Chapter: Mana Lord

Erik was covered in sweat, the air around him seemed to have become stagnant as spurts of mana were drawn into his body.

He had simply been straining his mana systems for so long, he was on the verge of collapsing.

That steel like mana gate stood there, its surface scarred and showing signs of strain, but it seemed resilient, standing tall despite all else.

Erik needed more power, if he failed, then his tenth mana gate would be sealed and it would be even harder for him to breakthrough. He might have to dismiss breaking through it until he had three drops of mana.

Drops of mana? What if I didn’t compress them but made them expand?

A crazy idea filled Erik’s mind, reaching the level of forming mana drops was a massive undertaking, if he was to decompress them, he would be taking a step backwards.

Erik was determined and he had faith that he would be able to reform them.

A crazy expression appeared on his face, his hair wild and his clothes stuck to him with sweat.

“Form!” He yelled slamming his hands together.

He pressed the mana gates in his hands together as he pressed his feet together, aligning his mana system and closing off four gates to the outside world.

Mana moved from his dantian through his left leg up his right leg through mana channels to his left arm, down through to his right hand, there it would go through his arm and reach the mana gate where his spine and skull intersected.

Erik formed mana into shapes again, a shape he was only too familiar with, the mana turned into bullets, they weren’t aimed at his tenth gate yet, just circulating his system, one at first, then two, and three, with more being created, added to his mana channels, as their speed increased with every circulation.

He drained the ambient mana from within his body. Just as his body felt as if it was about to burst Erik laughed.

“Fire!”

With his words he no longer circulated the mana bullets and directed them towards the tenth mana gate.

The effect of the compressed mana drop decompressing was like gunpowder going off in a round, the mana drill and the mana bullets shot forward, a rushing noise filling Erik’s body as his mana system was being torn apart under the stress.

The mana bullets were like rounds from a machine gun, hitting the exact same spot, the tenth mana gate had no time to recover as tens of rounds slammed into it, cracks formed as it put up a good fight.

It wasn’t enough.

The mana bullets had done their damage as they broke through the tenth gate.

Erik, relaxed his control, the bullets, the control over his mana system disappeared. Erik fell backwards, fainting.

His tenth mana gate gave away fully, Erik’s entire body seemed to resonate on an entirely new level. The energy of the world resonated with him, a rush of invisible power shot out from Erik’s body as if messengers rushing to tell the world of the birth of a new lord.

***

Meanwhile in the smithy, Rugrat’s eyes cleared for a second as he looked towards the village headquarters, that invisible wave of power was visible to him, his mana gates resonating with that power.

He shook his head.

“Looks like he broke through his tenth mana gate.”

A thought crossed his mind as he started to chuckle, it grew into a laugh as he twirled his hammer and slammed it into the metal on the anvil.

“Very well! You’re not the only one that wants to increase his power!” Rugrat’s voice was filled with power, resounding through the smithy, his hammer blows strong and fast, but precise, his competitive spirit was ignited, how was he going to let his friend beat him in strength?

Rugrat bent down to his work with greater determination.

No one else felt the disturbance.

Erik remained on the ground, his mana system was torn apart, but as he rested the powerful recovery ability of his tempered blood showed its ability as his mana channels started to heal. Mana flowed into his body, his mana system changing as black impurities were washed out from his mana channels, staining his clothes.

***

Storbon woke up, looking at the door as a guard walked in, an angry look on his face.

Storbon reached for his hand, finding his fingers there, he was comforted, still he looked around the barracks quickly. When he hadn’t had a hand he was used to people looking at him with derision and spitting on him, thinking of him as a waste of resources in Alva Village, he didn’t feel that animosity anymore, but it was hard to forget.

“What are you doing, do you think this is a vacation! Get your asses up!” The guard yelled, kicking the nearest bunk.

People were stunned awake, looking at the guard.

“Get dressed and on the training grounds move it!” People started grabbing clothes and ambling about, drawing the ire of the guard.

“Don’t you know how to get dressed, too slow, out!” Storbon slept in his clothes and was rushing to the door.

