Divine Luck: SSS-Rank Battle Maid Harem

Even Zach's club members were looking at him like he was crazy. But before they could say anything, one of the Exterminators gently squeezed their way to the front.

"Pardon me, I don't mean to be rude, but what the fuck was that?" A swordsman with long hair asked.

"Fuck if I know." Zach shrugged. "A Named underworlder, I guess?"

"No, I meant, why the fuck did you agree to his deal? You've effectively rendered your own creations and our participation meaningless. All for what sounds like it can only be a trap."

"Zach, I know the circumstances and the situation weren't ideal, but are you sure that was the right choice? He practically admitted to preparing something big. Wouldn't it be worth it to, you know, ruin their plans?" Dukiel chimed in.

"A couple of things." Zach held up a hand to ask them to calm down.

"So what if it's a trap? The whole thing might be a trap. Mursoth and the Great Ugor maybe want us to use a potion to ruin their 'weapon' and whatnot. Why? No idea. Doesn't matter.

What does matter is that Mursoth was strong. If he wanted to, we wouldn't be able to stop him from reaping the lives he promised to take, not now, and definitely not in the future.

"Do you guys want to babysit a couple of thousand citizens? No? Then, do you want to be responsible for their deaths? No? Didn't think so." Zach took a moment to look at the ones around him, fellow students and Exterminators alike.

"Did no one notice? That guy wasn't just strong. He was anxious. He wanted to get back as soon as possible.

"Sure, we could have ruined his plans–we still can. But how many here are confident they can not only fight a Named but also stop a desperate one? The only thing we would have for sure gained from fighting him would be a decreased food expenditure since several would have died." Explore more stories with empire

"So, you just let him go?" Anerias questioned Zach. He had sensed that Mursoth was powerful, but Zach, as much as he disliked admitting it, was also powerful. With Zach's familiar since only Yanael was with him and his barriers, couldn't they have done something?

"Yeah. Because it's as he said. If we want to sit on our asses and do nothing we can. But we can also use this time he bought with a ceasefire. While they stabilize whatever it is they're going to stabilize, we can train, grow stronger, develop tactics, and create more potions."

Nessa's eyes slowly lit up as she realized something.

"...He took that potion back with him!" She exclaimed.

"Probably to study and try to devise countermeasures," Violina said.

"Surely, but what can they really do? They rely on underworld energy. That potion rejects underworld energy. They would need something that rejects something that rejects underworld energy. They—Whatever. That's not my point.

He most likely believes its a precious and hard-to-make potion. I mean, think about it, we have only used one during this entire year. It had an incredible effect.

"Logically speaking, it should be an expensive and rare potion. It should be difficult to get our hands on the materials needed and it should be hard to make it. Otherwise, why aren't we using more of them? It's not like the hole in the forest is gone. It's not like the tunnels are gone." Nessa's explanation was quick, and her sentences were almost one long word as she shared her theory.

"...Bruns was strong and sent deep into the tunnels for what very well might have been a suicide attack, yet he had only one such potion? It's understandable if they believe something like that. So what?" One of the Exterminators, a mage, pointed out.

Nessa energetically turned to Zach.

"Zach, are they difficult to make?"

Zach thought for a moment. Other than in the beginning when Alzara was still getting used to all the ingredients, materials, and material worms, he hadn't seen her fail once.

"Not overly."

"And the materials? Are they hard to get?"

"A few ingredients are a little troublesome, but each one is enough for several potions."

"How many potions have you made so far?"

"Like the one we used in the forest and the one in Mursoth's hand? A few. A few dozen that are one step weaker. A hundred or so that's another step weaker. I haven't bothered making more than that. I've also been busy with medicine and talismans lately."

With Zach's answers, the others gradually understood what Nessa was getting at.

Mursoth's ceasefire that was taken under the assumption that the surface dwellers wouldn't be able to prepare enough potions while they stabilized their project would come back to bite Mursoth and the Underworld in the foot.

Of course, only if Mursoth and the rest of the Underworld truly assumed that the potions were more difficult to make than they were.

But Nessa's theory seemed reasonable.

Even without the potions, however, Zach was confident they would surpass the Great Ugor's expectations. He just hoped that it would be enough to overcome whatever it was they had prepared beneath the city.

With how much important they were placing on it to the point where they used a Named to scare the surface dwellers off, it had to have taken a lot of resources. If it took a lot of resources, it should be powerful if it was a weapon or useful if it was something else.

Zach briefly recalled the chimera Jigak had mentioned. They had also gone to lengths to secure that one.

On the other hand, they had sacrificed a monster as powerful as the tiger. In hindsight, it hadn't been that powerful. It had been powerful compared to Zach and the other students at the time. But it had taken less than a year for them to encounter several monsters that were a lot stronger.

Zach didn't know what to think. He just knew that their current strength wouldn't be enough, not to combat whatever the weapon was or to fight the Named.

He looked toward the city with a distant gaze.

Had agreeing to the ceasefire been the right decision?