The One Luna

One month later, the Sovereign Nation's Armies had swept the Panay Island. They had moved from Guimaras Island to Iloilo City in the Southern part of Panay. Afterward, the first Army lead by Luna spread out and cleared out the Cities and the Mountains on the far East, West, and North. These were the areas that they didn't tackle earlier when they were still strengthening themselves. Eight hours a day of grinding was mandatory. But even with that, after reaching level 40, the EXP needed shot up exponentially. Even Luna who had the support of Sura, Maxene, and the Mutant Beasts she tamed that were high enough level to go out and fight, was only at level 53.

Thus far they have found a Physical Defense Agimat, while the Southern Army found another Physical Attack Relic.

"We haven't found as many Agimats as I expected, but I guess two is better than one," Luna said as he was equipping the Physical Defense Agimat for now. It was in the form of a necklace, carved in wood that when equipped, actually wraps your body in an invisible layer that adheres to you, making it so you won't even notice it's there.

It increased his natural physical resistance by 100%. While it was pretty good, it couldn't compare to increasing the whole Nation's defense by 10%. People, houses, walls, turrets, everything under the Sovereign Nation would be more resilient to physical damage.

"As of right now, this is probably the most valuable Agimat. Not counting the EXP Agimat, of course," Luna said.

"Indeed it is. It's the only effective way of increasing the maximum cap of all the walls, built or unbuilt." Elder Aran agreed. Prior to receiving this Agimat, the only way to strengthen the walls was to kill Mutant Beasts and use their skin and infuse it into the walls. Doing this applied to all walls directly, which is also one of the reasons why they didn't expand just yet. The goal was to ensure the Negros Island's security first. Bigger territory didn't always mean better if you couldn't defend it.

***

Agimats weren't as abundant in other countries that had bigger landmass. One key reason was that the Agimats produced were more abundant thanks to Luna's activities. It was apparent at this point that those who had more potential were rewarded more.

Along with that theme, it was also done on purpose, due to the fact that the Philippines was much harder to conquer and more susceptible. All the islands made it so any island you occupied could be attacked by the aquatic mutant beasts. Travel from island to island was also harder unless it was a situation like the arrival of the Elves.

Nevertheless, Agimats were still present in other countries. The <Nation of Texas> for example already found two. They knew that installing them would count towards the triggering of the next phase so they held off on it for now. The <Tri-State Nation> had one, while the <California Nation> got one as well after discovering that one of the Nations in Central America had one, and then proceeded to steal it.

This event finally triggered all the central states to unite. They adapted the Nation's previous name, naming themselves the <Nation of the United States>. Claiming themselves as the true essence of what the USA stood for.

***

China as a whole got 4 Agimats, only one of them belonging to their ONE candidate Jian Zihao. The rest were spread out among the other factions, with two belonging to the Government faction. One they found, and the other one they got wind of and managed to steal it before Jian Zihao got there. This was especially infuriating for him. He promised that he would take revenge for his Giant friends, but the Chinese government ended up gaining an Agimat over him.

"It seems I've been too lax." He said. True enough, after he hit the soft cap of level 50, he wanted to wait for the next phase to get a lead again. It was like playing an MMORPG that didn't quite have a level cap, but it gets to a point where gaining a level took insane amounts of effort until the next patch.

***

Israel was going along fine, especially when the group of Seraph was helping them out. It was still indeterminate as to why they were there when they could probably of some help to the Gods at the moment. One thing was for sure, there was something important in Israel that the Gods would send such high ranking Angels here.

***

Africa had a lot of different Nations. But one stood out among the rest. In the town of Gurara, in the area surrounding the Gurara falls, a man by the name of Mustapha who had managed to create a <Nation> with just him in it and survive, actually killed the leader of Nigeria's top <Nation>, a man who went by the name Abdullahi Suleiman. The main reason was due to the fact that he had actually obtained two Agimats! One of physical defense, and another of magic defense. It was mostly the Physical Defense Agimat that did the work, as besides the <Sovereign Nation>, not a lot of Nations had such an abundance in Mages.

***

The people of Australia and the Demon race finally decided to work together, albeit, reluctantly. It turns out that the Mutant Beasts, lead by the Mutant Kangaroo race managed to obtain Agimats that helped their mastery of the elements. The Human and Demon race leaders had to convene and find a way to cooperate better. The Demon race noticed that the Humans kept repeating a word that started with the letter "C" and after asking what it meant, out of curiosity, they came to find it's true meaning. They ended up loving the word and at the very least, it became a somewhat strange, yet effective starting point for their cooperation.

***

"Lord Luna, the initial sweep of Panay Island has been finished except for some places in the North-Western area," Paco reported.

"Good job, Paco. What of the caves?" Luna replied.

"Out of the three, we have only investigated the Negra Cave.* As for the Biana and Palje caves... we've come across some problems."

