“Reforesting Campaign”

La Colline was undergoing a smooth reforestation.

One of World Tree's terminals produced via [Root Division] had been planted in the center of the hill. It was using [Scatter Seeds] there, so a tiny forest had already begun to appear. [Scatter Seeds] only made more treants that were the same race as the original, but they wouldn't be terminals for World Tree. The same was true if a terminal used [Root Division], which meant that the same limitations preventing World Tree from duplicating itself applied. The use of [Magnum Beneficium] via the terminal caused accelerated growth among the treants, and the terminal itself in the center had already become an elder camphor treant. Rare was also helping with the reforesting while testing out her [Plant Magic].

"This won't cause the soil to become barren, I hope. I wonder what happens to the nutrients in the ground."

If they needed organic matter from dead creatures, those would need to be procured from somewhere.

<As things are currently, that can be determined later. The city did have many humans living here, correct?>

Sugaru was right. Indeed, there were many former residents that had been laid to rest here beneath the earth.

As La Colline was being reforested, the ants who had arrived first were excavating a new nest underground while aerial soldiers patrolled overhead.

"With this many trees, we should implement more three-dimensional tactics. Unfortunately, our ants primarily operate on the ground, and the wasps are too big to make use of their mobility in forests. Perhaps we should produce more spiders."

<Before our next campaign occurs, it would be ideal to confirm all options at disposal.>

This was a great idea. With a proactive review, they could map out all the skill cooldowns now instead of worrying about them in the thick of things. They were currently in a temporary period of peace, so to speak, so this was the perfect time to perform such a review now.

"Let's do that, then. This was a large city, so we can cover it with an even larger forest. It would be best to have as many different types of monsters here as we can, so let's see what the Coleopteran Queen has to offer later."

While La Colline was being reforested, apparently some kind of rebel force had shown up at the royal capital. Since it seemed unlikely for NPCs to be able to communicate and organize overnight, the attackers must have been players who had read about the situation on social media. If they weren't die-once-and-that's-it sellsword NPCs, then it would be best to assume they'd keep coming indefinitely. Rare ordered low-level skeletons to be stationed around the capital's outer perimeter, and for adamantite soldiers to hunt down anyone who came within sight of the castle. During the day, the undead would be much weaker, so they would probably get taken down easily, but sunlight had no effect on the adamantite units.

"Back in Liebe, we had some of the transporter ants act as analysts to calculate the XP gains for each visitor… not that they were particularly suited for it, they just didn't have anything else to do. In any case, Sieg doesn't currently have anyone to perform that role under him, does he…"

While exploring the castle, they had found some kind of conference room. If there were any undead who still had brain functions left, it might make things smoother for them to take that room to do administrative work.

"I'll boost the INT for those maid and civil servant zombies that we had tamed while taking over the castle. Maybe INT- and MND-focused zombies will get stat-appropriate reincarnation paths if we use Philosopher's Stones on them. We've got a lot of leftover stones, after all, and as for the XP, well… The beneficiaries would be able to go out and earn more themselves. We're just investing in them upfront."

It didn't seem like a bad plan. Right now, her force's composition was starting to lean more towards insects, so it would be fine to strengthen some of the undead to keep things balanced. The players believed that she was an undead angel, after all.

"All right, I'm going to jump over to the castle quick. Take care of things here."

<I shall. Please be careful.>

＊

Overall, Rare's day was spent optimizing her forces in this manner.

She was a little bit worried about whether Blanc's group would have any problems with their offensive, but since she had received no correspondence from the Kenzaki traveling with them, that probably meant there wasn't anything worth noting. She was interested in the town where Kerry's group was staying, but that invasion was mainly happening only at night. That meant attacks should begin occurring right around now, as dusk approached. She would check in with them later after things had settled down.

Rare sat down on the royal castle's modified throne (now two sizes bigger!) to think about tomorrow. The defenses for the capital were more or less settled. The players who would be attacking during the day weren't a threat; she wouldn't even need to use adamantite soldiers—with enough undead, it would be easy to force them to retreat. Although, since there was no penalty for dying during this event, they might just keep pushing even if they would use up their lives.

