Grinding EXP From Fireball Skill-Chapter 80: War’s End, The Return

Li Wei received news of the great victory in the war.

It was already four days after he had learned about the decisive battle from Gus.

The news of the victory came from Gu Ze.

Gu Ze: "The war is over. It was a complete victory. I should be back in a few days."

Li Wei: "Teacher, the Beastman forces outnumbered the humans by more than two to one. How did we achieve a complete victory?"

He was extremely curious about this.

Gu Ze: "Marshal Orn broke through and advanced during the final battle, causing the entire army’s strength to skyrocket. He crushed the Beastman Race’s legion in one fell swoop."

He didn’t want to tell Li Wei the details.

Even he had been shocked and frightened by the final scene.

The humans no longer looked human, acting more bestial than the Beastmen themselves.

He’d had nightmares the night the war ended.

According to rumors, the Wizards of the Beastman Race also possessed a type of Magic that could make people feel no pain, fear no death, and surge with Power.

The Frenzy Skill!

But the Frenzy Skill could only be used on a single target.

Even a mass Frenzy Skill could only affect a small number of targets.

Orn’s Frenzy Aura affecting tens of thousands of people was just too terrifying.

The War Knight... utterly horrifying!

It wasn’t just the Frenzy Aura, but also the Intimidation Aura. Otherwise, the Beastman army wouldn’t have collapsed so quickly.

Li Wei was surprised to hear that Orn had advanced during the final battle.

He suddenly thought of Reina.

Reina had previously told him that Orn had arranged an advancement ritual for her during the war.

Li Wei was lost in thought. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

’Is the advancement ritual for the War Knight class... war itself?’

He seemed to understand why Orn was helping Otz establish a Kingdom.

’So that’s how it is.’

The Xinghuo Literature Society had not yet received the news of the complete victory in the great battle at the front.

They were still widely publishing stories proclaiming the glorious achievements of City Lord Otz.

The newspapers were distributed to the public for free and posted on notice boards.

They also paid Minstrels to adapt the stories and tell them for free to the illiterate masses.

It wasn’t just in Maple City; the Xinghuo Literature Society used its connections to distribute the papers publicizing Otz’s achievements far and wide.

In any case, the City Lord’s Mansion was footing the bill for everything.

The Xinghuo Literature Society’s only job was to promote him vigorously and carry out the important task the City Lord had given them.

The newspapers had already reached the towns under the Macher Kingdom’s jurisdiction.

When the King heard the news, his first reaction was to laugh at Otz for trumpeting every little achievement, like some country bumpkin who had never seen the world.

At first, he read the newspapers publicizing Otz’s glorious achievements as if he were watching a circus act.

He laughed with the Ministers at his side about how Maple City was exaggerating its military successes and mocked Otz for being so vain and boastful.

A few days later, he realized something was wrong.

The people within the Kingdom all seemed to be growing supportive of this hero who had driven out the Beastmen.

The King immediately ordered the confiscation of all newspapers and pamphlets and forbade any promotion of Otz’s accomplishments.

News from the front lines brought a flicker of joy to the King’s heart, making him temporarily forget about the newspapers.

Three days after their eastern army was defeated by Orn, the Beastmen’s western army voluntarily retreated.

The Beastman Kingdom was afraid of being attacked from both sides.

On the other hand, they were also terrified by Orn’s military feats.

The news of the Beastman retreat made the King happy for a while, and the entire Kingdom celebrated.

Originally, he was supposed to invite the City Lords who had answered the call to arms to the royal capital for a victory banquet, where he would then commend the City Lord with the most outstanding Contribution as a reward.

But because of the newspapers, the King had grown resentful and suspicious of Otz, the City Lord of Maple City.

So he did not invite Otz.

Since he wasn’t inviting the City Lord with the most outstanding Contribution, the King didn’t feel like inviting anyone else either.

After all, the Macher Kingdom had only managed to repel the Beastman Kingdom’s invasion entirely thanks to Otz’s victory on the eastern front.

The King didn’t even have the face to boast about the Macher Kingdom’s merits to the other City Lords.

Inviting others to the victory banquet would be meaningless.

While the King was holding his victory banquet, Otz and Orn were meeting.

Otz looked at Orn and smiled. "Congratulations on your successful advancement."

Orn was a man of few smiles, but you could see the happiness on his face; his expression wasn’t as stern as usual.

