Chapter 1169 – An Application That Has To Be Tested

Blunt force and any other forms of physical damage had shown limited effectiveness based on initial testing. When it came to magic-based attacks, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that light magic had proven the most effective so far. Light and fire magic, that is.

Unsurprisingly, considering they were dealing with a death affinity plant.

Arnold had already developed plenty of light and fire-based weapons, but he knew none of those were enough. He would have to adapt his current weaponry and create new ones to fully accomplish his goal of destroying the Ghostvine Sovereign while simultaneously leaving the moon structurally intact.

If his goal had simply been to kill the B-grade without any care for collateral damage, he would have had a lot more means available. However, based on all calculations, destroying the moon would have a negative impact on Earth; more importantly, it would also render impossible the construction of a moon base if there were no moon to build on.

“So, you figured out how to blow up the moon yet?” Sandy, the Cosmic Genesis Worm, asked.

“We are not blowing up the moon,” Arnold answered in a monotone voice. “As for eliminating the Ghostvine Sovereign, I’m still fine-tuning the assault plan.”

“Still need my help, right? I wanna be around when things go boom!” Sandy said excitedly.

“Yes, I will need your expertise,” Arnold confirmed. “In fact, I’ll need you to place many of the explosives.”

“Yay!” Sandy cheered.

“And to function as transport for the golems that will attack the core,” Arnold added.

“Even more yay!” the worm wiggled happily. “Finally gonna get my revenge on that stupid flower! Oh, and then I’m gonna eat all the stuff it’s gathered alongside its core. Gonna be a good time!”

“As long as the moon’s core remains intact,” Arnold said. “Even with all the assumed damage it’ll suffer after being separated from the being that has integrated itself with it, the core remains a vital asset to secure.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m not gonna try to eat it,” Sandy wiggled dismissively. “Everyone knows that C-grades eating any form of World Cores is really stupid. Just ask Jake, that dummy. Even Tom knows it’s a stupid thing to do, which honestly shouldn’t be surprising, seeing as Tom is a pretty smart guy.”

Since the start, Arnold had already only half-listened to Sandy and chose to entirely ignore the worm’s rambling as he went over the current plans for taking down the Ghostvine Sovereign.

From his scans of the moon and the Ghostvine, he’d formed a good understanding of the creature. The B-grade was an unintelligent life form that functioned primarily on instinct.

In exchange for this, it was a being of immense scope and vitality. Its vines covered nearly the entire moon, and it influenced everything on it with its aura and will. The greatest example of this was the Lunewood creatures living up there.

Arnold had wondered how the B-grade grew and quickly concluded it had to do with the forest on the dark side of the moon. The creatures there were living in a parasitic relationship with the Ghostvine, serving as sources of nutrients for the B-grade as it effectively consumed them and the energy from the forest.

That’s why Arnold had concluded that the first thing he needed to do was cut off its source of energy. As the moon was mostly barren and with no complete World Core to provide it with new energy throughout, it only had one real source of obtaining more energy from the outside:

The sun.

Thus, Arnold’s first objective was to cut the moon off from the sun. It wasn’t an easy endeavor, but he had already begun to send satellites capable of creating a cloud of dark mana, and with enough of them, he should be able to cover the entire far side of the moon in black smoke, at least for a period.

After a long enough period with the B-grade cut off from all new sources of nutrients, it was time to attack.

He’d settled on starting the assault with explosive firepower.

A small number of drones would initially make their way onto the moon with the express purpose of baiting out the vines of the B-grade. Once these descended on the weaker drones, a barrage of missiles unleashing what could most easily be compared to napalm would enter the moon and set the Ghostvine on fire while also triggering a second wave of explosions.

Already now, he’d had Sandy and drones place direction-based explosives throughout the moon’s tunnel network. These explosions would cascade throughout the tunnels of the moon, building in power as they descended lower and approached the core. This would weaken the B-grade further, as based on a few probing attacks by Arnold’s drones, the Ghostvine always prioritized regenerating its vines.

With the majority of them destroyed, the B-grade would consume a massive amount of vitality to regenerate them all, and coupled with being cut off from outside sources of nutrients, leave it vulnerable to the next stage in the operation.

An army of drones would descend upon the planet with the objective of killing as many Lunewood creatures as possible. This would happen shortly before the cascade of explosions went off, and once the explosives subsided, the drones would descend into the moon’s vast tunnel network and begin to fight the many vines they would no doubt meet.

Several more groups of drones would attack from all over the moon’s surface and slowly begin to make their way down while fighting the newly regenerated vines of the B-grade. However, this was mostly to serve as a distraction.

Because, as the Ghostvine found itself busy fighting an army of expendable drones, Sandy would make their way toward the core with the true assault squad consistent of golems that Arnold would personally control. Golems that were specifically designed to take down the Ghostvine.

Sandy would likely also be involved out of their own desire to play a larger part, but the worm’s primary objective was to serve as an armored vehicle that was capable of getting all the way to the core, hence why Arnold didn’t want to factor in Sandy’s own battle prowess into his plans at all.

If everything went well… Arnold wouldn’t even have to leave his base back on Earth. And if it failed, no matter how improbable he saw that outcome, he could simply use the newly gained data to try again with an improved plan at a later time.

—

“You finally reached out, huh?” Vilastromoz spoke to the seemingly empty room as he sat cross-legged on the bare ground.

“In my defense, I was busy, and just when I was done being busy, Artemis came back… So I kind of got busy again,” Jake responded shamelessly.

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“Hey, I’m not gonna say anything to that,” Vilas smiled, shaking his head. “Quite the opposite. I would question what kind of Chosen I had if you prioritized discussing a new skill with me over spending time with your hot Godqueen girlfriend.”

“Thanks? Anyhow, I assume you already knew I got a new skill and that this new skill involves you quite directly, right?” his Chosen asked.

“Seeing as I’m quite attuned to my Path and my Records, yes, I have felt the faint shifts you’ve caused,” Vilas nodded, giving Jake time to elaborate on what kind of new interesting skill he’d gained this time around.