Chapter 119: Chapter 116 – Disorganized Accounts
In the dream palace, handling the rodent corpses, healing, cooking, bathing, searching for backup armor, and other tasks took nearly two hours to complete.
George finally managed to put on thigh armor to cover his exposed thigh. Unfortunately, this piece of armor clashed with the rest of his gear—it did not match, and the other armor parts also needed repairs.
The dwarven engineer said that as long as they could access the dream palace, he could help George fix his armor, but given that the team was not truly safe at the moment, they decided to put that proposal on hold.
Instead, they turned their time to more pressing matters—holding a meeting.
The rodent people probably never expected that, behind the thick walls of the fortress and at the top of the round tower, the savior squad, which had charged through the fortress and caused chaos among them just the day before, would hold a meeting there so openly.
This “refuge” overlooked the stone bridge, providing a good view of the elite troops led by the red-armored rodent warlord marching in an orderly fashion across the bridge, flowing like a river into the fortress, passing right beneath the “refuge.” They were so close that if one stood at the edge of the “refuge” to relieve themselves, their urine would land on the heads of the storm rodents below.
However, no rodent could see them.
George, as the leader, said, “After yesterday’s hard-fought battle, we lost four dwarf comrades who bravely sacrificed their lives. Before we proceed with the meeting, let’s have a moment of silence for them.”
With that, George bowed his head, placing his hands together. Even Eve Frostleaf, the pure-blood high elf, lowered her head and clasped her hands in silence for the dwarves.
The three surviving dwarves were especially sorrowful, particularly the butcher Geotrick, whose tears fell into his beard as he murmured, “Why wasn’t it me who died?”
“Well, I’m still alive,” he continued to mutter.
Although Jima was secretly pleased about the loss of the four burdens and thought it was great, she held back her smile due to the circumstances and also lowered her head in silence. Her expression was neither exaggerated nor indifferent.
After three minutes of silence, George spoke up:
“The current situation is that we have only eight people left, and each of us has some injuries. Jenna, how long will it take to fully heal us?”
Jenna replied, “Two days and two nights.”
George said, “Report on the remaining magic energy; I have sixty percent left.”
George had taken on some healing tasks, which consumed more magic.
Jenna said, “I have thirty percent.”
Eve Frostleaf said, “Sixty.”
Jima glanced at her personal system panel and said, “Ninety-five percent. Thanks to the winds of magic, my mana is recovering quickly.”
George raised a topic: “Alright, how long do you think we can hide here?”
Everyone looked at Jima, after all, the refuge was eighty percent her contribution.
“Theoretically, I can maintain the ‘Serene Concealment Barrier’ indefinitely, as long as I don’t die,” Jima said. “I have the ‘dream palace,’ so we don’t have to worry about supplies.”
“I think we will be exposed in a few hours, so I propose that we break out as soon as the rodent army leaves the city,” George said. “Because five rodents have already died here; as soon as the rodents do a headcount and look into the tasks of the missing, we will definitely be exposed.”
“If we’re lucky, we’ll get to enjoy a weekend here,” Jima said. “You’re overestimating the rodents; they are not like your holy army that follows rules so strictly. Rodent lives are cheap; losing a few is normal.”
“But they have friends, and it’s very likely they have already reported it.”
“So what if they have reported it?” Jima asked. “The military decision-making process is layered, and if one layer does not take it seriously, it will just be indefinitely set aside. By the time the military decision-makers connect the five missing rodents to us, it might be six months later.”
“Jima, you’re too optimistic.”
“You’re too young, kid,” Jima shot back. “This is a large army; the information flow generated every day is like a flood, rushing into the decision-making layers. How will they handle all the bodies from yesterday? How do they identify the corpses? Not to mention, splitting the spoils can lead to conflicts.
“This is an army of tens of thousands, not your eight-person squad, kid.”
“Jima,” George couldn’t help but say, “don’t you think your appearance and your words are quite contradictory?”
“You can’t just judge someone by their appearance,” Jima pointed to her head. “Considering the memories I have in here, I have far more experience than you, kid.”
“Memories of the Demon King Jima’s army?”
“It is both a treasure and a curse,” Jima replied calmly. “Alright, let’s not digress. We should stay here as long as we can; instead of worrying about when the rodents will link the missing rodents to us, we should consider divination.”
“Divination?”
“Right, we did shed quite a bit of blood yesterday,” Jima said, wagging her tail. “I can already imagine they will collect our blood as a strong medium to divine our location.
“Just so happens that I know how to divine; if they try to divine us, I will be able to sense it and even counter-divine, buying us more time before we are discovered, and by then, it will be the perfect moment for us to break out.”
After a brief but thorough discussion, they made a decision.
The majority accepted Jima’s idea, and the group rested and healed while remaining vigilant. Eve Frostleaf stealthily left the refuge to stand guard around them to prevent any unexpected exposures.
Jima quietly flew in the air, extending her wings, invisible as she scouted.
Below her, the entire rodent fortress was laid bare. The rodents were bustling about, while the slave rodents were gathered under a bell tower, working under the overseers’ whips. The assessing rodents scuttled back and forth, trying to push their performance metrics to the highest levels, exerting maximum effort from the slave rodents.
The elite rodent forces, after eating, resupplying, and fighting over supplies, slowly formed into lines and crawled out of the fortress, moving as slowly as snails.
Another burst of green light exploded at an entrance
