Acheron blinked blearily as he stirred awake, looking around he saw that light was beginning to stream into the room from the bottom of the door and that everyone else was still asleep. His aching body and pounding head demanded that he get back into bed and get the sleep that he had missed out on due to his extra training, but he ignored their demands. There were still six days until they would leave, and he wasn’t going to let any of them go to waste, he would use every hour he could no matter how that made him feel the next day.
Slowly, he pushed himself out of bed and put on his armour, mentally preparing himself for the day ahead. Finished getting ready, Acheron once again slammed his steel helmet against one of the stone walls so as to wake up everyone else in his squad.
Valerie was the first one to get up, making no complaint as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes and started putting on her armour. Felix and Damion woke next, both grumbling to each other about the lack of proper sleep. From there, the rest woke up at about the same time, most making some sort of comment at the rude awakening. The last to wake was Eli, who grumbled the most at not getting a healthy amount of sleep.
Once they had all readied themselves, they followed Acheron to the training grounds and found captain Roderick already waiting for them. Just as the previous day, Roderick started them with some simple marching formations with the intent of practicing rhythm. After they had spent a couple hours marching, Roderick moved them onto advancing, retreating and holding a position in different formations.
By the time midday had arrived, Acheron loathed the time in the morning spent on all the different formations. If he thought about it in terms of the coming war it made sense that he should be taught these formations. However, Acheron doubted he would live that long in this cycle and so would likely not fight within an army or at least not as a lieutenant.
At midday, Roderick once again took Acheron aside to do some more personal training while the others were made to do strength and endurance training. Roderick had Acheron continue to practice the strikes he had been taught to execute on the practice dummy over and over. If he hadn’t already burnt the movements into his mind, the drills Roderick had him doing certainly would have.
As he practiced, Roderick was astounded to see Acheron’s progress in completing the basic forms and attacks. Not being aware of Acheron continuing his practice well into the night, he had not expected to see such a noticeable change after only half a day of training. His assessment and opinion of Acheron continuing to improve as he saw more of his dedication and resolve.
While he Continued his weapon training, Acheron’s squad made their way through an obstacle course designed to challenge even the hardiest of people. There were sheer climbing walls, thick mud pits, hurdles, balancing beams, and rope swings. All the while they were forced to wear a set of weights that varied depending on any strength related skills.
Acheron was forced to admit that the method they were using to train people for skills that would enhance a normal person’s abilities was far superior to the training regimen he had created on his farm. He was even tempted to give the obstacle course a try but decided that he would leave it for later, maybe after he finished his training one night.
In the obstacle course, Valerie, Ty, and Eli were the trailblazers, forging ahead of the rest of their squad barely seeming bothered by the conditions they were in. On the other hand, Nathan and Lynn were both at the back of the pack, gritting their teeth in pain, struggling to take each step.
Gradually the hours passed, no other change occurring during the time of their training that day. Eventually finishing the obstacle course, Roderick allowed Acheron’s squad to turn in for the day, shortly after he also stated that their training was done for the day.
Once again Acheron continued training, he had decided to learn to use the war scythe with at least some capability and so would not cease until he had accomplished that goal. He worked himself harder than was healthy and past the point of exhaustion, only turning in when he could no longer feel his body, only pain.
Cleaning himself up, Acheron headed towards his barracks and was surprised to see a dark figure standing outside the door.
He stopped a little distance away, not too worried but holding his war scythe in a position he could easily move to strike from just in case. The figure held up their hands to reveal that they were unarmed.
“Relax, it’s just me.” Came a distinctly feminine and familiar voice.
“Valerie?” Acheron asked in confusion, “why aren’t you in bed? We’ve got another long day ahead of us tomorrow.”
“I could ask you the same question. I just wanted to talk to you without waking up everyone else.”
“Oh, okay what did you want to talk about?”
“First, I wanted to apologise for the assumptions I made about you.”
Acheron frowned not really understanding what she was talking about, “what do you mean?”
