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Magical Beast Wave

Second regular chapter of the week out! This new arc is already turning out quite differently from the previous ones. It'll be quite refreshing.

Dark clouds filled the skies, giving the atmosphere a pressing presence, causing Lorist to think of a Tang poem he memorized in his previous life. 'Dark clouds encroach upon the city, threatening to enclose and overwhelm it'.

Snow clumps the size of goose feathers drifted all around them and the mountains had already been covered with a thick, white blanket.

Even though Lorist wasn't able to see far with the sky being so gloomy and dark, he could hear the grunts and roars of the magical beasts not far away amidst the sounds of the wind blowing as well as the thudding of their steps as they crossed the land.

Not long after, the wave of magical beasts encroached towards Maplewoods Bastide and headed towards the direction of the Felicitas Settlement like a wave that crawled inwards to the shores of a beach.

"Milord, it was our mistake. We neglected to take into account that every winter, the magical beast in the wildlands would cross over from the Magical Dragon Mountains to the dominion to seek food," Belnick and Pajik apologized.

With a glum expression, Lorist waved his hand and said, "It's not your fault. Instead, it's mine for not doing proper research on this and rushing for the developmental plans to advance."

Even though he said that, Lorist was still disappointed. It was only the first winter since the development of the Felicitas Settlement and he had already arranged for 300000 people to settle down and spend the winter there within 83 villages and 7 towns. While the initial fortifications and walls have been constructed, there was still the risk of the magical beasts running wild and attacking the settlements.

Given that the beasts had come from an area with little to no humans, they were rather aggressive. They hadn't seen humans before and didn't understand how terrifying they could truly be. That's why if a human being encroached on what the beasts considered to be their territory, they would attack right away and wouldn't stop until their last breath.

"According to the family records, the magical beast wave from the wildlands will cross the Magical Dragon Mountains to the family dominion and travel all the way from the north past the family bastide, now known as the Maplewoods Bastide, to the southern wastelands to feed. The herbivorous magical beasts would push apart the snow to consume the wild plants and algae beneath it while the carnivorous ones would hunt the herbivorous ones for food, always seeking out the weaker or singled-out ones who wouldn't be able to resist them. Every winter, there would be no less than 1 million magical beasts that cross the family dominion.

"As for why the magical beasts come here, the ancestors of the family believe that it's because the dominion is near the sea according to their research. While we have the Bladedge Mountain shielding us from it, the breeze from the sea carried its smell to blanket the dominion, causing the plants here to have a salty taste, thus attracting the herbivorous magical beasts over here.

"To prove this hypothesis, the ancestors even carried out an experiment by placing some salted algae with some animal feed. It was discovered that the livestock within the dominion first consumed the algae before moving on to the animal feed when the algae was finished. After that, they even captured some herbivorous magical beasts and prepared three types of food for it, namely, dried grass sprinkled with some salt, some algae obtained from the wilds, and the normal animal feed for the livestock of the dominion. The result was that the herbivorous magical beasts preferred the salted dried grass most, followed by algae with animal feed being the least favored.

"That's why the ancestors concluded that the reason the magical beast wave comes to the dominion during winter was to sate their salt consumption requirement. This practice is so common over the years that it is already second nature to the magical beasts. Apart from eliminating the beasts that numbered at least a million, there is no way to prevent them from coming over during winter. This is also one of the reasons why the family wasn't able to reclaim this land for agriculture and settling.

"It's fortunate that these beasts only stay at the wastelands without going anywhere else within the dominion. Some beasts who are left behind after winter are also a good source of furs and leather for the family, which frequently organized hunting festivals that brought in much meat, fur and leather. However, some carnivorous magical beasts also stayed behind as well, and their presence posed quite a risk to the hunting activities of the family.

"The family records also state that when WIldnorth Town was first built, it also suffered quite a bit from the magical beast wave. It was not until most of the land around it was converted into farmland that the magical beasts stop showing up there. However, the first tens of years of the town's formation were the times when the beasts caused the most trouble, even almost driving the family dominion to a famine."

The one who explained the family records was Telesti. This time along, she had accompanied Lorist to Maplewoods Bastide to spend the winter there, with her main goal being to read the records and writings of the Norton Family about their understanding of the land. Even though she was snuggled in a large, leather cloak with only her face revealed, her face was chilled red as she was currently standing on the topmost floor of the castle.

Even though Lorist wanted to cry, he didn't have the tears for it. Everyone had worked so hard for almost a year and managed to complete the preparations by the 11th month to ready enough food and supplies for the people to settle during the winter as well as finish construction on the wooden barricades and houses with some farmland already developed as well. Had it gone on as planned, everyone would've been able to enjoy a long period of vacation and rest before resuming work after the winter.

However, nobody mentioned that the magical beast wave would come during the winter. Either they were too busy they forgot or it just didn't occur to them at all. Only during the night Lorist held a banquet to celebrate the coming of winter after he brought some people with him to the Maplewoods Bastide to spend the winter did he hear one of the retired family soldiers he invited tell him that the magical beast wave will be coming after the second snowfall after witnessing the snow falling from the sky.

It was then when the elders of the family realized that they had missed out on such an important issue with Lorist being no less surprised. In actuality, this was the first time Lorist spent winter within the family dominion. During winter last year, he had left the family dominion to seek out the convoy, so he didn't experience the magical beast wave himself. After interviewing some of the elder people within the dominion and doing some of his own research into the records and writings did he realize that the issue was far more serious than he had initially imagined.

With thick snow covering most of the roads, there was not much anyone could do about the situation. After some brainstorming, Lorist designed a ski-like device to travel on snow and tasked some work smiths to have a few sets made. However, before he himself managed to get accustomed to them, the second round of snowfall had come and the magical beast wave followed suit.

"Mountain-climbing magical antelopes, big-horned wild goats, iron-horned magical rhinoceroses, single-horned magical goats, striped wild horses, green-eyed wild bulls and crimson-back magical wolves..." Lorist mused as he tried to account for the various types of animals that passed by beneath the castle walls. The magical beast studies course he did at Dawn Academy had finally been put to use. Lorist didn't even dream that he would actually get to see the beasts from the pictures within his text books in real life.

"Why are the magical beasts merely passing by the bastide without attacking it?" Els asked curiously.

Without waiting for Belnick to explain, Telesti who was snuggled in Lorist's embrace referenced another one of the writings of the family and explained to Els. "According to the records, during the first tens of years of the construction of the castle by the first Norton ancestor, the magical beasts attacked every winter. However, not only did they not succeed even once, their numbers were also harmed greatly. There was only one instance where a pack of winter wolves managed to enter the bastide taking another route using the slope of the nearby mountains, during which they killed a lot of livestock. After that incident, the family leader spent lots of manpower to reshape the slope into a steep cliff and that incident no longer repeated itself. As time passed, the magical beasts just ignored the presence of the castle and passed through it to their destination."

Belnick could only shrug his shoulders in admiration for Telesti's good memory and understanding of the records of the family.

Lorist hugged Telesti even tighter and rubbed the fur cap she wore with his face lovingly.

"Gosh, what in the world is that?" exclaimed Josk. Being the one with the best vision among the rest, Josk had long detected the approach of another group of beasts from the distance.

Raising his head to look, Lorist shouted out immediately, "Good Sol! Magical mammoths! What the heck is going on?"

The few beasts that neared the castle slowly were roughly 5 to 6 meters in height. The one leading the rest was easily the tallest of the group with its body covered wholly in fur. The beasts all had long and strong trunks with two curved tusks sprouting upwards from their mouths, which contained razor sharp teeth which glinted even in the snow.

While these beasts seemed to travel rather slowly, they were immensely huge and were not much slower than the magical antelopes and goats around them. One immature mammoth of roughly four meters in height even rushed towards the Maplewoods Bastide. Raising its trunk, it trumpeted loudly as if it was letting out a provocation. It was not until an elder mammoth patted its butt with its trunk that it returned to its herd unwillingly.

Lorist slammed onto the crenels of the castle wall with his fist as he imagined the wooden barricades that had been constructed throughout various areas of the Felicitas Settlement being smashed to smithereens by those humongous magical beasts as if they were paper before they rushed into the village. The mere thought of it greatly disturbed Lorist.

Telesti then said, "No sightings of these magical mammoths can be found within the records of the past ten or so years. Further back, they were only documented to show up once in a few years. For some reason, they joined the magical beast wave this time around and every time they appeared, they would cause immense damage within the dominion. The things they hate most are buildings constructed by us humans and the family records state that they have reduced even stone houses in the wilds to nothing but a pile of rubble on the ground. Even the small wooden huts built within forests for anyone to take shelter would be destroyed without exception..."

