*Blerrgh!*
Each peak master took a good ten seconds to purge their stomachs of all its contents.
What did you expect? Even for Peak masters, moving through thirteen portals consecutively to cut travel time from four days to eight minutes naturally came with side effects.
Their internals shook as their senses felt incongruent, feeding their brains much unnecessary information.
They wobbled, feeling more out of touch than drunkards.
Mid and early masters would've puked far more.
Peak Experts would have their internals thoroughly messed up while those below would just die before reaching the thirteenth portal.
Only Grandmasters like Federick and Cabrera could cross unfazed.
It took several more minutes for their senses to get back in tip top shape.
Once the last person recovered, they arranged themselves in a formation, behind Frederick, who watched the newly erected barrier with a piercing gaze.
He sought to touch it, and he was alarmed as he body went right through it.
He was a Grandmaster and all, but common sense was always something to be applied.
Was this barrier made by Alvarach? Or someone else? And what was its purpose?
Instead of testing fate, he turned in the other direction.
As a Grandmaster, he could sense the army of Peak masters dining in the nearest town.
Now, should he simply tell someone to call their spy amongst them to come and brief them in the situation? Or should he lead everyone there and crash their party?
Frederick rubbed his chin.
Should he choose the first method, he would've to stand and wait for the messenger to go and come back with their spy.
As a Grandmaster, why would he subject himself to such treatment?
The choice was obvious.
"I'm sure you've all the aura of multiple Peak masters nearby besides yourselves"
They nodded, if they couldn't notice such a simple thing, they had no business calling themselves Peak masters.
With a wave of his hand, Frederick declared. "We're heading there" and took flight, staying a few meters in the air before flying forward with Cabrera by his side.
"Ho, have I told you about how I wrestled a magical beast to death?" said one mercenary, his head wobbling while the hand holding his drink was as steady as a metal pole.
"Have I told you about the time I killed a sand worm with one punch?"
Suddenly, the bar's atmosphere froze as each person dispelled their drunkness, their heads facing the same direction.
Quickly, they exited their abodes to see the approaching group.
"Were there supposed to be other peak masters here?" One person asked.
"They weren't"
Looking at the five hundred Peak masters approaching, they could only wonder how they were here and why?
Triton stepped forward to address the group, escorted by the army commander and a dozen knights.
Once in close proximity, now in clear view, whatever bravado Triton held crashed like a sandcastle.
"Sir Frederick" he says, his tone unintentionally high, sweat forming on his forehead. "I didn't see on the way so I didn't know you would be here"
Why was a Grandmaster here? At midnight? Did he only start travelling after sunset? No, wait, where did five hundred Peak masters come from?
Frederick didn't even try to be pleasant. "I didn't know I had to tell your highness of my movements"
Triton spoke with grace. "Ah, of course not. I was simply surprised by your presence"
Though one could see the vein in his hand sticking out.
'You dare talk down to me?! I am the crown prince!'
Of course, Triton could only swallow his discontent.
"The Emperor requested that I gather reinforcements. We're here to assist"
"But then-
"A barrier has been set up, and it wasn't there before. I'm here to ask you for information on the situation"
Triton nodded, the situation made a bit more sense now.
Though he didn't fully trust Frederick's words, he had no way to prove its inauthenticity.
In any case, the Emperor would sort out the issue.
"It would be rude of me to keep a Grandmaster waiting. But I believe it would be better to talk about this at a more appropriate location"
"Lead the way" unlike his words, Frederick was looking at a masked individual sitting on a rooftop of one of the town's buildings, who was staring right back.
Turning around, Triton led them to the town.
Cabrera kept his presence tamed, so they didn't take note of him.
In no time they got to the town and Triton had his commander brief them on the situation.
Frederick's face was not good.
'They came earlier than I expected'
The plan was to arrive on the eighth night and wait for Grandmasters to arrive on the ninth day, and then join forces to attack Alvarach.
All that had gone to shit now the Grandmasters arrived earlier.