“When we first returned from our mission, we came into the barracks to find you asleep in the middle of the day. Not only that but you didn’t even provide a reason as to why you weren’t training. Because of that I kind of assumed that you were shirking your responsibilities and not disciplined. Because of that I may have made some rude comments about you. But after seeing your effort today and yesterday during training hours and outside of them I understand that you’re more committed and driven then we are.”
‘I wonder if that’s why the others were giving me odd looks.’ Acheron shrugged, “that’s alright, we all make mistakes, and a couple words won’t hurt me. It’s better that we sort this out now than during our assignment.”
Valerie frowned, “what assignment?”
‘Damn’ Acheron cursed himself, remembering that he had been told by Roderick the previous day, not to tell his squad about their assignment yet. ‘Well, it’s too late now.’
“Don’t tell the others about this because I wasn’t even supposed to tell you, but in about five days we’re going to the capital of Eastgate to speak to the duke.”
“Duke Arden? Why him? He and duke Marquadt aren’t exactly on good terms.”
“Because there’s going to be a war and the duke needs to warn all the dukes even duke Arden.”
“A war?” Valerie asked, hints of disbelief and wariness creeping into her voice, “With the empire?”
“No.” Acheron calmly stated, “A war with the bearkin.”
“The bearkin? I know they’ve been targeting our food supplies, but do they actually want war?”
“Yes it is. Now was there something else you wanted to speak to me about or did you just want to apologise?” He asked, his tiredness weighing down on him and demanding he get rest.
“Well, I was just going to ask why you’re pushing yourself so hard.”
“Because I’ve already borne the cost of this war, and I’ll be damned if the bearkin escape unscathed.”
…………
Over the next few days, captain Roderick slowly pivoted from teaching the squad different formations to getting them more used to working and fighting together.
This started off on the third day of Acheron training with his squad, with them being split into two groups. These groups were then given wooden versions of their usual weapons so as to prevent serious harm and were told that being hit at all would result in them being considered ‘dead’ for the exercise. They were then made to work together as a team to try and defeat the other group.
At first Acheron had assumed his skills would mean he had an unfair advantage but he was quite wrong. His skills were all mainly focussed on either making his hits harder or allowing him to take harder hits, it illuminated a great flaw in his current abilities which was speed.
In the exercise it didn’t matter how small the touch was, if a wooden weapon touched you, you were considered dead. This meant that his strength and durability didn’t matter at all here and pushed Acheron to try to fight differently. He immensely enjoyed the drill especially as he could see real cases where a scenario similar to this would exist. An example would be if he was fighting someone with deadly poisons, the slightest cut could possibly lead to his death.
During the drill, Acheron was paired with Daimon, Nathan, Eli and Felix at first, he struggled to use them all together considering that he had three frontline fighters but only one ranged attacker. Even worse was that Felix’s buffing skill slightly improved the durability of allies making it inconsequential in the drill.
Especially at the start, Acheron struggled to find any way to beat Valerie’s team, on the fourth day however, he finally started to make some progress in understanding battle tactics. With him consistently getting down to a one on one between himself and Valerie. He was certain that in a normal fight he would be able to defeat her but here in the drill it was reversed. He suffered loss after loss to her, but not once became disheartened, all his loss meant to him was that there was a weakness he had to shore up.
Each night before turning in, Acheron continued his extra training, even trying out the obstacle course and thoroughly enjoying it. One night Valerie even joined him in his training but was forced to leave early due to her exhaustion.
On the fifth day, Roderick led them through different scenarios they could encounter on their trip including ambushes, possible monsters, and other unexpected obstacles. While not as physically demanding as the previous days, Acheron still enjoyed developing a better idea of tactics when soldiers were disarrayed or how people were likely to react under certain conditions.
Truthfully, Acheron was quite amazed and glad to have captain Roderick teaching them, while he didn’t look like much, his knowledge and understanding in combat and other general topics was astounding. It was hard to believe that the man was only a captain in the duke’s service, but Acheron wouldn’t complain if it meant the man would teach him.
