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[Attention to all related personnel! The Void Tide is upon us. It is estimated to co within the next week. Please make sufficient preparations.]
Cedric's face turned solemn as soon as he read the system ssage. It was the very first one he saw as soon as he ended his daily ditations at the beginning of the day.
Without any further ado, he stood up and changed into his uniform.
He checked his inbox as he went, noticing that there's already several notices of urgent activities blaring at him, indicating that there is indeed an ergency and all available personnel are needed.
As he stepped out of the complex where the Interim officers like him resided, he couldn't help but look at the distant horizon.
With his acute senses, he could vaguely make out what's out there. He had seen shadows of the Scarlet Division Wall in perpetual motion. And while it is difficult, he was also able to slightly peer beyond this wall to see the deep and murky abyss on the other side.
It's hard to discern anything within that abyssal fog, but Cedric could currently tell that the concentration of the fog has indeed risen these past few days.
The Void Tide is a phenonon that occurs when the concentration of the Void Air spikes beyond the normal level. When this happens, the void will eventually push its way beyond the wall and overflow to the nearest resistance camps. This is sothing that happens now and then, and even the Scarlet Division Wall was unable to stop it.
Its intensity is decided by how many levels it spiked beyond the regular level. It could range from manageable to disastrous. The worst part is that it's unpredictable past this point. The personnel of each camp must be ready to mobilize everything it has should the tide beco too intense.
"Hey! What are you standing out there for!? Move it!"
Cedric's attention returned to the present when he heard soone reprimanding him. He embarrassedly smiled and began moving towards the places that needed his help.
Yeah, this is an ergency. He couldn't afford to stand here and stare at the incoming disaster.
As one of the listed forging masters, he was automatically enlisted to perform maintenance of the crucial equipnt that the camp could use to resist the incoming disasters.
When he arrived at the nearest work environnt to him, he saw that his fellow forging masters were already there. Even the first forging master he worked with was there as well. When that person saw him, he nodded with acknowledgent, and Cedric returned that gesture.
After that, Cedric's attention turned to the person on the podium, addressing all of the forging masters.
"Forging Masters, please perform maintenance on the pylons. They should all be in an appropriate condition since the last ti they were used, but just in case repairs were needed, don't hesitate to do so; the camp will cover the expenses."
This was all he had to say to the forging masters, but it's certainly not everything. Nobody complained though since the situation was just that hectic. Besides, their work was important, and they couldn't afford to be distracted, which is probably why the person held off from saying more.
Since they have work to do, the Forging Masters began marching deeper into the camp. As they walked, they began scattering one by one.
The forging masters can designate a specific pylon to check. And since this was an urgent mission and there weren't many of them, they had to assign themselves to certain areas where the pylons were to start their work.
Cedric himself had already done this. In fact, as soon as their task was given, he already claid a batch of pylons to work on, and as soon as he could, he rode his sword to get there imdiately.
These so-called pylons were part of the overarching network of influence of the camp. It is these pylons that allowed the complicated terrain in this place to work in their favor. The system AI of the camp also uses this pylon network as routes to deliver necessary supplies to the entirety of the camp at express speed.
And in tis like this, this pylon network will be used to resist the incoming void tide. However, this action will take ti, and for this to work, all pylons must be working to an appropriate degree. Because of the ti it takes, this function couldn't be used during the unexpected invasion that Cedric and his fellow cadets experienced on their first day.
When Cedric arrived at his area of responsibility, he imdiately summoned the pylons.
The pylons were like massive torches erging from underground compartnts. Each one easily stood at a hundred-ter height. At its crown, a small crystal could be seen flickering with a faint white-ish blue light protected by hardened glass.
Cedric wasted no ti and began performing a maintenance check on the pylon. He already has its structural blueprint morized, so should any problem arise, he could imdiately begin working with it.
He started off with a single one first. He activated the pylon, and as soon as he did so, it imdiately began releasing pulses of energy. This was a signal that's attempting to connect to the nearest pylons around it.
Cedric let this go for five minutes while he inspected the structure even deeper, going as far as to utilize his eyes to penetrate the shell of the pylon to see its interior structures, making sure that it is indeed working properly.
After five minutes, Cedric deed it okay and deactivated it. He then had it go underground once more before ensuring that they're ready to launch at any given mont.
After this, Cedric activated two pylons at the sa ti. The distance of these two was at least 10 miles away, but to Cedric, it was no problem at all. He was still able to work with them with relative ease without compromising anything.
Then he moved on to working at three at the sa ti, then four, then five...
At maximum, Cedric could work on ten pylons at the sa ti, greatly saving him ti without lowering the quality of his work. Any more than this, and he'd feel strain because of the distance and the complicated structure of the pylons. Still, working with ten pylons at the sa ti was already amazing.
However, the Northwestern Scarlet Camp was too vast, and the forging masters were few in number. There's only three days before the next week arrives; it's doubtful if they could perform the maintenance checks on all of the pylons.
They wished that this announcent was made a few more days in advance; that way, they're not this pressed with ti. Unfortunately, even the ones responsible for alerting the camp didn't have much control over this either.
The abyssal void has always been unpredictable. The best thing they could do is adapt on the fly.
With this ergency, everybody in the camp was busy. Except maybe the cadets, since they're too weak and ignorant to deal with these things. They're probably ordered to stay in their dorms and wait for further instructions.
The buzzing activity of the camp seemingly made ti pass by rather quickly. Soon, the estimated hour of the tide was about to co.
Sadly, the forging masters are unable to check everything since they're pressed with ti. They were able to cover most of them through working tirelessly during these past three days, but there's simply not enough ti.
And while it is not for certain that the Void Tide will happen at the predicted hour, the pylons still need to be activated early on because if they wait until the tide overflows, it will already be too late.
And so, the big shots of the camp roused the pylons to activity.
Cedric, along with the forging masters, witnessed how all the pylons rose from their hidden bunkers and were activated remotely. As soon as they began releasing pulses, a complicated web of light connected each pylon to the other. This web shrouded the entirety of the camp, forming an elaborate defense and protecting all of the structures around it, no matter how big or small.
Beep! Beep!
The forging masters were distracted by that beeping sound. They looked at the network, and to nobody's surprise, they discovered that so pylons were inactive and needed repairs ASAP. If these pylons aren't repaired, there will be a hole in the protective defense network, and the losses will be devastating.
"Fuck! Sorry, guys! I thought I checked that properly!"
One of the forging masters cursed angrily at himself before flying off to his designated location. One of the malfunctioning pylons turned out to be sothing he worked on, making this his responsibility.
Nobody said that thing, though. Nobody blad that person for missing one because they simply couldn't. The pressure was indeed too imnse. But even if they didn't say anything, it doesn't an that that's acceptable.
Besides, nobody has ti for admonishnt. There are still a lot of pylons that needed repairs, and they must focus on them because the tide was about to co.
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