[10 hours before D-Hour (Declaration Hour)]
A few more days passed and it was finally the day of the declaration. During this time, the elders tried to rack their brains for whatever could go wrong, adding restrictions and others to increase the safety of their people—regardless of the costs.
Team A was divided into five teams, along with the guards and the citizens who would be participating in the war. Team A were the soldiers that remained in Altera, in contrast with Team B who were still on their way back from Ferrol Town.
This meant that the group was composed only of a few people, so they naturally had to be divided well for efficiency.
The first would have the soldiers that could still participate in the war. Well, rather than a team, the only one who could join in by virtue of his level was Luis. Next to Althea, he would be leading the hundreds of guards and citizens who would be joining in the war.
He and the others would remain and train in the territory until the array appeared. They would train the best they could, with the elementalists getting focused training for their skills, but of course asked to make sure they had enough rest for the big fight ahead.
How embarrassing would it be to die because one was asleep? Because one had sore legs?
The next three teams were comprised of those already in Fargo, with the soldiers going with a couple of strong guards and aborigines to assist. This included Garan, who had already left a day prior. This included Sammy, Chris, Mao, and Gill.
Almost everyone beyond the level cap wes in this group, including the aborigines Oslo and Rowan.
Their first task was mapping at first, wherein they would determine the rough sketch of the terrain, where the mines were, and if there were places they could sneak into.
Through aether letters, the groups—along with Drake and Amos' updated information—had managed to consolidate what they had found, ready to be forwarded to the Ms. Althea's team as soon as they got near enough—that was, when they went through the teleportation array.
The final group, led by Plaridel, would remain in the territory along with the newest guards to defend it. This was in case of surprise mobs or some enemies sneaking in.
They were also in charge of handling the peace during this time, and making sure there were no enemies to cause trouble within the territory walls.
They also had to watch refugees—should they come—lest there were enemies in there that had snuck in. Althea didn't want to block refugees for the small chance of enemies mixing in.
She believed in the territory and its preparation. Even if enemies did manage to sneak in, they shouldn't pose too much of a threat to them.
They also considered the off-chance that the enemy would find the teleportation array and go to Altera, so there were guards monitoring every movement of the array.
Of course, the walls and sentries were to do much of the defense work, so they didn't retain as much manpower there, compared to those going to war.
That said, the territory was huge and it wasn't possible to densely station a guard in all parts of the walls. Hence, there would be a chance that the sentries were activated and the guards wouldn't be alerted.
This could be fine if it was just a beast mob. The activation and subsequent stop just meant that the beasts had been killed. But… what if it was a human?
What if it was a human who was strong enough and/or had a lot of defense equipment? A level 5 wall could one-shot a level 20 monster and an even higher-level human, but its effects would be discounted the higher the level. What if there were strongmen who could shield trespassers?
Wouldn't that mean they could get past the sentries?
After some brainstorming by the couple, Althea ended up adding another function to the sentries—which ended up costing her 2000 gold. It was understandably costly due to the detail that had to be put in.
This feature? It was to sync the sentries with a rough map of the territory—and the Guard station would be aware of where the sentries were activated.
She would have access to it in the Lord Panel, but she had to get creative to give access to others. In the end, the map was drawn in a modified aether letter. It was rough and limited because Althea could only modify the array a little, but it would do—for now.
(Althea was unsatisfied, but the aborigines gaped at her when she showed it to them).
Anyway, this would mean that whenever a sentry was activated, it would alert a guard stationed nearby. They would check the threat and throw a different colored flare depending on what type of threat it was—Beast or War enemy. They would double it if the threat was a major one, in which case someone would be ringing the bell to alert everyone of the danger.
The Guard Station's Aether Letter room was also improved, adding a few more people to ensure swift rescue in case Fargo's people started attacking their own.
They had, after all, been expecting that people from Fargo would start attacking them bit by bit on the outside—like what they did with Bright—but oddly there was no sign of them at all.
It puzzled them at first and some were even thinking that the enemy had some heinous plans for them, but after so many days there were no sign of them at all.
Those who were overthinking started to rest their minds, just preparing the best they could without overstressing. Later, they would even laugh about it and joke:
'Hey, maybe they were unlucky and got eaten by a hungry beast or something', they would say, completely unaware that they weren't too far from the truth.
Somewhere a few hundred kilometers away, a certain soldier sneezed.
Mao sniffed his nose, looking in a direction.
"I feel that someone is complimenting me."
Beside him, Chris rolled his eyes, before turning to the bloodied men in front of them.
That was: Fargo's missing men.