AK - The Alchemy Kingdom

Year 5, Summer, Second Month, Second Week

An arrow traveled through the tall trees, almost scratching the trunks on its side, but otherwise, unhindered. The deer’s eyes shift quickly, trying to locate the potential threat, but the arrow was already on it. The magically sharpened metal met little resistance as it carved the beast’s head. Unsurprisingly, instead of mourning their fallen companion, the two remaining beasts instinctively sprinted in the opposite direction.

The approaching hunter crouched to confirm the hit, then continued moving after the fleeing beasts. Strangely, he wasn’t running, only smiling. The beasts ran fast, easily dodging the trees and obstacles. The blessing of wind made their moves as swift as the element itself. A sudden change in the air’s flow caught their attention, but before they could react to it, four arrows reached their bodies. Soon, Tael approached with a satisfied smile.

“Well done! Hitting a wind deer isn’t an easy feat… They react fast but still fall for ambushes.”

The archers stood proud to met the compliment from their idol, and the Councilor didn’t hide from it. He finally felt worthy of his position. Five years of hard work, training, and living through adversity had shaped him into a true leader. Suddenly, he didn’t feel like a villager with a bow trying to survive but a skilled archer who could shoulder the weight of protecting his Kingdom. Old Bill would be proud of him, as would his father.

Under Tael’s guidance, the team quickly divide themselves to form a safety perimeter and collect the beasts’ resources. In less than an hour, they were moving back to their temporary camp. With this bounty, they would have enough food for a few days, so now they could focus on building the communication tower. Instead of using the 22 soldiers for hunting and securing the perimeter, he decided to rotate 12 on the tasks and use the remaining ten to help the workers install the tower. The faster they finished the first tower, the faster they would move to the next.

Unfortunately, the independent tribes and the Oasis were located further than they initially estimated. So, they would need two towers to cover everything. But, hopefully, they would get it done before the end of the month.

Ideally, the towers should be built on top of energy veins to save on crystals and increase their reach. However, they couldn’t commit the time and resources needed to harness a vein right now. Finding the Green Mountains’ vein was actually a lucky strike. Not all veins would be that easy to conquer, even the smaller ones.

Since they wouldn’t build it on a vein, the location of the towers would be decided according to convenience and to expand their reach. Although they had a general idea, deciding on the specific site was more practical than planned. The team would keep moving to the south until they couldn’t reach the Tunnel’s tower using a HQ crystal. The ideal position would be over a hill, as further as possible but still within reach of another tower.

Unfortunately, the towers would need to be powered by the two recently acquired HQ energy crystals because a MQ crystal wouldn’t be enough to forward the signals. However, they didn’t plan to waste the crystals only with communication. They would also build bunkers under the towers. For now, the bunkers could serve as temporary hideouts and resting posts, but later, they could station agents there.

Tael ordered the soldiers to help with the construction, but they ended up only getting in the way. The construction team moved so fast and organized that the soldiers might soon lose the title of most disciplined. The woodcutters put down the thick enhanced trees in a matter of seconds. Their axes had a powerful sharpness rune, and a wood effect Array imprinted on them.

Actually, it would be impossible for all tools to have a wood crystal, but since Karl learned the contain rune, this problem was somewhat mitigated. Now, as long as they had an effect recharger with the actual crystal, they could transfer the effects temporarily to the tools and work for quite some time before having to recharge it again. Naturally, the teams working on different places would still need a crystal each, but the rune reduced enough to make the whole thing possible.

After a trunk was cut, two strong workers would carry it to be processed by the woodcrafters. Of course, they were using the lightening gloves to reduce the weight by ten times. After all, the trees could weigh as much as one ton. The communication tower wouldn’t use a lot of wood, just some planks for its base, but the bunker would. Since they couldn’t leave a bubble crystal on every bunker, they would need to use the earth hardening tool and wood to keep the bunker stable and prevent beasts from digging in.

The trunk would be quickly cut into smaller pieces before the woodcrafters stretched it into perfect even planks. Then, the wooden planks would be taken into the bunker to be placed over the walls and floor. Although they didn’t finish digging and preparing the walls, another team was already building the wooden frame. Ultimately, they couldn’t waste time.

Tael recalled the confused soldiers and ordered them to prepare the evening meal instead. Fortunately, this was an easy task with the magic stove, though the food would not taste nearly as good as the one they bought in any restaurant.

The stove was a simple tool that could start a fire and keep it under control until deactivated. Since only a MQ fire crystal could create heat, they used a manifestation rune to generate fire from LQ fire crystal. The best magic stoves would also function to roast food by adding an LQ wind crystal to the Arrays.

Soon, night came, and they had to stop their work. Thankfully, the tower was finished and they only need to build a proper hidden entrance for the bunker. With luck, they would be out of here before noon. Tael organized the night shifts and quickly went to sleep in one of their crude-looking tents. He would take all the sleep he could get.

Unfortunately, three hours later, one of the soldiers woke him up with a strange report.

“Sorry, Sir… There’s something… strange close to the camp.”

Tael instinctively reached for his bow and jumped into a sluggish fighting stance. But, then, he frowned and asked:

“Is it a beast or an unidentified target?”

The soldier guided Tael towards the western side of their camp while struggling to explain.

“Sir, we don’t know… It doesn’t appear in the locator, but…”

Before the soldier could find the right words, a troubling but beautiful scene came into view, making the report unnecessary.

“What for the will of the Origin is this?”

Thousands of glowing dots floated through the trees, causing a strange light effect. Tael took almost a minute to react. The dots were floating dangerously close to them. To be more precise, they appeared to be drifting towards the camp. He turned to the magic operator, who the soldiers had also awoken, but the man just shook his head.

“Send a message to CC, immediately. Tell them about these… things, and ask them to wake up Karl...”

***

Karl was pried away from his sweat dreams by a panicked Reiner. His mother tried to put her thoughts into words but failed to say anything comprehensible. Finally, it was his father, who had been talking to someone at the door, who explained the situation clearly.

“That’s…”

The strange report activated emergency alarms all over his mind. The Alchemist tried hard to remember what the lighting dots could be. Fortunately, Master AI didn’t abstain from helping him this time around. Karl's shock was visible to his parents and the helper who had come to pass the message.

“Tell him to get away… Send a reply, telling them to run away… Now… Go!”

The boy was a little confused, but once Karl shouted at him, he snapped out of it and left for CC running. After thinking for a minute, the Alchemist decided to go there too. From the Communication Center, he could contact Tael and Lew, so it was better to be there, in case... They couldn’t waste time. If his guess was correct, they would be in grave danger.

Reiner and Kanin followed Karl to the Government District, and they even picked other people along the way. The Councilors and other important figures all lived in the same section, and the Alchemist wasn’t exactly quiet, so they decided to see what was happening.

Karl entered the CC looking for the operators on duty.

“Sir… We sent a dozen messages, but… nobody answered...”