The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor

?Volume 50 Chapter 2 — A Brief Vacation

Just a single day of honey-sweet holiday!

Yurin, Pale, Zephyr and the rest of the adventuring party decided to spend the whole night making merry. Weed created a massive bonfire that was about as tall as a five-storey building.

“I say, fire is the most fun thing to play with.”

As there was no one around to lecture them about safety issues, they built a tower out of firewood and let the flame grow high. Under the shining stars in the night sky, Weed and his companions idled away, watching their building-sized bonfire that was blazing on furiously.

“It would be better to use those fat ones for baits on your rod; there are a lot of large fish here.”

Zephyr was teaching Yurin how to fish by night.

“Slow down and relax. Fishing is all about enjoying the wait, the thrill of anticipation, and the silence around you.”

Cast the fishing rod, wait for a fish to come, and hook it up. As there was a wide variety of sea creatures living in the coral reefs, many different species of fish could be caught. Not only were they delicious when roasted over Weed’s bonfire, but catching them also provided an excellent way of improving the proficiency of the Fishing skill and earn some extra stats.

“On a day like this, I would love to go on a fishing trip.”

Zephyr closed his eyes while feeling the cool sea breeze blow towards him. In the middle of the usual hustle and bustle of daily life, these occasional moments of peaceful contentment were precious beyond words.

‘Travelling together with a person who could be my wife someday…’

Zephyr opened his eyes again and turned to look at his side, with a smile on his handsome face. Yurin had mixed something in her paint box and was now pouring the content into the sea.

“What are you doing?”

“Fishing.”

“What?”

“There’s Poison Making skill as part of the profession skills for a painter, you see.”

Yurin emptied the entire paint box of toxic liquid into the sea. After a short while, the surface was thick with the bodies of hundreds of fish floating limply.

“They wouldn’t be completely dead because of my low skill proficiency! We’ll need to catch them before they recover and flee.”

“But, the romance, the art of waiting in fishing…!”

“Hurry up and move!”

Zephyr had to roll up his trousers to the knees to pick up the fish. It was definitely far more effective than catching fish one by one using a rod.

“Lalala…”

Yurin was humming merrily as she collected all the fish.

“Golgolgol.”

“Heheheh!”

Irene, who was fond of animals, cooked the fish in the bonfire and fed them to Gumini, Nile and White Tiger.

“The fish taste nice. Golgol.”

“Wild fish is the best.”

Gumini was sprinkling some golden dust on top of the fish before having them as it was to his liking.

“It’s so lonely…”

Meanwhile, Pale was wandering around the seaside alone. So far as he was concerned, it was as lonesome a night as any. But when he took a look back at the bonfire around which Weed and his company was sitting, he found some familiar faces that hadn’t been there before.

“Huh…?”

Hwaryeong, Bellot, Seechwi, Maylon, Seasoned Crab and Python… Some of them were old friends while the others had been companions in recent hunting adventures, and they had all freshly arrived to join Weed and the others. After Weed’s vacation was broadcast on TV, they expressed their regret for not having come with him, and thus he used Time Sculpting skill again to bring them to this place. But despite the presence of all those people, Pale’s eyes only found Maylon’s face.

“Ahh…!”

Pale rushed towards her, his eyes streaming. Maylon, while waiting for the fish to be cooked, suddenly found herself tightly locked in the arms of Pale who was bawling like a baby.

Romuna shook her head.

“One would think he’s reunited with a long-lost family member, looking at him like this.”

Surka agreed lightly.

“I know. And they had breakfast together just this morning.”

***

“Bring all the liquors over here! We don’t have time to take out all those crates so just keep your carriages there for now.”’

Mapan was making preparations for the festival in the Garnav Plain together with the merchants from the Northern Regions who had been urgently summoned. The festival that was to be held was of such a scale that it was needed to provide enough food and enjoyment for at least a hundred million people. Various corporations approached Mapan voluntarily once they caught the smell of profit.

“I’m from LG Electronics. Our company is hoping to promote our products like refrigerators, washing machines and television sets; is there any way we could make some negotiation to that end?”

