The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary C338 Rite of Battle

"What are you guys thinking?!" Qiu Yue slammed on the table which frightened the advisors once more. "Oh my god, I really cannot believe it." She lowered her head in disappointment and shook her head. This was definitely harder than she had anticipated.

"What seems to be the problem, Qiu?" King Sol asked in a gentle tone rather than an imposing one and hoped that he did not offend her in any way. However, Qiu Yue ignored him and sat down right beside him and started to write her own notes while the advisors could only keep quiet staring at her in silence as they heard the sound of intense scribbling.

"I understand that a lot of your advisors are freshly recruited, but they should have been around to see how to work this job. I can't believe you need me to point out all your flaws. It's as if you are on thin ice without even realising it and slowing. Let me point it out for you. You have approximately three months worth of dry food stockpile according to the population that you quoted me. Your coffers might be high currently, but considering the fact that the orcs have crippled every other goblin kingdom, you are left with only the humans to trade with." Qiu Yue stood up to grab the region map that was placed on the far right of the table.

"Your relationship with the humans has always been shaky to be blunt. Assuming they even ARE willing to aid you in trading, you might gain an additional two months of dry food stockpiled according to the amount of food that they had been trading with you for years. Also, you can be damn sure, that they are going to skyrocket the prices they are going to charge you. After all, they should clearly understand, that you will be forced to pay up." Qiu Yue walked towards the Economy advisor's secretary and requested for the notes that the poor goblin had been taking down.

"Resource wise, King Sol has had the foresight to found the kingdom in a location with rich forest and mines, so we are mostly self sufficient in terms of metal works and construction. Food and manpower, however, are an issue." Qiu Yue took a marker out from her storage ring and started to jolt some figures on her palm.

"At the very least, you enforced the conscription law strictly. This way we can call up military reserves anytime but it also leaves the kingdom with the old, the woman and children if we are not careful." Qiu Yue now requested the military advisor's secretary to surrender his portion of notes.

"Unfortunately you guys did not phase out old equipment nor introduce new equipment to your soldiers in a long while. Most of your resources were diverted into tangible products which are beneficial for trading purposes, allowing the kingdom to amass a large amount of wealth. I am not saying it's not wrong, but a quick glance over the numbers of your account books reveals that there are obvious signs of manipulations indicating massive corruptions done by your predecessors. From what it looks like, Your Majesty, it seems you've been aware of this, is that correct? " Qiu Yue diverted the question towards King Sol.

"I..yes. It has come to my attention… I, however, would like to iterat-" Qiu Yue stopped him and shook her head.

"You are surprisingly honest, Your Majesty. The accounts are pristine clean on your end. I think I roughly get the situation and what sort of predicament it could have possibly lead to if you had openly addressed those corruptions." Qiu Yue remembered Jin informed her that King Sol had been in poor health almost all the time and was sure the advisors had been taking advantage of that. If not for the fact that the Three Generals were his friends, the corrupted advisors would have likely tried to overthrow King Sol in a military coup themselves.

"However, that does not change the fact that your previous advisors were corrupted. Military Advisor, I suggest ordering a raid in their premise as soon as possible to retrieve records of their financial assets and seize any valuables kept in those advisors' houses." Qiu Yue wanted to recover as much gold for the war funds of the Kingdom.

"This is blasphemous! Those families are currently mourning their dead and you want us to be the bad guys and raid their house for the sake of gold? Why must I listen to you?! You are just a female humanoid scolding us and barking orders at us! You did not give us a speck of respect at all!" The Military Advisor shouted in retaliation and Qiu Yue smirked that this is now going as what she planned. (The goblins were mainly a male dominated race, hence they looked down on Qiu Yue.)