'Thirteen Grandmasters…'
It was certainly a formidable line up, but their opponent was Alvarach.
In the case of a surprise attack, which is the most likely case, at least half of them would've been killed.
There were two possible scenarios.
One where they had all been killed due to lack of preparation, and the other where few remained alive, fighting for their lives.
Right now, Frederick was leaning towards the former.
In the case of the latter, he didn't think more than five of them would still be alive.
'Augustus, Zokov, Rita, Calagar, and maybe Berenger'
From gathered intelligence, these were the strongest few.
Moreover, they would likely be heavily injured.
Frederick had steeled his mind for the death that was very likely to come upon him.
However, the situation had flipped over.
Advancing into an unknown situation with only two Grandmasters would be to greatly push his luck.
On the flip side, if some Grandmasters were still alive and kicking, they would prove to be a decent resistance before eventually losing their lives.
If not, they would die a dog's death.
The situation had turned for the worst.
Triton thought that like him, Frederick also suspected that the group of Grandmasters had besieged the Emperor, but he wasn't worried too much because he didn't doubt the Emperor's survival.
Besides, if they really wanted to kill him, at least three Grandmasters would die.
He didn't think they'd go that far even for a manite mine.
"So, sir Frederick, what do you want to do now?"
At that moment, a man barged in.
The masked individual Frederick was staring at.
Triton was naturally furious, "What nonsense is this? How dare you barge into a meeting with a Grandmaster without any courtesy?"
The commander drew his blade without a word, wondering something different.
'Yuno and Bruno were guarding this place? So how did he get in?'
The atmosphere turned tense, and then…
"Settle down"
They were surprised and the tension dissolved faster than boiled salt.
Frederick turned to the masked man. "Why don't you take of the mask so we can have a proper conversation"
The man finally spoke. "Sure thing"
Triton was shocked. 'This voice…
The face confirmed his suspicions.
It was Jebas.
He spoke to the commander. "You don't have to worry, I simply put them to sleep. They should be awake in an hour"
Calming himself, the commander sheathed his sword.
"H-How?" was all Triton managed to say.
You couldn't blame him, the situation was too shocking.
He was still dealing with the first Grandmaster that arrived unannounced…only for another to pop up!
What was this? Were they trying to play with him? Because this was not funny?!
"I came along as you were leaving Kingsmere. I hid my presence for reasons I cannot say"
"But then…why didn't you step out when the Grandmasters arrived?" Triton asked.
"Ah yes, *cough*cough* the situation was disadvantageous for me" he said. "Had I tried to stop them, we would've fought and his highness would've been in danger"
In truth, he was just scared for his life.
Like Fredrick, the thirteen Grandmasters had noticed him from far away.
It was why they even bothered giving a warning.
"So then, why didn't you follow them?"
"Ah…" Jebas quickly answered. "Because I was waiting for Sir Frederick"
"You knew he would come?" Triton inquired.
"Of course" he said.
Being a Grandmaster, Triton couldn't press him for answers anymore than this.
Without further ado, he took a seat and they began discussing.
One, after a lengthy discussion, they decided to only enter after three more days if no one came out.
Of course, this was just the surface agreement.
Frederick intended to wait for five days, knowing the full scale of what was really going on.
Although this would mean having the Grandmasters who might still be alive would probably die, Frederick had the intention of working with luck at this time.
Instead, having not heard from their Grandmasters after three days, more Grandmasters would arrive as reinforcements.
This was a certainty.
Frederick would join that group to attack Alvarach.
Two, during that time, they would all make sure to keep the peak masters in line.
Three, they were to contribute their forces to keep watch on the barrier and surroundings.
There were barely any people within miles of here, but hey, Frederick had popped up like grass, someone else could too.
Throughout, Jebas merely followed Frederick's lead.
Once the matters were settled, they dispersed.
With a thousand and five residents suddenly appearing in this small town, it was bound to be congested.
