Ron came in and unfolded a map of the area here, as Arthur asked him for it. It was the same map Arthur used when arranging his campaign in the first place.
The map showed the detailed topography of the region. As the map was unfolded, it showed many other areas where Arthur didn't aim for, especially those behind that mountain range, or very far distance from him.
"As you see, this is the full map of the area," he started the meeting saying that, "the old man should be here in any minute now, so if he came late, please keep him updated by the content of our meeting later," he added, looking at Noura, who just nodded.
"The old man is here," the old man said as he entered the tent, with an exhausted face from all this travel, "I would never let myself be late for this meeting," he added, as he went to sit on the empty chair beside his own granddaughter.
"Welcome on board, now as we are complete I can discuss the full view that I have," Arthur said, in greeting to Od, before pointing to five places in the area adjacent to the forest as he said:
"These areas will be assigned for all of you staying here, you need to build large villages, or towns if possible, amass all the craftsmen here, plus building enough inns and bounty hunter guild branches."
"In all of them?" Omgalden was flabbergasted, as he never thought Arthur would ask for such a request, never.
"Sure," Arthur said as he looked at Od while adding, "besides, I want you to select ten places inside the forest, spanning from these five villages, to act as temporary posts for mages there. the lake place we met there is a perfect spot, plus two places I have already selected, Randy will show you these places."
He looked towards Randy who nodded, before saying:
"I know only one place."
Arthur sighed, as he recalled the first place wasn't known for him.
"I will ask Gregory or Clovert to show them the places today," Amelia suddenly said.
"Thanks," Arthur said, "now, I have to stress on something, you must gather any craftsman you may find, even issue some bounty hunter quests in far towns and clans for that purpose," he added.
"Are they that important?"Torend asked, as he missed this part in Arthur words, just like most of them here.
"Very important," Arthur said, stressing again on the importance of this, "you have to make sure all of the craftsmen in this area are localized in our territory," he said.
"Ok," Od said, as he knew Arthur wouldn't ask for that for no reason.
"As for current mages, I want two things from you, first is to select the best to join me to the academy. I need the youngest mages and the most promising ones. As for the second, if any mage has any interest in forging or alchemy, make him see me as fast as possible," he said, while looking at them once more, "I have only one week here, then I will travel to the academy. I want to train as many mages as possible these days."
They all nodded, despite not knowing what alchemy was, all except Lendy, who was sitting, per habit, beside him.
"What is alchemy, my dear?" she asked, with her low seductive tone.
"It's the craft of making potions, elixirs like you all ingested," he replied.
Her eyes shone brightly, as she gained a lot of gains, like others, after taking the potion.
"We will look for as many mages as possible to be able to make that magical fluid," she said, describing the potion as being magical. When Noura heard her, she sneered, attracting everyone's attention.
"My dear, not everyone here enjoyed the fancy treatment of the academy before, but with my love here, we all will," Lendy said, in some aggressiveness that Noura welcomed with another sneer, but said nothing in return.
This was the sad story and dark reality of any rogue mage, they live on poor supplies, not like disciples of the academy, where they could get whatever they needed, and the best things too.
She didn't understand why Arthur was doing this, or how did he know all these secrets. These stuff were already considered top secret of the academy, and she was pretty sure he didn't learn it from there.
So, she had this curiosity, as from where did Arthur, a mere clan head in an unknown part of the world, to know all this?
However, she knew Arthur wouldn't just speak up about this, and to make him speak, she needed either to pay the price for it, or to be patient, and she chose the latter.
"The final thing is," Arthur then pointed to the distant places, where there were many towns and clans there, "in the upcoming year, I want you to gather intel about these areas, and even areas beyond. I want everything, from the size of the clan, the inner structure of these clans, and the number of their mages and the state of their bounty hunters. Also I want you to establish a strong relationship with them, try to pouch as many mages as possible during this year," he added.
They exchanged silent glances, before nodding. Doing all this in one year seemed a lot, but they were confident they would be able to do these tasks in the given period of times.
"This is my plan, any questions?" he asked, glancing at the faces of those who would stay behind, the three main leaders of his new bounty hunter guild, and their trusted mages. "Good, now go and do the urgent tasks for now. I will set off in one week, so let's finish these before that deadline," he said, dismissing them all.
They all moved, all except Iman, Noura, and strangely Silver Falcon.
"Is there anything you want?" he asked Falcon, as he knew this man didn't like joking around.
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