Seeing an outsider, a porter who he didn't place in his eyes before, a liar who lied to him about Berry's issue, getting to learn about such inside news of the clan made him and all the other spirit masters behind him feeling quite unsettled.
"Great," William rubbed his hands, "let's go then. I'll speak during our run."
"Run?" Berry gave him a questionable look and William simply nodded for her to lead the way. "Fine, tag along and don't get lost."
She started to run while William shifted his attention towards Lang.
"Tell me, how bad it is."
"Well, from the look of it, things aren't that bad," Lang said, and William could only inwardly sigh. Of course, category three monster tide wasn't that risky if others came to help, and enough preparations were done.
But he knew this wasn't the real situation they were facing. If it was up to him, he'd reassign this grade to become grade one without any hesitation.
"The monsters coming are in grade three, a large scale indeed but the elders already dispatched teams to ask for help from the academy and other clans."
'That's if they responded,' William muttered to himself without showing anything over his face. He only motioned for Lang to continue. After all, what he needed to know wasn't yet told by this dude.
"As for the estimated time," Lang got a whim of what William needed to hear the most, and he deliberately left it to the last, "the scarlet monsters are coming here in four hours, give or take two."
"That's not bad…" William nodded while muttering these words which made Lang and everyone else mistake his real intentions.
He wasn't speaking about the difficulty of the incoming monsters, but the time needed for them to finish their preparations.
"Can you explain now what you are planning to do?" Lang took this chance to ask what he was dying to know.
"We are here," and just before William would say anything, Berry suddenly shouted, "it's up there."
William looked and up ahead lied a great open space which wasn't even walled. It was filled with big ovens and cauldrons, lots of wood stacked in large batches at one side, while a small group of buildings was on the opposite side.
The place was void of anyone, a clear sign that the patriarch and elders already called for everyone they could muster to prepare for battle.
Arrangements for war must have been prepared a long time ago, or else this clan wouldn't deserve the title and fame it got.
"Cool, now listen up," even before they'd arrive there, William started distributing his orders, "what we need is to gather up all the Blue Frost ores, all the Bronzed Silver Ant Wax you can find, plus all the arrows and spears you can get."
"Arrows? Spears?" Lang was puzzled.
"But… The Blue Frost ores aren't used mainly to forge anything. They are just used to temper the cooling water, adding a faster frosty effect to it!" Berry was more puzzled by what William said.
She got from her grandfather about how William performed extremely well back at the Forging department of the academy. But from the two items William asked for, there wasn't any suitable material for forging!
"And the wax… The Bronzed Silver Ant Wax is used just to blend the forged pieces together, making them look much sturdier and firmly attached to each other," Claine said, expressing his knowledge about such a topic.
"Just do as I say," William knew what he was using right now might be considered an unorthodox method, but it was their hope, their only hope if his bad projection became true.
Even if he was totally wrong about anything, the clan wouldn't lose materials of high value. And that was why he was acting this calm.
"Anything else?" Berry rolled her eyes, feeling more helpless to issue her doubts than ever. She was supposed to stand and support William, not antagonising his actions in the open.
"These will do," William paused, "just fetch a small group of three, all must have storage rings to store up the arrows and spears we need."
"That… Do you think storage rings are so cheap?!!"
"Do you think we can get such valuable items from the clan at such a time?"
William calmly looked at Claine who issued the last comment, as he slowly and confidently replied:
"Arrows and spears are valuable indeed. But I refuse to believe there aren't extra amounts in the clan right now. If not, then we'll have to forge them ourselves. And you'll be the ones doing this, not me."
"You…" Claine's face changed from such provocative words. In Williams' eyes, he was already doing this clan a lifetime debt and help. So, he didn't plan to act humble or be conservative in his words or actions.
"I got my ring, Lang has one too, and Claine got the third," Berry ignored what Claine complained about before stopping in front of the many furnaces and cauldrons as she added, "hurry, give three fast runners the three rings. And get the extra arrows and spears from the clan warehouse."
She stressed over her last words, while her eyes glared at Claine. She knew, as everyone in the clan, that the clan's warehouse had tons of such weapons.
"Any grade can do," and when William said his piece, Berry waved her arms as if they had no other reason to complain.
Even if she didn't get what William wanted to do, she was sure he was going to marvel and shock everyone, including her.
This wasn't the first time she dealt with him. Back at the forest when he spoke casually and lightly about curing her, she took it as a joke.
Yet she now knew he wasn't joking, even if his words and attitude told otherwise.
"The three will go and gather up all the weapons needed then," as everyone didn't move, Berry started to take off her ring before adding, "bring all the useless arrows and spears from there, in addition to anything the clan didn't need right now."
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