Following Edward's command, Theo quickly finished replacing all the iron targets and moved to finish preparing cannon for another trial.

At the same time as Theo was busy with cannon and iron targets, Edward finished preparing the next bunch of projectiles, made of different alchemy ingredients while Maul was preparing iron armor for Theo.

A short time later, when Theo returned, Maul called him by signaling at him while Edd was busy with projectiles.

Approaching the ordinary-looking puppet, Theo was intrigued why it called for him.

"Hey! I will be short, take this armor, I made it for you," said Maul, giving an iron armor for Theo, "By the way, don't get too careless, and stay vigilant, since you agreed to work with that crazy guy, you should have already noticed that he is a bit too passionate when it comes to the blasts, and might forget to warn you about the potential danger of his trial. So, don't trust his words when he tells you that it is safe, and better prepare all your defensive artifacts or abilities because you never know what might happen during his experiments."

Theo listened to all his words with a serious expression on his face before nodding, thanking him for advice.

Right at the time when they finished exchanging their last words, they heard Edd's voice.

"Maul, Theo, come here, it's time to launch another trial," cried Edd, writing something on his notebook.

Following his command, Theo quickly approached the alchemy cannon and loaded it with a new projectile while Edd and Maul were preparing the last things for the start of another trial.

A moment later, Edd activated the magic shield, leaving Theo and the alchemy cannon inside while Maul prepared several alchemy pills just in case.

"We are ready, Theo aim at the targets and start the cannon," said Edd, looking at his new assistant, "Don't worry, that projectile is much better than the previous one, and you will be safe,"

Hearing his words, and remembering Maul's advice, Theo at first checked the armor Maul gave him for this trial before creating an energy shield, strengthening it in the process, and finally, creating a small shelter for himself, using an earth wall.

Only after he finished his own preparations to minimize potential damage, he sighed before approaching the cannon.

Edward that watched after all the actions his new assistant made just shook his head, waiting till he finishes.

"The alchemy cannon works on battle energy, you can launch it by inserting a bit of it at that small hole on its fuse," explained Edd, remembering that he forgot to explain how to launch the cannon.

His pointer helped, and a moment later, Theo inserted a bit of battle energy, awakening the alchemy cannon in the process.

Almost immediately, several processes started happening inside the cannon, while a sound of hum started coming from it. Noticing the changes, Theo threw his last glance at where the cannon was aiming to, before retreating to hide behind his shelter.

Right as he disappeared behind his shelter, the hum intensified, and moments later, the big amount of smoke left the opposite end of the cannon while it itself moved a bit backward before returning to its initial position thanks to several chains.

Hearing the sound of the blast, Theo couldn't even react when he felt himself flying through the air and hitting the magic shield, following the shock wave. His energy shield shattered, armor suffered significant damage while several ribs were broken and blood started coming from his nose and mouth.

Though he made substantial preparations, it was still not enough, and his preparations could only decrease the damage he suffered.

Following the 1st bang, it didn't take long for the 2nd blast to resound across the building.

It wasn't part of the plan, and Edward paled, recognizing it. So, it didn't take long for him to quickly activate several formations to get rid of the smoke and see what was happening inside while Maul was already ready with pills and several buckets of water.

Just as the view cleared, they quickly noticed Theo's body that was leaning at the magic shield with several open wounds. So, after the shield disappeared, it didn't take long for Edward and Maul to quickly approach him.

Checking his condition and looking at the degree of Theo's wounds, Edward sighed before looking at Maul.

"He would be okay, just give him pills," said Edd before moving his glance at the wreckage of the cannon, and running towards it.

Maul didn't say anything and quickly gave several pills to Theo, and carried him back behind the trial zone.

At the same time as Maul was moving Theo, Edward reached his alchemy cannon, or it would be more appropriate to say wreckages of his alchemy cannon before falling to his knees.

Tears appeared in his eyes while he was clenching his fists.

"It's another big failure! Father, mother, I am once again at the start of my experiments. The longer I continue to fail, the more those bastards kill my retainers," said Edward with clear hate in his eyes and clenching his fists, "Sister, I promised at your grave that I would revenge for our county, family, and the people those bastards and that bastard, 5th prince killed,"

While Edward continued to mutter those words, Maul approached him and placed his iron hand on his shoulder.

"Master, you should keep holding, tears won't help you revenge the dead and return your rights," said Maul, looking at him, "Even now while we speak that 5th prince is only getting stronger and continues to unite the territories that were once under his kingdom's control. You can't just forget about all those people who sacrificed themselves to let you escape the Grifon kingdom!"

