Earth’s Doom Starts with… Me?

"By the way, human..." Erenduill suddenly chatted me up.

"What?"

"When will you remove your ice from my castle?" He asked while stressing the word 'my'.

"I'll release it once I'm done with those scrolls. Until then, your castle mates are my hostages, in my castle." I replied, also putting emphasis on the word 'my'.

"Fufu, I'm not surprised. Humans are capable of doing the cruelest things to others, even to themselves." He chuckled calmly while leading us towards a huge freezer.

"Yup. I'm horrible and will collapse this entire castle, killing everyone inside if you don't comply wish my wishes, so chop chop, let's get moving and show me those scrolls." I nodded, agreeing with his statement.

Well, the ice castle, aside from being my backup plan, was basically just a huge show to put pressure on him. I thought that he would be more careful and play it safe by agreeing to me if I took as many hostages as I could. If they somehow got another water supply somewhere, he still wouldn't be able to refuse if I had hostages.

What he still hadn't figure out, however, was the fact that I half-lied about the wells. I actually didn't freeze the whole well, that would be crazy. My mana wasn't enough for that type of stunt... Yet. If only he knew that only the top layer was frozen, while the rest of the water underneath was not frozen, then maybe he wouldn't be as obedient as he was now.

"Our treasury is beneath this door. I shall retrieve the scrolls for you, you may wait here," he smiled, "unless you want to come in?"

"No, thanks. Get it done fast. If I don't see you back by 15 seconds, I will commit dead." I replied.

"Did you mean commit suicide, or...?" General Zhang couldn't hide his little cheeky giggle.

"Shut up, eel." I elbowed him in the stomach lightly to make him stop.

"Alright, then excuse me." Erenduill gave us a small bow before opening the freezer door, revealing a very dark, badly lit room. Even though the kitchen light was on, I could only see as far as 3-5 meters inside, at most. And there wasn't even anything for me to see aside from some floor tiles.

The reason why I didn't want to tag along was that according to Elena, going into the treasury was a big no-no for us. Their treasury was specially designed only for elves. Aside from the horrible lighting that only elves with superior night-vision could see in, they had toxic incense set up in the whole room.

Based on Elena's information, which I wasn't even sure how she knew, the incense was actually just a mix of herbs, but it wasn't toxic for elves, and yet toxic for humans. Not sure about other species, though... Wait, was there a possibility that the 'witch' was the one who designed the mix? Oh god, I still didn't have a plan against the witchie.

"Hmm, should I follow him inside? I'm pretty sure I can withstand a little poison~" General Zhang crept up beside me.

"No. You haven't paid me my winning money yet." I replied while crossing my arms in front of my chest. So he also knew about the poison, huh.

"Aww, so mean... You'll miss me if I die, you know?" He replied.

"Why would I?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Because I'm going to leave my mark on you--"

'Tap!'

Right as general Zhang was leaning closer and closer, closing the distance between us, that elf king suddenly appeared from the door, holding a small wooden crate that was wrapped with a few intricate red ribbons.

"Here you go." Erenduill smiled as he placed the box into my hand, which I gladly accepted.

"Good. Now please wait, I gotta check." Immediately after I touched the box, I hastily undid the ribbons, not even bothering to check if he had laid any traps in it. I had a few more seconds left, at best.

'Clack!'

The moment I opened the box, the smell of old books filled my nose, and a little nostalgic feeling overwhelmed me for one second. I kinda missed just sitting in my bed for a few minutes before bed, reading whatever book I borrowed from the library. Even though those moments were rare, seeing that I was extra busy trying to get some cash to live, but those moments truly made me feel appreciative towards my life.

Inside the box were lots of various-sized scrolls of different colours and different materials. Although most of them were well-kept, some of them were already tattered. I quickly searched for specific-looking scrolls, ones that resembled the item I knew.

Ah! There they were!

[High-grade Intelligence Buff Scroll (consumable) x1]

[A scroll that can be used to increase the user's intelligence by a large amount for a considerable amount of time. Can be stacked with other buffs. Max stack count is 5. +100 Intelligence. Duration: 30 minutes]

[High-grade Strength Buff Scroll (consumable) x1]

[A scroll that can be used to increase the user's strength by a large amount for a considerable amount of time. Can be stacked with other buffs. Max stack count is 5. +100 Strength. Duration: 30 minutes]

[High-grade Agility Buff Scroll (consumable) x1]

[A scroll that can be used to increase the user's agility by a large amount for a considerable amount of time. Can be stacked with other buffs. Max stack count is 5. +100 Agility. Duration: 30 minutes]

Oh.

