Occupying the Upper Region
Deon attracted questioning looks from everyone around the map. He frowned, then straightened up and looked for General Li. The general was still standing at the bottom of the stage expressionlessly, almost looking bored. Seeing that Deon had made eye contact with him, he smiled and made his way over.
The others in the 37th unit were speechless. How did the vice commander have such a good relationship with an actual general, when did this happen?
It wasn't actually as exaggerated as they thought, General Li was just appreciative of young talent.
"Deon, is something wrong?" The general quickly noticed Deon's unease.
"Mm, this location." He pointed at the highest point on the map, far above the rest and only a quarter mile from the peak.
"Ah, so it's this one." The general nodded. "It's quite high up, but the route actually shouldn't be the worst out of these locations." He casually nodded to the other 2 that Deon pointed out.
"That's not my point." Deon frowned. "At this altitude, the spiritual energy density is too high."
Everyone stared at him blankly. They simply didn't understand his point. The spiritual energy density was…too high? How could it be too high? Wasn't it just increasingly useful the higher the concentration of spiritual energy became?
"Too high?" Even the general looked confused. "You mean…?"
"Spiritual energy is key to training and recovering one's origin energy." Deon began talking as if he was lecturing everyone present. "The conditions become more desirable as the spiritual energy concentration increases…up until a certain point. This point is different for 1-Star and 2-Star shamans, but this location is far above the perfect point for 1-Star shamans."
"This…is this true? It's not that I doubt you Vice Commander Deon, it's just that I have never heard about such an idea before now…" General Li furrowed his brows.
Deon sighed in his mind. Were it not for the fact that he didn't want to be sent up to those higher locations, he probably wouldn't bother revealing this, as it would only make peoples' suspicions of him grow deeper.
"Until very recently, nobody had explored this far up the mountain, so it's normal that this isn't common knowledge." Deon went on. He said this, but in truth, he was surprised that upper command had not realised this yet.
"I'm sure that if you ask around and find some 1-Star shamans who climbed as high as possible, that they reported feeling sick, lasting for a few days after they descended to suitable levels. Being in an area of extreme spiritual energy is harmful to 1-Star shamans, but the main problem is that these conditions are even better for those 2-Star shamans."
Deon looked around to see if people were understanding him. Slowly, their faces changed.
"Deon, you're saying that if we camp at this height…we will become sick, and find ourselves even more helpless before 2-Star shamans than normal?" Reana finally got his meaning.
"Right." Deon nodded. "Not only that, but the spiritual energy density this high up is so much more useful to 2-Star shamans that they will naturally gravitate towards these higher regions. This is why I didn't go much higher than the perfect level for 1-Star shamans."
"This, if this is true, then this is actually quite a big deal!" General Li started sweating secretly. "Vice Commander Deon, what you said before is correct, there were indeed 1-Star shamans who returned from the upper region with symptoms of illness and weakness, only we never even thought to make the connection to the spiritual energy density…"
"I would follow up with those people so that these plans can be altered." Deon suggested, then thought of something and added: "If you need anymore proof, then just remember the three gold class 1-Star moon river reed spirits that I found. I found these spirits after ascertaining the perfect altitude for 1-Star shamans, which is also the same for 1-Star spirits."
Deon pointed at the map of the upper region and dragged his finger along a slightly curved line.
"This area is the most optimal height for 1-Star shamans to train and recover, but also for 1-Star spirits to form and grow. The reason I found so many naturally formed spirits is because I stayed at around this height, give or take 400 feet."
"Quickly, could you draw out this perfect region? And-"
"Of course, I understand." Deon nodded. Time was of the essence, he didn't want to waste useless words when he already understood the general's meaning. He accepted a pen from Captain Dan, then carefully drew 4 lines onto the map and labelled them.
The lowest line, 'lower boundary of the perfect 1-Star zone'. The second line, 'exact height of perfect 1-Star atmosphere'. The third line, 'upper boundary of the perfect 1-Star zone'. The fourth line, 'maximum height before 1-Star shamans are hindered'.
After some thought, he drew a fifth line even higher up.
'Maximum height before 1-Star shamans become seriously ill and incapacitated'.
"That should be all you need…personally, I would focus the camps around this goldilocks zone."
Seeing that nobody understood the reference, Deon sighed and explained.
"The perfect zone for 1-Star shamans and spirits, I mean."
General Li spent a few seconds pondering, then asked Deon a final question.
"What about 2-Star shamans and spirits? Is there also a limit?"
"This mountain is too small to hold such concentrated spiritual energy that can negatively affect 2-Star shamans…I never went up that far, but I assume that the very peak of the mountain would provide the best conditions for 2-Star shamans and also 2-Star spirits on Jing Mountain."
Hearing this, the large man nodded seriously, then thanked Deon and quickly excused himself. He didn't contact anyone immediately however, there simply wasn't enough time for that! Instead, the now stressed general actually returned to the stage.
"It has been brought to my attention that certain camp locations have been placed in imperfect areas. Please return your maps and allow me to make suitable adjustments…there should at most be one or two of these locations on each map."
The commanders grumbled at this suspicious last minute change, but they all did as instructed. General Li quickly checked the maps, then crossed off the camps that were positioned too high up the mountain. He wasn't yet able to add suitable replacements, but preventing the 1-Star shamans from going to these dangerous places was the main priority.
In all, he crossed off 7 locations. His solution was to withhold the teams that would have been assigned to these places. Those teams would remain in the 1st unit camp until a suitable replacement location was decided on.
And so, 200 uncertain troops were left behind as the other 2,800 departed. The general didn't see them off, he was far too busy to bother with that.
He needed to explain himself to the admiral, he needed to find proof that Deon's conjecture was correct, he needed to reassign these troops…ah, just why did he take a child's word on this matter?!
**********
General Li's problem was no longer any of Deon's concern. He was sure that if they just looked into it a little, they would find that he was absolutely correct.
Deon didn't blame them for being oblivious towards something so important. After all, he was only able to understand this after experiencing the 'perfect conditions' within the inheritance palace. Because of this, he could easily feel that a slightly higher spiritual energy was actually not as good as this perfection.
Deon saw those sick returnees first hand whilst he recovered at the 1st unit camp, and eventually, everything fit together perfectly. Combined with some side notes mentioned around other topics in Blood God's books, Deon finally came to this conclusion and had no doubts that he was correct.
Anyway, just pointing out this problem would probably earn him some merit, he didn't really care what happened next. Maybe he could have reported this matter earlier, but he honestly thought that the upper command would have worked it out already, so the thought didn't cross his mind until he saw the map just now.
In the end, Deon led a group of 80 to a place that he was already familiar with, but wanted to explore further. The fact that he was trusted with 80 men, a number between that of a captain and a commander, already showed that his vice commander title wasn't just for show; it really did grant him a level of authority above that of captain!
Their destination this time was the very same waterfall behind which Deon found the 3 gold class spirits.
The waterfall was only small, cascading down from a 30 foot high cliff into the small lake below. Really, this lake was closer in size to a pond, then at the end of this body of water, the pool narrowed and morphed into a stream. The stream carried the water in a slight zig-zag pattern, before turning back around and entering into the mountainside itself.
Their camp was to include both the upper and lower platforms of land, surrounding the waterfall's start and end. Deon looked to his side and examined the terrain, taking note of the steep forest hill to one side of the lower platform. This was the only possible direction from which there could be an enemy attack, since they were surrounded by sheer cliff faces on all other sides.
Deon cracked a smile, nodding to himself in satisfaction as his men got to work. This was the beginning of his first fortress of war!