“Well, that went well enough, I believe?” Nelsen said as they walked out and continued towards the residences of the elite team.

“It did indeed”, Kaden said. Truly went well! He was happy and now had lot more things to think about. “So what happens now?”

“I will intriduce you to your team”, Nelsen explained. “There is another team under my command, but they are on a mission right now. The team you are in are new. While they have some experience, they are still considered to be in training. This will affect missions that are available, but once certain point in training has been reached, expect to get actual missions. Consider those your true training.”

“How soon will I get to kill some people that have no right to live from Sacronan?” Kaden questioned. This was an important question.

Nelsen raised his eyebrow a bit. “Do you have any particular grudges?”

“Yes”, Kaden answered immediately. It might be useful to establish this fact soon. “I was planning on asking later if I get to choose any missions or will they be handed to me. There are certain people that just must die. They have lost all right to live.”

“You can indeed take missions that are made available, but sometimes there are missions that are given to us from higher command. Therefore the option isn’t always available, but there will be times it is.”

“What about information?” Kaden continued. “I know names and faces, but nothing more.”

“If they are relevant targets, you might get that from intelligence”, Nelsen said. “Yet, you can spend contribution points to request specific ones. Also you might want to try temple of Stefinos, if you have the money. Hmmm, in fact, would you like to share the names?”

Kaden thought it for a moment, none of it should come back to him despite any possible connections to his past.

“Certain officer, captain Juren”, Kaden started describing the one person who he would kill without question. Painfully. Extremely painfully. With as much torment he could bring upon him. “He is a fanatic worshipper of Daminur. He was the one who laid waste to my home. It was due to orders from some colonel Serin.”

Some truth and some deception. Kaden did not want to point out the fact that Dashire had been called to battle by Sacronan’s church orders. He didn’t even know the name of the monk. There was also that ‘Sanctus’, which Kaden, as far as he had found out, was an extremely high ranked member of church on Sacronan’s side. It seemed Dashire had just been swept into some larger plans by chance. Well, Kaden was going to make them feel the consequences regardless.

What he said and the way he said it should be fine. He knew roughly how things had progressed afterwards. It would make sense that some backwater villages from saints side were decimated too.

“A captain and a colonel?” Nelsen thought. “There might be a chance these two might be found. You are not going to be their opponent for a while, though.”

“That doesn’t matter”, Kaden replied. “I will grow strong and once I am strong enough, I will pull out their spines, soak them in acid and listen them scream as I burn them and send their broken souls to their gods.”

“Colorful”, Nelsen nodded. “It is good to have goals, but I recommend restraining yourself for the time being. For all we know these people might already be dead. There is still war going on and technically speaking its always been going on. Just sometimes less so. Specifically this Juren you mentioned is a worshipper of Daminur. He will likely feel the need to be constantly in battle. People die in battle, you know.”

“I’m aware and after the last week, I’m even more aware that my view on what is ‘strength’ has been limited”, Kaden admited. “I must be stronger, much stronger, before I do anything. I do not plan on commiting a suicide. If they are dead by the time I can kill them… so be it. I’ll release my rage on everything they ever cared about.”

“This is good plan”, Nelsen said and then pointed at the building in front of them. “We are here. Let’s get you settled down and meet rest of the team members.

They went in and Nelsen stopped to make some prayer hand signs at altar built just inside. It was altar to God of Laws, Jorn, who was also dealing with matters of ‘judgement’. Nelsen worshipped this particular god. Kaden snorted in his mind a bit.

“As you can see, we here like order”, Nelsen said. “Jorn is the god who maintains order and punishes those who would violate it! The heretics from Sacronan are especially in need of punishment and beasts do not even have any sensible laws. What god’s do you worship? Perhaps you should consider serving Jorn.”

Kaden cursed the gods in his mind. He would offer no worship to any god. Yet, to maintain appearances and to get be part of the elite team in deeper and more accepted manner, he would pretend to do so.

“As you know, my family were crafters”, Kaden said. “We worshipped Tonih. After everything, I have been rather loose with his worship. Jorn is an acceptable god, though. Does he require anything specific from me?”

“Only to maintain laws and order!” Nelsen replied in a pious voice. “Once you identify a violator, a judgement should be passed according the laws. As far as I understand, this is what you have generally speaking been doing so far. At least once you were brought back to civilization. I heard your behavior was...questionable until then. In my opinion you will need to repay our sins somehow, but since you have reformed, taking part in keeping order and laws should fine way to do so. Lives taken must be repaid.”

“I understand”, Kaden replied and made the prayer signs in front of Jorn’s altar while cursing and ridiculing the god in his mind. Laws and justice? They had no such things! It would be naive to think so!

Nelsen smiled and was happy to have gained a new follower for his god. One of the reasons he had come to like Kaden’s despite his behavior was that Kaden had hunted down criminals and aided the law. Also while doing so, Kaden didn’t break any laws himself. A new potential follower for Jorn!

