Chương 149: Chapter 146 - 9 MONTH LATER*

"At ease, Sergeants. Sergeant Edward and Sergeant Rowan, thank you for joining me here today," said Captain Darrow as I and one other sergeant stood in front of the captain in a salute position. It had been 9 months since I last met him. The captain paused for a second, then continued.

"Take a seat, Sergeants. We have an important mission at a northern frontier village." We took our seats, then the captain looked at me.

"Sergeant Edward, you are a little bit familiar with the situation at the northern front." I nodded. The captain was referring to the barbarian situation.

"The situation has only deteriorated. In the last 9 months, there have been 10 attacks at Fort Dunvale, each attack more intense and devastating than the last. Barbarian attacks are not uncommon; this is how they work. After every grand beast tide, barbarians attack us. They know we suffer heavier losses than them, and they try to maximize that in hopes of taking the land they lost 200 years ago." There was a sense of helplessness in his voice, and I could understand.

Since the establishment of Avalon, there had been constant war between Avalon and the Frosthallow Kingdom. It only increased 200 years ago when the area between Velkar Town and Fort Dunvale was captured by Avalon. Since then, the war had only intensified.

While Avalon claimed pushing Frosthallow back was to create a buffer between Avalon's fertile land and Frosthallow, the Frosthallow Kingdom says Avalon was the aggressor for killing their princess at the time of its establishment and again for killing one of the heads of their major clans 200 years ago in the war to push them back.

"But this time, something else is going on," the captain said in a serious voice as the atmosphere around the room grew tense.

"The last time we saw attacks of this intensity was fifty years ago, and when that happened, it was followed by a major attack from the Frosthallow Kingdom. The whole north is increasing its security, and this mission is related to that. This mission will have two parts: one is to prepare the village as a key node for reinforcement and supply for the army in case it turns into a major war; the second part is that tensions are rising within the northern frontier village.

Your job will be to make sure the villagers are controlled while construction takes place."

"You two are co-leaders of this mission. You both will be leading 4 other squads, a total of 60 soldiers."

"Sir, any reason for the rising tensions in the village?" I asked. On my side, Sergeant Rowan scoffed.

"That's how that village is, filled with traitors," Rowan said. Ignoring Rowan, the captain answered me.

"Rising tensions are affecting them. Visits from soldiers have increased, and most of the villagers do not look favorably on soldiers." I nodded. The captain then looked at Sergeant Rowan.

"Sergeant Rowan, you should know Sergeant Edward had multiple missions near Fort Dunvale which involved multiple run-ins with barbarians. After the Vanguard squads, Sergeant Edward's squad has the most experience fighting barbarians. This is why he will be in charge when it comes to combat-related decisions, from formations to organizing soldiers for the mission." The captain turned to me.

"Sergeant Edward, Sergeant Rowan Black is an expert in routecrafting. He has been part of a huge number of fortification and route-establishment missions near Stonegate. He will be responsible for construction efforts and planning-related activities," the captain said. Turning to Rowan, he continued, "Sergeant Rowan, by next week, a team of civilian laborers and construction leads will arrive."

"You both have 2 weeks to prepare for the mission. Know this: it is an important mission for the army, and the information around it is questionable at best. There have been rumors of barbarians sighted near the village. Be extremely careful; there could be enemies outside and within. Coordination between both of you will be important. One small mistake could lead to disaster. Make sure you both take some time to get to know each other and also meet with the other sergeants."

"Yes, Captain," we both replied. With a wave of his hand, the captain dismissed us. We stood up, saluted, and made our way out. Once we were out, Sergeant Rowan turned to me.

"I have heard about you and your squad." There was a little disdain in his voice. Looking down at me with the same expression, he continued, "We will meet tomorrow at sundown." Saying that, he left me. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. This was not the first time it had happened to me. In the past 9 months, a lot of things had changed.

My squad had gained enough reputation; the biggest example of this was that even sergeants like Rowan in Stonegate had heard about us. This was also not my first time working with those who had a problem with my age or my squad. In multiple missions, like guarding supply units, rescuing units, and providing reinforcement to squads stuck in difficult situations around Fort Dunvale, we had met all sorts of soldiers, and most of the time they had a negative view of my squad. By now, I had made peace with it.

