Chapter 69: The final Wave (Part 4). Authors Note: Before we proceed to the story I would just like to thank everyone who supported me in my writing journey although I know that I don't update my story on a regular basis but I'm just glad that there are still so many people who stayed with me. Lucas P.O.V "Young Master, are you alright?" Jamie the young rookie soldier said to me as he help me stand up. "Definitely not." I quickly replied to him with a sour expression on my face as I felt like my head is still reeling from the excruciating pain. "Sir Michael is out cold. It seems like he was knocked unconscious by the impact." Jamie immediately said after seeing Michael's condition. Thanks to our strong armor we were able to survive that attack without suffering from any grave injuries but it's also the reason why I am currently in pain. No matter how good our armor is and how soft the fur we use as padding, the kinetic energy behind the attack of that tentacled creature has far surpassed its limit. I alone, felt like my brain have been rattled by the strong impact of Michael's body slamming into me even though I'm wearing my armor. It's no wonder that he was knock unconscious by it. As it would be a miracle if he doesn't sustain any damaged from that attack. And since he was the one who received the direct attack from that creature he is also the one who received most of the damage. Compared to what I have suffered from, which is just the residual energy of the aftermath, and yet it's already enough to make me feel miserable. I'm not even sure if I would remain safe if I'm the one who received that attack. And upon looking at Michaels condition he wasn't in a good shape either. His body is bleeding heavily, while his wounds were also starting to turn black due to the parasites and his armor is heavily damage specially the chest part of the armor. Anyone who would see this sight would immediately know how strong is that attack and how serious the fight is. "Master Lucas is he okay? I saw his aura barrier broke during the fight." Jamie said worriedly while staring at Michaels broken armor. "He is fine for now, but not for long. His body have suffered from so many injuries and it's been directly exposed to the parasites and base on the degree of infection it seems like it has already penetrated deep into his flesh, and with his current situation the diluted version of the antidote won't be able to handle it." I immediately said after observing Michael's condition. "We would probably need a much stronger potion to remove all the parasites from his body and we need it fast." I said upon seeing Michael's veins and wounds have already shown early signs of corruption reminding me of the things I saw during the first month of the fogs invasion. The corruption brought by the parasites starts with the blackening of wounds and veins, then it will spread throughout the body until it reach the brains of the victim killing them in the process. But before it happens the victim will became aware of it, since the veins on their neck would bulge and turn black causing great amount of discomfort on them, symptoms like difficulty in breathing and nausea with intense headache, is also the common last symptoms they would feel before they die and turned into one of them. The final phase of this infection, is the blackening of the eyes of the victim, and at this point, everything is already too late. It only means that the parasites have already invaded the brain of its host, and no amount of antidote potion could save them from it, and only death can grant them their peace. And as for the infected, they would suffer from a tremendous amount of pain on their last breath before dying in agony and turning into one of this hideous creatures. It is also what I called as the stage 1 of infection because after their death those infected with this parasites would come back to life not as a human but as a monster. They would lose everything that makes them human, and only the desire to kill and eat is what would remain from them, making their body an empty shell of their former self. Stage 2 is where the trouble begins, given enough time the parasites would have enough energy to seek other infected beings and somehow it would start a mutation on the body of it's host. Defending on what creature is available on their surroundings they can combine their body with other infected making them more powerful. I personally witnessed it first hand, during the first two weeks of the fog invasion. Since many of the people in Florentine city are not happy with my father's decision to imprisoned everyone of them inside the city walls, as father order all of our knights and soldiers to prevent any civilians to go out the city until further notice. Although we have implemented such a strict measure to keep everyone safe, not all people are happy to follow this rules. Some of them have escape by force or unnoticed causing them to get infected by the parasites outside the fog turning them into a weaker version of this monsters but most of them just died even before they turned into one of this creatures as they were attack during their escape. This thing normally happen because most of the people who violated this rules are those who aren't born from this place. They're just a visitor or a merchants or maybe even a low ranking nobility trapped within our territory and their loyalty to my father, Hubert is little to none. It also didn't help that most of this individuals who defies this rules s, are those people who are associated, or someone who belongs to the nobility, or rich merchants who have brought their own personal entourage with them. This doesn't help them stop at all as it only fuels their desire to go out causing