The guard went through, using his club to ‘motivate’ people to hurry up.

Storbon saw that the other three barracks were being drained of people as guards moved through the ranks.

In the parade square Rugrat stood with his hands behind his back, wearing armor, it was well worn, but it had been cared for meticulously.

He looked at what was happening without feeling. His expression was unreadable as guards continued to usher people out.

“Get in one of the squares!” Another guard yelled. Storbon saw the squares that were carved into the dirt and quickly stepped into one, a few others were as fast as him, anyone that seemed to be lagging were met by the guards clubs.

It wasn’t long until people in different states of undress were lined up in the squares.

Everyone was looking at Rugrat, he hadn’t moved once.

A look of shame mixed with disgust appeared on Rugrat’s face, Storbon felt his stomach drop.

“I’m supposed to train you to be heavy infantry. Do you know what I see?” No one said anything, the square eerily silent compared to the yelling and shrieks from before, the guards seemed to take the disappointment personally, their expressions darkening further as some people in the grid square shook in fear.

“I see a bunch of failures, I see a bunch of people that will break instead of hold the line!” Rugrat’s voice rose until it shook their already tense nerves.

Storbon felt as if he was going to throw up, he wanted to be useful, he wanted to do mister West proud, he was determined to prove Rugrat wrong, he wasn’t a failure!

“When you’re ready to admit you’re a failure, ring that bell,” Rugrat pointed to a bell that stood off to the side. “I want everyone here, in this group and in the city to know that you don’t have what it takes to be in the heavy infantry.”

Rugrat let those words in as people eyes were drawn to the bell, each making up their own decisions.

Storbon gripped his fists tighter, his eyes moved from the bell to Rugrat, he didn’t need a bell.

Rugrat’s hand dropped slowly.

“Get them out of my sight, next time I see them they best at least look like they’re worth a damn,” Rugrat turned and left as the guards started yelling.

“Alright, you’re going to learn how to march! Then it’s off for a haircut and a shave and shower, you will be clean every morning before parade, you will not relieve yourself anywhere but the bathrooms. We don’t accept dirty street scum here. If you don’t know how to keep yourself clean, how will you look after a weapon or your armor?” Guard Niemm barked. “Watch closely, I will not repeat myself!”

Niem showed how to march, Storbon tried to follow and do the same, still the guards seeing them all messed up, used their clubs to get them into proper form.

Someone dropped to the ground, trying to protect themself as they started crying.

The clubs stopped as a guard moved to him.

“What are you on the ground for, do you think the Earth god is going to help you! Ring the bell, the bell is your only way to escape me boy! Ring it, make that bell your new god! Do it!” The man continued to yell on the ground as the guard yelled at him, not even hitting him, his words were more painful than any beating.

“Get up!” The guard hauled the man to his feet, he was a level twelve while the recruit was a level seven, to the guard it was like picking up a child.

“Get into formation!” He yelled and pushed the man back into place.

The man was still crying, the guards picking on him but he continued on. Eventually the guards harrassed others.

The bell rang out, the first had already left.

He was taken off to the side and to the guard captain’s quarters.

Storbon wondered how many more would ring the bell that day.

***

Erik awoke to the ringing of bells, he rose from the floor, he let out a sharp breath, pain flaring up in his body.

Erik used healing spells, he started to rebuild his body, it was still dark.

“Whistles are meant for if there is a beast attack, the bell, spear training?” Erik muttered.

He cleared up the confusion, looking towards the barracks, he could hear the sounds of yelling, the heavy infantry unit had started training.

Erik’s body was repairing, much faster than normal, the mana in his body was purer his recovery higher.

His every movement seemed to resonate with the mana around with him, instead of creating a slight disturbance, he gained a much higher command over it.

Erik opened his notifications.

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You have opened another mana gate!

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+2 to Mana Regeneration

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Quest Updated: Opening the Fourteen Gates

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Congratulations! You have opened your tenth mana gate.

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Requirements: Clear all of your fourteen gates (10/14)

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Rewards: +1 to mana regeneration base stat

Undergo mana body rebirth

1,400,000 EXP

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You have successfully opened 9 mana gates.

