"I hope it was a nice dungeon run, boss," Mahruss said the moment I stepped out.

"Well, I can't complain," I said even as I threw the sack that was filled with skills and mana stones at him. He checked it, his eyes widening slightly.

"Not bad, boss," he said, though the slight widening of his eyes was his only sign of shock. Not because the loot was small, but because I had surprised them far too many times for him to find it actually shocking. It was a pity, as it meant that teasing them wasn't as easy. "Good, now tell me why you've been waiting for me. Are you taking the initiative for some training? Are you feeling confident thanks to your new Master Skill?"

He shuddered. "No, thanks, boss. I don't think I can handle one of your training sessions after the day I had. It's a mess out there."

"Wars always are, especially the ones that come out of nowhere. Now, why don't you tell me why you were waiting for me?"

"We received an urgent message from the caravan leader of the Iron Trust," he said. I gestured for him to continue. "Apparently, there was trouble with the ore shipment, and it would be delayed a day. I would have handled it myself, but since you asked for any important change relating to Oniphia—" he continued.

"You did well," I said, cutting him off, even as I frowned. I had expected problems in trade, but not this much. "Any particular reason?"

"The official reason is a monster attack, taking down the ships," Mahruss said, his tone showing he didn't believe it either. However, his tone was not urgent, suggesting he didn't understand the potential implications of it.

I didn't blame him for that. While he had come a long way, he was still not used to thinking strategically. "And do you think it's important?" I asked.

"It must be since you are using your teaching voice, boss, but I can't see how," he said. "The easy answer would be that the nobles were trying to make the princess fail, but I don't see how it would help. Investigating the truth about a monster attack would be easy."

I nodded. "Actually, that's the point. They are lying, and they are doing it in such an obvious manner, because they want to send the other noble houses a message."

His gaze tightened. "It declares that the rest of the royal family is not supporting the princess," he said.

"Exactly," I said. Teaching Mahruss was always fun. He didn't waste my time with pointless deflections when he didn't know something, and he was quick to understand the issue. Not exactly a great strategic thinker, but he didn't need to be, not when he could easily juggle the business side with Jertann leading the official dungeon runs and the outpost.

"Are we going to intervene?" he asked.

"I need to see the situation with my own eyes, to get a better sense," I said. "Meanwhile, you're going to do your best to buy all the available materials in the market, both ores and other rare substances. Don't be afraid to overpay, especially with mana stones."

"If you say so, boss. What should I do with the caravan?"

"Ask them to camp near Oniphia for now," I said, then changed the subject. "Where's Zolast?"

"He's reinforcing the wards. The young duke left to join Artmiss, but he put Zolast in charge first."

"Good." While I wanted to talk with Zolast about the dungeon, my discoveries weren't urgent. And, they were too complicated to be conveyed through our connection. "Now, before I leave, show me your progress with the new training."

"As you wish, boss," he said, and started going through the basics of the training I had designed to give them better control of their Stats. Pity I did not know whether it could actually help them Awaken their Stats.

It had helped Zolast, but I cheated by sharing my own impressions through our connection. And even then, he was yet to awaken Strength or Agility.

I watched Mahruss repeat the training for fifteen minutes before I called for it to stop. "Not bad," I said. "Keep the training a secret, and spend at least an hour on it every day." I asked him that, because even during the small period he practiced, I could see him developing a better control of his Strength without relying on his skills.

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I didn't know whether he would be able to Awaken his stat through it, but the benefits were still clear.

"As you wish, boss," he said, quick to accept my recommendation. Then, we shifted to some other issues, like the ongoing construction of the new casino, and then I left the town.

My destination, Oniphia.

As I ran through the forests and plains, I couldn't help but notice the significantly reduced movement around the region. The number of trade caravans and other movements had been reduced significantly. There were more carts moving in the direction of Oniphia than usual, but their numbers weren't enough to compensate for the general slowing with the movement in the opposite direction slowing down.

Clearly, I wasn't the only one who could read the implication behind the excuse.

Once I got near, I could see that many had the idea of letting the caravan stay near in case of a change, but from the lack of actual movement around the open market in front of the city, it didn't look likely.

