Kraus ignored his remark. He turned around, pulled out a stack of blueprints that had been sitting in the cabinet behind him for a long time, and spread them out on the desk.
Ever since the first greater ghoul invasion, he had begun preparing these things, reforging and improving them one by one, keeping them locked away in the warehouse without touching them.
“You might as well take a look at my preparations.”
“Alchemical cannons,” Kraus said, pointing to the top blueprint. “Several of them, paired with special alchemical shells for wide-area destruction. They can be disassembled for transport, and since the sinkhole is wide enough, we can haul them down. Once we align them with the bronze pillars, we can blast away at everything else.”
“You actually hoarded something like this?” The Great Ascendant leaned forward, looking as if he had just laid eyes on a rare treasure.
Kraus didn't explain. Instead, he flipped to the next page. “Mithril. There is an immense amount of mithril among the recently exchanged supplies. We will use it alongside the Holy Armored Army to clear a path. Flame has a clear counter-effect against the Forest Seed, not to mention the alchemical fire of mithril.”
“That works. Mithril is highly effective against these things.”
The Great Ascendant glanced at the quantity and froze. Thousands of portions?
“Did you raid the entire supply warehouse?”
“The Imperial Iron Guard's furnace sprayers,” Kraus looked up, his gaze falling on the Great Ascendant. “Infused with furnace power, they spray continuously, and their effect against the Forest Seed is even stronger than mithril's. The Imperial Iron Guard is short on hands, but they have enough to clear a path.”
He pulled a copper box from beneath the desk and opened the lid. Inside, a dozen fist-sized copper spheres were neatly arranged, their outer shells coated in spent alchemical gunpowder.
“A copper-bait minefield. It's prepared specifically for those copper-devouring creatures. The scent of copper will draw them in, and they will explode on contact. If we lay them down at night, they will serve as an early warning system, saving us from having to watch the area constantly.”
With all four items laid out on the desk, the Great Ascendant scanned them, his mechanical eye whirring back and forth between the blueprints and the copper box.
“With this kind of firepower, I believe it'll be more than enough to handle those things down there.”
Kraus folded the blueprints, put them away, and placed them back in the cabinet.
“All that's left is to finalize the roster.” He sat back in his chair, picked up a pen, and wrote a few names in the blank space of the loss manifest. “The roster for the second offensive will be finalized by the end of today.”
The office fell silent for a few breaths.
“You want me to go?”
Kraus didn't say a word, merely staring straight at him.
Helpless, the Great Ascendant turned to walk out, pausing at the doorway.
“Everyone will be here by tonight.”
The door clicked shut.
Kraus set his pen down and leaned back in his chair. The sky outside the window had grown significantly darker. Hurried footsteps echoed from within the branch, and someone in the hallway was shouting in a hushed voice.
His gaze fell on the final line of the loss manifest on his desk as the office light flickered.
A very faint tremor rose from the ground beneath his feet, traveling up the legs of his chair to the desk, causing the charcoal pencils in the pen holder to wobble slightly.
It was a disturbance from deep underground, low and heavy, as if some massive entity was shifting its direction.
As Lu Yuan threw off his blanket and sat up, a double knock sounded at the door.
Through the wooden door, the voice from outside was brisk and direct. “Captain Lu, the City Lord had me prepare an Oakwood City breakfast for you. Would you like it served now?”
It was the armored knight who had led the way yesterday.
Lu Yuan rubbed the corners of his eyes and called out to the door, “Bring it in.”
He quickly washed up. The knight pushed the door open and walked in, carrying a wooden tray.
There were a few grease stains on his silver-red armor, suggesting he had gone to the kitchen to prepare it himself.
On the tray sat a large slab of wood-smoked meat, deep brown and slightly charred on the surface, releasing a rich, smoky aroma.
Beside it was a bowl of vegetable soup, with a few unfamiliar green leaves floating on the surface and several red berries settled at the bottom, steam still rising from the hot broth.
Lu Yuan originally didn't have much of an appetite, but the moment he tasted the smoked meat, his senses perked up.
The meat was firm, its savory saltiness wrapped in a sweet, herbal undertone—entirely different from the dry, leathery meat in Bronze City. The vegetable soup was also excellent; the red berries were slightly tart, and the broth had a refreshing sweetness that was incredibly soothing to his throat.
For once, he helped himself to another bowl.
After finishing his meal, he set the bowl down and sat for a while.
Outside the door, the sound of two pairs of boots clicking against the stone slabs never ceased. The knight paced back and forth near the courtyard entrance, chatting idly with his companion.
Unable to leave, he was stuck in Oakwood City for another day.
Lu Yuan leaned back in his chair and pondered for a moment, suddenly realizing there was no need to just waste his time.
If he couldn't leave, he couldn't leave. Fretting wouldn't help.
He might as well do something productive over these two days. Isabella had plenty of herbs, and Oakwood City was practically overflowing with raw materials.
He knew how to brew potions himself, and what he lacked most in Bronze City were medicinal herbs. Since they were practically handed to him on a silver platter, it would be a waste not to use them.
His Medicinal Herbology and Pharmacology had been stuck for so long; this was the perfect opportunity to level them up.
He stood up, walked out, and gestured to the knight at the courtyard gate. “Take me to Isabella.”
The knight hadn't expected him to go out so early. Nodding, he turned to lead the way while the other knight followed closely behind Lu Yuan, the clinking of their silver-red armor ringing out all along the path.
