Chapter 28: Preparations for war (I)

*Creack... creack...*

A rock fell to the ground beneath me when I stepped on the wrong place while climbing a really large wall that leaded to the exit.

"...Fuuuh... that was near... Not that I could die from just a fall, but it still hurts"

Currently, I was trying to leave this large cave after gathering enough resources. However, the way back seemed to be a bit harder than the way in.

I had to climb enormous walls, jump several meters, and be careful not to provoke a collapse of the rocks on the wall.

Luckily, not only was I completely recovered from the fight against the bats, I was also feeling that my physical abilities increased by a lot after consuming that Life Crystal.

Not to mention that I could feel everything on my body be incredibly harder than before. This allowed me to employ a lot more force on all my movements without having my body stop me because of the danger of damaging my body.

You could say that the limit of force my body was able to employ without hurting itself increased along with its new hardness.

Also, my body became a lot more toned than before, and muscles that I never trained before also became bigger and harder after the Crystal matter.

This made me remember...

Maybe I became more handsome?

I mean... on the Chinese novels that I barely read, that was also an additional effect when disposing of the impurities of the body.

Right?

I don't have a mirror with me right now, so I can't know. But let's hope that's indeed the case.

Anyways, after doing some more parkour through the whole cave, I finally managed to reach the exit and see the sunlight.

Oh... fuck it's too bright!

*Chirp!!*

"Let's go slowly Neo, otherwise we might become blind before even fighting on the war"

*Chirp*

It took us a while to get accustomed to the sunlight, but in the end we finally became able to see our surroundings. Tho there were not so many things to see, just trees, trees, and more trees.

Beautiful.

Alright, now I just need to go back to Balroc city and then start making all the preparations needed for us humans to win this.

...

Hmm...

But maybe a little nap before that couldn't be too bad...

...

---

A few Hours Later

...

*Step*

*Step*

*Step*

*Step*

Sigh... Finally!

In front of me was the gate of the city, along with two guards that were looking me dumbfounded."

"Sir Aspen? You are back!"

"Yeah, why shouldn't I ?

"Well... we thought that..." He tried to talk, but seemed a bit hesitant to continue speaking.

"That I ran away from the war? Don't say stupid things, I was just preparing accordingly. Anyways, just let me enter. I have a few things to discuss with the elders on the militia"

"O-oh, right away sir!"

It didn't take long before I was allowed to enter, and I must say, although I wasn't expecting a warm welcome, the coldness and hatred on the eyes of every person that saw me was a lot bigger than just a few days before...

Children aside, of course. They just didn't care.

"Did they caught him after he escaped?"

"Did he finally had a bit of remorse and decided to came back?"

"Piece of shit"

Language! There are children watching for god's sake.

Anyways, the surrounding people was already murmuring and gossiping behind my back after seeing me walking through the central street.

Heck, some even threw pebbles at me.

Luckily, none of them were able to hit me because the pebbles 'Mysteriously' changed directions and ended up hitting back the people that threw them in the first place.

That's some really bad luck.

It seemed that the rumors I expected to spread after I disappeared went actually worse of what I thought they could...

Anyways, after I reached the Militia's main building. I was greeted by a lot of soldiers that were already preparing for the incoming war, and that had surprised faces when they saw me.

I mostly ignored them, I didn't have the time for explaining every single detail about what did I do on the past days inside a dark and humid cave full of bats that wanted to kill me.

Though, I had the time for a nap.

Curious, isn't it?

*Knock*

*Knock*

*Knock*

I knocked silently the big door that opened the path to the great meeting room where the elders discussed everything related to war and things of the sorts.

*Click*

The door opened, and I was greeted by the great amount of elders looking at me with astonished expressions. My old friend Easton included. (The guy that proposed for him to join the expedition to the mountains. I explain it again this because I feel he is kinda forgettable XD)

"Sir Aspen?"

Alright, time to start with the plan.

...

---

Easton Jayce POV

It has been a few days since the young Aspen came back from the failed expedition and ended up unmasking my old friend Francis Bereay from being a cultist.

At first It took me a while to recover from the shock. After all he was someone I shared my childhood with, and even after all these years we shared together, I was unable to notice in what he was becoming due to his hatred for goblins.

However, using all my willpower I decided to put that matter to the side for now, as we had a war to fight.

What I didn't anticipate was that the young Aspen could actually disappear after that day... 

Did he escape...? No, I knew him for too long, and even If I was unable to notice in what my friend Francis was becoming, I was sure that I knew the character of Aspen well enough. Although a bit lazy and maybe carefree, he was an honest person... mostly, as I felt that he was still hiding many things from us. I knew he could never escape like a scaredy-cat from some goblins. Even more after he killed one of them.

So why did he disappear?

...

?!

Could it be? The cultists killed him or kidnapped him?

That made a lot of sense, as a lot of disgusting rumors started spreading since he disappeared, probably spread by hidden cultists to make his disappearance more easy to cover. Masking it as him escaping from the war scared like a mouse.

"Shit!"

*Thump!*

I hit the table angrily while biting my lower lip in frustration.

"Enemies from the inside, Enemies from the outside... What the hell are we supposed to do?!"

The elders, that were a bit startled after seeing me hit the table, nodded in understanding at my words with grim faces all over their faces.

"Humanity seems to be destined to extinction" One of them said with an exhausted expression on his face.

...

We were tired, everyone in this place was tired of fighting for their lives all these years.

Protecting the people of the city, preventing the Goblins from entering our territory, being in the edge of extinction for so many years. All this has accumulated during the years.

The despair of not knowing what to do while seeing the goblins advance on their way through the human kingdom... had made us tired. Our old bodies just wanted to take some rest.

We wanted to give up.

But I couldn't allow that. Not before this war ended.

"Let's make the last effort..."

...

After hearing me say that, the eyes of everyone in this place illuminated for a second and a smile appeared on all of them.

"Haha... that's right, this is the final step on our lives, we have to live it honorably" One of them said chuckling a bit

"The last effort..." Another one said with a pensive expression

"Hehe... I guess we can give it a try for the last time" One said after hearing the previous one.

Yeah... this was the last step on this enormous staircase that life is... The last effort before reaching the top.

*Knock* 

*Knock* 

*Knock* 

Hmm?

Someone is knocking the door in the middle of a meeting? This must be urgent.

"I'll open" One of the elders said

*Click*

There stood, the young man that My old friend Harry took as his apprentice, and the one that gave us hope in winning this war by killing by himself the one being we thought a human couldn't beat in any way alone.

He was the one that killed a goblin.

Aspen was there, his face now looked a lot more clean and chiseled, and the bags under his eyes disappeared. Accompanied by the strange bird that appeared together with him when he came back from the expedition.

"Aspen?" I muttered under my breath.

What could have happened to him during these few days?

But his next words froze me completely, together with all the other elders in the meeting room.

...

"I have a plan"

...

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