Day before leaving
Looking at the emperor, Aaron was confused and before he could react he spoke
"Aaron, I'm glad to see you're okay."
"Your Majesty! You finally woke up, it's a relief "
"Hahaha, easy Aaron, you don't need honorifics, just call me uncle like you used to do"
"But that…"
"{Sigh} Marcus always liked to bother me with that, besides, I suppose you can understand why it is not a good idea that they are calling me His Majesty at this moment don't you?"
"...I get it"
"I like it that way, well, I can imagine what happened but can you update me on the situation?"
"Yes, as you know, after we divided you along with several nobles and generals took some ships to reach the city while the rest of the forces mounted a defense in the fort of the silver-leaf plains"
"Yes, Marcus led the forces to hold out at Fort Yome, they were supposed to hold out for up to 3 weeks ..."
"From what I was able to discover the fall of the fort was caused by a couple of high-grade demons."
"... That's a problem, but your father should have been able to finish them off, I guess that wasn't all was it?"
"That's right, apparently a superior demon also appeared ..."
"... {Sigh} Is what you say true?"
"This I heard from the chosen ones who had been escorting me, so it should be true for the most part."
"I see ... The last superior demon to appear was in the war against the cult of beastmen almost thirty years ago, at that time we almost lost the war..."
"From what they said, apparently father managed to hurt them and make them return to the rift to recover"
"... That Marcus always sought to surpass his grandfather, I suppose his efforts were worth it ... Well, I can imagine the rest of what happened after that, the horde will have dispersed and we should have some time before they get stronger. Now Aaron, what is our current situation? "
"Currently we only have 9 men including me and we are in a small keep that my father and I built to train"
"That 's true?"
"...Yes"
"I see ... continue"
"Also, currently Dominic and Donovan along with the rest seem to be starting to reinforce the surroundings."
"And that light wolf cub?"
"She is Luna, a magic familiar"
"Eri also bragged about her crystal swallow all the time in the castle"
"In short that is our current situation, I planned to go tomorrow with Tom and Dominic to the villages to the north to look for more people"
"Without a doubt, if we want to survive we will need more help"
Said the emperor while massaging his temple and frowning a little
"are you ok?"
"Just a little dizzy, please don't worry and go to do what you need to do, I'll be fine."
"But-"
"There's a lot of work to do, plus I'm not so old that I can't take care of myself."
"..."
"And if you are so concerned, tell any of the boys who have been working since morning to come and take care of me and take the opportunity to rest"
Knowing that the emperor was too stubborn to convince him and seeing that there was no serious problem, Aaron got up, and after saying goodbye he left the keep and went with the rest of the group.
"Hi Aaron, did you rest well?"
"Yes Oliver, how did the recognition go?"
"There was no danger and there were no traces of any dangerous beast in the surroundings, we also found a limestone deposit in the northwest part of the hill"
"That may be useful in the future, something else?"
"For now nothing, but we did not want to move more than 50 meters from the hill"
"No problem, you should rest"
"I can still go on boy, Marc could use a break but you know how stubborn he is"
"Relax, tell him to go take care of the emperor and he should listen meanwhile I'll go with Donovan and help him with the palisade"
Thus ending his conversation with Oliver, Aaron approached Donovan who was digging a trench to place the palisade.
"Donovan"
"Aaron, you already woke up"
"Yes, how's the planning going?"
"So far so good, the perimeter has been marked and Dominic has finished cutting the surrounding trees, now he should be cutting some to make a path that goes down to the river and after that, he will go for the limestone vein"
"Well, that stone will help us for the foundations of the palisade, if the perimeter is already marked I will start by raising some walls on the west side"
"I'll leave it to you then"
After that Aaron approached the west side and observing the small ditch that marked the perimeter, he concentrated and slowly began to imagine the magic circuit to perform the earth wall spell with which he raised walls that were five feet high and at the same time empty. the ditch where the palisade would go and part of the land in front of it.