Mapan gave out a light sigh, heaving his great belly.

“Well, we are hosting a sacred festival here, so naturally we need a lot of aid from many different sources…”

“Of course, we are willing to pay some… hum, street tax.”

“Ahem-hem! Street tax! Why? Such wording makes it sound like we are extorting money from your companies. Is it what you think of it?”

“Oh. My apologies; it was just a slip of my tongue…”

“We will accept some donation, however.”

“…?”

Samsung, LG, Hyundai and other IT groups from China and the US… Mapan collected a massive amount of sponsorship funds from these companies in return for providing special promotion booths for them. This money in turn was generously spent over the whole Versailles Continent.

“We need more beer, side dishes, and every edible kind of local specialties from every region.”

“But… a lot of those specialties need to be cooked properly first.”

“We’ll hire any number of professional chefs as necessary.”

“Can… can we really do that?”

The resulting expense was so colossal it made even the merchants of the Mapan’s trading company jump from their seats in alarm; as they needed to feed a hundred million people for at least a few days, the cost involved had to be astronomical as well. In addition to a portion of the Arpen Kingdom’s budget and the sponsorship from the corporations, even some of Mapan Store’s own wealth was invested in this particular event.

“This is the special mission given to us by Weed-nim himself.”

“Yes! understood, sir!”

Thus they started making orders and commissions in the message board of every community website for the merchants in the North and Central Continents in Royal Road, which meant that simply an enormous amount of food products were to be collected in one place.

As it was not something they had to keep secret, merchants would talk eagerly about this big event whenever they met each other.

“A festival of an unprecedented scale… I’m just in awe at the resourcefulness and drive of Weed-nim and the Mapan Store to have made such an event possible. Rumor has it that the number of carriages alone that are bringing food from across the entire continent is about ten millions.”

“Yes, it would have been quite impossible if not for Weed-nim’s influence and quick decision-making.”

“Listen up, listen up!”

In every town square of every city including those in the Central Continent, stories about the great festival in the Garnav Plain were spreading.

A merchant user who was wearing a novice’s equipment butted in the conversation among a group of users.

“By the way, did you know that this festival is an event that is meant to be held in honor of all the users?”

“What?”

“It’s true: Weed-nim is spending such a generous amount of money for the users of the Arpen Kingdom, who have overcome so many difficulties together with him.”

“But I’ve heard that the users from the Central Continent are free to join as well?”

“Of course, Weed-nim didn’t set any restrictions as to who can come and enjoy the event. It is going to be a festival for everyone in Royal Road.”

“That’s the Weed-nim I know!”

Weed, spending a huge sum of money just for the enjoyment of common people! This information also started spreading in every city and every message board on the web.

- Hooray for Weed!

- War, hunt, destruction… these are some of the words every user of Royal Road would be familiar with. However, in case of the Arpen Kingdom, the most common and natural concepts are things like festivity, happiness and freedom.

- Kyaah . And Weed-nim himself would be as broke as a stray dog if he loses the coming battle. What an amazingly broad-minded man!

- I guess this is the kind of world Weed-nim wishes to build for everyone one day.

- I’ve always criticized the Grass Porridge Cult, but… I think now I can see why so many people take sides with Weed-nim.

The public sentiment was absolutely in favor of Weed.

- Did you see how everyone in the Garnav Pain welcomed those users who died while fighting the Haven Imperial army in Shelgium? That was such a touching moment it brought tears to my eyes.

- Would there be any better feeling than having your effort and hardship acknowledged? I wish my boss was like Weed-nim.

- Think about Morata and Puhol Water Park; it’s obvious that Weed-nim’s many accomplishments are not only made of great adventures and hunting expeditions. It can be said that a significant portion of the happiness the Royal Road’s Northern users enjoy today is the result of Weed-nim’s hard work.

- This kind of endeavor is something that is not possible without having a deep affection for the people; hosting the largest festival in history right before the war, just for the enjoyment of everyone who joins!

