Smoke carefully placed the krampus embryo on top of the pedestal at the center of the hidden chamber. Once again the whole hidden chamber shook as an aperture appeared on the floor behind the pedestal.
Smoke, Espion, and Igniz were on full alert. All of them stared at the opening on the floor with bated breath.
A minute passed and no horns came out from the opening. Smoke signaled them to start moving closer into the aperture.
Smoke switched weapons from his Rzeka glaive to his flamdius sword and Armadillo shield. Espion did the same and switched to the green dual knives.
Vigilantly, all of them peeked at the aperture. They all saw that there was a staircase which led downwards.
"Igniz, can you go do a quick check on what's waiting for us below?"
The dark ember sprite gave a nod, and stealthily went into the opening. A few seconds later Igniz came out and gave the 'all clear' signal.
Smoke and Espion still had their weapons out as they went down the staircase. Igniz lit the whole room as it was required him.
The DarkElf saw that the hidden room inside the secret Fire chamber was actually a laboratory of the Tenebris.
The laboratory was larger than the room above at 300 square meters. It had mountains and mountains of books scattered all over the place.
However, there was one table that caught Smoke's attention. On the desk was a journal entitled 'How to Create a Maneator'.
Chapter Nine: Remember Verbrannt
The clear blue sky was cloudless. The hot sun shone brightly over the gathered crowd in the eastern village of Timur.
One hundred fifty thousand people were seated on the stands of the finish line for the Mounted Race. The scorching heat made the crowd more restless.
The announcer's voice boomed over the speakers.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, our first racer has reached the five kilometer marker. As soon as they come out of Otaczac forest, they will have to run through the last three kilometers of plains right before you. If you don't have special long range telescopes or other similar devices, you can view the action in our giant jumbovision screen behind me. Our jumbovision is brought to us by the Light Wizards of Regard. If it's lights and sights, make it Regard."
Five minutes passed, and a Druid on top of a wind scorpion was shown in high definition on the jumbovision. His wind scorpion appeared to be floating over the plains.
Three seconds later, two Lioumerean Pathfinders with their stag moose came out in hot pursuit of the Druid. Despite the close gap, the wind scorpion still had a clear advantage over the stag moose on the plains.
Slowly, the gap between the Druid and the Pathfinders grew. Laernea and Gandiva pushed their mounts to their limits, but it was futile.
Soutien, the Druid, maintained his lead and won first place. While Laernea and Gandiva placed second and third respectively.
When all three of them came to a halt, the Druid gave the Lioumereans a bow. It was to signify that he enjoyed the race against them. Laernea and Gandiva were unresponsive.
They crossed their arms and stared back at him. The moment Soutien turned his back, the two of them simultaneously stuck out their tongues at the Druid.
An hour passed before the tenth placer crossed the finish line. The Mounted Race event would officially end 24 hours after the first placer.
Yet, preparations for the awarding ceremony started as soon as the seventh placer arrived. All seven racers were asked to join Duke Burmistrz on stage.
With the stage set, the Mayor of Coatl stood in front of everyone. Duke Burmistrz addressed the audience in the stands.
"Friends! Standing before you are the finest racers in all of Zectas! Our experts estimate that only 50% of those who started the race will be able to finish. So, you can all imagine how talented these racers are. Let's give them a round of applause."
Everybody clapped and cheered for the top racers of Coatl City's Mounted Race.
Soutien, Laernea, and Gandiva were on top of the podium marked 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. All of them carried their respective trophies and were waving to the crowd. The participants who won fourth to seventh place stood a foot below them.
All of them were given their promised prizes. Soutien was awarded with 10 million zecs and a golden armored carriage.
While Laernea and Gandiva only won a total of 7 million zecs. They watched Soutien drive away in his luxurious carriage.
With the completion of the awarding ceremony, Laernea tried to call Smoke and asked for his location.
"Gandiva, I can't contact him..."
The tigress Lioumerean's face was stricken with worry.
"You don't think a bandit killed him in their attack against that Brandal base?"
"There's no way that could happen."
Laernea couldn't believe such a thing was possible.
"I'll try to call Sierra and see if she has any idea what's going on."
The lioness Lioumerean called their second in command.
"Hi, Laernea. What's up?"
"Umm. I was wondering if you know what happened to Smoke? Did Sagen and his men get to him?"
Sierra's voiced got louder and defensive.
"No, he didn't! I took care of Sagen and his men personally."
"Of course, of course. It's just that I tried to call Smoke, and was about to tell him that Gandiva and I won second and third place in the Mounted Race."
"Second and Third place? Somebody was faster than you two? How did Smoke take the news?"
"That's the problem. I tried calling him, but there was no answer. What do you think happened to him?"
There was no response from the werebear.
"Sierra, you still there?"
"Yeah, yeah I'm still here. This isn't the time to be worrying about Smoke. I'm sure he's doing fine, wherever he is. For now just come to our location. I have a special task for the both of you."
* * * * * *
When Sierra asked Smoke for advice on what to do against the incoming Brandal army, he told her that he wanted them to retreat back to Nanahuatl.
