I have to admit, the Grail Knights are the most capable examplars of humanity I have seen so far, both in morality and combat ability.

Then again, the Knights have endured long and grueling quests in order to receive their sup from the Grail, which drink grants them extreme levels of strength, speed and some manner of durability, one of the Knights being nigh-immune to magic. Not immune like me, but close enough.

I say extreme in comparison to a normal soldier, thus being able to battle monsters or vampires on equal footing. I stayed with the pilgrim group from Bretonnia for week, mostly learning some of their sword techniques, as well as trying and failing to learn the special brand of magic used by the Grail Damsel Elena. Not much success there, but I compensated my magical failure with a romantic win, so it was still fine.

Elena was heading towards a chapel by a lake, as to continue her own magical training, while I began my long plan to acquire gold and other metals. By looting bad people.

Sure, I could hunt beasts and sell their meat and furs for a penny, but it was far more efficient to fly to some Orc or Goblin village, loot their metal, bury their broken bodies in mass graves, then return to my cabin in the woods with a huge raft holding my loot. I wish I had an inventory ability...

My teacher kept sniffing dubiously at the constantly growing pile of gold, gems and iron near my cabin, until he just yelled at me. "What are you doing, silly apprentice? There's enough gold here to build a new city!"

I nodded slowly. "I guess I should begin spending some of it, right? Infrastructure, roads and irrigation canals, a few mines and foundries, and then prepare the large factories to construct a million rifles." I explained in a modest voice.

Wizard Martak stood still for a minute, then sighed. "The winds of Ghur flow strongly through you, young Pef. I also see portents of Doom in the future, but nothing as clear as needing to prepare a million rifles."

I smiled a bit sad, as my visions were not magical, only memories of another life playing computer games. Chaos would attack anyways, with or without my meddling. I could only hope to give humanity, and perhaps the elves and dwarves a chance to survive to coming apocalypse. A million rifles might seem a lot, but demons and undead and all sorts of Beastmen and corrupted creatures numbered in the billions.

The world was already shattered, and the barriers to the Warp were broken at the Polar Gates, and only the High Elves magic and their giant magical siphon had helped delay the inevitable. But the Chaos still grew, and more and more regions fell every year.

"It will get much better for a while. We have an entire century to prepare. I want to form a special unit like the Grail Knights too." I added in a more composed voice.

The Amber Wizard measured me, and even glanced at my family jewels with a frown. "You don't know if your offspring will inherit your special traits."

I smiled a bit shyly. Being seen through so easily was rather humbling. "They should inherit something. From me or my women. And anyways, there will be the new Amber recruits." I said as a half-measure.

Martak sighed, and walked away. My teacher was a hard man to please.

Swiping a thousand gold coins in a hundreds bags, I flew away to begin my next quest.

From village to village, and town to town, I visited mayors and lords, castellans and stewards to deposit the gold in exchange for Amber Order rights, and also infrastructure works.

While the Amber Wizards tended to avoid civilization and large groups of people, I preferred to raise of my Wizardly Order in the eyes of the populace, not only for my self, but for future generations too. Other Wizard Orders were seen as powerful and noble people, treated like minor saints wherever they went, but not the Amber ones.

This was mostly because the Amber ones were poor, and savage looking, but I could and would change this, firstly by spending coin, and later by providing other services beside warfare.

As for mines, it was a bit simpler for someone with an invulnerable body. I could and did burrow through mountains and hills to find mineral deposits, then sold my finding to different local merchants for a small penny. Developing a distant mountain region for mining would be difficult and costly enough, without having to pay a fortune for the find.

And during my mineral phase I did manage to obtain my first epiphany, curiously enough on the nature of the Hunter's Hide. Unlike other Amber magic practitioners, my body was already durable enough, leaving only my clothes to endure friction with hard rocks and iron deposits. By my sixth deer coat getting trashed, I realized I had to imbue the coat itself with Ghur, thus creating a nigh-unbreakable Hunter's Hide. After this insight, it took only one month for my leather clothes to become more durable than steel plate armor.

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As I returned satisfied and victorious to my teacher, the man only shook his head. "Took you far less than the 22 years it took me. And you claim to have no talent at magic..."