At the end of the day, Roderick pulled him aside to discuss the assignment, he told Acheron that his departure was scheduled for the morning in three days’ time and that Roderick would handle his supplies. He had also been told that he could tell his squad about the trip the night before they left which he made no comment about.
On the sixth day of training Roderick had them begin sparring with each other, Acheron of course only sparred with the melee fighters like himself. However, unlike the previous team drill one of the combatants had to actually yield for the fight to end. This meant that the quick, glancing blows Valerie had been hitting him with were no longer of a concern.
His first fight which was against Eli was surprisingly close, he also had [Body Strength] at bronze and was quite skilled in using the extra strength it provided. Acheron on the other hand had only had the skill for a bit more than a week and had not yet fully gotten used to it.
In the end, the fight between the pair came down to durability, other offensive skills, and pain tolerance. Acheron was superior to Eli in all three of these categories and so eventually forced Eli to grudgingly yield.
His fights against Daimon and Lee were both a bit one sided as neither had any specifically offensive skills, while his fight with Ty was over quite quickly. This was due to Ty having watched Acheron beat the other people into submission and deciding that he didn’t want the bruises they had.
This only went until a bit past midday, until Roderick once again pulled Acheron aside for personal training.
On the dawn of the seventh day, Acheron was told that he would be sparring with Valerie in a slightly different format, it would be all but the same but there would be three rounds and whoever won the most would win the spar. He was certainly interested to fight Valerie properly and see just how good she was, even more so to push himself as much as possible.
A circle had been drawn out in the middle of the training grounds, about eight metres in diameter, around this stood captain Roderick and the rest of Acheron’s squad, all watching excitedly.
Acheron didn’t know this but before his promotion to lieutenant, Captain Roderick had been considering Valerie for the position. Although Valerie had apologized to Acheron for her assumptions about his work ethic, she still believed she deserved to lead. Both Valerie and the rest of the squad viewed this spar as the ultimate test to determine if Acheron was truly fit to be in charge.
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Standing on one side of the ring was Acheron, wielding his wooden pole that was meant to imitate his war scythe, on the other side stood Valerie, wooden sword in one hand and shield in the other. Valerie was at a slight advantage compared to Acheron in that her weapons worked as a good counter to most of his attacks, but he wasn’t bothered.
“As a reminder,” Roderick repeated to the pair, “Do not try to maim or kill your opponent with any strikes or you will be disqualified, the first to make their opponent yield or leave the circle wins that round and the first to get two wins is the victor.”
Both Acheron and Valerie nodded their understanding, “Begin!”
Immediately, Valerie charged towards Acheron holding her shield up to protect from Acheron’s strikes. He in turn begun moving around the edge of the circle, forcing Valerie to turn and reduce some of the momentum she was carrying.
He jabbed forwards at her head, but she easily brought up her shield to block the attack. Using the brief moment when her vision was blocked by her shield, Acheron dashed to the side once again creating more distance between the pair.
Valerie stopped herself from going over the line and turned around to face Acheron who was now on the other side of the ring. Again, she moved towards Acheron, this time at a more controlled speed, meaning that his previous strategy wouldn’t work.
Acheron swung at her a couple times, trying to catch her without her shield, but each time she reacted quickly, bringing her shield up smoothly to block his attacks. This wasn’t surprising to him as he had already discovered in previous drills that she had a skill to improve her reflexes.
This time, as Valerie got close, Acheron used his pole to block an overhead swing at him, at the same time he kicked her in the chest, pushing her back from him. Acheron had gotten the better of her twice, but it wouldn’t last, he had taken her by surprise both times and Acheron knew she would be prepared for them from now on.
Making her way towards him again, Valerie blocked his attacks and then came in with her own, he tried to block her sword with the handle of his staff but instead of swinging she lunged forwards, the point of the sword hitting Acheron’s ribs.
On the backfoot, Acheron tried to move away from the edge of the circle so that he wouldn’t step over it, but she gave him no reprieve. Attack after attack came at Acheron with him having no chance to counter or even block the attacks. It was certainly a good lesson on why he needed to be careful not to let people inside of his reach.