Magical mammoths were omnivores and were documented as one of the most aggressive magical beasts in the field of magical beast studies. Given the fact that they lived in herds, angering one would be akin to antagonizing an entire group. To add to that, they held grudges and were exceedingly savage. Even the fiercer carnivorous magical beasts didn't dare to meddle with them. The moment one disturbed a magical mammoth, there was no doubt that the mammoth wouldn't stop in its tracks until its aggressor was dead.

Among the various adventure records of the Grindia Continent, a rather notable one recorded the exploits of a famous mercenary crew that had accepted a mission to hunt a few mammoths for their tusks. They ambushed a herd of tens of magical mammoths in the wildlands and successfully completed their mission. However, seven years after that, the mercenary crew once again received a request near the borders of the very same wildlands where they once hunted the mammoths. In the end, their camp was assaulted by near 100 magical mammoths during the night and of the 200 plus mercenaries that parrticipated in that mission, only ten managed to escape alive.

With the occurrence of that incident, the scholars and researchers hypothesized that it was possible that the mercenaries did not adequately clean up traces of their trash within their camp after their mammoth hunting mission, causing the mammoths that rushed over to help to be able to remember the smell. It didn't take long for them to attack once the same smell drifted into the sensitive noses of the same group of mammoths within the same area years later, causing them to gather their fellow brethren to exact revenge for the dead members of their herd, thus resulting in the tragic deaths of all those mercenaries.

"How long will this magical beast wave take to travel across the dominion?" Josk asked.

"The records state that a wave of roughly 1 million magical beasts will take roughly 15 days to pass. That metric can also be used to calculate the time required for waves of different sizes to pass," Telesti said.

"Locke, don't worry. In actuality, the development of the Felicitas Settlement this year still spans less than a quarter of the entire wasteland. And after entering the wasteland, the beast wave will disperse into smaller groups to graze. When they finish the algae in one area, they will move to another and their speed of travel isn't fast either. It's been recorded that they take roughly one month to travel from the north end of the wasteland to the south and they will turn back towards the wildlands when spring comes," Telesti consoled, well aware her lover's troubles.

"Did the records state the rough area of the wastelands where the magical beast wave passed?" Lorist asked with a low voice.

Telesti gave it some thought before she said, "There isn't. Following the tracks of the beast wave during winter to mark it was far too dangerous. However, it shouldn't be too hard to guess where they passed through. The first sector of the wasteland where Morgan Hills is located has never been touched by the magical beasts. As for WIldnorth Town in the seventh sector, after years of agricultural development, there is little to no algae growing there which the herbivorous magical beasts are attracted to. Apart from a few smaller groups of magical beasts that stray apart from the main wave that would make their way to that area, there isn't really anything to worry about. Instead, the riskiest areas are the second to sixth sectors. That's where the majority of the magical beasts will pass.

"Locke, we've already made various preparations to pass the winter. Don't forget that we've stationed one squad of family soldiers at each village, each accompanied by one Silver ranked fighter. They will probably be able to hold on within the short term. You must trust that your own men will be able to protect the villages just fine."

Lorist shook his head and said, "That's not what I'm worried about. It's one thing if the people lose their wills and motivation to develop the area if something terrible happens during the winter. But what do we do about the magical beast wave next year? We must think of a way to curb the yearly waves of beasts properly. This is the first time we've waged a war against the magical beasts for territory! For the sake of the 500000 citizens within the dominion for them to be able to settle down into their new lives, this is a war that we absolutely have to win!"

Lorist then turned to his back and said to the rest of the people who were observing the passing of the magical beast wave, "There will be another few days before the wave passes completely. Within that span of time, I want all the family knights and the Silver ranked fighters to familiarize themselves with using the snow skis. When the beast wave leaves this area, no matter whether the snowfall stops or not, we must head towards the wastelands to ensure the safety of every single village."

Everyone stood up straight and said in unison, "Yes, milord!"

Central Town

Here's the first sponsored chapter of the week thanks to Theo D. from France! I meant to post two chapters today, but it's getting a little late. No worries though, the next chapter is laready 80% done so you'll be seeing it early tomorrow.

The sky looked dark and grey and occasionally, some snow could be seen drifting downwards gently to the white, empty plains against the whistling wind that blew past it.

27 Silver ranked and above family knights and fighters lined up neatly into three rows in front of Lorist, each donned in chainmail and a leather cloak with one pole in each of their hands and skis strapped to their boots. After tens of days of slipping and falling at the Maplewoods Bastide, the people present had finally managed to grasp the basics of skiing.

Lorist checked each and every one of the equipment they carried as well as their skis. Everyone of them knew that leaving the warmth of the bastide during such a harsh winter was a big risk. However, they had no choice. For the sake of the 300000 citizens who would be spending their winter at the Felicitas Settlement so that they don't get threatened by the passing of the magical beast wave, these 27 fighters all volunteered to follow Lorist along towards the settlement.

Josk, Belnick, Els, Yuriy, Patt, Jim, Pete, Pajik and 5 other Silver ranked family knights as well as 12 other Silver ranked fighters from the family forces joined in. Lined at the back most were Fiercetiger Loze and Pesha.

Loze looked at Lorist with a mischievous look happily while Pesha was slightly embarrassed and looked to the ground without daring to meet Lorist's gaze.

Lorist was completely speechless.

Only the heavens knew why those two fell for each other and started sticking around. No wonder when Lorist said he wanted to return to the bastide, Loze insisted on following no matter what. He even said that he wanted to view the beautiful scenery of the bastide and handed all his responsibilities of managing the heavy-armored cavalry to his second-in-command, Knight Waxima.

When they arrived at the bastide, Loze disappeared almost instantly, causing Lorist to be so busy that he didn't have enough time to visit his son for the first two days. When he finally got some free time, he noticed that Loze had vanished and had everyone else search for him together. In the end, the rest realized that Loze was busy getting close and intimate with Pesha that he didn't leave the bedroom for days, completely unaware that everyone outside was frantically searching for him.

Lorist guessed that they probably met and kicked it off when the female garrison unit led by Pesha helped out with managing the magical beast corpses. No wonder Lorist felt something was off when Loze said he wanted to follow him to the bastide to spend winter there. After all, what scenery is there to see at the bastide during winter? In actuality, the only scenery he wanted to relish was that of Pesha lying on the bed...

Lorist himself wasn't too fond of Pesha. In terms of status, she was the fiancee of Lorist's late elder brother and he was obliged to treat her with respect. However, the memories Lorist inherited when he was transmigrated didn't contain any familial love for Pesha. Instead, Lorist only remembered being bullied by her during his childhood. Additionally, when Lorist first returned to the dominion to inherit the position of the family head, he had quite a few unpleasant encounters with her, causing him to have an impression that she was a proud person who didn't know what was good for herself and did whatever she pleased.

Nevertheless, it did not change the fact that she was a beauty. Not only did she have a head of beautiful red hair, her figure was also rather admirable and she also had a pleasant-looking face. However, Lorist wasn't the type to fall head over heels to just any beauty he met. He had his own unique sense of aesthetics. For instance, he graced Charade with the beautiful granddaughter of Engelich, Molise. It was only natural that he would stray even further away from a prideful beauty like Pesha.

The types of women Lorist preferred were the cute, meek ones like his own maidservant Irina and intelligent ones like Telesti. That's why when Lorist heard that Pesha had gotten shacked up with Loze, he let out a breath of relief instead as there would be one less matter to worry about within the dominion.

If this didn't happen however, Pesha could still be considered the betrothed of Lorist's late brother and Lorist had to treat her with some degree of respect because of that. This was why he didn't punish her despite the number of times he had crossed Lorist. Now that she and Loze had gotten together, she only had two choices: either she marries Loze or she remains as a normal family knight. There was no way she could retain her status as the fiancee of Lorist's departed brother, Abelyde.

Lorist patted on Loze's shoulders twice without saying anything else before heading back to the front.

"Jim, Pete, Wilson, Manjez."

Jim, Pete and two other Silver ranked fighters stepped forward.

"The four of you will head to the Firmrock Castle straight away. The safety of the 300000 plus citizens within the whole of Felicitas Settlement depends on whether you are able to make it there in time. You absolutely have to deliver news of the magical beast wave's approach so that Knight Charade and Knight Potterfang can send out soldiers to defend the villages and towns before the beasts arrive. I will be counting on all of you," Lorist said before he saluted the four in the fashion of a knight.

"Please be assured, milord. We will definitely deliver news to Firmrock Castle as soon as possible," said the four in unison as they saluted back.

