Following the announcement of the joint dungeon raid, the entire Westford turned into a hotspot gathering zone for people from all over the kingdom.
Adventurers, invited by the noble forces surrounding Westford, invested a large sum to invite and hire strong adventurer parties for the raid.
Some had certain forces ready, so they brought them to Westford from faraway, using the flying creatures like the giant eagles and lesser wyverns that you only see at the noble households.
These creatures, being as dangerous as they were, were controlled by highly trained professionals who knew what they were doing. And, they did their job well as they brought the adventurers from all around the kingdom to the largest city of the kingdom of Isis.
Word had spread throughout the kingdom: the lower floor of the Westford tower dungeon had produced an evolved being, a Naga. Chapters fırst released on novel⚑fire.net
The being had already taken down a few parties with its fierce force, and now, the association, deeming it a great threat, had organised the joint operation.
"You are from the Baron's personal forces, I see. Well, as you know, we were hired by him as a reassurance. We shall work together for this operation."
After the two days of preparation time, the association had selected the parties that were going to join this joint battle. And today, on the day of the raid, the parties had all gathered inside the largest assembly hall of the association.
"The Count hired one of the best parties of the country, the Crimson Moon. The captain of the party is a Rank-5!"
"There are three people with confirmed rank skills in this operation. The Captain of the Crimson Moon, the [Red Viper] with her Whip control ability, the Association's [Gray Wolf] with his powerful Ice magic, and the Eldest daughter of Viscount Rifen Douglas, the [Battle healer of Maha], Lady Jasmin Xel Douglas."
"A single Naga should be no big deal with all these people."
The forces that were gathered here were surely not small at all.
More than two hundred people, most of whom were from the adventurer parties selected from the countless that had applied for the position, had gathered in the spatially expanded hall.
The Adventurer's association was sending its own representatives to record the events that unfolded inside the dungeon, to look after the adventurers so that the least casualties took place, and to make sure the forces didn't end up in any internal conflicts.
The association's forces were going to be led by the silver-haired assault team captain, the ice mage with indistinguishable expressions, the same person who had announced the names of those who failed the three stages of association registration exam.
Other parties were also powerful, led by people who weren't anything like a rookie.
The average adventurer rank of the parties gathered here was Rank-6. While there were some with higher or lower ranks, considering there were hardly any Rank-9s, the gathering was of significant powers.
There were also many powerful people who did not have that high an adventurer rank but possessed skills recognised by all.
There were mostly combat classes, a good number of support classes, and there were also a good number of Research classes in this party.
Of the three baronies around Westford, the Barony of Trinos was more interested in the creature that had evolved in the 1st floor environment instead of some place that would be more suitable for their evolution.
Alongside the resource of this creature, the barony was after the data they could gather from the creature as well— had they known about the eggs, they would have sent even more forces, but the association had managed to keep a few things hidden from the masses.
Now that the forces had gathered, the association, not considering the eggs at all, was going to focus everything they had on the mother.
With all the forces gathered here in this hall right now, they were going to begin the briefing as well as the planning. With the right information they had gathered until now, they were going to come up with a plan to take this creature down… or at least, that's what they were here for.
"Hmph." Reddy turned her head away as soon as she spotted Aria walking alongside the association people, their eyes only meeting for a brief moment.
"Qwy…" Even though some time had passed since their silly dispute, she had not recovered from it. And while she wanted to end this little battle, she didn't know how to do that herself.
'There she goes again.'
Thanks to the bond link between them, Aria knew exactly how she was feeling. Her conflicted emotions weren't hidden from her, but Reddy did not know that yet.
She had forgotten about the link completely. However, it shouldn't be too long before she remembers about it and confronts Aria on her own.
Sadly, both of them had been swamped with work these past two days. They needed to work on different things, and so they didn't have any time to talk until now.
As the guard captain as well as the highest-ranking alchemist of the city, it was her job to produce most of the high-ranking potions needed for this operation.
She also had many other things to do, including managing all the foreigners who were arriving in Westford.
They needed to be taken care of if they wanted to maintain law and order within the city, so she was working all day and even throughout the night.
Aria was worried about her. But with all these things going on, even she did not have as much time as she wanted.
{ "Greetings, everyone." }
She was the one present on the stage right now, facing all the people before her in a professional outfit, a golden star present on her chest along with a nameplate that had her full name written on it.
"The Badge of Recognition. Wow."
"That's a rare sight."
{ "We shall now begin the briefing on the information collected by the association and the recon parties until now. Afterward, we will have the party leaders from the parties present with us for the attack plan formation." }
Since it was her fault for creating that safe zone, the branch manager had made her the representative for this briefing.
With her status as someone with a Badge of Recognition, the adventurers weren't going to undermine her presence despite there being little to her records.
The association was keeping all the information about her a secret anyway, so she was going to be a trump card from the association's side for this entire battle.
'That branch manager Exile sure is one devious bastard.'
Aria had not seen many people who were as shrewd as he… the plan he had made, the one only a few of them knew about, was going to help the association in this fight between the nobles.
Resources weren't something the association could hand over to those greedy nobles.
If anything, they were going to play a game of chess to maximise their profits as much as possible.