Chapter 112: Scouting
"Where are we going?" Tiamat asked, looking bored as we casually walked through a forest. Far ahead of us, the shadow of a massive skull, looking to be easily thousands of feet tall and just as wide, hung overhead.
"Scouting," I said simply, picking up the pace a bit as I started to walk a bit faster, "Kaido and his main crew are out on an expedition right now, so this is the perfect opportunity to scout out the country. Solitaire said they won’t be back for a few more days at least."
It would seem luck was on my side - possibly due to my high LUK stat, or perhaps just a coincidence - as I discovered that Kaido wasn’t currently in Wano. It wasn’t actually super rare for the Captain of the Beast Pirates to go on expeditions in the New World, though he never left for more than a few weeks, and usually only left less than a dozen times every year.
Considering how rarely he left, I’d have to wait numerous weeks once he returned for another chance like this, so I had to take advantage of it. I brought Tiamat with me just in case something unexpected happened and I needed backup, but as I glanced at my sheathed sword, I was confident I could handle anything.
Especially after using [Weapon Devour] to consume the Boosted Gear. I had considered genuinely tying the Sacred Gear to my soul, as there weren’t many Sacred Gears better than the Boosted Gear even if I did end up only being able to tie one to myself, but decided against it.
It wasn’t like I went anywhere dangerous without my sword anyway, and with [Weapon Devour] it would grow stronger with me, which meant I wouldn’t ever want a different one. If it did end up breaking at some point, I would just have Vargan repair it - as he could’ve with my old sword, but had wanted to give me an upgrade since repairing it would’ve been as much work as making an entirely new one.
So, the Boosted Gear was now tied to my sword - and let me tell ya, it’s as broken as I imagined. In a single instant, I could double my strength, which just made me even more unkillable. My only weakness - that being running out of MP before I could drain my opponents of their stats with my gear - was now negated, as I could double my MP reserves constantly.
I was almost cocky enough to consider entering an S-Rank world with this on me, but there was no need to rush. I would focus on this world first, and then likely take down a quicker D-Rank world as my forces prepared for a B-Rank one.
It was good to be confident, but it wasn’t good to be arrogant. All it took was one thing to go wrong in a dangerous world for me to die, and when I was dead, it was game over. There would be no chance to prepare better for next time, because there would be no next time.
"...Doesn’t that mean we should just invade now?" Tiamat asked, glancing over at me curiously, "If he’s gone with the main members of his crew, then there’s not much here to oppose us, right?"
She was correct, and I had considered that approach, but-
"I want him to be here," I said simply, shaking my head lightly, "It’s not about taking Wano, but about taking him, and his entire crew. If we take this island while he’s gone, then he’ll send his ’All-Stars’ to reclaim it, and then run with his tail between his legs when they fail. Tracking him down again would be annoying."
Kaido, for all the men under his command, all his power, and even his title as the ’Strongest Creature’ in this world, was still a pirate. A scumbag who had no problem exploiting this country as he rinsed it dry for his own gain, drinking himself stupid every day, or beating his own daughter.
Kaido would certainly make an attempt to reclaim Wano if I stole it from under his nose while he was gone, but I couldn’t know exactly what he would do. If he came personally - great, he’s here, and I can kick his ass. However, there was still a good chance he’d instead just send his strongest crewmates to do his dirty work, and then start scheming outside of Wano once they failed.
He was a jackass, but not an idiot. When King, Queen, and Jack didn’t return, and Wano was far from retaken, he wouldn’t just charge in like a one-man army. Essentially, there were just added risks and annoyances to the plan if he were gone.
So, for that reason, we were just here to scout right now. To poke around, try to figure out where in the timeline I was, and see how many forces he had both in Wano and in Onigashima. When he returned from his expedition, hopefully tired out from days on the sea, I would strike.
"If you say so," Tiamat just shrugged at my words as we strode forward, quickly making our way through the forest and reaching the front of Onigashima. There was a large river-like area that flowed into the interior of the island, but we ignored it as I dashed forward, using [Light Manipulation] as I curved the sun’s rays around us.
As a result, a rather confusing sight was created for anyone who looked at us. The light didn’t actually touch our skin, instead curving around us like a ball as it shot forward. As such, whoever looked at us would instead see a bright flash, as if they were looking directly at the sun.
That worked well to get us through the outside and courtyard-esque area, but as we started to step through the massive skull’s mouth and headed towards the main castle, I used [DIstorting Illusion] instead. We would’ve still been hidden with [Light Manipulation], but randomly seeing flashes of light inside would’ve been suspicious, so this was better.
Our images shifted, and from the outside, I now looked like a typical Beast Pirate grunt, and as I glanced over at Tiamat, she was the same except in female form.
"You look good in that," I smirked, teasing her a bit as the female uniform of the Beast Pirate outfit was rather... skimpy.
