The Beginning Of The Conquest

"The Rocaloi Academy will exchange 1,000,000 Inferior Powerful Stones to the four major organizations. You can do with it however you please. In return, the four major organizations, your side and the Rocaloi Academy's enemy - will always use those configurations for the cannons whenever a battle breaks out even remotely near the Little Lake." Ciemnosc said after making a pause that made even the old and current headmaster of the academy behind him sense the atmosphere turning a bit denser.

“...?” After giving his words, the sect master of the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect looked a little perplexed at Ciemnosc, who didn’t seem to hear his words just now and simply continued speaking about another matter altogether.

“Will you take it or not?” Ciemnosc spoke again. This time taking out a piece of paper that was already prepared and imprinted. In it, there was an addition of a few other conditions, and that with only one leader from the 4 major organizations that represented their ‘union’ could sign it in the name of the entire east. On the other hand, Ciemnosc was given all permission to dialogue in this meeting with the east and the 4 ‘major’ organizations, so there wasn’t any problem.

“Haing!” Suddenly, the sect master Holoriu revised the contents of this agreement after pastor Noles revised and read through them first. But the latter’s eyebrows were still frowning slightly. Sect master Holoriu looked up from the piece of paper to the boy’s face, thus speaking with a sarcastic tone. “If we break this agreement, all Obsidiafying realm cultivators from your academy can come and invade, but if you break it, you just pay another million Inferior Powerful Stones?!”

“...” Ciemnosc said nothing and just let the silence speak for himself and stared back at Holoriu, who, even sitting down, was at the height of Ciemnosc as he was seated at the corner of the poor, small table. Only a couple of seconds after the sect master took large breaths of air into his body did Ciemnosc speak again. “My side has no intention to not use these configurations. And it could be seen it has been that way in your last defeat a couple of weeks ago.”

Ciemnosc looked deeper into the eyes of the sect master, totally - completely - ignoring the pastor in this situation, and continued saying with a slightly somber tone. “My people managed to massacre your entire army of disciples, believers, and servants so easily I didn’t even have to move a muscle. And we were only about 200. Tell me, does that mean my people would ever need to resort to such stupidity and low class? Like you?”

“... My sect, the other sects, and the cult of the four major organizations will take this deal.” Surprisingly, though not shocking at the same time, sect master Holoriu accepted right after a long moment of silence where not even the sneaky breathing through nostrils could be hidden from ordinary ears.

“...” Saying nothing in return, not even giving a gesture such as nodding or childishly rolling his eyes, Ciemnosc simply stepped down the table and turned around. He unworriedly gave his back to the sect master who was leering with his eyes at the unprotected back of a young boy whose particular potential that he spoke of and talent that he didn’t; and walked away from him…

“... It is a pity that not everyone wanted to come here. I mean; that not everyone could make it here for this meeting. Ah, it is a pity - for real, that Yolin didn’t present herself here for being dutiful as a wife for her fantastic husband all this time. I figured out just now… maybe they are worried about their age and trying to get a baby very soon?” The sect master couldn’t hold it in and let it all out, his teeth showing fro even behind the corners of his lips, just to show how exhilarated but self-hurt he felt at these moments.

Step tap.

Ciemnosc stopped walking away, he turned around but only with his head and neck twisting backwards to look at the sect master. “You know, Holoriu. It is really… ‘nice’… to see you improving your cultivation level. Otherwise, in a few years, when I happen to be bored and seek someone to kill, it would’ve been too boring simply killing you after a move; or two.”

But Ciemnosc didn’t stop there. He then fully turned around and took a step back before immediately taking another quick footstep forth before keeping still. “Can you imagine that? Just a year or two, and who knows if… I… That I might be able to kill you? Heh.”

With his calm, quiet tone, Ciemnosc spoke while making another, really slow, step forwards towards them with his right foot. “But who would’ve thought that the sect master of the strongest organization in the whole world right now doesn’t even know as much as outsiders. How is that ‘grandmaster’ Craftsperson who isn’t capable of recreating a little ‘bomb’ to equal what was seen previously by your sect’s ‘global radars’? Is the feeling of waste still not enough yet? If I was you… I would have directly accepted that million Powerful Stones without saying a word.”

“Or making a face,” Ciemnosc concluded, at last turning around and walking out of the tent without any interruptions this time. His calm and quiet words left the ears and the air rapidly, so there wasn't much of that ‘shock’ at any possible moment. But now, everything seemed more comfortable standing around with each other even as they were enemies and one side was trying to first talk. Still, it ended up being forced into war instead.

“Oh, one thing before we all leave, headmasters.” The old headmaster was smiling and looking down, feeling that she had competition, even if this ‘younger boy’ than him in front of her was still not half a step into the next realm like she was.

“Hm?” But hearing the ‘younger boy’s ’ words, both the old headmaster and the current headmaster stopped in their tracks right about to walk out of the tent before staring at the sect master and pastor of the other side.

