Rodrick Castle (Part 2)

--- IronSpark Conference Room

The conference room was dimly lit and even had black walls on the four corners of the room. Sound barriers and other miscellaneous stuff that keeps everything that happens in this room was placed all around, making the room look like a small fortress.

There were fifteen men in black gathered around a long table. In the middle of the room was Rodrick, who was still in his power ranger suit.

"Sir, when are we moving out?" Jin, who was one of the men gathered here, was the first one to speak out his thoughts.

"We're heading out immediately. But before that, I am going to assign one of you to stay at my office and protect my daughter. Agent Jin, I will entrust this job to you. Everyone else, move out!" After shouting, Rodrick snapped his fingers and a blue glow covered him and the fourteen men in black, teleporting them to the IronSpark entrance.

The moment everyone left, Jin switched the lights on and stayed in the conference room. He just sat down on one of the chairs and got lost in his thoughts.

"Ever since the Cataclysm until now, I have been working under Sir Rodrick. Who would have thought that a simple convenience store owner and a delivery boy like me ends up doing this kind of stuff." Jin had a smile on his face as he reminisced about the past.

...

After the two years of change, the Cataclysm and Rejuvenation, the leading survivors like Rodrick gathered together to discuss how they will live on in the newly changed Earth. But among all of the survivors, only half of them agreed to work together. The other half went on their own ways but they did not completely cut off their ties with the rest of the survivors.

In two months time, after exploring the lands, waters, and the skies, everyone realized and accepted to themselves that they were now living in a new world. Everything that was known about Earth was placed at the back of their minds, may it be the seven continents, different countries, and whatever else there is.

Then after two weeks passed since then, some survivors who were politicians from the past debated whether they should start a new kind of government or not. In the end, half of the survivors agreed and the other half disagreed, creating a great divide among the survivors.

The one who decided to have a government of their own called themselves the Alliance. Those who did not want to do so called themselves the Adventurers.

A month later, after another exploration event that the Alliance and Adventurers did, they decided to name the unfamiliar and strange places. One of them was the Iron Domain, which was where everyone found iron-like materials that they turned into different kinds of technological stuff.

The Iron Domain was not a place for the weak. Monsters roamed throughout the place and portals keeps popping out at random intervals every day. But due to the precious materials here, adventurers swarmed the place just to get some loot, selling it to the Alliance afterwards. In turn, the Alliance gives the adventurers the things they need to survive like weapons and medicine.

And among all of the adventurers in the Iron Domain, the one who is known to be the strongest, richest, and wisest of all of them is Rodrick. Due to this, the adventurers persuaded him to set up some kind of headquarters for the adventurers. In the end, Rodrick agreed and built the IronSpark Center by asking the help of every adventurer and even asked some people from the Alliance to help.

...

--- Sector III, Iron Domain

The place was filled with colorful vines that covered the entire area. The remnants of buildings had gigantic flowers dangling on them, and on the very center of the place, a gigantic purple bulb was growing out of the ground.

Truth be told, every plant that can be seen around the place was just a part of the gigantic purple bulb. Since this was the case, Rodrick named it as the Vineyard Monster, or Vineyard for short.

...

Right now, there were a lot of people gathered at the place, destroying every plant they see. Some hacked with their swords, chainsaws, and whatever else that can be used for cutting.

Just as this was happening, Rodrick and his group of agents arrived at the scene and each of them were riding a black motorcycle.

"Everyone! Tell me the strengths and weaknesses of the Vineyard!" Rodrick shouted. His power ranger costume had a voice amplifier attached to it so everyone in the area heard him.

"It is immune to anything besides cutting! It can regenerate the plants we cut down! It's weakness is that every plant it produces can be turned into whatever we want!"

Instead of having a serious vibe, everyone had wide smiles on their faces and wondered what they were going to do after they collect the vines or flowers they cut down. It can be literally turned into anything!

Food, clothes, weapons, technology, medicine, and whatever else there was that comes to mind. But the only problem was that, one of these days, they have to kill the Vineyard since it was completely hell bent on spreading across the entire Iron Domain.

The reason why Rodrick always kept watch of the Vineyard was because it was growing too fast. Even though adventurers kept cutting the plants day by day, it always grew. So this time around, he decided to call the S Rank adventurers and see if they can manage to cut down every plant that was spreading at Sector III and IV. As for the purple bulb, even Rodrick was at a loss how they could destroy or cut down such a gigantic plant.

