Chapter 32: The Brothers

In an area three kilometers away from the exit of the first layer which is also the entrance of the land infested with monsters that are masters of fire, the second layer, a camp is erected by the most powerful group of monsters in the forest. These individuals can take on goblins in their second racial evolution whilst just being in their first stage, they have advanced intelligence that has them able to equip spears made of metals not to mention their skin that has complete immunity to fire and high resistance to physical attack made them proudly grab this title and boast it to anyone in the second layer.

However, in an unprecedented turn of events, the harmonious environment of the monkey tribe that became the overlord of the great volcano of the five-pronged forest for a very long time was destroyed, causing the tribe to split in half. One faction is for the ones who have undying loyalty to the tribe leader, composed of the elderly and the scholars as well as the two elder brothers of the rebel army commanders.

The said faction are the ones who have a good understanding of the reason why the owner of the forest, the god of the undead removed the restriction and let all the monsters go wild and free. Unfortunately, the other faction which is composed of youngsters who were born in an era in which the monkey tribe reigned supreme in the second layer does not.

These young ones are not satisfied with the fact that their tribe is being conservative when dealing with a "puny" hero, their logic is simple "We are the strongest." this irrational thinking of theirs automatically puts anyone not within their race as inferior. This faction is mostly composed of newly conscripted soldiers and their leader is the two youngest of the tribe leader's children, the rebel faction however lacked an individual that can go against the leader of the conservative faction, thus they got banished from the volcano.

The reckless faction has planted spies in the rank of the conservative faction, but because of the friends-with-benefits relationship between the spider queen and the monkey tribe leader, any double spies they planted are like idiots who have banners in their hands saying "I am a spy, kill me." while thinking that they will not be caught.

Thus, after a day, the remaining connection of the rebels to their former tribe has been severed.

_Seems like Father want nothing to do with us from now on._

Such is the thought of the two youngest children of the monkey tribe leader, however, they are not worried at all, after all, it is not only their father who has a relationship with the spider queen, though the rebel leaders' ties with the arachnid are not that 'close' as their father, it was still a connection.

They will request or more accurately, buy information about their enemy. No matter how strong they are, it is not bad to know everything about their prey, right? Isn't it more satisfying to make the enemy despair as to why she is being read like an open book? If it's not for their bright fur that does not let them hide properly in the dark, then they will probably just rush into the settlement of the hero and collect information about her themselves.

It's not like the queen of the spiders has reasons to reject their offer, after all that woman is a very greedy one, and with their understanding of her, she will risk being killed by their father if it's for the resources she needed to strengthen her children. However, all of their so-called logic got splashed by cold water as they heard a rigged voice, it is a voice of mixed disappointment, anger, and fear as the owner of the voice, the spider queen rejected their offer.

"You stupid little ones rebelled against your father, my close friend and someone who engages in my pleasurable time, and yet you dare to ask for my assistance, to assist for something that I know you two did not think through properly? Yeah, I have information about that hero candidate, I even know who she's pursuing, but I have to reject your offer."

After that words, the spider that they are using as a communication catalyst ran away with its brisk legs without even batting an eye on the two leaders who have knitted brows, they look confused.

Finally, for the first time in their lives, they thought of something that might sound absurd to them, but now have some plausibility because of the rare rejection of their godmother. The spider queen rarely, if ever thinks of how the other side will react to her actions, after all, she is a neutral existence and will use anything to profit. Hell, she will even accept deals from the two opposing forces at the same time if it's to her liking to do so.

_Is that hero so strong to make our godmother think that not interfering in our conquest against her is what she deemed to be the best choice to preserve herself?_

This thought however is immediately dismissed from their minds as if it's just a little malfunction of their brains, after all, they are the strongest, or so they believe. Thus they decided that one week from now, they will have a final attempt in persuading the arachnid and regardless of whether she will agree or not, the rebels will attack and show the arrogant hero who is the strongest in the forest.

[Sophia's POV]

Spiders, spiders, and more spiders. Arachnids filled the trash bins of the residential area of my settlement. Some of them are rotting, some are still dripping with blood and some are still twitching their legs. The people of the residential area have carts with three wheels, one in the front and two in the back, this carts will be the transport method of the spider corpse as the residents will throw out the arachnids alongside the wooden bins, people assigned will then push the carts out of the settlement and then throw it in a pit.

I gulped at the sight of this process, this order of spider eradication is already ongoing for two days, and it's still not enough time to have them completely gone. It's fine if the spiders have different colors, but the problem is, all of them have the color white, which is a giveaway that they are in the same kin, the kin of the Spider Queen.

Beads of sweat trickled down my forehead as I stared intently into a cart vanishing towards the entrance of the cave.

"I feel naked."

My brows clenched as I contacted Kabuto that is still spying on the campsite of the monkeys.

"Master."

A solemn voice rang out into my ear, it was Kabuto still in his stealth mode.

"Any updates about the spider queen?"

I am not in any mood to lighten the atmosphere, thus in a also serious tone, I asked him the most crucial question for my invasion.

"Master, the spiders in the camp of the monkeys already retreated into hiding because the leaders of the rebel group already annoying their mother. However, the monkey rebel leaders are yet to give up, thus they decided that in seven days, the other leader will go to the cave of their godmother and ask for her assistance personally."