"Even though your King had asked you to cooperate, you are still disobeying? Do you really think if we were spies, that we would point out all your faults for you?!?!… Fine. I do understand your reluctance to follow orders of someone you have just met. Let me prove to you, that I have every right to be here, and to command you. I heard from the castle guards that you have an ancient rite of battle if things do not get resolved, right? The one who loses will have to obey all wishes. So how about this? Why don't you all fight me? That's right. Each and every one of you can attack me in one go. My condition: Listen to every fucking order I give. If I lose, I won't force you to ransack those houses, instead, Jin here will provide one million gold coins to the kingdom and we will stop complaining about a single thing." Qiu Yue pointed at Jin and the System gave an estimation to Jin.

"User, one million gold coins is equivalent to a hundred thousand dungeon dollars. " Jin smiled weakly and nodded his head in agreement to Qiu Yue's plan.

"Heh! One million gold coins? That is pathetic and not even worth our time." The Economy Advisor snorted as he wanted to increase the bet of the ancient rite of battle. How could they lose? She was after all a humanoid with a slender figure. There was no way she had experience in fighting and she probably would make an excuse to let Master Jin fight against them.

"Alright, Fifty million gold coins. Jin here will not help at me all. Heck, let us turn up the difficulty. I will be fighting with one hand tied to my back, and I have to defeat every one of you. In return, all your ministries shall belong to me if all of you lose. What about it?" Qiu suggested but at this time, she and Jin did not know that Pei was already secretly using her Psycho cognitive abilities to influence the advisors, making them more rash than usual.

Yet the goblins were not stupid. They demanded Qiu Yue to show the money before they participated in the ancient rite of battle. This was because this rite was not just a promise to be made between either the goblins, orcs or the humans. It was similar to a magical binding contract between the two parties in order to settle their disagreement.

Qiu Yue looked at Jin and he sighed heavily and asked the group to meet at the throne hall since there would be no way to show the coins. In the meantime, Jin asked the System to convert the dungeon dollars into gold coins. "Can I change them back to Dungeon dollars later again?" Jin asked and the System replied positively, though it would be based on the market conversion rate with transaction fees added. Jin suddenly felt his heart tighten as he slowly accepted the fact that he needed to part with the money he earnt to the System.

When the goblin advisors along with King Sol reached the throne hall, Jin was pulling large suitcases out of his storage watch like some magic trick while Qiu Yue assisted in opening the suitcases one at a time. The goblin advisors' face turned white when they saw the mountains of gold coins neatly stacked in each suitcase and their mouth even drooled a bit from this sight. King Sol noticed the desires of his advisors and shook his head. He could only trust that Jin and Qiu would be able to set the goblins mindset right.

The freshly recruited goblin advisors had not seen the humanoids in action and they only heard stories of the male humanoid Jin's prowess in the art of fighting. They eventually came to an agreement amongst themselves and agreed to participate in the ancient rite of battle asking King Sol to initiate the contract. According to their risk assessment, they felt that if they ganged up against Qiu Yue, she should not be able to stand a chance at all.

However, they did not know that Pei was the one riling up their emotions of greed for the money in front of them nor that she was the one fanning their anger for enduring all the insults Qiu Yue had been hurling at them for the past hours. Their goblin pride had been insulted. They were appointed goblin advisors after all! Respective leaders of a specialised ministry for the glorious Goblin Kingdom! Not just mere nobodies that could simply be lectured by someone else!

Jin started to notice that his bracelet was glowing slightly understanding that Pei must be doing something, though he decided not to interfere since fifty million gold coins were at stake. As long as the advisors were to fight against Qiu Yue, everything else should be smooth sailing.

"Then I shall initiate the following. You goblin advisors of mine will be fighting against Qiu in a free for all combat. Should Qiu win, she will be granted full access and confidence of each ministry, your future fate as advisors will also depend on her judgements. Her orders will be absolute! However should she lose, she will surrender fifty million gold to the treasury of Gob Gob Kingdom." King Sol stated as he cast a magic circle on the floor with the ring glowing red.

