Excited murmurs erupted in the hall.

"General Ulrich? And he is coming from the north?"

"Isn't that where the Giant is at?! Does he know of this?"

Some were quite concerned. If the reinforcements accidentally clashed with the Giant, they would most likely get annihilated on the spot.

If that happened, the people of Auralba would truly lose hope. Despite seemingly low losses, the reality was cruel. Only less than a quarter of all beasts were dead, and the majority of them were the weaker ones.

The powerful Orc Warriors, Shamans, and Ogres were still freely roaming around, waiting for an opportunity to strike. And best not even speak of the Giant. If it so desired, it could probably single-handedly carve a bloody path from the wall straight to the Royal Palace.

As such, every man counted and they couldn't afford to lose any. Losing an entire branch of the army would be a disaster! They had to act quickly.

"Send the raven! Let them know they should circle around the capital and try to break in on the south side, the ranks of monsters are thinner there." The King immediately ordered. "Make sure you hurry!"

"Yes!" The servant immediately bowed and ran out to do as he was told. A direct order from The King was no joke; taking it lightly could result in execution!

The following hours consisted of various reports on the state of the city, a few requests for more resources on certain places along the front line, and slimy nobles trying to kiss the King's ass. There were always some that did so and the King already became numb to their sweet words.

In cases like these, it was best to ignore and pretend not to hear anything. Otherwise, they would bury him under endless irritating pleads for various benefits and deals with the Palace.

After everything came to an end and the majority left, he could finally breathe out and collapse on his throne. Robart III wasn't physically tired, but having to micromanage an entire city and keep everyone happy took its toll on his mind.

Now that only his closest aides remained, he could finally relax.

"Your Majesty…" After the people left, Tabbris stepped forward to speak with The King.

"Tabbris, lad, how is your mission going?" The King smiled and waved him to come closer.

"Your Majesty, an Ogre breached northern defenses," Tabbris reported without beating around.

"Well… Since you are here, I should assume the problem was taken care of, correct?"

"It's… Well… Yes, the Ogre is dead, but…"

"Hm? Something happened?"

"Yes, it's about Gerald…" Tabbris hesitated.

"He helped you kill the beast? Or was he injured in battle?"

"No Sire," Tabbris shook his head, "He killed the Ogre, alone, and with minimal sustained damage."

"Alone?!" King Robart III opened his eyes wide in shock and then frowned immediately after. He seemed to have come to an understanding. "Wait, what tools did he use? I can understand if he had some powerful spell scroll to break through its defenses… I know those beasts can be quite tough to deal with."

"No, he battled with the Ogre until it exhausted its Mana and then he simply beat it until it died," Tabbris reported on what he saw.

"Battled the Ogre?" The King was flabbergasted. It was the most ridiculous thing he had heard this day. "He engaged in a battle of attrition and won?! Against an Ogre?! What nonsense is this!"

"It's true, Your Majesty," Tabbris affirmed. "They were trading blows for almost an hour, and he also seems to be growing stronger at an alarming rate. I lost sight of his limits."

The King stood up and paced back and forward around the room.

"No limits, huh? Did he show any aggression towards us?"

"I'm unaware of any, and I doubt he is planning anything against us. He expressed his dissatisfaction with the monsters and also slew hundreds of them. He also has a few friends from other cities as far as I know." Tabbris said whatever came to his mind. Truly, except for a few unusual quirks, Gerald appeared to be a completely normal young man on the surface. Hotblooded, a bit arrogant, and always ready for a fight, but otherwise a good guy.

He took care of his people and that's what mattered most to Tabbris. As for his unusual actions sometimes, they could be ignored.

The King rubbed his chin and breathed out in resignation, "Well, alright then… I'll check his Soul once we meet again. Hopefully, I'll be able to figure something out…"

He then dismissed the remaining few people and went to check up on his wife. They were getting distant in recent months. Best not get on the bad side of her family or they could prove difficult.

Time went by.

Gerald kept absorbing the spirits of the dead without end. He felt the action becoming easier every time he did it, and the time and effort required to assimilate them was also diminishing.

The area around the wall was still a scorched wasteland and the beasts seemed hesitant to attack en mass again, but despite all that, some small skirmishes were still happening every few minutes.

It was nowhere enough for Gerald though. His mind force grew so much that he could completely recover his Mana in almost an hour. And he was just shy of 1.000 MP!

Absorbing Mana always had a cap of 1.000 MP/h because the free Mana around had a limit on how fast it could flow through the body. Even if he captured it all when it went through him, that was the limit. Potions could only help keep it inside.

But now…

He was starting to feel another ability awakening. It was barely there, but he felt it becoming stronger with each spirit he absorbed. It was the ability to forcefully pull on Mana! He could already do it a little bit, but his reach was still limited, and weak.

It was time to awaken it completely, because if his theories were correct…

Gerald didn't even want to think about it, he was already shaking with excitement as is. He also didn't want to hype himself up too much in case he was wrong. He clapped his hands and then rubbed them together, "Well, there's only one thing left to do!" He chuckled quietly and rose to the skies.

