Chapter 30. Outward "Is it really so easy to connect mana and objects?" I wondered because that ring was on me for years and never had it shown a reaction to any of my actions. I tried thinking about using the ring, like how I used my skills, but that did not work. Another thing that I noticed while Arthur narrated his journey was that they were there in the tower for a 'couple of years,' while I was in the tower for decades. The time in the tower was different for those who chose war. Those who lost their lives there were sent to the gathering of all paths. Ultimately those who chose war were given an advantage because of the high risk. They were given the most valuable resource. Time. The time needed to adapt to this sudden change brought by this 'merge'. Arthur said that these spatial storages used mana, so my only chance at using this ring was to introduce it to my mana. But until now I had only moved mana in my body or breathed it in. This would be the first time where I had to move it outwards and eject it out of my body. I tried to slowly move it towards my index finger, which held the ring and tried to send it out. But as if a barrier was blocking the exit, the mana refused to leave my body. This was going to take some time or an epiphany if there were those because this ejection of mana would not be easy. The coming days were peaceful, I used to teach the three kids during the afternoon and in the evening I would train my own skills. Mornings were the most active parts of the day as I would usually move out to scout the surrounding area. There was not much to be found except stores that still had edible food but sometimes I would find groups of people who would then follow me back to the base camp. There were times when groups decided not to come or only some did while the others stayed or there was no one left that could. My image was slowly changing from the asshole to the leader of the group, but I did not want to deal with those things. So all that responsibility was shifted onto Henry who was happy to accept them. Slowly the number of people increased and the building that we used as a base started to run out of space. It was time for an expedition. "Henry, gather everybody that is ready to fight." "Huh?! Why?" He asked not expecting such an order. "There won't be enough space left after a few days, and the building's not an ideal place to stay. We will need to build something scratch how we did in the trial. The buildings won't be safe enough in the coming future." "I'll try but do not expect a lot of them to help." "Just ask. It benefits them if they come, not me." "We won't be having a meditation session today. You also need some real-life battle experience if you really need to get strong." The three gulped after hearing me. It was not often but there were a few armed goblins that barged into our building under the shade of night. I did not help them until the situation was bad, almost every time someone got injured and blood was shed. But these people needed to face the truth, that there was no knight in shining armor coming to save them. They had to save themselves. "What weapons did you select when the Record asked in the trial?" I had to know to give them their positions and teach them how to fight. "A sword," Arthur said. "A bow!" "A staff." Lucy and Luke said one after the other. Luke chose an interesting weapon, it would be fun to teach him the basics. I will be giving them the starting direction while the masteries would take care of it from there. "Can you hit that goblin Lucy?" I asked. There were ten of us on this small expedition. Arthur, Lucy, Luke, and six other people, including me you get a total of ten. "I can. Just need to get ready." She said as she nocked an arrow. She focused on the goblin and after five breaths released the arrow. It flew straight into the goblin's neck. The goblin tried to screech but was not able to produce any sound. "Arthur, Luke get ready," I said after seeing two other goblins rushing towards us. "Luke your staff is longer than a sword, you have an advantage if you fight using that distance to your benefit. Arthur dodge the first attack and then hit it with your sword. Only block if necessary." Arthur had no shield to block while the goblin had its claws to attack if the weapons were at a standstill. "Lucy, it's good that you can land your arrows but you need to learn to shoot while moving or learn to use a short sword for close combat. You won't be always fighting at a distance." "But my brother is there. He can fight at close range and I can snipe them from a distance, a perfect duo," she said with a silly smile. "So will you just sit there as he fights while protecting? Do you want to become a burden to your brother? And will he always be there with you, to protect you? I thought you were going to protect him but to me, it looks like you are going to be the one who needs protection." "But-" "He's right Lucy. I won't always be there for you. You need to learn how to protect yourselves." Luke interrupted her. Luke was the more mature, elder brother, and Lucy was the naive, little sister type. She did not say a word after that but did not seem to be upset. She was in thought and it was time she got a little independent. She could only start to worry about protecting others after she herself was strong enough. I too needed to get stronger. More monsters like the hobgoblins were slowly going to come out one after the other and I needed to be strong enough to defeat them. Strong enough to protect my family, friends and- I looked towards my three 'Students.' and them. We were quite far away from the base and were going to camp away tonight. We were clearing out the surroundings by killing the goblins, wolfs, boars, and other monsters when, "Hey, you all need to see this!" One of the guys, that was with us on the expedition shouted from the top of a building. He looked quite shocked, so I expected to see a huge monster or some dead bodies but what I saw blew my mind too.