"You know Aaron, no matter how many times I see it, magic amazes me with how useful it is"
"It is, Sam, but as useful as it is, it is just as difficult to learn."
"I know, if you are not born with affinity, it is impossible to manipulate magic power and only girls have enough affinity to do magic"
"You know it's not like that"
"You are the exception Aaron, if it weren't that way why do witches only accept girls with magical aptitude no matter how little their magic affinity is, even if it is less than that of boys and boys not regardless of their affinity?"
"You know it's because of what the people on the continent of ashes did in the past."
"Yeah, I guess you're right, even though I was young, I still remember how everyone went crazy when they discovered that you could do magic even with a low affinity for magic, you were 6 years old right?"
"Don't even remind me"
Aaron said as he concentrated to raise the second wall
"But that doesn't matter anymore, it wasn't as good as they expected in the end, I use too much energy if I want to cast the spells in a fast way and it took longer than other witches when I focus like now to spend less magic power"
"Na, you do well Aaron, you are the best witcher I know"
"I am the only witcher on the entire continent..."
"Well, I let you work, if I rest for too long Roland will start scolding me"
After that Aaron concentrated and after spending almost all his mana he began to work on the logs of the palisade, and thus during the rest of the day, he managed to build 8 walls covering almost the two western sides of the hexagon.
After returning to the keep and cleaning himself with a cloth, Aaron sat by the campfire where the rest of the knights were having their dinner.
"Good job Aaron, at this rate we will be able to cover the entire perimeter in another two days, and in four we will finish the palisade"
"Tomorrow before leaving I will build another four walls"
"But don't you get too tired?"
"No"
"Don't worry Sam, what Aaron says is true, plus it will help him increase his magical power capacity in the long run."
"What Dominic said, this serves as training, at most I will have a slight dizziness for a few seconds"
"Well, you are the witcher, you will know what is the best ..."
"Putting that aside, how long do you plan to be out?"
"If we follow the route that Aaron said, it will take two to three days if we find people, first we will go to the two villages that are near the river that comes from the north and while we return, we will pass through the third village a little further west"
"Then the villages of Greenstone, Amberside, and Appleroot."
"That's right, I would have liked to get to the town of Karkand and go through the other 2 villages that are in the forest, but as Dominic said, it is too dangerous for the three of us to make a trip of more than a week"
"Aaron, the people who lived in Karkand most likely moved to Caya when all this started, what worries me is that according to reports, the villages had not yet evacuated when everything started."
"Why didn't they evacuate?"
"Your brother changed the name of the evacuation order so that the credit would go to him, therefore, many villagers ignored the evacuation order, Karkand for his part, thanks to the royal guards they evacuated just before the horde arrived, but the guards did not have time to visit the rest of the villages ... "
"Frank! that idiot!"
Aaron screamed enraged at his brother's stupidity
"Take it easy Aaron, this is not the time to lose your cool, maybe those villages are safe, when the horde dispersed, a large part went south"
"Yes, the northern villages may not be in as much danger, but what about the southern villages?"
"..."
Without saying more, Aaron just ate some more and after that, he got up and after sleeping he went into the white room
"Hal"
"Boy"
"... Could you make a couple of training enemies appear?"
"You're sure it's a good idea, even if you don't get physically tired, you should rest, after all, you'll be traveling for a couple of days"
"Even if you say it, I won't be able to sleep with everything I had in my head right now..."
"Whatever you prefer boy, just remember that the time you spend training will happen in reality"
"I know"
Without trying to convince Aaron further, Hal began to simulate a group of goblins and an orc, facing off, Aaron materialized a dagger and as soon as the goblins gained consciousness, Aaron charged against them.
*** Caution, from here comes a strong battle scene for sensitive audiences, they can skip to the next chapter without worrying about missing some of the stories ***
Driven by his instincts and taking advantage of the surprise it had caused them, Aaron leaped at the nearest goblin, causing him to fall, buried the dagger in the lower part of the goblin's jaw, ripping his throat.
