58 Dead End (1/2)

Being the leader of the expedition, Catherine naturally initiated the meeting:

”I'm not even sure where to begin, we were sent here initially to find whatever we could about this place and now it appears it's fully populated. Furthermore, we can assume the people living here do not take kindly to strangers considering the fate of the other teams. Honestly, I'm not sure how to proceed or if we're even equipped to handle such a situation. Therefore, I'd like to hear everyone's opinion on the matter.”

After she finished, the room became as quiet as a cemetery. Apart from Joshua, everyone was looking at each other with a grave expression. Joshua was just sitting in a thinking position with his eyes closed.

Eric was the first to answer:

”Lady Catherine, I think we should head back. We already accomplished our mission. His Majesty was mostly interested in ancient weaponry for the upcoming war and we can actually provide those by giving him the location of the laboratory we found in the forest. It's one thing to explore ancient ruins, but there is no way we can take on an entire city.”

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Lydia frowned hearing this and said: ”What about the other teams? Will we just abandon them?”

”It's not like I want to give up on them but who knows where they are. This place is bigger than our own capital. We could be discovered at any moment once we proceed further and once that happened, we'd be screwed.”

”I agree with Eric,” Cynthia said, ”The main issue that prevented us from entering, the seal in our head, was removed by Lady Catherine, thanks to Lord Joshua's research. Therefore, we're currently the only people able to cross the barrier safely. However, if we head back to the surface, Lady Catherine could start erasing the seal from the entire population of Cestor. Hell, we would easily win the war if that's the case since everyone in the country would just start growing more powerful naturally. In a few years, Cestor would be filled with powerhouses. Then we could always come back here, with a strong force.”

”I'm not sure if giving that power to everyone is a good idea,” Lydia replied, ”The Lippi clan still has a lot of enemies.”

Finally, Boris sent out his thoughts to everyone.

”Cynthia, if we come back here with a large force, the people here would probably consider it a declaration of war.”

”True, but they captured the others, they're clearly hostile.”

”I'm not so sure, as far as we know, they've only protected their borders so far. I believe what you and Eric are suggesting is sound. We could probably head back and report a successful mission. However, we also have a bigger foe to consider.”

”You mean that crow?” Eric asked.

”Indeed, Cynthia is right, with the seal removed, our country should produce strong soldiers without difficulty. I do, therefore, not fear for the upcoming war. However, if the legends are true, that bird is linked to the founder of this city. I don't think we should pack up and leave without at least doing some sort of scouting.”

Catherine had listened to everyone's opinion so far, but she was surprised to see the person the most interested in the old civilization remain quiet. He seemed deeply focused on his thoughts.

”Joshua, what do you think? You were hoping to find a large source of energy stones in order to evolve your soul world. However, I don't think this will be easy, it's safe to assume the map you found in the lab is outdated, and those stone deposits have long been mined.”

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Joshua opened his eyes and looked at the party. Everyone seemed to be waiting for his response. Looking at them, he couldn't help but laugh.