Before anything else, Rowan broke the recruits into four groups. It would be unruly to march two hundred fresh soldiers into the demonic wastes where the weakest monster was at the uncommon tier. They needed to lessen their footprint.

The leaders for the other three groups were Olivia, Marcus, and Milena. Although Rowan had known that he would have to temporarily dissolve the party due to system rules for days now, it didn’t make things any easier.

The fact that he couldn’t easily check on their status weighed on his mind but there was something else to cheer him up.

“Stick with me, and you’ll never go hungry again!” Rowan muttered under his breath, chuckling a little and humming along to the Lion King song echoing through his head.

If pressed, the Stalwart Hero could honestly say that he was in a great mood.

He had doubled his troops, the general affairs of the town were in order, the baroness was doing a predictably stellar job of running the financial recovery projects, and his own little initiative was working out great. After all, with an abundance of uncommon creatures to hunt, the recruits were very quickly getting leveled up.

“Isn’t this too easy?” One of the recruits whispered rather uselessly. Rowan’s perception stat wasn’t for show, and his ears had always been quite keen even before getting boosted by the system.

“I mean, maybe?” another recruit said.

“Would you two prefer to fight a full health uncommon tier monster instead?” their final companion, who had much higher intelligence if Rowan was the judge, piped up. “I’d like to remind you that we’re still in the low commons.”

Rowan wasn’t just force-feeding them levels. But he was making their lives much better and their effort was bearing fruit that much quicker.

Some people got advantages. Rowan was just of the opinion it was finally his poor recruits’ turn.

Being at the edge of the wilderness, it took a while before a group of monsters was willing to attack them. But when they did, Rowan, like the other rare-tier soldiers and officers, jumped into action. He picked one nasty looking beast in particular.

With his stats and cards, the uncommon monster could do nothing to stop him from dismantling its defenses. However, right before his carefully aimed attacks would render it useless, Rowan pulled back.

This left a bloody, enraged beast on its last legs against three fresh-faced common-tier recruits. It was a fair fight, perhaps a bit too fair. The recruits were soon fighting for their lives.

Rowan circled around the fight, ready to step in if things went wrong. But he also had enough time to chat with his subordinates.

“I have to admit, Hero Rowan, that this is highly unusual. It’s usually the other way around, crippling monsters for our officers instead of the lowest recruit,” one of the officers said after finishing up his group’s fight.

“That’s the hope, Jacob. With any luck, we’ll have them up to the basic uncommon tier in record time. After all, it’s not that hard to drag someone out of the common tier.” The admission made Rowan briefly feel horrible, but he discarded those feelings quickly enough.

The world wasn’t perfect, but he was working on it one step at a time.

By the time his chosen three recruits barely downed their enemy and broke into a celebration, Rowan was smiling alongside them.

“Rayne, what’s the current status report on the recruits?”

“Sir, we’ve got two parties up to uncommon already, with another three very close to the early double digits. The rest are still leveling at an expected rate.”

Rowan nodded, reassured. That lined up nicely with what he’d seen in the last few fights. The recruits under the leadership of the more experienced or talented soldiers or officers were advancing swiftly with relatively little trouble. The trick was to weaken the monsters enough that they wouldn’t be a danger to the recruits but still strong enough for real combat experience. It was a fine line to walk.

“That’s excellent news. Keep up the good work, and we’ll be done with this much sooner than any of us expected to be,” Rowan said.

It wasn’t an exaggeration. Rowan had expected to spend weeks training all the recruits into shape. Rayne had accelerated things so much that Rowan wondered if he should just put her on new soldier training from now on. While it was true that pretty much all of the recruits had nightmares of her, the results were undeniable. Her party was the only one besides Rowan’s that had advanced to the rare tier.

“Yes, Lord Rowan,” Rayne replied as she went back to her own group of recruits.

Rowan looked back at his own group, which had finally taken down the beast and were now celebrating in their own ways. Funnily enough, the experience wasn’t only beneficial for the recruits. Back when the baron was teaching him, Rowan sometimes relied on rote memorization instead of truly understanding the instructions. Combat had taught him the meaning behind some of Kayden’s instructions, but teaching the recruits and skillfully weakening a foe had Rowan reexamining his understanding of the spear.

So far, because he was fighting opponents that were often a tier or more higher, Rowan had been all aggression and no tact. His fighting style was to overwhelm an opponent in the first few seconds with a flurry of card combinations. It wasn’t a bad thing per se, but it meant that he didn’t have a lot of answers for defense or deflection if the battle started to slow down.

