Chapter 81
“The human kingdom.” Part 2.
An army of monsters has destroyed the cities of Godos and Iatas. Apparently, they are traveling towards the Kingdom of Bhallys,” reported Milo Riva, chief court magician, early that morning.
“Monsters don’t raise an army,” mocked the king.
“Well, these seem to, your majesty. They even seem to be commanded and instead of traveling to the capital, as one might expect, if we follow their route, they seem to have come from it. I suspect they are part of the monsters that were summoned along with the heroes.” This caught the attention of the king, who had been ignoring the wizard while he finished eating his breakfast.
“What?“ His face paled, making the set of freckles that adorned his broad nose stand out sharply. “If the others find out it’s our fault, it won’t be long before the other kingdoms turn their backs on us and wipe us out!”
“And that’s not all. A new dungeon has appeared,” continued the handsome wizard.
A loud bang resounded against the king’s table.
“Can you stop giving me bad news so early in the morning, Milo? I’ve had enough with the Duke of Brincy breathing on my neck!“
“I apologize, your majesty. But it is something that had better be dealt with promptly, before word gets out and the duke or the rebels find out,” the wizard objected.
“Send the wizards from the tower to deal with them!” growled the king in response.
“I’m afraid that won’t be possible.”
“Why is that?” he shouted, feeling an incipient headache begin to pound against his temples.
”No one responded when I tried to contact them last night when I wanted to ask for information about the squadron that had left five days ago, to capture the black dragon.”
The king tapped the table impatiently. Milo was quite right to worry about the lack of news. Even the few knights he had sent had not reported back, which was strange.
“Then send someone from the temple.”
“After the saintess was imprisoned, I doubt they are willing to help us. Word has spread among the aristocracy, it seems that several nobles heard her scream while she was dragged to the dungeon and the priests of the temple are not happy with the humiliation suffered” the king’s face turned red when he heard the report, however Milo did not change his expression. He looked as serious and bored as ever.
“Then send the damned heroes. That’s what we have them for, isn’t it?” However, this time, Milo’s face darkened for a second. His lips tightened in annoyance, but he hurried to neutralize his expression before answering.
“They’re not ready yet. I doubt they even know how to use a sword.”
“Then make them so!” exploded the king, annoyed because that morning nothing seemed to be going right for him since he woke up.
“If I may, your majesty. The ideal would be to send some guards while the heroes are being educated. It takes at least two months of preparation for a warrior to learn...” but Milo’s soft voice was interrupted by the king’s growl.
“You have two weeks to prepare them! And send one group of my best soldiers to the dungeon and another to eliminate those monsters that are roaming around my kingdom as if it were their own damn playground!”
Four and a half hours after the king’s fateful meeting with the heroes, most of them had vomited up the breakfast they had eaten.
However, Goliath, the commander of the royal guard, did not allow them to stop running, even though some of them had fainted.
A group of healers, along with a potions master, were stationed at the side of the training grounds. Making sure to give them potions and the necessary healing for the heroes to continue under the arduous training the king had ordered for them.
“Is the king in his right mind? How can he think of ordering this kind of training when it is more than obvious that these children have never exercised once in their lives? Not even the knights of the royal guard would be able to endure it!” whispered one of the healers, but Milo could still hear her.
“Shhh! Keep quiet, or you’ll get us beheaded!” The other healer reprimanded her.
“This is outrageous! How does the king expect me to finish making all the potion orders while I’m here taking care of these children? I didn’t take this job to become a nanny! I have enough to do with my useless assistant!” complained the seventy-year-old potionist.
“I apologize for that, Master Erlhas. But please be patient. If the correct dose of revitalizing potion is not administered, we could run the risk of poisoning them, and no one better than you to prevent the accidental death of the heroes," Milo tried to appease him, letting him understand that he recognized his talent far above that of the king’s personal potionist, Roghes, who had been Erlhas’ student until he awakened the system. Although just as had happened to the rest of them after the goddess Mhiralla’s punishment, he could no longer level up.
But Erlhas never had a system, which is why his skills never stopped developing, despite his advanced age.
That was why the king still kept him around.
“No matter how many potions we have wasted on them, these ‘heroes’ seem on the verge of collapse," the old man criticized as he watched them faint as they tried to keep running around the training ground. “In my day, the youngsters didn’t complain so much and were more resilient. A couple of years plowing the countryside always helped build character," the old man commented as he stroked his long gray beard.
“Except for two. The girl with the faulty system and the young tank.”
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“Ah yes...you are right, young Milo. But you’re wasting a good magical talent, trying to force her to train with the rest," the old man pointed out, catching Milo’s attention. “Although the girl seems to have good stamina. If I had the time, I would train her myself.”
“What? But her system is atrophied, how could she...?”
“HAHA! That’s the problem with those who rely too much on the system!” Erlhas scoffed. “You should come to me one of these days and continue your classes.”
“But the system...”
“Before the system existed, there were mages and wizards all over the continent too, Milo. As well as rogues, warriors, and assassins. The goddess didn’t give away anything new, she just used as a base something that was already there. You don’t need a system to learn magic. The system simply makes it easier.” Then she pointed to several young men. “You’d do better to train them in how to develop their magical talents instead of having them waste time developing their bodies and learning to use weapons, especially since the king wants quick results," he whispered in a complicit voice.
Milo was silent for the next two hours as he tried to observe the young men Erlhas had pointed out.
Soon after, Goliath gave them an hour break for potions and lunch, then spent the next few hours futilely trying to teach them how to use what he considered basic weapons.
