March

Charlie raised a horn with red and white roses engraved on them and blew it. The sound of the horn blew through the entire plain and into the forest. The platoon took one last look back at the training center, their home for the last few years. They looked at it one last time and then turned around to face Charlie.

Charlie and the 2 other leaders behind him started to move. They rode on horses and they quickly snapped their reins. The platoon members behind roared in excitement and started to follow them in a quick marching pace.

Each one of the trainees had been trained for multiple years, marching was one of the basics and going at the brisk pace that they were on currently was nothing compared to some of the group exercises they were made to do.

Jason followed, he was more or less in the back of the platoon line. He wasn't fully in the back but was about 3/4th on back.

Jason looked around, as he followed the platoon. There was a tense but exciting atmosphere in the air. They started to disappear into the forest, the exact opposite way that they had came from.

Behind them was the forest that leads to the bamboo forest and then the training center. After that was the training field and mansion and finally the port city Herdita.

Where they were marching off to, Jason had no idea the map that Jason had, was constantly updating and the parts of the world that were covered in clouds because he and Boops didn't know was they started to reveal itself slowly.

If Jason zoomed out on his map, he would only be able to see a few things, such as a little clearing on the east side of the map where Arjuna was and a decently large sized clearing in the white clouds on the west side where he and Perseus were.

Jason could also see a faint outline of the Belusian kingdom thanks to some of the information Perseus and Boops had gained. But it was still far from clear.

Jason's map feature in his system could only detect beings about 50 meters away from him. He could upgrade it, but he wasn't getting too many points now. His fame from school had started to disappear after he didn't go for the last week or so. His gaming fame had also started to dissolve leaving him to rely on the points Perseus and Arjuna made.

Jason really needed to find a new source of points, he could go back to school, but he felt like it took to much time. He could maybe live stream or something, but he had a time advantage and he didn't want to display everything he was getting to the world just yet.

Plus players had finally started to leak into the world of WOW, most of the one in the world currently were experts and hardcore gamers. But Jason predicted that soon, people would see the value of WOW. That was the period that Jason was worried about.

When WOW got to the point that it was like a 2nd world for humanity, people would almost treat it like the real world, people would fight over money and power. Companies would invest in large guilds that already solidified their power and would start to gain influence.

God that was going to be a crazy period.

Jason knew that it was going to happen soon, if Boops was right then it was going to happen soon, perhaps even during the campaign. That could be a good chance to recruit fresh talent but plenty of people would want to take advantage of them too.

Jason smilled to himself, well he could figure out their loyalty thanks to the loyalty subsystem and then manage it. But if things got too large, he wouldn't be able to check each and every one of them. He needed a better solution then huh.

Boops jumped in

'why not upgrade my processing abilities? I should be able to handle a large amount of information and sift through them easily.'

Jason thought about it and asked Boops

"how much?"

'way too much 10,000 points for a processing subsystem, I think you should get the attraction aura that Arjuna has right now since we are going to help out on defense and we will look like saviors to the other people.'

"good idea, buy attraction aura skill"

[buying attraction aura skill]

[attraction aura]

[naturally attracts people of all sorts to you]

[note: as you level up your skill level can determine which group of people you want to focus on]

[cost: 5000 points]

"oh god that's a lot of points"

'Yeah, but I think its worth it, look at how well Arjuna is doing like guild are literally fighting over him, it might be because he's really lucky but dang, it's pretty nice Jason'

"Yeah, I guess that's true..."

[inputting skill]

"OH SHOOT THAT'S RIGH *&^(&*)_*&(&*^&$%$#$&%*^(&)&^% AHHHH@ @#@$$$$$%)(*%)(*&)(#*&(*&)(*#&$)(*&%#$@ #$@_$*@&_(%&_@&$_*_!)(*$_)!(*#_)(*@$_)(%(*&#%(*&()$*&%(*#$&)(*&_#)@_)*_$%_(*$_#(*_@(*_#(*$(@*_)#($*_(*#$_#$)(*_#$)(*%"

Jason squatted down and held his head in pain while he chanted swear words like they were a mantra.

[you have gained the skill (attraction aura)]

Some of the platoon members noticed Jason who was in pain and went to check out what was going on. Thankfully the pain Jason felt from the skill was intense but passed off fast.

Jason quickly jumped up as the pain receded and said to the worried members

"don't worry, I was ummmmm constipated yeah constipated"

The platoon members exchanged eye contact with each other and one of the them walked up to Jason and placed a hand on his shoulder, he whispered to him with a sympathetic face that showed that he went through the same pain that Jason went through.

"don't worry dude, we've all been there, just do it quickly and we will try and cover for you"

The platoon members disappeared into the crowd, to do something and Jason was left kinda confused at what they had implied.

Boops laughed and just told Jason to continue marching

So Jason threw the incident to the back of his mind and countied to look around.

After a few hours of marching, they had gotten out of the forest and were now on a large plain. Jason could feel the sea breeze on his left and when he turned there he could briefly catch glimpses of the sea reflecting the bright sun.

After they got out of the forest, it seems that the leaders decided to take a shortcut since they stopped following the road. Instead, they just cut across in a straight line according to the map in the system. they were just going in a straight line to what Jason assumed to be Earl Grey's territory.

It was much harder on the feet, but it was faster and it was more scenic too. Jason and the platoon walked over hills and could briefly spot the sea again. The small trees that stood along caught Jason's attention multiple times. The plains didn't have to much grass and the weeds were only up to Jason's ankles unlike the ones in the city Arjuna stayed in.

Jason didn't know why the plants were so small and short, but thanks to that he could look around and see more things.

Some of the animals didn't get scared from the giant mass of trainees and just stood up from a distance and watched the humans curiously.

Jason saw gopher type animals standing up on their hind legs tilting their heads curiously. Jason saw some seagulls flying over them and the faint crash of the waves could be heard.

Jason saw some travelers who were walking down the road, even during this time with all of the monsters and bandits all around the place, there were still people who risked it.

The platoon heading inland, but Jason couldn't see anymore forest's beside the one that they had just exited. Only flat plains could be seen. Jason didn't know how long they needed to march.

But it kinda reminded Jason of time when his parents took him on that one car trip along the sea. He remembered pressing his face to the window to get a bigger look and gasping in excitement at the views.

That was one of the cherished moments of his childhood, and that wasn't even their destination on that trip. Maybe that was the place where he found his love of exploration. He was a bit like his subordinate Arjuna. But at the same time, they were very different.

Jason countied marching making sure that he had the same fast pace as everyone else. He could hear Jeffery's loud exclamation of surprise as they climbed up the last hill before they reached the endless plains. It was probably his first time seeing the ocean at this distance and Jason really wanted to see his expression. It was probably similar to the face he made when he ate food.

The platoon countied, their goal was to reach the place in 4 days, and they didn't have time to rest. Though the trip itself seemed like a vacation to Jason.