Acheron took multiple hits to his torso, legs and arms but had no thoughts of yielding in his mind, unfortunately he Valerie had a different idea. As he tried to move back, Valerie tripped him, causing him to stumble and place a foot further back so that he wouldn’t fall.
The foot landed outside of the circle causing Roderick to blow a whistle signalling that the round was over.
Acheron nodded to Valerie in respect, but she ignored him, the pair made their way back to different edges of the ring, preparing to go again.
“That’s 1 to Valerie and 0 for Acheron.” Roderick declared.
After their previous drills and her victory in the first round, Valerie was of the belief that she knew everything about Acheron’s abilities, however those drills had been quite limited, preventing him from showing his full capabilities. On the other hand, Acheron had been able to find out all of Valerie’s skills just by asking the rest of the squad and so knew exactly what he was up against.
Valerie would be able to react faster than Acheron no matter what due to her skill [Quick Reflexes] and so what Acheron had realised he needed to do was lull her into a false sense of security. Once she was in a false sense of security, thinking that she was prepared for everything Acheron could throw at her, he would turn the tables.
Having let her get the first win, Acheron thought that it would be the perfect moment to shake her confidence.
As of that moment he was yet to showcase the power he had at his disposal when attacking, holding back on every strike he made against Valerie. The force he could exert was no small thing, a bronze rank strength skill and two more uncommon iron rank skills that would empower his attack.
“Begin!”
Valerie slowly made her way towards Acheron, bringing her shield up over her head to block the strike that he was swinging at her. However, as it came her eyes widened, she could see that it was far more powerful than previous attacks and she tried to dodge out of the way.
It was far too late for her to try such a thing, her hubris making her think that she could defend against any of Acheron’s attacks. The pole came down and hit her shield with such force that she unable to stand against the force, and fell to the ground. Her sword and shield tumbled from her grip, leaving her completely unarmed as Acheron got ready to bring his pole down.
“Stop!” Acheron looked up to see Roderick walking over, “She’s been completely disarmed, and wouldn’t be able to fight back in this position so we’ll call it your point.”
“I could have-” Valerie argued but was instantly cut off.
“If Acheron had swung again with the same amount of force and this was a real fight you would have lost a limb at best, at that point you are dead. That’s 1 to Valerie and 1 to Acheron.”
Valerie scowled at Acheron, and he just shrugged, she shouldn’t have become careless just because she had won the first round. The pair looked at each other fiercely from across the ring, both of them wanting to win for different reasons.
When Roderick yelled begin it was like a starters gun had gone off.
Both of them sprinted at each other, Acheron swinging his staff in a powerful horizontal arc that would be difficult to dodge. Valerie slid underneath the swing and came up right in front of him, her sword already in motion, its point moving towards Acheron’s ribs once again. She wasn’t the only one to have learnt from their fight though, with Acheron having leapt backwards as soon as she ducked underneath his swing.
Swinging again with more power at Valerie he hoped to take her by surprise, yet once again her sharp reflexes allowed her to doge the swing’s trajectory. Valerie moved toards Acheron as he tried to continue to back up.
He swung again but was unable to get much power behind the swing due to her proximity, because of that Valerie deflected his swing with her shield and swung at him. He was forced to take a hit to the chest which would definitely leave a large bruise, before he could take a step back and hold the handle out in an attempt to reduce the number of attacks she could land on him.
To his surprise she brought her sword up and tried to swing down at him with all her might, he easily brough his staff up to block with one hand on either side, however he realised that this was her plan when he heard a cracking sound. The next second, the handle broke between his hands, and he fell backwards out of the way of the swing, releasing his hold of the two pieces of wood.
Acheron scrambled to his feet before Valerie could continue her assault, holding his fists up ready to continue the fight. However, before anything could happen there was a loud whistle.
“Fights over! Valerie wins a second round meaning she is the victor!” Roderick declared.
“What?” Acheron yelled “I wasn’t in a position where she could have swung once and beaten me! Why are you stopping the fight?”