"Murder everything in sight! Let's go!"

The space around him twisted, and he began falling sideways. It was quite interesting having the ability to manipulate gravity in this way. There were some tricks to go much faster, but it was expensive to do so.

For 1G acceleration, he had to burn through about 1MP/s, and the terminal velocity was around 200km/h.

If he wanted to go faster, more energy was required to counteract air resistance. 2G equaled 2MP/s, and 3G needed 4MP/s, etc. It went on like that exponentially, probably into infinity.

It became increasingly less efficient to travel at faster speeds, and it also became cold, so Gerald limited himself to flying at the lowest speed most of the time.

In the vacuum of space, such abilities would have been godlike, especially on long travels, but in a dense atmosphere of a planet, it was just okay. Too much air drag.

In any case, as he traveled a dozen kilometers or so, the beasts' attacks became powerful and aggressive again. So much death everywhere, and he didn't even have to do anything. He just flew above the battle, absorbed a hundred or so dead monsters/people and then found a quiet spot to digest his catch.

He, of course, helped kill a few Orcs every time he did so to help the morale of the soldiers below. Repeating this cycle many times, an entire day went by while his Aura grew by 20%. It took him months to get here, and now a day in this war equaled to previous months of hard work. It was crazy to think about it, but Gerald didn't complain.

"Yup, that's crazy…" He closed his pocket watch and barely held back his smile. "Less than an hour, god damn!" His Mana regeneration finally exceeded his actual Mana stores.

"More than 1.000MP/h, oh man! It's getting difficult to get an accurate measurement."

He could toss out a simple spell every three seconds or so, forever! Never running out of energy! And to think an average person could do the same only up to ten times a day! It was really difficult for him to keep himself from bursting into laughter at the thought.

After finishing with his celebratory excitement and a little dance, he became serious again. It was time!

He closed his mind and focused. Mana was all around, ownerless and free, it could move anywhere it wanted without caring for solid objects or man-made barriers. It was completely untouchable outside a living being.

And that's when Gerald touched it.

Okay, maybe touch was too strong of a word. He nudged it slightly with his mind. It was like touching mist with your hand. You couldn't grip it nor hold it, but it still reacted to your movements, unlike before when it was like a ghost, slipping through everything.

This ownerless Mana now started acting like fluid around him, swirling and moving out of the way as he moved through it. The action was tiny, invisible to an untrained eye, but it was there!

"An improvement! Nice!"

Despite the minuscule change, Gerald was satisfied. That's because his actions were having more effect as he was becoming stronger! Another 100X to his mental powers and he could manipulate Mana as if it was water. It would only take him around 2-3 years of constant warfare to achieve…

"Hmm, now that I think about it… It's not really feasible, huh? A war of such intensity would need hundreds of millions of combatants." He scratched his forehead and then sighed.

"I need more concentrated death… This war is so wasteful! I can't even absorb 0.1% of it all…"

Keeping his hand under his chin he watched with Magic Eyes a swirl of Mana before him. It was difficult to keep it going. It seemed so weak, ready to disperse at the slightest movement. He kept stirring it with his mind.

"I wonder what would happen if I…"

Woosh!

The Mana swirl went up in flames.

"I… Uh…" Gerald stared blankly at the empty space. He was dumbfounded.

"I didn't even touch it!" He protested out loud to nobody in particular.

"Okay, okay… Maybe I touched it, but it was just a little!" He momentarily entered a thinking mode where his eyes narrowed and his lips pouted while releasing a long and pondering "Hmmmmm."

After a bit, he created another Mana swirl, touched it, and willed it to ignite.

Woosh!

The Mana swirl went up in flames. Again.

"Hmmm?" He aggressively lifted one eyebrow and tried something else. Soon a small light was born beside him, and a piece of rock reshaped itself into a bolt.

"Oh…? Oh. Oh! Yohoho! Ahahaha!" He erupted into a bout of uncontrolled laughter. His suspicions were confirmed. "Dude! No way! That's crazy!"

He could barely keep it together, and the culprit was the new discovery which was…

He could use magic! Without a drop of Mana! Or at least, he didn't use any Mana that belonged to him! Commanding ownerless Mana outside of his body! If anyone heard of it…

"Fuck me! That's awesome!" There was a drawback, of course, there always was. Despite being able to command Mana in his near vicinity, since it was outside of his body it required much more effort. He couldn't just mobilize hundreds of spells in a few seconds like he could with his own energy stores or Crystals, but still…

"Yup, I love my life, and I love magic! Hell yeah!" Gerald punched into the air in excitement.

While being the most flashy ability, it wasn't actually that useful. There was, however, something invisible to the naked eye, that carried much more value.

Now that he could interact with Mana on his own terms, he could push... or pull it into his body! Remember the hard limits of regeneration? Yup! They were gone! With enough effort, Gerald could now stuff more Mana inside his body at once!

A whopping 1.4% increase!