Spring Land, Mine Valley, and Earthen Woods. These three regions formed a triangle shape at the edge of the Hall Plains. Spring Land and Earthen Woods were both larger than Mine Valley.
Mine Valley was ruled by a group of cities. These cities didn't belong to any country or kingdom. They have created their own government.
Spring Land was ruled by a kingdom and various factions. It has a kingdom that was acknowledge as the strongest faction in the entire region.
Earthen Woods was different. It was just a huge jungle filled with countless tribes. These tribes fought each other every year for territory and food. They were very aggressive. Even merchants avoided this land since those would only plunder them. Without enough strength, a person couldn't even walk out of this land.
But now... Someone unified the tribes in the Earthen Woods. It was hard to achieve it since there were various powerful tribes that could even rival the top factions in Spring Land. Even the Mine Valley would be nothing once the Earthen Woods was unified.
"The Enruet City had fallen..." The guard said.
Enruet City. The overlord of this city was powerful and even Second Head wasn't sure if he could defeat the City Lord of this city. Yet, the Enruet City had fallen overnight.
"I want you to send the message to the other Heads of the Dragon Council. We need to plan for the counterattack." Second Head said.
"Sir, Governor Ray left a message that you will be in charge of the Dragon Council for a while. The other Heads are with the Governor for some important matters." The guard explained.
"What?!" Second Head opened his eyes widely. Aside from him, the other Heads of the Dragon Council were gone. They were absent at this crucial time.
"What a timing..."
He turned his head and looked at the army outside the city. He noticed that they were retreating. It seems that they also heard the news about what happened in Enruet City.
Second Head took a deep breath as he closed his eyes. After a while, he opened his eyes and tightly clenched his fist.
"Send a message to activate the war formation of every city under the Dragon Council. Also, call back our forces in the perimeter of the Mine Valley and set up a defensive barricade near the Enruet City." Second Head paused and added, "Since I'm the only Head available, the forces of the other Heads would follow me, right?"
"Yes, sir. We've received a report that they will follow your orders until the Heads came back. They've appointed a second-in-command that will make up a decision for the Heads. You can talk to them, Sir." The guard said.
"Good. The three cities aren't important anymore. A stronger enemy appeared at this time so we'll focus on our defense to wait for them to attack once again. So once we gather enough data on our enemy forces we'll be able to counterattack efficiently." Second Head decided at the moment. He waved his hand and said to the guard, "You can go now."
After the guard left, Second Head sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose. He looked up and recalled that Elder Guan was still here.
"Ekatoe City doesn't have any defensive or war formation array, right? Do you want me to help you set up a temporary array for defense?" Second Head asked.
"I'll talk about it to Alice but I don't think you should focus on our city first. You should set up a trap near Enruet City as soon as possible in case they advanced their troops. I'm sure that's what Alice will say." Elder Guan said.
As far as he knows, the safest place in Mine Valley was Ekatoe City despite it not having any sort of protective arrays. Currently, there were several One Shackle experts in the city and there were also squads from Athen's Champion that Souta requested. There was even a weakened fifth stage monster sleeping in the depths of the Astros.
So Elder Guan knew what he had to do. He had to avoid these people entering the Astros just to set up a temporary protective array since there was a chance that they would discover that they were from Athen's Champion.
"Thanks... I will go now. It seems I will be busy today. Geez, those Heads go out and left everything here for me to handle." Second Head turned around and smiled wryly. He walked away while scratching the back of his head.
Elder Guan stared at Second Head's back for a while before he also left.
"Things are getting troublesome..."
He returned to his room and called a few witches. He gave them an order to return to Ekatoe City and informed Alice about everything that happened here. All the events that transpired here would be reported to her.
Next, he should stay here for a while and wait for Alice's words. She was the one who would decide what would be their next actions.
The Feral Corps in this city wasn't the full force. Most of the were with Doranjan to conquer the river on the east edge of Mine Valley. Also, Souta and Franklin were still gone. Amanda hasn't even shown up.
Elder Guan was worried about her. Amanda was the daughter of the former Clan Leader so he wouldn't let anything happen to her. The future of the Witch Clan lay within her hands.
"Huff... I need to calm myself. We are getting stronger too. A lot of experts from Astros broke through from this battle and achieved higher levels of power."
Elder Guan closed his eyes and went to his bed.
The news about the fall of the Enruet City quickly spread out in the entire Mine Valley. This piece of news stirred the forces of the land as they couldn't help but pulled back all the forces they gathered to fight for the three cities. The most important thing right now was to build up their defense against the invasion of the Earthen Woods tribes.
Ordinary people felt the gloomy atmosphere and they started to stock their food and other necessity needed to survive. They had no choice but to rely on the giant organization in their cities to survive. Without the protection of the organization, they wouldn't be able to defend themselves against the tribes from the Earthen Woods.
The tribes were feared for their aggressive nature. Weaklings would die at their hands without a doubt.
The next day...
Alice received the report from Elder Guan. She was sitting in the City Lord's office reading the report. The first file was the casualties of the battle and the people that reached higher levels.
This was Souta's target. To stimulate them through life-and-death battles to achieve the next stage of power.
"Twenty three B-rank, seventeen A-rank, three S-rank, twenty eight first stage monsters, and eleven second stage monsters had died from the battle. A total of eighty eight casualties."
Alice sighed gloomily. The casualties were higher than what she calculated. She was glad that she sent Elder Guan there or else the casualties would be higher than this. Also, all those experts had parasites in their bodies.
The parasitic essence eater was limited so they couldn't afford to lose them anymore. It was also the reason why a lot of experts survived that battle for the White Wheat City.
"The worse case is none of them even achieved Shackled Realm..."
Thirty three peak A-rank rose to initial S-rank after the battle but none of the peak S-rank stepped into the realm of Shackled experts. A lot of peak B-rank experts managed to liquefied their mana making them a legitimate A-rank experts.
Alice massaged her temples. She didn't know how to explain this to Souta. Plus, the Earthen Woods tribes attacked the Mine Valley. Problems kept coming. She didn't even know how to handle an entire organization. There were lots of things that she needed to do.
"Eilish... I hope she comes back to help me deal with this problem."
Eilish went to Athen's Champion to complete some missions. She was planning to exchange her achievements for some potions or pills that could help her break through the second shackles. She was already preparing for her ascension to the higher level.
It was good. After all, once Eilish reached Two Shackles Realm, the overall might of Astros would also increase too.
Isabella alone couldn't provide potions to everyone plus she was still researching the pill that she received from Souta.
"Doranjan... I just hope that once he returned I will hear a good news."
Doranjan should succeed in his task no matter what. At least, they would be able to drastically increase their military power with it.
"Should I use this chance to increase the tax? After all, a war is going to erupt and we needed funds for all kinds of weapons and armor."
Alice leaned on her chair as she blankly stared at the ceiling.
