A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 317 The Absurd Song of Conquest

Sylsa felt a little dizzy. She hadn't expected that the capital of Istani would have such a large garbage dump, and wasn't it nighttime? Why was Storm City still at dusk?

There was no smell of bread in the air, only a faint odor of the garbage heap (even though the rat whisperer had cleaned it).

Looking at those thin but gloomy little people, she even felt a pang of pity. It turned out that even a great dynasty had such malnourished people. Who was eating the grain they grew?

The sight of elves, dwarves, humans, and unknown races living in harmony and holding celebrations broadened her horizons.

However, there were some discordant elements. For example, a young human man was nearby, stirring a large pot in a sinister manner, and eerie red light occasionally burst out from the pot's opening, which looked quite terrifying.

Thinking of the legends about elders scaring children, Sirsa consciously kept her distance from that strange human.

Yes, the elven girl saw Rorschach. He was struggling to mix a large pot of brown potion, the bubbles rising from it occasionally emitting a bloody smell, and he looked just like an old witch.

At this moment, he was working with the Mouse Whisperer to create the most rudimentary "magic trumpet" in history:

First, Rorschach transformed a small magic trick, "Amplification," into a magic circle and carved the master plate. Two Rat Whisperer assistants carried the master plate, dipped it in alchemical ink, and slapped it onto an old newspaper with a clang, completing the process.

Unable to find the alchemical potion in the shadows, Rorschach came up with a brilliant idea: he first boiled the living water until it became inactive. As long as it didn't boil, the microbial remains inside still had the ability to store and conduct a small amount of magic. Then he squeezed in frog blood to provide appropriate nutrients and restore its activity. Finally, while stirring and mixing, he used a metal stirring rod to input his own magic into the potion.

A temporary high-performance alchemy ink has been invented!

The magic circle structure was enhanced by topological techniques learned from Archmage Poincaré. Aligning with the markings designed on the newspaper, it could be rolled up to connect all the loops, creating a near-zero-cost "magical megaphone." Rorschach estimated that the temporary potion could support the continuous amplification of the small magic trick for up to two hours.

"You went through all that trouble just to make megaphones?" Caroline's face twisted as she watched hundreds of semi-finished megaphones being produced. Once Rorschach's second batch of potion was finished, thousands more could be printed. The Rat Whisperer tribe's savings of several years had been squandered.

Rorschach, the one who used the Fireball spell to develop the Water Creation spell, is back!

She watched as the little figure cheerfully took a card, rolled it into a megaphone, and created a massive amount of noise, even piecing together a megaphone matrix to become the bard's sound system. "Could we use this technology to create even more offensive spells?"

"Teacher, you're right, but the magical power of ink and the carrying capacity of newspaper simply can't provide enough power to activate offensive spells. However, we can offer some assistance to the resistance. Let's print another one, but don't print [Amplification]."

"Furthermore, our next conquest is a war of cognition. Getting the residents of the Shadow City's core and the will of order in the Shadowlands to acknowledge the Rat Whisperer Kingdom and its expansion will weaken the Marquis's power. Therefore, megaphones are more effective than swords and fireballs. Let others fight the propaganda and cognition wars; we'll gnaw on the real tough nuts."

Caroline reluctantly accepted Rorschach's plan and helped carve the master copy of the new magic circle.

Saulsa and the others lined up at the foot of the garbage dump, munching on frog legs and listening to off-key music. Next, each team received a stack of newspapers. Someone told them these were rolls?

The "Dark Vision" scroll lasts only two minutes, but each squad can collect five scrolls.

The "Invisibility" scroll expires in three seconds, but there are still five of them.

The "Dizziness Technique" scroll, which doesn't guarantee it will make mice faint, still contains five scrolls.

The grey elves had never fought such a wealthy battle, nor had they ever seen such shabby rolls. The newspapers from years past were now brittle, and they had to be folded with extreme care.

"Tear off any corner to activate it, but don't tear off too much and break the circuit! We've run out of newspapers, so some squads have received bark rolls instead, so you'll have to use a bit of force." Benedict shouted loudly while holding the "magic megaphone," making sure to drown out the sounds of the Rat Whisperer and Freddy dancing and singing.

He should have been ashamed, but why wasn't he? Benedict was even a little pleased when the Grey Elves were stunned to find that the "newspaper roll" actually worked.

"Where is this? Shouldn't we be in Storm City?" The grey elf commander snapped out of his daze and realized the crucial problem. He spat the frog bone aside and questioned the resistance's representative in Storm City.

After the sealing system was broken, a connection was established between the elven holy site and the ruins on El Isle, which was the stone circle the rebels entered. Benedict, following Rorschach's instructions, contacted the resistance forces on both Storm City and El Isle and deployed the Cloaked Army there.

"Don't rush. After your uprising, the Storm City organization faced retaliatory pursuit, and the powerful Kingdom Navy blockaded all ports. We have no choice but to take this path now. This place is called the Shadowlands, which is, in a sense, underground of Storm City."

"But there is one last obstacle to getting into Storm City from here—a marquis whose strength is comparable to that of an archmage."

The commander became even more anxious after hearing this: "With such powerful guards, how are we supposed to get through? And what's our connection with that Rat Kingdom?"

"You can think of it this way: the next action is a large-scale ceremony. We just need to follow it. Once it's done, the Marquis's power will be greatly weakened, and he will no longer be an obstacle."

The commander was skeptical, but given the circumstances, he had no choice but to obey orders. This was originally a surprise tactic; the resistance hadn't even consulted the Restoration Council. According to the resistance's high command, the 301 warriors were merely a contingency plan to salvage the stalemate; if they succeeded, all the better; if not, they would preserve their strength and retreat.

After exhausting newspapers, stripping tree bark, and devouring all the frogs near the garbage mountain, the newly formed "Rat Whisperer Kingdom" immediately began its triumphant conquest of their capital, the garbage mountain.

Jiaomaoding District was the first to be conquered. Since the soldiers of the old empire had already been dealt with, the other inhabitants watched indifferently as a strange procession passed by. Those whose ears hadn't been burned heard the rat-whisperers singing aloud; because their speech was generally unclear, they had to listen several times to understand the words:

"Let's sing out loud today!"

Drink deeply of that chilled fine wine!

I'm about to leave.

Let the wine glasses clink together with a light, crisp sound!

The Kingdom of the Mouse Whisperers

We are going to war.

Towards the shadows, the shadows!

Then an ugly but huge banner was hung on the clock tower, which had no bell. The residents who still had eyes could see that it depicted a bat with outstretched wings grasping a large hammer.

For some reason, some residents actually joined the singing group, singing and dancing along as if they were possessed.

Seeing the immense scale of the event and the arrival of an army, the Earl of the Semi-Submerged Zone immediately dispatched an envoy to secretly kneel and offer to join the Rat Whisperer Kingdom and liberate all Rat Whisperer slaves within the Semi-Submerged Zone if the envoy could be granted the title of Duke. Those who hadn't fought the Marquis simply assumed he hadn't said anything.

Singhlev waved his hand and said, "Granted!"

The flag of the New Kingdom wasn't flown over the semi-submersible area, but instead boarded the Earl's train, because he was short of new bedsheets.

After raising their flags in the ancient ruins area, a massive force led by human mages, elven troops, and mushroom-headed bards finally marched toward the Marquis's base core area, declaring war on him in the name of the kingdom's first king, Singlev!

(End of this chapter)