“At least some of them seemed to be halfway decent with a bow.”
Meanwhile, the two wizards continued to watch them.
“If you can help me get rid of my useless apprentice and give him to Roghes," Erlhas whispered mischievously, “I’ll help you train the girl,” Milo wanted to smile at seeing the old man so animated, he almost looked like a child in front of a new toy.
Although what he was asking was not something easy to achieve, Milo didn’t want it to be discovered that he could train someone without a system and if the girl suddenly started to learn magic under his tutelage, that could start to raise suspicions. But if Erlhas did it, no one would suspect him. Besides, he knew the old man was too observant for his own good and the marquis had a strong suspicion that the older wizard had known about his relationship with the queen for some time.
Better to have him as an ally. Milo thought. And even though he suspected he was falling for Erlhas’ plan, he decided to cooperate.
“Give me a week to convince Roghes how convenient it would be for him to have a baron’s son as his student.”
“Ha! A smelly old shoe has more talent than that boy!” the old man scoffed, but still nodded his head.
After the heroes had lunch and trained with weapons for another two hours, Milo called them together and they were taken to his research workshop.
“Don’t touch anything," he told them as soon as he opened the door and ushered them into a large room filled with books and rolled-up scrolls, along with a variety of objects scattered haphazardly on the table in front of three rows of ten wooden chairs facing a long table. “My name is Milo Rivas and I am the first wizard of the royal court," he said, looking each of them in the eye. “Now each of you will step forward and touch this sphere," seeing the uneasiness on most of their faces, he hastened to clarify. “It will not cause you any pain, but it will give us information about your abilities. Any volunteers?” But none volunteered. So he called one of the guards stationed at the door and asked him to touch the clear crystal sphere he placed on the table.
As soon as he did so, his information was projected into a large blue hologram that was visible to all.
[Status window]
[Name: Grenar
Age: 32 years old
Race: human
Level: 22
Fatigue: 5
Class: warrior.
Profession: N/A.
Title: N/A
Affiliation: Kingdom of Balsac
HP: 440/440
MP: 308/308
Strength: 30
Vitality: 29
Agility: 26
Endurance: 36
Intelligence: 25
Charisma: 0
Luck: 0
Status: Normal
Available points: 0]
“As you can see, this does not cause any harm. It just gives us basic information about you. Now, who wants to go first?”
Edward raised his hand.
“Go ahead," said Milo. And just as the guard before him did, Edward placed both hands on the crystal sphere, which projected a blue light, similar to that of the system, allowing everyone to see their data.
[Status window]
[Name: Edward Grant
Age: 19 years old
Race: human
Level: 2
Fatigue: 90
Class: Warrior (Heroic)
Profession: N/A.
Title: N/A
Affiliation: Kingdom of Balsac
HP: 120/120
MP: 114/114
Strength: 8
Vitality: 9
Agility: 6
Endurance: 6
Intelligence: 9
Charisma: 0
Luck: 6
Status: Exhausted
Available points: 1]
“I consider it prudent, Mr. Grant, that you allocate the point you have available to the strength. You will need it.”
But Edward, instead of doing as Milo told him, turned to Kalysto, trusting her opinion rather than that of the unknown mage.
“Although it is not my intention to disprove what he told you, your stamina is at rock bottom. If it stays this low, you won’t be able to withstand much in training and you’ll fall behind. Try to have a balance between the two, it would be wiser. But as soon as you have more points available, try to allocate some to agility from time to time. As you could see in the forest, some of those monsters are too fast, and it won’t do you any good to have a lot of strength if you can’t evade their attacks. This is about survival, not about becoming the strongest warrior. It is not a video game and you are not a character. A miscalculation could be fatal. Besides, if you want to increase your strength, you can always do weights, like Koden” Edward seemed to perk up with this last and looked at his friend before looking back at her.
“So endurance?” He asked, wanting to be sure.
“It would be best for now.”
Milo was surprised by what had just happened, but Erlhas was amazed at the situation.
Milo cleared his throat.
“Next” the wizard said and was surprised to see another friend of the trio step forward, when he was waiting for the girl to pass.
[Status window]
Name: Koden Scott
Age: 20 years old
Race: human
Level: 2
Fatigue: 12
Class: Tank (Heroic)
Profession: N/A.
Title: N/A
Affiliation: Kingdom of Balsac
HP: 120/120
MP: 114/114
Strength: 19
Vitality: 13
Agility: 16
Endurance: 16
Intelligence: 13
Charisma: 0
Luck: 1
Status: Curious
Available points: 1]
Like Edward, Koden turned to look at Kalysto, expecting her to give him some opinion, but seeing that she only watched him silently, he frowned.
“You give him advice, but not me?” he complained, and Kalysto rolled her eyes at his childish attitude. “So I choose resistance as well?”
“While I know you’d love to surpass me, I don’t think it’s the best thing to do in your case. You’re a tank, which means these people will use you as cannon fodder and put you on the front lines in case of a confrontation or war. Raise your vitality for now. At least then you will have a better chance of survival. You, like Edward, already know how to raise your strength. And if you continue to have training like today, your endurance will go up, anyway. Your agility, however, needs attention. You survived that orc’s attacks just barely, but if he had been a bit stronger, or you had faced both of them at the same time, you wouldn’t have survived.”
Koden swallowed hard, knowing full well that without her help he would not be alive. And without a word, he raised vitality, as she had advised.
Then it was Kalysto’s turn to pass, but when she placed her hands on the crystal, a series of symbols, asterisks and question marks appeared on the projected screen, instead of her data.