+2 to Mana Pool

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You have successfully opened 10 mana gates.

Hidden Reward: Gain Title: Mana Lord

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Title: Mana Lord

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Your mana control has increased greatly.

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The strength of your spells has increased by 10% Your mana regeneration increased by 10%

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Erik’s eyes bulged out as he quickly pulled up his character sheet.

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Character Sheet

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Name: Erik West

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Level: 13

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Race: Human

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Titles: From the Grave

Land Holder (Temporary)

Mana Lord

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Strength: (Base 7) +9

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160

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Agility: (Base 6) +11

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85

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Stamina: (Base 10) +4

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210

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Mana: (Base 4) +11

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150

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Mana Regeneration (Base 10) +21

10.05/s

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Stamina Regeneration: (Base 7) +18

5.75/s

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“Hubba hubba,” Erik said, looking at it, feeling like an excited little kid getting a present.

“This must be the hidden effect Rugrat was talking about,” Erik said. “While one can increase their overall mana regeneration with the attribute gain at every level, they don’t gain these hidden benefits. No wonder Rugrat feels different, the little bastard got a ten percent increase in his overall mana regeneration!”

It was a much bigger change than just increasing one’s attributes, when Erik leveled up then his increase would be even greater. For someone focusing on a mana based build, this was gold raining from the heavens.

“No wonder Rugrat was so confident that I would make it through my tempering, the little bastard was holding this back,” Erik shook his head, he’d need to get Rugrat back in some way later on but for now he was too happy with his gains.

It felt incredible, his smile paused as he looked towards his dantain, there was only one drop there now, he had used the other to open his tenth mana gate, still with enough time he knew he’d be able to reform it.

“With the later mana gates to open them I might need to directly use the mana drops to clash with them. I’ll have to ask Rugrat,” Erik said.

He took another tour of his inner body, checking his body and mana system. His mana gates no longer looked like stone but instead had spots of silver.

Erik stood up, his bones seemed to crack, giving him a refreshing feeling.

He felt revitalized, then he took a deep breath in and nearly choked.

“Oh god,” Erik said, his eyes tearing up a bit, as he realized how awful he smelled.

He found a layer of grime on his skin

“Wait, the showers should be done by now!” Erik said.

He moved to the window and saw that the shower block was complete, he saw lights in the other districts as people were working to build bathrooms.

Erik quickly left the village headquarters and went to the showers.

He looked over the building, there was a note on the wall, telling people how to act and use the showers.

Erik went inside and found the showers there, he turned one on, it was cold, but the water was refreshing and clean.

He didn’t care as he jumped in and washed off the grime, quickly jumping out to wash off and back in, dancing around as he had a brisk but fruitful shower.

He was shivering by the end but he felt a lot better as he had his first shower since arriving in the ten realms.

“It’s all about the little things,” Erik said as he got dressed and walked outside, warming up even though the sun hadn’t come over the horizon.

Seeing he had some time, Erik thought about going and seeing Rugrat, but a thought hit him.

“I’ve wanted to adapt the growling elbow technique, since I’ve got some time I should try that out instead of bugging Rugrat, if he needs me he can message me and Blaze should be fine in training the heavy infantry.”

Erik headed off towards the storage area where there weren’t any lights on.

He found an empty area that had plenty of room for him to move around in.

Erik threw a few elbows, a growling noise coming from his body as mana was directed through his body before he unleashed it.

He did it a few more times, imprinting it all on his mind.

The he tried to do the same thing with his right knee, it took a few tries but then a growling could be heard as he struck out, the dust around him being disturbed once again, he did it again and again until he had a complete grasp with it, then he did it with his other knee, it got easier each time.

He didn’t feel the least bit tired as he controlled his breathing.

The growling elbow basically compresses and expands the mana in my mana channels to increase the power of each blow. It’s almost how muscles and tendons expand and contract to allow movement.

Erik had an idea, instead of moving onward, he threw a few elbows, tracing the different muscles, tendons and systems that he used in moving his elbow.