Roderick looked at Acheron “you’re unarmed, meaning you have no way to block her attacks and so if you were hit even once you would be dead. There’s no way you would have won.”
“Yes, there is,” Acheron argued. “I just wouldn’t have let her hit me.”
Roderick sighed before looking towards Valerie, “are you willing to continue?”
Valerie shrugged, “I already won, you said so, if he wants to keep fighting he has to put something on the line.”
“Like what?” Acheron asked in confusion.
“The position as lieutenant of this squad.”
“I accep-”
“You can’t do that!” Roderick tried interrupting, “the duke gave you that position!”
“It’s my choice,” Acheron said, “besides, you don’t have to worry, I’m not going to lose.”
Roderick sighed, putting his head in his hands, “you better be right.” Speaking to both Acheron and Valerie he yelled, “if Acheron is hit with a significant blow even once he loses. Now, continue!”
Immediately Valerie advanced on Acheron, thrusting and swiping at him in a relentless stream of moves. He on the other hand only retreated, moving around the circle while staying outside of her reach.
Valerie knew that if she hit Acheron even a single time that she would win but was wary of him after her defeat in the previous round. This meant that instead of committing to an all-out assault she cautiously approached and attacked him, giving him the time and space he needed to come up with an idea.
The pair had almost done a full circle of the ring when Acheron acted, flicking a piece of his broken weapon up into his hand and then charging at Valerie. The piece was a similar length to her sword and so she was able to swing at the same time he could.
Taking the opportunity, Valerie swung at Acheron’s side intending to him and claim her position as lieutenant. As Acheron ran straight at Valerie, he made no move to attack himself, rather waiting for her to do so and using his broken handle to deflect her attack. This meant that he had brought himself right up close to her while she only had her shield, and he had a free arm.
Grabbing the shield with his free hand, Acheron backpedalled and quickly ripped it from her grip, effectively reversing their situation from what it had been a second ago. Acheron now had a long stick and a shield while Valerie only had a wooden sword.
He pressed his advantage, swinging his stick at her arms and legs while using his new shield to deflect her attacks. Gradually, she was pressed backwards until she found herself at the edge of the ring, in an act of desperation she launched herself forwards at Acheron.
He casually dropped his shield and hit away the sword she was swinging down at him with his stick, before catching her and throwing her right out of the circle. He could have landed a punch into her stomach instead of just throwing her out of the circle, but he had been taught not to hit women and found it hard to remove himself from such a mentality, even if she wasn’t any weaker than what a male with the same skills would be.
There was silence as Valerie stared at Acheron, the rest of his squad was also surprised by the outcome. They had all been sure Valerie would win but had been proven wrong.
After a moment, Roderick spoke, “That brings it to 2 to 1 Acheron’s way. Meaning he is the victor.”
Acheron sat down on the training ground’s floor, panting heavily, feeling quite happy with the spar.
…………
After Acheron had caught his breath and Valerie had cooled off a bit, captain Roderick brought everyone back together. He first applauded the effort they had put into their training the last few days before he turned to a more serious topic.
“As I’m sure many of you are wondering, the reason that you’ve had such a rushed training this week is because duke Marquadt has selected your squad to complete a special assignment. This is something that your lieutenant was already aware of, though instructed to remain silent about.”
There was a mix of reactions from the squad, ranging from excitement, to apprehension, to indifference.
“Sir, If I may ask. Why us?” Felix spoke, interrupting the captain.
“Because Acheron here carries a message from the sovereign Kaiya herself, duke Marquadt believes that it will be something duke Arden cannot ignore.”
Nine pairs of eyes turned to look at Acheron, “Lady Kaiya has warned me that there is a war with the bearkin coming, in fact they have already begun landing troops in our country.”
A susurrous of nervous whispers moved through the group before captain Roderick cleared his throat, bringing attention back to him. “Don’t worry, the assignment should be relatively mundane, just travel to the city of Aleto and meet with the duke before returning. We have already set up supplies for your journey and have a cart scheduled to leave with you.”