"Step in to confirm these conditions for the contract for this Rite of Battle." King Sol invited them. Both parties willingly stepped forward to affirm the participants. "I hereby proclaim to act as the arbiter for the contract and declare it valid to be resolved by the end of the day." King Sol finished and the magic circle slowly faded away. The goblin advisors saw that there was a red triangle being embedded on the palms of their hand as well as Qiu Yue's.

The advisors smirked as they decided to battle at the Castle's Outer Courtyard in an hour's time. The secretaries needed to return to their houses to gather their weapon, armours and other miscellaneous equipment. At that point, the advisors had distanced themselves from the humanoids and started discussing how they could best coordinate with each other to take down Qiu Yue. All had been trained in military thanks to the compulsory conscription law and some were even old buddies during their stint in the army. Therefore their discussion got sidetracked every now and then while reminiscing about the old days only to return to the kind of possibilities they might encounter fighting against her. Some assumed she had magic on her side to even the odds, while others felt she must be in possession of skills with area of effect that would make her confident against a large group of goblins.

Meanwhile, Jin returned all the suitcases into his storage ring and requested King Sol to lend them the guest room for Qiu Yue to rest before the duel which he granted immediately. The same guard brought them to the guest room they used and showed a thumbs up to Jin as if he was approving of his actions. What actions? Only the guard might know.

"Aaaaaghhh!!!" Qiu Yue screamed her frustration into the pillow before she finally relaxed on the bed heaving a sigh of comfort. "Sorry, I should have discussed this before proposing such a thing. Did I push it too far?" Qiu Yue gave a "pity this cute red panda" kind of face which instantly melted Jin's heart.

"I doubt so. After all you are just trying to help them, but they still disapprove. History taught us that logistics is an internal war we have to deal with consistently. No proper supply routes and the armies starve, no proper planning and we will be failing in our operations. We would lose this war before we know it." Jin reassured Qiu Yue as he sat on a large cushion chair and leaned his head at the side of the large chair.

"There were too many factors that were lacking in the combat service support. They have no discipline in this particular planning phrase and everyone is pushing responsibilities left right and centre. Honestly they kind of remind me of the Ministry. Even the way they ignore my expertise… They have no idea how much work is needed in transporting their personnel, and there are currently no plans of any forward bases. Medical support is also sorely lacking and much more- ARGGHHHH" Qiu Yue took her half mask out and messed her hair up before she relaxed once more on the bed.

"So you simply decided to bet against the goblins so you could obtain total control." Jin smiled at the cuteness of Qiu Yue's pouting on the bed.

"I know I can be a control freak at times, but I cannot think of anything else to circumvent this situation." Qiu Yue places the pillow on her face as she takes a rest.

"Distance is not a factor at the moment since we are defending. However, there is a limit to defending. The resources here like I said previously will not support us in the long run since we do not have that many farms. Besides, the advisors also pointed out that winter is coming. If three month of food surplus is the best they can come up for the winter, we will be dead in our tracks." Qiu Yue continued to grumble to Jin.

"You are thinking too much right now. For now, you just stay calm and win this particular battle. Or else we will lose the upper hand in negotiations." Jin then beckoned to Qiu Yue as she required her own battle strategy for the upcoming duel too.

He and Qiu Yue reviewed her current abilities which was not much to begin with since she had always busy with work. Jin did pass her the manual that the System bestowed to him as a reward, the Radiant Red Panda in the Umbral Snow, but she did not have the time to read it properly. Even the small part she skimmed over was not making much sense at all. The complexity and in depth instructions clearly showed off the expertise of whoever wrote it, but without understanding it, it might as well have been written in another language.

"Candidate Qiu Yue requires to have the System imbued for her to integrate the cultivation manual. It was a safety measure created by the System to prevent misuse or abuse of the manual by other potential threats." The System noted and Qiu Yue could only shrug her shoulders.

