In the capital of the Dion kingdom. The king and his subjects were conversing with each other in a grand hall with the king sitting on a throne. Everyone seemed stressed and fearful while the king felt hopeless. One of his subjects spoke up.

"We need to stop the goblins advancement at Tiluso or else they will have a starting point to overrun the entire kingdom. Your majesty, I implore you to request for backup from other kingdoms quickly and to make a blockade at Tiluso."

The king looked at his subjects and smiled helplessly.

"When the kingdoms formed a coalition to destroy the goblins, our kingdoms sent the most troops since we were the closest to the territory of the goblins."

His subject was about to speak by the king shook his head.

"You should know as well as I do that the coalition was meant to weaken every kingdom's force. Why do you think the coalition easily lost to the goblins. It's because that was the intention of Lerok and other kingdoms. The fool paid dearly for it and now that his kingdom has lost him there will be eyes on them trying to take their place. You say we should get reinforcement but you and I both know reinforcement won't come and they're all waiting like a pack of wolves to see our kingdom destroyed."

The subject and every other subject lost hope in their eyes. The nobles screamed for something to be done but even they started to lose hope. While everyone talked about what should be done the announcer spoke.

"Your majesty, princess Alcos request an audience."

Everyone became quiet and looked at the king. The princess was known to be intelligent and a genius at birth. She had solved many solutions and everyone thought she might have a solution to their problem.

"Let her in." The king spoke.

The doors opened and the princess walked in. She was 12 years old, had black hair and blue eyes with pale skin. After walking in close to the throne she bowed to the king and spoke.

"Father, I believe we should collect every mana core in the entire kingdoms and hide them in Tiluso castle. When the goblins storms the city we will detonate the mana core and wipe out their forces."

The king and everyone thought about what she said and found them reasonable. The kingdom would lose Tiluso and the land around it would be filled with mana poison but as long as the threat of the goblins were exterminated everything was fine. Looking around at everyone who seemed to agree the princess smiled inside at her genius.

"My subjects, do you agree with my daughter's proposal?"

Many screamed yes in the air.

"Then we should get started. Heaton, how long till the goblins reach Tiluso city?"

A man cloaked in black without his face being seen spoke. "Your majesty I believe the goblins will reach Tiluso in a week."

The king nods. "Thank you my daughter for providing a solution to our problem. You may leave if you wish."

Princess Alcos bowed and left the throne room. After she left everyone looked back at the king. Even though his daughter was a genius, she was still a girl after all and could never be king.

"Now everyone, we will discuss how to transport the mana core."

While the king and his subjects started conversing. A knight outside the throne hall went towards princess Alcos. Princess your brother wishes to speak with you. Alcos nods and walked with the knight to the far side of the castle. After a while of walking, they reached a room and the princess went inside.

Inside the decorated room with a bed and the sun shining through was Alcos twin brother Altos. Seeing her brother looking up from his book she charged towards him and proceeded to hug him and giggle. After a while, she spoke.

"Now Altos, what did you want to talk about."

Altos looked at his sister with a neutral face. He then looked towards his knight who's name was Yark. His knight had a scar on his face with black hair while wearing black armor and a sword sheathed by his side. His knight knew what he wanted and spoke about the meeting the king had with his subjects. After he was done, Alcos puffed her cheeks.

"You shouldn't be spying on father Altos."

Altos simply shrugged his shoulders. "I like knowing things if it keeps me alive."

Alcos looked at her brother in exaggeration. "Fine, now what did you want to talk with me about."

Altos smiled at her sister. "There's a village called Green Flower close to the Tawn kingdom border. In that town, I heard the goddess of a forest is hosting a tournament and whoever wins it will receive a request. I believe you and I should head there so that we can have a chance at becoming her apprentice. Although were too late for the tournament. That doesn't mean we can't bribe her."

Alcos became thoughtful at what her brother said and then spoke.

"What's the real reason you want me to go with you."

Altos smiled even though his sister was starting to pick holes. "It's also to go there to request help from the forest goddess in case your plan fails."

Alcos was about to talk about how her plan wouldn't fail but that was childish. She hated looking childish in front of her brother. In her brother's eyes, she wanted to look refined and intelligent. After thinking about his proposal she spoke.

"Alright, I'll go with you. We should probably tell father first though and if he agrees I'll bring my knights with us along our trip."

Altos nods at his sister's answer and they started conversing on other things. Like what kind of person the forest goddess was, what magic she taught, and other things. After the meeting in the throne hall was over the two went to their father and spoke of their plan. The king agreed and the two soon set off towards Green Flower.

On their journey, they went through cities and towns. They saw new things and the wide opened green land with the sun shining on everything. The journey to Green Flower would take around a week which was the time I took for the goblins to reach Tiluso.