their death because of their own foolishness. Even our own soldiers and knights didn't dare to went out far from our the city as the number of this creatures would increase the farther you go, and we only dare to clear the area around the surroundings of the city to kept their numbers at bay. The first week of the invasion is also the most challenging time for us, as most of our soldiers are occupied with rescuing group of people who run out of the city and got stranded inside the fog, and also to saved them from turning into monsters. But no matter how hard we work, it is already too late. As some of those people have already ventured too far from the city perimeter making it impossible for us to reach them and eventually they turned into monsters. Forcing our soldiers to kill them in sight no matter who they are in order to avoid more harm and to keep the order in the territory. The only good news is that we finally discovered that newly turned monster aren't as strong as their living counterpart, since the parasites haven't fully adapted into its new body making them vulnerable to physical attacks. And also due the sudden spikes of Florentine's economy in just a short span of 6 months, it easily attracted a huge wave of people to come on to our city, attracted through the prospects of earning more money. And this is all possible thanks to my economic reform that I started from agriculture this is also the first thing that I did after transmigrating into this world. But the thing is even if I didn't meddle with our farmers they still would have a great harvest comparable to earth, the only problem is that people on this world consumes more food than ordinary human so no matter how magical the growth speed of crops in this world it was still barely enough to keep the entire population of the city full. Thankfully my hunch is right, the soil in our farm really lacks nutrition due to repeated farming without rest. The soil wasn't able to keep up with the speed we plant our crops, and that's the main reason why our yield is continuously decreasing year by year. The experimental fertilizer that I initiated is a success and this is also the reason why Florentine city is currently jam packed with people, putting all of our old infrastructure into great amount of stress. In fact, every establishment and Inn in Florentine city is already fully occupied by people who doesn't have any permanent residents in our territory as the Beaufort family business of spices and magic props became more popular. But the arrival of the fog have put a stop into our expansion, halting everything including my future plans of developing the territory. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Thinking about the past had caused me to dozed off for a moment before I remember that I still need to cure Michael's condition and it only took me milliseconds to decide the proper course of action that I need to do. Which is to ask Jamie. "Do you guys still have a stock of concentrated version of the antidote?" I'm pertaining to the pure mana potion that Ethan gas concocted for severe cases of infection. "I think we still have it young master." Jamie said hesitantly. "Great! where is it?" "It's in the carriage but the box of that antidote is over there." Jamie said before pointing his finger besides the rampaging mass of black tentacles. Seeing the direction where he pointed his finger have quickly stinguish my enthusiasm. "How Great." I said in a sarcastic tone. Out of all the places that they could put those potions they decided to hide it in a carriage! Although it was a wise moved to do since they can move it wherever they want to go but still they're negligent for not guarding it properly. "We haven't had the time to move it into safety before that thing shows up." suddenly said by an anxious soldier at my back. "You mean all the excess antidote is still inside of that carriage?" I ask with disbelief. Based on the current situation on our battle huge amount of potion are needed to maintain our defense line and that carriage of potion is very important part of our battle as it would play a huge role for our victory. "Yes, we never thought that they would got this far, so we just store it inside of that carriage to move it easily in case of emergency but that tentacled creatures appeared suddenly, so now we only have this few reserve antidote in our body." Jamie replied as he shows me a small bag containing his designated share of potion. It is an equipment that we recently added into all of our soldiers to increase their chances of survival from this parasites by equipping them all with emergency rations of the diluted version of the antidote that Ethan has made. Think of it as the first aid kit that our soldiers carries with them. "You're telling me, that most of our precious potion, is now in danger of being destroyed, by that hideous mass of tentacled creature?" I angrily said towards them as no one have even thought of guarding that precious cargo beforehand. Even if we have an excess number of this potion most of it is still in Ethan's hideout. And it would take us quite some time to get it back here on the city wall. The only reason why our soldiers haven't collapsed yet is because of the presence of this potion, without it they will quickly lose their moral to stay and fight this wave of monsters. "Damn it, I'm already low on mana so I can no longer use any long range attack." I said in a dismayed tone while staring anxiously at the carriage containing our precious potion besides that tentacled creature. "Okay fine, I'm gonna think of a way to save that carriage but first we need to moved Michael out of this place." I said in defeat as I can't just stand here and do nothing. "Help me out