"The three of you are being trained to fight a war in our Lord's name. Every time that the concentration of dark mana in the air hits a certain point, an army of the dead march north from the Whispering Forest, killing every living being and tainting the land with their mana."

{I never heard about an army of the dead coming from the south. And I don't remember Erika's stories ever mentioning it.}

[We can ask her about that, but it could be that the last event is so old that there are not many stories about it, or that the stories were too dark for a toddler]

"Few people in the Azure Kingdom know that there were no Lords and Fiefdoms for more than a century after our founding. Something happened in the southern part of our continent that raised the first wave of undead. The Azure Kingdom almost ceased to exist altogether, achieving a pyrrhic victory in the end when a party of heroes found the undead base and exterminated their leader."

"On the dawn of the last battle, the survivors understood that it was impossible to fight the undead with only one big army. The reliance on a single authority back at Azurehall doomed thousands of lives in the west, as all the villages and towns had sent their soldiers to the capital. The Marsastor family at the time only managed to survive because they moved all their population further to the west after allying with the dwarves from the Yelling Mountain Range. The combined forces of the Marsastors and the dwarves held the undead until their demise."

"The survivors at the time devised a new political system. They theorized that the division of the land in fiefs and the decentralization of power would allow the Azure Kingdom to hold the undead without as many sacrifices as when they first attacked. A century pa.s.sed, and another wave of undead came from the south. This time the Azure Kingdom lost less than a third of its forces and a negligible number of castles and forts."

"Back in Azurehall, the group of scholars that set on studying the event after the first wave announced that the second wave came when the dark mana concentration in the air hit the same level as the first. The third wave came and proved that the scholars were right. The kingdom, this time, was ready and performed even better."

"We are on the verge of the fourth wave. All Lords of the Kingdom have been preparing for this war for the last forty years, smoothing out the preparation cost over a long time period. But as we get closer to the dark mana threshold that will trigger the fourth wave, we now know our preparations will not be enough."

{Why wouldn't it be enough? If they knew the size of the wave and the probable date, what could have gone wrong?}

[I think I know. Remember the story Erika told us about that event that forces monsters to evolve? The name was Evobomb.]

He gulped at the possibility that Friday was right.

"The dark mana concentration rate of growth had a sudden spike a few years ago, which means that the fourth wave will hit us a few years before the previously estimated date. This time, the fourth wave will happen in the same year as the Evobomb."

{I hate when you are right.}

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[Then you must tell me how you manage to live feeling hateful 24x7]

He pretended not to hear her failure of a joke and raised his hand.

"How long do we have before the fourth wave? Where will we be deployed? And why did we have to take an oath before hearing about it? We should tell it to everyone so they can prepare for the worst."

"We have something between 15 and 17 years before the fourth wave if nothing changes. You took an oath because should this information leaks, do you see the population banding together to fight the enemy or running for their lives? Should we just hand half the continent to the dead then? And what if having more land makes them stronger and even harder to defeat?"

He conceded, people would run for sure, which would make the problem even harder to solve in the future.

"Now, for your second question, I don't know the answer. All I know is that the Lord is not telling anyone about your role in it. We know it won't be in the main force, because he would have no reason to withhold the information if it was the case. Our family thinks he plans on either sending you to the Whispering Forest to investigate it as a party, or making you join one of the elite regiments, but it is all pure speculation. He is a cunning man, and his plans are undecipherable."

"That is all for now. You may return to your rooms. Keep all you heard to yourself and train as hard as possible in the following years. If not for Marsastor, do it for your families."

The kids just nodded and did not dare utter a word about what they heard, Riwall, as he was mentally older, was the one more worried about the future.

-------------------------

After this whole affiliation and oath ordeal was dealt with, Riwall's life fell into a comfortable yet demanding routine. h.e.l.len and Erika got authorization to visit him once every month, but could only do so under the watch of a guard.

The first significant change was their status; all the people Riwall mentioned to Eleanor gladly accepted to become temporary affiliates of the Farsteels.

Their new status forced all factions to tread carefully around them, no one in the barracks wanted to be the reason for Eleanor's rage, they all saw how poor Joshua had to stay in the infirmary for three months after angering her for some reason no one knew about.

Meanwhile, the Farsteels were growing more prosperous and stronger by the day. Their loyalty to the Marsastor family was adamant and ingrained in every member of their family. They never refused a task, always overperformed their duties, and more often than not, they would do something for their Lord that would strengthen the ruling family prestige among the population, like purging a pesky monster's nest or destroying a bandit camp while telling everyone they did it on the Lord's order, even if he never commanded them to.

-------------------------

Both Edward and Eleanor pushed Riwall to his limits, and they even taught some advanced combat techniques that allowed him to cap all of his combat skills at level 50 after two excruciating years. If not for Friday's use of the nights to create a simulation for Riwall to train these techniques, capping the skills would have been impossible.

They shared with him that a person's real strength was not on the skill level alone, but in a mix of different factors. Some were more relevant than the others, and they stressed a thousand times that he should watch for them.

First was his level, the higher it was, the more his attributes would show their worth. If a person with a Strength of 5 could lift 50 Kg at level 1, he would be able to lift 75 Kg on level 2. The formula had a diminis.h.i.+ng return aspect, so the difference between higher levels would fade. But there is a catch; the higher the attribute, the longer it will take for the diminis.h.i.+ng returns to show its claws. If you would compare two people at level 50, one with a Strength attribute of 6, the other 5, the former could lift as much as 25% more weight than the latter.

