AK - The Alchemy Kingdom

Year 2, Winter, Third Month, Fourth Week.

“Staying is too risky but…”

All Councillors had their own considerations, the last two months of relative peace hadn’t been enough for everybody to recover. In their initial plan, they would still be in the outpost and they wouldn’t have faced any battles. So, after three months of resting, they would be prepared to face the arduous journey and energy levels along the way. Fortunately, the creation of the energy detoxifying tool helped to decrease the cases of poisoning. Although it wasn’t a definitive solution, as long as they had enough time and control over the cases, nobody would die from it.

Reiner looked at Karl, silently asking him to present the solution they have been discussing earlier.

“We might have an option to stay here for a little longer… Using a HQ energy crystal, we could improve the reach of the locating tool to almost 20 kilometers. We aren’t sure about the reach of the communicator but it’s at least 25 kilometers. My idea is to use our 18 MQ wind crystals to increase the surveillance around our camp. If we stretch the distances we could cover 45 kilometers in the direction of the Kingdom and 25 in the other directions, which would mean two days of notice…”

Omero didn’t have to think too much about it to give his opinion.

“If we stay prepare to leave at any moment, this could work… It’s a risk, but could work.”

Next, every Head would have to give their opinion about the situation. As usual, Kanin started.

“Unfortunately, we lost a few sacks of wheat and practically all of the greens we started to grow in the outpost, but we still have enough staple food for a year. We can’t do a lot of foraging during Spring, but we could grow a lot of greens outside the barrier. It would take three weeks for harvesting, though.”

For now, they wouldn’t have a food shortage, but nutrition was still a problem. Katlyn was next to speak.

“The Hunting Department’s situation improved a lot in these past weeks. We now have 160 healthy hunters and another 200 in training. Unfortunately, Winter is over and the number of beasts should increase exponentially. We’ll have to return moving in bigger groups and it would be very difficult to handle the security on the journey. If we could have another month to train the 200 trainees and arm them with enhanced weapons, our chances would improve tremendously… Another problem is the MQ beasts, we still don’t have an efficient way of dealing with them, maybe if we could train and equip the special scouting unit…”

Katlyn turned to Karl, who could helplessly turn to his mother. Reiner stepped up to make her remarks.

“The Alchemy Department is overloaded… We have too many tasks and not enough hands to take them. We got a batch of 50 villagers that are interested in Alchemy and I started training them to help in some odd jobs to free the Alchemists, but there’s only so much they can do to help… Unfortunately, our planning was delayed by urgent requests and we’re behind on a lot of essential tools for the journey, especially in weapons…”

The Crafting Department’s report didn’t add anything relevant to the situation. After they got used to the earth construction tools, they were confident to handle the fast construction of temporary shelters along the journey. Besides that, the crafters finally finished making garments with the fabric brought by Keller and with the remaining beasts’ pelts. Sadly, their resources were only enough to dress the elders, babies and hunters, the rest would have to wait until they got more resources.

The Health Department also didn’t add anything substantial. With rest and the new detoxifying tools, the number of sick and poisoned kept dropping every day, so every extra day in the camp would mean more healthy people. The decision was difficult but not that complicated. All departments basically reported they needed a few weeks to stabilize their areas, otherwise, they might end up losing many during the journey.

In the end, they decided to stay as much as they could or until the end of the first month of Spring. However, starting from next week they would be clearing the path for their next camp and everyone should be ready to move at any time. To improve their response time, the Council decided to make daily drills with different groups, after all, they couldn’t become too comfortable. Each department would also have its tasks to prepare for the journey.

The Alchemy Department would focus on producing enough tools to expand their surveillance reach before Spring came. Then, they would push forward all the projects related to weapons and protection tools. The plan was to finish all hunting projects in two weeks and use the remaining weeks for transportation projects, which would improve their speed of travel.

Katlyn left the meeting and went directly to the Hunting D. pavilion, she had guaranteed that the trainees would be ready to hunt in three weeks, so the training would have to be intensified. With Diana’s help, she would also have to organize smaller teams of six and three to increase the surveillance around the camp. The plan was to prevent anything from getting close to the camp without them noticing first.

At this point, everybody in the camp knew they would be moving as soon as Winter ended. So, when they got the news that they would have some extra weeks here, everyone felt relieved. Now, more than ever, everybody had to work tirelessly to make their future a reality.

***

“Hmm…”

Johann felt his body hurting everywhere, he tried to stand but his legs were barely responding to commands, in the end, he decided to lie down a little longer. The ceiling was strangely rough and unadorned, the walls look like… earth. Johann started to panic as he remembered what happened in the Forest. He was sure death had come for him, but somehow he survived. Why would his Master keep him alive while he failed to protect Thundery? Was she dead? However, this place didn’t look like Sky Palace. For a moment, Johann even considered if he wasn’t back home with his poor family.

After a few minutes he tried to stand again, but his legs still didn’t move. Instinctively, he started to use wind energy to complete the task, but he ended up being launched against a wall by the strong gust of wind that formed at his command. Confusion and pain kept him from realizing the differences in his body. Johann managed to sit down, still wondering when his affinity become so strong and his control so poor. But then, he finally decided to check his body.

“What is… What happened to me…”

In the place where his abdomen was supposed to be, he only saw a grey crystal that spread all the way up to his chest. Johann gulped and hesitated until he was finally able to touch it. It took him a lot of time to accept that a part of his body was now made of wind crystal. Without considering much, he stretched his right hand and started circling the wind energy to form a spell. The energy obeyed him without any resistance and the spell formed in half of his usual time. The Wind Tunnel grew and moved forward at his command until it crashed and passed through the earth wall leaving a hole in it.

Johann looked at his hands and smiled.