The headmaster also looked at the pastor and the sect master. But although his eyes were quizzical and felt strange, the old headmaster’s eyes twinkled with wonderment.

That was when sect master Holoriu spoke out and immediately grabbed their attention. The old headmaster instantly jumped her eyebrows while the headmaster narrowed his eyes. “Have you ever noticed something strange about the boy Ciemnosc’s fighting abilities? Something… anything…”

The sect master wiggled his head around with his neck supporting it all the way around. Then, he added for the last time before the guards on both sides could be seen walking out of the tent simultaneously. “Deplorable. Obscure and… evil?”

***

Days later, at the base. On the 9th month, 3rd week, and 6th day since the start of the war.

The base of today was clearly different from just several months ago, without going that far to when the war barely started. From tents, it went to buildings constructed all around the base, forming ever so apparent progress in the material skills of the base’s troops. And, once again, this proved Ciemnosc’s little talent for having semi proud but understanding cultivators become slaves and work basically for free, other than their monthly ‘allowance’ -.

Their allowance, if achieved little ‘missions’ here and there and saving all of the Inferior Powerful Stones they can stack up monthly if possible, it would be enough for them to cross through all of their realm or at least half its stages. It wasn’t something complicated. They just needed to keep, on and on, feeding their Natal Spirit until it became full.

Besides, the fact that not every single cultivator was of ‘completely’ the same satiation levels nor didn’t have the same talent for cultivating and stuff, which were the key to the speed and efficiency of all cultivation and not just for the Spirit Gathering realm. Having a giant amount of Powerful Stones would be what mattered, with Obsidiafying realm cultivators even stacking up hundreds to thousands of those for any possibility.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

As it is well known, becoming an Obsidiafying realm cultivator was everything. It wasn’t as unreachable as is seen in the overall east of the Region, but it was still a significant accomplishment no matter what; always.

For an organization to be recognized as powerful, it must have several of those Obsidafying realm cultivators. And for one to claim hegemony. Then several or at least a few peak Obsidiafying realm cultivators were needed. The base would have it the hardest if their goal was to form another organization outside the Rocaloi Academy. But they were thankfully not led by an idiotic ‘ambitious’ fella but by Ciemnosc himself.

If anything, the only way that the base looked to be like an organization of its own was whenever the more than 5,000,000— 5,022,000 to be exact — were being mined from the nearby mines without any settlements immediately nearby but far away.

Though the numbers were unknown by the academy, it was indeed understood that the base was already self-sufficient in its own ways. Though their monthly allowance hasn’t been improved with this stupidly more sumptuous number of ‘income’ coming right into the base’s pockets.

It wasn’t that Ciemnosc just wanted to be corrupt and, for some reason, have millions of Inferior grade Powerful Stones in his pockets. Even if he was going to do something evil, it couldn’t be as stupid as that. He was taught well as a kid after all; as a younger kid, that is.

As such, the students were aware that things were about t get harsher and, with the past almost 3 months having a lot of movement between the students, as they went from the base to the ports to the mines and to buy more resources - raw or processed.

On the other hand, they were being trained even harsher than before. It wasn’t just carrying stuff with one’s arms 2,000 kg of strength. Now they also had to lower their cultivation base 3 days out of the 7 days of the week. They would have extensive classes that made their heads ache a fucking lot. They were so unused to Spirit Sense and only used it out of fear or when their survival instincts kicked in that Ciemnosc had to make them train it in the most normal of ways without danger or pressure.

However, it couldn't just be a cute and pleasant way; otherwise, there would not be any actual training of their Spirit Sense. After training his teammates a lot, he now had enough, but still little experience to instruct a large multitude l t the same time. And as long as they didn’t exceed the 2,000 meters mark forming a large crowd, Ciemnosc could train and orient them all while walking around or even in his commanding vehicle.

There were just too many things that Spirit Sense was practical for. Assassination, counter-assassination, espionage, repairing, disorderly fights, confusing scenarios, losing one’s way in the wild and especially so for the students who hadn’t done much scouting for the base; to even just for interrogation, one’s life and death and to take decisions which were bound to be awful but substantial depending on their outcome.

For the latter, it was more than unmistakable to Ciemnosc that the Spirit Sense made something to any living being’s brains and whole selves, granting them a little something that was undoubtedly more than just advantages over scanning around. Hell, he could, by now, feel and even sometimes ‘see’ whenever emotions were too strong, and the things that occurred were way too… much of something.

Even if Ciemnosc was too unusual and only he could genuinely achieve such things would, at the very least, help these students a whole bunch when going to battle. The major organizations always only use their Spirit Sense teachings for the sons and daughters or disciples of their higher ups, letting the rest deal with those problems independently if they achieved what they could have achieved with their help or not.

