“There in no better tutor to staying alive than to experience the face of death itself.”

“Mak, take the lead. We’ll do the Wedge formation. Big sis Song, take the rear and watch over the flanks.”

It has already been a year and surprisingly, after regularly exhausting the children’s physique coupled with the constant spear training, everyone surprisingly, became Iron ranked Knights.

In effect, the squad’s strength became the same as that of a regular squad of hunters and soldiers despite being a bunch of children.

And expectedly, Qai was also able to establish his authority over the group—an opportunity that he hadn’t had back when he was a noble. Somehow, he felt that even if life in the nameless village is simple and even primitive in some sense, he found it really serene and peaceful.

Moreover, when members of the group felt the changes in their power upon breakthrough, all of their excitement stepped into another level. Of course, Qai cautiously explained to them a few notions about knighthood.

He clearly understood that the idea was completely foreign in this world so he vehemently told them to keep it a secret and that he only discovered it from reading. After all, there are not really many external changes that occurred in their body upon breakthrough only with their power—so the entire knighthood thing wasn’t obvious from the perspectives of the rest of the villagers.

The gradual improvement in skills of the entire reserve squad, however, gained the attention of the council of elders during the year. In fact, their beast meat diet—upon Qai’s request—was now shouldered by the treasury.

Qai also requested his father to craft heavy arm and leg bracers for everyone to speed up their training and also to craft small shields for all except for Mak. He has a special one—a tower shield.

During the past year, Qai specifically told Mak and Song their potential with shield and bow respectively and inspired them to hone their skills even further. Although he could not offer any particular technique for such weapons, he told them to rely on their instincts—just like the way he did with his blade.

Surprisingly, the two dedicatedly adhered to his call and the result was astonishing. Their skills soared above the rest of the squad. With their special skills, the two earned the respect of the group. They in fact already considered them leaders of the squad just next to Qai.

In due time, Qai is confident that the two will be the first to break through to the Bronze rank.

As for Qai, even if he is already peaking for another breakthrough, he still needed a catalyst to success. Somehow, he felt some regret not learning ‘Advanced Swordplay.’ Had he learned it, or even just committed into his memory the theory behind it, he would have been a Silver rank Knight already.

‘Perhaps there is another way to breakthrough—a real battle,’ he thought.

Apparently, Qai is getting impatient at making another breakthrough, especially knowing that the rest of the group were easily catching up. Had the children back in the empire have the same physical aptitude for knighthood, there would be no lack of talented individuals in the empire. Perhaps it could have even produced one or two Saints.

Even if the group is now capable of standard army formations, everything was done as an exercise drill. There is no guarantee yet, how truly effective is their power in the face of danger.

“Alright, that’s it for today. We’ll continue tomorrow.”

“Qai, how about the leather armors you promised us?” Song suddenly asked.

“Don’t worry Big sis, I already gave the designs to my father. Soon, our reserve squad will be equipped with sets of armors.”

“Hah, I bet my father will drool when he sees me wearing the leather armor you spoke of,” Mak interjected.

It should be remembered that the soldiers and hunters of the nameless village wore their traditional robe even. Qai learned that the people in the village were, in fact, clueless about battle armors. It was something that said much as to how underdeveloped the village is.

Qai wanted to introduce armors, not only because he wanted to elevate the level of the villages’ military knowledge, but also to make his father’s workshop blossom. It’s his way to repay his family.

Once the hunters and soldiers take notice of their armors, he is certain that they too will want to have their own armors. He is even confident that everyone in the village would want to have one. With the danger of beast horde, armors are an additional line of defense.

“Perhaps, when all of us receive our armors we can finally test our mettle in the forest. That way we can double our beast meat if we can hunt on our own.”

Obviously, Qai is abandoning his initial idea to reach Silver rank first before joining the hunting parties. With the current strength of the reserve troop, the group alone could survive the dangers of the forest. And he’s using the opportunity to a possible breakthrough.

“Yeah, I just hope the elders will allow us to venture into the forest,” Song quickly replied with a sigh.

As villagers below the required age to join hunts, they naturally do not qualify to go to forests.

“With our strength, I don’t think they will forbid us. Besides, we’ll just tour the periphery and not go deep in the forest.”

“Hah, then maybe we could just wait for them to see how we would look in armors first and let them awe before we seek permission,” Mak added with a proud look in his face. “I want to see the amazement in their eyes.”

Of course, Qai had not forgotten the pieces of information he learned through reading about the forest, the different beasts and the available herbs to take.

But because he had been specifically tasked by the council to train the reserve squad, Master Han had already given up the idea of roping him in to be his second apprentice. After all, he has already groomed his niece Nabi to be his successor.

But this did not stop the herbalist from regularly teaching Qai, in the past years, many advanced methods to use herbs. And Qai on the other hand had already got used going to Master Han’s place to help the latter in extracting herb essences.

In fact, Qai had personally made plenty of healing pastes which he distributed in small bottles to the members of the reserve squad as part of their emergency kits.

“Okay, let’s just go to my father’s workshop and see if there are crafted armors already for us to see.”

Soon after a month, word reached the council of elders about the desire of the reserve squad to join the hunters in their visit to the forest.

It only took sometime before the council came up with a decision.

There were few debates here and there but when the elders personally witnessed the skills of the entire group coupled with their astonishing equipment, they agreed without hesitation.

"They're called leather armors, dear elders, which my workshop crafted," Qai's father explained.

Apparently, he was present during the demonstration. It was Qai's idea so that his family could monopolize its distribution.

In fact, their initial reaction was to confiscate the armors for themselves out of uncontrollable greed.

"Can they be mass produced!?" One of the elders couldn't help but ask. "Our treasury is willing to trade for it."

Obviously, the mere appearance of the leather armor already depicts its defensive capability.

"We only came up with the design recently after some extensive study. So a set may cost a lot."

'If everyone in the village would be wearing such equipment during the beasts' attack, then the casualty would be reduced significantly,' the elders unanimously believed.

Even the faces of the leaders of the soldiers and hunters, who were present, were painted with excitement. They in fact were itching to try one, but they were careful not to offend the blacksmith.

"That should not be a problem, tell us the things you need, and we will provide them for you. The sooner you craft them, the better."