Regarding the capital's defenses, not only were the civil servants left in charge of the new city-style dungeon, their INT was also increased with XP, and they were given Philosopher's Stones in order to reincarnate into [Wights]. The two reincarnation choices this time were that and revenant. Since all of the zombies had the same INT, Rare couldn't tell which one was supposed to be the "normal" route. On the other side, all the maid zombies reincarnated into revenants. It would have been fine for them all to be wights, but Rare was simply curious if every reincarnation path led to a unique form and wanted to see it for herself. The wights were then put in charge of the city, while the revenants managed the castle. And right now, the maid revenants were serving her tea.

"Just the other day, this tea was reserved for the lips of royalty and nobility. Now, I'm the only one who consumes it. As long as it stores well, that isn't an issue, of course."

"We have a magic item that preserves objects stored within it for long periods of time, so it should be of little concern."

One of the maids responded to what Rare had said to herself. It had startled her at first to hear an undead speaking, but Deas and Sieg were already doing it so feeling that way seemed silly.

"Good to hear. All right, what to do tomorrow… There are two directions we can go to find towns to crash."

Rare sank into thought while scanning over the map of the kingdom that came with the castle. She was able to give her first map to Blanc because they had found this one. From what they could see, the two maps were nearly the same.

There was always the option of just going to help Blanc out. However, these activities were always more fun when accomplishing them yourself. Helping was good and all, but if Rare ended up leading the effort then she would be overstepping. It was hard to figure out the right balance.

"I already lent her a Kenzaki too…"

Taking a sip of her tea, Rare's eyes dropped back down to the map. To be honest, this setup was pretty awkward. Normally, work like this should have taken place in the audience chamber instead. After finding a table to put the map on, the maid revenants then used a wagon to haul all the tea implements over here. If they were going to go through all this trouble, it would have been better to just use her office in the first place. The chair here was too big, too. However, going back and forth between here and the office would take too much time, which was why she ordered the maids to bring everything here. Yes, from a purely rational standpoint, the office was just too far away, so Rare should just trust in her past decisions.

While thinking of all this nonsense, a friend chat arrived.

<Evenin'! Is now a good time?>

It was Blanc. Rare fixed her posture.

<Of course. You can contact me at any time. What is it?>

<I saw on the forums! Congrats! You nailed it!>

What was she talking about? They had only split up last night, and nothing particularly noteworthy had occurred since then. Neither had Rare made any conspicuous moves that would merit a new forum post. Just started on the new dungeon in the royal capital.

<Um, thanks? I honestly have no idea what you're talking about, though.>

<Oh you! Didn't you conquer Hiers? It's all over the forums! The six major countries are down to five now!>

What the heck?

Rare had indeed seized control of the royal capital in addition to the most prominent trade cities in the country. Two of the border towns had also fallen in the process, and Blanc herself had taken out two more towns. However, the royal family had skipped town, and there were other cities that hadn't been conquered yet. While it was true that the head of the kingdom had been cut off, from a systemic perspective that shouldn't have been enough to declare the entire region lost.

<What you just said… When did that happen? The five countries thing, I mean.>

<Uhhh… I think today, maybe sometime in the evening in-game? Why don't you check forums if wanna know more? It'd be faster to read threads for yourself, right? All saw was "Hiers is gone!" thread titles.>

<Yes, you're right. In any case, thanks for the heads up. I'll look into it more myself. I'm really glad we… became friends, Blanc. It's great that we can keep each other informed like this.>

<Really?! That makes me happy too! Ehehe~! I'm just glad I could be useful! Ah, it's getting dark, so about to hit, lemme see, a town named "Ernstthal." I'll call you again once done!>

<Good luck. If things get bad, don't wait until it's over; you can contact me right away.>

Since Kenzaki was with her, nothing should get too bad, at least.

<Thanks! Okay, talk to you later!>

"Phew… All right."

Rare's actions had led to the destruction of the Kingdom of Hiers. If this were true, that would be fine. However, she was concerned about how the royal family had gotten away virtually unharmed. Plus, the timing announcing this being this evening and not yesterday late at night was suspicious. Maybe they simply wanted to make sure more players saw the announcement, though.

"All right, time to hit the forums. I need to do some digging. Follow all the threads about the destruction of Hiers… By tracing the sources back, can I figure out when the first mention was posted?"