Assault on the Insect Assembly Castle (1)

The gates of the Insect Assembly Castle were not particularly difficult to open. They had never been sealed especially tight to begin with, and our party possessed an absolute specialist in lockpicking.

“Damn bastard. He’s rigged the door with crude black magic,” Adel muttered quietly, examining the massive padlock. The dark sorcery woven into the royal gate should not have been easy to unravel… yet she dispelled it in moments. As expected of the rogue from the hero’s party. She could dismantle nearly any trap or alarm with ease.

—Kugugung!

The moment we stepped inside the royal castle, every kind of insect swarmed out to greet us. Spiders, centipedes, cockroaches… As soon as a sliver of light slipped through the doorway, countless bugs scattered in perfect unison in every direction. The party members grimaced in open disgust.

“This is insane… I just want to burn everything to ash.”

“Haa…”

“This reminds me of the time we lived in that cave…”

Lily spat out a curse, Kamilla let out a heavy sigh, and Adel recalled an unpleasant memory from her past. It was true—this place was enough to make anyone wrinkle their nose just by looking at it. The real problem was that we would have to stay here for at least several days.

I breathed in the musty air inside the castle and thought to myself.

‘There are two main strategies for taking down the Insect King.’

The first was a swift assassination through ambush. It was the most traditional and popular method ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠for killing a king. Strike before the insects could gather in the audience chamber where the Insect King resided. Since Valcan himself was relatively weak, it was quite an effective approach. Back when I was a gamer, I used this method often whenever clearing the Insect King felt too tedious. It was easy to execute and had a fairly high success rate.

All you had to do was stay hidden for a few days, head straight for the audience chamber, and sprint at full speed once you were detected. Of course, if you got caught before reaching him, you’d end up with Valcan in front and a swarm of insects behind—an utterly hopeless situation. But that was something you could avoid with caution.

The second strategy was growth. Unlike the first method, which aimed for the fastest possible breakthrough, this one took the complete opposite direction. You would circle around the outer areas and clear the castle slowly and methodically. Although the castle was filled with poisonous insects and monsters, making it uninhabitable for humans, it was conversely the perfect hunting ground. If you settled in and focused solely on hunting monsters for a few months, you could expect significant growth.

If the ambush strategy exploited the enemy’s carelessness, the growth strategy was closer to slowly building a tower and then delivering a fair, head-on confrontation.

And I was going to use the first method.

No—more precisely, I had no choice but to use it.

‘Honestly, the second one is the most stable…’

Probably very few people would agree with the second option. There was one enormous problem with it: the extremely ordinary issue known as stress.

As I mentioned earlier, this place was no fit for human habitation. Mold covered the interior walls, and the air was unbearably thick with the powder of insect corpses and dampness. Bugs crawled everywhere in real time, and there were almost no places to properly wash your body. You would have to endure that for months.

Even if it seemed rational, it was emotionally difficult to accept. Especially since our party’s saintess, Yulise, harbored an extreme hatred for insects…

‘Still, I should at least bring it up.’

I decided to present both strategies to the party. They ought to know their options, after all.

“Alright everyone, let’s hold a meeting.”

“Hmph, I was about to suggest the same thing.”

I gathered the party members and began the discussion. After the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠previous minotaur incident, my credibility had plummeted to rock bottom. Thanks to Yulise speaking up for me, no one openly challenged me… but there was still an unmistakable sense that they were subtly ignoring my words. So it was likely that no one would listen to me with much attention.

But that was fine. This was exactly the kind of situation where rhetorical technique came in handy.

“How would you all like to approach the conquest?”

Instead of presenting the strategies myself, I prompted them to think. Since people’s thoughts tend to run in similar directions, the two main approaches would surface quickly.

“What kind of question is that? Obviously we charge straight in and take down that bastard Valcan first! I want to get out of this disgusting place immediately.”

“Calm down, Lily. What if we get surrounded by insects? It might take longer, but slowly clearing from the outer areas would be…”

I subtly added flesh to the skeletal argument.

