The soldiers stood silently, staring blankly, without responding for a moment. Then one of them mentioned the blood-whale, which they had dubbed "The Sky Hunter." Valcroy watched their faces as they described the creature, noticing that some showed fear while others displayed fascination.
"Interesting."
A sudden thought of messing with them crossed his mind, but before he could act on it…
"Valcroy," Erik called. Val stared deeply at them before leaving. The soldiers' tense bodies relaxed inexplicably. They couldn't explain why, but a strange feeling of dread overwhelmed them when Valcroy was around them. It was like they were being eyed by a predator.
Erik and Valcroy left the well to investigate the other wells, finding the same result they had heard, completely dry like the first one. Erik pondered what could have caused this when Valcroy's question redirected his attention.
"What would we drink if all the wells were dried?"
"Good question." Erik replied, then asked a guard for Mallory's location. Upon receiving the address, they walked to her whereabouts and soon found her. She was giving various instructions to soldiers who were carrying what looked like large water bottles—big enough that each soldier could only carry one.
Mallory saw them approaching and, as usual, Erik beat her to it in terms of questioning. "How much time do we have before we run out of water?"
Water had never been an issue since they had wells, so he had never considered this possibility. Now he felt foolish. He didn't know what caused the wells to dry up, but now was not the time to investigate further.
"... " Mallory paused for a moment before answering, "Two days." The situation was dire. Erik nodded and asked, "Found anything that caused it?"
Mallory could only shake her head. They had investigated, but whatever caused it had simply vanished, as if it was never there. Valcroy had something in mind but chose not to ask for now, instead listening to their conversation.
"Instruct the soldiers to distribute the remaining water carefully. Only the bare essentials for drinking and cooking should be allowed. Make every drop count."
Mallory nodded and moved to relay the orders. "I'll ensure the rations are strict. No one gets more than they absolutely need." He wrote it down as well.
Erik nodded, realizing this would give them another day or two. He brainstormed other ways to get hold of water and remembered something. "The explosion craters from the bombings might have collected rainwater."
Mallory nodded, impressed by his suggestion, but he didn't stop there. "Take a mage or a cleansing item with you. The water will need to be purified to make it safe for use. It won't yield much, but it might buy us some more time."
"I'll gather some mages. They can purify the water with their spells. It's not ideal, but it'll help." Mallory mentioned that there were some mages around who had been sitting idle. It was finally time for them to earn their keep.
Erik nodded. Contemplating other potential solutions, Valcroy offered his opinion. "Earth mages can sense the water beneath the earth with their affinity, right?"
Mallory nodded, understanding his question. "I'll have the earth mages tour around the city."
"Bring me a map," Erik said as he walked to a tent that had been temporarily set up after the bombing. Soon, a map was brought in, showing Iron'Heits and the surrounding areas. The front was occupied by enemies, mountains at their back, and mountain ranges and forests to the left and right—a truly secluded city.
But Erik wasn't looking at that. His eyes were fixed on a small blue line that moved from one side of the map to the other, flowing through the mountain range or perhaps originating from it.
Erik calculated the distance, frowning slightly. If they traveled by foot, it would take a day to reach the river and another day to return. Then there was the problem that they had to keep their stealth, if they don't want to be discovered, so three days, give or take.
"Is there any hidden source, stream, or spring other than the Hika River?" he asked. The Hika River flowed adjacent but far away to Iron'Heits, the blue line that he was focusing on.
Mallory shook her head. Iron'Heits was in a very secluded area. The Dominion had established it only for its mineral resources and as a gathering spot for fallen nobles, which Erik had mostly eradicated. Fortunately, they were gone; otherwise, they would have worsened the water problem.
Erik gave Mallory full authority over the water supply and returned to the war room. But before leaving, he visited the city's only noble and said, "I need your ring."
Although reluctant, the noble removed the ring from his finger and handed it to Erik. He examined the ordinary iron ring, which was just that, ordinary, until someone imbues mana into it. The moment he did, Veritasian symbols appeared on it, but they were unfamiliar, belonging to a unique alphabets category.
"The academy," Erik muttered as he inspected the inside. If he hadn't seen storage rings before, he would have been surprised, but he wasn't. The inside had a capacity of 50 cubic meters. He emptied its contents and left the astonished noble with the statement, "I'll get you a better one after this is over."
