Kaijin Fighter: So I Have to Make Monsters, So What?-Chapter 1521: Delegation, Delegation, Delegation

When Zhen Liu arrived at Undertow, he had done so with two goals in mind.

The first was to task the [Neo Storm Knights], and possibly the kaijin duo back in Willow Scale City, with two assignments.

The first was to explore the Echoing Valley area and establish a foothold. Frosttusk's origins were rooted in this valley between the Roaring Tide and Soaring Griffin continents, and Zhen Liu needed as much information as possible about the place.

As for the second task, he wanted them to see if they could find any leads on the Fallen.

After their attack on Undertow failed, and Zhen Liu did that coordinated dance of death with Jin Fang that sent them and their submersible fortress flying to who knows where, the Fallen had more or less fallen off the face of the planet.

Zhen Liu had assumed that they were too broken to do anything of note, especially since most of their men were either killed or captured post-war. However, running into Alain in Rainbowden caused Zhen Liu to re-evaluate this thought.

For all he knew, those bastards might've survived or been absorbed into whatever weird fold that Buzza was clearly the leader of.

Regardless, Zhen Liu had initially wanted to simply dip in and out of Undertow to inform the [Neo Storm Knights] of this plan. It should be noted that the reason why he didn't simply use his spiritual connection to relay this particular missive was due to the fact that the [Neo Storm Knights] were only tangentially connected to himself.

He could sense their well-being and where they were located, but he couldn't communicate with them through that connection. That particular privilege went to their true liege and Zhen Liu's childhood sweetheart, Jin Fang.

BOOM!

Who, for very understandable reasons, was relaying to her beloved that he had been stupidly risking his life…again.

"Stop ending up in situations where you almost die!" Jin Fang shouted with worry in her voice and her fist glowing with concentrated [Chaos]. "If you do end up getting killed by your recklessness, I'll kill you again!"

"It wasn't on purpose this time, I swear!" Zhen Liu pleaded while using his own [Chaos] shield to defend himself from Jin Fang's fists of love. "I only ended up there because of a freak accident."

"Doesn't matter!" Jin Fang shouted.

"Ah...young love," Matriarch Zhen Xun Tian mused as she watched the young couple argue with one another. "Reminds me of when I was with my hubby."

"I was about to say, this reminds me of when I was courting Bai Hua," Zhen Shi added while watching his grandson suffer the consequences of his actions. "She once threw a live bobcat at me because I went a drinking binge with a client…that ended with us drunkenly hunting those aforementioned bobcats…"

"I think I remember that day," Zhen Long commented. "Mother was very mad at you…"

"Well, at least I can say my relationship with Gianna is nowhere like this," Zhen Hai lied through his teeth as he smiled at Zhen Liu's predicament.

'So the Storm Prince's love for the Storm Princess is genetic…' Terra realized as she stood off to the side watched events unfold with her fellow Storm Knights.

Despite having intended to only pop in for a few moments so that he could deliver his orders and dip, the [Neo Storm Knights] had already decided to report to Jin Fang that Zhen Liu had arrived to Undertow. This, in turn, led to the other members of the Zhen Clan who were training in the Abyssal Lands to also learn of Zhen Liu's arrival.

When Zhen Liu reunited with his grandfather, first cousin, first uncle, and great grandaunt, there was a brief yet meaningful exchange of information that helped Zhen Liu to resolve at least part of his inquiries. Before anything else could be said, though, Jin Fang arrived to deliver her scolding fists of love…which soon turned into her locking him into a chokehold.

"Promise me you won't do something reckless like this again," Jin Fang demanded while choking out Zhen Liu. "Promise me!"

"I promise, I promise," Zhen Liu managed to croak out despite the immense pressure on his neck.

"Good."

After hearing him promise, Jin Fang promptly released Zhen Liu's neck before turning him around and pulling him into a big hug.

"I missed you, damnit," Jin Fang muttered softly in Zhen Liu's arms. "Come down here and visit me more often."

"I will, I will," Zhen Liu sighed as he briefly thought about how he could barely handle his girlfriend's mood swings. "I just want to make sure I can visit you without suddenly attracting unwanted tails."

