After Funmi’s battle there wasn’t any note worthy battle throughout the competition as no one challenged anyone from Terrania especially not the Rank 7 Emeka who was the only Rank 7 in the competition.

The competition ended and the sanctuary representatives went back to their residence. The day passed and the day for the second and last meeting came.

The sanctuary representatives were escorted to the same room they went to on the first day. They sat down with the same arrangement and Lara started the meeting and said “I hope you’ve all enjoyed the past days. One of the purposes of meeting was for the settlements to make connections with each other. The other purpose was for us to agree on certain things.

First you all need to decide on a way to resolve your conflicts without all out war. I know some of you have made friends as well as enemies so we need to find a peaceful way to resolve the conflicts, who has any ideas?”

A representative of a settlement raised his hand up and said “Why is it necessary that we avoid all out war?” Lara answered “Because we are all human and now we have a common threat, we cannot tolerate divisions and wars among ourselves until we have at least freed Lagos of the undead and monsters”

Another representative raised her hand and said “Why don’t you just act as a judge when we have conflicts? I believe everyone will accept your decision”. Many people were angry at this suggestion, they coming here was already bad enough, if they were to make Lara judge she would then become the ruler of Lagos and many didn’t want that.

The settlement that proposed the idea wanted to get a closer connection with Terrania but they misjudged Lara’s objectives for asking that question.

Lara said “No! I cannot be the judge between you people, I’m already swamped controlling my territory I can’t be involved with you people. I propose that if a conflict happens between two or more settlements the settlements should postpone their conflict until Lagos is fully liberated from the undead. What do you guys think about that?”

Many settlements agreed with the idea and the leaders of the settlements voiced their agreement, the sanctuary was one of them. Lara continued “There are 12 Rank 7 monsters and 2 Rank 8 monsters in Lagos, when those monsters have been slain conflicts can start conflicts. You all have done a great job in reaching Rank 6 but as you’ve seen from representative Funmi and representative Emeka’s fight, Rank 7s are far more powerful than Rank 6s the difference is very huge compared to the previous Ranks.

That is because Rank 7 is a threshold Rank, especially for High Humans; Rank 7 High Humans gain a lot compared to other races. After Rank 7, increasing one’s Rank will be extremely tough. So I advise you all to take it easy and be cautious when facing these Rank 7 monsters they are like nothing you’ve ever faced. Any questions?”

Jola raised his hand and asked “Why haven’t you just killed all the Rank 7 monsters?” Lara replied “I have my reasons, one of them being that as selfless as it may seem, I want you all to grow in strength. It is necessary for Nigeria as a whole and Africa on a larger scale. Killing these monsters as you might expect is nothing to me but it would be more beneficial if you guys killed them”

Lara continued as no further questions were asked “There is something you must know. I have killed all the aerial monsters in Lagos because I considered that they would be too much for you guys to handle and would hinder your growth. In other states it is not the same, undead and aerial monsters coordinate and people must live underground.

And also some of you might have questioned why the Rank 7s haven’t attacked you. That is because they have seen a benefit in staying in their territories, what that benefit is, I don’t know. One month after this meeting they will attack you; they will be nothing like you’ve ever seen. I advice that you prepare as much as you can in that time”

Lara gave them some time to digest the information and said “If you have any questions ask. If not you may go to the roof of this building to have private discussions” she waited for a while and when it was confirmed that there were no questions she left.

Many of the settlements came to where the sanctuary representatives were and asked them for a trade deal. They hadn’t done this before because they felt they could achieve the same with time and because they knew they didn’t have much to offer considering the amount of Rank 3s the sanctuary had. But now that they didn’t have any time they could only broker a deal even if it was a one sided deal.

Anita and Deji handled the negotiations. They usually agreed on creating weapons with the monster or undead corpses they provided as long as the settlements paid with en-code and monster corpses. Many settlements had mostly undead parts but with the attack coming soon they would have monster parts so it wasn’t completely disadvantageous.

Those who didn’t already have enough monster corpses could still buy a limited amount of weapon orders as long as they paid later. The only settlement that didn’t benefit from this was the Venuri Kingdom as they had pissed off the sanctuary and a few other settlements with their behavior, they felt it below themselves to ask for help from settlements they had conflicts with.

Many people asked if an armor like Mira’s could be made but the sanctuary just replied that it wasn’t currently possible and the sanctuary did not make her armor. This caused many people to ask Mira about her armor but she just responded with her usual “Confidential” response.

…

After the discussions ended the sanctuary representatives went back to their residence. While Mira was changing a familiar voice sounded in her head “Hello, sorry for the late reply. I know I said one year but things over here were harder than I expected. You can come over now for the exchange, I’ll send you the location where I’ll pick you up”. It was Jade’s voice.

Mira asked “Are you talking to me from Abuja?” Jade replied “No, of course not, long range communication requires a lot of planning and cost. I’m close to where you are, I didn’t enter the city since there are these weird Meta Humans everywhere which I know nothing about, I don’t want to alert them”.

Mira laughed and said “You really shouldn’t there is someone here who might be able to beat you”. Jade was silent for a few seconds before saying “What Rank is the person?” Mira laughed and said “I’ll tell you when we meet”. Jade replied “Ok, bye now”.

…

Anita recounted the details of the deals she had made and afterward Mira said “I will be going to visit my master for a while after we return”

Everyone was shocked. Jola said “Is it because of the attacks that are coming?” Mira shook her head and didn’t say anything. They all immediately understood that she didn’t want to say why.

On the next day Emeka came with the cloned phoenixes made of golden energy and took the representatives back to their settlements.