Then there was the matter of having a chunk of the students become sailors, learning the methods to sail a ship, repair it, and know all of its parts and weaknesses as well as its strengths. The training for one’s aim when using a cannon was as extensively complex and thorough as any other training, not just of the naval military but of the entire base as well.

Of the 490,000+ students, more than 140,000 students were selected for the naval military. There wasn’t a mistake that these students could at least receive the warmth of the Little Lake, but as cultivators, they of course didn’t need to rest like ordinary people. That basically meant that they had training during the night. All night long, they suffered the coldest times of the Little Lake.

Of course, for the dangerously coldest times of the night, the Little Lake was to be trained without the simulation of boarding other ships or any other activity and simulation which could mean accidents. Only some were at the Conflagrate realm, after all.

As for the one leading these people and all, none of Ciemnosc’s teammates were capable of doing so, more than anything because they had no experience with these things. In truth, Ciemnosc also didn’t have any more experience than even his own people. But his head was too goddamn amazing, so that didn’t really matter when it came to him.

In the end, Ciemnos was to be in charge of the naval military’ while his teammates were in command of both the armored cars’ troops and the on-foot troops. They also lacked the talent to partake in naval battles, so Ciemnosc could only try and see if any of the captains he directly oversaw the other day in that mission could grow up to be exactly what he requires without him needing to hold the naval military of the base’s hand.

They were pretty good and fast to learn the tactics that the base predominantly specialized in while also beginning to learn how to cooperate with the naval military in future endeavors. Those ‘future’ this and ‘future’ that; were already around the corner. Just a little bit of time and battles could be seen being fought left and right by the 2 sides who couldn’t be any more prepared already.

… Even the atmosphere in the base was different, as the buildings were clean, the armored cars easily passed through the streets, some at fast speeds and others simply ‘walking’ around and taking a little break before another harsh training began or returning to cultivate and meditate. There was already an ongoing daily livelihood, and it was nothing that neither the major organizations nor the Rocaloi Academy could accomplish right now.

Maybe in the past, especially in the times that were heroes such as General Hanato Wang, such livelihood was the commodity… for the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect. But, in general, the major organizations have never achieved a proper livelihood where ‘cooperation’ and ‘coexistence’; existed.

Even if their sect or cult territory was as such, their subordinate organizations’ ground territory was unquestionably nowhere near as good as they were, at least in terms of low-leveled coexisting. Little troubles had always been there below the major organizations, their subordinary organizations turning into beehives that whichever other organization looked at their situation for more than a few seconds might even be dragged into their unending troubles.

In the end, it wasn’t a myth that the subordinate organizations under a major organization don’t go past 10,000 years before being thoroughly fazed off the existence of ‘the world’.

For sure, some persisted and tried to stand up over and over again for thousands of years. Sometimes showing up out of nowhere, perhaps allying with the right fellow subordinate organizations at the time. But, in the end, not a single percent of the lifespan they all had could be compared to that of their masters.

In this case, acting more or less like the academy’s first subordinate organization within the Region, the base was full of a kind of unstoppable mindset. One that would make its enemy fearful of because although the students did fear for their lives, they were glad to spend them in battle and give their army an extra step, bound to bring them further into the enemy ranks and into their enemy’s defeat!

Most students wore their uniform, newly made from the academy and to give their brave and votive students who were about to fight on a genuine and actual frontline. Not just a skirmish or a flash battle anymore. Even if the academy or Ciemnosc wanted to keep going like that, if they really acted in small movements, their enemy that was exceptionally proficient in wars and had its preparation complete wasn’t going to let them easily breathe.

It was to either go all out or defend and let all their current achievements go to waste. But even if the Rocaloi Academy seemed to show that they wouldn’t mind waiting for ‘a bit more’ and focus on the defensive, Ciemnosc wasn’t about to follow them up if that was really their decision.

What’s more, the students he had trained for several months weren’t going to be stopped by just the academy’s thoughts and will. They had a fighting heart now, a steeled heart, and the hearts of all their colleagues and fellow students as well.

These days, troops could be seen walking around, tranquil and silent but secretly restless. Most felt like they were supposed to already be fighting the enemy, not just defending their home territory but also to gain what they deserve!

Fighting was also so much into themselves that they were getting restless just with the fact that the war’s tension of a cruel battlefield had still not been started, despite being so long into the declaration of war. To this, some would understand that the major organizations were handling the rookies as children and tried to very tenderly desperate them.

But, to Ciemnosc… he could only smile devilishly at the prospect of these hardened students ready for any battle waiting for the time they could put their lives on the line. And it was just as if nature was on their side with a single notice from the academy, the base was asked to do one thing. And that thing, the Chief in Command relayed them to his troops. We. Are. Going. To. Battle!

Their training, all this long, didn’t disappoint. The long chats with those who participated in the missions from the past and recently, around bonfires at night and the hearts beating faster and faster when those stories were being told, as well as the spirit of the base as the impenetrable fortress that it basically is… were worth the wait!

…