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"And you, Robert, do you agree with her?" Penthine asked, turning to the dwarf, who was the leader of Artis. A guild focused more on crafts than combat.

"I\'m not as busy as she is, so I don\'t mind the meeting. Especially since the refreshments are divine." Saying so, he took another bite of the cake laying in his lap. "However, I do want to get my men to work. Originally, we planned to work on constructing a wall much like they had done for Kynigo, but..."

"Yes, what is it?"

"It\'s clear now that will just be a waste of time. You didn\'t even have the manpower to properly defend the inner walls. The outer walls were little more than decorations during the siege."

"We were simply caught off guard." Penthine said, deflecting the issue on hand.

"No, that isn\'t the truth." Elizabeth said, sad that Penthine was not being upfront about this. "I know the outer walls aren\'t actually meant to be defensible during a siege. Their purpose is to protect the fields and livestock from wandering monsters, not from an army."

The mayor luckily did not argue this any further. "That is true. However, the walls are supposed to buy us time to properly prepare for a siege, even if our scouts fail us. This was unprecedented."

"And while they do not have the cover of the magic towers, a wall still offers the defenders a great boost in their defense."

"I would suggest you start changing things..." Elizabeth outlined that they should abandon the outer walls—for the most part. Sending as many civilians to the ducal cities as possible, and focus farming inside the city proper through the means of magically enhanced vertical farms.

Effectively turning the city into a self sustainable fort. Keeping only enough civilians in the city to maintain its military function.

—

After laying everything out and talking things through with Robert, whose guild would spearhead the project, Elizabeth got up and started heading out. However, she was stopped just outside the mansion by the other guild leaders.

"Yes?" While Elizabeth wished to be onsite healing the wounded, she understood that this was where her post had placed her.

She had been irked by these leaders trying to curry favor before things were set and done, and with Penthine, who had been hoping to organize a ball to glorify their achievements.

While it was indeed important to keep morale up, now was not the time for such actions. Not while the entire kingdom was still under threat. They needed to act with conviction, not dawdle in noble society and niceties.

"I just wanted to say that we were impressed by how your guild handled the siege." The speaker was Tephysea, a wood elf. "We never thought to use our players like that. Using our communication to keep in touch and maintain order was simple enough, but to send players to all the captains and commanders in the city was something else..."

Elizabeth nodded, waiting for her to continue speaking.

"But then, you even had your players move about as an emergency supply line. How did you get them to agree to that?" Naturally, players all sought glory or spoils while playing ANW.

While the guild leaders had reigned in their players, there was a limit to what they could ask of their players. Ask too much or forbid too much, and their players would simply do as they please instead of listening to the guild leaders. After all, many players only thought of ANW as a game.

While they saw and acknowledged the realism of the world and wanted to help the NPCs, they still prioritized their own gaming experience over that. And above that, especially, was their own profit. The enhance rate for coins to IRL cash was great, making it possible to live off the game.

In fact, around half the players in Phoenix did just that. The income from the constant guild quests and errand running enough to cover their living costs.

"It\'s the same situation as when I wanted people to scout the eastern parts around Duron. Once we talk with an NPC in power, we normally get a guild quest to cover it."

This hadn\'t happened this time around. Normally, the guild relied on Pelaros to supply them with the guests for such menial jobs.

"And even if we don\'t get the quests, we learned that doing so is more beneficial than trying to fight. After all, each person can only do so much fighting. And even our strongest is more often than not helpless against our enemies..."

—

Arriving at the unnamed fort, Vitko moved forward with his guide—Pelaros. "Lord Pelaros, are we quite certain we are safe here?" the centaur asked, his eyes darting to and fro.

"Quite, we\'ve had people moving about and constructing the tower for weeks now without incident."

"Y-yes, I don\'t mean to doubt your words, but..." The centaur froze as he arrived at the tower and saw the peculiar group. Myropsis, of course, was in her human form to ease the conversation with her friends. Then there were Eldrian and Ceph, two elves, and a vampire.

"Are you the formation master?" the elf with silver hair asked, smiling as he nodded towards Pelaros in greeting. They seemed to be terribly close, if that counted as a greeting.

"I-indeed I am." The centaur tried his best to hide his nervousness, but he could not stop stealing glances at the vampire. Sweat dripping from his head.

"Levana, would you mind leaving us for a bit? LP, go with her." Noticing his nervousness, the elf asked the vampire to depart. While she protested, she did so after a short while of teasing. Especially since the firebird that resembled a phoenix was pulling her along.

"Right, let us go in." Eldrian continued, as if the sight of a bird made entirely of fire was completely normal. "I have already contacted Ziraili, though I am unsure what to expect."

"R-right..." Turning to Pelaros, Vitko searched for confirmation. The art of tower creation was a closely guarded secret. Having a foreigner observe the action was unprecedented.

After all, while it was something each kingdom knew how to do, they all had their own twist to it. A twist that acted as their safeguard and prevented spies from tempering with the towers. At least, that was the hope for their safeguards. Recent events, however, brought into question how effective they were.

"We will stand guard to ensure no one disturbed you until it is done." Pelaros said, deflating Myropsis hopes—who had wished to observe things. Grumbling, she accepted, and Vitko moved inside the tower with nervous steps.

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