Chapter 284: An even stickier situation
Varkoth listened to Selithia's complaint with a neutral expression, not looking at her once during the conversation even though she was still laying down, completely naked beside him.
Just like how Gormak and Rakul were lusting over her, Selithia was lusting over Varkoth, so it was rather hypocritical of her to speak so ill of the duo considering she wasn't that unlike them.
The only difference was that she had her advances toward Varkoth reciprocated, even if it was just so he could release his own urges.
Varkoth didn't see Selithia in the same way as Gormak and Rakul did, while they saw her as a fresh piece of meat they could barely take their minds off of, Varkoth saw her as a pawn — a means to an end.
"You'll do as you're told. My orders are final."
Varkoth responded to Selithia, but he wasn't done just yet.
"I've heard news that a human prodigy has shown up on the battlefield in the Shen Wu system, so I want you guys to go check it out. I will be assessing your abilities from the sidelines, who knows, maybe you'll have the chance to be promoted to a prodigy yourself if you manage to deal the killing blow to him."
Varkoth explained his reasons for assigning Selithia with those other three, and it seemed like Selithia finally understood, as she gave up her complaints in that instant.
For the Red Demon race, their status in society was of utmost importance to them, even more than their own power, though the two almost always went hand in hand with each other.
Elites were better than the average Red Demon awakened, while Prodigies were above even elites.
Above prodigies, you only had more prodigies, as this section was split into tiers.
And these tiers were determined by how high an awakened could fight above their own rank.
Elites could fight two ranks above themselves, and be able to fight on par with someone one class higher and the same rank as them for 5 minutes.
As for Varkoth, he was a top tier prodigy, the highest status one could achieve below the high noble ranks of the Red Demon race's empire.
In fact, top tier prodigies had statuses on par with Dukes in the Red Demon empire, which just showed how valuable the ability to attain one is.
In total, there are 4 tiers of prodigies that the Red Demons use to differentiate.
The lowest, called Bottom tier prodigies, is self explanatory.
It is the status one would attain when they went from Elites to Prodigies.
To qualify for this upgrade in status, one must be able to fight three ranks ahead of themselves, and last for 30 minutes against someone of a higher class than them, at the same rank.
This was the status upgrade that Selithia, Gormak, Rakul and Xulthar were all gunning for, as they were all rather close to qualifying for this.
They had already met the first criteria, but the second one of lasting for 30 minutes against a person of a higher class than them was a rather tricky one to manage.
Since they were all mutant class, so they would have to find a Variant class who was willing to help them in this.
And although the Red Demons had over 2000 years of history from their first encounter with the Primordial expanse, Variant classes were still rather rare.
Above bottom tier, there were lower tier prodigies.
In order to qualify for this, they'd have to defeat last for 2 hours against someone of a higher class, and 1 rank higher than them.
Then, there were Higher tier prodigies, where they would have to outright defeat someone of a higher class, and the same rank as them.
As for top tier, the requirements were much more vague as each top tier prodigy was appointed by the King of the Red Demon race himself.
But considering the fact that Higher tier prodigies had to defeat an opponent of a higher class, one could expect the requirements for top tier to be 2 or perhaps 3 times more stringent.
Each tier of status came with a huge amount of benefits that would further boost their development, many of them never even being heard of in the Human race.
"We'll be setting off in a few days, so make sure you are ready for departure by that time."
"As for the base we'll be staying at when we arrive there, make sure to keep your lips sealed about it the whole time we're there."
"The higher ups in the army have been building a Planet Buster in the deepest depths of the ocean on the planet where the main battlefield is taking place, and they've managed to keep it secret even when right under the human's noses. We'll be staying at the base where they are constructing this Planet Buster."
"If you somehow manage to let this information slip into the enemy hands, as I know you have a loose tongue, then you will face dire consequences, mark my words."
Varkoth finished explaining the information of his mission to Selithia, and conveniently, the remnant memory ended right after the two of them finished conversing.
Alex was sent back to the real world right away.
***
'What. The. Fuck…'
Alex was still shell shocked, and still a little weirded out by the whole experience of being in a naked woman's body.
But he was even more shocked by the information he had just obtained.
'Planet Buster!?'
He had no clue what this name entailed, but it was clear that it was some sort of weapon to be used from the way Varkoth threatened Selithia to keep it top secret.
And from the name alone, Alex didn't like what he had heard one bit.
A Planet Buster? It was clear what the purpose of such a weapon was.
And while Alex thought it might be cool to see a planet explode in person one day, it wasn't cool to do it with millions of human awakened currently fighting on, and even more uncool to do it to a planet that could actually support life.
But most importantly, Alex would have died not knowing what had happened to him if he hadn't received this information.
He had no idea how long it would take for this 'Planet Buster' to be completed, but he doubted the humans would ever find out about it before it was.
He felt fortunate to absorb Selithia's soul orb during the short break he was taking, rather than waiting to rank up after he had finished his business in the Shen Wu star system…
As he would have missed out on learning about this information if he did go that route…
'It looks like my plans will have to change…'
Alex's goal previously was to slowly wipe out each and every Red Demon in the Shen Wu star system over the coming months, fighting a slow and calculated war against them, rather than going in guns blazing like he usually did.
But not that he knew about the Red Demon's plans for this system, he had no choice but to push his timeline forward.
He had to find where the oceans were the deepest, and destroy this base, along with the Planet Buster.