"A trident you say... that reminds me of something. When I was in their camp gathering information I saw a board with a list of items, and on top I saw the word trident as well."
That caught their attention and asked me what other items were on the list.
Unfortunately, my memory wasn't that good, I only remembered the names of a few potions and blocks, but nothing else.
They were disappointed by this but thanked me nonetheless.
"What is the trident used for?"
"From what we were told, it's a weapon and a tool to make you travel faster in the water, but nobody seems to make it work. So it was only placed as a display item in the auction house."
That's a way I can guide them towards the right path!
"Maybe they know how to use the tool, but even then they would need a large body of water to use it properly."
The eyes of the president suddenly lit.
"That means the next attack would most likely be at a city with a port! We have quite a few of those, but it's better than spreading our forces through all the kingdom."
This is good progress, this should stop the Piliger from overtaking a ship easily, or if they build another flying platform, there would be enough people to build a wall to stop them.
"Thank you for your input, it greatly helped us if it's true. While you're here, I'd also like to ask you about the Monster Lord."
That question made me confused.
I knew the Zombie Lord wasn't dead, but Merry didn't make that statement public.
Maybe Merry didn't catch him on time and a few viliges saw him?
"While I did help with killing the Zombie Lord, the one who dealt the final blow was the hero. She should have more experience with this than me."
"We're not talking about the Zombie Lord this time, a new Monster Lord appeared in the Sandstone Kindome a few weeks ago and it's ravaging through the nearby towns. But he is a weird Monster Lord, he doesn't have an army, instead, he's constantly defeated by the Prince that was exiled a few months ago."
What do you mean there's a new Monster Lord?!
I don't remember being a prophecy about another Monster Lord, and why does he seem so weak?
When there's no army around him, he should be stronger then any human with armor.
Even Merry didn't kill the Zombie Lord with a sword, I had to use a lot of explosions for that one, and the hero has a chance of killing him now because she received a powerful sword made for him.
There's no way a normal human can constantly defeat such a Monster with his small army.
This monster has to be a fake.
I told my opinion to the president and he seems to be on my side as well.
He only brought this up since there's a chance the Monster Lord would start attacking the Coral Kingdom, and the hero has been gone on an expedition for a few weeks already.
Truly this was the start of a bad year.
If the Monster Lord is genuine, it makes me wonder if another one's is going to appear later.
Just when my life seems to form a clear path, things appear to distract me.
I'll have to gather more information before making a decision, with the Piligers being a priority.
The president thanked me for my input and paid me 4 blocks of diamond which would be amazing for anyone to get, but for me and the company, it was just spare change.
The only difference was that most of my wealth is in one place and I can't have it all the time on me.
I took the blocks, thanked the man, refused his offer to work for his company or for the president, and went on my way out when he asked me a question that made me stop.
"I have one more question if you don't mind, do you know where Simpson the man who wanted to recruit you a few months ago went?"
"No, I haven't seen him since the last time he offered me the job."
"I see, you can leave now."
And I did that with quick steps so I wouldn't get any more surprise questions.
Once I was outside, I took my horse and explored the city a little.
Unfortunately, I couldn't enjoy the view since my mind was preoccupied with the new information I just learned.
I've only been away for a few months and two major crises have happened.
What's going on with this world?
I need to get more information so I won't jump into a war by accident.
And I already knew where to start.
----
"This compass leads me to my home base."
"There's no need for you to worry about it, I have a few connections that can help me with that."
It's been a week since I left the Gold City.
Once my job was done, I quickly went back to Puperfish City paid a few brokers to get any information related to the locations of the Iligers, sent it to my house in a chest, and got the rest of the payment afterward.
I also used Siren's name to put some fear in them for not ripping me off.
And while she's gone on the sea to rob some poor ships, her new vehicle and crew gave her name more power.
Then with Violet's help, I made the redstone contraption for collecting the information, built a secret portal underneath my house, and left a note in case Siren decided to come back and continue living there.
Then I went into the Nether.
The reason I built the portal was for two reasons, to travel fast and meet with the prisoner in my tribe.
He didn't tell me how I could get to Alexa, but I doubt he didn't know about the trident password, which would've helped me to not get attacked.
That meant he was hiding some information from me, and I was determined to get everything out.
Plus I wanted to see how Bobby and Froggy were doing afterwords.
Speaking of Bobby, his wedding is around the corner, I should prepare a gift for them.