"I think, the only way for you to win in this short amount of time is to have superior equipment than them. If they needed their secretaries to fetch their personal armour, it can only mean that those weapons and armour must be enchanted. I also overheard that they might have some magic prepared to restrain you." Jin warned Qiu Yue and started to suggest some equipment.

"I have asked King Sol about the rite of battle. Apparently, this triangle symbol works as a sort of resurrection spell that is granted upon those undergoing the rite of battle — it seems similar to our resurrection methods but more of a magical nature. Therefore, the advisors will be going all out on you for sure. Luckily for us we have the best weapons supplier one could ask for." Jin was happy to be able to help out as he was more experienced in combat.

Qie Yue was aware that she was lacking experience in that battle department and decided to leave it to Jin "Recommend away. I will take whatever you say." Qiu Yue smiled sweetly as she stared into Jin's honest eyes for a while as he rambled away in his own self talk.

"I guess, you can change into this set of clothes. Stats wise, it provides more flexibility and allows you to hide things too." Jin passed her a singlet with shorts, along with a long coat similar to what Kraft was wearing. The unique thing about the long coat was that it could insert more temporary inscriptions compared to other sets of clothing. (Not to mention the jacket has a permanent cooling inscription which Qiu Yue would like very much.) The singlet and cargo shorts were her staple kind of fashion when she was with Jin back then and he simply chose the colours she preferred. Navy Blue and Black.

Qiu Yue gladly picked those up and demanded Jin to turn around as she changed. However, Jin could not be bothered as he was currently in a world of his own choosing a suitable katana for her to use in the Weapon Store category in the Pandamonium App. Even those clothing that he arranged for her were from the Armour Store category. He hardly had to pay much since they were pretty cheap stock items.

"Hmm. This katana seems decent. It has the chance to freeze the opponents the more the user hits with it." Jin said and took consideration of future customisations for that particular sword in conjunction with her brand new cultivation manual which seemed to deal with the ice element. The next thing he picked up was a pair of Uzi submachine guns from the weapon shop.

Those submachine guns were similar to machine pistols that fired at high speeds and they would be effective against a close encounter. Jin received reports from Hou Fei that the improved modified M1 Garand rifles were great against their thin sheets of armour. Jin guessed Qiu Yue could start the fight with one and used the other as a spare. He purposely chose those and bought extended magazines so that there would be no reloading required whatsoever since there was no time to train her. All she had to do was remove the safety and squeeze the guns dry.

"Now I understand why you asked me to wear this particular singlet. I remember seeing such clothing made to be slash resistant during an exhibition I happened to be attending. Kevlar, was it? But why these shorts?! Won't I be vulnerable to attacks to my legs? Do you think the concept of bikini armour really applies in this world?" Qiu Yue asked with some annoyance as she was going for battle, not for a walk on the beach and Jin laughed.

"Well, it does suit you stylishly with that long black coat. " He teased Qiu Yue who pouted before she said she was changing once more. It was a good thing she had some spare clothes in her storage ring. However, Jin stopped her and told her the real reason behind it.

"Wait, Qiu Yue, I was just joking. Here it's because of this." From his storage watch, Jin took out a pair of worn metal boots. They were none other than the old gearbox boots that he used before. Jin kept the newer version with improved features for himself, the one he created once more after the battle with Keyrin, the Thunder Ram Demon. After all, there was no way to sell the old ones unless he refurbished it. (No one in the black market wished to buy a product full of scratches and damaged armour. It was equally troublesome to repurpose the usable armour plating just to sell. It was not worth the effort and price.)

"It should improve your footwork and serve as armour for your legs. It's equipment of mine which I used in battle, so I can personally guarantee that it is quite efficient." Jin asked Qiu Yue to try it who in turn asked Jin to assist her in putting them on.