Hearing his words, Edward wiped his tears.

"Yes, you are right, I can't let myself get distracted by the events of the past. I should concentrate on creating my retribution weapon," said Edward, standing up with a serious and resolute glance.

"Looks like we will have to start from scratch, let's look at the trial results first,"

Moving his glance, Edward quickly inspected the wreckage, writing something on his notebook before approaching the iron targets at the opposite end of the Hall.

Stopping his gaze at the several iron targets, his brows rose, and a slight smile appeared a moment later.

"Maul, the trial projectile inflicted more damage than all the trials we had till today!" cried Edward, approaching the target.

Almost immediately, Maul also reacted and quickly approached the iron targets to take a look by himself.

"That's true, master, the projectile we used for this trial indeed inflicted much more damage than before!" said Maul, with a clear enthusiasm in his voice.

Taking look at his notes and looking again at the wreckage and the iron targets, a smile appeared on his lips.

"Maul, we have found approximate ingredients for increasing the cannon's damage, we will just have to improve this method and find the best solution," said Edward with an encouraging smile on his lips.

"But, what about the cannon, it's obvious that it couldn't withstand it. We will have to improve our materials for the cannon or restructure its design to improve it," said Mail with a clear enthusiastic flame in his eyes.

Hearing his words, Edward smiled before laughing.

"Finally, Maul, after years of constant research, thousands of failures, we have finally made 1st significant progress towards our goal," said Edward while the fanatical flame in his eyes became stronger and stronger.

A moment later, he started laughing like crazy while Maul shook his head, watching how his master that was just now serious and resolute transformed into the crazy freak he always was when it came to his passion.

At the same time as Edward started laughing, Theo opened his eyes.

Checking his limbs, and the rest of the body, Theo sighed when he noticed the damage the armor given by Maul suffered.

Just a glance was enough for him to realize that Maul most likely gave him alchemist pills to help him recover.

Standing up, Theo quickly heard someone's laugh. Turning, he noticed Edward that was standing near the iron targets and laughing crazily.

Just a glance at that mad alchemist and a look of slyly smiling puppet and the damaged iron targets, was enough for Theo to feel a shiver, moving through his back when he saw them. Now, he knew why most of the previous assistants preferred to escape from him, and even he had an urge to run away from here. However, Theo wouldn't be himself, the famous archmage, if he escaped because of the experiments of a crazy alchemist and his sly assisting puppet.

Releasing another sigh, and polishing his resolution, Theo got rid of the wreckage of his armor before moving towards Edward and Maul.

He reached them right as Edward finished writing something in his notebook.

"Help Maul clean up here, and then move to the alchemy labs and start organizing herbs and plants, Maul will give you a sheet with ingredients for each one," said the alchemist before turning and looking at Maul.

"Help him if he has any questions, and start thinking about the new design for the alchemy cannon," said Edward once again becoming serious and leaving the Hall.

Both Theo and Maul spent several moments watching at the back of the alchemist whose mood could change to 180 degrees in moments before sighing and looking at each other.

Theo had an obvious question in his glance when he looked at Maul.

"You will get used to it," said Maul, "I also felt strange at first, watching how his mood could change in a matter of seconds, but eventually got used to it after spending some time with him,"

"By the way, Theo, you will have a lot of work, so let's not waste our time and finish with the garbage he left for us," said Maul, starting gathering one iron target after another.

Following his example, Theo sighed before starting to clean the Hall.

***

Several hours later when it was already the start of the evening, exhausted Theo met his friend Leonardo near their barracks. Just a glance was enough for him to see that his friend was also super exhausted, he had red and twitching eyes, and his arms seemed as if they were paralyzed while his general appearance was crying that this youth has passed through hell.

Even Theo in his dusty uniform and general exhausted appearance looked twice better than his friend.

Noticing Theo, tears appeared in Leonardo's eyes and moments later, he fell on his knees in from of him.

"Theo, save me, captain tricked us" cried Leonardo while tears started moving through his face, "He is a monster, he will literally kill me if it continues,"

Looking at his friend that fell to such a humiliating condition, Theo sighed before taking one of his stamina-increasing pills and placing them at his mouth, not letting him continue blabbering this crap.

Several moments later, desperate light in Leonardo's eyes disappeared and he even felt his arms and was able to raise them.

A grateful glance appeared on his face when he felt how his strength was quickly returning to him.

Understanding what his friend was most likely feeling, Theo quickly patted his uniform to get rid of the dust on it before showing it to the nearest bench to them.

