Since Fahl was simultaneously the highest administrative officer and the guildmaster of the Adventurers’ Guild, for the sake of handling both sides of his duties more conveniently, the newly built City Hall was located directly opposite the Adventurers’ Guild, with only a wide street separating them.

With such close distance, it was foreseeable that in future expansion works, small problems would inevitably arise.

But at the present stage, for Fahl personally, this arrangement was without a doubt extremely convenient, and he made good use of it.

Inside a simply furnished yet respectable reception room, Fahl had just finished a brief meeting with two officials, one from Fishing-Sail Harbor and the other from Norwid.

After the usual round of polite formalities, Fahl handed the follow-up negotiations over to his assistant, Mirabelle.

These two officials had come to “learn from experience.” They wanted to replicate Mordu’s successful system of managing Pujis and efficiently cultivating mushroom fields in their own cities, yet throughout the meeting, they cleverly avoided raising any discussion of the costs or returns such a system might entail.

Fahl was well aware of their little schemes to “freeload,” but he didn’t care in the slightest.

At present, Mordu["Mushroom City"] was developing at full momentum; such petty gains no longer concerned him.

He only laid down one core requirement: whether in Fishing-Sail Harbor or Norwid, all regulations of their “Puji Masters’ Association” must remain identical to those at Mordu headquarters.

Once this consensus was reached, the details of negotiations and paperwork naturally fell to Mirabelle.

As the Mycelium Carpet continued its unstoppable spread toward surrounding cities, the monopoly advantage of mushroom fields clearly could not last forever.

Judging by both the response speed of the neighboring cities and the rate at which the Carpet spread, Mordu’s high-growth period fueled by mushroom dividends could at most last another half a year.

If they wished to maintain the lead, they could not pin all hope on mushroom fields.

In Fahl’s view, the next critical opportunity lay in the “Puji Masters” themselves.

Using Mordu’s geographic advantage of being closest to the Pujis Dungeon, they needed to further refine the trading, appraisal, and selective cultivation systems for Pujis. Only by shaping Mordu into the undisputed “Puji Masters’ Center” for the entire region, and even the entire kingdom, could they hold their advantage into the next phase of development.

And at the heart of this was the standard-setting authority and industry discourse power controlled by the “Puji Masters’ Association.”

Clearly, those two neighboring lords had yet to realize the importance of this.

Everything was proceeding smoothly for now—except for two matters that especially drew Fahl’s concern…

After half a day passed, when Mirabelle returned to the office having finished negotiations, Fahl tapped a report on his desk with his finger and asked:

“Mirabelle, why is there no mention at all of Mordu’s emerging gangs in this latest comprehensive situation report?”

Gangs were something nearly every city had to contend with. Back when Mordu was still a small town, its scale had been too small for gangs to survive.

But now, Mordu had become a new city with tens of thousands of inhabitants and high turnover. The rise of gangs was practically inevitable.

According to conventional urban governance experience, dealing with gangs one by one would consume massive manpower and resources, with limited results.

Take down one group, and another would soon spring up.

In fact, even if left alone, most of these so-called “gangs” would naturally disappear for various reasons.

However, this did not mean Fahl could turn a blind eye.

Assigning a few people to monitor, track gang activities, and intervene early when one showed signs of growing into a major threat—this was a necessary precaution.

Thus, not seeing any mention of gang activity in the routine report made Fahl dissatisfied, suspecting Mirabelle of negligence in underestimating the issue.

Facing the guildmaster’s questioning, Mirabelle quickly explained:

“My lord, I wasn’t negligent or unwilling to include it. It’s just that… at present, there really is nothing worth reporting!”

“What do you mean?” Fahl pressed.

“At present within Mordu, there are no gang organizations that have gained any real momentum. What exists are merely some groups calling themselves ‘gangs,’ but in reality they’re just small cliques of three to five people—not worth including in a report.” Mirabelle’s tone carried helplessness. “We have indeed received some intelligence on gangs, but whenever we checked back after some time, they had already disbanded and disappeared. Not a single one has been able to persist or grow stronger.”

“That strange?”

Mirabelle nodded firmly.

Fahl had originally wanted her to remain vigilant in case some deeply hidden gang was secretly operating, but on second thought—gangs were different from assassination groups or spy networks. Completely concealing themselves was almost impossible.

Perhaps Mordu’s gangs were simply developing more slowly than expected?

Ultimately, he shifted the topic to the other matter troubling him.

“Then what about the newly discovered Stone Forest in the east? I don’t see any follow-up investigation in the report either.”

The Stone Forest he referred to had recently been reported by adventurers, located deep within the uninhabited woods east of Mordu.

According to descriptions, the trees and even parts of the terrain there had been petrified by some unknown force.

“The detailed report on the Stone Forest only just arrived. It wasn’t in time to be included in the summary you received.” Mirabelle quickly pulled the report from another stack of files.

“The cause of petrification has been preliminarily identified. It is produced by a unique type of Pujis found in that region. These Pujis emit a weak but continuously effective petrification ray that has altered the environment.”

“However, since the petrification also affects the Mycelium Carpet and other Pujis, causing endless mutual consumption, the spread has been confined to that region and hasn’t expanded. A Puji Master has already successfully captured a sample for study.”

“Petrification Pujis…” Fahl murmured, nodding. As expected, more and more strange phenomena in this land always tied back to Pujis. “Best to send people for a deeper investigation. Find out the exact environmental causes that gave rise to this special Pujis. Also, assign personnel to monitor the Stone Forest regularly. If there’s any sign of expansion, report it immediately.”

…

Meanwhile, a group of Dark Sorcerers departed Imperial lands.

Their mission: to penetrate deep into enemy territory and hold a dark ritual in a special zone deemed “relatively safe.” The rightful source is novel•fire.net

The risks were self-evident. If discovered by humans, stranded in the heart of enemy territory, survival chances were nearly nil.

Because of this, many Dark Sorcerers who had initially been tempted by the rich rewards turned pale and withdrew upon learning the actual task and location.

Yet, where heavy rewards existed, brave fools would follow.

In the end, nearly half of them could not resist the promises made by Duke Sigismund and chose to join this expedition.

Valen was, of course, among them!