Most sergeants and privates were simple people. Their problem with us arose only because they were not used to the way I handled things, or they thought I was immature given my age. Most of those problems went away once they got to know my squad at an individual level, but I had also learned that sergeants with last names were the hardest to come to terms with. This reputation came because of my squad's performance.

We were maintaining a perfect mission record: no mission failures, no soldiers lost, and more importantly, my squad had eliminated a huge number of Tier-3 men and monsters combined. My squad's current combat power was among the top infantry squads in the fort. The largest contributing factor to such high combat power was that we were one of the few squads in the fort with all members at Tier-2 with combat classes.

Every single one of my squad members had successfully completed their class trials and gained combat classes in the last 9 months. Silas had gotten the [Scout] class, while Rokan and Daren received an interesting class called [Destroyer], making them highly effective with hammers. We even increased the size and weight of their hammers, increasing their damage by a lot. Silas and Barry had also successfully developed their long-distance knife skill.

After I provided them with knives with modified arrow runes, their current range was 150 meters, which was one third of an arrow's range. But mixing that with Barry and Silas's agility and ability to launch sneak attacks definitely made them lethal, especially in forest-covered terrain with plenty of places to hide. Joining my squad at their usual training ground, I opened my Status window.

+73, 000 EXP Name: Edward Class: Battlefield Coordinator Rank: Initiate (T2) Level: 35 / 50 EXP: 300 / 10500 Elemental Affinity: 0. 1% Wind Mana Cultivation: Tier 2 (57/100) (+28. 5) Mana Nodes: 4 / 7 Physical Attributes Constitution: 61. 3 → 74. 4 Strength: 46. 4 → 57. 9 Agility: 45. 2 → 55. 2 Spiritual Attributes Intelligence: 74. 3 → 100. 2 Wisdom: 61. 7 → 84. 1 Willpower: 63. 9 → 81. 1 HP: 744 / 744 HP Regen: 187. 5 per day MP: 3184 / 3184 MP Regen: 303.

1 per hour Class Skills [Operational Cognition (A)] – Level 22 → 40 [Unbroken Stride (UC)] – Level 45 → 50* [Flowing Spear Style (UC)] – Level 50* [Perceptive Instinct (UC)] – Level 44 → 50* [Vital Restoration (UC)] – Level 41 → 50* General Skills [Battlefield Command (UC)] – Level 21 → 36 [Triage Ward (UC)] – Level 25 → 40 [Rune Analysis (UC)] – Level 22 → 42 [Fortification Planner (UC)] – Level 6 → 20 [Logistics Routecraft (UC)] – Level 14 → 30 [Mana Manipulation (A)] – Level 1 → 15 [Mana Reinforcement (UC)] – Level 50* In the past nine months, my squad members were not the only ones who had made progress.

I had not lagged behind. Other than gaining 7 levels in my class, I had also made huge progress in Mana Shield. Now I could actively use Mana Shield to protect everyone in my squad as long as they were within 20 to 30 meters of me. I was still not able to create the skill that would combine Mana Shield with my spear skill, but with my role as a sergeant, most of my time was spent giving orders and monitoring the squad, so I rarely got the chance to use my spear and Mana Shield in active combat.

Thanks to Mana Shield practice, I had gained 15 levels in [Mana Manipulation (A)], with each level in that skill providing 0. 2 stat points for my spiritual attributes. I had gained 9 stat points in my spiritual attributes. With most of my skills increasing spiritual stats, I finally had a mage-like build, with my lowest spiritual attribute, Willpower, being 6 points more than my highest physical attribute, Constitution.

This increase in spiritual attributes came with a huge amount of benefits I did not even know existed. One of the biggest was that after my Intelligence reached 100, I could parallel process my thoughts, allowing me to monitor my squad, protect them, plan counter-strategies during battle, and give them orders all at the same time. Other benefits included an increase in my skill range, my control over mana, and my mana-based skills' effectiveness. But the one skill I was most thankful for was [Rune Analysis (UC)].

It had allowed me to create multiple rune systems for my squad. More importantly, these rune experiments had shown me a path which I think could lead to a major breakthrough in mana cultivation, or at least I felt it could. Hopefully, the next mission will provide more clues on the nature of mana.