Something had to be done.
Black Jaws members got to work.
Frederick, Cabrera and Jebas went to get wood, at the speed they moved, it wasn't hard to reach a nearby forest.
As a Grandmaster, Jebas discerned Cabrera's rank from afar.
Cutting them down with ease, they stored them in their space rings, went back to town and dumped them.
The peak masters took it up, using their techniques to cut and shape the wood into fine pieces, before those with metal attributes used the available nails and created new ones to hold the houses steady.
With combined effort, the town's infrastructure quintupled as did the area it occupied in one night.
The original residents, as you could guess, were dreadfully scared and confused.
They were a sparse people, living life day by day, only to be besieged upon by more than a thousand Master ranked individuals.
The change was so sudden it was dizzying.
Moreover, their concentrated presence changed the town's atmosphere.
The peaceful and lax environment became tense, almost suffocating for these untrained humans.
Since only one night had passed, a fight hadn't broken out, but they could just see it happening.
The bartender felt it the most.
As an old man, he didn't even know what to feel when rows and rows of powerful warriors entered to buy a drink.
Now though, he could confidently say he was the happiest man in the world.
As Peak masters, they basically had a lot of money.
Serving them the town's cheap wine, the peak masters threw silvers at them without much thought.
For a drink sold for a few coppers, the man made his yearly profit multiple times over.
Moreover, thanks to Black Jaws' arrival, a new building was dedicated to his wine business for FREE! Seeing as how the old one was too small.
Then, Cabrera casually gave him large barrels of exotic wine to sell and let him keep half the profits.
Not to mention half, even five percent would've been enough to satisfy the bartender.
As Black Jaws second in command, the wine, even though it wasn't his main one, was truly exotic.
It sold out very fast, cashing in ten gold per cup.
It wasn't worth that much normally, but the situation wasn't normal.
This was the only bar house in the town, and being Peak masters, they couldn't start haggling while their mates watched. So they paid for it without any fanfare.
Who would want to be known as a guy too poor to buy a drink?
Their original plan was to wait till the next day, so the Black Jaws members were sufficiently prepared.
Of course, sufficient in the case meant preparation for any and all cases.
They had their space rings packed with food, along with nails and wood to make houses to sleep in.
The trees Frederick and Cabrera got were surplus to make houses for the army members.
Of course it wasn't free.
Instead, they rented it out at high prices, and hired the original residents as workers.
With the leaves from the trees, they created beds, well not exactly, but a place to sleep that wasn't the floor.
A restaurant was also constructed, the chef was a mercenary who liked to cook.
With resources from Cabrera, he hired a few residents and got to work.
With two Black Jaws members placed by his side and knowing he'd have a Grandmaster to answer to help him curb any funny thoughts that popped up.
Moreover, why was there a need to steal when the pay was good?
The town was lively as ever, with good food and exotic wine being served at equally exotic prices
Frederick had barely any hand in this.
It was Cabrera, whose merchant senses couldn't stop tingling that set it all up.
After leading Black Jaws to make so much money, you better believe that the man had carved the art of selling into his bones.
In one night, a budding economy had been formed.
The residents who were cursing their luck an hour ago were now so happy they felt if they died, they wouldn't have any regrets.
Well, except not being able to spend the money they accumulated overnight.
With everyone briefed on the three day ultimatum, they were unrestrained in their drinking.
A few fights broke out here and there, but Frederick took care of it without a hitch.
After the fifth group of fighters got beaten up black and blue, before being designated for surveillance duty, others chilled. Opting to stare one another to death.
They could fight, they just had to make sure it didn't affect the town.
But by the time they got to a range of which their attacks wouldn't touch the town, they wouldn't feel like fighting anymore.
The bar owner sighed in relief, watching as his first apprentice clamoured the five new hires to serve more drinks.
Like all things, the festive mood died down and the night eventually passed.
The mercenaries slept till afternoon of the next day, before a loud clamour woke them up.
*BOOM!*
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