Chapter 224 Keep your enemies close

Ever since Oliver revealed the obvious fact that it was possible to find wild vegetables and different types of food in the Gates, the atmosphere in Dilan’s group had changed a lot.

While many had been frustrated about having consumed nothing but monster meat for weeks, they were much happier when Oliver and the others returned with some fruits and wild vegetables.

Dilan had not expected them to find results so quickly but he was not actually surprised.

The fact that the Ascenders were able to get their hands on something they wanted to clearly showed that their strength was higher than they assumed.

This was enough to boost their self-esteem once again after it had been crushed in their last mission in the Pagoda of Time.

Dilan’s mood had gotten much better than before as well, and it looked like everyone was slowly getting back to their senses.

“Mira will have more than enough work now. As for the others, who wanted to become Farmers, we should provide them with enough Essence crystals so that they can ascend to Tier-1.

Their occupational abilities will shorten the growth period of the vegetables we found. Their maturity cycle seems to be quite short, to begin with..

That is at least what the report of the Appraiser says.” Xenia concluded before handing over the report to Dilan.

He just nodded his head and agreed to what she said before handing her a small Penta Item Pouch.

“In this pouch, you will find more than 1000 ordinary Tier-1 Essence crystals. I think it is about time that we start nurturing non-combat occupations.

Right now, the Elite Combat Unit, the Scout Unit, and the ordinary Combat Unit are strong enough to fight Silver Tier-1 monsters in a group.

That should be more than enough to protect the base and Shiron. We have yet to come across extremely powerful monsters in the surrounding area.

I will take care of the Gold Tier-1 Silverhorn Coyote when your scouts report to me about its new position.”

There had been a few reports about a powerful Coyote with a silver horn during the last two days, so Dilan presumed that it was a Gold Tier-1 monster.

He wanted to defeat it before it would attack their new base.

By now, more than seven days had passed since they had arrived in Shiron. Their base had transformed completely, and the alloy factory had also turned into a place that was used for both blacksmithing and for compulsory combat training of the Survivors.

Whether one was a Survivor or an Ascender, Dilan made everyone undergo the most basic combat training.

This had been frowned upon at the beginning because there hadn’t been many ordinary people, who were still willing to join the ranks of the combat Ascenders.

They just wanted to stay alive and do whatever they had to do while avoiding fights.

To them, it was not necessary to even think about learning how to fight as it was entirely useless.

But that was only their opinion and not Dilan’s, so they ended up learning how to fight, either way.

“The things I create should be on par with Bronze Tier-1 equipment. But are we really in need of such weapons right now? I mean, the equipment and weapons I create cannot even provide additional stats. Are they not a bit useless, now that we have loads of weapons stored in the warehouse?”

Old Jeff was a little bit frustrated. He had just gotten his hands on a few more materials to forge weapons and protective equipment with, just to realize that there were more than 200 treasures stored in the warehouse.

There were Bronze Tier-1 weapons, Bronze Tier-1 armors, and so on.

Some Ascenders were currently in possession of Silver Tier-1 weapons which provided an increase in stats worth 10 or more Units.

Old Jeff couldn’t forge weapons like that because he didn’t have the right tools, or proper ingredients and he had no idea how to add status points or special traits to his forged weapons.

His occupational abilities were quite helpful to forge and to learn a lot whenever he researched the treasures Dilan and the others brought back from their trips, but he had yet to achieve mastery over it.

“Did you take a look at the other blueprints and the books we’ve gotten in exchange for Essence crystals? Weren’t they about wands or something like that?

If you can create a wand, the strength of mana Ascenders, who are proficient at using Mana-based abilities, will increase. Maybe you can even create a combination of a wand and a weapon to allow all kinds of Ascenders to use wands, not only long-range fighters!”

Dilan was coming up with the weirdest ideas. However, that was something Old Jeff liked about Dilan. He was not narrow-minded and could think out of the box.

“A wand that can also be used by melee fighters? This would amplify the strength of mana-based abilities, decrease the mana consumption, and it won’t restrict the close combat fighters as long as they wield the weapon-wand….”

For now, Old Jeff might not be able to create weapons with additional stats or a special trait, but the idea Dilan had just proposed was quite interesting.

It would allow Old Jeff to make a detour around his research and make it possible for him to keep experimenting and learning while actually doing something that would help the others.

“Not bad, that’s a great idea! How come I didn’t think of that?!” Old Jeff mumbled before excusing himself once again. After hearing Dilan’s suggestions, his mind started to overflow with information and ideas which he wanted to test out.

Meanwhile, Dilan was left alone with a few more Ascenders, including Williams, Sven, Sarah, and a few others, who were also in need of his help, or to be precise, waiting for him to make a decision.

“By the way, what are we supposed to do with the new Survivors, who arrived at the base today? I don’t think we should treat them differently than the others, but giving them the same benefits as the other Survivors which they worked hard for and earned over the last few weeks wouldn’t be fair either.” Williams stated his opinion.

Dilan had heard about the new Survivors, who had arrived at their base not too long ago. There had been a few Survivors in Shiron, but they didn’t want to join their group in the beginning.

Being Ascenders, who had already reached Tier-1, all by themselves, they were quite prideful and didn’t accept Dilan’s invitation before.

Rather than trusting Dilan and his people, they had been of the belief that Dilan and the others wanted to overwhelm them and force them into submission.

However, nothing like that had happened for the entire week Dilan had stayed in Shiron. Thus, after an incident where a Bronze Tier-1 monster wreaked havoc within the small Survivor group, those few who had survived the incident decided to join Dilan.

“Treating them differently is not necessary. Just tell them that they have to work if they want food and safety. I guess that they will join your former Unit, Williams. They’re quite powerful. But who knows what they’ll do. Just let them decide.” Sven suggested nonchalantly, acting as if he was not really interested.

However, Dilan had a different opinion. He had seen the Survivors a few times during the last few days, and he knew that a Bronze Tier-1 monster wouldn’t be able to defeat them.

After all, he had seen them fighting a few Silver Tier-1 monsters during the last few days when they had been traveling through the Shikan planes.

‘They’re up to no good. But what is the saying again? Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer!’