Day 18

'We have an epic battle coming up with an enemy that could most likely squash us all like the insignificant bugs we are before its eyes, however, I don't think any of us here are planning on dying anytime soon. So I am going to have divide you all into groups just so we don't die. Leader of the rat men, you will be leading your race to set up ambushes and traps for the enemy forces. You also will be sharing information on what happens on the battlefield so we can keep track. Gorm, you and the goblins are going to have to engage in a frontal assault. Next, Sunalla, I believe you said you and your water nymphs are capable of performing water magic for healing? I'll need you guys to leave your comfort zones and move on land to support the goblin forces. I believe the Ogre Tyrant may bring a king or two with him, but we only have one king on our side and she will be coming with her forces, so the goblins will not be alone, however they will come on the actual day of warfare, so the goblins have to be well-prepared. The dryads who are incapable of participating will be providing food for our forces by simply helping them move about the forest much more easily than our opponents. Any questions?'

Sunalla raised her hand so I called her out.

"Um, what about the ogre tyrant?"

'Is that even a question? Don't we all already know the answer to that?'

I put up a bold front, but on the inside I was scared as hell. To take on someone on the level of Minerva. It's going to be hell chipping away at his HP, let alone with his defense stat and the fact that he'll be attacking me. But, according to Diane, Minerva said she would participate if I did, so I would assume that she would take care of Krull if he actually participated. The only problem was convincing Minerva to not fight him.

I had given them my orders, just like they wanted me to. I wasn't sure how they would take it, but to my surprise, they all nodded, no one disagreed.

After that, the meeting was disbanded and the rest of the days was spent preparing our forces.

Day 1 of preparations was spent spreading the information to the various races that were taking part in the self-defense. The news spread so fast that, by afternoon I spotted the races already in action, training themselves.

I stopped by the rat men today since the leader had invited me. It turns out they live underground so had he not personally brought me I wouldn't have found them. They had a whole tunnel of networks that led to every single part in the forest so that was how they heard so much information. So it was no shock when I found out that the rat men had already began to set up the traps and were training for the ambushes. They were a well-oiled machine and to be honest, it was scary.

What was even scarier was when I arrived at the rat men's base. I could see over a hundred of them constantly moving through the numerous holes in the walls. Turns out he was lying about their numbers and there were actually way more rat men in the West than he initially told us. This made me complain.

'With this many why don't you guys just go on a full blown assault?'

"You were the one who gave the orders."

He retorted as such and I felt embarrassed.

'Whatever. You'll need to move some of the rat men to join the goblins. Also, if you guys have so many tunnels can't we just use them for the transportation of our troops? We have a home field advantage, why aren't you guys using it to the best?'

"Sorry."

The rat man ended up apologizing, realizing how stupid it was to neglect that. But then I had a thought.

'You guys built all these tunnels, right?'

"Yes."

'Ok then why not build tunnels to Sunalla's river? That should make it easier for the water nymphs and guppies to join in on the battle, no?'

"Y-yes. You're right."

'How long will it take to create the tunnels?'

"We should be able to finish by the end of today if we start now."

'The end of today? Will it affect your training?'

"Not if we leave it to those setting up the traps."

'Ok then, you guys do just that. I'll take my leave now. I'll inform Sunalla of my plan. I leave everything to you."

I left the rat men and flew as quickly as I could towards Sunalla's river. When I got there I could see some water nymphs on the banks of the river. Since there was no practical way to train their healing magic, some of them were just sun bathing. So stupid. I spotted Sunalla amongst their ranks eating a fruit. She looked like some kind of bikini model, except with her blue skin.

When I got there she greeted me and I did same. I told her of my plan and she said as long they stopped at the river bank she wouldn't have a problem with it. And like that I had already catered for the mobility of the nymphs and guppies to the battlefield.

The next race I headed to, was the goblins. Apparently all the tribes had gathered at Ooo and the hob-goblins were training the regular goblins on how to use make-shift spears and throw rocks at their targets. To be honest it was going miserably. I knew it was only our first day, but watching how miserably they were at practice was going was painful. It definitely wasn't good for my heart. It was my life… err our lives on the line here. When I got there, I found Gorm and he introduced me to the other leaders. Apart from Gorm the other leaders didn't have names. I remembered the sprite saying something about how rare it was for evolved monsters to have names.

