The Fourth Secret: A Fantasy LitRPG Adventure (Divine Apostasy Book 4) by A. Kay (best short books to read .TXT) 📕

form a War Council party and a City Council party. In this way, I’ll always be available, and can break any stalemates you encounter.”

Ruwen opened his Abilities tab and found Battlefield Promotion, a level eighteen Commander ability. Adding one point would allow him to give a person in each of his groups the ability to make a group of their own. If he added another point, that person could pass the ability down another level. In this way, information could quickly pass up the chain of command from the front lines to the War Council. He didn’t need that though, and added just the one ability point, bringing his total remaining down to ten. He glanced at the notification.

Ping!

You have learned a new Ability…

Ability: Battlefield Promotion

Level: 1

Class: Fighter

Sub Class: Commander

Effect: Grant one member from each group the ability to create their own group. Each ability level extends this power to another layer.

Type: Group

Now when he focused on Hamma, he had the option of Promoting her, which he did. The City Council contained the Order, Merchant, and Mage Elders. In Chat, Ruwen spoke to Hamma again. Add Gabryel, Zahara, and Odalys to your group please. After a moment of thought he added. And Niall. Let me know if you also gained my Chat ability.

Hamma’s group formed under her portrait, and a moment later she responded. Chat works for me.

Ruwen knew he couldn’t speak with the members of Hamma’s group, he would have needed to take the Emissary Specialization for that. He focused on building the other group.

The War Council contained the Fighter, Observer, and Worker Elders. So Ruwen added Vachyl, Drivyd, and Yana to the second group available to Ruwen since advancing Ringleader to level two.

Ruwen faced Elder Vachyl, who was also a Warlord. “Drivyd will need to communicate with his Observer teams, can you facilitate that with a Battlefield Promotion for him?”

If Elder Vachyl tried to hide his irritation, he failed. “This isn’t my first battle, child,” Vachyl said. “My Ringleader, Draft, and Battlefield Promotion abilities are all maxed, and Drivyd is in contact with his advance teams.”

Ruwen didn’t let Vachyl’s tone bother him. He needed the man’s experience. “Thank you.”

Battlefield Promotion worked on one person per group. Since Vachyl could form his own groups, and Drivyd could already Chat with his teams, Ruwen focused on the Worker Elder, Yana, and gave her the Battlefield Promotion.

Yana smiled at Ruwen. “Thank you. This will help with organizing the Lodge.”

Ruwen nodded at her and then looked around at everyone again. “These parties will serve as the mechanism for our communication. With such small groups, all decisions should be unanimous. If not, contact Hamma or I to break your stalemate.”

“And if you die?” Vachyl asked. “How will we communicate?”

That was an excellent question, and Ruwen tried to not read anything into the Warlord’s question. He faced Elder Vachyl. “Please reserve one slot for such an outcome. Since you have Draft, create a single group with Hamma, both Councils, Niall, and when they return, my parents and the Mage Tremine. Majority will decide issues.”

Vachyl nodded. “As you command.”

Ruwen looked around at the Elders, making sure not to let his gaze linger too long on the beautiful Merchant Zahara, who wore green leathers that left little to the imagination. “I think there are two things we should work out before I leave. How to use the Temple Guardians and how we split the next twenty thousand revivals between defense and infrastructure.”

Ruwen had thought these decisions would be straightforward, but after thirty minutes of everyone arguing, it became obvious there would be no consensus. He believed in democracy, but he also needed quick and decisive decisions.

“Thank you for everyone’s input,” Ruwen said. “You have all made many persuasive arguments. The reality is our needs are dire everywhere. So, the War and City Council will each receive ten thousand slots, splitting the revival baths evenly as well. We will reevaluate our needs in three days.”

No one looked happy about that, which probably meant Ruwen had made the right decision.

Lir, Ruwen asked, you told me we could repair four Temple Guardians once we had terium. If you fixed them now, approximately what percentage of the temple’s terium reserves would it consume.

Forty-eight percent.

That equated to ten thousand revivals. The four Temple Guardians were valuable, but probably not that valuable. Once his parents returned with more terium, they could reassess fixing those four.

Ruwen continued. “I know how valuable the Temple Guardians are, and I don’t want to lose them. But in our current state, we need their contributions. We will divide the area between us and the invading army into two rings. Inside each of these rings, we will place a Temple Guardian in the air, near the ground, and underground.” Ruwen raised his hand to stop the objections. “We will set them to Caution, and they’ve already been reconfigured from assault to stealth. The remaining two will stay here at the temple.”

Vachyl grumbled about the slowness of stealth mode and Gabryel muttered about leaving the temple undefended. Ruwen had always wanted to please people, but leadership seemed to center on limiting how unhappy you made others.

Lir, I know you can’t modify interfaces, but can you update maps with the location of the Temple Guardians and any enemies they discover?

I can.

Please do so for the eight people in this room, Niall, Lylan, Sift, my parents, Bliz, and Tremine.

Completed.

Ruwen carefully communicated how he wanted the Temple Guardians distributed.

As you wish, Lir responded.

Ruwen stood. “You will receive map updates from the Temple Guardians in real time.” He faced Vachyl. “I’m leaving with my team shortly. Please let me know where we can provide the most benefit.”

Hamma stood as well, and they left the room. Ruwen headed for the temple exit.

“The City Council is urging me to stop you,” Hamma said. “As Uru’s Messenger, they believe you are too valuable.”

Ruwen smiled at that and removed his totem, the Sublime Centipede of Solace, from his Inventory. It had taken about twenty minutes to fill