The baron also had a hand in this. The maneuvers he taught Rowan were the basic foundation, but the forced training meant each of these moves were sharpened to maximize damage instead of skill. All that meant Rowan’s style was uncomplicated and damage heavy.

There were two solutions to that. The first would be to slow down and train with an actual spear master on technique. For the moment, that was about as likely as the demons retreating. So the second, and more promising, solution was to minimize the drawbacks of fighting with wild abandon.

I really need to upgrade that card already, Rowan grumbled to himself, inordinately annoyed that his Persistent Regeneration was still stuck at rare. One single uncommon tier Rapid Regrowth card or another rare tier Persistent Regeneration, and he’d be able to get a full set of ten, netting him his second epic card. But the card just stubbornly refused to come, even with card scrap fusing.

Before Rowan could spiral too far into contemplating his build, a commotion started up to his left. Knowing that’s where one of the forward teams was sweeping through the corrupted jungle, he immediately led his party of recruits towards the noise.

To Rowan’s delight, he found a large, brown-golden viper with rows of eyes running down its sides. The monster was vicious, churning up ground with every strike of its tail. It made a perfect excuse for Rowan to get some exercise.

He streaked forward, leveraged his upgraded dexterity stat, and buried his spear deep into the monster’s side right through one of its blinking eyes. It screeched and thrashed in pain.

“You three, what are you doing? You’re fighting this thing,” Rowan commanded. His recruits paled and he hoped that they had enough trust in him to follow his orders. Luckily, they stepped forward.

The following battle was a blur of action, one that pushed Rowan’s limits in an entirely different way. He wanted the three to have experience with fighting something vastly beyond their own limits, but he also needed to keep them alive.

This meant a fancy dance of Rowan flitting around and getting in front of every blow he could, diverting them while minimizing the amount of mana he used to hurt the monster.

“Keep your wits about you! Aim for the areas I’ve already damaged, or go for the eyes. For the love of all that is holy or unholy, please stop trying to pierce its scales on your own!” Rowan yelled.

The recruits were starting to understand, some faster than others. Once they were back in town, Rowan decided he needed to set up lessons on combat, especially since one redhead seemed fond of metaphorically bashing his head against a wall.

With most of the monster’s body gradually accruing wounds, it became obvious that it was flagging. Its defeat was apparent, to both parties. So, when its eyes suddenly firmed up and turned vicious, Rowan knew what was about to happen.

He pushed his dexterity stat to its utmost and became little more than a blur as he slammed into the recruits, knocking the breath out of their lungs but pushing them far enough away from the battle to be unaffected by what was about to come.

A second later, the viper erupted into a red haze, a thick blood mist that swallowed Rowan, instantly doing horrible things to his flesh. The viper then unhinged its jaws and a stream of black liquid shot out, tinging the cloud black.

The reason the monster hadn’t used the card before was obvious. Its body grew more emaciated, its remaining scales grew dull, and even the flow of blood from its wounds slowed as the vital liquid was consumed and converted into an attack.

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It didn’t feel good being at the center of the monster’s attack.

But Rowan’s pain resistance had been tempered by the demon’s mount and nearly getting eaten alive. Even as his skin sizzled and his muscles corroded, he moved.

His spear briefly blazed with ominous colors, and this time, when it impacted the creature’s head, the monster was blown apart, bits of flesh, bone and brain raining onto the jungle away from Rowan.

Then he was speeding away even as his regeneration card kicked in, allowing him to exit the cloud of death looking a bit more like a person and less like a melted monstrosity.

“Lord Rowan!” One of the soldiers rushed forward, already fishing out a healing potion. “Here, hurry, you must—”

Rowan laughed and waved the man away. The recruits watched as the hero’s body restored itself right in front of their eyes. Rowan thanked the soldier before addressing the gathered crowd.

“Now, I hope what happened will be a lesson to you all. Never assume that your enemy can’t do anything to take you down with them. The monster used a card that was practically suicidal. But it was backed into a corner. There, even the faintest glimmer of survival is magnified.”

Some of the braver recruits began to ask questions about the fight. Rowan answered them as well as he could. Though he did gently steer any questions about his build away. As much as he was loathed to admit it, he didn’t fully trust the people in his army yet.

Plus, the lack of conclusive proof of what his build actually was would hopefully work to keep people on their toes and more hesitant to do anything unwise.

—

Rowan tried not to show any favoritism during the training. But eventually, he upgraded his party of recruits to the uncommon tier and found his way to commanding Clarke and his two friends, the boy who had led him and Olivia to the apothecary at the edge of town.

