Chapter 113

Ibro looked in patience at her waiting for her to continue. She seemed to enjoy her teasing to him as she took her time to say the next words in a slow tone:

"The only way to break this curse is to upgrade your village to the next level."

Ibro thought a little then asked:

"What about the other two curses?

"The first one can be solved by power. The second one can be solved by potions."

She then leaned forward to him as she asked in strong curiosity:

"What on earth did you do to attract that guy's eyes?"

Ibro felt strange from her weird looks so he asked in return:

"Who exactly is this damn crazy person?"

"You are really right. He is a damn crazy person. He is way beyond your imagination abilities, so I can't really tell you his true identity. But I can tell you one name you might have heard of him."

"What name is it?"

"Our common enemy."

Ibro looked back towards Hoden and Mamor to see the rare look of fear on their faces.

He didn't know who that enemy was but he was sure someone that could cause this fear to these two mighty men must be an extraordinary enemy without doubt.

"Ok, forget about his identity then. Why is he after me? Someone so important and strong as him shouldn't be focused on me like this. I'm like a fly to him, right?"

"In my opinion, you are weaker than a fly in comparison to him. That question I also had in my mind. Why is this guy so fixed in destroying you? Although he isn't acting in person yet, he assigned this task to one of his strongest subordinates."

"Really? I'm flattered then. Who is this subordinate of his?"

"His name is Mantier."

Ibro felt he had heard this name before. It took him a couple of minutes of deep thoughts before it hit him. His eyes widened as he muttered:

"That bastard!"

"Do you really know Mantier?"

Ibro didn't answer her but his face showed deep anger and a lot of hatred. That man had created that time loop which he entered before. He knew his name from the supreme commander of the Gornat Empire.

if this was true, then he was hunted by that persistent man. He wouldn't stop before he destroyed everything he built and then killed him. It wasn't a simple hatred between both of them; it was a struggle for survival.

But why would he be so desperate to kill him? What he had done there at that time loop that caused that man's wrath?

"I'm grateful for your concern and advice. I will go now to solve all these problems."

"I hope you can manage to survive this. Be aware that Mantier has already gathered a lot of underground monsters and is planning to hit you soon."

"I already tasted his trick before so I was expecting this move from him."

He then thought of something before asking:

"Did he manage to form an alliance with surface monsters?"

"Nope. Surface monsters are his real enemies as they are your enemy."

Ibro smiled vaguely as he said:

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

"They won't ally with you. You are also their enemy. Also, you needed to raid them to get over these many curses that you have."

Ibro's look didn't change as he kept his calm smile.

"Thanks again Sefiera. One day I will repay your debt when we actually meet."

"Don't mention it; I'm just doing my part as your assistance. I hope you live to meet me in the far future."

Ibro just smiled before she disappeared from his sight with that window. His conversation was heard by the three around him. Ibro looked to them seriously as he ordered:

"We will make an urgent meeting right now in the manor. Come with me."

He then moved from the market towards the lord's manor in rapid steps.

although he was in a good mood before when he exited the market, he was now in a deep abyss of hell. He knew if he made just one tiny mistake then he would lose everything.

He also knew he had to pay a heavy price to extract himself from this shit. That Mantier had really irritated him. The list of hatred between the two had become bigger.

It took a few minutes till they all entered the lord's manor. Ibro noticed the presence of Megedy and Aras at the manor so he ordered in a decisive tone:

"Watch this manor entrance closely. No one is allowed to enter it without my permission."

They felt the strangeness of Ibro but they also felt how strong the two middle-aged men behind him were.

"We will guard it with our lives."

Ibro felt there would be no life-threatening situation here for Megedy to answer like that, but he just nodded to him.

He entered the manor with the three people following him. Once he entered the meeting hall and sat on the big chair, he said in a loud clear tone:

"I want to hear all your thoughts gentlemen."

Hoden started by asking his most important question:

"May I ask how you meet with lady Sefiera?"

"Actually I know nothing about her. When I entered here for the first time I met her. She told me she was my assistant. What do you know about her?"

"She introduced herself as your assistant? That means she had fallen. Ok, as long she didn't introduce herself to you then I won't interfere.

I only want to give you a piece of advice. Lady Sefiera is a highly esteemed lady in our human camp. You need to treat her with more respect and do as she always advises you to do."

Ibro smiled and said without showing any dissatisfaction from this vague answer which he expected:

"I can't respect someone I know nothing about. As long as she is satisfied with her role as my assistant, then I will treat her always like this. Now let's speak about our current crisis."

Although both Hoden and Mamor seemed unsatisfied by his reply, they couldn't argue with his logic. Hoden continued his speech explaining the situation in more details:

"The current situation is very critical. We have three curses to deal with. I have seen many strong empires destroyed by just one curse. The first curse is really the lightest one, but it's also a nightmare.

A lockdown curse turns all the area around the village territory into a lockdown state. That means we can't move outside our village towards any single direction. If we did so, we will end by returning to the village again.

This curse is really hard to deal with especially for large nations. For our luck, we have only a small beginning village. That village had a small area so we can solve this curse much easily."

Mamor interfered saying in more precise words:

"This curse needed a certain area around the village to be vacant.

On the surface here it would be easy to have such an area, but underground there are many adjacent areas to our village territory. Tell me, have you noticed any vacant areas around our territory underground?"

"There is a huge area underground that has been vacated by their monsters. I believe there were around 30 areas that became completely empty down there."

"That was a huge move from that man. Ok, that meant we can't move a single step outside this vacant area or we would be sent back again to our territory."

"Then how can we end this curse?"

"As lady Sefiera instructed, we need force to overcome it. We need to wage war on a very wide scale at the same time. This war will be on the surface and underground."

Ibro thought a little about Mamor's words. It was a strength-based solution indeed. Ibro thought for a while before expressing his doubts:

"Our enemy will expect us to do so. I believe he didn't have any control on the surface monsters, but I can't guarantee he didn't use any underhanded tricks to attract their attention to us. The main problem lies in the underground world."

"Indeed. As Lady Sefiera said before, that man had gathered a large army. I believe he is waiting for us to take such a move."

"If that is true and I believe it is, then we have a very difficult war to win. This war needed a huge number of troops. I have the tokens and other stuff of enough troops but what about the food problem?"

"That makes us solve the second and third curses first then we can solve the third curse."

Ibro looked at Hoden then asked:

"The second curse can be cured by potions. I believe I had bought a summon scroll for grandmaster potionist and summon scroll for grandmaster alchemist.

Will they be able to solve this curse?"

Hoden answered:

"I believe so, but both needed facilities that aren't available to any small village I guess."