Even on horseback, the fastest one could travel from the Maplewoods Bastide to the Firmrock Castle was within six to seven hours with the distance being somewhere around 50 kilometers. Given that it was winter and the paths were bound to be filled with snow, coupled with the fact that they had to travel on foot with skis in the rather dim winter sunlight, there was a good chance that they would lose their way. However, despite the risks involved, the four didn't hesitate one bit to go on their mission.

"Loze, Pesha, Pajik..."

The three of them stepped forward.

"You three will bring five other Silver ranked fighters to the seventh sector where Wildnorth Town is. What you have to pay attention to is the three new villages set up near the east of the sector. That is the place which is most probable to be subject to an attack by the magical beasts. I'll be counting on you," Lorist said.

"Yes, milord."

Loze thumped on his chest and said, "Please be assured, milord. With me, Fiercetiger Loze, over there, the villagers will be completely fine."

Lorist nodded and looked at the rest before he said, "The others will leave with me. First, we will head to the central town in the sixth sector before heading to the eastmost village."

"Milord..." Irina called out. With Lorist's and her son hugged in her chest, she bowed deeply to Lorist before saying, "I wish you a swift journey, milord. Please be safe."

"Locke... You must take care of yourself," Telesti said.

Lorist waved goodbye to the two of them before he said, "Put on your skis! Let's depart!"

...

The wind howled incessantly as it seemed to be unleashing one ephemeral blade after another.

Even if one wore a thick scarf and a mask that covered one's face almost completely, one could still feel the chill on one's skin. One's eyes would also feel a slight sting looking at the endlessly white scenery.

Lorist pointed towards a tall mound which was covered completely in snow and was prepared to bring his men up there to check for any activity in the area nearby.

"Awooooooooo..." Chilling howls could be heard as tens of green winter wolves each the size of a young cow climbed to the peak of the mound from the other side.

Sol, Lorist thought. He didn't think that the carnivorous magical beasts that stalked the herbivorous magical beasts had long chosen that mound as their spot for waiting out any potential prey. Lorist's gang had no choice but to evade them for now.

With a wave of his hand, the skis he wore swerved in another direction and he traveled towards the forest near the mound to avoid being ambushed by those winter wolves so that their journey would not be obstructed. He understood that given that they had already encountered a pack of winter wolves, it was obvious that the rest of the magical beasts were also not far away within the area. It seems that they had to take a detour to circle around the beasts so that they could make their way around them to continue their journey.

Even if humans do not antagonize the wolves, it was in their nature to attack humans. While Lorist did try to avoid the wolf pack, they ended up surrounded by roughly 20 winter wolves that laid in waiting within the forests followed by the thirty plus more that came down from the mound. They easily rushed down the mound with their light steps. While their bodies were no doubt huge, they had a peculiar rhythm to them as they rushed downwards with their paws not even sinking down an inch into the snowy ground. It was obvious that they were used to traveling in such conditions.

Lorist pulled his mask down and said softly, "Joe, I'll leave the front to you. Yuriy, Patt, give me your javelins. Belnick, continue heading forwards."

Josk swerved his skis and stopped in his tracks before he removed the green longbow hung on his back. After he took his aim, one green arrow after another streaked past the trees within the forests, causing tens of other wolves to sink lifeless onto the snowy ground.

Belnick pressed his ski poles hard on the ground and propelled himself forward, promoting three wolves to leap into the air in Belnick's direction. Josk fired his last arrow which pierced the head of one of the wolves, sending it flying away lifelessly. However, the other two wolves were blocked by Belnick's body and couldn't be aimed by Josk.

Belnick himself didn't panic and passed his right ski pole to his left hand and drew his sword with his right. With a gold flash of light, the two leaping wolves were cut into pieces, staining the pure white ground red with blood.

The howls coming from the direction of the mound intensified as the wolves coming from that direction quickly neared Lorist and the two others who were only standing still.

When the first wolf at the front of the group was within 40 meters of Lorist's group, Lorist made his move and tossed out one javelin after another, causing pained howls to ring out among the group of incoming wolves.

All 34 javelins found themselves in 34 winter wolves with the last javelin pinning the last wolf down only seven meters away from the three.

The howling continued upon the mound. However, it wasn't as spirited as before as the low-pitched whine sounded as if the wolves were mourning for their fallen comrades.

Carrying the two javelin quivers onto his back, Lorist told Patt and Yuriy, "Let's go."

"Won't the rest of the wolves pursue us?" Patt asked.

Yuriy responded, "They won't. Magical wolves are rather intelligent beasts. Given that the wolves that camped within the forests and the ones that came later from the mound are all dead, the rest on top of the mound will realize that we far outstrip them in terms of might. They realize that if they decide to continue their pursuit, it would no doubt end with their deaths. Based on the mourn-like cries you heard just now, you can already tell that they won't continue to chase us. Otherwise, they would bark in quick succession instead to indicate for the other wolves to take action faster so that us, their prey, don't escape."

As Yuriy was born in the Khawistan Khanate into a herding family, he was really familiar with the temperament of wolves. While the one he had more interaction with was magical wolves that lived on the plains instead of northlander winter wolves, their basic instincts and vocal responses were roughly the same and there wasn't much difference in that regard.

Lorist himself didn't expect that after taking that detour around the mound, he would need another two days to arrive at the central town of the sixth sector. That was because the magical beast wave had dispersed into various smaller groups that spread all over the place to graze for algae underneath the snow, causing Lorist's group to have to tread carefully.

When Lorist and the others eliminated a lone Gold-striped Snow Panther on a high cliff and looked into the distance, the sight they were greeted with was no longer the seemingly-infinite stretches of snow-covered land but rather one of magical beasts scattered all over the land, grazing.

The Silver ranked knight who defended the central town of the sixth sector was called Nors and he was an old acquaintance of Josk. Originally, he was the garrison captain that served Josk's adopted father, Baron Omador, and he had been injured rather badly and imprisoned by Count Cobry within the laborer camp along with his family members. He was rescued when Lorist and Josk snuck into the main camp of Geldos City with the disguise of messengers for an ambush. Having witnessed the death of Count Cobry, Nors brought his family with him along the northbound journey and was promoted to a family knight for his achievement at Nadegas City while serving the convoy.

In actuality, Nors was greatly surprised by Lorist who had brought his men to travel in the harsh snowy weather to the town to bring news of the danger. Upon hearing about the magical beasts, he quickly looked for a map of the sixth sector detailing the layout of the town and villages.

"Milord, since the east of this place is a mountainous area, we only set up four villages there. If the magical beasts will really begin feasting from there, it will take them a few days to cross the mountainous terrain, so we still have enough time to notify the four villages..." Before Nors was able to finish his sentence, a loud warning horn signal could be heard from the town walls not too far away.

One member of the garrison rushed into the room hurriedly and exclaimed, "Mi-milord... The magical beasts... They're here..."

Lorist breathed an annoyed sigh and thought that the four villages were finished.

This time, the feeling he got from seeing the magical beast wave was completely different from the first time he witnessed it from the Maplewoods Bastide. Over there, he was standing at the top of the castle whereas the walls of this central town was merely 7 meters high and built mostly out of mud bricks. As he looked towards the magical beasts approaching the central town gradually, he could hear the chattering coming from the terrified garrison soldiers nearby.

"We must think of a way to strengthen these walls!" Lorist exclaimed.

"However, milord... The cold winter makes it exceedingly hard for us to dig to get more mud. Also, we don't have any more materials we can use to strengthen the walls," Nors said as he looked towards the incoming beasts with a look of despair on his face.

Lorist desperately looked around him and noticed that there was a wooden house not far away which had icicles forming downward from the side of the roof.

"Use water! Spray water onto the walls. Mobilize everyone within the village to splash water on the walls so that ice can form to strengthen it. That way, the magical beasts won't be able to do anything to it," Lorist ordered urgently.

The rest of the people were energized as they thought that the plan was rather sound. Hope for their survival was revitalized.

There was a total of 13000 plus people within the town. Apart from the elderly and the children, the two companies of family soldiers and one company of garrison soldiers as well as 6000 young men and women which were fit enough to help out all worked together to carry buckets filled with water to the walls where they would be trickled down carefully from the top.

"Brother Beck, Joe, Yuriy and Els, the four of you should head towards the 8 remaining villages within the sixth sector to notify them about this method before heading to the fifth sector's central town and villages. Have them all mobilize their citizens to strengthen the walls with water and encase the towns and villages within walls of ice. That's the only way we have to ensure the safety of the citizens," Lorist instructed.

"What about you, milord?"

"I will stay here as I cannot leave. The moment of my departure would cause their morale to fall," Lorist replied in a soft voice.

