"Are they your friends too?" Erica asked. "Did you feed them meat just like what you did with Blacky?"
"Yeah," Thirteen replied. "We hit it off right away."
The Trolls all averted their gaze, knowing full well they didn't "hit it off right away" with their Master.
But since it was all in the past, they no longer wished to dwell on it anymore. Besides, they were now very satisfied with serving their Master because he treated them very well.
"First things first, I'm sure you're dying to know where this place is, right?" Thirteen asked. "To put it simply, we are inside a special dimension inside Rocky, which is called Mobile Fortress.
"It is a separate dimension where living beings can stay. Since our mission is to travel to the Goblin Lands, we will travel deep underground where it's safe, bypassing the many checkpoints of the Ratmen Armies. Do both of you follow me so far?"
Erica and Sherry nodded at the same time.
"Our goal is not to fight the Goblin Emperor," Thirteen said. "But that doesn't mean that we won't need to fight. I'm not doing this for charity. I'm not a noble person. We will pick our battles, loot our enemies, and then run away until we find the Shard of Origin. Any questions so far?"
"Can we just take the Shard of Origin and leave as fast as possible?" Erica asked.
"We could," Thirteen replied. "But we won't. Like I said, I'm not doing this for charity. The reason why I brought the two of you here is to land the killing blow to our enemies. Since I can't gain skills, items, or avatars, the two of you will be farming items for me."
Sherry, who was already used to this setup, nodded in understanding.
Most of the items she possessed, including her Blade Panther Avatar, were acquired through this method.
"So… we're only going there for the loot?" Erica, who finally understood why the teenage boy needed to bring someone with him, scratched her head.
"Right." Thirteen smirked. "Are you ready to get rich, Erica? We split the loots 30/30/40. The two of you get 30, I get 40 percent. Sounds fair, right?"
Erica didn't answer right away. Instead, she glanced at Sherry, who simply nodded her head as if this was a normal occurrence.
"Does Sis Rianna and Shana know about this?" Erica inquired.
Thirteen shook his head. "No. Only you know about this secret, Erica."
Hearing the teenage boy's answer, a faint smile appeared on the young lady's face.
"Very well. I'll keep this as our secret." Erica gave the teenage boy a thumbs up. "You're in good hands, Zion."
For some reason, the fact that she knew something that Shana didn't know made her happy. She couldn't understand this feeling of superiority.
But since she felt that the teenage boy was starting to open up and trust her, she believed that the two of them would be very close friends.
'We might even become best friends!' Erica mused, unable to hide the smile on her face.
Thirteen returned Erica's smile with a smile of his own. If only he knew what she was thinking, he would probably think that she had no friends in her life and view her pitifully.
"But if you only need someone to land the killing blow, then why do you need to bring her?" Erica, who suddenly remembered something, pointed at Sherry. "I think I'm enough for this mission."
The Sorceress still hadn't forgiven the younger girl for calling her an Auntie.
"Looks like Auntie is carrying a grudge," Sherry chuckled. "Bitter much?"
The two girls then glared at each other as if they were two cats, who were about to enter a catfight.
For a brief moment, Thirteen thought he saw sparks flying out of their eyes, making him scratch his head.
Giga, who seemed to know what was going on, lightly patted Thirteen's shoulder and nodded like a wise sage.
"What's gotten into you?" Thirteen, who found Giga's action funny, asked.
"You'll understand when you're older," Giga replied. "Only Chads know this feeling."
An hour later, the two young ladies no longer felt anxious, casually conversing with the monsters inside the Mobile Fortress.
During their stay in Pangea, Thirteen made sure that the Trolls knew how to speak their language by giving them some Gold-Grade Language skills.
In fact, they were so fluent that Erica and Sherry thought that they were talking to humans instead of monsters.
The Sorceress even thought that Thirteen was just pranking them and that there were really humans inside the monsters—like those mascots in theme parks.
But after confirming that they were real, Erica asked T1 to tell her more about Zion, as well as the embarrassing things that the Troll Warlord knew about his Master.
T1 obliged, and the two could be seen whispering at each other while giving the teenage boy sidelong glances.
'Fortunately, I took Gwenn back to the Order of the Apocalypse,' Thirteen thought. 'If they saw him, I'm sure the two of them would freak out.'
He was certain that Erica and Sherry could still accept seeing Ogres and Trolls working for Zion.
But a Brain Beetle was a different matter.
Even if the two girls respected and trusted him, the moment they saw the Brain Beetle, they would feel like their freedom would be in danger.
Because of this, Thirteen would only summon Gwenn when Erica, Sherry, and he were doing missions outside of Rocky's Mobile Fortress.
Some secrets were better left unsaid, especially when morality hung in the balance.
After traveling for several days, Rocky finally reached the main territory of the Ratmen.
Kesari, who was hiding somewhere inside the mobile fortress, was sharing his senses with Tiona's clone, allowing them to know the general direction where they needed to go.
Their travels were smooth and relatively peaceful.
Their mission's difficulty was nowhere near the hardships that Drazzat was currently facing as he tried to convince the Great Chieftains to have a dialogue with the Ratmen, who were slowly but surely advancing deep within their territories.
A/N: Suffering from high blood pressure right now. So no Wizard World Irregular Chapters.