- Wow, a festival… Let’s all go and have fun!

The users from the Northern and Central Continents, and even some from the Eastern regions including the Rosenheim Kingdom, started heading towards the Garnav Plain in a hurry. The popularity and reputation of Weed who was holding this massive event were at their peak.

“I didn’t expect things would go so well. Weed-nim’s clever tricks are truly capable of changing the course of History itself!”

Even Mapan who was in the Garnav Plain from early on hadn’t predicted that the reaction from the public would be so explosive.

“The Poisonous Mushroom Porridge squad is here!”

“Welcome, everyone!”

Whenever there was a big group of visitors newly arriving in the Plain, loud cheers and applauds resounded. The festival, whose purpose was to empty the pockets of every user gathered in the place, caused wild excitement from the crowd at every moment. As there were still many things that had not been prepared on the second day in the Garnav Plain, people voluntarily stepped forward to help cook the food, build the stages, and even set up the tents.

‘Weed-nim said he will hold a festival every year like this if he wins a victory in the coming war. Of such a scale that it will excite the whole Versailles Continent, no less. That would be some sight to behold.’

Witnessing how this festival in the Garnav Plain would improve every year would be something to look forward to in itself, not to mention the astronomical profits they would be able to make during each event. The margin from selling the staggering amount of food they had massively invested into would be enough to bring forth further prosperity to the Arpen Kingdom.

In the meantime, Mapan had to deal with some giant merchant groups from the Central Continent as well, which were all under powerful influence of the Hermes Guild. Although the Mapan Store also boasted high influence on the market and traded almost any item in Royal Road, in terms of the sheer amount of capital it couldn’t compare with those large merchant groups.

“We are from a guild of merchants trading brewage in the Britten Region. We are going to sell high-quality liquors here.”

“What would be the price range?”

“At least 300 gold for each bottle.”

Mapan and the head of the merchant’s guild caught each other’s eyes.

‘This little thief… he’s looking to take this opportunity to rake it in.’

‘*Gasp*. That stare. He must have sensed my intention already.’

Mapan spoke in a low voice.

“This festival is for everyone’s enjoyment. Lower your prices.”

“Excuse me? Isn’t the price of an item something that is decided by the free will of the market? When there’s a lot of demand, naturally those who supply the desired item can raise its price.”

“Look, we both know what’s really going on here so just throw away your pretense and stop trying to rip people off. Are you really going to keep doing your business like this?”

“…”

“Make an honest living for a change. Seriously.”

“Al, alright.”

Mapan had no reason to flinch from the delegates of those big Central Continent merchant groups. No matter how wealthy they were the operation of any merchant group was based on dealings and spending made by common users. The influence of the Mapan Store had grown with the expansion of Morata until it reached across the whole Northern regions, and after the store was assigned the task of conducting this festival it was gaining even more power, so much so that it could now affect the entire business world of the continent. The heads of the merchant groups of the Central Continent only had the Hermes Guild to direct their anger to.

“God damn it! What on earth is the Hermes Guild doing at this time?”

“Those guys are good for nothing except when they’re taking some lands for themselves. After all the money we have laid on their feet, and now what have they done for us in return?”

Mapan’s tasks also included assigning the business area to each merchants group; if the merchants got greedy and started doing their business in a disorderly manner, it could potentially ruin the fun of the festival.

On the second day in the Garnav Plain, the minstrels began to sing and the dancers began to dance as early as in the midday.

“Lalala. Lalala. Lalalalalala…”

Whenever the musician ladies played their instruments, the bonfire that had been lit since the night before swayed and danced. Beautiful elven girls ambled past, which drew much admiration from the surrounding crowd.

“Wooooow.”

“They’re so pretty. Where did they come from?”

Some brave men struck a conversation with them.

“May I ask where you are from?”

“We’re from the Elven Alpine Club.”

“Ahh. That famous guild…!”

One of the strongest guilds of the elf race, the elf hunters of that guild learned to embrace the essence of the forest as they perfected their skills. They became the brave warriors who were permitted to hunt in the Dragon Mountains, and a video showing the sight of dozens of elves simultaneously rushing up the face of the mountain in a hiking event was hugely popular among the users.