Then he started to trace it and move his mana according to that expanding and contracting. It went on for ten minutes, there was no roaring, but Erik’s body glowed with mana slightly as the wind was stirred up violently.

His elbow shot out, the power had increased greatly, but it was completely silent now.

Erik’s eyes remained closed as he started to move through different fighting positions, he traced out the different body systems that were working together, building up a greater image in his mind, it was much more indepth knowledge than he had even cared to understand about the human body when he was being taught to be a medic.

That was theoretically, while this he could see a direct use and benefit from learning it.

Erik’s body started to glow, the power in his body increasing as his physical and mana systems worked together, it was not a simple increase of one plus one, but a multiplicative effect.

Erik stopped sometime later, letting out a hiss as he retracted his mana, fighting this way he burnt a lot of mana in a short period of time, it also had a toll on his body, mana after all was a form of powerful energy, his body could accept a certain amount into specialized systems, but too much for too long and the other systems that were not meant to handle mana started to sustain injuries and fail.

Erik could heal himself, but then his mana usage would soar.

While Erik wished he had been able to do more, the gains he’d made weren’t simple.

“Well, I guess I should call it the mana amplification fighting technique. When I temper my body, it should be able to handle more mana running through it, allowing me to use it for longer and decreasing the mana needed. Also my base strength and agility should increase,” Erik clenched his fist, slight blue tracings could be seen inside his fist if one was to look closely.

He released it as the sun started to fall on Alva village.

He heard yelling over at the barracks and moved to check out on it. Erik didn’t go inside the barracks but went on the wall to look inside.

He could see four groups of people who were being marched around the barrack’s training area. Guards were yelling out orders and correcting people.

There was a group that was lined up. The village’s barber shaved off their beard and cut their hair down to military regulation with a sour expression.

There was still a long way to go, Erik watched without being seen, unconsciously entering stealth, his eyes viewing the different groups.

One was coming back from the showers, to get issued their kit, another was heading off, another was at the barbers and the last was getting their group to march properly. There was not a second to be lost and even marching to the showers was an opportunity to learn.

Erik knew that it wouldn’t be easy on them and that a number of people would probably fall out, right now they didn’t have time for feelings, if they left, then Blaze would talk to them before they left, but if they were here, there was no mercy waiting for them.

Erik could hear ringing from the smithy he went down to the barracks.

“Sa-lute!” The guards yelled out, clearly Blaze had been teaching them more than just marching and how to use different weapons, he’d only had them two days but he’d whipped the guards up enough so that they were a few days ahead of the recruits, thankfully they didn’t need as much sleep so they could be trained and train at the same time.

The guard slammed his fist to his chest, Erik returned the salute as the guard leader yelled out.

“Eyes front!”

The trainees were all confused as the guard walked away, as soon as Erik stepped into the smithy he could hear the guard going off on them.

“Don’t you know how to salute! What kind of useless creatures are you!” The guard yelled out, berating them and forcing them to complete some repetitive and hellish task.

Erik was greeted by Rugrat and Taran’s backs as they worked at their anvils. There was a feverish movement to their actions. It was as if they had to work right now or else they would never be able to get it back.

Erik didn’t say anything as he looked at the drawings over one wall, the lines on Rugrats hammer and his anvil.

There was a pile of pulleys, new bow arms, reload assists and trigger mechanisms off to one side.

Erik was a little alarmed at the number of them, there was over forty sitting there, with a glance Erik could see that the worst ones were at the bottom with the better ones appearing at the top, they were all the same parts, but their quality increased each time.

Not wanting to disturbed them, Erik collected the parts and quickly left. He found one of the guards as he left.

“Make sure that Rugrat and Taran aren’t disturbed, make sure to bring them their meals,” Erik said.

“Sir,” the guard said, saluting.

“Is there something else?” Erik asked, sensing more from the guard.

“Are they, increasing their skill level?” The guard was embarrassed to be caught, but their interest won out.

“I think so,” Erik said.

“Understood sir,” the guard’s expression became serious in the blink of an eye. If their smiths were able to increase in skill level, then their equipment might improve greatly as well!

