Martel suddenly appeared a little way from their camp. It was currently early morning as several hours had passed in this world since he had left. He came back at this time because the girls should all be asleep and wouldn’t notice how long he had been gone. Well, all the girls but one exception, who was quickly making her way towards him.

Martel made a motion as if he would accept a hug, but Cali wasn’t going to give him one. Uncharacteristically, she sent a flying kick, which Martel limboed below. Martel got back up as she turned to look at him with a slightly teary face.

Martel gave her a reassuring smile. “Cali, for someone who likes to wear black, I wasn’t expecting you to wear white.” He jokingly said.

Cali’s expression didn’t change as she slowly walked up to him.

Martel again made a motion like he was expecting a hug, but let out a puff of air when Cali sucker-punched his stomach.

“Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.” She muttered with slight tears as she continued to punch him.

Martel continued to let her strike his stomach before he knelt and hugged her. “Cali, everything’s fine.”

Cali brought out Kuroka and the other sword that Martel left her. Martel made a bitter smile as he realized that she had figured out what was going on. Besides Kuroka, the sword he had handed her contained his soul body and the Shield, which was able to follow as it was still connected to him. Additionally, when she figured this out, she realized that she couldn’t go back for a specific time and that he was already all right by the time she could.

“Cali, I’m all right.” He said softly.

“I wanted to go so bad, but I couldn’t,” Cali replied, sniffling.

“It ended up okay. Everyone’s fine.”

“Really?”

“Really,” Martel reassured.

After consoling her for a couple more minutes, they made their way back to the camp.

[You big idiot! What do you think you’re doing, leaving me alone?] Shield Goddess growled.

[Sorry, I figured I couldn’t take you back to my world.]

[Humph.]

Martel bitterly smiled as he refused to provoke her further.

Unlike before, Cali refused to sleep with the other girls. Martel initially thought it was because she didn’t want to separate with him after what had happened. However, when he saw the brief look she gave Laelynn, who had fallen asleep waiting for him, he suddenly thought it might be for a different reason. He quietly laid down next to the sleeping Laelynn, who looked like she was in the middle of a bad dream. Her expression only softened when she reached out and clung onto his arm.

Martel couldn’t help but shake his head. Just a short time before, he had spent quality time with his wife, who had teased him for immediately leaving to visit his girlfriend, and now he couldn’t refute it. He already had a soft spot in his heart for Laelynn. Relaxing to the scent of flowers, he quietly fell asleep.

…

Martel groggily awoke alone in the cart. Even though he had already overslept compared to his typical sleep duration, he still felt quite tired. It seemed the previous events back on Earth drained him more than he thought. However, he awoke because he felt as if his blood was on fire.

“Perenelle, what are you doing!” Cali suddenly shouted, something unlike her.

Martel exited the carriage just in time to see Perenelle, who was rattled by Cali.

“But… But you are supposed to roast eggs. That’s what they’re for!” Perenelle said back.

“All right, don’t fight,” Martel said as he rubbed his eyebrow. Then, he looked at the fire and noticed something interesting. The egg they had purchased from the slaver, which Cali had been carrying, was in the fire. However, the fire seemed to be absorbed by it. Moreover, it seemed as if the burning sensation in his blood originated from it.

“Cali, don’t be angry, something seems to be happening to the egg,” Martel said as they turned their attention to it. “It seems to be absorbing fire.”

“Feed it?” Cali asked.

“That’s not a bad idea. We will use this as training. Everyone will take turns utilizing fire magic, but only pure mana manipulation.”

“I can’t do that,” Arachne said with a frown.

“You can, with practice. Cali, help them out while I start.” Cali nodded as Martel proceeded to produce a stream of flame from his hand onto the egg.

Martel carefully observed the egg as he continued to feed it fire, increasing the intensity and seeing the reaction. However, no matter how hot he made the fire, it didn’t seem to affect the egg in any way. Receiving no signs as to what was preferable, Martel decided to opt for an efficient stream. Once he ran low on mana, he stopped but switched to his dragon breath as subtly as he could. To his astonishment, the egg seemed to hesitate for a moment before absorbing the Dragon’s fire even more greedily. Eventually, Martel ran out of draconic mana, so he then switched with Perenelle, who quickly got the hang of it. She was also gifted with magic, especially fire.

