“Young Master, here are the things you ordered.” Gaston entered Lark’s room and handed him a leather sack. Inside were rations, crystals, ormatane dust, ink, and parchment. “Are you sure about this? At the very least, please bring Anandra along.”

After the lizardmen infiltrated the town, Lark drafted plans to protect his domain. What he needed right now was a bird’s-eye view of the surrounding regions, particularly the area the legion of beastmen would pass through. Only after he gathered enough data about the topography could he properly lay out his plans.

Flying would give him a wide view as he made a detailed map, but it would fail to give him the minute details inside the forest. Therefore, Lark planned on exploring those areas himself and recording the details carefully. It was an arduous task necessary for Blackstone Town’s survival.

“No,” said Lark. “I will go alone.”

War was coming. It would be unwise to take Anandra with him and halt the soldiers’ training. Furthermore, although the warrior was fast, he might not be able to keep up with Lark. He would just become a hindrance.

Gaston frowned. He disliked the idea of the young master going into the wilderness alone.

“The rations are only enough for two days,” said Gaston. “If you want, I can ask the servants below to cook some more.”

“This is enough.” Lark strapped the sword on his waist and grabbed the leather sack. “I’ll be gone for only a day or two. Three at most. This should be plenty.”

He could just hunt in the forest once his rations ran out.

Gaston was not fully convinced. “And the production of cement?”

“Ah, that’s right. I had almost forgotten. I asked Silver Claw to create more kilns. The farmers are almost finished with planting the seeds in the northern farmlands. We’ll need to finish the irrigation project before summer comes.”

Although war was looming, Lark had no intention of halting the conversion of the previously non-arable lands in the northern and western regions. He wanted his city to be self-sufficient. He did not want his people to experience hunger again during the winter.

“Give these to him.” Lark fumbled through his cloak and took out a folded parchment. “Designs for some weapons. Tell him to prioritize the ones marked with a cross. I will need dozens of them before the week ends.”

Gaston looked at the parchment curiously. Yesterday, the young master made a speech in the Central Plaza. He vividly recounted the story of the lizardmen they captured. The story of impending war brought by the beastmen.

Although the locals were afraid, most of them voiced their desire to protect this place. Most of them had been born here, and the mere thought of those lizardmen pillaging and conquering their town pushed them to anger.

The young master told them that it should be possible to block the advance of the beastmen, given enough time. It was an outrageous claim.

Even Gaston refused to believe it.

Gaston sighed. “Young Master, we still have time. We could go back to Gryphon City and seek refuge in the Duchy. I’ll convince the duke somehow.”

It was the third time Gaston proposed this. Lark shook his head. “Enough. I’m not abandoning this place.” He took out another parchment and handed it to Gaston. “The merchants from Lion City are departing today, right? Give this to them.”

“This is?” Gaston looked at the parchment.

“A letter for Big Mona,” said Lark. “Make sure he reads it.”

This letter could dictate the outcome of this war. Whether they would receive help or not would depend on how well he convinced that fat merchant.

***

Lark rode a horse toward the eastern part of Blackstone Town. He passed the eastern border, and instead of going directly to the mines, he turned left and kept going. As he sped up, the sea of trees in the Endless Forest blurred on his right.

He soon arrived at a plain filled with overgrown weeds. Not bothering to halt his mount, Lark quickly surveyed the surroundings. This place was wide, good enough for large armies to clash against each other.

“We won’t win without using underhanded tricks,” he mumbled. The differences in numbers and training between his soldiers and the beastmen were simply too vast. “Traps. Poison. Fire. It doesn’t matter. We need to win this war.”

In war, no lives were equal. Most men despised tactics like poisoning the enemy or assassinating the commander of the army, but Lark believed differently. In war, only the winner gets to write the history. The winner was justice. At the end of the day, those who survived would get to tell the tale. If it would enable his people to continue living, he would not hesitate to use tricks. This was war after all. A competition for survival.

Lark kept moving. Several hours passed and he arrived at a forest. He tethered his horse to a tree then carved a clay bowl from the ground using magic. Using magic again, he filled the bowl with water.

“Drink. Eat,” he said to his mount.

The horse stared at Lark for a moment, then began drinking as though it understood the command. The grass on the ground should be enough to fill the mount’s belly.

Lark looked beyond the sea of trees. Unlike the ones in the Endless Forest, the trees here were smaller, their trunks thinner. The rays of the sun seeped through the canopy of leaves providing ample light to see everything.

Lark cast his magic and slowly soared into the sky. His cloak fluttered in the wind as he looked at the forest below. This forest seemed to extend far and wide, reaching the small hills beyond. It would probably take Lark several days of travel to reach those hills if he used the mount.