"Then I won't be leaving as well and will be staying by milord's side," Josk said.

"Locke, I'm the leader of the guard division. How can I leave you, the head of the family, here?" Els interjected.

"Then, I'll stay as well..."

"Cut the crap. We must grasp whatever time we have to notify the other villages to make their urgent preparations. It's enough to have Joe, Els and Patt with me here. The rest of you will group up and have Brother Beck as first-in-command and Yuriy as second-in-command. You shall discuss among yourselves how you would go about notifying the rest of the villages and towns. Don't forget, right now, only you guys are able to travel around with skis to traverse the snowy lands. Whether we will be able to notify the rest will depend on you. Hurry, leave before the magical beasts surround this town completely! Make sure to stick together at all times on the way and pay attention to your own safety. I'll be counting on you all!" Lorist said as he made a respectful salute to his subordinates.

Belnick, Yuriy and the rest of the members from the Maplewoods Bastide stood ramrod straight and saluted Lorist solemnly while saying in unison, "Milord, take care..."

Goats in the Town

And here's your first regular chapter of the week. This arc is pretty relaxing without too much tension. I find it to be a good change of pace for me as well as there are less things to keep in mind when translating as well.

Lorist was standing on the town walls while looking at the sight before him of the magical beasts outside. The sixth area's central town was like a small raft floating in a sea of monsters, constantly at risk of being flipped over and sunk.

After three days and nights of nonstop water splashing, the former mud wall had already turned into a thick, sturdy ice wall, causing the people of the town to let out breaths of relief. Some of them were so tired that they even fell asleep on the ground right away.

"Milord, you should go get some rest too. It's been three days since you slept," Nors said as he approached Lorist with an incredibly respectful attitude.

Had it not been for the fact that Lorist brought his men to the town and thought up a method to strengthen the walls by letting water freeze over it, the defenseless central town of the sixth sector would long have fallen to the magical beasts, causing more than 13000 lives to turn into ashes beneath the paws and hooves of the beasts.

Lorist's eyes were slightly bloodshot from fatigue. He shook his head and said, "I'm fine, I can still hold on for a while longer. I wonder how the beasts will react to the frozen walls."

Currently, the group of beasts that was closest to the walls right now was a few gigantic magical yak. These yaks easily weighed more than 500 to 1000 kilograms and they were extremely aggressive. With a humongous body covered completely with long, brownish-black fur, and fearsome horns, it was heralded as one of the most troublesome magical beasts to deal with. Apart from defensive ballistas, only Gold ranked fighters could cause these yaks harm.

The central town was surrounded by farmland in the early stages of preparation which only had sparse amounts of algae the herbivorous magical beasts loved so much. That's why the beasts within the vicinity of the town were few and far between. However, that didn't stop them from eating the winter wheat saplings, with the guards on the walls being able to do anything about it other than watch in futility.

"Sigh, all the winter wheat saplings we sowed are gone... These stupid beasts have eaten them all..." Nors said exasperatedly.

"We can still find other sources of sustenance apart from winter wheat. There's potatoes and millets which don't have to be planted during the winter. What matters is that we stay put within the area and think of other methods to struggle for territory with the magical beasts. This year, we've been taken off-guard by the sudden arrival of the beasts. However, it won't be so easy for them next year. Since they've destroyed our winter wheat saplings, they must pay it back with the meat on their bodies..." Lorist said with a tone of seething hatred in his voice.

One of the 3-meter-tall gigantic yaks approached the walls and rubbed its back against it in a satisfied manner, causing Lorist to be completely speechless.

After the afternoon, the magical yaks near the walls left, causing Lorist to feel much more relieved. He had some food before going to take his long-deserved rest.

He slept rather soundly for the remainder of the day. However, he was still woken up mid-sleep. Opening his eyes, he saw Patt's troubled expression as he shouted, "Milord, milord... Wake up! The magical beasts started climbing the walls!"

Huh? Climbing the walls?

Lorist wasn't able to completely process the sentence he had just heard as he was still half asleep. Els, who was sleeping on the next bed blinked slowly to clear his vision and said, "Stop bullshitting... The magical beasts don't have ladders... How are they supposed to scale the 7-meter-tall walls?"

Patt picked Els up and brought him to the window before carefully opening it and said, "Open your eyes wide and take a good look. What else can you call this?"

When the window was opened, a draft of cold air entered the room. Everyone within felt the sudden chill and was awakened by it as a result. Josk who was next door also put on his clothes and came over. After taking a look from the window, he said, "Weird... How are the magical goats able to climb the walls?"

Lorist laughed out loud and said, "What's weird about that? That breed of magical goat is called the mountain-climbing horned goat. As its name implies, it climbs tall mountains to avoid predators. To them, our 7-meter wall is only child's play. Let's leave after we get ready. We'll be having mutton tonight! Free food has just showed up within our territory, so don't let it go to waste! Also, be careful not to be rammed to the ground by these goats. It's said that when the goats aren't able to escape from their enemy, they would abandon all notion of escaping and ram straight into its aggressor in hopes that it would be able to push it down a cliff alongside itself in a suicide attack."

"Are they easy to deal with?" Josk asked. It was the first time he saw goats like that.

"Well, on flat land, a Bronze ranked fighter can take care of three or four of these," Lorist replied.

"Tsk, that was a pointless scare. So they're only small fries whose only redeeming quality is being able to climb up our walls..." Patt said embarrassedly as he had awoken everyone within the building for a matter as small as that. Had he known about their capabilities, he would've went there and took care of them himself.

"It's fine. Are you guys ready? Let's go goat hunting," Lorist said before he left the building first.

The skies were still dark, but it wasn't pitch black either. The wooden cottage Lorist and the others rested within was quite near to the walls and the moment they left it, they could hear the bleating sounds the goats were making.

"We don't have to go up to the walls. Just deal with them on this empty space. Light some of the torches up," Lorist instructed.

As expected, the moment the torches were lit, the goats bleated more urgently and it even seemed that they were annoyed by the sudden illumination.

Sounds of hooves thumping rapidly on the ground could be heard as a bunch of black silhouettes rushed down from the slope from the walls. As the goats rushed straight towards them, Patt held his shield up and received the charge of a goat with a loud thump. However, he stood firm on his ground whereas the goat was sent flying from the force of the collision.

"Begin," Lorist ordered. Within moments, the carcasses of thirty or so goats were laid flat on the ground.

"Even though they're so weak, they actually took the initiative to attack. I really don't know what to say about these goats..." Els commented.

Lorist laughed and said, "They may be weak, but they are still magical beasts. Can't you see their red eyes? They attack humans once we enter their sights. However, within the wildlands, they are known to be one of the most cowardly beasts that run the moment they encounter their natural predators. We can ascend the walls now. There are still some up there, so be careful."

"Upon climbing up the walls and taking a look around, everyone was speechless. Multitudes of magical goats were gathered around the outside of the walls. In fact, they were merely seeking out a tall place to spend the night out of habit. From time to time, some of those goats made their way onto the walls.

However, the moment the goats noticed Lorist and the others' presence, they would rush towards them straight away, only to be put down moments later.

After circling around the walls and killing near 1000 of those goats, Lorist's group had alerted the town guards and Nors brought his men and rushed up the walls right away to combat the remaining goats.

The slaughtering continued all the way till daybreak and the rest of the goats only left the town walls after their numbers had been depleted by half.

Lorist and the rest were currently covered in goat blood from top to bottom and the carcasses of the dead goats were also beginning to freeze over atop the walls.

Nors himself was also covered in blood as could be seen when he approached Lorist and said, "Milord, it is my fault for being too lax and not arranging for a night watch..."

Lorist waved his hand and said as he laughed lightly, "No worries. We're only facing magical beasts, not enemies who are besieging the town. Given that I had ordered for your men to not startle the magical beasts during the night, it's no surprise that no night watch was arranged. Also, you guys have also worked tirelessly for three whole days, so you need to rest up as well. There's also no harm done from these goats coming up the walls to be turned into food by us. Let's get everyone to clear the dead goats up and prepare the meat. I heard that these mountain-climbing horned goats taste pretty good. We'll be having quite the meal today, haha!"

There was a harvest of more than 5000 goats, much to everyone's delight. Nors had some people bring out ten plus huge cauldrons to the central plaza of the town and made some gruel with the meat they got. Everyone could eat as much as they wanted during that night.

Lorist on the other hand enjoyed a delicious lamb chop dish. It was apparent that the chefs within the central town of the sixth area were quite skillful and were able to cook up a juicy piece of meat. Els had already eaten six servings and he proceeded to order one more even though his stomach was practically bloating already.

