With the clatter of hooves resounding in the air, the large group of carriages carrying Soren, Princess Azure, Livan, Shireen, and their servants started moving towards their destination once again after resting for the night. Although the sky was still gray and the weather was still nice and cold, the gradually increasing sound of the singing cicadas in the background proved that this would soon cease to be so. Given the temperature that it could reach during the day, these few hours of early morning were truly a delight for the people in the carriages. Of course, that was true only for those who couldn’t manipulate Mana like Soren. In fact, because of his skill with Mana, he and Argus remained quite comfortable even when the sun almost cooked others alive during the day; especially the guards who had to wear heavy armors and walk beside the carriages under the sun.

“Mr. Soren, Princess is calling you.” A female servant of Princess Azure arrived near Soren’s carriage and said.

“Tell her I’m coming,” Soren carefully closed the vial of the Rank 1 potion that he had just created and said with a smile on his face. This had happened multiple times during their journey; thus, he was already used to it. As for her reason for calling him, it was because she too felt hot and uncomfortable during the day and didn’t have the same ability as Soren in manipulating Mana. As a matter of fact, not only her but even Livan couldn’t copy Soren’s skill with the Mana. The only one among them who surpassed Soren in this field was Shireen. But as she was a Rank 2 Initiator, Princess Azure couldn’t possibly ask her to cast the Mana barrier on her to manage the temperature every time she felt hot.

And so, keeping the potion in his Storage Pearl, Soren grabbed Argus who was sleeping by his side and got off the slowly moving carriage.

……..

In a fairly large carriage that seemed more like a room on wheels, Soren sat opposite to Princess Azure and used his Mana to cover her in an invisible barrier like a blanket. Resultantly, the moment he finished doing that, the princess felt the temperature around her go down sharply; causing her to take a deep breath in comfort.

This barrier of Soren’s was, in fact, based on the temperature control that he had practiced with his Mana back in Bellfalls. After suffering from an extremely hot climate during his journey to Bycrest, he had started researching more on that aspect and had finally developed this method of regulating the temperature to stay cold and refreshed. Naturally, he was not the first one to use Mana like this. Those who either had the same skill level in manipulating Mana as him or were a higher-ranked Initiator; they could do this too. But given that Princess Azure came under neither of those two categories, it was no wonder that she had become starry-eyed the first time she had seen Soren use this on her.

“Soren, can you really not teach this to me?” The princess asked as Soren dropped his hand down.

“Princess, I’ve already given all its details to you. Apart from that, I really don’t know how I could teach this to someone,” With a helpless smile on his face, Soren replied.

“I practiced manipulating my Mana back when I was captured by the Liston Family and was kept in their prison. I didn’t have anything to do back then so I just kept practicing. In the end, at least this one good thing came out of it; I became better at manipulating my Mana. Aside from urging you to practice like that, I don’t think I have any other way to teach this to you.” As Soren continued speaking and thinking about what’d happened back then, a dazed expression appeared on his face.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to remind you of that,” Seeing Soren’s expression, the princess slightly lowered her head and apologized in a sincere manner.

“It’s fine, princess. It is my past after all; if I keep avoiding it, I won’t be able to move forward.”

“By the way, when will you stop calling me princess?” After staring at Soren’s smiling face, the princess suddenly asked this out of nowhere.

“I’m trying my best; you have to give me some time to adjust.” Once again, a helpless expression appeared on Soren’s face as he tried to placate the irritated princess.

……..

Two months passed like this as their journey continued.

The long line of carriages was now very close to its destination; Amburgh. Although their final destination was still the war camp, they first had to make a stop at the royal capital. Of course, they didn’t have to take a detour as this city was directly on the way from Bycrest to the war camp. And so, after staying in the grand city that was covered in precious stones and gems for a few days, the group once again continued moving forward; though, they were down by one member now. Since Shireen was a Rank 2 Initiator affiliated with the royal family, she usually stayed in the royal capital. Only when there was any need for a Rank 2 Initiator did these powerful beings come out of the city.