My.

Gosh.

Heck yeah.

It didn't matter that there were only three of them available in the crate, the stat buffs they gave were crazy! And considering that they were stackable, this should be plenty enough for me to work things out.

"How is it? Are you done checking?" Erenduill checked up on me, still with his eerily calm tone, "don't worry, as a King, I'm a representative of my subjects. I won't risk deceiving you and losing the lives of my subjects." He said with a smile.

"Yep. I'm surely done," I grinned and slipped the three scrolls into my inventory discreetly, and carried the rest of the unknown scrolls using the crate to avoid suspicion, "now would you kindly get us down from here? I'll undo the ice once I'm back with my friends."

"Of course," he nodded happily, "but know that if you were to not keep your end of the bargain, I as a King would not hesitate to seek justice for my kind... With you and your kind's death." His eyes glimmered sinisterly.

"Looking forward to it." I grinned.

He smiled as if his malice from before was suddenly long gone, "great! Now let me--"

"No need. We can get down by ourselves, right, little cub?" General Zhang cut him off as he was extending his arm for me.

"Huh? ... But I can't? How do you expect me to jump down from, I don't know, 50 floors? 100 floors? I'm not a cat." I questioned in shock.

"I can. And I'm taking you with me. Come on," he said as he grabbed me and put me over his shoulder, "hey king, you should come down with us, too. We still have unfinished business, don't we?"

"Ack--! Wait! Safety first! There's no safety belt, help!" I cried out in panic. Dude, although I understood that this world had magic and stuff, but who the heck in their right mind would be excited to fall down a skyscraper!?

"Byeeee!" General Zhang tightened his grip on me and dashed outside, heading straight towards the hole from earlier.

"Wait wait wait wait no--!"

'FWOOSH!'

"AAAAHHH!" I screamed in terror as I felt the wind rushed against my face, sending my hair flying into the air and undoing my messy bun.

"Ahhahhaha! Isn't this fun?" General Zhang asked while he freaking ran alongside the ice wall that I created.

"No! This is scary! You actually ran!? I thought you were joking before!?" I exclaimed as I hugged his neck tight with my free arm so I wouldn't accidentally get yeeted into oblivion.

"Of course. I can't really fly, so I ran up the wall, and now I'm running back down with you~" He explained, "hold on tight, we're almost there."

"Oh gosh you're going to break your legs!" I freaked out and closed my eyes.

'THUMP!'

"Nope, I'm fine since I'm strong~"

Upon sensing that the acceleration had come to a stop, I slowly opened my eyes and saw his grinning face while he let me down on the ground. Huh, I kinda felt a split-second surge of mana there, I wonder what that was about? Perhaps it had something to do with how he landed without any injury?

"Chae! You're back!" Jeanne's voice snapped me out of my shocked state, and I turned my head to see her and the others coming towards us while running.

"Hehe~ I'm back," I greeted them happily and showed them the crate, "and I've successfully secured the scrolls!"

"That's a relief," Jeanne sighed, "but what are those scrolls for--"

'Thump!'

A certain elf king's landing gained our attention while he gave us a calm smile, "now, would you please undo your magic? For the wells, too."

I gulped, and opened my inventory to get ready to use my new scrolls.

"Yes." I nodded and closed my eyes, as the thick, sparkling ice that was enclosing the castle slowly withdrew, getting smaller and smaller by each second.

"Oof--!" I quickly grabbed general Zhang's robe when I suddenly felt dizzy and disoriented, while my ice just suddenly broke and fell apart, ungracefully.

... I guess the previous buff scrolls' time was up. My original int stat wasn't high enough to maintain an ice castle of that scale, and that caused my whole body to like, light up all alarms and gave up on the ice altogether. Almost perfect timing, though.

"Whoa there, what's wrong, little cub?" General Zhang looked at me concerningly, which was quite a rare sight. Not that I mind, though.

"Nothing, sorry," I straightened myself back up as I felt my consciousness started to revert back to normal now that the ice was gone, and took a deep breath, "there you go, I've removed all of my ice. My part of the deal is done." I said to Erenduill, who smiled in response.

"Great. Although it was quite peculiar how everything just broke off near the end there," he chuckled, "it was as if you suddenly couldn't control it."

"You can speculate all you want," I sighed, "anyway, I have one more question for you before we leave."

"Oh? What a coincidence, I also have a question for you." He raised his eyebrows, not expecting this development.

"Great, I'll go first," I said, "can you willingly step down as a king, or do we have to kill you for it?"