Desolate World

The next was the shadows. Their number was 213 people. According to their wish, they were given a cave behind the waterfall as the entrance of their dwellings. According to them, for some reason, the shadow realm inside of the cave was rich in shadow elements that were beneficial for them.

As for the last one, it was the Gnomes. Their number was 159 people. The little men had chosen an area near the other entrance of the tunnel to the crystal garden, because of its rich earth elements. It was just north of the goblins' houses area.

Laketown village had a total of 3653 inhabitants. It was definitely not a small number for the population of a village. It had even reached the number of the population of a medium town according to Phil. Because of that, Mars decided to call it Laketown, without 'village' as they had passed the village level.

After that, Aria reported that the development of the town's facilities had been delayed for so long. They had just built a town hall, mana pool, town plaza, and bank. But they still hadn't built barracks, a marketplace, an auction house, a commercial center, an adventurer center, town wall, etc. The townsmen were still busy constructing their houses, lumbering, quarrying, constructing tunnels, etc. 

She expressed the need for the construction projects in the entire town to be coordinated by the town hall, so they could prioritize the construction of town facilities. As they needed to activate the city core faster.

At this point, Ace recalled his family discussion last night. Sofia told them that Aria would try to accelerate the construction of basic facilities of the town. 

After hearing Aria's plan. Many elders seemed to have opinions on Aria's plan. As the majority of the townsmen still didn't have houses to shelter them from wind and rain. How could they think of constructing public facilities? 

Ace somehow could understand their concerns. As their presence in this room was not only to think about the general policy of the village but also to represent their races' interests. It was impossible for them to tell their people to leave the construction of their houses and prioritize the construction of the town facilities. So they refused Aria's plan.

As the elders and Aria were debating about it, Mars only listened without taking sides. After twenty minutes of arguing with each other, Andrea expressed the shadows' willingness to help to build the town facilities. But because no one of them was an expert in building, she requested some builders' direction to control the quality of the buildings.

Aria then expressed that the angels had some builders and because they were idle as their houses were on the floating island, they would also participate in the construction of the town facilities. She had forgotten about the fact early on, so she apologized to the elders about it. 

So Mars decided that the angels and the shadows would be responsible for the construction of the town facilities and the other races could continue their houses' construction. But, Mars emphasized that if any of them had finished the construction of their houses, they must help the construction of the town facilities. The elders agreed.

After the topic ended. Mars told them that the construction of the town was not the only important thing. He wanted to build a clear division of responsibility for the other aspects. This division also would be retained in the future. So he would delegate some of his authority to some elders. 

First, for general internal matters. He trusted Aria to hold it. Everything from town construction, finance, town's facilities daily management, to guardians management would be handled by the town hall under Aria as the deputy. Aria easily agreed. As she was who did it all this time.

As for town guards' training and activities would be held by Noah as the commander. The city guards' activities were in the range of law enforcement, monster cleaning, and of course defending the town from threats. Because of that, he would be given the authority to manipulate the barrier.

At first, Noah refused. But as he was the only person who had a military background, he finally accepted the position in the end. 

The last was intelligence and special force matters. To Ace's surprise, Mars appointed him to hold the position of the director of intelligence and special force bureau. Ace was stunned.

Because, based on status, he was a guardian, and then he was just level 26. Besides Phil, everyone else had higher levels than him. As for the elder position, he could understand, as he had made many contributions to the town. But to choose him as the director of an intelligence bureau, he couldn't understand it.

Then Mars explained. He called this bureau 'the night guards'. This bureau would be the eye that the town had to monitor undead force in the North of the misty forest. He then reminded everyone that the function of the town initially was to guard against the undead that was almost unbeatable. With millions of skeleton soldiers, even dragons and angels feared them. As their number alone could drown any force in the continent. 

So, they couldn't just gather their strength in silence preparing to hold them, as it was basically impossible. They must take initiative to weaken them by killing their elites and lords. Because, based on Dragna the lord of Dragma Valley, and Gabriel the lord of the floating islands, for the undead to cultivate the elites and lords, they needed several times more effort and time than different races. 

Only because of their many numbers, they could have many elites and lords. So, if many of the elites and lords were killed permanently, or it would be better if Geo could resurrect them after killing them once, the alliance of dragma, floating islands, and Laketown could have a chance to eliminate the threat of the undead.

Mars admitted that he got the idea after he got the 'bone resurrection' skill crystal. He gave Ace's son the skill, because he trusted Ace and knew that his son had a rare summoner-type job.

***