He hurriedly bowed. "Thank you, young master." Erik said nothing more and left. He calculated, the ring could store 50,000 liters of water. With over 9,000 people and an estimate of each person consuming 3–5 liters, they could survive.
Their first task was to transport the ring to the river, and Erik had some people—well, not "people"—they were a different breed.
After arriving at the mansion via the last tunnel in the General's basement, Erik sat down. Valcroy had left him to train in the Crucible and still had a long way to go before reaching the peak of the first realm.
Meanwhile, Erik stood in the river of myriad colors, finally feeling at home. Slowly, his gaze wandered, and he noticed the red strings, who were as unbothered as ever, hanging around like it was their domain.
Erik observed them for a while before spotting something different. Among the tendrils, there were two distinct ones. He tried to connect with the first, but couldn't. It was like something was interfering with it, not letting him do that. Erik tried again but still received no response.
"This is interesting." However, now was not the time to investigate further. He attempted to connect with the other tendril, and upon doing so, he grunted in pain. He felt an extreme heaviness and had no choice but to sever the connection. It was like he was using a motorbike to drag a truck. He didn't know why it happened, but guessed that the person he tried to control might have had a higher cultivation level than him.
There was another tendril, less dense than the ones he tried but much denser than the rest. He didn't attempt to connect and opted for an intermediate realm expert instead.
The person slowly and stealthily left the army, not rising any suspicions and arrived under the mansion through the only working tunnel. Erik opened the tunnel and dropped the ring. The intermediate-ranked individual caught it, placed it on his finger, and hid it with an iron glove. Then he left the tunnel, starting his journey toward the river.
Erik controlled him while addressing the remaining issues. He could easily handle many people now, but preferred not to let too large a crowd in. It wasn't good for his health.
After half a day of intense paperwork and stabilizing everyone, Erik returned to the Crucible and sat down to train. But before he could start, he turned and saw Valcroy with a confused expression looming on his face.
"What happened?" Erik asked.
Valcroy shook his head. "Nothing, I just have a question, young master."
Erik waited patiently for him to ask, and Valcroy did. "Why not use magic to create water, young master?"
Erik remained silent and just looked at him, remembering that Valcroy came from a family not well-versed in the world of swords and magic—they were countryside folks. He recalled Valcroy had to enter the knighthood program just to have a chance to become a page.
He patted the spot next to him. "Sit." Valcroy complied and sat down, waiting for Erik to answer his question.
"Using magic to create water might seem like a straightforward solution, but there's a catch. When we use mana to create a certain element, it only lasts as long as we keep feeding it that energy. The moment we stop, whatever we created simply vanishes, leaving behind nothing but traces of what was once there."
He paused, letting it sink in. He looked at Valcroy, who was deep in thought, and continued:
"If we were to use magic to make water, it would only exist as long as the mage is actively supplying mana to it. The moment they stop, the water would disappear, as if it never existed. Sure, the thirst would be quenched momentarily, but the energy and functionality required from the water would never be fulfilled. Our bodies would dehydrate, and there might even be strong aftereffects from the deception. So we would be harming our bodies if we did that."
Understanding almost everything, Valcroy said, "So, using mana to produce water is like crafting an illusion or a dream—it may look, taste, and feel like water, but it lacks its true essence. Just as an illusion can't nourish the body, this magically created water wouldn't sustain life in the same way."
Erik nodded, impressed by how quickly Valcroy grasped the concept.
"This means we can't rely on magic to provide a reliable source of water for the city. It wouldn't solve the problem."
Valcroy nodded, stood up, and left. He had gotten what he came for and didn't want to disturb Erik any further. There were still some things he didn't fully understand, but they weren't that important.
After distancing himself from Erik, Valcroy sat cross-legged and closed his eyes, concentrating. Black miasma began flooding through his body like water from a broken dam. Wherever it went, destruction followed.
Erik also closed his eyes and began "Dreaming." As he had expected, creating the creature with dream energy wasn't going smoothly. In fact, he couldn't even form an outline of the creature.
He wondered what the problem was; he had great control over dream energy and had tried making different things with it, none of which succeeded. He could move it around as he willed, but the moment he tried to form something, he just couldn't. It was as if his own body was against it.
'Wait, my body.'
Something clicked in his mind. He concentrated once more, this time using his mental energy. He scanned his entire body and soon identified the potential problem.
"Now, how am I going to solve this?"