Preparing For The Expansion

<Purchased Rank 1 Upgrading Station>

<Purchased Rank 1 Equipment Modification Station>

After finally installing the two stations, Luna welcomed everyone to upgrade their weapons to make necessary adjustments.

Everyone was pretty much required to upgrade their weapons, to which they gladly agreed to. With the current Rank 1 Upgrade Station, they could enhance up to a maximum of three times, which increased the weapon's overall damage, durability, and stat bonuses.

Luna managed to modify his Itak Tagalogs, what resulted was pretty much the two being combined together, which made the blade sharper, a bit heavier, and the handle, longer and sturdier. If a regular human were to try and lift this thing now, they would only be able to lift it and not swing it.

"Hana, go ahead and craft a Naginata to your specifications." Luna urged her as he finished making his weapon, swinging it around to get used to the feel and the weight of it.

"Thank you, Luna-dono," She bowed slightly as she proceeded to take her turn. After she was done, she proceeded to test out her new weapon as well. Everybody was in awe, it almost seemed like she was dancing with how graceful her movements were, but when she struck, she was firm, the conviction in her strikes was apparent to everybody's eyes.

Seeing as everybody was happy, Luna felt satisfied. The Doctor couple went up to him, noticing their approach, Luna looked towards their direction and smile, beckoning them to come over.

"You two look like you have something on your mind. Don't hesitate to speak up."

"Lord Luna, in the beginning, when we got to level 10, we kind of put our stats towards combat. But, after level 10, we haven't spent any of them." They looked at each other before continuing, "We didn't know that there was such a thing as a <Heal> skill, you see, as Doctors, we kind of wanted to veer towards the path of a healer. So, Lord Luna, we wanted to ask for your advice."

Luna couldn't help but smile. The Torre family, for generations, they have dedicated themselves to the good of the people in this City. Not just through being Doctors, but also with how charitable they were. "Absolutely. You get +1 to all stats whenever you level, and later on, you'll get even more. Having a tiny bit of offensive stats from pre-level 10 won't hurt you. Go ahead and invest them to INT, and here, take this." tossing the both of them a <Heal> skill book each, the two of them gladly accepted it.

Doctors like them, having such a skill to help out the injured resounded with their calling in life. Not to mention that having more healers will always be welcome. The two expressed their gratitude and went off to experiment on the applications of the skill.

"Everyone, gather around." Not long after, everyone had gathered in front of him. "As you all know, everyone whether near or far has heard of us. I wouldn't be surprised if those who are still capable of doing it, have already set their satellites on to us."

People instinctively looked up at the mention of that, as Luna continued, "Our next aim, is to conquer the surrounding territories. If we want to become a force to be reckoned with, we need to have the necessary force, but in order to incentivize people to join us, the best thing would be to have a safe haven for them to stay in. I'm pretty sure at this point, people are tired of having to worry about getting attacked when they sleep."

"Lord Luna, what's our timeline for this initial expansion?" Apple couldn't help but ask.

"We'll conquer all of the surrounding area... by tomorrow."

"T-tomorrow? But wouldn't that mean we'd have to issue the challenge all at once?" Boni couldn't help but be shocked. He knew Luna wanted to have it done as soon as possible, but even he didn't expect him to want it done this fast.

"Correct. The reason we can is all around you." As he pointed to the Adamantite walls that look as if they were the futuristic version of the Great Wall of China, then finally pointing to where the metal gates were, "and lastly because of that."

"The gates?" another survivor asked.

Majority of the people were still confused, how could a gate possibly help besides delaying the invasion a little bit?

"I see." Elise suddenly spoke up, "You built the walls that way for a reason. You wanted a choke point. That explains why you have two pairs of turrets there. You want to drastically drop the effectiveness of the horde's numbers. Like in the Battle of Thermopylae.*"

"Correct, but without the metaphorical or literal fatal goat path in the mix," Luna gave Elise a meaningful look. The daughter of a General definitely knows a thing or two about warfare. After that explanation, everybody started feeling more confident about the plan. They knew Luna wouldn't do something so big without a plan.

"Boni, send out the notice that we're recruiting and the benefits we're offering, along without conditions. Tell them that they can start coming over to apply for citizenship 30 hours from now. No less."

"I'm on it, bro. Leave it to the Bonmeister!" Boni quickly stood up and jogged over towards the house, Elise stood up and followed after him as well. Seeing the two lovebirds pretty much getting along so well, he couldn't help but look at Sura with a warmth that nobody else could see him giving towards any other woman.

Seeing Luna's expression, Maria and Clara couldn't help themselves and said "First Luna and Sura find love in the apocalypse, now Boni and Elise.. When is our turn?"

"Sis Maria, Sis Clara, my brother's still single, you know." Apple suddenly mentioned out of nowhere. She couldn't help but laugh evilly. She was truly the definition of a sibling being a wingman.

"You... sigh. Please don't take my sister seriously, this Lightning brat loves to joke around too much." Mabini scratched his head while playfully attempting to put Apple into a chokehold.

Maria looked at Mabini and then towards Clara as she jokingly suggested, "Clara, do you wanna share him, or do you want him all for yourself?"

Mabini looked as if he just lost his soul, "Eh?"

The rest of the group jokingly chimed in

"Oh no, my virgin ears."

"Man, is it just me or did the Philippines just get hotter? I need to get me some Life Tree water."

Some of the kids commented "I don't... I don't think I should have heard those lines until I'm at least 18."

Luna couldn't help but appreciate this moment where everybody was enjoying themselves. This was exactly why he couldn't slack off. Moments like this were for sure an incredibly rare sight if compared to the rest of the world. But here they were, having these moments exactly, all because they could afford to.

They weren't like the majority of the survivors out there, hiding out in some house, perpetually afraid of a zombie wandering to where they were resting. This was why Luna wanted to expand as soon as possible. He was confident that with his invitation, people would flock to his territory and become a citizen of the <Sovereign Nation> and fight for this exact privilege.

The cards were now in his hands, and he was going to play it masterfully.

"Alright everyone, make sure you finish your preparations. After I'm done setting up the final defenses, I will begin the briefing for our defense. Soon after that.. the expansion commences."

Everybody got up immediately and started their preparations. Some people started warming up by stretching, preparing for this upcoming marathon. Some filled up everybody's tumblers with water to take a sip out of during whatever quick break they're going to get.

Meanwhile, Luna started installing the last of the defenses.