“When do we leave?” Eli asked.
“Good question. You’ll leave at dawn tomorrow and will likely be on the road for at least a week, so I suggest you take the rest of today off to recover.”
Most of the squad seemed excited to hear they could take the rest of the day off as it was only midday, meaning they had a fair bit of sunlight. They did seem to be at least slightly bothered by the abrupt departure, but they were soldiers and so were used to not being told much.
In groups of two or three, the soldiers moved off heading back to the barracks and showers, only two people chose not to leave immediately.
The training grounds were nearly empty, so Acheron grabbed a training dummy and dragged it from the corner. Adopting the proper stance, he began to practice the moves he had been taught, this time with his real war scythe. Although the wooden replica he had used before was nearly identical in weight and size, wielding the true scythe felt like slipping into a well-worn pair of boots after trudging in stiff, new ones.
The difference was to such a degree that it was even noticeable in his attacks, with them being more precise and controlled compared to when he used the fake.
As Acheron trained, Valerie stared at him, not saying anything, just standing there. He did his best to ignore her but found that the presence of someone else watching him made it difficult to concentrate.
Turning to Valerie he asked, “what is it?”
“You shouldn’t have won that fight, you got lucky because I didn’t know everything about you.”
Acheron nodded, “That’s true, I haven’t been here long, but I already know that knowledge is one of the most powerful weapons in a fight.”
“So you agree I should be the lieutenant!”
“No,” Acheron said, causing Valerie to look angrily at him. “If you continue to go into fights without trying to gain knowledge of your opponents, you’ll always be at a disadvantage. If you are going to lead a squad then you need to do everything you can to improve your odds of survival.
Stomping off angrily, Valerie left Acheron alone in the training grounds. Despite being given the day off, Acheron planned to spend most of the day training, except for one small break where he would visit someone he had been intending to ever since his mission fighting the goblins.
The blacksmith.
Deciding that it would be better to go earlier than later, Acheron wiped the sweat from his brow and made his way out to the gate. The guard on duty let Acheron out without a hassle, as he passed them, he wondered how people were given guard duty as he knew it wasn’t a mission on the mission board. He guessed that it could be a punishment handed out to soldiers who failed to follow orders, though ultimately, he had no clue.
From the drawbridge, Acheron headed towards where the blacksmith’s shop was, however when he arrived, he found that it was completely shut up. There were no signs of the blacksmith with the forge not even having any coals in it.
He looked for a note or other possible explanation as to where the blacksmith could have gone but found nothing. He cursed himself for not going earlier, but he had completely forgotten, being too injured to think of too much besides getting rest and after that he was too busy training. He had wanted to talk to the black smith about the weird sense he occasionally got from the weapon and how it had changed drastically after he sharpened it but it seemed he would have to wait.
Looking for a local, Acheron made his way to the shop next door, asking them about where the blacksmith was.
“Him? I’m sorry sir but I don’t know where he is, but don’t worry he’ll be back.”
“How do you know?”
“’Cause he does this pretty often, just ups and leaves without telling anybody, then a couple weeks or a month later he’ll be back in his forge as if he was never gone.”
Thanking the shopkeeper for the information Acheron made his way back to the training ground, it seemed like he wouldn’t get to find out what the old man had done to his weapon.
As per usual, Acheron continued training until well into the night, before cleaning up and hopping into bed. Tomorrow they would set out on their journey to Eastgate.
…………
When Acheron got up the next morning, he woke to find everyone else already up and about, this was because during the last week they had all learned his conviction towards waking up early was not a matter of choice. Getting ready along with the rest of his team, they made their way out of the barracks and to the marshalling yard. It wasn’t a very large place, just a small square with a loading bay and stable for horses.
Captain Roderick and the duke himself were both there to see them off as well as Lady Ash and the cart that they would take. Acheron’s squad was surprised to see both Ash and the duke until he explained that Ash would be joining them in the trip on behalf of Kaiya so as to officiate what Acheron had said.
