24 Cities, Colors and Cubs (1/2)

It had been two weeks since Taku and Tino set out for Honde valley.

So far during their trip there were no problems whatsoever and they had set up camp tonight so that the horses could rest. It was this night that Taku decided to read the letter that Saru had given the Hall master:

Dear Takunda

Congratulations on winning the Battle Royale, I know that Tavonga was not an easy opponent so you did well.

I have been monitoring you ever since you entered the ELEPHANT FOOT GUARD and I have to admit that even I am shocked by your progress. Initially I had thought your soul would hinder your progress since you did not quite understand it, but with your progress I'm guessing that in a way you are improving so fast thanks to your soul.

There are somethings that I feel you should know.

I won't waste our time explaining about cultivation since I know that someone else will do that for me. What I want to explain is the structure of the Gutu Empire.

So far you have only seen a couple of villages of various sizes and only one camp of the ELEPHANT FOOT GUARD , you have never really been to any cities as it is so your knowledge is a bit lacking at the moment. I will be focusing more on the undercurrents of power, instead of the common knowledge of provinces you know.

Of all the cities In the Gutu Empire 23 are a cut above the rest and have a special existence. They are the 7 main cities and 16 minor cities of the Gutu Empire. I won't go into detail about them, but I can tell you that even the size of a minor will shock you. Most minor cities are controlled by chiefdoms and can hold up to a hundred thousand people. These chiefdoms have a hundred percent control over the City and only have to annually pay taxes to the Empire.

Even though they are counted as part of the empire these cities have their own armies and the Empire does not really get involved in their power struggles, and this is only if their power struggles don't hinder the Royal family's dealings and the Safety of the Empire as a whole.

But if the Empire is in dire straits then these cities will lend their armies to the Empire…

Reading up to this part Taku could not help but think of the hierarchy back on earth. Even though some countries still used the Monarch system, most countries had abolished this and to him it was a better system. Having a Government to him was more sensible, and created more freedom for the people of that nation. He tried to think of what would happen if the government did not have full control of their cities, he had no doubt in his mind that the results would be worse than the ones in the Gutu empire.

Thinking to this point Taku shook his head and continued reading.

…The 7 Major cities are under the full control of the Royal Family.

In these cities the Royal family placed their most trusted subordinates to monitor everything that happens in that city. It is more like these families are ambassadors for the Royal family.

These cities don't indulge in power struggles since they are basically run by the same power; the military is all the same anyway. In each of these 23 cities there is an ELEPHANT FOOT GUARD camp nearby.

The ELEPHANT FOOT GUARD you were a part of was close to a minor City called Mutoko. The ELEPHANT FOOT GUARD in small cities are smaller than those near big cities, in your ELEPHANT FOOT GUARD intermediate camp only a little over a hundred people graduated and survived, but in those that are close to major cities over thousands of people graduated.

After graduating, people from the ELEPHANT FOOT GUARD can join the Ivory guard if worthy. Each city has its own Ivory Guard Hall and in minor cities those of the Ivory Guard are on par in terms of authority with the chiefdoms, although there are not really allowed to get involved in the affairs of the city, but they do have all the freedom to do what they want. It is only in the major cities that the Ivory Guard has to be a bit more reserved but even then they hold a certain authority in the big cities.

Now to explain how the ivory guard works.

Teams in the ivory Guard are ranked by colour. These colours are Red, Bronze, Silver and Gold. Red being the lowest rank and Gold being the highest. Currently your team is one of over a thousand Red teams, and each colour has its own Ranking board. In order to raise a team's rank the team needs to have a certain number of contribution points which can be earned by completing missions.

The red team that is currently top of the ranking has ten thousand points and still require an additional ten thousand for them to be able to raise their rank. It took this team 3 whole years to accumulate this many points so you can imagine how hard it is to get contribution points…

Taku felt dizzy when reading this. He was only fourteen and if he and his team were as fast as those people then they would be able to raise their rank when Taku turned 20. Six whole years to raise the rank of team. He could not help but wonder how many years the Gold ranked team had taken to reach their current rank.

Taku continued reading.

…you can also earn contribution points by hunting demonic beats and selling their parts to the Empire. You can use this method to exchange for gold if you are short on money, but this usually is not necessary because even the lowest ranked Red team gets a thousand gold coins a month as salary.

Apart from this the other way is to kill an invader.

The amount of contribution points you get by killing an invader are determined by how powerful that particular invader was. For this the Empire created badges that can sense the energy of an invader since their cultivation is different from ours, so if you kill an invader it can automatically be recorded and you will be granted your points on the spot.

The most contribution points that were gathered from killing an invader was when a Gold team leader killed an invader and got a million contribution points. Another thing is that contribution points can be used for training purposes and to trade for Martial skills, weapons etc.

The cheapest of all skills and weapons start from ten contribution points; the most expensive I have ever seen was a martial skill which was going for six million contribution points.

Anyway that is all I needed to explain for now.

Good luck on your trip and do come back safely, or else I swear Maka will kill me.

Kindest Regards,

Saru.