Chapter 77: A new start.

Thanks to Hubert's order to clean the remaining monster in the city, all the soldiers and knights were kept occupied the entire night. Preventing them from accidentally falling asleep.

And upon searching meticulously, their people were able to discover a lot of mutated creatures that is still roaming inside the premises of their city under the cover of the night.

This makes all the soldiers busy killing and hunting all of them.

As they carefully take a look at every nook and cranny of the city searching for the hidden monsters.

And by doing this, they did find a lot more than what they expected.

Because although the monster wave has already ended, the first line of defense has been breached.

Making it easier for the mutated creatures to enter their city.

This is the reason why there are a lot of monsters inside the city despite tight defense.

Because no matter how hard they tried to kill them the number of mutated creatures has far surpassed their own. Making it almost impossible to stop them outside their city wall.

And those monsters indeed managed to overpower them during the battle as they battered the front line wave after wave, forcing the soldiers and knights to retreat several times. Making it harder for them to find their footing.

But with persistent resistance and effort, they were able to tide this battle.

And for a lot of people, this night passes by quickly since they all forgot the time as there are a lot of things disturbing their minds.

And at last, after enduring an entire day of grueling battle, a new day has finally come as the sun from the horizon rises once again.

Bathing the entire city of Florentine with its bright warm lights.

And as the sun showed itself, it revealed the devastation that the Florentine city received from the previous confrontation.

Looking down from above, you would notice that the most destroyed area is from the south and western part of the city wall.

As it's where the monster wave has focused its attack, and it is also the place that has suffered the most damaged since this is the area where heavy fighting occurred.

That's why most of the buildings that were near this part are almost totally destroyed.

And as you go further away from this place, You would find buildings are gradually becoming more complete.

And for the people of Florentine, today would be their busiest day as their lord would now allow everyone to leave the underground shelter in order to clean up the damaged part of the city.

And for some of those people who exited the shelter, they felt like they have come into a new place since everything around them is in a mess far from the clean and vibrant place they used to know.

For many, they view this as the end of Florentine city but for Hubert, it's just the beginning of their new start.

As he already has a plan on how to rebuild the city into a new and better place.

Hubert's POV.

For hundreds of years, my family has protected this land from the invasion of the magic beast for centuries. But today, I believe is one of the most dangerous battles we've ever faced.

The mutated creatures that attack us are more dangerous than the magic beast tides because they don't just bring death upon our people but they can also convert us into one of them.

The parasites that cause the mutation is still unknown and the danger we’re facing is continuously growing every day.

Trapped in this small place surrounded by infectious fog. It's no wonder that many of our people are starting to prepare for the worst.

With no way for us to get in touch with the rest of the world, it would be hard to know if help is even coming.

It's been two months since the fog showed up but we still haven't seen any help coming from the kingdom of Turox. And with such a long time of waiting without any news of rescue, a lot of people in the city are starting to lose hope.

In this instance, we can only rely on ourselves to survive this ordeal. And as the lord of this territory, it's my responsibility to lead them in order to ensure our survival.

But the thing that is bothering me the most is the lack of information about this incident.

We don't even know if we're the only ones facing this predicament. Like did the fog expand throughout the land? or is it just us who are suffering from this fate?

This sudden attack of mutated creatures has truly caught a lot of people by surprise. But in reality, I've been expecting for something like this to happen, since the day we discovered the existence of mutated creatures in the fog.

But what I didn't anticipate is some of those creatures have the strength to challenge my own.

It also didn't help that they have a stronger defense than magic beasts making them almost invulnerable to most of my attacks.

Let's also add the fact that their overwhelming numbers have almost drowned us. No matter how strong my people are they can’t still deal with multiple enemies at once.

It's just a good thing that I have a lot of capable soldiers and Knights, that's why we're able to win this battle.

But what I don't understand is where did this monster come from?

Their numbers were just far too many to be ignored.

And I find it impossible that no one has noticed their presence inside the fog within two months of constant inspection from more than a dozen knights.

But it did happen, those monsters were able to trick us all.

It is even more frustrating to know that we've been deceived by this creature. Given that we always have our regular routine inspection around the perimeter of the city.

And we blame it all on the thick fog, as it has the capability to hinder the senses of knights making it hard for us to detect them.

This is the only reason we could think, of why we failed to notice their growing presence inside that forest as the fog protects them from all of our probings.

And despite all of the preparation we make to protect the city, they were still able to hide from us which keeps us oblivious to their presence inside of that forest for a long time.

Not until today,...... as they finally decided to invade us together with their own armada.

It's like they've been there all along just waiting for the right time to attack us.

If not because of my son then we wouldn't even know that we have already been surrounded.