"Why don't we take a short break and talk a bit,"

Leonardo nodded and several moments later both of them were already sitting at the bench.

Theo couldn't even say a word when Leonardo started telling him about his 1st day on his part-time job.

"Theo, that bastard at first made me tell him all the ores and their properties before forcing me to create a basic sword with several chosen ores, and only gave me 30 minutes for each ore," explained Leonardo with clear dissatisfaction in his voice, "Even if he gave me such assignment to check my abilities, he chose the most difficult ores to work with, knowing that I would most likely spend all my battle energy and stamina on them,"

"Besides after I finished 10 swords and showed them to him with my hands paralyzed from work and body not different from the dead one, he just said that I passed and threw my works into the garbage. He didn't even explain why he did so, and just gave me the assignment to control the flames in the oven with my battle energy while he continued to work," explained Leonardo while his face reddened from anger, "Finally, after I started working and stopped for several moments to rest, he ordered not to distract and continue controlling the flames, forcing me to use up all the battle energy I had!"

Leonardo continued to tell about his new boss called Gregory, describing him with all the bad words he knew before running out of his breath and inclining at the back of the bench.

Only then he remembered that his friend also followed Nora's recommendation, and most likely met a similar boss with specific nuance.

Turning, he looked at Theo with a clear question in his glance.

At first, Theo thought that he was unlucky to get such a crazy boss that forced him to participate in the dangerous experiments, but quickly changed his mind when he heard Leonardo's story and noted to get as further as possible from the blacksmith called Gregory.

Sighing, he started telling him about his 1st day, and his new boss, and the dangers he forced him to pass through.

At first, Leonardo didn't react but paled at a certain moment of the story while clear worry appeared on his face.

"Theo, if my boss will kill me with overwork, and would at least leave my body intact, your crazy boss can literally kill you without leaving the whole body!" said Leonardo, looking at him.

Hearing him, Theo felt a bit warm in his heart before smiling and reminding him about their goal.

"Leonardo, don't forget why we decided to get this job, I am sure your new boss paid you well for your 1st day in the same manner as my boss did. So, if we want to get stronger, we just have to pass through such difficulties. How can we look at each other's eyes if we run in the face of such small problems," said Theo, looking at Leonardo with resolution in his eyes.

Hearing him, Leonardo's glance also changed when he remembered about "Wind leaf", and he quickly cleared his throat.

"Sorry, Theo for listening to the crap I told you, I just needed someone whom I could talk with. I will do everything I can, starting from tomorrow, and will show that bastard the best basic sword he had seen in his whole life," said Leonardo with resolution in his eyes.

Theo nodded and patted his friend when he heard him before raising his head and looking at the distant appearing moon in the skies.

"Let's go, take a bath, and rest, we will have a lot of work, starting tomorrow," said Theo, moving towards the bathhouses.

***

At the same time as Theo and Leonardo were talking, there was another gathering happening at the army headquarters.

There were all generals gathered in the Hall and were now listening to the Barko that was sharing new intel with them.

"So, according to the vanguard, they have finished dealing with most of the nagas and returned control over forts to our hands," said general, looking at them, "The path is open, we can start sending our forces towards the battlefield!"

Hearing his words many generals smiled and showed impatient expressions on their faces and only August continued to sit and listen with a stoic expression on his face.

"That's amazing news, whose forces will have the honor to follow after the vanguard then?" asked the general with Belkot's family insignia on his clothes.

"That territory is mainly fields and forests, nagas will most likely hide and use the forests to create several ambushes and try to make us collide with local monsters," said another general.

"I suggest we send tamers and a squadron of cavalry to help the vanguard that was mainly infantry," said another general with Rolan's family insignia, looking at Barko in the process.

All generals spent several moments thinking about such a suggestion while some who had their own ideas decided to stay silent when they realized who was behind this proposal.

Besides, an idea of sending tamers, riding the wolves which were used to forests was a good countermeasure to any ambushes in the forests while a squadron of cavalry would be enough to finish with any problems on the fields.

Several moments later, Barko nodded looking at other generals.

"Then, let's do as he says, and send tamers together with a squadron of knights on horses," said Barko, looking at them, "Since we have finished with this question, let's move to the 2nd one, who will be in charge of attacking nagas in the swarms 2 weeks later when all our forces reach that area,"

When other generals heard his question, almost immediately their smiles disappeared replaced with pondering or serious expressions on their faces.

Noticing their reaction, Barko smiled and signaled to the same man who proposed the previous suggestion to start explaining his plan.