Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

The bard understood them. Not only was it hard to accept what it was, but also because it was hard to come up with a countermeasure. These things happened far away and as horrible as they were, they were technically powerless to stop it at the moment. The room had fallen into solemn silence as they processed the information.

"What is the plan?" Monique asked grimly into the room. As expected, she didn't believe they would tell them about it, without having at least some plan in place.

"Karina is already preparing to expand the Tree Route toward Y-City along the originally planned path." Leana started to explain.

"Oh, shit! Are we really going to attack Ypsilon?" Link exclaimed shocked.

"What? No, not directly. We-" the princess tried to continue.

"Link, calm down. Let Leana finish." Seth spoke up when the gourmet hunter was about to interrupt again.

As an original inhabitant of Ypsilon, he was agitated, to say the least. It was not much different for the others Monique, Tekar, Jane, and even Alison. Even when it changed, Ypsilon and Y-City were still the places they grew up.

"We are expanding the Tree Route first and foremost to do the same thing to Y-City that you did to Delta. The first step is offering those people a way out of that place and immigrating them to the new Tree Stations. Once we secured a safe haven to take them in, we will move on to liberate those that were captured."

Using the chance, Leana quickly finished her sentence. Since the Tower Master spoke up, nobody interrupted again as she continued to explain what they had come up with. The most important goal right now was to strengthen Minas Mar, as a district to prepare against Y-City's forces.

Stronger troops, guardians, and alliances were some of the plans. One of the policies to improve the overall strength of their people was for Minas Mar to open their coffers. Not their wallets, but the storage rooms that were filled with materials, the hand full of blacksmiths in Minas Mar had a hard time processing because of their sheer volume.

Offering exclusive deals to the craftsmen that already migrated to Minas Mar, they would provide the materials and pay them for their labor. Then they would sell the finished products for the labor costs alone. This was how they were able to help their craftsmen grow, while also lowering item prices and making good-quality products available to the adventurers of the Tree Stations.

Seth actually copied this method from the early Y-City. Cormac Payle had told him how the leadership had backed workshops of craftsmen and provided the materials for free, paying them for their labor. It was a good way to strengthen the people and the craftsmen, although it came at a small loss since they were technically gifting the materials away.

Another point was alliances. Of course, they had to talk about their possible alliance with the new province of the Muir Empire in Beta. This was a contentious point since most people at the table had made bad memories with the maritime invaders.

Despite the representatives of Muir in Beta being former people from Beta and they were ready to make great concessions, people kept arguing that they couldn't be trusted. Not even Leana's confirmation that the Muir Empires' leadership had really changed could convince them.

"If this can help us in stopping the scene, I'm in favor."

In the end, it was actually Evee, who had the best reason to hold a grudge, that brought the awkward situation to an end. She had suffered terribly because of the attack of the mermen, but she was ready to put it aside. How could anyone else still speak up against it?

"If we can find proof that the Scene is doing these things because of their connection to another force from the Pathworks, we can also count on reinforcements from Chrona," Leana brought up another possible alliance.

Even when they could prove the horrible atrocities to Chrona, hardliners would still insist that these were local problems and did not necessitate the involvement of the empire. Only if Leana could prove her suspicions, they could make Chrona move.

"Isn't it time you finally tell us who you are suspecting?" Seth finally asked. Previously, the princess had avoided speaking out the who she suspected. However, the bard saw it fit for her to reveal it now since everyone was present.

"I believe it is Spatia backing the scene," she said grimly.

"Spatia? I feel like I heard that name before..." Lydia mumbled

"They were the culprit that interfered with the evaluation in Keväti Kuinen and is the main rival of Chrona. All the changes in Y-city fit their usual approach to restructuring a society before taking over. If we can prove that the Scene is in cahoots with Spatia, Chrona has no choice but to move against them."

"Wasn't that bitch Natina from Spatia?" Fin asked incensed. They had all seen the broadcast and the Champion of Kali really grew to be a villain everyone despised.

"But you don't think Spatia is behind the genocide, right?" Alison stated her observation.

"No, it seems like the Scene has a great talent for making allies and infiltrating places. They infiltrated Delta, they have connections with the people of the voracious cloud continent, and they even managed to recruit these other-dimensional creatures from Y-City. It's likely they are also just using the backing from Spatia for their own schemes," she summed up what they knew,

"Don't forget Dragos, it seems like he was also with the scene since he had the immortal serum." Monique threw in.

"But if we prove that they are working with Spatia, Chrona will send their big guns to support us?" Link asked warily.

"Definitely. If Spatia is involved even the hardliners will send to biggest guns they can to stop them," she answered with absolute certainty.

After speaking for a moment about the idea of guardians, the topic turned to the people present. It was one thing to strengthen the district to be able to deal with the riff-raff, but the core members of Minas Mar were the ones that would have to deal with the elite.

As such it was inevitable to brief everyone about the things that happened in the abyss and what was awaiting them. Most of them had reached lv.95, but not everyone got the Last-Stretch-Quest. Monique's Team had also reached lv.95 after killing the Nipple of Elements, or whatever their boss was called. From their team, only Ray had not gotten the quest, while in Lydia's Team Azul Jess, James, and Ferdinand were excluded.

"As Seth has already concluded, it takes specific requirements to unlock a path to grow past lv.100. Those who got the quests have already unlocked at least one quest. In addition to those you unlocked, you see a list of paths that still lack something to be unlocked. Those you still have not unlocked any path, also won't get the quest," the princess explained.

Seth felt a little bad for Yulecat's Fur. Since Mina, Fin, and the others were still lv.94, a lot of Leana's explanation was bleeped out and their pain was visible on their faces. He would repeat everything for them, once they got to that point.

However, as important as the choice of paths for future development was, there was still time for it later. Leana mentioned that the last five levels would be the hardest and the system would use them to tune their bodies towards the path they chose.

On the other hand, it also meant they had as much time for deliberation as they wanted as long as they didn't level up. Those who did not get the quest had ample time to try and unlock a path before they re-entered the abyss.

Seth found there was something more pressing in their current situation.

"I believe all of you will agree when I say that we need to rearrange the field teams. Your parties have grown, or stagnated," he glances at Mina and the others, " which led to all of them being unbalanced and lacking in certain areas."

Although they murmured a little as a reaction, they couldn't deny that it was true. When faced with tough opponents, every party found a place they were lacking in. As such, an earnest discussion about the rearrangement of the field teams started.