Year 2, Summer, Second Month, First Week.

The tension in the Council meeting was so high that it was almost visible in the air. The veteran team members already decided to support Karl’s plan while Omero was definitely against it. He would, nonetheless, pay attention to every word to scrutinize it later, any holes in the plan would be a chance to discredit Karl.

“I asked for a meeting today to propose and discuss an escape plan… First, I want to explain where we would move and why. Do you know why the forest is dangerous? You know that many strong beasts live there, but do you know why?”

The blank expressions on their faces revealed they never thought about it, but that didn’t matter, Karl was ready to enlighten them.

“Because of the magic energy veins…”

“The veins are cracks in the world that allow magic energy to sip in… This energy dissipates through the environment until it reaches everywhere, but the concentration of magic energy is higher near the veins… Only higher-tiered beasts can survive near the veins, either because they were mutated by it or attracted to it… I don’t know about the Kingdom’s history but I bet it wasn’t founded here by chance, they probably choose this land because it’s surrounded by two forests, with many energy veins…”

The three elders exchanged a concerned look, they knew about it, but how could Karl know it.

“The energy veins offered both an opportunity and risk, many beasts roam around the veins, but that also means access to a lot of resources. That’s why the Kingdom borders the forest but doesn’t dare to invade it, they would have to pay a heavy price to occupy the forest…”

Omero saw an opportunity and didn’t hesitate to intervein.

“They don’t dare, but you want us to go there?”

“Yes, because we have something they don’t… A way to control the energy veins…”

“That’s… This much energy can’t be controlled, do you think they didn’t try it?”

“Oh, but we can… We could even use the energy against the Kingdom if they tried to attack us later… If we could get there, we wouldn’t be fugitives or Serion commoners… We would be free and it would be our land…”

Karl shocked the Council members, they knew his idea was bold, but they didn’t expect it would involve something so powerful that even the Mages couldn’t control it. Even Omero forgot his initial plan and started to consider if they could destroy the Kingdom using this kind of power. In a few minutes, Karl performed another miracle, he changed a hopeless struggle into a very possible reality.

Unfortunately, he himself would have to point out the challenges of the plan.

“I wanted for you all to first understand that breaking free from the Kingdom is possible. However, it’s not without a cost, to use the energy vein we need to enter the forest and pass through the beasts... Fortunately, we don’t need to reach the biggest vein in the forest… That would be impossible in our current conditions, the beasts that live there have the power to destroy the entire village with one attack… We would be aiming for the nearest energy vein, located less than one thousand kilometers from the village.”

When they heard about the distance, the villagers felt like a bucket of cold water was drop over their heads. Surprisingly, elder Said decided to speak:

“I think it’s good to be far, a long-distance could discourage them from following us...”

“Elder Said is right, we need distance to avoid confrontation…”

Omero didn’t like the idea of avoiding confrontation, but he knew the Kingdom wouldn’t give up, they would only delay it, which he could accept in exchange for gaining more power. He was curious about Karl’s plan, so he asked:

“Either way, we need to consider the difficulties of a long journey this deep into the forest. Considering the sick and elderly, it would take at least one season to get there…”

“That’s why we need a good plan and preparations… I have some ideas to keep us safe on the journey. We could set up temporary shelters along the way and, with enough resources, we could build a magic barrier around the shelters... We could send teams to clear the path and move the villagers later…”

The information that Karl could build a barrier didn’t surprise them, after so many inventions they got numb to it. The Council members started to discuss the ideas among themselves while raising some other considerations. Katlyn seemed bothered with something, as the Head of Hunting she had to consider their strength before anything.

“What tier of beasts we should expect to fight?”

Again, the silence took over the room.

“Third rank LT beasts in the outskirts of the forest and MT beasts once we move near the vein… But I can craft a tool to locate the beasts, we can use it to lower the chances of meeting the stronger beasts… We probably can’t avoid them completely, but we could escape if the beast is too strong. We just need to be really careful to prevent the main group from meeting with MT beasts…”

Diana stepped up to support Karl:

“With enough training and information about the location of the beasts, we could mislead them away from the main group.”

“Do you know the location of the vein?”

Omero wanted to check how much he knew.

“Not the exact location, but a tool can guide us close enough… For now, I only know a general position because we entered the forest before, I can tell it’s roughly east from here… We could follow the river until the paths diverge…”

Marlen shot a disapproving glare at Omero, stopping him from trying to extract more information, and said:

“How about dividing the escape plan by departments, so we could see it better?”

Everyone agreed and Katlyn decided to take the lead:

“From the Hunting Department side, I think we would have to get more weapons and enhance them all... To explore our path into the forest and keep the villagers safe, we would need to form two groups, one focused on protection and the other for exploring… What do you think, Diana?”

“You’re right… We would need to check how the beast locating tool works, but I think we should form a few smaller groups with fast members to move ahead and clear the path. Most of the team members would need to stay with the villagers to keep them safe… After the exploring teams clear the path, we could send a second team to build the shelter before moving the rest of the villagers… I think a team of three would be ideal for exploring, five teams could handle a large space, so 15 villagers for exploring… For the villagers’ security, ten groups of three members would be enough if the shelters have the same size as the central square. Three shifts to let them rest, so 90 villagers total… We still have to consider the security when the villagers move and teams to hunt for resources…”

“Thank you… What if we moved the villagers into smaller groups between shelters? We need to consider their speed, the elders can’t walk much or fast…”

Old Bill offered a suggestion:

“We could use carts, with enhancements, they could be used inside the forest … If we could get some carts from Keller we would be able to move the elders easily, we could also use them for food and other resources… Three or four carts would be enough…”

They discussed the details and agreed to ask for some carts in the next exchange. However, the problem of moving into the forest still remained, how would they move more than two thousand villagers through the forest? Even if they could control the group’s movement, how would they provide security for such a big group? After many irrational ideas and a lot of pondering, they decided that the villagers could only be moved in groups of one hundred people, secured by at least four teams of six members. Counting everything, they couldn't move many groups per day…