Lorist himself also finished five servings of the food before something occurred to him all of a sudden, causing him to instruct Nors hurriedly to have the chefs keep the rib bones of the goats for his use later. After that, he took out the map of the town and started pondering deeply.

Josk walked to Lorist's side with a smoked goat's leg in his hand and asked, "What's up? Do you have another idea?"

Lorist replied, "I was thinking if we should let the magical beasts enter the town..."

"What?! Have you gone insane?!" exclaimed Josk.

"You're the insane one! I was thinking that we could set up some traps within the town and let some herbivorous beasts into the town like today to clear them up conveniently. I'm sure you've noticed that during these past two days, the folk of the town were feeling rather worried and down. But right after we killed so many magical goats, they look much more energized and happy. I'm worried that if we only stay put and defend, that will internalize the fear and dread the townsfolk have for the magical beasts. However, if we can let some of the beasts into town and set up traps in advance, we can turn the magical beast wave into an opportunity for hunting so that the townsfolk will no longer have to fear them," Lorist explained hurriedly.

"Gosh, you really scared me," Josk said bashfully. "Milord, since you're so confident, go ahead. I don't really understand complex things like that, but I'll support your decisions anyhow."

At that moment, Nors entered the building and his hands held a plate on which a rib bone with some meat still stuck on it was placed. "Milord, do you want to eat this? How would you like it cooked? Smoked or steamed?" Nors asked.

Lorist took the rib bone into his hand and shaved off the meat with a dagger before proceeding to sharpen the two ends of the bone. After that, he said, "Get me a basin of hot water."

Some hot water was quickly brought to Lorist which he used to submerge the rib bone with. After that, he twisted the rib bone gently inwards into a circular shape and had Patt get him a string which he used to tie the two sharp ends of the bone together. He then took some meat that he shaved off the bone just now and pasted it on the circular rib bone before tossing the whole thing on the snowy ground.

Everyone present merely stared curiously. Lorist proceeded to explain, "I have just made a trap with that rib bone that we can use to take care of the carnivorous magical beasts."

"Milord, you're not kidding, right? How would we be able to take care of the carnivorous beasts with just that?" said one of them. The rest also didn't seem to believe that it would work.

After the rib bone froze over, Lorist asked someone to bring it back.

"Look. When the carnivores notice these on the ground, they will definitely swallow them whole," said Lorist as he removed the string tying the two ends of the rib together. The frozen rib still retained its curled shape.

"Think about it... The stomachs of those beasts should be rather warm, right? Just like this basin of warm water," Lorist said before he tossed the rib bone into the basin.

Not long after, the frozen meat on the bone began to melt and fall away from the bone. After that, the rib gradually uncurled again and returned to its former slightly curved shape with its two sharp edges pointing outwards.

"If rib bones like these revert back to their original shape in the stomachs of the beasts, hehe... No matter how savage they are, they would die all the same. Do you guys understand now?" Lorist said as he looked at the rest with a confident smile.

"Whoa! Milord, you're a genius! Using this method to deal with the carnivorous beasts really saves us a lot of trouble!" Patt praised, with Nors nodding in agreement.

"At the end of the day, Locke, you're the only person who can actually think of something as devious and insidious as this... But, I like it," Els said as he took the rib bone and inspected it.

Lorist stared at Els and thought, was that supposed to be a compliment?

"That doesn't seem right," Josk said as he furrowed his brow. "Milord, usually, these carnivorous magical beasts would their food a bite or two before swallowing it. Given that their teeth is sharp and hard, wouldn't the bone be ground to pieces before it is even swallowed?"

Lorist clapped his hands and said, "Joe, you have a point. The sample trap I made just now was only a makeshift one with some meat plastered onto it. The actual traps we will use will be covered in goat fats. Since goat fats will melt the moment it enters the beasts' mouths no matter how frozen it is, the beasts would just swallow the bone whole straight away because there's no need for them to chew on the fats.

"In fact, this trap was not invented by me. It was actually designed by one of the most prominent adventurers who lived roughly 100 years ago, Carmen Pride. Having been trapped on an uninhabited island for two years, he used this trap to hunt for carnivorous magical beasts which helped him sustain him until the day of his rescue. Due to the fact that magical mountain-climbing horned goats liked climbing to high places, their rib bones were rather elastic. Hence, the rib bones of the goats were the ideal material for these traps."

Lorist looked at the rest within the building and said, "In another two days, the magical beast wave will leave the sixth sector and head for the fifth. Following behind the main group would be the carnivorous beasts, which are very different from the herbivorous beasts we see now. While herbivorous magical beasts only attack if we're in their sights, carnivorous ones will hunt us down the moment they get a hint of our scent. Even though we have the ice walls protecting us, we must still be careful. Just in case, it's better to make more of these traps and there would be no harm having a little more than we need either."

"Yes, milord," said the rest in unison.

"Also, I was thinking of opening the town gates to let those aggressive but weak goats inside so that we can gather more meat. What do you guys think?" Lorist asked.

"Milord, I have no issue with that. I will await your instructions," Nors said.

During the last two days of the magical beast wave at the sixth sector, Lorist opened the town gates twice at opportune times and let in huge groups of magical mountain-climbing horned goats, big-horned wild goats and striped deers into the town. However, during the first time, the gates were closed a little too late, letting in around 20000 of them as a result, causing everyone to be busy killing them off all the way till midnight. Some unlucky fellows were also injured from the wild ramming of the goats. It was fortunate that the soldiers that participated in the slaughter were equipped with metal armor, ensuring that none of them incurred lasting injuries.

The atmosphere during that time was exceedingly wild with most of the soldiers that participated in the hunt running all over the streets of the town, either chasing the beasts or being chased by them. Sometimes, the soldiers who were chasing a small group of goats would turn their backs when they noticed a larger group up front, resulting in them being chased for a change, until another group of soldiers came to their aid and began their counterattack.

The other townsfolk that didn't participate in the activities instead got up to the roofs of their houses and cheered nonstop excitedly. When the hunt came down to the last magical goat, the soldiers didn't kill it right away either and instead took up their shields and made a game out of resisting the goat's charge. Some were knocked flying by the goat and were laughed at by the onlookers while others were cheered for after knocking the goat flying and even received air-kisses from some of the womenfolk.

At that time, Lorist would never have imagined that the practice of letting the magical beasts into town would evolve into a local holiday known as the 'goat ramming festival', which prohibited the use of weapons against the goats they captured and only allowed participants to ram the goats with their shields until they lost consciousness.

Originally, after opening the gates for the first time, Lorist didn't want to do it a second time. However, that decision was received negatively by of the townsfolk, causing him to have to once again open the gates and let in a few thousand magical striped deers to keep the festivities going.

The magical striped deers were the last of the herbivorous magical beasts and what came after were the carnivorous ones that stalked the herbivores from afar, the most common of which being the various types of winter wolves.

From the walls of the town, Lorist discovered that the largest group of winter wolves numbered around 1000. He then instructed for the goat rib traps to be tossed outside the town and made preparations for the collection of the carcasses two days later.

Wrapping Up

Second regular chapter of the week. Enjoy the read~

"Milord, why did the wolves leave the carcasses of the ones who had swallowed the traps right there just like that? Didn't you say that magical wolves often cannibalize one another?" Nors asked curiously.

The sight before them was rather shocking with magical wolves dead all over the plains in all form and fashion after being trampled upon by some other magical beasts. Hundreds of their carcasses could be seen with some of them even having their mouths wide open as if they were in great pain. However, not one of them had a visible wound on their body. Had it not been for the fact that they already knew about the situation, the people would no doubt find that sight extremely odd and terrifying.

However, the ones who followed Lorist outside the town already knew about the rib bone traps and were merely shocked at how effective they were despite their simple design. Before them were hundreds of winter wolf carcasses. If they were alive, they would pose a huge threat to everyone who set out of the town and could even potentially wipe out a whole army.

"Magical wolves are rather intelligent beasts. Some scholars have hypothesized that their intellect were on the level of children aged five to six years and they were one of the magical beasts that knew how to coordinate with each other well. They only cannibalize out of necessity when the pack is too huge for the prey they hunt to be able to support the population, causing them to even feast on the corpses of their dead brethren to ensure the survival of the pack.

"However, they are also incredibly sensitive and suspicious. During the magical beast wave, they don't lack any food source. And the fact that many of their own collapsed due to reasons unknown to them should prove quite frightening as well and cause them to want to leave the place as soon as possible. Just like humans, when one or two of us dies, we would stop and investigate the cause. However, if one after another collapses dead, there is no doubt that the rest of us would prioritize our own survival and leave the area before doing anything else. The wolves are the same with us in that regard," Lorist explained.