Calling it armor or even clothes was exaggerating, as it was just a blue metallic bra, which wasn’t connected in the middle, as there were instead two separate plates clinging to each breast - which were also much too small for Tiamat’s rather large breasts, looking like pasties on her. There was an equally as small panty-like metallic fabric covering her crotch, and then finally a small scarf-like, fluffy black fabric wrapped around her shoulders. The finishing touches were two black-horns sticking out of her head.
"You couldn’t have made them any bigger?" Tiamat deadpanned as she glanced down at the small pads covering each breast, "It’s just an illusion, so it’s not like I feel them, but it’s still not pleasant."
"It’ll only be for a bit. An hour at most," I waved off her concerns, and we quickly started our scouting mission of Onigashima.
It went pretty quickly, and I pulled out a small notepad that I had brought with me, taking notes as we went. The numbers were to be expected, numbering close to five thousand on the island of Onigashima alone, and didn’t give me much insight into what point in the timeline I was.
However, as I looked through Kaido’s main base and didn’t see any familiar faces, I could at least estimate a rough timeline. It was possible that he just brought everyone important on the expedition, but I didn’t see any major characters anywhere.
We briefly visited the brothel on Onigashima, which was near Kaido’s castle, and even Black Maria wasn’t there. If Kaido was bringing even her on expeditions still, then that led me to believe that he didn’t have all the manpower he gained during the time-skip yet.
Combine that with Eustass Kid not being held prisoner in Udon Prisoner, and I could pretty safely assume I was in the pre-timeskip part of the timeline. I would have to send some scouts out to the other regions of Wano to ensure that none of the other Supernovas were put under his control yet, but it was a good baseline to have.
And, as we finished the scouting and I pushed the notepad back in my pocket, standing in front of the towering skull again as we got ready to return to Udon and then the DxD world, I blinked in surprise. A textbox appeared in front of me, and a grin slipped onto my face.
[Quest Alert!]
Help [Yamato] escape Wano!
Rewards:
+Gain potential [Allies]!
+1 [High] Gacha Pull!
+1 [Medium] Gacha Pull!
+1 [Low] Gacha Pull!
Failure:
Miss out on potential [Allies]!
Finally, my first quest in this world! I had been a bit confused before, as I hadn’t gained a mainline one for entering the C-Rank world, nor one regarding taking over the prison. In the E-Rank world, I had gotten one for just going through the portal, so this one had been different in that aspect.
I had been concerned that this world was special in some way, and that it either wouldn’t have quests or I’d have to do something specific to unlock them. That first theory was confirmed to be untrue, but the second one was still up in the air at the moment.
But it wasn’t like I could do anything about it right now - the quests would come when they came, and I’d just have to be prepared. Right now, I should focus on the quest in front of me - which has some decent rewards.
And I wasn’t talking about the gacha pulls, as I had more of them than I knew what to do with. I had opened hundreds, if not thousands, of [Low] gacha pulls at this point, and a fair share of [Medium] and [High] ones. The room I had built in my palace specifically to hold all my gacha items had long since become full, and I would have to order Chippy and his Chipmunk Platoon to start making a new one.
I had a huge backlog of quest rewards that would give me even more gacha pulls, and I’d have to take the time to slowly - very slowly, as I had to accept each quest, then use the pulls, then wait for the rewards, then find somewhere to put them. That was largely why I had allowed them to build up, as the task sounded daunting and boring - use them all up. But, right now, I was more focused on the other reward - the ’potential allies.’
I assumed that was Yamato herself, whom I planned to take in within my Kingdom anyway. The woman wasn’t a top-tier in this world, but she was still the daughter of Kaido, and pretty damn strong. She’d make a great addition to my Kingdom.
And, she was a Waifu, so of course I was going to help her! But that would have to wait. If I did it right now, then she’d be gone when Kaido returned - something which he would notice, and which would totally throw away any element of surprise I had. Instead, I would come back when it was time to fully conquer Wano and complete the quest.
Besides, I hadn’t seen her while poking around Onigashima, so who knows where she is? I’d have to sneak around again, as it wasn’t like she was just going to come running at me-
"Stop her! Hey, you guys! Stop her!" I blinked, glancing over my shoulder as I looked back at the massive skull towering overhead - or, more specifically, at the sight taking place as what seemed to be a horde of Beast Pirates were sprinting out from the interior towards us.
"If she gets away again, we are so dead!" One of them, a rather large and round man with sharp shark-like teeth, shouted, "So dead! The captain is going to kill us!"
"Relax! I’ll be back before he returns anyway!" A female voice bit back, and I stared blankly as the one the crowd of soldiers was trying to capture, and the woman I was looking for, literally sprinted right at me.
Well, I guess Yamato is just going to come running at me. When the hell did quests get this easy?
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AN: Thank you for reading! The next Chapter will be out tomorrow!
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