"Heh, I suddenly feel like Cinderella." Qiu Yue grinned widely while she thought to herself as Jin gently pushed the gearbox boots up for her and pressed a button at the side. The gearbox boots analysed her leg's form and gradually wrapped around it. Once done, Qiu Yue stood up and walked around the guest room to test them out. "I guess they are not as bad as I thought it would be." Qiu Yue praised as she tried to jump around a little and kicked a few times to test her flexibility. She could feel some strain at the start but like an artificial intelligence robot that learnt how to adapt, the gearbox tweaked the output and Qiu Yue starting to feel so natural as if she was barefoot, though more comfortable after a while.

"Alright, now it's time to choose some temporary inscriptions." Jin announced which gave both of them some bonding time while discussing what needed to be chosen.

An hour later, they assembled to the Outer courtyards where there was a training ground for the royal soldiers to train. The goblin advisors and Qiu Yue had decided to use that as a place of battle and King Sol was around to attend to it. However before he allowed both parties to resolve their differences, the King shared some information with Jin about the current situation in the Valley Town of Gob Gob Bu and notified him that the goblins and some of Jin's comrades had engaged once with the orcs before retreating.

Jin pretended to acknowledge the fact as if it was the first time he heard about it but Jin had been given constant updates from Kraft. Thanks to his surveillance Jin was even better informed about it, and the situation was actually even more dire than what King Sol had heard but he trusted Kraft would be able to handle it on his own.

"Heh, Master. You are giving me too much control over something you should be doing on your own. You sure it's a good idea to give me so much power? I could always try to abuse this opportunity to usurp you." Kraft chuckled softly.

"If you were not responsible and loyal, you would not have stayed with Ming for that long or me. I think… With your strength, you could've easily overpowered me and taken over the System for yourself. Especially when a lot of the upgrades were because of you. I am sure you know enough loopholes of the System but you did not exploit them. So, I trust that even though things might get chaotic on the battlefield… to you, it should simply further your fun. I trust that you can get the job done. Besides, these chaotic things those are the same things which will make the cultivators remember about this 'raid instance', right?" Jin replied and Kraft cackled in amusement.

"You are now talking my language! And…thank you Master. I am glad to have met people like Ming and you." Kraft replied sincerely to Jin before he abruptly cut off communications and Jin concentrated on observing the battle in front of him.

The goblin advisors were decked out in excessively expensive gear. Magical runes were shining brightly on their armour, well polished swords, spears and ornaments like golden chains running along their customised helmet. If Qiu Yue were to find out they were in on the corruption, she would not be surprised either. However, with a glance Jin could gauge that a number of them had not worn them for a long time. Perhaps, the desk bound jobs in the ministries made them complacent… or perhaps that was what he wished to be the case for the upcoming fight. Regardless, Jin made sure Qiu Yue was equally well equipped since this was a bet too heavy to fool around.

King Sol gave a clap and the goblins immediately went into their previously discussed formation. Obviously, the one with the biggest shield stood in front and the rest had their swords and spears pointing outwards. In the meantime, Qiu Yue was putting up a front while folding her arms but in actual fact, she was holding on to the pair of uzi machine guns at the sides. The long black coat was covering those weapons so well, the goblins were smirking being sure it was going to be an easy victory.

"She does not have that wooden stick they called M1 Rifles with her. You know, the one that Snake masked Humanoid was training our troops with before they were flown away in the bellies of the giant metal bird." An advisor at the centre of the formation was whispering to the military advisor.

"That is great. That means our defender has a higher chance of survival. This should give us the opportunity to fight against her. I propose we go for Plan G, instead of being defensive. Let's go for a swift attack the moment King Sol declares the start of the battle." The military advisor suggested and most agreed except for one. The Magic Advisor was afraid that Qiu had a different sort of weapon which could shoot something similar to the M1 rifles. He insisted on putting up a barrier just in case.

"Don't be a wuss. We need you to support us with the strongest magic you can summon while not destroying the castle!" the Military advisor continued to argue in a whispering tone but clouded with worry the Magic Advisor was not following his lead. Truthfully Pei was still subtlety influencing all the others with her magic except for the Magic Advisor. Pei had concluded that the Magic Advisor who was tuned with the art of magic seemed to have a higher resistance towards mind control magic techniques. Instead of using more of her energy to influence him, she decided not to bother with him. This in turn would help prevent any suspicion of foul play from Jin's side.

