What Ben stumbled upon in the ruins of Vistarion was a underground room underneath the destroyed castle of the Alvarez Empire. He never explored Vistarion after the war, so he didn't know this room existed. This discovery caused him to become excited because there might be some good things here.

Ben entered the room alone while the others wait outside. He didn't know what kind of traps were set, so he didn't want to take any chances. He made the right decision because he was already hit by a strong Black Arts attack right after he entered.

He brushed it off like it was nothing because he had a high resistance to magic. Some more traps were triggered, but Ben passed them all easily. He triggered those traps on purpose to see what Zeref and the Spriggan 12 prepared to keep this place safe.

"Well, not bad. Anyone other than me would be dead right now. They came up with a powerful defense, so I hope they stored good things here."

Ben reached the underground room after walking down the path for a while. The room was rather wide and it was full of shelves. There are books, weapons and other items that were still in good condition. Ben can sense magic all over the place that was used to maintain this room's condition.

"Heh, it looks like a secret treasury from those old movies. Let's see what kind of treasures they are keeping here."

His discoveries weren't disappointing. The books here are research journals and magic books that Zeref, Irene and August wrote in the past. This is a true treasure room even for Ben who had become really powerful thanks to his magic.

He stored everything here including the weapons and magic items made from rare materials away. These magic weapons and items weren't effective against dragons, but they will have uses after the war had ended. They were made by great wizards, so they are bound to be powerful.

Ben thought of taking Alvarez's treasures in his time period. He dismissed the idea because he needed the Alvarez Empire to be powerful now that it was affiliated with his family. Besides, having these things is enough because he can get all the information here already.

"Alvarez must've had a lot of survivors too. We need to keep increasing our power by gathering more people to fight the dragons. Dozens of people won't be enough to defeat thousands of dragons. We need a lot of people and it will be better if they are very powerful."

Ben's wish was granted because his group stumbled upon another group of survivors near Vistarion. This group was led by someone unexpected. It's led by Brandish, one of the Spriggan 12 who had survived to this day, and they have some strong mages among them.

"Y-you, I thought you were dead."

Brandish became wary after seeing Ben because their nations were enemies. Ben's name spread far and wide when the dragon's invasion took place. In this time period, Ben never attacked the Alvarez Empire because of the dragon's invasion, but Brandish still knew him because of one of his feats that is still praised by Zeref.

"I survived somehow, and now I will attack the dragons again. You are Brandish, a member of the Spriggan 12, right? How about you join us in attacking the dragons? We can forget about the past between Alvarez and Ishgar. Our top priority is taking the world back from the dragons."

"ATTACKING THEM?! ARE YOU CRAZY?! THAT'S SUICIDE!"

"Then what? We just need to wait and wait until the dragons disappear from this world for an unknown reason that can't be properly explained? Don't be stupid, young lady. You're not a kid anymore. Freedom needs to be fought for."

"But how will we fight against them? Our magic wasn't effective against those dragons."

"Do you think I would attack them without a plan? Why don't you see what the members of my group can do now."

Brandish raised a eyebrow after seeing Ben's smug grin. Then her eyes widened when she saw 15 Dragon Slayers along with Ben and the rest of the group had Dragon Slayer weapons. This group was formed with the purpose of hunting and killing dragons.

"Why don't you join us on a dragon hunt to see what we can do? I'm sure you'll make a decision after that."

"...Alright, let's do it that way."

Brandish followed the dragon hunters to hunt a dragon. They go to a mountain quite far away where a dragon currently lives. The strategy was still the same. Ben set up a space barrier and then they start attacking the dragon under Wendy's lead.

Their target is a blade dragon, a dragon that can make magic blades. It is very good at attacking, but it's defense was something to be desired because it's scales weren't that tough. The battle looked easy, so it was enough to shock Brandish because she was witnessing young mages damaging a dragon without Ben's help.

"They can already hunt a dragon without my help. If this group grows, we'll be able to split up into two groups and hunt dragons separately. My goal is to make sure each of them can hunt a dragon alone."

"Is that even possible?"

"Yeah, a Dragon Slayer grows by defeating dragons and the ones who wield dragon weapons will also grow stronger after defeating dragons. The more dragons we defeat, the more weapons and armor I can make using the materials acquired from the dead dragons. We can upgrade our equipment as we kill more dragons."

Brandish was quite surprised with this group's potential. She couldn't figure out a way to fight the dragon army, but now she can see hope. If she wielded a weapon that Ben made using materials from dragons, then she will also have the power to damage dragons.

"Alright, I've made a decision, I will join you along with some of my men. But the civilians in my group can't be left alone, so some of my men will stay behind."

"No problem. Although I'm surprised you care about people's lives now."

"I just realized that I couldn't live well in this difficult time without those 'powerless' people."

Ben just smiled and didn't say anything. They return to Brandish's hideout after Ben took some materials from the dragon's dead body and turned it into a dragon lacrima. On the way back, Ben asked Brandish if there were other members of the Spriggan 12 that survived the invasion.

"I don't know. I found myself in a cave after I opened my eyes. There was some food and even protective barriers there. I wanted to leave, but I couldn't break the barriers."

Ben didn't even need to ask who sent Brandish to that good shelter. It was likely August because he had taken care of Brandish since she was a kid. He is like her grandfather and Ben knew that August really cared about Brandish like his own granddaughter.

"Hmm, the rest of the Spriggan 12 will be a great addition, but we can't have too much hope. Let's just try to find more mages and recruit them. The more people that join us, the higher our chance of winning will be."

Ben didn't have any problem doing this alone even though his enemies are thousands of dragons. It will be difficult and he can't win with a single attack. He will need to attack repeatedly and defeat a few dragons at a time, but he's sure he can win alone.

However, the people of this time period won't become independent after the dragons are gone. He wants them to become strong, especially his guild mates. So together they will defeat the dragons.

After Brandish joined them along with some of her men, the group became bigger and stronger. Their hunt became easier and they'll kill more dragons on Alakitasia. They also find more survivors and get more personnel.

The hunting group eventually split into two groups like Ben planned. So now they can hunt two dragons at the same time. Ben led the first group while Wendy led the second group. Brandish was in the first group because Ben still can't fully trust her and her men.

Also, Wendy already learned the space barrier as it's an enchantment. The space barrier is very important during their hunt, that's why they can only form 2 groups because only Ben and Wendy can create the barrier. They still can't hunt without it because Ben was worried the other dragons, especially Acnologia, found out about them.

Sooner or later, Acnologia will find out about this because the dragons on a continent disappeared. But it will take some time because the dragons were attacking Guiltina. Ben knew that there are many powerful mages there, so he hoped they can deal with the dragons for a while.

The hunt in Alakitasia went well and they gain more allies. No other member of the Spriggan 12 survived, but they were a lot of young mages with good potential. They will become stronger fast with the right guidance, so this was good enough.

When they leave Alakitasia for the eastern continent, the group had 184 members. There were more survivors in Alakitasia than Ishgar and a lot of them are mages. This number was far lower than the dragons, but it's better than just a few of them.

Now they are going to the eastern continent, a place Ben visited a few times for holidays with his family. Mira likes that place a lot. It made Ben want to take Mira there when he returned from the future. But now, he needed to focus because there are more dragons on the eastern continent, so this won't be easy.