Chapter 129 - Buzzing Mountain Sect

"Buehehehe! That last attack did a considerable amount of damage! Just a little more and I'll have this wench kneeling at Lady Diamondas' feet!", Mourga thought to himself as his BullFrog, Budo, prepared to launch another [Aqua Horn]. Mourgas was excited at his prospective victory for two interconnected reasons. The first is that he had long developed a bit of a crush on for Diamonda both her beautiful looks and her ability to control powerful majimonsters, so beating this nobody who had sullied her honor would hopefully get her to notice him in some capacity. The second was that if he could earn her affections and possible marry her, it would help elevate the Buzzing Mountain to a higher grade of organization, as well as his own position within it.

An unforeseen, yet not unwelcome, consequence of introducing the art of binding to the people of the Empire was the rise/return of sects, clans, houses and other types organizations of binders. These organizations, on the whole, help to establish and defend human settlements in the Wildlands, subjugate overly rambunctious majimonsters as well as explore ruins and gather up lost knowledge that was left behind by their maji predecessors. Unfortunately, said organizations have a tendency to...violently stab each other in the face but that's another story for another time.

However, when these organizations aren't stabbing each other in the face, they end up forming alliances or becoming subordinates to other, stronger, groups. The Buzzing Mountain Sect falls into the subordinate group category, namely, they are one of the many subordinates to Grand Cacophonous Hall.

If one were to divide the various groups into the same grades as one does to monsters, Buzzing Mountain falls squarely in the mid-bronze grade while Grand Cacophonous Hall would be low-gold grade. In essence, the Buzzing Mountain had enough power to defend a large village and run at least two small businesses, while Grand Cacophonous Hall had enough power to safeguard a small city. As one could imagine, Buzzing Mountain didn't receive much in terms of respect from the other organizations, yet no one could really offend them due to being a subordinate to a rather powerful sect. However, due to their status as a subordinate, they couldn't improve their standing without possibly facing a lot of suppression.

Mourga on the other hand is a direct descendant of the current head of the Buzzing Mountain Sect, but he is also the fifth child. Long and short of it, while his position is respectable, he could never become the sect head, at most, he'd be an elder or secondary head. If he wanted to go beyond his current life prospects, he had two choices.

The first was to grow stronger as a binder and strengthening his majimonsters. By and large, this was the most straightforward path to power since people tend to listen to the guy with the biggest fist, the fist in this case being a hurricane summoning whale and/or earthquake causing pig. However, it was also the most dangerous due to having to spend long periods of time out in the Wildlands, where most monsters see humans as either annoying pests or delicious prey.

The second and arguably easier choice, marry up. If Mourga could impress and win the heart of Lady Diamonda, a young mistress from Clan Firmis, a platinum grade clan, then his future prospects would soar greatly.

Someone from a low grade sect like Mourga would normally have no chance at impressing such a powerful and eligible young lady...unless some young, probably weaker than himself upstart from the frontier appears out of nowhere and insults her honor.

For Mourga, this was a golden opportunity. Once he soundly trounced Silvia and forced her to apologise to Diamonda, he could get into her good graces and possibly woo her. All he had to do was make use of his BullFrogs' powerful defense and strong life force and best her in a contest of attrition. There was absolutely no way for some uneducated bumpkin to know Budos' weakness!

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[It's honestly a rather clever defensive strategy. From what I understand, most binders usually go for overall affinity relationsh.i.p.s rather than pay attention to things such as defensive traits], Voxea commented.

[We can admire the BullFrog later. Rakka! Burning Blade]!