Curious outcome, I thought, wondering whether I should finally go into the city, especially since I had an official identification. But, after some consideration, I decided against it. Ultimately, those nameplates had been received through our connection with the Princess, and our church helped her to escape a very dangerous ambush.

I didn't want to step into the most magically reinforced location I had seen since my arrival under such a complicated identity.

My class was amazing, but not invincible.

Instead, I observed a bit more. My second destination was the Wall, moving in the exact opposite direction. A little annoying, maybe, but required. I couldn't just rely on Artmiss to provide me with information, even through Zolast, not because he would lie. His chivalry wouldn't allow him to lie to his allies, but that wouldn't mean that his observations would be correct.

As I moved, I contacted Takis, giving him two missions. First, to condense his patrols near town to prevent anyone from ambushing our forces. Second, to used his men to search for prospective mines, particularly in the territory of Town Maell and and Town Yoentia, only using his most trustworthy men.

I had plans for that.

While I composed those messages, I was already at the Wall once more. Two changes were obvious. First, with the local forces reinforcing the princess, the Wall wasn't empty anymore.

Second, Somaton forces had pulled back to a strategic distance, close enough to be looming threateningly, but far enough that the princess' forces couldn't counter-attack.

It was less of a siege, and more of a cold war.

Under more ordinary circumstances, it would have been a poor strategy. By not attacking immediately, Somaton forces had been sacrificing their greatest advantage, and now that the local nobles were reinforcing the wall, they lost the opportunity to break through.

However, clearly, they had a slower plan in mind. The news coming from Oniphia showed everyone that the royal family wasn't supporting the princess, which could make the nobles reluctant to support her.

Without Duke Yoentia's unconditional support, the situation might have been even worse. No wonder they had been trying to make us betray them. If we suddenly pulled back, especially by destroying the dungeon as we had promised, the town would have been in shambles, and the forces they could send would be limited.

And, that was assuming the young Duke resisted the temptation of changing sides. I didn't expect him to do so. For all his faults, the young man was not a coward. On the contrary, he was reckless enough to double down no matter how ill-advised it might be.

Not that it would have mattered. If we betrayed him, Artmiss would have to stay back in town to manage things, instead of doing what they just did.

In essence, he abandoned the town to our guild. A stupid decision. Not that we intended to harm their interests, as the stronger they got, the easier it would be for us to operate under their shadow.

Still, that didn't change just how bad of a decision it had been. I might have even taken over his training … if I didn't have a lot of things to do.

The stalemate between the two forces was a tense affair, but also, it also gave us a chance to continue developing while handling our most critical activities.

First, we needed an independent logistic chain. Limenta was doing well with his recruitment campaign. We already had two blacksmith cells established, with more on the way. A way to quickly level them up was already settled. The sudden restriction of trade was a problem, but we had enough money to pay a premium for ores, so it was less of an issue. Not to mention, we were already trying to find a mine or two.

Preferably in the land under our allies … but even if it was not, I had some plans. After all, we had an excess of Lord Beast parts and ability stones, both extremely tempting for the nobles, which could be used to make some lopsided deals for mining rights.

Another issue that required the benefit of time was leveling, both for me, and the rest. The younglings were coming along well — especially since, according to Zolast, the upcoming Calamity made the gods invest in rare classes more than usual — and our general forces had been reaching a decent level.

My own leveling would progress nicely thanks to the unrestricted floor, even though it had to charge for a long time between uses. Still, Zolast's estimates were somewhere between half a billion to a billion a day for that. And, whenever I had time, I could still use the outpost to farm more.

Impressive numbers, but considering the pattern of leveling up, I didn't expect to see level hundred any time soon.

Hopefully, Zolast's research would pay off. Unfortunately, we had a lot of experiments to run, focused on the dungeons and how they interacted with Authority, how the Divine Patron system worked, stat Awakenings, and many others, making it difficult to find time for all of them.

Especially since we had a lot of other things to run. The younglings had been coming along well indeed, but they were not at a point where they could be left unsupervised.