As for the invasion and the war, the highest cultivation level of the Initiators there was still in the Rank 1 realm; the Rank 2 Initiators, on the other hand, were biding their time and were holding off on fighting against each other. For now, all that they were trying to do was to recruit other high-ranking Initiators and bolster their ranks; Shireen had also been given this task and that was why she had gone to Bycrest.

.……..

Dalhurst; an old but big town situated near the border. Due to its proximity to the Langmar Mountain Range, it had always been used as a resting point for the Hunters; making it a bustling place. Business boomed because of that, resulting in the overall development of the town. Residents lived a good and prosperous life even though they were threatened by the Beast Tide every year.

Based on that, once upon a time, this town was one of the best places for people to live in the Stuteron Kingdom. And yet, everything had changed once the invasion from the Atucan Empire began.

Being the town closest to the last line of defense, it soon turned from a lively place into a somber war camp. Residents were forced to evacuate and leave their homes which they had lived in for generations. Most of the entertainment venues were torn down, making space for armories and hospitals. The whole town went through a drastic makeover; from the buildings to the walls, everything was fortified. The cheerful atmosphere from before was nowhere to be seen now as the smell of death filled the air.

One month after departing from Amburgh, Soren and the others finally reached this place. After entering the main gate, Soren immediately realized the difference that this town had from the others. This was the first time that he had experienced something like this. Even though he was already used to death, a war was still something new for him. Certainly, he wasn’t going to back off now just because of that. He knew the concept of ‘high risk, high reward’ very well. If he wanted to get those resources to quickly increase his cultivation level, he had to jump into this dangerous arena.

…….

“Soren, you’ll have to finish the registration process and get a place first. I’ll see you after you settle down.” Princess Azure said after they entered the town.

“Okay.” Giving a simple reply to the princess with a smile, Soren and his group of merchants went their own way.

Finally, he had arrived at the war camp. This was the place that Soren was aiming for since the day he’d found out about the invasion back in Duskfort. And if nothing went wrong, this was also the place that he was going to stay in for quite some time. He had many things to do here; from finishing his cultivation technique to increasing his cultivation level. Not only that, but he could also start practicing his spells again; he’d been traveling with the princess all this time, so he didn’t get enough free time to do that.

All those things that he wasn’t able to do before would become much easier now with the resources available for the Initiators fighting in the war.

Of course, before he could do any of that, he first had to register and find a place to settle down. And so, he ordered Hamish to bring the carriages towards the Hunter’s Association building; which was now converted into an administrative building.

The registration process was very easy; he only had to present his Hunter I.D. Since Soren was joining the war through the Hunter’s Association, he got the status of a mercenary and received a white crystal ring with the Stuteron Kingdom’s emblem on it after finishing the process. Apparently, these crystal rings were connected through a Mana network and stored the contribution points for the Initiator wearing it; naturally, it also had some other functions. Once the Initiator wearing it killed someone on the battlefield, this ring would absorb a small amount of Mana from the dead body and record it in the database. Since the Mana absorbed by the ring would still have that dead Initiator’s mark in it, it could be used to determine the number of contribution points gained for killing them.

Certainly, this mark could only be used to find out the cultivation level of the dead one; it could not give any information on how powerful the said Initiator was. Unless that Initiator gained some fame on the battlefield and had their Mana mark recorded in the enemy’s database with their details, they would have the standard contribution points assigned to them according to their cultivation level.

Given, with this system, it was quite possible to steal someone else’s kills. But it was what it was. The Initiators taking part in this war were very well aware that nothing was fair in life; and thus, no one complained about this issue.

As for killing an ally, unless the ring was rendered useless by either putting it in the Storage Pearl or destroying it, it would also be recorded in the database. The reason was very simple; all the Initiators taking part in the war first had to leave their own mark on the ring. This not only made their ring unusable by anyone else but also added their mark in the database.

After Soren finished the registration process and added his Mana to the ring, he was given access to a fairly large residence and was led there by a soldier. Since he’d just arrived in the town, Soren was planning on just staying in and resting for today. So, once he made sure that Hamish and the others had enough place to live in this residence’s courtyard, he unlocked the protective spell formation on the house using his ring and settled in after arranging things inside to his liking; after all, this place was going to be his home for quite some time.