There were two reasons why Martel insisted on his training, besides potentially hatching the egg. The first was to train them in mana manipulation as it wasn’t considered mainstream. This is because it was significantly weaker than chanted magic, but had the advantage of being much quicker and more malleable. The second reason was Expertise grinding because, unlike chanting, mana manipulation directly increased the Magic Expertise.

It took everyone two rounds before Martel eventually came back. Once again, he poured all of his mana into fire magic before he switched to the small amount of Dragon breath. Just when he was about to stop, he noticed that the egg suddenly twitched with an audible crack. He stopped and watched the egg as the fire around it began to dwindle. Then, it exploded and slightly pushed everyone back as the figure of two birds, made of yellow and red fire respectively, suddenly shot into the air. A second later, a small bird appeared that flashed crimson before it settled into red.

Martel stared frozen at the bird, not out of shock, but out of holding himself back. It was as if he had an uncontrollable desire for the bird, though he could not identify it.

The bird looked at him with intelligence. It almost seemed as if it also had the same feeling as it hesitantly moved towards him before it turned and shot away.

“What just happened?” Hestia asked.

Martel, who had finally managed to recover, turned to look at the girls. “Pack up; I’ll be back.” He said before he took off in the same direction.

The little bird was quite fast, but Martel had several SRIN in the area that managed to locate her position. After several teleports, Martel finally came to the edge of a cliff where the little bird was perched on a branch.

“Why are you chasing me?” The bird asked.

Martel was slightly taken aback by the sweet and innocent voice. “Well, since I helped you hatch, I should take responsibility for you.”

“You’re not going to hurt me?”

“Never.”

“Really?”

“I promise.”

The bird didn’t know why, but she felt like she could trust him; that he wasn’t lying. So, she tentatively flew onto her shoulder.

Martel stood perfectly still as he watched her land on his shoulder. She hopped along his shoulder a couple of times before she suddenly snuggled up next to his cheek before she hopped away. Martel gently smiled. It seemed the two of them were experiencing an attraction to one another. This attraction wasn’t sexual, but a pure desire to be in the presence of one another.

“Do you have a name?” Martel asked.

“Asuka.”

“Hello Asuka, my name is Martel. Why did you run away and think I was going to hurt you?”

“Because you have a similar feeling to the bad dragon that killed my parents.”

“Your parents were killed? How do you know that? Didn’t you just hatch?”

“I already hatched once. My parents use their blood essence to save me, which formed the egg to protect me. If not for the strength of the fire, I would still be in a state of suspended animation.”

“You seem quite intelligent for one so young.”

“When I was born, I already knew lots of things.”

“I understand. Well, Asuka, is there anything you want to do?”

“I want to kill the bad dragon.” She said in a sweet tone, contrary to her statement.

“I see. However, maybe you should let others do that, or at least help you.”

“Why?”

“Are you strong enough?”

“No.” She said, a little downtrodden.

“Do you want to get stronger?”

“Yes!”

Martel smiled as he took out a piece of Contract Paper. “Then why don’t we make a deal? I don’t mind killing bad dragons.”

...

“Do you know where Master went?” Laelynn flusteredly asked Cali.

“He’s fine,” Cali replied.

“Laelynn, I’m here,” Martel said as he walked out, notably with the slime on his shoulder and a little red bird on top of his head.

“Master!” Laelynn happily said as she went up and hugged his arm.

Martel smiled as he gently brushed her hair, much to her happiness.

“Asuka, say hello to everyone.”

“Hello.” Asuka chirped.

“The bird can talk?” Crystal asked, voicing the question of others.

“She’s not a normal bird,” Martel replied. “You can get to know each other better on the journey,” Martel said as he guided Laelynn and got on the carriage.

While they were traveling, Martel went over the filtered information the SRIN had obtained. Because he had managed to get the SRIN to answer to androids, he left the organization and collected data from them entirely. Aside from a small group of SRIN he kept in his immediate vicinity, he did not control them. The androids would only inform him if it were an emergency. Any pertinent information would be brought to Martel’s attention by Marty. Right now, Martel was going over the information provided by Marty that he had previously asked for, and he made a slight frown. Right now, he was going over the information about the people he was tracking; Freed and the King and Princess of Sussex.