Then one should look at the person's battle experience. Usually, people with high skill levels would have fought for years, so they would not lack in battle experience, but this did not apply to Riwall. In the long run, he would definitely be stronger, but for now, he would have his a.s.s handed to him by any experienced fighter with skill levels as low as half of his. No skill would teach a person to read the flow of a fight. When do I push forward? Should I back down? When should I start playing dirty? Only a vast experience in these scenarios could answer these questions.

A person's equipment was another critical factor. The wrong armor or weapon for the place or the weather could spell doom for a person. Try fighting goblins in a cavern using a greatsword, or maybe try exchanging blows with a far away mage using only a short bow, or try wearing heavy armor in a swamp. No skill level will help you in these scenarios. Adaptability beats specialization in 9 of 10 fights.

And the last important tip they shared was. Never go alone. The party system exists to cover for all your deficiencies, be it a lower level, a low attribute, the wrong equipment, or a bad matchup against an enemy. A good party with above-average synergy and teamwork can take down foes that are many times stronger than them. Otherwise, no human would have ever downed a dragon.

-------------------------

Things with Hector progressed even better. He took a liking to the boy and his ability to produce high-quality books by reading dozens of bad ones.

Per Riwall's request, he was allowed to train his magic skills in a specialized training court under Hector's supervision. At first, the elf was astounded by his seemingly unlimited mana reserve when casting big spells. But soon he understood that Riwall lacked the finesse required to cast small but potent spells.

He did not let Riwall try Light and Dark spells, much less Negentropy, and Entropy aspected spells. Light and Dark powered spells produced different effects based on the compatibility between these concepts and the intent from the first phase. These two would usually become more prominent during the third phase of spell casting, the "mana" phase.

Negentropy and Entropy were a more complicated case. The first was related to order; the second was related to chaos. By tapping on these concepts, it is possible to enhance the strength of the first phase of spell casting, the "intention" phase. It is the most advanced application of magic in the world, and only masters with decades of research can safely use spells powered by these two concepts.

After a.n.a.lyzing more than 100 books on magic and combining it with philosophical concepts from Earth, Friday was confident in handling both duos of "advanced magic", Light/Dark and Negentropy/Entropy.

Nevertheless, Riwall would not endanger his relations.h.i.+p with Hector to get a new skill. He focused all his attention on improving his finesse which was much worse than he initially thought it was. And by the end of the second year, he had capped all his elemental magic casting skills.

-------------------------

The trio of kids was not much close at the start, but as the months went by, a strong bond began forming. Edward and Eleanor quickly took notice of their potential as a party and changed their schedule to accommodate training sessions that would improve their synergy and deepen their bond even more. They even taught the three how to cast the

Panel

spell and keep track of their progress. Although Riwall found the whole process of chanting bothersome, so he just memorized it, never intending to actually cast spells through chanting.

Anna took a liking to melee combat and began specializing in fighting using short weapons and a buckler, with a couple of daggers as backup weapons. Her fighting style was more akin to that of an off-tank, she could use her buckler and hold her ground for some time, or she could dart through a fight hitting as many unaware opponents as she could. She said she would rather be a hara.s.ser, but that someone had to take the role of off-tank occasionally.

Gregory was a ranged all-rounder. His use of all kinds of ranged weapons and quick cast spells was peculiar. Edward argued that this would take most enemies by surprise and that he should capitalize on it to deal some serious damage before focusing on keeping the enemy at a comfortable distance. He couldn't pack a punch in close quarters, but his spells were more than enough to let him widen the gap to the enemy to bring his strong spells to the game.

Riwall was the most extraordinary of the three. His battle awareness, focus, skills for close and long-range fights, leaders.h.i.+p and strategical planning, made him the central pillar of the party. He excelled in baiting his opponents in ways that would leave his friends in very advantageous positions by providing Anna with different angles of attack and keeping the enemies within Gregory's optimal strike range. And he did all of that coordination without leaving the fright as he always led his friends from the front.

After two years, he had a proud smile on his face while checking his panel.

-------------------------

------Panel------

-Name: Riwall Madec

-Age: 10

-Level: 01 (0%)

-Mana purity: 100% (Prismatic)

-----BLESSES-----

---Temelth's Bless---

-Languages - MASTERED

-Unknown (locked)

-Unknown (locked)

-Unknown (locked)

-Unknown (locked)

-----ATTRIBUTES-----

--- Mental Attributes---

-Intelligence:10

-Wits:10

-Resolve:10

--- Physical Attributes---

-Strength:10

-Dexterity:10

-Stamina:10

--- Social Attributes---

-Presence:10

-Manipulation:10

-Composure:10

-----SKILLS-----

--- Mental Skills---

--Academics Branch - Level 5--

- Level 26

--Wellbeing Branch - Level 6--

- Level 25

--Elemental Magic Casting Branch - Level 10--

- Level 50

- Level 50

- Level 50

- Level 50

--- Physical Skills---

--Melee Combat Branch - Level 10--

- Level 50

- Level 50

- Level 50

- Level 50

- Level 50

- Level 50

- Level 50

- Level 50

--Ranged Combat Branch - Level 10--

- Level 50

--Physical Finesse Branch - Level 8--

- Level 50

--- Social Skills---

--Negotiation Branch - Level 3--

- Level 8

--Arts Branch - Level 8--

- Level 42

--Leaders.h.i.+p Branch - Level 3--

- Level 29

-------------------------