They soon left the border of the Dion and into the mountains they went. The mountains were cold but with mana, their bodies were kept warm. The animals they were riding on were giant lizards that could traverse difficult terrain like mountains.

The giant lizards were called Tilzards. They were as tall as a horse and as long as four horses. Their bodies could adapt to the harsh environment and they were omnivores. Their scales were light blue, slick, and smooth which allowed them to traverse on waters. The tilzards were easy to train and they had enough intelligence to follow orders.

The twins were traveling with an escort of 10 great knights and 1 greater knight. Great knights had a stat of at most 500 while greater knight had a stat of at most 750, and after greater knight comes greatest knight which had a stat of at most 999. The knights with stats more than 999 becomes grand knights.

The Tawn kingdom was said to have 1 grand mage, 1 grand witch, and 1 grand knight. Out of all the other kingdoms the Tawn kingdom could be said to be the strongest. They also didn't send any rank 2 at the battle now called Goblins Maw.

Every kingdom had at least one rank 2 human who protected them. Anything more than one rank 2 meant they were challenging an empire. So far the Tawn kingdom has been holding out well since it's surrounded by other kingdoms. The other kingdoms also saw what the Tawn kingdom was doing but they were just waiting on the sidelines for Tawn kingdom move so that they can reap benefits.

While traveling the mountains everyone enjoyed everything around them. They knew the mountains were wonderful but they also knew it was dangerous. Although it was dangerous, as long as they weren't being overrun by sheer numbers it would be fine.

On the third day of traveling on the mountainside, they met a griffin. The griffin was 3 meters tall and 4 meters long. The griffin flew above them searching for weaknesses in their formation. The tilzards looked up at the griffin and hissed. The griffin didn't seem to be hungry and it seemed to just want to play around with them.

Deciding to have some fun it dived down towards them. The knights saw it dive and they got into formation to protect the prince and princess. The wind rushed by the griffin side and the tilzards started hissing more. The griffin screeched making the tilzards restless. Fortunately, the princess and the knights were able to use mana and calm the tilzards down. Altos looked at the Griffin calmly and spoke.

"It seems to want to use a wind attack to send us off the mountainside falling to our death. Anyone has any idea on how to stop that?"

He looked around and the knights didn't have an answer.

"Huddle the tilzards together and place your shield up while making it smooth with mana so the wind slides on it."

The knights obeyed Altos and they soon made a formation to resist the wind. The griffin saw this and it smiled. When it dive down close it spread its wings and a strong wind came rushing forth which blew dust and stones away but the knights held strong.

Seeing that its prey was able to defend itself the griffin screeched and flew up towards the sky. Altos looked at it wondering what it was doing and then spoke.

"It seems like it's going to combine wind with fire and send fire hurling towards us like a dragon's flame breath. When it gets close I want all of you to spread cold water around our formation."

The knights didn't speak and obeyed. The griffin stopped flying up and turned around. It dived downed this time while enveloping itself with wind and fire. Diving down it looked like a meteor. Yark spoke up when he saw this.

"Your majesty we cannot withstand that. Permission to propel myself and attack the griffin."

"Permission granted."

"Wait are you going to be fine?" Alcos spoke worriedly.

Altos smiled at his sister. "All of you buff Yark."

The knights started buffing Yark with the mana they had and Yark grew to peak rank 1. The griffin was also peak rank 1 and its biology gave it an advantage. The flying burning griffin grew closer and closer. Just when it was about to hit it tried to spread its wing.

In that split moment, Yark leaped instantly and chopped off one of its wings sending it screeching and hurling into the knight's formation. The knight's formation was pushed back by the impact and the tilzards hissed under it.

Seeing that the griffin lost one of its wings the knights attacked before the griffin could recover. They stabbed their blades towards its legs, stomach, eyes, neck, and other places causing the griffin to screech in pain.

It moved its body forcibly trying to shake of the knights but they held on. Yark came in quickly and deepened the sword wound in the griffin neck sending blood gushing everywhere. The griffin screeched and took its last breath before becoming unmoving.

"That was amazing everyone," said Altos."

Alcos looked at the blood in disgust and looked irritated at him. The knights on the other hand all used mana to clean the blood off themselves and became pristine condition again. Yark didn't clean himself though and went to the griffin chest stabbing it with a sword and pulling out a mana core. Before he could hand it over Altos spoke.

"Use it Yark."

Yark shook his head and explain. "Your highness, mana obtained through hard work is high-quality mana, and mana obtained without effort is low-quality mana. This griffin mana quality is average at best and I hope to find better quality mana core."

Altos thought about what he said and then nods.

"Put it in our finances for this journey."

Yark obeyed Alto's command and the knights soon got going on their travel again. In the later part of their travel, they did find more battles but they weren't as dangerous as the griffin. After many days they soon saw Green Flower.