The King was still locked up, but the Princess had gone free with very little consequence due to the Spear Hero’s interference. Martel did not care too much about the two of them as the one he was more concerned about was Freed.

When it came to Freed, Martel did not care too much about him. Now that Freyja was alive, his motivation for going out of his way to kill him was profoundly lessened. Additionally, he did not wish to suffer a penalty for killing Freed as his life wasn’t worth it. Unless he committed an atrocious crime, perhaps he could die in an accident during the Wave. Ironically, the magic Martel had used with the intent to protect others had kept him in check. Or, at least, it had.

Martel frowned as he glanced at Freed’s information as he had gone north, the same as him. However, because they were not going to cross paths, he didn’t care, especially as Freed had already passed him. However, Freed was now heading back south at a quick pace. He wondered why until he read that Freed had stolen a sword. Martel tilted his head in puzzlement as Freed should copy the sword, so there is no real need to take it. However, it was also possible that Freed did not know this function, or he wished to sell it for money. Unfortunately, this crime did not warrant death, so Martel could only wait.

Martel turned to look at Crystal, who had arranged some space in the wagon to process the skin of wolves they had slain a short while ago. “How is the quality of the skins?” Martel asked, even though he had a reasonably good idea.

Crystal shook her head with a frown. “They aren’t in good condition at all. It should have been somewhat obvious when they attacked us, but they were starving. Additionally, many of the males were already heavily wounded, seemingly by other wolves. Overall, I wouldn’t even make anything out of these.”

“Well, at least it wasn’t a total waste,” Martel said to himself with a smile as he had gained something from the encounter.

“Papa, look, it’s the town of Lewes,” Kogane said as she pointed to the Northwest.

Lewes was extremely close to the border of the Kingdom of Wessex and the Demihuman Territories. This meant it was reasonably defended and protected itself from the remnants of the Wave that made it that far. Most of the invaders had traced north up the coast due to the river that separated them or stayed on or traveled through Goblin Farm Forest, putting them to the south. The party had slain most of the latter as they had traveled across that path.

Looking at the military presence around the wall of Lewes, Martel surmised that they had militia members in their ranks. Most likely, it was made up of the surviving military and civilians from Hastings. On average, the soldiers would only be around Level 5, somewhere around Rank D. While this may seem like a low-level, Martel could understand why.

As he had recently discovered, XP required to level up was extraordinarily high and would require one to continually risk their lives by fighting others who are similar to their strength. Even though goblins were slightly weaker than the party, the party had only gained a single level from slaughtering many. This included all the other enemies they had killed along the way.

To make up the difference in strength, and make leveling safer and more efficient, one would require many resources and personnel. This made the overall Level of the indigenous individuals to be relatively low, with the median having the strength of a Rank D. Conversely, those who had resources and personnel, like the Guild Master Kurt, who had the Adventurers Guild supporting him, would be able to reach the astonishing Rank S+.

Unfortunately, this also explained why Hastings fell so quickly. Although there should have been a couple of powerful people present, the majority of the soldiers were only around Rank D, similar in strength to the enemies coming through The Wave. Given that they were caught off guard, it wasn’t too surprising that morale plummeted quickly, and many fled.

It was a little strange that Ki seemed to be overlooked in this regard as it could provide a decent power-up, but Martel could also understand the mentality behind it. The average person had Ki up to Rank 5, with only those who trained their whole lives reached Rank 10. Until one reached Peak Rank 10, Ki was a limited resource for a temporary power boost. Given how hard it was to progress with Ki, becoming dependent on it would be bad. Instead, the focus became the slightly less time-consuming leveling that provided permanent strength that was the focus.

As Martel was thinking this, they had quickly approached the town. It was then some strange movement in the distance caught Martel’s eyes. Curious, he activated his Eyes of Far-Sight. “Everyone, prepare for a fight.” He said as he suddenly spurred Terra faster and towards the north of the town.