with this first, we can't let him stay in this place. It is too exposed and too dangerous. We should at least, put him into a safe place like in that carriage." I said to them as we lift Michael's body out of the ground. "What the heck! I never knew that his armor is this heavy." I suddenly said to them in shock upon lifting Michael's body and successfully putting him into one of the carriage at the back. With my current strength it shouldn't be a problem for me to lift a grown man with ease but Michael's armor is too heavy even for me. It also took 4 people including me just in order to move Michael into this carriage. "Out of all the knights I know only you Master Lucas has the lightest armor among them." Jamie suddenly said to me with a tired voice. "Ha? How did you even know about that kind of information?" I ask puzzed on why does he know about this. "Your sudden growth spurt a few months ago has recently become a talk in our city. Many people were even talking if you're going to start taking interest to a woman especially now that your body have properly develop everyone is looking forward for a future heir coming from you. They even knew how many times you have changed the size of your clothes and underwear, much more to your armor." Jamie casually revealed to me without any pretense. "Ha? What!" I said in alarm and I'm sure that I also have a horrified look on my face right now. I'm feeling a little bit ashamed right now, shame that many people on the city knows this kind of personal information. Because unlike on earth where most of us are more private in some details, it seems like it was not the case here. Since gossiping is fairly popular activities among people as there wasn't a lot of entertainment that they could enjoy as such people often talk about things that interest them. I knew for a fact that gossip is a popular past time activity on this era since even the maids and staff of our house often engaged to such kind of activities. But it never even cross on my mind that someday those people would also talked about my private information regarding my own body. I felt ashamed that there are people out there that know about this kind of information specially the changes on my body sizes. Because when I hit my growth spurt there's a lot of things that I needs to change including my pants, shirt, armor, shoes and even my underwear. To be specific all of my clothes are custom made by a well known tailor and in order to do make all of my clothes he must get my exact body size and proportions by measuring every inch of my body in order to make a fit and comfortable clothes for me to wear. But despite all the measurements that he have taken I still need him to make some minor adjustment especially to my underwear as it was too tight in the front. This is something that I have done in secret as I don't want anyone to know about it because I'm still conscious when it comes to details like this but it seems like it was all for naught as everyone is already aware of it. "Do they also know about the information of other knights?" I ask Jamie as I suddenly thought of something important. In modern times of earth private information such as this are always kept confidential as it can be used in some way to assassinate important people or for espionage of vital information. It seems like I also need to impose such a strict measure in our territory to keep all of this information as a secret since it cam be used to steel vital information from us. "Yes of course, In fact when sir Michael have finally become a junior knight, your father, Lord Hubert have gifted him a new armor and everyone in the city knows about his details especially the ladies. They often talk about how long and strong his legs are and even emphasize the hardness and thickness of his muscles." Jamie said in a jealous tone. "Why does it sounds like you are envious of him?" I ask in concern that he might also be interested into that stuff. "Who wouldn't, that is literally what every man in our city dream off, to be the main topic of every ladies in the city." Jamie said with a burning passion. "You know young master, all women in our city have a strict standards when it comes to men. They all want to find someone that is strong and someone that they can depend on, aside from that, let's also include the fact that Sir Michael have a unique charm that can attracts women at a glace even the young lady of a nearby territory had fallen for him." Jamie said firmly. I almost forgot that people of this world have different opinions regarding the opposite sex. Especially in this world surrounded by danger. Where strength reigns over physical appearance, but we can't also deny the fact that many strong knights and wizards tends to marry beautiful women. I guess that is the one thing in common that we can never avoid when it comes to men. Since men tends to favor beautiful things especially women. Even my father isn't different from them, just look at my mother's paintings you would see how gorgeous she is, I guess that's also one of the reasons why I have this handsome face. The problem is, most of the people who lives in Florentine city are descendants of mighty soldiers. They have a different outlook when they're looking for a partner such as the qualities of men and women. Because in our city it doesn't matter if you're not handsome or beautiful at all, as long as you are strong and capable then you can easily find a partner. As all of the men that was born in this place grew up with a crook perspective in life they are more in favor of marrying a strong woman who can stand on their own than marry someone that can only be used as a display so no matter how beautiful a woman is if she isn't strong and capable then no