However, there were two major reasons why Smoke needed them to remain and fight the approaching Brandal forces.
First, was securing the whole southern region of Coatl, since Sierra wasn't able to locate the exit of the labyrinth.
Second, was to help the harassed and massacred villages. Smoke had promised the members of his private army that they were going to be protectors of the weak, and the upholders of justice.
Smoke had to make sure to maintain his intimacy level with his private army. If he left the troubled villages alone, he would risk losing members of his private army.
Sierra had no problem when Smoke asked her to stay. Even though it was only a game in a virtual reality world, she still felt the suffering of the villagers.
The DarkElf told her that he would deal with the immediate threat of the Brandals gathered within the zone during the Mounted Race event, but this wasn't an assurance that Sierra and the rest of his private army were already safe.
Which was why, on the day the Mounted Race even started, Smoke secretly paid 10 million zecs and hired 500 men from the Avendre Mercenaries in Coatl City.
Even though they were Mercenaries, the Avendre were loyal to a fault. Once a contract was made with them, they would honor it to the death.
Unfortunately, the Avendre informed Smoke that they could only send the men to Sierra's location within two weeks.
Smoke decided to push through with the contract even if there was a long delay. The Avendre were costly, but Smoke knew they were a necessary expense.
The DarkElf thought to himself that zecs could be earned again, but the lives of his men and the maneators he could rescue were priceless.
Smoke thought that Sierra would love this surprise once she's seen it.
Even after Smoke planned his countermeasures. He still felt that they weren't safe. So, he sent Sierra a short checklist on what they could do in their end.
This was to increase their success rate on surviving the Brandals' attacks.
Sierra's TODO:
1. Find an impregnable headquarters.
2. Gather the villagers from the other ruined villages.
3. Train the villagers into formidable fighters.
4. Improve the levels and abilities of the members of the private army.
5. Map out the whole southern region
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Sierra started all five tasks, but didn't finish all of them. They found their headquarters, but it wasn't impregnable.
They started to gather residents from the devastated villages, but there were still more villages to visit.
Adder and Jinggu started to train the villagers, but their training couldn't be completed because Sierra needed them to work on reinforcing the castle.
Smoke's private army did increase their levels. At the moment, Vijaya had the lowest level at 87. Followed by Thyrsus, Sharanga, and Ichaival at 88.
Laernea and Gandiva greatly increased their levels from the Mounted Race. The Lioumereans were now at level 89.
Sharur and Jinggu, the Range Siegers, shared the same level as the Pathfinders. While Adder had the highest level at 90.
With all the Brandals Sierra killed, she increased her level to 95. Some of the other members had started doing personal training, but most of them spent their time training and instructing the new volunteers.
With the help of his falcon Thyr and his 'Falcon Vision' ability, Thyrsus mapped 30% of the entire southern region, but his progress was still behind schedule.
Sierra asked Thyrsus for the optimal points to place sentries. She likewise ordered the men to dig out escape tunnels to these locations.
The sentry volunteers were given special flares to alert Sierra and the main force against invaders.
Thyrsus improved on Sierra's sentry plan. He devised the sentry posts to work as a series of distress signals.
The furthest sentry was ten kilometers away from Verbrannt Castle, and the next sentry towards the castle had a distance of two kilometers.
In this manner, their warning system covered a wider range and had the ability to alert them at an outstanding speed.
* * * * * *
With all tasks unfinished, Sierra checked on the progress of reinforcing their headquarters. She hoped that their chosen castle could withstand a horde of Brandals.
She thoroughly inspected the improvements done on the ruined castle. This stronghold belonged to Lord Faible, the former ruler of Verbrannt Village.
Sierra and Adder both agreed that this was the best place for their headquarters.
From a short distance, the wide Murray river covered their whole western front.
While, to the east of Verbrannt Castle was Mount Engrais. The snow capped volcano stretched out for miles. It was almost impassable. This dormant volcano made the surrounding soil rich and fertile.
Verbrannt village was so vast that its outer walls were not visible from the castle. There were many parts of the village that laid in ruin, and were reclaimed by the forest of Otaczac.
Their ninety recruits of Fishermen and Farmers used big rocks to repair the damages done on the walls.
They then applied clay plasters on the piled up stones. They used a special type of mud-clay that was abundant in the nearby riverbank.
Sierra was on top of the castle's highest tower. She stopped her inspection and took a minute to enjoy the picturesque landscape. The wide and winding Murray river coupled with the towering and grandiose Mount Engrais.
"Why in the world would the villagers leave this place?"
The red werebear wondered out loud.
One of the Farmers working on the tower's reconstruction heard her.
"Excuse me, miss werebear. I'm Veinard Gars, I'm a survivor from Salah village. If you'd like, I can tell you the tragedy that befell this place?"
Sierra turned around and found a forty-year-old man was putting clay plasters on the tower.
"I'm sorry, I didn't see you there. I was just talking to myself."
"Oh, I see. Well, if you ever change your mind. I'm sure you can ask anyone. This village was quite famous you know?"
"I think I can spare a moment. What exactly happened here?"
The Farmer went closer to Sierra and began to tell the massacre of Verbrannt.