"Boss, I don't get it. Why do we have to stop this luxury farming soon?" One of the agents with Rodrick asked him. Wouldn't everyone benefit from the Vineyard if they allow it to just grow rampantly all throughout the Iron Domain?

"Because there are too many factors we should consider besides the luxury it gives. First, we don't know what happens if its growth reaches a certain stage. Second, it might be secretly breeding monsters in that purple bulb. Third, we cannot afford to lose everything we worked for in the Iron Domain just because of this weird plant." Rodrick said calmly.

...

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!!!"

Even though Rodrick looked like the most dependable adventurer there was, he was actually the exact opposite. Just because of a stroke of luck during the past, during the exploration stuff that happened, he stumbled upon a weird corpse.

The weird corpse looked like a human-sized smurf and the moment Rodrick got close to it, it suddenly moved and entered his body, as if it was just a ghost.

After that happened, he discovered some kind of power welling up in him. It was as if he was Ironman or something. Tapping his chest, he suddenly got covered in a blue jumpsuit. He discovered later on that the blue jumpsuit's design could be changed and it gave him increased power and speed.

Besides the blue jumpsuit, he discovered that he can telepathically talk to people, jump really high, consume anything edible or inedible without gaining weight, and see the weaknesses of the monsters or people he was fighting.

The downside to this was a bit disturbing. Every hair on his body is gone. The reason why he still had eyebrows and eyelids was because he asked a cosmetic expert to paint on his face.

"I mustn't tell anyone about this. If I do so, those bastards from the Alliance may kidnap me and turn me into a guinea pig. No matter what happens, I must keep the promise I made to Maria and Jack."

After getting lost in his own thoughts, Rodrick commanded his agents to stop as he got of his motorcycle. They were already fifteen meters away from the purple bulb.

"Are the S Class adventurers here yet? They are going to miss out on the loot if they keep dawdling." One of the agents said as he and the rest went to work, cutting down some of the thicker vines and some random flowers.

The moment Rodrick was about to do the same, he first glanced at the purple bulb. Just as he thought it was the same as usual, he saw a small girl sitting on one of the leaves of the purple bulb. She looked at him and smiled as she enjoyed eating a red apple.

"Wait! There's someone over there!" Rodrick shouted, getting the attention of the agents.

But the moment the agents looked at where Rodrick was looking at, they did not see anything unusual.

"Boss! Are you sure you've taken your medication after lunch?" One of the agents asked Rodrick since they all knew that Rodrick was taking in some medicine. They did not know why, but they thought it was some kind of supplement to help their boss focus.

"Never mind. And for the record, I did take in my meds." Rodrick gestured everyone to get back to work. But he was pretty sure he saw someone sitting on the bulb's leaves. As for the medicine he was taking, it was just some random flavored candy he enjoyed eating. For some reason, it always looked like medicinal pills.

Just as Rodrick was about to start cutting himself, he heard someone whispering to him. It was a gentle whisper of a girl.

"Thank you for helping me nurture her. In return, I promise to turn all of you into nutrients for the soil and turn this desolate wasteland into a blooming forest."

"What..."

Rodrick almost pissed in his power ranger costume. He was a bit smart, so connecting what that whisper told him and what everyone was doing so far, he started to sweat and panic.

"Cutting the plants helps this purple bulb grow? Fuck! And I just had to call the S Rank adventurers!!! FUUUUUUUUUCCCKKKKK!!!"

Rodrick suddenly cursed loudly, causing everyone to stop whatever they were doing, may it be the agents or the adventurers in the area.

"Everyone, stop whatever you are doing! I am calling off the Vineyard operation!" Rodrick shouted but almost everyone was displeased, except his agents.

"Oh come on! Don't tell me you want to monopolize this entire treasure to yourself!"

"Are you really Sir Rodrick?"

"Fuck off mate. You may be the one leading us, but you ain't got the right to stop us from doing what we want!"

"Shameless bastard!"

Hearing all of these revolting shouts targeting him, Rodrick frowned and wondered if the whisper he heard was all in his imagination.

"Fine, do what you want! Don't expect me to save all of your asses when shit goes down." Rodrick shouted furiously and called his agents as they left and went back to IronSpark Center.

"Boss! What's wrong?" One of his agents asked because just like the adventurers, they did not know why Rodrick said all of that earlier.

"We're leaving the Iron Domain!" Rodrick said resolutely since he feared what was about to happen. He still cannot put the whisper's threat at the back of his mind even though it was just a possibility.