue, as they were very dangerous creatures, but against a herd of Trice, the unusually aggressive omnivorous beasts that Neffie had chosen as the tanks for her cavalry force, the small creatures proved utterly ineffective.
While they had sharp claws, they weren't long enough to make it through the thick hide of the Trice. Because they didn't make it through the hide, they did next to no damage, and the beast's natural regeneration closed the claw marks in seconds.
The swords that the humans had brought were just plain metal weapons, that they usually surrounded with their innate energy. But without the ability to pull it from the air on this planet, they needed to rely on their body to slowly produce it, and they ran out very quickly.
Even after Cixelcid took pity on them and gave them proper swords, they had still come back severely battered, and Neffie had to send the guards to deal with the last few raptors, who were openly mocking them as soon as the Lion moved far enough away that it couldn't easily attack.
[Uncle Cain, I have one teeny tiny favor to ask you...] Neffie asked in a private message.
[You could transform and summon the Tiggy yourself.] Cain responded, guessing what she wanted.
[No, not that. The Watchers already agreed to make me one of my own that will be permanent. I want someone to teach me this Kung Pow fighting style that those people have. I tried getting them to teach me but they are really bad at teaching.] Neffie explained.
[I will ask around. I know a guy, and he owes me a favor for sending him the last group of cultivators that we recovered. But I think it is called Kung Fu, not Kung Pow.] Cain tried not to laugh out loud as he responded to Neffie's texts.
[Thanks! I knew I could count on you. The flippy flying fighting is so cool that I don't know why more people don't use it.]
Neffie's enthusiasm had all the Companions plus Cyrene's attention, as the thoughts Cain had as he read the messages were not blocked from the group. Neffie didn't keep secrets well, she spontaneously blurted out everything, so Cain didn't treat any requests that she made of him as a secret either. Unless she specifically asked, that is.
[I can go get someone from Duke Chen's dojo. They are always excited to meet new cultivators, and they are good at teaching. I haven't seen Neffie in a while either, so a short visit would be just the thing.] Nemu volunteered.
[That works for me. Just make sure you get one with a lot of patience. Dealing with Neffie isn't the easiest task in the world, especially when she is excited.] Cain responded.
Vala laughed in the mental link and focused on a memory of King Aggramor chasing her around the castle the day that he learned that Neffie and sugar after dinner were a bad combination. She had calmed down a little since then, but not a whole lot.
On the Southern Continent, there was no word on the location of Morgeth, but all four sections of the army had stopped short of the cities that Cain had assumed that they were heading for. He had scouts out, and some preparations made, but he hadn't deployed his own forces yet. There wasn't any good reason for them to wait that he could see.
It might be a psychological attack, letting the army make everyone nervous and hoping that they break, but that wasn't as easy as simply sitting in the forest, they would need to attack travelers or the cities themselves if they wanted to get the locals to fear them. They hadn't done either of those things yet.
[Maybe they intend to negotiate? They could be waiting to see what you do, to determine if you are the sort of person that they can work with. If only we could find Morgeth, we would know more.] Victor, the Echo suggested.
"How did we lose track of the leader of the enemy army anyhow? Seriously, they took over dozens of towns by force, you would think that we could at least keep tabs on someone like that." Cain muttered out loud.
Victor chuckled at his frustration but didn't stop tending to the newest modifications to their crops. The single-kernel corn rations were fairly popular, but there was still demand for more types of travel foods that could be carried on the person and not use up valuable inventory space.
Victor thought that a nice fudge brownie might be a popular option, so they started developing a Cacao tree to make Mythic Grade chocolate. The trees themselves were a success and grew very well, but the results were unpredictable so far, and every bean was capable of giving a different effect.
To some of the people on the farm, that was a pure win. They could process small batches of distinct effects to make chocolates, but the Echoes wanted repeatability.
"Maybe you could go for a plain chocolate tree and use the other ingredients in the brownies to give the desired effects? Corn and other grains have shown great promise in hunger fulfillment, so they could be the base, while the chocolate was just a flavoring." Lou suggested, working on a new species of blueberry that would begin blooming again as soon as the berries were picked.
That one was a personal request from Svetlana, who loved the berries that grew all over Long Fang Valley.
Victor shook his head at the suggestion. "Plain Chocolate? What are we, wild animals? No, I will make these stupid trees give a steady effect soon enough."
"You have a point. There is no point in mixing in a mundane major ingredient when there is the opportunity for interesting effect interactions between the flavoring and the base of the brownies. Let me know if you need a hand." Lou agreed.
The exchange had drawn the attention of the Bunnies, who were intrigued by the possibility of magical chocolates becoming the basis of travel rations.
"This world really does have some wonderful things hidden in it doesn't it?" One of the clerics asked Jessica, who was still trying to adapt to all the crazy things she kept seeing since meeting Cain.
"It really does. But some scary ones as well. Like that Demon that is trying to take over the continent." Jessica agreed.
"What if they are doing it for a good reason?" Someone in the crowd nearby asked, making Jessica look around for the source.
She couldn't spot it right away, but she answered anyhow, assuming that they were listening. "Well, I suppose if they could meet with Cain and explain they could come to a solution without fighting. As a Bunny, that would be the very best course of action in my opinion, but I don't know if they will go for it."
There wasn't another response, so Jessica just assumed that the person had heard as much as they wanted to, or they didn't have another question, so she let it go and continued with her morning activities, namely watching the Echoes do strange stuff with plants.
[The armies are all setting up camp. I don't know what the plan is, but they have just stopped ten kilometers from their targets and are settling in for a long-term stay, going by the extent of their camp buildings.] The Oath Breakers reported back to Cain.
That was the second group that told him the same thing today, and it still didn't make any more sense. Morgeth was missing, the armies had stopped and were waiting for something. Was it a weapon that they were waiting on, or perhaps a specific timing?
"Not knowing is more annoying than not being able to do anything, I am certain of it," Cain complained to Jin, who had borrowed his [Spell Crafting] book and was trying to make sense of the first page.
"You are the chosen one of the Laughing God, aren't you? You should be used to nonsensical and annoying by now since that's how the rest of the world most likely views your activities." The Dragonkin pointed out.
"That's a bit rude. I mean, you're not wrong, but it's still rude. Maybe we can gather oracles and have them focus on various ways to search for Morgeth until we find him?" Cain suggested.
"We already did that. They haven't come up with anything new since yesterday, and none of them involved the army stopping. Cyrene suspects that it is a result of both sides using Oracles to try to create the same outcome but using different approaches and causing chaos." Victor told him.
"This whole thing is giving me a headache. I'm going to the Bunny God Temple for a massage." Cain complained, walking away from the bench where he had breakfast while Victor shook his head at the annoyed Ancient.
