Authority and Trading

"Reporting to general, I wish to be tasked with a position which allows me involve myself with the overall war effort. Of course, I will follow central command's orders…but I would like to request that my unit is expanded to a 3,000 man unit. I know this is asking for a lot, but I also wish for a unit of elites." After saying this, Lieutenant Reana strode across the stage, taking out a map under everyone's startled gazes. She pulled out a marker pen, then carefully circled a fairly sizeable region.

The region she highlighted was the so called 'goldilocks zone' as pointed out by Deon, only it also covered the mountain terrain slightly below this region. It encompassed the Western, Southern and South Eastern sides of the mountain. It was a sizeable area of land, even though it only covered a distance of 1,200 feet from top to bottom.

The general frowned and stared for a moment as he began to ponder.

"Lieutenant, this is too large a region. I can only accept if you cut away the bottom 200 feet."

Unexpectedly Lieutenant Reana agreed immediately with a smile.

"Thank you for trusting me with this matter, General."

"Mm. However….3,000 men is not enough. Lieutenant, this is certainly a big task, requiring 5,000 men at least. Also, bear in mind that some lieutenants already have jurisdiction over certain areas. You are not permitted to take over any presently occupied locations."

"Yes General, I understand." Reana saluted again.

"Right then, lieutenant." General Senlin took to the stage now that the mountain war matters had been sorted. "You have been given permission to choose 15 commanders. I have a list of currently unaffiliated commanders who have made themselves available to serve under a lieutenant, since this is their only way into the upper regions with their current positions."

"Firstly…" Reana paused and turned to Deon. He immediately smiled, stepping forwards as he nodded. He saluted and said:

"Of course it would be my honour, lieutenant. And naturally, this region is exactly where I wish to remain anyway, since my group has built it up so well." Deon gestured around with his hands and everyone couldn't help but agree.

The previously 100 feet diameter camp had been expanded, now covering almost the entire 200 feet of upper flatland. However there were five layers of defence, leaving just 160 feet of actual liveable camp grounds. Even so, this was a much larger camp than any other at this altitude!

The forest had also been modified. Deon's trained guerrilla warriors were now stationed in concealed treehouses. The guerrillas lived in teams of 2 to 4, at least one individual would remain awake within each treehouse at all times.

As for the encampment down hill, it was properly developed, even including multi-story barracks and towers to prevent the sleeping arrangements from becoming cramped. There was also a waterfall, a small lake and a fresh stream, the whole setup was entirely self-sufficient.

"Good." Lieutenant Reana felt glad to hear that Deon would be sticking besides her as a trusted commander. She wouldn't be able to micromanage each and every one of her men any longer, but she knew that Deon could handle such matters.

"Your current lands are excellent, but since you're a new commander and you're not yet accustomed to leading large groups, you can start with 250 men. Will that suffice, Commander Deon?"

"Yes, Lieutenant!" Deon saluted with a smile.

Honestly, Deon was feeling overjoyed by this development. He was actually being given a proper position of authority now, he would have full command over his own 250 troops! Within this camp, he was in command, nobody would dare question his actions, even if they did not understand what he was doing!

The fact that he was still reporting to Lieutenant Reana was also good. It would take some time for Reana to organise her new platoon, she would not have the time to monitor Deon strictly.

Deon was familiar with Reana, he knew how to deal with her. Not only that, but Reana held a degree of trust in Deon, meaning that she would not get in his way too much.

With this, Deon had a strong force under his command, as well as a good degree of freedom to make use of this force!

"General, about my promotion…" Deon turned to General Li and General Senlin uncertainly. The two almost slapped themselves for forgetting to explain how it was that Deon had been promoted to commander, despite him serving for less than a full year!

"Central command has issued an amendment to the military's order; the time needed to obtain the promotions to captain, commander and lieutenant, may be cut down by 25% for those serving in the mountain war troop."

Everyone understood now…it was now possible to become a captain or even a commander within 9 months! And for Lieutenant, it had been reduced from 3 years to 2 years and 6 months! It wasn't a huge difference, but it was enough to give people hopes and dreams.

Deon had a feeling that they only came up with this measure as a way to continue promoting him whilst using him as their beacon of propaganda. That suited him just fine of course.

After the crowd was dismissed, General Senlin and General Li remained and chatted for some time with various lieutenants and commanders. Deon's eyes shone as he saw a space open up besides General Senlin. It wasn't often he could speak alone to this general, and whilst they weren't exactly 'alone', they were inconspicuous in the large crowd, making this a good chance.

"Commander Deon! Haha, how does it feel to finally be called 'commander'?" The general laughed and looked down at Deon with unhidden amazement in his eyes. He honestly had never met another child even 1% as incredible as Deon.

"Naturally it feels excellent. With this, I will be better able to serve the kingdom, this is truly my honour." Deon responded with feigned enthusiasm, before moving on to his reason for approaching the general.

