Zectas Volume IV: The Salubrious City of Centzo (38 page)

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While waiting for the Avendre Mercenaries to arrive, Smoke gathered some of Verbrannt's Craftsmen and took them out from the iron-curtain production.
He needed them to build large-carriages that could accommodate fifty-thousand Mercenaries. He also tasked Farmers, Fishermen, and Butchers to do special research. He asked them to develop food that would last longer and could satisfy the satiety bars faster.
The reason Smoke did this, was because he discovered that when dealing with large troops the problem is often in the logistics of transport and supplies.
In further preparation for the incoming Avendre, Smoke also asked his core members Thyrsus, Ichaival, Sharanga, Vijaya, Sharur, Jinggu, Laernea and Gandiva to return to Verbrannt.
Adder and Ledur were tasked to lead the rest of their ground work on the Coatl invasion by themselves. They did, however, have Adelige, Stark, Rasant, and Weise to help them, along with three-thousand men who were at their beck and call.
After a week, Mamelon and the rest of Smoke's ranged core members were all assembled in Verbrannt. In the most opportune time, five-hundred large-carriages were also completed.
Unfortunately, Mamelon and her regiment wrangled only a total of a hundred aardwolves. This number was already high considering the circumstances, but Smoke still needed more of these monsters to pull his specially designed transports, at least ten times more.
Laernea and Gandiva, the Pathfinders, quickly got to work on taming the newly acquired mounts. They used their Beast Tamer abilities to good use. They asked some of the Farmers to help them as they began training the aardwolves in the plains of Lehre, outside the recently constructed walls near Anbau.
Smoke watched the two Lioumereans train the rideable beasts with interest. Yet, this was not the real reason he was here. He was waiting for the arrival of Sierra.
From across the plains, a mounted Sierra was riding on a monster that Smoke only saw from when he was in Mount Yunggo. A three-meter-tall ruby bear.
Due to their jagged ruby-like bodies, these monsters appeared to be uncomfortable mounts. Yet, Sierra, Phen, Rear, Vrai, and Ardu were all riding on them with ease.
'It must be because of those furry armors they're all wearing,' Smoke surmised as he used his Telefax Vision while scrutinizing them from afar.
He then looked at the other Druid Priest and Priestesses behind Sierra's core members, and found that they were riding on various mounts from dirus wolves, aardwolves to bronze jackals.
A few minutes later, they finally arrived in front of Smoke.
Sierra easily dismounted her ruby bear and ran towards him.
Smoke opened his arms wide and caught the leaping red-haired HighElf. "Welcome back," he said lovingly.
Sierra then used her Transmogrify ability and transformed into a red Werebear. She heard his bones crack as she caught him by surprise in a bear hug.
She then canceled her transformation and returned to her normal body. "I'm home," she endearingly replied while looking up to him.
The two of them released their embrace, and turned to face almost three-hundred Druids.
"Listen, don't worry about not getting Vigilantez," said Sierra. "With these many Druids, I'm sure that we'll be even stronger than before."
"I bet!" exclaimed Smoke enthusiastically. He walked over to them and congratulated each one of them. Laernea and Gandiva also walked over to greet Sierra's return and their new Druid companions.
After welcoming all of them home, Smoke led Sierra back to the village ahead of everyone else.
"So, you okay with ten-thousand Avendre Mercenaries under your wing?" he asked her abruptly. Smoke decided to spread out the fledgling Mercenaries to his core members, hoping that they would get a more specialized training.
"Sure, I don't have a problem with that," replied Sierra eagerly. "I'll have them into platoons and have the Druids lead each one of them."
"We can also help Mamelon round up some more mounts," she said as she pointed to a hundred aardwolves being trained by the Lioumereans. "Not to brag, but we've gotten quite good at it."
"I believe you," said Smoke as he watched her mount and the rest of the Druids being led into Verbrannt.
"How in the world did you manage to tame a ruby bear?" asked an astonished Smoke.
Sierra shook her head. "A lot can happen in a week." She smiled while remembering the time when she and her group caught them. "It wasn't easy, but being a Druid Archon really helped."
The two highest ranked people of the Vigilantez spent the rest of the day touring the village.
They played hide and seek with the children. Smoke was about to hide inside a tunnel, but Sierra used her Overgrowth ability on him and entangled his foot with roots.
"Smoke is over hear! He's over here!" shouted Sierra while hiding near him.