Trapped and cornered within our own city walls.

But thanks to the accidental misfire of his skill, all the monsters hiding in the fog were forced to come out and attack us earlier than scheduled.

But it doesn't mean that I would easily forgive him for this. Because what he has done trying to create a new skill, and hiding everything from me is more dangerous.

He dares to make light of experimenting with mana skills despite knowing it can cost him his own life.

This is the exact thing that I'm trying to prevent from happening, but he is more excited to do something dangerous than to wait for the right time to learn a new skill.

So now, we are back in the mansion together with the other knights to discuss everything that happens prior to the invasion.

And this is also the time when I found out about Lucas endeavor for the past previous month.

"So you mean to tell me the reason for this sudden invasion is just because of an accident?" I said loudly as I grimly stared at my son's face.

"Ye-Yes, ..but this is not what I wanted to happen. I-I just wanted to help." Lucas replied with a little stammer as he look at me guiltily.

"Help?......" I said before pausing for a second and giving him my most serious voice.

"Son... YOU are experimenting with an untested skill risking your OWN life in the process. Do you think this could help me?" I said more loudly than normal as I'm quite mad that he hide something dangerous like this from me.

All I know is, he was busy running everywhere trying to improve the lives of our people but it never occurred to me that he was doing something dangerous behind my back.

It took him some time to answer but eventually he managed to voice out his words, and he said it all while staring me directly in the eye.

"I-I'm sorry...... I-I know that my actions are reckless since I didn't think it through, but I felt like I have to do something more than wait on the sideline." Lucas admits guiltily.

"I'm not gonna say that what you have done is okay, but I just want you to think carefully before doing something like this again. We only have 1 life Lucas, and I want YOU, to engrave that onto your mind." I said with a sigh as I scolded him for his carelessness.

Instead of having a discussion with other knights on what to do now, I'm stuck here scolding my own son.

My son, Lucas, is not like this before.

He always thinks thoroughly and consults me before he does anything excessive but now he had changed.

He now learns how to make a decision on his own without consulting anyone, not even paying attention to the danger it might bring to him.

"I think he already learn his lessons so he would not dare to do it again” Hugo suddenly said beside me.

“Besides his contributions to our victory is huge. Without his help, we won’t even discover those things hiding in plain sight. If we have given them enough time to strengthen their selves then we would definitely lose this war.” Hugo said as he calms me down.

“I understand what you’re pointing at, but I’m upset because he dares to dabble his hands in a mana experiment risking his own life.” I said while holding back my anger as everyone looks at me with worry.

Even they are shocked to know what Lucas has done in the forest. He actually tried to experiment with Mana in order to create his own skill that is fully derived from aura. This is something that only intermediate or senior rank knights and wizards dared to do with the strict supervision of someone who is an expert in mana path and manipulation.

“Hugo you should know better how dangerous it is, one small mistake and it can cost him his life. Yet, despite knowing this information he still dared to continue hiding it from us.” I said in a solemn voice as I turn my gaze to other people sitting around the table.

“Francis, I understand your worries and frustration about his actions, but he should be aware of his mistake by now. I’m sure his not going to do something like this again.” Said by Hugo as he tried to defend Lucas from his error.

“That’s right father, I’m not going to do something like this again I already learn my lessons from my impulsive behavior.” Lucas quickly said as he pleads for himself.

"Fine, I’m gonna let this passed, for now, knowing that you succeed in your experiments but-." I said patiently as stop mid-sentence before staring at Michael who is standing behind him.

"Michael as far as I remember I strictly told you to watch over him carefully, it's impossible for you to not know about his actions this past few months. So why didn’t you report any of this to me?" I said in an annoyed tone.

"I'm-" Michael was able to continue his words as he was immediately cut off by Lucas.

“It’s me!” Lucas quickly said upon seeing Michael’s situation.

“I told him to hide it from you since I wasn’t in any form of danger. But Michael really wanted to report it to you but I stopped him.” He said before vowing his head to me as a sign of apology.

Tsk.

“Okay fine.”

“Wait, that’s it?” Lucas muttered in shock as he looked at me in shocked the same for some soldiers standing in the back.

“What do you want? Do you want me to scold you once again?”

“No, no it’s enough.” Lucas quickly denied it.

When everything has finally settled down we now have the time to review everything.

"Now that we finally have the time to meet and talk I now demand to know everything that happens before the invasion," I said as I looked upon everyone present in this room.

We are now currently back at my mansions office where we usually hold our meetings together with other knights. Even Daniel who is gravely injured is present in this room although he hasn’t fully recovered yet.

But thanks to Ethan’s magical potion we were able to recuperate our small injuries in a short time.

And upon asking several questions we finally know how it all begins.