As the day passed anxiety grew larger and larger between the citizens and the group, Teras woke up in his brand new bed, and the villagers noticed that the beds were not enough for everyone so they took their time creating one for Teras, Teras woke up before the sun raised so he decided to go for a walk around the village, it was cold outside and Teras's breath left a fog, autumn was coming faster than expected this year, Teras looked at all the poorly made house and thought to himself

'Why hasn't the kingdom helped yet? Shouldn't abusing a small village like considered a harsh crime?'

He didn't have the answer but he knew only one thing, the kingdoms don't care, if they did then they wouldn't have let this happen for over a month, surprising Teras saw another person walking ahead of him, when he approached the person he saw that he was no other from Zak

"What are you doing this early in the morning?"

He asked him

"The same thing as you! Trying to calm myself down"

Zak replied with a tired look

"When I was walking I wondered one thing... why hasn't the royal army come here, do you have an answer for that?"

Teras asked Zak while they were walking to the river

"The answer is quite simple, the kingdom has nothing to gain by defending us, we are a simple small village near a river, nothing more or less"

Zak's words made Teras feel weird

'If I asked Tokkou to help me what would he say?'

Teras thought as he continued to walk

"It's funny that you are still here, I mean what will you even gain? A house and some money? Are these things worth risking your life for?"

Zak asked Teras while he smiled, this smile was created by desperation and nothing more

"You may be right but this is our only way to grow, you see all of us want to become great adventurers, well not all of us but that's the common goal of this party, our only way to grow stronger fast is to constantly risk our lives, that worked against the king slime and this will work here too, I truly believe that but for me, the situation is a bit more complicated, I want to grow strong not for my self-fulfillment but for me to be free! Let me ask you something, have you ever seen a card possessor in person?"

Teras asked him, the 2 of them reached the river and then sat some meters away from it

"Yes! Only once, I saw Rigel, the blue death, he was the best swordsman I have ever seen and it's not a surprise when his card is the 4th (weapon mastery)"

Zak said as he washed his face with the river's water

"What was his face like?"

"He was a little old but he seemed eased and calm"

Zak said

"That's what I'm talking about, see? Card users do not feel fear since they are the freest people in this world, nothing can touch them or prove dangerous to them, if I become like that then I will be free to search for my real goal"

Teras said as he curled up to warm himself up

"And what that may be?"

Zak asked confused, being a card possessor is a dream for many people so Zak couldn't think of anything better than that

"That's something I like to keep for myself if you don't mind"

"I see sorry for asking"

Zak said as he sat beside Teras, as he was sitting he noticed Teras's beat-up hands

"You shouldn't overdo it when you train kid, it will only break you"

Teras was surprised to hear that from him

"Then what else can I do? Even after my multiple improvements, the monster won against me without trying so much so nothing will change if I don't train up to my breaking point"

that comment annoyed Zak

"You shouldn't be so harsh at yourself kid, you are still a bronze-ranked adventurer but you managed to hurt the monster, the only one that managed to do this was my brother, Julian"

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"How strong was he? I remember you mentioning him but I never learned who he was"

Teras asked him with a clear interest to learn about him

"My brother was a strong man, he was a silvered rank adventurer and he was on his way to promote to a gold one but before he could these monsters came, demanding our money and resources, naturally we declined so they fought us, Julian was able to fight them off with his air powers but eventually he fell, if it wasn't for this monster he would have driven off everyone from here but somehow these bastards captured a gold-ranked monster, this monster is a high-end golden monster with a strong defense and combined with its deadly fangs and spikes you create a deadly monster, Julian died in his attempt to kill the monster and after he fell the whole village was doomed, we couldn't do anything else, we didn't have manpower or strength, so we simply followed their orders, I hope things will change after your fight with them!"