When Acheron stood before the duke they shook hands. “I have to thank you once again Acheron for saving my children, I put Ash once again in your care and ask that you would keep her safe.”
“Don’t worry m’lord, I will die before I let anything harm her.” Acheron said, not even lying. Anything that could harm her would have to be able to get through everyone else, meaning it would probably be quite strong and so he would certainly fight it to the death for the chance at improvements.
Felix got up in the reigns of the cart while Nathan Lynn and Alicia also hopped into the back with Ash. The rest of Acheron’s squad walked around the outside of the cart as they made their way over the drawbridge and through the city.
When they reached the city gate and Acheron once again saw some guards, he turned towards Lee who was walking slightly behind him and to his left. “Is guard duty a punishment, or how are people selected to do it?”
“It can be a punishment,” Lee answered amiably, “but it can also be a way to allow people who wish to serve but aren’t as spry to still help the duke without having to go and complete missions.”
Acheron nodded in thanks to Lee, waving to the gate guards as they finally left the city and headed down a road he had not yet travelled. Fortunately for him, Felix was the one with the map who would navigate for them as otherwise Acheron likely would have gotten lost.
As they walked, finally having the time to speak to his squad in a more relaxed environment Acheron spoke to them about their background and past, trying to get to know them more.
It turned out that most of them were actually people who had come from the country, wanting to be more than just farmers, miners and shepherds. Only two people aside from Acheron had bronze rank skills in their squad with those people being Eli who had [Body Strength] and Valerie whose [Sword Proficiency] was bronze rank.
Acheron also learnt that Lynn and Nathan were actually siblings which explained why he had heard them arguing so much.
Even as he spoke to his squad mates, Acheron kept an eye out on his surroundings no matter how innocent or peaceful they looked. On the first day they passed through a bare hilly area where many people farmed cattle, to their left they could faintly see the mountain range that divided the free confederation from the empire. The mountain range would continue to become more visible as they headed in a South-East bearing.
They came across no trouble during the first day which was of no surprise due to their proximity to a major city and their heavily armed escort.
As they settled down for the night, some of the soldiers begun questioning Ash as to what the duke had meant when he mentioned Acheron saving her and her brother’s lives. She freely told them everything from her point of view which prompted everyone to ask Acheron for his telling of the story.
Seeing no harm in telling the people he would trust his life to for the next couple weeks Acheron regaled them on his heroic story of stumbling upon the slaver camp and slaying all the bandits. He also told them of what ‘Kaiya’ had told him, of how there were bearkin amassing at a place called Ninethorn and that they were going to starve the country so as to weaken their resistance.
Everyone bore troubled expressions after hearing Acheron’s story, few wanted to go to sleep after that despite having full bellies due to Felix cooking some stew with freshly caught rabbit.
A watch rotation was set up for everyone bar Ash to be a part of, with Acheron and Felix taking the first watch.
They sat in silence for a while, before Acheron turned to Felix, “how did you learn magic?”
He frowned, “I don’t know magic, I even said that when I first introduced myself.”
“Oh,” Acheron said deflating, previously having been interested in discovering if maybe he could learn magic. “Then how do your healing and boosting skills work?”
“My healing skill just boosts any medical aid I provide, which could be bandaging wounds or removing a barbed arrow. My boosting skill is much the same as [Rallying Roar] in except it has a different trigger and effect. Neither of them use mana because both of them in essence boost the body in some way, mana is universally bad at that. It’s good for manipulating reality but it doesn’t work very positively on living things. Stamina on the other hand is very common in almost all living things, even plants and works incredibly well in boosting the body when used by skills.”
Acheron listened in fascination as Felix kept talking about mana and stamina, he had barely been told that it existed in his hometown and so to hear someone talk about it so causally was stunning. Acheron didn’t know if he could use anything Felix told him to try to learn magic but even just improving his knowledge was pleasant.
All too soon the time for their watch was done and they woke up the next pair, he wanted to stay up and keep talking to Felix, but his tired eyes told Acheron that he would likely fall asleep either way.