Then he clenched his fist and compressed Ghur immensely, creating a liquid and then a translucent stone looking like a magical bit of amber, if more ghostly and ethereal.

"Errr. I can't do that. Not yet..." I muttered humbly.

"Of course you can. Any Wizard worth his salt can create a power stone of his own magic. Now take this Ghost Amber to Altdorf and give it to the Gold Order. And deal with whatever reason they lit the beacon again." Martak demanded while flicking the priceless Ghur stone into my hand.

It felt like an unexploded bomb, but far more dangerous, since Ghur could interact with my time-locked body as if I was a normal human.

A minute later I reached the beacon and royally waved my palm to extinguish the flames.

Beside the beacon fire, a pair of Wizards wearing gold masks waited for me, or perhaps any Amber Wizard nearby.

"That was much faster than expected, Magister Gelt." the first Wizard spoke in a deferential voice, if not towards me.

"You have the stone, boy?" Wizard Gelt asked me in a superior voice.

I managed to hold my cool, and instead locked my eyes on the other guy. "There better be a good reason why the beacon was lit, Gold Wizard. I've been known to rip off arms and legs from creatures that insulted me." I boasted a little. I did far more or less, depending on the situation.

An awkward silence emerged for a minute, while I starred at the first wizard with cold eyes. "Magister Martak has finally trained a strong apprentice. You better apologize now."

Wizard Gelt advised the other wizard with an amused voice.

"Ehm. You do seem plenty strong. Fast too." the man muttered as he sweated bullets under his mask.

"A donation of a hundred gold coins to the Mayor's office will suffice. Go!" I explained politely to the failed Wizard, then turned to measure Balthazar Gelt for real. He didn't look like the Incarnate of Metal, but then appearances could be deceiving. I was also bearing the Mark of Taal, yet few magic users could sense this.

"My stone?" Wizard Gelt asked again, this time almost polite.

I opened my left hand and held the Ghost Amber between my fingers. "The beacon?" I asked instead. I would show these entitled Wizards I was not their errant boy, running to answer any random call.

Gelt sighed, I manner mildly reminiscent of my own teacher. "A few villages up North got struck by Beastmen. The Army needs help."

I flicked the power stone in the air and flew away, probably reaching the battle site at the same time with Gelt collecting his power stone. I could have arrived minutes earlier if not for the silly Wizards playing status games.

"The Ox stands! Monstrous Regiment!" I called out my buff spells, then dove in melee to smack the larger Beastmen into smaller bits.

While Beastmen were fast and strong, and cunning too, they were also corrupted by Chaos. There would be no broken legs or other incapacitation strikes.

Still, while I could simply fly a hyperspeed through the attackers and splatter them, I preferred to work on my katas, using aikido techniques to disarm and then decapitate my opponents with their own weapons.

I took several seconds longer, but it was good practice for later. I suspected my future enemies would not be easily dispatched by mere strength and speed, not in a world where gods empowered mortals to superhuman feats. Then take a dragon or a demon and empower it further. Maybe a lich or a vampire. Then give them magic and divine artifacts.

I had to get into habit of not accepting any hits, since one could never know if one weapon or another would be cursed or divine or magic piercing or any other dangerous kind.

Even so, my Hunter's Hide blocked nine hits during the battle, which was nine too many.

"The Ox stands! Hunter's Moons!" I casted while collecting my metal loot into a big pile.

I looked around to find my buff had the same minimal effect as always. No mass healing yet, also a few minor cuts began to close on the armsmen closest to me.

Oh well. I had an entire century to practice more, and plenty of battles ahead.

"My loot, I'll be back for it!" I pointed at my pile of iron and steel weapons then flew ahead.

Sadly, the struck villages were already depopulated or eaten. Sometimes both.

I could only cull the remaining Beastmen cooks and bury to remains in separate mass graves.

Feeling a bit vengeful, I roamed a bit further North and butchered a dozen Beastmen herds, and left their heads impaled on posts like warning markers.

By evening, I returned to my cabin with a huge raft loaded with bloody metal weapons and armor.

My master peeked at me from his cave, then shook his head and returned to his bone dice. While victorious today, I still felt I lost.