Finally, after he was finished with all that, he went to the second floor and then onto the open balcony; and lay down on the recliner with the grand view of the green Langmar Mountains in front of him.

Spoiler: Spoiler

Status: Healthy

Rank 1: Layer 1 [CP - 0%]

Name: Soren Farrow

Species: Human

Attribute: Darkness & Ice

Health: 100%

Stamina: 100%

Mana: 100%

Strength: 7.93

Agility: 9.70 (+1.90)

Vitality: 17.69

Intelligence: 21.22 (+7.20)

Spirit: 20.24 (+8.45)

Resistance: 9.10 (+2.35)

Spells:

Spell Vessels: 3/10

Innate Spells: 18

Innate Skills/Bloodline Talents: 7

Water Bubbles [7/7] – Level 8/10. Mana Cost – Very Low. [Rank 1]

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Snow Blades [5/5] – Level 9/10. Mana Cost – Very Low. [Rank 1]

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Ice Chakra [6/6] – Level 6/10. Mana Cost – Very Low. [Rank 1]

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Create Undead: Low Tier Ⅱ – Level 7/15. Mana Cost – Average. [Rank 1]

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Dark Raven – Level 8/10. Mana Cost – Very Low. [Rank 1]

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Ice Barrage – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Negligible. [Evolution Available] [Rank 1]

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Dead Rising – Level 7/10. Mana Cost – Very Low. [Rank 1]

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Acid Needles – Level 5/10. Mana Cost – Very Low. [Rank 1]

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Shadow Prison – Level 6/10. Mana Cost – Very Low. [Rank 1]

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Frost Domain – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Negligible. [Evolution Available] [Rank 1]

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Elemental Sense – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Negligible. [Evolution Available] [Rank 1]

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Dark Gravity – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Low. [Evolution Available] [Rank 1]

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Withering Wood – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Very Low. [Evolution Available] [Rank 1]

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Ice Spikes – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Negligible. [Evolution Available] [Rank 1]

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Soul Search – Level 6/10. Mana Cost – Negligible. [Rank 1]

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Ice Wall – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Negligible. [Evolution Available] [Rank 0]

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Waterball – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Negligible. [Evolution Available] [Rank 0]

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Rainfall – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Negligible. [Evolution Available] [Rank 0]

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Spark – Level 10/10. Mana cost – Negligible. [Evolution Available] [Rank 0]

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Fireball – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Negligible. [Evolution Available] [Rank 0]

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Space Snatcher – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Negligible. [Rank 0]

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Mana Manipulation – Level 7/15

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Potioneering [Rank 1] – Level 1/15.

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Powered Vision – Level --/--

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Vornea: Basic Form – Level --/--

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Devour: First Evolution – Level --/--

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Second Intelligence – Level --/--

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Shadow Steps – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Very Low. [Evolution Available] [Rank 1]

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Equipment: Common Clothes; Magic Staff – Moonshard; Spirit-Pendant; Snake-Earring; Spirit-Ring; Resistance-Ring; Caster’s Bracelet; Agility-Boots; Dagger; Mana Touch – Gloves; White Ring [War Accessory].

Storage Pearl: Common Clothes; Hunter I.D; Mask; Multiple Unfocused Cultivation Techniques – Low Grade; Focused Cultivation Technique – Middle Grade; Egg – Crystal Albarose; Various Ingredients; Automatons x3; Beast Cores[Rank 0] x184; Beast Cores[Rank 1] x114; Rank 1 Potion Recipe – Sun’s Afterglow; Rank 1 Potion Recipe – Soul Recovery; Cultivation Technique – Turtle’s Life; Cultivation Technique – Flaming Hair; Various Skills – Memory Spheres; Empty Memory Spheres; Books and Compendiums; Rank 0 Common Potions[Middle-Grade] x0; Rank 0 Common Potions[High-Grade] x0; Rank 0 Common Potions[Top-Grade] x0; Rank 1 Potion – Soul Recovery[Lowest-Grade] x2.

Mana Crystals: 678 [Middle-Grade]; 202 [Low-Grade]; Myriad Items—Card [Value-000]; Six Mana Cards.