Honoured with having a glance at such a unique culture, a heavily different ritual and practically finding out about a new Religion. It is fair to say that the young Electus' bad day has been compensated with this relic of a tradition.

He doesn't know what to say or ask first. Later deciding to reflect about his uncertainty. "I wasn't aware what God your people believed in but this is... well it offers facts."

Raising his forefinger as if trying to correct, Kazer butchered. "Calidum Lutum follow one God, Calidum. First Calidum Lutum to walk planet, became God when dead and send one hundred Calidum Lutum from heaven."

Giving a long heavy sigh of satisfaction thanks to his curiosity being quenched, Jubilant on his tone Eric babbled. "Oooh I get you! Your race is named after your God, Calidum. My father says that gods are fictional beings Chapel members and Kings created for personal profit."

Noticing the displeased look on Kazer's face a hunch later, Eric corrects his own words. "But from a civilization thriving away from the outside world, I don't see any personal profit here."

"Indeed. We strive for peace and protection." Replied Kazer with a gentle tone as he noticed that Eric is trying to be delicate with his words.

A bit of a tease to lift the mood really, Eric chipped in. "Hey you're getting better and better at speaking my language. You really do learn fast!"

Unintentionally sarcastic but nonetheless bold, Kazer harped. "Of course. You and friends talk a lot."

...

Eric walked in the Throne room and saw Alia in there alone, standing next to the Throne. Might be a long shot but he has a feeling that she has been waiting for his return a while now.

Although nervous and a bit shy to be there with her alone, he still went for the Throne and broke the silence with a logical question. "Where is the rest of the Gang?"

"I ordered for them to start the project on the farm." Ordering friends to do something is no doubt rude by some aspects, so she cleared it out. "Well more like I ordered the Farmers and Miners to do it but your group insisted to help."

Then she decided to get to the point, practically the reason why she is here. "But may we speak my King?"

"Of course." Relieved to put a possibly embarrassing situation behind him, the younger expressed what he expected. "I assume the talk we had about war is troubling you."

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Concern spottable in her tone, she hummed. "Well, yes. If it wasn't for Mogranius, me and many others could have been shot dead."

Afterwards she revealed the Weapon of which even Eric spotted between the disaster, but completely forgot about. "This Crossbow that was left near the dead Guard seemed to have done all of this damage, I fear for the worse."

Not understanding what she's thinking about, obviously unable to read minds. He intoned, "Can you be more specific?"

Hoarding information set aside now since she is talking to a King, she narrated. "If more troops strike our town with several of these Crossbows that shoot explosives, we might lose a lot more Guards. Tens even!"

Gazing upon the Crossbow, another idea popped in his mind. Ranged attacks! "The Crossbow looks ordinary, I doubt it will explode so we can use it. The Blacksmith can forge bolts, basically ammunition for this Crossbow."

How talkative he has become this hour is confusing her a bit, but she put that aside and focused on her main concern. "Eric! This Weapon is nothing compared to the strength of one Guard, why do we need this?"

Wiggling his finger, disagreeing. He cited, "It is nothing compared to a Calidum Lutum but against an illustratio, it is a lethal weapon. This is a late discovery, in Crutal Kingdom I saw it being sold for one hundred gold coins."

Not allowing her to speak just yet, becoming oddly talkative. The young Electus pitched, "With Crossbows our Guards can shoot from afar, it's safer. Crafting nine of these and equipping Guards hidden above the entrance would grant a second line of defense, we will need the Blacksmith for this."

"Genius!" This plan at least, is one that Commander Alia can get behind willingly.

She highly trusts the power of her Guards, hearing a plan that can make them even more dangerous against the enemy gave her goosebumps. "I will tell the Blacksmith to get right on this, but it will take time."

"It doesn't matter, I doubt that Xakro can bring an army here tomorrow. We have weeks of time at least." At such sweet facts, Commander Alia couldn't help but smile.

So Eric found it as the best time to ask about his main concern about the defence system. "Also the main entrance should have more Guards in the area as our first line of defence, how many Guards do we have?"

Ignoring another complaint, she decided to talk about what she wants to talk about. "Oh I got the total population memorized, I know you are curious so I will list everything your respectful highness."

At this point she was teasing him a bit, but mostly wanted to lift the mood. "There are 5 Grand Masters, 50 Masters, 100 Experts and 250 Magicians."

Highly specific without a single doubt, but she isn't ceasing there. "We also have a group of 200 people who are too young or too old to work, these include Lava Blasters."

Now getting to it work-wise, she stated. "We also have 30 Farmers, 20 Miners, And respectfully 55 Guards."

"So I see that most non blasters are putting in work, nice. But what concerns me, you left 2 Guards near the main Inner entrance, with the tunnel open. Where were the rest?" It's not that he wants to complain but the town has been caught off Guard, literally.

Of course having a logical explanation for this, she explained without guilt. "The rest were helping the Miners dispose the deposits of Ignite Gems. The Tunnels are deep down, the Guards most likely didn't hear the explosions."

Listening to her own explanation, she started scolding herself after. "Now I notice that was a bad idea for two reasons."

Eric noticed himself becoming a bit rough, but this is a mess strategy-wise so he weighed in. "Well I see your idea reasonable but now we have to shift a few rules a bit in the name of this town's safety."