While little Levis was unconscious in his tent, the men of the villages living in the camp were gathering at the entrance of the camp as more and more were coming alongside their chiefs.

The guards were already patrolling the external parts of the camp, nearing the forest, while ten other guards alongside vice-captain Adrian were staying in front of the gathering villagers and next to two large rectangular wooden boxes. As the two hours for the gathering were over, two more figures could be seen leaving the camp and going next to the vice-captain, an old man in fit black attire and a young man in an almost full plated armor.

“So, I see many have come, and there are some women too.”

“Yes, Captain. It appears so. What should I do? Should I make them back off from here?”

“It will be hard. If they have come here, they should be ready for a fight, and I think they might have no problem fighting the same as other men. In any case, talk with the men and see to it later on your own.”

“Yes, Captain.”

As they were debating about the women in the large group of villagers, the women in question were looking at the strangeness that was the trio in front of the guards, as the Captain and Vice-Captain were much more young compared to the rest of the guards as they appeared no older than twenty even younger in fact, and for the old man, that was old Wan with his straight back and a face in between seriousness and calmness, the women that accompanied the men of their village had doubts about whatever the guards with such a young leader could protect them seeing that they had been forced to asked the villagers to take arms.

“It is time, Adrian, you take the lead, as in the fight, you’ll be responsible for leading and protecting the villagers. The other two vice-captains will take the front with the rest of the guards and me.”

“Yes, Capt–”

“And stop saying “Captain” all the time. It is annoying. Just an answer is enough. I don't want to be leading puppets that fear me all the time. That's for you too, old Wan, unless it is necessary, stop being so formal now that we are out of the Green city. You can begin.”

“Yes.”

As he confirmed the captain's words. Adrian turned to the gathered villagers, who he was supposed to look after in the upcoming battle against the bandits.

“LISTEN UP. I will say things as they are, our captain had discussed with your chief, and you should know the details, as we have to deal with a large number of bandits that surpasses our numbers, we will need you to hold up the bandits in order to give us time to end our first battle and deal with the rest of the bandits. You need not fight. All that we require is for you to be able to hold them for the most time you possibly can. Now to start with those that can use a bow, step to the right, and two of the guards will explain what strategies and tactics we have prepared.

For the rest, we had some of the more skilled guards make wooden shields and spears from the nearby trees. Some of you come and take one shield and two spears.”

As some of the villagers, more proficient with the bow, stepped away from the group to the right as the two guards began explaining the tactics, the rest of the villagers had the more daring and courageous, like the Down River chief approached the two wooden box that were just opened to reveal full to the brim with two meters long spears and one and a half tall meter thick shield.

“I will now tell you the defense strategy that you need to take and the various cases you need to take in different situations. Those armed, LINE UP.”

As Adrian was taking charge of the training, old Wan and captain Rowen were standing at the sideline, commenting on the numbers of the villagers and the actions of the guards.

“Vice-Captain Adrian has great potential to become a captain or a commander in the army. His talent is above average. He'll become a prominent figure if nothing goes wrong in a hundred years. Does the young master want to take him to the military academy under your personal army?”

“That would be my intention. Characters like him are rare. He is made to be in the army. I can not let him slide away to be ruined in the hands of incompetents. Although he is quite stubborn, he'll come to accept my proposal if he understands the fact that alone he can not accomplish much.”

“Wonderful in that case, I should prepare as expec--.”

As the discussions of Adrian’s somewhat forceful invitation from the captain was going on, old Wan’s words were cut short as, all of a sudden, his eyebrow rose in surprise.

“What?”

“Excuse me, young master. I need to leave for a moment.”

“Why?”

“An old man’s problem. Do not worry. It will not take too long.”

"Alright. Don’t take too long. If you need to go relieve yourself, don’t need to cut your phrase sho–."

“And I'll not return the same way, I'll enter through another door.”

“Another Door? We don’t have another door.”

As captain Rowen was confused and bewildered by old Wan’s words and strange actions as there was only one door to the encampment, the figure of the old man disappeared as the sea trees engulfed him.