“I’m glad I never neglected mana training.” He praised himself for being so diligent. With his current mana pool, he could reach those hills by the end of the day, reducing travel time greatly.

He took out a parchment to record the details of what he saw. Although his real aim was the row of hills beyond, creating a map of this forest would also prove crucial to the upcoming war.

Lark leaned toward the hills, and with a deafening boom, sent himself soaring forward. He whistled through the sky as the sea of trees below blurred. As he flew toward the hills, he carefully surveyed the forest below.

He finally arrived at his destination. He slowly flew down and landed at the top of the hill. Below him, a small forest was spread out. Beyond that, a plain with a river snaking through it.

He looked up. It was already dusk. He opened the leather sack and took out some dried fish and bread. As he ate, he looked around and carefully surveyed the surroundings.

It was just as he thought. This place would be the most ideal to place traps to ensnare the beastmen. Those traps would not annihilate an army, nor would they stop their advance completely, but such obstruction could give Lark enough time to prepare for the war.

But first, what he needed were scouts.

After filling his stomach, he amplified his senses several times. His remaining mana should be enough for this task.

“Over there,” he mumbled. He kicked off from the ground and his body shot into the sky. His speed created a soft whistling sound as he locked on his target. He reached out his hand and grabbed a large bird. It almost got away, but Lark managed to grab hold of its leg. The bird squeaked and pecked his hands as it desperately tried to escape.

“Ouch.” Lark flinched as blood dripped down his fingers. The bird was around five times the size of his fist, the perfect size for reconnaissance.

Lark held the bird gently as he flew back to the ground. Upon landing, he opened his leather sack and took out a quill, ink, and ormatane dust. He wrote symbols on the bird’s body using a mixture of the latter two, while chanting his spells. The symbols glowed for a split second, then disappeared from sight. Lark released the bird and it flew into the sky, circled around, and flew down again to perch on Lark’s shoulder.

“Good.” Lark was satisfied with the result. He stroked the bird’s head and grinned. He took out a crystal and wrote the same symbols on it. After activating the magic, the bird froze as the symbols on the crystal glowed. After the light in the runes vanished, the bird squeaked, then flew into the sky.

Lark touched the crystal and images appeared inside. The hills. The sea of trees. The cloudless sky. The plains stretching beyond.

The crystal now reflected the vision of the bird as it flew around.

Without taking a rest, Lark repeated the process over and over again. By the time he was finished, his mana pool had been wrung dry.

He slumped on the ground and heaved a sigh. A contented smile formed on his lips.

The range of this magic spanned more than a hundred kilometers. Although the crystal would not show images unless someone supplied mana to it, he would be able to fix this problem soon by making the locals take turns in channeling their mana into the core. With this, he would be able to monitor the beastmen’s advance.

But it was not enough. He needed more.

He was out of mana. He would proceed with the second part of the plan tomorrow morning, at dawn.

***

Dawn came and Lark took out several sheets of parchment. He drew runes and symbols on them using ink, ormatane, and gold dust. After the ink dried, he infused his mana. He repeated this process several times, creating many talismans by noon.

The gold dust was a necessary expense. With this, the talisman’s effects should last several weeks.

Lark looked at the forest below the hills. He stretched his limbs, ran down, and entered the sea of trees. He placed the talismans at the trunks of different trees, dozens of meters apart. Each talisman was small, half the size of a palm, making it inconspicuous.

After placing over a hundred talismans, he activated the magic imbued inside. The forest glowed an azure hue as the runes inside broke into particles of light. The talismans turned to ash, leaving behind scorched symbols on the trunks of the trees.

The magic imbued in those symbols would slowly consume the life force of the trees over several weeks, eventually killing them. In return, magic poison would slowly permeate the air, making the forest dangerous for any living being.

As the runes suck the life force of the trees, it is converted into poisonous miasma unseen by the naked eye. The miasma wasn’t immediately fatal, but when someone was exposed to it for a longer period of time, they would experience symptoms similar to magic poisoning.

Magic poisoning was relatively easy to treat. But if thousands of warriors were afflicted, it could halt the advance of the beastmen’s army.

The particles of light emanating from the runes vanished entirely. The forest resumed its calm.

Lark closed his eyes and enjoyed the gentle breeze. Birds chirped. Trees rustled in the wind. After a month or two, this forest would die. A consequence of using this underhanded magic. A sacrifice.

“But I have to do this.” Lark sighed. He tightened his cloak and returned to the hills. He would make another record of the surroundings, then go back to Blackstone Town.

This should give him enough time to execute the next part of his plan.

Hopefully, the letter he’d sent to Big Mona in Lion City would be enough to mobilize the kingdom’s army.