"Alright, let's keep moving. We have to transport the wolf carcasses with our carts to be back. Hunting them this way really keeps their fur in perfect condition. I wonder how the fur merchants' faces will look like when they see all the fur we have for them," Patt said towards the rest of the garrison soldiers on the carriages.

After half a day of work, Nors came over to report to Lorist., "Milord, there are 745 wolf carcasses in total. Are we going to return to the town right now?"

Lorist furrowed his brow and said, "Hmmm, that doesn't seem right... We tossed out a total of more than 2000 goat rib traps. This number is a little too low. Josk, bring a group of people with you on patrol to check if we have any other gain. Be careful."

After Josk searched the area once more with his men, he discovered a few hundred other dead carnivorous magical beasts. Some beasts like cloud panthers and patterned panthers were discovered to be dead hanging from tree branches while others like ligers collapsed on top of mounds. There were also some tracks that led to a rather large catch.

It was a humongous iron-sideburned wild boar which weighed almost 1000 kilograms. It was apparent from the fallen trees and toppled rocks in the vicinity that the gigantic beast had rampaged around from the pain of the bone piercing its stomach and ended up in a snowy trench after breathing its last breath.

Seeing the state of the trees leading up to the boar's carcass, Lorist couldn't help but let out a cold sweat as he imagined whether his javelins would be of any use should he encounter a beast like that. The meter-long javelins seemed like a toothpick when compared to a beast of that size.

Els came over to Lorist side to look at the soldiers who were prepared to use tens of horses to pull the boar out of the trench. He asked Lorist, "Locke, are we going to tail the magical beast wave to the rest of the sectors?"

Lorist shook his head and said, "We won't be able to make it. When we departed from Maplewoods Bastide, the magical beast wave had just started to disperse, so we could still circle around them to reach the town ahead of them. Just look at the state of the land now: wherever the magical beasts passed, all that's left of it is muddy ground which we can't travel on even with our skis. Right now, we can only hope that the beasts will leave when spring comes."

"Locke, don't worry. With Knight Belnick and Knight Yuriy sending word, I believe that the magical beast wave will not cause too much damage to us. In fact, nobody here is afraid of the coming of the magical beast wave anymore," Els consoled.

"Els, to tell you the truth, I'm scared. I'm afraid of seeing how the other four villages fared when we visit them later. These people have toiled hard to follow the convoy all the way to the Northlands and thought they could start their peaceful lives anew. However, none of them knew that what awaited them was the magical beast wave. I truly have wronged them, so I feel really bad for that," Lorist said as he shivered slightly.

"Locke, this is not your fault. I'm sure none of us would have envisioned that things would turn out like this. But, since what's past is already past, we have to face the future with courage. Come on, let's head back to town. The soldiers have already hoisted the boar up with their horses," Els said as he patted on Lorist's shoulder. "Brother, don't forget that no matter what happens, I will always stand by your side."

Lorist and the rest were quite surprised when they visited the other villages in the sector later. The villages that they thought had been utterly destroyed were not in that bad a state they originally imagined. Faced with certain demise with the approach of the magical beast wave, some of the villagers had all thought up various means to struggle for their survival.

The fourth village was located atop of a small mound and the Silver ranked fighter stationed there was one of Lorist's old acquaintances, Paulobins. He currently held the position of a squad leader of one of the light cavalry scout squads and had been sent along with his men to that very village during the winter season. When he realized that the magical beasts were on their way, he had the villagers build a wall with snow to surround the village which was later strengthened by the freezing temperature, causing the magical beasts to have a hard time climbing up the walls, thus securing the lives of all the villagers.

However, after the herbivores passed by the village, tens of snow panthers attacked and ten plus villagers were either hurt or killed. Even Paulobins himself was injured, but they still managed to chase the panthers away. Greeted with such an optimistic outcome, Lorist was so elated that he knighted Paulobins as a family knight on the spot, thus fulfilling his long time wish.

The third village however didn't share the same good fortune as the casualties were rather bad. The womenfolk and the elderly managed to escape the horrors of the beasts by hiding within an underground tunnel. The rest of the youths and the garrison soldiers as well as the squad of light cavalry scouts led by a Silver ranked fighter had perished in a fight with a huge group of big-horned bulls that assaulted the village.

The second village contained yet another surprise for Lorist and the gang. Apart from the fact that the buildings of the village were completely razed down, the people there and other resources were completely fine. The main reason for that was that the village had been built upon a mountainside where a cave was located not far away. The moment they detected the coming of the magical beasts, the villagers escaped into the cave and sealed the entrance, thus managing to evade a catastrophe.

Even so, the first village fared the worst among the rest with only 17 survivors out of the original 3000 plus people. When the magical beasts arrived there, it was only midnight and the guards on the walls thought that only a small group of magical beasts were trampling the farmland they had cultivated. As a result, they shot fire arrows from the walls and provoked the whole group of magical beasts which proceeded to launch a full-on assault on the village. The remaining 17 villagers only managed to survive by hiding amidst the rubble of the wooden houses.

...

On the 18th day of the 3rd month was a gentle spring rain. Many people were gathered within the main hall of Firmrock Castle. Every family knight and administrative officer listened carefully to the report given by Charade about the passing of the magical beast wave.

"During winter, the magical beast wave caused the family to lose near 10000 citizens and more than 1000 heroic soldiers, including 7 Silver ranked fighters and three family knights. The one who should shoulder most of the responsibility for this is me as I have began the development of the wasteland without first doing proper research and understanding the situation of the family dominion, causing us to suffer from something we could have planned ahead for.

"When I received milord's urgent warnings about the magical beasts from his messengers, I still didn't take it seriously and even gathered the soldiers to form a defense line in the third sector's central town to resist the magical beast wave. Had it not been for Knight Belnick and the rest who informed us of the idea of securing the town walls by letting water freeze over it, I would've sacrificed even more of our forces to fight against the magical beasts. My failures for this incident cannot be excused and I hope that milord will give me a fitting punishment..."

Lorist currently wore a very stiff expression as he never would've dreamt that Charade would perform so terribly in the onset of the arrival of the magical beast wave. After Jim and the other three traveled two days and one night to Firmrock Castle to report on the news of the wave's approach, Charade didn't take it seriously and believed that the magical beasts they mentioned were merely weak little herbivorous ones like magical goats and deers with their only advantage being their numbers. He even boasted to Potterfang that the magical beasts came just at the right time to help the dominion relieve its food shortage problem.

After spending seven days preparing, Charade and Potterfang left with their troops and they spent tens of more days to travel to the third sector because of the road conditions from the snowfall, only to meet Belnick and the rest who were splashing water on the town walls urgently. After that, despite the objection of Potterfang and Belnick, Charade even ordered more than 20000 family soldiers to erect a snow wall and get into position in preparation to fight the magical beasts.

When Lorist heard about that, he could only laugh bitterly. Charade had underestimated the magical beasts severely and treated them as if they were human enemy troops who wouldn't be able to withstand even one assault from them. He didn't even stop to consider whether the longbows and crossbows his soldiers were equipped with would even be able to cause the magical beasts significant casualties.

When the magical beast wave eventually made its way to the defense line, the longbows of the family troops were still able to harm the smaller herbivorous magical beasts. However, when the magical bulls and 6-meter-tall mammoths showed up from behind, everyone was shocked into stupor. Fortunately, Potterfang managed to take quick action and ordered the soldiers to retreat to the third sector's central town to fortify the walls using the water freezing method, thus ensuring the survival of the 20000 plus troops.

In the end, the 20000 plus troops that Lorist had placed his hopes in were trapped within the central town for more than a month. Not only did they consume the food reserves of the town incredibly quickly, they were also forced to starve for days until the magical beast wave thinned and allowed them to hunt some scattered beasts for sustenance. They eventually returned to Firmrock Castle with the last bit of morale drained out of them.

"I hereby renounce Knight Charade's position as chief officer of the Felicitas Settlement development project and also his title as the chief knight of the Norton Family Knights. Shadekampf will temporarily be in charge of the development of Felicitas Settlement," Lorist stood up and announced his decision.

"It's only the first time that we've witnessed the magical beast wave within the dominion. However, does that mean that we've lost confidence to develop Felicitas Settlement? In actuality, we shouldn't fear the magical beast wave. While we aren't able to prevent it from happening, we can still give it our all to make the best of this situation," Lorist said.