“What happened?” Hestia asked.

“There is a group of centaurs approaching fast, and they don’t seem friendly, especially since they are not allowed to enter Sussex in the first place.”

“What should we do?” Laelynn asked, a little worried.

“Right now, just get ready while I gather more information.”

While the others prepared their gear, Martel focused on gathering more information with his eyes. After half a minute had passed, with about another two minutes left before the possible conflict, Martel suddenly stopped the carriage. “Everyone, prepare here.” He said when he came to a somewhat defensible area just outside the town’s defenses before he quickly sent Terra away.

“What is the situation?” Hestia asked. She was a little worried as centaurs were known as a relatively militaristic therianthrope species.

Martel didn’t reply immediately but decided to take action. He quietly cast the Manipulate Earth Spell to create a long chest-high wall that passed them. Martel did this on purpose as it was a relatively strong choke point between the natural defense of the river and the walls of the town. The town itself only had three possible entrances being West, East, and South, and the centaurs were making their way towards the Eastern Gate, where they were. In other words, the centaurs would either continue through them or head to the western entrance. It was a slight gamble on Martel’s part, but he had to head them off here. At the very least, the town should have enough time to close all the entrances successfully. This would drastically reduce the centaurs' battle efficiency. They had similar weaknesses to horses; they were not efficient at sieges.

Martel quickly drank a mana potion as he felt a little dizzy, having expended nearly all of his mana from the multiple spells. Then, he turned to the group. “Arachne, put the stickiest web you can on the ground in front of the wall and continue out as far as you can, but retreat as soon as necessary to get back safely. After this, use your webbing to constrict as many enemies as you can.

“Hestia, you will handle the choke point and try to draw the attention of everyone you can.

“Perenelle, Kogane, and Asuka will focus on harassing them with magic.

“Laelynn, use Earth and nature magic at your discretion to constrict enemies and support Hestia.

“Crystal will support Hestia as necessary.

“Cali and I will be on suppression duty as we know a Ki technique that can be used to knock out an enemy safely.

“I will stress this once; we will be proceeding nonlethally. The enemy numbers 22, but they are all centaur youths and should not be much stronger than any of us. The walls I created should be strong and high enough so that they should not cross them and have to go into the funnel. Their bodies could not easily change direction and mostly go in a relatively straight line. The combination of slowing them down, plus the limited space due to the funnel, will help us tremendously. Once again, Hestia will grab their attention and Cali, and I will focus on taking them out. The rest of you, do as I said previously. Am I understood?”

“Yes!” Several replied as a realized time is too tight for questions.

They had the strange sensation that they precisely understood what Martel wanted even though his explanation was relatively quick, but they brushed it aside. However, this did not escape Martel’s notice as he made a quick smile. He was thankful that the ability he had gotten from the wolves had already come in handy.

Pack Leader ESPER: Mental LVL 0.14

When giving orders to those subordinate to the user within unassisted verbal range, instructions are more easily understood, and teamwork is automatically improved. Those affected by this ability to learn tactics and teamwork at an accelerated pace. The pace depends on the quality of the user’s instructions so that they are more efficient in battle even when the user is not present.

Effectiveness is based on User CHA and Skill LVL.

Slightly thankful for this new ability, Martel prepared himself as the party quickly got ready. Thanks to her Soul Armament, Arachne was incredibly quick to lay out a layer of webbing on the floor. She also managed to time her retreat extremely well and returned just as the first centaurs got into range.

The centaurs noticed the strange defenses, but they thought little of it. They were angry and slightly coincided to the point where they felt that they could easily handle anyone who got in their way. This wasn’t wholly misplaced as the centaur’s strength rivaled that of the guards, but a centaur would almost always win.

At first, Arachne’s web didn’t seem to do much, but those in front quickly began to slow down as the resistance began to add up. The combination of them slowing down, as well as the area narrowing, sedated their charge substantially. It was at this moment that Kogane, Parenelle, and Asuka began to act. The three of them utilized ranged magic to strike the centaur’s once. Martel estimated that the party should resist it without much problem thanks to their stats and Ki.

