Second World

It took the guild leaders a while to get everything organized. The guildless players took a longer time. Some influential individual players had formed a party with the others, so they asked these others to start relaying the message and formed groups as instructed by John. There were still many individual players who weren't included or chose to seclude themselves from the others. John couldn't afford to wait for these stragglers. He gave his next instruction once sufficient organizing structure was formed.

"Now, we will only drill the most basic tactical formations. We don't have time to do fancy shits. The formation we train will be line, column, wedge, vee, and box. Each of you needs to be able to get into these formations at a moment of notice. By the end of the drills, I want everyone to already know where you should position yourself inside each of the five formations. Who should be by your sides, and so on. It should be an automated response. No more thinking. Just act once orders are given!"

A large portion of the 40,000 players now stood ready on the wide plain the army was camping. The activity of such a large crowd unwittingly created a ruckus. Lord Commander Armstrong and the others came out of their tents and watched what the outworlders were up to.

Jack was speechless. The very first night this guy arrived, he had caused such a commotion.

Since the plain was flat and there were no hills nor large rocks for John to elevate himself, he asked two subordinates to lift him and let him stand on their shoulders so that everyone could see him. Once he balanced himself enough, he took out something that dumbfounded everyone. A megaphone.

"What the f*ck! Where do you get that?" Jack asked.

"Duh, the same place I get my binoculars," John replied.

"Is it even working?" Jack asked again.

"I won't be taking it out if it isn't, will I? This is a non-electric one. I will be the one surprised if it is not working."

John then put his mouth before the megaphone and started speaking, "Everyone, If I may have your attention! Since the night is late and this is the first time we practice. We will do it for just one hour and practice only two formations, line and column. Now, don't everyone agree that I'm a reasonable person? All right, we will start at first with labelings."

John put labels on each group. He used alphabets for the battalions. Since more than 30,000 players took part, there were more than thirty battalions of one-thousand-strong, which was more than the existing twenty-six alphabets. So, after he reached Z, he continued with AA, AB, and so on.

As for the smaller groups below a battalion, he assigned numbers to them. The first company within battalion A was called A1. The first platoon within the company of the same battalion will be called A11, and so on. In this way, he could address each group separately when needed.

He informed everyone that the formations should be able to be applied starting from the smallest group to the largest group. He made everyone practice by calling out their labels and mentioning the formation they should take, alternating between line and column. He first did it by using the megaphone. Once they got slightly used to it, he changed to the messaging system.

John said they were only practicing for one hour. But in the end, they only stopped a bit over two hours.

"All right, everyone! Thank you for your participation. You can go rest now," John said over his megaphone. While everyone was glad that this drill was over, John added, "I can see everyone has been enjoying the drill. I'm sure you are all looking forward to tomorrow night. Don't worry, we will do this again tomorrow, and it will be for three hours long."

Everyone threw him a glare. Who the hell was enjoying it? The guild leaders who had been listening to John from the start were especially irked. Didn't he say it would be two hours of routine training? Why now increased to three hours?

Although most were complaining, they still went with the program. They understood that in war, coordination was important. Especially if they were weaker and less in number. They needed every edge to gain an advantage. Some of the players were ex-military, notably those from Dogs of War. John enlisted them to help him train the others. They continued training daily while marching.

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On the fifth day after the reinforcement army departed, Therribus' army had finally finished gathering. Their number was even more than previously assumed. They were at 120,000 strong. Therribus didn't let the outworlder troops join them. Instead, he asked White Death to lead these outworlder troops and did as White Death pleased. He had issued the war quest simply to hinder the reinforcement army. He had no interest in utilizing the outworlder force.

The large army reorganized themselves. The army was composed of multiple forces that rarely worked together. Hence, it needed time to work out their arrangements. They spent one whole day on that. Prince Therribus was taking the role of the supreme commander. Despite him having limited war experiences, no one objected to the decision. Lord Marshall Arther Pendrake would be the vice commander.

They would start marching for fort Garadhor first thing tomorrow. Their distance from that fortress was around one day of marching. So, by the day after tomorrow, they should be able to start their siege already.

That night, Prince Therribus had one last meeting before they departed in the morning. After the meeting ended, he dismissed everyone. Garland stayed when he saw Prince Therribus still seated on his chair.

"Something on your mind, Your Highness?" Garland asked.

"I can't help but feel that something is wrong…," Therribus said.

"Going against one's own blood is undoubtedly difficult. I'm sure Your Highness doesn't take this decision lightly. But for the sake of our country, we have no choice."

"That's not what I'm referring to… But never mind, It is probably just my jittery feeling before the coming battle. Have our scout confirmed that Alonzo fortified himself inside Fort Garadhor?"

"We have. Both our spies and our allied outworlders confirmed seeing Prince Alonzo entering the fort. They were now fortifying themselves there."

"I wonder why they choose to hole up there instead of just run."

"Perhaps he knows there is nowhere to run to. The only way to safety is if he can reach the capital, but we have the ways blocked. If he keeps on running, we will eventually catch up to him. He must have decided to gamble it all by fighting us."

"He should know that he is seriously outnumbered," Therribus said.

"He must have put a lot of faith on those outworlder forces," Garland replied.

"Then he is a fool! As he always is."

"He is just a brat, in my opinion. He should have just stepped aside willingly instead of becoming Your Highness' obstacle. He had brought this onto himself."

"Hmph," Therribus didn't say anything more. He closed his eyes. He was just about to retire to his tent when the guard informed him of a visitor.

"Who is it?" Garland asked.

"An outworlder named White Death," The guard answered.

"Your Highness is going to rest already. Ask him to wait until tomorrow morning!" Garland ordered.

"Halt. It's fine. Let him in," Therribus ordered.

The guard bowed and went out. Not long after, White Death entered.

"What do you want?" Garland asked.

White Death bowed respectfully. He then said, "I'm sorry to have come so late. But as My Prince had ordered, I'm in charge of the outworlders force. Some guild leaders have been throwing questions that are difficult for me to answer unless I talk with Your Highness."

"What are those questions?" Prince Therribus asked.

"I understand that Your Highness wishes to apply some kind of control over the outworlders once Your Highness ascends the throne. Might I ask for the details?"

"That is His Highness' right! Why must His Highness explain to you?!" Garland bellowed.

White Death was not flustered. "The guilds that I'm working with are all afraid that once we help Your Highness become the king, they will instead be cast aside. I need some assurance to keep them in line."

"Pah! Your kind should be glad that we don't cast you aside right this moment!" Garland spat.

Therribus lifted his hand to calm Garland. He then said, "You should know by now that the reason I'm against your kind is the danger your kind pose to mine."

White Death nodded.

"In my opinion, there is only one way for us to live together. That is by you submitting to a restriction."

"Restriction? What kind of restriction?" White Death asked.

"Level restriction," Therribus answered. "Your kind will need to submit to a restriction where we determined the highest level you are allowed to reach."