"Please," Jin Fang snorted in disbelief as she pulled out of the hug. "If you did develop any unwanted tails, I would simply chop them off before letting the Wavebreaker and the others use them as bait."

[Has…has she done that before?] Shellvalier asked his fellow kaijin. [Because I vaguely recall the bait bucket being heavier that one time.]

[She hasn't…yet,] Wavebreaker assured her brethren. [But…keep that in mind when we go fishing next time.] 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

[Aye, aye, captain.] Slug-at-arms agreed with a small salute.

"I…I can't tell if that's romantic or terrifying," Zhen Liu commented at Jin Fang's suggestion.

"The answer is both, darling."

"Right."

Evidently, despite not wanting to impose himself on Jin Fang and the rest of his family with his burdens, Zhen Liu did find the moment to be surprisingly refreshing after all the crap he had to deal with in the past few days or so.

Of course, such pleasant things were only a temporary relief in the face of looming dangers.

After a couple more moments of mild flirting, Zhen Liu finally brought back the focus to the reason why he was here in the first place.

"Jin Fang, I know the [Neo Storm Knights] are technically your kaijin, but do you mind if I…"

"No, go ahead," Jin Fang capitulated with surprising ease. "They have been bugging me to give them assignments outside of Undertow anyways."

[That is untrue,] Shellvalier refuted. [Just Slug-at-arms have been doing that.]

[Hey! Don't pin it all on me,] Slug-at-arms retorted. [You gripe about the lack of fighting whenever we do guard duty together.]

[Lies!]

[Bah!]

At the sight of the bickering kaijin, both Wavebreaker and Terra had developed expressions that could only be matched by a mother used to seeing their children bicker out of boredom.

[Alright, that's enough, you two.]

[Quiet down!]

BAM!

[Ah!]

[Hostile work environment!]

And like mothers who are used to seeing their children bicker, the two of them proceeded to discipline them with physical force. Once they were properly disciplined, though, Shellvalier and Slug-at-arms joined Wavebreaker and Terra as they both kneeled before Zhen Liu with their heads slightly bowed.

[The Neo Storm Knights await your command,] Wavebreaker led. [What would you have us do?]

'Huh…why am I getting a sense of deja vu?' Zhen Liu mused before finally addressing the [Neo Storm Knights].

"Alright…about several dozen or so miles away from here is a meeting point between the Roaring Tide continent and the Soaring Griffon continent known as the Echoing Valley. I want you guys to go and explore the place. To be more precise, I want you to look into the history of the Stormsinger Tribe, their former greater Chief Fraden, and the Iceblood Mammothtbfa once rampaged—"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold up, hold up! Did you say...Iceblood Mammoth?" Zhen Shi interjected. "As in the same species of mammoth type aether beasts that has long been considered by most ice-type aether warriors to be one of the most potent sources of the stuff?"

"Y-yes..." Zhen Liu trailed off, understanding where this conversation was about to be heading.

"In that case, I want in on whatever you and the kaijin have planned."

"Wait, what? Why?"

Zhen Liu understood that this moment was a clear example of his "karmic void" kicking in once more, but he at least wanted to make sure that there was a good reason for his grandfather's decision.

Evidently, the answer was related to that exact void.

"Ever since I worked with Frosttusk that one time, my affinity with ice had increased by leaps and bounds," Zhen Shi declared while clenching his fist and producing an icy white mist around. "However, it stil lacked the power necessary to be a hidden trump card."

"Okay..."

"Also, whenever you have gone off on one of your expeditions, you always seem to come back with treasures or aether arts that are either incredibly powerful or incredibly rare," Zhen Shi plainly stated. "I figured that if I tag along, I'll probably be able to reap some sort of side benefit."

"..."

Zhen Liu couldn't help but to notice that this grandfather forgot to mention that those trips were also interrupted by the presence of a great danger that would regularly try to kill his ass.

Then again, they were all aether warriors, so such things were considered an occupational hazard.

"That..."

Needless to say, Zhen Liu was hesitant on agreeing.