Chapter 1575: Empty Levels
Chaos exploded all around and even the high-level people at level 40s weren’t able to catch their bearing before they could be in trouble.
After all, the ’mysterious smoke’ seemed poisonous even to level 20s and 30s, so they didn’t know if it had some effect on them, too! There were also those explosions that could go off at any time!
Although high-level people would unlikely get killed, it would still be painful! Who would risk injury for someone else’s problems?
This was a bit shameful, considering they were the powerhouses in the place, but it is what it is.
The City’s handful of Level 50s and above, except for the Lord, generally wouldn’t bother with parties anymore, so the highest levels here were really their level 40s.
Bleumrick knew this and it made him even more annoyed. He felt that this problem wasn’t even that much of a threat, considering their combined levels. However, it caused chaos as if it were.
He stepped forward, emanating angry energy that made people shiver.
His level was far beyond anyone there, so he entered without fear. Even if it had some effect—which was unlikely—it would be minor.
Rather, it’d be too embarrassing if he appeared shaken. Several minutes must’ve passed since things began, and there had been no progress!
Have these people avoided war for too long? His people were useless!!
Boom!
Another explosion sounded, making several people scream, exacerbating the panic that had slightly improved when people saw him.
He gritted his teeth.
"Guards! Assign people to investigate what is going on!"
"You!" he yelled, pointing at a flustered guard. "Call on the healers, alchemists, and reinforcements!"
"Wind users!" he yelled at his elementalists. "Gather all the smoke at the center of the garden! NOW! Wear masks if you have to!!"
Masks were only handkerchiefs, but it was better than nothing. Although they could get affected just by it touching their skin, they could be careful and remain upwind.
The City usually had a few hundred elementalists in its midst, most of whom would be under the command of the Lord.
Not everyone was in the vicinity, of course, so he could only mobilize so many from the get-go.
A few dozen wind elementalists above level 20 entered with their makeshift masks, surrounding the Sephon Villa. A leader would dictate where to control the wind, and—under the Lord’s sharp stare—they coordinated where they’d take the fog.
The wind wasn’t too strong today (if it was, it would’ve cleared the smoke earlier and without their intervention), but it at least made things easier for them to control.
It didn’t help, though, that there was another explosion soon after that.
BOOM!
People—level 40 or not—flinched, and once again, Bleumrick felt angry.
"You cowards! Do you want me to send you to war just so you can react better than this?!" he screamed.
The people flinched and gathered themselves. They followed instructions, though many grumbled under their breaths. They had seen people bubble through their mouths, and they were still unconscious! How could they not
be scared?In fact, they really couldn’t be blamed for this.
Most of the people they sent to clear mobs were the stronger slaves, and those they sent out to help out in wars—like Obi—were a select group of people who rarely stayed in the inner walls anyway.
The other ones from commoner backgrounds were also assigned to the gates and the battlements—they were the first line in danger.
This meant that the truly capable guards—that was, the ones with the most fighting experience— were far from the inner walls where the noble villas were situated.
In contrast, most of the guards left within the inner walls were nobles or had connections with them. Most nobles always felt entitled after all, they felt they deserved to have the best regardless of their jobs—whether it was in terms of comfort or safety.
Anyway, the people who lived in the Inner Circle—the high nobles—all had their own guards anyway. The families trained their own guards and assistants to protect them in times of danger, and they had invested a lot in them.
With the selfishness of many locals, most would not be willing to lend the guards they spent so many resources to train, and risk their lives for someone else’s problems.
In the case of the Sephon family, they had lost a lot of people, and most were still recovering from the mission to look for the Golds back then. This was one of the main reasons why the reaction time, even for Sephon family guards, was so slow and unsatisfactory.
Anyway, most of the first responders here simply weren’t equipped with the skills, attitude, or instincts to execute proper disaster management—no matter how high their levels were.
Not to mention, because most people in here were nobles, if they didn’t level up by aether crystals, then they were likely carried by stronger fighters from a young age.
Before, this type of culture didn’t affect them too negatively. They had so much power and hold, influence, and powerful slaves that Bleulle as a whole was rarely in danger.
For a long time, no one dared to cause trouble in the inner wall. After all, it had the precious and expensive aether sphere, and no one would dare make trouble lest they wanted to be permanently kicked out.
Now...it was clear that this system wasn’t as sustainable as they thought.
Anyway, the unpredictable sounds made the wind users reluctant to get too close, so there was plenty of dense smoke that leaked elsewhere, sometimes to follow wind users who got distracted.
Bleumrick had to watch someone fall down right in front of him, and he felt indignant at the sheer incompetence he was faced with.
Bleumrick’s eyes twitched as he headed to the sounds. As a level 60, he didn’t believe it could cause him damage. It was humiliating but he’d have to handle this himself!!
Before leaving, he glared at the elementalists. "Do your job properly! This better be contained when I return—otherwise, I’d kill you myself!!"