The next hour was filled with arcana and spells, fireballs, ice spears and lightning bolting through the air. After that hour the ground was totally turned over or charred and the terrain was totally different.

But Isaac didn't care. Grass and plants will grow back after a few hours thanks to the regeneration rune.

At first, Rebecca was having a hard time adjusting to this new training. Unable to counterattack, she simply had to create spells to negate those the golems sent to her. Many times she had taken fire, but she didn't stop.

That's something Isaac had to admit to him. She was stubborn and had an extremely high pain threshold. "It's going to come in handy" he thought with a smile.

After about thirty minutes, the young woman had started to be able to create cancellation spells and stopped taking spells. Her technique was still a bit too slow but she was gradually improving.

Once Isaac confirmed that she was ready, he approached the barrier.

- "Enough" he said.

The golems immediately froze, then deactivated before falling apart. The containment barrier broke and opened. Rebecca sweaty and short of breath then raised her gaze to her master with a smile.

- "Well done. You pass the evaluation" he announced, smiling at her. "Go rest for the rest of the day now," he said finally. "We will tackle your next lesson tomorrow"

Isaac then flew up and disappeared into the sky while Rebecca turned and walked towards the camp. She was much less tired than the first time, she hadn't used as much mana as her first "evaluation" and she had even managed to increase her refinement ability.

Seeing the young woman arriving, Artiel approached, his eyes worried as he observed her.

- "I saw all the explosions. Are you okay? I made a little soup" he said, pointing to the pot bubbling over the fire.

- "Thank you" she said smiling before starting to eat.

Although Isaac was quite happy to see his apprentice moving so fast, his mind had been occupied with other things for the past few minutes. More specifically, the window that had appeared a few moments ago.

[System] Unidentified entities on approach.

[System] Distance before arrival: 3km

[System] Estimated destination: Garden of Origins

[System] Location: Azimuth 20 ° E

The same direction as the village of Cram. Did they send someone to pick up Artiel? After all, he had left without saying anything.

Anyway, there was something approaching the garden. However, their speed was not as fast as Rebecca's squad. They were slow enough, probably not to wear out their mounts.

Isaac flew to the cliff and set off to meet the group. The trip was not long, the group of three horsemen were quickly located by the elf who rushed towards them. Seeing Isaac arriving, the three horses stopped then the riders descended before kneeling on the ground in a salute.

- "Please excuse our impromptu visit, Excellency" intoned the soldier at the front.

Isaac did not recognize them, but they wore the same armor as the village. Without waiting any longer, the soldier resumed.

- "One of our villagers seems to have escaped. We hoped you would have seen him ..."

- "Artiel Silk?" asked Isaac. The surprised and positively nodding looks of the soldiers showed him that he had got it right. The rascal had run away and the village had gone looking for him. Isaac sighed. "He's at my service now and serves as my cook. But if you want him to go back to the village," he said at last.

- "C-cook?" asked the surprised soldier.

- "I don't have time to cook for myself, and his dishes are delicious. So I agreed to keep him with Rebecca so that he can keep her company" Isaac replied.

The three soldiers glanced at each other with a smirk. They seemed to be imagining things when they heard that Artiel was with Rebecca.

- "If he's with you, so be it. We just hoped nothing bad had happened to him," he said at last, getting up. "Actually, we were sure he had followed Rebecca, we thought he was going to come back sooner or later ..."

It was a logical conclusion. Who would think that an elf would accept the presence of someone who had tried to kill him the moment they met? But after some time without seeing him return, the ideas of the ancients changed. What if things had turned out badly and Artiel had been killed by the elf?

His parents will be deeply consumed by remorse and resentment. And the elders really didn't want to have to deal with angry villagers demanding revenge against a being who could turn their village to ashes with a wave of their hand.

- "We have come for something else ..." he continued.

Puzzled, Isaac motioned for him to continue.

- "The village received the visit of unusual merchants a few days ago. They asked us questions about the sanctuary but according to the elders, their approach and their behavior suggests that they received military training. The captain thinks that they could be soldiers" said the soldier.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Isaac began to think deeply and the soldiers stood still as they waited. If the captain and the elder thought the same thing, it had to be true. Both were relatively experienced, Isaac trusted them for this kind of judgment, especially since it included the safety of their village.

- "Where do they come from ?"

- "Erivia, Monsignor. A Kilguana town bordering the plains"

- "Kilguana? Why would Kilguana soldiers come here? They must know something. Did you leak the news about the shrine?"

The soldier turned pale for a moment.

- "Of course not your Excellency! We have informed all the villagers not to release this news. The old one was very clear and ruthless on this" he replied immediately.

- "A spy? Unlikely, you've known each other forever ... So there would have been another witness to the events? It's unfortunate ..." Isaac said aloud.

- "F-unfortunate?" asked the soldier.

Isaac sighed lightly as he lifted his gaze to the approximate direction to Kilguana the elder had given him. He turned to the soldier again.

