AK - The Alchemy Kingdom

Chapter 150: Financial obstacles

Year 4, Winter, Second Month, First Week.

The cold wind blew against Taels face intensifying the red marks on his cheeks. The secretary beside him sneezed and shivered while mentally cursing his Boss, why couldnt they stay in a cozy room? The archer, now turned Head of operations in the Alchemy Capital, ignored the boy and released the arrow. He had corrected his aim, accounting for wind drift and the snow, but the arrow still missed the mark. At least, it had been just for a hand distance this time.

The irregularity of the special arrow was difficult to overcome, he just hoped the archers who would go on the mission could get it fast enough. Although he was in the training grounds inside the barrier, this section was unaffected by the heating system, so he still had to deal with the snow. Different from the rest of the citizens, who wanted to spend a warm winter, the Ministry of Defense requested a natural field to train its members against cold and harsh climate. Tael knocked another arrow and felt the winds speed while the secretary continued to give the reports.

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Sir, we currently have 20 watchers working on the Capital and in the Path, 120 soldiers in training, and 80 agents operating at the other side of the mountains. For technical support, we have 10 operators, six on AP and four here. On the management level, we have six secretaries and 20 aides. We spent 95000 crystals just in payment this month, plus our 7000 in operational costs, leaving only 18000 crystals from our budget Unfortunately, its not enough to pay for Minister Lew's plan

Tael's lips twitched when he heard the name of the fellow Councilman, who was also his boss and ended up losing concentration. When Lew asked him to become the Head of operations, he imagined the job would actually be controlling operations. However, he now looked more like a financial and logistic manager, trying to make Lews ideas possible without enough crystals. Only two months ago, the Minister requested an update in the gear of all agents, he wanted to include a shock pulse for emergency cases. Since most teams already carried a lightning crystal for communication, they only needed to add an Array to make the shock available.

Most agents already have the wind emergency effect, but only those with a MQ wind crystal could get an effect strong enough to make a difference. A LQ lightning crystal, on the other hand, could create an emergency shock capable of temporarily neutralizing several targets. However, the adaptation cost was too high for the Ministry to afford while doing the improvements to their communication technology.

Either way, Tael had to find a way to make the adaptation possible, so he organized a couple of large-scale training hunts and covered the costs. The Council also recognized the importance of investing in defense, thats why the Ministry of Defense received more than one-third of the government budget. However, it wasnt enough to keep up with their Alchemy growth and to pay for Lews plans.

This time, the Minister had a bold plan to improve their intelligence, which undoubtedly would be worth every single crystal, but would cost no less than 100000 crystals, practically one year of their investment budget. First, Lew wanted to build two strategic bunkers close to the forests border to improve their response time. The construction cost wasnt the problem, but the cost of moving and securing the building team all the way there.

The second step would be building 20 stand-alone locator units at the other side of the mountains to create a surveillance system to track all movements in the forest. Lew had this idea when he heard the Ministry of Governance would construct posts to secure a tradeline between the Capital and the Tunnel. According to him, the Kingdom should send a stronger force once winter is over, so they have two months to construct the surveillance system.

It would be impossible to fight against the Serions using numbers or even magic, the Kingdom could afford to send thousands or even an elite unit like the Mage Army. However, Lew was convinced they could face their enemy forces as long as they controlled the forest. Controlling it didnt mean just surviving and using its resources, it meant knowing every step that was taken inside the forest. Intelligence would be the key to winning the battles.

The AK soldiers wouldnt face the Serions in a traditional battle. They would move, attack and defend in a way never seen before, backed by a powerful intelligence department. On that account, Lew moved to AP and later transferred all the agents there to prepare for the intelligence warfare that was coming. While the soldiers trained in the Capital, improving their abilities with magic-enhanced weapons and teamwork, under Diana and Sanias guidance, the Minister trained the agents on the frontier, preparing them to become the greatest intelligence force.

Now, came the last part of Lews plan, moving their military base to the Tunnel. In his opinion, attrition with the Serions was unavoidable, so they should push the engagement to the other side of the mountains. The Tunnel could become a military base to support all missions on that side of the mountains and never allow the Kingdom to threaten their Capital.

Some Councilors didnt agree with this idea, they would prefer to hide in the Capital and grow stronger slowly, trying to stay under the radar of the Kingdom. However, others believed the Kingdom would find them eventually, the forest would prevent an army to come to their doorstep, but what if one of the Wardens decided to come after them? It wasnt like it didnt happen before.

Therefore, if they couldnt avoid conflict, why dont control the where and how? Omero and Marlen could have ulterior motives, but Lew and Johann agreed that they could become stronger enough to face the Kingdom. They could hide for some time and come back later when they become stronger, but how would they get enough resources? Not the common wind and earth crystals, but the truly rare resources.

Moreover, now they had another reason to keep their base at the Green Mountains. The place ended up being a natural resource site with countless useful materials. They could even draw on the power of the energy vein inside the mountain to face the Serions. Considering their national defense policies, Lews plan was very good.

Unfortunately, Tael was the one who had to make all of this, financially possible, and he didnt know from where to start.