Versatile: Alternate World

Because we don't know what the next plan the Shogun is and how unpredictable his current attacks are, I decided to go on a patrol around the city's vicinity. To cover more ground, I summoned most of my skeleton soldiers to start the recon process. Of course, I asked the people to not attack my skeletons if they spotted it as they are one of my troops and I am using them for recon which they soon understand after I revealed I have the ability of a necromancer.

To add more recon power and to also to ensure the safety of my skeletons in recon, I also sent out the Desert Wolves as well as they can cover up most of the trouble and can efficiently fight monsters as well. It's a big win for me.

My skeletons are quite efficient and this way, they can also earn a bit of experience. With the help of the Desert Wolves, even those enemies that they can't easily defeat are taken down without much problem. Thankfully, they are not just weak and pushover skeletons that will immediately die in one hit. Especially the skeleton that has been the only survivor of most enemies that I killed and I think he is doing much better than I expected. I think it is best to level up these skeletons and use them in combat as well.

So far, only several monsters tried to attack but otherwise, nothing dangerous has been spotted and no other soldiers from the Shogun have been spotted as well.

After confirming the situation, I helped out rebuilding the destroyed buildings and also reinforcing the defenses as well by utilizing the Saboteur class skill, [Blueprint] and [Materialization]. With those two skills, I managed to increase the defense value of the city without the need for additional manpower and resources. Still, the people will have to defend the city by themselves. Since no one is governing this city and is independent of the ruling, they have to do all the deeds by themselves.

Around the afternoon, Queen Tanya awakened from her slumber. The first thing she did is to find something to eat because she is starving. She also started complaining about the ache in her body so I have to help by giving her some massage which she extremely loved. I don't know why she likes it so much, I just massaged her stiff muscles and that's it.

Anyways, once Queen Tanya is good to go, she went ahead and checked the situation with the Jorogumo.

"So that means she didn't recover her humanity and remained as a rabid and dangerous monster, with only her remaining sign that she was once a human being her remaining human part of her body? Heh, this is getting out of hand. I have my fair share of stories of monsters but a human fully becoming a monster with no way of returning to normal is not something I would like to become a normal thing in the future," Queen Tanya started to shake her head while clicking her tongue in disappointment.

"With how the world is changing and how many times new things have been discovered, it is bound to happen, Sis. Anyways, what should we do? We plan to interrogate her and get information for the Shogun but with the state she was in, she is not in a good position to even talk properly. What are we gonna do?" Queen Tori took a glance at the frozen Jorogumo who is still alive but frozen and cannot do anything aside from being frozen in place.

"Since she does not retain her personality anymore and is now a full monster, the only way for us to get the information we needed is [Memory Extraction]. I can get her memories and read them like a book," Queen Tanya knocked on the ice and a hollow "Thunk" sound can be heard every time Queen Tanya taps her knuckles on it.

"Wait, Your Majesty. Isn't [Memory Extraction] a skill that can only be used on dead people?" I asked since I recall that skill as a skill that can read memories of the dead. I didn't hear anything about extracting memories from someone who is still alive.

"You know about my skill, Bladeheart? You are half correct, but that is not entirely the truth. This skill can still be used in the living but the caveat is that it is much more troublesome for use compared to when the target is dead. Because the target is alive, the mind inhibitions that the living have is pretty strong and hard to break which takes a bit longer to do so compared to when the target is dead as they will have no more mind inhibitions, allowing for easy access. It's even harder if the user is resistant to the removal of the Mind inhibitions, making it tricky and troublesome to do."

"So it's like trying to break into a locked house but the owner is currently preventing you to enter?"

"Yes. Very similar. And since this Jorogumo will not likely cooperate with us in removing the mind inhibitions at all, extracting her memories will take a long time therefore you two will have to protect me in the while doing this. Oh, and also, we cannot do this in the city as it will risk the city from being attacked by monsters. We should carry the block of ice to somewhere farther from the city but in a clearing to proceed with the method."

"Huh? Is there a reason for that?" I asked.

"Yes. While I will be trying to remove the inhibitions, signals of help from a monster will soon be emitted from her mind that will affect the nearby monsters and causes agitation from them which will then cause them to rush and attack anyone they find in the vicinity. I want you and Tori to protect me while I am doing the process. One interruption did and we will mess up with the extraction, therefore, we needed to ensure that the process is left undisturbed which is why I will need the two of you to protect me while I am doing it."

"About how long do we have to protect you?" Queen Tori asked.

"Depending on how troublesome the Mind Inhibition of this Jorogumo. The minimum would be six hours but the maximum can be one day. So don't expect we will be done immediately."

"Well, I am up for a long battle as long as it is not that hard. How about you Bladeheart? Are you good now? You just finished patrolling the vicinity so you must be tired. It will be a long and grueling battle so perhaps you should rest for a bit?" Queen Tori is a bit worried.

"No worries. I will be fine and I am used to grueling battles left and right without rest. Remember the time in the Frozen Region? I barely have much rest there, so this is nothing. So whenever you guys are ready, we can go anytime."

The two smiled and nodded. "Then, we don't have much time to waste. Let's move this one to the plains and ensure we are far enough from the city. It would be troublesome if we summoned countless monsters that will rampage all over the place as a result."

And so, we ask the villagers for permission to move Saya the Jorogumo to the plains so that we can extract information on her memories. Although they are close with the human Saya, now that she became a monster, the people have decided that its best for Saya to serve her final purpose before she will undertake the process of being mercy killed. We also got the approval about it and we explained that there might be a huge influx of monsters soon but they shouldn't be too worried as the monsters will only head in our direction. 

With Mizuchi's help, we transported the Jorogumo to the plains where Queen Tanya scoped out the area for where Mizuchi needed to put the chunk of ice there.

There are a few monsters present as well but with the help of the Desert Wolves and of course my skeletons, the plains are now monster free. To ensure that we will have good success and we can defend Queen Tanya and the process, I lay down a few traps using the same Saboteur skills, [Blueprint] and [Materialization] to make the traps that will serve as our alarm and trigger whether enemies are already in the vicinity. Now everything is good and ready to rumble.

"Are you two ready? I will begin in a few seconds after finishing the preparation."

"Good to go, Sis. What are we going to do next?" Queen Tori asked.

"Just be on standby and check the surroundings for any new changes. If there are enemies coming, intercept, attack, and stop them from getting near my location. It will be long, so prepare."