Chapter 118 The Great Operation to Lure the Foreigner

The Giant Defense Line was called so because it was rebuilt upon the ruins of the original defense line meant to stop the Titan Giants.

It was a colossal prison constructed by thousands of Blessed proficient in Earth Magic, with a Foreigner who claimed expertise in civil engineering acting as the technical advisor. It was built around the Nemean Forest—the place where the Hundred-Womb Ganges’ Erosion first began, and where it remained the most severe.

The knowledge provided by this Foreigner was incredibly advanced. The giant walls built upon this foundation were so impregnable that not even Titan Hybrids could breach them. Most importantly, the Foreigner had vetoed the Royal Knight Order’s decision to build sliding gates.

"These so-called ’absolutely unbreakable’ gates always end up failing to close in time under certain circumstances, only to be forced open by Monsters, causing the entire defense line to collapse," the Foreigner had said. "I don’t want the project I’m building to make a Jurassic World kind of mistake.

"A true cage shouldn’t even have a door, let alone a lock!"

As a result, forget entrances and exits—there wasn’t even a single seam in the wall. The top of the wall was also lined with an incredibly dense array of anti-air Crossbow Cannons. The blueprints for these Crossbow Cannons were also provided by the Foreigner.

Due to the Foreigner’s outstanding contributions, the Giant Kingdom had intended to bestow various rewards upon him, but he declined them all, leaving behind a rather dashing remark:

"I just wanted to build a wall, that’s all. Also, don’t tell any other Foreigners that I built this impregnable wall."

In short, the only way to enter the Nemean Forest was through the Teleport Point established by the Royal Knight Order. Thus, how those Foreigners managed to sneak in remained an unsolved mystery for the Royal Knight Order to this day. However, this didn’t affect the formidable Defense of the Giant Defense Line in the slightest; Titan Hybrids couldn’t take a single step inside.

But that was only under the premise that the targets of this Defense were just Titan Hybrids.

When Blaze explained the purpose of his visit, dead silence descended upon the entire conference room. The information he brought them was simply too shocking.

Blaze had clearly described the terrifying Monster gestating beneath the Hundred-Womb Ganges, even drawing it out for them. The sheer oppressive presence exuded by that horrific giant Lion, which possessed Dragon Species as its mane, was in no way inferior to the Titan Giants of the past.

"A creature like that is hiding down there?" Kelly’s face looked grim as her hand subconsciously tightened around her Sword. She didn’t know what a Beast King was, but that didn’t stop her from understanding the terrifying nature of the Evil God’s Blood and the sheer gravity of the Nemean Lion’s origins.

"It was originally slumbering, but because I read its information, it woke up and its gestation process began to accelerate," Blaze sighed.

"You don’t need to blame yourself. In fact, you did a good job," said Rebecca, who seemed to be the tactician of the group. She unrolled a massive Map across the wall and marked the location of the Nemean Giant’s head.

Compared to the heads of the past Titan Giants, the Nemean Giant’s head was much larger—several times larger, in fact. But considering that the Nemean Giant was actually a Lion, it made perfect sense. Proportionately speaking, a Lion’s head took up a significant portion of its body.

"Its accelerated maturation comes at the cost of its level, Skill Proficiency, and body size," Rebecca explained. "This means the Nemean Giant originally intended to turn itself into a second Titan Giant. No, considering it wanted a Giant’s body, it was probably aiming for an even more massive Titan.

"However, under this accelerated state, it will sacrifice its size to prioritize the completion of its physical form. This means its final size might actually be something the Giant Defense Line can contain."

This was excellent news. The original Titan Giants had been so enormous that a single casual step could bypass any deployed defense lines, allowing them to effortlessly trample half the Giant Kingdom before they could be killed. It hadn’t been an issue of whether the defense lines were thick enough, but rather that the Titan Giants were simply too tall. Coupled with the lack of time, the Kingdom simply hadn’t had the chance to build an effective defense line.

Things were different now. They had an incredibly tall, colossal wall built using Foreigner technology. There was absolutely no question about its Defense Power.

"The only two problems now are how to lure the Nemean Giant out from underground, and how to cut off its continued absorption of nutrients so that it’s forced to consume its own flesh for sustenance," Rebecca continued.

"Those two problems might just solve each other," Blaze said after a moment of thought, recalling the Nemean Lion and Nemean Lioness he had seen earlier. "The Nemean Giant was constantly in a state of slumber, unconsciously absorbing the Blood of the Evil God from the Hundred-Womb Ganges as nutrients. Now that it’s awake and desperately craving more nutrients to complete its physical form, it won’t be satisfied with drawing sustenance solely from the Hundred-Womb Ganges.

"It will send out its Nemean Lioness Followers to hunt. If we wipe out all its Followers when that happens, what do you think it will do?"

It would probably go crazy. It would likely fly into an uncontrollable rage; after all, Lions weren’t exactly known for their even tempers.

"But this is just my speculation, in the end," Blaze added, feeling slightly unconfident. He had, after all, only fought a Nemean Lioness once.

"Then how do you plan to get the Foreigners to come and help?" Marika, who had been quietly listening this whole time, suddenly spoke up. "We can’t just issue a direct summons. At the very least, before we verify this theory about the Nemean Giant, we can’t let the Foreigners know of its existence."

Blaze and Marika exchanged a glance. Her eyes conveyed unconditional trust. Blaze offered a helpless smile. He felt as though Marika was patting him on the back, cheering him on.

"Anyway, we’ll trick the Foreigners into coming here first to increase their activity around the Giant Defense Line. Then, once we’ve investigated enough, we’ll tell them the truth," Blaze said.

What would happen if they directly told the Foreigners that a Monster no less terrifying than a Titan Giant was hiding underground?

He didn’t even need to think about it. The Foreigners would undoubtedly act just like they did during the Titan Giant incident. To snatch the kill achievement, they would skip all preparations and brute-force the battle before any proper measures were in place. They might dig into the ground like maniacs, or indiscriminately bombard the earth with Magic.

Then, a deformed monstrosity—a Lion-Human hybrid the size of a Titan Giant—would crawl out of the Hundred-Womb Ganges. Emitting bizarre wails, it would effortlessly scale the Giant Defense Line with its Followers and begin ravaging the Faist Territory. If they were lucky, the monstrosity would be defeated by the Foreigners after the Faist Territory was destroyed. If they were unlucky, it would be a complete recreation of the disaster caused by the Titan Giants.

"So, what do you plan to do?"

Blaze lowered his head in thought. Honestly, getting Foreigners to do one or two tasks was easy enough with material incentives. But trying to drastically increase their overall activity in a specific region? That would be a monumental task. They would get bored.

Blaze tentatively proposed an idea. "What if we tell them they can claim an unlimited supply of escape items for entering the Giant Defense Line, and that the success rate of equipment Enhancements using materials at the Giant Defense Line’s blacksmith will be doubled?"

"Will the Foreigners really take the bait?"

The three Deputy Leaders were somewhat skeptical, and Blaze himself wasn’t entirely confident, but Marika was already nodding.

"Yeah, let’s do that."