国产综合一区

When Cole logged back in to the game the Glade was absolutely booming. There were dozens of people taking care of various activities at any given time and in one particular direction of the Glade, the woods had been cleared, so much so that Cole could actually see a shimmering golden barrier that seemed to separated the woods from whatever was laying beyond it. A quick look at the Glades stat sheet shower Cole that they had actually achieved Bronze rank VII, which meant that growth has been unprecedented and rapid.

Farida and the council could pretty much handle the leveling up of the Glade in his absence, he had told them they were in charge of it in the first place. But never the less there was still an absence of infrastructure in the Glade apart from the pillars themselves. But that was something he was hoping would be taken care of by the time they were done with the settlement quests, the rewards had been stated to be blueprints after all.

Everyone around seemed to have something that they had to take care of, and Cole knew he has been gone for close to two days in the real world which makes his absence from the Glade to have been close to over a week. They needed to get things done and moving quickly, if they wanted to have any hope of not being left behind by the other glades that were definitely out there and advancing at whatever pace that may or may not be faster than them. All of a sudden the earth seemed to shake, a deep coursing vibration as colors seemed to fill the Glade.

[Glade: Solitude has Advanced to Bronze Rank VIII!]

Cole smiled, that was a welcomed surprise, it made things a lot more easier on everyone here. He moved, keeping to himself as it almost seemed as if no one here knew who he was anymore. But then again he couldn\'t blame them, he had been absent for a few days, and he had taken the opportunity to rest, to just go to sleep in his own world and not worry about the intricacies and secrets of a whole other Universe.

It wasn\'t too hard for him to find Farida and lucky enough the rest of the council. During the course of his absence a small podium of sorts had been erected with stumps placed in a circle as seats. There were five occupied seats with a sixth large one left vacant. It seemed as if the five of them were having a meeting of some sorts and with the annoyed look on Farida\'s face, it was obvious it was not going in her favor. Cole moved past a few people and placed one foot to step onto the podium when a massive bear of a man, literally a bear man, used his massive hands/paws to smash into Cole\'s chest, blasting him backwards.

Cole crashed into the crowd that had been gathered around the meeting area, there was a cacophony of Snickers, chuckles and full blow laughter going around the place at his expense. He sat up and started laughing too as his gaze met the bear man, Farida noticed immediately and shot up to her feet, in fact everyone with the exception of Cassandra had gotten up, but a quick raise if his hand had left whatever words they had to say buried in their throat as Cole got up.

By this point the bear man definitely noticed that something was wrong. Those who remembered him, began to whisper, so before he got back up to his feet, it was already obvious to everyone that the bear man had attacked the mayor of the Glade. Cole at that point was even hearing 19th ranked Aspirant. That alone made him annoyed but given how long he has been absent, there was no way the ranking would have stayed the same. He walked to the bear man and asked.

"Do you know who I am?" there was no response, only a frantic shake of his head as Cole chuckled, patted him on the shoulder then walked past him onto the podium then took a seat on the vacant stump. He turned to Raven with a smile and gave the Raven head man a knowing smile before he turned to the others.

"I\'m sorry for my absence these last few days, I\'ve had to take care of some real world problems. But either way, I am back now, and unless we still haven\'t dealt completely with the issue of leadership, that is if some of you think there should be a new mayor after my absence then…. Please speak up now so that I can rip your spine out of your back and beat you to death with it." Short, sweet and straight to the point, it was just the kind of person Cole really was, and they all knew it enough to not have a single one word pop out of their mouth.

But still Cole gave them the chance to challenge him, he had absolutely no patience for politics as a whole even though he was quite good in playing that game. With the recent experience with his grandmother and grandfather he\'d very much not have to deal with something similar in regards to the Glade. Nothing was said as they all just watched him, and after a minute had passed Cole nodded his head then decided to ask.

"Any news from the nest?" for some reason they all seemed to let loose a collective breath, as the rest of them turned their eyes to Farida. It seemed she really has become the spokesperson for the council. She sighed as she looked at Cole in the eye for as long as she could possibly could, then she started speaking.

"many of the parties that have been made to either gather resources or perhaps even hunt the darklings themselves have fallen prey to organized and very large scale ambushes. And recently it has been getting more and more frequent. A couple of our people have been kidnapped by the darklings and every targeted attempt to rescue them has fallen through, as even if we make it to the entrance of the nest, the amount of darklings that would come pouring out of it would overwhelm our ranks before we would even be able to get a foothold in it.

I won\'t lie to you, that has been a matter of severe consternation for all of us. It\'s obvious these damn things are looking for something… or somebody. Some of the tactics that they have employed so far is one that could be said to be a baiting strategy, but who they\'re-"

"Stop Farida! Don\'t patronize me, you and I both know I\'m the person they\'re looking for. And judging from what you have just told me, none of the people who were kidnapped have been respawned have they?" Cole asked, as he kept his gaze on Farida, ignoring everything else.

"we don\'t know why, but we have hit our stride in regards to operations and running the Glade. However with the constant attacks, our efficiency is being affected and we\'re unable to do anything. We barely were able to gather everything that we have gained so far, so in light of that, we were all gathered here to figure out what to do about the nest and Darkling problems, or else we would all fall behind." Farida finished as Cole nodded his head sagely to what she has just finished saying.

"Well you should get an army ready, before I left I did tell you that a raid group would go a long way in solving our darkling problems. So gather everyone with activate combat skills. I will lead the vanguard and break through, the only way we can be free of the darklings is if we end them, and that can only be done by uprooting that nest. The darklings would be keeping the others alive and draining them of energy and vitality for food, basically the people missing have been turned to cattle. And I don\'t know about you all but I am not in the habit of being eaten like food.

There was a collective nod going around before Raven Nightmoon decided that he had something else to say. Honestly Cole expected it, but he didn\'t like it because he had asked if anyone wanted to challenge him they should go ahead and do so before he started speaking. This guy was rapidly turning out to be a thorn in his side. Raven raised his hands up upon noticing the cloudy look on Cole\'s face.

"I mean no offence and I\'m not trying to start anything, I have learnt my lesson after our last tango not to fuck with you. In light of that I apologize for what my lieutenant did, he wasn\'t amongst the initial batch that met you before your…. Before you left. What I want to really know though is, why are the darklings after you so adamantly. Like I said I mean no offence, but you yourself admitted to it that they were looking for you, and we all have to consider the fact that since you got yourself captured by then, escaped, then left, things have gone to hell and a lot of us have lost precious lives! We deserve to know why we are suffering for your own bullshit!"

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