The Dralia mountain range had been getting more activity in the last few days and weeks, there had been fights and deaths, there is a slightly oppressive tension that had developed along the mountain range. The passes of Wipouria and Ruinia even have more tension, the trade that used to flow here had been stopped, merchants could only go to the south to sell their wares even though knowing the profits will be lower because the Empire to the south has lots of tariffs on trade going through its borders.
The Arin side of the mountain range in Edward's Crevasse had seen rapid development of the site, a mining camp had been rapidly developed to start the mining of the high purity magic crystals as commanded by the King of Arin. The mining camp was not the only thing that had been rapidly developed next to Edward's Crevasse, a big military camp had been developed to guard the mining camp whilst it is mining the valuable crystals. The military camp was divided into two sides with the command centre in the middle of the camp.
The larger of the two sides of the military camp housed the regular human troops, these people use cold weapons for fighting, things like swords and spears. The other smaller side of the military camp housed the Kingdom's Mage Army, the number of the mage army is smaller than the regular troops so they did not need a larger space.
The mage side of the military camp had a large number of tier 1 mages with tier 2 mages coming next in the numbers, however there were only two tier 3 mages in the entire military camp.
In the command centre there was an ongoing discussion about the matters of the military camp, inside of command centre there were two Captain Rank mages, five 1st Lieutenant Rank mages and lastly there was the commander and second in command of the regular troops.
"Good morning."
A voice came from a man with grey hair which show how old he was, the man managed to get every person's attention with those words. Apart from his grey hair the man had a blue piercing eyes. The man had a slightly larger build, and that was because of his muscles which showed how much he trained even as a mage. The man was slightly handsome, but not too much, the man gave the feeling that he was fully matured with a life time of experience in battle.
"My name is Captain Hans Ignocia and I will be the commander of the camp and its operations. To my right is my second in command, her name is Salona Zivia."
The woman called Salona Zivia was a middle aged woman, with auburn hair and hazel eyes. The woman also gave out an experienced feeling.
'This looks like it will be difficult if Military Command decided to send two tier 3 mages.'
These were the thoughts of 1st Lieutenant Michael Sergei, he too was sent to Edward's Crevasse to act as the protection detail of the mining camp. 1st Lt Michael Sergei was the individual who had sent Grey and Sophia to Witfield Academy, the man had not changed much in five years. 1st Lt Joana Davidson was also deployed to Edward's Crevasse, she was also in the meeting. The previous 2nd lieutenant had been promoted to first 1st lieutenant a while back, she now had the same rank as her previous team leader Michael.
"We can expect Rawyth and Ruhen to start also sending their mages together with their regular troops as they probe our defences here at the camp."
"You can expect the battle to be mild intensity at the beginning of their probing, but I would like to point out that when these two countries are ready for full on war, the casualties will be increasing both for the regular army and the mage army."
The people in the command centre had grave faces, all of the lieutenants in the command centre had never experienced a full war before, so it could be expected that they would be nervous.
"I know this because in the previous war with Rawyth, before the young King took over for his father, I had also joined in the battles in the Dralia mountain range and the casualties were high."
Captain Ignocia had a slightly nostalgic look on his face, but did not stay there for longer than a few seconds.
"The regular troops will be the bulk of our forces, they will be in charge of the regular patrol."
The Captain looked at the commander of the regular troops as he said that, the commander of the regular troops was a man with an average build and average face. The man though did not look too imposing or like a warrior, he had a lot of talent when it came to the battlefield, his military strategies got him the post of commander of the regular forces in the Dralia mountain range. The man's name was Liam Ries.
"I understand commander Ignocia."
"If the enemy mages start to arrive, then we can start to have the mages teams of our army start to go out. There will be five mage teams that will be on rotation, these mage teams will be lead by you five lieutenants."
The Captain paused for a while and then continued to speak.
"Every mage, depending on their rank will be getting a quota of the magic crystals that are going to be mined here, those magic crystals will not replace the merits that you will be getting during the campaign."
The five lieutenant were all smiling, if they could get those magic crystals, their accumulation of magic would increase and the chance of reaching higher tiers was increased.
'I still had several years before I reached tier 3, this will accelerate that very much.'
1st Lt Sergei thought to himself, 2nd Lt Davidson and him had gotten the treasures to increase their magic talents and they had restarted to accumulate magic to reach tier 3.
A hand was raised by 1st Lt Davidson.
"Sir, can we also use our merits to actually exchange for magic crystals?"
"Yes you can, but there is a limit to how much a person can exchange, that too depends on the rank of the person."
That made everyone even more happy, the quota of magic crystals that they would be given for free would not be enough to satisfy them, thus having the ability to exchange for more magic crystals made them happy.
"People without wasting more time, let's get to work."
"Dismissed"
The kingdom of Arin was getting more ready for war, but their enemies were also getting ready.