I then nodded, walking deeper into the settlement as I continue to ask.

"Are you sure?"

"Master, yes I am."

I then sighed, that spider queen, I cannot get a hold of her, she said she was neutral and then retracted her spider into the camp of her godchildren, but did not make her spiders here in my settlement retreat.

What in the world does that mean?

I just shook my head as I uttered my final question.

"Location?"

"Master, according to the conversation between the sibling, the cave of the spider queen is located on the latter part of the first layer."

I then nodded, smiling towards the performance of my subordinate, he is the first person under my command to get scolded like mad because he already had a working emotion and got swept by it. But now, he is more than capable of suppressing it.

"I see, good job, alert me immediately when the other sibling departs."

With my last order and Kabuto's "Understood", the communication got cut off as I finally can relax a little. Ugh, being aware that someone is watching me while taking a bath makes my skin crawl to no end, but still it's not like I did not have my countermeasures against her, if push comes to shove, I will rely on my not-so-reliable analysis of her and attack her with all I got while my subordinates are fighting the monkeys.

Though, of course, I don't want that to happen.

I sighed once again as I finally reached my destination, my newly refurbished room.

[You say "refurbished", but only the table and the bed changed. And the hammock makes it asymmetrical]

Yeah, the stone table and stone chair that serves as my desk got chiseled and became a wooden one, in the other corner of the very spacious room is a bed rack with a palm-woven mat, damn I miss those mats. The other side of the room has a hammock woven with palm and rattan as ropes, there is also a giant cabinet that will soon be my wardrobe, though there is nothing in there as of the moment because of the lack of fabric we can experiment on.

I immediately went on the hammock and jumped on it as I made an "Ahh~" sound while leaning my head into my two little palms.

That's right, I did not sleep for two straights day, and the preparation is doing great, so I might as well close my eyes a little...ZZZzZZZZzZ...

[You said you miss those palm woven mats, but you fall asleep on a hammock?]

Once I woke up I noticed that the people in my cave are already taking their breaks and are having lunch.

What? Did I spell that long?

[It's already twelve.]

Oh... Eleven Hours huh? That's not very long for a person who did not sleep for two straight days, but still, I have unlimited stamina so sleeping is not a necessity anymore but rather just a pleasure I cannot remove from my system.

Thinking so, I immediately continued preparing for the war that I will soon start, I went into the weapon crafting area and saw that the arrow supply of Lyra is being increased. Lyra has a shocking arrow consumption rate as she uses two or three arrows every shot, this is to abuse her much bigger and sturdier hand as well as to maximize the effects of her curses.

Sometimes it's also so that she will have a chance that an appropriate curse will be inflicted on an enemy, you see for example, sometimes a burn curse will be inflicted on a blazing wolf, which will of course be negated. That's why she uses multiple arrows to not waste time correcting her mistakes.

The quantity they are making is huge because of that. But I can't help but be a little disappointed because she is the only one who can use all of it, after all, I only have 300 soldiers, two hundred of which are the light infantry goblins and the one hundred are the X-factor, heavy goat cavalry. This is the balance I can make with my meager amount of soldiers and cutting the infantry further will create an imbalance, because the heavy cavalry will be the main force and the infantry will be the one to lighten the load of my goats.

Plus the monkeys have six hundred soldiers not including the monkey rebel leaders, so yeah, I will not get myself into a disadvantage further by clumsily cutting off my melee people.

Going back, that's probably the weakness of her magic, but hey, she got a way around it, so it's fine. I don't want to disturb the crafters of the arrows, thus with a "Good Job", I left their area and went onto my next destination, the clearing I commanded them to make.

[You consume trees like mad.]

Eh... Well, we don't need any forest conservation here, and I mean, I am not about to go to war and think about those things.

Me and [Guide] conversed as such as I went out of the cave while saying hi to the pale-faced goblins who are always working hard for me and went to the clearing, the clearing is now finally done with matching compressed soil with gravel so that it will not get muddy that easily when raining, this also makes it so that it will not leave footprints when a soldier stepped on it.

All of the ten units I created are in the clearing engaging in a mini battle royale between units as they entangle amongst themselves in a messy-looking yet extremely organized assault-retreat repeat motion with wooden sticks that got their stone spearhead removed.

"Master."

The commander, Bernardo stood by my side.

"Quite efficient, I must say."

I can tell that they are already in sync, the twenty men teams know who their teammates and enemies are, knows how to attack and retreat, they are also quite proficient with their weapon handling.

"Must be because of the last invasion, My Lady."

I then nodded while putting my thumbs up and with a "Keep up the good work." I left the clearing and then went to the supplies. The supplies are not inside, that's the food storage room.

Anyway, here, there are carts in rows, the vast majority are empty but some already have baskets after baskets of dried-up wolf meat, some fruits that are not easily perishable. There are also reserve leather armor and spears alongside carts specially set aside for soldier transportation. And then there are also heavy-duty carts that are heavier than the rest, these carts have a proper casing on them for this will be the transport means of the landmines that me and Ellie created.

Oh and of course, I also set aside some carts, there are about five of them and I will use them for the "Great Surprise".

[More like a shit move.]

I ignored the creepy voice inside my head as I brooded over things.

In Seven Days, when the monkeys go to the spider queen's lair, the flames of war will burn.