He hadn’t really done it much with the other recruits, but here, he struck up a conversation almost immediately with a smile. “So, how’s the army treating you so far?”

Rowan enjoyed the way Clarke squirmed a little anyway. “It’s been good so far, sir. Rough, but good,” Clarke said meekly, clearly unsure how to act around the hero.

“You know I don’t hold our meeting against you, right? You did nothing wrong back then, and we were trying to remain anonymous for a bit longer while exploring the city. So, relax. I’m not going to feed you to a monster,” Rowan joked. “Or maybe I will. Gotta stay on your toes.”

Clarke relaxed, or at least tried to. His muscles remained tense and his eyes were constantly sweeping over the jungle surrounding them. That, Rowan could understand. Even for someone who’d been desperate to become a combat class, venturing into the wastes was likely nerve wracking.

Especially since the boy was still level nine, and that was five levels higher than he’d been in the morning.

“You were the one who helped us, right, sir?” one of the others, a girl whose name Rowan still didn’t know, cautiously asked.

“Not really, no. We made a deal with the apothecary that your friend guided us to, but he was the one who fed you the potion. And the one responsible for said potion was Olivia. I was just along for the ride. What are your names?”

“Flora, sir.”

“Oliver, sir.”

That made Rowan pause for a moment, and shoot the boy an amused look that clearly unnerved him. It was somewhat ironic he shared such a similar name to the baron’s daughter, and Rowan made a mental note to mention it to her.

Then, a thought came to Rowan and he decided to do something slightly rude that was only slightly tempered by his standing and status as their employer. “Tell me a bit about your classes?”

All three of them flushed and looked a little reluctant, but Clarke eventually spoke up.

“I’m a [Swordsman], sir. Plain as bread, absolutely nothing interesting about my deck. I did manage to get a card that suits me. I got Sturdy Body from one of the uncommon monsters we fought today.”

Just a single extra card? Somehow, Rowan had forgotten how difficult it could be for commoners to get a decent deck clobbered together. Even those who advanced to uncommon often had only their class card in the correct rarity. In a very real way, the presence of the wastes was a blessing in this regard. So long as they could survive venturing into it, the recruits would eventually get something good.

“What about you two?” Rowan asked.

“I-I got the [Mercenary] class,” Oliver said.

That caught Rowan’s attention. “Explain.”

If he was a little brusque, he didn’t care. If memory served Rowan right, the only way to unlock that particular class was to do a job as a mercenary. Or to get hired on by a mercenary company as one of their recruits.

Rowan had some serious doubts about the boy’s ability to do the former, especially on the frontier. The latter? Well, it felt a bit too on the nose for the mercenaries to be sending someone with such an obvious class to spy on him.

Noticing Rowan’s sudden intensity, Oliver hurried to explain. “You must have noticed I’m taller and sturdier than I should be at my age, sir.” The boy motioned at his body. That much was true, since he had filled out much more quickly and impressively than most other recruits.

“What about it?”

“I have some dwarf blood on my mom’s side of the family. Makes my muscles denser, and my frame bulkier. My father’s family are all extremely tall. They say we have some ogre blood, but that’s nonsense, obviously.”

Maybe it wasn’t all that nonsensical, seeing that Oliver had chosen a pretty massive maul as his weapon.

“And how does that tie into your class?”

“So, I was always bigger than usual for my age. And my family owns a smithy, so I was working there as an apprentice. But I wanted adventure, to become famous. So, before I got my full system access and my heart card, I came up with a plan. Because I looked tougher and older, I lied to a merchant.”

“What was your heart card again?”

“Metallic Instinct. Perfect for a smith, even at common, it lets you sense flaws in metal and correct them more easily. For someone who lied his way into escorting a merchant to the frontier wanting to be a mercenary, though? Not as great.”

Not as great was definitely a gentle way of putting it. The boy seemed genuine enough and more than a little upset by his own story. Rowan chose to put his mistrust aside for the time. “I see. Well, thanks for sharing your story with me. And what about you?”

The last question was directed at the girl in their party and she briefly squirmed under the scrutiny. Rowan noticed that she seemed generally averse to attention of any kind. Even with her friends, she preferred to blend into the background.

“I’m a [Ranger]. Plant Identification heart card. Not much of a nice story to tell. I was born here, like Clarke. My dad was a scout for the town and he even took me out to the shallow wastes a couple of times. Nothing like now, but it was enough for me to unlock my class.”

Rowan nodded, having known a bit more about her than the other two. Ranged and support oriented classes were a priority in any army, his included. Rayne had mentioned her in passing earlier.

“That’s impressive. We can always use a bit more ranged coverage. How decent are you with the bow?”