"I will let the group herd thinking settle that magic advisor." Pei thought to herself while she maintained her magic in bracelet form. True enough, their petty bickering began to annoy King Sol who was witnessing everything at the sidelines.

"Ready. Get set." King Sol activated a magic circle under them to activate the so called resurrection spell which would work as long as they stayed in that circle while performing the rite of battle.

"Go." King Sol slammed his scabbard on the ground to commence the start of battle.

The goblins were unhesitant to charge forward in a triangle formation to which Qiu Yue brandished her two Uzi submachine guns and fired indiscriminately at them. *CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK* The frontlines fell instantly. So fast that it shocked the advisors who were behind. However, it was too late to do anything about it, as they were the next to be killed by the spray of bullets. There had been no chance for them to even activate their magical runes at all for they clearly underestimated their opponent and the unstable emotions did not allow them to think correctly.

Qiu Yue stopped for a while and jumped up to have a higher vantage point as she emptied whatever little amount was left in her extended magazines. The only one that managed to survive the relentless onslaught was the Magic Advisor who had defied the military advisor and created a personal magical barrier shield for himself. Qiu Yue smiled as she threw the submachine guns to scare him further before she rushed in with a flying kick powered by the gearbox boots.

Jin laughed as it was that infamous 'Rider Kick' that they had already performed during the arena too. Only the King was troubled by the almost instantaneous kill. He was aware that Jin should not be underestimated, but this was simply overwhelmingly disgraceful for the goblins. He heaved heavily, simply glad they were their allies. If they had sided with the Orcs, King Sol shuddered at that train of thought.

"User. The goblin advisors have been captured into the System. They will definitely be loyal without a fault." The System stated after the battle had been concluded with Qiu Yue's kick crushing the shield barrier. The surprised Magic Advisor's was subsequently killed with a stab through the heart.

"Eh? I thought only my weapons, bellators and monsters were able to capture the goblins?" Jin was pleasantly surprised by the sudden change of situation. That would mean he could safely trust the goblin advisors to do their job. Now there was not even a need to worry should there be a way to revert the so call contract by the rite of battle.

"The System understood that the items you were purchasing would be given to Candidate Qiu Yue. System had taken the liberty to inject the capture module code into those weapons. Should Candidate Qiu Yue continue to use those weapons, the code will remain valid." The System stated and Jin smiled.

"Let the rite of battle resurrect them. That way we won't even need to spend souls on them." Jin said and the System acknowledged while at the same time, it was analysing and processing the resurrection magic that was being used on the captured goblin advisors. There was a chance this type of magic could help in developing the System's very own Black Goo Souls.

King Sol came down from the stage he had been overseeing the battle from and shook Qiu's hand. "Congratulations. The advisors will have to listen to you now. Should they try to disobey they would have to suffer the punishment of death due to the clause contract in the rite of battle." King Sol smiled bitterly but now believed more than ever that Jin and his comrades would be the ones able to save them from this certain impending doom.

"I was not expecting such a win from this group…" Qiu Yue grinned widely when suddenly a loud explosion echoed within the capital city not too far from the castle.

"User, Satellite images show orc raiders attacking the capital. Judging from the tight security from the borders, it could indicate they used an underground passage of some sort to reach into the middle of the captital city." System surmised causing Jin to frown at the attack before calling Qiu Yue to follow him.

"King Sol, we will deal with that Orc menace!" Jin said as he grabbed Qiu Yue who was slightly stunned by that explosion from afar, but the grab jolted her back to reality.

"When we are back, I want all the relevant documents that we had been talking about in the previous meeting to be on the table!" Qiu Yue shouted towards the King while Jin was pulling her hand to hurry her up.

Chapter end