“Wow… aren’t they the members of the Black Lion Guild over there? If I remember correctly this is the first time they’ve joined a public event ever since the guild lost its power.”

“There’s Roam from the Roam Guild and Halden-nim, the warrior of Garakon as well.”

“Already there are so many famous people arriving!”

Despite the fact that it was only the second day, the top-ranking users from the Central Continent were making their first appearances. The war of the prestigious guilds, and the conquest of the Haven Empire — even for those famed users who had been leading a quiet life, this decisive battle in the Garnav plain sounded too intriguing to miss.

As Mapan was working busily, a whisper was sent to him.

- Weed: Mapan-nim,

“Yes. Weed-nim.”

Mapan responded in a quiet voice, as any conversation between them had a possibility of having to be kept out of hearing from other people.

- Weed: I believe things are going well?

“I’m having my men make every possible preparation. The souvenirs are being sold quite well, too.

- Weed: And the profit we are making?

“The gain is about seventeen times the production cost, but since the other items are so cheap there have been few complaints.”

- Weed: Remember, when conducting this event you need to have a proper mindset as if you are going to do a whole year’s worth of business within these few days. Whether we win or lose, this is one opportunity the like of which we will never encounter for the rest of our lives.

“I shall do my best. I have already checked on some lands we could buy with the money we’ll make after this is over.”

- Weed: huhuhuhuhu.

“Kyakyakyakyakyaaat!”

The partnership between Mapan and Weed was like that of a crocodile and a crocodile bird.

- Weed: I know you are busy, but there’s something more in addition to the festival that you need to prepare.

“Your wish is my command.”

- Weed: You need to organize some users and make a lot of super-sized statues. Just as when we built a pyramid in the Rosenheim Kingdom.

“Statues?”

- Weed: Yes, the bigger and the more they are the better. About five times the size of Binryong — no, maybe even ten times.

Mapan’s brain was working rapidly. There was always a specific reason when Weed made this kind of request.

“Could I ask why you need them in more detail? It’ll help me to make preparations if I know their exact purpose.”

- Weed: Those statues will join our fight against the Haven Empire.

Sculptural Life Bestowal!

Mapan couldn’t repress his surprise when he realized what that meant.

“But that way it will result in a decrease in your level. Even if we win the battle, wouldn’t the cost be too much? Giving life to just a hundred sculptures would already be… and if we lose the war by any chance, there would be no way to recover that loss.”

Weed’s colleagues had a rough idea about the penalties of using the special sculpting skills. In case of Sculptural Life Bestowal, it wasn’t a skill that could be used without any restraints as it caused the reduction in the user’s level in exchange for creating a powerful servant. Should they get defeated in the coming battle and lose all the sculptural lifeforms, they would have to suffer a huge damage that couldn’t be undone.

‘Why would Weed-nim make such a reckless move?”

Even if those living sculptures could be of some help during the fight against the empire, in the current circumstances it was simply impossible to change the outcome of the war with a handful of statues.

As Mapan was about to persuade Weed out of his plan, Weed sent another whisper message.

- Weed: It’s not me who’s going to bestow life on them. There’s another person and I’m currently working on making him do it.

Mapan immediately guessed who that might be.

“You can’t mean… Geihar von Arpen?”

- Weed: Huhuhu. I’ll have to make every use out of every person I can manipulate.

“Kya-ha, indeed, there’s always more to learn from you when it comes to trickery.”

Geihar von Arpen, the Emperor! He was the first person in history to have united the Versailles Continent, but Weed was not one to just sit there and admire his impressive accomplishment.

‘He’s going to exploit this emperor to the limit…’

Reusing him in the war that would lead to the unification of the entire continent once again!

A big picture was completing itself in Mapan’s mind.

‘The users will build large statues in the Garnav Plain, and Emperor Geihar will bestow life on them in turn. Then the remaining question is how Weed-nim is going to bring him back… Oh, of course, he’s going to revive him with Sculpture Resurrection.’