- "I like quietness" he said while the soldier swallowed lightly. "If Kilguana contacts you again, don't try to lie to them. It will make your situation worse, if the information has already leaked, it would be better to tell them the truth. If that happens, let me know as soon as possible" Isaac ordered. .

- "As you wish, Monsignor!"

- "Good, you can go home. Thanks for coming," said Isaac, flying away.

Immediately, he returned to the high plains and rushed towards where the rune of logic was. He had some modifications to make on the garden.

The rest of the day and night was spent adding new functionalities to the rune of logic. The first was the automation of the Geloms patrols and the increase in numbers. He needed to be able to identify intruders and not just know where they came from.

The second was the addition of general voice alerts in the event of a nearby intrusion. An alarm if one can say it related to the artillery golems to target and bombard the area concerned. And finally, the third was a recognition system using Geloms allowing him to retrieve the sensory information collected and to visualize them.

This is a rudimentary way of doing surveillance, but it worked to a degree, so for now Isaac was content with it.

The next morning, he found Rebecca and informed her that he had something important to do and that he was therefore going to ask her to continue her training in the combat arena alone. The young woman left no room for disappointment but only understanding.

After all, if her master told her something was important, it was something serious that needed to be dealt with immediately.

Once that was done, the days that followed were used to strengthen the front line from the top of the cliffs. Isaac set out to build a reinforced runestone fortification at the base of the elevator and extended the area of influence to it.

The operation proceeded fairly quickly. With the help of the golems and the rune of logic, the construction was completed without a hitch. The entire elevator had been rearranged and the corridor through which it passed along the cliffs had been completely closed with runic bricks.

After a few days of construction, stone walls nearly fifteen meters high and five thick erected about five hundred meters further from the base of the elevator around which a large tower had been built.

At regular distance, large towers were visible and provided firing points for new defensive golems above the ramparts. The high defense line provided a lot of advantages for the defense of the garden, but it also severely limited their visibility of the battlefield below.

With a bulwark at the bottom and long-range artillery golems at the top, the bombardments could be calibrated and focused on strategic points.

At each cardinal and semi-cardinal point there was an opening to serve as a crossing point. Although the exit was not equipped with a door, the passage was enchanted and protected by a containment rune requiring a code, such as Isaac's grimoire, to be activated or deactivated.

It was dark and the three of them were eating when a new window appeared, just like the one before.

[System] Unidentified entities on approach.

[System] Distance before arrival: 3km

[System] Estimated destination: Garden of Origins

[System] Location: Azimuth 20 ° E

Seeing Isaac get up and fly away, the two teenagers looked at each other then nodded. Rebecca took her wand, Artiel his sword and they both headed for the elevator to descend. From the top of the cliffs, they could quickly see three horsemen sprinting across the plains.

"They are in a hurry" they both thought as they saw their speed.

Immediately downstairs, Rebecca and Artiel ran towards the ramparts and climbed up before arriving on one of the shooting towers next to a motionless defense golem. Further on, the three horsemen had descended with one knees on the ground.

- "Monsignor ... as you ordered ..." began the soldier.

- "Kilguane?" interrupted Isaac.

The soldier nodded positively.

- "Regrettable ..." he said at last.

Was his quiet life going to end? After all, it was impossible for Isaac to continue like this without going unnoticed by the two border kingdoms. After all, many merchants use these plains as a means to transport goods, the villagers probably had not been the only witnesses of the incident.

The soldier looked up slightly at the towering ramparts built around the cliff. It was the same soldier who had come a week before. "How could they have built such ramparts in a week ?!" he thought, turning to Isaac. "Elves are truly dangerous beings ..."

- "What happened ?"

- "The-the-king seems to know that something has happened and a cavalry of about fifteen men has been detached from the nearest town to investigate. We told them everything they asked as you ordered us to and they left to report back. Although I think they don't seem to be very convinced… "replied the soldier.

- "Predictable. Well, you did well. You better increase your patrols, I think they will come back soon. If necessary, you can evacuate your villagers to the sanctuary, our ramparts have ample room for welcome you "he said as he flew away.

- "I thank your Excellency for his gratitude" answered the soldier immediately, lowering his gaze.

Isaac didn't wait and walked towards the ramparts on which the two teenagers were watching him. Seeing them, the elf approached with a smile.

- "So? What's going on?" hastened to ask Rebecca.

- "Surprise guests, I think my trip will be brought forward sooner" Isaac replied. "It's time for you to make your choice a little earlier than expected," he added with a smile.

Rebecca looked at her master floating in the air and came to put her left fist and her right knee on the ground, lowering her gaze. In a confident voice, she answered immediately.

- "I, Rebecca Frya, apprentice of the Master-Mage Isaac wishes to continue his training at your side" she said solemnly.

Isaac smirked when he saw her before something came to his mind. "Here, speaking of title, it's been a long time since I looked at the interface other than the control window ..." he said before opening the notifications interface before opening his eyes wide.

[System] You have 359 unread notifications.

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