"Albert, tell me about Vermont," Vernos asked Albert to tell him about his territory.

"My lord, Vermont is the largest fief in the empire, it is 3500 km but is barren and no plants can grow there so nobody wants it. To the front is the empire of Alcadria and to the back is the sea. It has one city in the territory that has a population of about 14,000 people, it is the smallest city based on population in the empire. The baron before you didn't care about the people and demanded high taxes from the already starving people. Hundreds of people die from starvation every year." Vernos frowned while listening and signaled for Albert to continue.

"The monthly tax income is 500 gold coins but most of it is spent buying food and paying salaries there is only about 20 gold left over every year. We brought 1300 gold coins and enough food to feed 300 people for 6 months. Since the magic beasts destroyed one wagon full of supplies our food will only last us about 3 months."

"My lord we have arrived at the city gate." While Vernos was thinking about a plan a servant informed him that they finally arrived.

"Where are the guards?" Vernos questioned,

"Sir, they all ran away with the old baron when he left." The servant quickly answered his question, "Now there is only a group of militia protecting the city from magic beast attack but none of them reached even first-stage knights."

"Let's go inside," Vernos frowned while ordering his convoy to quickly move towards the castle.

There was garbage all over the street and all the buildings were broken down. Venos saw starving people everywhere. They looked like they hadn't had a meal in days.

When they arrived at the castle there were already people waiting for them.

"My lord, I am the city lord of Vermont, my name is Randy." One person who looked to be the leader stepped up and quickly introduced himself.

"Randy, report the financial situation of the territory," Vernos ordered.

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"The territory previously had 4500 gold coins saved up but the previous baron took them with him. He only left behind 300 gold coins so he doesn't get in trouble with the empire."

"Report the population."

"My lord, Vermont had 14467 people at the time of the last census which was 10 years ago. The average household size is 3 with one man, woman, and child."

Vernos listened to the report while frowning.

Vernos wanted to get to work right away but he was tired after a long 15-day journey, so he ordered his servants to take him to his room so he could rest.

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In Riverdale, the largest city and the capital of the empire Ruben can be seen kneeling in a dark dimly lit room.

"My lord, Baron Vernons survived." Said Ruben in a frightened tone. "He… he had more guards than expected."

He can be seen talking to a mysterious figure who had a cloak over his head.

"You can't even do anything right! I helped you and your family and you can't even repay me. You're useless to me! Kill him!" The mysterious figure was very angry, he didn't want Vernos to survive but now that he did it will be much harder to kill him now that he is in his territory, so he ordered his guards to kill Ruben.

"No no no please, it was a mistake it won't happen again." Ruben was screaming and crying while he was being dragged out by the guards.

"Feed his body to the beasts." Someone who looked like the head guard ordered after they killed Ruben.

"Trash! You are all trash! Nobody can do anything right! He's just a noble without any training and you can't even kill him, trash!"

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The next day -

Vernos is awake practicing the origin ancient elemental technique.

"This technique really deserves to be called the best technique of the eons, in just one day I became a 2-star magic apprentice."

Each stage is split into 9 stars. Whether it is knight training or mage training they are both the same. The magic apprentice is stage 0 and you need to pass this stage to be a stage 1 mage. Like Mages, knights have a stage 0 knight apprentice but training to be a knight is much easier than training to be a mage. An average person can become a stage 1 knight but stage 1 mages are very rare. Lucas is a stage 4 sky knight and the strongest knight that followed Vernos's father. Usually, only great nobles have knights at that rank. Other than Lucas Vernos doesn't have any other powerhouses following him.

Of his 50 knights 40 of them were stage 1 and only 10 of them were in stage 2. He doesn't have any stage 3 knights. Stage 3 knights are valued highly by nobles so all of the ones his father had before decided to leave.

Stage 1 mages are even rarer even his father didn't have much and none of them followed Vernos. Most of his current mage apprentices were 5-star magic apprentices and the highest was 8 stars.

Thinking about how his father had a stage 4 knight as a follower surprised him, it looked like his father had a secret. Most stage 4 knights worked for major nobles or the imperial court. A viscount having a stage 4 knight following him was rare.

Vernos already had a plan to improve the quality of his army. As the number 1 scholar of the wasteland, he had access to a lot of techniques that were thrown away in libraries. In the wasteland, they couldn't be used because of a lack of resources but now they can show their true worth.

The current techniques of this era couldn't even be called techniques. After fifty thousand years many new discoveries lead to the upgrade of techniques. Twenty thousand years in the future a scholar discovered that they were using the wrong path when circulating mana so all techniques became worthless and outdated. This new discovery shook the world and led to massive upgrades in magic and knight training.