One drawback of the Sculpture Resurrection skill was that there was no way to stop the revived person from refusing to help the user who brought them back and leaving. So, making the resurrected person use his own skill to give life to some sculptures would require a very close friendship, or a very good cause. In order to make this possible, Weed travelled back in time using his Travel Sculpting to get on the good side of the emperor while he was in the past. All these schemes were tied together like clockwork, making use of each of the special skills of sculpting in close coordination.

‘There is a high probability that it will work.’

Mapan could already imagine the resurrected Emperor Geihar von Arpen making large statues come to life for Weed; the giants and other colossal creatures standing hundreds of meters tall spouting their deadly breaths towards the troops of the Haven Empire.

“I will start making as many sculptures as possible right away. There are Northern users flocking to this place; I will make thousands of them if necessary, before the war begins.”

- Weed: That’s the spirit! You need to make all sorts of terrible monsters, including those that can fly.

“You mean things like Squashy Wriggler?”

- Weed: Correct. I’ll also try to send at least rough designs to you whenever I get some idea.

“I shall also prepare some artworks or phrases that praise Geihar’s achievements, so he would be more willing to help us. I could search through the history books in Morata’s Great Library to find out what food and drinks he was fond of in life and prepare some of them too.”

- Weed: This conversation is going as smoothly as silk.

“Kyakyakyakya!”

- Weed: And the labor costs…

“We could just give them some grass porridge. There’ll be tons of people who’d want to come and help anyway.”

- Weed: Marvellous!. At least mix an egg in each bowl, though; we shouldn’t leave anyone feeling mistreated.

Next day at sunrise, Weed announced to his companions briskly:

“Now that we all have had enough fun, I think it’s time to get to work.”

“What, after just one day?”

“Yes, I mean, just fooling around is fun and all for about ten, twenty minutes, but after that it just gets boring, don’t you think so?”

“…”

After all the hardships and ordeals they had had to endure through countless hunting expeditions and quests, he was now saying that one day of rest was quite enough.

Weed pointed at the sea in the far distance.

“In just a week, a great army of monsters will come invading from that sea.”

“How many would there be?”

Seasoned Crab, who had joined the company later with Maylon and the others, asked; having both earned some stats and enjoyed the beautiful scenery in such a fantastic place, he was quite content to lend his strength in the coming battle in return. He tended to enjoy a fight, and there was considerable fun to be had in knocking down the monsters together with Weed and his other reliable companions.

“You can pretty much assume that the sea over there will be fully covered by the monsters.”

“…What?”

“Yeah. Nothing but monsters as far as your eyes can see and even beyond the horizon. The entire depth of the sea will be packed with them, in fact.”

“…”

“The name given to the race of those monsters is Poratt. Just imagine sea serpents and you have a pretty good idea of them. They like to eat meat but they’ll devour anything on their way.”

“And their level?”

“It varies a lot. Here, I have brought a record about them from the Great Library in Morata. Their species also became extinct later.”

- An illustrated guide to extinct monsters written by pirates, #391

Poratt

A monster species commonly found in clear oceans. They have a shape of a serpent and they are not particular about their prey. Their strength can be categorized by size.

Up to 50 centimeters: Ordinary. Good to have as sashimi. Good for men’s virility, too, according to some stories. Pirates scramble for their meat.

Up to 1 meter: Tasty. The tastiest stage of their life. You could down a whole bottle of rum with each piece of meat.

Up to 10 meters: Need to be careful. Quite a few pirates were swallowed alive while being too greedy and trying to catch them. Still, not too difficult to hunt with a harpoon.

Up to 30 meters: Scary. They can ram into the ship and damage it.

Up to 50 meters: Best to avoid. The whole pirate ship could go down if things go south.

100 meters or bigger: You need to spread the sail and flee, but they have wings, so they’ll chase you. Just accept that you’re dead and leave a will at least.