Chapter Build

Rugrat looked up from what he had been working on, after he had talked to the trainees he had went back into his smithy again, Taran had arrived as soon as he woke up, the two of them had talked for only a short period of time before they got to work, they would glance over at one another’s works gaining inspiration as they poured out all of their effort.

They held nothing back as they broke past their limits.

The furnace burned red hot as their hammers struck metal continuously, the very building was stirred up as experience was drawn in from all around, increasing the strength of their bodies.

Rugrat had felt Taran break through a number of bottlenecks as he accumulated more experience and his skill level shot up.

Rugrat was empowered in this situation, they didn’t need to talk as their minds resonated with one another towards a singular goal, to push the limits of their smithing knowledge.

Rugrat looked around, he felt like he was forgetting something, his tired brain started to turn over as he was about to go back to work he realized that the sun was coming up, it was time for breakfast. He looked over to the side where there was a note left behind by Erik.

“When was he in here?” Rugrat questioned, starting to realize how concentrated he had been on proving or disproving the ideas he had.

He picked up the note and read it.

“Ah shit!” Rugrat put down his hammer and rushed off out of the smithy, Taran didn’t even look up, his eyes glowing as his hammer made the metal sing.

Rugrat stored his gear, it wasn’t long until he reached the square where people were eating, the spear groups had been served earlier, the village talking about them as Rugrat cleared his throat and moved to the stage.

“Morning everyone, I’m here to talk to you about construction, at least the different stages of it and things you should keep in mind when building anything,” Rugrat said.

This gained everyone’s attention, Erik’s information had opened up a new world to them while Rugrat was something that they could see and they had knowledge of.

He talked about the basics, the need for a good foundation or base, the need to have load bearing supports, different kinds of roofs and their use.

He opened up the floor for questions, the different people that had built homes came up with a myriad of different ones.

To Rugrat, they were all basic, or he could at least give them a general outline.

He poured out everything that he had, holding nothing back.

There were a lot of thoughtful people who were writing down notes, they’d heard of the rewards that the department heads were passing out to those people that were able to do something that could benefit the village.

There was much to do and there were people who wanted to show off their talent, if they could grab the eyes of one of these people they might go from Earth to heaven in a single step.

***

Rugrat’s talk came to an end as people started to go off to work.

He turned to leave the stage and found Erik standing there.

Rugrat scratched his head awkwardly.

“Sorry I’m late,” he muttered.

“Way to keep the mana lord from me,” Erik said back under his breath.

Rugrat looked stunned before he laughed.

“Well, I wanted to leave at least some kinds of secrets for you, so how did you open it?” Rugrat asked, genuinely interested, that was also the other reason he hadn’t told Erik about what happened when someone opened up ten mana gates, he wanted to see how Erik would open it.

He was ahead, but only by one mana gate, it had been incredibly hard for him to get to this point and he wasn’t going to try and open the next mana gate until he had the power that came with leveling up again.

Erik told him in detail what he had had done, shocking Rugrat.

“Damn you’re competitive,” Rugrat said, sinking into thought, it was actual ingenious, but it put a massive strain on one’s body.

“So how did you open your tenth and eleventh mana gate?” Erik asked.

“Okay, well I used a drop of my mana, I took if from my dantian and then I slowly pressed it into the mana gate, the gate absorbs energy as we know, so basically I pumped so much energy into that sucker it popped, with the influx I was able to condense another drop of mana. I only opened one in a concentrated push, the eleventh one cost me two mana drops to open and I could only recover one drop, took me a few days to compress another one.”

“Smart,” Erik said, it didn’t put as much strain on Rugrat’s body and while it was a slower process it was more stable.

“You going to try and open another one?” Rugrat asked.

“I think that if I can temper my body, then it’ll be easier for me to open more gates in the future,” Erik said.

Rugrat nodded and started yawning.

“You get back to the smithy, I’ll take people out hunting today,” Erik said.

Rugrat was about to argue but thinking about the smithy and the work he still wanted to complete he just nodded sheepishly.