Seeing that his enemy would no longer get up, Aaron quickly pushed himself up and shoved a second goblin with his shoulder, and took the opportunity to walk away from the group that was beginning to regain their composure.
Lowering his center of gravity Aaron looked at the three remaining goblins and the orc who, seeing Aaron's hateful gaze, shuddered more after a second feeling a great humiliation for it, became enraged and roared.
Seeing this, Aaron, ignoring the rest of the goblins, charged directly against the ogre which reacted by waiting for Aaron to get close enough to send him flying, but to his surprise and that of the goblins who expected to see their boss kill that human, Aaron changed his trajectory by jumping on one of the goblins while throwing his dagger into the face of another goblin.
With the second goblin down, Aaron balanced himself and stepped on his throat as he stared at the orc, who was still a bit confused by the sudden change and the screams of the goblin the dagger had wounded.
Trying to resist, the goblin stuck its claws into Aaron's leg, who even without moving his gaze from the orc's eyes, cast an ice spear that pierced the second goblin's head, causing him to stop moving.
Still paralyzed by Aaron's beast eyes, the orc could only squeeze his club until Aaron shifted his gaze to the fourth goblin who, without being able to bear his fear, dropped his weapon and tried to run away unsuccessfully as Aaron simply quickly cast one stone spear that came out of the ground and caused the goblin impaled himself as he turned around to run.
Seeing that only he was left alone, the orc understood that what was in front of him was not just any prey as he believed at first, but a hungry predator looking for his next prey.
Knowing that nothing good would await him if he tried to escape, the orc steeled himself and with his last battle cry, charged against Aaron, which he charged reciprocally, and when they were about to collide Aaron threw an ice bomb in front of him and slid underneath the orc which, distracted by the ice sphere could not hit Aaron.
After that, the ice bomb exploded in the orc's face, damaging him moderately and making him scream in pain. Seeing this, Aaron jumped on the orc's back, placed his hand under his jaw, and created an ice spear ending the orc's life.
After that, he stopped to breathe for a second as he looked at the corpse of the orc in silence but feeling something behind him he turned only to be stabbed in the side by the third goblin with the same dagger that he had thrown at him.
Seeing the goblin's smile on its disfigured face, Aaron grabbed the goblin's hand holding the dagger, and growled.
This caused great confusion and fear in the goblin who tried to get out of Aaron's grip without success and when he looked up he could only look at the eyes of death while Aaron between growls froze his hand forming an ice claw which tore the goblin's throat out.
When the goblin finally died, Aaron released its hand, and roaring into the air, he fell unconscious on the floor as the white room returned to its original state.
To be continued…
…
*********
Ember Guardian System
User: Aaron Froststar
Race: Human (82%)
---------
{Status}
LV: 7
XP: 158/769
SP: 0
HP: 132/132
MP: 5/43
STR: 17
AGI: 20
DEX: 22
CON:11
INT: 19
WIS:19
CHA: 19
---------
{Passives}
Mana optimization: Mana consumption is reduced by 1% // Thanks to your constant effort in the creation of the magic circuits, you can spend less mana when using long casting spells.
---------
{Equipment}
Leather Pants - Uncommon - Defense +4:
Gambeson - Common - Defense +6:
Iron Dagger - Common - Attack + 5
Star Pendant (Right Half) - Epic - Charisma +5, WIS +5:
Frozen Edge (Long Sword) - Legendary (Awakening 0%) - Attack +30:
---------
{Inventory}
+Beta test bundle:
-Small HP potions x 5
-Small MP potions x 5
+ Rations x9
+ Flint x x 1
+ Torch x 2 - 30 min
+ Oil flask x 5
potion x2
+AntiCurse x2
+AntiVenom x2
+Arrows x40
+ High-quality bow x 1 - Uncommon - Attack + 4, Accuracy +2:
+ Steel Sword x 1- Rare - Attack +8:
Cloth undergarments x 2 - Common - Defense +1,
---------