Ascension of the elder

"Can I have cookies?"

It looked like Martin was a little confused after he had fainted and thought he was somewhere else as he came around. Kyle decided it would be better not to antagonise his new recruit so he tried to talk him back around.

"Martin you're still in the meeting you just fain....passed out when you saw our preparations."

Kyle decided it would be best not to say aloud about the wall and bastions until he was ready to reveal them. Recently he had been thinking about the best way to drop the illusions and he had already got something in place which would make him laugh.

"Really no cookies then can I stay home and make them with you mommy?"

*Cough* How do you respond to that. Kyle almost lost it and he could see everyone else had tears in their eyes at what Martin had said. Martin slowly shook his head like a concussed dog before slowly looking around at everyone.

"What was I just saying?"

Martin asked with a confused expression on his face. He could see everyone else had an expression on their face which was difficult to describe, the closest analogy he could find was when someone was really straining on the toilet.

"Don't worry Martin it wasn't important and you were quite confused."

When Martin heard this he really wanted to know what he had said but instead decided it may be better not to know. Kyle continued on with the meeting and between them they had discussed which personnel should be included where.

Draken and Seamus would redirect their chosen people either to New Grange city or if they were too far away Kyle would activate bastions local to where they were as a priority. With the falcons on hand he would be able to quickly send out single people to trigger the bastions before they would give letters to the necessary people before leaving to their next assignment.

In the case of the alchemists the decision was made that all of them would be brought to New Grange City so they could be under their direct protection due to their low numbers. Kyle hoped these people would willingly join with them but he at least wanted to keep them from aiding the enemies.

Kyle also introduced Martin to Alena, while Martin wasn't as much of a prick as he was in the beginning Kyle could see he wasn't impressed with Alena.

"Martin I think you are missing something. Alena has a great deal of knowledge in regards to Alchemy, why don't you ask her some questions in order to gauge her competence?"

"That may be a good idea; if I wanted to produce a pill which would promote mana circulation for warriors what plants and herbs could I use in the local area?"

"Currently we have stocks of red marrow, signit, golden grass and dire bane which all could be used with base agents to produce a mana pill tailored to normal warriors."

Martin was surprised as it didn't even appear that Alena needed to think about this but he had another follow up question.

"Mostly correct but signit is poisonous why did you include that in your list?"

"By using water isip or the seeds from a carna apple you can remove the poisonous effects without damaging the overall potential of the pill."

Martin was further impressed by her knowledge but he didn't know about the seeds from the apple as the isip was rather hard to find but the apples could be found everywhere but due to their bitterness no one used them for anything and there where at least 8 seeds per apple.

"Are you sure about the seeds?"

"Yes Kyle and I have been experimenting with various ingredients looking for shortcuts or ways to produce what we need easily."

Martin looked at Kyle who was now talking with Draken before he looked at Alena with a happy gaze. It looked like he had made the right choice. Seamus had been listening in on their conversation while he had been speaking to Randall about their methods and who they would invite; he had noticed a little choice of words from Alena which caught his attention.

"Excuse me sorry to interrupt but what do you mean by normal warriors?"

Alena noticed she had slipped up and quickly looked to Kyle for direction. Kyle had stopped talking and was watching them with a grin plastered on his face again which made the guild masters all think he was going to drop another bomb on them. He nodded to Alena indicating she could tell them about the forces as they were now a part of his war potential.

"Well when Kyle said you could continue in you paths what he didn't tell you is that we have a new cultivation technique which has never been seen before."

All three were impressed but Martin originally being from the capital had a greater understanding of the various techniques understood something.

"When you say never seen before, you mean it didn't come from any of the original techniques?"

This statement caught Kyle's attention as he always wondered about the sources of the techniques and why it takes so long for new or different ones to appear. It was known some come from ancient sites but not all.

"What do you mean the original techniques?"

"Well all of our current techniques come from a few sources. The others we find are almost always incomplete or are worse than the originals. These are usually used as auxiliary techniques or are mixed with the originals in some way to produce 'new' techniques."

Kyle now understood why some techniques were better than others, it was simply because some were in their base form while others had bits removed or added to give a desired effect. The problem was that any problems in these modified techniques wouldn't become visible for months or even years.

"No this isn't an adjusted technique it is a completely new technique which allows people to walk all three paths simultaneously. It does have a flaw, that being the mana requirements once you reach higher levels but luckily we have mana accumulation rooms which allows us to progress at an even faster rate than normal cultivators."

"Wow just wow, will we be able to this technique?"

Draken asked even though his exclamation was still delivered in his deadpan voice making it sound as though he was rather bored being there with them.

"Of course all my people are training in our technique; I should also let you know that unlike the other techniques ours is broken down into pieces for each level."

All three were happy with this as they would be able to train in all three paths meaning Seamus could throw around fir to match his hair which secretly he always wanted to do.

"Sorry but now I need to ask would our pills still help these people?"

Martin asked as he was now slightly worried if his services would still be required. Alena was the one who responded to him as she was Kyle's resident alchemist.

"Yes but you would also need to broaden your horizons, we are strengthening our pills so that our units who can't utilise the accumulation chambers can still progress at the same rate. Also we will be developing healing potions and salves for the teams; finally we also deal in poisons."

"Wait why do you need poisons?"

Seamus was the one to ask this question, in this city fights would usually be straight up fights. It wasn't a question of honour but just they lacked the knowledge or inclination to be proper assassins. The only time someone attempted to poison someone else namely Kyle was due to interference from sources in the capital.

"We have a team of assassins and spies who deal with enemies before they can lead an attack."

Kyle responded to Seamus shocking the three once again. They knew that kill teams existed but the Powell's having such a team was shocking.

"If you have a team of assassins why don't you just send them after the Miles family leadership?"

Draken asked as this was in the forefront of his thoughts as soon as he heard it. If you could cut the head off the snake it could no longer bite you.

"We are past that now plus you should know what defences they have covering their main compound. Also we have a spy in our family so we are using all this chaos and confusion to flush them out. Don't worry about the enemy our forces are already weakening them through the loss of finances and personnel while strengthening ourselves."

Kyle gave them some information about his operation so they understood everything was currently in hand as much as it could be. What he didn't tell them was that all three of them had been shadowed by members of 'steel lotus' and they would continue to shadow them as guards from now on and would only reveal themselves when necessary.

Kyle decided it was time to wrap this up and stood up and shook all three guild masters hands.

"We have work to do but your representatives will be coming by tomorrow so I need you the lists of personnel you need moving and any letters that need to go out ready for them understood?"

All three gave a resounding "Yes Sir!" before Kyle lead the way out, as they were leaving a little voice sounded out and was heard by everyone in the room and almost gave Martin a coronary from his repressed memories resurfacing.

"I could really go for some cookies right now."