The next morning Van woke up pretty wasted. The party had gone long into the night and he had only gotten a little bit of sleep. So he was feeling a bit out of it when the door to his room was opened and someone entered unannounced.

“Master, are you okay? I got you a drink to help chase away the headache.” Anna said as she swiftly stepped towards Van.

“Hmm?” He asked bleary-eyed.

“There are also a few of your friends that decided to come visit from the dorm. They heard about what happened and worried for you, so I decided to let them in.”

That made him blink and then panic as he didn’t want any of his friends to see him in this state. Now fully awake, he quickly changed his clothes into his uniform using his soul realm. Within seconds he was looking dapper and he got out of bed to prevent wrinkles and so that they wouldn’t think he just woken up.

Just in time too, as Seral, Kira, Avalyn, Cerina and many more started to enter his small room. Making him worried that the entire dorm had come by to see if he was okay.

“Hey guys, how are you doing?” Van said as casually as he could, gratefully taking the offered cup from Anna and sipping it.

“We heard what happened Van, are you okay?” Kira was the first to ask, quickly walking up to him to check for wounds or bruises.

She wasn’t the only one, soon everyone was crowding him and he was beginning to feel like his personal space was just a bit too invaded for his taste and began trying to calm them down and tell them everything was fine.

“So what exactly happened? I heard the expedition that was supposed to take two weeks ended in one night with massive casualties. “Seral asked. “And are you sure you're okay?”

Van was grateful for his friends' concern for him, feeling lucky to have friends like these. “For the hundredth time.” He chuckled lightly trying to play down the severity of what happened. “I’m fine…” But then realized that perhaps that wasn’t doing any of his friends justice and that they deserved to know the truth. Afterall, one day they too will be going through what he did.

“Actually… Perhaps we should all sit down for a bit and I can tell you everything that happened…” He said calmly but with a bit more meaning in his voice.

Everyone picked up on that and slowly began looking around for places to sit, a few just using the ground. Van himself sat back down on his bed, the headache from earlier calming down surprisingly quickly, no doubt in thanks to Anna’s drink. Luna was still asleep in the covers, and he did his best not to get in the way of her nap. Thankfully Marie was also away, he didn’t want to have to explain her presence.

Slowly he began with how his first few days went, building up to the day of their departure. Once there he did his best to go into as much detail as possible for their benefit, telling them what he learned and what he experienced. He hesitated on telling them what happened last night, but did so anyway, with a few in his audience nodding as if they expected something like this, with only Seral looking mildly confused though not surprised. The one that truly looked surprised and somewhat horrified and perhaps a bit intrigued was Avalyn.

“Wow Van, you really stepped up for your platoon. They were practically strangers but you did it anyway… I guess that’s just what should be expected from someone like you…” Kira said with a slowly growing blush, raising the mental pedestal he was on even higher.

“I agree with Kira.” Cerina said, “You did those girls a great service, I’m proud to call you a friend. And maybe one day… Something more…” Now acting a little shy for some reason.

Avalyn looked left and right at those around her, still a little aghast at what she heard. How could these people zombify their best friend! Or at least that was her feeling. But after thinking about it, she realized this was their way of passing on the torch, or… Something like that?

“What are you going to do now?” Aldina asked Van.

He took a moment to think about it, but answered firmly when he arrived at his conclusion. “Right now I’m going to rest. And then I'm going to train and get stronger. That’s basically all I can do at the moment…” He finished with a shrug.

There was some hubbub about that but suddenly they all decided to pitch in and offer whatever they had on hand to help him. Giving out potions, spell paper, and much more.

Van raised his hand. “Guys, guys, I’m thankful but you don’t need to do this, honest.” Feeling a little embarrassed by all the goodwill being thrown his way.

“We insist, it’s the least we can do after all.” Seraphina said.

It took some convincing, but Van was able to turn them down, with the promise that he would accept other things, such as materials to help evolve his troops and outfit them better.

“Speaking of troops, I heard you lost the majority of them. Do you need help replenishing them?” Cerina asked.

Van shook his head. “No thanks, I actually have more than enough.” Then hesitated wondering if he should share this truth. “I… Actually have a pretty big soul realm, so I keep a few excesses inside me at all times. Just in case.”

A few of the students perked up at that.

“Really?” Aldina asked. “But will it still be enough?” She tilted her head.

“More than enough,” Van assured her. “And I still have plenty of eggs as well. In fact, I’m planning to donate a few of my eggs to my platoon to help regrow their numbers. So you have nothing to worry about.”

That actually got another concerned look from the group, though this time for a different reason.

Realizing that perhaps he said too much, he tried to change the conversation to something else, such as the recent clan battle that took place between them and the spear of Twilight.

“Oh… We… Drawed with them.” Seral said sadly. “They were weaker than the previous clan battle. But without you, there was no way we could win…”

Van wasn’t sure how to feel about that. He didn’t think he was all that great. Though he did acknowledge the fact that he probably provided the most when it came to troop numbers and raw magical power. But he was hoping that it wasn't that big of a loss that they wouldn’t be able to win without him. In fact, he had full faith that his friends would win without him if they just applied themselves a bit.

He said as much to them, which got their spirits back up a little, and then they went to discuss the details of the battle more in-depth.

“Wow…” Van couldn't help but say. “Sounds like Tabitha was the real MVP of this battle…”

Cerina sighed. “As much as I hate to say it. For all her faults… She’s really good at striking at an opponent's weak point and driving the dagger in deep. If it weren’t for her we probably would have lost outright…” Then gave a glare to everyone around her. “But don’t you dare let her hear that I said that. Just imagining how it would go to her head fills me with nightmares…”

A few of the others shivered at that, nodding their heads in complete agreement.

