Ikami''s face showed no conflict as she expected a rather difficult condition, but they had been told nothing about even the existence of the cyclops race by both their king and the old green giant elder, so they were all caught by surprise by this new information. Yet she could not reveal those expressions on her face in front of the Vikings; it would put their nation''s image in a rather compromising position.
Tumo, meanwhile, showed no such calmness; he wasn''t the one to scheme much; he was a kind and straightforward person, so his reaction was much different than Ikami''s, causing the Vikings to assume that he did not have much authority in the nation and was simply a bodyguard. His image simply dropped in the image of the Vikings due to this. Hyeon meanwhile couldn''t care less. Athena gave them a bit to process the information before she continued on to explain.
"I suppose you people would already know that us Vikings originally did not reside on this subcontinent. We originally lived on an island south of here." Ikami, Tumo, and Hyeon all three nodded together; meanwhile, around this time, a Viking lady came into the room holding Elio in her hand before putting him down on the table. Elio politely greeted everyone before standing next to Tumo as Athena continued.
"We are a warrior race who lived on the southern island and prospered in peace. That was until the day Radus chose the Red Giants as their successor race. However, at that point we had no information about this. During the war among the giants, we did not bother to join originally, but we had to leave our island and move to their island; it was not because we wished to conquer. It was because we were driven out of our own homes," she spoke with a hint of regret and embarrassment in her own voice.
It must have been humiliating remembering those memories and times when they, who were a proud warrior race, were kicked out of their own homes and had to come to this continent where they joined hands with the red giants. They had thought after the war they could ask their allies for help, or maybe with the new weapons they could go back and reclaim their homeland. However, every attempt at trying to regain their homeland failed miserably to the point that even the red giants refused to help them anymore…
Ikami listened to this quietly; she was a prideful person herself, so seeing the Vikings, who took pride in their ruthless nature, being humbled over and over again by an enemy that drove them out of their own home should have brought overwhelming shame… She could only sigh with slight pity on the warriors, but she had to consider the situation more carefully. She couldn''t go running blindly when a whole nation''s force was unable to take down the cyclops. What chances did she and three idiots have…This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
"You guys have ample strength. I do not see how you did not even succeed once." At this point, Elio, who had spent the most time with the warriors of the race inside the hospital, knew these were not necessarily weak people, but then how were they defeated? "It''s true... if it was simply a battle of strength or a fair fight between two races, we could have won... no, we would have won." She said, slamming her fists onto the table as Tumo fell back down from the impact and small cracks formed on her side of the table.
"But the cyclops are not like us; the giant race is blessed by Radus for their talent in blacksmithing, and with his blessings gone to the red giants, whose bodies are natural forges. While giants are dependent on their blacksmithing ability as their main skill, the cyclops are more lenient towards taming. They tame creatures and use those to fight, while the Vikings were good at fighting; being overwhelmed by beast tides always was our downfall. But we still could have won, but the cyclops had gotten their hands on the great grade sea serpent. It basically guards the island at all times, so it''s almost impossible to defeat them anymore" Athena spoke in a saddened and defeated tone.
"To defeat a great-grade beast, you need at least a great-grade weapon or item…." Hyeon muttered to himself; even the generally negative person was at a loss for words.
Not many great-grade weapons existed in the current world due to the setting by the GameMaster; while the red giant elder could probably create great-grade weapons, it was also a matter of luck and not dependable. Currently the red giants only had three great-grade items, and they were not willing to even give those to their allies, leaving the Vikings in a rather awkward state.
"So just to be clear, your challenge for us is to go conquer the whole of the cyclops island and—" Before Ikami could complete her sentence, she was interrupted. "No. We might have lost for several years, but we still have our pride; we do not wish for you to do all the work. Our simple request is for you to get rid of the great grade sea serpent guarding the shores of the southern island so we can claim it ourselves."
Athena spoke in a stubborn tone,Ikamis expression had turned ugly from being interrupted in the middle of her sentence…It was clearly something she did not like. "Okay, so as long as we get rid of the serpent, you will join our nation willingly and submit to our king?" Ikami questioned, making sure they were on the same page right now.
"Indeed that is so; we might have our pride, but we are not dumb. Compromises need to be made to gain victory in the end," Athena spoke as she sighed, knowing she might get backlash from the elders for this decision of hers, but she was willing.
Ikami considered it for a bit; in the end, it was not that hard, and she was sure she could just deal with the serpent somehow. Even if she couldn''t, she could get Jack''s help... there was no time limit, so agreeing would be best. That being said, she made up her mind, but before she could say anything, the communication rune in Tumo''s hand spoke up.
"I''d like to add a condition."