"I found you, Smoke!" said the little girl who was it. "My mother said that you're suppose to be a very powerful person, but you're not very good at hiding."
Smoke didn't know what to say and only scratched his head. "I think you're just that good at finding people," he finally said to her.
After playing with the children, they visited the settlement of the wandering Lioumereans. Sierra was surprised to learn that there was an expected increase in their population as almost all of the female Lioumereans got pregnant right after they settled in Verbrannt.
Next, they visited the flourishing farmlands near the new Gitna Dam.
"The sizes of the fruits and vegetables have almost doubled," said Smoke.
"That's great, but we discovered something during our training in Ardennes," replied Sierra. "I think we could get more nutrients if we eat insects instead."
"Insects?" asked Smoke with a disgusted face.
"Nothing radical, of course. Just some grasshoppers, honeypot ants, cicadas, and crickets," she explained with a straight face.
Smoke blankly stared at her. "You're serious, aren't you?"
"What?" she asked and shrugged her shoulders. "If we're going to feed fifty-thousand people, we need
another source of food."
Smoke still look unconvinced, so Sierra explained further. "Our typical farm animals requires roughly eight pounds of feed to produce a single pound of beef. Whereas, Insects require only two pounds to produce the same amount of meat, making them four times as efficient. We've brought enough that we can start harvesting them after a month."
Sierra noticed his worried expression. "I promise, they taste just like ground pork after you chop them up and season them right."
With the talk of their new potential food supply finished, the two of them went to see the improved defenses of the village.
More than a third of Verbrannt's walls were already covered by Centzo's iron-curtain technology. Along with the improved ballistae that Sharur, Jinggu, and Sharanga developed.
When dusk arrived, the two of them went for their traditional riverboat ride. Yet, this time, Sierra was cuddled next to Smoke, especially now that her body comfortably allowed it.
 

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Zectas' afternoon sun glowed out its last minutes of daylight before turning in for the day. Twelve days after Smoke left Mount Alouer, all the rookie Avendre Mercenaries arrived in the vast plains of Warten, five kilometers away from Verbrannt's region.
Only Smoke, Sierra, Mamelon, and the rest of his core members were there to greet them. The sight of fifty-thousand men lined up in formations made him feel like a general of ancient times.
Yet, upon closer inspection, Smoke noticed that his recruits were even more skinny now, then from when he saw them in the Avendre Headquarters.
"Welcome, Avendre Mercenaries. You have come a long way. For now let's just eat and rest," shouted Smoke at the top of his lungs as he tried to address the throng of Mercenaries.
Their shabby armor and weapons were asked to be surrendered, revealing their skin and bones. They were inspected under a large scale detection test by Baldaquin, the Light Wizard.
After their interrogation was completed, they were told to march to the plains of Lehre, were the Vigilantez's beasts of burden were trained.
There, hundreds of tables were waiting for them. They were filled with fruit, nuts, and fish. Several pitchers of milk were also prepared in advance.
Sierra made sure to serve them with nutrient-rich food that were also easy to digest. Only a few of Verbrannt's residents were there to help assist in serving the food.
Smoke made sure to only have a few of them as he didn't want to overwhelm the fledgeling Mercenaries with new faces.
After all the Avendre were seated, they began wolfing down the hearty meal laid out in front of them. The Verbrannt volunteers kept refilling the table with food as the Mercenaries quickly finished everything in sight.
Smoke and the rest of the core members walked around from table to welcome the Mercenaries and raise their Intimacies with them.
After more than two hours of eating, all of the food prepared by Sierra ran out.
Even though Smoke knew that the Avendre Mercenaries had long filled their satiety bars, they still looked like they could eat some more.
Smoke then stood in the middle of the tables and addressed all of them.
"Now, I know that it's still early but seeing as you have all eaten your fill, we want you to get some well deserved rest for tomorrow's activities," said Smoke encouragingly.
He then pointed to the hundreds of brown pitched-up tents near them. They were made of animal hide stitched up by Verbrannt's Tailors and Seamstresses.
After showing them where they were going to spend the night, Smoke turned around and was about to leave.
Hurriedly, one of the Mercenaries ran and caught up with him.
"Hello, Sir Smoke, my name is Hazard. I would just like to thank you for all of this," he said gratefully while shaking his hand. "None of us ever got to experience any of this before. We thought that you would have us go to war as soon as we arrive here. I mean that's how most of the missions go, and only the lucky ones who survive get to eat."
