Novel Full Chapter 218: The Preparations
Ryan stopped looking toward the portal and turned around slowly. The strong wind blowing in from the exterior forcefully shook the heavy fabric of his dark trench coat.
"Alright, with that out of the way, let us move on to our own matters now." He said with a firm voice.
But the elf girl still remained standing very close to the edge of the abyss.
Irina kept her hands over her chest, tightly gripping the fabric of the clothing she had barely managed to adjust after their little game of garments.
"Do you guys really think Helen will be okay?" She asked with evident curiosity and her eyes wide open with fear.
"Yes, Vel is extremely fast. Do not worry about it." Ryan responded without displaying a single alteration on his face.
He fully trusted in the winged monster’s immense speed to catch up to the black-haired girl right in the middle of her free fall among the clouds.
"Alright..." She said in a light whisper, biting her lower lip with highly noticeable nervousness.
But she shot one last glance toward the open portal, feeling the sheer vertigo of the immense heights. Then she stepped away from the freezing current of air and approached the group, with her long pointed ears trembling slightly.
"I have already informed my Lady Ophelia that we have arrived." Ivis said in a flat and monotonous manner.
The dragoness crossed her arms firmly beneath her large breasts, maintaining her completely indifferent posture right in front of the party members.
"That is good. Now let us head to the village."
The boy nodded his head, beginning to walk down the corridor.
’I wonder exactly how the elves and elders will take it when they see me enter the village with an actual dragon.’
Ryan thought while he advanced through the illuminated corridor. He imagined the immense panic of his shelter’s residents upon seeing a sovereign-level calamity casually walking among their wooden houses.
Then he suddenly stopped, making the heel of his boot echo loudly against the hard floor.
"Alicia." He called out with a voice full of command.
"Yes, Your Majesty?" She responded, placing herself directly by his right side immediately.
The demi-human assistant twitched her wolf ears, highly attentive to any direct requirement from her king. Her snug uniform perfectly highlighted the contours of her hips and her firm thighs.
"I was going to stand right by his side..." Mirian murmured under her breath.
The yellow-haired archer puffed out her cheeks and crossed her arms, completely annoyed at losing the prime opportunity to walk glued to Ryan’s side.
She shot a look fully loaded with pure envy straight at the wolf girl for having taken her place so rapidly.
"I want you to go on ahead; gather the elders, the elves, and the demi-humans. Take every single one of them to the training grounds."
He locked his green eyes right onto the wolf girl’s gaze, clearly transmitting the sheer urgency of his decision.
"Everyone, Your Majesty?" She asked in confusion, tilting her head a little to the side.
Her large fluffy wolf tail stopped completely still in the air, highly surprised by the immense magnitude of the sudden summons. Gathering every single inhabitant of the valley was certainly not something that happened every single day.
"Yes, in a very short time we will be having a large-scale battle; it is high time the people know exactly what our plans are. Besides, we will need more warriors." Ryan added with total seriousness.
"Huh... so we are finally going to fight in that snowy place; I absolutely hate the cold." Mirian complained in a murmur completely loaded with laziness.
The yellow-haired girl rubbed her own bare arms, feeling sudden shivers just imagining those terribly low temperatures.
"I understand... in that case, I will go on ahead and prepare the grounds." The wolf assistant said, bowing her head with profound respect.
And she took two rapid steps forward, completely ready to use her enormous agility and fulfill the exact order in the blink of an eye.
"Wait." Ryan stopped her abruptly.
She spun around immediately, making her hair and her wolf ears bounce wildly from the abrupt movement.
"Is there something else, Your Majesty?" She asked, completely halting the forward momentum of her strong legs.
"Exactly as Mirian mentioned, we will be fighting on the snowy continent; that place is quite cold."
He visually evaluated the light armors and the incredibly thin clothes his heroines were currently wearing.
"Because of that, I truly believe we need new clothing, strong and resistant. Do we currently have any artisans in the village capable of making them?" He asked.
Alicia smiled very broadly, closing her eyes almost as if she already knew the exact answer.
"Yes, Your Majesty, we have quite capable artisans." She said with a tone entirely full of genuine pride for the hardworking people of her settlement.
In the face of her quick and confident response.
Irina looked down at her own rustic, simple-fabric clothes, looking rather puzzled by that enormous affirmation of sheer quality.
Then she murmured completely to herself in a low voice. "Do we truly have capable artisans?"
Then, Alicia brought her hand to her chin, entirely erasing her enormous smile.
"The only real problem will be the actual materials."
The demi-human lowered her ears, displaying a crystal-clear frustration at the severe scarcity of valuable resources in the middle of such an isolated place.
"I do not believe we have good enough materials for your entire party, Your Majesty... I am so very sorry..." She added with a tone of profound worry.
"Do not worry about that; I have enough A-rank spider silk for the entire party." He affirmed with a slight smile slowly forming on his face.
"Ah!" Mirian exclaimed excitedly, opening her clear eyes completely wide at the sudden mention of the material.
"I had completely forgotten about that, you got that silk inside the exact same dungeon where that idiot Helen allowed Solaris to escape." Mirian added with a clear tone of sheer dissatisfaction.
"Yes, at some point I genuinely thought it would be best to just sell it. But making brand-new clothes with it will benefit us far more."
’But, regarding Helen’s sheer recklessness... I mean, if we had actually managed to kill Solaris right in that moment... Irnina would not have ignored us. And we all would have died right there in that place; somehow, that actually turned out to be the best possible outcome.’
Ryan mentally reviewed the highly chaotic past events inside his head, realizing exactly how incredibly fragile he had been back in that time.
Ryan looked at all the women currently present in the corridor, and then locked his full attention right onto the dragon girl standing entirely by his side.
Knowing that their terrible decisions were exactly what had led them to survive was something highly ironic.
’But it has absolutely no importance to think about that right now.’
He shook his head, cleanly erasing the past from his mind to fully center himself on the incoming carnage looming ahead.
"Then, with that completely solved, I will go on ahead. And I will introduce you to the artisan later on, Your Majesty." Alicia said, preparing herself to leave.
"Yes, go do it." Ryan ordered.
And Alicia disappeared from his vision instantly, moving with great rapidity to advance far down the corridors.
After Ryan, along with Irina, Mirian, and Ivis were left behind, they began to advance on their own.
They started climbing up the one hundred floors of the dungeon in the sky.
The constant sound of Ryan and his party’s heavy boots echoed softly throughout the subtly illuminated place.
Even though, just like always, the journey was incredibly long, it would be more than enough time for his incredibly fast wolf assistant to gather all the inhabitants scattered across the valley.
When Ryan crossed the portal from the one hundredth floor and out into the safe zone of the village, he noticed the sudden change immediately.
The usual elven guards with their drawn bows were not there actively guarding the entrance to the village.
The entire perimeter was completely empty, completely abandoned due to the orders issued just a short while ago.
Then he headed straight toward the enormous training grounds located right in the center of the settlement.
The flattened dirt area where Alicia should have already gathered every single inhabitant of the village to listen to his grand declaration.