But deep in the sea of trees to the west up the hills and atop a thick branch of a tree, a man could be seen squatting and observing the little figures at the entrance of the camp, moving and dividing themselves.

“So, what do you see?”

But a voice from below the tree arrived at the man as he looked down before looking again and going down to sit next to the speaker. As he made a recalling expression before starting to speak.

“So.”

But the man's impatience made him angry as he began his detailed observation.

“Guards, about twenty, outside, some patrolling in between the trees and others in lines, in front of a group of villagers, I believe there were about three hundred at first glance, mostly men and some women, they handed some weapons and shields I think.”

“Guards, villagers and weapons, we should contact Zuger as soon as possible. We might get something from this.”

“I’ll try, but he should have returned by now. We should wait till we are close to the Stronghold and contact him. This thing has a poor range.”

As they were debating about calling Zuger, one of the men took a blue, flat, rectangular stone as he twisted and turned it into his hand.

“Then, let's go.”

“Alright, we'll get some distance, and we'll sleep for a few hours before starting to move.”

“That does not sound good. If you are tired, you should sleep here before parting.”

“What are you sa--.”

But as the man was involuntarily speaking to a third voice that had interjected into their conversations, the eyes of the men became wide with shock as they turned their heads to see the other speaker, an old man in a long black attire smiling at them.

As their shock turned into one of fear and as they instinctively tried to distance themselves from the old man, they found their worldview change, not as they desired, as the back of the closed fist of the old man hit the both of them in the pit of the stomach, making them roll on the ground for some meters, as they were trying to gasp for air desperately with faces twisted in pain as they barely had time for the approaching old man that was still smiling as a kick to their head put both of them in a knockout state.

“Well, I can't have you send anything as that will put the young master in further danger. Now, let's go back. Hopefully, you are not dead. I'm pretty sure I restrained myself well.”

As the old man was talking to himself while taking the flat blue stone and each man as he was carrying them both like potato sacks despised the difference in stature and the somewhat lack of muscles on the old man, its movements did not seem to have any inconvenience as he began walking towards the camp.

While in front of the camp, the vice-captain and the rest of the guards were teaching the villagers the tactic strategies they should follow. Captain Rowen was staying on the sidelines observing everything happening as he seemed lost in his own thoughts as the sun was constantly moving down from its peak. But as time passed, his focus came back as a frown emerged out of frustration.

“This too? I am still missing something.”

“Captain?”

But a question at his words came from a nearby guard as he turned to look at a worried face.

“Nothing. Tell vice-captain Adrian to meet me after he’s done here. I'll retreat to my quarter.”

“Yes, Captain.”

As the guard replied, he turned and left for the front door making his way into the center of the camp where old Wan was expecting him with food prepared while in a good mood. But as he sat on the main chair of his table, a particular blue flat stone was standing out as it was placed right in his front.

“What is this?”

“A communication stone.”

“I understand that it is a communication stone, but why is it here?”

As he was talking to the old Wan, he took a piece of food only to almost choke on the same food as the old man's words startled him.

"Nothing much, just something of value I found on some scouts nearby.”

“AHhaggggha. W-what? You actually find-- no, never mind, are they alive?”

“Yes, but I found nothing of value, aside from this and their location as some other information about the bandits.”

“Such as?”

“They seemed to have been sent by a rank 4 bandit named Zuger, while on a mission to do a scouting overview of the villages. As for the communication stone, it's of a lower quality, and it doesn't work for more than twenty kilometers.”

“Well-- you did well. It seems I did not prepare well enough even to spot scouts.”

“Hmmm, this is not an army. The young master seems to forget that the men are just guards and not soldiers made to deal with matters of war.”

“That does not give me an excuse for my failing. Anyway, I'll eat and wait for Adrian.”

As the captain took another glance at the flat blue stone, he began sighing again while starting to eat what the old man had prepared.

While a young man was sighing at his own inability, another young boy was sighing in exasperation at his own nightmare-like day.