'Gorm, I'm sending about five hundred rat men to join you guys tomorrow. Is that ok?'

"F-Five hundred!?"

'Yea, turns out there were more rat men there so I figured that I better make good use of them.'

After the goblins, I headed over to Diane's tree. Nothing was off with the dryads. She said they would provide fruits for them. I was sure fruits weren't going to cut it and she said she would inform the nymphs and guppies to try to distribute some fishes from their river. She also gave me some shocking news.

"Also, I have someone who will be able to participate in this battle."

'Someone? Who?'

"I believe you have already met."

She pointed to the sprite who was standing by her side, my escort for the past few days.

'Eh? I thought you dryads couldn't participate?'

"Well luckily she isn't a dryad."

'Oh? I forgot that. So in that case is she a good fighter?'

"I don't think so, but she specializes in support and healing magic."

'Oh?'

I looked at her and she was as red as a tomato with her hands on her face. Was there something to be embarrassed off?

'Ah wait. In that case, are there more tree sprites who could help us?'

"Um… There are well over 100 tree sprites in the west, however, I am not sure the other dryads will allow their tree sprites to plunge into battle."

Ah well, it's not like I can force them to participate. If she was willing to let even a single member join, why not?

'Ok then, I'll think about her placement and I'll inform you tomorrow.'

"I-I… I'm really good at making things!"

She shouted before I could fly off. Then my mind went back to her blessing.

'The [Heavenly Crafter], eh? Pleasure to have ya on board.'

With that said, I left them. It was already night time so I went to check up on Ulva. I wanted to ask her to help us fight, but she looked so angelic and cute. I simply didn't have the willpower to ask a girl to fight for me! That was too unmanly! Instead, I went hunting. Today was the first time in a while that my stamina had gone below 90%. I ended up passing out in Diane's tree that night even though I didn't want to sleep there!

Day 19

I woke up to find out that Ulva had left some of the rabbit meat for me last night. I gratefully ate the meat I suffered to catch but couldn't eat last night.

Day 2 of preparations, started out great. I headed off to the rat men to check on their progress with the tunnels.

"Lady Hinotori, we managed to finish building the tunnel last night. Now we are joining it to the points were we are setting our traps so the nymphs and guppies can join us in ambushing. We will also set up spots where those who will be healing will be stationed. They should be ready for use by tomorrow noon."

'Ok good. Did you send the rat men who will be joining the goblins off already?'

"Yes. They should be there by now."

'Ok then, I'm going to check them out.'

When I got there, I was sort of scared by the view from the sky. This had turned into a military camp and they were being trained like dogs. I flew in and when Gorm spotted me, he came running at me.

"Hinotori-sama! The reinforcements you spoke of appeared. I'll be frank. I thought you were exaggerating when you said they were 500 in number. With this, I believe we have a chance."

'Hinotori-sama? I like the sound of that. What happened to the goblins?'

When I looked at them were no longer skinny pot-bellied uglies. Now they were skinny muscular uglies.

"It took a while, but I managed to get all the goblins into better shape."

I wanted to ask how it happened in one day, but I had learnt that if I let something like that get to me, I lose.

'Also, the rat men are constructing stations so you guys can go for healing when injured. When they're done they'll inform you of where they will be. Please pass the information on to the goblins.'

"Alright! Leave it to me!"

After that he left back to oversee the training and I flew away to Sunalla's river.

When I got there, I could see the water nymphs coming in and out of the newly built tunnel. Out of curiosity, I asked one of the nymphs about what was happening. Apparently the nymphs were going through it to see how deep it went. They planned on manipulating the river water into the tunnel so that they could move better and faster in there. Since this would speed up their reaction time, I gave them a thumbs up.