Martel made a slight inward sigh as he realized that the HP he gained wasn’t powerful. It allowed people of similar strength to heal from 10 blocked blows or one undefended strike to put it in perspective. However, this did not consider lethal blows, which made surprise attacks and weak areas still incredibly deadly. Naturally, it could also be a slight hindrance, which is why Martel had them attack.

Martel was just about to rush out with Cali but suddenly stopped as he noticed a projectile heading towards Kogane. Without thinking much, he quickly used his Soul Armament Shield, which arrived in front of her. Additionally, he also cast Barrier as, to his surprise, he noticed that the projectile also possessed Ki. Although the technique was extremely rough, he didn’t want to underestimate it and end up with Kogane becoming injured. Kogane flinched for a moment but broke into a smile when she found the Shield in front of her. The arrow that struck the Shield bounced up into the air as Martel quickly approached. He retrieved the Shield and utilized the Soul Armament Tracking Arrow before he smacked it in the sender's direction with the help of Ki. Then, without missing a beat, he and Cali rushed towards the now-stalled centaur’s and began to use Gentle Touch to incapacitate them quickly.

*ding*

Because of the User’s actions, three Skills have been unlocked ahead of time, and one Skill has been created.

Utilizing the Barrier Spell on the Shield has unlocked the Skill ‘Absolute Defence.’

Redirection of an enemy projectile has unlocked the Skill ‘Redirection.’

Redirection of an enemy projectile back to the enemy has unlocked the Skill ‘Return to Sender’

Redirection back to the enemy with Barrier has created the merged Skill ‘Reflect’ from Absolute Defence and Return to Sender

Absolute Defence

LVL 0.00

Creates a barrier up to 1 meter in size (Doubled Per LVL) centered around the Shield.

For .01 Seconds (+.01 Per LVL), all damage is completely negated.

All subsequent damage received is taken from MP (75%) and can be supplemented with Mana Crystals. The Barrier breaks so long as the damage received(not attack value) exceeds 50% (+10% Per Level) of the value of Primordial Resistance (from the 75% DMG).

Cooldown: 15 Min (Retroactive)

Duration: Up to 1 Min (+1 Min Per LVL)

*Has a 1 Min Retroactive Cooldown after using Reflect

Redirection

LVL 0.00

Allows the user to redirect attacks blocked with the Shield. Direction and power are dependent on the successful probability of the attempt (improved with LVL) based on user STR and DEX.

Cooldown: 15 Sec(-1 Sec per LVL)

Return to Sender

LVL 0.00

Allows the user to redirect attacks blocked with the Shield back to the attacker. Direction and power are dependent on the successful probability of the attempt (improved with LVL) based on user STR and DEX.

Cooldown: 1 Min(-5 Sec per LVL)

Reflect

LVL 0.00

Creates a barrier up to .5 meters(Doubled Per LVL) in size centered on the Shield.

For .05 Seconds (+.05 Per LVL), all damage is completely negated and reflected back to the attacker at 100% Power (+10% Per LVL)

All subsequent damage received is taken from MP (125%) and will continue to reflect DMG. The Barrier breaks so long as the damage received(not attack value) exceeds 50%(from the 125% DMG)(+10% Per Level) of the value of Primordial Resistance.

Cooldown: 1 Hour (Retroactive)

Duration: Up to 30 Sec (+30 Sec Per LVL)

*Has a 5 Min Retroactive Cooldown after using Absolute Defence

Martel glanced at the information with some surprise, but quickly went back to the task at hand. His nimble and precise movements did not express any abnormal strength. Many began to shrink back when they saw their allies falling at a rapid pace. If they were wary of Martel, then they were downright terrified of Cali, who brushed off their attacks as if she were a ghost as she did the same.

“Shit, what are these monsters?!”

“Crap, who said this was going to be easy revenge?”

“Don’t falter to these thieves!”

“No! Brother!”

The centaurs shouted as their initial enthusiasm the fight dwindled, not that Martel cared. After all, he was only knocking them out and could casually find more information from them later. However, from the mention of thieves, Martel was able to guess what happened quickly. [Seriously, I’m cleaning up that bastard’s mess?] Martel thought as his eyebrow slightly twitched.

