Chapter 1306 - Taming the Old World - Light Dragons - 10

Chapter 1306: Chapter 1306 - Taming the Old World - Light Dragons - 10

Wei had personally attempted to replicate that exact same rapid, pinpoint control over the mycelium, and he had failed miserably.

Forcing multiple, sprawling hyphae networks to condense into a single point, utilizing a proxy node to project a targeted jamming effect, and weaponizing a passive sensory tool to actively paralyze a Platinum or Diamond-tier mutant was not a simple stroke of luck. It required a degree of microscopic, intuitive control over the fungal threads that Wei, despite all his rigorous academic study, simply could not match.

Finch desperately wanted to frame the event as a happy accident... Wei knew better.

By forcing a temporary disconnection, the golden network effectively stripped the mutant of its hive regeneration and its borrowed strength. The strategic potential buried in that mechanic was staggering.

Thanks to his extensive talks with Ren, Wei understood the fundamental relationship between the mushroom network and the corruption. He knew the golden hyphae acted as a direct, opposing polarity, actively interfering with the ethereal grid that fed the Witch’s beasts powers. That knowledge alone was incredibly valuable.

What he had witnessed Finch do, however, was a vastly more refined application of that theory.

Finch had demonstrated the ability to stun high-tier apex predators. He could sever their uplink to the hive, even if only for a few crucial seconds. If Wei could crack the formula, if he could train Finch and the rest of the non-combatant civilians hosting the mushroom to act as a dedicated jamming squad, it would shift the entire paradigm of the war.

He envisioned an auxiliary militia composed of the sons of accountants, bakers, and local merchants. These were people still at low ranks and entirely unsuited for frontline combat, yet they could be trained to send their small secondary beasts, paralyze a Platinum or a Diamond mutant from the backlines, stripping the behemoths of their regenerative power and mana armor just long enough for the standard Gold-tier Vanguard soldiers to deliver the killing blow.

Even if huge, a disconnected mutant was just silver mana density in defense...

The core philosophy Ren and Wei had always pushed for was leveraging the sheer numbers of humanity, taking ordinary citizens and making them vital to their survival. This tactic would take that philosophy to its ultimate conclusion.

But Wei could not develop the training regimen alone. He needed to understand the internal mechanics of how Finch condensed the threads. And Finch was stubbornly refusing to hand over the secret, most likely because the accountant genuinely did not realize he possessed it.

So, Wei flipped to a fresh page and started over.

"Let us try this again... From the very beginning. When you push the network outward, do you feel a specific thermal or kinetic shift at the focal point where Theodore..."

Finch let out a sigh that seemed to originate all the way down from the soles of his boots.

He rolled his eyes up toward the sky, desperately searching for a reserve of patience that simply did not exist. On his shoulder, Theodore mirrored the exact same sentiment, giving a tiny shrug and tilting his head in a gesture that communicated an astonishingly clear message for a rodent: We are going to be stuck here for a very long time.

"Theodore is of the opinion that we are going to be stuck in an uncomfortable place for a very long time," Finch translated flatly.

"It does not matter how long it takes," Wei said, clicking his pen against the small notebook. "We have time."

Finch stared at the notebook, then he stared at Wei... He glanced sideways at Theodore, who offered him a look of shared, miserable resignation.

"For the official record," Finch muttered, "I would strongly prefer to be fighting in a life-or-death battle right now."

Then, for the umpteenth time, he began to explain the miraculous feat he swore was nothing at all.

At the very least, the city perimeter was quiet.

That eerie calm was the only reason Wei was able to conduct this interrogation mid defensive battle in the first place. The hundred Platinum mutants prowling the plains, guided by the towering Diamond titan, had completely ceased their skirmishes. They were no longer testing the walls, and they had stopped launching their coordinated probing strikes.

Instead, they just sat there, eerily still along the distant edge of the perimeter, as if waiting for a silent signal.

They were waiting for something.

While the lull in the fighting gave the human defenders a much-needed chance to catch their breath, the quiet was deeply unsettling. An enemy charging the gates was a known variable; it was a threat the Vanguard understood how to counter. An enemy sitting perfectly still, exercising cold patience, usually meant they knew something the defenders did not.

????

Inside the central command post, Arturo was drowning in a steady stream of dispatch reports.

The aerial scouts kept delivering the same message: everything was quiet.

The Diamond and the hundred Platinums were holding their ground.

The capital perimeter remained secure.

Yet, buried among all those repetitive confirmations of the stalemate, one specific report made Arturo’s stomach twist into a tight knot.

It was an update on the southern Diamonds.

The six titans Selthia had redirected from the southern peak were currently marching north, cutting a path that would drag them right past the capital. Because of their massive strides, they were moving significantly faster than the two hundred Platinums meant to escort them. They had already broken away from the main column, pulling ahead and leaving the slower beasts trailing in their wake.

At their current pace, the six behemoths would reach the city limits roughly fifteen minutes ahead of the main army.

The comfortable two-hour buffer Arturo had banked on was shrinking.

He redid the math in his head instantly, his eyes darting across the spread parchment as he adjusted the timelines.

Fifteen minutes early.

By itself, a fifteen-minute shift was not a catastrophe, but it completely altered their safety margin. It meant those six titans, the worst units on the board that posed a genuine existential threat to the reinforced walls, could decide to detour toward the city earlier than projected. If they linked up with the lone Diamond already stationed at the perimeter, they would assemble the exact nightmare scenario Arturo had been dreading all day.

Seven Diamond mutants coordinating a breach. It was a concentration of power the city garrison simply could not sustain for long.

"Scouts," Arturo ordered, his voice dangerously calm even as his eyes hardened over the map. "Keep a lock on those southern Diamonds. I want their exact coordinates updated at least every five minutes. The very instant even one of them shifts its trajectory toward this city instead of continuing north, I want to know about it."