one would bother to take interest in her. But that is only applicable on our territory as people on this place have a crook perspective in life. It's not even rare to see women carrying big barrels of water around the city, carrying them with ease, as if they weight nothing. but no one won't even know that they were this strong at first glance unless you see them on act, because you won't even see any bulging muscles on their body. The same thing can also be said for women who grew up in this place. They won't mary someone just because they have the looks, men should prove himself first to them, by giving them some prey that they personally hunt on their own. The stronger the beasts is the better, as you would have more chances to get their approval. Of course, such a unique culture was seen as barbaric by the people outside of our territory, and other nobles even condemn us for continuing this strange tradition, they look down on us for prioritizing strength than wealth, and sacrificing other political gains that it comes with, a good example of this is the disapproval of my father to be remarried into another woman. Most of the nobility in the Turox kingdom doesn't welcome us due to a number of reasons, mainly it was the disposition of the royal family against my ancestors and the second reason I could think of is because of politics. No matter how high their rank is, they still won't be able to beat my father when it comes to strength something that they can't swallow as their pride and ego have already take them over. It also doesn't help that majority of the kingdoms population, specially those commoners are in favor of my father's policy in running his territory contrary to their negative views against the current nobility of the kingdom. Although it is true that strength reigns supreme in this world many consider this rule as obsolete with todays era. After all, a lot of people grows up without experiencing the horrors of Demonic creatures from the northern continent since we haven't seen any large scale invasion for more than a 100 years. Many of us have only heard it as a story from our grandparents and many young people nowadays have gone complacent disregarding the danger it would bring to our society if the central fortress collapse. 100 years of peace is already enough to destroy this strong momentum of thoughts as many have grew up putting down their guard thinking that we humans, have already won the war against them. This situation heavily affected those small kingdoms that are located far away from the influence of Helios empire as we don't really have to be wary of demonic creatures and Turox kingdom is a good example of it, as it is located at the eastern edge of the continent far from the central continent and far from major conflict. This is also one of the reasons why you would see this kind of phenomenon as a common thing on small kingdoms that is located far away from the central continent since they are the one that was heavily affected by this change. "Young master, Young master?" I was brought back to reality when Jamie suddenly grab my shoulders. I guess I was spending too much time thinking about that thought. "Are you ok?" Jamie ask in concern. "You've been staring at it for a while now, have you finally think of a way to kill that thing?" Jamie added as he warily stare at the rampaging mass of tentacles. Although it was smaller than other creatures it still managed to somehow slow down the monsters wave from besieging our soldiers, thanks to its rampage. It's attacking anything within its range as if it's looking for something. It doesn't even matter if it is it's own kind it would still smash them to the ground. "What's happening young master, why is that creature still alive?" Ask by Jamie with great worry on his tone. "I also don't know, it should be dead already." I said firmly while still grimacing in pain. "You all saw it, right?" I said, asking for others confirmation which quickly earn me some nods. "Michael clearly cut that strange bird into half and any creatures that suffers from that attack should be dead already and yet it didn't." I exclaimed in defeat since this tentacled thingy is defying all the things I believed in. Who would have thought that this tentacled creature would detached itself from that bird. At the same time, I'm already running out of idea on how to subjugate this thing as even I is already powerless due to exhaustion and my aura reserve is already low. "But young master look at the other half of the of that creature, it's clearly dead." Another soldier suddenly said while pointing at the broken carcass of the birdlike creature that was currently being smash by the rampaging tentacles into a paste. "Maybe it's not just one creature we were fighting with, but two different entity combined into one." I immediately pointed out as I suddenly thought of something important. Maybe this bird-like creature and that black tentacles on its back have some kind of connection towards each other like a symbiotic relationship and now that the bird is dead, it's currently looking for a new possible host. This is not good, it's even worse than I thought. I don't know what kind of creature is this ball of tentacles but it seems like it's parasitic. "Does anyone of you familiar with a bird like this? Any creatures that has a great resemblance to this bird?" I eagerly ask while glancing at the faces of our exhausted soldiers. "I'm not sure if this would help, but I think that thing resembles one of the strange magic beasts in the enchanted forest." Old Albie said hesitantly. "What?" "There is something like that in the enchanted Forest?" whispered by someone in the back. "What kind of magic beast is that?" I ask with great interest