Zak told Teras, he had a sad expression but was somehow hopeful, Teras then got up

"I swore to uncle that I will save you, and I'm not the type to break my promises, so rest assured that those bastards will fall after our fight"

Teras said, he then started walking away, this talk was what Teras needed to make him D E T E R M I N E D, so he didn't lose any more time, he went to wake up his friends and all the other villagers that were trained to fight, the mana training started 2 hours earlier than meant to, once everyone was gathered at the open and now cold field Teras stood up to talk to them one last time

"Good morning everyone and sorry for the sudden awakening but I want to announce something to you, It is our last days of training, after 3 days our training will stop so your bodies can rest for the fight, sadly we weren't able to teach you about cards but that's fine since most of them don't know how to use the power of cards either, I know that some of you know how to use mana but I also know that some of you haven't ever used it so for this day on we will train our mana so we can fight. After this training look at yourselves in the mirror and see yourselves, are you the same person you were before this training? Most certainly no! What I'm trying to say here is that you don't need help anymore, with just two weeks of training you managed to change yourselves for the better, I know it was hard but I'm glad you stuck with us during this hard time for you, so let's work together for one final time so we can kiss goodbyes to these motherfuckers!"

Teras told them with a smile, his speech made everyone excited to train so they too didn't waste time, all of them started meditating for hours and hours, most of them forgot to even go back home to eat but thankfully the women came by with pots full of food, it was just rice but it was more than enough to fill them up, Teras was still channeling his mana, when Cara noticed that she grabbed 2 bowls of rice and walked up to him

"Hey, food break!"

She said as she gently shook his body, Teras opened his eyes and saw Cara so he stopped and sat down

"Thank you for bringing food! You are the best!"

Teras said as he started digging into his food, it was obvious that he was hungry

"Teras how can you retain your mana flow for such a long time? Most of us stopped at three hours but you kept on going from the start, how the hell can you last this long?"

Cara asked Teras with a sweet smile

"Don't know! But from the moment I had woken up, I was training in mana control so I see it as something natural"

Teras replied, he already had finished his plate

"Well, it's not only that! You also can use mana overflow which is considered deadly, plus you can create explosions, something I have never ever heard about"

Cara continued, Teras was a bit confused about the things Cara was saying

"And what does that mean? If you want to say something say it"

"What I want to say is that you may be special in a way, it doesn't make sense if not, I mean no card can help you create explosions, so what's the deal with you?"

Cara asked in a not insulting way, Teras laughed when she heard her questions

"Haha! Was that all about? To be honest, I don't know how I do the things I do but if I have to guess then I would say that I'm an anomaly in this world, I mean I wake up without my memories inside a random tree, and now 2 months later look where am I!"

Teras told her while smiling back at her, Cara then remained silent as she ate her rice, not long after Har and Lia arrived

"What are you two talking about?"

Lia asked as she stared at Cara, Cara felt embarrassed when she saw Lia's stare

"Just talking! How about you? Are you feeling good after this training?"

Teras asked them

"Nothing much either, for us it is simple mana training but for them is very hard and we can't really help them"

Har said as he looked around at the tired people laying around the field

"Well we can't do anything else, after a small break we will continue so tomorrow we can hopefully use mana for combat!"

Teras told his friends

"Isn't it a bit harsh kid?"

Uncle Jem asked him

"Oh, uncle when was the last time we had a talk?"

Teras asked exactingly

"I haven't been counting kid but it's long, so how is your training camp going?"

Jem asked as he looked around

"Perfect up until this point, as for you, where the hell were you?"

Jem exhaled loudly

"I tried seeking help from the capital and their response was basically saying to fight them off ourselves, to be exact they said that they would come but it would take them one week to come here so they are basically coming to pick up either the criminals or our dead bodies"

Jem said

"What if I message a friend of mine?"

Teras suggested

"If you had a friend that worked for the royal army why didn't you tell us earlier?"

Jem asked confused but he wasn't against the idea

"My friend is Tokkou the grand Jack so I'm not sure if someone like him will come to help here, that's why I didn't think of summoning him"

Teras said with hesitation, Jem was surprised to hear that

"Please write a message and I will go to deliver it to him right now!"

Jem said as he quickly handed him a sheet of paper, Teras then slashed his finger and started writing with his blood, Jem was shocked when he saw Teras writing with his blood

"What the hell are you doing kid?"

"What does it look like? I'm writing a letter"

Teras replied casually

"We have ink kid, you don't have to cut yourself!"

Jem yelled at him

"Oh well, now I did it so might as well finish it!"

Teras said as he continued to write down his letter

"Don't worry uncle sometimes Teras can act rather weird"

Har told him as he laughed, Jem still remained to find it weird

"Done! Now if you can deliver it quickly to him then maybe he can come here and help us"

Teras said as he handed the letter to Jem, Jem then took it and left to go to Thrisk, he didn't waste any more time, after leaving everyone started training once again, they had to get ready for the promised day