Flesh and Secrets: A LitRPG Adventure (Cultist of Cerebon Book 2) by Fizzicks

Author:Fizzicks [Fizzicks]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aethon Books
Published: 2025-06-11T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

It had taken a bit longer than Zareth had expected to finish dealing with the fallout from fully occupying Jabal-Alma and clearing out their previous leadership.

Not only did they need to figure out how to handle a relatively hostile population and establish some manner of administrative structure, but they also needed to thoroughly investigate the Cult of the Unfettered One’s activities. The first two tasks had been almost exclusively left for Zareth to reckon with, since General Nasrith had taken a few steps toward legitimizing Zareth’s territorial claim as a part of their agreement. Zareth had been fairly accepting of this and even somewhat excited to dip his toes into governance so that he could hopefully start meeting the requirements for his Ruler class.

But any bit of enthusiasm that he may have once possessed had since thoroughly evaporated…

“Excuse me? Didn’t we spend days scouring Jabal-Alma so that we could confiscate every single weapon? How did one of your men get stabbed with a stone knife?” Zareth asked incredulously as he read through the daily report of incidents within the settlement. “And what’s with this request for more manpower being temporarily allocated to patrols? I thought we’d done a good job of sorting out the troublemakers and separating them from the rest of the population. Not to mention the effectiveness of the elementals.”

It was a widespread custom to take over the previous leader’s seat as a symbol of your authority after conquering a particular territory, but even sitting on the ornate stone chair in Chieftain Murog’s former office wasn’t enough to make him feel like a ruler. Instead, Zareth felt more like an overworked bureaucrat as he dealt with the most recent complication to reach his desk.

“A few of the locals apparently have a special variant of the [Mason] class called [Stoneshaper] that allows them to manipulate stone without any tools,” Major Idris explained, posture rigid and expression weary as he stood on the other side of Zareth’s desk. “We’re trying to hunt down the one who created the weapon, but that’s going to be difficult until the [Investigators] arrive along with the reinforcements from Tal’Qamar. As for the patrols, Corporal Farzaneh felt her [Detect Threat] activate while passing through the southern district. I’d rather not take any chances of anyone being ambushed without backup.”

Zareth let out a groan of frustration and glanced out a nearby window overlooking most of Jabal-Alma, the well-being of which now rested squarely on his shoulders.

Most of the civilians had been allowed to return to a semblance of normal life, given that it simply wasn’t feasible to maintain too tight a grip with the resources available to them. Jabal-Alma’s food supply wasn’t so large that it could afford to keep most of its population being kept as prisoners.

This meant that he could actually see a good number of people walking through the streets and going about their daily lives, which was a far better outcome than Jabal-Alma would have faced under most circumstances. High Command

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