When a Poratt lives longer than 60 years, it sprouts out wings and are able to fly. Such older ones are separately called Essen Poratts, and they are legendary creatures of the sea, as there are few pirates who encountered one and survived.

After the companions took turns to read the document, Weed went on.

“The majority of the monsters coming to this sea will be small, but there will also be quite a few of them that are larger than 100 meters.”

Surka raised her hand and asked a question.

“Isn’t there some possibility of inaccuracies in this record? Old rumors among pirates often have a lot of errors.”

“I don’t think there is in this case, as both Golden Bird and Bahamorg fought in this battle at that time.”

Weed had heard the stories directly from Bahamorg, who once lived in this age although he died and was resurrected again, and Golden Bird, whose lifespan was incredibly long. If he really needed more information about the quest, he could also obtain it through Sculpting Resurrection skill, although of course this was not a skill that could be used too often.

Pale asked Weed seriously.

“But how are we going to stop them just by ourselves? According to what you explained to us, not only will there be a large number of monsters with the size of at least 100 meters, but also enough of the smaller ones to fill the entire sea as they swarm in!”

“We’ll just have to try our best.”

“…”

Weed drew a map of the terrains and the coastlines of the area on the sandy ground of the beach.

“We don’t have to worry about those monsters landing on the shore. The army of living sculptures of the Arpen Empire will arrive here and stop them.”

“Then what is our role?”

“We’ll have to buy some time and prevent the destruction of the sea, as well as the extinction of this coral reef and the sea creatures living in it. The Poratts will devour all of them if we don’t interfere.”

The objective was now clear to everyone present: the plan was to just hold their ground, not to kill all the monsters that will crowd the ocean.

Zephyr also raised a question, with a grave look on his face.

“So, how long do we have to hold them off?”

“Golden Bird says it would be about 2 to 3 hours.”

“Then… this might actually be worth giving a shot.”

Each companion took a short while to mull over Weed’s plan.

‘There are at least some odds of us winning.’

‘All we have to do is to survive the invasion… this could work if we just focus on buying some time.’

Most people would still say this was quite impossible, but those who gathered around here thought that they would stand a fair chance; partly because they were confident in their abilities, but also because they knew that Weed had never actually taken a chance on something completely ludicrous. In case of this particular adventure, rather than just a simple fight, they could make use of the special sculpting skills to turn things to their favor. It was also a good opportunity to effectively use Zephyr’s fishing skills.

At that moment, Bellot furrowed her brows slightly and muttered, “Hold on a second, I think we’re missing the easiest and the most obvious way to stop these monsters.”

“What? You sure?”

“What would that be?”

Suddenly the focus of everyone’s attention, Bellot explained confidently.

“We know what is going to happen from now, don’t we? So can’t we just go meet Emperor Geihar and tell him what we know, so he can come and stop the monsters?”

“Huh, now that I think about it, you’re right!”

It was a plausible enough suggestion — since the adventuring party knew in advance about these pelagic monsters’ plan for the invasion, it was possible to thwart it by relaying that knowledge to a right person. By simply changing the course of a past event in history, they would be able to successfully defend such a beautiful sea.

‘If we manage to preserve this wonderful landscape, it will also change the same region when we get back to the future time. That will make a lot of users of Royal Road happy, too.’

‘It didn’t occur to me that there would be… such a perfectly simple way to protect this sea.’

It seemed Bellot had found out the quickest and the easiest measure to prevent the damage to the wildlife of this place. However, Weed firmly shook his head.

“That would be an absurdly wrong move.”

“But… why?”

“Because the whole point of this adventure is to flatter the Emperor!”

They needed to put this entire beautiful ocean at stake while trying to stop a gigantic horde of monsters, all for the sole purpose of buttering up a person.

Thus Weed started to devise defense plans with his companions in the sandy beach.

***

The first of their plans: construct some traps far away in the sea. This had been Zephyr’s suggestion.

“Let’s prepare a lot of barbed nets and cast them in the sea by linking them to the rocks below. They probably wouldn’t stop them for long but in the billowing sea, they’ll be able to make those monsters get tangled among themselves.”

