The NPCs were having a meeting. That's why there were only few NPCs found in the shops.
Zoya, the outright, outspoken alchemist was frustrated and said, "This is intolerable. Anice! Tell me. Did the Mage association truly declare that these heaven blessed can help us?"
Anice who was sitting and chatting with Mage instructor of the village, Molvin, turned to look at Zoya. She was the beauty who had come to serve snacks and drinks to the village chief. Just look at him now hiding from her as if she would skin him alive for getting served from her. Molvin answered Zoya before Anice could open her mouth. Anice was firecracker. Mixing her with outspoken Zoya would be recipe for unstable spell. The spectators would feel the brunt. "Zoya, we have gone through this many times. It was told by Seer and recorded by its herald herself. These heaven blessed have a chance to save us. It's a chance we have to bet upon though. So we just have to prepare them, get them ready and send them out. Whatever happens later, it has nothing to do with us. Our worry now is not that portion. There are many abled people working on this. What we should plan about is how to train them and get them ready. After dealing with them from the morning, any ideas on how to proceed, Alkus?" He directed the question to other instructor in the village, who taught weapons and as such.
Molvin and Alkus had come out of their retirement and had settled down in such a backward village. It showed how much importance they paid to this matter.
Zoya huffed angrily and sat down. She might make snarky comments with others but towards Molvin and Alkus she had nothing but respect. They had spent their youth towards the cause, to the extent of harming their own futures but they had never wavered and continued to work diligently.
Alkus nodded and gave few suggestions. What sorts of tasks could be given? How to choose heaven blessed with good fighting chances and how to nurture them?
With Alkus's lead, others put forth their ideas. The plans made previously were more like rough outline. They had to fine tune them to ensure that there was no serious problems.
Vinzo brought up a problem. He was ever thankful for the mage Molvin for adding space to his inn so that there was lots of room for the heaven blessed to spend the night. But from what he saw, they were too many and he didn't have enough rooms.
That was indeed a problem. Sleeping outside the village would be easiest way to die. Sleeping within the village, out in the open...had severe consequence. The stamina and concentration would be reduced a lot and their recovery speed would be reduced drastically the next day. If it was like that to the natives, the effect would be even more detrimental to these heaven blessed with less strength than their kids.
After some exchange of ideas, it was decided. Those who could pay would get rooms in the inn. Next option would be buying sleeping bags and sleep in warehouse after paying nominal rent fee. If warehouse becomes full or the heaven blessed doesn't want to pay the fee, next option could be used. The heaven blessed could get buy sleeping bag and sleep in the village park till the morning. If they don't want to pay for the sleeping bag, let them suffer from it and learn.
The sleeping bags would have some basic level runes for faster recovery of stamina and concentration so that those who use them would not feel like they had used stamina or concentration during the night. Inspite of being high level of mages, both Molvin and herself would lower themselves to create the runes. But that would take some time. Molvin had to teach spells to these heaven blessed or to give tasks, accept their completion , so bulk of work fell on Anice. Such basic runes, she could do it in sleep but runes of any type were time consuming. She couldn't make too many before night arrived.
After the emergency of the night time dealt with, they had to tackle the elephant in the room. The resources. All had assumed that they would receive some 100-200 heaven blessed. Still they had prepared for nearly thousand of them. Currently the count was 5437. Anice had put a stop to entry of these heaven blessed despite of opposition from village chief. These heaven blessed would bring in raw supplies no doubt. It may be less today but it will increase definitely tomorrow and later on. Problem was converting them into usable resources. There were no apprentice as they were expecting few among the heaven blessed to snatch those roles. All had contracts they had to fulfill but they didn't have enough to supply the heaven blessed present in the village. They had locked the shop and run away not just because there was a meeting but also because they had to hide from these heaven blessed people. The reserve stock had been used up and if these heaven blessed had to go out of village tomorrow, they had to start making these resources tonight. Realistically, how many weapons could be made in a night? How many potions could be brewed? How many cloaks and bags could be made? Few among these heaven blessed seemed rich. Rich enough to purchase fancy looking clothes, eat local specialities or drink to heart's content. They could buy better products but then again, how much could they buy? Would their purchase be enough to satisfy the demands? Molvin had no idea. Though there were replicating spells, there were harsh and strict parameters of these spells to work. So, using them, that too for basic among basic resources would be ridiculous.