Before he could reply more Mercenaries went to him, and thanked him in a similar manner. He was touched at the Zectians' indebtedness.
"You're all very welcome," replied Smoke happily. "For now, just relax and I'll see you all tomorrow."
All of the Mercenaries saluted Smoke, which made him confident at their Intimacy levels. One by one they headed for tents to rest, except for the one named Hazard.
"Sir Smoke, I heard from one of the Commanders that my cousin was under your leadership just recently during Centzo's defense," began the Mercenary. " I'm not sure if you remember him, but I'm hoping that you would know of him."
"Well, there were many of the Mercenaries under me, but tell me his name, maybe I know him," accommodatingly answered Smoke.
"His name is Jeter Pion," said Hazard. "He is an Avendre Commander, so I was hoping that you might remember him. I haven't heard from him in some time, and I was wondering if he is still stationed there?"
Smoke's face instantly turned white. He did not know what to tell the young Mercenary.
Suddenly, Sierra appeared from his side.
"Smoke will tell you about him in the morning. Because I have an urgent matter to discuss with him right now," said Sierra as she excused Smoke from the Mercenary.
"Of course, I understand," replied Hazard respectfully. "Please feel free to tell me whenever you have some free time."
The young malnourished Mercenary bowed down to the two of them and went inside one of the tents.
"Thanks," he said to her gratefully. "I wasn't sure how to tell him that his cousin died."
"But you're going to tell him in the morning, right?" confirmed Sierra.
Smoke nodded. "I will. I'll also tell him of Jeter's valor."
She then took his hand and led him towards Verbrannt's gate. "Were you about to log out, or do you have some time to spare?"
"Yeah, I was. Starting tomorrow, it's going to get really busy," he answered bluntly.
"Oh, I was hoping we could do something just the two of us before we start training them," hinted Sierra shyly.
"But that was before you saved me back there," he quickly added. "Come on, let's go," he said excitedly. This time, it was him leading them into the village they rebuilt together.
 

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The next day, all fifty-thousand Avendre Mercenaries were assembled in the plains of Lehre.
Despite Sierra and Mamelon's efforts they only gathered enough draught animals to pull only three-hundred-sixty out of the five-hundred transports created.
Each large-carriage required at least six draught animals to pull the transport which could hold a little over a hundred Mercenaries.
Smoke then addressed everyone before they would embark on their own special assignments. "Yesterday, you arrived and got a quick breather. However, we cannot stay relaxed for too long. We have divided you into special groups, to ensure that each one of you will grow to your full potential."
The Avendre remained stoic and stared straight on.
"Rest assured that your meals will remain in a similar manner as of yesterday," jested Smoke.
Instantly, the Mercenaries reacted with murmurs of thanks and anticipation.
"So, for the time being, focus on improving yourselves," said Smoke to encourage them. "I've heard that most of you are here to pay for your debts, and the quickest way to do that is by increasing your levels and earnings."
This was true, but his actual intention was to free all of them himself. However, he did not want to inform any of them as he was far from making this into a reality.
"Now, please bring your attention to the Generals in front of you. They will be in charge of your future. Follow their orders without question, and you will see yourself leap across the ranks," stated Smoke reassuringly.
The Avendre Mercenaries stared at the Vigilantez placed before them. They looked to them with hope, with the aspiration to have better lives.
Sierra's ten-thousand Mercenaries were lined up to the rightmost side of the formation. They were further subdivided into platoons of more than thirty Avendre, which were led by one of her fellow Druids.
Mamelon's five-thousand men took formation in the left side. She divided her group further into three. She took two-thousand under her wing while the rest was divided equally between her closest Sonstwelter friends, Virer and Courant.
Thyrsus, Vijaya, Sharanga, Ichaival, Jinggu, Sharur, Laernea, and Gandiva were each given three-thousand Mercenaries to train personally.
Whereas, Guro received ten-thousand to be trained under her tutelage. Smoke was not sure whether the lioness Lioumerean could handle that many trainees, but she assured him that she could.
Meanwhile, Smoke only selected a thousand Mercenaries under his wing. He also asked Espion to join him in training this selected group.
With the Avendre subdivided, Smoke checked the Mercenary Quests that opened to him as a satellite of the Avendre Mercenaries.