“That’s a good idea. They’re said to eat anything so they could eat each other as well.”

They decided to work all night to craft as many steel nets as possible. Bellot and a few others sighed dejectedly, but in the end they had no choice but to accept it.

The second plan was to use a phantom ship, which was brought up by Pale.

“Weed-nim, you are a Necromancer; could you summon a phantom ship? I think the undead can be of much help here.”

Truly, nothing would be as effective as a fleet of phantom ships for distracting the sea monsters.

“Hmm. It should be possible, when I transform into a lich. My skills have been improving quite a lot so I expect I will be able to summon a greater number of ships than before.”

An entire squadron of ghost ships could make it much easier for them to fight against the monsters. In fact, considering the conditions of this quest, without an operation of such a scale it would be impossible to hold off the horde of Poratts even for a short while.

The third plan was the bait. This time they didn’t even need anyone in particular to bring up the idea, as it was the first thing that dawned on everyone’s mind when they looked at Yellowy.

“We need something to draw their attention… and I think everyone here would agree that Yellowy is the best candidate for that role.”

Seasoned Crab voiced the idea first, and Romuna agreed instantly as she smacked her lips.

“Those gluttonous monsters won’t be able to swim past our Yellowy.”

“I’m not saying it’s not a reasonable plan, but I’m not sure if it will be effective against the Poratts since they are not land monsters.”

Only Irene felt sorry for Yellowy and wanted to spare him, until Surka laughed and said, “Don’t worry sister, Yellowy told me not to share this with anyone, saying it was a secret, but he actually has a taunt skill! It will be quite effective for distracting the enemies.”

Zephyr took a look at Yellowy and nodded.

“Then he will make excellent bait. We could use him as top-quality bait for those monsters.”

The fourth plan was preservation. Taking into account the worst case scenario where this defense operation fails miserably, they decided to collect as many different corals and sea animals as they could, so that when they were released to the ruined sea after the war was over, at least some life could breed and multiply again.

The fifth plan was a disaster; Disaster Sculpting was one skill that was pretty much a must under such circumstances. While it will inevitably cause some damage to the coral reef, the effectiveness of this skill was such that not using it was not an option they could afford.

The sixth and the final plan was death: except for Weed, every adventurer of the party was determined to put their own life at risk in this fight, as they couldn’t bear the thought of such wonderful beach and ocean being destroyed into nothingness.

“Even if we die we just have to go offline for a day. We’ll still be able to join the battle in the Garnav Plain without much trouble.”

“It’d be a shame to lose the skill levels, but we can always improve our skills again.”

Part of the reason behind their resolve was the broadcast. Just by being Weed’s companions they raised their profiles enough to shoot a handful of commercials themselves. In case of Surka, it was an ad for an air conditioner brand; the concept was a female boxer sweating and punching a sandbag in a gym, and the ad was quite well-received by the public, too.

On the other hand, Romuna had shot a commercial for a mobile phone; she had been very happy when she first got the offer from LG, as such advertisements were usually reserved for extremely attractive actresses or members of popular girl groups, until…

“What? You want me to smash this phone?”

“Yes! Throw it at the wall and strike it with a hammer, and just blow it to pieces with a fire spell, and THEN make a call with it. That’s the main flow of this commercial.”

“But what would all of that achieve, exactly?”

“A very spectacular shot, obviously!”

“But… what about my public image?”

“Why, this commercial was designed precisely based on your public image.”

“…”

It was a too good an offer to refuse, so Romuna ended up accepting their request and shooting the commercial after all; the director lauded her to the skies.

“Every single shot is perfect. The posture of your body when throwing the phone, the way you handle the hammer, even the look on your face as you burn the whole thing with the fire spell! Would you be interested in taking up acting at all?”

As the rest of the companions were famous as well, they all solidified their resolve to willingly sacrifice themselves for the good of the general public, and for the preservation of the sea.

***

In the Garnav Plain where the festival was in full swing, Mapan began to gather people around him.