“Shieldsman, I challenge you to a duel!” A female centaur shouted as she charged at him as she had held back.

Martel glanced in her direction and saw that the armor at her flank had been cut. This identified her as the one who had initially shot the arrow that he had returned. He was merciful with his retaliation as the arrow she shot was going to miss Kogane. Given her Expertise Level with archery, missing in such a fashion was guaranteed to be intentional and meant only to scare her. However, given how he was currently preoccupied, and someone else was moving to intercept, he didn’t care for her provocation.

“Hey, fight me instead!” Hestia suddenly Taunted. After Martel and Cali had begun to move forward, Hestia, Asuka, Perenelle, and Kogane followed as quickly as possible. Given how he was slightly preoccupied, she decided to Taunt the centaur.

The centaur’s expression changed as her focus targeted Hestia, and they quickly got into a fight. The centaur was fighting with the great sword with a longer reach, but Hestia didn’t seem to care.

Martel, who was glancing in the direction of their fight, began to frown. He didn’t like Hestia’s fighting style. Her HP was slowly being shaved away by the centaur as she was willingly taking hits without even attempting to lessen the blows. While this approach was acceptable when she was fighting similar strength foes as her defense was abnormally high, there were several problems.

Hestia’s fighting style was utterly ineffective against those who were significantly stronger than her. She would lose in a battle of attrition so long as the opponent could safely keep away from her attacks. Her heavy reliance on her armor meant she would become helpless if it broke or was bypassed.

Eventually, Martel and Cali cleaned up the other centaur’s before they approached the duel. The others had let them fight as Martel had secretly informed them not to interfere. He wanted to see how Hestia would handle the situation, which only disappointed him. He decided to continue to watch as he glanced at the centaur status. When he did so, his eyes suddenly shot wide. He glanced at the centaur before glancing at Hestia repeatedly as he had an unusual gleam in his eye. It seemed that he had found a treasure. Eventually, Hestia became disadvantaged, and Martel decided it was time to step in. The centaur was so engrossed with the duel that she failed to notice Martel’s approach. It wasn’t until he had already begun his attack that she realized, “you dishonorable-” She began but couldn’t finish her sentence before she passed out.

Martel glanced at the party before he gave a slight nod. “Well, that was good work, everyone. However, everyone can improve many things which I will go over in the future during training.”

Everyone nodded, but Hestia frowned. She wasn’t stupid and realized that Martel had tested her with that dual, and he wasn’t satisfied with the performance.

...

A short time later, the bridge’s military presence came over as they had noticed the commotion. At this point, Martel already decided it would be okay if he revealed his status as he was no longer in prison. Thankfully, the town mayor and the soldiers both agreed to leave everything to him, especially given how they had stopped the attack.

“You dishonorable man.” The female centaur snarled after she awoke and found herself tied up, as were the other centaurs.

“Don’t give me any nonsense about a duel when you guys were the first to invade,” Martel said, a little surprised that she had recovered so quickly.

“But still, I challenged you to a duel, and not only did you not accept, but you interfered with my duel with that woman.”

“Listen, how stupid can you be? It’s not like we were having a friendly competition. We were having a battle. Why would I duel with someone who is aggressively invading?”

The female centaur gritted her teeth. “Well, then I challenge you to a duel now.”

Martel rolled his eyes. “You’re a prisoner, so I don’t see the point.”

The female centaur gritted her teeth.

“So, why did you and this group of ragtag invade?”

The female centaur remained silent.

“Let me guess. You had some special sword stolen?”

“How do you know? Are you behind it? Where is it?” The female centaur suddenly snarled.

“That idiot,” Martel said with a sigh. “Look, I know who stole the sword, but I can’t promise I’ll get back for a while. However, you don’t seem to realize the gravity of your situation. You invaded a sovereign territory aggressively. This could be seen as your entire race declaring war on humans.

The centaur visibly flinched. “No, this was our action and decision.” She said quickly, obviously unwilling to implicate her race.

Martel made a quick smile but hid it just as fast.

It was at this point that the sound of horses could be heard coming from the same direction. The girls all took defensive postures, but Martel waved them back, and he, with Kogane in tow, took a step out in front.