So Ben had the means to cripple the potential of any future recruits for this camp of the Warlords, he would be able to cripple the future force of an entire army.

I also figured that the people high up in the army, would be aware of the restrictions to his power, so that would mean they would be able to cripple any soldier they wanted under the guise of helping them.

Meanwhile, they could effectively raise the strength of the veteran natives who had long since reached their magic potential.

Iirin mentioned that the population of the hordes was in excess of 50 million people. A fifth of the Empires population.

Even with only fifty million people, you are likely to have every type of power a few times.

Still, a power that directly reduced impurities in your mana had to be rare no matter how many people are in the Empire or the Hordes.

"So what will we do with the gas."

"It is still very useful for your summons who are inherently limited in their power. You should not use it for a long time, but it will still greatly improve your power."

That was good to hear. I would have to be very careful if I fought against Ben in the future, I imagine it would be straightforward enough to keep his gas contained, a bit of air keeping it from spreading or moving it in a different direction.

Still, there would be a large tactic session centered around Ben. I am not sure if they would reveal the long term risks of fighting him. It was not something that would be easily healed.

For the moment, all I could do was watch the growth of my lands. The Grove-tenders gave a full report on their progress. I made it a daily thing to transfer memories about the matches; they helped develop even greater tactics. They had a far greater knowledge base about my summons and their capabilities than I did, it was only them helping me come up with tactics that I had any confidence in the task given to me by Unusu, they lead me through various thought processes behind a lot of tactics, things I would never have been able to come up with myself, they really helped me develop my critical thinking.

We went through the going ons of the world. What decisions they had made. How they helped the growth and specialization further of quite a few summonses.

They were doing a terrific job—those little industrious fellows. Without them, I would be truly lost without any way to advance in the army. Stuck constantly micro-managing my Inner world, to get every bit of efficiency from it.

Returning to my room, with gratitude on my mind, I continued circling my Aura, growing ever stronger, waiting to break through at that crucial moment. That was all I could hope for, really.

The next day came with a bit of relief. It would be a little less intensive than my past few days. I would need to bring in the analysis I had done on all the favorites for the Captain, as well as how I'd battle the summoners were I to come into conflict with them.

Apart from that, I could relax. The day was simple. I didn't have to watch any battles or dissect any summoners. Just give my findings in, doing a normal training day. Then I could hopefully get a chance to read the books they promised if we did well in our tactical analysis.

I nearly skipped to the training yard. I had managed to get into the routine of waking up about an hour before anyone else and practicing my summoning with the extra time.

Constantly summoning, bringing up shields, letting them destroy them, working on my tactical work, and practicing all the different configurations the Grove-tenders and I come up with. Unusual also came up with one or two for me. I think the old man was slowly growing to like me quite a bit. He was giving me more information and not being nearly as mean-hearted as he was original. Seeing I had potential. Also, I would be stuck with Iirin as my partner for the next five years if we were to get through the Culling with a high result. Once we broke past the bottleneck, he was confident that we could soon reach the number 1 spot in our team.

I still doubted him, Urtil was a big drag on my mind. I had seen his capabilities. I was going to be strong when I reached Tier 5, but equal to him, I wasn't so sure. He had a far greater range of abilities to empower his summons while fighting, giving him a great range of attacks that could vary greatly at any moment.

That was something I was lacking. I had a great variety before the attack began. Still, once I had completed all the summons I had time for, my ability to empower them was sorely lacking, I couldn't shield them either, the ability only working on my own body at this point. I was at a loss.

"Good to see someone training so early, I would have assumed you would have slept in a bit after the past few days of work."

The captain's appearance no longer startled me. He always arrived thirty minutes before the start of the lesson. When he was in a good mood, he would often give a few pointers and a bit more in-depth look at my tactical thinking, when he was in a bad mood, he tended to ignore me, or criticize me heavily. Usually, in that criticism was a few nuggets of golden information, meaning no matter his mood, I tended to learn at least something.

"Your form is very good today."

Not even a correction, just a pure compliment. He was in a good mood today.

I slowly winded down my practice; the others began to arrive. Falling into line quickly.

"Good news everyone, I have managed to get us a preliminary spar."

That did get our attention. I had never seen another Heti team in action. So I was wondering what was going to happen, how good would they be?

"Today, we will be facing the expected number 1 team of the Heti Culling!"