After that, he briefed the rest about the methods they used within the sixth sector's central town and even demonstrated how to make the rib bone trap. "It is apparent that as long as we have a secure and stable wall to protect us, the magical beast wave is actually a good hunting opportunity. With enough preparation, we can even make the walls into a trap for hunting magical beasts. However, we must also be careful and not provoke them when the gigantic ones are around. When the time is right, we can even let some of the weaker beasts into the town. Not only can we obtain more fresh meat and furs, we can also decrease the fear the folks have for the magical beast wave so that they will be confident in their future lives here."

Lorist then proceeded to describe the situation of the four other villages within the sixth sector. "From these examples, it can also be seen that the villages can also survive the magical beast wave, provided they have good defensive preparations and an escape route to a cave or an underground tunnel. That way, they can survive the winter without any worries.

"That's why, with the coming of the new year, the family will focus on developing the defensive walls and other necessary infrastructure of the towns and villages within the second to seventh sectors for the well-being and safety of the citizens. Even though the magical beast wave has receded, huge groups of magical beasts still remain within the dominion. So, from tomorrow onwards, the family forces will be tasked to eliminate those magical beasts both to ensure the safety of the citizens within the dominion as well as to replenish our food stores so that our hard-working citizens can live with a peace of mind without worries.

"Shadekampf, this year, you must focus on developing the six central towns. I will have Telesti arrange for her designers to draw up some plans for the towns soon. Additionally, make sure that walls are built around the villages and plan a reliable escape route should anything go wrong. As for the farmland, we can plant some beans to relieve the food consumption temporarily. The family will also try to help by purchasing huge amounts of food.

"Also, the 16 Silver ranked fighters that have performed exceptional feats will also be promoted to family knights. The others who have contributed will also be rewarded. I hope that all of you here will brainstorm hard for more methods that the family can use to mitigate the damage brought by the magical beast wave. You can send your thoughts in a letter to me personally. The prosperity of the family dominion will depend on the our combined efforts. So, I will be counting on you all."

After the meeting adjourned, Lorist had Charade stay back. Even though he had relieved Charade of his duties, that didn't mean he didn't intend to give him other tasks.

"Brother Charade, I will leave Firmrock Castle and the valley city in your hands because those parts didn't incur any damages from the magical beast wave. You have to work hard on the development of the valley city and the nearby farmland as well as plan for the development of the wasteland near Firmrock Castle. Before Felicitas Settlement can be free from the harm brought by the magical beast wave, these two locations I want you to work on will be the cornerstone of the family's survival by ensuring a continuous food output. I am prepared to set up another town at the intersection of the Bladedge Mountains and the Morgan Hills. That will be where the smiths and miners of the family will live and it will become the main industrial city of our dominion that will produce most of the weapons and equipment for our family forces. Do you understand the importance of this place now?"

Charade nodded and said, "Locke, I thank you deeply for this opportunity. As your brother, I promise that I will no longer let you down."

Ballistas and Metal Materials

Here's the first sponsored chapter of the week brought to you by Jose A. from Spain! Enjoy the read~

"Milord, a top quality ballista can fire up to 300 meters away with a margin of error of less than half a meter. Only with that will it be able to pose a real threat against the enemy. During the time of the former empire, Krissen V drafted a standard for the construction of defense sentry ballistas, causing the ballistas produced during that time to be among the best ones ever made. However, the standards were later slackened and the empire never produced ballistas as good as those ever again."

Grandmaster Fellin was currently giving a lecture to Lorist about his knowledge on ballistas. Before them were a number of ballistas of differing types used by the Norton Family forces. Even the original 12 ballistas obtained from the armory of the Dawn Academy that were used by the carroballista unit were there.

"The most important part of a ballista is its arm. In actuality, no matter what kind of wood used to make it, a ballista should be able to shoot 300 plus meters away. The only shortcoming of using arbitrary wood is that the arm will not last long. That is to say, the second shot from that particular ballista will be magnitudes nearer than the last. In other words, elasticity is the most crucial criteria when deciding which material to use as the arm for a ballista. That material must be able to return to its former shape quickly so that the second shot can match the first shot in both distance and accuracy. Based on that alone, many other types of wood won't even make the list for consideration."

Grandmaster Fellin then brought Lorist in front of two small ballistas and said, "Milord, these two ballistas can be considered to be one of the finest ones I've seen in the last ten years. They are almost half as small as usual defense sentry ballistas and are easy to operate and aim with with their firing distance reaching around 260 meters. I've asked Dulles about it and he said that they were part of the original set of 12 the convoy bought from the Dawn Academy. I heard the reason they were abandoned and sold to you was because they were too hard to operate?"

Lorist nodded as he recalled reading the log of the armory that recorded that exact reason.

Grandmaster Fellin laughed and said, "They were mistaken. Milord, think about it. A normal ballista would take up to 5 people to operate while this smaller one only requires 3. It wouldn't make sense for the ballista that requires a smaller number of people to use to be more complicated. The real reason it wasn't used was because the price of production was too high and these ballistas couldn't be mass produced.

"Milord, do you know what material was used to make the small ballistas?" the grandmaster asked Lorist as he pointed at the small ballistas whose arms seemed to have properties of both wood and metal from the look of them.

Lorist merely shook his head.

"The arms of these ballistas were made of Arrowdragon Wood, a material that is only found on the Relic Islands, which gains an elastic property after being treated by three submerging processes. According to the ancient records, Arrowdragon Wood was a plant that the magi transported from another dimensional plane during the time of the magical civilization and were used in construction of magical ballistas. Wood the size of the ballistas' arms would take roughly hundreds of years to grow. The Dawn Academy must've expended quite a sum to get their hands on so much Arrowdragon Wood. It's a shame that the future generations couldn't recognize quality goods even when they see it, hence leaving them unutilized and gathering dust within the armory."

Grandmaster Fellin stroked the dark-colored wood of the ballista arm as he sighed and said, "In terms of ballista construction, Arrowdragon Wood is indeed the ideal material to use for the arm of the ballista. However, the exorbitant price of the material and the troublesome preparation works against its favor. Even the submerging processes alone requiring six different solutions would take up seven years to complete. Affordable prices and mass production availability with the emphasis on easily replaceable spare parts are important things to consider for military gear. Additionally, given the additional complications involved in siege equipment like that, there isn't a perfect solution for adopting the use of such high quality gear for widespread use.

"Milord, I've already analyzed the ballista designs you drew before and if we can make it, it will definitely be a revolutionary upgrade to any existing ones. However, I am not sure if I will be able to find someone to make the kind of elastic metal you specified. Without those metal plates for the ballista arms, your ballista that is designed to be used against magical beasts cannot be constructed," Grandmaster Fellin said. While he understood Lorist's intentions, he was only familiar with employing wood to make ballistas. Given how much work required to process wood, it would be difficult to suddenly supply a huge number of ballistas for their forces.

"How about this, Grandmaster Fellin, why don't you accompany me to Bladedge Mountains tomorrow? The family has built a metal refinery over there. We'll go there to see for ourselves whether Grandmaster Sid can fashion a suitable material for the ballista," Lorist said.

...

After leaving the ballista workshop, Lorist returned to his office on the second floor of the Firmrock Castle.

Upon entering, he noticed Telesti laughing uncontrollably while slumped on his work desk.

"Darling, what's wrong?" Lorist asked curiously.

"Locke, didn't you ask your family knights and other officers to come up with methods to deal with the magical beasts? The letters are already collected over here. Look, haha! This letter suggests that we open a path through the Bladedge Mountains to the sea so that the magical beasts can travel straight into the sea and drown there... Hahaha... It's too funny..."

Lorist also laughed out loud. Just recently, he had forced his subordinates to try to come up with methods to deal with the magical beast wave. However, not one of them had any practical ideas, so they merely submitted whatever they could write up with their ridiculous imagination.

"Well, at least this is still more plausible than another letter I've read that suggested a wall be constructed all the way from Firmrock Castle to Maplewoods Bastide to seal off the Felicitas Settlement," Lorist commented.

That person who came out of the idea was preoccupied with the notion of keeping the magical beasts out of the Felicitas Settlement. However, he didn't even consider the distance between the two places and the costs, manpower and time involved in building a wall of that length. The idea made quite an impression on Lorist because it reminded him of the great wall in his previous life.

Telesti laughed out loud again as she said, "Locke, do you remember that one of the knights even suggested to gather up everyone within the dominion to dig up an enormous trap hole for the magical beasts to fall into? I replied to that knight and asked him what we would do with the dirt we get from all that digging. His reply just came in and he said that we can just dig out another hole to be filled with the extra dirt, hahaha..."

Lorist laughed bitterly as he shook his head in futility. Quite a number of knights within the family were muscleheads who didn't like to think about complicated stuff like that, so it was quite troubling for them to be requested to come up with a countermeasure for the magical beasts.

