Since the cave systems were closed down until the meeting was over, many people assumed that whatever Reign was going to talk about today, was connected to the caves and the ants.
Some speculated that the ant queen might have been attacked and killed, leading to Reign calling for the meeting in order to find out who had done the deed.
Even though there was nothing inherently bad about killing monsters such as the ants and the ant queen, the queen was the one giving birth to all of them and allowed the players to constantly fight and improve themselves.
About two months ago, the queen had also changed. Previously, when players would come across the queen, which was a rarity since the queen usually stayed at the lowest levels of the cave systems and rarely went out of them, she would not attack them.
In the past, every time a player went too low and came across the queen, she, and the elite ants that guarded her, would attack them, leading to the players needing to flee in order to survive without killing the queen.
Some stronger players would actually go down deliberately in order to kill the elites that guarded the queen, but that was a hard job that not many were able to do since one needed to get their attention and kill them quickly, without alerting the queen and having her come to them or calling the elites back.
Now, the queen and her elites did nothing to those that would come down, leading to many of them being confused. Ever since that moment, 2 months ago, the players no longer went down to hunt the elites since they would not fight them.
Even when some of the players brought a couple of ants down with them and killed them in front of the queen and the elites, they would merely watch them without moving, leading to all of them scratching their heads.
The players speculated that the queen had learned from the past, and knowing full well that she could not win against the players, she had stopped paying any attention to them since none of them had ever attacked her.
Well, their speculation was not wrong.
Reign started his speech and told the people about the queen's evolution and how she was now a humanoid monster with intelligence, leading to a lot of discussion between the players. Instead of making them stop, Reign would occasionally stop talking and allow the players to talk with each other before continuing, allowing them to speculate what was happening.
"Thanks to the fact that the queen is now intelligent and has no hostile intentions, I have been given a choice by the system." Reign said before telling the players what the three choices were.
Upon hearing about them, the players were left stunned.
Allying themselves to monsters was nothing new as they had already allied themselves with the orcs, who had become an inseparable part of the territory and had helped them immensely. The players again started talking to themselves, many of them going to the leaders of the top teams in order to get their opinion.
The team leaders mostly kept to themselves and simply told them that they would follow Reign's choice, leading to many of the players scratching their heads in embarrassment and agreeing with them.
Almost all of the players agreed with them, they knew full well that without Reign and the others, the territory would have never existed in the first place, not to mention that if they were gone, the players would find it almost impossible to keep the territory from getting invaded by powerful monsters in the future.
"The reason why I have called you all over here is exactly because of these three choices!" Reign shouted before staring at the thousands of people present in the territory.
With over 7 000 people present in the territory, the number of people that had come to the public meeting was immense as about 80% of the players had gathered.
"I do not wish to make a choice without consulting you first, this choice will not only impact me, but also everyone that is here, the ants can become our allies, but it will be you that will sometimes have to fight alongside them."
"The queen is a powerful monster with a great ability and skills, she will without a doubt be a valuable ally for us, but even with all of that, I understand why some of you might not want to be allies with her and the ants, not only have we suffered an attack from them, but we have also spent months fighting against the ants, using them to our benefit in order to level up quickly."
"If we choose the second option, everything will continue as it was before, only that now, we will have full access to the queen and her powers, allowing us to exert more control over how we wish to place the ants, and how powerful they will be."
"If we choose the third option, then we will lose the opportunity to fight them and have a quick way of leveling up, leading to the speed at which the lower-leveled players increase their levels dropping, of course, with the many forests around us, you will still be able to hunt and level up, only that it will be more dangerous since we already have sightings of more powerful monsters appearing in lower-leveled areas."
"As for the first option, although I believe that some of you might wish to choose that and simply slaughter all the ants, I truly do not believe it will be in our benefit to do so, not only will we lose the opportunity to level up quickly, but we will gain almost nothing from it."
"So, let me hear you guys, what do you think, what should we choose?" Reign asked the players calmly as they all went quiet.
Nobody had expected Reign to actually want to hear their thoughts and choose something so important solely based on how they felt about it. They knew full well just how dependent the territory was on Reign and the others, leaving the majority of them loyal to Reign and never doubting his choices.
To suddenly be asked by Reign something like this made most of them confused, what should they do, what should they say?
They didn't want to let Reign down, they didn't want to pick a choice that was not something he thought was best for them. Of course, they understood that he was allowing them to choose, but even so, they were afraid, afraid of letting him down.
"Boss, if I may?" A voice suddenly echoed through the area as Elijah spoke.
"Elijah, yes?" Reign smiled at the boy that had grown to be a powerful existence inside the territory. The progress Elijah and the rest of his team had made was incredible, and they were now well-respected by all, not only because they were a team made by Reign and the others, but because of their strength.
"Honestly, I feel that there is no need for something like this to take place," Elijah said as he looked at everyone around him. He and his team were hunting when Reign called for a meeting and had only arrived about 15 minutes before the meeting started, making them unavailable to have the private meeting that Reign had organized before this.
"Whatever you choose boss, we will follow, that is only natural and expected of us, who have for so long been nothing but a burden to you and the others."
"After all, who amongst us can claim that they would have been able to do better than you, who here could claim that they would defend the territory better and make it rise to such heights?!"
"Do you hear boss, silence, that is the only thing that you can hear, nobody here would dare say such things, nor would they dare go against your orders."
"Whatever choice you make, we will follow, not to mention that there is a clear winner amongst these three choices, after all, having a 'farm' that allows us to earn exp quickly is fine, but having a powerful ally that can spawn thousands of monsters to fight alongside us are many times better."
"Not only would we lose fewer people during large battles, but the ants could also be used to clear the surrounding areas of powerful monsters, allowing everybody to go and hunt without being afraid that they will run across a monster from a different area that is many times more powerful than the others in that area."
Elijah finished his speech, his head held high and his voice never shaking, not even for a moment. The players around him all stared at him before they started nodding their heads and agreeing to his words.
He had gained a lot of influence over the players lately, not only because of his high level but also because he had managed to keep the casualties on his side very low during the siege of Doncaster.
With his powerful poison ability, he was able to release a cloud of poison toward the monsters, killing the weakest ones immediately whilst weakening the stronger ones, making it much easier for the players to not only defend themselves but also to kill the monsters.
The toxic cloud remained in the area for most of the battle, and there were only a couple of monsters that had been able to withstand it and pass through without being affected.
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