Little did he know that no such thing had happened. That in truth Kaden would spit at Jorn. It was difficult to detect insincere worship.

Nelsen showed Kaden his personal room. It had mana gathering formation set in it. Not only that there was a small mana forge. Kaden had noticed similar, but much larger one at Cyrun’s place. Mana forge was like any forge, but it used mana to heat it and control achieving much greater results than an ordinary forge. They were smaller to begin with and created far less smoke and other such byproducts and could be placed in a corner. Nelsen had arranged this room for Kaden after he learned of his skills.

Afterwards Nelsen led Kaden to a central room, which was apperently used outside of training to relax, talk and even hold meetings.

“These people here are part of your team. Expect to work with them often, even if working in pairs or solo are relatively common”, Nelsen said.

“Captain”, Said a man who stood up and saluted. “I assume this is the new recruit you talked about? I am lieutenant Walden. I lead this team we call ‘Verdict’. These are Olren, Hem and Sari.”

Two men, Olren and Hem and one female, Sari. Hem was generally unassuming appearance. Brown hair and no particular defining physical traits. Not muscular, yet not thing either. Sari had slightly tomboyish look, with her short, slightly darker brown, hair tied behind her head. Olren had more ‘refined’ appearance. His blonde hair was swept backwards as if he had put too much some product on it to keep it that way. Otherwise his general appearance was similar to Hem.

When Walden pointed to rest of the people in the room, Hem and Sari, merely nodded with some curiosity, but Olren had a dissatisfied frown.

“My name is Kaden. Looks like I will be working with you”, Kaden said in amiable manner. The result of his sociability learning. It wasn’t still perfect, but it was acceptable. He twisted his mouth into smile as he spoke. He could already keep doing so for a lengthy time! Surely that had to count for something.

From what he could tell, this Walden was somewhere initial or mid Formation stage. It was good to stay in good standing with him. As for the rest, they were all at advanced Channel Opening. Kaden was not about to underestimate them either after his experiences. He should at least learn the true power level before allowing any grudges to form. That was going to be somewhat difficult, though.

“Hmph, all I see is a country bumpkin!” Olren said. “Even if he does appear to have some talent...”

“Try not to mind Olren”, Walden said and tried to push aside the matter. “He is from a noble lineage, but nowhere close to gaining anything inheritance. Hence he is using his talent to gain military standing. He has some prejudices, but does not truly act on them.”

“Yeah right”, Kaden thought in his mind and externally merely nodded. He had already marked Olren as a potential enemy. Then continued with a question. “Lieutenant, what should I be doing now? I just received access to artificer knowledge. I would also like to continue my cultivation.”

“There will be some training later, mainly to give everyone familiarity with your style for better team work. I will also get to see what to have you work on. But for now, there is some time you may use as you please”, Walden replied. “Oh and before I forget, take this.”

Walden handed Kaden a thin, rectangular magic tool. “This is a magiphone or ‘phone’. Its a communication device designed based on tools ancients used. Your team members have already been listed in it and they have yours. Just remember to charge it with your mana regularly. It should work in all cities and some distance from them or when close enough to anyone you try to contact, but the coverage isn’t perfect yet. Its relatively new tech.”

Kaden frowned as he observed the tool. More strange formations he could not really understand. It was good to have such tool in his hands at all times. He would be able to look and study the formations in detail. The use of the tool was at least extremely simple. It seemed imitations of ancients technology were relatively common, but were extremely complex. At least for his current understanding.

“I assume, I will receive contact when training starts?” Kaden questioned.

Walden nodded.

“In that case, I shall go study. Lounging here is waste of time”, Kaden said and directly gave a look at Olren as he turned around. He hoped to cause some kind of rage and thus cause the young man suffer consequences, but no such thing happened. Only a cold snort was directed back at him.

It was fine to ignore the noble kid for now. What Kaden truly wanted to know was to understand that enchanting method. He wanted to create a proper weapon of vengeance. Perhaps he would be able to do so with formations too, but just like Cyrun said, formations were more predictable, but lacked the wideness of effect. Kaden wanted a weapon that could directly connect with his vengeance and produce truest form of his desires!

Perhaps it would be possible to create a weapon that could make use of correct kind of mana, but there were limits. It wouldn’t be all that much different from his gauntlets and he knew their limits. Enchanting could go past those limits and have effects he desired rather than just release of mana. Such effect was very limited. Mana liked to do what was its concept or concepts, all of it. A spell, which enchanting resembled, did a specific part of the concept in a way you wanted to that would be difficult or not feasible to do with formations.

This was important difference and perhaps even increase his understanding outside of crafting. Perhaps to create spells or techniques that were truly his own. He only had a general idea of such matters. To adjust was easy compared to creating entirely new spell from scratch.

In fact, learning was probably the most important thing that Kaden expected to get from saints. Once he had that, his plan to kill people would become something possible. Magic cultivation would come along as he could enchance his efficiency with knowledge!

Knowledge is power!