“We need to make some large sculptures now, everyone.”

The famed users of the Grass Porridge Cult, who had even given up their quests and hunts in their rush to join the battle, got enthusiastic twinkles in their eyes when Mapan explained to them that it was a special request from Weed in order to conquer the Versailles Continent.

“We’ve got a lot of time. Just make about ten thousands a day and that’ll make a hundred and thirty thousand already!”

“But he said a large number alone wouldn’t help. Let’s just settle with eighty thousand, but instead we’ll make each of them in about the size of the Goddess Freya Statue.”

“I was an engineering student, and if we assume we’ll have about two thousand people working on each statue, then… Whoo, I don’t even need to use any math to figure out it’s going to be a piece of cake.”

“I think this will change the name of this place into the Plain of Statues in the future.”

Sometimes the Grass Porridge Cult was compared to a horde of orcs. Whenever Weed shouted out an order to them, they came swarming in with a mighty “Yaaaaargh!!!”and completed any task they were given, be it a battle or a manual chore. A few people criticized their collective behavior, saying it was foolish, but those who actually participated in such activities did not complain. It was one of those exciting enjoyments that could be experienced only in Royal Road, and besides, they were proud to lead the Versailles Continent to the path of righteousness as they mingled with other people.

After Weed’s request was received by Mapan, the Grass Porridge Cult even issued an emergency call.

“We need to concentrate all our spare forces on this project.”

“I was planning to just enjoy the festival before joining in the war… but it looks like that’s not an option anymore. Ahem.”

“Let’s all stay sharp. We don’t know when we will get another chance to join in an event like this once the whole Versailles Continent become united, do we?”

“We, Grass Porridge, are gradually becoming a highly honorable group, not only in Royal Road but in the entire world. Let us all return this favor by behaving in a way that befits the status of our cult.”

An urgent notice was sent to the users who were drinking beer and idling away in the festival.

- This is Priority One Grass Porridge Emergency Call. A decision was made to build supersized statues in the Garnav Plain. Members of the Grass Porridge Cult are requested to participate immediately.

Although it was an emergency call it did not possess any authority to force people to follow it. Still, the people sprawling on the ground across the Garnav Plain stood up at once.

“A Priority One call!”

“That’s the one they issue only when the very existence of the Grass Porridge Cult is at stake!”

People put down their unfinished plate of food; men and women who were hanging out together stopped their chatter.

“An emergency call! Let’s go!”

“Poisonous Mushroom Porridge, move!”

Those who had been taking a rest rose from their seats and began to flock in, holding the banner of their squad. The people who had just arrived in the Garnav Plain and were getting ready to enjoy the festival got a grip on themselves as well.

“Join in the labor. Let’s get to work! Where did I put my shovel?”

“Let’s move, quickly!”

It was a magnificent sight; five hundred thousand users gathered in the Garnav Plain rushing out to carry out their share of work, kicking up a cloud of dust behind.

“What, what is this…?”

“Wow. It’s been a second and already they’re all moving!”

The users of the Central Continent were all left sitting there, dumbfounded by the whole situation that happened so quickly.

- This is Lemon from the Grass Porridge. We need your help right now. Please come ASAP.

The main force of the Grass Porridge Cult that had been descending from the North — a single message changed the movement of the entire army, whose soldiers had been taking in the sights and sauntering merrily as if on a holiday trip.

“Begin the march!”

The high-level users shot forward at once, running at a great speed. The mages used flying spells and moved towards the South as they soared in the sky. The average level of the main force of the Grass Porridge Cult was not high, but even the common users began to move in earnest.

“Those who are riding on horses or cows can move ahead!”

“Anyone with an empty carriage can pick up ten, no, twenty people each.”

“I’ve just sent a request to the Avians. A squad of twenty thousand sparrows is on their way to give us a ride.”

Every carriage drawn by a horse or a cow was belting along the barren road, with people sitting on its roof and holding onto the side walls.

The entire main force of the Grass Porridge Cult began their rush towards the south with a terrible speed. Their destination was the Garnav Plain.

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