'...the Medicine Garden is already complete.' Ashton mused inwardly.
'A temporal array had been installed around the garden to hasten the growth of the herbs. It is rather unfortunate that they have to be raised in a greenhouse but the density of Spiritual Energy in there should be enough to compensate for that.'
Raising Medicinal Herbs in a greenhouse makes them weaker compared to those that grew out in the wild naturally. They'll need more care if they were to be handled as well.
While Ashton could simulate harsh weather to neutralize this, doing that would be a bit wasteful. It's almost guaranteed that the ones who weren't able to hold on will be thrown away in the trash. Ashton didn't like the sound of that so they might as well just stick to the path that will give them the most optimal results.
'...the Man-Made Spiritual Mines Project is nearly complete as well. All that's left is to figure out how the formations should be set. Once that's done, we'll pretty much have a semi-inexhaustible source of various ores and Spiritual Stones.'
The blessing of a dense Spiritual Energy could do wonders for the land and its citizens. Since Spiritual Energy was often referred to as the Breath of Life, a dense concentration of it was bound to cause some positive mutations.
Ashton had unlocked the secret for accumulating dense Spiritual Energy Concentration to his targetted place. With the help of a few Magical Arrays and Formations, he could easily achieve this.
And since the ARC Project had been applied, Fantasia turned into a place where Humanity can truly prosper. This gave Ashton plenty of room to experiment to improve Humanity's quality of life.
To top this all off, he also had the support of the Grand Archives. The previous Heroes' works gave him plenty of inspiration to test out. Most of them lead him to discoveries that he's now applying for the betterment of his kind.
Sufficed to say, the development of Fantasia was on an upwards trend. And Ashton was just starting...
Thankfully, his efforts weren't in vain. Humanity itself was feeling the positive changes that are happening to their surroundings in real-time. And this did not only make them happier, but it also increased their faith in the new leader of Humanity.
Speaking of which, Ashton's identity as the Federation's current President is still not known to many, only a select few. This was something that Ashton himself prevented from happening since he didn't want any controversies for now.
Plus, he knew that so long as he keeps churning out results, people wouldn't be too pressed about it anyway, and that works fine with him.
"Master, Party B-12 requests for aid."
Ashton blinked as he heard Jerry's voice. He then asked: "What happened?"
"They were met with a strong resistance while doing their mission. They're being pushed back as we speak right now."
"Party B-12..." Ashton mumbled as he silently brought out the information for that team. "Ah, they are the ones in charge of quelling the rising fanatics. Alright, I'll aid them."
Saying that Ashton channeled his Mana into the System and immersed himself in it. This allowed him to not only cast his Buffing Spells to the Party but also allowed him to see what was happening in real-time.
Party B-12 consists of three men and two women.
They were relatively new to the Mystic Guild but they were amongst the hardworking fellows who went for mission after mission with the intent of upgrading their badge as fast as they could so that they can apply for missions that gives our more reward.
Everyone on this team had seen some serious progress in their cultivation ever since joining the Mystic Guild, and the feeling of becoming stronger day by day was addicting, this is what pushes them to keep on clearing out missions.
Today's mission was the first B-ranked mission they applied for since their promotion. Unknowingly, it was also the very mission that made them feel the escalation of difficulty between the mission rankings.
In place of the Cult of the Sky Demon, other fanatics had been tempted by the invaders to betray their kind.
Alice, Blake, and Mary did their best to round up all the Fanatics when they destroyed them back then, however even though they combed through the entire metropolis, they were bound to miss one or two, especially if they were really good at hiding.
Due to that, even though the Cult has been purged, the Fanatics who managed to escape the purge were able to go under the radar and start another cult in the name of Demonic Worship.
Of course, this was immediately discovered by Ashton, and though he was displeased, he was too busy to personally deal with them, therefore he chose to send the Guild after them instead by posting a mission to deal with the Cult's revival.
"Hahaha. Die, you imbeciles! Become nourishment for the Demon Lords!"
The fanatics screeched and laughed eerily as they attacked with reckless abandon. Their bodies were covered with a cloud of thick black smoke and their faces looked extremely wretched. It's as if they're turning into demons themselves.
"Damn! Wake you fool! Do not fall into the temptation of the Dark Side! The Demons will never be your allies!"
One of the two women from the party shouted, hoping that her voice will reach the maddened Fanatics.
"Ella, stop wasting your breath in them. It's useless, they will never listen, they're in too deep." The other girl on the team who's hanging out in the back told her.
"But...but..."
"She's right Ella. Your intentions are good but I'm afraid that it's of no use. Look at them carefully, it's what we need to do is clear."
The one called Ella looked at the fanatic that has been trying to bite her face off for a while now and couldn't help but lament deep down.
She gritted her teeth and punched her shield inwardly, causing a strong shockwave to occur, blasting off the crazed fanatic away from her. She then re-grouped with the team with a heavy heart.
"Damn, we're surrounded. I didn't think that there'd be this many, sorry guys!"
"...apologizing now is a bit...yeah. How about we focus on getting out alive first?" One of the guys calmly said despite feeling stressed. "Have you contacted Support? We could really use some right now."
"I already did, it should be arriving anytime soon. Hang in there a bit."
The party had their backs to each other, surrounded completely by crazed fanatics that wanted to tear them to pieces.
Their defender who happened to be a girl called Ella was under immense pressure. She was constantly harassed by the fanatics. The team behind her was doing their best to peel off an unnecessary load from reaching her but there were too many.
Just as they were about to fail though, the clouds above their head parted and a column of pure divine light poured down on them.
The Fanatics screeched in pain and hissed at the divine light while the party members basked in it as if they were taking a warm shower.
At that instant, they felt fatigue receding from their bodies like a tide. Their injuries were all healed in a blink of an eye and pure power coursing through their veins.
The difference was like night and day to be completely honest. Just a few seconds ago, they were being pushed back, feeling immensely pressured from the constant harassment but now, all they felt was lightness all over their bodies.
"A-awesome!! Whooo!!"
Sounds of pure exhilaration came out of them involuntarily. At this point, they felt like they were invincible.
"Ah, sacrificing 15% of our profits was worth it." The party leader mused to himself. "I can only hope that this lasts for the entire day."
Snorts
'You wish...'
"G-Guild Master!?"
"Yes, I'm watching," Ashton replied without showing himself. "Listen up, all of you. This mission will be upgraded to A-rank due to my lack of foresight. I didn't expect there too many."
"I won't tax you all so long as you completely decimate this cult. Round them all up and destroy the relic they hid underground. Be careful since they placed a lot of traps in there. Once you're done, return to the Guild with the prisoners so that we can convert them. Understood?"
"Understood, Guild Master!" The entire party replied.
The party leader then looked at his members and said: "Well, you heard the man. Let's go. We cannot allow this riffraff to become an even bigger problem."
And with Ashton's Divine Blessings, the party rounded up all the heretics they could find. Due to the buffs, this went easier than they expected. They practically tore through the hundreds of fanatics without any problems.
Some fanatics tried to escape once they saw that the situation was dire but under Ashton's gaze, there was nowhere for them to go. They could only obediently wait for capture.
Once the cult's relic had been destroyed, the party rounded up all the prisoners and returned to the guild to hand them over so that they can be converted back to normal.
