The moment Loreta sent the message, the artifacts in her hands lit up with blue light and broke apart.

-Somewhere Else-

An artifact made of silver with a circular shape akin to a compass and inscriptions carved on top of it, laid still on a wooden shelve.

It mirrored the artifact Loreta had used mere moments before.

Now, the artifact lit up with blue light as if waking up from a slumber, calling the attention of the man beside it.

With haste, the man picked it up as the message came through.

The next moment, his breathing became heavy and his eyes widened. As one could guess, it was because of the words "manite mine".

If he used this opportunity right, he could become a very rich man very easily.

But all such thoughts changed once he inspected the name at the back of the artifact.

Loreta didn't know, but there was more than one of the artifacts she took.

There were three, each one linked to a separate Missionary to increase efficiency.

The one she had used was linked to the Whittown Missionary.

In normal cases, it was standard procedure for a Missionary to send emergency signals to the Missionaries nearby.

Such a procedure was to prevent a situation whereby some of the admirals who got the signal didn't inform the Empire and instead called outside forces.

Sort of like right now.

The Whittown admiral was contemplating on whether to spread the information or not, but the moment he turned the artifact to check the name written on it, all such thoughts about concealing information took a turn.

This was because the name Windless Peaks was carved on its back.

The admiral naturally knew the haven of snakes located there, but more importantly, he knew the Windless Peak was a region that could be said to act as a border with the Avilla Kingdom.

That, along with the fact that the admiral of the outpost, Rowan, was no weaker than he was..

Now, a manite mine was found right there. With a little thinking, he could see that the situation was already too much for him to handle.

Without hesitation, he took out five of the same artifact and activated them one by one with the same message.

"Manite mine found. Inform the Empire. A war may be inevitable"

They lit up with blue light and broke apart. Only then did the Whittown admiral, Winston's heart calm down.

To say that war was inevitable was beyond him..but with the history of the Empire and references to the past of the current Emperor, Winston was sure a war would occur - except if the Avilla kingdom backed down of course, but it was very unlikely.

With such thoughts, Winston began planning his next move.

You didn't expect him to stay idle when a war was on the horizon, did you? Of course not, and his first course of action was already clear.

'I have to check whether the manite mine exists or not'

An emergency message had been sent, true, but there was no evidence to back it up. And since it was such a heavy matter, he deemed it fit to go himself.

Quickly, he assembled a party with the five strongest missionaries. All of them left their armor behind, taking only their swords, and rode off to the outpost with haste.

They couldn't be wearing flashing armor unless they wanted to act as a beacon saying "There's something worth checking out over there!".

__________________historical

Meanwhile, admirals nearby could only get their days disrupted when Winston's message pulled through.

Some of them thought to conceal it like Winston did, but didn't do so because of the lack of information.

After all, Winston never said where exactly the manite mine was located, and the admirals couldn't be sure that the message had only been sent to them.

So, some contacted each other to seek information, while others forwarded the information to the Missionaries beside them.

Keep in mind that all these admirals, though working for the Empire, had lines of lineage, meaning that they had a fairly influential family backing them.

Each came from noble clans of either Mages, Shifters or Knights.

So there wasn't any doubt that such information would find its way to the clan heads and elders within three days at most.

Little by little, the undercurrents were moving, and in the direction Ezra predicted.

Fredrick had plundered the mountain mainly of mana stones, but of course, he took a large amount of mana crystals too.

Nevertheless, the amount of mana crystals remaining within the mountain, and below it, was in the thousands.

With the first part of the plan fulfilled - as they had plundered the mountain - and with the first objective achieved - as they had steered the Empire in the direction of war - now was the time to move onto the next part of the plan.

That was why, at this current moment, the slave was nowhere to be seen. Instead, it was Cabrera who was running through the forest with the rusted ring on his finger.

It was time to go where they would really begin hunting, why the blood boiling potion was needed in the first place.

___________________

-A few minutes ago-

The slave's act of getting out the mountain before the timer elapsed opened their minds as some did the same.

A few of them wanted to chase the slave, but such thoughts were wiped away when slave took to his feet, leaving them to eat dust.

Other mercenaries though, couldn't care less as they plundered on.

Not long after the slave sped off, Loreta arrive with only two minutes remaining on the timer.

Nevertheless, she knew that she couldn't use force recklessly, else the others would retaliate.

So, she started with the weakest group, the mercenaries.

"Only two minutes remain. Anyone not out within two minutes will have to forfeit all the crystals to the Empire. Failure to comply means death!"

Only, no one could see two sets of eyes peering through the forest from afar.

Two boys with lean builds could be seen wearing blackish-green clothing all over their body, easily camouflaging amongst the forest's greenery.

"What do you think, brother?"

"Well, one thing is for sure, something very precious is within that mountain if these guys are trying so hard to keep it hidden"

"But the mountain belongs to the Kingdom, yet they plunder it as if it was theirs. These Empire b*stards make me sick" the other spat on the floor as he said so.

"So, what now? Do we attack them head on?"

"I wish we could do so, but our orders were clear. We're to only scout the situation and inform the elders" he sighed regretfully, before gazing at the group of missionaries standing outside with a predator's gaze.

"It was an order straight from the King, so we have no choice in the matter"

It was at this moment in time that the mercenaries jumped out with haste one by the one.

And like some had speculated, there were those who had taken excessively and held it in their arms as they jumped.

This gave the two brothers in the forest a clear visual of what it was.

At this moment, their eyes rapidly changed to that of a beast as their sclera became smaller and their field of vision got compressed until it encompassed the shimmering blue objects as if they were standing right beside it.

Their breathings became irregular immediately and killing intent began gushing out from their bodies subconsciously.

One of them finally spoke, or more accurately, shouted..

"These b*stards!"

But the other put a hand on his shoulder and said..

"I agree with you brother. Their transgressions have gone too far, but we must choose our battles carefully. They will get what is coming for them, they will get it in full. For now though, our top priority is to move with haste to make sure the King and the elders are made aware of this as soon as possible"

"Hmm"

The other nodded and took a last look at the mercenaries running into the forest, before both of them moved away at a speed that should have not been possible for them.

Like so, another player would join the game on a table set by Ezra.

But where exactly was the boy that set the table for a game that would span years?