Flora unhooked the bow from her shoulder, nocked an arrow, and pinned a leaf to the trunk of a tree.

“Lethal,” Rowan complimented.

“Thank you, sir.”

The following period was genuinely enjoyable for Rowan, if for no other reason than getting to see the coordination between three people who were familiar with and trusted each other. That alone put them a step above average.

Whereas some of the recruits frequently checked on their fellows and refused to commit to an attack in fear of no one guarding their backs, the three had no such compunctions. Each blow was dealt with near wild abandon, and more than once they placed their trust fully in the hands of their companions.

Or maybe it was Rowan’s presence bolstering their courage?

When he decided to hang back further and tell them he’d only interfere if things became dire, this assumption was proven false. They definitely did trust each other and work well together.

Honestly? Rowan was a little worried about their future. They’d eventually get a more permanent fourth party member, and he wasn’t sure how well they would take to the new member. If that particular choice was made badly, the group could fall apart.

Of course, the same risk held true for every single trio running around following their assigned soldier or officer right now.

“Excellent work. However, Clarke, please stop trying to get yourself killed. I know you want to be more useful, but please learn to dodge or block.” Rowan didn’t miss the irony of that particular statement, seeing what his fighting style was.

Hells, there was a decent chance the boy had picked up the recklessness from watching him.

“Yes, sir,” Clarke said reluctantly, eyes downcast.

“Oliver, please, for the sake of my sanity, stop swinging so close to your allies. Also, keep in mind that some creatures have acidic, poisonous, or corrosive blood. If you keep splattering them like that, you’ll have to deal with the consequences eventually.”

The boy looked sheepish, but also more than a little enthusiastic about splattering more enemies. Rowan just sighed and moved onto the sanest member of their little group.

“Flora, amazing work. You supported the two of them with cover fire, didn’t put an arrow into either of them and jumped into melee when you had to. Just make sure not to lose track of how many arrows you have again. You know who to talk to about replenishing those, so do it.”

She squeaked out a thank you and then bolted towards a bored-looking party absolutely buried under a ton of bags, a massive backpack, and even a few rolls that held various smaller weapons strapped down and secure for easy transport. They’d get their chance to train and be subbed by a different party soon enough.

When Flora finally came back with a half-full quiver, Rowan sighed. There was still some more work to do here.

He shook his head and stalked forward, heading for the nearest source of noise and combat. “Come on, let’s get you all to uncommon today so you can actually defend yourselves out there without a chaperone.”

—

By the time they were forced to head back to town, Rowan was content. As it turned out, it was kind of easy to force people up to uncommon if you dedicated an entire day to power leveling them in a place with nothing but higher tier enemies.

Since he remembered the baroness’s advice, Rowan had even taken all the rare tier enemies for himself, too. In a way, at least it made sense. His blessing meant that the experience was used to its utmost, boosting the party he was responsible for far faster.

The day had even yielded one final, glorious surprise, and Rowan couldn’t stop grinning as he eyed the card he held. A copy of Rapid Regrowth had been dropped by a particularly nasty giant lizard monster, which actually gave him some trouble in spite of being uncommon.

Not because it threatened his safety, of course.

It had the unnerving ability to detach its tail like regular lizards did, except the detached tail then grew a maw at the stump and tried to munch down on anything living around it. Rowan had barely managed to keep the party accompanying him at the time from getting chewed on.

But the reward was worth the effort and Rowan was loathe to keep waiting. He fished out the extra copies of Persistent Regeneration and Rapid Regrowth and started fusing them together.

The light show caught the attention of the soldiers, but they seemed uninterested when the green light turned blue. But when Rowan unequipped his regeneration card to complete the set of ten, they started paying attention.

Purple light far brighter than any of Rowan’s previous lower-tier fuses lit up the surroundings. Briefly, everyone was blinded, and Rowan blinked away stars to see his brand new card.

Nature Renewal (Epic, Active)

Your body yearns to restore itself to its natural state no matter the damage dealt to it, drawing on mana, energy reserves, and muscle mass to achieve this quickly. Part of this cost is offset as the body intakes ambient mana. This trait allows lower-level regeneration to be active at all times as a passive effect.

Rowan felt the change the moment he equipped the card. Each and every one of his cells yearned to be whole, to be flawless. They sucked down on ambient mana, and Rowan felt minor aches, pains, and inconveniences that he didn’t even know existed disappear.

Well, isn’t this nice? Rowan’s smile grew, and it was bordering on malicious as he started to cackle.

If his soldiers stepped further away from him, well, he was too busy feeling happy to care.