The march carried on without incident until the late afternoon, punctuated with frequent rest stops, mostly for the benefit of the children.

Despite this, the attacks by Dead-men continued somewhat frequently. In fact, the only reason they are not overwhelmed at any given moment is that a standard plan for any large group forced to move through the dead wood forest is to have fast moving distractions to direct the attention of the dead men elsewhere. The failure of this tactic when the children arrived was due to a failure of the new strategy that involved distantly placed magic explosive to take the place of living distractions.

The camp was set up before the sun set and the students were given a quick lesson in mundane weapons by their respective instructors. Most were far more interested in learning more magic, Leon included.

With [Blood of Chaos] for a skill, he would not be satisfied until he had at least one spell to train the ability. Unfortunately, the instructors were not set up to teach actual spells to the children.

Magic learning required a safe environment where worse case scenarios could be contained on a daily basis. No matter how fast the children learned skills, it still only takes one mistake to possibly kill them and everyone around them as well.

[Mana Manipulation] and weapons training take up the actual lessons that can be safely provided, but that itself resulted in some unexpected compensations. It turns out a few of the children chose their weapon wisely enough to have an actual affinity with them including Leon.

Skills and Abilities

Weapon Proficientcy

Insight and natural use of mundane Arms

Melee - 2% Ranged - 0% Flexible- 0% Shield - 0%

Level 1

Weapon Proficiency

Melee

Insight and natural use of close quarter Arms

Unarmed - 12% Staff - 8% Spear- 1%

Level 1

Not bad at all, learn something new every day and eventually I may not even need Chaos to get back home! Leon quickly squashed the thought before too long. He had no interest in provoking chaos further, as he had no idea if mind reading magic existed. If it did a god was sure to have it. Leon noticed that the categories of skills had their own subcategories and those had subcategories of their own. His staff trainer Creal informed him after a bit of pestering that most people tried not to get caught up in the minute details of a skill. The journey was long but the student quickly adapted. Ohm Icura sped up the march in accordance with the acclimatization of the children. So long as they were protected and not yet thrown into the thick of a foreign civilization, he would not be confident in getting all of them to give up the god-tier gear. He had gotten them to promise not to bond with the items over the course of the journey, but he suspected some might have already done so. By the time they reached the Jaguyren river or the dead river as the locals called it, over 30 days had passed, twice asl long as it took to get to the summon site. Still, the journey had sped up nicely as the children got used to the physical demands. Their progression in mana manipulation had grown astonishingly and their mundane weapons training was nothing to sneer at either. Not that the battle was all from the high ground. The children had been hit with differing levels of homesickness, for one. What made it worse was the bouts tended to be contagious, one child setting off the others until the instructors had to isolate those who looked like they were on the verge of a breakdown. The constant attacks by dead men had also worn heavily on the guards. The inability to sense them in most cases finally resulted in the assemblage marching into an inadvertent ambush by the undead. They lost 3 days and two guards battling around and through the undead. Thankfully, it took some time to realize this was more than the usual random attacks and so the instructors were able to head off the students panic eve before it set in. The bridge to cross the river was surprisingly robust and well maintained. While no ordinary person would cross into the dead wood willingly, there were many who had business there on a regular basis. Adventurers from the many guilds of the south could make a fortune by plundering the ruins hidden within. Hunters could find a vast abundance of meat as well since the undead didn't bother with any living being other than the sentient ones. This left the animals of the forest with little influence from civilization. There were also several dungeons that were regularly cleared, not to mention the wild dungeons that had to be cleared for fear of mana explosions. There was also a divine class dungeon in the center of the Deadwood that had regular visitation by the brave and foolhardy. While it has been hundreds of years since a divine class was cleared, the potential rewards made sure there would never be a shortage of challengers. The bridge crossing was where the student got their next glimpse of the inhabitants of Lacaos. Adventure parties small and large made up of rough individuals gave their party curious looks as they crossed to test their luck and skills on the deadwood side of the river. Most would not venture far into the woods, but even on the edge of the forest, there was money to be made. Hunters and herbalist, alone and with hired hands also hurried across the bridge, less curious and more frightened of the large armed party. The edge of the forest held many plants of great value while daring them to venture deeper into the woods for the plenty of rare herbs that grew wild and undisturbed by greedy hands. The far side of the bridge contained the many camps of those who went into the forest for only a few hours a day. A few merchants also plied their wares at elevated prices. The town of Riverport was only another 4 days to the south and with it, the first taste of modern culture the children would get.