Van chuckled, and slowly their conversation began to change and they started to discuss other things. Such as classes, grades, and personal achievements. It was pretty fun and already he was beginning to miss talks like these back when he was living in the dorm. He missed his friends and lovers, but he had to stay here because apparently it was for his safety. To prevent the less scrupulous girls from just trying to force their way with him. Which was fine with him, it was one thing to be okay with sex or accepting some girl's advances, and other things entirely being forced against your will to do it…

Too soon the hours passed and his friends had to leave for classes and other things. He waved to them goodbye, already feeling a little more lonely at their parting. Once they were all out of sight he turned to Anna and thanked her.

“Thanks Anna, I have a feeling they wouldn’t have been able to find this place if it weren’t for you. It can get pretty confusing with all these twists and turns.” He chuckled.

Anna gave a small smile and bowed with grace. “Anything to see my master smile and push his worries away.”

It was at times like these That Van felt like he was falling in love with Anna all over again. She was honestly just too good for him. “Not to sound ungrateful, but could you do something else for me?”

Anna lifted her head up. “Of course!” She gave her own light chuckle. “You know you don’t have to feel bad about ordering me about, it’s what my life is for.”

That made him feel a little guilty, but he accepted it as Anna’s raison d'etre as that was what made her the happiest. “Can you and a few other you’s go to the library? I want to make use of your hive mind and have you start memorizing and recording everything you think is useful. I think it would be a great use of time since now more than ever we are going to need knowledge to give us an edge to survive. Especially anything you can find about the wastes. Have Ren help you. Oh! And try to disseminate some knowledge that would be useful to the girls in the soul realm. I want to make it develop and grow a bit more. And arrange for a good excuse for me to summon a hundred or so troops from my soul realm as well. I don’t want anyone asking too many questions as to where they came from or anything. You think you can do all that?”

Anna smiled. “Me? No.” She then brought another three Anna’s out of Van’s soul realm. “But a few more of me… No problem!” giving him a thumbs up. “I’ll just say that I was originally a sextuplet. And that my sisters just arrived with another hundred troops from Bright City because your parents and wife were worried about you and the fact that you were sent off onto the wall. Not to mention the fact that everyone discovered that you were an incubus. Perfect cover story, no? I’ll also get in contact with Rosalyn to make sure we can corroborate so no one finds it suspicious.” Looking very proud of herself.

“Gods Damn you're too good for me. You know that right?” Van said, reaching out and cupping her face.

“Yeah… I know…” Anna smiled and reaching out the same, then leaned forward allowing them to both share a kiss

“See you later tonight my love, I’m expecting a reward.” Anna said after they parted.

“Done.” Van agreed.

After that the Annas left to do as he ordered while he went down to the barracks where his troops were held to talk with Karmine, Kella and Ashina. Once there he told them of the plan and how he was going to dump another hundred goblins on them to help replenish their numbers.

Kella shook her head. “Make it two hundred, and add a few more harpies, troglodytes and a few kobolds.”

Van was taken aback. “Are you sure? That seems a bit much don’t you think?”

Karmine shook her head. “Even if we are given some relief and don’t have to go out for another month, we are still too heavily understaffed and undermanned. Even if you started breeding more troops now, it still wouldn’t be in time for our next mandatory expedition which is in a few months, though they pushed it back a bit because of what happened, we still have to wait for the new girls to grow and then train them up.”

Ashina spoke up. “Like Karmine said, even with two hundred we would have to train them up. Not to mention there is another reason as to why you would want to drop off as many girls as you can get away with.”

“Really? Why?”

“Simple.” Kella said. “You get more access to different types of training for your troops. Which means we can get them to a higher level than you would normally if you just trained them the average way.”

Van thought about that. “Isa has been complaining about hitting a wall when it comes to training in the soul realm…” He muttered out loud.”

Ashina nodded. “As a merc. When an opportunity presents itself for you to get stronger, you take it. Not to mention we can copy some of their methods of training to keep for ourselves when we finally leave this place, and the more people familiar with the training the better when we use it to train others.”

Van nodded, having been convinced. “Alright. I’ll summon two hundred soldiers.” Then hesitated. “The only problem is… That’s the majority of the volunteer troops I have inside me. That is to say, those who are of my personal army… The rest of them left to get jobs within my soul realm after the whole war and fleeing from the forest thing. I could probably ask Lyn for troops, but I'm not sure how people are going to take seeing almost a thousand insect-kin soldiers flying around… Not to mention I haven’t been breeding my goblins as much as I should have. I only have a hundred eggs. And like you said, it will take time to raise and train them all up.”

Karmine gave him a slap on the back. “Don’t worry, that’s more than enough! We’ll take it from here.”

Van felt relieved and nodded. He then summoned the two hundred soldiers from his soul realm. “Alright girls, good luck on your training.”

Kella looked around. “I don’t see Isa, I had thought she would have wanted to come out…”

“I had Isa stay back for now. I want to get a few more eggs from her considering how powerful she is. Not to mention she really helps train the basics into the newer recruits, both volunteer and raised.”

Kella nodded in understanding. “Understood.”

“Ahem.” Karmine said. Drawing Van’s attention. “Maybe you should also try breeding a few other types troops as well… Hm?” Giving him a salacious look.

Van smiled, not intimidated, using what Marie taught him to good use and projecting a confident smile. “No problem, when I have the time, I’ll get around to you three as well.”

Which got a surprised look from them, but then a thankful one.

“Thank you Van, we look forward to when you are available.” Ashina said.

He was taken aback, but tried to play it down and told them to just keep up the good work. After that he left, wondering what else was on his list of things he should do to prepare for the future…