Next was the news the tree sprite gave me from Diane. I had been told that some random treants had turned up in the forest out of nowhere and were being very violent, so I should go take them down. At first, when she described it to me I was sort of pissed since it was simply Diane using me for whatever she felt like, but I decided to simply check it out.

There were two treants and each was easily twice my size. Although stat wise, I was stronger and they were simply D- in rank. I would have taught them a good lesson if I hadn't found out that they were Ichi and Ni. My first sprouts.

I was so glad to have found them that I almost teared up. They had grown up all big and strong and I couldn't believe that they made so much progress in such short time. I also didn't understand why they weren't evolving into mushroos. Was it because I created them and not a mushroo?

I came to the conclusion that that didn't matter and I should have focused on the preparations. So I included them in the defense task-force immediately, putting them in the traps department. They could pretend to be random bushes and attack out of nowhere.

After reporting back to Diane, I then had the issue of finding a job for the sprite. I hadn't really thought about what she was going to do. I was thinking of adding her to one of the medic teams since I couldn't really have her working with the rat men. Then there was the issue of creating tools, but I doubted we could find her the necessary resources. There simply wasn't enough time, but Diane suggested that I let her tag along with me on that day for healing measures. I was hesitant about it, but

Ulva was sitting quietly in Diane's tree, simply observing everything happening. So that night, I hunted down some horned rabbits and dragged them back to the cave. Before I could eat, I passed out from low stamina again.

Day 20

I woke up this morning and like last time, Ulva had left me some horned rabbit.

Day 3 of preparations, I once again headed over to the rat men tunnels. When I got there, I was surprised to see that some of the nymphs were there. Apparently, they were still digging the tunnels to the medic stations, however, the nymphs had already moved in with some herbs from their rivers. These herbs contained medicinal properties.

Then I had a thought I hadn't had before. If I could get monsters abilities when I eat them, why not the same for plants? But I didn't have [Evolver] to test that out, so I guess that would have to wait for after.

I quickly set out for the goblins.

When I got there, the goblins and rat men were training as planned, however they were not alone this time. I spotted countless insects moving around with them. When I flew down, Gorm came up to me and said.

"Hinotori-sama! You didn't tell me that the spider king's forces were going to be training with us. You are just full of surprises! Hahahaha!"

I was short of words. I had absolutely nothing to tell him. The bug told me that she was going to come on the day of the invasion. She must have been planning on surprising me by send her forces. Speaking of the bug, where was she? She better not have been trying to sneak up on me again.

After a while of watching them train, I left and headed off towards Diane's tree. When I got there, there was absolutely nothing out of place and technically I had already checked out the nymphs' movements, so I had managed to finish checking over everything early today.

I decided to spend the rest of the day hunting for dinner while thinking up several ways to beat the ogre tyrant. If I used Minerva, it simply seemed impossible to do and that was really infuriating. I encountered the spider king along the way. Turns out she had been on back since I landed at the training grounds. She was planning on surprising me mid-flight, but that only proved counter-productive as it caused her to plummet to her doom. I managed to save her, but she ended up laughing. I was actually very scared of her at that point. She helped me take down some horned rabbits for Ulva. Well, more like she watched me hunt them down.

She insisted that she wanted to see where I lived on the pretext that I had seen where she did so I took her to goblins' cave (My temporary home seeing as Minerva evicted me). When we got to the cave, it was evening and the sweaty smelly goblins were starting to party as the fruits were being brought to them. None of us liked the view so we simply went to Diane's tree, laughing at the horrible image we just saw like we had been the best of buds since forever.

When we got there, I planted about 50 spawns so that they would take form the next day and would join their older brothers, the two treant brothers.

So that night, the spider king so rudely ended up sleeping over at Diane's tree, occupying my only free wing. That ached a bit, but I could manage. That night I heard timber wolves barking and whimpering that night. I decided to ignore it, and have a good night's sleep knowing that they were simply getting what they deserved.

Day 21

When I woke up this morning, I saw that things weren't the same as they had been these past two days. This time the spider king was drooling acid saliva close to Ulva's face and I simply failed to understand how she got there. I gave her a sweet [Fiery Kick] to wake her up, then moved Ulva to the side. The spider then proceeded to lash out at me, but I drowned out all her useless complaints.