"It was to be expected."

Orn said, "The army has been reorganized. The wounded will remain in Extreme Night City to recover. The remaining fourteen thousand-plus men are ready to march at any time."

"We’ll use the twenty thousand Beastman prisoners as the vanguard siege force to reduce our own soldiers’ casualties."

The corners of Otz’s mouth lifted. He could already see the future outcome in his eyes.

He said, "Let’s move out!"

"Those Beastman prisoners are consuming so much food. It’s time for them to contribute their value."

Orn led a massive contingent of over thirty thousand people on the road back to Maple City.

Ostensibly, they were escorting the soldiers from the various cities back home.

As tens of thousands of men surged forward, the guards on the city walls could feel the ground tremble from their march and were scared witless.

Wherever Orn went, all the City Lords treated him as if he were a great enemy.

He would first send out the soldiers belonging to a particular city, using the pretext of returning them to lead his grand army close to its walls.

Seeing this, how could the City Lord dare to open the gates and welcome them in?

He was terrified that the moment the gates opened, Orn would give the order, and tens of thousands would pour into the city, causing it to fall without a fight.

A legion of over thirty thousand men was larger than the population of some small cities.

The City Lord’s refusal to let the Warriors who had driven out the invaders return home caused unrest within the city and lost him the loyalty of the soldiers outside.

Orn seized the opportunity to win over their hearts. He had the human soldiers pull back and sent the twenty thousand Beastman prisoners marching toward the city walls.

Twenty thousand men, a dark, oppressive mass.

Just by standing at the foot of the walls without even attacking, they put immense pressure on the guards on the ramparts.

The City Lord had lost the people’s support, and morale was low.

The atmosphere on the walls was stiflingly tense.

Merely surrounding the city without attacking was enough to push the City Lord into a desperate situation.

Otz took this opportunity to appear and persuade them to surrender.

"Surrender or be destroyed? Choose."

The weaker City Lords promptly followed their hearts and chose to submit.

The slightly stronger City Lords didn’t dare open their gates, but they didn’t choose to surrender either.

Orn did not launch a frontal assault.

The City Lords who refused to surrender immediately discovered that their gates were opening on their own.

A special operations team composed entirely of Professionals had already infiltrated the city during the standoff and opened the gates from within.

This group had never appeared on the battlefield before.

Whenever a City Lord attempted to resist, they would appear like Ghosts and break through the city’s defenses from the inside.

With the gates wide open, the City Lords had no choice but to surrender.

The journey from Extreme Night City back to Maple City took five days.

Not many battles broke out along the way, and the Beastman prisoners used as siege fodder suffered few casualties.

However, the continuous days of marching exhausted the Beastman prisoners, leaving them increasingly weary and with no strength to escape.

From Extreme Night City to Cold Sand City, and then to Maple City, there were a total of twelve cities along the route.

Five cities surrendered quickly, submitting without hesitation.

Two cities were breached from within by the special operations team, their gates thrown open, forcing them to surrender.

Another two cities resisted for a while after their gates were opened, only surrendering when they saw the situation was hopeless.

Three cities, all larger than Maple City, remained unfazed by Orn’s encirclement.

Confident in their strong troops, powerful cavalry, and high, thick walls, they had no fear of a siege.

After besieging them for a day and seeing no opportunity, Orn voluntarily withdrew.

Additionally, there was Extreme Night City, which had supported Otz’s founding of a kingdom, and Cold Sand City, which he had first captured and occupied.

Otz now controlled twelve cities in total, occupying most of the Macher Kingdom’s eastern territory.

This firmly cut off the three powerful cities from the rest of the Macher Kingdom.

Thanks to the vigorous propaganda from the Xinghuo Literature Society, when the citizens of each city learned their new overlord was the heroic City Lord Otz, they showed little resistance. Instead, they joyfully spread the news and celebrated his arrival.

On the second day of the campaign of conquest, the Macher Kingdom received the news.

They attempted to dispatch troops to stop him.

But after learning that Orn commanded over thirty thousand soldiers, the army that was already on its way immediately turned around and returned.

It was too late to mobilize troops from the front lines, so they could only watch helplessly as Otz returned to Maple City.

On this day, Li Wei was waiting on the city walls early in the morning for everyone’s return.

He gazed into the distance and saw a continuous line of troops slowly approaching Maple City.

Returning in great victory!