“That’s a solid idea. We approach Valcan as quietly as possible, almost like an ambush, then strike all at once. He’ll have no choice but to panic.”

“Adel is right. We don’t know how many monsters are in this castle… but it would also let us grow stronger, which is good.”

With each comment, the party members’ eyes grew deeper in thought. They would trim away the flesh I had added and revise the plan. The meeting dragged on. Countless opinions were exchanged, and the plans gradually took clearer shape.

Once the two strategies had been refined, I summarized them for the group once more.

“Very well. To summarize, we have these two options. The first is to break through as quickly as possible and strike Valcan while he’s off guard. The second is to slowly hunt monsters from the outer perimeter and…”

As I presented the two choices, I thought to myself.

‘Yulise will probably step in around now.’

She would shout for the first option without hesitation. Since she hated insects so much, she would want to escape this castle as quickly as possible. Even in the game, whenever the second option came up she would immediately oppose it. The only reason was that she simply couldn’t stand bugs. Choosing the second method required persistent and meticulous persuasion.

That was why, with my persuasion crippled by the curse, I had no choice but to aim for the first option…

“The second one! Let’s go with the second!!”

“?”

Yulise suddenly began supporting the second method.

‘Huh?’

This shouldn’t be happening. Maybe she had mixed up the order? Thinking that might be the case, I spoke to her in the tone one might use with a slightly slow student.

“Just to be sure, the first is the ambush and the second is the growth strategy…”

“I know that much, okay?! I chose the second one knowing that!”

For the first time in a while, I saw Yulise genuinely irritated. I tilted my head in confusion.

She chose it even though she knew?

‘Why on earth?’

Deep down I felt pleased, but I couldn’t help being confused.

“R-really? Just so you know, the second method means we’ll have to live here for at least several months. Are you sure?”

“What does it matter if it takes a few months? In my opinion, the second method is definitely the right choice. We should always prioritize stability, shouldn’t we?”

It was such a perfectly reasonable statement that I could only nod. The problem was that the person saying it was Yulise. Those were the exact words I, the one who was supposed to be persuading her, should have said.

‘What kind of wind blew through her head…?’

I really couldn’t understand it. The story had gone wildly ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠off the rails since the early parts of the game. The bug-hating saintess had completely gone off-character, and the game had become insanely difficult with far too many variables.

‘Fuck it, I don’t even know anymore.’

Since it was ultimately good for me, I decided not to overthink it this time. Good things were good things.

“I agree with Yulise. My father always said that haste ruins any plan.”

“I’ll go with the majority again.”

“What? We have to stay here for months? Haa… I’m already losing all motivation…”

Once one person agreed, gaining the rest of the party’s consent was easy. I nodded inwardly with satisfaction.

‘Thank goodness.’

I had expected them to choose the first option. This was a pleasant variable. I had been looking for a good hunting ground to grow stronger, and now we had the perfect one right in front of us.

As I had said before, the first Heavenly King, Valcan, was tougher than any of the other Four Heavenly Kings in the early game. He commanded countless poisons and combat insects, while we hadn’t even properly built up our stats yet. On top of that, this world’s difficulty was far higher than the original game. It was hard to even guess just how monstrous Valcan had become…

Even if we tried to catch him off guard with an ambush, victory was far from guaranteed. In that case, it was better to spend a few months growing stronger and then face him head-on in a fair fight.

Besides, I had a trump card.

‘Heavenly Martial Body.’

I would squeeze every last drop of growth out of this skill that maximized growth potential. I also planned to help the rest of the party grow to some extent.

I briefly opened the system and checked their levels.

Those were the levels of Yulise, Lily, Adel, and Kamilla respectively. Considering my own level was 74, it was a fairly well-balanced party. Surprisingly, the highest level was the dark elf rogue, Adel. Of course, since she was a support character, her actual combat ability was similar to the others…

Anyway, that was the overall level of our party.

I looked at them with satisfied eyes for the first time in a while. These kids still had limitless potential for growth.

As I gazed at them, I thought:

Just follow me quietly.

I’ll power-level you all.

About two levels or so.