Chapter 584 Steps Toward Alliance

To that end, whenever I saw a mighty lionkin who was already in the level 40s or above, I steered clear, letting my fodder- I mean my allies deal with them. If I got the drop on a level 40 lionkin, chances were on my side, but I saw no reason to take such risks when the weaker lionkin were so abundant and presented me with an amazing amount of XP after their slaying.

There were times when despite my precautions, I found myself targeted by multiple wyvern-riding lionkins. In those instances, BunBun's aerial maneuvers were assisted by my spell, which created thick fogs around us, reducing their visibility.

We gained precious seconds as such, letting us lose our pursuers, or having our allies rush to our rescue. Over time, they recognized my immense value as an aerial mage and treated me as their VIP who had to be protected.

I didn't quite understand why they didn't seem to have a single mage among their ranks, assuming it to be perhaps due to a lack of in this nation, perhaps they couldn't feed their children with the pricy concoction privileged humans favored so much.

However, later I would learn that it had to do with their pride as beasts once again. Racial classes akin to Blossom's Phantom Canine were highly favored over non-racial classes. Children who unlocked such a class made their parents happy and their ancestors proud.

Anyhow.

Once BunBun ran out of juice, meaning the duration of her spell ended, instead of ditching her for a fresh mount, I elected to join my girls on the ground and continue fighting there.

There was no point in having a battle harem made up of gorgeous and dangerous women if I couldn't observe them bathing in the blood of our enemies after slaying them masterfully.

The fight was long and grueling. So long in fact that I went on a second rodeo with BunBun because her ability was available again. But what mattered the most was that we came out victorious from the scuffle, and…

I glanced at my XP bar and excitement swelled in my heart.

'No.'

I declined to start right now because of what my mothers have told me.

The primordial dimension where I'll be taken upon starting the mission freezes in time as soon as I enter. However, according to them, once I start the mission, it's possible the Soul Records will take me to another place where time may or may not move, meaning I could go missing for years, although it was practically unheard of for such a long time to pass in Thalorind while one of them was undertaking their rank-up mission.

Back when Selene forced my hand with her backstabbing fire spell, I undertook it during combat and was lucky to get a mission where time waited for me patiently. If I wasn't so lucky, all my allies would've been slaughtered while Selene would've made it out unscathed. I didn't intend to repeat such a gamble now that I knew the risks involved.

Instead, I would start once we retired for the night, as that would surely happen very soon. If it took a longer time and morning came without my reappearance, my girls were instructed to bullshit their way through it.

To that end, I curbed my gleeful excitement toward meeting my two primordial mommies again after a few months of separation and focused on the current events.

"Kargrim! Long time no see, how have you been?" Vex chirped merrily while cleaning her bloody blade on the skin of a slain lionkin.

The towering behemoth of a bearkin trudged toward us lazily, and I could see numerous wounds adorn his body, accompanied by innumerable amount of javelins and other polearms sticking from his skin, making him look like a gigantic hedgehog.

Despite his bleeding from hundreds of wounds, he didn't seem to be worried in the slightest. Kargrim made it look like it was just another Tuesday for him.

"Red-Eyed Demon." He grunted in his deep, monstrous tone. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Sorry to interject, may we be given a brief rundown on your relationship?" I butted into the conversation rather rudely, but I was too curious to stay silent. Thankfully, neither of them seemed to take offense.

"The Red-Eyed Demon has been hunting lionkin for a long time… Sometimes we would find her bleeding profusely in an unconscious state next to a burning lionkin settlement with all of its inhabitants cruelly massacred. We nursed her back to health a few times."

"You've been helping her even before the lionkin started utilizing Ragnar's crafts?"

"Hehe, you find it strange, don't you?" Vex giggled before explaining, "Just one look at me told them I was no mutt of Alexios Valorian. Beastkin are only at war with the aristocrats and their loyal followers, they don't care much about the Vesper Consortium. We have no beef with each other."

Kargrim nodded in agreement.

It was Vex's turn to ask a question. "What are you doing, leading this resistance base?"

He sighed, "My lord and the other beastkin leaders have agreed that we can't openly oppose the lionkin due to our customs. What they're doing in attacking and seizing our lands is acceptable according to our book of laws due to what we call the 'right to conquer'. Tribes made up of apex predators and other mighty warrior races offer protection to weaker races, such as us bearkin protecting the rabbitkin and the dogkin protecting sheepkin.

Due to the lionkin's right to conquer, they're free to conquer the lands of their neighboring tribes, it's on us to protect ourselves. On the other hand, openly rebelling against them by forming alliances would break the laws of our confederation, making us outlaws."

This information answered my earlier confusion about why the different beastkin tribes were forming the 'resistance' while on the surface they were defending their lands without working with others.

"What was it about a reward for your help? What do you want?" Kargrim asked wryly, visibly not trusting Vex at all.

"Can I take it from here?" I asked, receiving a merry nod from Vex. "You're the diplomatic leader of the mission, future hubby. Go ahead."

I turned toward Kargrim and began. "There's a very high possibility of the Vesper Consortium going into full-blown war against the Greenvale duke and his vassals. We want you to help us out in the conflict."

"Sigh…" The bearkin sighed tiredly once again, but he was visibly overjoyed when he realized he would have to deal with me and not Vex. It was as if merely conversing with this eccentric woman depleted his energy reserves faster than his hundreds of open wounds did.

"We would never say no to wreaking havoc in Greenvale, but you should know that even if we were to be open to such an idea, we're in no position to do anything of that scale before dealing with the lionkin.

We've set up our base of operations on their borders intending to assault a few of their cities before retreating deep into allied lands… Sadly. They seemed to sniff us out before we could mount even a single assault."

"Are you intending to abort the mission?" I asked curiously.

He mused silently for a few seconds before responding, "No. We'll sleep to regain our lost energy and destroy at least one city of theirs before retreating. Our pride wouldn't allow us to do otherwise."

"I see, as a gesture of goodwill, we would like to not only participate in tomorrow's events but also offer an armory of human-made tools of war." Read new chapters at My Virtual Library Empire

In my opinion, it was on us to earn their favor in order to receive their help.

Furthermore, two of my women wanted to slay lionkin while one of them, Blossom, also had her family currently enslaved by them.

Helping Kargrim and his resistance forces would not only put us one step closer to securing their help and thus succeeding in our given Consortium mission, but I could also use them to achieve my other goals.

My question received a positive reply, after which we were offered to spend the night in their barracks before heading out with them in the early morning, which we accepted.

Afterward, my ladies and I went to retire for the night, but Vex departed to check up on Ignis and Raika and also to travel back to the Vraven Kingdom so that she could stock her storage rings up with crossbows and the like, fulfilling my promise of arming the beastkin who were willing to use weapons.

And just like that, it was time to relax a bit before initiating my rank-up mission.