"That's fine. The Biana and Palje caves are categorized as Class I caves. If they were dangerous before the new world, they're even more dangerous now."

The objective of classifying caves was to conserve, protect, and manage the natural wealth and heritage of the caves. But it was also a way to protect threatened species that thrive in it, along with natural dangers that might be considered extremely dangerous prior to the new world.

Negra Cave is classified as a "Class II"

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Class II:

Caves with areas or portions which have hazardous conditions and contain s.e.n.s.i.t.i.v.e

geological, archeological, cultural, historical and biological values or high-quality

ecosystem. It may be necessary to close sections of these caves seasonally or

permanently. It is open to experienced cavers or guided educational tours/ visits.

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A Class I cave, however, was much more restrictive, often prohibiting tourists altogether.

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Class I:

Caves with delicate and fragile geological formations, threatened species, archeological

and paleontological values and extremely hazardous conditions. Allowable activities are

limited to mapping, photography, educational and scientific purposes and closed for

ecotourism activities

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"It's not just that, Lord Luna. It seems these caves have turned into some type of dungeons. One of our men almost died when he was ambushed by a giant water bug. He's stable now, but he was nearly crushed together with his armor. The impact from its bite alone was enough to damage a level 40 soldier to the point of extreme pain." Paco knew that some of the men had a fear of water bugs as well. He overheard a few soldiers talking about how they got bitten on their toes as a kid and how much it hurt. The thought of a Mutant giant water bug was enough to give them nightmares.

"No worries, I'll be careful. I'm not afraid of the water bugs, it's whatever protected species are in those caves." Although he was worried, Luna was more excited about the possible resources. He was sure that there was going to be an Agimat in those caves. He just wasn't sure which one.

"Father, if we find one of those giant water bugs, can you boil the water that it's staying in with your Fire Anito?" Maxene asked. A few days ago she actually managed to catch a giant crab, and after boiling it, she found out that it tasted much better than she anticipated. This made her want to eat more boiled crustaceans.

"I don't think those bugs taste as good, Max." Luna laughed bitterly. The thought of eating a giant water bug was not a pleasant thought to him.

"Maybe if you make your special sauce? If not can I go find some more crabs?" She insisted. The special sauce she was talking about wasn't actually all that special. It was something commonly done, wherein you would take some soy sauce and mix it with either calamansi/calamondin* or lemon. The saltiness of the soy sauce would be perfectly complemented by the bitterness of either citrus fruit.

"I'm surprised you liked it so much. It's not hard to do, I'll teach you during dinner. I promise I'll try to find more mutant crabs for you, okay?" Luna replied. He couldn't quite resist this daughter of his, despite the fact that he and Sura were forcefully turned into parents. It also couldn't be denied that they got much closer thanks to Maxene.

"YES!!!! Let's go conquer that dungeon quick!" Maxene grabbed her weapon and jumped up as she exhibited a fighting stance, froze for a few seconds, and then hopped along excitedly.

Sura was lightly covering her mouth with one hand as she giggled. "The great Lord Luna delegated to being a cook." She jokingly teased him.

Ever since Maxene came along, Sura had been smiling more. Luna would always be enraptured whenever her usual stoic expression would turn into a smile or a laugh. "Shush it, or I'll give you my other special sauce." He teased back.

"Ah!" Her mouth opened in shock and her eyes widened as well.

"Ah? Saying 'Ahh' already?" Luna continued to tease.

"You!" Her whole face was blushing even more than before as she quickly put on her smiling mask. "You hush! Before someone hears!" She then stood up and hurriedly walked away as she yelled out to Max in the distance, "Max, wait for me! I'll help you hunt for more crabs!"

Luna had a victorious look on his face as he quietly said, "Stoic girl 0, Luna 1."

He only took a few seconds before his face turned serious again. Speaking into his comms he said, "Have the second Army initiate the secondary sweep on the island. Integrate those who joined us into the second Army as well, and have their family members get situated and comfortable back at base."

"Yes, Lord Luna." Several voices replied.

After saying that, he did a Nation-wide announcement, "The deadline has been extended another six months."

Initially, he just wanted to do a sweep of territories along the way, but after much consideration, he felt as if he might as well sweep the other surrounding areas. And while he was at it, he would circle around the territory occupied by Emil, and search the other areas further up North for more Agimats.

Emil, who was expecting Luna to just journey straight to his territory, thought he would arrive in a week. But instead, all he got was a confused Genesis who didn't know anything besides what Luna wanted him to hear. He didn't have a choice, as he would have to report anything he heard. He was afraid that a lack of consistent reports might get him in more trouble.

***

Emil slammed his fist on his desk, breaking it in half. "DAMN THAT LUNA! He thinks he can just keep me waiting?! NEIN! I will make sure I torture him until he begs me to kill him!" He brandished his Itak Tagalogs, doing a heroic pose as an evil grin filled with anticipation appeared on his face.