I focused on the litter of twigs jumping about and causing havoc. It looked kind of comical to me, but I guess the dryads and sprites didn't like the little fellas. They were running away from them and stuff. I ordered them to go to their brothers and stay with them for the day of invasion. They were allowed to be creative on that day and hopefully they would be, much like their brothers were.

When we went out hunting for breakfast, we sensed a very dangerous creature nearby. I only saw a dark figure slowly approaching. The creature was moaning loudly and producing a scary aura. If ghouls existed in this world, I think I just found one. I was about to attack but then I noticed that it was actually Minerva and she was looking at us in a very pissed manner. I was starting to doubt what Diane was saying about Minerva fighting.

I picked up the spider king and fled the cave before anything could happen. Ulva would be fine. Probably.

"Ugh! What… Are… You… Doing!"

She struggled to free herself from my talons, but if she did that she would probably fall to her death.

'I just saved your life. You can thank me later.'

"What's that supposed to mean!?"

I ignored her for the rest of the flight.

Day 4 of preparations. I flew over to the rat men's cave. I was amazed when I found out that the tunnel I had them build was filled with water and the water nymphs and guppies were swimming in it. They were superfast in the water and they moved about freely. As for the rat men, I went to check out their traps and everything looked pretty smooth so far. When I asked them to show me how the traps worked, I found out majority of them were pit holes filled with Night vipers. I hadn't heard of the night vipers before so I asked them to show me one. When they brought it out I looked at the viper for a while, then spat acid on its face to kill it, then swallowed it. I wasn't proud at how calmly I did such things. I had expected to get a skill, but [Evolver] was is M.I.A at the moment so that was pretty dumb of me.

The leader of the rat men was nowhere to be seen though. Apparently he had gone to his grandmother's cave somewhere in the forest or whatever. I didn't really care. As long as he was present in tomorrow's battle in top shape, I was ok with whatever he was doing.

Next stop was the goblins. When bug face and I got there, they were hard at training. It was frightening how much of a disciplinarian Gorm was. He had managed to create an army out of rat men, insects and scrawny goblins in only 4 days. What kind of scary ability was that?

"Hahaha! Hinotori-sama. How does the assault force look?"

'I guess there's no need to worry since Gorm-san handled it, right?'

"Hoho, you praise me too much."

No. This was just the right amount of praise. In fact I didn't think this was enough.

"Wow Gorm-san. You managed to take control over even my children. To be honest your ability as a commander is kind of terrifying."

The spider complimented Gorm.

"Oh, I don't deserve the praise of one of the kings."

I decided to leave Gorm then flew over to the dryad's place. So with that, my last inspection of the West's forces had come to an end. I couldn't help but laugh and this got the spider king curious.

"What's so funny chicken?"

'Kufufu… 400 rat men and 100 guppies all hiding in the ground ready for ambushes. Also with well over 50 pit fall traps filled with dozens of Night vipers, these make up our ambush squad lead by the leader of the rat men. 690 goblins, 500 rat men, 400 insects, 5 hob-goblin captains of which 2 are mages, led by the hob-goblin, General Gorm. These are our assault forces. 20 nymphs, 50 guppies all spread out at vantage points and harmed with healing and support magic. That's our medic squad, led by Sunalla. This is an army I wouldn't even dream of facing. Sorry, it's just that I'm laughing at the fool who had dared to attack the West.'

"Erh, you do realize you are talking about the Tyrant of the East, right? One that has destroyed armies before."

'Hehehe, let him come! He surely hasn't faced me before! Also, spider, I got a suggestion.'

"Let em rip."

'Let's run away together.'

"Wha-?!"

'Ha! Fooled ya.'

I told her, but what the hell came over me to say something like that? Sure, this was mission impossible and at the moment, I simply wanted to run away, but where would I go? If I couldn't clear this quest, growing stronger would literally become impossible for me and I would die much earlier than I believe I am supposed to.

In the end, the only logical option I could think of was to find a way to make Minerva not kill the ogre tyrant.