KINETIC

"We've already prepared to defend your actions." Lieutenant Anders said with a soft smile.

"What does that mean? Aren't there going to be repercussions?" Clay asked, speaking for the first time during the conversation.

"You don't have to worry about that." General Zogarth said as he glanced at Lieutenant Anders.

'Why are they being so weird about telling us?' Leo thought their actions were suspicious but he chose to leave it for now.

"There's something I don't understand. How did you get here so quickly? Nila should only have arrived at the city yesterday, or maybe the day before at the earliest. You shouldn't have been able to get here so quickly... How did you do it?" Cain was both impressed with their speed and confused by it.

" It's something only the military knows about. You've all heard about crystals before, some of you probably wanted to continue learning about them at the academy. If you had actually stayed at the academy for longer than a few weeks, then those of you who took that class would have learnt this already." Lieutenant Anders began explaining.

'I think I'm the only one who actually wanted to take crystals as my class...' Leo thought.

Lieutenant Anders continued " There are several types of crystals and the one we used to get here is known as a spacial crystal. It allows us to create gates from one crystal to another that allows for instant travel over long distances. The gates are only used during emergencies because we have been trying to keep them a secret from the citizens."

Clay was listening with interest and seemed amazed by the potential for the gates, but when Lieutenant Anders said that they were keeping them a secret he couldn't stop himself and blurted out "Why would you keep them a secret!? Those gates could drastically improve the kingdom!"

~Sigh~ General Zogarth let out a quick sigh before he answered "We know that but there is a problem we haven't dealt with yet. The gates require spacial crystals to work, and not just one."

"Each crystal can only link to one other crystal and so each gate would need several crystals to allow travel to different locations. I know what you must be thinking 'Why don't you just get more crystals then?', well it's not that simple."

"Spacial crystals are Legendary rank, meaning the monsters that posses them are among the most powerful in existence. Even if we had soldiers powerful enough to hunt Legendary monsters, there just aren't enough of them."

"The higher the rank of a monster, the less likely you are to encounter one. Then there's the problem that not every monster has a crystal in the first place, meaning you could lose several powerful soldiers to take down a Legendary monster, only to recieve nothing."

"On top of that, storage crystals are also found inside Legendary monsters. The chances of getting a crystal are already not garunteed and now there's a chance that you get the wrong one. It's just not practical to set up the gates for public use." General Zogarth finished his long explanation.

" I understand that getting these crystals is difficult to begin with but you wouldn't need to make all the gates connect to every other gate. The best way to do it in this situation would be to make all the gates go to a single gate and then that gate has several options. It would function as the central gate for that area. If you set up one of those for each city then it would already prove useful." Clay put forward his idea and prompted General Zogarth to think about his words.

" Hmm...thats a brilliant idea... Although we don't have the crystals for it yet, it's still a far more achievable goal than what we had previously." General Zogarth said, his tone and expression conveying that he was pleased and impressed with Clay's suggestion.

"There's still another problem with the use of gates and I'm sure the you've already realized it." Leo said to General Zogarth.

"You're referring to them being used against us in a time of war, correct?" General Zogarth asked and Leo nodded.

"Yes we have thought about that possibility, but luckily the gates are able to be shut down quite easily. The crystal supplies the power but the gate is what allows travel. If we remove the crystal then the gate becomes useless until the crystal is placed back inside. The only way for them to be used against us would be a surprise Attack." General Zogarth explained.

"That does lower the danger but a single sneak attack is all one would need to destroy a city, depending on the attacking force of course." Lieutenant Anders Added.

Clay's face seemed a bit disappointed but he knew that the gates still had potential "It might not be perfect, but I'm sure the method that allows us to prevent such things could be discovered one day."

Everyone agreed that the gates would be amazing for the kingdoms economy. All trade would be able to happen quicker and with less danger since the merchants wouldn't need to hire protection while traveling. This would allow the price of good to lower since the merchants wouldn't need to recieve compensation for their travel expenses.

'The people with the least money would be able to live more comfortably and the merchants could actually end up making more profit than they do currently. It's a win for everyone involved.' Leo thought to himself.

'That only applies in a perfect world. Humanity is too greedy to allow themselves to prosper. The merchants would probably refuse to lower their prices because their profit would be too great. Their justification would be that

'If people could afford it before, then they can still afford it now'. There will always be those that halt progress due to greed, humans are both idiots and geniuses when money is involved.' Dreifus said with a tone of cynicism.

'I haven't seen much of the world yet, well actually...I've barely seen the kingdom we live in, let alone the world. The small amount of experiences I've had with other humans has shown me how great their greed is. Bandits holding towns hostage for money, nobles spreading false rumors to put down potential threats, cultists that kill to improve their own situations... It's shown me how disgusting humans can be.'

Leo recalled his past experiences and felt angry at how much unnecessary pain was caused due to greed and selfishness.

' You're talking like you aren't a human as well. Well...i guess there's a chance you aren't a human. We'll only know once you go through your evolution.' Dreifus curiously said.

'Yeah. I thought it would be best to wait until I'm in a safe place before doing it. I don't know how long the evolution will take and I'd also prefer to do it when I'm alone.' Leo explained.

'That makes sense. Humans fear the unknown and with your evolution you'd become exactly that. It's best to keep it a secret for now, especially from the general public. Perhaps you could tell your friends and see how they react.' Dreifus suggested.

Leo looked at his friends 'Maybe. I just... I don't think I'd be able to handle it if they rejected me just because I wasn't like them. I'll think about it some more once we find out what I'll become.'

A soldier walked up the stairs into the watchtower " General. We've searched the entire base and confirmed that there's nothing of use. It appears that they cleared everything out before leaving."

~Sigh~ "Alright. Prepare everyone to leave. We'll be heading back using the Gate. Make sure the villagers that we're saved are kept inside a carriage and are unable to see the outside." General Zogarth ordered and the soldier left.

"Why did you not want them to be able to see out of the carriage?" Cain asked.

"We can't tell them about the gate but they were abducted from their homes and dragged here. During a time of stress people get easily confused and as such they are more likely to believe something strange. They might think they're at the mountain nearby their home village and would question our travel speed to the city because they know how far it is."

" But because of their situations they wouldn't question it if we told them that they were actually taken much further from the village than they thought and that this wasn't the mountain near their village. They might question it or be slightly confused but after a while they'll just accept that it was strange and move on or they will believe they were incorrect." Lieutenant Anders explained.

Cain nodded to show he understood but he didn't really understand most of it. All he knew was that the villagers wouldn't be told about the gates and they wouldn't question the travel speed.

" Alright. If that's everything we had to discuss then let's start heading back to the gate. It will take a few hours to get there but it's certainly better than the normal method of travel." General Zogarth said.

Everyone prepared themselves to leave and Leo's group all climbed into a carriage together. Cain waited until they had all settled before he asked a question that was on his mind since Leo told General Zogarth what had happened.

"Why didn't you say anything about John?"