I wonder what he'll like.
I also wonder if I'll be an uncle soon.
We walked throughout the Nether at a fast pace even though we had to pass valleys filled with lava, forests full of dangers and the Allay being a pain to deal with.
"Alexa, I told you to leave those patches of soulsand alone!"
Since soulsand is at the top of the list for his energy blocks, whenever we pass by a soulsand valley, Alexa gets distracted and starts collecting the soul energy or something similar from the blocks.
Unfortunately, the body it now controls can't absorb the energy as efficiently as the main body, resulting in only 10% gain and losing the rest.
Not only that, but the monsters seem to have an unnatural hate towards the Allay.
Skeletons, zombies, hoglings, Brutes, and even Piglings seem to attack it at first sight.
And since it's not invisible, or has a strong armor, it just ends up with having to give up on the gathering process and fly away to safety.
It was a weird sight to see, since this wasn't a problem in the Overworld, only in the Nether.
In the end, I couldn't be bothered with this anymore and promised to gather a few stacks of soulsand when ill get back to its main body.
This seemed to satisfy it and didn't get into trouble anymore which made the journey much easier.
A few days later, I started to recognize the landscape which gave me a boost in my confidence and in my traveling speed.
Not too long after I was in front of the tribe with the guards looking bored at the tunnel.
"Hey there boys, how's the work going?"
"It's boring as always, I can't wait to finish my shift and try the strength potion that Blue Flame was talking about-."
Realizing that they didn't see me or recognize my voice, the two guards quickly turned and slashed at me with their iron swords.
Expecting this response, I just took a step back making them miss.
"Who are you, how did you get behind us?"
"Relax guys, it's me, Trader."
I said that as I took off my helmet.
"Chief Trader I didn't know you were there under the armor."
"Don't worry, it was my fault from beginning. I'm looking to speak with Undying, do you know is she's here?"
"No, she left two days ago on a hunting mission, but Blue Flame is in charge."
I guess he was better suited for my requests.
I thanked the two guards and went on my way to the big tree.
"Alexa, whatever you do, your not allowed to leave my side unless given permission, understood!"
The air spoke behind me.
Since all creatures in this world seems to hate Alexa, I decided to make her invisible while I was here, and I'll see if I could reson with people to not kill my super computer.
I arrived at the big tree and knocked on the blue door.
* knock knock*
A few moments later, the door was open and Blue Flame looked at me with tierd eyes.
"I hope this is worth- Trader is that you?"
"Good to see you as well Blue, I need your help with something. Or more exactly I need Solomon's help."
"Sure you can come in, we just finished a batch of experiments. He has a twisted personality like you told me, but he's got the spirit of a true researcher. You have to see what we've created."
That sounded interesting, so I followed him inside.
Once in there I was greeted by a young adult hogling that was siting lazily on the couch.
He looked at me for a second, let out a sigh and went back to sleep.
Was it possible for an animal like him to be this lazy?
"I see Hog Chop got bigger."
"And lazier if you can belive that. Its hard to belive that he's a murdered machine capable of squishing anyone to death if he wanted to."
Indeed.
Next we went to a new place that I didn't see before.
The basement.
There, I saw a huge room filed with berals, chests, brewing stands, Wart farm, Enchanting Table and other kinds of block all spread throughout the room.
In the middle was a huge table with man-made equipment that I couldn't tell what it was used for.
And those tools were used by the man that I was looking for.
Solomon the Iliger, and my prisoner.
"Wha? Yeah sure, just don't brake anything."
"Who are you? And what's with the dress?"
I kind of forgot he was a jerk as well.
"It's me Solomon, I came here to ask how are the Iligers going to find the Fake System?"
He looked back to his tools, and stated to clean them.
"I told you, they plan on stealing a ship, and with the help of the map they would get there."
Well he's not lying but not telling the full truth.
"Then I guess you don't know anything about the puzzles sent by the Fake System."
The Mad Scientist stopped and looked at me with nervous expression.
"W-where have you heard that?"
"Funny enough the source itself told me."
He went silent and looked at me with wide eyes not believing what he just heard, and Blue looked confused at us.
"Is-is it with you as well?"
"Yes, it recognized me as it's master."
The Mad Scientist looked franticly around the room before getting to his knees and started to yell.
"Almighty System, free me from those people and I'll give my soul to you!"