They didn't walk far. Isabella wasn't in the city itself but rather in a small herb garden just outside the city corner.
The herb garden was small, cultivated right against the base of the city wall and enclosed by a low stone wall. Inside, a dozen rows of medicinal herbs grew vigorously, their leaves thick, lush, and covered in a layer of fine fuzz.
Isabella was squatting in the middle of a furrow, her palm pressed against the root of an herb as a faint green glow emanated from her hand.
The light was thin, rippling across her skin before seeping through her fingertips into the soil. The moment the light entered, the herb's leaves unfurled slightly, its veins becoming more defined.
Lu Yuan stopped two paces away, remaining silent.
Sensing movement behind her, Isabella let the light in her hand dissipate. She opened her eyes and turned around. Seeing Lu Yuan, her expression relaxed. “Captain Lu, you're up early.”
“I had nothing else to do.” Lu Yuan didn't beat around the bush, stating his purpose directly. “I'd like to ask for some of Oakwood City's herbs, high-level or low-level. I plan to brew a few batches of medicine. I have some experience with brewing, and I'd like to see the kind of potions you have here.”
Isabella stood up and brushed the dirt off her knees. “I've long heard that you can brew potions and have your own methods of making medicine.” She smiled and spoke frankly. “Don't worry about the herbs. I'll have them prepared for you at any time.”
She turned her head and instructed the knight, “Take Captain Lu to the apothecary. Ibeya and Ibel are over there. Tell them to prepare everything he needs.”
Lu Yuan thanked her and followed the knight.
The apothecary was located near Isabella's residence, a three-story wooden building painted in greyish-white. Its window frames and lintels were trimmed with dark brown wood, making it look much more refined than most of the stone houses in the city.
Even before they reached it, a rich aroma of medicinal herbs drifted from the building—a blend of several herbal scents, both bitter and sweet, with a deep, heavy woody undertone beneath it all.
Having stayed in Bronze City for so long, this was the first time he had ever smelled such a dense concentration of herbs.
The knight pushed the door open and stepped aside to let him in.
The first floor was a workshop, occupying most of the hall. Three rows of wooden shelves against the wall were packed with bottles and jars, their labels densely written.
In the exact center were two long tables, upon which mortars, distillers, knives, and mallets were spread out. The tools were comprehensive, even including a few more items than the set he had in the Bronze City alchemy workshop.
Two people were buried in their work.
Both were very young, slightly younger than Lu Yuan.
What caught his attention first was their hair; both had long, silver-white hair with a beautiful luster, shimmering softly under the indoor light.
Their eyes were golden, their pupils bright, and they possessed petite figures. One glance was enough to tell they were sisters.
The one further inside was grinding medicine with a mortar, her movements skilled and rhythmic, while the one closer to the outside was organizing herbs on the table, a row of neatly bundled, preprocessed herbs sitting by her hand.
Seeing Lu Yuan enter, both of them stopped their work, their gazes sweeping over the knight behind him.
“And this is?” the one closer to the outside spoke first, her tone tinged with curiosity.
“Captain Lu Yuan from Bronze City,” the knight stepped forward and introduced.
Lu Yuan stepped forward himself, his manner natural. “I'm Lu Yuan. I'll be staying in Oakwood City for two days, and Isabella sent me over. I'd like to borrow your space to make some medicine.”
The one on the outside reacted quickly, offering a smile. “I'm Ibeya, and this is my younger sister, Ibel.” She tilted her head toward the one further inside.
Ibel glanced up at Lu Yuan, gave a nod, and then lowered her head to continue grinding the herbs.
Noting that their names were only a few syllables off from “Isabella,” Lu Yuan asked casually, “What is your relation to Isabella?”
“Adopted by the Count,” Ibeya answered straightforwardly. “My sister and I have some talent for medicine making, so the Count arranged for us to work here.”
Lu Yuan nodded in understanding.
“Captain Lu, what kind of medicine do you want to make?” Ibeya brought the conversation back to business.
“I'd like to get to know all the herbs here.” Lu Yuan scanned the bottles and jars on the shelves, his gaze lingering on a few unfamiliar labels. “Simple or difficult, it doesn't matter, though I prefer things I haven't encountered before.”
Her interest piqued, Ibeya set down her work and walked over to the wooden shelves against the wall, starting to introduce them to him one by one.
“Oakwood City has a wide variety of herbs, but the most unique is oakwood.” She took a piece of dark brown, dried bark from the shelf and handed it to Lu Yuan. “Oakwood bark serves as the base for several potions, most commonly recovery types. The piece in your hand is of average quality. Higher-grade ones are darker in color and have denser fibers.”
Lu Yuan took it and weighed it in his hand, bringing it close to sniff. A steady, sweet woody aroma wafted into his nose.
Lu Yuan followed Ibeya as she introduced seven or eight kinds of herbs, some of which were local specialties of Oakwood City that had never been seen in Bronze City.
He memorized the scent, texture, and cross-section color of each one. His hands weren't idle either; when Ibeya let him handle two batches, he picked up the knife and got straight to work. His cutting and grinding techniques were far more proficient than Ibeya had anticipated.
Ibel didn't chime in much from the side, occasionally offering a quiet remark about the dosage or precautions when Lu Yuan was processing a certain herb, before immediately lowering her head to continue her own work.
Rate on N.U.