"General, I recently realised that I really don't know much about the higher ranking military leaders of our great kingdom! Is there some sort of text I could read, listing the exploits of the various military figures in the kingdom throughout history?"

The general forced a smile in response to Deon's request.

"That…would be an insanely long book. That said, the exploits achieved by past military personnel isn't a big secret or anything, the kingdom actually publishes these deeds in the form of stories to inspire the next generation…"

After some further discussion, General Senlin agreed to send Deon a copy of information regarding the various leaders currently serving in the kingdom's military, including information regarding the three admirals!

The crowd soon dispersed as Deon and the general caught up on various things they had been up to since the academy. It seemed that General Senlin's fighting spirit had reignited with the presence of so many spirits to be found on Jing Mountain, so he actually joined the mountain war troop, despite being so old! He was a 2-Star shaman though, not a decrepit old man.

The two generals waited, looking around indifferently as Deon stood besides them. Eventually, the remaining shamans took the hint and departed, all aside from Lieutenant Reana.

"Soldier Remi, could I borrow you for a moment?"

Remi was startled that Deon would call out for her, but she didn't dare ignore him under the curious looks of the generals. Even though she was a princess, she needed to abide by the military's rules as long as she was actively serving.

What was this serious discussion about anyway?

What else could it be about, it was obviously the loot!

In Deon's possession now, was a 2-Star spirit which was shockingly deemed to be silver class, making its value near inestimable! He had also gained 2 more gold class and 3 more silver class 1-Star spirits, though he was definitely keeping one of those gold class spirits for himself.

"Right, let's begin with discussing the exchange of the 2-Star spirit." Deon nodded to Reana. She returned to her guarded tent and was followed in by the two guards. When she re-emerged, the two guards were carrying a large quartz barrel. This barrel was filled with a materials called 9 coloured water, and within the water, the 9 coloured illusion spirit swam about peacefully.

This spirit had the appearance of a small koi carp, though it didn't look like any typical koi carp. Not only did it shine with 9 different colours, all of which seemed to be moving about across the surface of its body, but this fish seemed to change in size as it swam, ranging from 1 to 9 inches in length.

The generals' eyes shone and they almost couldn't stop themselves from reaching out. Deon's voice thankfully brought them back to their senses.

"This is the silver class 2-Star spirit, 9 coloured illusion spirit. Just looking at this spirit can throw you into a trance, so you can imagine the effect when it's actually used. When Lieutenant Cra used this spirit, everyone was instantly brought under her hypnotic spell. I honestly believe that a single 2-Star shaman could use this spirit to defeat an entire army of 1-Star shamans without much effort."

"The merit points for-"

"Ah, let me stop you there General." Deon smiled forcefully, cutting off General Li before he could continue. "Sorry, but I'm not as naive as I might look. Merit points, no matter the number of them, can't begin to compare with this spirit. This is a silver class 2-Star spirit! I will not be turning this spirit over for merit points."

Both generals paled and showed bitter smiles. It was worth a try, but he was right…for this to be bought with merit points, it would need to be a truly absurd number.

The trading of 2-Star spirits was handled on a case by case basis, there was no standard procedure for this, since these spirits were too uncommon. Regardless, a 2-Star spirit would almost always be exchange for another 2-Star spirit, or at least for a myriad of rare 1-Star spirits and materials!

"Well actually, I'm entirely willing to give this away, in exchange for information, books and guides." Deon smiled lightly

"What?!" The two generals, Lieutenant Reana and Remi, all cried out in shock at the same time.

"Commander Deon, you really shouldn't do this!" Lieutenant Reana hurriedly explained, glancing at the generals and hoping they wouldn't try to take advantage of this.

"You don't understand the value of a spirit such as this! I guarantee that even the royal family would be interested in making a deal with you, you can't give it away so easily!" Reana attempted to persuade him, but seeing that Deon just chuckled lightly, she paused, then didn't say anything else.

'Wait a minute…since when has Deon been so stupid? He never truly loses out in any exchange, he always ends up benefiting in multiple ways!' She thought to herself.

"Well, I have a member of the royal family right here, don't I?" Deon gestured towards Remi, who was still bewildered as to why she had been roped into this trade deal.

Deon went on to list exactly what he wanted in exchange for this spirit.

In essence, he wanted the kingdom's entire accumulated knowledge on spirits, resources, and refinement recipes. Anything the kingdom knew about spirits, including natural spirits, refined spirits, and core spirits, was included in his request. Of course, the most 'valuable' part of the exchange would be the spirit refinement recipes.

Deon put emphasis on the fact that he wanted information regarding core spirits. Everyone was confused by this, but Deon of course had a reason.

He was subtly probing the kingdom, trying to find targets for the soul refinement spirit! Shamans with a higher class of core spirit would have a better success rate when targeted by the soul refinement spirit, Deon was already making his plans towards this goal!