Chapter 223 Bustling Stronghold
They bloom and wither like flowers, they surge and flow like a violent or calm wave, flexible as rubber, tough and sharp as rock or fragile as glass.
My emotions stretches every direction, they sense everything that it is living or not, they seem to become another limb or organ. I can feel the texture of the grass and of the trees as if I am actually touching them with my fingers, I can hear and understand what the birds are chirping at each other, smell the flowers or the slightly nauseating smell of the soil and even see everything around me.
I extend them, stretch them and reach every corner of the stronghold.
"Haaa." My senses are overloaded, so much that I almost vomited and my mind faint.
But, gradually, my body and soul adapted to such sensation but by no means meant that it wasn't strenuous effort, unless I consumed several potions but I didn't do that.
"Haaa. Haaa. Haaa." At first, my breaths were rough. My concentration almost being constantly being broken.
"...Huuu." As I slowly adapted the sensations of my five senses through my aura, my breaths quietened down.
Aura is a powerful and flexible power and in this moment I can chose to blow up the entire stronghold but I did not.
...
-Hey, you finished your tasks?
-Yeah, annoying stuff really, just a bunch of thieves thinking that they could survive out there.
Voices.
-The barrier needs more mana, call more mages!
-Sir, with our current numbers we cannot reach the peak state of the barrier.
-Tsk, the Army took half of our men for the dungeons.
-What do we do then?
-Nothing and keep quiet about it.
-N-nothing? But-
-We cannot do nothing about it.
Myriads of voices reached my ears.
-Hurry up! You lots better move your legs or the Guardians will whip us lots with their glares!
-Chief, this is too much! Our numbers is too little to do all this in a day...
-Shut it! We are already late by few hours and there still many supplies we need to deliver to the others!
It is a chaotic mess out there, a chaotic mess of emotions that create a splendid and colorful blending of chaotic emotions.
-A-ah! I-I'm sorry, sir!
-Watch your feet, little rat!
-Yes, yes.
No, not only voices but also scenes, thousands of them that cover the entire stronghold.
Groups of explorers ready to leave the stronghold for their tasks, wrapped around in one of their fingers a storage ring instead of a backpack so that their movements aren't hindered in any situation with their leather clothes being enchanted by magic. Out of everyone, most of the explorers have that twinkle in their eyes that strive to seek something new and extravagant. It is understandable since there's a variety of monsters that come out from the gates and observing them one might notice that some these monsters do not behave brainlessly but coexist with each other like the animals you find in an enviroment where each of them complement each other. Like there are people considered as cannon fodder and commanders, amongst the monsters there are those considered as such with each different roles and purposes.
Labourers that expend more energy than anyone else in the stronghold, some have to do any kind of service from selling goods or sexual services, some going around the stronghold completing their own tasks and some in their own offices manufacturing all kind of everyday items.
The Mages with the most being near the barrier supplying it with their mana and some within their room doing their own researches.
Supervisors and Guardians also going around all over the stronghold observing that everything is in order, working in pair with one being a Supervisor and one a Guardian they walk around the streets, inspect the goods or resolve things that cannot be easily resolved.
The people of the Army and of the Sweepers being absent due to their own tasks outside the stronghold and the few that remain are either newbies or important figures.
The stronghold is bustling with activity and not a single place lacks such energy, people that do not nothing other than being a weight are either forced to atleast improve and give something to contribute or are left outside the stronghold to themselves meaning that all the strongholds strive to make all in some way useful.
Work, grind, rest. Work, grind, rest.
That's is mainly the routine of everyone with the addition of the period of times where they have their little joys, this is something that cannot be helped since they are pressured to get better, to be better in order to have the chance to survive.
It is marvelous.
Yet, if one were to listen.
If one were to observe carefully.
One can notice that some things seems to be delayed, there are seemingly minor problems, they go unnoticed that they stack each other, more and more the weight goes heavier and heavier, it itself it isn't a real problem and they can be resolved easily as they appeared but we aren't in those times where monsters were tame compared to the present and what people were more worried about was with each other.
No, sudden events might appear and deal more damage than you think, you were walking towards your job and suddenly you are stabbed by a random person in the streets, and such events in the present do appear frequently more than the people within the stronghold might imagine.
May the struggle for that hope begin, may your struggles bring you to the chance of survival, may your decisions bring you to the choice that can lead you to the more befitting path towards the neverending end for you.
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