Picking up a few letters from the table, Lorist began reading. The first letter suggested that the algae be completely eradicated from the lands of the Felicitas Settlement so that the magical beasts would no longer head there if there was nothing for them to eat. Sigh, why doesn't he think about how huge the settlement really is... And is it really possible to root out something like algae? I bet that a new patch would sprout the moment one was removed... How clueless...

The second letter sounded even more ridiculous. The writer of the letter suggested that a large amounts of poison be sprinkled all over the lands of Felicitas Settlement so that the magical beasts would die from consuming the poisoned algae. Well, I'll leave it to you to come up with a poisonous solution that will be effective even after being exposed in the air for a few days. As a rank one herbalist, Lorist felt that if anyone really came out with a solution like that, he would definitely receive a reward from the Forde Research Fund of 200000 gold Fordes for such an achievement.

The third letter described an isthmus that was located near the Maplewoods Bastide. That place was rather wide and if there was a way to lure the giant-class magical beasts such as magical mammoths to that place, then it would be far easier to deal with the smaller herbivorous beasts.

Oh? This is a rather sound plan, Lorist thought as he looked at the name of the writer. The person who wrote that was called Tarkel, whom Lorist thought to be rather familiar. Was there such a person among the family knights? Lorist really couldn't recall that person.

He then pulled on the bell rope to summon Reidy.

"Reidy, have this person come over here," Lorist instructed.

After a while, somebody knocked on the door of his office. However, that person was Charade.

"Milord, Knight Ovidis sent someone to report to me that the Second Prince sent you an invitation to attend a gathering for nobles at Gildusk City on the 15th day of the 5th month. Do you think we should attend?"

"Why would I go to a stupid gathering for nobles? In the end, it's just all a ploy of the Second Prince to siphon some money from the nobles who attend. I wouldn't want that now, would I? Just send a letter to refuse the invitation. I have no time to play games with the Second Prince," Lorist said in annoyance.

"Alright, I'll send someone to notify Knight Ovidis to have the messenger of the Second Prince scram," said Charade.

"Also, come with me to the metal refinery at Bladedge Mountains tomorrow. I have something I want to discuss with Grandmaster Sid. We can also check out on the plans for the industrial city I left in your hands," Lorist said.

"Okay. I'll wait for you tomorrow then," Charade said before he left.

Reidy only managed to find Tarkel in the evening and brought him to see Lorist.

"Oh, it's you?" Lorist said as he laughed. "No wonder I felt that your name sounded familiar. I'm really sorry, I've completely forgotten about you due to being so busy."

The man standing in front of Lorist was one of the guards of Count Cobry's laborer camp within Geldos City. Tarkel, who looked burly and uncultured on the outside, was discovered by Lorist to have a knack for noticing the more obscure details and being able to handle matters effectively. Thus, he forced Tarkel and his family to travel with him to the Northlands despite the latter's objection, only for Lorist to end up forgetting about him after he left with a few others earlier to head towards the dominion to inherit his position.

On the way north, Tarkel had endured quite a bit of hardship, as could be seen from how unpleasantly silent he was when he looked at Lorist.

"Fine, Tarkel. I once again apologize to you for forcing you and your family to move over and forgetting to take care of you as I have promised. How about this, no matter what you're working on right now, why don't you become my personal attendant? Oh, Reidy, arrange a residence nearby for Tarkel and his family and give him ten gold Fordes as my token of apology," Lorist told Reidy.

"Who's that? You seem to regard him rather highly," Telesti asked when Tarkel left with Reidy.

"Hehe, while that fellow looks rather burly and brutish, he's incredibly keen on picking up on the smaller details most people ignore. He has a great talent for information gathering and spying, but he's a tad too cowardly for that and also treasures his family a lot. I've noticed his talents sometime back and forced him to come with us to the dominion, but I forgot about him after I left the convoy to inherit my position at the dominion. Had it not been for the letter he wrote me, I wouldn't have been able to recall him either. Here, have a look. Of everyone who has written to us, his idea is the most viable," Lorist said as he handed Telesti the letter.

"I see. Locke, are you heading to the Bladedge Mountains tomorrow?"

"I am. This time, I think I'll be staying there for quite a while. When I finish my affairs over there, I will check on the development of Felicitas Settlement. I will leave the matters here to you and Charade. Just send me a letter if there's something you need me to deal with. Well, it's getting late, so let's get some food."

...

The refinery that was built near the black iron mine made the atmosphere of the Bladedge Mountains much rowdier than before.

"Milord, we've set up seven blast furnaces in total and the daily production is around 1500 kilograms." As the chief supervisor, Grandmaster Sid was showing Lorist, Charade and Grandmaster Fellin around the refinery.

Lorist discovered that the furnaces they used at the refinery were rather primitive with the main difference between them and those used in Lorist's past life was that the main refining chambers were located underground with pillars of smoke emanating from the holes of the floor. The black iron ore would be brought to the refining chambers underground with chunks of charcoal placed next to them. After that, air would be blown into the chamber to aid in the combustion process, thus raising the temperature high enough so that the ore could be melted down before it would be funneled into casts where it would be made into black iron ingots.

"I believe I've seen a different method for refining metal in a book somewhere that would produce stainless steel right away without first having to refine the ore into black iron ingots," Lorist said as he started drawing a design of a blast furnace from his past life and handed it to Grandmaster Sid. "I recall that the combustion material they used was a kind of black-colored rock which emanated extremely high temperatures."

Holding the beastskin design in his hand, Grandmaster Sid wore an awkward expression as he said, "Milord, your widespread knowledge is truly admirable. However, we're not able to construct a furnace of this design."

"Why?" Charade asked.

"That's because this kind of furnace must be made from a kind of brick that is incredibly resistant to heat. Otherwise, it would crack right away during the smelting process. We do not have the ability to make bricks like that," Grandmaster Sid said.

Lorist nodded and thought, so he really does know his stuff... Grandmaster Sid had already noticed the key flaw of the furnace design. However, even Lorist is unaware of how to make the heat-resistant bricks that the grandmaster mentioned, so he made a mental note to experiment on it in the future.

"As for the black rocks which are combustible that you mentioned, I've seen them before. They're called blackfire rocks and they let out a pungent stench when ignited. Additionally, ingots smelted using blackfire rocks are not good enough as they are rather brittle," Grandmaster Sid explained.

Oh, so coal is called blackfire rocks in this world. Even so, he couldn't recall the process of coking which was used to make coke, which was in turn commonly used as fuel in blacksmithing. If one were to use sulfur-rich coal instead of coke, the end product would no doubt be brittle.

"Then, how do you guys make steel?" Lorist asked.

"Well, you can take a look over there, milord. That is the blast furnace we use to make steel. First, we put some iron ingots into the furnace as well as some other ingredients according to prescribed recipes. After that, we heat it up long enough and start the stirring process before finally pouring the molten metal into casts. Then, we take it out and start hammering to remove impurities until we are satisfied with the product," explained Grandmaster Sid.

"I see. Then, I have a something I want to build which will need a particular kind of steel. I wonder if you can make it," Lorist said as he unrolled the ballista design he drew and Grandmaster Fellin proceeded to describe the properties of the ballista to Grandmaster Sid.

After looking at the design, Grandmaster Sid furrowed his brow in thought before he asked someone to bring an old guy to him.

"Milord, this is Master Julian and he has worked in the field for most of his life back during the days of the empire in the imperial capital. If even he can't make the kind of metal you want, no one can," Grandmaster Sid said.

While Master Julian looked rather meek and gentle, the moment he heard about the request from Grandmaster Sid, he nodded fervently and said, "It is possible. Back then, His Majesty Krissen VII commissioned for an even more elastic metal to be made for the spring absorbers on his carriage and I still remember the recipe. However, we must repeat the hammering process and remelt the material multiple times and employ the quenching process, which will no doubt require a lot of manpower. While we would be able to make it in small amounts, it'll be hard for us to mass produce the material as we don't have enough experienced blacksmiths to do the hammering. If the hammering is done wrong, not only will the end product be useless, it will also waste the precious material."

Lorist laughed and said, "There will be no issue with that. I can design a water-powered hammering machine for you. I was just thinking that it was a waste not to utilize the waterfalls at the cliffs nearby. Let me draw it for you..."

Within moments, a simple water-powered hammering machine blueprint was drawn. It was a really basic design which utilized a water wheel that was connected to a series of gears powered a hammer that banged against an anvil. The design blew the minds of everyone present who had only seen it for the first time.

Master Julian cried out in surprise, "Milord, you're a genius! With this, no matter how much material you need, I will be able to make it for you..."