Chapter 277: 3.34 TLOC (24)

All in favor, please raise your hand.

11 hands raised.

"All not in favor, please raise your hand and state why," King Luther stated, knowing these three weren't budging.

Richmond, Davis, and Illiana raised their hands. They were the only ones to oppose.

"This is madness. Building underground tunnels, aided by reincarnated humans. They're just trapping our armies down there and will use magic to collapse the tunnel," Richmond scoffed.

"They're traitors, your Majesty, this council is blind," Davis screamed in anger.

Illiana simply shook her head, rolled her eyes and folded her arms.

"Being truly Elderly Elders, you know of the necklace my daughter wears, correct?" Queen Ella asked.

"Obviously," the three scoffed.

"Sora and Mina, do you plan to betray us?" Queen Ella asked.

"No, your majesty," they responded in unison.

"Stefania's amulet remains black, vote of 11 approved. We make preparations starting tomorrow to start the tunnels. Inform elves to start more rigorous training," King Luther said while slamming down his gavel.

———————————

Outside the council hall, the twins noticed the moon shining in the sky.

"Intense meeting," Sora said while yawning.

"Wasn't so bad. Good thinking on using all of nature. They won't see us coming," Mina said.

Xavier and Stefania approached the twins with smiles.

"Great job in your first council meeting. I cannot believe elves didn't think to use the entire Earth to our advantage," Xavier said with a chuckle.

"Creating the tunnels won't take long with our magic. We will ride horseback to each location underneath the two Kingdoms and create living spaces," Stefania said.

"The forgery just received information to create 30,000 cots, as quickly as they could. The butchery order placed will keep them busy for at least two weeks. We will ration our food appropriately," Xavier stated.

"What about the stealth fighting and magic squads?" Sora asked.

"They will be the first to infiltrate the city, at night. We will try to spare as many civilians as we can. If we show civilians mercy, they may not hate us," Stefania explained.

"Go get rest and don't worry about Richmond, Davis and Illiana. They're beyond stubborn. You also won Rya over, we shouldn't tell you, but she originally voted no to the two of you joining," Xavier whispered.

"Why tell us?"

"Because you need to know winning elves over is crucial for our success."

They said their goodbyes, and Sora and Mina went to their room.

"We've come too far to fail. I feel we will spend ten or more years here." Sora said with a smile.

"Maybe more, but yes, no failures."

The two drifted off to sleep, and dreamed of the upcoming war against humans.

<><><><>

Two weeks passed and the elves constructed tunnels to MorningSong and SilverCrest. They currently were constructing the living areas, which took a bit more effort.

Xavier and the other, willing council members, created the tunnels easily. They used horses to carry storage carriages, which Mina and Sora explained how to create.

The horses could pull over 100 cots and supplies each round, which took around an hour to get to MorningSong and two and a half hours to get to SilverCrest.

They rotated ten horses, including the two new ones obtained from the previous battle.

As things proceeded, the army and elite stealth forces were undergoing a rigorous training program, created by the King.

The King showed off his mighty strength and magical fortitude, as numerous elves attacked at once to no avail.

"You have more than that, come on! Our existence is at stake, fight like you mean it!"

Sora and Mina approached the King.

"Ding! You are fighting an opponent you cannot beat. Land a single strike on the king for insight into your system and how the leveling process works. Good luck!"

This message sparked fire in both their bellies.

"One hit. All we need. One hit," they both thought.

Dashing quickly at the King, Sora slid, and 50 arrows headed straight for the King, from three different angles.

"Impressive." The King said with a smile as he used magic to disintegrate the arrows.

Sora quickly got up and charged at the King, long swords drawn, but the King simply parried and used a spell to knock Sora away.

Mina, realizing her arrows did nothing, decided to swing around Sora and get behind the King.

The King allowed her to get behind him, and as she charged with her dual Katanas, she slashed and hit an Earth wall. Sora attempted charging from the front, latching his spear to his wrist, throwing it in an arc toward the King, who simply slashed it away with his sword.

"How the hell am I supposed to hit this guy?" Sora and Mina both thought.

Mina tried entanglement, which the King thwarted by disintegrating the vines, Sora used Fang of Justice, but the King used a spell to instantly slay the black wolf.

"You two are creative, I will give you that," the King said with a laugh.

The King dashed so quickly toward Sora that Sora didn't see him coming. The King trapped him inside a dome of solid dirt. Mina took her chance, firing her bow in random directions, which confused the King.

Stuck in the dirt dome, Sora transformed into a human and burst through the dome, quickly turning back to an elf.

"Impressive strength. You used your human form, you won't be able to do that on the battlefield," the King taunted as he cast a spell that knocked Sora out completely.

Mina's random arrow attack came with a purpose. She shot one almost straight up, anticipating that by the time she charged the King, the arrow should graze his armor.

"Hope that counts as a hit!" Mina thought.

She charged the King, who quickly parried and used another spell to knock her unconscious, but as he did, an arrow landed and stuck in his shoulder plate.

"Well, they are craftier than I expected. I should wake them up."

"Revitalize!" Mina and Sora both woke up and looked at the King.

"Ding! Congratulations, you landed an arrow on the King. Detailed description of leveling up as follows.

Your experience meter will now show. 300/1000 experience. Completing quests, winning battles, defeating opponents and improving your magic all grant experience to leveling up. Both of your efforts count toward the experience pool, so as you grow in level, the numbers will significantly increase to level up."

"Ding! New skill: Revitalize [Legendary] - restore and awaken an unconscious ally."

"Good job you two, I enjoyed that spar. Come anytime. Now, please continue building the underground network."

<><><><>

Sora and Mina grabbed Blaze and Aeris from the stable, fed them a carrot as a treat, petted them and were off to the underground network.

The underground network began behind the Castle of Sanctuary. A simple magical incantation opened the door, but it was already opened, so they trotted down to the bottom.

As they trotted to MeadowSong, they noticed two carriages returning and three carriages carrying cots and supplies.

"How did you hit him? That King is on another level." Sora asked.

"Luck. I shot arrows randomly and one high in the sky. I dashed straight at him, he knocked me out but the arrow from the sky landed on his shoulder plate."

"Genius. So obtaining experience is necessary to level up. That makes sense."

"Yes, it does and at level 5 it takes 1000 to get to level 6. Leveling won't be easy, unless we slay many humans in battle."

The two arrived below MeadowSong, and noticed the three rooms created for living spaces finally contained thousands of cots.

"Ah, you two are here! Great, please follow me," Stefania said, with a nervous look.

They followed Ace and Belladeon, who carried Xavier and Stefania toward SilverCrest, but about ten miles into the ride, they noticed a new path to the left existed.

They followed them by turning left, and trotted for another five miles, where they turned right.

"Where are we going?"

"We found something interesting. Do you not feel anything different in your body the closer we get?"

Not thinking of it much, Mina looked at Sora.

"Your green eye illuminates the closer we get, I feel mine active too. I also see much more clearly and much further away. It's one more left, straight for five miles, and one more right and an ancient relic of the gods is there," Mina said to Sora.

"Woah, you're right. Your eye is super bright and if I focus, I can sense it too. Just not as well as you can."

"Ding! You unlocked the passive skill, eye of truth. When near relics of the gods, or if you are lost, your eye will guide you to where you need to be. This is a skill of the gods [mythical]."

"Everything alright you two? Your green eyes are illuminating quite a brilliant color," Xavier said.

"Yes, and you're leading us to a relic of the gods?" Mina stated.

"Correct. It seems those eyes of yours are special," Stefania said.