Azimuth: The Elden Throne

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/Around half an hour after Dale's and Fray's spar…/

Dale, together with the elders could be seen in their usual meeting place, a room located in the middle of the second floor of the Mercenary Guild.

Due to how close this place was to everything, it ended up turning into their usual meeting place.

The problem was that now...

"... It's getting quite cramped in here." Tina added with a slight smile as she looked around

Albeit the meeting room was relatively large, Tina was bothered mostly by the sounds of chattering coming from the first floor.

She obviously didn't feel well having such meetings so close to a literal sea of eyes and ears.

With the Villagers next to them reading books in the improvised library while the players were below catering and arguing over Quests, it became indeed a bit hard to focus.

"When is the City Hall going to be accessible?" Adamante asked as she looked at her nails

"Don't even think about it..."

"Not anytime soon, the old City Hall is located in the center of the Village, its completely covered in vines and other plantlife together with sand."

"Its architectural integrity is fine, but the biggest problem would be walking close to an hour every day just to get there, so let's forget about using it as a meeting point until we can fix the roads and secure stable transportation."

Not to say everything in between and maintaining it once we fix it... It's too much.

"And if you understand how monumental that task would be, then it would be best to forget that place… Though fixing another house nearby so we can do such meetings in private would do just fine." Edimund said as he crossed his arms

There are indeed many establishments we can secure to use for this purpose, someplace secluded outside of the usual range of the newcomers.

"In any case… Let's address the problem at hand." He said as he let out a sigh

He looked at Dale who had been the last to arrive together with Misgurd.

"Misgurd, I imagine Dale already told you what this is about… It's not hard to figure it out in any case."

'Misgurd nodded.'

"I'm already somewhat aware, we can't get a rest can we?" He asked out loud with a small smile

'If things continue like this, next month, another thing might pop up from somewhere...'

While Dale and Misgurd were occupied going around a certain rowdy disciple, Tina went around gathering the Elders to make this meeting possible.

She had already debriefed them on what she thought was happening and everything she knew, so Edimund skipped straight through, going to the meat of the subject:

"Considering everything we know and our current issues, it's imperative for us to tackle this problem as soon as possible."

"The forest is getting into disarray as the monsters mutate, becoming many times more aggressive and violent."

"It has only been a few hours but fire has already been spotted in the depths of the forest, together with trembling and other unusual activities."

"And we also need to understand what happened in the desert, a massive fissure has opened and the sand is being sucked inside..."

"Though that will have to be left for later."

"To fix this trouble we must first choose who will be responsible for the task."

"The issue, however, is who to send."

"With the newcomers in the Village, we cannot leave them alone with the others, it would be too reckless to bet nothing would happen."

"And also…"

"Enough of this." Tina said as she placed her right hand lightly on the table, tapping her fingers rhythmically

"Let's cut this talk with the answer we all know already."

"We'll be departing tonight a few hours before Dawn with a small team."

"Me, Testros, and the kid, everyone else can stay."

"There's no point in anyone else participating."

"Am I speaking too fast or does anyone have a better layout?"

""...""

/Silence.../

Honestly speaking, this was indeed the final answer everyone would've arrived.

Even though everyone grew in these past 2 weeks, it wasn't to the point they could participate in such a venture without putting some thought into it first.

Since even Tina was serious, how could they treat it lightly? <subtxt> ira.om </subtxt>

The Village Head was still figuring out what he wished to do with his life, and even though he had achieved a compromise of some sort, too little time had passed for him to grow strong enough to participate.

Of the remaining Elders, only Misgurd was a fighter, and albeit his right arm injury had been partially healed thanks to some potions and self-training, it was nowhere close to the level of rejuvenation Testros and Tina received.

The same goes for Ophelia, the Hunter, her fingers and arm injury were still too much for her, she could grab the bow and hunt again, but not fight like a certain Elf archer whose name started with an L.

Of the rest, Jyter, Adamante, and Barme were people that preferred to work with tools rather than weapons, they were certainly physically strong, incredibly even, but that wasn't enough for what was about to come.

Jyter would certainly not mind venturing to the newfound caverns further North in the desert, but one mustn't expect much from him, what is he going to do? Shove his pickaxe on the monsters' heads?

He was used to danger but of a different kind.

Adamante did fight when she was younger, but that was so long ago she already forgot the feeling of holding a weapon.

While Barme never really fought, only against stubborn metals...

What they needed was a small team to go to the depts and return quickly after dealing with whatever was in there.

Ideally, all within a single trip without the need for prolonged rests, since each moment spent there increase their chances of something bad happening.

Though that may be hard considering the distance.

As such, in the end, no one retorted to Tina's words, even if it made Misgurd a little disappointed.

A Mercenary like him dreamt of adventures like this... Not all, but he certainly did.

Unfortunately, time left its mark on him...

He knew he wasn't the same as he used to be, yet, instead of feeling down, his spirit was kindled, making him have the urge to grab his weapon and swing it again in the training fields.

He had people to protect, so he took his task with pride.

"Looks like everyone agrees with me… Great."

"We'll gather materials and equipment for the next few hours then we'll rest to depart early on."

"Rest as much as you can since we'll be beelining to the source of the trouble with little rest stops in between."

"If everything goes well, we can reach the source within a few days, it's a straight line from here to there thanks to the obvious signature waves of the anomaly."

"Of course… That was the plan until 'he' arrived…" She said as she looked at the side

"Grr…?" Replied the Karkavan warrior

Indeed, all this time while the Elders were discussing, the Karkavan warrior Muddan had been there, staring at them talk in a foreign tone as it tried to make sense of what was going on.

But how had he been dragged there?

Well, simple.

A few minutes ago, long after Dale finished helping Yumi bandage Fray, Tina appeared in her house and forcibly woke him up from his 'peaceful' sleep.

From there, he was dragged around by this 'scary' woman until they arrived at this funny-looking 'tent' where he was squeezed through a swarm of Humans and shoved inside this even tinier room where he was forced to sit down on a chair where only half of his bum fit.

At least, that was how it looked like for the Karkavan warrior.

But wait, how come such a big and powerful warrior had been dragged around by a middle-aged Human?

How absurd!

Yet… Muddan didn't make a sound.

Because within this lady he felt a profound… Feeling?

It might sound redundant, but to him, it made a lot of sense.

In short, Muddan took her as a higher-ranking warrior, and for the Karkavan, that was everything.

Her position was higher than his, he was inclined to obey, especially since he came here to gather help in the first place.

And second of all, she…

"%!$@&#."

Out of nowhere, Tina turned to the Karkavan warrior, speaking in his strange rough dialect, stopping every once in a while to think a little before continuing.

"&!@... &(*!@!!"

Nodding furiously, Muddan finally felt at ease.

Surprising everyone and even Dale, Tina could speak Karkavan fluently!

"Well then, why don't we address this little guy over here before we continue?" Tina asked out loud with a small smile

"... Little guy?... He's almost three times my size…" Barme said as he shook his head

"My, don't be rude, he's still a 14-year-old child." She said as she raised her right hand to her lips

""???!!!""

'This 5-meter tall, muscular green monster is 14 years old?!' They all thought in unison as they looked at Muddan, making him turn his head to the side in confusion

"..."

Dale on the other hand looked at the ceiling, smiling in a hollow way as a dark cloud covered his face.

Life was unfair.

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Notes

Sorry for the slight delay, next chapter will be dropped soon.

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