***

Glosil could only look over bitterly at the heavy infantry units, since this morning they had been grilled all day long.

He had been working with the latest group of villagers to be trained with the crossbows, these would be the last groups to come through the basic training, after this they would focus on raising their own crossbow sharpshooting group. Most of them were hunters or previous guards.

The heavy infantry groups were being marched out of the barracks, leaving it in relative peace, for the day they would learn how to fight as a unit.

They didn’t have time to mess around so Erik and his people would be acting as spotters and scouts for Blaze, sending groups of boars at the groups of heavy infantry.

This would allow them to grind levels. They’d switch out, taking on waves and waves of boars.

It was hellish training, but they didn’t have time to be nice.

Seeing that they didn’t need sleep, when night came they would be carrying on what the day groups had started, digging and building up the layered defenses around the village.

This would get them to understand defensive positions and the lay of the land. It could also build up their strength and get them used to the new gear that they had been issued.

Glosil’s eyes turned to the guard units that were getting ready, there were two guardsmen to ten people, Erik had set off earlier with the advanced group that were meant to be the elite crossbow groups, they needed to go further to penetrate the boar line and try to hunt down packs of wolves. Glosil was afraid for them, but he knew that Erik had hidden his strength so far.

The groups and the guards were looking to him, ready to go, they were a mix of emotions, the ones that hadn’t done this before were scared and nervous, while those that had done it a few times were more relaxed, apprehensive as they had a realistic view of how things could go wrong, but assured in their own skills.

“Good hunting, see you back for midday meal,” Glosil said.

The guards saluted as the newest village hunters, looked on awkwardly, unsure of what to do.They moved out towards the gates and onto the wilds beyond.

Glosil heard people training in the back of the barracks and saw people finishing off the public bathrooms across the city.

The forest was being cut back still to fulfill their need for continuous lumber, watchtowers were planned out, the wall reinforced and cleaned up so it was a true defensive structure.

The whole city had been changed dramatically from what it was before. It was now a well oiled machine, more military camp than village, he could only shake his head.

The power of these people, any of them could become main figures in a powerful city in the area,

None of them thought to leave, this was their home and they had grown closer working together, suffering through the same hardships as they got together to eat and to build.

They could see how their village had grown, they had a sense of pride that had been bred into their bones.

People talked of the showers, they talked of the building on the walls, the logging camp and the weapons coming from the smithy.

Glosil felt deep pride looking at them all, he had been brought to the village, a man kicked out of a noble’s family because he had helped a lady that the young master of the house had attacked.

He did his duty, but he didn’t feel connected to the village, he felt cut off from everyone, but this training, the need for his time and the demands on him, it reminded of him when he had been in the royal army, a time when he had purpose, he had meaning.

Even then the army had bred him to be a fighter, they had built up his body, but they hadn’t educated his mind. A technique book would be seen as a waste on him, but Erik and Rugrat had given him three such books meant to improve his understanding of tactics, how to use his troops more effectively.

He didn’t look forward to battle, but he felt that they were ready for it.

He felt the new power within his body, he had finally broken through and reached level eleven, following Rugrat and Erik it felt like anything was possible.

Even Blaze has come to accept them.

They weren’t the best leaders, but they looked after their people first and it showed.

A message came from Blaze, shared to Glosil, Erik and Rugrat.

“Heavy Infantry units are moving into position, starting them on drills right now,” Blaze said.

“Has everyone been issued healing powder?” Erik asked.

“Yes,” Blaze said, sounding torn.

“Good, review with them what will happen if they or the person beside them is wounded,” Erik’s voice was cold.

“Yes sir,” Blaze might have hang-ups but Erik’s words were law in Alva village.

Glosil could only grimace, feeling sorry for those heavy infantry groups.

They were only armed with spears, and some had to share one between the different groups as Erik and Taran were still building more.

They weren’t allowed to wear their armor as it might bring on the red haze and, mess everything up.

If the boars got in close, then they’d get hurt and badly, Erik could save them, Glosil had faith, but those wounds might leave scars that weren’t only physical.